Advice Needed: Uploading Variety when starting out?

WeiseGamer

WeiseGamer

Your #1 Source For Indie Gaming
Hello YTT,

My channel launched on Sunday (3/23) as many of you know. I upload daily videos in the following fashion currently:

Series A: Sun, Wed, Sat - Lets play of Game A
Series B: Mon, Thur - Lets play of Game B
Series C: Tue, Fri - Lets play of Game C
Series D: Wed - Indie Game Preview/Overview

I feel like the variety is a little more unique, but more so it serves like a TV Network. A show you like only comes on once a week on TV, on YouTube my "shows" come on certain days at the same time each day.

One thing I thought of today, however, is that I have no overlying series that is a daily thing. If someone subscribes for Series A, I hope they would enjoy B, C, and D as well so they can watch daily (and the genres are similar), but they may not be into the other videos.

Is this going to cause an issue with my growth? Should I start a daily series as well?

If so, any tips/topics for someone who does mostly let's plays for now to do a daily upload thing?

Thanks for your advice and input!
 
New LP channels grow very slow, so unless you do something super catchy--and most new channels don't--it will have extremely slow growth regardless.
You might want to focus on the Overview and Review series to and upload less LP's in a given week... otherwise your channel will be mainly LP.
 
I completely agree, LP isn't going to get me far at all. I want to find an overall series to do and like the review idea, but I want it to be a daily thing that my LP videos supplement.

Thank you for your feedback though, as it adds to my suspicion that I'm going to need an overall series that my channel is known for, not just LPs :)
 
Why would you upload 6 videos a week? The average gaming fan subs to quite a few gaming channels that upload daily, you'll end up with 90% of your videos being ignored.
 
MegaBoringGuy said:
Why would you upload 6 videos a week? The average gaming fan subs to quite a few gaming channels that upload daily, you'll end up with 90% of your videos being ignored.
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Most channels I've ever followed as a fan upload daily gaming content. Tmartn, direwolf20, drift0r, paulsoresjr, optic nadeshot, etc.
 
WeiseGamer said:
Most channels I've ever followed as a fan upload daily gaming content. Tmartn, direwolf20, drift0r, paulsoresjr, optic nadeshot, etc.
Click to expand...
Thats because they have the reach and the audience to actually get daily videos out there, if you uploaded daily it would be messy
 
So I should act like a small channel with no following to gain a following and make the switch later?
 
In terms of mixing content and trying to get viewers to watch other stuff, there isn't much you can do, the reason being is that like you said, it's like a TV network. People may have their favourite channels on TV but they don't watch all the TV shows on that channel, that would be ridiculous. I'm the same when it comes to YouTube, I rarely watch every series a YouTuber does.
I was doing 4 different series' at somepoint on my channel, each 1 varied in views depending on what viewers wanted, Defiance was my highest viewed series and as of late would average around 20-40 views. These were posted every 3-4 days maybe due to the other series' running on different days. The other vids like AC4, GTA 4 and GTA 5, all average anywhere between 0-5 views. Now part of it is mainly because Defiance isn't a saturated game, but it's not that great of a game to play to begin with, you kind of have to be into the TV show and enjoy simple MMOs to like it, so not that many people play it. Now some videos from the series' may get more views for some odd reason, I've had Defiance videos hit up to 300-500+ views. I've even had a few AC4 videos hit up to 400-500+ views. Now obviously GTA 4 had the least views in the group, so I actually shorten the length of these videos down to around 5-10mins, GTA 5 doesn't perform as well as Defiance too, but due to consistency I leave them around 10-20mins.
So that is something else you heavily need to factor in when deciding on whether variety is right for your or not, does Game A out perform Game B or vice versa? Then work the schedule around that.
But make sure you want to play the game otherwise you'll end up cancelling or getting bored of the series.
What I would recommend is to monitor the views of each game and change the schedule accordingly, no 1 can really help you 100% here because every channels host(s) has a different personality and every game/video performs differently.
I'm planning 3 new series' to start on soon, 2 of which are of the same game 1 from a different 1. Series A & B will take roughly a week to do 2 episodes, series A is a full length series, series B will be the highlights of each episode of A (it's GTA Online), I have confidence the views will be higher on B than A but both series A & B might be higher in views than C, but C might be higher than A & B combined due to C being a less saturated game. If C gets more views or decent views, I will make it a common LP on a daily or every few days basis, if not, I'll play it every now and then and make it a weekly thing and focus more on A & B.
Like a TV network, you need to decide on what's better for the channel or not, but unlike TV networks, we have the luxury of not having to cancel LPs if the views aren't very high, we can just reduce the amount of uploads for that series.
Another thing you also do have to factor in, having too many projects reduces your time for editing, this is why I'm saying if series C doesn't perform as well, I'll concentrate on A & B. Overwhelming yourself can be dangerous for the channel, I've fallen behind on projects because of this. Having 3 games like you're doing is good but the indie previews and overviews will require a significant amount of work, so you might have to drop a game.
Also if you want to try and direct traffic to your channel, you need to try to use Game A to advertise Game B in the outros, like a TV network, you will almost always see an ad during 1 TV show, for another TV show. I've typed too much so I'm gonna stop lol
 
ultimately man do what you enjoy and less what you "should" do if you enjoy it then post it eventually youll have a following
 
