Channel Review Doing a Sanity Check

[Pete A Turner]

User name: Pete A Turner
Title of thread: Doing a Sanity Check
Self review: I've been updating my posts, being more thorough as I work to gather more of an audience on YouTube. My content resonates well through podcast channels...but YouTube? IDK I need to continue to improve how I offer my show on YT. What I've been doing these past few weeks on TubeBuddy has put a lot of time, money and energy into my channel...and that effort appears to work, BUT I don't know what I'm missing--if I'm on the right path, and should I maybe attack my most celebrated guests before updating content in reverse chronological order. My self-review is this...I'm working hard on improving my channel...the channel is growing...but I remain unconvinced that I'm my actions are working in a reliable fashion.
Channel review or Video review? Channel review
Link to channel: youtube.com/c/peteaturner
Link to other review post: https://community.tubebuddy.com/index.php?threads/38239/#post-120253

 

[Pete A Turner]

Just checking in on this post? If any of you can take a moment and give me your thoughts.

 

[SILTHW]

Hey Pete. Here are some thoughts in no particular order.

Banner - Your banner is your first place to set a tone with your audience and let them know what to expect. It doesn't have any of your channel details on your banner and is notably missing your release schedule. You have too many subscribers and viewers to not have that on your banner.

Playlists - No description in your playlists. You are missing an SEO opportunity there. I would look at your playlists. Given the type of content you produce, it feels like you are not taking advantage of playlists to really segment your content and then use the playlist description to really optimize your SEO.

Thumbnails - honestly, the red text is awfully hard to read. If there is a place I think you can make some significant improvements, it is on thumbnails.

SEO - I clicked on 10 videos, leaning more heavily towards recent releases. Only one that I clicked on was "green" for SEO. Most of the rest were very low, often 20 or below. This is another place that you could spends some time. I know you've sked about bulk tools, etc. and understand that this is going to be a herculean effort, but I believe you would get some real value here. Perhaps a strategy is to work the playlists first and optimize the videos in that playlist.

Hope that helps!

 

[Pete A Turner]

Hey Pete. Here are some thoughts in no particular order.

Banner - Your banner is your first place to set a tone with your audience and let them know what to expect. It doesn't have any of your channel details on your banner and is notably missing your release schedule. You have too many subscribers and viewers to not have that on your banner.

Playlists - No description in your playlists. You are missing an SEO opportunity there. I would look at your playlists. Given the type of content you produce, it feels like you are not taking advantage of playlists to really segment your content and then use the playlist description to really optimize your SEO.

Thumbnails - honestly, the red text is awfully hard to read. If there is a place I think you can make some significant improvements, it is on thumbnails.

SEO - I clicked on 10 videos, leaning more heavily towards recent releases. Only one that I clicked on was "green" for SEO. Most of the rest were very low, often 20 or below. This is another place that you could spends some time. I know you've sked about bulk tools, etc. and understand that this is going to be a herculean effort, but I believe you would get some real value here. Perhaps a strategy is to work the playlists first and optimize the videos in that playlist.

Hope that helps!

First, let me thank you for taking the time.
Second, I'll give the Banner some thought. I hadn't occurred to me that the banner matters beyond the aesthetic
Third, Great notes...I'll spend some time in the playlists I think I can pair down the number of lists...and then optimise how I present them...this is something I can start on right away...great advice.
Third, Thumbnails are hard. I think I've got a compromise. With all respect to Nick and those that use "Shocked Face" for thumbnails, that's not me. If the Red isn't working...I guess I'll have to find a new way to approach them. Thanks for this note. I hate taking what are for the most part good looking thumbnails and then mucking them up with words. This is a battle for me internally...again, the aesthetic vs what the robot likes.
4th, I spent about 2 months "greening" my videos (though not all of them) Then I pulled back on that to see how it impacted my traffic. This isn't an excuse, but the low scores on recent videos is a design. What I've learned is..."Greening" my videos doesn't reliably make them spin more than ignoring tags etc. Which, in this case, doesn't mean upping SEO scores isn't important...clearly it is...but there's something else between me and discovery. I need to up my SEO scores...but there are other things missing.

Which leads me to more evolution and discovery. Maybe it's the banner...maybe it's internal youtube searches...or external.

In some ways, I feel like I'm spending my time working hard picking pennies up off the ground to save up to 100k dollars. Will I get there? Sure...eventually....but is this where my efforts needs to be? I remain unconvinced.

I've written the above to provide some candid feedback for myself...and the next version of me that comes along. One thing I do know from my work on TubeBuddy (TubeBuddy is awesome and worth the money BTW) It's not content quality that counts. It's a compilation of things that must be tended to...and MANY of the biggest impacts are outside of the YouTube universe. And cash spent well on ads, support etc is much more important than Titles, banners, thumbnails etc.

Again, thanks for your notes. You've done me a favor and I am honored by the time and guidance you've offered.

 

[SILTHW]

First, let me thank you for taking the time.
Second, I'll give the Banner some thought. I hadn't occurred to me that the banner matters beyond the aesthetic
Third, Great notes...I'll spend some time in the playlists I think I can pair down the number of lists...and then optimise how I present them...this is something I can start on right away...great advice.
Third, Thumbnails are hard. I think I've got a compromise. With all respect to Nick and those that use "Shocked Face" for thumbnails, that's not me. If the Red isn't working...I guess I'll have to find a new way to approach them. Thanks for this note. I hate taking what are for the most part good looking thumbnails and then mucking them up with words. This is a battle for me internally...again, the aesthetic vs what the robot likes.
4th, I spent about 2 months "greening" my videos (though not all of them) Then I pulled back on that to see how it impacted my traffic. This isn't an excuse, but the low scores on recent videos is a design. What I've learned is..."Greening" my videos doesn't reliably make them spin more than ignoring tags etc. Which, in this case, doesn't mean upping SEO scores isn't important...clearly it is...but there's something else between me and discovery. I need to up my SEO scores...but there are other things missing.

Which leads me to more evolution and discovery. Maybe it's the banner...maybe it's internal youtube searches...or external.

In some ways, I feel like I'm spending my time working hard picking pennies up off the ground to save up to 100k dollars. Will I get there? Sure...eventually....but is this where my efforts needs to be? I remain unconvinced.

I've written the above to provide some candid feedback for myself...and the next version of me that comes along. One thing I do know from my work on TubeBuddy (TubeBuddy is awesome and worth the money BTW) It's not content quality that counts. It's a compilation of things that must be tended to...and MANY of the biggest impacts are outside of the YouTube universe. And cash spent well on ads, support etc is much more important than Titles, banners, thumbnails etc.

Again, thanks for your notes. You've done me a favor and I am honored by the time and guidance you've offered.

Honestly, it is a journey. I'll spare you the details of all of my failed experiments with YouTube. My channel is currently littered with thumbnail experiments and I'm about to do my 3rd overhaul. So really, I get it.

My suggestion is this - pick something straight forward. If I were you I would tackle the banner and pick one playlist to lean in to. Build that playlist, optimize the description, then update the SEO and thumbnails on the videos in that playlist. Make it the first playlist on your page. The watch and see how it does. The do the next playlist, etc.

Taking a playlist focus allows you to template some of the upload defaults. Note - upload defaults can be applied to an already-uploaded video, so it can save quite a bit of time.

Hope that helps!