Is Daily Uploads Hurting Your Subscribers?

Image by Yanalya | Freepik

One thing I think we can all agree on is the internet can be a cause of information overload. Consuming too much information might be a source of stress for anyone trying to keep up with all their interests.

An obvious example is YouTube. Many content creators on that platform feel a need to engage with their audience on a daily basis in order to not to lose momentum and to keep their channels growing. But is it really necessary, and could daily uploads be hurting rather than helping their channels?

I haven't studied the figures so I can only pose my question based on personal experience as a YouTube consumer. However, it's unlikely that I'm alone in how I interact with my channel subscriptions so the question becomes, are there enough people like me to suggest daily uploads could indeed be hurting your subscribers.

Currently I'm subscribed to 67 YouTube channels. Which I suspect isn't that many compared to someone who doesn't limit their time on Youtube to a couple of hours a day (give or take an hour here or there). Not all of these channels release daily content but a good proportion of them do. It's very easy for me to fall behind and not be up to date with each channel's latest video.

In fact, if I miss a day, or too many of my channels make videos 15 minutes or longer in length too often, I can get behind very quickly. Before long I'm drowning in a backlog of unwatched video with all my channels four or five days ahead of me.

The only way to really catch up, if I want to watch everything, is to binge watch as much as possible as often as possible, consuming videos at a rate faster than my entire list of subscriptions can release them.

Unfortunately I really don't have time for this so at some point I have to start skipping videos. Which is incredibly frustrating because I don't like doing this and, as a video creator myself, I hate to think people who actually want to watch my content are having to skip videos just to keep up.

Even worse is if I find myself skipping too many videos too often from specific creators. There comes a point where I realize I just don't have the time to keep up so I unsubscribe. I'll also unsubscribe if a creator makes too many long videos (15 minutes plus) on a daily basis because it just takes time away from keeping up with my other subscriptions.

My point is daily uploads are a major contributor to information overload. Releasing a video every second day, two or three times a week, or even once a week may actually be better for subscribers. It gives them something to look forward to and allows for some time to build anticipation. Most importantly though, it gives people time to keep up with all their subscriptions.

There are many highly successful Youtubers that only release videos once or twice a week. There are even successful Youtubers that post once or twice a month. Daily uploads are not essential to a successful, self supporting YouTube channel.

If you are posting daily videos are you missing out or losing subscribers because you're asking for too much of their time? I think it's certainly possible.