Channel Review Am I overlooking anything on the channel ?

[David SUP]

User name: David SUP
Title of thread: Am I overlooking anything on the channel ?
Self review: User Name ΓÇô Scottish Urban Prepper Quick Analytics Last 30 Days Views 10,700, Subscribers 795, Videos Uploaded 27 - Lifetime Views 45,800, Watch Time 3,300 (Mainly between 12/01/2022 - Present), Videos Uploaded 137. - Hello all, My name is David. I am a relatively new you-tuber, I began putting out content in 2020 in response to the UK Brexit situation and then the channel went quiet until this January when I began making regular content. My you tube channel is aimed at the prepping community, I am UK based so I am in a niche market for watchers. My main audience are mainly in the (Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and America) in terms of watchers I am pulling about 3700 unique watchers per month of which 926 are return viewers. I have a nice even mix of 53% Female and 47% Male watches across all age ranges from 25 years old and up from the Analytics. In the beginning of the channel I made several mistakes, I made every video have the exact same thumbnail with only the wording being different. I have now changed this to add a new thumbnail to every video. This has helped with impressions in the last 30 days. This strategy has meant I have had an opportunity to be seen 129,600 times. I am still seeking to grow. I have been very lucky and have been retroactively altering the videos and back filling thumbnails etc I have managed since January to drive about 100 subs a month. As I am in such a niche market the Audience in the UK is small but in conjunction there are very few competing channels for the audience. The main audience is in the USA, which I am very lucky are responding to my content.. Would it be possible for you to cast a eye on the channel and see if I am missing anything, due to my Job I tend to be very regulated hence the mistake with all the videos originally being identical, having the same 30 second intro, not using tags and having a mental block when it came to reminding people to like or subscribe etc. I do use the TubeBuddy Key word weighing system to help add tags to the video, and I also add end screens to all the videos, I am unsure if there is more I could be doing to take advantage of audience and the opportunities to be seen that I have
Channel review or Video review? Channel review
Link to channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrjOjQmdamzoFOr1MiGQ1vw/
Link to other review post: https://community.tubebuddy.com/index.php?threads/50354/

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

I wanted to give you 3 specific tips that I think I would have found helpful earlier on.

1. The thumbnails are a little hard to read. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to limit the words on a thumbnail. They also recommended looking up a specific topic to get ideas about what to include on a thumbnail by looking at the best performing videos. You have 13 words on your most recent thumbnail. You actually don't need your channel name on the thumbnail at all. I'd recommend something like PREP NOW SAVE MONEY.
   
   
2. Playlists are the second thing I'd look at. You have some, but none are featured on the home page which is where most people are looking. Example: you have one on Garden. If you use that as an opportunity, maybe use the phrase - how to plant a garden or Gardening Tricks to Save Money or whatever the focus is on those videos within that playlist. Also make sure each playlist as a description AND feature them on the home page.
   
   
3. About Page: Focus on the audience. Possibly this might be a good focus statement. Are you prepared for the food shortages? If this is a concern for you, join me as I prep in the West of Scotland. You will learn (insert statement). I began prepping just before Covid hit West of Scotland and now I believe it's time to prepare ourselves even more for rising prices & difficulty in finding food. Please join me on this journey of paving (I'm not sure if that's the word you intended) and the many aspects it involves.
   
   
   

 

[David SUP]

I wanted to give you 3 specific tips that I think I would have found helpful earlier on.

1. The thumbnails are a little hard to read. One of the best pieces of advice I got was to limit the words on a thumbnail. They also recommended looking up a specific topic to get ideas about what to include on a thumbnail by looking at the best performing videos. You have 13 words on your most recent thumbnail. You actually don't need your channel name on the thumbnail at all. I'd recommend something like PREP NOW SAVE MONEY.
   
   
2. Playlists are the second thing I'd look at. You have some, but none are featured on the home page which is where most people are looking. Example: you have one on Garden. If you use that as an opportunity, maybe use the phrase - how to plant a garden or Gardening Tricks to Save Money or whatever the focus is on those videos within that playlist. Also make sure each playlist as a description AND feature them on the home page.
   
   
3. About Page: Focus on the audience. Possibly this might be a good focus statement. Are you prepared for the food shortages? If this is a concern for you, join me as I prep in the West of Scotland. You will learn (insert statement). I began prepping just before Covid hit West of Scotland and now I believe it's time to prepare ourselves even more for rising prices & difficulty in finding food. Please join me on this journey of paving (I'm not sure if that's the word you intended) and the many aspects it involves.
   
   

Hey

Thankyou so much for the pointers

especially about the thumbnails and the Playlists I am going to look at these the most.

Thankyou for taking the time to have a look and share these points with me

 

[TCC learncanva4yt]

Hey

Thankyou so much for the pointers

especially about the thumbnails and the Playlists I am going to look at these the most.

Thankyou for taking the time to have a look and share these points with me

You are very welcome. Hope they give you some direction.

 

[Wilson IS]

I would like to add a little detail about the thumbnails. Don't use screenshots of the video, make custom thumbnails that match the video content. Example in this video "Prepping - Wildfires affect Frances Nuclear Power Stations" the images could be a nuclear power plant and a forest on fire overlapping the power plant. For the sentence as our friend @TCC learncanva4yt said the fewer words the better and with letters that stand out from the image, but you could put a sentence like "Warning! Fires harm nuclear plants"

 

[Wilson IS]

there is a video that is very good and I think it would help you a lot too

YouTube Keyword Research - You're Doing it WRONG!

In this video you are going to learn what YouTube keywords are and how to use the Tubebuddy keyword Explorer Tool. You will also learn the reason why so many...

community.tubebuddy.com

 

[Sir Palepaw]

(I apologize in advance if this is too long for you to read.)
I know this has already been said, but I do think your thumbnails could use some work. One of the things I wanted to point out is that the way you brand your thumbnails isn't all that appealing. Having words put horizontally like that is asking too much from the human brain to process it when someone is scrolling through thumbnails. Instead, I'd recommend using your profile as the main subject of branding. I think a good example of someone using this technique is Vinesauce, with how they put their profile in the corner and make it big enough to see even when the thumbnail shows up very small. Another point to bring up is repetition and how it can somewhat confuse viewers. I'm not talking so much about the style of your thumbnails as I am thumbnails that repeat themselves almost pixel by pixel, such as your Supermarket Haul thumbnails. I'm not sure if you were pressed for time, or if you had a lack of ideas, but I definitely think that this approach may do more harm than good if you use it too much, so try to limit it as much as you possibly can. I know I've been talking a lot about the singular attribute of thumbnails in this review, but I still would like to bring up one more point. Text in thumbnails should A; not repeat the title and B; stand out from the image while not obstructing it. The title and thumbnail should try to work together rather than compete for the viewers' attention. If you want the viewers to understand what the video is about going in, then that's the job of the video's title. The thumbnail is supposed to attract the viewer's attention to your video via an eye-catching, visually appealing image. If I would recommend anything about your thumbnails, it's to try and make one that you specifically would want to click on and work from there. It's not a flawless method (then again, nothing ever truly is) but it is a good starting point. Oh, and one more thing. If you do decide to put text in your thumbnail, make sure that it's easy to read. Your newest thumbnail has text that seems to be badly attempting to camouflage with the image, which will make it harder to read. I would recommend using black borders on the text to help it stand out more and/or changing the text's color to a complimentary color or a different color that stands out while not feeling too out of place.

 

[gulabdas]

Help me sir