DHF Funding Update.

Thank you everyone for all your votes and making this adventure possible!!! I really appreciate it and I'm hoping not to let you all down.

spending

So I've just made my first purchases.

After quite a lot of back and forth, and days and days of research I eventually went with the Sony ZV - 1F. The UK is really expensive for electronics so I managed to get this for just under £550, which is around $700 USD. I bought it new, because I want a warranty with parts and etc. I reviewed hundreds of YouTube videos and it seems for my needs this one was good for the budget we have, whilst leaving enough space for lighting... which for good soft lighting is a bit more expensive than I thought it would be.

I've also bought two adjustable softbox lights which cost me £120, or £60 each. Nothing fancy, but enough to give me some pretend daylight from each side of where I am sitting. These have already arrived so you should see quite an improvement in my lighting over the next few days. The camera will be here in close to a week and that's when I'll move room and create a little studio for myself. And then we'll get moving properly with video making.

But for now we keep going with what I have.

I'm still looking at the best YouTube addons I can purchase for a year; I'd like to browse around for what I'd like to have that doesn't cost the earth and also provides insane value. There are a few out there but I'd like to at least trial them first, and thankfully most come with a nice free trial. I hear it's best to just get started first and then see what tools I will need once I have a good idea of my landscape, and I'd need a good 20 videos or so out by then. So I think I'll hold off on that for the next few weeks.

Progress

I've done a lot of research recently on titling my videos. A title and a video thumbnail can go a long way.

This is my retention graph for my very last video:

I managed to retain an average of 40% of people that have watched it so far all the way through. The only difference with this video is that I stated clearly in the video at the beginning - firstly a problem, then a solution, and eventually an unknown problem that I can solve too. The only take aways I have from this is that I could probably have sped up the introduction to under 25 seconds instead of drawing it out to 40 seconds.

This is quite a bit different from my one before that, which only retained an average of 25% views:

Retention on YouTube is everything. The longer you keep people with their eyes on the screen the better they will push your video out to new people.

But one thing I'm learning is that I may have the best video in the world that will send the viewer into a spasm of ecstasy after watching it, but if the topic sounds absolutely boring then no-one is going to click on it to watch it.

So I'm currently thinking up ways in which to attract viewers whilst also trying to understand what crypto people are searching for on YouTube.

I'm starting Shitcoin Showdown hopefully tomorrow where I take $500 and spend it on ten shitcoins and see where it can take me. This will be a series every week that I document progress. Maybe I'll even measure how they stack up against BRO and LGN. We'll see.

I've also opened up a channel on our discord where people are free to come in and give their feedback, submit questions, or join in if they like - after all this is your adventure as much as it is mine!

That's it for now. I'll update you on my progress next week!