August took ~35 hours to produce two episodes of The Photography Channel. September took ~34 hours and produced none. Zero releases this month.
This is the second in a series of Social Media Monthly Reports. Each month, I’ll share numbers, hours, and notes that show what it actually takes to build a creative media business. Even if it means revealing the ugly truth.
Executive Summary
September’s target was straightforward:
- Publish 4 videos.
- Invest ~60 hours, with post-production under 50%.
- Streamline editing to save time.
- Track the same KPIs as August for month-over-month comparison.
The aim was to hold a steady output before adding specific targets for views, watch time, or subscribers. Instead, I tried to recreate outliers, chased perfection, and ended up with nothing: target hours were not met, zero videos were released, and inconsistency remains the major factor plaguing the channel.
Here is the month in numbers.
Key Metrics
| AUG | SEP | Change | |
| Impressions | 7970 | 2353 | -5570 |
| Views | 461 | 138 | -323 |
| Click-through Rate (CTR) | 4% | 3.8% | -0.2 pp |
| Total Watch Time (Hours) | 20.9 | 7.4 | -13.5 |
| Subscribers | 174 | 175 | +1 |
No uploads meant fewer impressions, fewer views, and a sharp drop in watch time. CTR held steady; the problem was output, not packaging.
This is what a zero-release month yields.
Production Breakdown
| AUG (Hours) | AUG (%) | SEP (Hours) | SEP (%) | |
| Pre-Production | 9.25 | 27% | 13.00 | 39% |
| Production | 3.42 | 10% | 3.00 | 9% |
| Post-Production | 18.08 | 52% | 7.25 | 21% |
| Publishing | 0.50 | 1% | 0 | 0% |
| Marketing | 0 | 0% | 4.67 | 14% |
| Other | 3.50 | 10% | 5.75 | 17% |
| Total | 34.75 | 100% | 33.67 | 100% |
Out of 33.67 hours, 39% went into pre-production: planning and ideation loops. Video editing accounted for about 20% of the time; the drop in post-production hours happened because nothing was finalized, not because editing got faster. Publishing was zero.
Second-order effects followed. Trying to recreate a prior outlier pushed more scripting and “one more pass” in the edit; two videos’ worth of footage ended up in the recycle bin. With no releases, momentum broke and hours drifted into mundane admin work that didn’t move the channel. Given that pattern, here’s what has to change.
After-Action Notes
With momentum, inertia works in your favor and production runs efficiently. Break it, and you pay dearly — clawing back to where you were takes extreme effort.
In an earlier post, I wrote about the mistake of chasing outliers. That’s where I slipped this month.
The correction is simple: protect the weekly release schedule, and accept imperfections in the cut so videos actually get released.
Next Month (OCT 2025)
The goals are simple:
- Publish 4 videos.
- Invest ~40 hours, with post-production under 50%.
The aim is to hold this output steady for the next six months before adding specific targets for views, watch time, or subscribers. The key is consistency and building momentum.
Closing
This is the cost of doing the work — measured in hours, not hype. If you’re building your own machine, start by tracking your inputs.
For those who prefer the full data in one go, I’ve pulled the charts into a short deck. The “boardroom version” of this report — 45 seconds, numbers only.
This is the second in a monthly series. The next Social Media Monthly Report will follow in November. If you want to keep track of how the numbers move, subscribe.
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