Keepin' Up With KL ✦ Oct-Dec 2023 + 2024 Chats! (Patreon)

Well heelloooo! Gosh, it's been a while since I've written one of these! Not only am I covering Oct-Dec, but I'm also going to talk about the channel's history so far (the past two years) and then chat about some of my plans for 2024!

Before we dive in, I want to say a big welcome in to all the new patrons that joined since the last one of these was shared (beginning of September 💀) and so far this month! Keepin' Up With KL is my monthly newsletter that I write at the start of every month... ideally LOL. This is where I share insights and provide updates for what's to come. I always want to be as open and transparent as possible and many folks here find value in these newsletters and being involved in the behind-the-scenes of the channel. It also provides some different content here to sprinkle in between everything else and I really enjoy writing these and sharing! Thank you so much for being here!

This newsletter is going to be VERY LONG, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. 🥳 Get yourself a drink and some snacks (or a meal) and let's chat!

October Numbers

• # of Videos: 4 public videos (⬇️)
• Impressions: 1,911,011 (⬇️)
• Total Channel Views: 80,304 (⬇️)
• Views on October's Videos: 14,625 [⬇️] (18.21% ) [⬇️]
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): 3.1% (⬆️)
• Watch Time: 16,393.40 hours (⬇️)
• Average % Viewed*: 26.2% (⬇️)
• Unique Viewers: 41,606 (⬇️)
• Net New Subscribers: 552 (⬇️)

Obviously October was a much slower month than normal because of Ella's passing and my trip to Vegas for TwitchCon. All that I uploaded were my four Ahsoka videos to the channel. That said, to still get just over 80,000 views in the month with nearly 82% of them happening on videos uploaded prior to October is a huge accomplishment in my eyes. I am really pleased that my channel has reached a point where I don't have to be so afraid of personal life getting in the way of uploads. Sometimes shit happens!

November Numbers

• # of Videos: 9 public videos (⬆️)
• Impressions: 7,919,597 (⬆️)
• Total Channel Views: 256,051 (⬆️)
• Views on November's Videos: 162,314 [⬆️] (63.39% ) [⬆️]
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): 2.4% (⬇️)
• Watch Time: 75,255.40 hours (⬆️)
• Average % Viewed*: 33.8% (⬆️)
• Unique Viewers: 121,100 (⬆️)
• Net New Subscribers: 2,117 (⬆️)

November was a really great month and felt good to have coming off of October. My reaction to The Matrix and my collab reaction with Popcorn in Bed to Hook ended up being two good choices to upload back-to-back and both videos have performed well past the channel's average views per video. I'm also pleased with every other upload for the month. It was a good one with some good films and TV watched!

December Numbers

• # of Videos: 5 public videos (⬇️)
• Impressions: 3,232,737 (⬇️)
• Total Channel Views: 116,214 (⬇️)
• Views on December's Videos: 37,697 [⬇️] (32.44% ) [⬇️]
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): 2.6% (⬆️)
• Watch Time: 28,775.10 hours (⬇️)
• Average % Viewed*: 30.7% (⬇️)
• Unique Viewers: 54,488 (⬇️)
• Net New Subscribers: 647 (⬇️)

December STRESSED ME OUT with the copyright issues that I was dealing with on the What If...? series - by far the biggest struggle I've had since The Dark Knight Trilogy back in spring 2022. Anyway, the month didn't go exactly as I had planned since that copyright battle took up so much of my time and work. But looking at the numbers, the channel went back to its "norm" this month and it's still a month that I can't complain about overall! It's a Wonderful Life definitely carried in December - without that, it would have been a month similar to October. Definitely a great choice and happy people voted for that!

The symbols beside each data point indicate if the figures are up or down relative to the previous month. If there is an equal sign, there is no change.

* This data point tells me how much of a video that a viewer watched. Because my videos are usually longer, I like my percentage to be around 30%.

- - -

Before we talk about the 2023 year specifically, I want to share some data that covers both years on the channel!

