YouTube Tips YouTube Reality Is Painful

[BraveStar]

I know many of you new creators come here looking for miracle tips, secret recipes or some kind of trick to make money off a channel with few views and even fewer subscribers. Well I'm here to tell you that YouTube reality is much more painful than you think.

I've been watching YouTube from as far back as the days when Philip DeFranco had the Lovely Lady of the Day and Secret Link of the Day section son his show. I remember YouTubers like MuzzaFuzza and HuskyStarcraft. These were amazing channels with huge followings. But YouTube today is nothing like the YouTube of those days, the days when it was like the wild west and the rules were basically made on the fly, but only after YouTube benefited from the views first and then the controversies came along. Back then it was easier to grow channels that it is today because you didn't have to follow a fixed set of rules and there wasn't an algorithm watching every step you take and every move you make on YouTube.

So here's the hard truth. If you created a channel with the sole purpose of making money and you expect to be able to monetize it and make tons of money overnight then you need to reevaluate your ideals. YouTube is a marathon not a sprint. There are some who can find a spark on YouTube and go from little to fame overnight. But they still have to deal with the same problems every other Youtuber does. They still have to keep making good content, they still have to keep working hard and most of all they have to be able to handle the influx of new subscribers and the fame that comes with it. TubeBuddy is an amazing service, with amazing members and an incredible staff always here to provide the best help we can. But TubeBuddy is not the rockstar in your band, it's the guy controlling the soundboard and lights for the rockstar who still has to impress his/her audience.

Reality sometimes sucks. It's your job to make it suck less for you.

 

[MattCommand1]

As far as I am concerned, people who have the right mindset and willing to constantly learn will ultimately prevail.

One thing I noticed is that the less life-coping skills someone has, the more likely they are to be frustrated with their results. The need for instant gratification is alive and well.

A lot of people go through unnecessary self-created drama and emotional roller coasters during the journey. Having emotional intelligence is a huge asset in the YT journey.

 

[DevilByTheTale]

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I had another channel that was made for gaming, but it wasn't my passion to make videos for it. Also, it was hard because the competition can be incredible. You have to learn that your videos aren't recommended based on quality. I had seen a lot of others that the quality isn't good, and myself and others made similar videos that were better, but hardly had any views compared to them. I got frustrated and didn't realize until later that the reason worse but more popular videos did better was because the bigger channels had been there a long time and cultivated a following. The larger your following, the more recommendations you get.

Also, know exactly what you are up against. A prime example is when I did a tutorial video for a popular game that I spent weeks on putting together, collecting data, etc. A couple weeks later, I did another tutorial for another lesser known game (mainly for the community I was involved in). Both videos are similar in style and presentation, and I would rate them equal quality. The second video is at 106K views, while the first one is unmoved at just 86 views. How did this happen? The first game is hugely popular and has thousands of channels just for it. The second game is much smaller, and more of a niche audience. Long story short, if you want more immediate success, find a niche that you can get into and grow from there. You can start with something more popular, but it is going to be a long uphill battle.

In the end, do what you love. You can end up making money from it, but don't go into it for that reason. Keep doing what you love, and success will eventually follow.

 

[Ater]

I always used the phrase you mention:
YouTube is a marathon, not a sprint.

If you dont enjoy running a marathon will probably be a very painful experience. If you only care about money and don't enjoy making videos YouTube will most likely be a painful experience.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Preach. Especially these days. Views during the pandemic were explosive and my numbers were going crazy. I didn't realize what was happening at the time and just thought I was on a natural growth tangent. Then 2021 set in, and I am back to my 2019 numbers. That hurts. It feels like the channel is tanking. It's not, but man the numbers are miserable to look at these days.

On the bright side this causes me to turn more of a blind eye to the statistics and to focus more on content quality and story-telling. I'm making some of my best-ever videos right now and if I can keep that trend running I am curious to see what 2023 is going to look like.

 

[MediaMan]

but man the numbers are miserable to look at these days.

I looked at your channel and yah, your numbers seem very low for the quality you're putting out. Also, with almost 5k subs, how do you explain the low views? Is it common to have such a low sub>view ratio? Thx.

 

[Damon]

I looked at your channel and yah, your numbers seem very low for the quality you're putting out. Also, with almost 5k subs, how do you explain the low views? Is it common to have such a low sub>view ratio? Thx.

It's one of those unexplained things. My channel is similar. The reality is quality doesn't give you more views. The popularity of your niche determines views. Quality is about retention.

Also, there is the question of how appealing your content is to a general audience. Your stark-raving fans will always constitute a much smaller portion of your subscriber base than your overall subscriber count. For instance a channel with 100,000 subs may only have 1,000 stark-raving fans. The rest are just casual viewers.

A related point is value. How many people value the content created? That's the real ticket.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I looked at your channel and yah, your numbers seem very low for the quality you're putting out. Also, with almost 5k subs, how do you explain the low views? Is it common to have such a low sub>view ratio? Thx.

@Damon absolutely nailed it... the more your channel can reach a general audience the more views you'll get. Unfortunately too we have to deal with some real high-contrast seasonality. Fishing peaks hard in July and August, I see explosive growth in these months... at least when I am actually able to film and capitalize on this traffic. This is actually a fairly poor time of year to be fishing where I am at. After August views for fishing plummet precipitously. It is my expectation that everything I put out from now until April (when the views begin to return) will get no viewership at all. But then we will see our spike in late-spring/early summer and all these videos will have a chance to explode then.

 

[DevilByTheTale]

@DamonUnfortunately too we have to deal with some real high-contrast seasonality. Fishing peaks hard in July and August, I see explosive growth in these months... at least when I am actually able to film and capitalize on this traffic. This is actually a fairly poor time of year to be fishing where I am at. After August views for fishing plummet precipitously.

Have you thought about doing short documentaries on wildlife and locations during the off season? I did few wildlife ones on my gaming channel when I was burnt from what I was playing. They weren't popular (most likely because of the channel they were on), but the people that saw them really liked it. It was new territory for me because I'd never done that before, and I think they are some of my best work. I entertaining people, but I also like animals and educating. It was challenging but I enjoyed it. Maybe you could do something similar or something more gear related to what you do and how you prepare during the off season.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Have you thought about doing short documentaries on wildlife and locations during the off season? I did few wildlife ones on my gaming channel when I was burnt from what I was playing. They weren't popular (most likely because of the channel they were on), but the people that saw them really liked it. It was new territory for me because I'd never done that before, and I think they are some of my best work. I entertaining people, but I also like animals and educating. It was challenging but I enjoyed it. Maybe you could do something similar or something more gear related to what you do and how you prepare during the off season.

Oh yeah, absolutely. There are a variety of things like that which we do to supplement our content and wildlife documentary-type content is one of those things. Great call!