they say YouTube can change your life turn you into an overnight success make you famous or maybe even help you quit your 9 to5 but no one really talks about what happens when you're just starting out so for 30 days I decided to go all in I uploaded videos tried to get better and spent hours editing videos and let me tell you this experience was nothing like the motivational success stories you see online what really happens when you start from zero is it worth the time the effort or does it all just flop well today
I'm sharing the full story the highs the lows and the stuff no one warns you about and trust me there were some surprises along the way good ones and bad ones and honestly the results they might not be what you expect the first video you'd think this would be the easiest part right it's not before you have to choose a niche and a style so here's how it started I sat down with my phone and created very bad YouTube shorts with cap cut I didn't really have a script I just wanted to get something out
there the goal was to stop overthinking and actually post something when I finally uploaded that first video I was hyped and waited to see how many views I would get and then nothing no views no comments just nothing I kept refreshing the page every few minutes hoping the numbers would change I mean I knew it wasn't going to go viral or anything but one view just one that's all I wanted and then out of nowhere it happened that glorious little number one View it was like the YouTube gods were telling me hey someone out there
actually clicked on your video granted it was probably me accidentally clicking on it while I was editing but still it felt like a small victory after that first upload I knew I couldn't stop there I had to keep the momentum going so I committed to uploading once a week no matter what but as you know it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be for starters editing takes forever I thought editing would be quick just cut a few clips and slap on some music right nope turn out trying to make something even remotely watchable
takes hours especially when you have no clue what you're doing and don't even get me started on thumbnails by the end of the first week I had uploaded two videos and racked up a grand total of a couple hundred views and honestly I wasn't even mad sure it wasn't much but every one of those views felt like progress it was proof that I was actually doing something instead of just thinking about it the biggest lesson I learned in that first week wasn't about editing or thumbnails or even views it was about just starting this is
my eighth YouTube channel I started so even when it's messy and awkward and no one's watching and you were switching niches like crazy that's the hard part and if you can get through that you're already ahead of most people by the time week two rolled around I felt like I was finally getting the hang of things or at least I thought I was I'd made a few tweaks to my process and I was starting to settle into a routine but life has a funny way of keeping you on your toes the first thing I realized
was that just uploading wasn't enough if no one clicks on your video it doesn't matter how much effort you put in so I started learning about things like SEO keywords and of course the freaking algorithm I spent hours tweaking my titles and descriptions trying to figure out what would make people actually click it felt like a science experiment but instead of lab equipment I was using tube magic which helped me a lot by the middle of the second week I'd gotten a few more views also the first comments sure it was something simple like nice
video but it made all the hours of editing and thumbnail stress feel worth it that's when it hit me YouTube isn't just about the numbers it's about connecting with actual people feeling motivated I started thinking about what I wanted to create not just what I thought would get views it was liberating but also kind of scary what if people didn't like it by the end of week 2 I got 33 new subscribers and 2900 unique viewers week three this was the week everything started to feel hard the excitement of starting something new had worn off
and the reality of just how much work goes into YouTube hit me like a ton of bricks and the worst part the numbers weren't moving much at this point I was uploading and trying my best to make my videos better but the results weren't matching the effort I'd see other creators with there how I got 1,000 subscribers in a week videos and I couldn't help but wonder what am I doing wrong sure people share tips but no one can tell you exactly what's going to work for your channel there were nights I stayed up until
2:00 a.m. editing only to wake up the next day and realized the video still wasn't quite right and you know what I still uploaded it and then out of nowhere one of my videos got a tiny bump in views not viral or anything but enough to make me think okay maybe I'm on to something that small win gave me the motivation to keep pushing this was the week I almost quit I felt stuck like all my effort wasn't paying off but then I asked myself why did I start this in the first place it wasn't
for instant success it was to learn to create and to see what I was capable of and once I remembered that everything started to feel lighter after week three I got a lot of very kind comments thank you all for your support week four the final stretch by this point I wasn't just tired I was drained but I was also determined if I'd made it this far I wasn't going to quit now I wanted to finish strong and maybe just maybe figure out how to grow to 1,000 Subs at this point I had a better
idea of what my audience or let's be honest what my potential audience wanted so I focused on creating videos that I thought could actually help people or entertain them no more throwing random ideas at the wall and hoping they'd stick and guess what it started to work slowly but surely my watch time was going up people were actually watching watching my videos all the way through and even better they were leaving comments I was just proud of myself for sticking with it for pushing through the hard days and for finishing what I started that alone
felt like a win all right here it is the moment you've been waiting for after 30 days here's what my YouTube channel looks like I uploaded six videos got a total of 6,400 views 129 watch hours and gained 228 subscribers the other subs are coming from other videos I upload 3 months ago is it groundbreaking no but is it progress absolutely so if you're thinking about starting a channel here's my advice just start don't wait for the perfect moment or the perfect setup because those don't exist the first step is the hardest but it's also
the most important and if you're thinking about starting your own YouTube Journey I'd love to hear about it YouTube isn't just a platform it's a community and if there's one thing I want to leave you with it's this the people who stick with it are the ones who win not because they're the best but because they didn't give up if you made it this far thank you for watching and being part of this journey with me you can now watch this video if you're curious about what happens next hit that subscribe button and let's figure
it out together
