Spencer: Over this last week, my channel, remember, only has like 4,000 subscribers. I’ve gotten 200,000 views. 

Julie: If you’re given that opportunity and you don’t take it, what are you doing? 

Spencer: Current events stuff typically doesn’t have a long life. Like once the current event is over, then people just kind of stop watching those videos. 

Spencer: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. Today, I am here with my wife Julie, who has been on the podcast before, and she’s on the episode for a specific reason. Do you want to explain, Julie? 

Julie: Yes, I’m excited. So not very many people know this because he is a humble man, but Spencer is actually… I don’t know, humble for the right word. Spencer is actually a YouTuber himself. So today, we’re talking about his channel, and we thought it would be weird if he interviewed himself. So I’m going to interview him. 

So you can get to know a little bit more about your host and this project that he definitely doesn’t talk about enough. I think it’s cool. I think he should brag about it more, but he doesn’t. So today is his chance to brag a little bit. 

Spencer: Yeah, we can get into it while I don’t talk about it more, but… Yeah. 

Julie: Yeah. Okay. So I guess first off, and this is what we usually ask our guests. So I’ll ask you, tell… I’m not going to say tell me more about yourself. I’m your wife. I know everything, but tell our listeners a little bit more about themselves, about yourself, maybe things they might not know, and then also introduce your channel. Yeah. 

Spencer: So I guess a little bit about myself is I’m from Utah. I have five siblings. I won’t go into that much detail, but four siblings, by the way. But something else that you should know about me is I like video games. That’s one of my favorite hobbies. I guess games in general. Like, I like board games, video games. I like sports. 

It’s just a lot of games. But for this episode, it’s important to mention that I like video games because that is what my channel is about. So growing up, I love playing video games. In high school, I’d play a lot of video games with friends. And at this time, there’s a game called Terraria that came out. I guess this was before high school it came out. But I really played at a bunch late junior high, early high school. 

And that’s kind of how I started my channel. Back then, I think this was like 13 years ago, 12 years ago. Mm-hmm. YouTubers were kind of at the point of being, they’re like unicorns, you know? Like, not a lot of people did it as their job. And so it was like a dream of mine because I wanted to enjoy whatever job I did. And I was like, you know what? I love playing video games. 

So if I did that for my job, that would be ideal. So I started this YouTube channel. I actually didn’t post Terraria videos first. I posted other games. And then I started posting Terraria videos. And that, those did better. And those kind of took off. And so my channel kind of became a Terraria niche. 

Julie: So for our listeners who don’t know what Terraria is, can you briefly explain the game? Yeah. 

Spencer: So this kind of goes into why I don’t talk about it a lot. I’m slightly embarrassed about it because it’s definitely got like the, I don’t know if connotations are right word, but it definitely feels like a kid game. It’s similar to like Minecraft. 

A lot of people explain it like that. It’s a 2D version of Minecraft. However, as a Terraria expert, it is a lot more than that. And arguably better than Minecraft in different ways. 

Julie: Oh, hot tape. 

Spencer: There’s a lot of, a lot more bosses and a lot more fighting, I would say than Minecraft. But there is still that creative element of building and exploring and stuff like that. Cool. 

Julie: So you’re embarrassed that you play a Terraria, but also you get enough success on YouTube and you like playing Terraria, that it makes sense to keep making those videos. 

Spencer: Yeah, I would say so. Because it’s my channel, I can tell you a little bit about the details. I recently passed 4,000 subscribers and so I’m not a huge channel over, you know, the 12 or 13 years or whatever I’ve had my channel. I’ve probably made like $1,200 maybe. So it’s not a lot. 

Julie: Yeah, just a little bit of ad revenue. Yeah, so. Those $100 checks that come through sometimes are nice. 

Spencer: Yeah, it’s like a cherry on top, you know. Definitely couldn’t survive out of that. But it’s nice to know that I made videos and got some money. 

Julie: Yeah, that validation is definitely nice to see comments coming in, views coming in, even a little bit of money coming in. It’s definitely a motivating factor, even if you’re not huge, to keep at it and keep going. I want to transition a little bit into kind of a current event. So about a week ago, the game had a really big update. Isn’t that right? 

Spencer: Yes, it did. 

