Hey guys ive been doing youtube for about......1 1/2 years, and its been real fun. Ive gained 178 subs(100 in the last 6 months) but still only get 20-40 views a video. I just need feedback on why my channel is struggling so hard
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
2/1/2012
Posts:
773
Member Details
Just from watching your latest episode... there's 2 major issues that jump out at me:
#1. Rambling Content - You run into a problem people had with my minecraft videos as well (which I'm going to be solving when I get my new hardware in next month), and that is "Rambling" - basically unedited footage of a flow of thought. While this is doable, people generally don't want to watch 20-30 minutes with nothing really accomplished... for an idea of a direction you can go, check out some of Zisteau's building videos on the Mindcrack server, when he's building the Lens - how he does 'intro, explanation, jump cut, results, commentary, next stage explanation, jump cut, results, commentary... repeat' - so generally a few hours work, for a short video.
#2. Audio Levels and Clarity - Your commentary is relatively quiet (compare your audio levels to most videos, and your audio is about half-volume compared to most videos...) and sometimes your speech loses enunciation (which just comes with practice). The audio levels thing is what stood out to me first (and may help solve some of the enunciation problem). I generally aim for about 20% "higher than average" volume on my videos (that way I'm at about the same volume or higher than any ads that play on my videos).
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Some additional tips:
#1. Patience: It takes time, from looking at your release history, you have a dead zone of about 3 months (as do I currently due to hardware hurting quality, and you have huge gaps/bursts previous to that gap). You essentially 'just started' during the timespan you got the majority of your subs, this is because you're 'just starting' with regular content. I don't know if these gaps are due to deletion, or just non-productive (or even a shift of channel direction). As you learn more, you'll get more subs as your quality improves. Time both for people to find you, and for you to learn what -you- want to make, and how to make it are important here.
#2. Regular Content vs Oversaturation - it is important to put out regular content, but it's also important to avoid oversaturation of a specific type of content (release minecraft every day, people will tire of it, and generally won't watch every episode - maybe cut it back to 3-4 times a week, and mix in other content? Making content more 'rich' in each episode, as it's hard to even generate quality content of a single type, daily, especially solo.) Maybe Skyrim Saturdays, Minecraft Mondays, Feed the Beast Fridays... corny titles I know, but it's a way to mentally arrange it so you think "what am I releasing when? Is there too much of one thing all in one span of time?"
#3. Get out there, collaborate, post on other people's videos that are similar to your kind of content (or similar to content your 'audience' would enjoy), don't "spam", but just talk, refer to your experiences in making videos in relation to the content you're responding to... make it part of the conversation rather than a 'billboard' or 'non issue', find the middle ground (working with other youtubers, entering contests related to your content, etc. are great too)
#4. Branding: Explain what your channel in 1-2 sentences, if you can't - then your audience can't, and they're your word of mouth. "I saw this guy on youtube, he does 'this' - you should check it out". When you get bigger, you can expand to other areas and become more 'vague' successfully, but small, you have to concentrate a little. I could go into a whole marketing schpeel here, but it'd be pointless, youtube is an interesting beast :).
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And most of all though, do it because you love it... don't make videos to become famous, or get the attention of X, Y, or Z group... make videos because you love creating the content... 100 subs or 1,000,000 - if you don't love it, it's just going to leave you feeling like you're wasting time, and no amount of subscribers/views is going to change that beyond maybe a slight ego boost.
My advice (without even watching your videos) would be to do the following:
1. Start a series that is unique in the Minecraft community as opposed to the regular Minecraft Let's Play series that everyone makes. For me, this unique Minecraft series is gameplay of the Hunger Games.
2. Once you have content that you are proud of and believe others will like it, post a very well constructed thread in the let's play media in these forums. This has helped me gain over 100 subs in less than 2 months of posting youtube videos.
Once you do these 2 things, you should be able to be successful in the Youtube business.
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How much herp can a herpderp derp if a herpderp could derpderp?
