As YouTube creators, it's easy to feel the pressure of sticking to a regular video upload schedule, especially when you see other creators uploading frequently and thought leaders out there telling you that you need to be uploading as much as humanly possible. Some of them might even tell you that you need to be uploading multiple times per day.
But what if I told you, you Didn't have to do that quantity of videos and quality of videos are two very different things and in this episode of full time YouTuber, I'm going to share the truth about how often you should be uploading to YouTube in order to grow your small channel into a big channel as quickly as possible while also making it sustainable and not killing yourself in the process.
Hey, I'm Ben and I help video creators who are entrepreneurs at heart grow their YouTube channels into profitable businesses. This podcast is for creators who want to help their audiences through informational content, not to chase fame or subscribers, even though that may come, but rather to build a business that generates revenue while you sleep so you can live your dream lifestyle.
So how often should you upload to your YouTube channel? I get asked this question a lot from people who want the quote unquote magic number and if you're a small channel you've probably heard a lot of conflicting advice about how many times is recommended. There's a lot of people out there that will tell you to upload multiple times a day.
and preaching a one size fits all solution. And if you've heard that advice, I just want to say, hold up. This is a long term game and everyone's strategy towards video uploads is going to be different. I can tell you that right now, there are no two creators on planet earth that have the exact same upload schedule in terms of the amount of videos per week and the exact.
days and the amount of overall videos per year. Everyone's different and everyone should be different based on their channel and their commitment to making and posting videos. So quality versus quantity, which is better? Well, first, let me define what each of these means. Quantity means sheer volume of uploads.
So if you post a high quantity of videos, You are posting daily, or at least every second day, and you're really prioritizing posting as much content as humanly possible. Channels that prioritize quantity end up with thousands and thousands of videos after a few years, and channels that don't will be more in the tens to hundreds.
What is quality? Well, quality isn't referring to the actual video quality like 1080p or 4k, but it actually refers to a wide range of things. Yes, part of that does include the production value of your videos. Are you using a professional camera with professional lighting? Are you doing sound properly and editing your videos in a professional way?
Or is it really rough and obvious that you didn't spend a lot of time making the video? So there's that, but quality. It also refers to topic. Is it a topic that people want to know about? And within that topic, are you giving people value through helping them solve any issues or uncertainties they have?
Or is your video a nice to watch, but not a must watch? To me, a quality video topic wise is one that tackles a big subject and gives definitive value and answers on what the solutions to those problems might be. Okay, so that's all well and good, we understand what quality and quantity is, but the question now is, why are these two things opposing?
Can't you just have both? Well, no, it's not quite that easy, because generally if you're posting videos really often, like every day or every two days, The quality of those videos isn't going to be as high as if you were to spend more time researching your topic and working on the actual production of the video to make it look really good and polish the edit, add music and so on.
To do things to a high quality while also posting every day is really hard. It's not to say that it's impossible to have both quality and quantity of videos, because you can say if you have a production team working with you that can create the videos. For you to a really high standard. And all you have to do is show up and speak on camera, which 99.
9 percent of us don't have, or the other way of doing that is instead of relying on production quality, being your quality, you're relying on quality. information. So on really high value, high impact topics, you could do say a one take video or a video with really basic editing, but still deliver high value information in say a five to 10 minute video every day or two.
And that would be another way that quality and quantity wouldn't be diametrically opposed. But for 99 percent of people, quality and quantity are at opposite ends of the spectrum. And you need to choose one or the other. So I'm going to start by giving the pros and cons of each one, because I do have a very definite opinion here about which is the best one, but I do want to make it a bit analytical and not give you a black and white answer because it's not quite as simple as that.
So I want to at least give both points the time of day to see whether they might be a good fit for you or not. Then I'll share my extremely strong unfiltered opinion on which one I prefer by a mile. So let's start with quantity. The pros of posting a lot of videos are that more videos can lead to faster channel growth and higher visibility when you've got a lot of stuff out there.
