I was sure daily uploads were the only way to grow, then I tried posting twice a week for 2 months
For the past year I did a video every single day on my channel. 365 uploads, no breaks, and my watch time graph was flat as a pancake. I kept telling myself the algorithm needed the volume. Then in March I got sick and skipped 4 days in a row. My whole week fell apart, but one of those old videos from January started picking up views on its own.
A guy I know who runs a channel about 3x my size told me he posts Tuesdays and Fridays, that's it. He said the daily grind was training my viewers to expect junk instead of waiting for something good. I didn't believe him at first, but after 2 months of twice a week uploads my average view duration went from 1:40 to 4:12. Same niche, same camera, I just had time to write a real script instead of rushing one out at 11pm.
Now I have 3 days a week where I can actually answer comments or plan the next one. The weird part is my subscriber count grew faster in those 8 weeks than in the whole first quarter.
Has anyone else tested upload frequency against quality like this, or am I just lucky with the timing? Curious what schedule works for you all.