10 Years

As of today, it is exactly 10 years since the first Casperr video. Perhaps not as impressive as Tom Scott's decade of not missing a single Monday upload, or Chris Broad's Japanophilic foreign-living escapades (and best-selling novel), but still something very significant in my humble little life.

Two years ago, on this very site, I wrote a post reflecting on my 8 years on YouTube up until that point, so I won't rewax those lyrics here again today. To be honest, I am not entirely sure why I decided to recognise my 8th anniversary with such detail but I suspect it was for pretty similar reasons to why I'm writing this post: I was doing something unrelated on casperr.website and just happened to notice the date. Given that I went on for so long about a relatively unremarkable 8 year anniversary, I figured it only made sense to say something for the much more widely-accepted-as-remarkable 10 year landmark.

100,000

Whilst I won't rehash the entirety of the previous post, I did re-read it before putting finger-to-keyboard on this one and I couldn't help but smirk at a few rather pointed comments I made about my YouTube channel and pining for 100,000 subscribers which, at the time of that blog post, was looking to be several years in the future, if ever:

"But I know from lingering in the corridors of YouTube as long as I have that a couple of good videos can completely change that pace"
"I have two - what I feel are - very exciting TF2 series ideas that I really want to make"

I obviously had no idea at that time, but these vague hopes (dare I say predictions) could not have been more bang on, as barely six months later I released the first of those "very exciting" fabled series in the form of "Meet the REAL Team".

When I came to scripting that series it quickly became clear that the backstories and interesting facts about some of the TF2 playable characters were pretty barebones, ultimately leading to the decision to make one single video combining them all. But as fate would have it, a little YouTube feature called Shorts had recently become well established and was a perfect opportunity to make the concept both a single video and a series (of Shorts) at the same time.

As of right now, the main "Meet the REAL" video is my #1 most viewed (and consequently #1 in pretty much every other metric you can imagine). And of my most viewed Shorts, the 9 "Meet the REAL" videos make up positions 1 through 8, with the last one sitting at number 11 (poor Sniper)!

These blockbuster videos changed my channel forever. Before their release, I was sitting somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 subscribers and, as already mentioned, was on a very slow and laboured climb to 100k. When the initial boom of the "Meet the REAL" video and Shorts finally calmed down I had climbed to around 115,000 subscribers - my channel had increased in size by over 50% from one single video/series taking off. And now, at the time of this post, the channel has over 160,000 subscribers and the "Meet the REAL Pyro" Short alone is responsible for 13.5k of them. Practically 10% of my channel's entire 10 years' worth of subscribers from a single 59 second clipping from one of my main videos.

A permanent change

Pretty much every upload since then has done "well" - be that a combination of subscriber increase, reputational increase, or finally moving to Adobe suite from Vegas Pro making the editing process 1,000% more creatively accessible (but not without its own fresh set of software quirks to ensure you never get too comfortable working on a project). My upload frequency hasn't changed at all - if anything it has only decreased with ever typical IRL commitments - and yet the channel stats not directly tied to individual videos, such as subscribers gained per month, continue to be my highest ever, routinely breaking the records I lamented as rare or straight unattainable just 2 years ago. It does go to really highlight how the "game" of YouTube can change very quickly. But I am still a comfortable distance from ever realistically quitting my day job and doing YouTube full time… and I'm not sure if I would necessarily want that even if it did become a realistic option.

Hypothetically I don't think a full time Casperr TF2 channel would really make sense neither financially nor in terms of what content there is left to make. I have one solid video idea I really want to do and hope to release before the end of the year, but pending anything happening to the world of Team Fortress beyond the semi-regular community content dumps, I am really not sure what I would talk about after that. I could try and pivot the Casperr channel to more broad gaming topics or to a completely different theme altogether. I have had some minor success with the former over the years, but nothing that comes even close to being a sustainable full time consideration, and the latter just doesn't make sense to me personally; I would much rather create a whole separate channel if a complete content rebrand was what I was aiming for… and that's very well what I might do.

