"How To...Create a Basic Gantt Chart in Excel 2010" reaches half a million views on @YouTube! #wow #analytics

The Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin YouTube Channel has reached another landmark today as one of the videos has passed the 500,000 views mark. This is a WOW moment for me and I did not for one second think that so many people would view this video when I first posted it on 4th January 2011 last. As I write, the video today has 505,782 views. There are similar videos on how to create Gantt charts in Excel versions 2003 and 2013. The combined total of views for all three Gantt chart videos is 621,601 views - WOW again! A BIG THANK YOU to all my viewers!

Some data on the "How To...Create a Basic Gantt Chart in Excel 2010" video since it was posted:

• 505,782 views
• 2,525 Likes
• 51 Dislikes
• 523 comments
• 118 shares
• 744 Favourites added
• 497 subscribers
• 157,811 views from the United States
• 27,129 views from Ireland
• 2 views each from Togo, St Helena, Eritrea, and San Marino
• 65% Male, 35% Female
• 1,456,750 estimated minutes watched (since 01-SEP-2012) = 2 years, 281 days
• €**** Total estimated earnings ;-)

Here's the landmark video:

What's it like to teach to 10,000 learners in one day? #HDSDA #Analytics @YouTube

I never asked myself this question before as it would have been a hypothetical question. However, on Tuesday this week I managed to reach 10,163 learners on my YouTube channel - the first time the channel has breached the 10,000 views/day milestone. Regular readers of this blog will know that I am not shy about self-indulgently sharing this type of information - below are some of the analytics for views by region. Major English speaking countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia account for almost 70% of views. Other interesting locations near the bottom of the table (not shown below) are for three views each from Angola, Panama, Georgia, and Morocco. 

On the same day (Tuesday) I had three classes at which about 60 students attended. Reaching out on-line via YouTube to so many other learners in one day is a tremendously satisfying experience, though not as good as the vibe I get in the classroom. While there may be a few views from my own students (there were 164 views from Ireland on Tuesday), almost all of the 10,163 learners are of course unknown to me. I'd love to know how and why they ended up viewing my videos. Just over 60% of traffic sources are from Google or YouTube searches - so I'm guessing that learners are just looking to figure out how to do stuff or solve problems, and go to Google to find out. A growing source of traffic is from YouTube suggested videos - these are "Views from thumbnails appearing on the side of the page of other videos or on the end screen of a video". Google/YouTube are very clever at this.

I'd also of course like to know if the viewers actually found the videos beneficial and useful - did they learn what they needed? Feedback via comments is good, but only a tiny fraction of learners make comments. Unlike my classroom students, my on-line learners will not be tested at the end of a semester! 

As always, a HUGE THANK YOU to all who viewed the videos - it inspires one to keep going and create more videos.

8,311 viewers in a day - new @YouTube high #analytics

On Monday of this week the Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin YouTube channel had its best day ever with 8,311 views in one day. This is also the first time it has broken the 8,000 views per day barrier. As always, I am both thrilled and humbled that so many people have chosen to view my videos - a big THANK YOU to them all!

Just under half (3,989) of the views were from the United States, while there were just 56 from Ireland (my own views are not counted), and one from Nicaragua. The analytics for the day's views are interesting - especially to see from what countries the viewers are coming from, the numbers of views from each, the estimated minutes watched, and the average duration of the views. The total (estimated) minutes watched for the day was 25,860 minutes which is the equivalent of almost 18 days!  Below is a summary for the top 25 countries for the day:

3,000,000 @YouTube Views #Learning

A BIG THANK YOU to all the learners who helped my YouTube Channel pass the 3,000,000 views mark last Tuesday (6th August). I continue to be astonished and humbled that so many people find the videos useful. Most comments on the videos are positive or are enquiring about how to do something else with what viewers have learned. Over the summer there have been a lot of comments about embedding YouTube videos into PowerPoint which seems to work on an on/off basis.

