Thursday, January 5, 2017

Kelso Dunes and New Year 2017

Hi Beautiful People,

I just wanted to take a moment, drop a note, and thank everyone who sent me text messages, phone calls, and reached out to me in September of last year when Charlie my dog was killed.

Losing that little dog was so much harder on me than I ever could have imagined. Even though it's been four months I still miss him like, crazy, and think of him on a daily basis. I'm usually very good at not getting too emotionally attached to anyone or anything, so, it really shocked me how hard that loss hit me.

My entire goal for last year as some of you know was just to go hard, and see what I could accomplish on my YouTube channel. I got a little obsessed with it actually seeing what strides I could actually make in a year. Goal one, was just to learn the in's, and outs of how YouTube actually works, and discover, and learn as much as possible to hopefully take my YouTube channel to the next level.

Goal 2, with YouTube was to have 100 videos uploaded by years end....I was moving right along, and had my goal well within site, when low, and behold September 14th, 2016 rolled around, and I got the phone call from Charlie's pet sitter saying he was dead.  It really just kinda put a halt to things for me. I really didn't have any desire to keep producing YouTube videos at that time. Even though I would film vlogs still I never would take the time to edit them, and upload them.

Needless to say, I fell short of my goal and only got to 90 uploaded videos in all for the year.

Considering what happened I am still very happy with that. I LOVE reaching goals, but it's the putting in work that actually makes me feel just as accomplished.

I started the year of 2016 with a little over 200 subscribers. I ended 2016 with just a little over 3000, and though that's nothing to brag about in the YouTuberverse it's growth which was my real goal for the year. I have learned the in's and out's of YouTube and understand the system now very well.

Here is a cool little year in review from TubeBuddy if you would like to check it out.
Rav Holly - 2016 YouTube Year in review

So, for 2017 my goal is all about value on content production. That's where my channels still very much lacking. Putting it together, and making really interesting content people actually will sit, and watch is my obsession.

I rate my videos at about a 4/5, on a scale from 1 to 10. So, I know and understand to have a truly successful YouTube channel and to be a successful YouTuber I need to get my production value up, and on point. That means doing the work now to make really enticing interesting videos. That's the thing that still truly escapes me, story-line is the hardest part for me, and I acknowledge this. It's a puzzle that I am enjoying figuring out.

I do this because it's a hobby for me, it's fun for me. It's a learning experience that is truly fun, but the key is being successful in some aspect of it, and I am not sure I'll ever reach that goal, but I'm having fun trying.

My channel is all over the place, and so many other YouTubers have given me advice on finding my niche, and sticking with it. Most point to the fact I have so many years of Photography knowledge to share that my channel should focus solely on Photography, photography tutorials and such.

The problem with that is I have been doing Photography as a means of income, and a job for so long it's literally the last thing I want to focus on with my YouTube channel. So, I have been struggling with a concept struggling with a direction to focus my content. So, I'm still winging it until hopefully, I can stumble onto a niche that truly works for me. Hiking/Mountain Climbing/Mountaineering has become a new passion of mine so I'm hoping I can produce some fun videos pertaining to that subject that might be fun to watch. #HikeItOut

Until then I want to thank the ones of you who have stuck with me, and watch my videos as they are.

I'm hoping 2017 will be a year of really moving forward in storyline development and upping my video production value.

I have somewhere along the lines of ten videos I shot last year, that I never got uploaded so I am now in the process of actually going through, and editing these videos, and uploading them to my YouTube channel. Once that's done I'll be concentrating on new videos for this year, shot this year. Until then here is my first new YouTube video of the year, shot in October of last year. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments. It's actually VERY much appreciated.

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