YouTube Opinion Not gonna lie. I am pretty discouraged.

[The Jungle Explorer]

I have been doing YouTube probably longer than anyone here (since 2007). I really didn't start to develop my channel till around 2013. My progress has been slow, but it has been steady. The amount of work put in equaled the amount of progress I got back. Over the years I have continued to improve, both in experience production and equipment. I never believe I would become one of the big channels, but I thought that I could be a decent channel if I just stuck with it. Up until July of this year, I believed that was possible. Now, I am not certain anymore if I even have a future on YouTube. It seems all my hard work is being systematically destroyed by some force that I cannot see.

Here is a screenshot that show my yearly progress in views since 2013.

As you can clearly see, my channel has seen steady annual growth up until 2021, where it just flatline.

Here a shot from 2021. My view total from January 2021 was 130k

Now here is a shot showing my view total for July of 2021. You can see it is almost 170k

Now here is my view total at the end of December. Just 86k

I am ending 2021 around 35% lower than I ended 2020, and this is before we hit the "January Clif" where have historically seen another 30% drop in views (until March). I will end 2021 below where I was in 2019. So effectily, two whole years of progess and work have vanished into think air, and there is no sign that I can see that is will get any better.

I have over 14K subs and I am doing worst than when I had half that many. If things do not change, I may have to quite. I don't know what to do. How can you fix a problem that you cannot identifiy? As you can see from my first graph. I n ow what I am doing, it was wroking great for eight years. Now, NOTHING I do works and I cannot stop my channel from hemorraging views no matter what I try.

Am I the only one see thing kind of decline?

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

A lot of creators are experiencing similar issues. A large part of this is due to the pandemic. When people started getting quarantined in early 2020 they went home and started playing videos games and watching YouTube. This caused a big wave of views to come rolling in over the course of the year.

And then in 2021 they started going back to work.

If 2020 was one of your biggest years ever then you are definitely coming down from that spike... everyone is. The entire platform is coming down from it. It sucks... but mind you that spike we got was inflated and was never going to stick around. You got some growth out of it. But it is the end of the year and time to put the blinders on. Focus on 2022. Focus on improving your content, getting it out there and pushing through.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

A lot of creators are experiencing similar issues. A large part of this is due to the pandemic. When people started getting quarantined in early 2020 they went home and started playing videos games and watching YouTube. This caused a big wave of views to come rolling in over the course of the year.

And then in 2021 they started going back to work.

If 2020 was one of your biggest years ever then you are definitely coming down from that spike... everyone is. The entire platform is coming down from it. It sucks... but mind you that spike we got was inflated and was never going to stick around. You got some growth out of it. But it is the end of the year and time to put the blinders on. Focus on 2022. Focus on improving your content, getting it out there and pushing through.

I agree with you, but if you look at my eight-year channel average in the first graph, you will see that I did not see a significant spike in 2020. My growth in 2020 was pretty much average for my channel. And that growth continued all the way until July of 2021. I do not deny that what you are saying maybe play a part, but there is no question at all, that what I am seeing has to do with something very drastic that happened in July of this year. We are not talking about a gradual shift. We are talking about an undeniable 180-degree shift that has do specifically with events that took place in July. The COVID effect was already in play by the end of 2020, and I was noticing it. The real question is, what happened in July? Yes, we are facing the January cliff, but in the past, I could expect a recovery in a few months from that. Look at the stats right now, I see nothing that says I will. Do I hope so, YES, but the numbers are not encouraging?

 

[Nothin' But Gadgets]

I agree with you, but if you look at my eight-year channel average in the first graph, you will see that I did not see a significant spike in 2020. My growth in 2020 was pretty much average for my channel. And that growth continued all the way until July of 2021. I do not deny that what you are saying maybe play a part, but there is no question at all, that what I am seeing has to do with something very drastic that happened in July of this year. We are not talking about a gradual shift. We are talking about an undeniable 180-degree shift that has do specifically with events that took place in July. The COVID effect was already in play by the end of 2020, and I was noticing it. The real question is, what happened in July? Yes, we are facing the January cliff, but in the past, I could expect a recovery in a few months from that. Look at the stats right now, I see nothing that says I will. Do I hope so, YES, but the numbers are not encouraging?

Very well put. There is a serious problem with YouTube right now that no one seems to understand or want to try to identify. There seems to be a lot of resistance on this forum to anyone saying, "Something is wrong". The general vibe here is, "Stay Positive at all costs. Just close your eyes and stay positive". I don't know if it is a general policy that is required or just the modern "Chicken Soup for the Soul" mentality that seems to have taken over the world. I was raised to confront problems by identifying them. As my dad always taught me: "You cannot fix what you refuse to acknowledge by ignoring it." The general trend I have experienced on this forum is, "Ignore, Ignore, Ignore, Just smile, stay positive, and blindly produce content."

From the graphs you have posted, anyone that tries to ignore that you have clearly identified a serious problme is just choosing to follow the ternd of ignore it and stay positive. This attitude is quite frustrating to me and sometimes even offensive and insulting. It is very patronizing. Like a parent saying to a little child. "Here, let me kiss it and make it all better." Maybe you and I are just from an older generation where we were taught to face and fix problems rather than ignore them by staying positive. I don't know. I just know that I have not once got any constructive advice on here about how to deal with any problems other than; "Ignore problems, stay positive and keep cranking out content." After the thousandth time you have heard this, it gets irritating.

Just being honest. If that is a crime, so be it.

