Something really nice happened a few weeks ago, one of my music mixes got into the "related videos" on a very popular YouTube video, with over 1 million in views.
I got a nice energy boost from that! things are starting to go well for me on YouTube.

So maybe it's a good time for me to try to blog a little bit about how it is to run a YouTube channel, hopefully you will find it interesting :)

My YouTube channel is about 2.5 years old, with around 500,000 views and 2.6 million minutes in watch time, I'm focused on showing the world the best music that video games got to offer, old as new games.
Most of the videos I upload are music mixes that I make, with music from video games.

I started my YouTube journey pretty much out of nowhere, I just got a crazy idea to make a music mix, for my own use, but after I made my first music mix I thought, why not share it also :D

My start on YouTube was pretty slow, it's really hard to get views! I will talk more about that in detail later.

I have always enjoyed music, from a young age, growed up with 80's music and Nintendo 8 bit music (my first gaming consol), I started playing video games from the age of 4, like a maniac ^^ So old school 8 bit music like the the firt Mega Man, Castlevania and all the other ones are deeply rooted in me.

Here are those example soundtracks, if you remember them, or maybe just interested.

https://youtu.be/0Ctm-bDNhzg?t=4m59s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAx03PIkdeM

I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy all types of music, maybe that's why I like music from games so much, it feels like the video game composers are more free to do whatever they enjoy, or just want to experiment, compared to more mainstream music.

And with the still growing gaming market, music is starting to be a big thing in games, the gaming market have already surpassed and are now bigger than the movie industry, and many top music producers have also started to shift from making movie music to music for games.

And that's where I want to be a part of all this, the music in games is soo good, but a lot of people just don't know it yet!
So my goal is to help more people to find it out :)

Let's jump into my YouTube action, or let's say, "lack of action" as it was for me at the start.
It's really really hard to get views for a new channel! the funny thing is that my second video I made on my YouTube channel is now one of my very best videos, in number of views.
But the first 6 months that video got only 1800 views, after a long time, it started to gain more and more momentum, and now 2 years later while I'm writing this, that same video now have 55,997 views, and still going strong!

(here is the video I'm talking about, and below is the views over time for that video)
https://youtu.be/zyF9KQ_Vut4

![baldurs gate views graf klar 2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVowPENwzGTpAzBZpmjzfPt33dPZy8kQoWFSWWgJyQgvH/baldurs%20gate%20views%20graf%20klar%202.png)

That is telling us that even if you make a video that is very good, it still takes a lot of time before you see the fruit of your work, when you are starting a new channel, for the majority of people.
And I still got lucky that I got those 1800 views at the start, most new channels struggle to get even the first 100 views in total, many videos can have 0 views or 2 views, after months of work on the channel.
It all depends on your viewtime for your very first views, if people check out your first videos from bad keyword combinations, even if your video is good, people will stop watching it fast, and you can lose months or a year of starting momentum, YouTube will rank your channel to shit :( if you are unlucky.

And that is telling a big thing, for everyone else here who have been, or are thinking about trying out YouTube. 

Besides all the things that can go wrong, It's really really fun! haha. I have never had a better time than I have now, even when some of the videos that I put in over 100 hours of work into end up as one of my worst videos, and I feel stupid. It all makes up for it that my channel is overall going good, and I get to do something that I really enjoy! Both working with the music, and the sharing and feedback part, I also enjoy jumping down into the YouTube Analytics, to find better strategies or just soak in data, to think about.

I have recently started to share my videos on other platforms also, and of course here on Steemit! :)
and Steemit is also the only place that I will do this blogging on. The people here are great! and it does not hurt that steemit generate income also :D

Everything I earn goes into getting more time to do my music content.  I really want to make a living of this one day, that would allow me to do what I love, non stop!

Let's end this blog with something uplifting, where my "energy boost" is comming from.
One of my videos have recently got into the "related videos" place on one very popular video with over 1 million views on YouTube. It's the first time for me that my video is attached to a big video like that, it's a big deal for me, that have pretty much made my entire channel to double in dayly views, indirectly.

Here is the popular video I'm talking about.
https://youtu.be/zo2ORdMU-SA

And as you can see here, my music mix is there high up in the related videos, it have been there for over two weeks now : )

![related videos witcher 3 suite klar.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYq3n9CetU5Q8E98oDvPYKhNXsTn8oytR99N9Uz1hHaCG/related%20videos%20witcher%203%20suite%20klar.jpg)

Here is my Witcher 3 music mix that I'm talking about, if you are interested to check it out :D

https://youtu.be/Yl135h2HKn4

As you can see here below, my Witcher 3 video have been gaining a lot of views because of this, and also my entire channel have been riding along with it. YouTube have also pushed my other videos at the same time, so my channel growth have got a expensional magnification because of this!

(This video)

![witcher 3 total views klar.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmV6sE4ERXeS2k1k3Tv5fodYyvLwzbnjy1SFRpj7FTvVVY/witcher%203%20total%20views%20klar.png)

(My YouTube channel)

![min kanal total views klar.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRgwLsCJJEwFTPf2iLqzcdxyqBp6HbkRpAxJDTZHzCiDM/min%20kanal%20total%20views%20klar.png)

I hope some of you have found this interesting, I'm not sure if I have been talking too much about views growth instead of other things like my mixing, video game music, or anything else. Views is not the only thing I care about, but that is one important part, it's the ground to everything for me, and higher views will hopefully allow me to do what I really like to do in my life : )