locked - Looking for Honest Feedback to Finally Grow my Channel

[VRONA]

Hey everyone! I am looking for some honest channel feedback or advice on what I could do to grow or has prevented my channel from growing, seeing how I only got 204 subscribers and 8k views after 4 years. What's even stranger is that across these 4 years, my content has been quickly dropping in views despite huge increases to quality and SEO. It went from around 50, to 20, to 15, to now even struggling to get more than 10 views on one of the games I record and been recording for over a year. Things are so broken that even "niche" videos people suggest I make get less views than some of my more searched for, more competitive content.

The only way in which my channel has grown in the past few weeks is only that I went from having around 2 comments a month to at least 1 on most videos.

If it helps I can provide any statistics and analytics you may need.

So what can I do to fix this mess and my dying channel?

 

[LostTrigger]

im going to make this quick. really love the banner just wished you did similar work for you profile pic as its a bit lacking. im not a fan of your thumbnails. they are a bit basic which isnt that big of a problem but without reading the title i have no idea what im looking at. the "changing fruits video" shows a red and green box on a tree with arrows pointing towards the red box. Im not the deep into minecraft(and based on the tittle im assuming it has something to do with changing the color of blocks) but im not sure what im looking at. your minecraft thumbnail on trap doors and i think new blocks is to small. I could barely make out what i was looking at. same for your pokemon videos. you should make these things larger so i can make out the objects. like for your gengar and psyduck thumbnail make the cards big enough so i can actually see some of it, so i can see some of the art work. never use dark text in the thumbnails. unless your going for a theme or have a reason to(like a really bright background or w.e) the text should be bright so it stands out, easily readable and large. also pick a nice font the one your using its pretty bad.

i dont watch pokemon videos so i may not be your target audience but i have watched magic the gathering card videos so its not totally out of my field. one of the problems that i have with these type of videos is they spend the first 30 secs - a minute talking about the series or stuff that doesnt matter that much. i not that interested in what ever series your doing because this is my first video of yours. at 30 seconds you talk about the different prices which is good. im now getting information and as a person who knows very little about pokemon tcg this is a bit interesting. now your talking about stuff that comes with the box like card holders and stuff. just skimming around you didnt actually open the box until 1:47. considering i clicked on the video for the box thats a long time to wait to actually see whats inside. ok so i assumed there were cards in the chest lol. considering there wasnt really much in the chest i wont rang on you for taking so long to open it. but just keep that in mind if you were to open something that had interesting stuff in it. but just to let you know i wouldve clicked off already within the first 20 or so seconds for how long it took to actually get to the content

not gonna watch your whole " POKEMON SHINING LEGENDS MEWTWO PIN BOX OPENING " video but it had a much better start imo and i wouldnt mind sitting through the rest of it.

im trying to find a minecraft video to watch. most of them seem to be tutorials and i wouldnt have much to say. they get to the point quickly and are 1-2 minutes long so thats a plus. i also wouldnt mind sitting through these if i was looking for how to minecraft stuff

your tags are actually pretty bad. which might be why no one finds the video. just on the minecraft trapdoor video. maybe someone is looking for "minecraft news" or "minecraft 1.4 update(or w.e it is) but the video talks about trapdoors, pressure plates and other stuff. if i was to search for tutorials on making minecraft trapdoors i would never find your video. make sure whats featured in your video is in your tag. if a new character(lets say ryu) gets released for street fighter, your tag shouldnt be "street fighter 3.14 update", though you can put that, you should also include "street fighter ryu gameplay" because thats the most important part, its what the average player will look for. the average player isnt going to search for the specific update, just what the update had. "minecraft trapdoors" "minecraft tutorials" etc if you catch my point

 

[VRONA]

im going to make this quick. really love the banner just wished you did similar work for you profile pic as its a bit lacking. im not a fan of your thumbnails. they are a bit basic which isnt that big of a problem but without reading the title i have no idea what im looking at. the "changing fruits video" shows a red and green box on a tree with arrows pointing towards the red box. Im not the deep into minecraft(and based on the tittle im assuming it has something to do with changing the color of blocks) but im not sure what im looking at. your minecraft thumbnail on trap doors and i think new blocks is to small. I could barely make out what i was looking at. same for your pokemon videos. you should make these things larger so i can make out the objects. like for your gengar and psyduck thumbnail make the cards big enough so i can actually see some of it, so i can see some of the art work. never use dark text in the thumbnails. unless your going for a theme or have a reason to(like a really bright background or w.e) the text should be bright so it stands out, easily readable and large. also pick a nice font the one your using its pretty bad.

i dont watch pokemon videos so i may not be your target audience but i have watched magic the gathering card videos so its not totally out of my field. one of the problems that i have with these type of videos is they spend the first 30 secs - a minute talking about the series or stuff that doesnt matter that much. i not that interested in what ever series your doing because this is my first video of yours. at 30 seconds you talk about the different prices which is good. im now getting information and as a person who knows very little about pokemon tcg this is a bit interesting. now your talking about stuff that comes with the box like card holders and stuff. just skimming around you didnt actually open the box until 1:47. considering i clicked on the video for the box thats a long time to wait to actually see whats inside. ok so i assumed there were cards in the chest lol. considering there wasnt really much in the chest i wont rang on you for taking so long to open it. but just keep that in mind if you were to open something that had interesting stuff in it. but just to let you know i wouldve clicked off already within the first 20 or so seconds for how long it took to actually get to the content

not gonna watch your whole " POKEMON SHINING LEGENDS MEWTWO PIN BOX OPENING " video but it had a much better start imo and i wouldnt mind sitting through the rest of it.

