My first 200 YouTube subscribers - Thank You!

My YouTube channel just reached 200 subscribers. Is it a lot? Not necessarily. It’s not even round number, like 256, or 512. But it means a lot to me. There are two hundred people who found my videos, either useful or entertaining. I hope you are one of them. I didn’t plan to write a blog post about it, but then I thought that my fellow subscribers deserve big and honest THANK YOU!

I’ve seen many times people thanking the follower who made their 1k, 10k, or any other milestone. This is a very gentle way to welcome someone who just joined your subscribers or followers group. But every time I see it, I ask myself: "Why they don’t thank their, let’s say, first 10 followers?" Social media are a game of numbers. Those numbers work as social proof - it’s easier to keep growing when you already have an audience. Anyone who starts and grows more or less organically needs to be patient and stay consistent, probably more than ever. And don’t get me wrong - I don’t try to blame it. I accept and agree with it.

The beginnings in any discipline are tough. We learn new things, we experiment and measure results, and then we try to improve if something doesn’t work. It is the time when we keep making mistakes, keep gaining confidence, and keep building trust. This is why, in my opinion, early adopters, people who trusted you when you just started (and don’t have much to offer), deserve acknowledgment. I don’t know all your names. YouTube notifies only about those of you who keep their subscriptions public. I keep all emails received when the new subscriber shows up. Marcin, Søren, Paweł, Tucker, Naresha, Robert, Anton, Jay, Marouane, Kenneth, Jason, Sergiy, Giulio, Federico, Scott, Łukasz, Diego, and all the rest of you - I’m happy and grateful you trusted me and shown your support. It motivates me to keep doing the work, and I hope I won’t disappoint you. I don’t know if I ever grow my YouTube channel to 10k, 100k, or more, but I know one thing - I will never forget that you were the early adopters. I salute to you!

Some of you know that I love recording, editing, and producing videos. I spent countless hours in Adobe Premiere to learn the video editing craft, and I can tell you, it became my favorite hobby. I prefer quality over quantity, and I know that sometimes I put probably too much attention and effort into polishing some small details. Just like with the "型 Programming Kata" series, where I spent around two and a half hours to produce 40 seconds intro that I am so proud of. From the economic stand of point, it was probably not the best time investment, but hey - I don’t care. I enjoyed creating it like a child in Disneyland.

So, what is the future of the YouTube channel? I will keep posting videos weekly. You can expect both long and short ones. I want to use the short form to share with you some useful tips and tricks that are ready to apply. This way you can learn something new without dedicating a lot of time. In the long-form videos, I will try to go a little deeper into some specific problems to solve. And everything is going to more or less Java oriented, with a strong accent on the Groovy ecosystem. But not only that. So, consider subscribing if you haven’t already. And remember - any kind of engagement (likes, comments, subscriptions) helps. I want to thank you for that!

I know how difficult it is to start a YouTube channel and see its slow growth. I know how disappointing it is to publish a new video and see just a few views in the first hours. If you’re going through the same struggles - you’re not alone.

In this section I would like to share with you a few tips that made a significant difference in my early days of the YouTube channel development. I learned them the hard way, and I still keep applying those tips up to this day. I hope you will benefit from them as well.