YouTube Opinion are most of us deluded?

[MaJ]

A Youtuber called Andrew Guillard [I donΓÇÖt know his YouTube channel name, but he seems to talk from a position of having a significant amount of experience and knowledge] said this:



ΓÇ£Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you won't make it. I've seen YouTubers who really work hard on their content just barely manage 100 views. Lots of things have to happen for a YouTuber to make it. Same with movie stars, military commanders, top politicians, and popular authors. Hard work is not always enough.ΓÇ¥



I would have thought ΓÇô that maybe most of us here will never ΓÇÿmake itΓÇÖ on YouTube.



What ΓÇÿitΓÇÖ is ΓÇô is down to you personally.



For some of us itΓÇÖs a hobby and we arenΓÇÖt looking to getting anywhere further than we are, it would be nice if it happens, but not bothered.



I mean by ΓÇÿitΓÇÖ ΓÇô having 30k+ subs, or views on average per video.



I find it annoying [for me] how long it takes to research and record videos… rather than a lot of the more ‘lazy’ YT who just read newspapers stories out… or random Vlog.



IΓÇÖm trying to make quicker videos.



But what drew me to Andrew GuillardΓÇÖs comments was he had been banned for a week. And never found out why. For sure. But from what YT pointed him towards in their ToS ΓÇô he suspects it was for using TubeBuddy.



Which if that really counts as using a bot [maybe if YT algorithm makes a mistake] could be worrisome? I hope and presume that Andrew is wrong on that one.



Anyway, I thought his piece on hard work not always being enough was very interesting. As in here, the mantra is always put the work in and you will get there. Where obviously that’s not the case. If you don’t have a good fit for YT – it doesn’t matter how much work you put in. Likewise, if you have the right fit, then you can just read newspaper articles out every day and get 300k+ views… hmm.

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

Hard work, great ideas, different from others, filling the much needed gaps in the various niches, building a professional channel and trust, plus more are usually what we all do, I do agree with what that article says, cracking it on YouTube is not much different from winning the jackpot, or landing a big role in the next blockbuster, yeah itΓÇÖs lots of work and patience, but in some ways you just gotta hit some good luck, right video, right place, right time, and boom your channel could be on the way to good places.

Even after something like 100 or even 300 videos, youΓÇÖll be going ΓÇÿitΓÇÖs the next one, itΓÇÖs gotta be the next oneΓÇÖ, but then nothing changes, itΓÇÖs the same, like I say you just gotta hit some good luck.

 

[MaJ]

I suppose it's a little bit like dropping a single

Each time hoping for a hit...

For me 1k views or/and 50 hours watch time is a 'hit'

I know that target moves as your channel grows.

But even having a hit doesn't make the channel grow much by itself

I guess it's 'easy' with hard work to get to 1k subs... eventually... but in reality you need to be on 30k+ for the channel to be a success [again we all have a different level of what our dream 'making it' would be]

 

[Kari B]

My accountability buddy doesn't look back after her video has been published, she moves on to the next one. She makes videos that she enjoys and doesn't obsess about the analytics. I only the other hand wake up multiple times in the night checking numbers and stats and worry if I should trim it down in editor if AVD is bad or private it if it doesn't get enough views. I don't think either approach is ideal, but both of us have a strong will to succeed and we have been motivating each other on low days.

We can't all be the next Mr Beast, but we can all be better than Mr Least who put up a couple of videos, did a bit of sub4sub and then gave up after a few months because it was hard and he didn't get monetised and become a millionaire straight away.

 

[scottkoz20]

as someone that is just getting started (last weekend), I am trying to figure out how I want to focus on items on the channel. I don't have any delusions that I am going to be a YT millionaire; am doing this as a hobby and to help me in my job. I am a training manager by day and we are going to be looking at more video tutorials/demos and some of these will be publicly accessible at some point - so talking about something that I like, is great practice.

Would I love to get to 1000 subs/4000 hours to make a few bucks? Absolutely. Will I feel like a failure if it does not happen tomorrow, next month, next year? Nope.

