Welcome to The Orbit Newsletter

Welcome everybody to the first official Orbit newsletter.
You’re on this list either because you’ve been to one of our creator events or you chose to follow my creator journey at some point and now has become the first newsletter dedicated to deliver insights to creators in Europe and beyond.

Paddy’s unconventional thoughts on growing a channel

If you don’t know Paddy Galloway, he is one of the experts when it comes to YouTube growth. In a recent twitter post he makes 8 interesting observations.

• The idea of the ''YouTube Meta'' is a myth

  There is no single formula for success on YouTube,
  the platform is too vast for a one-size-fits-all approach.

• Just like business, the best channels have moats

  Successful channels have a competitive edge, such as expertise, exclusive access, or unique individuality, which even small creators can leverage to stand out and create their own distinctive content.

• You're competing with everyone and no one at the same time

  Stop obsessing over one competing channel and play a bigger game.

• Viewers can be built up over years, and lost in minutes

  Don't think you ''own'' your viewers. You earn them each time you upload.

• TV should be on everyone's mind

  Most creators are still in the mindset of making videos for mobile but for many channels TV viewership accounts for 40%+ of traffic right now.

• The YouTube lifecycle can be broken

  YouTubers typically have a shelf life. Often we see them have a slow start, blow up, peak, plateau and then enter a death spiral. But this can be prevented with innovation and focus.

• YouTubers should be compared to start ups not musicians

  Comparing Creators to traditional entertainers is unfair (to the creators), they do so much more. Plus luck and ''connections'' play much less of a role in their success.

• YouTube can be the greatest business model in the world

  The YouTube business model is unbeatable. You basically not only get free marketing, you get paid for your marketing.

Boba Tea Video Sparks Controversy

Andong’s video on the history of Boba Tea heavily relied on AI generated art to illustrate the fascinating story of this drink. But his community came out loud and clear to say that they did not like it. The problem was not the art itself but the fact that it distracted everyone, myself included, trying to figure out if this was “real” or “fake” imagery.

The lesson I take from this is, if you use AI art extensively to make a point, label it clearly and explain why you’re using it. Otherwise you might face unnecessary backlash.

How does Cleo Abram work?

In this conversation Cleo goes through her ideation process step by step and outlines what she pays attention to at any given point.
The cornerstone to all her videos is a key visual. If you don’t have that it’s not a video.
This segment is part of a longer podcast and has been out for months but despite the incredible value it delivers, it has way fewer views than it deserves.

Fun stuff to click on

Nathaniel Drew is hiring an editor who can tell a story 💼

Snap Captions automatically turn subtitles in Resolve into animated text 🤯 

MKBHDs Studio is open for visitors - sort of 😉

Patrick H Willems goes deep on why he hates the word Content 🤿

Community Highlights

Aidan just got his first brand deal on IG with less than 3K followers with a brand he’s actually been a paying customer of. It all happened because he wrote a testimonial for their product and even though he doesn’t have a huge audience (yet) the brand loves his authenticity and believes in him as a creator.

Want to become a contributing writer?
Tell me about you or just send in a story for creators in Europe and beyond.

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Tell me about your product and how we could collaborate.