A Different Approach To Upload Schedules

Most YouTubers know that having a posting schedule can be very important. When you're just starting out, it can feel very underwhelming. Chances are, you don't know what you're getting into. A lot of people end up finding it incredibly stressful and draining. There can be so many things to worry about. I want to talk about an alternative approach to conquering the schedule.

Your first video might be the hardest one that you make. Knowing all of this, the advice that you should stick to a posting schedule can be intimidating. How can you post a weekly video (weekly isn't the only schedule but it's what I'm using as an example here) if you took weeks to make your first video?

One thing to consider is that with each video, you will be getting better at editing and the creation process each time. You'll get used to it which will naturally speed up how fast you work. Things that stumped you before will have solutions that you develop.

All of that said, it can still be stressful and I feel as though a lot of YouTubers stop before they really have a chance to experience the power and fun of the platform. I want to propose an alternate method of getting started on YouTube.

The Plan

Consistent uploads can be a huge benefit on YouTube. It's not mandatory at all and while you can find success without them, they can be a great way to get a channel started from 0 as you learn more and more about creating great videos.

The plan is simple: prepare a handful of videos before you ever post the first one and promote your channel. The idea behind this is that you can have let's say, 5 videos ready to go and all scheduled to go live once every week (or two weeks). This way, no matter how much you struggle, you're guaranteed to have a consistent 5 uploads.

The idea is that even if you're not uploading immediately, you should still limit how long you take each video. This pressure can help to limit how much effort you put into each video. A lot of newer creators get stuck trying to make the perfect first video when they could make 5 to 10 videos that don't take as much time and learn way more while building an audience along the way.

An important thing to keep in mind is that there are so many things that you won't see or realize until you publish videos including learning from the analytics. Even though you won't be getting stats to learn from immediately, you're still going to be developing your video creation process and ideally, watching what you make to learn from it as well.

If you have moments where you say "I don't like how I did that", you can immediately apply that to the next video as you work on it. You also get to apply editing workflow strategies that you learn each time too.

After Publishing

As your videos start to go live, you'll get to enjoy the feeling of consistently "being there" with a video each week. You'll get people used to and expecting your content to be there and they can end up looking forward to it. That's the power of a schedule and starting your channel this way can give you a good idea of how it feels to accomplish it!

Once your uploads are all ready, ideally you can start working on the next video immediately. You basically have a head start on your uploads because you'll always have a few videos ready even if you have trouble finishing a video one week.

In Practice

The reality of this strategy is that larger channels are preparing content in advance all the time. They might have a week or two worth of content ready to go live in addition to older ideas and concepts that they are sitting on if they feel creatively blocked one week.

This is also a fantastic way to take vacations. You can prepare videos in advance while keeping your schedule consistent even if you're hanging at a beach instead of editing!

It's important to make content creation fit your needs so I really enjoy thinking about ways to make it more approachable for people. If you try this out, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter because I'd love to hear how it worked for you!