why starting a youtube is a brilliant idea (even if no one watches)
You're posting on YouTube, spending hours on your content, and barely getting any views or subscribers. You're probably wondering, "Why the hell am I even bothering?" Maybe you're looking at other creators and seeing them grow way faster, and it's got you feeling discouraged. If that sounds like you, let's have a chat because that was literally me three years ago.
In this video, I'm going to break down three reasons why you should keep posting, even when it feels like no one is watching. I've been posting on YouTube since 2016, and this is actually my fifth channel. People often say the only reason I grew on YouTube is because I'm a young attractive female. Well, thank you, but the reality is, from 2016 to 2020, in four years of posting, I couldn't even reach 2,000 subscribers.
You know, pretty privilege is just real, but it wasn't enough for me to get recognized. Maybe my videos were so bad that even pretty privilege couldn't save it; who knows? For the longest time, nothing happened. But then, one video of mine hit, and we went from 100 subscribers to 100K subscribers in just three months.
Out of my seven years on YouTube, I spent four years not seeing results. But here's what I want to remind you: you don't have to focus on numbers or virality to enjoy doing YouTube. When it first started, YouTube wasn't about algorithms, numbers, or going viral, right? Like, YouTube was literally created for us to yap. You didn't need to be a filmmaker or some storytelling expert; you could just grab a camera, start talking, sharing your opinions, your life, or whatever you would fancy, basically.
And honestly, you still can. If you want to use YouTube as a creative outlet to express yourself and have just fun, then do that. You might think, "What if my friends think that?" "What if this?" "What if that happens?" You know, just don't tell them. If you don't tell them, it's unlikely that they're going to figure out your YouTube channel.
I think like many of us fantasize, the idea of posting one video, going viral, and getting recognized by people, but in reality, no one is going to see maybe your 50, maybe even your first 100 videos because they're going to suck. But here's the thing: it can get tricky. I've seen a lot of people say they're just doing it for fun; they say it's just a hobby. But that's also a way of hiding the fear of failure because the second you admit you do want to grow, every video that doesn't get views can feel like a failure.
Maybe someone once looked at your channel and said, "Oh, you don't have that many subscribers, so you're small," and maybe you used the excuse, "Well, it's just a hobby; I'm not interested in growth." But be honest with me: is it really a hobby or is it an excuse? There is nothing wrong with wanting to grow, right? But if you do, you do need to be honest with yourself. Do you really want to do YouTube as a hobby, or do you want to actually grow?
If it's just a hobby, that's completely cool; don't stress just about the numbers and just enjoy the process. But if you want real growth, you can't treat it like a hobby anymore. If you're serious about growing your channel, I created a completely free guide to help you get started, figure out your niche, discover your unique strengths, and also how to approach YouTube in my Niche Navigator Guide SLW Worksheet. If that sounds helpful, the link in the description below is completely free, so don't worry about it.
The second reason, which is the most powerful one in my opinion, gives you the power to not give a… what do I mean by this? I think the power of not giving a… consists of three elements: financial freedom, location freedom, and time freedom. If you can work from wherever you want, whenever you want, and money is not a deciding factor in your life, it gives you the power to say yes to things you want to be a part of and no to things you don't. YouTube gives you this opportunity.
When you become a creator, the amount of flexibility and freedom you can have is absolutely crazy. I travel to wherever I want with whoever I want, and honestly, I can't think of any other job that allows you this much flexibility and freedom. But to get to that point, you obviously need to do a lot of sacrifices, right? Because every good thing takes time, and only those who can endure the pain of hard work without immediate results truly deserve to enjoy the rewards of happiness.
It sounds kind of cheesy, but that's kind of like my life motto. If you want to enjoy the fruit of having a successful YouTube channel, having videos no one watching is a non-negotiable part of the journey unless you’re already famous. So when you’re just starting out on YouTube, creating content already takes a lot of time, right? Like you want to make your videos look interesting and professional, but that can be tough when you're figuring everything out.
