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Jul 19, 20204 min read

YouTube from the Perspective of a Small Channel - Joe Cox

Hello! Right now you’re reading “The Creator Confidential”, a blog where famous YouTubers share their stories and tips they have for growing a YouTube channel. Today’s post is something special and the first of a series called “YouTube from the Perspective of a Small Channel”. In this series, small YouTube channels share their successes and struggles, how they got their first subscribers, why they started, and more! If you want to be featured, you can send me an email (thecreatorconfidential@gmail.com) or DM me on Instagram (@thecreatorconfidential). Over the past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joe, and here is the finished result. Enjoy!

Introduce yourself!

Hello! My name is Joe Cox and I'm 29 years old. I live in Tucson, Arizona and make vlogs related to my autism. I alternate between autism vlogs and fun vlogs that are about more general storytime-style subjects on my channel. I started vlogging because I wanted to bring my experience about having autism to the table. I felt I had a unique take on my autism, and that other people would enjoy my viewpoint.


I started vlogging in August 2016 when I was attending a private, non-profit school for those who have high-functioning autism between the ages of 18-25 called Chapel Haven West. Some of my favorite YouTubers are: The Aspie World (he has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism, and so do I), Yo Samdy Sam (a young woman with Asperger's), Talana Jordan (she is a University of Arizona student but does not have autism, rather, she is neurotypical, and we met in February 2020 and are now close friends, I graduated from the University of Arizona in August 2019), DizzyDollie7 (she is a young woman with Asperger's), and Stephanie Bethany (another young woman with Asperger's).


How did you, personally, become more integrated with and interact more with the YouTube community/fellow YouTubers?

I became more integrated with the YouTube community/fellow YouTubers by liking, commenting, and sharing their videos. A new way I did this was in 2016 when I joined the web forum Reddit and found the NewTubers sub-Reddit, which basically is for small YouTubers that are under 1,000 subscribers, like me. I'm currently sitting at 311 subscribers.


How did you get your first few subscribers?

I started my channel in May 2010 (as you know, didn't start vlogging until August 2016) and got my first few subscribers because they were either friends of mine from high school or they were just people generally interested in my content. Back then, YouTube's algorithm didn't really care about crappy video quality or crappy thumbnails, so I just uploaded random video files I had stored on my computer and they got quite a lot of views. I also took videos with my Flip HD video camera. One random video file I uploaded is behind the scenes of a British children's TV program in October 1972. The impressive thing about that is that it has almost 55,000 views on YouTube! And that was uploaded in 2010!

Have you encountered any types of bullying in real life or in comments because of your videos? How do you deal with this?

Unfortunately, I did encounter this one bully in 2019. He left a mean comment saying I was a "f**ing retard," and that I should "kill myself." I was upset and I cried about it but then I found out about the "hide comments from your channel" feature and now he is out of my life. I have done that for potential trolls from now on. I just don't let them get to me.

Do you have any apps that greatly helped your filming/editing process/overall YouTube experience?

I have two apps that have helped me with my filming/editing process/overall YouTube experience. I do edit with the resident software on my MacBook Pro, iMovie, and it works wonders. The second app is a browser extension for Firefox, and it's called TubeBuddy. It can help you make better titles/video descriptions/tags by suggesting better keywords and help you rank higher in search results.

What are your hopes for the future of your channel? What will your channel look like 2-10 years from now?

Hopes for the future of my channel include hopefully reaching 500 subscribers in maybe a month or two, since I upload every Monday around 3:30 PM. I'm very consistent with my scheduling. 2-10 years from now, I hope my channel is at 1,000 subscribers or above.

I do have one funny story that happened while filming/editing. I was in the middle of filming a vlog and all of a sudden my iPhone did its text message notification alert. My friend was texting me about something. If you watch the video--I couldn't entirely cut out the text message alert sound, so part of it is still in there!


Finally, why should people subscribe to your channel?

You should subscribe to my channel because I offer a point of view on Asperger's syndrome and mild autism that no one else does on YouTube. I have a very distinctive sense of humor and you will notice that as well! I do pretty funny storytime-style vlogs that do not have to do with my autism too!

Thanks for reading! A huge thanks to Joe for taking the time to answer all the questions. Here are the links to all his socials:

Please subscribe to be notified whenever a new post goes up! If you want to contact me with an idea for this blog, want to be featured, or want to send some feedback, then you can email me at thecreaterconfidential@gmail.com OR scroll down and send a message :)


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