My YouTube Channel is not Dead

My YouTube channel is not dead! It’s just in a coma and shows no signs of life. We are just hoping and praying that one day it makes a miraculous recovery.

Jokes aside, I’m really excited about being a YouTuber. I’d like to think that I am an exciting storyteller and you don’t really get that from just reading my blogs. For my readers to be able to hear me and see me would explain a lot about the way that I write. There’s something video can do that text cannot.

https://twitter.com/Melz_Ngugama/status/1166331772214349826

If you’re not in digital marketing, you’ll still appreciate that most audiences in forward thinking countries have started leaning more towards video content than any other media. Some would go as far as to say the audience is becoming lazy and doesn’t like to read. I just think video is more engaging. I can block read or peruse an article but with a video I get the flexibility of listening to it. This is why radio was popular, you could listen to it while doing other things.

Why aren’t you creating content Thembi?

I’m a perfectionist and I’ve really overthought this YouTube channel thing. Firstly, I can’t decide what else I want to do besides the “storytime” kind of content. Secondly, I worry about the equipment like the camera, lighting, backdrop and microphones. I recorded a whole season of a webseries that got shelved because the sound wasn’t great. I’m traumatised. I’ve skipped YouTube videos for being horrible in terms of picture quality or sound. Thirdly, I don’t like doing things that I know diddly squat about, so I enrolled for the YouTube Creator Academy and I have several incomplete modules. I’m really glad I took that free course because I now understand from established YouTube creators how it actually works.

https://twitter.com/Judicaelle_/status/1156518983320907776

To create YouTube content is going to take a lot more than blogging. I have to worry about wardrobe, location, hair and make-up whereas my blogs are produced in the harshest working conditions wherever creativity strikes. It will also require more electricity, more data and more software usage. It might also require a team whereas blogging was just me and the voices in my head.

https://twitter.com/drkelseileann/status/1171833380163526657

I have 3 pages of content waiting to be created for my YouTube channel. I just need to actually start. The sooner the better because I need 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours before I start making real money from it. One of my favourite South African YouTubers, Azania Realness, did a whole video on how YouTube taught them the cheat sheet to cracking it. You can watch it below.

Currently, I’ve spoken to my male best friend, Elliot Moyo of Early Entertainment to start work on my YouTube trailer which is gonna be crazy! The one that’s currently on my YouTube needs to be refreshed to reflect the current Thembi Terry and where she’s at creatively. But I still need to decide what my YouTube channel will be about.

https://twitter.com/Mashstartup/status/1166079742833045504

Shout out to Ashley Benjamin Nhiwatiwa for designing the cutest little animation of me which will be the opening and closing billboard of my YouTube videos. He also went as far as creating a vertical option for my IGTV which will probably see new content before my YouTube channel. I know exactly what I want to do on my IGTV and I get to do it on my phone which is much simpler for me.

https://twitter.com/ThembiTerry/status/1106534440367505409

In the meantime, you can take a leap of faith, subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch the videos that are already on there. 2020 I promise to be braver and start churning out those videos.

Thanks in advance.