You'll need b-roll, music, sound effects, and high-quality footage to make your video stand out, but finding all that stuff can take forever! That's why I recommend trying out Storyblocks. It gives you unlimited downloads of all kinds of media, like 4K footage, music, and sound effects for one simple subscription price. It saves you time and hustle, especially when you don't have time or budget to shoot everything yourself.
For example, let's say you need a quick shot of cityscape, but you can't just fly out to New York or wherever. You can grab exactly what you need from Storyblocks in seconds. Plus, you don't have to worry about copyright issues; they got you covered with all the legal stuff. So if you want to get started with unlimited stock media downloads at one affordable price, just head to storyblocks.com or click the link in the description below. And thank you, Storyblocks, for sponsoring this portion of the video.
This might not resonate with everyone, but I always felt like an outsider. I'm a third culture kid; I'm half Japanese, half Turkish, and I was born in Japan but grew up in Turkey. To be honest, it always felt like I didn't fully belong anywhere. When I was in Turkey, I felt like I wasn't Turkish enough culturally, and I just didn't fit in completely, you know? And when I was in Japan, it was the same thing; I didn't feel Japanese enough either.
It's not just about how I look, but also how I behave, how I see the world. It's kind of like I'm too much of both and not enough of either. I couldn't find anyone who fully understood that feeling and made me feel like an outsider. It wasn't like I hated the attention growing up, okay? In fact, I did really enjoy it, but there was always this feeling of not having a place where I really belonged.
And it didn't hit me how much it affected me until high school when I was going through clinical major depression. You know, I was really struggling, and I'm not going to dive deep into my depression right now; I might talk about it in another video. But during that time, one thing that brought me any kind of joy was YouTube. I would spend hours and hours watching videos, escaping into this world where people were just, you know, yapping and sharing their opinions.
One day, I thought, "Why not try making my own videos?" Obviously, at first, like no one was watching, okay? It wasn't like suddenly my life changed or anything like that. But then, in my fifth year of trying to be a YouTuber, I made this one video where it was about what it's like to be half Japanese, half Turkish—like how I never felt fully at home in either place, what it's like to be a mixed kid growing up. And to my surprise, that video went viral.
People from all over the world started commenting, saying they felt the exact same way growing up. People who were also third culture kids or had never quite fit in told me that they understood my feeling of not belonging. You know, even though the video reached some wrong audiences, there was like literally a meme about me saying how I’m the best at denying war crimes, which I find really hilarious.
But there are so many people who got how I felt. For the first time, I felt like I wasn't alone, and I think that's what YouTube gave me. It's basically a space where I could feel seen and safe, you know? Just not about the country that I'm in, but just about the people who understand me. To do so, you don't need hundreds of thousands of subscribers to build that kind of a community. Even with a much smaller audience, you can build your tribe and connect with people you would never have met otherwise.
For example, I recently opened a second channel where I talk about basically whatever I want, and we're currently only like 7,000 subscribers. But the community there is much stronger than here, where we have 1.4 million. In my opinion, like, I'm not going to lie, this past year, I got so focused on numbers and growth that I forgot to make building a community on this channel a priority in my life.
You know, my uncle scammed my dad, and we ended up in huge debt. To get us out of that debt, I had to make making money a priority, and I'm super close to paying it off right now. Once I get this out of this hell loop, I'm definitely going to shift my focus back to building community instead of just chasing numbers because that’s what gives me freedom and that’s what gives me joy and happiness.
But yeah, back to the topic. I always think about it this way: if I had given up back when no one was watching, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now, and that's really what I want for you too. Whether you're just starting out or you've been at it for years with no results, you just got to keep going.
Don't stop because no one is watching right now. Your journey might just be starting. It's okay to take it slow, but don't give up. Build your skills, find your voice, and create a space that feels like home to you. Whether you are here to grow or for just fun, remember that you're building something.
Actually, even when it feels like no one's watching, someone will eventually. So keep creating, keep sharing, and don't stop because you might just be one video away.