What Happened When I Posted a YouTube Video Every Day for a Month (Full Analytics Breakdown)

Summary

Hi, hello! Get ready with me while I tell you what happened when I posted a long-form video to YouTube almost every single day in August (29 out of 31, if we're counting). The scary headline: my views dropped 33%. The real headline: the thing I actually focused on quadrupled. Let me show you the numbers.

• Long-form views went from 6,430 in July to 27,926 in August (+336%), watch time went from 415 hours to 1,771, and subscribers went from 171 to 675. Average view duration tripled even though I was posting three times as much.
• The 33% drop was all Shorts — which are auto-posted from my other platforms via Repurpose and were never the point. Long-form is 18% of my views but 75% of my watch hours.
• The drawbacks were real: it's exhausting for an introvert with ADHD, reach didn't grow, click-through rate slipped from 5% to 4.2% because my thumbnails and titles got sloppy, and I'm still not monetized — but I did hit the 3,000-hour tier.
• The biggest lesson: one 11-minute bog jacket tutorial did 57% of the month's watch hours. It's not about posting every day — it's about posting until you find what works, then making more of that. So: more beginner-friendly upcycle tutorials, less yapping for yapping's sake.

Transcript

Hi. Hello. Get ready with me while I tell you what happened when I posted every single day for a month on YouTube.

I posted a long- form video almost every single day through the month of August and my views actually went down 33%. But that's kind of a good thing. Let me tell you more about what happened. Okay, so basically for the month of August, my goal was to post a long- form video every single day to my YouTube channel, no matter what. I succeeded like 29 of those days. Most of the time it would just be a like yapping while doing stuff video. Uh, put away my laundry with me. Let me tell you about the day I had. Here's some stuff I made. But other times it would be like sewing instructions or thrift hauls. But I just wanted to make sure that I was putting something long form on YouTube every day. As far as my shorts go, my shorts, I have those being automatically reposted from my other social media platforms. I use this app called Repurpose. If you want an affiliate link, let me know. I got you. Um, and that's just because I really want to fill this channel so that everything I've ever made on any platform lives in one place and then I can organize it eventually like super thoroughly and make it easy to find whatever it is you're looking for, whether it's detailed instructions on a bul jacket or a goofy meme from the thrift store. So, now that a month has passed, I thought it was time to dive into the analytics and see what actually happened. Now, my goal is to monetize this channel because I've got like a bazillion viewers all over the place and I'm not getting paid anywhere and I'm greedy and I want to be paid for my time. So, when my followers on Facebook said, "Please Sammy, start a YouTube channel." And I was like, "No." And they were like, "But you might get paid." Then I was like, "All right, I'll check it out." So, now that a month has passed, I ran the analytics and I'm going to share with you what happened. Now, obviously for me, maybe not obviously, my goal is to increase watch hours so I can get monetized. As of this morning, I have hit the 3,000 hour benchmark. I'm not quite there on the 4,000 hours. And that's what I need to like fully open this channel to monetization, which again is the goal because if I'm going to commit this much time to a hobby and have this many eyes on my stuff, I want to get paid. And I bet you do too, right? So, let me tell you the impact that posting long form videos had on my channel over the past month. A disclaimer, I'm not talking about shorts or reals. And for my page, all of my shorts and reals are just automatically posted here. In fact, I use this app called Repurpose, and it has taken my entire library of short vertical content and is importing it all into YouTube over time. And that way, for me, it's about organization. I'll have everything I ever created in one place and I can put it in playlists and organized to my heart's content. As of right now, all of my content is just scattered about the universe and it's not consistent. So, uh, I was not focused on shorts for this. I'm never going to hit the monetization requirements for those. So, my focus was purely long form. And I really was just curious about what could happen. So, let me give you the numbers. My views went down 33%. A third gone. And that was the month I worked the hardest. But was I disappointed? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Let's dig. Okay. So, let me back up. If you spent any time trying to grow on YouTube, you've already heard the advice like a thousand times about posting shorts. Post them constantly. Keep your feed going. short short shorts. But uh shorts take forever to monetize. You have to go viral essentially and you have to go viral a few times. I um I'm not a gambler like that. But long form content, you only have to have 4,000 watch hours. That felt a little better. That felt a little more attainable. So for August, I bet on long form. If you've been trying to get monetized on YouTube for a while, you've probably heard the advice a million times to bet on shorts. Post shorts, post them constantly. That's how you get the views. I uh don't really agree with that. My goal is to get monetized. And if I'm trying to get monetized, I'm trying to find the fastest route. And for the content I make, I think it's better suited for long form, especially with the tutorials, right? So, that was where I wanted to place my wager. And that's kind of what brought this whole experiment about. And I committed. I did the very best I could to show up every day in some form. Whether that was sewing tutorials or a recap of my day or yapping with me while I put away laundry or do a thrift haul, that was the goal. And I mean, I mostly met it. There were only a few days that I didn't get anything posted. And generally, that was because I was working on something bigger that um required more editing. So, I'm giving myself a little grace there. But also, full transparency, because I'm always going to be honest, I was still posting shorts during this entire time, but I was doing it using the Repurpose app, which takes all of my existing content from every other platform and makes it magically appear in YouTube, which will be great when I am trying to organize all of my content into playlists because then um it's all in one place. It's not scattered about on Tik Tok or Facebook or Instagram or a combination of the three. Now it will all be every single bit of it right here on YouTube. So for me this month, shorts were passive and long form was active. That's where I was the big scary number. My views were down 33%. What the heck? That's scary. Um but let's break it apart. If you only look at videos separate from shorts, you will see that the automated ones, those shorts, those were the views that dropped like 43%. And that makes sense because I posted like 50% less or something. Okay, my long form videos, the things that I was working on, yeah, those views went up 336%.

