I Wasted The Best Years Of My Life On YouTube...

It seems unfair that good quality content like your's doesn't get rewarded because it's being swamped with vacuous bullshit that titilates someone for the 4 seconds it lasts. Just today I had to download Tik Tok to my phone to see a 3 second video a friend's child made. Tik Tok took over my phone and prioritised itself over every other app... it was uninstalled as soon as I saw the video. I prefer videos that allow me to enjoy a mug of coffee.

One more Furious POV video before you call it quits for real in another decade.

We love you Jhon.. You weren't a waste to us at all. Thank you for your time and wood working skills.

Hi John, I get your point about the businessmodel and the related money. Let me add that you are an inspirator and educator to thousands of people. Of course that doesn’t buy you any bread. But I consider that to be priceless!

I enjoyed the YT video on the building of the new aluminum bandsaw table. I also try to watch all your new YT videos. However, while I understand your sentiment about YT and views, I don't think loss of views only comes from YT saturation and the need for "click-bait". What I have seen many of the YT people I used to watch do is create regular content until they build a viewership and then move their good, regular content to Patreon, leaving the regular YT viewers with no real content so they lose interest in the sporadic content those people still post. Then the YT content creator complains about the loss of YT viewers.

No Regerts!

Make your shed door, using pallet wood & epoxy & live edge & river & designed by AI..you will be all set for clicks.

In the woodworking space, many have turn into running a business selling their own products (3d printed and/or cnc), while many others have followed the route of offering beginners video classes. With your creativity, I am surprised that you did not come up with something that Lee Valley, as an example will sell.

You dont have to use click bait. You just have to put out regular content much like a tv show. Most woodworkers are into multiple hobbies. Sticking to one hobby is what kills channels.

You kissed the wrong person, and got the virus...

Unfortunately, yt hasn't been easy, John... For us, viewers, as well. It's difficult to find something interesting to watch, unfortunately.
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Makes sense. If you build a tangible business along with your channel, you can sell the business when it’s time to retire.

I’m happy to be slightly above average.

I feel short changed, where's the $2 shed build. Just kidding there. I'm not a woodworker, mechanic/machinist by trade. I started watching your channel on the wooden vise build because that intrigued me from a mechanical standpoint. I watch a lot of your videos, enjoy them and always looking for that little twist to help the ideas in my head come to fruition (in metal of course). Thanks for what you have provided to us knowledge wise and choose the path forward that makes YOU happy.

Is that $2 CDN?

Agreed no objections from me. I just make them because I was told to. I don't have the talent for doing it and never will as I don't have that artistic skill set and don't really want to learn. And I have been asked why don't I spend more time and effort filming and editing etc. My answer is in my case what I make and do I will never see a return on that investment so why.. I am boring and I am trying to share information not to entertain. Too much time teaching the kids for the engineering competitions I guess.
As for ad revenue. A friend of mine has over 71K subs and with more views today and revenue is less than half what it was several years ago but.. Advertising dollars have changed places and the ads you see on YT now are often the low end cheap TV ones and almost none of them are anything I would ever be interested in.

If you didn't use 3-D printed gears, you wouldn't have a cold.

off topic, but you look real healthy. ive not seen your channel in a couple years, you look healthier.

I have been watching your channel since the beginning John. I don't do much woodworking any longer but still find your content interesting & entertaining to watch. Keep doing what you enjoy and at some point you will know when to call it quits. 👍👍🔨🔨

If you enjoy it, do it; if you make money off it, fine... if not, who cares? I certainly care about your wellbeing, and am grateful for your efforts, but really it's not like it's a PBS channel with no commercials or promotional plugs. In time, more people will gravitate to channels like yours due to A I!

For the record, I really enjoyed watching "10 Steps Forward." The CNC aluminum cutting was pretty cool.

Know John that I regularly watch your video to its end and give it a thumb's up unless I stupidly forget.

