Sellsword Arts

Have you seen our VR content?

Over the years I've played around with making some content with VR sword games.

Recently we've been playing around with some cool effects, different games, and doing creative ways to approach content in VR.

https://youtu.be/F7L0MovT2Ng

This content is a lot fun, and it's one of the only times I, David, to play video games.

Plus VR is less stressful to make and edit. Most of the effects are done during the capture process, making post-production a lot simpler.

While this content is fun to make, it's performance has been erratic, as is of the case with new and different videos.

We have a bunch of fun and interesting ideas you want to try out, new games we like to play, and we like to invest some more into our VR infrastructure to make our videos even better, but... Is this content that you guys want to see?

No matter how much fun we have with it, if it's not something the audience is interested in, there isn't a point in making it. We are happy to keep trying if people like it, but if you don't, we will move in.

Let us know what you think.

1 month ago | [YT] | 1,144

Sellsword Arts

Why don't we ever have sponsored videos?

Hey guys, wanted to talk with you about some behind the scenes stuff. You might have noticed that we almost never have sponsored videos.

sometimes we have a video highlighting a piece of gear that was given to us, and we have companies that we work with, but no money ever exchanges hands.

Most of the hema and sword companies simply don't have the money to sponsor a channel. They can send us the occasional bit of gear, but that's about it.

This is a double edged sword, because on the one hand it means that there is no conflict of interest in our reviews, but on the other hand it means... That we are very poor.

This isn't to say we don't get offers for sponsorships. We get a lot of weird stuff in our inbox. Random products, mobile games, and other things that don't quite fit our brand, or that seem kind of dubious.

since we're mainly a shorts channel, we don't get the normal sponsorship opportunities that long-form channels get, and since we're in a weird niche It makes it even harder.

So far, I've turned down all of these. Call me an idealist, but I don't want to shill for a product that I don't believe in. But more and more I'm starting to think that's not the way YouTube works.

Even with an increased view count and our channel doing well, AdSense simply isn't enough. I love it if our patreon could make up the difference, but it doesn't.

The question is, should we start taking some of these less than savory sponsorships, or stick to our guns? Am I overthinking this and being an idealist for no reason? Or do other people actually care about this?

1 month ago | [YT] | 1,174

Sellsword Arts

Roll for it!

A new series that we are trying out!
We've been experimenting with this format for a couple of videos, and we have had a blast!

Using dice to roll for different criteria like weapons, setting, and silliness makes us flex our creativity in new and fun ways.

We've done this both with fight choreography and with fencing, and we have plans to do it with cutting and a couple of other things.

The biggest reasons that we are so excited for this series is, It offers endless possibilities and novelty, The outcomes are always hilarious, and it is some of the most fun we ever have filming!

Let us know if you like this new format, and go ahead and watch our latest videos!

https://youtu.be/kQUx31pVHGM

https://youtu.be/8Uh18eGiXp4

1 month ago | [YT] | 743

Sellsword Arts

Experimental sword content! 

We've been playing around with some new stuff the last couple of weeks. 

A lot of sword tubes focused on “Is X realistic? Weird X from history! Does X Fantasy technique work IRL?” And so on and so forth. 

These are cool videos, and we like making them, and aren't going to stop. However, there's only a finite amount of topics, and it's also fun to branch out into new things that other YouTubers haven't done. 

There are three different series we've tried recently that we really enjoyed making. 

First there was our “a very normal film about eggs” fight. An unchoreographed fight that let us Make a silly skit and fight each other. 

https://youtu.be/N1UJj8NXd60

Next there is the Sellsword Sword News Show. An unhinged satirical news show focusing on sword pop culture, current events, and drama.

https://youtu.be/UTSFXAB7HKk

And lastly we have Roll For Spar. A fun game where we use diced randomly create encounters and weapon matchups we would never normally do.

https://youtu.be/8Uh18eGiXp4?si=TrqzE...

All of these were extremely fun to make, and more creatively rewarding than the typical sword tube content. 

All of the comments have been very positive, however the views aren't quite the same as the normal sword tube content. We understand it's something new will always take a little bit of time to adjust to, but we want to make sure we're not barking up the wrong tree. 


Have you watched these videos? Did you like them? Do you want to see more of them?

2 months ago | [YT] | 1,343

Sellsword Arts

We are looking for some smaller sword and weapon content creators to do some collaborations with.

Our goal to highlight new and interesting voices in the sword community.

Requirements:

1.) you got to know what you're talking about

2.) You've got to fence, spar, or fight in some way.
Alternatively you can be an blacksmith/artisan of some sort.

3.) You need to have unique experience, expertise, or cultural information outside of general HEMA knowledge.

4.) You have to be able to film high quality videos with good sound, and send them to me.

5.) And most importantly, you've got to be interesting and funny.

The size of your channel is unimportant, it's the content and your ability to entertain that we are looking for.

What do you get?

✨EXPOSURE!!!!✨

But in all seriousness, Our YouTube alone averages 20 million views a week. This is an opportunity to get more eyes on your content.

We want to help the community grow while giving our viewers new and fresh perspectives. If you think this post describes you, contact us here.

Email contact@sellswordarts.com

PS:
We will have to use our discretion and pick and choose who we collaborate with based on what we think we'll be best received by our audience. Depending on the volume we might not be able to get back to everybody.

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,298

Sellsword Arts

Hey guys! David here for a quick update and question for you guys.

