Which is why today I wanted to talk about one number that's been going up pretty high... and one that I need your help to push up so I can keep putting out content for everyone!
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| Programming like this is literally made possible by viewers like you! |
As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.
Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!
The Good, The Bad, and The Frustrating
So, first things first the good news! At time of writing the channel has 985 subscribers, meaning that we're only 15 subs away from hitting that first major milestone of 1,000 people! So if you haven't done so yet, please subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel to put us over that goal!
Okay, now for the bad news... which is a little more complicated.
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| This is where the algorithm gets involved. |
For most of 2023 things seemed to be going pretty good for the channel. Videos were being well-received, the audience was growing, and I was doing my best to diversify the content. Changes were being made to tweak and improve as I picked up new skills, got new equipment, and generally tried to make things better for everyone. For a while it seemed that we were getting between 200 and 400 views on an average video, with occasional outliers climbing to 700, 800, and in a few cases with videos even breaking 1,000 views. Small views for the site in general, but still a positive trend for a small gaming channel.
So what happened? In short, the algorithm happened.
Around November of 2023 we experienced a big slow down in our traffic, even as the number of subscribers to the channel grew. For the past several months we've had to fight tooth and nail to get any of our videos up over 100 views, with the only one doing notably well during that time period being my unboxing video for Army Men because... well, the algorithm likes unboxings, it seems.
What that means is that, while we were making slow but steady progress toward actually getting the channel monetized (which requires a minimum of 500 subscribers and 3,000 watched hours of content in the past 365 days), we've hit a big bump in the road that's trying to become a full stall. Last month we needed about 800 hours and change of watched content to get across that line... but now it's fallen to the point where we need a full 980 hours (because if your traffic slows down, you start going backwards on this count)!
Unfortunately, whatever was done to the algorithm doesn't seem to be something that making more videos, or sharing more links on social media, is helping with. We've got a wet blanket thrown over us, and we don't have the power to do anything about it all on our own.
That's Where You Come In!
At time of writing, there's a couple hundred videos on the Azukail Games channel. And while a majority of them are previews for the various supplements the publisher has put out, there's also a lot of other content I'd recommend checking out!
First and foremost there's my rather long list of audio dramas! These cover fantasy stories from my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, as well as stories taken from supplements for Vampire, Changeling, Geist, and Mage from the World of Darkness! There are also miscellaneous fantasy and sci-fi stories in the mix, many of which are connected together into various serieses, as I talked about in my older posts My Sci-Fi Audio Drama Trilogy is Now Complete and My Cyberpunk Audio Drama Trilogy is Now Complete!
Another series of videos I've been working on is my Discussions of Darkness series, which talks about the World and Chronicles of Darkness setting, and which shares advice (much of it hard-won) about how to really make these games work. The most recent episode, linked above, actually started a decent amount of conversation regarding mortals in the World of Darkness, and how strong mortal weaponry is... but for all that conversation, very few people actually watched my video on the subject.
This has been something of a pattern for the last little while, actually. Because while there have been some rather impressive comment threads, and a few folks have expressed interest in the topic of particular videos as well as the channel overall, that interest doesn't usually translate to views... and views are kind of what we need right now!
My most recent series, Tabletop Mercenary, is all about what happens behind the curtain when it comes to being a professional TTRPG designer, and about giving folks advice on this career path should they choose to seek it out. While there were a lot of folks who said they wanted something like this to exist (and I've got a decade of experience in the industry at time of writing) I've had trouble getting eyes on these episodes.
So if you would like to see more of this series, by all means, share any of the videos that exist right now, and leave comments telling me what topics you want to see going forward! Audience feedback is how I decide what questions to answer, and what topics to research (if I can't speak from experience)!
Lastly, we have my Speaking of Sundara series. These were actually the first videos I made for the channel, and the ones where you can see the most growth and change in my presentation style, my setup, my equipment, and more. These videos cover the supplements I've released for Sundara: Dawn of a New Age as a setting, discussed some of the ideas that have slipped between the lines, and what I'd like to do with the setting going forward. While Sundara has a few fans, it could always use more love... and for folks who are curious, the above video is all about how ideas get recycled in some of my projects, allowing me to keep turning out fresh material while saving myself creative juice in the process!
Whichever videos interest you, and whatever you prefer, please go check out some of our content over on the Azukail GamesYouTube channel today! If everyone who is currently subscribed to our channel just went through and watched 1 video per day, we'd have ourselves monetized by the end of the month.
It might not feel like the handful of minutes you spend listening to an audio drama, or watching me talk about TTRPG design, makes a big impact... but nearly 1,000 people all doing one, little thing consistently can make a big damn difference when all is said and done! So please watch, like, and share videos around if they're the sort of things you want to see more of! Lastly, make sure you leave your thoughts and comments on our videos in order to give us feedback, boost us in the algorithm, and to let us know the direction you want us to go in.
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!
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