 

[MattCommand1]

I agree with you, but if you look at my eight-year channel average in the first graph, you will see that I did not see a significant spike in 2020. My growth in 2020 was pretty much average for my channel. And that growth continued all the way until July of 2021. I do not deny that what you are saying maybe play a part, but there is no question at all, that what I am seeing has to do with something very drastic that happened in July of this year. We are not talking about a gradual shift. We are talking about an undeniable 180-degree shift that has do specifically with events that took place in July. The COVID effect was already in play by the end of 2020, and I was noticing it. The real question is, what happened in July? Yes, we are facing the January cliff, but in the past, I could expect a recovery in a few months from that. Look at the stats right now, I see nothing that says I will. Do I hope so, YES, but the numbers are not encouraging?

Let's assume your experience is accurate and YT is to blame. I am not sure anyone will tell you to quit because it is a huge decision. Very few people are going to tell someone to do a risky thing. It's sort of like telling someone to quit their job knowing that there is a big risk in that change.

I have seen many people write about their own anecdotal experience. Like most people, we take it all in and compare it to our own experience. Some might agree with you some may not. Some things go unsaid because it will likely be unwelcome.

Maybe YT is flawed and some of us are destined to fail or perhaps need to quit. But that is tough position to take. There is nothing any of us can do if YT is the problem here. However, if we believe we have blindspots then we can work on correcting our own work.

You say you have been on YT for 8 years. I have been on YT since 2007 with my other channels. I am not a teenager, millennial, or Z-generation. I am Gen X. I been around the block and seen things and done life. I am not an airy-fairy "everything is positive in this world" and if you believe hard enough, your wishes come true. I believe in investing in yourself and business, hard (but smart) work, self-discovery, self-improvement, and opening up my mind to doing better. The reason is I can control these things. Maybe YT is busted but if that is the case, we all should abandon ship, right?

It is possible YT was broken during certain periods of time. Maybe it is broken now. But for me, I have no complaints at the moment. Ultimately, my truth is I didn't study nor understand YT or did I put in the time before, I only used YT as a video hosting service, not much else and it shows in those channels. And so, I conclude it was my own deficiencies. But this time around, I have a whole new approach and outlook. Time will tell if I adopted the right mindset and made good decisions.

Keep in mind, YT has also changed quite a bit over the years. There are changes in artistic trends, design trends, filming, styles, and people's interests. There are social, cultural, and political changes. None of these things may be a factor in your channel or maybe ALL of them are. Each of us have to evaluate our own decisions or perhaps solicit feedback from trusted confidantes. Maybe things that once worked don't work now. Only you can be the judge of it. The rest of us are "outsiders".

 

[MattCommand1]

Very well put. There is a serious problem with YouTube right now that no one seems to understand or want to try to identify. There seems to be a lot of resistance on this forum to anyone saying, "Something is wrong". The general vibe here is, "Stay Positive at all costs. Just close your eyes and stay positive". I don't know if it is a general policy that is required or just the modern "Chicken Soup for the Soul" mentality that seems to have taken over the world. I was raised to confront problems by identifying them. As my dad always taught me: "You cannot fix what you refuse to acknowledge by ignoring it." The general trend I have experienced on this forum is, "Ignore, Ignore, Ignore, Just smile, stay positive, and blindly produce content."

From the graphs you have posted, anyone that tries to ignore that you have clearly identified a serious problme is just choosing to follow the ternd of ignore it and stay positive. This attitude is quite frustrating to me and sometimes even offensive and insulting. It is very patronizing. Like a parent saying to a little child. "Here, let me kiss it and make it all better." Maybe you and I are just from an older generation where we were taught to face and fix problems rather than ignore them by staying positive. I don't know. I just know that I have not once got any constructive advice on here about how to deal with any problems other than; "Ignore problems, stay positive and keep cranking out content." After the thousandth time you have heard this, it gets irritating.

Just being honest. If that is a crime, so be it.

We are on the same TB Forum and I have totally different experience than you do. I respectfully disagree with you and will defend the efforts being made on the TB Forum. I think you are making overly sweeping generalized, insulting, and unfair statements about the TB Forum. Your are entitled to your opinion but I venture if we started to actually analyze the posts of the true contributors here, your broad characterization would be totally offbase. @Stanley OrchardBuddy and @Damon alone make very significant contributions in their posts. You are insulting them and me by bunching them in with your overly broad statements.

No one is held hostage being on the TB Forums if you feel the way you do. Maybe one day, I will leave. But for now, as long as there is value for me, I will hang out and support and defend the effort, not trash it. I know what it's like to run a forum and community. It is not easy and I am sensitive to people who attack and insult the effort.

I am not sure who you are following but the people I follow on this forum do not tell anyone to ignore, smile, be positive, and blindly produce content. My takeaway on the TB forums is there are lots of great insights and nuggets of tweaking, improving, refining, techniques, and strategies. I soak it all up. Some of it is relevant to me, some of it is not. But I tuck it all away in my brain.

Admittedly, the TB forums have some problems. I also know there are also a boatload of spammers or people who ask simplistic questions. I am not blind to some of the issues but I believe they are being worked on.

 

[Damon]

@The Jungle Explorer, thanks for this post. I like your attitude. You're coming at this from a seasoned and data-driven perspective. I've had many of these same questions. Honestly I don't have any answers, but I can provide my own perspective as well as some speculation. A few qualifiers:

1. I'm Generation X as well. They totally wrote us off. Said we weren't going to be anything, yet our generation built things like YouTube, and we're about to get to Mars.
2. I've been making content since 2000. Back then is was blogs, then came podcasts, then YouTube blew up. I've been on YouTube since 2007. My current channel is my third and most "successful" of the three channels.