 

[Kari B]

Would I love to get to 1000 subs/4000 hours to make a few bucks? Absolutely. Will I feel like a failure if it does not happen tomorrow, next month, next year? Nope.

This is such a good attitude to have. I think a lot of us feel this way. Would we like to be paid for doing something we enjoy? yes, I don't know any people who wouldn't. Is it the be-all and end-all? no, many of us spend months or years honing our craft before getting monetised. In the 'real' world it would be an unpaid apprenticeship or work experience, but for some reason with YouTube (or other similar media) we're dreamers, often accused of wasting our time.

Dream big today, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

 

[MaJ]

No Kari B

That is not my point

My point is here, the mantra [from most people] is keep going and you will get there. But for most people that will not be the case.

Most people will not get to where ever there is, for them.

It's one of those lazy things people say, because the truth is harder to say.

Most people, even with hard work, will fail. Most people will give up without putting in the extra hard work, that still probably wouldn't have been enough.

And that's cool.

I tend to get more motivated, if rather than the fluffy, 'keep going it will happen if you keep going',I get told - chances are you won't make it. As it's really hard. As then I know it's worth fighting for.

And the people who say they don't care - like scottkoz20 - are either lying to themselves, to us, or have to little passion to do much with it.

Yes it's fine to be doing it for fun, to be a day tripper.

But most the time when people are asking or getting feedback, that's not why they are here. And the fluffy answer - is maybe not helpful, it's just the easy one to give.

 

[residentcasuals]

As you said what is 'it'? To me it's having a good community whether that be 100 subs or 1000. So long as I am connecting with my viewers, for me, I've made it. It hasn't happened yet but I know for certain I will get there.

In terms of making a living off youtube, depending on your channel you have the dice stacked against you no matter how hard you work.

 

[Legacy]

I'm doing YouTube pretty much as a hobby because I wouldn't want to rely on only YouTube for a source of income since at any moment really something could happen to it. But as far as the thing like "some people just aren't meant to make it" kinda thing I have to believe that in a way it is possible for anyone to have a successful channel it just may take some people longer than others to achieve it. I'm just wanting my stuff to at least do something good for at least one person cause the goal is to entertain or help somebody out in a video game.

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

I'm doing YouTube pretty much as a hobby because I wouldn't want to rely on only YouTube for a source of income since at any moment really something could happen to it.

Yeah man IΓÇÖm the same, itΓÇÖs a hobby and a place to connect with other artists and creators of a different niche, and how you said that about the source of income is very true, a lot of hopefuls and wannabes really donΓÇÖt know what it takes to keep the income flowing, by what IΓÇÖve heard there could be a video that really hits the sweet spot, bringing in some nice juicy numbers, and then the next thing that happens is that another video hits a bum note, sending the numbers into a scary nosedive, in other words you gotta keep generating views with a minimum amount of watch time to keep it flowing.

My main goal is to have fun with my channel and use it as sort of like a place to display my stuff and use it to help other artists, even if I have to do that for free, IΓÇÖm more satisfied knowing someone was able to improve and get better from me, than to have big fancy flashy numbers.

In short, IΓÇÖm not deluded, I already knew what my channel was going to become the moment I started it, and I know what to expect from it.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

No, I find this foundationally incorrect. If you have ever had a single friend in your life, if you have a single thing that you do well or if you if you are able to simply offer to listen then you are marketable, you have value to offer and yoh can succeed on this platform.

Does that mean you can succeed doing Fortnite videos? No. You need to be realistic and open with yourself. What value can you provide, and what is needed. Anybody can do that. The problem is that so many try to do the same thing over and over with the expectation that the results will change. They change the color of their shirt and wonder why that didn't save their channel.

Anybody can physically do this successfully, I firmly believe that. But I also firmly believe that not everybody is up to the task of doing what is necessary in order to succeed.

