Out of interest, what do you think networks could do better that they are not already doing?
Most important thing would be to help YouTubers with channel optimization. Since it's very difficult for bigger networks or networks that are growing rapidly to communicate with all partners, having some sort of "Channel optimization guide" would come in very handy. For example, such guide should have a checklist of stuff one is expected to do on the channel:
- Do you have thumbnails? Yes/No; if the answer is "No", explain why thumbnails should be done and include some examples from other channels so partner gets an idea what he should do
- Is your title descriptive, but not too long? Yes/No; if "No", give partner a good understanding how important title is and what the optimal (or rather maximum) length would be
... and so on - stuff like this could be shared with partners via email once they join the network and allow them to follow up on it with an employee/contractor/volunteer who would be able to spend 10 minutes on the channel and possibly go more in depth, but this is not even required as it might be too much work if network is big
Another useful thing would be FAQ, people need to understand that turning on long non-skippable ads for their 30 subscribers and 50 views is not going to make them rich and is probably going to turn potential viewers/subscribers down. Help them finding social medias to advertise on - not even finding exact place where they can post their videos, but just giving them some directions, such as Facebook Groups or reddit (and share a link with them to redditmetrics or similar website where they could sort subreddits by size and find smaller/mid-sized ones perfect for their content).
On top of that, community forums: they need to be maintained and properly moderated with clear set of rules, they can't turn into spam fest for selected few who only visit to post their videos there and never contribute in any other way, have a set limit of videos they can advertise each week or month or something similar in place.
All middle-sized and bigger channels need a dedicated partner manager who is not going to neglect channels he's supervising, but actually be invested in channel optimization and content they produce, give them tips and advices and more importantly, teach them to think for themselves so his assistance is not needed as frequently - I'm aware this is usually not doable for all networks due to their size, but if they're already huge, they should have the money to hire additional help, even if it's just part-time contractors or other people from network who would like to help.
Have a good communication with partners, explain to them what's going on behind the scenes, have a roadmap of what's to come for each year with a fat big disclaimer that things may get delayed, but at least give them an idea what's being worked on and if deadline is not set, apologize for delay and have a giveaway instead, keep them occupied with good thoughts and other stuff network has to offer! Give them bonus % of revenue for contributing to networks success, either by recruiting, being active on forums or social media etc, make sure they feel welcome and appreciated, not only they'll keep coming back, but good word will spread quickly!
There are more things I wanted to do in my own network which sadly isn't going to happen by the looks of it, and although only network owners know how much work all that is, everything can be done with proper time management and enough help from other employees / more active community members. It sucks, I had a great network structure all worked out that would be efficient, but apparently it's not as easy to start one as I thought it is, haha. I have experience running multiple teams with 10+ members, so I kind of know well how to assign tasks and stuff, not to mention I used to be active in gaming community and leading clans with 700+ members all alone was never easy, but not losing a single member over the year meant I did a good job communicating with everyone (100-200 private messages a day? Not a problem if you have a system and time for it!).
Most networks nowadays link you to their dashboard, thank you for joining, wish you best of luck and invite you to reach out to them through support, but a lot more could be done with a few useful documents and proper pointers and communication. Series of videos where network features their successful channels, channels that show a lot of potential and newcomers would be great, even if it's just a simple 5-minute review of 10 channels, it'd mean a lot. I know how much it meant to us to be featured in one of the videos, even though it didn't have big viewership. At the end of the day, having done all that and making sure people understand they need to grow their own channels and not expect network to bring in hundreds of thousands of views and you're making sure nobody leaves the network unhappy or writes negative reviews.