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TubeBuddy Excellent Results
- Thread starter Dylen
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TubeBuddy is not about giving you better results. It's is a tool that gathers data to help you make better decisions about your channel. Just as a hammer doesn't automatically build a better house. The house's design is up to the architect and home builder. A hammer can do nothing more than hammer or pull nails.
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I can't beat this. Best. Explanation. Ever.
The truth is the TubeBuddy is an SEO tool and SEO has almost zero to do with whether your video gets views or not. Don't believe me? Go find a video that has several million views and look at the SEO. It may have no SEO at ALL, aside from the title and a thumbnail. I have seen videos that have 30 million views that have maybe two tags and one sentence of description. What it will have is a clickbaitish title and a thumbnail which may include the face of a pretty young girl with her mouth open in amazement or shock.
Open a private browsing page and go to YouTube without logging in and look at the first page of results. Every damn thing on that page is going to be a clickbaitish gobbledygook REACT video or something similar. You will not find a decent piece of content on that page that has anything to offer but the stupidest form of shallow meaningless amusement.
You will not succeed at YT by anything other than YouTube deciding to promote you. You can have the best video with a masterpiece of SEO and if YouTube does not promote it, it will not be seen, not even by your own dang subscribers.
TubeBuddy is an SEO tool. It is good at what it does, but it will never help you be a success at YouTube. Maybe in the past, it played more of a part, but not today. Today, YT DECIDES what type of content they will promote, and what you do SEO-wise has almost ZERO to do with their decision.
Open a private browsing page and go to YouTube without logging in and look at the first page of results. Every damn thing on that page is going to be a clickbaitish gobbledygook REACT video or something similar. You will not find a decent piece of content on that page that has anything to offer but the stupidest form of shallow meaningless amusement.
You will not succeed at YT by anything other than YouTube deciding to promote you. You can have the best video with a masterpiece of SEO and if YouTube does not promote it, it will not be seen, not even by your own dang subscribers.
TubeBuddy is an SEO tool. It is good at what it does, but it will never help you be a success at YouTube. Maybe in the past, it played more of a part, but not today. Today, YT DECIDES what type of content they will promote, and what you do SEO-wise has almost ZERO to do with their decision.
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I've got to disagree that SEO has nothing to do with a video cause it has everything to do with a video because my question to you is if SEO had nothing to do then why do websites use them cause they work. I've got a good amount of views and reached out to many viewers through good SEO cause having your video optimized will show on Google, YouTube etc while yes big YTers don't always have SEO the reason behind that is cause they have the viewer base and name out there so they don't really need to worry as much like a channel starting out or has a lower subscriber count.
So Tubebuddy does have lots of good tools in SEO and other areas to help in managing your videos. I feel as though if you put in the effort for each video and do SEO research, good thumbnail, title etc these are just my thoughts around SEO.
I somewhat disagree with you, @Nothin' But Gadgets. Yes, when YouTube pushes you, boy, you will surely get views, no doubt. But, to say the only success is what YouTube decides and that SEO will never help you succeed, wreaks of a defeatist attitude at best.
The reality is people choose what they want to watch. You are correct. You can have the best video, a masterpiece of SEO, and it never get watched. But, that is not because YouTube failed to promote them. It's because people chose not to watch. This is not a communist state where people are forced to do something they don't want. In the end people choose the videos they want to watch. Think of the number of T.V. shows and movies that completely flop despite having armies of people producing and promoting the film. People choose, not the promoters. The true problem is the shallowness of humanity itself. People would rather watch junk than serious content.
Even so, let's say YouTube does ultimately decide. That won't stop me from making great content. I have a message that needs to be heard, and I'm interested in finding the people who want to hear it, thus SEO. Let's say the people ultimately decide, that won't stop me from making great content. I have a message that needs to be heard, and my interest is finding the people who want to hear it, thus SEO.
I have no care for what other channels do or don't do, no care for who pushes whom. I only care about my message and finding people willing to receive it. SEO has been, is and will continue to be the only way I've found to connect and commune with those people. From there those people become my people, and we become a community.
