Did I reach the organic growth margin!?

[WeiseGamer]

Hey all,

So I was just curious on your guys' thoughts on my subscriber growth. If you have read any of UberDanger's guides, he talks about hitting that medium region of finally getting organic growth without ******* yourself out.

This month, I gained a little over 50 subs (I don't think I'll hit 60 new subs by the 31st) and had some higher views than I've ever had before on videos. Now, I do the typical twitter posts and stuff occasionally, but rarely post on reddit, I never comment on other videos to get people to come to my channel, etc. I kind of feel this may of been 50 people just legitimately wanting to sub to me and finding my stuff.

Have I finally hit organic growth? How can I tell?!

Oh, and to the 4-5 people that seem to like to flame posts like this for "omg youtube is not about money or subs or views, just enjoy it, you will never be big, blah blah blah." Understand this is my hobby, a passion, I enjoy it, and I've said numerous times before that if a hobby can give me any income at all, I think that's awesome. I also want people to enjoy my content, not because I want to be "YouTube famous" but because I would like to share the message I give. Much like someone who enjoys carpentry on the side may sell a custom piece or an artist can sell a painting, I don't think hoping you may earn something for the work you produce is a problem. I don't expect it to replace my full time income.

 

[DutchMash]

Yes, if you are not sharing your videos anywhere and no-one else is. You are growing because youtube recommends your video to a possible audience that might like it. Referred to as organic growth.
However, it doesn't mean you hit your cap of organic growth.

 

[StacyPancakes]

I would think so! I think if you're gaining subscribers and pulling in more views than normal just my posting the videos then I think it's definitely organic. Plus now that you keep gaining subscribers they might start coming in faster. Good luck on future growth!

 

[WeiseGamer]

Yes, if you are not sharing your videos anywhere and no-one else is. You are growing because youtube recommends your video to a possible audience that might like it. Referred to as organic growth.
However, it doesn't mean you hit your cap of organic growth.

That's awesome. I've noticed some of my recent videos (the ones with way more views) are ones that are being found in searches.

Slim Rancher for example, a review I did, is #1 on YouTube Search for "Slime Rancher Review" and #4 or #5 (depends on the day it seems) on Google Search for the same term.

I didn't think I hit my CAP so to speak, but I did wonder if this is considered organic. I hope it just does that exponential growth thing from here. I'm hoping for 1k by the 2 year anniversary of March 3rd (or 4th), which is something that to me just means I'm doing a hobby I enjoy, and people enjoy it too!

If I didn't take basically a year off (well 5 months then 4 months in different intervals) I think I would've done this sooner, haha.[DOUBLEPOST=1453999611,1453999571][/DOUBLEPOST]

I would think so! I think if you're gaining subscribers and pulling in more views than normal just my posting the videos then I think it's definitely organic. Plus now that you keep gaining subscribers they might start coming in faster. Good luck on future growth!

Yeah that's definitely my hope! I know people always say that you get that organic exponential growth and I think I may finally be seeing it!

 

[RichGuitarGamer]

Funnily you mentioned this as I have recently stopped promoting my channel and channel is still growing I think when you reach a certain point is channel size you have to stop promoting and focus on letting your baby grow

 

[WeiseGamer]

Funnily you mentioned this as I have recently stopped promoting my channel and channel is still growing I think when you reach a certain point is channel size you have to stop promoting and focus on letting your baby grow

Yeah I mean, I would tweet out video links all week before. Now I usually do the automated one when it posts, and will sometimes tweet some extra stuff but not much else.

I occasionally post on reddit, but I've had terrible luck so I stay away.

I did try Google + a little, didn't see much, stopped.

My twitter is at 810 followers now and my channel is at 882 or something like that, it's crazy!

 

[Crown]

The best indicator is in your traffic sources in analytics. The biggest traffic source for a channel with organic growth will be "suggested videos" (at at least 45%)

 

[WeiseGamer]

The best indicator is in your traffic sources in analytics. The biggest traffic scource for a channel with organic growth will be "suggested videos" (at at least 45%)

Ah okay, so if most of my stuff is still from search terms, it may be getting close but probably not there yet?

I'll have to take a sample after another month or so to get a good basis, see if things even out then on the suggested video as I don't believe it's that high yet.

 

[Crown]

Ah okay, so if most of my stuff is still from search terms, it may be getting close but probably not there yet?

Sounds like you're on the right path, yes, but not quite there yet.

SEO traffic is good because it's automated (ie organic) and it brings in "uniques" ie new people into your channel. It creates gateways into your channel which is good but it's not where the real action is.

The real cream is in the suggested videos traffic source. Think about user behaviour during a typical YT session. Typically a session starts with a search right? Example " Game title review", Then think about what happens if that video isn't really what they're looking for. The user doesn't click "back" to return to the search results. No they get sucked into the "suggested videos" list and click there. They then watch another video and click on yet another video in the "suggested videos" list. That's how people go on YT binges and end up going off on lots of little tangents to finally end up watching videos about a totally different topic. Each of those views is a "suggested video" view. So for every view from search, there'll be an average of 2-3 views from "suggested videos" - This figure fits in with what most big channels have for their traffic sources. (over 45% suggested vids, and approx 20% for search)

Typically a small channel's top traffic sources will be stuff like "external" because they're promoting like crazy on reddit, but not getting much else. But a bigger channel's main sources will be "suggested", then "search" and the external traffic becomes insignificant

 

[WeiseGamer]

Sounds like you're on the right path, yes, but not quite there yet.

SEO traffic is good because it's automated (ie organic) and it brings in "uniques" ie new people into your channel. It creates gateways into your channel which is good but it's not where the real action is.

The real cream is in the suggested videos traffic source. Think about user behaviour during a typical YT session. Typically a session starts with a search right? Example " Game title review", Then think about what happens if that video isn't really what they're looking for. The user doesn't click "back" to return to the search results. No they get sucked into the "suggested videos" list and click there. They then watch another video and click on yet another video in the "suggested videos" list. That's how people go on YT binges and end up going off on lots of little tangents to finally end up watching videos about a totally different topic. Each of those views is a "suggested video" view. So for every view from search, there'll be an average of 2-3 views from "suggested videos" - This figure fits in with what most big channels have for their traffic sources. (over 45% suggested vids, and approx 20% for search)

Typically a small channel's top traffic sources will be stuff like "external" because they're promoting like crazy on reddit, but not getting much else. But a bigger channel's main sources will be "suggested", then "search" and the external traffic becomes insignificant

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it. First because you bring me down to earth a little about getting hyped, haha, and second because you didn't do it in an a-hole way =P

My suggested videos are around 10% I believe, YouTube search around 20%, and External is a large part still but that may balance out as time goes on. I know in External, my main portion is actually Google search (around like 45% or something) so that's nice to know.

Well, I'm close! Or going in the right direction at least, haha