Morality and Self-Promotion

Ghoti

Ghoti

I've Got It
Hello YTTalkers!

I'm a relatively small YouTube gaming channel, on which I've been creating videos on for eight months. My ramble today has to do with Self-Promotion, but in the context of morality (I.E not just spamming my channel).

I have my own twitter, google+, blogger, Facebook page and sub-Reddit - I created these things so I could share my videos there, which is awesome. I don't have any google+ communities where everyone spams their videos and nobody really looks at them - same with Reddit. I do post my videos on this forum, but I've done so by just creating my own thread so I don't block up other peoples feeds.

I don't do these things because morally I don't want to be just fishing for views. I also don't think these spam style communities actually do you anything good - in-fact I think they do more harm than good if one viewer particularly dislikes channel spamming.

Instead of this, I've been focusing on trying to increase my SEO use - bigger descriptions, more specific tags and better thumbnails. I then tried something I've never tried before: on one of my Dark Souls 2 videos, I got invaded by a hacker who did impossible jumps around the area lightning torches for me. I thought to myself "I know that the Dark Souls 2 sub-Reddit likes silly things like this - what if I made a short two minute video of just the invasion?" - two days ago I posted that video. Right now, that video is sitting at 277 views with 5 likes and 1 dislike.

Least to say, I was ecstatic at how good this result was considering it was my first real video post on Reddit. I've always been told that Reddit is a fantastic way to expose yourself, but I was also warned that Reddit hates self promotion - by trying to make the video into something I thought that audience would like (as I had seen similar videos on the sub-Reddit that day) I was able to avoid negativity from posting my video to that specific community. This is something I am going to do in the future: creating small videos of great moments from my let's play that I think a specific sub-Reddit will like. The key here is that I wanted to give the sub-Reddit something I thought they would enjoy, rather than asking the sub-Reddit to just watch my video. I'm also thinking about posting my completed Let's Plays into contextual sub-Reddits, as I've seen some very positive results (especially from long games like Dark Souls 2).

I also try to communicate and be active on as much of my social media as possible. I don't want to spam videos, but I do want to talk to other people who like the game. For example, on the Endless Legend sub-Reddit, some one was asking about any let's play videos to the game - this was a perfect opportunity for me to post my own playlists of that game, without seeming like a total spammer going "plz like and subscribe". I also had other members of the community up-voting my post!

I have yet to play around with Twitter or Google + too much, but over the next week I think I'm going to join communities and follow #hashtags (so hip) on games that I'm currently playing. Not to spam my videos there, but to integrate myself with that audience and take up opportunities to share my videos (share is different from spam in my books).

This year I wanted to stop feeling embarrassed about my channel and promote myself a bit more, however I didn't want to go into mindless channel spam. So far, it seems to have worked! I only started trying to self-promote myself this month and so far I've gained 1038 views (14% of my total views) and 8 new subscribers! Hopefully this ramble will help people like me out who want to grow their channel, but don't want to do the mindless spamming of content in places where everyone else is doing the same (who actually watches videos in those places anyway?).

Happy YYTalking and a belated Happy New Year (because it's pretty early on in the month still!).

TL;DR I wanted to grow my channel this year, but didn't want to join in on mindless channel spamming. Joining communities and sharing content that is wanted by said communities has helped my channel immensely - this month alone I gained 14% of my total view count and 8 new subscribers. Share, don't spam. If you want to share your videos with a community, you have to know what they want - interact and learn before you post! Happy new year!
 
Ghoti said:
Hello YTTalkers!

I'm a relatively small YouTube gaming channel, on which I've been creating videos on for eight months. My ramble today has to do with Self-Promotion, but in the context of morality (I.E not just spamming my channel).

I have my own twitter, google+, blogger, Facebook page and sub-Reddit - I created these things so I could share my videos there, which is awesome. I don't have any google+ communities where everyone spams their videos and nobody really looks at them - same with Reddit. I do post my videos on this forum, but I've done so by just creating my own thread so I don't block up other peoples feeds.

I don't do these things because morally I don't want to be just fishing for views. I also don't think these spam style communities actually do you anything good - in-fact I think they do more harm than good if one viewer particularly dislikes channel spamming.

Instead of this, I've been focusing on trying to increase my SEO use - bigger descriptions, more specific tags and better thumbnails. I then tried something I've never tried before: on one of my Dark Souls 2 videos, I got invaded by a hacker who did impossible jumps around the area lightning torches for me. I thought to myself "I know that the Dark Souls 2 sub-Reddit likes silly things like this - what if I made a short two minute video of just the invasion?" - two days ago I posted that video. Right now, that video is sitting at 277 views with 5 likes and 1 dislike.

Least to say, I was ecstatic at how good this result was considering it was my first real video post on Reddit. I've always been told that Reddit is a fantastic way to expose yourself, but I was also warned that Reddit hates self promotion - by trying to make the video into something I thought that audience would like (as I had seen similar videos on the sub-Reddit that day) I was able to avoid negativity from posting my video to that specific community. This is something I am going to do in the future: creating small videos of great moments from my let's play that I think a specific sub-Reddit will like. The key here is that I wanted to give the sub-Reddit something I thought they would enjoy, rather than asking the sub-Reddit to just watch my video. I'm also thinking about posting my completed Let's Plays into contextual sub-Reddits, as I've seen some very positive results (especially from long games like Dark Souls 2).

