First of all theres a huge market for vlog/rant/comedy, so you can't post theese things on Reddit and expect anything. If you don't fit Reddit's narcissistic meta, then you will only end up hurting your channel.
As for adwords, I have never used it, but my experience in paying for views/stuff like that (if that's what you mean by adwords) then it's usually not long term followers you get from that.
I suggest focusing on the rant/comedy if you wanna make a gateway video, either ranting about something that's big at the moment, or making something fun and creative which hasn't been done before that appeals to a wide audience.
For example your latest video "awkward moments" is something that just based on the title is widely appealing. However if you did "makeup tutorial" or "what I think about politics" it wouldn't have nearly as big potential for growth.Adwords is through google/youtube it puts your videos as an ad before a youtube video someone will watch, or have it off on the side. It has gained me some followers but not many. How can I tell what is popular to make a video about?
Of course you can still do piano videos, however for example a 3 minute piano cover is way more likely to turn into a gateway video than a 20 minute instructional video. You catch the point!?Really great information on the gateway videos uber!I do wonder though, since after reading some posts by others that most channels (before they get big) have to do content not related to their channel to at least "build" a audience base, does that mean I have to do videos not related to the piano or something to have a successful gateway video?
I mean, I don't want to whoreout to views, especially if it does only get the "short term" audience and if it puts my channel at risk. Imo, I don't want to risk my channel just to build an audience.