The reality is people choose what they want to watch. You are correct. You can have the best video, a masterpiece of SEO, and it never get watched. But, that is not because YouTube failed to promote them. It's because people chose not to watch. This is not a communist state where people are forced to do something they don't want. In the end people choose the videos they want to watch. Think of the number of T.V. shows and movies that completely flop despite having armies of people producing and promoting the film. People choose, not the promoters. The true problem is the shallowness of humanity itself. People would rather watch junk than serious content.
Even so, let's say YouTube does ultimately decide. That won't stop me from making great content. I have a message that needs to be heard, and I'm interested in finding the people who want to hear it, thus SEO. Let's say the people ultimately decide, that won't stop me from making great content. I have a message that needs to be heard, and my interest is finding the people who want to hear it, thus SEO.
I have no care for what other channels do or don't do, no care for who pushes whom. I only care about my message and finding people willing to receive it. SEO has been, is and will continue to be the only way I've found to connect and commune with those people. From there those people become my people, and we become a community.
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You are comparing apples to oranges. Websites get most of their traffic from search engines and SEO does play a big part. The large majority of YouTube views come from YT suggestions, NOT search engines.
I agree with NBG. On YT, it is not about What you Know, it about Who Knows You. YT promotes well known YouTubers that they know will generate the most traffic. If you are not FAMOUS you are at the back of the pack and no amount of SEO will change your position in YouTube's eyes. The only SEO they care about is Popularity. They could careless about quality.
@Damon
I agree with you to a certain extent. It is the public choice, but I have also found in my more than half a century of studying the human condition that, humans, by in large, are pack animals and highly influenced by suggestion. What this means is that, societal trends can be artificially generated with the right kind of marketing. In short, humans are sheeple that can be les to desire things that the leaders want them to desire.
Take the YouTube Shorts fund for example. YT took 100 MILLION out if their own pocket to pay people to create shorts. They were not asking people what they wanted to see, they are ENGINEERING people desires. They are highjacking the system and saying, "You WILL watch shorts! Because we are going to keep slapping them in front of your face until you decide to like them."
So yes, I agree that people do have a choice, but their choice is HIGHLY influencable to suggestion and manipulation. This is called FADS. Do you remember the huge oversized jean pants that were super popular back in the 1990s. Humans are sheep that are led by crowd mentality and will dress themselves to look like complete idiots if that is what they are led to believe it desirable by the fad following crowd.
I agree with NBG. SEO plays a very part in YT success nowadays. It used to be much more impactful though. I also agree with you that, people are idiots and prefer garbage over great content because they liked to be amused more than educated. They prefer candy over a salad.
I agree with you to a certain extent. It is the public choice, but I have also found in my more than half a century of studying the human condition that, humans, by in large, are pack animals and highly influenced by suggestion. What this means is that, societal trends can be artificially generated with the right kind of marketing. In short, humans are sheeple that can be les to desire things that the leaders want them to desire.
Take the YouTube Shorts fund for example. YT took 100 MILLION out if their own pocket to pay people to create shorts. They were not asking people what they wanted to see, they are ENGINEERING people desires. They are highjacking the system and saying, "You WILL watch shorts! Because we are going to keep slapping them in front of your face until you decide to like them."
So yes, I agree that people do have a choice, but their choice is HIGHLY influencable to suggestion and manipulation. This is called FADS. Do you remember the huge oversized jean pants that were super popular back in the 1990s. Humans are sheep that are led by crowd mentality and will dress themselves to look like complete idiots if that is what they are led to believe it desirable by the fad following crowd.
I agree with NBG. SEO plays a very part in YT success nowadays. It used to be much more impactful though. I also agree with you that, people are idiots and prefer garbage over great content because they liked to be amused more than educated. They prefer candy over a salad.