Which feels absolutely insane, right? Insane numbers. Insane numbers. So, the honest headline isn't actually daily posting made my views drop. Ow. The real headline is the area I focused on quadrupled. And it gets better than that because it's not just the views. For long form only, July versus August, check out these three numbers. On the videos that I made, the views quadrupled. I went from 6,43 views in July to 27,926

in August. And that's just long form. My watch time went from 415 hours in July. To August, I got 1,771 hours of watch time. In July, I got 171 subscribers. In August, I got 675. There were also more great things. The average person went from watching me for 31 seconds to watching me for a minute and a half, three times longer, even though I was posting three times as much. Uh, quality didn't drop when quantity went up. If anything, showing up every day kind of made people like want to stay longer. And to be real with you, like my goal is obviously not to be a one- hit wonder that goes viral once. I want to make evergreen content that helps people for years to come so that I get paid for years to come. This chart kind of shows you what I mean. It's hard to understand like abstractly how views are different from watch hours, but I feel like this chart kind of sums it up for you. Okay, so like 18% of my views are from videos. The rest come from shorts. It's like this much. But then when you look at watch hours, 75% of my watch hours are from the long form. So obviously that's where I need to be focused and I'm glad that I was. So that 33% scary decrease in the beginning is now like, oh, okay, that's actually totally fine and doesn't matter at all. So, as tempted as I am right now to tell you, uh, this was the best thing ever. Oh my god, post every single day for 30 days. You know, I want to have overlays of money falling from the ceiling. That song that's like all I do is win. Uh, but truth be told, there are some costs. There are some drawbacks to this. Let's play Get Vulnerable with Sammy. Number one, the time commitment, the pressure. Posting every day actually takes like a lot out of me. Um, believe it or not, I'm pretty introverted. And so, talking to a camera for an extended period of time kind of has the same effect on my brain that being in a crowded room has. It's just a lot. Um, also as an ADHD person, I really hate being told what to do. Um, sometimes I need suggestions, but for the most part, I don't want I don't want anyone to tell me what to do, even if that someone is me. So, by setting this you have to record every single day goal for myself, I like immediately started to resent it by like day three. I was like, this format sucks. It's hard. It's scary. And sometimes when I start yapping, I say things that are like embarrassing in hindsight. So right now I've got like I don't know probably 15 videos that I really want to go back and delete because I know I say some dumb stuff in them. So there is that. And then um let's see. My wife has never said anything dumb in her life. I love that though. Ouch. That was very sweet of you. I just burnt my hand in the process. My sweet baby angel husband. Ladies and gentlemen, well, let's be real, ladies and ladies. Maybe some vades. Definitely no gentlemen. And that's okay. If you're a boy and you're watching this, please comment, "Hell yeah, brother." So that I know. The second, I guess, drawback is there is a negative to having fewer views, which is fewer unique individuals are seeing your content. So, while the time went up, it also meant that fewer new people were seeing me, which means that my overall reach wasn't growing, which could, I guess, be a drawback. But since it wasn't really the goal for this, I don't really care. But, you know, just figured I would tell you in case it's a concern of yours. Oh, and another thing, my click-through rate dropped. That kind of sucks. It was at 5%, which is fine. And now it's at 4.2%. Which I feel like is slightly less fun. And clickthrough rate is largely based on your thumbnail, image, and the title of your video. With as many as I was posting, I was not necessarily consistent in making sure I had like high quality thumbnail images or that the titles were optimized for, you know, like user search terms. Uh, I'll do I'll do a whole video on optimization for YouTube because I've learned a lot about it, but that's not what this is. Um, seeing the lower clickthrough rate did kind of bum me out a little bit, but, you know, that's on me. We'll make it better next month. It's fine. Hopefully, we'll see. Maybe I'll do one of these every month and let you know how it's going. I don't know. And then finally, drawbacks wise, another month, another 0. Still not monetized on YouTube, which is fine. As of this