A way to gain more views? :)

[Yachts For Sale]

Tiny percentage comes directly from the embedded video in Twitter. Less than 1% direct clicks but many of twitter followers sub to me on YT and so probably watch directly from YT via the sub feed (without clicking from twitter)

That doesn't mean the actual absolute amount is small, but it proves the point above that the real action comes from the YT algorithm not social media. Over 50% comes from the algorithm as a comparison....

As I explain in my milestones thread, the purpose of my twitter account is not to get views for my YT channel - well not directly anyway. The purpose of my Twitter is to strengthen my brand by providing lots of value (in the form of tweets) so that everyone can see I'm alive and kicking between videos and that I truly am an authority in my field. 90% of my tweets are non-promotional, just adding value. On the rare occasion, I post a video, I'm doing it to remind everyone (including new followers) that i have a YT channel, but I'm not expecting or trying to get a lot of direct views.

This might sound obvious so sorry but a lot of people don't get this: - People go to YouTube to watch videos. People go to blogs to read blog posts. People go to instagram to look at photos and people go to twitter to read tweets - short snippets of information, not to watch YT videos being rammed down their throat several times a day. Adapt your content to whatever social media you're on and only cross-promote every now and again. That has been my strategy with twitter and it has resulted in having a very active following.

This is all interesting advice, and the kind of info I was hoping for when I joined the YTT forum.

I work in sales and marketing, so it is counter-intuitive not to promote a video I post. Having said this my experience has been that promotion just results in short-term spikes in views rather than solid growth, or "evergreen videos" as one poster (I think youtuber1978?) called them.

It has always frustrated me that my documentary style videos, that I believe to be of high quality, gain tens of thousands of views over a year - but a video of a cat taken with a phone, or a car crash from a dashboard camera, or a cute girl showing plenty of cleavage and talking nonsense can gain millions.

I have to admit that I may have contributed to the problem in the latter example...BUT, my point is that these videos are usually not promoted by anybody , but they have great success because the content is what people want to see and appeal to a broad spectrum of viewers. This results in shares, resulting in huge numbers of views. It's not promotion, but content that makes the difference.

I particularly appreciated your advice about using each social media channel for the purpose it was designed for, and over time I have slipped into the mistake of using them all to promote my videos. What you said makes sense. I have a blog, a twitter account, a business FB page, and my YT channel - they all bring in results of different sorts; the blog has been great for SEO of yachts I have for sale and has resulted in my guest writing for various yachting magazines but my youtube channel has been amazing for SEO and also resulted in enquiries for yachts for sale...which of course is the end goal.

Anyway, plenty of advice to think about and implement - so thanks again!

 

[instagamrr]

I estimate that there is capacity in my niche to get to 50k-75k per day in the next 6 months. And it will all be done with ZERO promotion.

I would LOVE to hear more from you! I spend so much time on marketing that I'd rather spend on something else and would love to turn it around. How did you manage to make the algorithms work in your favor? I can promise you your advice won't fall on deaf ears here - I'd kill for it!

A few months ago I changed my content strategy to really focus on making the best content I could. It helped a bit but I still have only gotten the algorithms to work in my favor on a handful of videos.

 

[Crown]

Anyway, plenty of advice to think about and implement - so thanks again!

You're welcome, glad it helped a bit. Nice channel and yachts btw. There is definitely potential there for growth. Good luck.

I would LOVE to hear more from you! I spend so much time on marketing that I'd rather spend on something else and would love to turn it around. How did you manage to make the algorithms work in your favor? I can promise you your advice won't fall on deaf ears here - I'd kill for it!

A few months ago I changed my content strategy to really focus on making the best content I could. It helped a bit but I still have only gotten the algorithms to work in my favor on a handful of videos.

I've already explained it in my post above.

Just stop promoting, do some basic SEO to get some targeted search traffic, be patient and don't expect it to work on every single video.




For everyone (me included):

Oh and make sure your videos really are great quality. Learn to objectively critique them compared to what else is out there. The key word is "objectively" - don't let emotion get in the way. It's human nature to think that our own videos are fantastic and everyone else's are terrible. This is a recipe for failure though. Analyse other successful channels, even people you dislike and objectively give them a score for different aspects of their content and then do the same for your own videos. And then make adjustments.

There's someone in my niche who I don't particulary like but I had to get over that and try to understand what it was this person did well. I found it and realised I couldn't compete head on with that. This person was playing to his/her strengths and this person was too good at it and reading the comments, everyone loved it. So I decided to make my videos in a totally different way. Same niche but different presentation. So now people can't compare us because it's pointless comparing apples to pears. Some prefer his/her style and some prefer mine and some like both I'm sure, so it's win-win.

Moral of the story: Content is king and everyone's videos can be improved. This is something I try to work on constantly. My videos are far from perfect and I'm always trying to improve. Use the time you'll save from not promoting to do this analysis and to improve your videos.

Creating great content (in the eyes of one's target audience) is the ABC of YouTube. It's the foundations of a successful channel. No amount of SEO or marketing or algorithm optimisation can compensate for poor content.



Right that really is my last detailed advice post. Good luck everyone.

 

[instagamrr]

Just stop promoting, do some basic SEO to get some targeted search traffic, be patient and don't expect it to work on every single video.

I want to emphasize something here that it's taken me a year's worth of experience on youtube to realize. Youtube is unlike a traditional business. I have an extensive business background and it is very deeply ingrained in me to want to promote/market.

Youtube's algorithms are a game changer however. It appears that no matter what, if your channel is growing rapidly retention will suffer; this affects youtube's ability to promote you based on their algorithms which rely heavily on audience retention. Unless your channel is getting that rapid growth through youtube's algorithms, that lowered retention can stop youtube's algorithms from promoting your channel the way it needs to be promoted to receive the outrageous growth that top youtubers have.

Also, there IS a caveat I've noticed: even when I make videos specifically for search, they do better if you pump them with views at first. For example, if I make an 8 minute tips and tricks video, you would think making that my channel trailer to get it automatic views would be disastrous - the retention would plummet. However I've found that that boost in views within the first few hours/first 24 hours is more important for the long term success of the video in search even though the retention takes a hit. There is definitely a balancing point within youtube's search ranking algorithms and you have to find it.

 

[Owen Haggerty mineman2300]

hello I am 13 and play minecraft and I need help with growth ps (different games aren't what im looking for at the moment for I need a new computer and I have very little money) if anyone could help me on this because growth seems to have stopped on my channel[DOUBLEPOST=1445195869,1445195620][/DOUBLEPOST]Also I am not new to YT been on it since 2012 and I only have 42 subs

 

[WilliamRayWalters]

Tiny percentage comes directly from the embedded video in Twitter. Less than 1% direct clicks but many of twitter followers sub to me on YT and so probably watch directly from YT via the sub feed (without clicking from twitter)

I have a couple questions, because it fascinates me when others adhere to the blanket strategy of 'no promotion'. Youtuber1978 and I and others have pretty much worn the discussion out, but I'm always looking for other people's experiences with 'no promotion'.

1. How does the percentage of visitors from Twitter compare to the percentage of visitors from search? How does the retention of those two compare?
2. Did you promote your channel actively in the first few months of your channel's existence, and how? How many views/subs did it get you and did you pay close attention to the retention of those first few months worth of 'promoted' visitors? Have you compared the retention of your visitors during your promotion with your more organic traffic provided by Youtube?
3. How soon after you stopped promoting did your videos begin to be featured in the suggested video section?
4. Besides the timing, what made you conclude that your success was due to the lack of promotion and not merely coincidence or luck?
5. Has anyone taken your advice and achieved a level of success markedly better than they previously had achieved by simply stopping all promotion whatsoever? Can you point us to their channel?
6. I haven't met anyone who has used the 'absolutely no promotion' method and was willing to share his channel. Is there a particular reason you choose not to share your channel?
7. Have you started any other channels since then and not promoted them and achieved any measure of success? If not, you should, and you should post the channel and the results on YTTalk as a case study. I've been thinking of doing something similar but I ran into a big snag. I'm very lazy.

And again, I'm not saying that a channel can't find success without promotion and even flourish without it, I just think it's too broad of a theory to say that all promotion hurts your channel because of the inherent retention issues associated with various poor but common promotion methods. For example, using Adwords for search should (and does, in my experience) yield the same or very similar results to someone who clicks on a ranked search listing. That person searched for a term, my video came up, and they clicked on it. Retention is not hurt. I just think that since most people do promotion completely wrong, there is a tendency to disregard too many types and methods of promotion.

 

[YouTuber1978]

I haven't met anyone who has used the 'absolutely no promotion' method and was willing to share his channel. Is there a particular reason you choose not to share your channel?

Sharing your channel is promotion. Promotion equals lower audience retention. Sharing it here is no different than "promoting" it on Reddit, Facebook, or any other site.

Has anyone taken your advice and achieved a level of success markedly better than they previously had achieved by simply stopping all promotion whatsoever? Can you point us to their channel?

Yes, but I would never point to their channel or mention their channel by name for the same reason. I don't want to drive down their average view time.

 

[Jack Decker]

I have been holding off telling the following because of thinly-veiled threats I've received from YouTuber1978 in PMs. I was going to wait for him to actually carry through on his threats, let him publicly expose his true nature, and then publicly embarrass him by pointing out his hypocrisy and then turn the PMs over to the moderators with the hope that they would ban him from this forum. However, as this thread has attracted other no-marketing advocates and is getting a lot of views, I will now use up one of my counter-measures against YouTuber1978.

"No marketing" and "no promotion" advocates here on YTtalkers say that you shouldn’t do any marketing but only concentrate on making great content. However, I’ve never come across one who doesn’t also say the main reason why they don’t promote is because they believe promotion hurts your viewer retention rate and that hurts your placement in YouTube search engine results. Sorry, but they’ve just done marketing. If the reason you’re not doing promotion is to increase your viewer retention SO THAT you can place higher in search results, you’ve just tried to manipulate YouTube’s search engine. In other words, you’ve just tried to do search engine optimization. SEO is marketing. You’re doing stuff (or not doing stuff) to get better placement on search engine results to get better exposure (promotion) to searchers. So what you've really only done is simply give up one form of promotion for another.

But these “no-marketing”/ “no promotion” advocates don’t usually stop there. They almost always also talk about expertly using tags. But since tags are only for search engines, they are pure SEO since viewers don't see them thus they do nothing to improve the quality of your videos. The sole purpose of tags is SEO. And then some of them talk about improving your video title and description so search engines can better drive searchers to you. Again, that is SEO and thus marketing.

Entire marketing firms only do SEO for corporations. In fact, for a time, I was the marketing director of one. And we had some potential clients (mainly Internet businesses) come in and tell us that they planned to spend all their money on SEO. We always cautioned against that strategy. Naturally, we would love to get paid as much as possible, but everyone at the firm, from the owner on down to the lowest programmer, knew that putting all your eggs into one basket was foolish, especially when it comes to search engines. Search engines are always evolving. What works today might not work tomorrow. That is the main reason why corporations hire SEO firms on a continuous basis. At the SEO firm I worked for, they had programs whose sole function was to always test the search engines to detect changes in their algorithms. Take YouTube for example. Right now they think viewer retention is very important BUT that wasn't always the case. That's a new wrinkle they've revealed that their search engine takes into consideration. However, I have never found anywhere where YouTube says that is the only thing they consider. And just as this wasn't always the case, it might change in the future. A much better strategy is a balanced approach. More than one basket.

So whenever you come across a “no-marketing” or “no-promotion” advocate on YTtalk who talks about only making great content, see if they also talk about why they’re not promoting their videos and if they use tags. If they don’t promote, do use tags, and/or do other stuff to optimize their metadata to place better on YouTube's search engine results, they simply don’t understand what marketing is and are doing marketing without realizing it.

 

[YouTuber1978]

@Jack Decker I stand corrected. I guess I've been marketing all along. I know when to admit I'm wrong. On a completely separate and unrelated note check out this YouTube video on logic.

youtube.com/watch?v=_lu5_5Od7WY

 

[Table2Play]

I have a question to you guys... You say any promotion will just harm your channel and only youtube algorithm can help to grow it. So, can you say, or might be guess, how many views the video has to reach (with high level of audience retention time) in order to be placed into suggested queue? I know, there is no particular answer, but wanted to hear your thoughts based on you experience. Thx!