When I first got going, I ran my channel as a variety channel with all kinds of different videos. Basically the same thing I'm doing today. But then my views fell off, and I got really frustrated. I'd upload all kinds of different content, and none of it was ever good enough for me. Meanwhile I kept watching other people start these niche channels and seem to take off. So I started literally 10-plus new crypto channels.
Here's where it stands now. I've deleted at least 10 channels, including a monetized channel with over 10,000 subscribers. There's one channel next in line to get deleted that has 46,000 subscribers. On that channel I had hundreds of videos, a lot of crypto content, and a lot of issues. I just wanted to clean things up and have a fresh start, so I rebranded it.
Trying to beat the algorithm by segmenting everything
What happened was that I convinced myself I could beat the algorithm by segmenting my content all over the place. I wanted a Jerry Banfield channel for creators, a Jerry Banfield crypto channel, a Jerry Banfield gaming channel, a Jerry Banfield crypto reviews channel, a Jerry Banfield recovery channel, a Jerry Banfield music channel, and a Jerry Banfield instrumental music channel. I created playlists and, in most of those areas, I actually had a separate channel.
In some areas it worked really well. On what used to be my Jerry Banfield crypto channel, I used to get thousands of views consistently on my live streams. I had a video go over 100,000 views, and a bunch of videos with tens of thousands of views, some at 20, 30, 40, 50,000 views. But what was murderously annoying is that the algorithm got me obsessing over the views each individual video would get. At one point I uploaded as many as 12 videos a day, just testing it out. It also got me so laser-focused on crypto, and I hate being laser-focused on one subject.
That's what almost everybody does, though. They try to laser-focus and niche down and pick one subject, because that's what almost all the YouTube gurus tell you to do. And yes, in the short term that often works. When I started my crypto channel and just grinded out crypto videos every day, and used my original channel to push the new one, it grew. But here's what I lost: the viewers I sent over started only watching the crypto channel, and a lot of them stopped watching my other videos entirely. So most of my views ended up concentrated on that crypto channel.
What really got to me is that most people only knew me as a crypto guy. At least half of that channel's audience didn't even realize I also did gaming and music, or that I make videos for YouTubers. I just love doing a bunch of different things. I know almost everybody says you should niche down and pick one thing, and that if you want to do something else you should start a different channel. In the short term, the algorithm will often screw you for doing variety content. But in my experience, at least over the last year, the algorithm has gotten a lot better at handling variety.
Why I deleted 2,000 videos
A few years ago I deleted around 2,000 videos off my original channel, which had something like 30 million total views. Why did I delete them? Because I was trying to niche down. If you go back to my oldest videos, you'll see I had all these other channels at the time. I tried to turn my main channel into just a music channel, and then I had a separate crypto channel, gaming channel, crypto reviews channel, recovery channel, and creator's channel.
At one point I had as many as eight or nine YouTube channels at once. I deleted all the way back down to two, cranked it back up to six, deleted back down to two, and I'm going to delete back down to one soon. What I came to realize is that trying to make my main channel just a music channel sucked compared to what I'd been doing before. It killed my creative flow. I can't stand making only crypto videos all the time. I'm happy to talk crypto, and I filmed several crypto videos today. But in my experience, one of the worst things you can do as a content creator is laser yourself into a niche, so that people only follow you for that one thing and don't even care or realize you do anything else.
I've recently seen other channels saying the same thing: for 99% of YouTubers, you should have one channel, do whatever you want on it, and not worry so much about the views.
Going back to one channel and real-life content
I've also decided to do a lot more in-real-life content. Yesterday I spent about $400 to buy a Shure SM7 microphone that I can plug into my new iPhone, plus one of those stabilizer rigs you hold so it doesn't shake the screen so much. I'll have a video on that setup soon.
I also want to do a lot more videos with other people. When you're only doing crypto, that really limits your collaboration. So I've set it up now so anybody can hop in and record a video with me for $99, and I'll crank a video out. I'm putting out six videos a day on this channel, and what's so nice is the flexibility. If I want to put out six interviews in one day, I can. If I want six gaming tutorials, I can. If I want six crypto videos the next day, I can do that too.
As a YouTuber who's uploaded at least 3,000 videos across at least 10 different channels, what I've struggled with the most is trying to make the algorithm do what I want, always trying to maximize it, instead of just focusing on consistently delivering content, ideally in the same place. When I had eight channels and I wouldn't create a video on one of them, I'd sit there thinking about it, feeling like I was letting that audience go. It's miserable.
The other thing I've noticed is that YouTube is actually doing a better job lately of pushing out videos on different subjects. I do Insane Clown Posse videos, I do crypto, and the algorithm is doing a great job of distributing them. For years it felt like I was shadow banned, and now it feels like I have a fresh chance.
Niching yourself also leaves you exposed to one market. When I was thinking only crypto, a crypto bear market meant everything was down and it sucked. My live streams were getting fewer than 100 concurrent viewers in a bear market. In a bull market, I'd sometimes have 500 concurrent viewers and thousands watching while I was live.
Through all of this I've burnt myself out trying to run all these channels and get them all monetized. In the process of trying to optimize the algorithm, I scattered my fans across all different channels. I've live streamed on as many as eight different channels on YouTube, sent people over to Twitch and Kick, and said I was going to delete this channel so many times. And yet this is the channel I earned my silver play button on. It's a channel I just can't bring myself to delete, because I've poured my videos and my music into it. My greatest joy would be to bring this once-dead channel back to life. Before I started cranking out videos on different subjects again, it really did feel dead.
I'm tired of having all these little things I'd love to help people with, simple tutorials I feel like I don't even have a home for. That's exactly why I'm consolidating back into one channel where I can share everything. If this kind of behind-the-scenes look at building a channel is helpful to you, I share a lot more of it in my YouTube Coaching playlist. So this is what I've learned from creating more than 10 new YouTube channels and then deleting them.