I guess this is a very 2010s way of looking at the world. I should probably be writing about ‘TikTok or Instagram?’ but as I have never TikToked in my life, and I came off Instagram some years ago, that post is never going to happen.
I started this blog in 2014 – over 10 years ago – and have been hovering at around 1,000 subscribers for a couple of years now. I started putting content on my YouTube channel regularly in mid-2020 – five years ago – and have over 2,000 subscribers there. So, on those stats, YouTube definitely wins.
I love my blog though, probably because I enjoy writing. Also it’s a great archive for me to remember what I was doing and thinking at different times. Yes of course I use both platforms to promote my work, but that’s not the only reason (if it was, I wouldn’t be able to do it – too soul-destroying). Another reason is to build up a body of content that might be useful for people who don’t have enough resources to book me to run a workshop or retreat, or to buy my books. This is why I pay extra to have a searchable blog, so people who want to find out about creative research methods, or radical research ethics, or creative workplace or academic writing, or being an independent researcher, can follow relevant tags or use the search function. And there is also relevant material on my YouTube channel; I sometimes turn a blog post into a video, or vice versa, but mostly the content is different.
It’s interesting to compare the most popular posts and videos of all time. The four most popular posts on this blog are:
Creative Research Methods (2015 – 6,853 views)
Why and How to Negotiate with Academic Publishers (2018 – 3,506 views)
Methodology, Method, and Theory (2018 – 2,826 views)
How To Chair An Event (2018 – 2,480 views)
The four most popular videos on my YouTube channel are:
Methodology, Ontology and Epistemology (2020 – 17,549 views)
Why Is Research Ethics So Important? (2021 – 16,859 views)
Do You Want To Be An Independent Researcher? (2020 – 12,424 views)
Finding And Using Secondary Data In Research (2020 – 11,399 views)
It evidently takes a while for a post or video to become popular (unless something goes viral, but that is very unlikely to happen to any of my content). And I think it is interesting that content intended to demystify – methodology etc – features in both lists. My video on ‘methodology, ontology and epistemology’ has been the most popular one on the channel for some time now. I know it gets used in teaching, which is fine by me – occasionally some lecturer with a conscience will contact me to ask permission, but I always give it because it’s extra promotion for my work and if it also helps a beleaguered lecturer then I’m happy about that too.
That being the most popular video inspired me to start my new ‘What Is?’ series of back-to-basics videos giving brief introductory explanations of key research terms and concepts. More content coming soon!
I was surprised to find that my YouTube videos get so many more views than my blog posts. Logically, this means I should stop writing my blog and focus all my energies on my YouTube channel. However, I have been blogging for 20 years (I had other blogs before this one) and I don’t want to give it up. But my posts may become a little less frequent… we’ll see.
Helen Kara 
An interesting post! I’m grappling with this a little bit as my own blog subscriber count has held steady at the same sort of number for a few years now. I’m considering a few different video options for things I’d like to do, but similar to you I like writing!
I’m coming up on 3000 posts for Viva Survivors and really don’t see a point in stopping. I’m glad that some people find value in what I write but the writing is as much for me and helping me to think and explore topics/ideas as it is about viva help.
I think over the summer I’ll be thinking about how I can add a video element to what I do (which will make it daily blog + monthly zine + some videos = Nathan thinks there are 29 hours in a day!) 🙂
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Hi Nathan, glad it resonated. And your comment resonates with me, too, at least the part about thinking there are 29 hours in a day does!
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You could do both a blog and YouTube videos. Treat the blog as the script. Synthetic text to voice tools work well now. For a few years I have been using Narakeet to turn powerpoint presentations into slide shows with a male Queensland accent, like mine. By now you might find one which produces a reasonable likeness of you, as well as your voice.
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Thanks Tom. I think ‘Narakeet’ is a great name – made me giggle! I’ve been wondering about doing something like that but I feel like I want to say different things in writing and on video… mostly. It’s a good point though and probably the way I should be going.
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Why would you have a different message in writing and by video? Do you have different audiences for each? Do they lend themselves to different topics? Do you have enough time and energy to come up with twice as much content? What I do is work out to say in longform text, then create versions of that for other media. I learned to do video back in the era of video tape.
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Hi Tom, I can’t reply to your latest comment for some weird reason, so I hope you see this. Yes they do have different audiences: my YouTube channel attracts a lot more students, and more junior students too. Also it may be partly because I need, and have, help recording my videos so I do them in batches, so if I have something I want to put out before the next recording date then I will put it on the blog (and maybe use it as the basis for a video later on, if I think it will transfer well – for example, I won’t be doing that with this post, as I don’t think it would make a good video). And people watch my older videos far more often than they read my older blog posts, so I try to use YouTube primarily for content that will stand the test of time. I try to write blog posts which will do that too, but some are time-specific e.g. I have a book launch coming up; I don’t generally use my YouTube channel for those kinds of announcements (though there are a few exceptions). So yes, I see a fair few differences between the formats for my purposes. Doesn’t mean I think it is, or should be, like that for others though – one of the joys of self-publishing, in any format, is its flexibility.
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That would be a shame (less of your blog posts that is) as I look forward to them …. much more so than the videos …. maybe that’s because I too love the written word …. that’s also a dead giveaway for my age ….
Carmen 🙂
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Dead giveaway for mine too, Carmen! Thanks for your kind words. I also prefer posts because I can read an average-length blog post way faster than I can watch even a quite short video.
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So happy to read valuable articles on research methodology.
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Thank you 🙂
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Me too …. I can go at my own speed when reading which is not the case when viewing!
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Exactly. Or listening… I’m currently at a conference where people are talking very fluently about lots of polysyllabic abstract concepts, I’m interested in the topic but can’t easily follow when it all goes by so quickly. I read fast but also value the opportunity to take a moment to ponder, re-read, stop and look something up etc
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Yep, me too!
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