If I could make youtube better I would?

[SomeGuyDude]

The whole "if you don't take is seriously it will never go anywhere" is a load of crap. 99.9% of the big YouTubers are where they are because of the passion they've shown. Not because of taking their channel seriously from the get go.

No offense, but you just pulled that "stat" out of your butt.

EVERY big YouTuber I've ever seen, the ones who rose up? They got there by working their asses off to do so. I've never seen a single giant artist of ANY variety just sort of "meh" their way along because "gee whiz I just like doin' this!" They put their all into it, treated it like something more than a little hobby to putter around with in their off time. They treated it like it was SPECIAL, something WORTH putting their time and blood into. I remember years and years ago seeing JonTron flogging his earliest videos on forums and getting raked across the coals for it, but he kept at it, ALWAYS treating it as something greater, and now he's a 1.6mil sub channel with his own network of channels who does panels at conventions.

You're conflating someone who wants to "make it big doing what they love" with someone who wants to "make money and YouTube seems like the way to do it". These are two WILDLY different things. Matt Damon dropped out of effing HARVARD and moved to California to make it as an actor. Kevin Smith sold his entire comic collection to bankroll Clerks. These people loved what they did so much they risked EVERYTHING to make it. If either of them had the attitude of "eh this is just a fun little hobby! " then neither would have done and made the amazing things they eventually did.

A channel made with an attitude of "eh I just do whatever I feel like" will always be an "eh whatever" channel.

EDIT: To add something, if you don't care about growth, what pressure is there to improve? If someone criticizes you, it doesn't matter. Screw them, you don't care if people watch, you just want to do whatever you want. If you want to grow, succeed, and get beyond simply hobby levels, then you're constantly looking at your videos and saying "what could be fixed, what could be made better, what's not as good as it could be?" When people dislike videos, you want to know WHY, so you can make them BETTER.

No one puts the man-hours into practicing and improving something unless they have aspirations of being great.

 

[Eternal Pig]

No offense, but you just pulled that "stat" out of your butt.

EVERY big YouTuber I've ever seen, the ones who rose up? They got there by working their asses off to do so. I've never seen a single giant artist of ANY variety just sort of "meh" their way along because "gee whiz I just like doin' this!" They put their all into it, treated it like something more than a little hobby to putter around with in their off time. They treated it like it was SPECIAL, something WORTH putting their time and blood into. I remember years and years ago seeing JonTron flogging his earliest videos on forums and getting raked across the coals for it, but he kept at it, ALWAYS treating it as something greater, and now he's a 1.6mil sub channel with his own network of channels who does panels at conventions.

You're conflating someone who wants to "make it big doing what they love" with someone who wants to "make money and YouTube seems like the way to do it". These are two WILDLY different things. Matt Damon dropped out of effing HARVARD and moved to California to make it as an actor. Kevin Smith sold his entire comic collection to bankroll Clerks. These people loved what they did so much they risked EVERYTHING to make it. If either of them had the attitude of "eh this is just a fun little hobby! " then neither would have done and made the amazing things they eventually did.

A channel made with an attitude of "eh I just do whatever I feel like" will always be an "eh whatever" channel.

strong words from a strong man

 

[TheDutchTexan]

No offense, but you just pulled that "stat" out of your butt.

Struck a nerve have I? Good. I guess you can go back and re-read my comment and tell me where I mentioned a big YouTuber does not do any hard work whatsoever. Some people get paid to do their hobby.

You are the typical "yes" man. It's your business. And my hobby. And I will continue to see it as my hobby no matter where it goes. I got a job thank you very much. I don't need another one. Does it mean I don't have passion? Hell no. I slave away creating the best content I can and improve on said content when I can. But I am not expecting the world.

Yes, you won't get anywhere without taking risks. But that doesn't mean you need to be stupid and throw everything at YouTube and expect it to deliver. Passion is nothing without exposure and having the "X" factor. 99.9% of the people going to Hollywood never make it. Matt Damon? The 0.01%. Yes, a stat I pulled out of my butt. But the stat is pretty darn close to the reality. I guess that is a hard thing to swallow. And your caps lock was on for part of your comment. You might want to get that fixed.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Struck a nerve have I? Good. I guess you can go back and re-read my comment and tell me where I mentioned a big YouTuber does not do any hard work whatsoever. Some people get paid to do their hobby.

You are the typical "yes" man. It's your business. And my hobby. And I will continue to see it as my hobby no matter where it goes. I got a job thank you very much. I don't need another one. Does it mean I don't have passion? Hell no. I slave away creating the best content I can and improve on said content when I can. But I am not expecting the world.

Yes, you won't get anywhere without taking risks. But that doesn't mean you need to be stupid and throw everything at YouTube and expect it to deliver. Passion is nothing without exposure and having the "X" factor. 99.9% of the people going to Hollywood never make it. Matt Damon? The 0.01%. Yes, a stat I pulled out of my butt. But the stat is pretty darn close to the reality. I guess that is a hard thing to swallow. And your caps lock was on for part of your comment. You might want to get that fixed.

Hm. Well here you go attacking me personally. The 'yes man'. Of course. Also, once again completely misunderstanding everything said here and making statements that conflate several things.

For one thing, the percentage of people who make it doesn't matter. That's not the point. It's not how many people make it, it's how those who DO make it, make it. 99.9% of those who try will not succeed, but 100% of those who don't try won't make it. Simple as that. Your "stat" is nowhere close to reality. I've been following YouTubers and video makers on the gaming side of things since before YouTube was really a thing. There was not a single one who didn't treat it as more than a hobby. Not one. I'm not suggesting anyone quit their job and devote themselves full time to YouTubing, I was pointing out that the path to success is not traversed with aimless, meandering steps.

From Jon to the AVGN, Ninja Sex Party to Yahtzee Croshaw, The Completionist to Markiplier, you name a YouTuber and you can bet they started growing when they said to themselves "no, I don't want this to be a hobby. I want this to be what I do with my life. I want to MAKE it doing this." You will never find a successful band where the members didn't pour their souls into it. Some got luckier than others, some were smarter than others, but all got there because they weren't content with having a "normal" job.

(side note: are you suggesting I don't also have a job? Do you think I'm stealing the equipment I have?)

Maybe you're failing to understand that the desire to succeed is not the same as making "whatever content is popular", or maybe you just want to go sour grapes and pre-emptively justify failure by saying you never cared about success. Or maybe you have a hard time comprehending that "expecting" and "hoping for" are not, in fact, the same idea. I have no idea. That's all on your end. And if it helps you as well to insult me by calling me a "typical yes man" (which doesn't even mean anything in this context), then hey. I hope you take some solace in that.

 

[Eternal Pig]

Hm. Well here you go attacking me personally. The 'yes man'. Of course. Also, once again completely misunderstanding everything said here and making statements that conflate several things.

For one thing, the percentage of people who make it doesn't matter. That's not the point. It's not how many people make it, it's how those who DO make it, make it. 99.9% of those who try will not succeed, but 100% of those who don't try won't make it. Simple as that. Your "stat" is nowhere close to reality. I've been following YouTubers and video makers on the gaming side of things since before YouTube was really a thing. There was not a single one who didn't treat it as more than a hobby. Not one. I'm not suggesting anyone quit their job and devote themselves full time to YouTubing, I was pointing out that the path to success is not traversed with aimless, meandering steps.

From Jon to the AVGN, Ninja Sex Party to Yahtzee Croshaw, The Completionist to Markiplier, you name a YouTuber and you can bet they started growing when they said to themselves "no, I don't want this to be a hobby. I want this to be what I do with my life. I want to MAKE it doing this." You will never find a successful band where the members didn't pour their souls into it. Some got luckier than others, some were smarter than others, but all got there because they weren't content with having a "normal" job.

(side note: are you suggesting I don't also have a job? Do you think I'm stealing the equipment I have?)

