My Social Media Plan for 2026

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I’ll stick to two main platforms: YouTube and X. I still have my Instagram handle secured, but I don’t really know what to post there to grow an audience. With X and YouTube, at least I have a clear idea of what could be interesting and sustainable.

YouTube

I’ve already made some changes to my YouTube presence. I’ve essentially reduced everything to two main channels.

Tutorial Channel

Last year, I finished two large 12-hour courses, which took up a huge amount of time. Now that those courses are done, that time is freed up for more writing and shorter tutorial videos.

On my tutorial channel, I’ll focus on:

  • Photoshop
  • CapCut (video editing)
  • Adobe Illustrator

I’ve also decided to publish my author project videos on this channel too. Initially, I wanted to run a separate channel called OnPaper, but YouTube seems to have shadow-banned my account. Thus, new channels literally get zero views. When I upload the same videos to my tutorial channel—which has around 12,000 subscribers—I at least get some traction.

I also want to explore more AI tools for comic creation and video production. Whenever I feel I’ve properly learned a tool, I’ll add a video about it.

On a personal note, I’m eager to finally learn high-end photo retouching this year. It’s something I’ve kicked down the road for years. My Photoshop skills are decent, but not advanced—time to change that in 2026.

StoryLines

This is my video essay channel. I don’t get many views here either, for the same reason as above, but I genuinely enjoy talking about movies. It’s more of a passion project or hobby than anything else, and I want to keep it going for my own pleasure.

My goal is one new video per week, published on Mondays.

Personal Channel

I tried for a while, but I realized I don’t have the time to fully commit. Without views, there’s also very little motivation to continue, so I’ve put it on hold.

There’s still that dream of making videos about riding motorbikes, traveling the world, adding drone shots, meeting other YouTubers, and talking about movies, books, and life for a large audience. But that won’t happen anytime soon. There simply isn’t enough time, money, leverage, or health for me to pursue it properly right now.

X/Twitter

Some people still call it Twitter. Others make fun of you if you don’t call it X. Call it whatever you like—I’ll be active there next year.

No Politics

I won’t post about politics. It’s too risky to talk politics outside of the US online. Just last month, someone was arrested for stating that bones from corpses can be used to identify the two genders in Switzerland. In Germany, someone received a police visit for calling government employees “parasites.” And recent events at Bondi Beach led Australia to further tighten its already extreme hate speech laws.

At this stage of the Western world’s decline, it’s safer to stay out of politics, make your cut, and prepare for an exit. The last thing you want is to be in jail over a stupid meme when things truly fall apart.

What I’ll Post on X

  • Movie-a-Day Reviews
    This year, I want to watch one new movie every day and post a short review the following day on X. At the end of the year, I’ll also make a ranking video of the best movies and shows I’ve seen.
  • Daily Author Project Updates
    Daily word counts, progress reports, mistakes, setbacks—and hopefully some wins and victories.
  • Album-a-Day
    I want to expand my musical horizons, so I’ll work through the 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list, along with new releases I know nothing about (for example, I’ve never listened to a full Taylor Swift album). I’ll write short thoughts about each one.
  • Sharing
    I’ll continue sharing links to my videos and blog posts. There will also be links to books that I regularly give away for free.
  • Networking
    If you’re an author or blogger yourself, feel free to reach out on X. I want to build a network of indie authors who support each other. We can share free book giveaways so readers benefit as well. I’ll need to be proactive and actively look for indie authors who blog, post on X, or make YouTube videos. If I can find even a dozen, that could be enough to get things moving.

If that sounds interesting, you can follow me here: @michael_brig

SEO Basics: Are Meta Keywords Still Important?

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In WordPress, there’s an option to add meta keywords to an article or page. Naturally, I thought it would be important to include a specific keyword in everything I publish.

However, it seems this isn’t necessary—at least not since 2009, when Google officially announced that it no longer uses meta keywords for ranking. Early SEO practitioners had abused the system by stuffing keywords into low-quality content. Once Google realized that people were exploiting this for quick gains, it began ignoring meta keywords entirely.

Some experts now even suggest that you shouldn’t add meta keywords at all. They offer no SEO benefit and may reveal your keyword strategy to competitors.

The only real reason to use them today is for internal site searches. For example, I’ve added a search bar to my Archives page, and the plugin I’m using can search articles more effectively when meta keywords are present.

So, while adding meta keywords can make your content more accessible for on-site searches, it provides no advantage for SEO.

SEO Basics: Improve Page Loading Speed

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One of the most important things to check when you’re not getting any traffic is your page’s loading speed.

I once read that most people won’t wait longer than three seconds for a site to load. I’m not sure if that number is exact, but I know I don’t wait long myself. Especially, when I visit a new site for the first time, my patience is limited—and I assume most internet users feel the same way.

To make sure your page loads quickly:

  • Choose a reliable hosting plan
  • Use a professional theme
  • Avoid unnecessary plug-ins
  • Upload images at the smallest size you actually need
  • Use a plug-in designed to speed up your site

These are the key steps. A high-quality hosting plan is usually the most significant factor—although also the most expensive. A professional theme is next; it’s typically affordable and a one-time purchase.

The more plug-ins you install, the slower your site becomes, so only use the ones that are truly necessary. Some plug-ins help clean up your cache and improve overall performance, though, such as LiteSpeed Cache.

When it comes to images, avoid uploading them at full resolution. Think about the size at which the image will appear on your site, resize it accordingly, and reduce the file size. You can also compress your images to size the file down further:

  1. Use GIMP (a free Photoshop alternative) to resize images
  2. Use this free compressor to reduce file size

If you want to test your page loading speed, you can use free tools such as: Page Speed Insights

Not All Traffic Is Good Traffic

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The spammers and scammers are back. For the last few days, I’ve been getting a flood of comments linking to gaming websites. It’s all generic nonsense like, “What a great article. I had a blast reading it.”

It looks like they’re running bots that spam the internet with this meaningless garbage just to plant links that redirect users to their shady gambling sites and help them rank higher in Google.

It’s a mess.

The early days of the internet wasn’t free of scams either. I remember the first “chain emails” that were sent around to everyone. Sometimes it was about a Nigerian prince who needed two thousand dollars to regain access to his account—once he had the money, he would supposedly send you back $20,000. What a deal. Another chain email I remember receiving as a kid claimed you’d be cursed if you didn’t forward the message to at least five people in your contacts. Sometimes a virus was attached to it, other times it was just about a link in the mail they wanted you to click on.

Despite such scams, back then you could at least now that when someone left a comment on your content, it was a real person. Nowadays, most comments are automated bot messages sent from entire farms in India.

The more the internet gets flooded with automated content, the more the metrics for a successful online platform shift from raw numbers to the quality of your traffic.

What’s better? 1 million views a month? Or 1,000 real readers a year?

Obviously, it’s the latter. And the more these ridiculous sites use bots to promote their low-effort content, the more people will focus on the quality of their audience rather than just the number of views.

Week 48/2025 YouTube Videos

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I only had time for one video this week. I’ll promise to do better next time.

StoryLines

Have you seen Last Samurai Standing? It’s good. But it also serves as another example for why Netflix hasn’t made entertainment better compared to the good old TV days.