I see what you'e saying, and I have seen that as well in the music industry. People told what to listen to rather listen to the classics like Beethoven, Brahms or even a Shostakovich. It seems we've all reached a point of repose where there is a blend of things going on: blatant manipulation via YouTube (the system) itself and that people are, well, idiots.
Either way we all need to focus only on the audience interested in our message. Honestly, I don't want the fad crowd following me. I can't help them.
I've always been the sort who doesn't follow the crowd because you'll either be chased down by a pack of ravenous wolves or driven over a ravine to your death. Almost always best to take the tangent line away from the crowd, seek high ground, then plan a "counter-offensive." All of which SEO tools help me do with guided missile-like precision.
My formal education was in classical saxophone. Being black, people always expected me to play jazz. So, being a black classically-trained musician was the perfect training ground for what I'm doing now: simply defy expectation, refuse to be categorized, rip off the labels, and chart a path. Those following the same star seem to find you somehow. I haven't seen a better tool for the job than SEO in the modern world.
Either way we all need to focus only on the audience interested in our message. Honestly, I don't want the fad crowd following me. I can't help them.
I've always been the sort who doesn't follow the crowd because you'll either be chased down by a pack of ravenous wolves or driven over a ravine to your death. Almost always best to take the tangent line away from the crowd, seek high ground, then plan a "counter-offensive." All of which SEO tools help me do with guided missile-like precision.
My formal education was in classical saxophone. Being black, people always expected me to play jazz. So, being a black classically-trained musician was the perfect training ground for what I'm doing now: simply defy expectation, refuse to be categorized, rip off the labels, and chart a path. Those following the same star seem to find you somehow. I haven't seen a better tool for the job than SEO in the modern world.
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I agree with you a lot Damon. I use SEO to the max. I can SEO brand new videos to the very top of the search results almost every single time. But only a small portion of views comes from search. Most views come from YT suggestions, and SEO plays zero part in that. It used to be that suggestions were governed by your viewing activity, but in the last year, I find that is no longer true. I know exactly what kind of content I watch and what kind of content I abore. When I am logged into my account, YT seldom shows me ANYTHING that is even relative to what I would be interested in, but constantly shows me suggestions for content type I would never watch in a million years. This is how I know that YouTube is pushing content, and not making relative suggestions. There are videos I see every single time I go to the YouTube homepage that have been there for SIX MONTHS. I have never once clicked on them or anything similar, but YouTube is instant that I MUST watch that crap.
I use TB and it is good at SEO, but for people looking at as a way to get more views, it simply does not do that; at least not anymore. YouTube does not care about SEO anymore. They have an agenda, and that is all that matters. It may be TBs own fault for being so good at SEO. In the movie, The Incredibles, there is the phrase, "Once everyone is special, then nobody will be." When only a few people were using TB to maximize their SEO, you could really stand out. Now that just about everybody is using it, "Special" has become the norm, so nobody can stand out. Personally, TB is just a start for me. I do SEO way beyond anything TB can provide. That is how I can go straight to the top of search results.
I use TB and it is good at SEO, but for people looking at as a way to get more views, it simply does not do that; at least not anymore. YouTube does not care about SEO anymore. They have an agenda, and that is all that matters. It may be TBs own fault for being so good at SEO. In the movie, The Incredibles, there is the phrase, "Once everyone is special, then nobody will be." When only a few people were using TB to maximize their SEO, you could really stand out. Now that just about everybody is using it, "Special" has become the norm, so nobody can stand out. Personally, TB is just a start for me. I do SEO way beyond anything TB can provide. That is how I can go straight to the top of search results.
Having a good keyword is a good start, but there is a lot more to it. TubeBuddy is a tool that gives you good insights into your analytics and SEO. But it is not magic...
YouTube's goal (of course is ad revenue) is to find videos for viewers - not find viewers for our videos.
