For a very, very long time, I’ve often thought about creating a Youtube channel to show my modeling projects or talk/show about other various non-modeling topics, and also subscribe to some other people’s channels that I’ve found interesting.
But I have to wonder, Is it worth it?
I’m not looking for “Likes” or popularity, fame, money, or anything else of the sort.
And I’m kind of hesitant about people leaving negative comments and such.
Social media sure has connected the world over the last few decades. But there’s a lot of “ugliness” to go with it as well.
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I think it depends on your goal. I’ve subscribed to channels that suddenly gain an audience and try to create content on a regular basis to keep that audience and grow enough to make a living. A few months later, reality sets in. It’s a real grind to come up with something new and attention grabbing enough that the algorithm will keep you in the spotlight. Many content creators burn out, some in months, some after 5-10 years.
If you just want to say hey, “I’ve done a thing and want to show it off” and aren’t really concerned about viewership, then go for it. I’ve posted maybe 5 videos in nine years. I don’t really care if they ever get seen. I’m really proud of the music box but it’s so niche that I doubt anyone cares.
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I have a channel - because that’s what youtube calls it but I don’t promote it or only post specific content. I post videos on various subjects from guitar, models to cars and share. I’ve received nothing but positive feedback and good questions, though I’m not very active at all.
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You certainly have the skills and knowledge to create a channel. I for one enjoy your build logs and such on this forum. Committing to a channel usually means the pursuit of clicks with an eye toward monetization. It would increase your workload exponentially. I personally wouldn’t do it. It’s hard enough for me to keep my build logs here updated and fresh. Does this site have the ability to host video? Perhaps you could create a webpage for your videos, and just put a link in your avatar for the members here to click on and enjoy your work. That way would reduce the pressure to produce, but have your work visible to your target audience. Just my .02 cents.
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I used to be a Content Creator for World of Tanks, and regular YouTube uploads were par for the course (https://youtube.com/@worldoftankswithpr154)
I’ve thus far resisted the urge to make modelling content for YouTube, mostly due to a lack of control of my spare time and you really need a bench and lighting setup suitable for close-in filming. As much as I enjoy writing about the hobby, there is something particularly engaging about video content where you can see direct application of techniques rather than before and after photos.
I was never the best player in World of Tanks, but I didn’t have to be. You just need to be entertaining, informative and accessible. Don’t worry about the negative comments from a fraction of the Top-20% of modellers because the Bottom-80% will probably be grateful for the perspective and/or learning experience. No doubt you’ll see this reflected in your metrics, so the haters just get drowned out.
One thing to keep in mind with YouTube content is that the algorithm favours regular uploads. If you’re not uploading at least once a week to some sort of schedule, YouTube has a tendency to knock you out of the suggested feed of potential viewers (particularly those who haven’t subscribed yet). If you’re chasing the views or trying to maintain what you have, this can create pressure to create content for content’s sake and it will start to feel like work rather than an extension of your hobby.
I would imagine that it’s lime having a whole other hobby,do you have the time to invest without crimping your style in other things
I was contemplating the same thing but for one my other hobbies. My brother was a full time content creator. Watching his channel and what he did, made me change my mind. It takes alot of time. It takes alot editing. Learning to edit video quickly is a skill. If you do it in a 'studio-like" environment you’ll need lights. I think especially with models. You need B roll. You need to keep it interesting. Just sitting for long periods just talking gets old quick with the audience, might as well be a podcast.
It takes a lot more time than you probably think it does to create something people want to watch. Oh and you have to have an engaging quality about your personality or “act”. You have to be animated. You have to speak like your do a presentation, not just speak.
And then there is the negative comments. It’s going to happen. My brother would get a few with each video. He would just delete them. You can always screen comments and approve them or not. Problem seeing the negative comments does affect you even slightly. So you have to have a pretty tough skin.
I’m sure you watch creators. See what you like and don’t like. See what you have to offer that’s different/better.
If you have the time, give it a shot and see what happens!
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My brother was a full time content creator. Watching his channel and what he did, made me change my mind. It takes alot of time. It takes alot editing. Learning to edit video quickly is a skill. If you do it in a 'studio-like" environment you’ll need lights. I think especially with models. You need B roll. You need to keep it interesting.
I can definitely empathise with this. Video editing is also a lot like scale model construction, in that you can find yourself spending a lot of time fussing on details because there’s a particular creative vision you want to fulfil. Your capacity to fulfil that vision is directly proportional to your skillset, which like scale modelling will grow with practise and the ambition to try something new for that extra level of polished finish.
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Hi WhatIfRebel, social media as it is today has become crammed with loads of so called “experts” and you can find many even on YouTube. Some are indeed professionals in the field and give very useful suggestions and tricks to follow. Others, instead, just waste your time explaining obvious things for hours without ever coming to the point. And again, there are more people only showing pictures of their finished work, which is again a total nonsense on YouTube since one wants to see a video and not your photo albums.
When I returned to my beloved hobby, I too had the intention to “spread the word” this way, but then, just like you, considered the “what if” factor, and this suddenly put a break in my mind to reflect on such things.
First of all, you want to have a complete modeling lab, tidy if possible, then a good enough camera that can film your procedures without always have to be repositioned or being shaky. In some cases editing the video prior to posting it might help, but better would be to have two cameras ready to film your procedures from various angles, but that’s an extra cost.
Then the sound. You have to invest into a good microphone, possibly a stereo one, since mono falls out flat on such platforms like YouTube, and such microphones can be very expensive if you really want a professional one, especially if facial mounted while you are building.
And even there you might want to invest into a static arm mounted one and a mobile one.
More expenses.
Moreover, you have to somewhat prepare yourself in clearly enunciating and explaining your procedures. Not an easy task if you are not used to speak in public or produce presentations.
