I was looking back at my YouTube channel achievements listed by VidIQ and started to think about how it all began. I think it started with the very first video that I put together demonstrating knot tying. I remember sitting on the floor back in 2005 with a piece of black foam core and a white rope while my son held the video camera over my shoulder. I wanted to demonstrate the knots that scouts are required to know from the tires’ POV. This was part of my Wood Badge ticket to create a DVD that could be given out to scout troops in the area. I converted the VHS videotape into a digital file on my computer. Then set about editing for the next two days. By the end of the year, I had a finished DVD that I could give to scout leaders at the next roundtable. DVDs were the latest technology at the time and we’re not cheap. I did make a cheaper CD that just had the video file that could be played on the computer.
In late 2006 Google announced that it was purchasing YouTube for over a billion dollars. At the time I was working for a company that was interested in putting videos up on this service, and they wanted me to try it out. Naturally, I grabbed the only file I had ready at the time and uploaded it to the new Google YouTube service. My thought was that I would learn how to upload videos and it would end up being cheaper because scout leaders only had to log into the link to see them. I didn’t know it, but at the time it was the only knot tying video on YouTube. It took off and almost became full-blown “viral”. A new term at the time describing short videos that were extremely popular.
7 Knots Every Scout Should Know™ became synonymous with knot tires everywhere. The little video became a hit almost immediately. Unfortunately, it also became pirated many times and even republished on YouTube over 16 times losing 170,219 views. Also, the original video had to be moved to a different channel in 2013 and this sacrificed all 413,458 of its views from when it was first published. Even though it has moved and had to restart at zero views it’s now 229,773 views today. So if you add it all up today it’s 813,450 views for a small quick knot tying video. This video has been licensed and used on television shows and movies. It has also caused a resurgence in the knot tying community that no one knew anything about. Today there are hundreds of thousands of videos about knot tying on YouTube, but nothing beats the little original that’s still around. YIS⚜