How is this possible for such a terrible channel??

[TYTD]

Just to chime in with what the others have said here, the most important thing to bear in mind as a content creator on youtube is that you should only really focus on competition within your topic/niche area. I know hundreds, if not thousands of "Bad" channels that are doing significantly better than me. why? because they're working in fields that are much more popular than the stuff I do and theres literally NOTHING I could ever do in my field to change that.

I run a movie review channel, it would be pretty silly of me to try and compare my stats to say; a sports channel or a vlogger because they're completely different kinds of content, produced differently, targeted at different audiences with different levels of appeal.

So instead; I focus on mainly having fun and setting small goals/challenges against other youtubers in my niche and around my levels. I'll set myself the challenge of reaching a sub milestone before another user who's vaguely in my area. or hitting a certain number of views before another user in my niche. theres no wallowing if I dont hit it because it's just a bit of fun, but it puts a bit more of a competative/motivational push in it for me to try and work on my marketing and contnet.

the specific field I work in within my niche generally peak at around 5-10k subs with the really popular channels sitting between 15k and 50k. it's a super small slice of the pie in terms of the WHOLE of youtube...but that seems like a reasonable goal to work towards in my mind...like; I could see myself hitting 5-10k subs at some point if I keep doing what I do now...if I sat here and thought about only really "Making it" if I had Redlettermedia or Channel Awesome level of subs/views (1m+ subs) id have quit years ago.

Dont worry about other channels. worry about your own channel, where it sits in the youtube ecosystem and what your competition is doing.

 

[Vedstedsen]

Good SEO and following experts advice will never have the same value as supply and demand.
Low quality channels and videos in a niche with low supple and high demand will likely outperform high quality channels and videos in a very saturated niche.

Even though there is a very high amount of children focused channels, the market is not saturated yet.

 

[JayZippo]

So instead; I focus on mainly having fun and setting small goals/challenges against other youtubers in my niche and around my levels. I'll set myself the challenge of reaching a sub milestone before another user who's vaguely in my area. or hitting a certain number of views before another user in my niche. theres no wallowing if I dont hit it because it's just a bit of fun, but it puts a bit more of a competative/motivational push in it for me to try and work on my marketing and contnet.

This. 1000%.

 

[LandyVlad]

My philosophy

1. There's no accounting for people's tastes.

2. If you are involved in youtube with an expectation of getting rich or at least making a good living from it... don;'t hold your breath and definitely don;t give up your day job .

3. if you are doing it and it's not fun, stop doing it.

4. People are stupid, generally speaking.

 

[Tito Tims Videos]

There is no accounting for tastes... people like some horrid stuff. Look at TV - The Bachelor, Housewives of every frreaking city... that is thought to be entertainment? Those trash shows make a lot of money for a lot of people.

Same thing holds true on YT. There are some very good channels, and some very bad channels. It has no bearing on if it is popular or not.

 

[Nicekid76]

2. If you are involved in youtube with an expectation of getting rich or at least making a good living from it... don;'t hold your breath and definitely don;t give up your day job .

but like.... lots of people have done it. Just in 2020 over 6,500 channels hit 1 million and in total 230,000 channels have over 100k subscribers. I realize subscriber count doesn't equal rich or good living, but at the same time Tim Schmoyer was making a full time living for him and his wife with under 10k subs and Linus Sebastian quit his job / got fired right before building what is one of the biggest tech channels on youtube now. Everyone has a different drive. I'm not going to change your mind, but personally I don't like telling people to change their goal. It might be unlikely but they might be the type of person who has what it's takes to do it. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

[BuildALot Acres]

I would stay positive and focus on putting out quality content. Over time you will get more views and subs. Don't dwell on other channels doing better than yours. Most YouTube viewers want to be informed or entertained. Sometimes both. Stick true to what you want to put out there, have fun and do the best you can and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[LandyVlad]

but like.... lots of people have done it. Just in 2020 over 6,500 channels hit 1 million and in total 230,000 channels have over 100k subscriber

Everyone has a different drive. I'm not going to change your mind, but personally I don't like telling people to change their goal.

I'm not telling anyone to change their goal, but a realistic appreciation of the situation is required as a foundation for decision-making.
Remember you only hear about the successes which are only a VERY small number of total channels, even of total active channels.

Stats like:

There are 720,000 Hours of Video Uploaded to YouTube EVERY DAY, that is a lot of potential competition.
​

70% of watch time is from YT recommendation algorithm.​

20% of users will leave a video if it hasn’t hooked them in the first 10 seconds.​

There are more than 31 million YouTube channels.​

average YouTube daily usage length at 15 minutes 11 seconds,​

more stats than you can poke a stick at: YouTube Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020) - Business of Apps

 

[RidingWithStymie]

I have several thoughts on this:

1. If a couple months go by and the subscriber count hasn't continued to grow, then that really looks suspicious.

2. The videos on that channel aren't terrible. They are just goofy home videos of mediocre quality. And keep in mind that depending on the content of a channel, not all channels need attractive thumbnails.

3. Some people will click on ANY video with a toddler or cat in the thumbnail image.

3. There are some demographics of people who will sit for hours and watch mindless, stupid videos.

4. In all probability, there are some people who will subscribe to every channel that has a video they watch and like. Some people probably end up subscribed to hundreds (or thousands?) of channels. These might be the same people mentioned above.

Just my 2 cents,

Stymie

 

[Mikegbeatztv]

Youtube is geared towards three things when it comes to up and coming channels, IMO.

- Kids. Unboxing is huge, reaction videos as well.
- Boobs, click bait, douche-toobers. Speaks for themselves
- Money. Channels that have backing, spending money on advertising, SEO, etc.

A small note on SEO. My channel is losing more subs than gaining over the last year or so, and I have done way too much research on how to get it to stop, turn it around, get new views, etc.

As much as good SEO is important, it is actually a bunch of crap. The company I work for has a R&D department and we are a large online Media and Marketing company. As of now, there is no discernible difference between a video that has a paragraph of information and a tag or two, and one that is professionally SEO and written. The difference, from I was told, is a little over 3% increase in exposure and even less with click throughs. Unless you have something so unique, and it is something new and exciting that people are searching for, SEO is never going to get you very far, on it's own, on Youtube.

Also talking to some people, one of them told me they never click on a video that has a professional looking thumbnail. After hearing that I found that, it is true to more people than I realize. Some people like the raw, amateur looking stuff.

I have been saying this for some time, and I apologize for the dead horse being beaten, but unless you fit into a niche (which I think the channel in question does) or the above three categories, your channel is not going to grow very well.

Bottomline, you have to be doing this for YOU. It's like clock watching at work. It is slow and painful and discouraging. If you are producing things you are proud to publish, you are enjoying the process, and keeps you out of trouble (that would be me, lol) then stop looking around you, and look inside, find new ways to challenge yourself, cool new things you can do, and just have fun. If your channel ever takes off, people will look back and see you were putting a ton of effort in, you are having fun and they would be more likely to watch those videos then.

Sorry babbled a little here...

This has to be the most honest I’ve heard anyone be about this .