[Help] Slow channel Growth

Foxum

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I have tried many things to get my channel get more views and really have seen little to no improvement if any. I tried to do everything in the book to get more views ranging from playing every popular game, unpopular games, coming up with new ideas for videos and also trying to interact with viewers by asking questions and everything like people always say. My audience retention is not good it's in the 10-20% for midway in most videos. Maybe my voice is not interesting to hear for people as I lose a bunch of retention in the beginning. What am I doing wrong and where can I improve? What advice do you awesome people have?
 

JewBearBagel

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Honestly, there's probably nothing wrong. Retention is never good when you're first starting out, but moreover, the statistic that you're looking at is an average. The problem with that kind of statistic when you're so small, is that it can easily be skewered. For example: I have a video with 118 views, the average view duration is 4 minutes, 3 seconds. This might not seem bad, but the video is 22 minutes long. However, that statistic does not mean that 118 people watched for 4 minutes and then clicked away. Lets say a majority of those 118 watched all the way through, but 30 or so people click away within the first 10 seconds. That could result in a really low average, even though a majority of people did watch all the way through. For this reason, I feel that you have nothing to worry about, you just gotta keep grinding. Getting going on Youtube is incredibly hard at the beginning, you can get stuck at the same sub count for a month, or multiple months, you can upload videos and see it get no views at all. That's why a majority of people don't stick with it, because it's very easy to get deterred. That's also why it's very important to be doing something that you really enjoy on Youtube, because if you don't, you're not going to want to stick with it through all the hardship you're going to face. On a side note, if there was one thing I would say you should change, it would be your intro. It's a little loud and a little too long. You'd be surprised how many people will click away just because they have to wait through a 10 second intro to get to the content. Other than that, all seems good sir. Hope that helps you to rest a little easier!
 

filmfoolsproductions

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I'm still trying to grow my gaming channel but it's not my main focus right now but from watching your GTA video there is nothing wrong with your voice. The main thing about youtube is building an audience and unless you have something exclusive that people are searching for small youtubers need to use certain techniques. It took more than a minute to explain what was going to happen in the video and the real action didn't start until around the 2:30 - 3 minute mark. Try to get your action in as soon as possible maybe a quick preview of the most exciting thing that happened in the video then a quick description of whats about to happen. Maybe try to make your videos shorter but I know sometimes that can be hard to do (not necessarily needed if the content is engaging people will stay). Another tip I learned at Youtube space is your end card should last a little longer giving people a chance to click on your content.
 

Foxum

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Honestly, there's probably nothing wrong. Retention is never good when you're first starting out, but moreover, the statistic that you're looking at is an average. The problem with that kind of statistic when you're so small, is that it can easily be skewered. For example: I have a video with 118 views, the average view duration is 4 minutes, 3 seconds. This might not seem bad, but the video is 22 minutes long. However, that statistic does not mean that 118 people watched for 4 minutes and then clicked away. Lets say a majority of those 118 watched all the way through, but 30 or so people click away within the first 10 seconds. That could result in a really low average, even though a majority of people did watch all the way through. For this reason, I feel that you have nothing to worry about, you just gotta keep grinding. Getting going on Youtube is incredibly hard at the beginning, you can get stuck at the same sub count for a month, or multiple months, you can upload videos and see it get no views at all. That's why a majority of people don't stick with it, because it's very easy to get deterred. That's also why it's very important to be doing something that you really enjoy on Youtube, because if you don't, you're not going to want to stick with it through all the hardship you're going to face. On a side note, if there was one thing I would say you should change, it would be your intro. It's a little loud and a little too long. You'd be surprised how many people will click away just because they have to wait through a 10 second intro to get to the content. Other than that, all seems good sir. Hope that helps you to rest a little easier!
I look indepentaly at every video I create when data comes available after few days and look at the trends they have separately often have retention 10-20% mid-way though on new videos. I don't pay attention to channel retention / channel overview page. I only pay attention to individual video retention. Wouldnt "Relative" audience retention graphic avoid the mis-info of people who click away right as video starts? What is a good target retention percentage?
 

LyfeWithDragons

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Seems like this question is being asked a lot lately, and the first thing you need to do is to not worry about what people think. Your voice is fine, your channel looks good (I mean, it looks like every other gaming channel). I watched a few moments of your video and you didn't seem to engage your audience that much. You really seemed to just state what was in front of you, and personally I don't think that's appealing. I always get so bored when they just state what we are seeing, or end up reading the text we can clearly see. Just be yourself, and keep producing content. Keep up the good work, they'll come to you!
 

Foxum

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I'm still trying to grow my gaming channel but it's not my main focus right now but from watching your GTA video there is nothing wrong with your voice. The main thing about youtube is building an audience and unless you have something exclusive that people are searching for small youtubers need to use certain techniques. It took more than a minute to explain what was going to happen in the video and the real action didn't start until around the 2:30 - 3 minute mark. Try to get your action in as soon as possible maybe a quick preview of the most exciting thing that happened in the video then a quick description of whats about to happen. Maybe try to make your videos shorter but I know sometimes that can be hard to do (not necessarily needed if the content is engaging people will stay). Another tip I learned at Youtube space is your end card should last a little longer giving people a chance to click on your content.
Yea I added in a skip button annotation in the overview as I did feel intro was longish but I thought it was interesting and tried to add bit of humor, I also used an interesting part at the start to get people interested.