It's going to be faster that one of those videos hits the big time. Even if many of them don't, the more quantity you have, the more eventually you will get to that one video that Pops and takes off. Also, the more frequently you upload, the more active your channel appears. And if you do manage to attract an audience, they will look forward to your regular videos and be eagerly awaiting every upload.
Also, if you're monetizing your YouTube videos effectively, more videos can lead to greater revenue potential because you've got a lot of quantity there. And therefore your affiliate links, your products, and so on. Are in the description of many more videos compared to just a handful of videos that the quality people would have.
The cons of prioritizing quantity over quality are firstly, burnout. This is very real and I've experienced this so many times over the years. When you feel the pressure to stick to a regular upload schedule, maybe you're doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you want to do a really good job, but you must stick to that schedule at all costs.
If your videos require anything more than just turning your camera on and pressing the record button and speaking off the top of your head, chances are there's going to be too much work there in the long run for it to be sustainable. And therefore you're going to get burnt out pretty quickly. Burnout is especially exacerbated by quality.
When you are trying to do both quality and quantity simultaneously, it means you're spending more and more time with every video and trying to make every single piece of content perfect. And this unfortunately takes time, time away from other tasks throughout your day, time away from your personal life.
Time away from sleep. And if you miss those things too often, you're going to burn yourself out so fast. The next con is an obvious one, and that is that the quality of the video is going to suffer through having such short turnaround times. Another con is your audience may feel fatigued if your content becomes too repetitive.
If you're just focusing on getting a lot of videos out there. Often you'll repeat points or make very similar types of videos and they suddenly don't become quote unquote must watch videos where you may have covered all the main topics in your niche at a certain point and eventually you reach a point where you're covering the less important topics because they're just the ones that were left over.
So therefore the value of the videos is lower and people are less likely to click on them and engage with them. So that's the pros and cons. of prioritizing quantity over quality. Now, here are the pros of prioritizing quality over quantity. The first one is obviously you will get so much higher production value when you are spending more time on the preparation.
Whether you script or speak off the cuff, but you're doing more research in general towards your video. Therefore, you're going to present better. The video is going to have so much more value. You'll be able to film it more professionally with proper lighting, sound, and editing. And the editing stage really is a big one, if not the biggest within the overall video production process.
So, allowing yourself a day or a couple of days to edit a video is going to make your video infinitely more professional. Now because you're uploading less frequently, it means you can also stick to those really high value topics within your niche. You don't exhaust them within a couple of weeks, but rather if you were to space say three weeks worth of daily uploads over the course of a year.
It means you're spending one to two weeks per video crafting a much better and higher value video that your audience are likely going to get so much value from and therefore you're going to stick in their minds better and they're going to be more likely to subscribe to your channel. Quality videos also have a longer shelf life.
Because if you took the time to do something right to begin with, instead of something that's filled with mistakes, or missed points, or something that just feels a bit too rushed, you're actually spending the time to create an evergreen piece of content. Which means that people will be watching it now, next year, and in 10 years time.
And generally, the higher the quality, Again, defining quality by both production level and value within the video. The higher those things are, the longer the life is likely to be of the video. Therefore, they'll get shared around more, they will accumulate more views over time, and keep growing in the background because they have proven themselves to be great videos.
It's not to say you can't create great videos in a very short amount of time, but it's just more likely when you're prioritizing quality. And in turn, a big pro that comes from that is your reputation on YouTube. When you become known as someone who produces quality work, suddenly you become a force to be reckoned with and taken seriously.
Since you have clearly taken the time to curate the best information and present it in video format, people will take you that extra bit seriously. They'll come back for your next video, they'll subscribe to your email list, and they'll follow your calls to action. This all comes from having a great personal brand and reputation, which is enhanced infinitely by having quality content.
The cons of prioritizing quality over quantity are that if you upload less often, your channel won't have as much momentum. When your subscribers don't know when you're next going to upload, they're not going to anticipate your videos as much. Therefore it may be a little bit harder for new videos. To take off quickly.
Not impossible, but people will have to stop and remember who you are, especially if you leave long gaps in between uploads of one month plus anything less than that, and they will still remember you and this won't be a factor. Another con is that you might miss out. On trending topics, since often when topics trend, let's say if there's a new product announced, like a new iPhone, for example, videos around the topic of iPhones are going to absolutely peak in the two to three days around the launch of that product.