AndrewReviewYou said:
In terms of mixing content and trying to get viewers to watch other stuff, there isn't much you can do, the reason being is that like you said, it's like a TV network. People may have their favourite channels on TV but they don't watch all the TV shows on that channel, that would be ridiculous. I'm the same when it comes to YouTube, I rarely watch every series a YouTuber does.
I was doing 4 different series' at somepoint on my channel, each 1 varied in views depending on what viewers wanted, Defiance was my highest viewed series and as of late would average around 20-40 views. These were posted every 3-4 days maybe due to the other series' running on different days. The other vids like AC4, GTA 4 and GTA 5, all average anywhere between 0-5 views. Now part of it is mainly because Defiance isn't a saturated game, but it's not that great of a game to play to begin with, you kind of have to be into the TV show and enjoy simple MMOs to like it, so not that many people play it. Now some videos from the series' may get more views for some odd reason, I've had Defiance videos hit up to 300-500+ views. I've even had a few AC4 videos hit up to 400-500+ views. Now obviously GTA 4 had the least views in the group, so I actually shorten the length of these videos down to around 5-10mins, GTA 5 doesn't perform as well as Defiance too, but due to consistency I leave them around 10-20mins.
So that is something else you heavily need to factor in when deciding on whether variety is right for your or not, does Game A out perform Game B or vice versa? Then work the schedule around that.
But make sure you want to play the game otherwise you'll end up cancelling or getting bored of the series.
What I would recommend is to monitor the views of each game and change the schedule accordingly, no 1 can really help you 100% here because every channels host(s) has a different personality and every game/video performs differently.
I'm planning 3 new series' to start on soon, 2 of which are of the same game 1 from a different 1. Series A & B will take roughly a week to do 2 episodes, series A is a full length series, series B will be the highlights of each episode of A (it's GTA Online), I have confidence the views will be higher on B than A but both series A & B might be higher in views than C, but C might be higher than A & B combined due to C being a less saturated game. If C gets more views or decent views, I will make it a common LP on a daily or every few days basis, if not, I'll play it every now and then and make it a weekly thing and focus more on A & B.
Like a TV network, you need to decide on what's better for the channel or not, but unlike TV networks, we have the luxury of not having to cancel LPs if the views aren't very high, we can just reduce the amount of uploads for that series.
Another thing you also do have to factor in, having too many projects reduces your time for editing, this is why I'm saying if series C doesn't perform as well, I'll concentrate on A & B. Overwhelming yourself can be dangerous for the channel, I've fallen behind on projects because of this. Having 3 games like you're doing is good but the indie previews and overviews will require a significant amount of work, so you might have to drop a game.
Also if you want to try and direct traffic to your channel, you need to try to use Game A to advertise Game B in the outros, like a TV network, you will almost always see an ad during 1 TV show, for another TV show. I've typed too much so I'm gonna stop lol
Click to expand...


Thank you VERY much for some great insight. Thank you all, but this post really did make sense and give me some great detail, I appreciate it. I agree, I don't watch EVERY series, but there are like 10-15 YouTubers I subscribe to that I literally watch EVERY video they put up. I get that I am not the average YouTuber in that sense though and I should do it a bit differently for my own uploads.

The LP videos are not taking much time. I do them all in one shot, not much editing time involved, the whole bit can take maybe an hour at MOST (other than the upload time which I do overnight or while AFK usually) so I don't mind that. I definitely feel I need to start making some gateway or searchable videos though to be discovered. I feel my content is enjoyable, like-able, and will grow over time but to get some more juice going I feel I should be looking at other things as well.

To other replies regarding "do what you want to have fun." let me just say that YT is EXTREMELY fun for me. It's a hobby, but the hobby to me is seeing my channel grow. Hobbies are to be fun, and the fun for me comes from having a community that grows and I can interact with. I don't monetize any of my content and don't plan to for quite awhile. I don't plan on applying to any networks for awhile. I just want to have growth of subscribers who enjoy my content which to me, validates my reason for starting the channel in the first place and validates the meaning of my hobby. It may sound bad to say I'm in it to get a big channel, but honestly its not fun when no one is participating. =P

That being said, I COMPLETELY understand this stuff takes time and I am all for doing it. I want to do it right from the get go though, and will not "cater" to being a small channel. Someone said "they have established subs thats why they can get away with LPs." Well, I don't mind putting some more time into LPs that I enjoy (as I would be gaming regardless, I may as well film it). I'm not going to act like a small channel then change who I am later. I feel like I am a well known YouTuber already and act like it, and I think that shows in my videos. It's confidence. It's cocky. It may work :P

I think what I'll be doing is some searchable content related to gaming that will get people to come to my channel. From there my series will show dedication I believe, I will learn and grow from there :)
 
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