# The Last Regular Video on this Channel

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Andreas Spiess
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTerwIniB24
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/39241

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

Today's episode is different. After 10 years and more than 500 videos, it's time to look back, extract what I've learned, and explain why this is the last regular video on this channel. If that interests you, stick with me. Gity YouTubers, here is the guy with a Swiss accent bringing you a new episode with fresh ideas around sensors and microcontrollers. I will divide this video into three parts. From 0 to 1,000, from 1,000 to 100,000, and from 100,000 to 1 million. The channel started on June 22, 2015, a Monday. The first video had poor quality and a very niche topic, but the story of this YouTube channel started earlier. At the time, I was consulting on ERP systems. Social media had started to become a topic in corporations and I didn't want to comment on something I did not understand. So I began a side project, Andreas Learns Social Media. The leading platforms at the time were Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. I didn't like Facebook and never understood Twitter, but I did see the value in YouTube. I decided to set a goal of building a channel with 1,000 subscribers. I allocated a budget of 1,000 Swiss Franks primarily for advertising. My assumption, the hardest part is the beginning where nobody knows you and the YouTube algorithm has no reason to promote your content. I also had no clear target audience in mind. But by video number six, it became clearer. I wanted to speak to makers, a term not yet common at the time. AliExpress was new and nothing for the faint-hearted because it was foreign and most people did not trust such suppliers. Paying online with credit cards did not help in this respect. Not for me. I'm born as an optimist. That's why I could get almost anything for very little and helped others to try. Back then, my basement was still the office of my company and I was working at least 100% in my day job. All videos were created in my free time. So, how did I spend the 1,000 Swiss Franks? I bought YouTube ads to get 1,000 views per video. my hypothesis, this is enough visibility to get on the map of the algorithm. And it worked. In November, the first video passed 1,000 views without help, and I still had 200 Swiss Franks of my budget left. By Christmas, I had passed 1,000 subscribers. So, the initial project was a success. I learned a lot and could have stopped here. But I didn't because something unexpected happened. I became addicted to viewer feedback. Frankly, I got more positive feedback from one video than in my whole professional life before. Later, we will also talk about negative ones. So, I continued one video per week. The channel grew and each milestone was a surprise. Meanwhile, AliExpress and Bangot gained traction. The maker community grew. And then came the ESP 8266, cheap, Arduino compatible, and with Wi-Fi. This chip brought my old interest in wireless communication back to the channel. The audience was now clearly defined. the advanced maker or motivated enthusiast. Topics were easy to find because we still had to build everything from scratch. Readymade solutions were rare. Some trademarks of the channel were also established during that time. The guy with a Swiss accent started as an excuse for my English but became part of the brand. The white gloves came after complaints about my injured fingers. They stopped this discussion. The hat originated at Fakami, the largest Harley meeting in

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00]