And if you're there prioritizing quality over quantity, and you've decided you want to spend two or three weeks working on your review. While that video will do okay in the long run, it's missing that short window that trending topics offer small creators to go super viral. And when you make a habit of taking a while between uploads, you can miss these opportunities.
So these are all really important points to think about on both the pros and the cons of both quality and quantity. Now it's time to give my honest, unbiased opinion. Which one do I prioritise and therefore recommend that you prioritise? The answer is quality. And this is for many, many reasons. The first one is that nobody likes low quality content.
When a video is filmed poorly on a Phone with bad lighting and bad sound. And the person in the video is rambling and not really giving any value. That's low quality content. And no matter how many videos like that you made, your channel is never, ever going to take off. Quality of some sort is essential for channel growth.
And if you're missing both. Video production and high value information in your videos. It truly doesn't matter how many videos you post, your channel won't take off because it's not giving enough value. Unfortunately, nobody likes low quality content. If you think about some of your personal favorite content creators, ask yourself, is this high quality content or low quality?
Chances are it's high quality. Because if it was low quality, you wouldn't be following them to begin with. Since there really is so much content out there online, and people really just want the best of whatever it is that they're looking for. If they're looking for video editing advice, they're going to try and find the best video editing tutorial out there.
They're not going to go for the 100th best. If they're looking for dating advice, they're not going to go to someone who gives very average advice in a very And even if those creators tricked people to click on their video through using clickbait titles and thumbnails, the video is still not going to take off because it's not delivering on the value required to become a successful video.
This is something that I have prioritised a lot. On my YouTube journey over the past 10 years, and that is making the best quality video that people remember. And the one that rises to the top as the definitive tutorial on insert topic, whether that's 360 video, virtual tours. I really don't do any videos half assed, and neither should you, since it will kill your reputation and associate your name with low quality, low value content.
So, if you're a new creator, I really think you should totally forget about the whole quantity concept. You often see inexperienced influencers telling other inexperienced influencers that they need to post a lot of content, that they need to repurpose a long video into 20 different short videos. But when you do that, you're diluting your content and prioritizing quantity over quality.
Because a 30 second snippet of a long video is never going to be as good as a 30 second video that was deliberately made for the platform it's on with. A script, an outline that perfectly suits the 30 second format, as well as a topic that fits that short format. Because often when you take a big video and condense it down to a small video, it doesn't make sense because there's no context of everything else around it.
So if you've ever considered doing this right now, I'm going to tell you to stop. If you're a small channel and you want to become a big channel, you need to become obsessed with quality. Now, again, by quality. I. I don't mean obsessing over your video production by hiring a videographer or cinematographer to make the most amazing cinematic production possible or spending weeks and weeks in the editing trying to get every last title and graphic right.
But what I mean is the concept of the video and the value within it has to be high quality. If you're sharing information or giving advice with your audience. Be as specific as possible. Don't be generic and tell people things that they already know. Because your audience's time is valuable and you need to justify them clicking on your video to begin with and then watching it right to the end.
And a high quality video is going to do that every time. I'll give you an example. I've just pulled up my YouTube in front of me. And there was a video I made at the start of this year, which is a tutorial for DaVinci Resolve. It's for beginners and teaches people how to edit like a pro for free. That video right now is nine months old and has nearly 800, 000 views to it.
While this video was filmed professionally and does look good, I will say that I only spent two days in total making this video. However, why this video was so effective is that it's extremely high value in its Premise in that it's a 12 minute video that teaches complete beginners how to edit professionally using software that is free to download Instantly and this is exactly what I mean by quality Value equals quality and the more value you can give to your audience through the title the thumbnail the video Concept as well as the video itself the faster you're going to grow Now, when I compare this video, which is currently my number one video of all time, to my least popular videos, plural.
So, I'm going to scroll right to the bottom to see my least popular videos. And, if I were to estimate how many videos from the bottom here it would take to Equal the amount of views of the video right at the top. I would say it's somewhere between 50 and 100 videos. Each of which have between 2, 000 and 10, 000 views.