There are of course, lessons one might take or simply follow the best podcasters around to see how they do it, but believe me, it is not as easy as it sounds, especially not while assembling parts or painting your models.
Then, as said, there is the editing of the video, which is time consuming and needs careful attention to detail and point to point logical flow.
This is yet another procedure that would hinder you from proceeding in your own build and in time become rather tedious if you are not a professional in the field.
Further on, there are people who always and constantly have a musical background to their videos, which can be totally distracting and sometimes even very disturbing, because after all, this is neither a David Attenborough documentary, nor the filming of a movie.
Besides, many musical pieces are copyright protected and you might be sued if you use them.
My suggestion in such cases is to refer to copyright free ones, but not all are suitable or interesting enough as to bother with them.
If the need for music arises, then only for short soundbites between procedures, but while doing them just use your voice without music, since you really do not need “ambience” or “emotional” music to accompany what you are doing.
What remains then is to compress your videos following YouTube specifications and upload them, always remembering the social media rules, which can be rather restrictive at times.
Just because you upload a video doesn’t mean that YouTube might accept it.
And creating a channel of your own will also cost something and you have to carefully consider an original name for it and a particular design to separate your own from the many already existing.
And what’s more, you will have to constantly keep it running, which means that you will be tied to post something on a regular basis if you want to have followers and indeed an audience that pays attention to what you are doing. In other words, this will additionally rob you of essential modeling time which you could more easily doing without all this.
I don’t want to discourage you in doing it, but just point out some hurdles you might encounter if you really want to do so, and those I have enunciated here are just the essential ones.
Yours is the choice and I cannot interfere with that. If you need and wish to spare time with that also, then feel absolutely free to do so, but remember that social media can also be a tricky trap, since one false move and you are out.
What do I mean by that? Assuming you are even doing everything right, but have unruly followers on board, always fighting and applying slurs and insults, not necessarily for your work or directed to you and algorithm will intervene and block your channel completely, or on the worst scenario even remove it completely.
If that happens, to get it back and running will be a very hard task and in the meanwhile all the material you had uploaded until then will be gone forever.
This is yet another consideration one must keep in mind.
I finally I could easily do without this extra burden and rather dedicate all my time in creating my own works and post them in forums like these or share them with the friends I have and who I know they will appreciate my efforts even if they do not always come out perfectly as I wish them to be. After all perfection is not of this world, although one always tries to aim at it.
So, in short and ultimately, the choice is absolutely and solely yours.
If you may decide going with it anyway, then please also place a link to your YouTube channel around here, since I am a retired actor and director, as well as a retired web designer and could help you with some useful pointers in the right direction, should you need them.
In any case I wish you luck and even more, a very good and joyful time in creating your own models, which is after all, what we all love to do around here.
Be well and let me know what your decision may be or has been, but also know that throughout the month of May I will be on vacation and won’t be able to be very active around here, but from June on, I will be back.
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I’ve also considered making a modeling channel, though the problem I was seem to run in to is the fact that I’m very inconsistent with my free time to build. I may go 3 days without building.
I envy those that are able to have a consistent build schedule and are able to finish models in short periods of time. And if that’s you I think you should totally try to make a channel. It seems like a great outlet to share modeling to a broader audience.
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I think first you have to try to see for yourself, having just a thought of how it may be is not the same with the actual experience 
So once you get there you should know that even negative comments are good, because it means you have reactions, which leads to a better video popularity and views. Also some negative comments may be constructive for your, some not, but you should concentrate on the positive ones otherwise you will end up doing nothing…
Been following this topic for a little bit debating if I should comment, but feel I need to. I will preface my comment by saying I have been doing videos for Youtube since 09’ and have been there long enough to have seen how much it has changed over the years, in particular how their treatment of creators has changed.
When I started Youtube was a good place to upload content to. Sure there were issues, but on the whole there was not enough to really complain to much. The requirements for getting monetization were also fair and doable for most creators. However, over the years that has changed and not for the better. First were the changes to the monetization program, which they did not grandfather in creators who had made it under the old system, now requiring 1000 subs and over 4000 watch hours in a year to qualify. Then came the changes to moderation, which has made historical subjects increasingly under attack with bannings over vague “Hate Speech” guidelines. God help you if this happens to you as any attempt to appeal said decision is immediately rejected by their BS AI systems. Any attempt to get a human to actually look at your content is similarly rejected. Even trying to raise a fuss on X to their support account is a gamble at best. Then came the pushing of Shorts, short form content like Tik Tok, which has made any sort of long form content DOA in the algorithm. Now the platform is slowly being over run with AI brain rot slop.
So all that said, the question of if you should create a channel comes down to what you want to do with it. If you want to do it as a way of sharing your love of the hobby regardless of if your content is viewed or not, then yes I would say go for it. If it is because you want to try and make a career of it, or even just make a couple extra bucks to support the hobby, then I would say it would probably not be worth your time. You would be better off starting a channel on Rumble instead, something which I would recommend you do in either scenario just because Youtube has gotten so fickle with their moderation it is now best practice to have a backup channel on another platform.
Whatever you decision I wish you luck, the more people sharing this hobby the better it will be in the long term.
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As a YouTuber myself with under 2K subs, I agree with this. If you do it just for fun and not worry about subscribes and likes, by all means go for it. If you think you’re going to become a YouTube celebrity and/or make money off it, best not to bother. The golden age of YouTube is over, when you could just throw up anything about anything and have tons of views. Now, there is so much slop on there, and so much content about everything under the sun, it’s near impossible to be noticed. Being good, or better than the people doing it already, isn’t enough anymore. The algorithm will favor them over you, regardless of quality.
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Well said, thats one of the big issues right now with YouTube. If you can put up content both consistently and frequently your odds of breaking through go up significantly.