The Long Haul | The Business Life Cycle
Every question you asked is a great question and should be asked by all people. In fact every business has to ask these questions. All industries go through a cycle, a long cycle.

• Start
• Growth
• Climax
• "Level" Run
• Decline

When I say long cycle I mean the true life cycle of the business itself. Whether it's a 100 year old company or a first year up-start. All business starts. Most never get past the start up phase. From there things grow, some fast, some slowly. Sooner or later that industry will climax, level off before going into decline. Some business/industries can restart, move in a different direction, and start the cycle over again. Other businesses cannot, thus they die.

This applies to our individual YouTube channels. Each person is running their own business. Perhaps the currency is not dollars and cents, but views and subs, despite people calling them "vanity" metrics. Every YouTube channel has a start. Most will never get past the start up phase for a variety of reason. For some it's a niche too small to make any headway. For others it's lack of discipline. For others it's totally unexplained.

For instance I run a fishing channel. Fishing is a very old industry, about as old as humanity itself. Over the past 50 years the fishing industry has been in decline. My generation went fishing and hunting as kids. Today's generation stays at home and plays video games. There is no new blood to replace the old blood in the industry. If an entire industry is in decline, how can I expect my channel to magically rise above that?

You have to take a broader look. People are too focused on YouTube and ignore everything else. Also the assumption that there is a problem, well, there could be. Is YouTube broken? Yes. Show me a human built institution that isn't broken.

There are also limits to the audience size of each niche. If you crank out tons of content in any niche, sooner or later you will max out that niche. There may simply be no more people on planet earth interested in that subject.

That leads to my final point. People often ignore basic cycles and seasons. If some one wants it to be summertime all the time, well, you'll ruin the whole planet as a result. The list above can be considered seasons. It's unrealistic to think that you should be in a perpetual growth phase all the time. That's highly abnormal, yet people somehow think that's what their YouTube channel should be: always growing all the time. Anytime it isn't there must be something wrong. People are so divorced from the environment they have totally forgotten that things ebb and flow in cycles, long cycles, 50 or 100 year cycles. Hello, it's been a 100 years since we had a big honking flu pandemic.

My channel is in a state of decline. Why?

1. COVID. Enough said.
2. Every two years I reinvent my channel and go in a bold, new direction. I'm about a year overdue for that.
3. My industry, the fishing industry, is in decline.
4. I have focused on art more than money.
5. Emotionally I'm in a much different place today than when I started. (See #4.)

So out of all these "problems." I can only do anything about #2 and #4.

Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0
I said above that YouTube is broken. (The world is broken, also.) But, the problem is much bigger than YouTube. The real problem is Web 2.0. Here's What I mean:

• Web 1.0 was basic post card-like Web sites. You built a Web site and hosted it on someone's server. You don't own anything. Sure the intellectual property is yours but, you're just renting a space on someone's server.
• Web 2.0: You could upload content on someone else's Web site and earn money from it. This gave rise to sites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the like. Again, you don't own anything, the rent is free, but anyone inside the company can shut down your channel, account or feed at any point for any reason.
• Web 3.0: You own a piece of the servers, you own a piece of the network, you stake a claim onto the blockchain itself. You own the views, the subscribers and the content itself. This is now in a heavy start up and growth phase. You own it via a token called a coin or NFT as proof work, proof of ownership, proof of history or any number of things.

This is ultimately why YouTube "doesn't" work. Yes, YouTube works well for YouTube and Google, but for the rest of us, well, our mileages have varied as stated in the above replies. The reality is anytime on big company, organization or government controls everything, there is will be well-deserving people who will never get a chance.

Honestly this is what I will be doing much of 2022 is starting my own marketplace on the Solana blockchain, and begin minting NFTs of my content there. YouTube is a great platform, but Web 2.0 is in decline, and it's time to start thinking in Web 3.0 terms.

That doesn't mean that Web 2.0 will go away, but just as Web sites are to your YouTube channel will be your YouTube channel to your own blockhain marketplace. These are the real issues that no one talks about. It isn't about views ans subs or what the heck YouTube is or isn't doing. It's about how you want to define, run your business. YouTube cannot do that for you. TB cannot do that for you. No one can do that for your. You have to make your own decisions about your business.

For some people it will not be worth continuing. I've known people who decided to move on to other things. Others stayed and continued on. Other changed things and went in new directions. Some scaled to new heights. Some didn't.

I say all this to encourage people that there is far more going on than YouTube. You alone have to make decisions about what you are going to do.

 

[MattCommand1]

@The Jungle Explorer, thanks for this post. I like your attitude. You're coming at this from a seasoned and data-driven perspective. I've had many of these same questions. Honestly I don't have any answers, but I can provide my own perspective as well as some speculation. A few qualifiers:

1. I'm Generation X as well. They totally wrote us off. Said we weren't going to be anything, yet our generation built things like YouTube, and we're about to get to Mars.
2. I've been making content since 2000. Back then is was blogs, then came podcasts, then YouTube blew up. I've been on YouTube since 2007. My current channel is my third and most "successful" of the three channels.

The Long Haul | The Business Life Cycle
Every question you asked is a great question and should be asked by all people. In fact every business has to ask these questions. All industries go through a cycle, a long cycle.

• Start
• Growth
• Climax
• "Level" Run
• Decline

When I say long cycle I mean the true life cycle of the business itself. Whether it's a 100 year old company or a first year up-start. All business starts. Most never get past the start up phase. From there things grow, some fast, some slowly. Sooner or later that industry will climax, level off before going into decline. Some business/industries can restart, move in a different direction, and start the cycle over again. Other businesses cannot, thus they die.

