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.
I might be able to suggest to you what it is the reason for the video low performance. It is the SEO. No, not the SEO you have control over. It is the SEO you have no control over, which is the video itself. Google has a deep learning algorithm which actually analysis everything in a video; every object, every word, everything. The AI then decides, based on this, what it thinks the video is about. It then, measures this against the SEO you provide to see if there is a match. The better the match between your SEO and Google's AI analysis, the more google likes it. The problem is, you have no control over what the AI determines or any way to see this data. For whatever reason, sometimes the AI thinks something totally different about your video than what you intend it to be. You do your best SEO, but the AI says that it is not even a close match. I have seen this effect on some of my videos myself, especially ones in which I do not talk. One way to circumvent the AI getting it wrong, is to repeat what the video is about over and over again throughout the video. I have a bad habit of not doing this myself, even though I know I need to.
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.
This one seems to be giving you trouble wrapping your mind around. Let me help you. As I pointed out, my subcribers do not watch my videos. My channel average for subscriber views is 0.6% This is one area where you and I are totally different. Honestly, subscribers mean absolutely nothing to me. There only use is to give my channel prestige. A lot of tubers focus on subscribers. I have a lot of subscribers, but they are not loyal because that is not the nature of my content. As I have already explained, I do not produce entertaining content. Only enterntement channels benefit from subscribers and followings. I produce educational content (DIY). Like, how to replace the radiator in a 2004 Hyundia Elantra, or how to create an ignition controlled power port on a 2011 Chevy Silverado. If you don't have a 2004 Hyundia Elantra, or a 2011 Chevy Silverado, and you don't need to replace the radiator or need an ignition controlled power port, you have no reason to watch my videos. Yes, I produce a few off topic entertainment videos for kicks, but they are always my lowest performing videos because YT knows my channel is an educational channel, not an entertainment channel.
People who watch my content are looking for an answer to a problem. They are gonna do a search to find it. So search ranking is vitally important to me, but even more important is SUGGESTIONS. Why? Because I am not the only person who has made a video about the particular subject, but in many cases, my video is actually much better than any of my competitors. As a person who uses YT videos to learn how to do things I am unfamiliare with I can tell you right now, YT is really bad at finding GOOD videos on the subject. There a lot of DIY cell phone cowboy creators out there that drive me INSANE and make me want to pull my hair out their production quality is SOOOOOO bad. But, they are first in search results (in spite of the video have NO SEO to speak of), even though their video has a 90% DISLIKE ratio. This is where I excel. I shoot everything from a tripod with a $2,000 camera and $1000 lens. I may have to reposition my camera and lights hundreds of times during a shoot, to get each shot just right. This is the effort other DIY creators refuse to put into their videos. This is why people subscribe to my channel. I have thousands of comments stating that my video was a "Breath of fresh air" from the normal crappy DIY videos people find on YT. So, people watch my video that helps them AFTER they have watched other lesser videos on the subject. This is why Suggestions are so vital to me.
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.
I don't disagree with what you said here, but the data I presented cleary shows that much of what you have said does not apply to my situation in particular. Always make sure you keep the data I provided at the start in mind, because I will refer back to it over and over again if I need to. As the conversation proceeds, I will use that data to realign it back onto track. All the things you just talk about fall under the category of "Organics". Your points are valid points, but when something is organic, change occurs slowly, not in an instant. The data I presented clearly show a seven and a half year steady organic growth rate for my channel (means I was doing things right). Then there was a sudden a dramatic 180 degree switch in July of 2021 (it's a new year. LOL). This nagates any organics as being the cause. If it were organics that were the cause, the change would occur slowly over a long period of time. It would not occur overnight, as it did in this case. When something changes that fast and suddenly, engineering can be the only culrpit.
Continued in next post. (over 10K characters).
