I Lost 20,000 Subscribers
The other day I was browsing YouTube analytics (something that I generally never do) and figured I would see how many subscribers I lost over the 4 years of running the channel. As I pulled up the figure I was quite surprised but also, in a way pleased too. Let me explain.
As you can see, my channel is sitting on just shy of 90,000 subscribers so this means that just under 1/4 of people unsubscribed. This is for a variety of different reasons. Some accounts were bots and were deleted while others simply closed their accounts. However the majority were real people who no longer liked me, my views, my videos or the direction the channel was going in.
Upon further inspection, I came to a conclusion that most of those who unsubscribed came from videos where I shared a view or an opinion and videos that were travel heavy. For example I clearly remember losing subscribers when I shared an opinion that I am not a fan of film photography. I also remember losing a ton of subscribers when I traveled around the UAE. Equally I lost subscribers when I shared an opinion on a camera or what settings to use.
Having people dislike you or your work is healthy because it means you are sticking to your truth and your vision of where you are going. I bet that if instead of travel photography, I leaned more into gear reviews, I would have a much bigger following by now. I also bet that if I kept my opinions to myself on some subjects, it would mean less people unsubscribing. However I know that the moment I do that, it would be the beginning of the end.
My point is that no matter what you do, what you make, how good you are or who you are, there will be people who don’t like you, your opinions and your work. This is totally normal and as long as on average there are more who support you, then you are on the right track. You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try to. The main thing is you need to please yourself and go to bed every night knowing that you are remaining true to yourself and what you are doing.