Need Advice Promoting for pure entertainment?

[DevilByTheTale]

This channel I've been doing is purely for entertainment, and I've been enjoying doing it. The biggest challenge (other than time) is where to promote such content. With the gaming channel, it was relatively easy... get involved in an existing community for that game, become a subject matter expert, and engage with others there. This one, however, is a lot more elusive to me. I honestly don't know where to go if a place exists, nor do I know of how other entertainment channels may have promoted or got involved in a community somewhere and grew from there. Does anyone have suggestions?

 

[MattCommand1]

There is a school of thought that says you should NOT "promote" your YT videos outside of the YT ecosystem. Of course, there are a few exceptions to that.

But overall, to succeed on YT, you stay inside the YT ecosystem. Why go "outside" when you have hundreds of millions already in platform? The grass is not always greener "outside."

 

[DevilByTheTale]

There is a school of thought that says you should NOT "promote" your YT videos outside of the YT ecosystem. Of course, there are a few exceptions to that.

But overall, to succeed on YT, you stay inside the YT ecosystem. Why go "outside" when you have hundreds of millions already in platform? The grass is not always greener "outside."

I think you mistook what I'm trying to achieve. The mission isn't to bring them somewhere else, it's the exact opposite. That's what I want them to do is to get them to YT, or those that are already there that would have an interest to check the stuff out. The problem I have is that I don't know where a place like that. Are there established communities somewhere? If not, what would be a different approach to bring attention to those that like dark comedy? As it is now, I don't see many people wanting to search for "Satan reads 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' ".

 

[MattCommand1]

I think you mistook what I'm trying to achieve. The mission isn't to bring them somewhere else, it's the exact opposite. That's what I want them to do is to get them to YT, or those that are already there that would have an interest to check the stuff out. The problem I have is that I don't know where a place like that. Are there established communities somewhere? If not, what would be a different approach to bring attention to those that like dark comedy? As it is now, I don't see many people wanting to search for "Satan reads 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' ".

No, I understand what you meant because many people are attempting to do what you want. Get people who are NOT on YT to YT. Hence, all the interest to "share" videos on FB, websites, reddit, etc. to drag them into YT.

You can read Youtube Formula by Derral Eves as a starting place which makes a strong argument AGAINST doing what you and many others are trying to do. This kind of discussion is covered within the Derral Eves channel & Vidsummit crowd. It is also discussed by other experienced Youtube educators. Essentially, they espouse that bringing people from "outside the platform" undermines your efforts and hurts your video and channel performance.

I got the Vidsummit 2022 replays and started watching. Tremendous stuff so far. There is some mind-stretching some stuff in there. It will upend what a lot of people think they know and their overall approach. NONE of it covers trying to drag people from "elsewhere" into Youtube because Youtube has sufficient mass for almost any demographic or interest you may have.

However, I will defer to someone else that will provide an answer you prefer.

 

[DevilByTheTale]

No, I understand what you meant because many people are attempting to do what you want. Get people who are NOT on YT to YT. Hence, all the interest to "share" videos on FB, websites, reddit, etc. to drag them into YT.

You can read Youtube Formula by Derral Eves as a starting place which makes a strong argument AGAINST doing what you and many others are trying to do. This kind of discussion is covered within the Derral Eves channel & Vidsummit crowd. It is also discussed by other experienced Youtube educators. Essentially, they espouse that bringing people from "outside the platform" undermines your efforts and hurts your video and channel performance.

I got the Vidsummit 2022 replays and started watching. Tremendous stuff so far. There is some mind-stretching some stuff in there. It will upend what a lot of people think they know and their overall approach. NONE of it covers trying to drag people from "elsewhere" into Youtube because Youtube has sufficient mass for almost any demographic or interest you may have.

However, I will defer to someone else that will provide an answer you prefer.

I get that, and I'm sure there is a lot of truth in what they are saying (I will try to check out the Vidsummit 2022 when I get the chance). The problem is that it is not the whole truth. For example, in gaming people are not in YT while they are doing what they want. The people are in the game, in the forums, and in places like Discord. This is the community portion that I was referring to. They are turning to YT to find answers such as tips and tutorials. I know this because that's exactly what I did with my other channel. YouTube is used as a tool to augment a given community. The same would apply to any hobby. Let's take BMX for example... they are going to be at tracks and trails, engaging in local forums, Discord servers, etc. They will turn to YT to get tips and tricks from experts, or check out what their favorite professionals are doing. In large, people involved with any hobby are going to be living outside the platform because they are busy doing and engaging in their respective communities.

Now what I am doing with this channel is completely different. I am not providing answers to anything, nor showing how to do something. I am making something that I would want to watch. There are times I want to just kick back and have some laughs. An example would be "Pitch Meetings" by Screen Rant (funny stuff, you should check it out if you haven't). As with that, it had to start somewhere because people didn't just start searching for "pitch meeting". I believe he started in just talking about movies. Even then, there are communities for movies and he probably started there. And to answer my own initial question, maybe that's something I need to do... Find something very specific (like a movie/show/book) and get involved with that community.