The Future of my YouTube Channel
Let me start by putting any fears to rest: my YouTube channel isn’t going anywhere.
But I do think it is time for a change.
I published my first Swift and SwiftUI video on January 12, 2020. My most recent video was the 452nd in that series. For most of that time, I have published a new video every Sunday, and when working through a series, I have sometimes released multiple videos in a single week.
That’s a lot of videos, and I have enjoyed creating them. But over the past year or so, I have noticed a definite change.
There was a time when the channel would routinely gain 300 to 500 new subscribers every month. These days, that number has dropped to fewer than 100. Overall views are down as well.
What I find particularly interesting, though, is which videos are still doing well. Videos covering something new, timely, or a little more unique continue to attract viewers. For example, my recent video covering what’s new in Xcode 27 received more than 1,000 views in its first 24 hours. Unfortunately, that is no longer the norm.
There isn’t a great deal of money in creating YouTube videos, and as views have declined, so has the small amount of revenue they generate. But money was never the primary reason I started the channel.
I really had two reasons.
The first was simply to share what I was learning with other Swift and SwiftUI developers.
The second was a little more selfish. Creating tutorials forces me to understand the details. It is one thing to get some code working. It is quite another to understand it well enough to explain why it works to someone else. That process has served me incredibly well. I am a far better developer today because of the time I have spent researching, building, and explaining the topics covered in those 452 videos.
A typical video takes me about three days to research, develop, record, edit, and publish. I still consider that time well spent, but three days is a significant investment.
And while I don’t create videos for the monetary gain, I have to admit that it is nice to know that the work is appreciated.
That is why I am particularly grateful to my monthly Ko-fi supporters who contribute $5 each month. Those contributions help cover some of the expenses involved in keeping my skills current. I am forever buying books, software, and other learning materials. It isn’t a huge amount of money, but it helps, and more importantly, it keeps my wife off my back. 😄
Being retired also means that I don’t have a company paying to send me to developer conferences. For the most part, I can only justify attending when I am fortunate enough to be invited as a speaker. For those of you who do have the opportunity to attend conferences, I highly recommend doing so. The sessions are valuable, but the people you meet and the conversations you have can be even more important.
So, what is the point of telling you all of this?
I’m going to change the way I publish content.
Once I have worked through the remaining topics from WWDC26 that I think deserve videos, I plan to move from publishing a YouTube video every week to publishing one every two weeks.
That doesn’t mean I will be producing less content. Instead, I want to be more selective about what becomes a video.
I want to concentrate my YouTube efforts on topics that are new, interesting, useful, or perhaps not already covered dozens of times elsewhere. On the weeks when there isn’t a new video, my goal is to publish a blog post, either exploring a different topic or expanding on something related to a recent video.
I’m also reconsidering multi-part video series.
What I have consistently found is that the first video in a series can attract a healthy audience, but with each subsequent installment, the number of viewers tends to decline. By the time the final video arrives, only a fraction of the original audience may still be following along. In many cases, I think a focused standalone video, perhaps supported by additional material on my blog, will serve everyone better.
After 452 videos, I don’t see this as stepping away from YouTube.
I see it as figuring out what the next 452 should look like.
I hope I can count on your continued support as I make that transition. More importantly, I would genuinely like to hear from you. If there are Swift, SwiftUI, Xcode, or Apple development topics you would like to see me cover, please get in touch. Some of my best ideas have come from questions and suggestions from viewers.
To everyone who watches the videos, reads the blog, subscribes to the newsletter, leaves a comment, shares my work, or supports me through Ko-fi, thank you.
You’ve made the past six years of creating this content worthwhile.
And no, I’m not going anywhere.
I’m just changing the schedule.