I also try to communicate and be active on as much of my social media as possible. I don't want to spam videos, but I do want to talk to other people who like the game. For example, on the Endless Legend sub-Reddit, some one was asking about any let's play videos to the game - this was a perfect opportunity for me to post my own playlists of that game, without seeming like a total spammer going "plz like and subscribe". I also had other members of the community up-voting my post!

I have yet to play around with Twitter or Google + too much, but over the next week I think I'm going to join communities and follow #hashtags (so hip) on games that I'm currently playing. Not to spam my videos there, but to integrate myself with that audience and take up opportunities to share my videos (share is different from spam in my books).

This year I wanted to stop feeling embarrassed about my channel and promote myself a bit more, however I didn't want to go into mindless channel spam. So far, it seems to have worked! I only started trying to self-promote myself this month and so far I've gained 1038 views (14% of my total views) and 8 new subscribers! Hopefully this ramble will help people like me out who want to grow their channel, but don't want to do the mindless spamming of content in places where everyone else is doing the same (who actually watches videos in those places anyway?).

Happy YYTalking and a belated Happy New Year (because it's pretty early on in the month still!).

TL;DR I wanted to grow my channel this year, but didn't want to join in on mindless channel spamming. Joining communities and sharing content that is wanted by said communities has helped my channel immensely - this month alone I gained 14% of my total view count and 8 new subscribers. Share, don't spam. If you want to share your videos with a community, you have to know what they want - interact and learn before you post! Happy new year!
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Great post, I grew 100 views or more with my Life is Strange Review from the subreddit. I posted it because I wanted to start a conversation about the game as a whole with people who were as into the game as I was. Reddit is a great tool and I like your attitude about it. Couldn't agree more.
 
It's a great tool for growing your channel, you just have to be treating it like a community and not a dumping ground.

If 8 months of YouTube'ing has taught me anything it's that no body cares about your channel, so why would they all randomly start subbing/liking after you spam a video into their community with no real benefit to said community? To make them care and be interested in your content, you have to know what they're interested in.
 
I was listening to some audiobooks about sales. Self-promotion or marketing is simply trying to find viewers for your videos. It is some form of sales.

The sales guru in the audio program was mentioning people who are hesitant to sell. This was one of the main mind blocks for sales people. They think that sales is a bad thing. We probably learn it at school or from our parents. The motto is "you do good work and wait. People notice and appreciate that". The sad truth is: "No, they won't". How can someone appreciate your good work if they don't know about it.

The sales guru was calling people who don't sell "selfish". They are so selfish that they keep their good products to themselves. They do not let other people enjoy and get value out of it. If you believe that your videos are worth watching and you know that people who watch get some value, there is nothing promoting it on the Social Media.

I believe, everybody who posts on Social Media is promoting something. They promote themselves, their character, their children or happy family, their intellect. Look at your Facebook News Feed and try to find the motivation behind each post. Why does someone post pictures from his fancy trip? Why does someone post jokes or viral videos? Why do they share their feelings?

To sum up, there is nothing immoral about promoting yourself as long as you are not lying or deceiving the people. You will anyway see this in the audience retention, if your title and thumbnail do not correspond to your content. I would strongly recommend you to promote yourself as much as you can. People who are not interested can simply skip your posts. They do that anyways. Additionally, haters gonna hate. And there will be some people who need and like your content. These people are the gain of the day.
 
yeah i try to be an active member of the communities i join its only right. people who post and bail get what they deserve.
 
One of the hardest things for artists to do is to promote themselves. For some reason, we have it in our heads that we shouldn't try to "force" our work on others, and there are so many messages out there right now trying to force products and services and politicians into our lives that it becomes overwhelming. Certainly, there is an issue with politeness, but I'm not sure if it's immoral to promote your work.

Still, I really appreciate anyone who approaches self-promotion with manners and humility, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that you are doing something wrong by asking people to see the things you spend a lot of time doing and trying to make as well as you can.
 
If you can't comment in a regular fashion without dumping your channel information don't comment at all. I really dislike those comments, and most of them actually go straight into the spam box of YouTube where I then subsequently delete them.

Be an active part of your community, comment on people's videos and keep doing your own. That's all you really can do.
 
hcetiny said:
I was listening to some audiobooks about sales. Self-promotion or marketing is simply trying to find viewers for your videos. It is some form of sales.

The sales guru in the audio program was mentioning people who are hesitant to sell. This was one of the main mind blocks for sales people. They think that sales is a bad thing. We probably learn it at school or from our parents. The motto is "you do good work and wait. People notice and appreciate that". The sad truth is: "No, they won't". How can someone appreciate your good work if they don't know about it.

The sales guru was calling people who don't sell "selfish". They are so selfish that they keep their good products to themselves. They do not let other people enjoy and get value out of it. If you believe that your videos are worth watching and you know that people who watch get some value, there is nothing promoting it on the Social Media.

I believe, everybody who posts on Social Media is promoting something. They promote themselves, their character, their children or happy family, their intellect. Look at your Facebook News Feed and try to find the motivation behind each post. Why does someone post pictures from his fancy trip? Why does someone post jokes or viral videos? Why do they share their feelings?

To sum up, there is nothing immoral about promoting yourself as long as you are not lying or deceiving the people. You will anyway see this in the audience retention, if your title and thumbnail do not correspond to your content. I would strongly recommend you to promote yourself as much as you can. People who are not interested can simply skip your posts. They do that anyways. Additionally, haters gonna hate. And there will be some people who need and like your content. These people are the gain of the day.
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true words of wisdom. I'm considering printing this out and reading it every day I wake up and before I sleep.
It's always difficult to get past the "selling is bad" mindset. Thank you so much for this!
 
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