[Hikari's Izakaya Diary] If I Could, I'd Want to Be a Giant Isopod (6/4/2023)

June's here, and my schedule is already feeling packed. On top of my own regular content, I've gotten a ton of collab requests this month — it's a lot, but I'm genuinely excited about it. Whenever someone invites me to collab, I'm grateful they thought of me, and it's also a great way to reach new viewers through their audience. I've especially started realizing lately just how important collabs are — because, yeah, I've started feeling the channel growth plateau creeping in.

Since May, I've noticed my channel's growth kind of stalling out (the classic "growth plateau"). Not only has my regular subscriber bump from streaming slowed down, but even when other VTuber friends drop into my chat and bring their viewers along, the actual subscriber gain has gotten pretty small. Like, if seven VTubers drop by in one night, I might only gain about seven subscribers total. And on days I'm not live, I'm not pulling in new subscribers the way I used to. So this month, I wanted to actually sit down and figure out what's going on and what I can adjust.

Problem #1: my stream times. I always go live at night, which mostly reaches people who like having a stream on in the background while they work, or people on night shifts. Maybe I should start experimenting with some content or streams in the morning or afternoon to reach a different crowd.

Problem #2: my content. I've mostly relied on chatty "zatsudan"-style streams to pull viewers in, but honestly, most other late-night streamers are doing the same thing. If I want to reach new viewers, I probably need to shake up my content format. Singing streams are probably the best bet for reaching people outside my usual audience, since there's a whole crowd out there who only watches singing streamers — if I can tap into that, there's real potential to break out of my usual bubble. But getting good at singing takes real, sustained practice, and on top of that, my Japanese isn't great either. Right now I'm just setting aside a little practice time every day. So — if any of you know Japanese songs well, got any recommendations for songs that work well for a guy's voice?

Problem #3: I'm just not collabing often enough. If I want to grow my reach, the most direct way is to collab with new people and let their audience discover me — and that's exactly what I've been slacking on these past few months. Thankfully, this month I've gotten a lot of collab invites, and they're all projects I'm genuinely excited about. I'm looking forward to connecting more with other VTubers through these, and I've also got a few new project ideas in the works that I want to do together with the SODAART crew — stay tuned for those!

(Hikari as a Giant Isopod, by Maocao)

My life reflection for the moment: "If I could, I'd want to be a giant isopod." No need to think about anything, just drift lazily along the ocean floor. If you're hungry, there's free food to scavenge down there — no need to actively hunt, no drama, no need to worry about this messy, complicated world. And even though this seemingly harmless giant bug looks all soft and helpless, it's still got sharp claws — so if push comes to shove and there's really nothing to scavenge, it can absolutely go catch something else. Flexible, adaptable, and free.