My 300,000+ subs channel is dying.. any ideas?

moshi

Active Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2018
Messages
44
Reaction score
9
Age
35
I have a 300,000+ subs channel which was averaging a nice 35,000+ views daily as well as 100 subs on average gained daily on passive traffic alone as I haven't uploaded anything in months.

A couple of days ago, it collapsed to 5000 views a day and losing 10 subs daily... while it is true that I haven't uploaded in months, this is obviously not organic traffic behavior, there is something wrong on their end.

My most viewed video (10+ million views) should give me passive traffic pretty much forever and stabilize, which was the case, but not anymore since the other day.

You could say "just upload new content". I was about to do that, however my channel is animations so I can't pump out too much content frequently, for instance I worked for a couple of months on the video I have ready and I was expecting millions of views, but since this happened, im too paranoid to upload it. What if something is really broken and it's not just inactivity? I would waste months of work since I would miss the initial peak of views and it wouldn't get as recommended. The video is also related to the 10 million views one to sort of retro feedback it with more views. That video helped me a lot because people checked out my other work through it. All of my videos went down in views and I suspect is because of the big one lost views, then the rest also lost views.

I actually contacted youtube support and they told me there is something wrong going on but they didn't tell me when they will fix it, so here I am watching my channel drop in numbers everyday, and this month is tax month and im going to make less revenue than taxes, which means if this is not fixed soon I will need to demonetize everything and abandon the channel. Some guy told me that in the same day (the 21th of september) he also saw a big massive loss of views and subs. He told me this happened to him before and even newly uploaded videos wouldn't perform as good during that period until it got fixed. Im afraid this is the same again which is why I don't want to upload anything. Has anyone had similar problems?
 

TheSwedishTraveler

I am a Traveler, A Wanderer, A Thinker
Joined
Jan 12, 2015
Messages
6,221
Reaction score
2,411
Age
37
Channel Type
Vlogger
It has happened to me as well, as I have lost a couple of subscribers as well, so I guess it happens to a lot of people.
I would probably upload the video and see how it goes. It wouldn´t hurt to upload it.
I hope it will get fixed soon!
 

EVO

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Sep 20, 2016
Messages
2,239
Reaction score
1,479
Age
40
Location
London, UK
Channel Type
Youtuber
My views dipped during the summer. Especially after no new uploads for 2 months (Although I did schedule ahead)
I have recently seen a rise again but views are a rollacoaster so I try to ignore them and just concentrate on new content.
I think you need to upload to let the YT algo know its a live channel and not a dead one. Perhaps you are letting it die. Not YT letting it die.
 

iron

Liking YTtalk
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Messages
90
Reaction score
17
Age
37
Hi you can't do anything. Youtube algorithm decides for you. In June I was in 100,000 views each day since 2016 and now 10,000 by day.
 

Crown

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
22,408
Reaction score
20,367
Channel Type
Guru
while it is true that I haven't uploaded in months, this is obviously not organic traffic behavior, there is something wrong on their end.

This isn't what you want to hear but not uploading in months IS a problem. Organic traffic will slow down on YouTube if you're not uploading and active on YouTube. The algorithm is constantly looking for fresh videos, trends and activity. The search algorithm pushes new videos to the top for a few days to test how they perform. If they outperform videos that were at the top in the past, they will replace them. Same goes for "suggested videos".

YouTube wants freshness, activity, communities, stickiness. The days of being able to have a successful video perform well for months on end without lifting a finger are well gone.
 

UhoohExtra

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
945
Reaction score
542
why don't you want to share your channel name? whats to hide?
 

moshi

Active Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2018
Messages
44
Reaction score
9
Age
35
This isn't what you want to hear but not uploading in months IS a problem. Organic traffic will slow down on YouTube if you're not uploading and active on YouTube. The algorithm is constantly looking for fresh videos, trends and activity. The search algorithm pushes new videos to the top for a few days to test how they perform. If they outperform videos that were at the top in the past, they will replace them. Same goes for "suggested videos".

YouTube wants freshness, activity, communities, stickiness. The days of being able to have a successful video perform well for months on end without lifting a finger are well gone.
But that is what i've been doing for months. And there are other channels that still get tons of views with little activity. Decrease in activity is organic, that means, not sudden. And you don't go from average 100 subs gained per day then 2 days later you are losing 10 per day, this is nonsense. Also read the part where I said I contacted youtube and they confirmed that there's something wrong and they are looking into it. Also like I said before, I have a new video ready, however since they said something is wrong, if I upload it while something is wrong im risking wasting all the time and effort I put into my next video for nothing, since I could upload it and not getting as recommended as it should, so right now im waiting to see what they tell me. If they do nothing I will have to upload it and hope for the best.

Also just because you don't upload it doesn't mean you are "not lifting a finger". In fact it just means you are working harder on a video rather than spamming with a bunch of videos.

For instance Alan Becker has 6 million followers and has uploaded 79 videos in 10+ years.

Sometimes taking huge breaks of no activity. Needless to say one of these videos requires a ton of effort. So it doesn't mean he isn't working on his channel.
 

Courtney Candice

I Love YTtalk
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Messages
3,802
Reaction score
1,672
Age
28
Channel Type
Youtuber
Maybe try uploading more I know it might be hard but that’s only way to keep your channel from dying is by uploading new content. At lest go for once a week I feel like that’s a reasonable number. I usually go for once week sometimes it’s once every other week due to how long it takes for me to edit some videos but at lest that way the algorithm can see you update your content
 

Crown

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
22,408
Reaction score
20,367
Channel Type
Guru
But that is what i've been doing for months.
Not really. My advice was to start uploading. From your OP - "I haven't uploaded anything in months."

YouTube views are a zero sum game. When someone's video gets a big decrease in daily views, it's because someone else's video has taken its place and that other channel is now getting more daily views. Usually someone who is uploading regularly. YouTube itself is getting the same number of daily views. Nothing is broken. There is no bug. I suppose you didn't complain that Youtube was broken when your channel got a sudden increase in views right?

I contacted youtube and they confirmed that there's something wrong and they are looking into it.
Known issues are listed here: https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/16903?hl=en&ref_topic=7505892

There's 1 issue listed there regarding sudden drops in sub counts. That says they fixed it 2 days ago. Maybe that's your issue. If so, there was a link on that page to report it.

Other than that - I guarantee you that they're not looking into anything at all. That's just a standard help-desk response by an agent who has hundreds of emails to reply to.


You came here for advice. My advice is to start uploading regularly again. Otherwise what's your plan? Never upload again? I mean you have 2 choices.
 
Last edited: