How to be the next Ryan Toys Review?

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Uncivilized Elk

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Honestly you need your video to be getting thousands of views a day to try and gain traction off it. A few hundred a day isn't really enough to cut it. Lower numbers don't really give you (good) flow-through. You also need that momentum to last at least several days, because of this next point:

A featured playlist actually works for high-ranking videos. If you have a featured playlist and your videos are actually "popular," the up next video in the suggested tab WILL be your featured playlist, sometimes with even your playlist itself appearing below that.

But, a new video typically tends to take 2-3 days to become the "next up" video in a featured playlist, even on huge channels with tons of traffic, hence your original gateway video needs to keep its momentum (in other words, traffic), until your new video can get latched onto it as the "up next" video. Of course it also really helps when your new video is also pretty popular and doing well. But if you have a video getting thousands of views and your new video gets featured next to that video, it will get traffic to flood to that video (guaranteed, I've seen this happen many times already).

So if you can keep capitalizing off of this and keeping the suggested views flowing, you can literally create a stepping-stone pattern with each new video you release. And since these videos are getting a lot of views because traffic from your own videos is driving traffic to your other videos, YT's own promotion will kick in and your videos will end up on the homepage as well (at least for a while). But what's important is you basically have to make the video coming after the popular one something a viewer would see in the sidebar and click while/after watching the popular video. So in that sense if you're in it just for the $, that's when you start trying to make something that will cause a chain of clickthroughs, rather than simply making whatever you feel like making.

It's important your vids are actually getting decent watchtime or clickthrough or whatever stats YT uses though, because if YT does start to promote your stuff and it underperforms, get ready for those vids to be dropped like hot potatoes, and the chances for them being promoted again at some later point become pretty bleak.
 
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WilliamRayWalters

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I've never used them to navigate on anyone's channel so don't know how effective they are.
Honestly, most people don't. Viewers have been conditioned to click on that suggested video section much more than they have been to click on annotations and cards. If anything, the internet has conditioned us to do the exact opposite for things that pop up in our faces, so while I wouldn't ignore these tools that Youtube provides, I wouldn't spend a disproportionate amount of time worrying about them either. Trial and error is how I usually test things like annotations and cards out as their effectiveness varies from channel to channel and even video to video.
I guess an end card with more video choices could be very effective but can only be inserted before uploading.
The lion's share of people do not watch any video right up to the end card. I've had better luck placing annotations at various points throughout the video (subtle and unobtrusive annotations. Hard coding them with an outline annotation link is something I do often).
but I've never known how to use this to boost growth other than hoping viewers will subscribe and explore my channel.
If your video is of high quality and compelling enough, your viewers will find your other videos on their own, either through suggested videos in your own popular videos' suggested sections, or by clicking on your channel name and browsing your videos that way (something I do often if I see content that I like). When you see a popular channel with multiple popular videos, annotations and cards usually had very little to do with it. Creating more and more interesting and compelling content is how you capitalize on your popular videos' success. Your goal should be to make the casual visitor go out of his/her way to see more of your videos, rather than simply making it easier with regard to pointing and clicking. In other words, focus on content and coming up with great ideas. That will land more of your videos in your own suggested videos sections (as well as others) and lead to that stepping stone effect Elk spoke of.
 
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Fun with Sarah

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that's when you start trying to make something that will cause a chain of clickthroughs, rather than simply making whatever you feel like making.
Good point. That would explain why some of the big channels make a series of videos along a similar theme when they have a very successful one. Makes sense that these will cause a chain reaction. Thanks for all the great advice. Must be so exciting to see a video really take off in this way and good to have a strategy in mind to take advantage of it if/when it happens.

if YT does start to promote your stuff and it underperforms, get ready for those vids to be dropped like hot potatoes, and the chances for them being promoted again at some later point become pretty bleak.
Yikes, that's probably what happened to the video I mentioned that was suggested for only a day on a popular video. The retention wasn't good because it was actually not a good match for the video it was suggested alongside. Completely different demographic. I was hoping it was dropped because we were such a small channel, because when I checked 2 days later, all the suggested videos were from HUGE channels. Hope next time it happens it will stick.[DOUBLEPOST=1458222984,1458222194][/DOUBLEPOST]
Viewers have been conditioned to click on that suggested video section much more than they have been to click on annotations and cards.
I agree. I don't use them much because it annoys me when too many things pop up to distract me. I also use the suggested video section more than annotations.

The lion's share of people do not watch any video right up to the end card.
You're right, but in the case of young children (my daughter and her friends as reference) many seem to prefer selecting from the end card provided by the channel they like watching and if it's short clips of other videos even better. I've seen my daughter drift to other channels if end cards are not there and if the channel has end cards she will often stick with that channel for much longer. Might change as she gets older but at the moment it seems to help keep her from drifting.

Can't hurt I suppose. :)

In other words, focus on content and coming up with great ideas. That will land more of your videos in your own suggested videos sections (as well as others) and lead to that stepping stone effect Elk spoke of.
Both you and Elk gave very insightful advice, thanks!
 

Uncivilized Elk

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Must be so exciting to see a video really take off in this way and good to have a strategy in mind to take advantage of it if/when it happens.
To be honest, far more than any happiness or excitement, it caused me annoyance instead that my other videos with comparable quality won't get similar traffic simply due to bias in what people feel compelled to click on and what they've been "trained" to click on through time with the system being the way it is.

And I did zero to purposefully capitalize on it even if I knew how to, lol. I did some related videos eventually and the traffic did flood over, but I made those vids because I wanted to and found the time, not because they'd get the traffic spill.

Still, I've had several videos that went huge by now independently, so I've seen how these events play out in the analytics multiple times, hence all that stuff I wrote.
 
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WilliamRayWalters

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but in the case of young children
Yes, of course, and my comment about end cards was completely generic. In the case of young children, absolutely, the end cards would logically be more effective.
it caused me annoyance instead that my other videos with comparable quality won't get similar traffic simply due to bias in what people feel compelled to click on and what they've been "trained" to click on through time with the system being the way it is.
Not only that, but the algorithm is simply not perfect and never has been. I'm having a discussion with someone on a YT video comment section where I'm trying to explain that very thing to him. He simply believes in the "if you build it, they will come (in a relatively short period of time)" mentality and it doesn't always work that way, especially not in a short period of time. Sometimes high quality videos can take months to land a spot in the 'suggested video' section of another popular video. Content is king, but there is also an element of luck and often a lot of patience involved. It is a flawed algorithm, albeit a much better one than a few years ago when the "reply girls" owned the YT suggested video sections (they were called related videos back then if you remember). They were the "booby streamers" of Youtube except they were just making "re: xyz popular video" videos with useless commentary and eye catching thumbnails. So, the algorithm is better but still not perfect.
 

toywithtoys

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If your video is of high quality and compelling enough, your viewers will find your other videos on their own, either through suggested videos in your own popular videos' suggested sections, or by clicking on your channel name and browsing your videos that way (something I do often if I see content that I like).
By high quality you mean:
1. 4k video
2. engaged contents
3. uniqueness
4.
5.
6.
7.
 

TalkFandomToMe

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By high quality you mean:
1. 4k video
2. engaged contents
3. uniqueness
4.
5.
6.
7.
Doesn't have to be 4k necessarily, just good quality video. And that's pretty true for the other two though. You should also try to make your videos straight to the point too. If you spend like 2 minutes doing an intro, people are going to leave for sure. The audio also needs to be at least decent as well.
 
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WilliamRayWalters

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Doesn't have to be 4k necessarily, just good quality video.
Exactly. 4K is far from necessary, especially considering the CPU/GPU power needed to edit 4K video. When I say quality I simply mean content that is compelling to the viewer. That's it. Everything else I put under professionalism, and even that isn't necessarily vital to the popularity of a video (see Vic Dibitetto and his popular videos all taken with a cell phone). The more interesting and entertaining the content, the less professional it has to be. Terrible content with great professionalism (video quality, editing, etc) will never be successful. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.
 

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Terrible content with great professionalism (video quality, editing, etc) will never be successful.
So many YT channels I've seen over the years completely destroy this phrase. And honestly when it comes to factoring in taste/preference, you could say the most successful YTer of them all (PDP) is the definition of terrible content with great professionalism.
It's certainly possible and it happens often (unless your definition of successful is extremely high like 1million+ subs, in which case it still happens but not as often).

In the days of everybody getting better video and audio equipment, it is becoming progressively more rare, but even now exist successful channels with both terrible content and terrible professionalism.

EDIT: OK disregard this, I somehow glanced over you defining quality as "compelling" which basically equates to people watching it. But then you've just made a somewhat circular argument that a channel people don't watch a lot won't be successful...
 
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WilliamRayWalters

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OK disregard this, I somehow glanced over you defining quality as "compelling" which basically equates to people watching it. But then you've just made a somewhat circular argument that a channel people don't watch a lot won't be successful...
I'm in the middle of helping my wife salvage a sewing project (believe it or not) so if I'm not being clear that is probably why. My earlier point was made regarding how viewers will find your other videos, and later I used the word compelling completely in reference to the importance of video and audio quality vs the actual content of the video. Without compelling content your video will be unsuccessful regardless of how pretty it looks or how great it sounds. Sure, there are minimum standards but too many people spend too much time on that kind of professionalism in relation to the time they spend on content. That's all I meant.

As far as the circular argument? Maybe a little, but like I said, I was mostly commenting on the importance of content vs video quality. Also, the word compelling is similar to any adjective that can be used to describe anything. Interesting content is content that holds someone's interest. I didn't mean for it to be taken as literally as 'compelling them to stay and watch' even though technically that's what it means, more like content that is entertaining enough to compel people to stay and watch.
 
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