This applies to our individual YouTube channels. Each person is running their own business. Perhaps the currency is not dollars and cents, but views and subs, despite people calling them "vanity" metrics. Every YouTube channel has a start. Most will never get past the start up phase for a variety of reason. For some it's a niche too small to make any headway. For others it's lack of discipline. For others it's totally unexplained.

For instance I run a fishing channel. Fishing is a very old industry, about as old as humanity itself. Over the past 50 years the fishing industry has been in decline. My generation went fishing and hunting as kids. Today's generation stays at home and plays video games. There is no new blood to replace the old blood in the industry. If an entire industry is in decline, how can I expect my channel to magically rise above that?

You have to take a broader look. People are too focused on YouTube and ignore everything else. Also the assumption that there is a problem, well, there could be. Is YouTube broken? Yes. Show me a human built institution that isn't broken.

There are also limits to the audience size of each niche. If you crank out tons of content in any niche, sooner or later you will max out that niche. There may simply be no more people on planet earth interested in that subject.

That leads to my final point. People often ignore basic cycles and seasons. If some one wants it to be summertime all the time, well, you'll ruin the whole planet as a result. The list above can be considered seasons. It's unrealistic to think that you should be in a perpetual growth phase all the time. That's highly abnormal, yet people somehow think that's what their YouTube channel should be: always growing all the time. Anytime it isn't there must be something wrong. People are so divorced from the environment they have totally forgotten that things ebb and flow in cycles, long cycles, 50 or 100 year cycles. Hello, it's been a 100 years since we had a big honking flu pandemic.

My channel is in a state of decline. Why?

1. COVID. Enough said.
2. Every two years I reinvent my channel and go in a bold, new direction. I'm about a year overdue for that.
3. My industry, the fishing industry, is in decline.
4. I have focused on art more than money.
5. Emotionally I'm in a much different place today than when I started. (See #4.)

So out of all these "problems." I can only do anything about #2 and #4.

Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0
I said above that YouTube is broken. (The world is broken, also.) But, the problem is much bigger than YouTube. The real problem is Web 2.0. Here's What I mean:

• Web 1.0 was basic post card-like Web sites. You built a Web site and hosted it on someone's server. You don't own anything. Sure the intellectual property is yours but, you're just renting a space on someone's server.
• Web 2.0: You could upload content on someone else's Web site and earn money from it. This gave rise to sites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the like. Again, you don't on anything, the rent is free, but anyone inside the company can shut down your channel, account or feed at any point for any reason.
• Web 3.0: You own a piece of the servers, you own a piece of the network, you stake a claim onto the blockchain itself. You own the views, the subscribers and the content itself. This is now in a heavy start up and growth phase. You own it via a token called a coin or NFT as proof work, proof of ownership, proof of history or any number of things.

This is ultimately why YouTube "doesn't" work. Yes, YouTube works well for YouTube and Google, but for the rest of us, well, our mileages have varied as stated in the above replies. The reality is anytime on big company or organization controls everything, there is will be well-deserving people who will never get a chance.

Honestly this is what I will be doing much of 2022 is starting my own marketplace on the Solana blockchain, and begin minting NFTs of my content there. YouTube is a great platform, but Web 2.0 is in decline, and it;s time to start thinking in Web 3.0 terms.

That doesn't mean that Web 2.0 will go away, but just as Web sites are to your YouTube channel will be your YouTube channel to your own blockhain marketplace. These are the real issues that no one talks about. It isn't about views ans subs or what the heck YouTube is or isn't doing. It's about how you want to define, run your business. YouTube cannot do that for you. TB cannot do that for you. No one can do that for your. You have to make your own decisions about your business.

For some people it will not be worth continuing. I've known people who decided to move on to other things. Others stayed and continued on. Other changed things and went in new directions. Some scaled to new heights. Some didn't.

I say all this to encourage people that there is far more going on that YouTube. You alone have to make decisions about what you are going to do.

What a wonderful piece of writing. So much to think about. THIS is an example of the TB forum at its best! This is very thoughtful writing taking into account many aspects of life. And there is so much cross-pollination of ideas that I could never get left to my own devices. I very much live in a happy bubble a lot of the time (work from home) and it is imperative to hear these types of distinctions.

I was especially moved by the decline of fishing as it relates to producing content. I never thought of it before but that can apply to many things. It is absolutely true that some topics and areas are of declining interest due to cultural and social shifts. Not every topic will lend themselves well to a wider audience.

In a sense, I am "spoiled" because real estate, finance, entrepreneurship, education, and marketing never go out of style in a broad sense but most definitely we have to roll with the times because technology trends compel us to.

I am delighted to hear that you "reboot/reinvent" yourself. I see that as taking a proactive measure to take control of your life and destiny. I love it. I think a lot of successful Youtubers have had to change and evolve with the times. You can't continue doing the same thing year after year in the tech age.

I've had my own websites since 1995. I've never been on the cutting edge but I've had to evolve the way I implement and design websites over the last 27 years. If we don't change and evolve with the times, we get left behind. I know for a fact Youtube is the same thing. Youtube has changed a lot while I was away with dormant channels. The culture is different and has become much more mainstream now. I watch YT on my Roku as many people do! That never used to be the case.