So, yes the larger channels, and big name stars, do not need SEO. Trevor Noah and *Ryan Reynolds... are going to get views, and do not need to bother with SEO. YT will promote them because YT knows they will get views. The rest of us need all the help we can get. SEO is important to let YT know what our video is, and assists them in showing it to the correct potential viewers. I think most smaller channels best bet is to be found in search. When a viewer is looking within our niche, we need to have our SEO in order so they can find our vids.
*Ryan Reynolds' latest got 1 million views in 4 days with an SEO score of ZERO. I do not get those results with an SEO score of 100. Such is life.
YouTube's goal (of course is ad revenue) is to find videos for viewers - not find viewers for our videos.
So, yes the larger channels, and big name stars, do not need SEO. Trevor Noah and *Ryan Reynolds... are going to get views, and do not need to bother with SEO. YT will promote them because YT knows they will get views. The rest of us need all the help we can get. SEO is important to let YT know what our video is, and assists them in showing it to the correct potential viewers. I think most smaller channels best bet is to be found in search. When a viewer is looking within our niche, we need to have our SEO in order so they can find our vids.
*Ryan Reynolds' latest got 1 million views in 4 days with an SEO score of ZERO. I do not get those results with an SEO score of 100. Such is life.
I am going to have to disagree with this statement. I think that is what might have been true a couple of years ago maybe, but I firmly believe this is no longer the case. Either that, or YT completely SUCKS at finding videos for me, because, NOTHING!!!!!! YT ever suggests to me interest me in the slightest! In fact, I have to do several searches using deep search techniques to weed out all the crap YT thinks I am looking for.
YT's goal is NOT to "find videos for viewers". YT.s goal is to promote the kind of content they want to succeed on their platform because they are trying to encourage people that create that kind of content to come over to YT and be a creator for them. I call it the HEB technique. There is a big grocery store chain in the south called HEB. It has a very aggressive way of promoting its stores. When it decides to build a new store in a new city, its goal is to wipe out all the competition and put everyone else out of business by attracting all the customers to them. So, for the first year after opening, they sell everything below cost. They have a calculated loss of millions of dollars for their first year in order to drive all small local competitors out of business. They have been very successful at this. This technique works very well.
Earlier this year, YouTube set aside 100 MILLION dollars out of its own pockets to draw top short video creators over to YT. They did not do this because this is what people wanted to see on YT. They did this because this is what YOUTUBE wants you to see. They are spending their own money to promote the content style THEY want. You do not have to pay out of pocket if the demand already exists. You only have to pay out of pocket to promote something if you want to CREATE the demand.
YT is not catering to the viewers, they are ENGINEERING the viewers. This is why I see nothing but crap that I utterly hate in my YouTube suggestions. YT knows what I like to watch, they just DON'T CARE WHAT I WANT TO WATCH. They don't care what anyone wants to watch. They care what THEY want you to watch because they are paying MILLIONS to encourage people to make this crap content and they want you to watch it so that those creators will hang around after all the money is gone.
In a Nutshell. The YouTube Shorts fund is EXTREMELY anti-competitive. SEO is all about competition. SEO is about an even playing field where everyone has a chance to win if they put the work in. But when YT decides that they are only going to support one type of content by promoting it, that is the same thing as having a referee in a ball game decides they want one team to win. Competition goes out the window. There is a BIAS ref in the game now. No amount of SEO can overcome it. The REF (YT) has decided who they want to win.
I am not saying TubeBuddy is not a great tool. It is. I like TB. I use TB on every video. I even pay for TB. I am just under no illusion that it is going to help me be successful on YT. It just has very little effect on whether you are going to succeed on YT. Sorry, but that is the truth. If you want to succeed on YT, you have to make the crap content YT wants to promote and use clickbait titles and thumbnails. I am not going to do that. I have a little integrity. I am not willing to sell my soul.
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When they announced that, I became very suspicious of what they were trying to do. Not only is it anti-competitive, it wreaks of a certain mindset that says that wealth is fixed. What happens when the 100 million is gone? You haven't generated more profit, nor have they brought a new product to market. In essence they printed more money and cut everyone a check, inflation be damned. Shorts will hurt YouTube in the long run.
