@MZ-101
Of course I'll do a follow up and yes, I have watched your latest videos.
I definitely like the new direction for your thumbnails! The 'light beam'/'light leak' effect matches the effect you've got in your channel header and the font/typeface you've used is very similar to your logo. It looks great! One thing I would add is your 'MZ' logo into the opposite corner of your text; if your text is in the upper left corner, put your logo in the bottom right.
The way you start your videos is spot on; quick logo, straight into your content. One thing I would suggest is to either reduce the lens flare effect in the background of your logo sting or make the 'MZ' stand out more. At the moment, the 'MZ' logo blends perfectly with the lens flare so you can't really see it.
Now, let's get to the issue at hand based on your 'I AM QUITTING!?' video. A large portion of the video was talking about the attention rates; that even though you're getting 100-200 views for a 10 minute video, people are only watching about 2-3 minutes, possibly less. The reality of the situation is this - no matter how long or short your video is, you will always, ALWAYS, have low attention rates.
About a decade ago (probably 12-13 years now), I did a web design course and one of the major lessons wasn't about the design aspect at all but rather the psycological mentality of people. Back then the idea was simple - if people couldn't get to what they wanted to see within about 10-20 seconds, you've lost that user completely. With that mindset, one would then design a web site where all links were viewable (the navigation was clear) and the site overall was very pleasant to look at - bright colours, clean and easy to read fonts/typefaces etc.
Since that time, mobile phones became more advanced into what we see now, allowing anyone, anywhere (for the most part) to access the internet and get any piece of information they want right at their fingertips. They no longer needed to sit in front of a computer to Google something, they could do it right from their phone! Despite this advancement in technology the principles of web design were still very much the same, with one small change. Yes, you still make your site pleasant to look at and easy to navigate (which is why most sites nowadays adopt a 'one page' design - where all information is present on a single page). However, instead of giving people the information they want within 10-20 seconds, they now need to be able to get that information INSTANTLY.
Now, think about the rise of social media; sites (and Apps) like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Tinder and yes, even YouTube. What one individual can do now completely outpaces what a person could do 10 years ago. Back then a person would only visit a few pages per day. Nowadays people are multitasking between several different sites at once. The attention spans of the average person are so incredibly small due to the division of their attention that it's impossible to keep them in one place for a long period of time.
Apply this thinking to your channel. If peoples' attention spans are so incredibly small that it's almost impossible to keep them focused on one video, why change yourself, your content and your direction to try and fix an analytic, a statistic, a number that is completely useless? Most of the major channels on YouTube are feeling the exact same effects. If you look at PewDiePie or Markiplier and compare their subscriber count to their view count and you can see a massive divide. Ignoring views/subscriber counts, I can tell you for a fact that my channel is also feeling those effects. I've got content ranging from 20 seconds to 35 minutes and yet every single video, EVERY SINGLE ONE (yes, even the 18-20 second ones) have an attention rate of about 20% or less. Take a step back and think about that - a person nowadays can't even be bothered to watch a video literally 20 seconds long. THAT'S how bad the attention span of people are now.
What you did was fall into a trap that I've been trying to steer people away from here on YTTalk (when required/requested/appropriate) since the beginning. The more you focus on trying to gain subscribers, views, attention rates, or any other kind of analytic, the more you start to lose your own voice, your uniqueness and overall, yourself. At that point you're no longer making videos because you want to; you're making videos to watch an arbitrary number go up.
Like you, I've had many people telling me how I should 'make' or direct others to make content. "The videos are too long, make them shorter!" "Have a catchy title!" "Do what this other channel does!" "The videos aren't long enough, make them longer!" Every single time I've metaphorically given them the stiff middle finger and told them to go **** themselves. What you need to realise is that you don't become successful by making content specifically FOR other people (as strange as that sounds). You make content that YOU want to make and if people can see that passion and enjoy what you've made, they will keep coming back for more.
Want proof of this? Look at James Rolfe, better known as 'The Angry Video Game Nerd.' If you look back at his earlier stuff and heard him talking about how he started, he literally made his show because he thought it would be funny. Not once did he ever expect that his videos would turn into (at the time) a worldwide phenomenon and major franchise. It wasn't until later where it was clear that he was finished with his 'Nerd' persona and wanted to stop but his most rabid fans kept demanding more. At that point you can see his passion dying and was simply going through the motions to get paid. Kind of like how PewDiePie and Markiplier are now.
Right now I can tell you have a lack of passion. You've been making videos for over 3 years and have seen no real gains (although you're doing a hell of a lot better than me in the same time frame). To me, you've focused so hard on raising subscriber counts and views that you've lost sight of why you want to make videos in the first place. Do you want fame? Do you want money? Or do you want to make videos because you desperately want to? That you want to make videos because you can't see yourself doing anything else?
To borrow a quote - if you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you WILL succeed. If this is what you truly want, that you absolutely could not live without, then come hell or high water you will make this work! You're not going to let arbitrary numbers dictate what you can and can't do. You are going to do whatever it is you need to do and you're not going to let anything stop you.
The video is out and you've made up your mind - 201 subs by January 2017 or you're done. I recommend you take an introspective look at yourself and find out what it is you want out of this. Once you've found your desire, regained that passion, reignited that flame, do whatever it is you need to do, hell, make a channel completely new if you have to.
Sorry for the long winded pep-talk. I hope this helps guide you. Sure, it's not technical advice or branding advice but I think it's something everyone needs to read every once in a while. Thanks for the shoutout in your video and I hope that you succeed.
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