Well, it’s been quite the journey…and I am still on it! When I retired in 2020, it was just before Covid hit and what a crazy time. I had to get out my bucket list and see what I could start working on so that I could #1 keep busy and #2 do what I enjoyed doing. So of course one of the first things I started was learning how to build my website that I had bought the domain for over 25 years ago. I never expected at that time that it would morph into a Youtube channel, but now here I am, with just over 1000 subscribers on Youtube. So I thought it would make sense to document my journey on how to grow a Youtube channel, so far. So here we go!
Below is my channel header on Youtube.
I hope this post will inspire someone to follow their passion, and help keep them motivated. The journey is not easy. There were lots of bumps along the way. I also had costs with setting up my website, security on it, maintaining it my self. But fortunately I could do that with my background in IT. I am 60 years old and have been retired for just over 4 years now. My niche that I selected was to do with everything country of course, and my website covers all of that, my musings about country music, country and farmhouse decor and of course recipes. But Youtube doesn’t necessarily like too many topics.
Here is a quick summary of my journey:
In February 2021 through all of 2021, I had started doing some small displays of vintage decor on my website. I started an instagram account and kept doing some thrifting that I could with no contact door to door pickups off the facebook marketplace.
I was enjoying posting my favorite recipes that I had made over the years, some new Keto recipes I had been trying and tackling some of my favorite foods to get the best recipe for reference.
I also started blogging about music events online and building up my twitter account to follow country music artists around the world.
Yes abit all over the map.
But what I noticed is that I was getting alot of interest in my vintage displays. Google was starting to push Youtube videos in search rankings and I was still learning about SEO or Search engine optimization. I had made quite a few mistakes along the way with that, and was listening to alot of online gurus about the proper way to add titles, keywords, tags, alternate text, etc, to your web pages to get them to rank higher in google. I was successful on a few pages and others not so much. When I finally started adding more unique phrases to the pictures and the tags, and embeded through the text, repeated in the first paragraph, and the last paragraph, then I got a higher ranking and SEO score.
From the beginning I have been using WordPress, so there were some plugins that I added to make life easier. I will expand on that more later.
I kept working on my website through 2021, and adding more content. I was finally able to get my adsense account with enough content added to my website. I still only get very limited income from adsense on my website as it really needs alot of views to earn income that is worth the effort. So for me, I keep my website as part of my hobby. I still love supporting country music artists and have some pages dedicated to that. I also like to show my displays, which now point to my youtube for some added traffic. And I love blogging about some of my thrift hauls and recipes. My tried and true recipes are part of my legacy for my kids.
Anyway, another fortunate thing in my Youtube journey is that while I was doing vintage displays for my website, I was taking videos of them. I had tried to post a few to tiktok, but it didn’t quite make sense to me that they belonged there.
So in 2022 I investigated starting my youtube channel, and posted my first video in February 2022.
For the first couple months, I posted quite a few videos, since I had alot of old content which I could post quickly, in shorter videos but still as long form. I didn’t get too much traction. Again, I didn’t know much about SEO, this time on Youtube, so I had to learn all over again. I started listening to the gurus about the Youtube SEO basics, titles, descriptions, keyword tags, hashtags and thumbnails. I use all of these and again, try to use some unique phrases to get my videos to rank higher in the Youtube search.
In late March 2022 I had a couple of very short videos (just over 60 seconds) do quite well, one had almost 20,000 views. So then I knew I must be doing something right. I was hooked to figure out the algorithm and what Youtube needed. I kept plugging away, adding more videos week by week, through my personal ups and downs.
I lost my husband of almost 30 years in July of 2023 and it was devastating. Fortunately my faith in God and the support of family and friends got me through. I also kept working on my channel and website as a distraction and that really helped me get through the tough first few months.
In 2024, more plugging away, I still kept doing what I liked doing, thrifting, collecting, adding to my displays, rearranging and creating new collections, posts and videos. I felt like I was getting into the swing of things a bit. My subscribers kept growing and there was more engagement with comments and likes. Then I turned 60 and also had major surgery in the fall of 2024. Again, another bump, but I got through it and kept going.
First major milestone – 1000 subscribers!
As of January 2025, I finally hit 1000 subscribers! My views are coming along, so even though I am not fully monetized, I am sure that will happen eventually. Incidently, my website monetization keeps slowly growing. They say only 8% or so of all channels reach 1000 subs, so I feel like I have accomplished something. And fortunately, because I love what I am doing I have no desire to stop any time soon.
My hope is to eventually pay for the ongoing maintenance of my site, my channel and anything extra is a bonus! I still have to decide if I am going to start selling some of my vintage inventory online or not. But my channel and this website keep me busy, engaged socially, I get out and about every week, I keep learning new things, all a bonus and helps with anti-aging!