Honestly, big companies try to "engineer" the marketplace all the time. Look at the Boeing 737 MAX fiasco. They've been using stock splits and all kinds of underhanded economic tricks to make their stock appear more valuable than it really was. Also, instead of building a new plane from scratch with safety and efficiency in mind, they hacked up some half-backed idea from a 1960s air frame design, exploited a flawed certification system, and got a bunch of people killed. In the long run it would have been cheaper to build a new plane from scratch. YouTube could really learn a lesson here.
Though not as dire a situation as crashing airplanes, the question: What happens when the money dries up and the marketplace corrects itself? Those who have stood, walked the path of wisdom will stand and carry on until the next foolish idea comes along.
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100% Damon. Exactly! I am not using TB for what is doing for me right now. I am hedging my bets against the future. I know my content is solid and useful. I am told this every day by the people it helps. Would I like to be justly compensated for the amount of effort I put into my content? You bet! But that is not the whole reason I do it. I am not seeking to get rich and famous. I just would like to pay my bills, which really are not that much since I have zero debt. I live a very merger lifestyle and do not require much. I value freedom over riches. Being able to earn a living online will give me freedom from the ball and chain of a 9 to 5. Have you ever watched Joe Verus the Volcano? Yeah, that is about how I feel.
View: https://youtu.be/QHY-o-me79M
There are some very strong opinions being shared here on various "positions" on what YT or TB does or does not do. At the risk of provoking someone, the mysterious YT algorithm continues to change and evolve. It seems to take into account MANY signals and factors whether it be our titles, thumbnails, descriptions, hashtags, the actual content, tags, etc. HOWEVER, humans are the ones that choose what to click and review. We may not agree with what many humans do or their rationale but it is part of the larger equation. I am certain YT algorithm takes that into account what people IGNORE. I don't espouse to any theory where people say "YT just does not like me".
Much of my early videos barely got any views. Did "YT dislike me" in the beginning but then suddenly YT "liked" me more by giving me more traffic? However, YT "likes" me when I produce some videos and NOT other videos? I submit that that YT neither likes or dislikes any of us. It is just processing the many signals it receives and we see results. People also change in their schedules, priorities, moods, and tastes. Nothing is static. Everything is fluid.
I believe it is our job to "feel", study, analyze, test, and vet out patterns. As we get more experience on YT, our brains do a better job of sorting these many factors out. But our brains won't do such a good job if we inject too many personal biases or overly emotional responses.
Swinging back to TB, how I used TB in the beginning is different than how I use it now. Same tool but the way I use the same tool has evolved. Having crossed over 100 videos, channel management has become more cumbersome than when I only had a couple dozen videos. I will say TB makes a compelling discount offer to YTubers under 1,000 users. At first, I wasn't sure but geez, over the course of several months, I like TB and the app.
I do not view TB as "only" an SEO tool. It is but one feature of many. It is a good reminder of tags to use but I don't use it to TELL ME how I should write my titles or description. I am a human being who has the responsibility to write human-friendly titles and descriptions so that viewers (people) want to do click on my video and watch it.
TB is also a channel management tool. It is also a stats gathering tool. For me, the milestones is also a "motivational" tool. Each time I hit a milestone, it is a little victory to celebrate.
Anyhow, no tool (like TB) is a guarantee of success. And it is our jobs as creators to figure out how to take advantage of the YT algorithm, apply it, and make our videos interesting/informative/entertaining for viewers to watch.
Much of my early videos barely got any views. Did "YT dislike me" in the beginning but then suddenly YT "liked" me more by giving me more traffic? However, YT "likes" me when I produce some videos and NOT other videos? I submit that that YT neither likes or dislikes any of us. It is just processing the many signals it receives and we see results. People also change in their schedules, priorities, moods, and tastes. Nothing is static. Everything is fluid.
I believe it is our job to "feel", study, analyze, test, and vet out patterns. As we get more experience on YT, our brains do a better job of sorting these many factors out. But our brains won't do such a good job if we inject too many personal biases or overly emotional responses.