There were never tools like TB around. There were never easy to use tools like Canva before. When I came back to YT with a fresh pair of eyes, I was excited and still excited. I tend to believe that YT (and social media in general) favor people who are willing to change, evolve, and grow with the times. Anyone remember Myspace? Or what about FB 10 years ago? It was a lot different.

YT used to be 4:3 but changed over to 16:9. YT has also evolved from 720p to 1080p, and 4K. We now have vertical videos on YT. Thumbnails used to be optional but to survive nowadays, it is almost a crime NOT to have a good thumbnail.

But you bring up a good point, life is bigger than YT. Perhaps, some people should leave YT but I would never be the person to say that. That is a personal decision.

Thank you for the wonderful, thoughtful, and insightful post! LOVE IT!

 

[ScarTV]

@The Jungle Explorer, thanks for this post. I like your attitude. You're coming at this from a seasoned and data-driven perspective. I've had many of these same questions. Honestly I don't have any answers, but I can provide my own perspective as well as some speculation. A few qualifiers:

1. I'm Generation X as well. They totally wrote us off. Said we weren't going to be anything, yet our generation built things like YouTube, and we're about to get to Mars.
2. I've been making content since 2000. Back then is was blogs, then came podcasts, then YouTube blew up. I've been on YouTube since 2007. My current channel is my third and most "successful" of the three channels.

The Long Haul | The Business Life Cycle
Every question you asked is a great question and should be asked by all people. In fact every business has to ask these questions. All industries go through a cycle, a long cycle.

• Start
• Growth
• Climax
• "Level" Run
• Decline

When I say long cycle I mean the true life cycle of the business itself. Whether it's a 100 year old company or a first year up-start. All business starts. Most never get past the start up phase. From there things grow, some fast, some slowly. Sooner or later that industry will climax, level off before going into decline. Some business/industries can restart, move in a different direction, and start the cycle over again. Other businesses cannot, thus they die.

This applies to our individual YouTube channels. Each person is running their own business. Perhaps the currency is not dollars and cents, but views and subs, despite people calling them "vanity" metrics. Every YouTube channel has a start. Most will never get past the start up phase for a variety of reason. For some it's a niche too small to make any headway. For others it's lack of discipline. For others it's totally unexplained.

For instance I run a fishing channel. Fishing is a very old industry, about as old as humanity itself. Over the past 50 years the fishing industry has been in decline. My generation went fishing and hunting as kids. Today's generation stays at home and plays video games. There is no new blood to replace the old blood in the industry. If an entire industry is in decline, how can I expect my channel to magically rise above that?

You have to take a broader look. People are too focused on YouTube and ignore everything else. Also the assumption that there is a problem, well, there could be. Is YouTube broken? Yes. Show me a human built institution that isn't broken.

There are also limits to the audience size of each niche. If you crank out tons of content in any niche, sooner or later you will max out that niche. There may simply be no more people on planet earth interested in that subject.

That leads to my final point. People often ignore basic cycles and seasons. If some one wants it to be summertime all the time, well, you'll ruin the whole planet as a result. The list above can be considered seasons. It's unrealistic to think that you should be in a perpetual growth phase all the time. That's highly abnormal, yet people somehow think that's what their YouTube channel should be: always growing all the time. Anytime it isn't there must be something wrong. People are so divorced from the environment they have totally forgotten that things ebb and flow in cycles, long cycles, 50 or 100 year cycles. Hello, it's been a 100 years since we had a big honking flu pandemic.

My channel is in a state of decline. Why?

1. COVID. Enough said.
2. Every two years I reinvent my channel and go in a bold, new direction. I'm about a year overdue for that.
3. My industry, the fishing industry, is in decline.
4. I have focused on art more than money.
5. Emotionally I'm in a much different place today than when I started. (See #4.)

So out of all these "problems." I can only do anything about #2 and #4.

Web 2.0 vs. Web 3.0
I said above that YouTube is broken. (The world is broken, also.) But, the problem is much bigger than YouTube. The real problem is Web 2.0. Here's What I mean:

• Web 1.0 was basic post card-like Web sites. You built a Web site and hosted it on someone's server. You don't own anything. Sure the intellectual property is yours but, you're just renting a space on someone's server.
• Web 2.0: You could upload content on someone else's Web site and earn money from it. This gave rise to sites like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the like. Again, you don't own anything, the rent is free, but anyone inside the company can shut down your channel, account or feed at any point for any reason.
• Web 3.0: You own a piece of the servers, you own a piece of the network, you stake a claim onto the blockchain itself. You own the views, the subscribers and the content itself. This is now in a heavy start up and growth phase. You own it via a token called a coin or NFT as proof work, proof of ownership, proof of history or any number of things.

This is ultimately why YouTube "doesn't" work. Yes, YouTube works well for YouTube and Google, but for the rest of us, well, our mileages have varied as stated in the above replies. The reality is anytime on big company, organization or government controls everything, there is will be well-deserving people who will never get a chance.

Honestly this is what I will be doing much of 2022 is starting my own marketplace on the Solana blockchain, and begin minting NFTs of my content there. YouTube is a great platform, but Web 2.0 is in decline, and it's time to start thinking in Web 3.0 terms.

That doesn't mean that Web 2.0 will go away, but just as Web sites are to your YouTube channel will be your YouTube channel to your own blockhain marketplace. These are the real issues that no one talks about. It isn't about views ans subs or what the heck YouTube is or isn't doing. It's about how you want to define, run your business. YouTube cannot do that for you. TB cannot do that for you. No one can do that for your. You have to make your own decisions about your business.

For some people it will not be worth continuing. I've known people who decided to move on to other things. Others stayed and continued on. Other changed things and went in new directions. Some scaled to new heights. Some didn't.

