The majority of us would like to make a living on Youtube. A lot of us would also love to have a viral video bring a bunch of new viewers and subscribers to our channel. As it turns out, that’s a horrible strategy to having a successful youtube channel. A viral video, even if it is a viral dirt bike video, brings the type of viewers that won’t consume your normal content. They’re most likely only there for the one viral video. I learned this the hard way with my Graham Jarvis video, The Wall. Over the course of five years, this video has accumulated over 76 million views while bringing the original Seat Time channel to over 187,000 subscribers.

Yes, The Wall did make me money, but it also gave me a false sense of hope that I was creating a channel people wanted to be a part of. As my metrics began to drop off, I started to dig into who was coming to the channel from The Wall video. This is where I began to understand why my Click Through Rate and Average View Duration were dropping off. It was a tough pill to swallow.

As creators, we shouldn’t try to chase virality and overnight success. This will lead to burn out and unhappiness as we chase the metrics and the money. I chose not to chase those, and started a new Seat Time channel. If you like dirt bikes or mountain bikes, stay around for the journey. If you don’t, maybe you will soon 😉

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