Castoon Network

Towards the end of last year I started planning an interesting facts/trivia/general knowledge/infotainment channel in the realm of Lemmino, Sam O'Nella, Half As Interesting, Real Life Lore, Oversimplified, and many others operating in and around that niche. In fact, the afore celebrated "Meet The REAL" video was a partial test for this concept, as The Museum/Gallery in that video is the would-be setting for this embryonic trivia channel, so I can say that that part of the test, at least, seems to have passed with flying colours.

I've also contemplated making a channel related to my day job (and honestly, one of my hobbies): web development. I'm as knowledgeable in the field as I am about Team Fortress, and it's a niche whose ad rates would likely take a big steaming dump on what I'm used to on the Casperr channel (gaming ad rates are amongst the lowest on the platform). Up until this point I can proudly say I've never done any YouTubing for the money. I've spent 10 years making each and every single video when and how I wanted to, purely because I wanted to and never for any other reason ever (I've never even taken a sponsor - I did do one video where I got the game for free, and that was because I asked them for it with no contract, etc or money changing hands). But we are talking about a hypothetical future where I am YouTubing full time, so doing so in a financially sustainable way is of course an important part of that conversation.

I've even thought about making a music channel. If you're the kind of Casperr fan who reads a couple thousand word blog post on casperr dot bloody website then you likely already know about my band. From long before YouTube (or even gaming) was my hobby, I have dreamed of making music freely and sending it out into the world. With the accessibility of the internet and short-form video formats, right now is probably the best moment ever to get your music into as many ears as possible independently.

I have even even considered a channel to discuss my own personal mental health struggles/journey.

And whilst all this is going on, I'd like to document the process. I am fascinated by YouTubers talking about YouTubing. I love companion channels like "kliksphilip" where 3kliks breaks down his stats and experiences, giving the behind the scenes look at life as a full time creator and other interesting nuggets. In fact I regularly find myself watching "channel update" style videos from creators I've never even heard of because I just find this stuff that damn interesting. I think with my video production skills, and genuine interest in the subject matter, I could find a healthy amount to talk about in a format that is consumable by those who are similarly minded.

10 years and... not a lot to show for it

But all of this is indeed hypothetical. I must admit that I am a little sad - embarrassed, even - that after 10 years of hammering away at this hobby which can very easily become a career (and an extremely lucrative one at that) that I am essentially still not even close to "making it". I would have to basically double my top month's earnings every month to make that a realistic and financially sound position to be in, and ideally with a consistent and more reliable source of supplementary income from elsewhere (I've seen a few too many YouTube horror stories to trust the entirety of my livelihood to the craft, especially if we're talking about only just earning enough to make ends meet).

I know I said money has never motivated my videos and then just spent the last few paragraphs prattling on about it. Whilst it's true that I've done it for this long because it's an enjoyable hobby, there persists that aforementioned sadness and embarrassment that I still have barely clawed my way out of the lowest ranks during that time. 10 years is a long time to do a thing, you'd think I'd have it sussed by now. And besides, who isn't tantalised by the idea of making a career out of their hobby?

It's not all bad, though

I'd be remiss if I concluded my 10 year anniversary post in a negative tone, so let me be clear: I've continued to do this for 10 whole years purely for the fun of it and because I really enjoy it! I make videos when I want, about what I want, and it just so happens that I've found a way to do that in harmony with what my collected audience wants. I don't know how much longer that last element might hold true, and that's why I've given so much space in this article to the Casperr Cinematic Universe which may very well be my next step after my pencilled in TF2 video on the main Casperr channel.

Two years ago I arrogantly talked about wanting to leave a legacy - a series synonymous with my name within the TF2 community. I don't think I've exactly done that, but the video series I hoped might do that did at the very least transform my channel immensely and I am very grateful - and proud - of that fact. As I am proud of everything else I've achieved in 10 years of TF2 videos. I initially set out to just dump some frag videos up there for my friends to watch, and a decade later I have learnt so, so many skills, interacted with so many cool and interesting people, and expanded my horizons into areas that never would have occurred to me had the dopamine hit of a couple hundred subscribers never arrived.

So here's to 10 years past 🥂 And here's to 10 years future 🥂