Shutting down Fridays with Zell

If you stuck around for a while, you might have noticed I used to post a video (and an audio) every Friday for most of 2018. I call them “Fridays with Zell”.

In 2019, I decided to stop making videos. I want to share why I decided to stop making videos.

Why I started making videos

I started making videos because of three reasons:

1. I thought it would be fun.
2. It would be good practice if I want to release video-based courses in the future.
3. I heard good things about video helping to bring more subscribers

I finally got a chance to try making videos at the start of 2018. I committed for one year (and made 44 videos in total). That’s approximately 1 video per week.

Why I’m shutting down Fridays with Zell.

Two reasons:

1. Videos don’t bring me additional subscribers
2. Video-making is not fun for me

I should probably say more about each statement, so here we go.

Videos don’t bring me additional subscribers

Here’s a chart of subscribers in 2018 and in 2019. Green bars indicate the number of new subscribers.

The number of new subscribers hovered around 250 per week from 1st January 2018 to 22 May 2019. I stopped posting videos in January 2019, but the number of subscribers remained at 250 per week.

This tells me the videos didn’t bring in new subscribers. My videos were mostly watched by people who are already following me.

Video-making is not fun

A lot of work goes into creating videos.

1. I had to put myself in front of the camera
2. Speak in a manner that doesn’t feel too fake
3. Edit the hell out of what I spoke (the hard part)
4. Write an article that goes along with the video

Points 3 and 4 are killers.

I loathe the editing process. I hate scrubbing and trimming the audio. This process is not fun at all. I would rather do ANYTHING else than edit a video.

Plus, converting a video into an article takes a hell lot of work too. I have to write a transcript of what transpired in the video, create images, and write an article that flows.

It’s not fun.

It’s too much work.

I got burned out.

So I decided to stop.

Will I ever make videos again?

I can’t say for sure. Maybe I will make videos again when the dread fades away. But if I ever start making videos again, I’ll do it in a different way.

Final words

You won’t know whether you should (or shouldn’t) do something until you’ve done it.

Give it a try.

You can always walk away if it’s not for you.

If you walk away, you’ll know why it’s not for you. You’ll have a better idea about what you want/don’t want to do. And you can focus better on the next thing.

Sometimes, what’s right for you now doesn’t mean it’s always going to be right for you.

Keep experimenting, and continue to challenge your assumptions.