September Channel Update

I want to start this periodic channel update by thanking all of you who support City Beautiful, and I want to give a special shout out to all of you who started supporting the channel recently. There’s been a recent uptick in patrons and that’s awesome!

Here’s the latest on City Beautiful. Please feel free to contribute suggestions and ideas in the comment section. I want to hear from you.

1. Spending Patreon Money. I spend 100% of the money from Patreon on costs directly related to the channel. For most of 2019, I’ve been using Patreon money to upgrade my filming equipment. I used to film videos with a point-and-shoot camera and $60 microphone, but I’ve since upgraded my audio and video equipment to improve quality and make it easier for me to make more videos faster. At this point, I have most of what I need and I’ll be spending future Patreon money on getting the resources and personnel I need to make my videos better. I already have an editor, but in the future I’m going to try and get animators and writers to help improve the video quality and let me focus more on writing better, more interesting scripts.
2. Merch. Through my connection with Standard, I have the ability to easily open a merch store for the channel and sell whatever I want, including t-shirts, pins, mugs, and posters. I haven’t started a store because nobody’s asked for one and I haven’t thought of a good idea for something to sell. The secret of YouTuber merch is that most creators don’t make any real money from it (including me, if I did it). It’s mostly a way to build a connection with the community. So if you have any interest in merch and an idea of what it should be, let me know. I’m also happy to not have a merch store at this point.
3. Top Tier Patreon. Last year I took a risk and made a “$500 - send me to Vancouver!” tier on Patreon. As you can tell from my last video, someone took me up on it! I’m really happy with how it went and how the video turned out. I want to do it again. Where should I ask someone to send me and make a video?
4. Button-down shirts. I’ve worn a collared, button-down shirt in every video on the channel. Would you all be upset if I wore a sweater or t-shirt instead? Am I worried about nothing? Has anyone even noticed what I was wearing?
5. Upcoming videos. My next video will be on 1) wildfires and land use planning; and 2) pedestrian malls. Any ideas for what I should tackle after that?
6. Livestreams. I took a brief hiatus from livestreams over the summer while I was on paternity leave. I’ve recently been told that hosting livestreams on one’s main channel hurts the views on other videos. The algorithm doesn’t like livestreams, I guess. I’ve heard that other creators use second channels for livestreams, or even move over to Twitch. Is there any preference among you all about where I do livestreams?
7. Set decor. I’ve been using a new studio set for the last few months, and I have some basic decor in the background. I’m working on getting a discontinued bus stop sign to add to the backdrop. Any other suggestions for what should go behind me?

Please let me know what you think about any and all of these things in the comments! I’m not going to be asking these things to random people on Twitter, just you.

Thanks again for all of your support!