Darlene Michaud

Once upon a time, I went on a Crumb Quilt Adventure and I forced everyone to go along for the ride.

That series was a turning point for me. It’s when I learned that subscribers leave, in a very angry way, when a content creator changes their tune and does something different.

I’m sure I had other series before I started slapping scraps of fabric together, but nothing that took off for me like the crumb quilt adventure.  I was getting lots of views and I wanted to ride that wave.  So I did.

My first episode was uploaded on August 17, 2017.  My final episode was uploaded on September 3, 2017.  I uploaded 12 episodes in just 18 days. Overkill?  Yes. I was losing subscribers like crazy.

I have no regrets.

Devoted subbies, who often claimed they loved me and would watch anything I uploaded (one said he’d even watch me stare at a wall), were flying out the door.  They didn’t mean what they said. lol

Thankfully, I gained new subbies so my overall numbers were still climbing.  But it still stung to lose so many subscribers, many who had been with me for a long time.

Then another thing happened. When the crumb quilt adventure was over, those who hopped on board for that series started leaving.  Made sense.  They wanted quilting videos. They didn’t want to watch me hold up shampoo at walmart.

Lesson learned.  People come, people go. I can never change that.

Another lesson learned. Don’t ever get attached to your audience. Just. Don’t.

All audiences are temporary.  Even if you are successful with your channel and never change a thing, they will leave. Everyone gets sick of stuff.  Everyone.  Audiences get sick of watching certain kinds of videos just like I get sick of creating certain kinds of videos.

I’m going through another youtube change now. I thought I’d never get sick of car vlogs. Never. But I finally did. Big time. So I’m back to sewing. And I’m currently very happy with my decision even though many are leaving again.

Buh bye to the old!

And hello to the new!

I’ve been self-employed long enough to know that I will always survive the scary changes I make. Not only will I survive, but I’ll come out better on the other side.  I’m very anxious to find out what I do when I get sick of sewing again.  Because get sick of it, I will.  It’s inevitable.

One day I’ll get sick of selling fabric too. I did this whole fabric gig about 15 years ago.  Sold for quite a while. Then got sick of it.  I expect the same with this run too.

What comes after that?  Shoe dances return?  Haircuts come back?  I simply don’t know!  I would love for my next adventure to be something new, something I’ve never done online before.  Teaching math?  Teaching French?  I could do that!  I was one hell of a tutor for both those subjects in college.  Loved that job.

Bottom line is I never know what I’ll do next. I only know I will succeed. I have proven that over and over again.

Since I have over 2000 videos on various channels, I thought it would be fun to start a blog series about my videos.  After all, I was a full-time blogger at one point and I want to get back to blogging, just because I can!

I used to share my youtube stats during a 2 year video series.  I uploaded videos twice per month and fully disclosed all kinds of stats including my earnings.  I did it as a way to hopefully help encourage others who might want to start a channel, or who had started channels that were not growing.

I quit doing that series back in March of 2008 because I got sick of it.  That move pissed off some very devoted fans of that series.  I showed them the door.

I’d like to start up my youtube stats again, but on my blog this time around, just to see if I can increase my blog views. And I will just have fun with it.  There won’t be any certain format I follow. I’ll just pick videos and share stats.  And hopefully I can help encourage others to not give up on their channels.

I’ll tell you all kinds of things about my videos, including how much they earn.  It might be interesting. It might not. As long as I enjoy it, that’s all I care about. Some will unsubscribe from my blog because of this series. Others will join. Good bye. Hello.

I will start dissecting my Crumb Quilt Adventure very soon! I’ll tell you all the details, one episode at a time.  I will also point out videos that have been very successful for me and videos I had high hopes for that completely flopped.

What a cool way for me to bring some of my old videos to life! I feel bad that I have so much content out there and I just ignore it.  Every single video I ever recorded, good or bad, played a major part in my journey. It’s time to look back and see where I came from and share what I’ve learned along the way.

If you think you might like this series, please subscribe to this blog then check your email to verify. You’ll get one email per day with all my blog posts.

Be back soon with stats on Crumb Quilt Adventure Episode 1. So excited to see how much, or how little, I earned with that series!

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