YouTube frustration lately

testerdahl

testerdahl

Administrator
Staff member
Here's some behind the scenes for you. Over the past 6 months, I keep having videos start off hot then die. It is just weird. I think I've had one video keep going during this time.

From a journalist viewpoint, I'm thinking this is a great video and informative for a variety of people. From a creator viewpoint, I'm screaming "LFG!!! C'mon BIG VIEWS" It is crazy how your self-esteem is connected so much to a video's performance.

Here's a recent example with the 2021-2024 Ford F-150 Known Problems video I published on Saturday.

All the metrics are good. I mean, initial views were up, there's a ton of comments and likes (fan interaction) and the average view duration shows people aren't clicking off right away. Those should all be signals to YouTube, this video is something they should promote.

The video could catch fire again. The word "could" is the key term. What happens is after all the initial batch of views from fans of the channel, it is spread out to everyone YouTube thinks might be interested in the video. If those people watch it, YouTube spreads it out further until it can't find anyone to watch it then the video dies. Fingers crossed on this one.
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I'm not trying to complain here at all, but I was surprised by the livestream impact on my channel as well. I have had 68 people watch that on my channel, you have had nearly 4k I think. So judging by your recent streams it did pretty well. I didn't really see any kind of impact on my channel from it, and again that's fine. I just thought I'd be somewhat different, but YouTube has no way to associate those collaborations I guess? But it sure was fun. my mom even watched and thought it was interesting!

I do think it's interesting that it's been pretty hard to get to the min monetization numbers. I'm really just hoping to get to a point where YouTube stuff pays for itself for me. I don't need it to be a full time thing, but I don't want it to be a money pit for me either. Getting to 500 subscribers and 3000 watch hours in today's world without paying someone in India to help your channel out is a lot of time and money for sure. BTW those people keep reaching out on Instagam. We can help you grow your channel! Thanks, I'll keep trying to do it the hard way!
 
Beninbeta said:
I'm not trying to complain here at all, but I was surprised by the livestream impact on my channel as well. I have had 68 people watch that on my channel, you have had nearly 4k I think. So judging by your recent streams it did pretty well. I didn't really see any kind of impact on my channel from it, and again that's fine. I just thought I'd be somewhat different, but YouTube has no way to associate those collaborations I guess? But it sure was fun. my mom even watched and thought it was interesting!

I do think it's interesting that it's been pretty hard to get to the min monetization numbers. I'm really just hoping to get to a point where YouTube stuff pays for itself for me. I don't need it to be a full time thing, but I don't want it to be a money pit for me either. Getting to 500 subscribers and 3000 watch hours in today's world without paying someone in India to help your channel out is a lot of time and money for sure. BTW those people keep reaching out on Instagam. We can help you grow your channel! Thanks, I'll keep trying to do it the hard way!
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First, never buy subs. You want actual viewers and fans of the channel, not people you bought. Those bought subs won't watch your content and that's what you really need anyway. Plus, it just looks fishy to real viewers.

Every once in a while I'll get a Facebook reminder of where I was at a certain point of time with the channel. I did everything I possibly could to get monetized, except buying subs, and I remember grabbing family members phones at holidays and getting them to subscribe.

Hitting the monetization milestone is so hard and people just don't get it. YouTube looks easy from the outside, but it is not at all.

My advice is to keep trying to improve one thing on each video moving forward. This could be how you shoot video, improving audio and, probably most important, choosing the right topics, titles and thumbnails for your audience. YouTube is definitely a journey and you really start to respect other channels the more you put into your own channel.
 
Thanks @testerdahl! I'll keep plugging away! I did get thrown to the back of the pack now on Taco content because of the hold and that has hurt a bit. I'd have had it early last week almost two weeks ago if not for the hold. I'm going to drop a DIY Detailing series soon. I'll add a thread here for those then enjoy washing/detailing themselves. But definitely not ever paying for subs!