Observations:

• My monthly subs are all over the place, yet it all works out to a consistent ~1,000 new subscribers average each month. My goal for 2024 is to keep holding that, but preferably get get more than that. It might be ambitious, but I'd love to have the channel hit 50,000 subscribers by the end of the year!
• As channel impressions grow, click-through-rate typically goes down. That's just how it goes, but it's nice to actually see that in the data.
• I adore that people are watching more of each video (this is average percentage viewed - how much of the video people watch). There were only two months below 30% which makes me super happy!

Let's Talk Ad Revenue

I don't think many YouTube creators are overly transparent about ad revenue and how much it fluctuates and how seasonal it can be. I'm personally really open about sharing this, I don't think it should be hidden or taboo!

This graph below represents the Canadian Dollar amount that I earned per 1,000 monetized views, which is 55% of what advertisers pay Google. If I have a copyright claim on a video then I don't earn anything from views while that's active. This has occurred with a number of videos on the channel in the past two years and especially recently. 🫠

Note that these figures are for my channel only. PLEASE do not assume this applies to everyone. Ad revenue fluctuates based on: where the creator lives, where the viewers live, what category is chosen for the videos, and more. This is also ad revenue only. YouTube Premium revenue, memberships, SuperChats, etc. are not reflected in this.

Observations:

• Ad revenue is definitely seasonal. The highest ad revenue month in both years was November. You can see a clear dip in January 2023, where companies take advertising breaks after the holidays. We are only a few days into January and I'm already seeing that dip. It's pretty expected, but nice to actually see the data.
• I have no clue why my ad revenue shot up in Sept 2022 and has basically stayed in that range ever since. There wasn't a video that popped off that month. I didn't cross a subscriber milestone to make YouTube push my channel out more. It is truly a MYSTERY to me, but not one that I'm complaining about. 😂

A Takeaway:

I've learned in the past two years that you can't make assumptions that more views = more revenue. I've seen this on my own channel with Revenge of the Sith earning only slightly more revenue than other top reactions that have over 400,000 views less. Why? With my ROTS reaction, most people only watch a few mins of the reaction (one or two scenes). With the others, they watched a lot more of the reaction! That makes a massive difference to earnings.

And now.. let's chat 2023!!

Most-Viewed 2023 Reactions In 2023:

• Avengers: Endgame [Part 2] - 95,374 views
• Hook w/ Popcorn in Bed - 78,313 views
• Captain America: Civil War - 70,218 views
• Saving Private Ryan - 51,318 views
• Spaceballs - 41,647 views

Most-Viewed 2022 Reactions In 2023:

• Revenge of the Sith - 32,810 views
• The Last Samurai - 24,878 views
• WALL-E - 24,023 views
• Iron Man - 19,283 views
• The Dark Knight - 16,729 views

2023 Reactions With The Most New Subs:

• Hook w/ Popcorn in Bed
• Captain America: Civil War
• Spaceballs
• The Terminator
• Robocop

2023 Reactions That Had The Most Subs Click Unsubscribe 😂

• Avengers: Endgame [Part 1]
• Black Widow
• Hook w/ Popcorn in Bed
• Avengers: Endgame [Part 2]
• Thor: Ragnarok

Do we want to assume that people clicked unsub as soon as I finished Endgame because they had no desire to continue onto Phase 4 with me? 😅

2023 Reactions With The Highest Average Percentage Viewed:

• The Cabin in the Woods - 47.00%
• Black Panther [Part 1] - 46.89%
• Avengers: Infinity War [Part 2] - 46.35%
• Clerks - 46.31%
• Mallrats - 45.63%

This list really surprises me. Clerks and Mallrats both being on here though truly shows the love View Askew fans have for the franchise. So I love that! I certainly wasn't expecting The Cabin in the Woods to be the highest. And it's actually second on the channel overall, just behind The Avengers [Part 1] from 2022.

2023 Reactions With The Most Likes 👍:

• Hook w/ Popcorn in Bed
• Avengers: Endgame [Part 2]
• Captain America: Civil War
• The Matrix
• Robocop

2023 Reactions With The Most Dislikes 👎:

• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Avengers: Infinity War [Part 2]
• Avengers: Endgame [Part 2]
• Spaceballs
• Avengers: Infinity War [Part 1]

2023 Most Viewed YouTube Playlists:

• MCU
• The Last of Us
• The Clone Wars
• Star Wars
• Sci-Fi

Where Did People Watch From In 2023?

