YouTube Tips First Rule of YouTube... Don't Talk About YouTube!!!

[Stanley | Team TB]

I am pulling this from a conversation that several of us had on Discord and I figured it was an important thing to discuss. Talking about YouTube while on YouTube... and why you should avoid this topic of conversation.

You are excited about what you do... you are proud of your work and the videos you make. It likely took days to film and edit and then hours upon hours to do your keyword research, craft that thumbnail, write that title and description and then once you published you promoted on Twitter and Facebook and made a repurposed video for Tik Tok and YouTube Shorts... This is a lot of work. Making the video is actually a more time consuming endeavor than whatever it is that you are actually filming. Naturally when you are hanging out with your audience or when you are filming a video you may slip into the trench of talking about YouTube and/or being a YouTuber. This is a slippery slope, and a habit that you will likely want to try to avoid.

Your audience comes to you because of your personality and because of your authority in your niche. They appreciate your skills and they go to you for the personality that they want to deliver this information/entertainment. And unless YouTube is your niche... YouTube is not your niche. Your audience knows that you make videos on YouTube and they are not going to want to hear about it. YouTube is an adventure for the creator, not the viewer. They likely do not make videos, they are familiar with YouTube as a platform and on top of that they have already been inundated with plenty of other YouTubers talking about the exact same issues before. What's funny too is that this is also a mark of experience. Look at the creators here on the forum... very rarely will you see a creator who has been making videos for five years and has a channel with 10,000 subscribers talk about YouTube. You can rack that up to them being jaded, but more likely they made it to where they are by being focused on their content and not the platform.

It isn't a big deal; you are not going to lose a single subscriber that matters to your channel should you occasionally mention the foibles that occur behind the scenes of your channel. And YouTube can be a character in your channel's existence; as a solid-performing, not-at-all-terrible and amazingly-decent fishing channel I will make no bones about making fun of myself for being a forty year-old 'YouTuber' and I often try to incorporate tongue-in-cheek references to other YouTubers for laughs. It is a part of who I am, and it is a part of who you are. But don't make it the focus of who you are.

 

[DIMTIPS]

There is something about declaring myself as a YouTuber which leaves a funny taste in my mouth. Not sure why that is even thou I post on YT. Therefore I never mention I am a YouTuber

 

[Damon]

Honestly, I don't see myself as a YouTuber. YouTube is just a sidewalk I use to get where I'm going. How often do you talk about the side walk that you walk or the street you drive? We simply expect them to function. We pay taxes to maintain them. Like roads and streets, sidewalks and pathways, the infrastructure to build and maintain them is vast and expensive, but it isn't the focus.

If people ask what I do for a living, I say that I'm a YouTuber, because now most people understand what that means. If I tell them that I'm a fishing tackle designer, online tackle shop owner, filmmaker, storyteller, musician, composer, whose mission it is to show the world the glory of God in the creation, they won't know what the Hell I'm talking about. When you say, "YouTuber," they seem to know that I do all the above. The more they ask about what the life of a YouTuber, the more I can reveal about what I do. They realize it's not some hobby, but a profession and art, a mission and cause.

But, I don't go around talking about being a YouTuber mainly because I don't like talking. I figure let the algorithm find'em. I have too much content to plan, music to compose, fish to catch to run around telling people I'm a YouTuber or all the problems that YouTube has.

 

[Drscottbland]

Yeah, agreed. IΓÇÖm not a youtuber. IΓÇÖm a husband/dad with a number of random interests that works as a doctor/army officer and happens to have a youtube channel. I assume no one cares about the behind the scenes of youtuve besides other people doing youtube.

ItΓÇÖs like crossfit, no one cares how many kipping pullups you can do if they donΓÇÖt do crossfit

 

[Legacy]

I have said that I post videos because I enjoy creating them and have a passion for sharing what I make as a hobby, and that is something I might tell people sometimes if they ask me what I enjoy doing in my free time but I don't really just make it known that I have a channel otherwise.

 

[Pete A Turner]

Honestly, I don't see myself as a YouTuber. YouTube is just a sidewalk I use to get where I'm going. How often do you talk about the side walk that you walk or the street you drive? We simply expect them to function. We pay taxes to maintain them. Like roads and streets, sidewalks and pathways, the infrastructure to build and maintain them is vast and expensive, but it isn't the focus.