Wasted? Not hardly. You are a woodworking phenomenon and few rival your genius and resourcefulness. So many have learned so much from you. Your work inspires us. Please don't view it as a waste of time.

I am an IT specialist and have stopped being amazed by the number of comments I hear, regarding how 'easy' it is to produce YT videos. I have also stopped trying to explain just how hard it really is - so I just simply tell them to have a go themselves.

Of the very few who actually try, it rapidly dawns on them that before you even get to the content, there are things like lighting, sound, focus, background etc. Then there is editing...graphics, intros, outros - the list is endless. Clickbait, SEO and YT algorithms etc.

Then you have to have something to actually say...

I have always rated YT content not by the number of clicks/popularity - but by the person / quality of the content.

Quality always trumps everything else - and Mr. Heisz has quality content by the bucket load.

I am disturbed by the obviously click bait titles, and downright misleading “news stories” of some celebrity suing some other celebrity for billions. Especially the reaction vids of some influencer listening to Disraeli Gears as if they uncovered some long lost undiscovered treasure. I block all of these channels when they show up….except when John Heisz does it! It means it’s gonna be a good one!

I use my J. Heisz table saw fence nearly everyday. It works better (for my unique situation) than any manufacturered fence I've ever owned. I can't thank you enough for all the videos, inspiration, and occasional rants.

You've all ways said if we don't like your content to unsubscribe, it's better for you in the long run.

I 100% agree with everything you said about not putting all your focus on becoming a content creator. I used to sell on Amazon back in the early 2000's and it was a very good way to make lots of money quick using a very simple idea. However once this became mainstream, it became almost impossible to come up with new items to sell simply because there were so many people on there selling similar things. Just as I see with YT content, in order to stand out today, you basically have to have a gift no one else possesses or just be so charasmatic people cannot turn away from you. The rest of us mere mortals are left to struggle to get the crumbs left on the table. So much better to devote your time to an actual buisiness that will last and you can pass on to others to run while you enjoy retirement.

I still enjoy your videos after all these years. Could be wrong but I guess that the majority of your loyal subscribers ( people that watch all your videos) are like me and you the ’’older ’’ generation. Most people in their 20 are not interested in ’’making ’’ anything anymore.
The world and people interests change and that is why i’m so glad your channels exist.
I follow a couple of woodworking and metalworking channels but you are still my favorite.

Great advice. Thanks John. Best of luck to you in all of your endeavours!

Much credit from one John to another. You haven't turned into a tool review channel, or an outlet for every Chinese cnc manufacturer out there, or a "build this and make $$$$" channel. You just do interesting things and let us do what we want with any knowledge we might gain. It's really refreshing these days.

John, how does Satie by France Clidat - Complete Piano Works sound when played with you all comfy in that big chair in your listening room? Certainly that should sooth your cold wracked head even though it's feeling like a thick oak plank.

Relax. There are no "best years".

If I get recommended a too-clickbaity video I tend to drop the "don't recommend this channel" hammer. It's probably a small fraction of viewers that do that though. In this case I know your channel and was curious, so the clicbait worked. Hoping that cold isn't something more terminal and you get to enjoy your semi-retirement :).

Once you stop making new content, it's only a matter of time before they demonetize you. Two of my old videos were close to 1M views and still growing but YT decided I wasn't worthy of cashing checks anymore and removed my monetization.

Nah, I'll just delete my videos instead because they STILL shown ads on the video, I just didn't get anything out of it.

Let's say a new video makes N dollars in revenue when it first comes out in the first month or so. What sort of residual income does it produce per month a year later? N/10? N/20? 0?

I started my channel a few years back as we became empty nesters. I'm a full time Android Dev who does woodworking on the side and realized rather quickly how much effort the process takes. Hats off to those who make it work and have actually made a career out of it!

I purposefully do NOT open anything that looks like sensational clickbait.

You do fantastic work! You are very skilled and smart to be able to build a table saw and a bandsaw from scratch. I would not know where to begin on something like that.