Julie: Yeah, so talk about a little bit, kind of what you did the last time they updated and then how you decided what kinds of content to make over the last week or so. 

Spencer: Yeah, so before I jump into that, just something you should know about my channel that’s interesting is I make more tutorial style videos and most of my views come from the YouTube search, which is very different than a lot of other YouTubers. 

Yeah. Because people are looking up how to find certain stuff in the game. Anyways, I knew that and so the last update, I prepared for that. And so when the last update came out, like two or three years ago, I played the game as fast as I could right when the update came out and made content about the new items, new weapons, et cetera, about the game. And it just popped off. 

Some of my videos did really well and they had only been up for a week. And so when this update came out, I was like, you know what? I might as well do the same thing because it’s like a view generator. And so I actually took the day off of work because I knew when the update was going to come out and I just pumped as many videos out as I could that day that the update came out. Yeah. And over this last week, my channel, remember, only has like 4,000 subscribers. I’ve gotten 200,000 views over this last week. 

Julie: That’s insane. And you were kind of showing me like your view, like little chart that they give you. And it just like the day the video, the game came out, just this huge spike in traffic. Which is cool. It’s cool that you’re able to identify like, okay, this is the day where if I make videos about this, it’s going to do well. And I feel like a lot of times in YouTube that like if you’re given that opportunity and you don’t take it, what are you doing? Because like something in your niche that like whether it’s an event, whether it’s a new update coming out, a new product coming out that you know is going to do well, being able to identify those things and make that content before people ask for it too. Like just kind of knowing what your viewers are going to want is cool. And then to see that kind of success is really motivating. Yeah. 

Spencer: I also want to mention that, you know, current event stuff typically doesn’t have a long life. Like once the current event is over, then people just kind of stop watching those videos. 

However, because my videos are more tutorial educational style videos, people will always come back to it. So there’s a spike from the current event of the new update. In this case, Terraria 1.4 .5. But because they’re tutorials, gamers who play Terraria later will always, you know, want to look up those items and they’ll search how to find them. So I think, I mean, not to toot my own horn, I feel like that’s a good strategy though, because I get the spike from the current event, but I still continue to have evergreen content because of the tutorial style that I do. 

Julie: Yeah, yeah, definitely more like holistic view approach to cashing in on the big event, of course, but also saying, okay, from this big, big event, what’s going to continue to do well. 

Spencer: Yeah. And that’s something else that I need to think about, because this is supposedly the last new update to Terraria. But they said that about the last update. 

Julie: So we’ll actually see if it’s the last update. Or yeah, you never know. 

Spencer: Yes. So if it does end up being the actual last update to Terraria, then that could be a problem for my channel. Yeah, that’s true. In the long run, you know, games do eventually go out of style unless it’s Minecraft, which Terraria is pretty big. It’s up there. I think it’s the most, well, not the most reviewed, but the highest rated game on Steam. Interesting. And so it’s not going to go away anytime 

Julie: soon, but Yeah, it’s still got really high demand. Yeah. Yeah. So say Terraria becomes this like old Foggy’s game that people don’t play anymore. And you were struggling getting views. Would you pivot to a different game? Or kind of what are your thoughts on that? 

Spencer: I’ve thought about this for a bit. But yes, I would probably pivot to a different game. Ideally, I’d find another game that has also a lot of hype, but is not oversaturated. Like Minecraft, I would not pivot to Minecraft, even though it’s similar content. I feel like so many people make Minecraft videos. 

Julie: Yeah. There’s so much content out there. 

Spencer: Yeah. A new game that just came out is Hytale, which is also in the early stages of development. And so that could potentially be a good pivot because there’s hype, but not a lot of people. 

Julie: So we should watch out for some chef-y Hytale videos in the future. 

Spencer: Yeah. Possibly. We’ll see. Okay. 

Julie: A little teaser. Love it. Cool. I want to ask a little bit more about your older content and kind of your journey in making videos. I saw you scrolling through some of your old videos earlier today. 

It kind of crazy. But I do think, and I’ve watched a lot of your videos, because when we were dating and you were like, yeah, I have a YouTube channel. At that point, I hadn’t known you for quite a while, and I was like, what? I have to see this. And so I don’t think I ever told you this, but I went in and I watched a bunch of your videos. 

