We Reached 100 Video Blogs (vlogs)
Mike’s Blog 100
Wow, we are there – 100 video milestone. Well, even more than that really as I did some videos before officially calling it a video blog – but from our counter starting from 1 – this is video 100.
Have you been following along? All 100? No, I don’t expect you guys to watch all of them – seems that most of the views and comments I get are on the Facebook video side. Some fun facts about the video blog that you may not know:
Originally I wanted to only put these on Youtube, you know, focus on gaining subscribers there and maybe even earn some money. When I turned on monetization – or opted in for it – they wouldn’t let me as I am a Hong Kong Youtuber and its not yet supported in this region! No wonder why there aren’t you tubers in Hong Kong then! Also, I was promoting the Youtube video link in my Facebook wall, but Facebook is really working hard to get users to post the video directly in Facebook now so no one in my feed saw the videos.
So, for these reasons, I decided to just upload the videos on both Youtube and Facebook.
I also have them uploaded in China – we tried Youku (the Youtube of China) but they put a 1 minute ad at the beginning of every video and don’t pay you anything for it! Who wants to watch a full minute ad (can’t skip it) to watch my 5 minute video blog? Plus, like in the West, China is having video wars. Wechat is owned by Tencent, and Tencent has their own QQ video site -so they encourage (well – force) you to upload to their system in order to best embed the video into Wechat pages.
So those are the 3 places the videos are currently uploaded – Youtube, Facebook, and QQ video (China).
Then, I think you know I have a personal blog – Mike’s Blog .com – where I embed all the videos and put this text as well. Funny thing – I used to just put some of the text on Facebook and hope people would go to my website to read the rest – but nope – you guys are stuck on Facebook. So now I put the whole text version of the blog into the Facebook post along with the video. Youtube doesn’t allow that many characters, so I need to just take a paragraph or 2. I don’t bother with thumbnails – I am doing these fast and don’t have anyone on the team currently helping me with my personal video blog (still feel guilty paying people to do these personal videos).
Comments – mostly on Facebook. In China – I rarely, if ever, get a comment on the video. Even though a lot more people watch the videos (my birthday video #86 https://mikesblog.com/2017/04/times-live-mikes-blog-086.html had over 12,000 views fairly quickly) in China – they don’t comment. Wendy says this is because Chinese people are used to not being able to ask questions in school – and they just watch and consume – don’t engage. A bit frustrating for me – as comments and engagement is how I try to measure if people like the videos and content I create or not. But Youtube – barely any views (like 30-50 each video) yet a few comments each time so seems like the few that watch the video enjoy it!
Do you guys enjoy these video blogs?
Many ask me why I do them? What is my purpose, what is my end goal. Well – for better or worse – many times I just do things with an open mind and see what direction they go in. I have had a text blog since 2007 and video is all the rage now. Sure it takes a bit more time and effort to do – but really I am just adapting to the changing times from text to video. I enjoy sharing – and it is a great way for me to keep in touch with family and friends back home. Half the time I think about my parents watching the videos and being able to stay on top of what their son is doing.
I have been offered a couple times to be paid to review a business or company – haven’t closed those deals yet – seems like too much talking and not enough action. I got a free drone after the Cross Border Summit which is awesome and I am trying to use it in each video I do. But probably the best benefit I get is that I build a relationship with you – if I already know you in real life, you get to know me more – and if we haven’t yet met – you’ll understand me and my style that much more.
There are definitely people I have gotten to know more from these videos – and those relationships are really priceless. Cannot put a price tag or value on that – so I need to think more long term and remember that its about building quality, long term relationships online – that is the goal of the videos.
And the last reason – which is a morbid one – is I think about my kids watching some of these videos later. They can see themselves growing up a bit on video, understand what I have been going through, and when I am dead one day – they will be able to understand me more.
And a bonus reason – I enjoy watching my own videos! Haha, years are going by now since I started recording some – and I even forgot about those memories and times until I flip back and watch an older video. Can’t wait to have these videos become 5, 10 , 20 years old and all the way to being in my wheelchair in an old folks home watching them.
So, you do a video blog now? Thinking about it? Did I get you all excited? It does take quite a few hours for each video – but there is this rewarding feeling afterwards.