It would say that, in general, the number of video views will be much less than the number of subscribers you have. Take Etho, for example. He has 500,000+ subs (almost as good as me), but he averages about half that many views per video. I have about the same 2:1 ratio with my lovely 80 subs. So, long story short, I wouldn't be too concerned about the number of views you're getting.
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http://www.youtube.com/user/AbnormalWeeny?feature=mhee
Thanks guys!
My youtube channel
Post it everywhere then you will get trafic and also he patient dont force people to watch your content then they might not watch your content again
Just wait
Just doing this so you know who it is
#1. Rambling Content - You run into a problem people had with my minecraft videos as well (which I'm going to be solving when I get my new hardware in next month), and that is "Rambling" - basically unedited footage of a flow of thought. While this is doable, people generally don't want to watch 20-30 minutes with nothing really accomplished... for an idea of a direction you can go, check out some of Zisteau's building videos on the Mindcrack server, when he's building the Lens - how he does 'intro, explanation, jump cut, results, commentary, next stage explanation, jump cut, results, commentary... repeat' - so generally a few hours work, for a short video.
#2. Audio Levels and Clarity - Your commentary is relatively quiet (compare your audio levels to most videos, and your audio is about half-volume compared to most videos...) and sometimes your speech loses enunciation (which just comes with practice). The audio levels thing is what stood out to me first (and may help solve some of the enunciation problem). I generally aim for about 20% "higher than average" volume on my videos (that way I'm at about the same volume or higher than any ads that play on my videos).
-------
Some additional tips:
#1. Patience: It takes time, from looking at your release history, you have a dead zone of about 3 months (as do I currently due to hardware hurting quality, and you have huge gaps/bursts previous to that gap). You essentially 'just started' during the timespan you got the majority of your subs, this is because you're 'just starting' with regular content. I don't know if these gaps are due to deletion, or just non-productive (or even a shift of channel direction). As you learn more, you'll get more subs as your quality improves. Time both for people to find you, and for you to learn what -you- want to make, and how to make it are important here.
#2. Regular Content vs Oversaturation - it is important to put out regular content, but it's also important to avoid oversaturation of a specific type of content (release minecraft every day, people will tire of it, and generally won't watch every episode - maybe cut it back to 3-4 times a week, and mix in other content? Making content more 'rich' in each episode, as it's hard to even generate quality content of a single type, daily, especially solo.) Maybe Skyrim Saturdays, Minecraft Mondays, Feed the Beast Fridays... corny titles I know, but it's a way to mentally arrange it so you think "what am I releasing when? Is there too much of one thing all in one span of time?"
#3. Get out there, collaborate, post on other people's videos that are similar to your kind of content (or similar to content your 'audience' would enjoy), don't "spam", but just talk, refer to your experiences in making videos in relation to the content you're responding to... make it part of the conversation rather than a 'billboard' or 'non issue', find the middle ground
#4. Branding: Explain what your channel in 1-2 sentences, if you can't - then your audience can't, and they're your word of mouth. "I saw this guy on youtube, he does 'this' - you should check it out". When you get bigger, you can expand to other areas and become more 'vague' successfully, but small, you have to concentrate a little. I could go into a whole marketing schpeel here, but it'd be pointless, youtube is an interesting beast :).
------
And most of all though, do it because you love it... don't make videos to become famous, or get the attention of X, Y, or Z group... make videos because you love creating the content... 100 subs or 1,000,000 - if you don't love it, it's just going to leave you feeling like you're wasting time, and no amount of subscribers/views is going to change that beyond maybe a slight ego boost.
1. Start a series that is unique in the Minecraft community as opposed to the regular Minecraft Let's Play series that everyone makes. For me, this unique Minecraft series is gameplay of the Hunger Games.
2. Once you have content that you are proud of and believe others will like it, post a very well constructed thread in the let's play media in these forums. This has helped me gain over 100 subs in less than 2 months of posting youtube videos.
Once you do these 2 things, you should be able to be successful in the Youtube business.