morning, I unlocked the first tier. I hit those 3,000 hours. According to my analytics, I am at 3,18 hours. As of this recording, we'll see how long it takes me to get those final 900. Hopefully, it's not like losing the last 10 lbs on a diet. You know what I mean? Let's talk about what didn't change. Um, some would call this the big lesson. So, here's a chart. Watch time is up 142%. Impressions are up 152%. View duration is up 200. Subscribers are up 41%. Every single bar is [clears throat] green except for the one that everyone looks at first. Views. Got to focus on the eyeliner for a second. Sorry. So, no, I did not get paid in August, but I did get one step closer and I've started to kind of unlock that formula for increasing watch hours, which is engaging long form content. I'm never going to hit those watch hours for shorts. It's like what, like 3 million or some 8 million. That's a that's a gamble I'm not taking. And I'm glad that I bet on long form this month. I am going to lean on long form again in the coming month and probably forever. A few other things that didn't change at all. The shorts, they stayed shallow. Even the ones with tens of thousands of views brought in hardly any new subscribers. And I got like 30 seconds of their attention. Cool. Great. Wonderful. Not at all. Another thing that didn't change was my shorts views. I continued to use repurpose to pull all of those in automatically. I'm not measuring that metric because it's not important to me necessarily, but if it's important to you, you might care about these numbers. And besides, uh it's basically free for me to post them here. It doesn't take any extra time. And here and there, I do get another follower. So, it's just like a value added as far as I'm concerned. And another thing that didn't change, long- form content still requires a lot more effort, a lot more work. As of right now, I've been recording this for about 35 minutes and probably have 5 minutes of usable footage. I'm going to have to spend at least an hour editing this down, getting it the appropriate cuts, and then another hour getting it optimized and ready with all of its captions and doodads and what have you. cuz that's like a pretty big investment, especially when I have a full-time job and more content to make and more actual things to sew. Like it it's a lot and it hasn't changed. I'm getting more efficient. I use Cap Cut. If you want a link, let me know. I'm an affiliate. I use Cap Cut to edit my videos and it makes it more efficient, yes, but it is still time. Time recording, time editing, all of it. Once it starts paying off, that investment will be great. But right now, it's still just amp type moment. You know what I mean? I'll be right back. I have to get dressed. All that to say, here's the most important thing that I learned. Okay, I had one video. this bog jacket tutorial. It's 11 minutes long and it by itself did 57% of all of the watch hours for the month. Kind of a big deal. That reframed the entire experiment for me because it helped me realize it wasn't about posting every day. It was about posting until you find the content that works. So, now that that video blew up, I know that my next move is to make another 11ish minute long simple tutorial that is beginner friendly and helps people upcycle something else. I would have never known that video was the winner if I hadn't done this experiment. This also probably means I should be making more bog jackets. So, will I continue posting every single day? Absolutely not. But am I glad I did? You betcha. Because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten all of these fun new followers. I wouldn't have increased my watch hours so much. I wouldn't have found out what actually works with the YouTube audience. And I probably wouldn't have hit my 3,000 hour benchmark. So now I'm excited to see what September will bring and how I can use these learnings to fuel my channel's growth further. follow, like, and subscribe so you can keep up with my journey and you know, all that stuff. So, going forward, I will be focusing on long form, but sharper long form. Now, I know what my watchers want to see, and we will see if they continue wanting to see those things. More bog jackets, less just yapping for yapping sake. If watching me yap and overthink about my analytics for the past 15 minutes has been helpful for you in any way, be sure to like and subscribe and let me know and I'll post more content like this breaking down my growth on the old YouTube. And if you want to see the video that carried my entire month, it'll be right after this. Now go make something. I love you. You're beautiful. They do. Thanks for wasting your time with me. Waste more time by liking and subscribing and watching another video.