DIGITISER MINIS - NOW RATED PG-13!? (Patreon)

So, been doing a bit of thinking about the channel in recent weeks, and talking it through with Sanja. 

We've got an incredibly loyal core audience - sales of Digi Live certainly demonstrate that - but it has been telling that for the last couple of months we've been struggling to grow. In terms of new subscribers... we've absolutely flatlined. There's no other way to put it. For every few subscribers we gain, we lose a few. And it's starting to concern me. 

The last big boost we got was when Ashens was on. Prior to that, we were growing steadily. Since December... nothing. 

I've tried using different sorts of thumbnails, I've tried promoting the episodes differently, I launched the live show in the hopes it might give us a boost. Nothing is working.

So the issue is the format and the content. I know that we've lost a lot of followers since ditching the games stuff - and they may still be wandering away, gradually - but not enough to have made a major difference. I think it's a more fundamental problem. 

It has also been interesting to see which videos have done well, and which haven't, in the last two months. Admittedly, they do tend to grow steadily over time - most of our older videos, barring a few, are now nudging up against 10,000 views or more. 

It's more about seeing the effect the videos are having on subscribers. In all honesty, it kind of chimes with the videos which I've considered are most successful. When Digi doesn't seem to work is when there is no point to the videos. Playing games, for the sake of it, doesn't do particularly well. The science ones don't tend to. Magic vids don't. Whereas videos of us trying food, for instance, have an immediate level of interest.

I think - and it might just be a gut feeling - that people need a reason to tune in beyond all the madness and surreal stuff, and the (shudder) bants. They need to feel they're getting something out of it (even if we completely upend that and it goes off the rails spectacularly). People have a lot of demands for their time, and if all they're getting from us every week is the same sort of nonsense that doesn't fill them up anyway... well, they can easily skip a meal. Every video needs to be appointment viewing, and feel nourishing. It needs to have value.

In terms of what you're going to see on screen, I don't think you'll notice a major difference really (plus it's going to take some time to put into action). What will change is how we approach the episodes behind-the-scenes. We're going to start thinking harder about every one of them, to find a hook. It'll be, perhaps, more consumer magazine show-like, I guess. More reviews, or "How to...?" or "Can we...?" or "What happens if we...?"-style videos. 

Without losing any of what you enjoy. So we'll still keep all the stupid characters, the cutaways, etc. Still keep the core team. We just need to pose a question in each video to make potential viewers curious. 

I think the episodes might become more personal too - people have really responded to the two eps with Sanja and I, so it makes sense to capitalise on our chemistry together. 

The other thing which I think might make a difference is something I've wrestled with since last year, and that's the level of adult humour. It says a lot when Sanja and I are kind of too embarrassed to share our own videos with friends and family. And I'm sure we're not alone. That, I feel, does make a major difference to the word of Digi being spread.

I get that filth is very much Cheapshow's ballpark, but I admit that at first I found it really off-putting. I stuck with it because of Paul, and it was only then that I really got it - when I gave it time. I saw what they were going for, responded to the relationship between Paul and Eli. I mean, now I think it's genius, but that's only because I gave it the time to get under my skin.

On YouTube there is, if anything, even more competition. It's telling that this weekend's video saw people switch off far earlier than normal. Probably because it started with a bunch of stupid puppets having a dance. Yeah, it was funny - but if that's your first experience of a Digi Mini you might not want to continue. And from there it descends into a very graphic card game, which I do feel a bit uncomfortable to have been a part of.

I accept that this might sound weird coming from the man who put The Real Turner The Worm on Teletext, but I really struggle with that sort of stuff.

Years ago, I got an American agent after wining a screenwriting competition. The feedback we got on my script that he was trying to sell was that it wasn't adult enough. That it needed to be more edgy and graphic. But that isn't me. I don't want every joke to be about sex. It's kind of the easiest thing in the world to do, unless you're being really creative with it. It's part of why I've stopped pursuing adult comedy in my day job, because I started getting the sense that if a script wasn't packed with references to sex and loads of swearing then commissioners weren't interested.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think you can be grown-up - albeit in an immature way - without resorting to that common denominator for every gag. I want to be able to watch stuff with my kids, and smirk because the more adult references go over their heads. I love family shows which are cheeky, not graphic. 

If you look at Found Footage, there's zero swearing in that. There's no real graphic adult content, beyond being a bit suggestive, yet I think I managed that without it ever feeling like a compromise, or that it was watered down in any way. It was about ideas, not about shocking people.

Heck, even in the Minis it's rare that I'll be the one to make jokes about wanking or anything. It just isn't me. And I do, in the edit, take out as much of that sort of stuff as I can already. So, from now on... everyone who appears on the channel will be briefed. 

We can still be cheeky, and naughty, we won't compromise on tone, we'll still be distinctly Digi, but it'll come to be that much more PG13. Which Digi always was. So, innuendos aplenty, but nothing overtly graphic. It'll make it all that much more true to myself, and it'll force us all to be a little cleverer and more creative, and perhaps fall back on the weirdness and surrealism that I think is more my stock-in-trade. 

So, that's it really. Just a brain-dump of an update on where the channel might be going, and where it's at. If we can't grow it... I dunno what I'll try next. But I'm not giving up anytime soon. I enjoy it too much. I know we've got a really passionate core audience - thank you, all of you. 

And yes, before you all reply saying "You should do it because you love it, not for views"... well, okay. Not really helpful. 

I don't think there's been a creative person in history who didn't want their work to be seen. And besides, this isn't about compromise, or trying to find the widest possible audience. I'm not watering down anything. It's about listening to myself, and making the channel more true to me, and getting the message out there to people who are on the same page, so that the channel will continue for years to come.

Paul