Channel Watch

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Channel digest runs when you ask and keeps the The Channel dashboard fresh. Monday morning: files what went out, restates every figure, writes down the week.
• What is captured lands in the Video register dataset, which lives at Data/Channel Videos in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Channel snapshots dataset, which lives at Data/Channel Snapshots in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Video plans dataset, which lives at Data/Video Plans in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Sponsors & income dataset, which lives at Data/Channel Income in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The The Channel dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: subscribers · videos on the register · paid to the channel, on record · work through a plan · paid, by kind · views earned, month by month · subscribers, month by month · going out, and when · the days you published · every video · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Idea capture writes to Video register · Channel digest writes to Video register · Channel digest writes to Channel snapshots · Video register shown by The Channel · Channel snapshots shown by The Channel · The Channel kept fresh by Channel digest · Channel digest run by Echo · Echo holds Idea capture · Echo holds Video planner · Video planner writes to Video plans · Echo holds Income capture · Income capture writes to Sponsors & income · Echo holds Comments and other channels · Video plans shown by The Channel · Sponsors & income shown by The Channel.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Look at The Channel on a Monday, after the Channel digest has run — that is the moment the week's figures land. Read Views earned, month by month first: it is the honest signal on this board, because it is built from the difference between one reading and the next, so it says what the channel earned in that month rather than what a lifetime counter happens to show.
• Say ideas out loud as they arrive — "idea: a workshop tour", "the lens one is in the edit", "that one is a tutorial" — and Idea capture puts them on the same register as everything you have published. The half-formed idea living beside the finished work is most of what makes the register worth having.
• Fill in Format early, on everything. It is the one column no reading can ever supply — nothing Echo can read says what kind of thing a video is — and once it is there you can read the register by kind of video and judge for yourself what has been working, not just what has been watched. Echo keeps the figures; ask what has been working and it tells you what it makes of them.
• Ask Echo rather than guessing: "what has the studio tour done since it went out?", "when did I last publish?", "what moved this week?" It reads the records and answers with the date each figure was taken, so you can tell a fresh number from a fortnight-old one.
• Take the two lines as a history you are building, not one you have. Views earned and Subscribers start after the second Monday, because nothing anywhere can say retrospectively what a week earned — the value compounds the longer the kit runs, and it is the record YouTube does not keep for you.
• Before you film, tell Echo your shot list the way you would write it on a card ("the old desk wide from the door, the unboxing overhead, the cable run close up") and Video planner keeps it on Video plans, in your order and your words. On the day, press Start on Work through a plan and go through it a shot at a time: tick each one when you have it, and add a line for the take worth keeping. What has to happen before it goes out, and the cuts you are making for elsewhere, work the same way. Echo adds nothing to a plan unasked; ask what is missing and it suggests, and writes it on only at your yes.
• Say the day you are aiming for as soon as you know it ("the lens one goes out on the 24th", "Tomás is in this one") and it lands on Going out, and when, with who you are making it with. Once the Monday reading files the video, the calendar shows the day it actually went out, so it is your plan ahead and your record behind.
• Tell Echo about money as it happens ("Fernhill agreed 450 for a segment in the sound video", "the ad revenue came in") and Income capture keeps it on Sponsors & income. Paid to the channel and Paid, by kind count only what you said came in; ask "who still owes me?" for what is still expected. Echo cannot see the channel's revenue, so these are your figures and nothing else.
• Ask "what are people saying under the questions video?" and Echo reads the comments back grouped as they are: the questions, the requests, what people pointed out, the thanks and the criticism, with a few in their own words. Ask what to make of them and it says; ask for a reply and it drafts one for you to post yourself, in your own account. Name two or three channels like yours and it puts their recent videos beside yours, each with its age, and says what it makes of the difference if you ask.
• Read a silence as a silence. Watch time, retention, click-through and traffic sources are not on this board because Echo cannot see them, not because the week was quiet — and it will never estimate one. Revenue is the same: the money on the board is only what you told Echo, never a reading. If you need those figures, they are in your studio, and nothing here pretends otherwise.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• When the digest runs — Monday mornings out of the box — or pausing it and keeping the board and the records as they stand.
• Whether you hear about every week or only the ones where something moved.
• What a good week looks like to you, in views and in subscribers. Said once, remembered, and never a figure Echo proposes.
• What kind of thing each video is. Format is yours alone; nothing fills it for you, and a blank stays blank.
• Which channel Echo reads — that follows the connected account, so reconnecting YouTube from the Connectors panel is how you point it somewhere else.
• Which channels Echo puts beside yours. Name them once and they are kept as a preference; name others whenever you like.
• What goes on your list before a video goes out. It is yours: Echo can start the next one from the last list you used, and adds nothing to it.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Adding the Kit offers the first reading right away: once YouTube is connected on the Connectors screen, start it with one tap, and Echo reads your channel — filing your recent uploads on the register with the views, likes and comments each has to date, and taking the first weekly reading of the subscriber count and the lifetime views. The register, the count and the upload grid are full within a minute. Prefer not to connect? Echo will say so plainly and keep your ideas instead; the Channel digest is on your Routines screen whenever you want the figures.
2. One thing it honestly cannot do straight away: the two lines. Views earned and Subscribers are built by comparing one reading with the next, so they have nothing to draw until the second Monday. That is a property of what a channel will tell you, not a limitation of the first run — no service will say later what a week earned.
3. When the first reading finishes, Echo leaves a short note saying what it filed and asks for a couple of minutes on the things only you know: whether this is the right channel, what kind of thing each video is, what you want from the channel, and what a good week looks like to you. Those last two are remembered as preferences, never a target Echo sets. It ends with one line on what else is here when you want it (your plans, the calendar, sponsors and income, the comments and channels like yours) and starts none of it.
4. Echo starts from what 1Presence already knows, in its memory and in files you keep in your vault, such as a content calendar or a notes file of ideas, and asks only for the gaps. It shows you what it found to confirm or correct, and writes down nothing you have not said yes to.
5. Whatever is still missing waits on the Kit page with a way back to Echo, and Echo offers it once the next time you talk. Tell it a part does not apply to you, or that you have finished setting up, and it stops asking.
6. From then on the digest runs on Monday mornings: it files anything published since, restates every figure with the date it was read, writes the week's row, redraws the board, and raises a card only when something genuinely moved.
7. Echo never posts, comments or replies, and never edits a title or description on your channel; it drafts them for you to use, and gives a view on how a video might do when you ask.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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