Is this a good idea to grow my channel and gain new viewers?

[Acerthorn]

people will leave as soon as the prizes dry up

As one of the guys who is actually being supportive of me in this endeavour, I have to wonder why you are pointing this out when I very clearly addressed this in the OP.

2 - Would it be better, if instead of random drawing giveaways, you made it clear that you were going to pick your favorite comment. That way you can sort of filter people who just showed up today? Like "this giveaway is for people who been subscribed to me for at least 6 month" kind of thing?

Again, did you even watch the video I posted? Because I very clearly gave a means of improving your chances of winning with your own skill.

 

[Acerthorn]

ONE, I tried to watch your video but could only stomach it to the 5:28 mark.

TWO, it doesn't matter. Someone will always figure out a way to game the system. Let say you cannot reveal it in the comment section. Fine, there are reddit group just focused on different ways to win prizes online and they'll post it there. No, they will ALWAYS outsmart you. Then again, your prizes are so small that I doubt most would even bother.

THREE, the commentary I did hear from you and your examples of your "brilliant" "funny" remarks were neither. p***s jokes? Seriously? You think that's funny?

FOUR, if you just want to be a prize channel, then just be a prize channel. You want to be a gaming channel, then be a gaming channel. But if you think you'll magically convert prize-seekers into loyal gaming subscribers, you're only kidding yourself.

You know, it's clear that, no matter what I do, you are just going to be a toxic *******. So of course you think I'm doomed to fail because that's just what you're determined to think.

If you can't be bothered to even watch the video to get the feel for what my idea is before you s**t all over it, it's clear that you're not going to give me any legitimate advice.

 

[Nicekid76]

I have to wonder why you are pointing this out when I very clearly addressed this in the OP.

I'm pointing this out partially because i have been wondering the same thing for my personal channel as well. I guess i was derailing the conversation a bit and addressing Jack's comment about people who come for the give away vs people who come for the content. I think i made it clear that i was interested in this concept as you mention i was supportive or at least trying to be. I understand that you want to do this for the rest of time so it will never actually dry up and i understand that you are trying to inter weave this with your normal content so people will have to watch it to get into this, but deep down inside i envision that this too shall pass and also that people will try to take advantage of the system especially as the community grows. Maybe that was too presumptuous of me.

I did watch your video... though i didn't get all the way through. It's a bit of a high demand to ask someone not in your audience to watch a 30min explainer video to be fair. I hope you can agree. I watched 15 min of it. That being said, your system isn't as air tight from cheating as you think. 1 person can stack the wins in their favor by entering first every day. Yes you have a 3 entry limit but it's shockingly easy to have more than 1 youtube account. I have a YT channels for a few of the video group im part of. I assume a cheater could have 100's. and enter first with a different account each day. That's the sort of system holes that I was thinking about when i mentioned not selecting winners randomly but based on manually selective method.

It's tough to know who actually is part of your community vs. just trying to get a prize and move to the next one.

• As someone who's been on youtube for over 13 years now, you often find channel and commenter who watch 1 min and comment on that being their favorite part or the part that needs improvement. Just look at how empty the So your tell us your favorite part isn't really a "real" deteraint.
• your limit per household is easy to circumvent. How do you prove that we are in the same household? I could have it sent to any dozen of friends house or my office or my P.O. box. That household limit for example end up being a "tax" to honest people only because dishonest people will just cheat the system. (at least i think so)
• I realize Jack's comment about sharing the answers online doesn't work for the most part since only the first person would get the ticket for that day. But 4 friends could all divide the video. Each only having to watch 5 - 10 min to find the joke sections instead of having to watch every thing.
• Also saying the same joke multiple times isn't a real security block either since you could just look at the auto generated captions and do a quick control+F. if you didn't know you can read all the caption as a paragraph if you open the transcripts. though... your captions come in korean so maybe you thought of this already?

These are the holes in the system that passed through my head. I'm not trying to shoot down your idea, not even trying to get your to change it. Just trying to help you see some of my thoughts while also getting some advice for my own channel about how i could do this too.

 

[Acerthorn]

Yes you have a 3 entry limit but it's shockingly easy to have more than 1 youtube account.

But is it shockingly easy to have more than one real life address? Remember: They'll have to provide that at the point of entry as well.

