Now uploading a video was just the beginning, there were descriptions to add, end cards and title cards to insert, timestamps to include and many more features. Snowdrop slowly configured his channel and decided he needed to do something else. He'd been at this stupid project for a whole week, cooped up in his room. Usually on break, he hated the idea of going outside, getting some sunlight, and exercising. Now Snowdrop could bask in the pleasure of accomplishment, knowing that he finally completed his goal.

However like most things, that sense of contentment left him as most things do and now Snowdrops desires and insecurities came back to haunt him. Being idle allowed Snowdrop to self-reflect and there were so many things he did wrong. Watching some other videos, his audio wasn't clear, his script was unpolished, his topic and video length was too long. Snowdrop started to get a sense of imposter syndrome and again Snowdrop started questioning himself and Whether anything he did was even worth it.

Going through this process of self-questioning, denial, and acceptance was a common action for Snowdrop. Snowdrop was a bit cynical, however his curiosity often lead him down these routes of questioning and reflection. There was a lot of sophistry, but eventually Snowdrop came to his own conclusions on the value of his work.

Snowdrop knew that his channel would receive no visitors unless he either advertised for it, or he continued to make more. Both were difficult as there were millions of content creators and videos and his was just one of many. Every video had a creator, some were simpler and others more professional and every single one was available for people to watch. From his research, it could take months for a channel to even get 1 dedicated viewer (DVs) and many of the largest channels took years to get the DVs that they had.

Snowdrop roughly calculated it took an average of 3-4 years for a channel to get 1 million views total and maybe more if they were popular enough to get that many DVs. The key was to make more content and the better quality it was the more people stayed to watch. Content creation wasn't easy and most of the time was unpaid. There were so many examples to be seen whether it be advice from famous Chinese entrepreneurs to college student run translator sites about their work.

A Chinese entrepreneur once said "Today it's difficult, tomorrow it's worse, however the day after tomorrow is beautiful." (今天很困难，明天更困难，但后天很美好)
however many never last long enough to see the fruits of hard work and success.

Snowdrop himself had seen sites shutdown, his favorite games and servers disappear because there was no funding. Sites like myoniyoni were gone, an era of flash disappeared, and yet there were survivors as well. Translators like asianhobbyist, activetranslation.xyz, scantalators and more that did work without any sign of profit in mind. Many of the asian books he read said that private accumation of capital is ruthless, since western economics stated capital flow and investment is directed toward the desires of the market. Yet many did what they liked to do and hoped that enough people support them, sometimes it was luck and other times they prepared to capture the incoming tide of enthusiam.

Anime had become mainstream, the internet and technology was always advancing. UP streaming sites didn't exist 12 years ago, and so those early pioneers who were able to grasp at such opportunities were considered geniuses and they possessed so much influence. The time of an individual streamer or content creator being so powerful on a site was not around, because the site had grown so much. However they were still giants in the industry, Swedish gamers, popular music composers, even the largest companies in the world competed for viewers. So it wasn't hard to imagine content created by individuals such as snowdrop's were eclipsed.

It seemed that getting to 10,000 viewers was a daunting task, because it meant that 10,000 people had to actually be interested in the things that he created. Philosophically everyone had their own goals and desires. *1 To some that joy could be found in content creation, whether it was the validation that people enjoyed their work, their desire for fame, or even for monetary gain. Everyone had their own abilities and work ethics that allowed them to do what they did. For Snowdrop, that desire was just to be able to create something. That idea that he could make something that everyone CAN enjoy, even if nobody did. The fact there was that possibility and that he himself made it was a comforting thought.

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*1 psychology - Maslow's hierarchy of needs

AN: So much telling instead of showing, I may need to rewrite this whole story and develop each action slowly. Sometimes I feel I'm moving too fast, because I don't show the video editing, the scripting, the audio editing, just everything. Other times I fear doing that will extend it and be boring.

I do hope I've captured some facet of content creation and the difficulties in doing so. Jeez writing like most things is hard, especially if one endeavors to write well.

Sheesh, neglected to mention the environment, his friends so much things and avenues to write and very little explored...