When I decided to throw all my effort into making Chocolate Diamond Media my full time endeavor, I wanted to be strategic about how I did that. I wanted to make sure that I was spending money, but as importantly time in the right areas. One decision that came out of that, was to avoid YouTube.
YouTube is a great resource for many filmmakers and video professionals, but I have learned that YouTube rewards regular uploading, which is something I think can translate to churning out lots of content that isn’t particularly good, and often times becomes it’s own slog. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to focus on making our videos as good as I could, which often means spending a lot of time, and makes the idea of a YouTube channel nonsensical.
I went with Vimeo, because I think Vimeo is a better ‘highlight’ platform for people trying to showcase their work, and I’ve felt no desire while working the last six months to pump out content with Vimeo, no desire to try to get my subscriber count, or view count up. It’s simply a place that I can direct potential clients to in which they can watch my videos, and maybe on occasion if someone stumbles upon my Vimeo channel, they’ll be directed back to this site, or to contact me. I’ve been very happy with Vimeo, and ideally I do think that the way that I’ve been approaching Vimeo has worked well for me.
I have been getting increasing pressure to start a YouTube channel, and I’ve resisted. The truth is, having a YouTube channel is its own business, its own start-up, and I don’t want to throw myself into that because I do think what I’m trying to do will suffer in the process.
I did, however, start a YouTube channel. Ultimately, the deciding factor was the fact that I keep seeing video contests that I want to enter, and many of them require posting on a YouTube channel. I posted my Chirba Chirba video on there, and I will be posting the rest of my work on there in addition to my Vimeo channel.
I am not going to be treating my channel any different than YouTube, I’m not going to try to pump out content, and I’m not going to spend all my time and energy trying to capitalize fully on the YouTube algorithm. I’m just going to continue making what I’m making, at the pace that I’m making it, and post when I have a complete package. I’m not going to try to supplement the channel, I’m just going to let my videos stand there on their own.
I’d be lying if I said I had much hope for the channel, because I really don’t. I figure its just another spot where I’ll post content, and maybe on occasion it will lead interested viewers back to my site. Maybe. What I do think will be interesting, will be to see if with that strategy it gets me any more attention than Vimeo, and whether or not just putting out my best content infrequently will be able to get any foothold on its own. I guess, I’ll just look at it as an experiment, and have a place where I can participate in video/filmmaking contests.
Chocolate Diamond Media 