When I first started making YouTube videos I never expected it to go far, if anywhere at all. I did have one thought in my head, though, as I put my adventures and thoughts onto the platform. That thought was simply: “It would be cool to get a paycheck from Google for this.”
That was it. I was going to keep making videos no matter if I made money from Google Adsense or not, but in the back of my mind I just thought it would be fun. I kept making videos whenever I felt like it without giving that hope much thought.
Fast forward to summer 2018 as I prepped to move to Albania. I realized that there was little to no content on YouTube about the country. As someone who would always search for videos of a country before I went to visit, I was having trouble. I would see a video from BBC or maybe VICE, but there was no one personally creating content in Albania. I decided to fill that void as best as I could.
My plan was pretty simple; I would start a series entitled “My Albanian Life” and I would format it as a travel show about life, traditions, culture, and history in Albania through the eyes of a foreign host (me). I made videos about different types of traditional foods, delved into the history on bank notes, even tracked expenses to see how much 10€ could buy me in Albania.
My plan was working, I was creating content about an unknown country on the Adriatic and after a few months of weekly videos I was getting recognition for my work. I was interviewed on three national news stations, had a number of internet-based articles written about my work, and even was consistently being recognized on the street as the “American YouTuber.” I would get emails or DMs three or four times a week from people who wanted to visit or move to Albania. I became a bridge between foreigners and this country. Everything was working the way I wanted it to, and I could see my hard work was paying off. Then, in quick succession, a few things happened that threw everything off…
The first was that I got that first paycheck from the ads I was able to finally put on my videos. That initial fun thought had become a reality and it caused me to lose some of my drive to keep going. I had set a goal for myself, I reached that goal, and now I was losing the motivation of what to work for.
Secondly, I realized at the end of 2019 that basically every time I pulled out my camera during that year it was to create an episode for my “show.” I began to edit my yearly recap video and realized I had very little footage of the fun times and good memories of 2019, it was mostly scripted - often staged - moments that don’t really fit together into a feel good, nostalgic montage. When the goal of my yearly recap video is to help me remember the year, those are the moments I want to see. I was missing the parts of my year that made it special.
Third, 2020 hit. We all know what happened. But one of the biggest impacts on my work was that Albania was one of the few countries that remained open, allowing anyone to come in without tests or quarantines. While this was a great opportunity for more tourism in Albania, which was ultimately one of my goals, it had some unintended consequences. I no longer had a monopoly on Albania content on YouTube. People with far bigger platforms than myself had come and were making their own videos and slowly my videos were being pushed out of the search results due to sheer lack of views. Not a problem at all, no. Frankly, it didn’t matter at all. But that showed me that my show had run its course. It had provided the necessary information to those that wanted to come when the world was closed and Albania was open, and now the country was getting more recognition through the platforms of others.
My videos had done their job and were no longer needed.
Thank you to anyone that has watched, subscribed, shared, commented, or anything else. (except those people that stole my footage… definitely don’t thank them.)
But now it’s time for me to move on, it’s time to find a new direction for my channel and what I create. I am not leaving Albania yet, which means many of my videos may still revolve around Albania, but it’s time to make my channel my own. It’s time to include me, my life, my passions. It’s time to start anew.