If they give me a fake address ... well ... they won't get the prize sent to them if they win, now will they?

you often find channel and commenter who watch 1 min and comment on that being their favorite part or the part that needs improvement.

If you had watched past the 15 minute mark, you would have noticed that I have sole discretion to disqualify any entries that are not in good faith.

your limit per household is easy to circumvent. How do you prove that we are in the same household? I could have it sent to any dozen of friends house or my office or my P.O. box.

PO Boxes don't count (because again, I get sole discretion), and if they register an office address, I can easily notice on Google Maps that it's a commercial building, not a residential one.

As for the potential for friends' addresses, I do indeed allow friends to discuss the secret joke amongst themselves as long as they do it offline. That's another thing you'd have noticed if you watched past the halfway point.

But 4 friends could all divide the video.

Again, I get sole discretion to disqualify entries that I don't think are in good faith. If somebody posts at 5:05pm CST on a video that was published only 5 minutes prior, that's a pretty big red flag that they're trying to cheat the system, isn't it?

Also saying the same joke multiple times isn't a real security block either since you could just look at the auto generated captions and do a quick control+F. if you didn't know you can read all the caption as a paragraph if you open the transcripts. though... your captions come in korean so maybe you thought of this already?

Fair point. I'll have to start including manual, but intentionally inaccurate captions.

But even barring all of that, I think you're forgetting one major thing: Even if they could find a way to cheat the system and get the secret joke without actually watching the video, doesn't that inherently require more work than just ... watching the stinking video? I may not have set up the contest in such a way that cheating the system is simply impossible, but do I really need to? All I really need to do is set it up in such a way that participating as-intended is the easiest and most convenient way of getting the secret joke, and that alone will curb 99.9999999% of cheating. Have I at least done that?

At that point, the only way people might be inclined to cheat is if they really really really want the prize, yet they are really really really repulsed by the idea of sitting through one of Acerthorn's dull, monotonous, boring as f**k videos. The prize is only a single, $60 game per month, so it's not big enough to justify engaging with my content if you're as repulsed by it as Jack Decker claims to be.

But if you would even so much as grade my videos' quality as C-grade or better, the prizes should be a cherry on top. It won't work to polish a turd, but it will be a cherry on top of an already satisfying (or at least semi-satisfying) experience. Does that make sense?

 

[Jack Decker]

I think over all prizes shouldn't be really used to grow an audience as people will leave as soon as the prizes dry up and they will only pay attention to the prize task not the actually content you wanted them to stick around for (is that fair to say).

It is literally just as bad as sub4sub and just as worthless.

that being said, i have been

interested in ways to use prize to build a bond with my audience. I realize this isn't exactly the OP question but hope you don't mind if i run something by you @Jack Decker real quick related to prizes.

My pleasure.

1 - I thought about hosting a live stream and ordering a pizza for a random commenter

during the live stream. A Youtuber i used to watch use to do this back in Google+ days and called it the pizza party. granted he had a decently large (though small) audience back then.

Oh, so you don't care if you tick off your non-American viewers? ;-)

But seriously, don't. Bribes build papier-mache bonds. Give them value and they'll be happy and be better viewers/subscribers. If anything, you should want it the other way around with them sending you money via super-chat.

2 - Would it be better, if instead of random drawing

giveaways, you made it clear that you were going to pick your favorite comment. That way you can sort of filter people who just showed up today? Like "this giveaway is for people who been subscribed to me for at least 6 month" kind of thing?

Any system can and will be gamed. Period. Oh, and some commentators will get upset if you don't pick them. "My comment was better than that one!" And then there is the problem of people just kissing up to you to get the prize. It will make a mockery of your comment section.

Use Google stats and find where most of your viewers live. Are there concentrations of them in some cities? Travel there and do a viewer meet-up. You physically shaking the hand of a fan will make them fans for life. So save the money you would spend on prizes to travel to do viewer meet-ups instead.

 

[Jack Decker]

You know, it's clear that, no matter what I do, you are just going to be a toxic *******. So of course you think I'm doomed to fail because that's just what you're determined to think.

