(writing signature with marker)
(video game win music)
So, today's video is the first video
of January 2018.
So, Happy New Year to you all!
So in December,
last year, I did Vlogmas.
If you don't know what that is,
it's uploading a video every single day
for the month of December,
until, basically, the end of the 25th,
which is Christmas Day.
And I thought I would do a video
telling you all what I learned
after uploading every single day for 25 days.
I did do a written piece on this already,
so if you are someone who prefers to read an article
or something, I will have that link down below
in the description box, and in the pinned comments.
So what I learned during this time,
after that time was, first and foremost,
it was one of the most stressful experiences
in my seven years of doing YouTube videos.
You know, I thought that VEDA, Vlog Everyday In April,
was stressful, and I only completed
about a week's worth of stuff.
But I finished Vlogmas, and it was just, yeah.
The thing was, I was prepared, I was more prepared
than I was in April.
I planned out a lot of videos,
I actually did not film all the videos that I had planned,
for that month.
But you know, I still have some ideas,
so in case
my mind was blank, I had that as backup.
So, you know it's one thing to film a video,
edit it, and then upload it, and you know,
get the cards up, annotations, whatever, on time.
Especially if you're wanting to do it at a specific time,
like some people will just upload every day
at different times.
And then you have someone like me,
who wanted to get a video up at noon every single day.
And what was difficult was I was trying to film a video,
edit it, upload it, get it captioned,
and do everything else.
I can't caption my own videos anymore,
unless I do them in ASL.
So a lot of the time, when I was running behind,
I would have to try to do a video in ASL
so that I could caption it myself, and it was, yeah.
So Ai-Media captions the majority of my videos,
and they're based in Sydney, Australia.
So when I send them a video, it could be Friday morning,
or Thursday night, and the thing is,
it will already be the weekend in Sydney.
So then I'm screwed, and I'm either going to:
A. Have to caption it myself, or
B. Pay for it through Rev.
So just trying to get all of that on time
was really stressful, and I would often be
emailing them, and going "Hey, can I get this
"by tomorrow, at 12:00 p.m. my time".
Preferably an hour before that, so I could actually,
you know, watch it, and get it ready to go.
Of course I did pre-film a lot of videos.
When the first week was happening,
I pre-filmed that whole week.
And then, there were a couple of others that I pre-filmed.
But still, I learned that I just didn't pre-film enough.
Originally, I wanted to pre-film
about two weeks ahead of time.
Ah, yeah.
If I do this again next year,
that's what I'm gonna have to work on.
So, yeah, I have learned that I really don't,
I don't really like uploading every single day.
So Rikki, why did you do it?
One, I wanted to redeem myself
after the April failure.
Two, December is the best month, financially, on YouTube.
That's when the AdSense, the CPM, or whatever,
is the highest.
So, looking at my analytics,
my revenue was so much greater,
than every other month this month, I'm pretty sure.
The downside, compared to last year,
is I made significantly less this year, than last year.
And I uploaded every single day this year.
But last year I only uploaded twice a week,
my normal schedule, I'm pretty sure,
and I made over $100 more.
Yeah, I made over $100 more.
I made almost two times as much last year, doing less.
So, thank you, Adpocalypse.
But I've learned that I would not
be able to do daily vlogging.
One, I don't do anything besides, you know,
sit in front of the computer, and do work
or watch, you know, Netflix, play games, stuff like that.
So, unless I had a more exciting life,
it just wouldn't happen anyway.
Granted, most of my Vlogmas was topics
I was just gonna talk about,
it wasn't my daily life vlogging.
But still, I could never pull a Lilly Singh,
I would never be able to pull a Casey Neistat.
I feel like the only way
I would be able to do daily vlogging,
is if I had an editor,
to just cut down on the workload a little bit, I think.
Or, a captioner on hand
that isn't twelve or more hours ahead
into the future,
15 hours, something like that.
So, when Vlogmas was over, I took a break.
I was so happy when day 25 went up and I was done.
It was scheduled, it was gonna go live
when it was setup to go live at noon.
And I was like, I'm done,
I am done for the rest of the month.
There will be no Thursday video, and I will sit
and I will write, and I will plan out
my 2018 YouTube year,
to try to make things a hell of a lot better.
But I am just, I was done, I wanted a break.
And I needed that break.
My body was in shambles, it was terrible.
It was in excruciating pain, my back hurt so much.
I had a headache that lasted about two or three days.
My body felt drained of energy.
I felt like I was one of the citizens in Sailor Moon,
a citizen of Tokyo and the enemy of the day
was like draining all the energy from my body,
to give to her, you know, to Queen Beryl,
and what have you.
To anyone who is a daily vlogger, Lilly, Casey,
I have so much respect for you all,
because it's a lot of work, it's a lot.
Even people like Philip DeFranco,
when it's not even daily vlogging,
but it's still uploading a video every single day,
Monday through Friday and it's just, it's so much work.
People think that this stuff isn't serious work,
and that it doesn't take a lot of work,
but it really does.
And I think that's something that people don't understand,
because they've never actually done it.
I mean, if you're just, you know, filming on a phone
and then sending it straight to upload, that's easy.
But when you put in a lot of work
to make sure the lighting is good, the topic is good,
the content, the post-production is good, and all of that,
it is so much work.
Sometimes two videos a week is stressful.
That's what I have to say about Vlogmas.
Will I attempt it again this year, 2018?
Likely, because a lady has bills to pay,
and sometimes you have to make some sacrifices
in order to live, yeah.
So, there's that.
But before you go, I want to say that the new
#NoMoreCRAPtions T-Shirt launch has happened.
It's not a completely different design,
but the colors are completely different.
If you hate white T-Shirts,
because you spill things on 'em, and then the stains
never really go away, because there's no pigment
to, you know, kind of disguise the mess.
This shirt is all black, and the graphic is white.
I'm very excited for this.
I'm more excited for this one, actually,
because I do love wearing black shirts.
Like, that's my thing.
I'm excited to get one for myself,
and I hope that you all will be too.
I'll have the link for the shirts,
again, info box, pinned comment, so you can go get one.
Every campaign that I launch lasts for 21 days.
So you have 21 days of this round to get a shirt.
If you don't get one, don't fret,
I will probably relaunch again.
Once a month is likely, just a once a month
kind of campaign thing.
If you want to follow me on my social media,
I have my usernames right down below.
If you want to send a letter or anything,
I have my PO Box address right up here.
Patreon and last video over there.
I upload every Monday and Thursday,
and I will see you later.
Bye.