 

[Beanie Draws]

I would have thought ΓÇô that maybe most of us here will never ΓÇÿmake itΓÇÖ on YouTube.
What ΓÇÿitΓÇÖ is ΓÇô is down to you personally.
For some of us itΓÇÖs a hobby and we arenΓÇÖt looking to getting anywhere further than we are, it would be nice if it happens, but not bothered.
I mean by ΓÇÿitΓÇÖ ΓÇô having 30k+ subs, or views on average per video.

Well, I'm getting closer to 30k subs, I'm at 27k subs and know several people now far beyond 30 and 40k subs, and the struggles you face at 100-1000 subs, you still face beyond that... the only thing that changes really, is the experience and ability to know when and how to hire a team to make some of the video making process easier. The ability to hire someone to edit your videos for you.
I wouldn't say creators are deluded, they have to be realistic. If you don't put in the effort, you don't learn, you don't evaluate, you don't evolve, then you can't expect to grow.

Roberto Blake says to "make 100 crappy videos"

I've seen channels with hundreds, if not thousands of videos and they don't have the subscribers and views they wish for. In that situation, I wouldn't say it's delusional... but rather, people haven't learned the ability to analyse, and apply the learnings of analysis that one should be learning over the process of 100 videos. The idea of making 100 "crappy" videos, isn't just to make quantity over quality (despite him saying quality over quantity is a lie) but rather, over 100 videos, you should inherintly get better at talking on camera, you should start to notice that your lighting kinda sucks and that you need to fix up your images... You realise "I'm saying um too much... maybe I need to stop saying up so much" "oh hey, I can edit out these awkward pauses where I'm trying to think of what I want to say... I can edit those out in the next video I make" "you know what... this one single camera angle uneditied is kinda boring... maybe I should try editing some extra footage and b-roll in there" "maybe adding some transitions and overlays might help my videos"

You have to be prepared to experiment, analyse, self evaluate, and learn from what's not working to try new things. And guess what... it took me 5 years to get to 27k, it took Mr Beast I think a few years longer than that for him to get any traction in his videos.

So I wouldn't say it's delusion... but lack of determination and perseverance and the lack of commitment to see your skills grow. It's not suited to everyone and that's cool! I used to be a driver, and a retail graphic designer, and over my time there, I came to realise it wasn't for me.

But what drew me to Andrew GuillardΓÇÖs comments was he had been banned for a week. And never found out why. For sure. But from what YT pointed him towards in their ToS ΓÇô he suspects it was for using TubeBuddy.

Which if that really counts as using a bot [maybe if YT algorithm makes a mistake] could be worrisome? I hope and presume that Andrew is wrong on that one.

YouTube generally don't tell you why you get banned, but it's not for using TubeBuddy, otherwise Nick Nimmin, Roberto Blake, Derral Eves, Myself, and many many other channels would have been banned.
It's more than likely he was talking about tactics outside of what TubeBuddy teaches, that caused the ban, though hard to say without being able to see a history of his channel. How many subscribers did he have?

After reading more into it (they made that comment in 2018) they've misinterpreted what TubeBuddy is, putting it into the same category as banned program bots that would boost fake views and fake engagement, which IS against youtube's policies, but TubeBuddy doesn't do anything like that. TubeBuddy is a tool to help your manage your videos, to get organic reach using good search engine optimisation, and using templates to make it easier to do things such as thumbnails and end cards. There's nothing in it about fake subscriber bots or anything like that, and in fact TubeBuddy is strongly against it. so I think this Andrew person has misinterpreted what TubeBuddy does.

The sad irony is there ARE other programs out there that boost "fake" engagement... and they're actually showing up in YouTube's ads... which shows YouTube has lost a bit of it's grip on quality control as more bad actors slip through the gaps (and how so many channels have fallen for these "Spam video" emails)

As long as you use TubeBuddy the way it was intended, for research and analysis of data, THAT is how you grow your channel, nothing to do with the stuff that person was warning against. It's also good to use common sense. Don't spam and you're good.