I say all this to encourage people that there is far more going on than YouTube. You alone have to make decisions about what you are going to do.

I couldn't resist commending you and thanking you for this write up. It gives some clear insight for both seasons creators and newcomers alike. Many people are afraid to change things up and reinvent their channel every so often like you mentioned, but that can sometimes be the downfall of a great creator. Likewise, people are afraid to try anything other than the niche they built their content around. This can have definitely have the same impact.

Regarding Web3, it's definitely going to change things. But while we wait and prepare for it, I think it's important to stay focused on what we have going for us (referring to our YouTube channels). I do think the current system works sufficiently to turn around the downward slope people have experienced.

Maybe the solution for OP is to take your practice and take a turn with the content they produce.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

@The Jungle Explorer, thanks for this post. I like your attitude. You're coming at this from a seasoned and data-driven perspective. I've had many of these same questions. Honestly I don't have any answers, but I can provide my own perspective as well as some speculation. A few qualifiers:

Awesome write-up! Thanks. I honestly know more about human nature than I do the technical stuff you talked about. My channel is geared towards something I like to look at as "Long Term Content". There are many things that are definitely seasonal, and I have always understood that many people in those niches will experience dramatic fluctuations. A lot of channels actually look at their content in terms of the immediate views they will get from their subscribers. My channel is the exact opposite. Less than half a percent of my subscribers ever watch my videos. The reason is, my content is not entertaining. My content is educational. My content provides an answer to a very specific question. Unless you have a question my content answers, you have no reason to watch my content. So my views do not come from subscribers. My views come almost exclusively from searches and suggestions.

How does this play into this equation in regards to some of the points you made (very valid points, I might add)? Well, a lot of my content answers questions that people will continue to have for the next 50 years and maybe longer. This is what I call "Long Term Content". Regardless of what the technology is, web 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0, people will always be interested in content that answers their questions. As far as your valid point about "Market Saturation", I have considered that, but my market is the entirety of the human race. My channel has only had 5 million views in its whole life. That is about 0.06% of the total population of the earth, so I feel safe that I have not reached market saturation for my market just yet.

The data I have presented clearly demonstrate s noticeable trend over the last 8 years from 2013 to July of 2021. The graph is a yearly graph, so it just shows the overall growth year from year.

If you looked at a monthly graph for the same time period, you will see that there are many fluxuations throughout each year, but the end result is always that I have finished each year with a total higher than I started, except for this year.

So, I understand season fluctuations and have taken them into consideration.

I do not know what is causing the problem with my channel, but I do know that I am not alone. Many other channels, some way bigger than mine have seen a similar drop, starting in July of this year. Many attribute it to COVID, but based on my intense looking at the data, I think COVID is playing a much lesser part in what many are seeing than what people are giving it credit for. Here is what I have personally seen that is the cause.

As I said before, my views come from search and suggestions, not subscribers. Prior to this sudden decile starting in July, the largest portion of my viewership came from suggestions. But starting in July, I have seen the portion of views coming from suggestion drop dramatically, while all other avenues remained essentially unchanged. So, it is clear that the views I have lost, have been lost because my views are not getting suggested as often. There really is no doubt about this. All other factors aside (web 3.0, market saturation, etc), this is the main factor that is affecting my view count.

Now, the first thought might be to leap to the conclusion that YouTube's algorithm has determined that my content is just not worth suggesting. I have considered this, but then there is another factor that directly contradicts this hypothesis. My channel earns on average $8 per 1000 views. Yeah, I know. Right? When I tell other YouTubers how much my channel earns per 1k views, they crap a brick and call me a liar; but it is true. The truth is, I have some videos that earn over $12 per 1k views. This level of CPM is unheard of for my tubers and they would have their teeth pull to get that kind of CPM. The ads that run on my videos are top of the line. Toyota, GM, Sony, Samsung, etc. You can't get better ads than what I got running on my content. So, what this means is that, my content is seen as high-value content by YTs algorithm. YT does not run those kinds of ads on garbage content. It means that the ADMALL has determined that I have an audience that has money that might buy big-ticket items.

So the hypothesis that YT does not value my content and that is why they have reduced suggestions, is contradicted by the evidence that YT HIGHLY values my content and places its best ads on it. Okay, so why has YT decided NOT to suggest my content as much? It seems like an illogical move, and I really don't know the answer. All I know is, that I crossed 10K subs this year and it took me a very long time to reach that, and while my views have been tanking, my subscriber average has been growing and I am nearing 15k subs. This tells me that fewer people are watching my content, but the people that are, like my channel and they like me. I receive floods of "Thank You"s every day from people my content has helped.

Like I said, I do not have your understanding of the technical side, but I understand humans, and I can analyze numbers well. My analysis tells me that there is a cause for what I am seeing. I don't what it is, but my logic tells me is not COVID. I am not saying that COVID may not be a contributing factor, but if it is, it is extremely minor. I do not agree with what Nothing But Gadgets said, but I do agree that there seems to be a general lack of enthusiasm at getting to the bottom of whatever is causing this sudden drop in views. I know that some people are not seeing it, but I have found enough people that are seeing similar trends to mine to say there is definitely a pattern there and it has something to do with what YT is doing.

I do not believe the problem is organic. I think the problem has been engineered for some reason. I believe that unless those affected combine forces to make their voice heard by YT, YT will know that what they are doing is hurting some of their most valuable creators. But we cannot do that unless we first admit there is a problem, identify it, and then work together to bring the problem to YT's attention.