I think the problem here is a misunderstanding lol you both are right but keep going in circles. Dutch is saying that he treats his channel as a hobby and he has 1K. You're saying people that treat this like "meh" won't go anywhere, therefore Dutch probably feels attacked..idk lol brb I need a refill and more popcorn.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I'm not out to attack anyone, honestly I'm not. YouTube is a big wide wonderful thing and there are no "rules" to how to make a channel. Hell that's why it's great. On my personal channel I had 500 subscribers despite the fact that I used it just to host videos so I could share them elsewhere. I had zero interest in a "channel". It was just "that place I stick videos". Somehow, people subbed (largely because of the clips I used for fair use, admittedly).

I just REALLY bristle at this notion that you "should" just view it as a fun little hey no big deal do whatever you feel like. That there's some "purity" in only doing it for yourself. I think that's bogus and you will never find a big channel that got to where they are with that attitude. If you really have no interest in making this more than a hobby, then that's fine. You don't have to.

HOWEVER, where I start to get the ol' feathers ruffled is in the notion that if you DO have that grander aspiration, you're some corporate shill or your videos are soulless, which seems to be what keeps being said here (and elsewhere). There are two attitudes:

• I wanna be famous! What kind of videos should I make? <- WRONG
• I love making ____ videos! How can I get big with them? <- RIGHT

I have a full time job, one that has me traveling from hotel to hotel pretty much constantly. It does afford me the money to buy crap and it has a flexible enough schedule that I can squeeze making videos into it, but I really would like to hit a point where my schedule IS making videos. Not because of the abstract notion of fame or whatever, but because I love doing this to the point that I'd like to have that be what I do. Sure, that's a childish dream, especially when you're not young enough that you need a chaperon to get into a Rated-R movie, but... there it is.

Will I make it? The odds are well, well stacked against me in every possible way. The chance of us all revisiting this post in a year or two and saying "man remember when this guy was just starting out?" is... somewhere in the "statistically insignificant" region. But if I'm gonna burn out and faceplant, I'd rather do it after trying my damnedest to get there, not because I sat back and said I was happy with never making it. Of course I'll be unhappy if this all fizzles out, but I would much rather have THAT unhappiness than the question of what might have been. I'd rather be 50 and talking about the times I tried but never made it than the times I didn't try.

That's just me, though.

 

[TheDutchTexan]

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and admittedly I am one myself. I call it as I see it.
(As a side note: I in no way or form implicated you are a jobless person that steals his stuff from best buy)

But as @Eternal Pig mentioned, we are probably like a battery right now, we both want to be positive, but in the end we will always be negative in each others eyes. And Eternal Pig gets to eat his bacon covered pop-corn.

But then you go ahead and post something that makes sense:

• I wanna be famous! What kind of videos should I make? <- WRONG
• I love making ____ videos! How can I get big with them? <- RIGHT

And that my friends, is in a nutshell what I am all about. Save for the "How can I get big with them", because there is but a fine line between that and the first bullet point you posted. Another thing you posted makes sense too; You don't know unless you put yourself out there. But, all that counts is WHY you are putting yourself out there. For the first bullet point, or the second.

Congratulations, you are now somewhat liked. Achievement unlocked.

 

[Eternal Pig]

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and admittedly I am one myself. I call it as I see it.
(As a side note: I in no way or form implicated you are a jobless person that steals his stuff from best buy)

But as @Eternal Pig mentioned, we are probably like a battery right now, we both want to be positive, but in the end we will always be negative in each others eyes. And Eternal Pig gets to eat his bacon covered pop-corn.

But then you go ahead and post something that makes sense:


And that my friends, is in a nutshell what I am all about. Save for the "How can I get big with them", because there is but a fine line between that and the first bullet point you posted. Another thing you posted makes sense too; You don't know unless you put yourself out there. But, all that counts is WHY you are putting yourself out there. For the first bullet point, or the second.

Congratulations, you are now somewhat liked. Achievement unlocked.

That achievement is worth 100G, congrats bro! Bacon sounds good about now but my pig side will kill me if I'm caught with it.

 

[jackdarke]