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YouTube Help What am I doing wrong?

CavemanGaming

New Member
4
4
Subscriber Goal
10000
I'm at a complete loss on how to grow my channel. I'm stuck at 1360 subs for over a year now. I have nearly 975 videos and climbing. I stream everyday at the same time. I'm just a simple Gaming Channel (soon to add model builds to it). I've even tried Tubebuddy now to see if that increases views. It's gone up maybe 10-15 views but nothing major. I make nearly no money off the channel. I tried Amazon but that fell flat on it's face. I'm so lost right now I feel like just giving it up and ending my channel. I just don't know what to do anymore.
 

Stanley | Team TB

Amazingly Decent and Not-At-All Terrible Fishing
Administrator
TubeBuddy Staff
2,644
25
Subscriber Goal
250000
That is a lot of work you are putting into that with very little to show for it. The problem is the hyper-focus that you are placing on Livestreams. While they are great for audience interaction they do not always translate well for discoverability. You should still be doing your SEO research and best practices and should have all that in place before you stream, but even then many viewers are often turned off by long videos and the more they drop off the less YouTube wants to share it out. Here is what I suggest;

For starters you should make your livestream unlisted after it is over. Download it and edit it down into multiple pieces of a single playthrough. Edit out the 'slow' parts. Give viewers a little more of a fast-paced experience and keep these to under twenty minutes apiece. Then set your SEO according to things that people could search for when seeking that game. Things like the scene, charaters etc are all things that people may search for. This is going to give your livestream an extra life as searchable content.

Also wouldn't hurt to give up a stream or two per week and focus on doing 'How-To' or 'Tutorial' videos. I know this doesn't sound fun, but as an obvious authority you have the ability to help fans of the game. people searching for assistance on getting through a particular event in a game (or the game in general) will often find your channel searching for tutorials and subscribe... only to become enthralled with your livestreams.

If you are unable or simply unwilling to make edited video content then you may want to break the mold and find a different approach to streaming in general. Maybe keep the streams shorter; if you stream for 30 minutes and make it searchable for a certain portion of the game then you can take a fifteen minute break and come back to stream for another portion of the game. This allows you two different searchable opportunities for that timeframe, double the views from anyone who comes back to the next stream, it leaves the viewer feeling like they didn't get enough and keeps them coming back (hopefully) and it increases the amount of ads being played.

If you are stagnating you need to change things up, regardless of whether these are the ideas for you or not. You need to freshen up your approach, bring the fun back and definitely figure out a way to incorporate more SEO strategy into your work. At nearly 1,000 videos you have a LOT of opportunity on the table. That wealth of content is not working for you the way that it should be. Finding a second life for that content in edited format or making your livestreams more digestible for an audience in search are two things I would highly suggest focusing on.
 
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SILTHW

Professional cat wrangler
3,619
27
Subscriber Goal
1000
I think @Stanley Orchard's answer is very complete. I'd add one thing. If you want to just stream, why YouTube over Twitch? I think there may be an audience expectation mismatch on YouTube. Many of the Twitch streamers I watch stream only on Twitch, then post game highlights to YouTube. They are getting the best of both worlds. A solid Twitch audience for streams, and a solid YouTube audience for highlights.
 
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Damoforce

Active Member
TubeBuddy Pro
43
7
Have a mix between highlight shows and streams. Look at what some of the big lads are doing like Stone Mountain. Create trending content on new updates in the games you play, get that click bait going!!

If you're getting to a point where you don't enjoy it, it'll show and the audience won't come along.
 
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CavemanGaming

CavemanGaming

New Member
4
4
Subscriber Goal
10000
"On Air" I usually don't let my emotions show through. Yes I am frustrated but I don't show it to my community. Having just lost my own business to COVID shutdowns I have become lost. I haven't worked since July of last year. I'm trying so hard to show a brave face, but this has taken a huge toll on me. I'm trying to focus on what makes me happy. I love streaming, it makes me laugh (a lot). I want to expand and grow so that I can make this my new "job". I'm going to look into all the great suggestions from above and see what I really need to change. Thank you all for the support.
 
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Beanie Draws

Mythical Poster
2,883
27
www.youtube.com
Subscriber Goal
30000
After having a chat with someone else about your situation, it could be the livestream element that's been holding your channel back, especially the fact your views are very consistent in the 60-65 range, and 70-75 range and your thumbnails are far too repetitive, it looks like your channel is just full of the same videos. This Initially looked suspicious to me, but I had a chat with someone who streams regularly on YouTube and apparently that seems pretty consistent in streaming.

Going too much further would fall into channel review territory which is meant to go here https://community.tubebuddy.com/index.php?forums/11/ but I'd suggest weather maybe you might be better off streaming on twitch instead, and then editing the highlights of your twitch streams down into edited highlights on youtube. Might work out better for you. I don't follow many gaming channels on YouTube, I find gaming more interesting on twitch.

Something to consider.
 
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KS Moto Cafe

Known Member
TubeBuddy Pro
116
13
Subscriber Goal
5000
"On Air" I usually don't let my emotions show through. Yes I am frustrated but I don't show it to my community. Having just lost my own business to COVID shutdowns I have become lost. I haven't worked since July of last year. I'm trying so hard to show a brave face, but this has taken a huge toll on me. I'm trying to focus on what makes me happy. I love streaming, it makes me laugh (a lot). I want to expand and grow so that I can make this my new "job". I'm going to look into all the great suggestions from above and see what I really need to change. Thank you all for the support.

Hang in there buddy. Sorry for your loss in business. Times are definitely rough for business owners, people who are laid off, and people grieving those who passed.

As for your channel. Sounds like you need to pivot and do a refresh of your channel's main theme. I don't know what your channel is about other than what you described above but live-stream gaming was never my thing to watch. It sounds like you have experience in business and recent loss of business due to circumstances surrounding COVID-19; and as a viewer, I would definitely be interested hearing your side of the story and the lessons learned from your experience. It is probably difficult to talk about since the wound is still fresh, but it is a new topic that is relevant to today's issues and to be honest, I don't hear enough about businesses failing due to covid from the owners.

Cheers
 
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