Key Recommendations on how to grow your Youtube channel
In the end, growing your Youtube channel really comes down to the following key recommendations:
- Get your niche sorted out early and only post videos related to your niche. I was lucky as I had already decided to focus only on my vintage displays on my Youtube channel and anything to do with that including thrifting and collecting vintage and antiques. This was my passion and what I planned to do during retirement so it worked well for me to stick with what I was going to be doing anyway 🙂 Do what you love and if it grows into a successful channel that’s a bonus!
- Figure out the SEO basics and be consistent in implementing them across every video you post. I had to go back and update my video titles, descriptions, keywords, hashtags, and thumbnails. I try to have a consistent look on my thumbnails and keep the title on the thumbnail a bit more catchy (and not the same) as my video title, as recommended by most of the gurus. I use the tags (fill all 500 letters with phrases related to my video and repeated in the title and desription and in the video itself!). So prep work on phrases is required before doing the video but I don’t worry too much. I have used a software product from vidIQ to help me find the phrases and keywords that rank higher. This does take some trial and error though as some niches have alot of competitition so no matter what you do, it is difficult to appear in the top 10 of Youtube searches. So the longer or more unique the phrase the better. The Youtube algorithm needs this information to know what your channel is about and what your video is about. Otherwise it will suggest it to the wrong audience who then won’t likely watch much of it, which lowers engagement scores.
- Decide if you are going to do video shorts, long form or both. I have mostly focussed on long form, but I do add a few shorts to attract new viewers which seems to help. The new feature to link your short to the related long form video is quite helpful.
- Decide if you want to be in the videos or not. Personally I am a bit shy about showing my face, so I tend to do that only once in a while. My focus has always been to do this as a hobby, so for that purpose it shouldn’t matter. They don’t want to see me, they want to see my vintage decor.
- Be consistent about posting. I usually post 1 video a week. In order to do that I keep it simple. I use free software where possible (clipchamp) and my videos are not the highest quality (I use a Samsung S23, 1080HD). I often film in one take! I don’t care if I make a few mistakes as I am talking. Keeping it simple allows me to keep going and not get burned out. I don’t have to hire anyone to help me and I don’t feel pressured if I want to take a break. I do post a community post if I am not going to post for a couple weeks or more.
- Track everything you do. I keep a spreadsheet of any major updates, and even some tweaks that I am trying out to see if it makes a difference in resulting views, subscribers or engagement.
- Respond to all comments. I enjoy that folks add comments about what they like about my vintage display and whether they have something similar. There is a sense of commuity which grows as you get more followers. I have put comments on hold, just in case I get the odd comment that is inappropriate. I have only had a couple so far so its probably just me being cautious.
- Know who your target audience is and what they want. The demographic for my channel is mostly women between 50 and up, like me. There are a few men that see some of my rustic farmhouse tools and collectibles and like those, but mostly its women. And that works for me cuz that is what I like to. My target audience is interested in the same thing I am, go figure!
- Follow others in your niche and don’t feel bad when their channels are doing better than you. It’s not a competition. In fact, having others in your niche helps your channel. Once the algorithm figures out what your channel is about and what a specific video is about, it will suggest it to people watching videos on those other channels in your niche. When they go viral you can go viral, and vice versa. Connect with others in your niche, subscribe and support their videos if you like their content.
- Engaging viewers is not easy. I try to be as natural as possible when I am talking and filming and a few errors are not the end of the world. I do notice folks don’t like it if the video doesn’t keep moving along, so adding some text or explanations from time to time, or speeding up the movement helps. I cut out dead spots usually. I also don’t waste alot of time at the beginning of the video, but get right into the vintage display. That helps. Asking folks to subscribe feels uncomfortable, so I had to figure out a phrase or two that I felt comfortable with and felt natural. I include that at the end of the video, and also try to give them a ‘next’ end screen video that they might want to watch.
- Be patient and don’t give up, have fun along the way. It really can get frustrating when you think that no one really cares about your channel, and for the most part that is true. People have a short attention span, so they need to see something that sparks their interest, jogs a memory or helps them in some way. In my case its hopefully the first two, they might be avid collectors as well, or the vintage collectibles might spark a memory from the past. Your channel will eventually grow organically, and the people that like what you do will keep coming back.
You may think you have heard all this before, but really its the most common sense approach to building a Youtube channel. It’s hard work, takes time and there are going to be days you feel like giving up. But don’t give up! It is worth it to follow your passion, meet others who are enjoying the same passion as you are, and it can become a lifelong hobby that has some side benefits.
I do have some more detailed tips about how I promote my videos and tweak things to get more views, subscribers and sources of traffic. I plan to do this in my next post on how to grow a Youtube channel. Until then, have fun!
🙂 Bonnie