What’s Coming Up in October? Interior Design Modelers – I need your help!

September 2017 Roundup and What’s Coming Up in October!

Hi everyone! In this post, I’m talking about how September went. As you know, September was woodworking month on the show, and I got a GREAT response from woodworkers on YouTube.
September

What Worked in September

• One of the things I’m noticing is a HUGE amount of my traffic is coming from suggested videos on YouTube. Those are the videos on the right hand side of the screen whenever you watch a video. I’m going to try to capitalize on this by starting to create videos that I think will be “related” to other videos (so that my curviloft videos would show up beside other curviloft videos, etc).
• About halfway through the month, I started linking to my Patreon page at the beginning of my videos instead of at the end. I saw an immediate increase in supporter activity on Patreon, probably because people weren’t watching long enough to find out I had a Patreon page.
• I revamped my playlist strategy and YouTube homepage to make it easier for people to start finding specific things that they’re looking for. I’m going to continue dialing in this strategy in October.

What Didn’t Work

• Social media strategy. So far, I haven’t been able to be active on social media the way I would like. I’ve been using it as a posting ground to drive traffic, but it hasn’t been growing, probably because I haven’t done a very good job making my accounts interesting. Haven’t quite figured out a game plan here, but my strategy needs to change.
• Too many basics and topic videos. While I feel that coving a topic every month has been fairly successful, I also haven’t been able to make the kind of videos that I know will generate big traffic. At the same time though, I’m also trying to build a framework of videos for each user base to help them get started modeling, so I need to strike a balance.
• Poor interaction on Patreon. I have done a really poor job actually making my Patreon page an interesting place where people would actually want to go. I’m revamping the page with new goals, new support levels, and new posts so that I can actually try to do a good job interacting with and supporting the people that support me.

Now let’s get into some analytics

Here’s my traffic numbers for my various networks in September

YouTube Analytics

YouTube continues to be my largest traffic source – I passed the 100,000 view in 1 month mark!!!!!!
Watch Time: 416,429 Minutes
Views: 101,920
Video Likes: 2,848
Video Dislikes: 34
Comments: 218
Subscribers – Up 1,435 to 12,828

Most Popular Videos Overall (I’ll link to these below)

Modeling Tensile Structures with Soap Skin and Bubble – 7,101 Views
Creating Floor Plans from Images in SketchUp – 4,050 Views
Creating Hexagonal Lattice Shapes in SketchUp – 3,635 Views
Creating a Frame and Skin Structure in SketchUp – 3,539 Views
Terrain Modeling in SketchUp with Sandbox Tools – 3,154 Views

Website Analytics

Unique Users – up from 4,779 to 5,368
Pages/Session – Up from 1.43 to 1.46
Bounce Rate – Down from 65.95% to 65.80%
Email subscribers – +104 – Total 1,201
Backlinks to Site – 2,008

Other Social Analytics

Facebook Likes – +51 – 1,099 Likes

Twitter Followers – +47 – 762 Followers

Pinterest Followers – +18 – 91 Followers

Patreon Supporters – +1 – 15 Patrons
Instagram Followers – Currently not actively posting or tracking

Affiliate Sales

I think it’s important to list the affiliate extensions that I’ve sold copies of down below. These are extensions that, if you decide to purchase them, I receive a commission. They, in addition to Patreon support and adsense from my YouTube videos, are how I pay for new extensions, how I’m going to pay for a 3D printer, and how I keep the lights on here at the SketchUp Essentials. As I said above, at the moment, I’m not going to list the exact money I’m making on these (unless a LOT of you are really interested in that), but I do want to be transparent on how I’m paying to keep the website up and running.

BoolTools2 – 0 Copy
Profile Builder – 0 Copies
Placemaker – 0 Copies
Mindsight Bundle – 2 Copies
SketchUp and Layout for Architecture – 0 Copies
Artisan – 0 Copies
Skatter – 0 Copies
SketchUp to Layout – 0 Copies
DoubleCut – 0 Copies
Estimator – 0 Copies
I’m also excited to note that in the coming months, I’m also going to be adding some extensions from Fluid Interactive to my affiliate offerings, including SketchFX (a powerful style editing extension), Ambient Occlusion (a rendering extension), and Viz (a parametric modeling extension.)

October Goals and Look Ahead

Goals

1. Start being more active on Patreon. I’m going to start posting model downloads, weekly polls, and other things to start making that a better hub for my supporters.
2. Revamp my website’s front page. Right now, I have a huge amount of space that’s covering the same material twice. I’d like to replace the main slider of posts with a slider of opt-ins that contain useful information with the goal of increasing mailing list signups
3. Increase affiliate program sales – maybe bring back Sunday affiliate program tutorials?
4. I wasn’t able to make a live event in September. I teach a meetup in October though, which I’m hoping to do a good job documenting. Hopefully I can make this into a useful YouTube video
5. Reduce the number of “topic” videos to 3 per week, and bring back more extension introductions and tutorials (targeting suggested video traffic).

October Video Topic – SketchUp for Interior Design and Modeling

In October, I’m going to talk a bit more about using SketchUp to design interiors. This will include discussions on space creation and customization, furnishing spaces, lighting, and rendering.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you struggle with when working with interiors!

I’m constantly amazed by the amount of positive support I receive when I post a new video. I love responding in the comments and talking with the people watching my videos. If you have the time, leave me a message on a YouTube video – I love talking with you!
Thanks, and as always, I’ll catch you in the next video!