Below as a screen shot (click to enlarge) of the views over the lifetime of the channel. You can see that there are definite trends and patterns in the chart. At the moment the daily view figures are starting to grow again after the usual summer slump. If past trends continue, the views will continue to climb until early December. The figure for Estimated Minutes Watched dates only from 1st September 2012, the figure shown is the equivalent of 10 years and 179 days.

As you can see, it took a very long time for things to get going. The first 1,000,000 took from 5th November 2007 to 29th April 2012 (2,365 days), the second 1,000,000 was from 30th April 2012 to 13th February 2013 (290 days), while the third 1,000,000 was from 14th February 2013 to 6th August 2013 (174 days).

Two and a Half Million Learners - Thank You!

This morning when I checked in on-line I noted that my Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin YouTube channel had passed the 2,500,000 viewers landmark. A huge THANK YOU to every single one of those folks who have checked out my videos. As I have written many times before on this blog - I am delighted and humbled that so many people are finding my modest efforts useful.

What started out as an experiment with an e-Learning class has turned into something that is starting to dominate my own learning and teaching experiences. Everyday I check the analytics for the channel to see who is learning what - it's addictive. I often look out for new ideas to create videos, and keep saying to myself "I must do more". I teach far more people via YouTube than I do in the classroom - at a wild guess I'd say at least 1,000 times more in the last 11 years since I left SmartForce (Skillsoft) and joined the National College of Ireland. Some of my own students use the channel, but 99% plus are from outside my classes. 

It's hard to write about this and not sound like I am slapping myself on the back and saying "Ah sure aren't you great!". But I've given up been falsely modest a long time ago. I am proud of each and every one of my students both inside and outside the classroom. After a lifetime in education I feel I might finally be getting something right. If I can help students in any way, however small - I will.

Some small YouTube Analytics Landmarks

Today the YouTube channel Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin has reached its highest ever position of a modest #87 in the world in the Lifelong Learning section of YouTube EDU. It has also reached just over 4,000 subscribers last week, and is breaking daily viewing figures almost every week. Last Tuesday there were 7,887 views - a new record. As always, I am quick to point out that these figures are almost insignificant in the overall context of YouTube - but I continue to be amazed, humbled, and delighted at these (to me) almost unbelievable numbers. 

Image Source: Wikipedia.

The jump to #87 may be due to some channels being removed/deleted, but I love it nonetheless. In the Top 100, the channel is ahead of the likes of Smithsonian Videos, and US National Archives. But the channel is a massive 924,000,000 behind the National Geographic Channel - a long way to go to catch up!

Next week I'll write about passing the next milestone - 2,500,000 views, and provide some detailed analytics to show who's viewing and what they are learning. New videos are in the pipeline, but May is the busiest month for us in the College, so most likely I'll create some new ones during June when things get a bit quieter.

And now 3,000 subscribers to Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin @youtube

Hot on the heels of reaching 2,000,000 views on my YouTube channel another milestone has been reached. Yesterday the 3,000 subscriber mark was passed (and yes - I know I'm boasting again!). Once again I am humbled and gratified that so many people subscribe to my channel and view the videos. I have noticed a recent surge in subscriptions as I get an email every time someone subscribes. The chart below shows this growth since the channel was set up in 2006:

The subscriber who made it as the 3,000th was "dperika" from the UK. There are subscribers from all over the world, for example: 6 from Kenya, 2 from Honduras, 2 from Cambodia, 1 from Mongolia, and 9 from Iraq. The countries with the largest numbers are: 903 from USA, 315 from UK, 189 from India, 180 from Ireland, and 105 in Australia.

My next series of videos will be remakes of my existing ones for the new version of Microsoft Office 365. Unfortunately this cannot be installed at work, so for the first time I will be making a series of videos at home. I'm starting with a free 1-month trial of Snagit which I will probably purchase once the trial is over - this is what my most recent videos have been created with.

Once again - a huge THANK YOU to all my subscribers!