Europe. It was a joke at first, but became permanent after several months of hesitation. But I divert. Then came Laura. Two-way long-d distanceance wireless communication. Low power, low cost, impressive. This channel's viewers helped build out the global TTN network, and I still remember meeting many of you and taking selfies at events. Laura even brought me to Hydraot for a presentation, an event packed with young people interested in this technology. And I gave myself a world record for my 60th birthday. More than 200 km range with a small Laura module. Later came the ESP32. Initially just a bigger ESP 8266. It eventually replaced it in most of my projects. The ESP32 is still what I call the Swiss Army knife of IoT. And then suddenly came the next milestone, 100,000 subscribers. A significant achievement considering I was still doing this in my free time, even while working on a project for Emirates Airways in Dubai. YouTube sent a plaque, which was meaningful at the time. Today, it just sits on a shelf gathering dust from 100,000 to 1 million. I also explored community projects. Self-organizing projects were a big thing back then because in my professional environment with project valued at up to 100 million I couldn't try it. So one summer I launched a self-organized initiative to build an autonomous tank. It failed because of unclear goal settings and decision-m. After analyzing other projects like Linux, I realized that most community projects were not self-organized but had a clear leader. The next summer project was more structured modeler power supplies for MCUs and Raspberry Pies. We made fast progress and build working prototypes. But then COVID 19 hit. Component shortages made it impossible to continue and the project was stopped. Some other community projects featured on this channel, however, succeeded. Tiny GS, a satellite tracker for small Laura satellites. Started in 2019 by friends of Julian, then a 16-year-old student who built and launched his own satellite. Today, Tiny GS has around 2,000 active stations tracking satellites built by universities worldwide. Meshtastic, a Lauraamesh network I presented already in mid 2020. Later, my video was referenced in an American research paper on dangerous technologies. Interesting. radioondi. info, a global weather balloon tracking network. After my video, the website crashed. Now the network has receivers on all continents. I still love to hunt balloons when they come into my area. Unfortunately, this is not often the case. IoT upstory, a framework for connected ESP 8266 and ESP32 devices. It was a precursor to Tasmota and ESP Home. Now we need to address negative comments and thumbs down. When the channel grew, the number of negative comments and particularly thumbs down increased. I was able to handle negative comments because at least I knew what was wrong. Completely different with thumbs down where the creator has no idea about the reason until I got used to it. It was very depressing and I even considered stopping the channel because of them. Fortunately, YouTube changed the process around thumbs down and I learned to deal with it. Another important goal was always education. Many viewers wrote that they got better jobs thanks to this channel. That always made me proud. When I was young, older friends helped me. Now I could return the failure. Also for viewers in countries where local opportunities are limited like that they can get a good job and do not have to migrate. Over the years the context

### Segment 3 (10:00 - 14:00) [10:00]

changed. IoT is no longer just for the nerds. It has become mainstream. Commercial products emerged. Boards now include Laura displays, GPS and batteries. sensors became plug and play devices. So the channel also moved up the stack. Already in 2019, I introduced IoT stack, a framework for integrating IoT devices on the Raspberry Pi. It remains a solid tool to explore underlaying components, especially for those interested in Docker. Later the focus shifted towards Home Assistant, Proxmox and virtualization. That's several levels above do-ityourself Arduino sketches in terms of abstraction and far more powerful. The Raspberry Pi once central for IoT servers was replaced by used mini PCs. Another evolution came with a professionalization of YouTube. Today, most TV channels operate successful on YouTube and exotic channels like mine have become less important. Initially, only YouTube run ads. Then product sponsorships began to arrive, filling the gap created by the diminishing returns from YouTube advertisements. First, I was proud to get products for free, but quickly realized that this compromised my independence. So, I mostly stopped doing sponsored content with a few exceptions like a test of expensive Laura Gateways, which was too expensive without sponsored material. Until recently, I even resisted YouTube's midroll ads because I disliked them when I was a non-premium user. Additionally, I have never done collaborations involving money. I only accepted unpaid expert help from suppliers. The channel was a hobby and I only wanted enough income to stay independent from asking my wife before buying a new instrument. Today, many YouTube videos or even channels are optimized to generate income. That's okay, but not my approach. I still prefer expert opinions on paid content. Then came my 65th birthday and I retired from SAP consulting. I also became a grandfather without doing much for it and I joined the Swiss ham radio executive team. Still, I had a bit more time to explore complex topics like RTK GPS. They are fascinating but very time consuming to produce. When I choose not to commercialize, I also gave up the goal of reaching 1 million subscribers a long time ago. But when I recently passed 500,000 subscribers and produced my 500th video, I decided to make a change. Today, it's June 22, 2025, precisely 10 years after the first upload. So, this will be the last regular video on this channel. I'm not stopping completely from producing videos, but priorities will shift. Life becomes priority number one. Videos become priority number two. And therefore, my upload schedule will become irregular, no longer as precise as a Swiss clock. The most important comes at the end. You, the viewers who are still watching, your engagement was the driving force behind this channel. Thank you. I will never forget our many conversations. Some of you followed the channel over many years and I liked your frequent comments. Even if I do not know most of you personally, it felt like that. A special thanks goes to my patreons. Paying for something that's free sends a powerful message. Much more than just covering expenses. It showed appreciation. When this video goes live, I'll be on the Premier Highway in Tajikistan. If the trip goes well, I'll be back in autumn with more videos. That was all for today. This time there are no links in the description. Thanks for watching and see you in the next video. Bye.