I quit YouTube because of these mistakes hey everyone I'm Andrew Kan and I always say that
if I Kan you Kan too but sometimes you Kan't and that's okay look if you're watching this
out there I understand you might be quitting or thinking about quitting but before you do watch
this video first now don't worry I'm not quitting this YouTube channel but I am quitting my gaming
YouTube channel but I want you to learn from me so you won't and don't make these mistakes
the mistakes I'm talking about here apply to all YouTube channels now if you're brand new
and wondering who I am I've grown many YouTube channels but I'm most known for being the face
of the tubebuddy YouTube channel for over five years I grew that channel from 6 000 to over half
a million subscribers if you want to learn how to grow and make a successful YouTube channel like
this one subscribe to learn more about how you can make YouTube possible so to understand why I'm
quitting my gaming channel let's go back to why I started it my gaming channel originally was just
a channel that I could practice my editing skills and work on audio and different things I wanted to
try at the time I was in film school at this time this is 2012 so over a decade ago now at the time
of this video and I just wanted to practice those skills but I didn't want to show my face because I
wasn't ready to put it out there over time I would eventually get a job at tubebuddy which would then
put me in front of the camera so that job made me get comfortable in front of camera like I am now
I decided to make a gaming channel because at the time gaming was on the rise on YouTube I wanted to
be something I was super passionate about but the problem and first mistake I made was I didn't plan
long term when I made my gaming channel weekend game I focused too much on me and not enough on
the audience I wanted to build and this brings me to mistake number two because I was too focused on
my own wants and not the wants in my audience I didn't really understand the you and YouTube the
you and YouTube is both you the Creator but also you out there in the audience in fact in order to
really signify that change YouTube changed it from broadcast yourself to just YouTube but I realized
it was a signal older creators that it's not all about you yourself but it's about you and the
audience the you and YouTube when you understand that you you start thinking differently I start
thinking as any creative like an architect they wouldn't build a house without a blueprint so me
not knowing how to plan really hindered my gaming YouTube channel if you're watching out there and
you're like but I don't know how to plan and I don't really know how to schedule there are things
like YouTube's own free keyword research tool which is available on both PC and mobile devices
there's also things such as notion or Google drive or Google Sheets where you can schedule
and plan out your content there's also more content types than ever there's live streamings
Community posts shorts when I started all we had was normal 16x9 video live streaming was
years away and shorts weren't even available heck when I started we didn't even have an Impressions
and click-through rate data we were Flying Blind on so much on YouTube which brings me to my next
point which is the the information available on YouTube changed and while I understood it
at tubebuddy I was slower to adapt it to my personal channels that lack of adaptability
really put me behind which brings me to my third mistake a lack of consistency on my gaming channel
I started pretty consistent I was posting daily I have over 700 videos on that channel but I started
being less and less consistent I'd be consistent on a project but then there would be a huge gap
in between speaking of those huge gaps I wasn't just you know taking gaps between videos I was
taking gaps between genres the content while all the gaming was vastly different I mean I started
my Kami Channel playing The Lion King on SNES which was a rated E for everyone game and then I
transitioned to Half-Life which is a mature game and a first person shooter and they really had
nothing in common so I was building multiple different audiences with a variety of gaming
content which at the time there was nothing wrong with it but again I wasn't keeping up right and
while I was making too much different content YouTube was really focusing and honing in on
finding specific content that fit specific audience needs and I just didn't see it my
audience did try to tell me my audience wanted to see more and more Half-Life content but me being a
little selfish I wanted a bit of variety in my life I was very regimented in school and with
relationships and friendships I was doing the same thing over and over so I wanted variety but within
that variety I ended up hurting my gaming channel unknowingly so when you're creating content find a
niche that you can focus in on really cultivate and nurture it also as I'm telling you all this
this is a lot of hindsight I thought long and hard about why I'm quitting my gaming YouTube channel
it just wasn't a random decision it's still hard for me and I might come back to it someday but
for now that takes me to mistake number four I outgrew my gaming YouTube channel and decided to
put more of my effort into Andrew can the channel you're watching now and as I mentioned a little
bit before I have all this information that I didn't have when I started this gaming channel
I learned so much at tubebuddy that I knew I could make Andrew Kan successful when I left
tubebuddy this channel was at 5 000 subscribers and at the time of this video we're over 11
000 subscribers I was able to do that in about a year and a few months so I really knew what
I was doing focusing in on this channel and this brings me to a point I've seen a lot of creators
deal with they start a channel for one thing and then they become passionate about something else
and they try to shoehorn it on one channel but when I was working on my channels I realized that
gaming and how to do YouTube were really kind of two different audiences and when you're creating
that content it's sometimes better to put it on a new channel than try to shoehorn it in on
an existing Channel with an existing audience so if you're a gamer out there but you want to
start doing IRL Vlogs try making a new channel and Publishing shorts to creatively experiment
with if you are someone who does cooking but wants to get into DIY try a new channel there's no harm
in trying a new channel there's a lot of harm having too much variety on one like I learned a
little bit earlier another mistake I was making is I was spending all of this time on my gaming
channel which earned less subscribers comments views money when my personal Channel that I was
putting less time in was growing faster than my gaming channel did in the six years I was
running it and because it wasn't growing to my own expectations my gaming channel became
less and less fun for me while I may not have been as successful as I wanted it still had a
pretty successful Community if you're quitting or thinking about quitting here's some things you can
do to really help rejuvenate your channel you can do keyword research and see what your viewers are
searching for again that tab I mentioned earlier says your viewers are searching like this and it
shows you things people are searching for this can lead you to new ideas can help you create content
that your community has shown interest in so you can make new content that's better suited for them
or you should lean into the community and make a plan there are many ways that you can do this you
can ask your community and Community tab shorts live streams or video personally I forgot the Wii
and we can game was supposed to be collaborative between my needs and the audience's needs and if
I would have been more collaborative on weekend game it might have done better but I have been way
more collaborative on Andrew Kan I've worked with friends like Nick Nim and Roberto Blake Daniel
Patel and I've had so much fun collaborating and I put the Wii back in Andrew can ironically not
weekend game and all of those creators are now a part of my community which is something you
can do find communities that fit your need or your creation need heck even if you're looking
for YouTube help I build a community with my good friend Ike which you can join absolutely for free
in the description down below what community can help you do is understand that YouTube is
a marathon and not a Sprint you need to have a plan for not only what you're doing now couple
of months from now and instead of just keeping it all all in you can learn from others who have
done that a big mistake I was making was trying to reinvent the wheel when I could have just
asked and leaned on the community I had to help me figure it out sooner whether you're thinking about
quitting or almost quit I hope that this video reminds you that it's okay to outgrow a YouTube
channel and leave it be for what it was but it's not okay to never publish on YouTube again you
have to remember that time's gonna pass by whether with or without you and if I can do anything I can
hopefully encourage you to publish one more time because if I can find YouTube success then you
can too and because you can too don't forget the three C's you the Creator you the community and
you better be consistent maybe that last sees a bit of a stretch anyway here's a video of deep
diving YouTube analytics to understand what you can do to earn more Impressions more views and
more watch time helping you do better on YouTube If you enjoyed this video thank you so much for
watching and together WeKanGame or I guess since that channel is no more keep going on YouTube