In the YouTube world, almost everyone seems to have an angle.
Contrary to this trend, F48 Films- a self described “random channel” based in Northern Nevada- has found success without having a specific niche.
“People told me it’s hard to make it very far as a random channel. I’m happy I’ve gotten so far,” says Rober Fahrney, my dad.
In just a few years, he’s amassed more than one-thousand subscribers on YouTube without a consistent upload schedule, another usual suggestion to find success.
He says this uncommon approach to content creation is a result of his goals with the channel.
“YouTube is something I’ve always kinda wanted to do, just to be able to share my creative ability.” says Fahrney. “My videos are fairly random.”
Fahrney, who’s posted aerial drone videos, car repair, and diving videos, says he tries to avoid making content just to gain subscribers. Instead, he prefers to make content that “feel(s) good at the time”.
Despite his unconventional approach to Youtube, Fahrney has been able to spot a trend in what people do and do not respond to.
“Believe it or not, some of the most popular videos are ones that I wouldn’t have thought were going to be popular,” he says, “They were primarily how to videos working on vehicles, the ones that are least viewed seem to be a lot of the aerial shots.”
This is a trend that is disappointing to Fahrney, who prefers aerial work over more educational videos.
“I prefer aerial work because that’s a passion of mine that I’ve had since I was a young child.” Fahrney says.
When he was a kid, the man behind F48 Films found his passion in flying radio controlled mini airplanes. That passion, which eventually extended to flying drones, heavily informed the kind of content he chose to make once he started his channel.
Though he is generally positive about his experience on YouTube, Fahrney cautions new YouTubers not to push themselves too hard to reach a certain goal.
“I did get some YouTube burnout,” says Fahrney, “I was just pushing so hard trying to get the view count up and get monetized and went through that whole process and pretty much when I achieved the monetization I was at a burnout level.”
This eventually caused him to pull back from YouTube a bit to regain inspiration and regroup. Now, Fahrney says that he’s anxious to start making videos again.
“In the future I would like to work on a nice vehicle and be able to get some aerial shots of it,” he says of combining what he likes filming and content viewers seem to like from him. “I think that that would probably make it a lot better.”
Fahrney encourages anyone interested in starting YouTube to give it a try, and not to fall into the trap of putting yourself in one specific category.
“Go after your creative passion. I think if you do that, you’re probably going to have success with what you do. It’s about being passionate and being creative.”