I need a bigger family maybe? :unsure:🤣
 
Does the podcast hurt the YouTube numbers? Most of my media consumption is walking the dog or driving to work, so the podcast is more convenient. I'll watch the You Tube channel as well but with that I'm typically watching stuff that may or may not be the latest content.
 
chaseydog said:
Does the podcast hurt the YouTube numbers? Most of my media consumption is walking the dog or driving to work, so the podcast is more convenient. I'll watch the You Tube channel as well but with that I'm typically watching stuff that may or may not be the latest content.
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I guess someone listening to the podcast could steal a view from YouTube. However, my goal is 1 million views a month, so one view here or there doesn't really mean a whole heck of a lot.

My goal with the podcast is, like you said, give people an alternative way to listen to those long livestreams or shorter truck news recap videos. The bulk of our content doesn't make it on the podcast.

The podcast literally costs me $30 a month. I make nothing on it.
 
testerdahl said:
I guess someone listening to the podcast could steal a view from YouTube. However, my goal is 1 million views a month, so one view here or there doesn't really mean a whole heck of a lot.

My goal with the podcast is, like you said, give people an alternative way to listen to those long livestreams or shorter truck news recap videos. The bulk of our content doesn't make it on the podcast.

The podcast literally costs me $30 a month. I make nothing on it.
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You really make nothing on it?!
 
testerdahl said:
Here's some behind the scenes for you. Over the past 6 months, I keep having videos start off hot then die. It is just weird. I think I've had one video keep going during this time.

From a journalist viewpoint, I'm thinking this is a great video and informative for a variety of people. From a creator viewpoint, I'm screaming "LFG!!! C'mon BIG VIEWS" It is crazy how your self-esteem is connected so much to a video's performance.

Here's a recent example with the 2021-2024 Ford F-150 Known Problems video I published on Saturday.

All the metrics are good. I mean, initial views were up, there's a ton of comments and likes (fan interaction) and the average view duration shows people aren't clicking off right away. Those should all be signals to YouTube, this video is something they should promote.

The video could catch fire again. The word "could" is the key term. What happens is after all the initial batch of views from fans of the channel, it is spread out to everyone YouTube thinks might be interested in the video. If those people watch it, YouTube spreads it out further until it can't find anyone to watch it then the video dies. Fingers crossed on this one.
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I instantly thought this would play well because of the design and title. Somebody thinking about buying a Ford would naturally search for "F-150 known problems" and casually watch this one as well as others about the F-150. Hopefully it'll stay strong.
 
People think youtube is easy.. Tim and I have discussed this since 2018 and it will never stop. The game will force the creator to work hard and when you think you nailed it, The system it changes lol.

Im with you Tim! Ill have a video that takes off 1-5k views 300-400 an hour and suddenly stops! The system does play games
 
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I imagine it looks something like the trending twitter/X analytics. If it's a trending topic or segment it gets boosted based on audience size, subscription count, rate of views etc. That changes hour to hour, day to day.
 
It's more complicated than just SEO and tagging, that helps, but they also look at how new the content is, % of the video that is watched, the demographics of people who watch something similar, like, dislikes, number of comments, when people typically watch your content. video length, subscriber count and probably a few hundred or thousand other inputs. Then a few hundred engineers all work on different parts of the algorithm, and now likely AI is also involved, the each do their part, not really knowing exactly how the other parts work and you the Algorithm. The more that AI becomes involved in recommendations the less anyone will understand it's output as well.
 
