My best performing video on The Photography Channel was an outlier.
While most videos struggled to break 100 views, this video crossed 100 comments in a few days and reached over 3,750 views; more than 50x the average of 73 views.
It also nearly killed my channel in the process.
Video #52
Before that outlier, I had already published 51 videos on my Photography Channel. They received very little views and I was understandably frustrated.
For 199 days and 20 videos, silence — until one professional photographer finally commented: ‘This is a criminally underrated channel!!!’ Very encouraging, but still no momentum.
So I tried something new. I experimented with structure, stuck to my weekly upload schedule, and failed. I tried again. Failed. A third time. Same result.
Then I decided to go all in on a radically new format. I thought it through endlessly, committed resources, and still wasn’t happy with it. But after it consumed too much time, I uploaded it anyway and left town for the weekend.
By the time I was back online, Video #52 had taken off. Views spiked. Comments started pouring in. My subscribers jumped from 6 to 106.
I thought I had cracked the formula. But I didn’t look at the numbers behind the numbers.
The Numbers Behind The Numbers
The first 51 videos took, on average, less than 8 hours to produce.
| Pre-Production | 0.56 | 7.2% |
| Production | 2.81 | 36.0% |
| Post-Production | 3.81 | 48.9% |
| Publishing | 0.47 | 6.0% |
| Marketing | 0.10 | 1.3% |
| Other | 0.03 | 0.4% |
| Total | 7.79 | 100.0% |
Video #52 was different. It took a total of 61 hours to complete.
| Pre-Production | 26.75 | 43.9% |
| Production | 6.92 | 11.4% |
| Post-Production | 25.50 | 41.9% |
| Publishing | 0.25 | 0.4% |
| Marketing | 1.50 | 2.5% |
| Other | – | 0.0% |
| Total | 60.92 | 100.0% |
The pre-production was manageable. The editing nearly broke me.
The Trap
A Tactical Error
Not anticipating success was forgivable. Following it with three weaker videos, already in the pipeline, wasn’t. They performed like the old videos — but now it stung.
A Strategic Failure
The real strategic mistake was deciding to stick with the new heavy format. 61 hours for one video is unsustainable. That’s two weeks of full-time work, or a month if it’s a side project.
Still, I pushed forward. The next video took 42.5 hours — stretched painfully over 4.5 months. I forced it out just to publish. It was weaker, late, and momentum was gone. It tanked.
Eventually, I returned to my previous (lighter) format. Consistency returned, views doubled, and growth resumed. Slow and steady.
Until recently, when I repeated the same error: chasing another outlier. One month later, and still nothing to show for it. I had to stop and reset. Consistency is my top priority again.
Consistency Leads To Sustainability
Ideally, every video should be like video #52 — well-researched and executed. But that is not sustainable.
I enjoyed the results. I hated the process. The 25+ hours of editing drained all joy. That’s not viable for a small channel.
That’s why I’m returning to the lighter format and weekly uploads. Not because consistency is a value on its own — but because it is a tool enabling sustainability.
Growth may be slower. Views may be lower. But the channel will survive.
Cash Flow and Time Flow
Starting an online social media business today has almost no barriers-to-entry.
In traditional business environments what usually causes small and starting businesses to fail is lack of cash flow. Creators fail from lack of time flow.
Time is the true currency.
Manage it like cash. Unlike cash, time can’t be replenished.
You can’t build on outliers. Celebrate them when they happen, but it’s the average, repeatable videos that you consistently upload that carry a channel forward.
I was watching the speedometer, ignoring the empty gas tank.