When I add them all together, these 50 to 100 videos become the equivalent of that one single DaVinci Resolve tutorial that just knocked it out of the park. And when you think about all the time you spend coming up with video ideas, scripting, filming, editing, waiting nervously to see if your video takes off or not.
This really visualizes how effective a good idea executed well can be in these 50 to a hundred bottom videos. I'd say that is like two years of my life right there compared to literally two days that it took me to make the DaVinci Resolve tutorial. And the difference between these bottom videos and the top video is that the top one is of the absolute highest quality in terms of value.
Nothing even comes close to that, since the other videos are too niche and have low audience demand or they're not solving that big of a problem compared to the video editing video. So if you were to put yourself in my shoes, which one would you choose going forward? Would you make the 50 to a hundred low performing videos or would you aim for that one video that outperforms everything?
Well, if you're a smart creator, you would go for that one big video idea. And again, this is why quality of video idea is just so important. And it's something that is often overlooked when you're focusing on quantity. And when I look at my worst performing videos, they were from times when I was focusing on just making as much content as possible without auditing the quality or trying to figure out what my audience truly did want.
I was just making videos on what I thought they wanted. And it turns out many years later that I was so wrong. So it really does take just one banger video to get explosive channel growth, which is why you should prioritize that at all costs. So if you are a small channel still trying to get noticed in your niche, think about what this video idea might be for you.
What is the low hanging. Fruit that your audience are begging for information about, is it the best free tool in your niche that will give them a lot of value? Is it a simplified tutorial of something complex? Is it a top 10 list of things they must try? I can guarantee you these types of big video ideas are going to grow your channel so much.
So then the little niche ones that you're probably going to be obsessed with, if you focus on quantity, the final point I want to add around why I believe so strongly in quality comes down to the reason that I personally make content, and that is so I can build my business and my business model revolves around making great high value content for free on YouTube, and then having a call to action somewhere within the video for people to.
Either buy a course, follow an affiliate link, or join my email list through downloading a free lead magnet. And when you can make videos that get hundreds of thousands of views through, again, prioritizing quality and solving high quality problems, that is when you can do big business and get big financial rewards.
And I've found in general over the years, the videos that have had both the actual production quality And the quality of information have resulted in the greatest financial reward through people following my calls to action and following the links down in the description. So if you are intending on building a business with your YouTube channel, quality information is going to get you the most click throughs, the most signups, the most sales or whatever it is that your metric is for financial success on YouTube.
So with all of that said, how often should you upload to YouTube? Well, look. I'll say that there's no one size fits all solution and I'd encourage you to even not have any kind of schedule in mind when making your content. I know I don't. While I do try and make a video a week, I barely ever stick to that.
I make videos when I have the time and when I've got a great idea that I know is going to hit the mark. And more often than not, that's at random times. I'd say my average length in between videos over the last two years is between one and two weeks. It's not super often, yet I've still been able to grow my channel substantially.
So my recommendation to you would be anywhere between a few days and a few weeks. So you have both enough time to create quality content, while also turning over enough a basic quantity of content for people to be able to go back and binge watch all of your videos. If you posted say every two weeks for a year, that's 26 videos, all of which are quality since you spent the time to get them right.
And if you're making the right type of content for the right audience, that really is all it takes to grow your small channel into a big channel. I really just can't stress this enough. Ideas come first above absolutely everything. Forget about algorithm hacking and batch filming and editing and uploading your videos.
Just try and find those one or two banger video ideas and do them to the best of your ability. Forget about timelines, just focus on quality content. If you want some ideas to get started, I've just written a brand new free guide called Viral Video Ideas, which you can download in the show notes. And it's filled with literally 100 templates that you can apply to your own channel by only changing a word or two in each of the video titles.
These 100 ideas are these big video ideas that I'm talking about and could lead you to massive channel growth when done correctly. If you want to download the free guide, you can do so below or just head to benclaremont. com slash ideas. That's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I wish you all the very best of luck and don't forget, you're just one video away.