Only thing I worry is cutting content makes it seem rushed. Lot of games I record are only like 8-15min of footage in a session so there is not a ton of cut and when I do it's noticeable as a result. Like cutting a 7min rocket league match is very noticeable and I could do strictly highlights but that would be like 3min video which most people don't like super short content I thought? What kind of length should I shoot for? I always been hesitate to make shorter videos for that reason. Am I making sense? I hope lol[DOUBLEPOST=1440552354,1440551686][/DOUBLEPOST]
Seems like this question is being asked a lot lately, and the first thing you need to do is to not worry about what people think. Your voice is fine, your channel looks good (I mean, it looks like every other gaming channel). I watched a few moments of your video and you didn't seem to engage your audience that much. You really seemed to just state what was in front of you, and personally I don't think that's appealing. I always get so bored when they just state what we are seeing, or end up reading the text we can clearly see. Just be yourself, and keep producing content. Keep up the good work, they'll come to you!
I am looking to engage with people and stuff but there is almost no one watching like I want to do all these plans with doing community things but need people for that of course lol. I get what you mean I do lot of talking about what is going on and not really doing above that. What suggestions do you have as I do struggle with not telling what is going on lol. Like instead of saying "Well I just killed that guy" say something like "Well now he is in a better place" and give more abstract commentary you're saying?
 

LyfeWithDragons

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Yea I added in a skip button annotation in the overview as I did feel intro was longish but I thought it was interesting and tried to add bit of humor, I also used an interesting part at the start to get people interested.

Only thing I worry is cutting content makes it seem rushed. Lot of games I record are only like 8-15min of footage in a session so there is not a ton of cut and when I do it's noticeable as a result. Like cutting a 7min rocket league match is very noticeable and I could do strictly highlights but that would be like 3min video which most people don't like super short content I thought? What kind of length should I shoot for? I always been hesitate to make shorter videos for that reason. Am I making sense? I hope lol[DOUBLEPOST=1440552354,1440551686][/DOUBLEPOST]

I am looking to engage with people and stuff but there is almost no one watching like I want to do all these plans with doing community things but need people for that of course lol. I get what you mean I do lot of talking about what is going on and not really doing above that. What suggestions do you have as I do struggle with not telling what is going on lol. Like instead of saying "Well I just killed that guy" say something like "Well now he is in a better place" and give more abstract commentary you're saying?
Why do you feel the need to talk about the game at all? I've said it time and time again, Game Grumps (basically the only gaming channel I watch) do gameplays right, and I love it. Their content is funny, entertaining, and sometimes soul touching. Talk about your childhood, talk about things you enjoy, just fill it with cool and interesting stories. Heck, if it's too hard for you to do that while playing, capture the gameplay, and then do the audio later, and just put it over it. Have the game playing in the background, while you tell a awesome story.

As for being party of a community, that is what this forum, Facebook groups, twitter, and other social media are for. Make sure you join the parts that pertain to you though. If you do gameplays, don't go joining a beauty tips community. I mean, unless you play on giving beauty tips while playing a game, which could be unique in it's own way.
 
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JewBearBagel

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I look indepentaly at every video I create when data comes available after few days and look at the trends they have separately often have retention 10-20% mid-way though on new videos. I don't pay attention to channel retention / channel overview page. I only pay attention to individual video retention. Wouldnt "Relative" audience retention graphic avoid the mis-info of people who click away right as video starts? What is a good target retention percentage?
No, because that's not mis-info. If someone is clicking on your video, watching it ten seconds, then clicking away, that's a statistic that is recorded and as such, is factored into the average view duration (for the individual video). I don't know why you mentioned "channel retention/channel overview", as I was giving you stats from the "Audience Retention" tab, and the numbers I gave were from one specific video, not from my channel as a whole. Just to make it clear, the Audience Retention statistic, for both your whole channel AND every individual video, is an average.

Seems like this question is being asked a lot lately, and the first thing you need to do is to not worry about what people think. Your voice is fine, your channel looks good (I mean, it looks like every other gaming channel). I watched a few moments of your video and you didn't seem to engage your audience that much. You really seemed to just state what was in front of you, and personally I don't think that's appealing. I always get so bored when they just state what we are seeing, or end up reading the text we can clearly see. Just be yourself, and keep producing content. Keep up the good work, they'll come to you!
Listen to this guy.

Yea I added in a skip button annotation in the overview as I did feel intro was longish but I thought it was interesting and tried to add bit of humor, I also used an interesting part at the start to get people interested.

Only thing I worry is cutting content makes it seem rushed. Lot of games I record are only like 8-15min of footage in a session so there is not a ton of cut and when I do it's noticeable as a result. Like cutting a 7min rocket league match is very noticeable and I could do strictly highlights but that would be like 3min video which most people don't like super short content I thought? What kind of length should I shoot for? I always been hesitate to make shorter videos for that reason. Am I making sense? I hope lol
I don't know exactly how this happened, but you have things VERY twisted. Cutting content does not make a video seem rushed, as long as it's done right. Take a note from every big gaming Youtuber. All of their videos are HEAVILY edited. Also, people much prefer shorter videos. Not many people have time to watch an eight to fifteen minute Youtube video, especially when it's a smaller Youtuber's that they have no incentive to watch. Often times people will see a video from a smaller Youtuber, see that it's 10-15 minutes long and not watch it solely because of that. In fact, from everything I've read, around 3 minutes is the sweet spot for Youtube. That's why Seananners is considered to be a King of Youtube Gaming by many, because he puts out one 3 minute video every couple days and kills it. The way I see it though, is that you should just be doing Youtube for fun. Your standards are too high. The way I see it, If I put up a video and only one person watches it for one minute and gets one laugh out if it, then it was worth it. I can derive enjoyment just from the fact that someone, somewhere enjoyed just some part of my video. You can't be so so worried about subs and views and retention, because as long as you keep grinding, they'll come with time. For now just be happy that there are people, even if they are few, that enjoyed something you created.