Have had this channel for over 2 years now. Losing the motivation

S.A.D

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Right, so the title says it all. but allow me to explain. I, with two other fellas run a gaming and movie review channel. Here we mainly do reviews for movies and video games and even do discussion vids. now we have been at this channel for over 2 years now and we have not even cracked the 400 milestone.
I have reserched on youtube and across google for way to improve, but, while it seems I am doing what they are saying. good audio, thumnail, tags etc pretty much nothing happens, if anything we are losing subscribers, assumng they are even active in the first place.
our views are extermly low and even if we get a high amount of views no body leaves any feedback, so we cant improve. so here is me asking you guys, what am i doing wrong and how can we improve
 

Austerpower

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Maybe you should consider posting on a subreddit dedicated to movie reviews. If you put an enticing title and in a small enough subreddit it should gain traction. I'd say find reddits with less than 50 online users at once.
 
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theResidentPsychopath

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I just subbed. Looks like quality work to me. I am more of a casual gamer, and I use in-game screenshots rather than custom thumbnails. I never saw the appeal in that whole thing and I think it is hype.
 

Jake Bee

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I have a few suggestions that may help. Take them with a grain of salt :)

This review was made from watching your Red Sparrow review.

1. Your talking head portion could use some lighting adjustments. It looks like you have a single light which casts shadows, distracting a bit from the content. You would benefit from a second light to disperse the shadows and light more evenly. Also pull away from the backdrop a bit to give a sense of space, if possible.
2. On that note, the cut from movie scene to you talking is a bit jarring. Have you tried doing screen in screen so you're in a small box on the bottom right? That way the viewer can see you talking but also watch the movie clips. Ultimate solution would be to get a green screen and have it where you're basically superimposed on top of the movie clip in the corner.
3. Your titles aren't enticing. Instead of 'Red Sparrow - Movie Review' why not 'This plot hole ruined Red Sparrow', or something like that. Give people a reason to wonder what you might say. If someone loved it, they'll watch out of a defensive nature. If they hated it, they'll watch your video for reinforcement. It pulls people in to have an emotion attached to your title.
4. Related to three, your opening script should tell people what they are going to hear from you other than an overview of the movie. Let them know that you're going to tell them something unique. Think: Film Theory. He gives you a perspective you never would have thought of when going over a movie, and that's what pulls people in.

One thing to consider - earning subscribers for a review channel will be harder than others in general. The reason is that reviews are looked for under specific circumstances. Most of your views are from a person that wants to know about a specific movie they are considering or one they had strong feelings about. Not many people are watching movie reviews because they inherently enjoy movie reviews. Does that make sense? This is why you need to target adding some sort of value or entertainment factor on top of just going over the plot.

Just my two cents. I hope it helps.

Jake Bee
 

S.A.D

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I have a few suggestions that may help. Take them with a grain of salt :)

This review was made from watching your Red Sparrow review.

1. Your talking head portion could use some lighting adjustments. It looks like you have a single light which casts shadows, distracting a bit from the content. You would benefit from a second light to disperse the shadows and light more evenly. Also pull away from the backdrop a bit to give a sense of space, if possible.
2. On that note, the cut from movie scene to you talking is a bit jarring. Have you tried doing screen in screen so you're in a small box on the bottom right? That way the viewer can see you talking but also watch the movie clips. Ultimate solution would be to get a green screen and have it where you're basically superimposed on top of the movie clip in the corner.
3. Your titles aren't enticing. Instead of 'Red Sparrow - Movie Review' why not 'This plot hole ruined Red Sparrow', or something like that. Give people a reason to wonder what you might say. If someone loved it, they'll watch out of a defensive nature. If they hated it, they'll watch your video for reinforcement. It pulls people in to have an emotion attached to your title.
4. Related to three, your opening script should tell people what they are going to hear from you other than an overview of the movie. Let them know that you're going to tell them something unique. Think: Film Theory. He gives you a perspective you never would have thought of when going over a movie, and that's what pulls people in.

One thing to consider - earning subscribers for a review channel will be harder than others in general. The reason is that reviews are looked for under specific circumstances. Most of your views are from a person that wants to know about a specific movie they are considering or one they had strong feelings about. Not many people are watching movie reviews because they inherently enjoy movie reviews. Does that make sense? This is why you need to target adding some sort of value or entertainment factor on top of just going over the plot.

Just my two cents. I hope it helps.

Jake Bee
thanks for the imput. i might try and implement something like this.
 

buzzcuts

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I have reserched on youtube and across google for way to improve, but, while it seems I am doing what they are saying. good audio, thumnail, tags etc pretty much nothing happens
I think your actual content is better than a lot of much more successful movie/ent channels...so that's the good news. (Not to say you can't improve the format/content, but I don't think that's what's holding you back, TBH).

The bad news is, I think it points back to everything you've already identified; titles, thumbnails, tags, etc.

Not only does having generic titles (ex., '___ Movie Review') make the videos less enticing, it also makes it harder to compete on relevent tags. You won't rank for any of the tags as long as they're the exact same things that bigger channels with comparable content are also using (again, ex. '____ Movie Review'). But if you have something else searched for (maybe something as simple as 'Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow' or 'Jennifer Lawrence's Performance in Red Sparrow') in your title, description and tags, it could cut through the competition. Yes, it's a less-searched phrase, but at least it might be yours for the taking.

For your thumbnails, they're well branded but I think they could also be much more clean and appealing, and they may almost be TOO similar as it stands. Also, I'm not sure there's much value in putting the exact same text in the title and thumbnail. I see the title as being the practical/search-friendly text, and the thumbnail being the intriguing call-out/clickbait.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. Keep in mind my channel is even smaller/less successful and I'm trying to establish myself in almost the same category without any breakout success yet, so take it with a shake of salt.

Good luck!
 

S.A.D

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I think your actual content is better than a lot of much more successful movie/ent channels...so that's the good news. (Not to say you can't improve the format/content, but I don't think that's what's holding you back, TBH).

The bad news is, I think it points back to everything you've already identified; titles, thumbnails, tags, etc.

Not only does having generic titles (ex., '___ Movie Review') make the videos less enticing, it also makes it harder to compete on relevent tags. You won't rank for any of the tags as long as they're the exact same things that bigger channels with comparable content are also using (again, ex. '____ Movie Review'). But if you have something else searched for (maybe something as simple as 'Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow' or 'Jennifer Lawrence's Performance in Red Sparrow') in your title, description and tags, it could cut through the competition. Yes, it's a less-searched phrase, but at least it might be yours for the taking.

For your thumbnails, they're well branded but I think they could also be much more clean and appealing, and they may almost be TOO similar as it stands. Also, I'm not sure there's much value in putting the exact same text in the title and thumbnail. I see the title as being the practical/search-friendly text, and the thumbnail being the intriguing call-out/clickbait.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. Keep in mind my channel is even smaller/less successful and I'm trying to establish myself in almost the same category without any breakout success yet, so take it with a shake of salt.

Good luck!
thanks for the imput. i was thinking about putting different phrases in the thumnail.