Kinda lost at the moment...

[Mogawty]

This is my first post here on YTTalk, I'm mostly a reader/lurker, but I wanted to get some thoughts out and see if anyone has some advice for me.

I've been doing YouTube seriously for almost a year now (in the gaming "niche" surprise). I think I've done okay for myself, but at the moment I'm kinda lost.

I don't know where I want to take my channel.

I gained most of my subscribers from a single game I WAS playing, so naturally when I stopped playing that (I lost interest) there was a lot of backlash, and even today, months after I quit, I'm still getting asked "why did you stop? when are you going to play xx again," etc... My subscriber growth slowed, my daily view count dropped, etc...

This makes me fear dedicating myself to one game ever again. But at the same time, doing a bunch of random games will yield very slow growth I believe, since when someone sees your channel and content is just "random" in a sense, who will want to subscribe? I've tried lots of different things in the past, but they all tend to end up more or less the same.

I have subscribers who will watch anything and everything I put out, since I guess they like me more than what I'm playing, and that's a really nice feeling, but they are few.

Then sometimes I think to stray away from gaming altogether to do a "commentary" sort of channel on trending topics, since I think that could be a lot of fun too, but then I'd basically be throwing away everything I've done here.

I have a lot of ambition and hope, even though it probably doesn't sound like it, but sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time. Like most people doing YouTube seriously, I believe the end goal is to be able to do it as a job rather than a hobby, and earn a living off of it (not many say it though).

I do LOVE what I'm doing, but most of my enjoyment comes from watching the growth of the channel (thinking of a topic, editing, and promotion can be tedious at times).

I might be overthinking things, but it feels like there are so many angles you have to cover before deciding to make something. Is it something you will enjoy? Does it have potential to reach a decently sized audience, while not being too saturated? How should the thumbnail and title be, so people want to click on it?

I think my weakest point is collaborations. I've done exactly 1 collab before with a similar in size channel, but it didn't help much since it was on the game that we were already pretty much owning on YouTube (99% of both our audiences already knew about us both). I'm pretty shy when it comes to talking directly to another person (skype calls) and it can be awkward, so I don't really pursue collabs, even though I think it could really help.

TL;DR: I have no focus. And this rant was way longer than I planned.

 

[xiplays]

The way I see it, unless your subscribers are dropping, people will still be there to take notice of your new videos in their subscription tab. Whether they stop to watch it or scroll right past it, they've seen it, they know you're uploading, and they may expect to see something in the coming days that could interest them.

At the same time, you're building a more diverse audience, which never really hurt anyone.

What you're doing is good, in a sense. Don't be afraid to try new things on your channel. You never know, there may be some subscribers who are relieved to be seeing something new/different.

Tldr: diversity is good. You don't need to put all of your eggs in the same basket

 

[Tyhd]

That's why I don't focus on the gameplay - do what I do (as you mentioned) and create commentaries

 

[xingcat]

I do LOVE what I'm doing, but most of my enjoyment comes from watching the growth of the channel (thinking of a topic, editing, and promotion can be tedious at times).

Here's the problem, I think. If growth is the thing that makes you happiest, then do what makes your channel grow. If you're making videos because you love to make videos, then do what you like and find ways of getting the audience to appreciate what you do.

 

[Mogawty]

The way I see it, unless your subscribers are dropping, people will still be there to take notice of your new videos in their subscription tab. Whether they stop to watch it or scroll right past it, they've seen it, they know you're uploading, and they may expect to see something in the coming days that could interest them.

At the same time, you're building a more diverse audience, which never really hurt anyone.

What you're doing is good, in a sense. Don't be afraid to try new things on your channel. You never know, there may be some subscribers who are relieved to be seeing something new/different.

Tldr: diversity is good. You don't need to put all of your eggs in the same basket

Thanks for your response. I like to hear back from the community. Sometimes I feel too much diversity will drive some away though. Another thing that's strange is that I noticed when I post less (5-6 videos in a week instead of 10-16) my subscriber count increases at a faster pace, which is somewhat hard to understand. I guess some have notifications turned on and get annoyed? So I'm trying to post 1 video a day when possible, but sometimes I feel a sense of rush (new update for a game I cover, etc..) so I feel I should do 2. I know many would say even 1 video a day is too much, but I don't think my quality suffers because of it, the only thing I fear is that it's too much for a lot of people.

That's why I don't focus on the gameplay - do what I do (as you mentioned) and create commentaries

I do this from time to time on random subjects which I can talk about. It's a lot of fun and a nice change. Might start implementing that a bit more

Here's the problem, I think. If growth is the thing that makes you happiest, then do what makes your channel grow. If you're making videos because you love to make videos, then do what you like and find ways of getting the audience to appreciate what you do.

Thanks, this is also useful advice. I never really thought of it like that. I'm always trying to play the games which I personally enjoy, otherwise the content may not come out very good. On the other hand, if it's something I feel will be a success, I may have fun with it regardless.

 

[Teldo]

I've been in the same boat for years now. Been doing YouTube and Twitch streaming on and off, having big successes in certain games and then when I try to do content for other games my numbers drop drastically again.

Because of that I'm at a point right now where I try to make the best quality content I can, but I'm too scared to put out any videos right now, because I'm only playing a bunch of different games and I'm not focusing on one.

It's kinda depressing. Makes me feel insecure about the content I create.

 

[Mogawty]

I've been in the same boat for years now. Been doing YouTube and Twitch streaming on and off, having big successes in certain games and then when I try to do content for other games my numbers drop drastically again.

Because of that I'm at a point right now where I try to make the best quality content I can, but I'm too scared to put out any videos right now, because I'm only playing a bunch of different games and I'm not focusing on one.

It's kinda depressing. Makes me feel insecure about the content I create.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I typically try to focus on the stuff that does well if I still enjoy playing it, and drop the stuff the performs badly unless I see a lot of future potential in it. Side note, I just ran into Blade & Soul, haha! Really nice game ^^

 

[AquariumCoop]

I'd say your best bet would be to diversify your content. Make like 20 videos about the game that people want, but drip feed them. So only 1 of those videos comes out a week. Mean while you make new videos about games you care about now. Slowly but surely people will come around to the idea that you play lots of different games.

 

[Loki Doki]

i left my response on your youtube video. i thought it would be good for your subs to hear it as well as you

 

[Mogawty]

I'd say your best bet would be to diversify your content. Make like 20 videos about the game that people want, but drip feed them. So only 1 of those videos comes out a week. Mean while you make new videos about games you care about now. Slowly but surely people will come around to the idea that you play lots of different games.

Thanks for the suggestion, definitely a good idea!

i left my response on your youtube video. i thought it would be good for your subs to hear it as well as you

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment there, there were some very wise words there, and something I really got a lot out of