Here’s How This Korean Bird-Watching YouTuber Went From Almost Shutting Down His Channel… To Having 110K+ Subscribers
So, there is a YouTube channel called 새덕후 Korean Birder.
It boasts some National Geographic level bird-watching videos.
When the channel first started off in November 2018 though, the YouTuber Kim Eo Jin had underwhelming views. In fact, it was only in 2019, he uploaded a special Q&A video to celebrate his 1,000 subscribers.
It was my second year of college that I realized I’m spending so much time and money for school… but I’m not really learning anything. So I dropped everything. I collected every last penny I had going into my education and made just enough to hold myself up for a year while I try YouTube. But it wasn’t easy.
— Kim Eo Jin
And it was in a recent video that the YouTuber revealed he “thought about quitting YouTube altogether” when he didn’t see a lot of growth happening for his channel.
Remember the Steller’s sea eagle video I uploaded last winter? To be honest, that was supposed to be my last video. That’s when it had been about a year since I got into YouTube. I had like 1K? 2K? subscribers at the time. I realized YouTube isn’t going to be as solid as I thought. I also was almost out of the budget I’d set aside for the channel. So… yeah, I was going to quit YouTube altogether.
— Kim Eo Jin
To his rescue though, one of his subscribers reached out. Kim Eo Jin shared, “That’s when I got an email.” This email, though he didn’t know at the time, was about to completely change his career and life too:
The email reached me in the best timing ever. It read, ‘Thanks for the quality content. I love the bird videos. If you happen to be in need of financial support, please let me know. I’m willing to sponsor your channel.’ I drafted up a response turning the offer down because I was pretty set on quitting. But before I clicked send, I showed the email to my father, to get his opinion.
— Kim Eo Jin
When he showed it to his father, his father recognized the tremendous opportunity as it is. Kim Eo Jin soon became convinced to meet up with the “sponsor” who sent the email.
My father read the email and told me that this is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime kind of an opportunity. He insisted that I at least meet up with the person. So I did. When I came face to face with the person behind the email, this person suggested that I take the financial support to cover the budget that goes into creating my content. Like… the car, the gas, the meals, the hotels, everything. In return, I would keep bird-watching and uploading videos. If and when my channel does grow into a larger platform, then we would talk more in depth.
— Kim Eo Jin
Alleged to be a CEO of a company, this mysterious sponsor got Kim Eo Jin’s YouTube channel to open up a whole new chapter. Just like that, with the sponsor’s help, Kim Eo Jin had the freedom to keep making bird-watching videos without worrying about unrelated problems.
As a full-time bird-watching YouTuber, Kim Eo Jin began pushing out extra-HQ, documentary-quality videos. Then, his channel flourished…
… to see a surge in subscribers and views per video! Now the channel boasts over 119,000 subscribers — more than a hundredfold since his humble beginnings.
In his latest interview with SUBUSU NEWS, Kim Eo Jin said his ultimate goal is “to continues making informative videos” which will ultimately “help raise awareness about the environment and help people see how they should protect the nature.”
Interested in seeing his A+ mini-documentaries? Here’s one of his recent adventures:
