David Stoll
Not to be taken seriously
Hi Tim! Thanks for starting this here--as a loyal subscriber to your channel and frequent poster to this forum, this is awesome. I'd like to address three things you have discussed at different parts of this thread.
1. Algorithms are not the issue! I completely agree with you on this. I have only 105 subscribers, and my channel is 9 months old. But since about November I have consistently gotten 30-40 views per day. Granted half of those are (still!) for the Ice Bucket Challenge (UGH), but the rest are spread out among different videos.
2. Answering your two self-reflective questions can take time. Be patient. I started knowing mainly that I wanted to showcase my weird sense of humor in talk-to-the-camera videos. I somehow assumed that my videos would appeal mostly to teenagers, particularly girls. (Don't ask me why.) As I look back on these 9 months, I see two things of interest. One, it took me about three or four months to really find my voice and understand what I like doing on my channel. It's odd because if you look at the video titles, you wouldn't know that I have evolved, but the content is more focused and shows a more internally consistent point of view. Second, it turns out that my audience is 75% male and largely in their 20s. I guess that's who finds me relatable, but I wouldn't have know that without the data.
3. Audience retention tells you a lot, but it's not everything. To a certain degree, my audience retention is poor--just under 30%. But remember, this represents an average, including many of those 30-40 daily people who find me by accident and click off me right away. My subscriber audience retention is over 60%. Moreover, while only 8-10 of my subscribers are consistently hyper-engaged, I am quite sure their retention is close 100%, as their Comments make clear.
I have no idea what my point is. Just adding thoughts to the mix!
1. Algorithms are not the issue! I completely agree with you on this. I have only 105 subscribers, and my channel is 9 months old. But since about November I have consistently gotten 30-40 views per day. Granted half of those are (still!) for the Ice Bucket Challenge (UGH), but the rest are spread out among different videos.
2. Answering your two self-reflective questions can take time. Be patient. I started knowing mainly that I wanted to showcase my weird sense of humor in talk-to-the-camera videos. I somehow assumed that my videos would appeal mostly to teenagers, particularly girls. (Don't ask me why.) As I look back on these 9 months, I see two things of interest. One, it took me about three or four months to really find my voice and understand what I like doing on my channel. It's odd because if you look at the video titles, you wouldn't know that I have evolved, but the content is more focused and shows a more internally consistent point of view. Second, it turns out that my audience is 75% male and largely in their 20s. I guess that's who finds me relatable, but I wouldn't have know that without the data.
3. Audience retention tells you a lot, but it's not everything. To a certain degree, my audience retention is poor--just under 30%. But remember, this represents an average, including many of those 30-40 daily people who find me by accident and click off me right away. My subscriber audience retention is over 60%. Moreover, while only 8-10 of my subscribers are consistently hyper-engaged, I am quite sure their retention is close 100%, as their Comments make clear.
I have no idea what my point is. Just adding thoughts to the mix!
