I'd like to offer thoughtful reviews of your channels

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KING-SwayD said:
Could you please review my channel? Thanks :)
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Hey King-SwayD,

I watched. I have some thoughts. Let's get right to it.

There are a couple of big things I observed about your channel right off the bat that are turnoffs for me. First it’s a gaming channel, and I have virtually no use for any gaming channel I’ve ever seen. It’s so rare that anyone does anything inventive or useful, and usually they just come off like lazy border-line plagiarism to me. Second, you don’t talk. YouTube channels that don’t have a star usually struggle, and if you aren’t on camera and you aren’t talking it means that the star of your channel is a video game that someone else did all the work to design. It’s just not inspiring.

But after looking through your stuff, I started to reconsider those criticisms in your case, because I do think there’s one thing you’re doing well: You offer some value to your viewers. I can see a reason that someone would watch and/or subscribe. If someone wanted to see a playthrough of a very specific part of a very specific game, you are offering that. That’s useful. If someone’s looking for that, they don’t want any “Hey YooToberz Wuz up?! Itz so and so,” they just want you to get to the point and show them how to get past the part of the game they’re stuck on so they can get back to actually playing a game themselves. You offer this, people will be looking for it, and they’ll be appreciative that you gave it to them without any hassles.

VALUE! I can’t stress it enough! I see so many channels that beg the question: Why would any sane person ever watch any of this? Successful YouTubers clearly always consider what their videos give to their viewers. Awful YouTubers clearly don’t ask that question at all, and instead just sling whatever comes to mind up on the Internet which comes off as vain and insulting. It doesn’t matter what the format is. It doesn’t matter how great the production value is. It doesn’t matter what the subject matter is. It doesn’t matter how long the videos are. If the video provides obvious value to viewers, it’s a good YouTube video. If it doesn’t, it almost surely sucks.*

If you want to succeed at YouTube, offer value.

And you do. To be clear, you don’t offer value to me. None. Literally none. But who cares? I’m not who you’re trying to connect with, and the world is a big and diverse place full of people with an endless variety of interests. My opinions and tastes are irrelevant. You don’t need to offer value to everyone on Earth, just your target audience, and, again your format can deliver on that.

Honestly, I think you could run with exactly what you’re doing right now and just increase the amount of stuff you’re posting and people would follow your channel. If you became a channel that did nothing but find commonly frustrating parts of games and then show people how to get through them, you could get a great following without ever saying a word and without ever showing your face. Obviously you’d need to post a ton more stuff in order to cast a wide enough net to get people to your channel, and an even wider net in order to become thought of as a resource. But that’s something you could put a bunch of work into and achieve with your current format.

If that’s something you want to achieve, you’ll need to do a great job with your tags/titles/search terms so that people can find your stuff easily. It also wouldn’t hurt to describe in writing what you’re accomplishing at the outset of each walkthrough video. It might be worth your while to target what looks to be a big upcoming release, set aside some time, and get a bunch of walkthrough videos out there very quickly with that game. Then you could draw attention to your channel by beating your competitors to the punch.

Weirdly, I kind of like what you’re doing even though you haven’t really done much yet. I like the tack you’re taking, and I’d be very curious to see what you could do with it on a larger scale.

I wish you well,

Matt



*With the exception of videos that are brilliant art that people like me are too dumb to appreciate or properly value.
 
LostTrigger said:
yep im still around if you still have the time ?
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Hi Lost Trigger,

I feel like we’ve played the forum equivalent of phone tag, and I’m glad we finally got on the same page. Here’s a review of your channel.

- I like your channel art and your persistence. You’ve been at it for a long time and you’ve made an effort to make your banner and thumbs look interesting. This tells me that you care and makes me think it might be worth clicking on a video.

- I like the Ten Minutes of Fame idea. It would be much stronger if you made a very snappy intro in the 15 second range that explained crisply exactly what the segment is about. In its current state, it drags and feels a little meandering. You could strengthen it greatly if you went back and recorded very intentional commentary over the top of it. I like the concept, and I hope you develop into a crisp segment.

- I like your how-to video on the headset issue. I notice you’ve only got 3 views, which makes me think your tags aren’t doing what they should. The video was clear and effective, and I’d recommend doing this every time you troubleshoot and issue.

- In general your product reviews are the most viewed element of your channel. I’m not surprised by this for two reasons.

o It provides genuine value to viewers. People watch things that give them something, and your reviews and comments on products are useful.

o Because your gaming videos aren’t that interesting.

- And that previous point is my big concern with your channel. The gaming commentary lacks energy and interest. It doesn’t usually sound like you’re having much fun and the delivery is pretty flat. Honestly it comes off like you’re holding back like the guy who is afraid to cut loose in warmups before a pickup game because he’s sizing up everyone on the court and doesn’t want to be embarrassed if his game doesn’t match up. I know you’ve got a lot more personality and energy, and I think you’re going to have to figure out how to channel that into your videos in order to connect with viewers.

- The games you play are fine. You have some variety and the footage is no more or less interesting than any other gaming channel.

- But again, remember people aren’t usually tuning in to see game footage, they’re tuning in to see your take on the footage. The value is in your personality and in what you can teach/explain/show to your audience. If you don’t offer value you won’t have subscribers.