As far as the future goes, if YT disappeared tomorrow, I would still go on. I have many alternative sources to get my content out.

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

Very well put. There is a serious problem with YouTube right now that no one seems to understand or want to try to identify. There seems to be a lot of resistance on this forum to anyone saying, "Something is wrong". The general vibe here is, "Stay Positive at all costs. Just close your eyes and stay positive". I don't know if it is a general policy that is required or just the modern "Chicken Soup for the Soul" mentality that seems to have taken over the world. I was raised to confront problems by identifying them. As my dad always taught me: "You cannot fix what you refuse to acknowledge by ignoring it." The general trend I have experienced on this forum is, "Ignore, Ignore, Ignore, Just smile, stay positive, and blindly produce content."

From the graphs you have posted, anyone that tries to ignore that you have clearly identified a serious problme is just choosing to follow the ternd of ignore it and stay positive. This attitude is quite frustrating to me and sometimes even offensive and insulting. It is very patronizing. Like a parent saying to a little child. "Here, let me kiss it and make it all better." Maybe you and I are just from an older generation where we were taught to face and fix problems rather than ignore them by staying positive. I don't know. I just know that I have not once got any constructive advice on here about how to deal with any problems other than; "Ignore problems, stay positive and keep cranking out content." After the thousandth time you have heard this, it gets irritating.

Just being honest. If that is a crime, so be it.

Chill out, dude. I hear your frustration, but man, take a deep breath and relax. I am discouraged and frustrated like you, and I do understand what you are saying, but let's find a better way to express it, okay?

 

[The Jungle Explorer]

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

[Damon]

I do not believe the problem is organic. I think the problem has been engineered for some reason.

Understood. The fact is this has happened to many channels. Not just now. There was a lady a couple years ago running a successful electronic channels who had the same thing. Just all a sudden, YouTube "turned off the tap." YT just stopped recommending her content. She being a scientist, presented several videos sighting her data. Eventually YouTube "turned back on," but the reality is none of us has ultimate control over our channels because we don't own our channels--the primary flaw of Web 2.0.

It is a curious thing. My channel is much like yours. I get Nitro boat ads, Mercury motor ads, Chevy truck ads and other big ticket items, yet there is such small growth. I can't tell you the number of times people come to me and say, "I bought that motor you recommend." I sell my custom fishing reels at $100 a piece. People buy and buy. I ain't gettin' rich, but money is changing hands. Revenue is being generated on all fronts, yet you see such little growth over long spans of time.

Can't tell you the number of times people come to me and say, "Man, why don't you have 100,000 subscribers?" Or, "Your videos are like watching a movie!" I literally want every single video to be like a documentary film. I read whole books on documentary film making. I do lots of educational content as well. Everything I do is evergreen content. I'm trying to be like Jacques Cousteau, Bill Mason. I don't know.

In the end I don't know. It is part of the broken world we're in. The channels that drive revenue don't get the subscribers and views. The channels that get subs and views don't seem to generate much revenue. The whole world has been set to futility since Adam ate the fruit, but that's a theological question.

Honestly I don't think YouTube cares much about making money, especially since their parent company "owns" the internet and can bail them out of any mishap. In the end the only thing I can do is crank out more content, change the content or platform, or stop making content.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Man guys... I gotta say this is one of the most thorough and thought out discussions we have had in a long time. I am loving this!

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Ok... so I am not subscribing to the idea that this is engineered. But I will be the first to tell anyone that I don't know anything. So looking at this in a vacuum and devoid of emotion; if this is an engineered thing that is happening then channels are being flagged in YouTube's Search and Discovery and marked for reduced Impressions.

What would YouTube be looking at to cause this flag? There are going to be data markers or something that they are looking at right? So what would those data markers be? And as a creator can we identify this and reverse engineer it to produce the opposite results?

 

[MattCommand1]

So the hypothesis that YT does not value my content and that is why they have reduced suggestions, is contradicted by the evidence that YT HIGHLY values my content and places its best ads on it. Okay, so why has YT decided NOT to suggest my content as much? It seems like an illogical move, and I really don't know the answer. All I know is, that I crossed 10K subs this year and it took me a very long time to reach that, and while my views have been tanking, my subscriber average has been growing and I am nearing 15k subs. This tells me that fewer people are watching my content, but the people that are, like my channel and they like me. I receive floods of "Thank You"s every day from people my content has helped.

I think we have to be careful of drawing absolute conclusions and extrapolating too much based on what we experience on a personal level. I have one video that literally has 4 views. Period. Changed thumbnails & descriptions a couple times. Still nothing. For whatever reason, that video just won't do anything although I personally think it is a useful one. The only conclusion I can draw is that it was a trial vertical video vs. horizontal one. Do I know for sure? Not really. But I move on with the idea that I don't think I will do a vertical video again (unless it is a YT short) KNOWING full well that YT shorts are entirely vertical videos.

Like I said, I do not have your understanding of the technical side, but I understand humans, and I can analyze numbers well. My analysis tells me that there is a cause for what I am seeing. I don't what it is, but my logic tells me is not COVID. I am not saying that COVID may not be a contributing factor, but if it is, it is extremely minor. I do not agree with what Nothing But Gadgets said, but I do agree that there seems to be a general lack of enthusiasm at getting to the bottom of whatever is causing this sudden drop in views. I know that some people are not seeing it, but I have found enough people that are seeing similar trends to mine to say there is definitely a pattern there and it has something to do with what YT is doing.