Swinging back to TB, how I used TB in the beginning is different than how I use it now. Same tool but the way I use the same tool has evolved. Having crossed over 100 videos, channel management has become more cumbersome than when I only had a couple dozen videos. I will say TB makes a compelling discount offer to YTubers under 1,000 users. At first, I wasn't sure but geez, over the course of several months, I like TB and the app.
I do not view TB as "only" an SEO tool. It is but one feature of many. It is a good reminder of tags to use but I don't use it to TELL ME how I should write my titles or description. I am a human being who has the responsibility to write human-friendly titles and descriptions so that viewers (people) want to do click on my video and watch it.
TB is also a channel management tool. It is also a stats gathering tool. For me, the milestones is also a "motivational" tool. Each time I hit a milestone, it is a little victory to celebrate.
Anyhow, no tool (like TB) is a guarantee of success. And it is our jobs as creators to figure out how to take advantage of the YT algorithm, apply it, and make our videos interesting/informative/entertaining for viewers to watch.
I have not found that TB offers anything as a channel management tool that can not be done directly in YT. It may be easier to do it with TB, but it can all be done without TB if you know how. I once upgraded to the top level for a month just to try out all the features, but I found that it was not worth it.
From a business perspective, it simply doesn't offer enough benefits for the price. Lets face it, in business things must earn more money than they cost to be considered an economic benefit. If your income is coming from YT ad revenue, the only way you make more money is if you get more views. Nothing in TB helps you reliably get more views when the referee (YT) has already decided who they want to win views and is actually paying that team out of their own pocket.
I know that a lot of people still hold the old mentality that YT is a fair and level playing field where each person has an equal opportunity to succeed if they just work hard enough, but it simply is not the case anymore. If my ALERT post about YT secretly giving Shorts creators unrestricted access to everyone else's copyrighted content, is not proof enough of the truth of what I am saying, I don't know what is. You did know about this, didn't you?
YouTube News - YT now allowing Shorts creators to use YOUR content! Mind blown
Just when I thought YT could not get any more crazier about their obsession with shorts, I see a new little addition to the advanced setting on the video upload page that YT has turned ON by default. NO, I am not joking. YT is giving our Long Form content away to Shorts creators. They have...
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I don't need a remote to change the channels on my TV. But it's convenient not to stand up. I don't need a bank card to buy stuff at the store. But it's easier than carrying cash around. I don't need a car to get to places. But it is faster than a bus and cheaper than a taxi. I certainly don't need a box of cake mix or pancake mix to make a cake or some pancakes because I already have all the ingredients necessary to make them. But it does make it a lot easier. I could literally go out of my way to learn how to fix a car engine because in reality is not as complicated as it seems. But the cost of tools will be extreme and the time it will take to do it with lesser tools will not be enjoyable to someone who's not interested in fixing cars, like me for example. So a mechanic is the best way to go for me.
We, as people, don't use most products because they are the only way to do or get something we need. We use them because of the convenience or not needing to do the work to get or do it. It's human nature. If you don't need it then don't use it. That's a right most can enjoy. Not everything is meant for everyone.
Questions like those posed by this member are common not because TubeBuddy doesn't work for them but because far too many people don't take the time to educate themselves on the most basic of things in life and, instead, spend every waking moment looking for shortcuts, loopholes and cheats to reach the top without all the hustles. This is society we have created in this world. A society desperate for money because it's the only thing that can make their lives less miserable and thus they will try any means they can to get money. Including making a YouTube channel with worthless content because they are under the impression that it's all about just uploading a video and YouTube will just send them money and when it doesn't happen they research how other people are making money and then they find things like TubeBuddy this is meant to be a tool to help them grow but they think it's some kind of secret pathway to guaranteed success because many who promote it make it seem that way. Then they get upset when their crappy content is suddenly being suggested right next to Pewdie Pie or Mr Beast's content for everyone to see after they paid for software they believed would magically turn them into the Beyonce of YouTubers.
