Growing a slow channel.

[TYTD]

Hi All,

I've been trying to grow my youtube channel and I thought I would ask here as you all seem very much in the know about all things Youtube related

So! About 5 months or so ago I started a youtube channel aiming to give a very detailed critique and analysis of obscure and forgotten B-movies, The main reason for this being that I found that quite a few films that I was very familiar with either had no review available or what was there was either very old (7 years+) or of very low quality from a technical standpoint (Inaudible microphone quality/very muffled, incredibly poor video quality) So I started uploading every week (Sometimes twice a week) content to my channel. to mix things up I do 3 weeks of fairly strange or quirky films (The kind of stuff MST3K would riff) and then at the end of the month I do a more adult oriented review usually covering either Video Nasties, Experimental art house films or exploitation cinema.

I also supplement these videos with additional reviews and an extra show called "VHS Roulette" which is basically a mystery box/mystery screening of random domestic vhs tapes i've picked up on Ebay.

When I started doing this kind of content I was fully aware that I was targeting a niche market and that realistically it was going to be a slow burner in terms of building up an audience. I accepted that it would be a few months maybe even a year or two before anything picked up significantly but I've tried my best to put my content out there. I've been posting on half a dozen to a dozen message boards regularly sharing my latest content as soon as its uploaded, I've been trying to slip in the odd mainstream title in my uploads as well in an attempt to bring in a more casual audience and i've been reading various content guides and trying to digest Analytic reports in order to maximize my contents reach and potential.

the problem is non of this seems to be doing anything to grow my channel beyond its average base. for the last 2 months I havent gained a single subscriber and equally for those last 2 months my view counter hasnt extended much more beyond my subscriber base. despite regularly trying to promote my content both on and off youtube.

My Analytics paint an even more confusing picture, about 60% of my videos wont display analytic information on audience retention due to them not having enough views to be able to populate it, but the 40% that do have that information seem to suggest im doing alright (Not brilliant...but Just about managing) My average retention on a video to video basis seems to be between 25 to 45% (Even though my overall retention is about 20% due I think in part to 3-4 very under performing videos) and even more confusingly my relative audience retention on pretty much all my videos is just a consistent wavy line fluctuating between below average and above average/high...if there was a clear drop off or rise it would helpful but the peaks and troughs are consistent on all my videos apart from my first ever video which starts on low and then slowly builds to average before spiking to high right at the end.

my average audience is 100% male (Again though this is based on between 4 and 15 views) and my average viewer age is between 18 and 40. In terms of likes and comments I was consistently getting 1 or 2 likes per video up until about a month ago when it suddenly stopped. now I havent had a single like in about 4-5 weeks my comment sections are fairly empty as well (Though again; that could be down simply to the fact that other than my subscriber base noone seems to be watching my content)

I've looked at optimizing my video titles to make them as accurate as possible and I've also tried to keep my thumbnails consistent, minimalist and accurate on what my videos relate to. my tagging analytics also paint an interesting picture... even though I put 30+ tags in most of my videos with an aim to optimize my content towards my intended target audience. literally all my top tag searches are film title specific ("Dawn of the dead", "The Dragon lives again") or film company related ("Fox movies", "Hammer horror") which doesnt really seem to give me much scope to revise my tagging system...

I've tried literally everything I can think of at this point short of asking for subs and likes on the videos or doing sub for sub. I'm considering even adding a banner at the bottom of my video asking for subscriptions or comments but I don' necessarily feel comfortable doing that.

I suppose the TLDR; question im asking is "How do I extend my viewer and subscriber base (Even slightly) when traditional avenues of promotion dont seem to be working and my Analytics indicate that it isnt necessarily my content that's causing the shortfall." It sounds sad but if I could even get my subscriber count or viewer count into consistent double digits by the 6 month mark I'd be absolutely overjoyed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you for taking the time to read my very long tale of Woe XD

 

[Louie Sal-long]

Great channel, buddy!

In my opinion, since you don't have much of a following yet, you should try uploading shorter videos to gain a following.

I think part of what deterred me from watching is the length. But this is just my opinion and I'm also a small YouTube channel.

 

[Brandon]

Just keep uploading! Consistency is key, along with quality content. Also, actively engaging in the community outside of your channel is very important as well!!!

 

[RTT]

I have 5 recommendations:
1. Also review trending movies, as old movies are not getting (enough) search traffic
2. Always put name of the moving at the start of the title. So instead of "TYTD Reviews - The Dragon Lives Again" have "The Dragon Lives Again - TYTD Reviews" for better search rankings.
3. Write longer descriptions.
4. Add closed captions.
5. Have better/shorter/catching intros or no at all.

