Update: In August of 2025 we have closed our YouTube channel.
Yesterday on the podcast I shared a bit about Do the Woo in the New Year. In today’s WooBits I wanted to drill down on a couple of those things.
WooBits and conversation
Well, most of you might know that WooBits has had a few changes. I say this with sarcasm dripping out of my mouth. It actually has had a lot, and just when I think I have figured out what to do with it, well surprise, it’s time to change up the format, again. This one has been tough for me to get the right focus on. It started as WooCommerce news, which I eventually dismissed as I chose not to join the ranks of news podcasts. Then it meandered between highlights in the community, my own commentary and other random thoughts. Through all of this it never occurred to me what it really needed. Not until two weeks ago.
In the end, finally wrapped my head around what is missing. And that is what Do the Woo is all about. Raising voices. Conversation. A podcast for the community by the community. Not me droning on and on every Friday. So what should I do?
As I mentioned in yesterday’s podcast, I will be adding new hosts. But that’s to cover some new slots of the regular episodes I have coming up. So instead, why not make it the weekly show I am still part of but bring in a co-host each week to have the conversation with. Not an ongoing host, but a guest host. Someone that would like a one-off chance to do a show. So moving ahead that’s what it going to be. The topics will vary as they have in the past, but I’ll be joined by someone to share their own insights and perspectives.
In fact, I have David Bissett lined up for the first one where we will be talking about the state of social media.
Soon I will have a place where people can sign up to be on WooBits with me here on the site. So keep an eye out for that if this interests you. There will be some general criteria to follow, but overall I just want us to have a fun conversation.
Do the YouTube
The other thing I wanted to share with you is our new YouTube channel. Now you might wonder why I haven’t had a channel before this. Well, I did. And here’s the story behind that one.
During my years of BobWP tutorials I built up a decent channel with a couple of thousand subscribers. Since my blog always came first, I would simply repost video tutorials on my channel and never spent anytime trying to build it up. I had no dreams of being a YouTuber, and still don’t. For me it was just another marketing channel.
As I got less and less out of doing video tutorials and simply writing posts, the channel was being updated. It still got traffic but I was already seeing people asking questions about why I was missing something or other on a tutorial that was now 4, 5 or 6 years old. I grew tired of that quickly and found very few of them could be considered evergreen.
So after I started podcasting, I decided to start converting audio to video and putting my podcasts on the channel. They would get a few listens, but nothing dramatic. At one point I systematically started deleting some of the old, outdated tutorials and slowly stopped uploading the podcast files. Yet during this time people were still dropping in, commenting, and asking why this tutorial wasn’t making any sense to them. You know those tutorials that were old and outdated. So about a year ago I said screw it. I deleted the channel. And my subscribers. I cannot not say what drove me to do it exactly at that give moment, but it happened.
In retrospect, maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing to do. And it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done something stupid. But nevertheless, what was done was done.
The other day someone asked my why I didn’t have the podcasts on YouTube as that would be his preferred medium. At the same time I had been reading how YouTube is more friendly to audio only podcasts there that are converted into video. I’m not sure what it meant by friendly, but between that and hearing the single request, I decided to start a new one for two reasons:
- Making is accessible to another audience
- The fact that we will be doing some live streams in the new year
So I powered up an account I had at Repurpose.io and started the process. I randomly chose to upload around 115 podcast videos from the last 16 months or so. Mostly those that seemed evergreen. Some of the artwork screwed up on the titles making them too small and odd looking, but that’s life. So moving forward, with new artwork and some kind of strange YouTube strategy, it will be added to the mix. There’s still some work to be done there, for example a video introducing the channel, and I’ll be working on that. But until then, if you want to subscribe just go here.
Well, that’s if for this WooBits. And if all goes as planned, you will be hearing more and more guest co-hosts joining me as we move into this new year. And if you have a WooCommerce business, and you are interested in helping support the builder community, our Friday WooBits and help us keep providing transcripts for accessibility, consider becoming a Community Friend for the next twelve months. If you are interested, just ping me where its convenient for you and I’ll give you more details.
Again, thanks to all my Pod Friends for making Do the Woo what it is today and thank you for listening. Until the next time, keep on Doing the Woo.