My most popular video hits a quarter of a million views!

Over the weekend my How To... Create a Basic Gantt Chart in Excel 2010 video passed the 250,000 milestone in views - it is by far my most popular video (251,557 views as I write). It has almost double the number of views of the next most popular one - How To... Embed a YouTube Video into a PowerPoint 2010 Presentation (128,697 views). I posted this video on 4th January, 2011, so it has taken just over two years to reach this milestone. It is also my top earner - since last June (when I switched on monetization) it has earned over €2,000. Here is the video:

This video was easy to create, and I have a number of other videos similar to this one that are starting to attract good viewing figures. I think the thing that makes this successful is that first, Microsoft Excel does not have any tools for creating Gantt charts, but with some easy work arounds that I show in the video, it is relatively straight-forward to do. Secondly, most people may not be creating Gantt charts that often - maybe just once for a project. They therefore do not need a project management tool like Microsoft Project, and Excel offers an easy cheap alternative.

I'm also looking forward to later next week when I expect that my Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin channel will pass the 2,000,000 views mark!

Anatomy of 1,000,000 YouTube views - Part 3

My final publication of YouTube Analytics for the Learn with Dr Eugene O'Loughlin Channel shows some interesting information about how people find my videos. The top two sources are thanks to YouTube itself. 28% from videos that YouTube suggests to viewers when they are viewing other videos, and 26% are found through YouTube searches. Google search at 15.5% comes next.

Further down the list you'll that my YouTube channel comes in at a disappointing 0.5% - clearly very few people are viewing the videos by visiting my channel page. I'd like to see how this compares with other channel owners. The data shown below only starts at 29th November 2009 - data before this are not available.

Finally, many people have asked me if I make any money out of YouTube. Part of the YouTube Partner agreement (I think) is that we are not allowed to publish such details. However, in my case this is easy - I have not turned on "monetization" for any video, so my earnings are ZERO. However, purely in the interests of research of course, I will be turning on "monetization" very soon - then I can sit back and watch the cents rolling in!

750,000 YouTube views - a nice ring to it!

My regular readers will know that I like to keep an eye on my YouTube Channel view data - this evening the channel passed the 750,000 mark! On September 27th last I (boasted) wrote about reaching the 500,000 mark.

Once again I am both humbled and astonished that so may people find my videos useful - never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would reach so many people. Thank you so much to all my viewers for viewing the videos and making so many kind comments.

As a YouTube Partner I get quite detailed analytics for my channel - below is a chart of the last 30 day's viewing data:

Viewing figures dropped dramatically over Christmas and the New Year, but it is now picking up again - on Wednesday last 2,809 views occurred.

1,000,000 must be next - a real landmark to celebrate no doubt!

Clever Clogs (again)!

This evening Roma and I went to a Table Quiz in aid of Tightrope Productions - a drama production company based in Dún Laoghaire. Our daughter Vicki is a member of the company. The quiz was held in the Baker's Corner pub and was attended by mostly young people.

Image link to 1stForToys.co.uk.

We found the quiz quite hard - there were just the two of us in our team - I felt like Johnnie No-Mates! In the end between us we scored 57 out of 100 points, but it was enough to WIN! We were in the lead for most of the quiz, closely followed by another team (of six adults). We were ahead by 1 point going into the final round, but won by 3 points in the end. First prize was €40, which we did not accept - preferring that it be added to the fund-raising for the evening. We had a very enjoyable evening - I even won the raffle in which first prize was a €30 voucher for Diffney's Menswear!

57/100 is actually a very low score to win a quiz. Three weeks ago at the Killiney Lions Club quiz night (in which I prepared the questions and was also quizmaster) - a score of 86/100 was the winning score. So I won't get carried away with this victory. Nevertheless, it is exciting to be leading a quiz and winning in the end. In February of 2010 I was also part of a winning team in another Killiney Lions Club quiz night with a score of 82/100 - so we are on a roll!