Oh gosh. And I’m like, this was like five years ago. So old stuff, kind of before you had made big pushes, and also before you had really increased your knowledge base on YouTube. Like now you work full-time helping YouTubers, but back then you did not know what you know now. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your old videos and maybe a favorite video that you’ve made. 

Spencer: Yeah, so it’s a good thing that I cringe at my old videos is the first thing that I’m gonna say, because that means I’ve improved. What really is cringing to me is not necessarily the videos themselves, but the thumbnails, the thumbnails, some of them are just atrocious. It looks like I just slapped together something on Word document or something. They do not look great. Some of them are decent, but I’ve definitely improved in that area. 

Julie: Yeah, for sure. 

Spencer: And then back then I didn’t really realize that Terraria was my niche, and so I would occasionally post other games on my channel, because I think every gamer’s dream is like, you play whatever game you’re feeling in the moment and you can post the video and it just does super well. That’s like the ultimate dream for every gamer. 

Julie: But like that’s not how YouTube works. 

Spencer: Yeah, you have to have a specific audience and not everyone is interested in every game, and so that’s why that doesn’t work. 

Julie: Unfortunately. 

Spencer: Yeah, in terms of my favorite video, that’s also kind of a tricky question, because a lot of them are like tutorial based. I didn’t have a lot of, I guess, fun with them. I mean, I was playing the game, so I was having fun, but I didn’t do anything crazy in terms of style of editing or anything like that. However, there is this one video where I decided, or I guess it was a series, I decided to make like a, in a way, like a movie, like a short story movie, while doing a playthrough of Terraria. 

And so I scripted out a storyline. I recorded like these cinematic clips and added special effects and sound effects and all of this stuff to this video, and it turned out really good. I really didn’t like how I captioned it, so I didn’t use my voice as like a narrator. I just put text on the screen, but I animated it in a way that was really… Yeah. It didn’t really fit the style, and so I really don’t like that, but everything else about it I really enjoyed. But it said I put all this effort into it, and it didn’t do that well. 

Julie: Yeah, so you’re the Terraria tutorial guy. So deviating even within Terraria to something else. And like you mentioned, you get a ton of traffic from search, so people are searching a lot of how-to, not necessarily find me a cinematic Terraria playthrough. Yeah. Yeah, so that’s interesting. 

Spencer: Yeah, I think it could have a specific audience, and I think part of the reason it didn’t do well is YouTube doesn’t favor episodic content anymore, like it used to back in the day. So for this series, I had like a part one, part two, part three, and I think if I change the thumbnails and titles, I think they could do better. Yeah. But they still probably wouldn’t do as good as my YouTube search type content, so. 

Julie: So definitely improved over the years with your content and your skills and thumbnails and editing. And I wanna ask a little bit more about mistakes, which you’ve kind of touched on a few things that you’re like, oh, I wish I did that differently. But is there anything else that you look back and you’re like, gosh, that was not the right move or other mistakes you’ve made on your channel? 

Spencer: Yeah, I think the main thing that I wish I was better at is consistency, and this is said all the time. 

Julie: Yeah, I feel like every guest we have on this show says that. 

Spencer: Yeah, but because of the way that Terraria has updated their game, it’s usually like every couple of years. And so I go through phases with the game where I’m like super hyped about it, and I make all these videos and I play it a bunch. And then I kind of go out of that phase. And so then I don’t feel motivated to make videos and so I just stop making videos. So I think the one thing that I wish I did better or I guess a mistake that I made is I’m not consistent enough. I think I have posted other video games which also isn’t a great idea, but I don’t think that’s as detrimental as not being consistent. 

Julie: Yeah, yeah, especially when you’re faced with, in Terraria there’s only so many, how to find this item? Like once you make all those videos, then what do you do? 

Spencer: Yeah, well, Terraria has a lot of items. Yeah, that’s true. Probably like thousands. So you could make a lot of videos. How popular each item is varies. So I probably wouldn’t do like every single item, but yeah. 

Julie: Yeah, gotcha. So maybe that’s something you use to fill those gaps till a new update is like, okay, what are all the items I haven’t made videos about yet? 

Spencer: Yeah, something I should do is I should just like bank up a bunch of videos and like schedule them out so they come, like after I’m through my Terraria phase, those videos are still coming out. 

