Niches - i’m on the fence about them

AaronPTB

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Hello,

I’m a small YouTuber with 142 subscribers. I make a wide variety of videos on my channel, but everywhere I look is telling me I should stick to a niche. So, I was thinking, “Well, I would just make more channels for the other types of videos!”. However, my parents didn’t like this idea as a lot of my subscribers are my family members that won’t know where to look for my other channels. Also, I’ve seen that even after making some content on my second channel and even making a video titled to subscribe to the channel, I still only got around 10 subscribers. My viewers are used to my gaming videos, so when they see something a bit different there’s less engagement. The problem is I don’t want to stop making some of my videos. Who should I listen to?
 
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KatyAdelson

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I've moved this to the strategies / technique advice forum. :)
 

Jenni Nexus

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Who should I listen to?
Hi there - in response to your post. I'd say listen to your gut. And don't be afraid to try different things and see what works best for you. It's pretty easy to link channels to one another. ( I have 3: Main, diy fashion, and gaming ) but for example I'll link a playlist from my main channel, on the gaming channel or in the end cards you can link to videos from the other channels. I really over-do it with the links in the description, but I do my best to make it clear my Youtube channels, and Youtube playlists in the video descriptions. YT favors channels when people click on links that keep them in Youtube, so although I've posted a lot of social links in the past in there too, lately I'm trying to focus on other videos / playlists in YT.

Oh, and even though I made the diy fashion channel (which is way closer to partner watchtime hours), my main channel is still most watched for its diy fashion content. so I don't know maybe I should have been focusing all those videos on my main channel (more subs but less views on the main since I broke them up).

Hope the insight helps. :) I really like analyzing the experience of trying different techniques and still learning. Have fun!
 

Min/Max Munchking

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Sticking to a single niche will help you have a clearer direction and most likely speed up the growth of your channel. No guarantees though, I see variety channels taking off, but I also see niche channels never leaving the algorithm hell.

However, do you want to turn YT into a job/side-hustle, or you're doing it just for fun? If your answer is "neither", I don't think you should be forcing yourself to do anything YT related, go explore other venues. If it's for fun, keep doing what you're doing. If you DO want to turn it into a more serious project, you will have to consider the business side of things.

Figure out an answer to "What do I REALLY want?" and that's gonna help you decide what to do with your YT channel too. You seem like a young person too, so no need to rush and stress yourself into thinking you need to figure this stuff out in a span of a week or a month.

Don't be like me and wait until being 30yrs old to try and sort your life out either though :D
 

Qwikstreet

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I've thought about this whole niche thing and I understand the theory behind it. I can really understand that if my YT Channel was called Cooking with Qwik I wouldn't want 50% of my content to be gaming etc. I imagine if I branded the channel as a single niche then I should at least stick to a 80-20 ratio on that niche.

Even if I progress up the YT mountain I don't know how I feel about having multiple channels just to handle single niches or groupings of niches. I may never reach that crossroads which is fine. Right now I'm going to try and keep my channel semi variety but rely on using playlists as shows. In theory Qwikstreet Corner is your network TV channel and each playlist will be a TV series. I'm hoping that the search algorithm will be cool with that and help me grow...once I get a better grasp on their SEO methods.
 
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Qwikstreet

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AaronPTB what is the content subject of the other videos? I'm still in an inner struggle to figure out what I want to do out of Phase I of my channel(s). I'm kind of flip flopping but think that a dual channel approach is what I'm going to go with. My main channel is more of the Qwikstreet online persona of gaming, tech, and entertainment. I also wanted to do grilling, beer, and food travel kind of stuff. I think my main rationale is the cooking stuff has a better chance of going "viral"-like with the general viewing audience and may garner more viewership if they notice the channel is not plaqued with 80% gaming content.

Meanwhile the nerdier online crowd might have a better connection to my gaming tech channel if they don't see me grilling up a plate full of vegtables and tasting some local craft beers.