Yeah, that's it. I'm the problem. Anyone who doesn't love you is obviously out to get you. Why did you post here if you didn't want honest feedback? Apparently you only want kisses blown. You can do that in the mirror. You don't need us. The truth is your humor and video is horrible. Not bad enough? Oh, I can go worse. You ... YOU YOURSELF know your content is horrible since you think you need to give away prizes to get anyone to watch it. You're literally BEGGING people to watch you. No, that's not right. You're literally BEGGING and trying to BRIBE people to watch you. Like the mom who has to pay the neighborhood kids to play with her little brat of a son. Admit it. Your content sucks.

If you can't be bothered to even watch the video to get the feel for what my idea is before you s**t all over it, it's clear that you're not going to give me any legitimate advice.

The sense of entitlement in you is astounding. I watched five and a half minutes of your horrible video. That's as long as I could FORCE myself to watch it. Time I cannot take back. That I didn't torture myself by watching the entire THIRTY-THREE MINUTES of your video just means I'm not a masochist. Oh, and if you cannot get across your idea in that time, you're simply incompetent and/or the idea is a badly thought out one.

 

[Acerthorn]

Ok, Jack Decker, I just reported you to the mods.

You are just being toxic, abrasive, confrontational, and downright unhelpful. You aren't even trying to contribute to the discussion outside of just giving me your entirely unsubstantiated opinion of how much I suck and how much my strategy sucks. You have made your point (that point being "I don't like your content and don't think your plan will succeed"), but you just keep on throwing insult after insult at me for no other reason than because something crawled up your a**. You are not being helpful; you're just being toxic.

So I'm reporting you to the mods now.

 

[Jack Decker]

Ok, Jack Decker, I just reported you to the mods.

LOL! It is AMAZING how self-unaware you are.

You are just being toxic, abrasive, confrontational, and downright unhelpful. You aren't even trying to contribute to the discussion outside of just giving me your entirely unsubstantiated opinion of how much I suck and how much my strategy sucks. You have made your point (that point being "I don't like your content and don't think your plan will succeed"), but you just keep on throwing insult after insult at me for no other reason than because something crawled up your a**. You are not being helpful; you're just being toxic.

No, Han shot first. If you cannot stand the heat, don't touch the thermostat.

 

[Vedstedsen]

Ok, Jack Decker, I just reported you to the mods.

You are just being toxic, abrasive, confrontational, and downright unhelpful. You aren't even trying to contribute to the discussion outside of just giving me your entirely unsubstantiated opinion of how much I suck and how much my strategy sucks. You have made your point (that point being "I don't like your content and don't think your plan will succeed"), but you just keep on throwing insult after insult at me for no other reason than because something crawled up your a**. You are not being helpful; you're just being toxic.

So I'm reporting you to the mods now.

But it's your channel, you are not very helpful towards gathering information and discussion about your project either. Sure Jack Decker is a bit confrontational, but so are you.
Your plan would work in an ideal world, where certain external situations would all go your way. They won't. I don't believe in your plan either, like many others. But I am often wrong.

Are you here to get support and high-fives for your super smart idea (this is what I see in this thread). Or are you interested in actual brutal feedback?

 

[Acerthorn]

Sure Jack Decker is a bit confrontational, but so are you.

How am I being confrontational? By asking for people to actually understand what exactly the idea is before they s**t all over it? How is that confrontational?

Are you here to get support and high-fives for your super smart idea (this is what I see in this thread). Or are you interested in actual brutal feedback?

Here's a suggestion: Have you considered even the one-in-a-million possibility that maybe ... just maybe ... I'm not looking for either?

People tend to view things in binary extremes. If it's not one extreme, it necessarily is the other extreme. I made a reddit threat about this phenomenon a while back:

Spoiler: Reddit thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatstheword/comments/ktmkj8

I even have had several people comment on my videos where they take the attitude of "well, you [Acerthorn] don't like dark souls, which pushes the 'hardcore gamer' mindset to ludicrous extremes, so the only logical conclusion is that you [Acerthorn] must be other extreme: The extreme archetype of a casual gamer who only plays casual trash for trashy casual." Here's a couple of screenshots to prove it.

Rather than "brutal" feedback, did it ever occur to you that I'm looking for good faith constructive criticism that is kept civil and professional while still not shying away from the potential flaws of the plan?

Like what Nicekid76 did in Response #13. Maybe, just maybe, I was just hoping for more of that kind of response? Maybe, just maybe, I was hoping for that to be the norm in this thread rather than the exception?

Did you ever think of that? Or are you simply incapable of considering anything in between the two extremes?