Need Advice 200k subscribers but views started dropping since 2018

[jto0403]

Hello all,

My channel has over 200,000 subscribers and I have been making videos since 2010. My videos from 2015 to 2018 used to get around 10Ks views in the first 24 hours and would eventually earn at least some hundred thousand to million views. I always get notification of copyright claims from the music companies as mine is a dance choreography/workout/tutorials channel, which I believe is completely fine. In 2018, my channel received the notification of a "copyright strike" for the music used in one of the videos that we posted. Since that onwards, my channel views have dropped significantly though there has been no notification from Youtube regarding how the strike can/will affect my channel's performance/suggestion ranking, etc.

These few years, my new videos get barely 1K views in the first 24 hours and struggle to get 10K views after many months. I have also focused even more on thumbnails, SEO, etc. which I never did before for my videos. I thought that the view drop can be because of the change in Youtube Algorithm. However, my new videos still remain low in views, while my content, I can strongly and confidently say, is much better than many other better-viewed videos from other channels (which even barely have 1K subscribers!), and while my old videos, which have been getting some hundred thousand and million views all this time, continue to get lots of views daily.

In total, the views and watch-time duration in my channel remain high and never decrease, but all the views and watch-time are mostly generated from the old videos posted before around mid 2018.

I would truly appreciate any advice/suggestion/opinion on this please.
Thanks a lot.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

First and foremost; I am happy to venture my opinions on this subject but my best advice (particularly for these circumstances) would be to arrange a one on one with Roberto Blake. If/when I have questions about issues like this he is my go-to resource. There are other options available... Daniel Batal, Darrel Eves, Brian G Johnson, Owen Video, Evan Carmichael, Sunny Lenarduzzi and the Nimmin brothers but often these guys don't focus on coaching the way Roberto does.

Without being able to do a deep dive into your analytics and content I would venture to say that your content has maxed-out it's audience. You see this with gamers; they get a hit with a game and their channel grows great... until interest in the game begins to go away. While there is still interest and there will still be views they are going to dwindle. This is IMO the most common thing to cause issues like this; the interest in your niche has simply been maxed out.

If I am correct the good news is that this is a perfect opportunity to experiment with some fresh content. If you are a gamer maybe try doing a series on a different game or even a different kind of game. Start gearing up for a new release; there are going to be a few coming as Christmas draws near and now is the perfect time to start making videos about that stuff to build up authority for when it happens. These references are of course catered towards you being a gamer but really they work for any niche. If I was going through this as a fishing channel I would experiment with fishing new spots, trying weird baits, venturing into a few 'How-To' type videos and and maybe try different styles like Fly Fishing, Spearfishing or survivalist/camping fishing.

 

[Damon]

Yeah, this is one reason channels change over time. My channel early on it was mud motor videos, then that tapped out. Then it was jug fishing. That tapped out. Now I'm canoe fishing and that's picking up. I plan to do camp fishing this autumn. But, since my canoe is square-back I can add a motor. Which motor? My mud motor! Thus you can shuffle to coals a bit over time. New canoe fishing videos and all the new people will automatically be pointed to my old mud motor videos that complement it.

While we often talk about niching down. That doesn't mean that interest in that niche will last forever, nor does it mean that niche will always climb.

There's a natural ebb and flow to these things. Just like low-tide and high-tide, flood and drought, full moon and new moon, and summer and winter. This is the natural pulse of things. This is why you always searching SEO for what is relevant right now. The great thing is once you learn this, you will never run out of content. This is because the new content is related to the old content. It's sort of how the Earth magnetic field loops back in onto itself.