YouTube Question Lets start a thread - HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A DROP IN CHANNEL PERFORMANCE AFTER XMAS?

[Randomlifestylevlog]

So we are facing that massive drop in performance across our whole channel with most things. We know that Christmas has a massive impact on channels so I thought I would start a thread to share one another's experiences to see what you do to tackle this.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

You gotta have thick skin, that's for sure. This reduction in views happens every year. On the bright side the days between Christmas and New Years are just about the worst for views. So... you really have no excuses not to go and enjoy time with the family and loved ones! Take a little break... clear your head and prepare for the new year. Come January 2 everything starts to slowly climb it's way back up to the peak views we love seeing in summer. And if you are smart you are using this time to build up that library with evergreen content optimized and ready so that when summer hits you have a bunch of videos just waiting to pop off!

 

[Damon]

I take every December off. It's a great time to get rest, plan, reorient.

 

[vwes59]

Er, I hate to say this, but I've had the opposite happen. I've gone from 200 views per day, to over 1,000 a day over christmas, shot up 100 subscribers and I'm likely to hit 500 subscribers and possibly 3,000 watch hours by the end of Jan 1st. Why ? 1 video I did back at the start of December has suddenly took off and is now the most popular video I've done with 6.5k views in 2 weeks ! I don't know why this particular video has gone into orbit, except it's quite controversial in its subject matter and has provoked a huge amount of discussion in the comments.

 

[MattCommand1]

Er, I hate to say this, but I've had the opposite happen. I've gone from 200 views per day, to over 1,000 a day over christmas, shot up 100 subscribers and I'm likely to hit 500 subscribers and possibly 3,000 watch hours by the end of Jan 1st. Why ? 1 video I did back at the start of December has suddenly took off and is now the most popular video I've done with 6.5k views in 2 weeks ! I don't know why this particular video has gone into orbit, except it's quite controversial in its subject matter and has provoked a huge amount of discussion in the comments.

I like hearing this story. I have given thought to make more controversial topics to see how viewers respond. I foresee myself trying it out myself in the near future.

 

[Super Cooper Hobbies]

You gotta have thick skin, that's for sure. This reduction in views happens every year. On the bright side the days between Christmas and New Years are just about the worst for views. So... you really have no excuses not to go and enjoy time with the family and loved ones! Take a little break... clear your head and prepare for the new year. Come January 2 everything starts to slowly climb it's way back up to the peak views we love seeing in summer. And if you are smart you are using this time to build up that library with evergreen content optimized and ready so that when summer hits you have a bunch of videos just waiting to pop off!

This is very good to know. I've had a terrible week on my channel and it's very encouraging to know that its not necessarily me, but just viewers taking time off for holidays. Thanks!

 

[BraveStar]

You gotta have thick skin, that's for sure. This reduction in views happens every year. On the bright side the days between Christmas and New Years are just about the worst for views. So... you really have no excuses not to go and enjoy time with the family and loved ones! Take a little break... clear your head and prepare for the new year. Come January 2 everything starts to slowly climb it's way back up to the peak views we love seeing in summer. And if you are smart you are using this time to build up that library with evergreen content optimized and ready so that when summer hits you have a bunch of videos just waiting to pop off!

I'll take it one step further. This is the kind of time you prepare for ahead of time. You can have your cake and eat it too. You can create content for the holidays early on. Simple content that still matches your usual content but is easier to create and is uploaded early (like a month or two early) set to automatically release at a specific date so your channel can still provide some content for those like me still watching content during the holidays while you take time off to spend with your family. It doesn't have to be Christmas content but there's nothing wrong with creating some early Christmas themed content. You can even have something along the lines of Top 10 type of videos or your own YouTube Rewind style of your channel. As long as it's uploaded before the holidays and schedules to release itself while your on vacation from YouTube it should be fine.

 

[vwes59]

What I expected to see has actually transpired. Covid has interfered with the normal return to work here, but most schools have gone back today (though my kids don't until tomorrow, and then Friday, so I'm not back to work until next week, but I digress).

Anyway I had a phenomenal christmas period - 200+ extra subscribers, within touching distance of 4,000 watch hours (probably cross that today/tomorrow) and a 10 fold increase in viewing numbers. However today - back to earth with a crash. Numbers are not back to where they were before christmas, I would say it looks likely to be 2-3 times higher, but certainly not in the 2-3,000 range they were in the last few days.

I'm putting this down squarely on that fact that most people in the UK are now back at work, so electricians like myself (which is my main audience) are back out and about. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next few days - Thursdays and Saturdays were always my best days so I'm planning to publish videos on these days moving forward, and be more regular with my publishing (2 vids per week)

Also, as I've pushed past 500 subs, I qualify for the community tab, which I'm just waiting for Youtube to put on. I'm also going to make use of this, putting polls up, advertising new videos coming up and so on, but limit this to no more than a couple per week - Don't want to annoy my subscribers I've worked so hard to get.