I've been going through a lot of my old YouTube notification emails over the past week to try and keep on top of things, and something I've noticed again, and again, and again, how boring and self serving a lot of videos seem to be in my notifications list (probably time to clean out a lot of channels I no longer have interest in... which is probably why you notice people unsubscribing to your channel and you keep asking "why am I losing subs?")
Especially in the business and "entrepreneur" and vlogging space, I see the same videos over and over again, the same typical business building fluff, the same typical "how to grow your email list" the "look how awesome my holiday was!" "I just bought something for myself, watch me unbox it" "pay attention to me plz" "me me me" and maybe I'm just a bit jaded, but it seems like a lot of these videos are simply made to grow their own numbers, and not to provide value. They look like they're designed to make you look like a leader in the business world, but after the 20th video of "how to grow your list" "why you should be using podcasts" it's making the business and entrepreneur niche look no different to a fortnight channel. It's just a bunch of channels really just serving themselves. They pretend to be offering "value" but at the end of the day, they're all just chasing the play button, they're all just wanting to grow their business and video galleries for themselves and want the numbers.
This more and more emphasizes the importance of providing value. Is there an under-served element in your niche? Maybe focus on that instead of making the millionth video that everyone else is making, then wondering why you're not ranking when there's already a million videos before you, all fighting to rank for that topic. Why are they ranking? Why do they WANT to rank? Do they just want that arbitrary view number that ultimately means nothing? Or do you want to provide value to someone else.
When you're one day moved on from the world, do you want your legacy to be a view count? Do you want your legacy to be a play button that realistically anyone with some woodworking/metalwork skill could make anyway, or do you want to be remembered for doing something people will remember?.
I keep thinking about Roberto Blake and about how passionate, and sometimes frustrated he gets with people who don't work to better themselves, and he wishes he could do more to improve peoples lives by giving them knowledge on how to grow a business and how to make money. The thing about Roberto however, is he would love to see the end of subscriber counts, the end of view counts. He couldn't care less about vanity numbers, he wants to provide education to help better OTHER people's lives, not necessarily his own. He's grown his business, but his ultimate goal is to help OTHERS with the experiences he's learned. And over time I can see a differance between a business channel that's just wanting to grow the numbers, and someone like Roberto, who just wants to grow people's skills and give to the betterment of society.
So just ask yourself... why are you making videos? and be honest, is it for your audience? or is it so you can get 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours? if there was NO money in YouTube, no view counts, no subscriber numbers on display, would you still make videos?
The audience can see through the vanity and can usually tell when a creator is only in it for their own self serving needs, and when a creator wants to bring something interesting or helpful to the world.
Also, I'm totally guilty of the vanity. Heck, half the reason why I started my channel was because I knew I can draw well and I wanted to show off and show how good at drawing I am
but hearing how I inspired a teenager to draw for their friend in hospital a dinosaur to cheer them up, or just that someone was feeling depressed and lonely, and that my video brightened up their day and gave them something to focus on instead of the negetivity in the world, that means much more to me than the ego. Do people care about how much money Mr Beast makes? or do they care about how much money he's given away? Just something to think about.
Especially in the business and "entrepreneur" and vlogging space, I see the same videos over and over again, the same typical business building fluff, the same typical "how to grow your email list" the "look how awesome my holiday was!" "I just bought something for myself, watch me unbox it" "pay attention to me plz" "me me me" and maybe I'm just a bit jaded, but it seems like a lot of these videos are simply made to grow their own numbers, and not to provide value. They look like they're designed to make you look like a leader in the business world, but after the 20th video of "how to grow your list" "why you should be using podcasts" it's making the business and entrepreneur niche look no different to a fortnight channel. It's just a bunch of channels really just serving themselves. They pretend to be offering "value" but at the end of the day, they're all just chasing the play button, they're all just wanting to grow their business and video galleries for themselves and want the numbers.
This more and more emphasizes the importance of providing value. Is there an under-served element in your niche? Maybe focus on that instead of making the millionth video that everyone else is making, then wondering why you're not ranking when there's already a million videos before you, all fighting to rank for that topic. Why are they ranking? Why do they WANT to rank? Do they just want that arbitrary view number that ultimately means nothing? Or do you want to provide value to someone else.
When you're one day moved on from the world, do you want your legacy to be a view count? Do you want your legacy to be a play button that realistically anyone with some woodworking/metalwork skill could make anyway, or do you want to be remembered for doing something people will remember?.
I keep thinking about Roberto Blake and about how passionate, and sometimes frustrated he gets with people who don't work to better themselves, and he wishes he could do more to improve peoples lives by giving them knowledge on how to grow a business and how to make money. The thing about Roberto however, is he would love to see the end of subscriber counts, the end of view counts. He couldn't care less about vanity numbers, he wants to provide education to help better OTHER people's lives, not necessarily his own. He's grown his business, but his ultimate goal is to help OTHERS with the experiences he's learned. And over time I can see a differance between a business channel that's just wanting to grow the numbers, and someone like Roberto, who just wants to grow people's skills and give to the betterment of society.
So just ask yourself... why are you making videos? and be honest, is it for your audience? or is it so you can get 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours? if there was NO money in YouTube, no view counts, no subscriber numbers on display, would you still make videos?
The audience can see through the vanity and can usually tell when a creator is only in it for their own self serving needs, and when a creator wants to bring something interesting or helpful to the world.
Also, I'm totally guilty of the vanity. Heck, half the reason why I started my channel was because I knew I can draw well and I wanted to show off and show how good at drawing I am
but hearing how I inspired a teenager to draw for their friend in hospital a dinosaur to cheer them up, or just that someone was feeling depressed and lonely, and that my video brightened up their day and gave them something to focus on instead of the negetivity in the world, that means much more to me than the ego. Do people care about how much money Mr Beast makes? or do they care about how much money he's given away? Just something to think about.
