Does Uploading More Actually Grow Your YouTube Channel?

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More uploads = more chances, but not a guarantee

Every video you upload is another shot at someone finding your channel, liking what they see, and sticking around. A channel with a hundred videos simply has more chances to be discovered than a channel with none.

But "upload more" isn't a strategy on its own. It's more about what you're uploading, and whether it's actually connected.

A lot of creators hear "upload more" and start throwing out just about anything and everything to hit a number.

This creates two new problems: Your audience doesn't know what to expect from you next, and YouTube doesn't know who to show your videos to either.

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The upload-more experiment that backfired

During the TubeSpanner Tuesday livestream, Stanley Orchard shared a personal example that's worth sitting with. A strategist once told him to double his output. So he started an insane cadence of 150 videos a year.

His views before this cadence was around 60,000 views a year, and it went up to 175,000 views a year for the 2 years he was doing this cadence.

He said it didn't double the amount of views, it tripled them.

But the issue he ran into was when he went to VidSummit during that 2nd year and he was running into creators who were in the same circles... and he didn't really want to tell them about his channel because he wasn't excited about the content he was making. He wasn't proud of it.

He didn't have as much time editing, so he couldn't put out great videos and there weren't any videos that popped like the year before he doubled his output.

So on the third year, he only made 50 videos, and he was still able to earn 175,000 views within that year.

"I earned the same amount of views because I was able to hit that quality level that far surpassed when I'm just like hammering stuff out," Stanley said.

There is merit in uploading more content as it's a gateway for people to find your channel, but you shouldn't sacrifice the quality of your video.

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Growth means different things to different creators

Ask three creators what "growth" means and you'll get three different answers.

For Stanley Orchard, he measures growth by output over the life of his channel. He's aiming for 4,000 to 8,000 videos over his full YouTube journey. He has a vague idea of what that paycheck is going to look like, what the subscriber count is going to look like, but his library of content is how he judges his journey.

For Danielle, CEO of TubeSpanner, she watches the numbers most creators watch. Subscribers, views, watch time, retention. Although she acknowledges that none of those is the number that matters. It's more about seeing steady, roughly predictable upward movement over time.

There's no universally correct growth metric. What matters is picking one (or a few) that reflect what you actually want out of your channel, and tracking it consistently instead of chasing whichever number moved this week.

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Consistency beats binge-uploading

Uploading is like an ongoing home maintenance. If your contractor walks off in the middle of the job, you'd be upset. Not because the work they did was bad, but because they didn't finish what they started.

Creator do this to their audience constantly. They build up momentum on a series or a format, then stop without warning. It's jarring, and it costs you the trust that consistency built.

On the flip side, channels that close the loop on what they start—finishing projects, completing series, delivering the payoff they promised—tend to perform better than channels that constantly new threads and abandon them.

If you're going to upload more, the volume needs to be consistent, not a burst. A cadence you can sustain long-term beats a cadence that burns you out in three month.

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Think less of niche, think focus

Andrew Kan made a point of reframing "niche" as focus. What is your channel focus?

Five videos can feel like "we've covered this" to a creator, but in the context of a channel's full lifetime, it's a tiny fraction. Most creators pull away from a working focus too early, whether because they're tired of talking about it that week or they felt like it was enough.

For Stanley, his offshore fishing videos are his highest performers, but he can't make three of those a week. So he mixes in dock fishing, beach fishing, and freshwater trips. These are content that don't perform as well individually, but it keeps the channel varied enough that he's not repeating the same video, and gives casual viewers something different if they binge the catalog.

If you know your next upload isn't going to be your top-performing format, then give your audience a reason to watch the "off" video instead of just hoping they will.

Note

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Packaging still matters

A lot of "my videos aren't growing" problems are actually packaging problems. Title clarity, thumbnail contrast, and whether your description supports the video topic aren't a content or upload-frequency issue.

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So, does uploading grow your channel?

Yes, but only if it's focused, consistent, and doesn't come at the cost of quality.

More uploads mean more chances for someone to find you. It's still up to you to tighten your packaging and getting them to click and watch through.