Jack, the screen shot I posted showed a date range of the last 7 days available in analytics, views, and minutes watched. You can't get that screen shot unless you have access to that YouTube account. So I either photo shopped it, grabbed it from my own account, or have access to someone else YouTube account. You can't just "grab it" from any YouTube channel.
Baloney! Image Google "YouTube analytic graph" and you'll get tons of such images.
This will be my last post on this thread because it's getting a little out of hand. I think I rubbed you the wrong way so you rubbed me the wrong way. We're all trying to help each other and I'm not trying to p**s you off.
But you're not helping anyone with your bad advice. Advice that goes contrary to all marketing principles, what successful YouTubers have been saying, what YouTube is saying, and all articles by business reporters are saying. Advice you cannot back with an example of a SINGLE successful YouTuber who is following it. Advice you say you are doing and CLAIM has resulted in you having "monster" channel BUT you refuse to give us your channel's name. That last sentence kills your position.
I've posted the basics of this multiple times on this forum...
So? You think heavy repetition equates to ... what? Validity? Proof? What? Repetition doesn't make a lie the truth.
YouTube's algorithm is a weighted score card.
True.
At least 80% of your score is based on factors that when you dig into you can only achieve by having a high average view percent. If you promote your videos it drops your average view time making YouTube less likely to feed you into suggested videos, both on the right hand column...
Says who? You? Has YouTube said so? I have never heard where YouTube has EVER told what is involved in their algorithms. Ever. For a time, I was the head marketer for a SEO firm and everyone there was only guessing what was in Google search algorithms. Educated guesses by really smart and experienced computer whizzes specializing in SEO but still nothing more than guesses. We never pretended to clients that our guesses were anything but guesses. We did give what we thought were evidence that backed our guesses but we would not and never did toss out a solid number like "At least 80%".
The reason that YouTube doesn't reveal what's involved in its algorithms is because if they ever did, SEO firms around the world would game it that same day and from then on. Their gaming of it would make the algorithm instantly compromised and thus worthless. That's just the reality of the SEO industry and YouTube knows this and acts accordingly by keeping its mouth shut about what's involved in its algorithms.
...and on people's home page.
I assume you actually meant to say subscription page.
YouTube's algorithm does not take into effect channel art,...
Whoever said it did? Channel art isn't for YouTube but for viewers. It shows viewers that the YouTuber is serious about their channel. It expresses what their channel is about. It is the first impression on your YouTube homepage as us humans scan from the top down. It thus helps (or hurts) your chances of converting a viewer into a subscriber.
...the time you posted the video,...
Again, whoever said that YouTube's algorithm took this into consideration? Like channel art, when you release a video isn't for YouTube's benefit but for the viewer's benefit. You need to understand how videos are presented on viewer's subscription pages. When you release (make public) a video on YouTube, it then appears immediately on a person's subscription page. If you post it when most of your subscribers visit their subscription pages, they will see the notification of your new video at the top of their subscription page or at least near the top. And just as it does for placing high on a result page for a Google search, this increases the chances that your subscribers will then see the notification for your video, click on it, and watch your video. If you make public your video at a wrong time for your viewers, other videos from their other subscriptions will bury your video deep on their subscription page. This is why YouTubers need to analyze their analytics so they can hopefully determine when most of their viewers are viewing their videos and then release them at that time to get the video's notification at the top or near the top of their subscribers' subscription pages.
Subs don't equal views. Views equal subs.
First sentence is true but the second sentence is false. Or are you saying views equal TRUE subs? But this too would be false. Because the notification on people's subscription pages usually gives enough information for subscribers to decide whether or not to click on your video, not all "true" subscribers click on videos. They don't for a variety of reasons. The content isn't of interest to them. [Here's where having too much off-topic content can result in subscribers unsubscribing and thus why you should have your channel be single topic and all off-topic videos put on another channel or at least a vlog support channel.] The video might be longer than they have time for. It looks to be too repetitive of what you've done before. The thumbnail simply doesn't grab them. Any number of reasons why "true" subscribers might not click on the video notification.
And views come from YouTube promoting your videos for you.
No, the VAST majority of any video's views comes from subscribers. Only a tiny fraction comes from YouTube search results. As for being posted on the right column of "related" videos, the biggest factor for your NEW video is its metadata (title, description, and tags). Do they match the video they've clicked on. This is how you can game the system. Tim Schmoyer did a great video on this. YouTube search: "How To Dominate the Related Videos on YouTube" by Tim's Video Creators channel. Yes, view time does factor into how your old videos are ranked but, even here, a very likely bigger factor is if others have already clicked on another video after viewing the one you've clicked on. In other words, YouTube tracks "bandwagon jumping". The more that click on another video after clicking on the current video, the higher that clicked-on video will be ranked on the "Related Videos" column. And there's still more that goes into that and for that I recommend you and others watch Tim's video on this topic.
Don't do anything that drops your average view time.
If you are not willing to have possible new subscribers click away after the first few minutes (if not seconds), you're not understanding how to get new subscribers. In advertising, a good response rate for direct mailings is a whopping ONE percent. A great response rate would be merely double that at TWO percent. But if you're not willing to risk "wasting" 99% of your direct mailings, you're never going to get that one percent. Whole businesses are highly profitable because of getting that mere 1%. I have yet to see anything that would indicate YouTube is any different.
Spend 100% of your focus on increasing the quality of your videos as that will increase your average view percent and therefore increase the likelihood of YouTube promoting you. If you think that's bad advice then don't take it.
It IS bad advice. Please stop giving it to newbies here. Again, it is pure fantasy. It is literally "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door" fantasy. It is even to the "Field of Dreams" movie fantasy of "if you build it, they will come." So unless you believe in ghosts compelling people to drive to your Iowa farm, you need to promote to get people to know you and your videos exist. For YouTube, the proven biggest key to success in getting new subscribers is doing collaborations with other YouTubers. That's pure promotion of your channel to another channel's subscribers and it works. Better than AdSense advertising. Better anything else you can do. FAR better than just focusing on making your video quality better.
Now I know you've said your last reply will be the last one in this thread, BUT do not feel that you've done anything but exposed yourself as a fraud here. You refusing to give the name of your channels earns you that label. Don't like the label? Give us the name of your channels so we can see for ourselves that you are following your own advice, that it is working, and that it has resulted in your channel being a "monster" channel worthy of copying. Until you do, I can only view you as a fraud and will remember your forum name and warn others when you give out more bad advice here and in other threads. In fact, I will try to remember to refer them back to this thread when I warn them about you.
Anyway, good luck.