im trying to find a minecraft video to watch. most of them seem to be tutorials and i wouldnt have much to say. they get to the point quickly and are 1-2 minutes long so thats a plus. i also wouldnt mind sitting through these if i was looking for how to minecraft stuff

your tags are actually pretty bad. which might be why no one finds the video. just on the minecraft trapdoor video. maybe someone is looking for "minecraft news" or "minecraft 1.4 update(or w.e it is) but the video talks about trapdoors, pressure plates and other stuff. if i was to search for tutorials on making minecraft trapdoors i would never find your video. make sure whats featured in your video is in your tag. if a new character(lets say ryu) gets released for street fighter, your tag shouldnt be "street fighter 3.14 update", though you can put that, you should also include "street fighter ryu gameplay" because thats the most important part, its what the average player will look for. the average player isnt going to search for the specific update, just what the update had. "minecraft trapdoors" "minecraft tutorials" etc if you catch my point

Wow, thanks a lot for all that advice!

Just one thing I would love some more clarification on: what should the backgrounds be for my thumbnails then?

 

[LostTrigger]

Wow, thanks a lot for all that advice!

Just one thing I would love some more clarification on: what should the backgrounds be for my thumbnails then?

the backgrounds are usually fine its just eeverything in them is to small. your trap door video. has an angled shot of the door instead of head on so i dont know what im looking at. gengar video cards to small and the text could be larger. in your older videos the thumbanils were a bit better you just needed to fix the text. now your cramming smaller stuff into your thumbnails when thumbnails should be big and interesting. like your minecraft zombies video. i have no idea what that one line of text says but other than that it works fine as a thumbnail. your hide and seek thumbnail works just fine and so does your coolest card thumbnail. i didnt watch your latest halloween video but that thumbnail works. hopefullt that cleared it up some.

if you meant like the actual background like the purple stuff you put or the blurred out images behind the stuff those are fine.

i can answer any other questions or reword this if need be

 

[VRONA]

i can answer any other questions or reword this if need be

Great because I have some more:
1. What could've caused my videos to drop in views?

So I've been on YouTube for 4 years now. The start was pretty decent, with most of my videos getting around 50-80 views each, with a few getting around 200, and one even got 320 views, the most views any of my videos got so far. I didn't even know what tags were at the time, yet my videos were still getting around 50-80 views. And I only had 45 subscribers at the time as well. When I started adding tags, the views stayed around the same.

However then things started to go downhill, with my first videos that got less than the standard views being released around January 2016, when views dropped to around 10-30 views. Then it dropped down to around 10-20 views, then to most of my videos not even getting more than 10 views around the week or two of their release. They sometimes get a few more later on.

And all of that has been happening while I've been increasing the quality and increasing the amount of SEO in my videos.

So what happened?

2. Why has the growth on my channel been so slow?

3. Is there anything I can do directly to pick up the pace or just continue to make videos?

4. Should I aim at popular and more competitive content, or less popular, less competitive content?

I've been having some really strange view statistics recently. My most popular series, my Pokémon TCG opening videos has had a drop in views in my last two videos. They used to get this huge spike in views within the first 30 minutes, but this spike has been reduced to about 25% of what it used to be. What's even stranger is that both of those videos are of a brand new set of cards, that just came out on Friday, and interest is really high. So is it just because of high competition right now? However what makes things even more interesting is that out of all my Pokémon TCG videos, my most popular ones are the ones with the highest competition, the openings, while anything else I cover about Pokémon TCG gets no where near as many views. However then to mix things up came the two recent opening videos.

So overall, what content should I aim at, highly popular and highly competitive, or less popular and less competitive, and how can get as many views as possible from it?

 

[buzzcuts]

I don't know too much about your niche or competition, but I think your videos have great energy and personality.

With that said, I agree that I think you could get away with more of a branded intro and maybe some music. I also feel like on the card reveals, you could slow down a bit and let us see the cards more (punched in camera angle?). Considering you have a lot to talk about, I would consider making your videos longer. It will likely help with watch time and consequently rankings.

 

[VRONA]

branded intro

Like what exactly though? Like an animated one? Because I already have a somewhat of an intro, where I just say "Hello Everyone" at the start of each video.

and maybe some music

What exactly do you mean by that? Like brand music?

Considering you have a lot to talk about, I would consider making your videos longer.

If I had a lot to talk about I would, however I don't, so they're not.

It will likely help with watch time

Watch time is a huge problem on my channel, currently standing at 14%, with it often going below 10%. Seeing how little people watch my videos, this of course changes a lot as each view makes up more of the percentage.

 

[SeanTheMedium]

Hello,

So first I want to say that your channel is not bad in any way.
However, I find that when you are making videos you tend to take things out of the frame of the camera a lot.
Also, you need to record more of whats going on and maybe have like a 4 to a 8-minute video explaining what your channel is all about and why this is your passion and interest.

I think some of the reasons why your views are going down is because of the Titles and thumbnails.
I would highly suggest creating a thumbnail that is totally focused on Pokemon and create a playlist of those videos, and then also do the same for anything else you do.
Thumbnail design is very easy once you understand it.

If you need help with designing thumbnails send me a message.
Hope this helps you.
Sean

 

[VRONA]

I would highly suggest creating a thumbnail that is totally focused on Pokemon

What exactly do you mean by that, and what exactly in my typical PTCG video's thumbnail isn't that?

and create a playlist of those videos, and then also do the same for anything else you do.

I already have created playlists for everything.

I think some of the reasons why your views are going down is because of the Titles and thumbnails.

How is that possible? As the quality of the thumbnails and SEO in the title went up, the views went down.

 

[Crown]

@VRONA This thread is now locked. Until you start thanking people when they help you and start CONTRIBUTING and GIVING back to this community, no more of your review requests will be accepted.