My Video Essay Channel Is Live

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I’ve always wanted to try this. But for the longest time, I hesitated, procrastinated—and eventually forgot.

A simple rule for life is: if you really want something done, you have to start as soon as possible. And you have to start where you are. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, but most things grow best when you just begin and allow yourself to make mistakes.

Mistakes will be part of my project—maybe even a big part. But with each video I make, I hope to learn and improve.

My goals for this channel:

  • Improve my English
  • Learn more about video editing
  • Build an audience (and hopefully find some readers for my books)
  • Have fun talking about my favorite stories

The plan is to release a new video every week, diving into the movies, shows, books, and comics I love. Hopefully, I bring some fresh perspectives to the video essay space—ideas that haven’t already been talked to death.

I’ll try to share my progress openly on this blog, showing what worked and what didn’t. If you’d like to check it out, you can find my channel here:

So far, Rumble has actually brought my video to more viewers than YouTube. I’ve seen this before with my tutorial channel—I suspect YouTube has sandboxed my account. Years ago, I talked about German politics on another channel with the same account, back before that sort of content could get you flagged or (shadow-)banned.

It’s out of my hands now. YouTube does shady stuff that I can’t fix. And I’ve long given up trying to fix it. But the good news is: it led me to explore alternative platforms like Rumble. Maybe there’s an audience out there that I wouldn’t find on YouTube anyway. We’ll see.

Whatever the outcome, I’ll be uploading a new video every Tuesday—until either YouTube dies… or I do. Whichever comes first.

Progress Report April 2025

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I used to write this monthly progress series on Medium—until I got banned. People seemed to like it, and I used it to track my progress and stay motivated in pursuing my goals. So, I’ve decided to bring it back on my own blog.

Over time, I’ll expand it and add updates on the various projects I’m working on. Whether any of them will actually grow, I don’t know.

For example, I once ran a fitness website in my native language, German. It grew steadily just because I wrote new articles almost daily. I doubt that’s still possible today, with Google being much more protective of what is promoted to the top of search results and AI increasingly replacing content-based websites.

Just yesterday, I created a nutrition plan for myself and worked out the micronutrient breakdown. Instead of manually researching everything on food database sites, I simply used ChatGPT to handle it. The result was great—and I saved a lot of time.

This is happening across every topic people used to write about ten years ago. AI is making much of that content obsolete.

The only real reason to blog now is to maintain a personal blog—a kind of diary that people follow because they’re interested in you, not just a topic. That’s what I’m trying to build here… but am I interesting enough as a person to make that work? I don’t know.

What will grow—guaranteed—is my book portfolio. So at the very least, I can use this space to report on my writing each month and give you some updates on my journey to becoming an author.

So let’s start with that.

Website

I relaunched the site in April as a daily blog. “Daily” is a loose term for me—I’ll definitely miss a few days here and there—but I plan to update it multiple times per week.

Pageviews and users are up about 20% compared to last month. I even had my first spammers trying to leave Binance referral links in the comments and sending weird emails via the contact form.

I guess that’s a good sign: If scammers think there’s something to gain here, maybe the real audience will too.

Books

I’ve set a release schedule for myself:

  • March
  • June
  • September
  • December

That’s four releases per year. Writing the books isn’t the problem—I need a solid system for editing them. I’m currently exploring some AI tools to help catch the typos and minor spelling mistakes I always seem to miss. Expect reviews of these tools once I’ve tested them thoroughly.

The first release is already written and through its first round of editing. I’m now using ChatGPT for a second pass, though I don’t feel like it’s quite enough. Still, it should be ready for the September release.

My December release is in the final editing phase. It’s the first installment in my 17 book series.

  • Book 1: Forever | September release | 2nd editing round
  • Book 2: 17 Series – Part 1 | December release | Final editing round

For 2026 I’ll have my system set up to meet the other two release dates as well.

YouTube

My tutorial channel hit 10,000 subscribers in April—a small victory.

I’m currently working on a GIMP 3.0 course. It’ll be a 12-hour video (the maximum length allowed on YouTube). I’m also producing a 365-day Photoshop playlist with daily short tutorials that I’ve planned to complete this year.

In addition, I’m considering launching a new channel for book (and maybe movie) reviews—just for fun and to help promote my own writing. I could also use it to explore AI projects and stay up to date with new developments. Seems like a good side project.

Substack

I might mirror my content on Substack again. Something to think about for May…

To Conclude

Book promotion will be my biggest challenge. I honestly have no idea how to do it. It took me six years to grow my YouTube channel to 10K subscribers—which tells you how little I understand about promotion. I’m good at creating content, but promoting it isn’t exactly my strength.

That’s part of why I relaunched my website. Maybe it will attract a few readers, and I can use it to test and document some marketing strategies recommended by people who are much better at this.

Until next month,
Michael Brig

I Hit 10,000 Subscribers on YouTube

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Today I reached a big milestone on YouTube: 10,000 subscribers.
It only took me six years to get here—some makeup influencers manage that in six days. But hey, they say it’s about the journey, not the destination.

If you haven’t checked out my channel yet, it’s all about graphic design, photo and video editing, coding, and a bit of AI. I create tutorials for both Adobe and open-source programs, and I document my personal learning projects—like using AI to make comics or diving into new programming languages.

I remember exactly when I started: January 2019. I wanted to learn something new and maybe build a side income. I saw a few people on YouTube doing Photoshop tutorials and thought, why not? I could improve my Photoshop skills, practice speaking English, and pick up some video editing along the way.

Fast forward six years, my English has improved a lot, my Photoshop skills are bordering on advanced, and I’d say my video editing is at an intermediate level. I’ve also explored the world of AI, which was an unexpected but exciting bonus. And I’ve tried open-source alternatives to Adobe that I probably never would’ve looked at if I hadn’t started the channel.

As for the income stream… let’s just say there’s plenty of room for improvement. The money I make covers the cost of the software I use to make my videos and leaves a bit of spare change for books and vide games I rarely play.

Back when I started, I had high hopes: 1,000 subscribers in six months, 10,000 in a year, 100,000 in three, and eventually a million.

Yeah… not quite. Growth was slow and sometimes painfully so from day one. For a long time, nothing happened at all.

What kept me going was the fun and the drive to keep learning. That’s what’s kept me going for six years, and that’s what will keep me going for another six. I don’t really expect to ever hit a million subscribers—heck, even 100K seems far off—but I’m deeply grateful for everyone who joined the channel. Wherever it goes from here, I’m happy to find out without any expectations of hitting it big.

Thanks to everyone who’s subscribed—and welcome to those just jumping on board. Onwards to a full decade on YouTube.