harper_owens•12d agoProlific Poster

Hit 1,000 subs on YouTube and felt nothing

I spent six months making videos about fixing old motorcycles and finally crossed 1,000 subscribers last Tuesday. When the notification popped up on my phone I was sitting on my couch eating a cold slice of pizza. I thought I'd feel happy or excited but I just felt tired and kind of empty. My buddy keeps saying 1,000 is the big milestone for monetization but now I'm wondering if I even want to keep going. Has anyone else gotten to a goal they worked hard for and just felt flat after?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah_chen1712d ago

Congrats, you unlocked the "wait this is it?" achievement early. I hit 500 subs and felt basically nothing except a vague sense of "cool I guess now I have to keep doing this forever." Honestly the cold pizza probably had more emotional impact than the notification.

anna98312d ago

Actually you might be right that pizza hits different but I think the milestone thing depends on the person. For me each sub feels like someone took time out of their day to say "this is worth watching" which is kind of wild when you think about it. Maybe it's because I started my channel just to document my hobby and never expected anyone to care so every single one feels like a bonus. Cold pizza is great and all but that notification popup still gives me a little jolt even at lower numbers.

spencer_chen611d ago

noah_chen17 nailed it with "now I have to keep doing this forever" because that's exactly the dread that hit me when I hit 500 on my channel about fixing old lawnmowers. I stared at the screen like "great, now people expect me to actually be consistent and good at this." The cold pizza comparison is spot on too because that's probably the most satisfaction I've gotten from anything YouTube related lately. I think part of it is that when you're grinding toward a number you imagine some magical feeling waiting at the finish line, but really it's just another Tuesday with crusty pizza. Maybe the real milestone is learning to enjoy the process instead of waiting for the notification to make you feel complete.