Before I start, the channel is doing well!

We've been posting 2-3 shorts a day, and 1-2 longforms a week. We've also updated our content and editing style, and we've been getting a lot of positive feedback on it. We also enjoy the content that we're making. 

We also have brought on Fry, who is our camera person and co-editor! They are awesome, and their creativity and hard work has been helping the channel immensely!

With that said, it's a lot of work. This has more than quadrupled the workload that we had before the changes. Even with more people, it's still means long hours, and not a lot of free time. 

Everything is doing well, but the extra work and added stress has been getting to me, and I've been looking for ways to help with it. 

Unfortunately, taking a break isn't really something you can do as a YouTuber. The constant output requires constant work, and constant innovation. The channel also is the main income for three people, so I can't take a break and jeopardize their livelihoods as well.

And even if I could take a break, I would probably just be stressed that I wasn't working enough on the channel, and not enjoy it. 

So instead, I'm trying to find h ways to do fun, creative, and/or relaxing projects for the channel. 

Recently we made an uncoreographed fight with the skit, a totally normal film about eggs. It was a lot of fun to make, and virtually stress-free. It did okay numbers, but not as well as our other content. And unfortunately, the algorithm is a cruel mistress. It's difficult to justify content that doesn't perform well. 

https://youtu.be/N1UJj8NXd60?si=CH94v...

But content like that is fun for us, because it's different than the usual grind, and it lets us be a little bit more creative than usual. There are other things that we've thought of, like live streaming video games that we want to play (because I'll never play video games again unless it's for work) or maybe even doing something with music. However, I worry the algorithm will punish us for going too far outside of our niche. 

Let us know what kind of stuff you guys are interested in. Is it video game live streams? Is it more personality content? Or is it more fun easy to make skits with silly fights? 

This kind of stuff lets us relax a little bit and de-stress. It's a really helpful tool to keep burnout at bay.

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 3,136

Sellsword Arts

We've got a website!
www.sellswordarts.com/

While it might be true that my technological prowess stops at about the Renaissance... If I'm being generous, I have cobbled together a functional website!

This is an all-in-one stop for all of our gear recommendations, training videos, and links!

Go check it out, I took a long time to make!

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,251

Sellsword Arts

Just going to vent my frustrations here for a minute!

F*** YOU SONY!

Last night we went out for 3 hours and shot a really cool video inspired by Yofukashi No Uta by Creepy Nuts.

I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. editing it, cuz I wanted to post today. Only to find out that Sony, The copyright holder, has BLOCKED the song on all platforms.

This is really unusual. Usually you can use a copywritten song so long as you don't monetize the video. This is great for the artist too, cuz they get the revenue from the video. It's a win-win!

They even muted it on my personal Facebook page when I tried to post it just for fun and no profit.

So thanks to Sony, we have to find the new song. It was really fun too. Really disappointed.

But don't worry, the footage is still cool and we'll find something fun to go with it, and you'll still get your video. Despite Sony's best efforts!

4 months ago | [YT] | 995

Sellsword Arts

WE NEED YOUR OPINION!


Hey guys, we need to know what kind of stuff you're interested in! 

If you're not in the mood for reading, skip to the bottom and vote on what kind of stuff You're most interested in seeing reviews and spotlights of. 

For the rest of you… story time!

If you don't know, we don't have any sponsors. I don't trust most of the brands out there, especially in the wake of all the scams and scandals going on in the influencer space. We don't want to put you guys through that. 

We make all of our money off of AdSense and Patreon. This means money is tight, and we don't have a huge budget for gear, weapons, and costumes.

We rely on partnerships with smaller merchants and artisans to get a good amount of the gear and equipment that we show off on our videos. 

We NEVER accept money for reviews, And we're picky about the items we accept in the first place. 

We do have a couple of affiliate codes, but…
I frankly don't understand how to do affiliate marketing so I don't really bother with it 🤣😭

These partnerships are CRUCIAL to us. We couldn't make videos about new weapons or gear without help from these partners. 

We want to make even bigger and better videos for you guys, but in order to do so we have to start approaching more companies and asking them if they let us review their stuff. 

The results of this poll will be a great visual indicator that we can show to a company, and prove to them that people are interested in their products! 

TLDR  Tell us what kind of stuff you're interested in!

4 months ago | [YT] | 2,265

Sellsword Arts

NEW FENCING CHANNEL!
youtube.com/@SellswordFencing

Unfortunately, the algorithm dislikes it when we upload fencing footage and technical fencing content on this channel. But we REALLY LIKE uploading fencing footage...

So we made a NEW CHANNEL! Sellsword Fencing!

This channel will have uploads multiple times a week focusing on long-from and short-form fencing footage, as well as some of our more technical shorts and videos that don't usually do as well with the main Sellsword audience.

Fencing is what Clark and I love to do, and we fence a LOT!
It's super important to our success and credibility in the sword community, both online and in person.

We think it's important that we keep posting footage, as well as technical videos about fencing. And we want to maintain our dedication to not paywalling any of our content. But we can't keep taking the algorithm hit that it brings us on our main channel.

So please go check out our new channel Sellsword Fencing! Videos will start posting tomorrow! Make sure to Subscribe and watch so we can get those sweet sweet watch time hours and get monetized! Don't want to be doing work for YouTube for free if we can help it.

check it out here:
youtube.com/@SellswordFencing

4 months ago | [YT] | 602