Board 8 > So I started a youtube channel

(+) Yeah! (+)

I watched a video a couple days ago by The Spiffing Brit that talks about how to "speed run" Youtube, building up a vast audience in a very short period of time by focusing exclusively on Shorts. I decided, eh, what the hell, I always wanted to create content. I'm a math tutor by trade and I felt like reaching out to more than one student at a time would be a much more worthwhile and efficient endeavor. I even thought at one point I might see if there was any market for a tutoring channel on Twitch. (This is with me knowing absolutely nothing about how to stream on Twitch.)

So yesterday, I started a channel. I'm not making this thread because I'm requesting you to watch my channels or trying to plug it or anything. Not even saying the name of the channel, though I imagine a determined person could find it. I just wanted to give a progress report. I recorded three low-effort sub-60-second videos, and uploaded them last night. When I looked this morning, I had around 10 views, which isn't nothing, but it wasn't the rapid fire success Spiffing Brit advertised. But at some point today, two of the three videos caught fire.



Now, by "caught fire," I mean they hit ~400 views and I garnered 15 total subscribers. That's small by some standards, but it's pretty dramatic here. Remember, this is a fresh channel with no external support. Just fired off the video and forgot about them. Upon seeing this, I immediately recorded 3 more.

I'm not really sure what was different between the first three videos. They were fairly identical. But #2 received about 400 views in a span of 2 hours. #1 got 350 over a partially-overlapping period of 4 hours. And #3 more or less got the shaft. Don't know if there was a saturation issue there or if the third never got onto the #shorts shelf or it simply wasn't interesting or I did something different in the settings and tags or what, but we'll see where things stand by this time tomorrow when the next batch runs.

For those unfamiliar with #shorts, it's a relatively new format on YouTube for people to take (primarily) cell phone videos in a vertical format, lasting no more than 60 seconds. YouTube is apparently pushing things pretty hard because, particularly on mobile, there's a section of people's feeds where these things show up. According to Spiffing Brit, people who have exploited this have absolutely skyrocketed primarily due to lack of competition. The feature is, in fact, working as intended...there's just nobody working it. So by using it, I'm effectively making it slightly less lucrative for everyone else, but w/e. I'm just giving it a go.

Personally, I think the format is terrible for the sort of information I'm trying to convey. However, my target audience is high school teens, who are probably more likely to watch this super short attention-span style, and I'm solving a single AP calculus question in each, which is something that should be in increasingly high demand over the next two months. No idea what I'll do after the AP exam runs, but we're a long way off from worrying about that. Gonna see how far things get after a week before I even remotely consider making long-term plans.

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I will never be upset with the hustle, but 60 seconds or less vertically filmed cell phone videos is about as bad as it gets

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azuarc posted...

For those unfamiliar with #shorts, it's a relatively new format on YouTube for people to take (primarily) cell phone videos in a vertical format, lasting no more than 60 seconds. YouTube is apparently pushing things pretty hard because, particularly on mobile, there's a section of people's feeds where these things show up. According to Spiffing Brit, people who have exploited this have absolutely skyrocketed primarily due to lack of competition. The feature is, in fact, working as intended...there's just nobody working it. So by using it, I'm effectively making it slightly less lucrative for everyone else, but w/e. I'm just giving it a go.

Sounds like it's modeling itself after TikTok.

By my observation it seems easiest to get a following on TikTok and then transition to youtube/twitch.

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In regards to math, TikTok is reserved for teenagers discovering and being amazed by basic facts they were taught about in 6th grade and forgot
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Aecioo posted...

I will never be upset with the hustle, but 60 seconds or less vertically filmed cell phone videos is about as bad as it gets

Oh, I agree. Before I saw Spiff's analysis on them, another channel I follow was doing them (Legal Eagle) and making decent use, but generally they seem like the most lazy, awful, immediate shots of hey I'mma talk at my phone real quick and make a silly gesture or mebbe do a little dance nahmean?

It's not at all good for what I'm doing, but who knows. Maybe I can turn it into a sort of flash cards-esque help guide.

NFUN posted...

In regards to math, TikTok is reserved for teenagers discovering and being amazed by basic facts they were taught about in 6th grade and forgot

Did you know that there are 242 ways to make change for a dollar? Like omigod I could not believe there were so many. I thought maybe there'd be like 20 or something, but holy shit that's like 222 more than that!

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I almost watched that video, as the algorithm shoved it in my face a while back. I've casually watched some of his stuff, but his antics got a little stale after a while for my tastes. He's big on tea though, so I gotta respect that much at least.

Interesting to see it worked as well as it did here. I look forward to viewing your 242 part series on change making :p

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I've been on YouTube for 5 years now. Every video taking at least 1-2 hours of effort, some much more. Average around 30ish views an upload.

I am happy for your success.

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Oh hey I noticed you popped into my test run stream a few days ago (seems like I need a second monitor), looks like you're trying to put yourself out there more too recently. Nothing wrong with more educational content! Game that algorithm
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Day 2 (22 subscribers):


Day 2 videos above day 1 videos.