Could it be that 80% of the people in the US cant afford to buy a new vehicle so people just don't even bother watching Automotive based review videos? Pretty much every automotive press truck is the top trim level of unobtanium.
www.carscoops.com

Owning A New Car Becoming A Fantasy For Millions Of Americans Making Under $100K | Carscoops

The pandemic price bump means that 60% of American households and 82% of individuals can't really afford the average new vehicle
www.carscoops.com www.carscoops.com
 
Hilux said:
Could it be that 80% of the people in the US cant afford to buy a new vehicle so people just don't even bother watching Automotive based review videos? Pretty much every automotive press truck is the top trim level of unobtanium.
www.carscoops.com

Owning A New Car Becoming A Fantasy For Millions Of Americans Making Under $100K | Carscoops

The pandemic price bump means that 60% of American households and 82% of individuals can't really afford the average new vehicle
www.carscoops.com www.carscoops.com
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I think it's the other way around. It seems to me 80% of the people in the US create automotive review videos. Nobody is left to watch them....lol Just search 2024 Ford Ranger today, that volume is crazy!!
 
Hilux said:
Could it be that 80% of the people in the US cant afford to buy a new vehicle so people just don't even bother watching Automotive based review videos? Pretty much every automotive press truck is the top trim level of unobtanium.
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I think the other issue with that is that the many Americans, especially those who cannot afford the vehicle they want, end up financing their lives away because it's what they want. This perpetuates the high prices. If people stopped buying new vehicles at the higher end, more vehicles would pop up at the lower end. I'm fortunate and was able to pay cash (after trade-in) for my new Tacoma. However, we've been a dual income single vehicle household for 4+ years so that also helps. We have quite a few service members in our community being in Colorado Springs, and often they are driving vehicles that are way out of their pay grades. It's super unfortunate to see, but they have the right to make that choice and as long as they do prices will remain high.

Then I would add that the manufacturers, Ram is a great example, force you to pay more for that one feature you really want. In Tim's video on the Rebel, to get CarPlay or Android Auto you had to step up to the top convenience package I think to get that. Then what the send to the lot has all of those extras so the cheap vehicle becomes a unicorn to find. Most people don't want to wait 6-12 months for a custom vehicle to be built and some manufacturers don't even offer that, like Toyota.


But I agree, they all send top trims to reviewers, but that's because they want viewers to want them. I hope prices come back down like they are doing in the used market, but it'll take some time and more people buying used rather than new to do that. I'd also say there are gems in lineups like the SR5 and Sport from Toyota, the XLT from Ford if people are willing to give up the one or two features they want. Even then, vehicles are still expensive.

Great article find @Hilux
 
Beninbeta said:
I think the other issue with that is that the many Americans, especially those who cannot afford the vehicle they want, end up financing their lives away because it's what they want. This perpetuates the high prices. If people stopped buying new vehicles at the higher end, more vehicles would pop up at the lower end. I'm fortunate and was able to pay cash (after trade-in) for my new Tacoma. However, we've been a dual income single vehicle household for 4+ years so that also helps. We have quite a few service members in our community being in Colorado Springs, and often they are driving vehicles that are way out of their pay grades. It's super unfortunate to see, but they have the right to make that choice and as long as they do prices will remain high.

Then I would add that the manufacturers, Ram is a great example, force you to pay more for that one feature you really want. In Tim's video on the Rebel, to get CarPlay or Android Auto you had to step up to the top convenience package I think to get that. Then what the send to the lot has all of those extras so the cheap vehicle becomes a unicorn to find. Most people don't want to wait 6-12 months for a custom vehicle to be built and some manufacturers don't even offer that, like Toyota.


But I agree, they all send top trims to reviewers, but that's because they want viewers to want them. I hope prices come back down like they are doing in the used market, but it'll take some time and more people buying used rather than new to do that. I'd also say there are gems in lineups like the SR5 and Sport from Toyota, the XLT from Ford if people are willing to give up the one or two features they want. Even then, vehicles are still expensive.

Great article find @Hilux
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Maybe if they weren't so spaced out, they would spend their money wisely...Not being callous, just some inside joking from an "air breather" guy.

All kidding aside, point well made; an E-3 to E-5 Guardian (USSF equivalent term to Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsmen) should be saving money if single or buying the best they can afford for their family if married. Sad tale too many times when money is not spent correctly by our service members.
 
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