Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout 2020.
It has been a horrible year and I really hope that 2021, vaccine year, will live up to everyone's hopes.
For me, it has been a very mixed year. I have obviously continued my quest against scammers and, by contacting mainstream media and with being lucky with YouTube's algorithm, my YouTube channel has increased from 900k at the start of the year to 2.5M by the end of it. Absolutely phenomenal for me. I never expected to gain so many subscribers and such support from yourselves on Patreon. In any normal year, this would be cause for celebration, but what I saw was the the scams continued despite call centres being closed and 'home working' being the norm. I honestly expected the calls to drop off, but instead, I saw the opposite.
The graph above shows the pattern of new subscribers to my YouTube channel. If you're interested in the peaks in the graph, the first was down to the 4 "Spying on the Scammers" videos which brought mainstream media attention. The middle peak in July (I gained nearly 60k subscribers per day at one point) was getting lucky with YouTube's 'recommended' algorithm. The peak at the end of the year was a simple mention from Mark Rober... Very useful have have friend in high places!
But I have to bear in mind that this all happened in a very volatile year. With Covid 19 affecting almost everyone, you continued to support me and I am extremely grateful. Usually people cut back to the essentials in times of crisis and I fully expected Patreon subscriptions to drop off this year. I was wrong... they've almost doubled and this has made a huge difference to my life and I want to think every single one of you for this.
I usually make a 'Dumbest scammers of 2020' video, but a little like the YouTube rewind, it just doesn't seem appropriate this year. I have plenty of footage for this, but I think it will be best to leave this for a little while. Maybe at a point where we can relax a little more after the vaccine rollout.
Finally, I'd just like to say a 'Happy and Hopeful New Year for 2021' and to thank you again for the huge support you've given me this year.
Jim