Julie: Yeah, cause like in the last week, how many videos have you made? 

Spencer: Ooh, so I made like seven or eight on the first day and then I’ve probably made like five or six since then. So like 15 or 16 or something like that in a week. 

Julie: So. Yeah, interesting. And what are your thoughts too on, especially with an update coming out? Like you make 15 videos, is there any con to posting them all at once? Is there any benefit to posting them all at once versus scheduling them out like you said? 

Spencer: So in this particular case, I think it’s best if I just, which I did, I posted them as soon as I made the video, I just published them because with the hype of the update, everyone is constantly searching like how to find these items. The reason they know about these items is because the Terraria developers release spoilers to kind of like build up hype for the update. And so people know these things exist, but they don’t know how to get them, what they do exactly. And so when the update comes out, people are constantly searching how to find these items. And so publishing the information as soon as possible is like super helpful. Like ideally if I could have just like played Terraria for 48 hours straight and made 20 videos, that would have been better, but that’s not realistic. 

Julie: Yeah, no. As your wife, I’m saying that’s not realistic as much as I love your videos. Gotta do things like eat and sleep and, you know, take out the trash occasionally. 

Spencer: And maybe that’s the case with all current events is it is good to publish that information immediately. But with most YouTube content, I would say that’s not ideal. Yeah. You kind of want to space out your videos. 

Julie: Yeah, that makes sense. Well, cool. I want to pivot a little bit and talk about one last thing. And that is comment section and kind of your community on YouTube. So you talked about how you’ve got just over 4,000 subscribers. Is that right? 

Spencer: Yep, just recently passed that. 

Julie: Yeah, cool. Cool. Well, tell me a little bit more about your subscriber community and the kind of comments they leave, things like that. 

Spencer: Yeah, so most of my comments because of, again, the style and the tutorial of how to get items, a lot of them are questions. Maybe something I didn’t clarify in the video. So they need extra clarification. Sometimes it’s people being like, bro, you’re wrong. 

That’s not how you do it. Those aren’t as common. And then occasionally, you know, there’s a few subscribers that I have that have been with me for a long time. And I recognize their name and their profile. And I always appreciate them. They always say something nice, even like I’ve taken a few breaks from the game and haven’t posted in a while. And then I start posting again. That person always is like, hey, it’s good to see you again. Posting videos. Glad you’re back. And that’s always nice to see. 

Julie: Yeah, the real channel and VP’s. 

Spencer: Yeah. For a little bit of time, I actually had one channel member where they subscribed to my channel. And that that was fun. I got to experiment with member only content. And unfortunately, because it was only that one person, you know, didn’t do a whole lot, but yeah, it was good to experiment with. And it was nice to know that someone like my content enough that they were willing to subscribe. 

Julie: Yeah, that is cool. Is that something you’d ever do again? 

Spencer: Oh, yeah, definitely. Currently, I have it open. So like if people wanted to subscribe, I think the thing I’m not. Well, I don’t know if I would say not great at, but the hard part about memberships is you have to create member only content that’s different from your other other videos. And so as a creator, that’s kind of difficult because that takes like a whole another set of time and effort to make those things. So that’s something I’d have to think about more. But I do have channel memberships open. 

Julie: So go subscribe to Spencer. 

Spencer: Yeah, subscribing is free. Subscribing is free. Joining as a member does cost some money, but yeah, I can make content just for you. 

Julie: Just for that one person. In the title, be like, so and so you’re my only member. This one’s for you. Yeah. Yeah, that’s funny. Cool. Well, cool. It was fun to I think I learned more about your channel and I’m sure our listeners learned from your channel. Is there any like closing remarks that you have that you’d like to share before we wrap up? 

Spencer: No, just don’t make fun of me for still playing Terraria, even though I’m almost 30 years old. So. 

Julie: Well, I as your wife don’t make fun of you. So. Other people either. 

Spencer: Well, you have to not make fun of me because you’re my wife.

Julie: Default, man. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for listening to this episode. I enjoyed hosting, but this is probably a one time thing. So if you want to hear Spencer talk to another guest next time, make sure to subscribe and follow us on social media for extra little tidbits. And we’ll see you next week.