So day 1's videos have seen virtually no additional views. Ironically the overlooked video saw the biggest increase at 6.

Day 2's videos are split between a video that saw all its views across 2 hours, a video that saw them gradually throughout the day, and one that literally only got 2 hits all day. I'm wondering if releasing more videos or less would be better. I had already recorded and published three new ones for today, though.

I'm not much of an expert at reading the analytics on youtube so if anyone knows something I should be looking at to glean additional feedback, I'm all ears, but basically day 2 looks like a literal repeat of day 1, albeit a smidge less effective at only ~700 views rather than 800, and only +7 subscribers rather than +15. Spiff's video implied that when he did this, day 2 shot off like a rocket, so obviously I didn't have that experience. I'm curious if he did something different, or if uploaders are just catching up to the platform, or if there are other variables at work. But even if this isn't what I had hoped, it's hard to be disappointed with 1500 views over 2 days.

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I don't know if it's a sign that I'm getting old, but most YT content I watch has to be at least 20 minutes in order to catch my attention. 60 seconds is not nearly enough time to gain an understanding of a subject.

I'm also the kind of person who sees a 1000-page book on Ulysses S. Grant and thinks "Hell yeah I wanna read that."

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It's not normally a format used for educational topics. I'm just co-opting it for that purpose.

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Day 3 (32 subscribers)



Trying not to make these pictures huge, but I fear I'm losing some of the fidelity.

Day 3 videos: 346+31+343 = 720 views
Day 2 videos (now): 316+4+382 = 702 views
Day 1 videos (now): 20+418+383 = 821 views

The "unused" video was a smidge less dead than before. Otherwise basically identical to day 2. I'm going to try varying the number of uploads today and see what happens. Not much else to say.

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are the #shorts things like, a rebranding of youtube stories or something

Day 5 (but really 7) -- 43 subscribers

I committed one of the cardinal sins of developing a platform. I broke from the regular upload schedule. Shame on me.

Day 4 I uploaded 4 videos instead of 3, just for experimentation.



Either interest is trending downward or uploading 4 videos is bad for business. Also, I'm a little concerned that there seems to be zero staying power to these videos. A burst of views early as the youtube stuffs it onto the #shorts shelf on mobile, and then nothing after. But my subscriber count is climbing, so that's something.

Did 3 videos before looking at the details. I might stick to one or two tomorrow. Going to stagger the releases of the three today 8 hours apart, though, and see if that does anything.

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Almost certainly 4 videos is bad. I can think of a few channels that might get away with it, but even with short low effort videos, maintaining that level of upload will weigh on you eventually. From my understanding, the way to go is to get some kind of upload schedule and stick to it. If viewers can expect a weekly/daily video, they can work it into their routines. Granted, that's more the common wisdom and not really much of an algorithm lifehack.

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Keep up the good work!


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Thanks for the sub, ng, but I'm talking about a different account I just started.

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azuarc posted...

Thanks for the sub, ng, but I'm talking about a different account I just started.

I think you should share your new channel here.
Pretty sure there are many of us interested and would support you.

wg64Z posted...

I've been on YouTube for 5 years now. Every video taking at least 1-2 hours of effort, some much more. Average around 30ish views an upload.

I watched some of your videos and they are really well made! You have a talent.
Unfortunately, YouTube is now saturated with gaming content that good videos like yours just get lost in the giant ocean.


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SpikeSetsFire posted...

I watched some of your videos and they are really well made! You have a talent.
Unfortunately, YouTube is now saturated with gaming content that good videos like yours just get lost in the giant ocean.

Yeah ain't that the truth. I feel if we found our audience, we would grow. I'm taking a break now to focus on doing some more experimental videos and try to branch out of typical LPs.

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Gee Chrono Trigger Let's Play #4,387.

Not exactly a novel concept.

I didn't share earlier because I didn't know if someone wouldn't take a dump on the channel or something, but I'm not doing anywhere near as good a job of keeping up with the channel as I was in the first couple days, so I might as well, I guess. The channel's just called The Tutor's Guide. Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpm5RNShtFCT163ohZQx4HQ

I put up two new videos today. We'll see how that goes rather than the 3 or 4 I've done before. Staggering the releases didn't improve anything, and in the days -- plural -- since I've uploaded, no additional views have come in. So yeah, I can keep getting ~300 views per video if I keep at it, but nothing really seems to be accumulating past that. Don't get me wrong, 300 views is more than I would have imagined I'd start with. I'm not ungrateful. Just thought there'd be more progression.

But anyway, now that you can see it, feel free to point and laugh...or tell me what you might like to see done differently. Content creation is not something I've done for very long, so I might even be overlooking some really obvious stuff.

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Well, uh...hunh...that's, uh, interesting.

Also, you should totally click on vom.it.net.

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Wow! You really know your stuff!
Math was never my strong point.
In fact, everything in your video went straight over my head.
But it's good! I think you should continue doing it. Especially if you enjoy it.
I think there is definitely room for growth in your channel.


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Yesterday's videos were not popular.

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Now that looks familiar.

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