I'll always tell it like it is. If the software doesn't work for you that's ok. It's not for everyone. Maybe a different software might. Maybe your own skills are better. But in then end, if your content sucks, no matter how much that type of content will benefit YouTube, even they won't share it because it's not just about making content YouTube thinks will help their bottom line (like Minecraft content) but it also has to be worth watching and it's pretty obvious that someone like Markiplier or Jacksepticeye not only make great content but they themselves are great content and thus worthy of YouTube's attention. After all, YouTube is about YouTube making money, not about the creators. This is something most don't understand. If you can't make YouTube money then they are not gonna give a **** about your content.
TubeBuddy is not magic, it's not secret sauce, it's not a cheat code to make you the next Pewdie Pie or MKBHD overnight. It's not a pay to win program. TubeBuddy is a toolbox, like the ones you can use to fix a car engine. But if you fail to fix the engine or make the problem worse, it's not because of the tools you used but because you lacked the knowledge necessary to fix the car. In this case you lacked the knowledge to make your channel grow. You also lack the experience of being a content creator. You only have around 100 videos on your channel but you have yet to discover what about your content is not working to get views.
TubeBuddy is a great tool to help you with your channel, but you need more than TubeBuddy and a desire to upload content. You need to figure out who your ideal audience is first. Is there an audience for airplane simulators? If there is the what type of content do they like watching? Is your current content what they want to see? If you haven't asked these questions yet you need to and you need to do it in a serious manner and not just pretending you know the answer. That's why there are analytics for everything. You need to make content people want to watch if you want to find viewers. People are not gonna watch your content just because you made it and you think it's cool. As a content creator you have to think like a viewer. What kinds of videos do you like watching? What channels do you watch the most? Why do you watch some channels but not others of the same genre? Once you can figure what makes you watch certain channels then you can understand what makes the average person watch the content they watch and then you can start making content that viewers want to watch, not necessarily what you want to watch.
There are only 2 kinds of content creators. Those who make the stuff they like because they enjoy and don't really care if they get lots of views regardless if they do or don't and those who make make content with the goal of getting views usually to make money off it. The former can make money but it's not their main goal, creating is what usually matters to them so it doesn't matter if the content is great or not. The latter are more likely to make money regardless if they enjoy the process of making the content but only if the content is good.
TubeBuddy does not hack anything - it does not perform magic - so of course you can do it all yourself. If it did something we could not do, it would likely be banned. It is a time saving tool. If you find the tool useful, it is worth the price. If not, no worries. Up to you. Using the SEO tool, I learned what YT wants in SEO. Now I can get a 100 score on my own. I still use the SEO tool to double check it, though.
As for the shorts sampling, it is no secret. YouTube posted videos announcing it, discussing it, and telling channels how to opt out of it. There is no nefarious plot to steal your work... YouTube would love for everyone to get millions of views, they want us all to succeed, so they get more ad revenue. But it takes a ton of work on our part.
My niche is so small I will never make a living on YT. Which is fine, because that is not my goal. But I do want my channel to grow to its potential. I make videos because I enjoy it. Also, it is the cheapest hobby I ever had, sometimes it even pays me. My model trains never paid me.
I know this feeling. I actually wanted to make money off Youtube but I know what I want to create will not bring in the money I would love to see. I just am not good enough to compete against the likes of Markiplier and Pewdie Pie in the gaming genre. But I do have ideas for content that can be both evergreen like content and targeting an audience that has not been targeted much yet that could potentially make me a top contender if I can make the content good. Maybe even good enough to make money off it. I don't expect to make a living off it but maybe just enough to offset my tech desires. Doesn't hurt to try, right.My niche is so small I will never make a living on YT. Which is fine, because that is not my goal. But I do want my channel to grow to its potential. I make videos because I enjoy it. Also, it is the cheapest hobby I ever had, sometimes it even pays me. My model trains never paid me.