• United States - 50.8%
• United Kingdom - 8.3%
• Canada - 4.8%
• Germany - 2.9%
• India - 2.7%

And Which Cities Did The Most Views Come From In 2023?

• New York, NY - 12,834 views
• Los Angeles, CA - 9,605 views
• London, England - 7,938 views
• Chicago, IL - 6,682 views
• Houston, TX - 4,130 views

How Old Was My Audience in 2023?

• 13-24 - 18.7%
• 25-34 - 28.2%
• 35-44 - 25.1%
• 45-54 - 18.1%
• 55+ - 9.9%

Fun Fact: Women watch more of a video than men do (33.8% vs. men's 31.6%), but men make up a whopping 92% of my audience! 💪

I wanted to be super creative with some of these stats for the year! YouTube gives us a TON of analytical data on our content and it's fun to go through sometimes!

Overall, I am so pleased with how 2023 went and I'm really happy with the overall performance. At this point it's fair to say that my channel is a slow-and-steady grower, which I'm not mad about! Obviously it'd be super cool to pop off and grow really fast, but I have to remember how manageable growth feels, and that feels really good and not so stressful.

⭐ Is there anything that stands out to you about these stats? Let me know! ⭐

And now it's time to chat about 2024! Ooooh boy, I'm excited! I really wanted to come into this year knowing roughly when I'm going to watch certain movies, when I'd want poll winners to go out, could I fit in any TV series, what smaller movie series do I want to fit in, and more!

I've been planning for a lil' while and here are some things to look forward to this year:

1) I'll be caught up on the MCU sometime in Summer 2024, along with the View Askewniverse!

• This will open up the schedule a lot more and I've planned accordingly for that. 😏 I've already decided that when I'm caught up on the MCU, I want to TAKE A BREEEAAAKKKK from BIG franchises! 😂 Especially since I will still be watching through Marvel shows here on Patreon.

2) All of X-Men will be watched!

• I've already mentioned this kind of in-passing, but this is firm confirmation now! 'll put out one movie per month starting THIS MONTH, which will take us to November because I've seen Deadpool and Deadpool 2 before starting the channel. BUT I thought it would be fun to do YouTube Live Watchalongs for those two movies, when their time comes in the release order for these films. So if people want to see my rewatch reactions, those will be free on the channel!
• I've technically seen the first X-Men movie but it was way back in the year it released, freaking 24 years ago! Do I remember it? I just remember looks of characters and that is all. Especially since I never bothered to see any of the others. 😂 Story? I don't know her.

3) Two Movie Series: The Hunger Games and Indiana Jones

• My sister-in-law keeps pushing me to react to The Hunger Games series as it's her favourite, so I'm going to do it because I have always wanted to see what it's about! I also want to read the books. I also think that this will help open up my channel to more women!
• The Indiana Jones movies are a personal choice for me - I just really want to see them!
• Both of these series will come to the channel after the MCU is completed, so not until summer!

4) October Theme: Ghostbusters 👻

• All of them will go on the channel throughout the month of October, including the new one that is releasing in a couple months! I already know Tyler will love this choice, you're welcome! To everyone else who ever suggested it, you're welcome too!

5) November Theme: Band of Brothers 🪖

• I will release a reaction to an episode every 3 days or so, in between movie reactions, for the whole month. This show has been highly requested ever since I watched Saving Private Ryan and I still get the odd comment about it even now. It's one of the top suggestions PERIOD that has come through on my Suggestion Form. This choice feels like a good way to make the most of November's higher ad revenue while also fulfilling a huge request to watch war stuff around Veterans/Remembrance Day and it knocks a highly requested series off the list of suggestions!
• I want to start watching these relatively soon so that I have plenty of time to get them all edited and copyright cleared before November arrives.

6) Christmas Releases: Miracle on 34th Street Double Feature 😇

• I'm going to release the 1947 version on Dec 24 and the 1994 version on Dec 25.
• These likely won't be the only Christmas movies in December, as a heads up. 

