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Text of the page (random words):
content creator by brian biggs random orbit subscribe sign in sitting around talking about art supplies content creator i bought a couple of new pens and i d like to tell you about them brian biggs jun 22 2026 17 23 share but first let s talk about content i ve been a bit inconsistent with the art supply videos and i m working hard at being okay with this in march and april the growth of this new youtube venture was exponential i d set goals that i d hoped to hit after eight videos posting one video each week when i reached these goals after just the second video the one about the blackwing pencils and it just kept going from there the project took on a level of excitement that i hadn t expected i was an influencer 1 i had a new audience as well one that didn t already follow me on instagram and one that hadn t necessarily seen my children s books or other illustration work and unlike instagram followers a youtube audience is engaged they have opinions and they comment i was loving it i m brian biggs a reader supported artist and this is random orbit a reader supported publication to receive new posts and support my work consider becoming a subscriber subscribe but then around mid april it flattened out growth of the channel followed the same curve that each new video follows it s a sharp rise with a gradual flattening a lot of activity at the beginning then well not nothing but not much i ve lost a little steam i don t really understand how the algorithm works even after researching it and trying a few new things as i produce new videos this pattern would make more sense to me if my videos were momentary meaning if they were tackling subjects that by next week weren t relevant think of a film trailer for example when a new movie is getting press and in the public consciousness it s going to get a lot of attention for a week or so then the trailer will get the majority of its views during that period six weeks later who cares so what we try to do is have the video be evergreen meaning something that someone might be interested in now or in six months some of the stuff i ve posted like the viewer mail episode or maybe what art supplies my students are using sort of has an expiration date to it but i don t really follow this pattern as it defines a video comparing two pens youtube says it all has to do with the title and the thumbnail image and people choosing to watch when that thumbnail is suggested to them and it suggests changes to the thumbnails and new titles to the movies based on its content 2 i don t disbelieve this but it doesn t fully track either so my attention span wavers i found myself looking at my list of potential video subjects and mentally crossing them off too complicated too involved doesn t excite me these videos are a heavy lift and if i m going to take a day or even two days and write shoot and edit i want it to be something i am really enjoying using and talking about i am writing a lot lately and i could spend that time making some real progress on these projects i have this substack where i could explore topics important to me in a much less complicated way and the weather right now is excellent heck i could be out on a 30 mile bicycle ride it s become hard to justify the time and effort i spent my mornings last week right here on my porch editing a story about a grasshopper i try to follow my 500 words before email rule and just work in spurts closing up the file while things are really cooking rather than getting to difficult spots the idea here is that it s much easier to pick up the next day especially after thinking about it for 24 hours when things are going well rather than trying to start cold with some structural problem that left me hanging the day before it s not always the case but it generally works after four solid mornings of solving plot points and character building i woke up this last friday morning and decided i needed to shoot a new video my typical youtube schedule is to shoot on wednesday or sometimes thursday morning start editing after lunch on thursday and finish things up with music or titles on friday posting by noon this time though it was friday and i hadn t even considered a new movie i decided i d see if i could get in to the studio turn on the lights and cameras talk about whatever it is and just get something done without a lot of stressing about it i d ordered a couple of new pens the week before and they d been delivered on thursday so i read a bit more about them and watched some reviews over coffee made some notes hit record and just improvised the twsbi up top the fude down below the two new pens are the sailor fude de mannen 19 50 on jetpens and the twsbi eco 38 for this model fountain pens other than being fountain pens these two pens have nothing in common the twsbi is a daily driver fountain pen and over the weekend has become one of my favorite tools easily topping any other under 100 pen i have 3 the other the fude is a special effect weirdo and i don t know if i ll ever really find a use for it here s the video what s next another part of the equation is that i often find myself doing work that for one reason or another doesn t translate to youtube content for example i can sneak bits and pieces of a picture book i am illustrating into a video as i ve done several times with the new book about buildings i ve been wrapping up even in this new one but i can t show off too much so there are limits there i ve been spending some studio time creating and sketching a character for another potential book project one that i didn t write and i can t show off anything related