If people ask what I do for a living, I say that I'm a YouTuber, because now most people understand what that means. If I tell them that I'm a fishing tackle designer, online tackle shop owner, filmmaker, storyteller, musician, composer, whose mission it is to show the world the glory of God in the creation, they won't know what the Hell I'm talking about. When you say, "YouTuber," they seem to know that I do all the above. The more they ask about what the life of a YouTuber is like the more, I can reveal about what I do. They realize it's not some hobby, but a profession and art, a mission and cause.

But, I don't go around talking about being a YouTuber mainly because I don't like talking. I figure let the algorithm find'em. I have too much content to plan, music to compose, fish to catch to run around telling people I'm a YouTuber or all the problems that YouTube has.

I like the idea of YouTube as a sidewalk. I see it as a kiosk in Google's mall. When I engage my audience, it's not because I'm a YouTuber, that doesnt' define me...my experience defines me...YouTube is just a pair of shoes in my closet. Good shoes...but still just some shoes. I have lots of other shoes

 

[SaraSmilez]

IΓÇÖm a YouTuber.... but IΓÇÖll now consciously recognize when IΓÇÖm about to go into ΓÇ£YouTube TalkΓÇ¥ and try to refrain moving forward. Thx for the tip!

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Honestly, I don't see myself as a YouTuber. YouTube is just a sidewalk I use to get where I'm going. How often do you talk about the side walk that you walk or the street you drive? We simply expect them to function. We pay taxes to maintain them. Like roads and streets, sidewalks and pathways, the infrastructure to build and maintain them is vast and expensive, but it isn't the focus.

If people ask what I do for a living, I say that I'm a YouTuber, because now most people understand what that means. If I tell them that I'm a fishing tackle designer, online tackle shop owner, filmmaker, storyteller, musician, composer, whose mission it is to show the world the glory of God in the creation, they won't know what the Hell I'm talking about. When you say, "YouTuber," they seem to know that I do all the above. The more they ask about what the life of a YouTuber, the more I can reveal about what I do. They realize it's not some hobby, but a profession and art, a mission and cause.

But, I don't go around talking about being a YouTuber mainly because I don't like talking. I figure let the algorithm find'em. I have too much content to plan, music to compose, fish to catch to run around telling people I'm a YouTuber or all the problems that YouTube has.

Wholeheartedly agree and exactly the wholesome comment I was trying to get out of you!

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

IΓÇÖm a YouTuber.... but IΓÇÖll now consciously recognize when IΓÇÖm about to go into ΓÇ£YouTube TalkΓÇ¥ and try to refrain moving forward. Thx for the tip!

You do you... this is more of a thought exercise than anything and none of us can speak on behalf of your audience. But it is something that people do to their detriment, and is therefore something to at least consider.

 

[The Storm is coming]

I don't really talk about being a Youtuber with my family, cuz when i'm telling that they tend to watch my videos but are not really my target audience

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I don't really talk about being a Youtuber with my family, cuz when i'm telling that they tend to watch my videos but are not really my target audience

Oh yeah... I didn't tell my family for like three years. Had more fun letting them discover it than trying to shove it down their throat.

 

[Tito Tim]

I do not talk about YT much in my vids. My niche is travel and retirement overseas. But because the channel started out as more of a diary, and I still think of it that way, sometimes some YT foibles does figure into my day, and gets talked about. Like bad or good (rare) Philippines internet, but that is also part of life overseas, and the infrastructure issues we deal with. I do not talk analytics, or YT Studio... because it just does not apply.

I have had a few request to see my studio setup. I keep trying to make a vid, but it bores me to make it... and keeps getting postponed...

 

[Maryprecious]

I find myself saying I'm a YouTuber...hmmm

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I find myself saying I'm a YouTuber...hmmm

There is nothing wrong with that... this really is more of a thought exercise. Your audience should enjoy you as you are. The issue that I am attempting to address are people who lean heavily into being YouTubers with their content... so much so that it seems to drown out the actual niche that they are suppose to be covering.