7) And more...

• At least one Patreon Poll reaction per month
• At least one KL's Choice reaction per month
• A YouTube Poll reaction every other month
• A before-1970 movie every other month or so
• A scary movie every month or two

I may end up using my KL's Choice slots for the last two on this list. I also want to use my choice slots to continue through some of the series that I still need to finish.

8) And an idea that I'm strongly considering... but haven't committed to

• When Better Call Saul is finished (in April-ish), I am considering editing Breaking Bad to put on the channel, along with El Camino and BCS to follow it. There are a few reasons driving this choice. I know that I'm going to want to re-watch Breaking Bad when BCS is over and I also want to re-watch my own reactions, to laugh at myself for not picking up on certain things or reminding myself how in the dark I was. So why not edit them? I also know that BB and BCS are very popular reactions and people always want to watch new ones. If I'm able to say in every single video that people can binge-watch everything in watchalong format on Patreon, then it could help grow the community here. I would also plan to have a few episodes edited ahead of time. So in videos I could say here's Episode 2 but I've already edited the entire first season and you can get early access to it.
• If I choose to go ahead with this, I likely wouldn't start releasing reactions on the channel until fall.

I'm really excited to hear what you think of all this! Anything you're looking forward to more than others? Let me know!

- - -

Changes in 2024 to Ads on Videos:

Last year I talked with other reactors about our approach to mid-roll ads. My background was on Twitch, where mid-roll ads are basically the DEVIL and loathed by all viewers because they miss some of the live stream when they happen. My approach was always to have as few mid-rolls as possible, while also trying to earn enough to make this sustainable as a full-time job. I've always deleted over half of the mid-rolls that YouTube would automatically place on each video.

But I realized that I'm leaving a lot of ad revenue on the table by doing this. Most reactors are not like me 😂 and just go with YouTube's default placements. Maybe most YouTube creators do this, period. My first concern when hearing this was "Do you ever get negative comments about it?" Apparently no... that is a very rare occurrence. Reactors doing this longer than me have said the amount of ads does not make any noticeable difference on their viewership and other engagement. It also seems like having more ads in a video can result in YouTube pushing it out more, theoretically resulting in more views.

I've decided to start doing this in 2024. It's safe to assume that I can double my ad revenue just by making this change. And this would be a huge step to finally being able to get consistent editing help with my videos. If it does help in pushing the videos out more too, than that will impact channel performance and grow the community!

If you are someone who really hates ads, then I strongly encourage any of the following:

• YouTube Premium. Folks watching my videos with this subscription made up 20% of my YouTube income in 2023, because YouTube does share those fees with us. You are supporting everyone you watch by having this. It is probably one of my most valued subscriptions that I pay for, because I can't afford to pledge to all my favourite reactors Patreon pages. Plus no ads platform-wide is a huge plus.
• Stay pledged on my Patreon to my lowest tier, which is where I post the edited reactions AD-FREE for early access. This year I'll be working really hard to give you all a lot more early access time. 
• If you can't watch them in early access, then try your best to attend the premieres, as they don't have mid-rolls at all! Just a pre-roll when you first click on the video.

And yes, there's ad blockers as an option of course. I'm still not sure how ad blockers affect things. I assume I don't earn revenue, but maybe I still do in some way? 🤷‍♀️ I try not to worry about that because I understand people using them.

Finally, thank you so much for your support through viewing ads or doing any of the above. It helps tremendously! ❤️

I won't be making any significant changes to Patreon this year. I feel like this space is running like a well-oiled machine and I'm really happy with how things are going here! Y'all make Patreon a really lovely platform to post on and I thank you so much for that!

One thing that I want to start doing more of is using the Community feature, especially since a lot of you don't use Discord. I have already been using it for quick updates and such, but I want to talk to you all more. 😅

Last year I started doing monthly member events but then they quickly fizzled out. If anyone is wondering if they'll come back... at this time I can't commit to doing it on a monthly basis and I'm so sorry! But I do want to have a few of those this year and I'll announce them when I've got them planned!

