This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Hey friends, hey listeners. Sidus will school community. Let's delve into the reasons behind YouTube's enduring success. Now of course, networks come and go. I'm always telling you don't build everything on a social network, a social media platform because you never know if it's gonna be around or even if it's going to be around, it's gonna change a lot.
The algorithms are going to change and all of a sudden your style of posting is not going to be favored because something else has come along. So I always think it's good to be somewhat agnostic about platforms, but nevertheless, there is one platform, shocking, it's YouTube, you know that since I've already mentioned it, that has kind of stood the test of time, at least to this point after many, many years. So let's look at a couple of lessons for content creators and digital marketers. I'm building a lasting presence on this one platform that has outlived the others. We're gonna do it in the context of a question from Derek in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
He is working on his side hustle ideas, as I always encourage you to do. Think about different ideas, think about what you can do to take action on those ideas. So let's see if we can help. Why has YouTube outlasted so many platforms and what might that mean for you? Detailed question coming right up.
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This is Derek from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'm a graduate student specializing in digital media studies. I'm currently working on a thesis about the evolution of digital platforms. YouTube in particular stands out for its ability to outlast and outperform many other platforms. What key decisions and strategies have contributed to YouTube sustained success over the years?
For content creators and digital marketers, what lesson can we extract from YouTube's journey that apply to building a lasting presence in the digital space? - Well, it's totally true. We have to give props to YouTube because YouTube has endured. And I say that with all the respect in the world, even as somebody who doesn't have much of a YouTube profile, I never really went all in on YouTube. I did an experiment in I think April, 2020, just as the pandemic was getting started.
I did 30 days of YouTube live for my book, "The Money Tree." And that was fun. I enjoyed the community conversation and such, but I never actually made like a ton of YouTube videos. I am posting some of my like short form videos up on YouTube shorts now, but I never really got it on the train, but definitely the train has picked up speed, maintained speed. I don't know what the best analogy is, but lots of social media platforms have come and gone and YouTube is, you know, still crushing it. I spent some time in Toronto last year with Evan Carmichael, who has built an enormous business with like 30 or 40 employees.
And all he does is post on his YouTube channel. It's really incredible. So why is that the case? And, you know, if you are considering publishing on YouTube, then I think it's probably a good thing. At least it's probably gonna be around for a while.
Not to say that your YouTube channel is gonna become famous, but I don't think you have to worry too much for now about the platform going away. So I think one thing is continual adaptation and innovation, like YouTube has consistently evolved. They've introduced lots of new features. They're also not afraid to kill off features that aren't working so well. And they have a really diverse content ecosystem.
There's so much different kinds of content, so many wormholes you can go down for entertainment, education, everything in between. And again, in the area of giving respect, YouTube has always put users first, or at least, you know, much of the time, let's say. They are creator first, user first, and, you know, they really do want to support their creators in a way that I think other social media platforms talk about, but don't really, you know, they're not really serious about. So of course I'm still a bit skeptical. You know, like we should always be skeptical of these big Silicon Valley monoliths, but I think so far so good.
And the creators that have really invested in YouTube have been rewarded for good reason. So that's what I think about that. Good luck to our caller. Good luck to our listeners cheering you on, whatever you're up to, whatever you're doing. Take some action today.
Take some action to get closer to a goal that's important to you. Of course, I'll be back tomorrow with another action packed short episode. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