 

[Loki Doki]

firstly ignore your analytics, i know that sounds counter-intuitive but the thing is you have so few views that your not getting any sort of accurate picture as to what your doing right or wrong. only start looking at that stuff when you getting at least a few hundred views per video

secondly, you only have 19 videos, it takes a while for youtube to trust new channel and channels with a few uploads, it needs you to prove that your videos, i often say to people to go make 50, 100 videos before you start worrying about slow growth etc

thirdly, your thumbnails are pretty dull and the text is far too small on a lot of them, too much of the thumbnail is just white text on black with a small box art, i would use more space for movie art so viewers can actually make it out, you don't have to show the whole cover, maybe try zooming in to the interesting parts and the title, maybe try adding a selfie to the thumbnail to give it some more personality, this is the time to experiment. also your banner art doesn't really suggest what the channel is about, i would use the art you have but maybe fade it out and add some text as to what your channel actually does

hope that helps mate, good luck

 

[RTT]

thirdly, your thumbnails are pretty dull and the text is far too small on a lot of them, too much of the thumbnail is just white text on black with a small box art, i would use more space for movie art so viewers can actually make it out, you don't have to show the whole cover, maybe try zooming in to the interesting parts and the title, maybe try adding a selfie to the thumbnail to give it some more personality, this is the time to experiment. also your banner art doesn't really suggest what the channel is about, i would use the art you have but maybe fade it out and add some text as to what your channel actually does

hope that helps mate, good luck

Yep forgot to mention thumbnails are not so good.

 

[TYTD]

Cheers for the advice so far all! I've read through all your recommendations and I've already gone over my uploaded videos and made some tweaks to my tags, video titles and descriptions, Its also given me a few ideas on how how I can improve the structure of my videos. Though as I work quite far in advance; (I'll be starting my 3rd series which will be going up in January 2018 tonight) it may be a little while before Im able to have anything to show in terms of hard physical changes to my format.

As for thumbnails and channel art; being completely honest; The first set of thumbnails I produced were pretty much done on the fly as truthfully; I hadnt thought that far ahead and I realized I didnt have a decent thumbnail to select from the set list (The current channel art was done under similar circumstances)...when I started my second series I really wanted to bring it more in line with my video intro's and refine it a bit and after some experimentation I ended up with my current thumbnails which I still wasnt 100% happy with...but I quite like the minimalist aspect even though I appreciate that it isnt necessarily the most eye popping thumbnail in the world... though it is something that needs some time given to it so I may look into it again over the next month or so and see if I cant tie it even further into my channels content.

Thanks again so much for all these pointers, the last time I properly did anything youtube related was about 10 years ago and it seems a LOT has changed in the mean time if anyone else has any pointers or suggestions please do let me know!

 

[Dutchie Abroad]

I agree with all that has been said before, especially the thumbnails could be a bit more eyecatching. Also, hooking on to something trending could work well to lure viewers to your channel. For example, it is the time of remakes, so why not use that in your advantage and review the remake and the original side by side? Also, I get the 90's style you're going for, but your channel trailer was pretty slow.. Your voice is very pleasant to listen to, but every time you take a 2 or 3 second pause, people might click away. Make sure you avoid pauses, without rushing yourself ofcourse.

 

[TYTD]

Thanks again all for the pointers! over the last couple of days I've been through all my videos and tweaked the titles, I've added more tags and in some videos increased the description. I've ammended my Channel art to something a little better (and more in line with my channel) and I've also created a new thumbnail icon that i'll be using as soon as my current "Romero" month comes to a close also tonight I've made a new intro that'll be debuting in January; it's only between 10 and 15 seconds long (The previous one was between 20 and 27 seconds) it's quite a bit more minimalist but again falls more in line with my channel art. I've also altered my end screen to include an end card banner and a couple of friendly lines of text asking people what they thought of the film and whether they have any film reccomendations of there own. I'll probably end up taking this over to the review section once all these revisions have finally debuted But again thanks to everyone who helped me on this...It's really amazing how much everythings changed really since I was last doing youtube xD

 

[Ocean Chan]

firstly ignore your analytics, i know that sounds counter-intuitive but the thing is you have so few views that your not getting any sort of accurate picture as to what your doing right or wrong. only start looking at that stuff when you getting at least a few hundred views per video

secondly, you only have 19 videos, it takes a while for youtube to trust new channel and channels with a few uploads, it needs you to prove that your videos, i often say to people to go make 50, 100 videos before you start worrying about slow growth etc

thirdly, your thumbnails are pretty dull and the text is far too small on a lot of them, too much of the thumbnail is just white text on black with a small box art, i would use more space for movie art so viewers can actually make it out, you don't have to show the whole cover, maybe try zooming in to the interesting parts and the title, maybe try adding a selfie to the thumbnail to give it some more personality, this is the time to experiment. also your banner art doesn't really suggest what the channel is about, i would use the art you have but maybe fade it out and add some text as to what your channel actually does

hope that helps mate, good luck

Thanks for the info!
Could you elaborate on youtube trusting channels with more videos?
Does it bump up your vids on recommended?
I've had my channel fo 5 months with only 16 uploads... i better get a move on it if what you say is true!