Insiders Tiers

When Better Call Saul ends in a few months, I'm going to throw up the first ever POLL for folks in these tiers on what series to watch next. I have many that have been suggested through my form and some others that are on my own list. As always, if you have suggestions and ideas, please get them submitted.

Naturally the Marvel shows are gonna take us right through all of 2024 and beyond. 😂 So if you're here for that, it's gonna be a good time! 😄

And Your Regular Patreon Reminders (Mostly for New Members)

• Patreon Lounge: this is the chat room feature available through the Patreon mobile app and coming to desktop SOON (via the Community button). Make sure to download the Patreon app if you want to join us with this! It's a nice alternative to Discord for folks who don't want to use Discord.
• Early Insiders Tier: If you are currently in this tier and you process a cancellation of your membership, your spot does become available to someone else immediately. This means that you might not be able to re-join this tier at a later time.
• Annual Memberships: If you think you're gonna hang around here for a long time and you want to save some money, you can switch from monthly to annual at any time and save 10% on your membership for the year! You can do this in your Membership settings. 
• Discord Server: I always like to remind you about my server, where you can chat with myself and others in the community a bit better in real-time on a daily basis and it's a great way to connect. Right now I am hosting regular watch parties for the TV show, Mr. Robot. These happen on Saturdays that I'm available to host and we are currently working our way through Season 3. To join, sync your Discord account in your Patreon settings and you'll be automatically put into the server.

I stepped away from streaming on Twitch, what I thought was for good at the time. I tried recorded + edited gameplay for YouTube and while I really enjoyed doing that, I severely underestimated how much time it would take. Unfortunately, I just didn't have that capacity unless I pulled back on the reaction channel and Patreon, which wasn't an option for me.

With Ella passing in October and then attending TwitchCon right after that, it definitely made me start missing it and I have been a lot. I've been actively chatting a lot more in people's streams in the last three months too and I'm feeling so ready to come back.

Now that multistreaming is allowed, I can be live on both my Twitch channel and my kale plays YouTube channel at the same time. I will be multistreaming the playthroughs of heavy narrative games, allowing people to choose the platform they want to watch through. For folks who despise watching Twitch VODs, this will be a win because they'll all be on YouTube!

There will likely be Twitch-only streams too. In order to not clutter the YouTube gaming channel, any stream that isn't part of a main playthrough will be just on Twitch. Streams with friends... if I decide to have a Coral Island stream... if I do any special event streams... that sort of thing. 

⭐ My first stream back will be during the evening of Tuesday, January 16! ⭐

This is going to be a TEST STREAM to iron out any kinks in the multistreaming, since I've never done that before. I also just want my first stream back to be a catch-up stream. I kind of disappeared off Twitch without doing a formal "goodbye" stream, so I'm sure there's a few people out there that wondered where the hell I went. 😂 Not everyone joins Discord or looks at other socials. 

Here's the game plan, in order:

• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Red Dead Redemption 1
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Alan Wake (+ DLCs)
• Alan Wake's American Nightmare
• Control (+ DLCs)
• Alan Wake 2

Is there a schedule?

Not right away. I want to see what comes comfortably to start. Thinking of twice a week at 3-4 hours each stream, but which days and times I'm not sure yet. It'll most likely be evenings. But I'm open to also logging in early on a free Sunday and going for 6-7 hours too. I just need to see how it goes.

I'll announce streams in Discord, on socials, in the Patreon Community Chat, and if you're subbed to the kale plays channel, any upcoming streams will show up there with a countdown too. I'm super excited, but NERVOUS to get back into this! 🥳 I hope to see some of you there for it!

And we're finally here at the end of this newsletter! WE MADE IT! These are optional questions, but if you're up for answering...

• What album was on repeat for you in 2023?
• What is your favourite video game of all-time? 👀
• What is a focus for you in 2024, if you're a resolution/goal setter? I'm not sharing my goal specifics out to the public this year, but I will say that I'm being very intentional and my health is a big priority.

- - -

Your kind comments every day here and on the channel are like fuel for me to keep this going. I'm so excited to have a super awesome 2024 with you. It's just the beginning. Let's do the thing! Thank you so much for choosing to financially support what I do and appreciate you so much!