to that i am working on revisions for a new little golden book on the ipad but i can t show any of that either 4 sacha and i are heading up to massachusetts later this week for the solid sound festival in north adams we decided to stick around up there a few extra days and get some work done in an airbnb in bennington so i m thinking about what i ll be working on while i m there i ll take the ipad of course but i m also taking a small pile of pens and pencils i carry my nice camera everywhere so i figure i ll take a light and an external microphone and just plan to shoot something about my travel supply case while i m up there with images from any drawing and sketching i m doing at our airbnb i worry that once i m there i ll just want to work draw and write and then not work go for a ride and make dinner with sacha and this weird in between work not really work of producing youtube videos will get lost in there we ll see stay tuned seems that every time i write something new here there are new tools on the toolbar substack s writing platform has been problematic for years with weird choices for formatting text and design i m excited to see that i can now color my text something that i ve often wanted to do especially when writing about my book projects speaking of which i ve made some interesting progress this weekend on the walk the graphic novel i m creating in full view o my substack subscribers i ve had the plot for years but i ve been needing something to say with this story something different than what the picture book had to say i think i kind of landed on something and later this week i ll be writing about that subscribe and tune in subscribe and as always thanks for reading brian 1 i m writing this on the very same day that i got my first youtube payment it s a reason to celebrate and i don t want that to get lost here it s 160 but had you told me in march that i d be making youtube money i d have laughed at you 2 one thing i learned quickly is that clever movie titles and lovely thumbnails are pointless there is a reason titles are click baity this pen sucks and thumbnails make everything seem like a a b comparison it s the same logic that explains the thumbnails on netflix and even cereal boxes at the grocery store no one has time to figure out your creative one inch jpg or alliterative video title 3 if the nib was flexible i feel it would rival the two 300 pilots i have it s really good 4 this isn t necessarily a contractual rule it s just good practice there is an argument that showing work from a new book can only be a good thing getting the book into viewers consciousness they might want to order a copy when it s out right but also publishers like to coordinate things like cover reveals and other publicity what i find myself doing is filming things i am working on in hopes that a year from now when publicity begins for a new project i ll have footage i can use in some sort of promotinal thing but often i just want to draw and not be thinking about any of this 17 23 share previous discussion about this post comments restacks tina koyama jun 22 liked by brian biggs i agree totally with mo i would encourage you to spend time making videos only if you feel excited and passionate or at least interested about your topic viewers can tell if you re not interested and you re just doing it to please the algorithm if you want to talk about a pen in one video and your latest illustration in the next do it because your viewer will be attracted to whatever you are excited about i think what might happen though is that you ll lose viewers the people who want to know about your pens may not be the same people who are interested in your illustrations some youtubers will create separate channels for their separate audiences which is one way to go about it or you just decide it s ok to have a smaller audience that is interested in anything you talk about just my 2 cents also i m more a reader than a youtube viewer if you quit yt and kept blogging instead i d be totally ok with that other viewers probably wouldn t be reply share 3 replies by brian biggs and others mo jun 22 liked by brian biggs these are general comments not specifically toward you i like when people do videos or write about things they enjoy mean something to them but at some point it always turns into a job and they start making videos to keep the channel platform going i don t know if it s a certain number of views subscribers that does it but when you start seeing them trying to sell you things you know things have changed from the creator s point of view i get it it doesn t make sense to invest time and effort into something that doesn t seem to be succeeding whatever exactly that even means but as the viewer reader it always makes me hyper aware that this person is doing it because it s their job or they re trying to make it their job they didn t come up with the title because they liked it they came up with it because they heard that s what the algorithm rewards does anyone actually know what the algorithm even is they didn t do this topic because it was on their mind they did it because they thought it would get more views etc and now with ai i can t even be sure who is actually creating things and who is hitting a prompt again these are things i ve come to notice as a viewer reader of various yt channels and blogs reply share 5 replies by brian biggs and others 21 more comments top latest discussions no posts ready for more subscribe 2026 brian biggs privacy terms collection notice start your substack get the app substack is the home for great culture this site requires javascript to run correctly please turn on javascript or unblock scripts