I agree that there is a "cause" for your perceived drop. I agree it is not Covid. I looked at your channel and I had a "first impression". Have you asked anyone what people think of your channel as a "first impression" with 2022 eyes? Your old subscribers and viewers are already onboard. What worked for them might not work for newer viewers and subscribers. Maybe or maybe not. I think thousands of YT creators (including me) everyday are actively looking for a cause for their channel's dissatisfactory performance. But I think most people are looking at what they can do to improve or what they have done wrong vs. believing looking at YT's fault. And when YT do have glitches, there is a reporting mechanism either in their forums or their private message in Studio Creator.

I do not believe the problem is organic. I think the problem has been engineered for some reason. I believe that unless those affected combine forces to make their voice heard by YT, YT will know that what they are doing is hurting some of their most valuable creators. But we cannot do that unless we first admit there is a problem, identify it, and then work together to bring the problem to YT's attention.

As far as the future goes, if YT disappeared tomorrow, I would still go on. I have many alternative sources to get my content out.

Of course, the issue involves "engineering". YT is one big engineering project. The YT algorithm is a feat of AI engineering and constantly being tweaked. It is possible that we can get glitches in our results. I am not into the theory that YT "has it in" for anyone. But I do believe we, as creators, can fall out of favor if we do not keep up with the times. Such as keeping our titles fresh, do remakes of older videos, redo our thumbnails, relook at our titles/descriptions, etc. I just looked my older channel started around 2009 and I cringe. The way I did descriptions, poor thumbnails, throwing up nonsensical videos, no CTAs, etc. I didn't keep up with YT trends and changes and just kept doing the same cringey things for nearly 10 years. No wonder that YT channel never went anywhere meaningful.

In just the last 6 months, I had to relook at things like my thumbnails, playlists, titles, descriptions, etc. I had to redo and update them to bring them up to my current standards and sensibilities. I anticipate that in the year to come, I will revisit them again to make sure they are still "fresh" as I evolve as a creator.

And, insofar as YT "disappearing", it could happen and I think we will see signs of YT decline way in advance if we want to jump ship. Perhaps, some people may need or want to jump ship but it isn't me. I didn't pay serious attention to YT the last 15 years and it was costly. I cannot turn back the clock, I can only go forward. But YT and video creating & video marketing (for me) is here for the rest of my professional life and I am encouraging my business friends to get serious and get onboard. YT and video platforms, in general, is still on a growth curve.

 

[MattCommand1]

Man guys... I gotta say this is one of the most thorough and thought out discussions we have had in a long time. I am loving this!

This is the high signal-to-noise type of discussions that bring out the best in people.

 

[Damon]

I'm with you, @Stanley OrchardBuddy, I don't buy into the engineered thing, but at the same time, well, we both know those fishing channels with blonde, ditsy bikini chicks are often the ones that get tons of subs and views. While I could reverse engineer that, I just don't see myself looking good with a sex change operation, skin bleach, purple hair and a bikini.

However, to your point, it doesn't it take lots of subscribers or views to make money. In fact most business channels I frequent can barely manage cobble together 1,000 subscribers. For instance: Newport Vessels. I just bought one of their trolling motors. Spent $298.95 on a new trolling motor for my canoe. The same canoe I spent $2,000 last year that I bought from the good folks at Wisemen Trading.

Think about that: Combined these well-to-do, family-run, mom-and-pop type businesses have generated almost $2300 off me this past year. What's more they can barely scrape together 3k subs!

Honestly we can all engineer our own brands and businesses. If all you look at is subs, views and YouTube pushing or not pushing content, then you won't have much of a business. Ultimately people who want to be entertained don't want to buy anything. People who do want to buy something are fewer and further between. I'd rather have the sales revenue than the views and subs.

 

[MattCommand1]

I'm with you, @Stanley OrchardBuddy, I don't buy into the engineered thing, but at the same time, well, we both know those fishing channels with blonde, ditsy bikini chicks are often the ones that get tons of subs and views. While I could reverse engineer that, I just don't see myself looking good with a sex change operation, skin bleach, purple hair and a bikini.

Honestly we can all engineer our own brands and businesses. If all you look at is subs, views and YouTube pushing or not pushing content, then you won't have much of a business. Ultimately people who want to be entertained don't want to buy anything. People who do want to buy something are fewer and further between. I'd rather have the sales revenue than the views and subs.

I don't know much about fishing or fishing channels but @Damon just taught me something new that can be applied to many channels. "Modern" fishing channels include eye-candy or something to jazz it up because video is, well, visual. Am I saying that we all have to hire bikini-models for our videos? Of course not. But we have to find ways to constantly spice up or improve our own videos whatever that might be. @Stanley OrchardBuddy always says make good videos. He is right. But a "good video" 5 years ago may not be a "good video" today. We cannot expect to do the same thing the same way year after year if we are to survive online. This goes for websites, social media, apps, graphics design, etc. not just YT videos. We must evolve with the times to be relevant online.

And for those of us who are Gen X or higher, we have to work extra hard to stay current and relevant to what comes naturally to GenZ and Millennials. We have to be aware of underlying trends that are unfolding month after month. We cannot just work in our own video silos. Gen X have advantages we should play to. Our life experience, wisdom, maturity, stability, etc.

 

[Damon]

Gen X have advantages we should play to. Our life experience, wisdom, maturity, stability, etc.

Never thought I'd ever hear someone mention those qualities in the same sentence. Your point is very well taken. Also, the we know that Millennials and GenZers much prefer to have an experience rather than a stuff, a more Baby Boomer mentality. Well our entire lives are experiences as GenXers.