It’s a bad sign that you’re over a year in and you only have seven videos with over one hundred views. I think the reason your potential audience is tuning you out goes back to the two things I mentioned above: Low energy, and only occasional value. If you up both of those things, viewers will stick around. Right now the channel is hard to watch for those reasons. But, don’t be discouraged, because both of those things are very addressable especially because you’re obviously smart. You understand what you’re talking about and you have good ideas for videos. You’re inventive and persistent too. I think if you can find a way to engage your audience quickly at the beginning of videos with a well-crafted script it will help a ton. You’re still early in your development as someone who records voice over and you need practice. The best way to do this is to write out what you want to say (I know this means more work and less videos, but it’s worth it) and then do it again and again until it sounds right. Experiment with different mic positions and different postures; even mess around with slightly different iterations of your speaking voice. You can even run it by some smart people who you trust. If you do this, you’ll improve quickly, your videos will be more interesting, and your channel will grow.

I think you’re off to a good start, and you can really get your channel moving in the right direction with a few simple changes.

Best of luck,

Matt
 
If you're still doing these, could I possible ask for a review? Only issue is I'm not sure if I should just ask for a review considering the last three weeks - as I've only come back since then after a two year hiatus from my original start date and the quality/lack there-of of the any videos before that is lacking and quite different.
 
BijutsuYoukai said:
If you're still doing these, could I possible ask for a review? Only issue is I'm not sure if I should just ask for a review considering the last three weeks - as I've only come back since then after a two year hiatus from my original start date and the quality/lack there-of of the any videos before that is lacking and quite different.
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I don't want to scare people off who are looking for reviews, but because of the time I put into these coupled with a recent uptick in my channel's traffic level, it will probably be a few weeks before I get caught up to where you're at. Maybe by then you'll have some more new stuff up for me to take a look at. I do work on this every day, but sometimes I get more accomplished more quickly than other times.
I look forward to seeing what you're working on.
 
TMBH said:
I don't want to scare people off who are looking for reviews, but because of the time I put into these coupled with a recent uptick in my channel's traffic level, it will probably be a few weeks before I get caught up to where you're at. Maybe by then you'll have some more new stuff up for me to take a look at. I do work on this every day, but sometimes I get more accomplished more quickly than other times.
I look forward to seeing what you're working on.
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I am more than willing to wait in line as this whole thing is a grand favor you're doing for everyone. You are correct that I'll have more stuff in a couple weeks, so long as I keep myself to my current schedule. Thank you in advance and please do not feel rushed in any sense.
 
TMBH said:
Hi Lost Trigger,

I feel like we’ve played the forum equivalent of phone tag, and I’m glad we finally got on the same page. Here’s a review of your channel.

- I like your channel art and your persistence. You’ve been at it for a long time and you’ve made an effort to make your banner and thumbs look interesting. This tells me that you care and makes me think it might be worth clicking on a video.

- I like the Ten Minutes of Fame idea. It would be much stronger if you made a very snappy intro in the 15 second range that explained crisply exactly what the segment is about. In its current state, it drags and feels a little meandering. You could strengthen it greatly if you went back and recorded very intentional commentary over the top of it. I like the concept, and I hope you develop into a crisp segment.

- I like your how-to video on the headset issue. I notice you’ve only got 3 views, which makes me think your tags aren’t doing what they should. The video was clear and effective, and I’d recommend doing this every time you troubleshoot and issue.

- In general your product reviews are the most viewed element of your channel. I’m not surprised by this for two reasons.

o It provides genuine value to viewers. People watch things that give them something, and your reviews and comments on products are useful.

o Because your gaming videos aren’t that interesting.

- And that previous point is my big concern with your channel. The gaming commentary lacks energy and interest. It doesn’t usually sound like you’re having much fun and the delivery is pretty flat. Honestly it comes off like you’re holding back like the guy who is afraid to cut loose in warmups before a pickup game because he’s sizing up everyone on the court and doesn’t want to be embarrassed if his game doesn’t match up. I know you’ve got a lot more personality and energy, and I think you’re going to have to figure out how to channel that into your videos in order to connect with viewers.

- The games you play are fine. You have some variety and the footage is no more or less interesting than any other gaming channel.

- But again, remember people aren’t usually tuning in to see game footage, they’re tuning in to see your take on the footage. The value is in your personality and in what you can teach/explain/show to your audience. If you don’t offer value you won’t have subscribers.

It’s a bad sign that you’re over a year in and you only have seven videos with over one hundred views. I think the reason your potential audience is tuning you out goes back to the two things I mentioned above: Low energy, and only occasional value. If you up both of those things, viewers will stick around. Right now the channel is hard to watch for those reasons. But, don’t be discouraged, because both of those things are very addressable especially because you’re obviously smart. You understand what you’re talking about and you have good ideas for videos. You’re inventive and persistent too. I think if you can find a way to engage your audience quickly at the beginning of videos with a well-crafted script it will help a ton. You’re still early in your development as someone who records voice over and you need practice. The best way to do this is to write out what you want to say (I know this means more work and less videos, but it’s worth it) and then do it again and again until it sounds right. Experiment with different mic positions and different postures; even mess around with slightly different iterations of your speaking voice. You can even run it by some smart people who you trust. If you do this, you’ll improve quickly, your videos will be more interesting, and your channel will grow.

I think you’re off to a good start, and you can really get your channel moving in the right direction with a few simple changes.

Best of luck,

Matt
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wow i agree with everything you typed, and yea its hard letting loose when im trying to record lol im trying to work on it.

but thank you for taking the time to do this :)

have you watched my left 4 dead 2 videos? im more open in those videos and i wanted to know what you thought of those?
 
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Hey if you are still doing reviews give me channel a look (ignore the craigslist as those were my first and will have a fresh outlook on the next video). The deals of the week/newscast preferably
 
Dear everyone waiting for a review,
I'm vacationing with my family for another week, but after that I'll power through a bunch of requests and get caught up. Thanks for your patience with me!
Gracias,
Matt
 
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