Need advice for building a gaming channel

Gideon (BackseatGamers)

Gideon (BackseatGamers)

Member
(I realized after the fact that this is a fairly long post. The meat of the question has been bolded below and the rest is backstory/explanation)

So as you guys may have guessed from the title... I am currently in the process of building a gaming channel. We recently passed the 100 subs threshold and are currently headed towards are next goal of 1000 subs. Our first 100 subscribers primarily came from pointed advertising to our friends and friends of friends. And I am fairly sure we have rung that market dry of subscribers. So I am in the process of figuring out how to build a fan base through other avenues. Currently, I we are looking to Reddit to build our fanbase. However through reading guides I have found on here and elsewhere I have gotten the advice that 10-15+ minute Lets Plays generally do not fly well on Reddit. I have also seen that in my own Analytics (Average watch time is about 4 minutes overall with spikes of higher on release days.) The template for our channel comes from Achievement Hunter/Lets Play/Rooster Teeth. (8 of us doing a rotation of playing games together) So I would eventually like to keep the Lets Play style videos in circulation since that is where we would like to head anyway and that is the brand that I have already built our channel on for our first 100 subscribers. However, I also think I need to diversify my content and cut down on the time on some videos in order to start hooking more new subscribers. My current idea is to take the highlights (Say less than 3 to 5 minutes) from our Let's Plays and release them as a second video alongside our current release schedule. Then use the highlights as advertising and if people like them it may push them to check out the full video. So I was curious to get others thoughts on the idea. As well as see if others had a better idea!
 
That's a pretty decent idea. You can market those videos instead of Let's Plays as well since people will be much more willing to initially watch a shorter video.

Just don't use all of the best material because then you will dilute content in the longer videos.
 
That was one thing I was trying to work through... Since I would want to use the good stuff but not all the best. Would maybe have to look into how to make trailers more. Thoughts on the time limit though? Would it be better to still keep it lets playish? Like at the 5 minute mark. Or shoot for just highlights and keep it like 1-2 minutes?
 
trouble with lets plays is a 5 min recording will fly by and you will notice you have got nothing done in the game. The only way to squeeze good content in 5 mins is to chop it up something silly. Which will then turn it into a highlight reel anyway.
 
I won't lie, I get tired watching peoples gaming channels, since there's a qaudrillion of them and the competition is pretty fierce in that genre at the moment. However, I actually felt quite comfortable watching some of your videos, I think it's because there's multiple people in your videos, the excitement and enthusiasm that a group can bring is entertaining. It wasn't painful, it wasn't cringy, it has nice production value also. Bearing in mind a lot of advice from people on here including me can be quite scattered and extremely subjective, but I PERSONALLY would like to see more funny moments, silliness without getting too unhinged. If I as much as hear someone properly laughing then that's it, I'm laughing too.

I would also suggest to try add something unique to the channel, something that people haven't seen 1 million times before or if they have you do it in a way that competes with the best :)
 
A highlight doesn't sound that bad - it could also help people who are busy and don't have the time right at the moment to watch the full video but they can watch the full one later.
 
So I have been thinking more on the idea. And I may end up starting to edit and pitch the video more as a trailer... That would allow me to share some of the inside jokes, scary moments, and few of the good parts, etc. While still keeping more content on the side. It would allow people to laugh and be entertained and if that sufficed for them move on, or perhaps draw them in to check out our less popular content. In that case I would keep it to about 2 minutes. It would help set it apart slightly (But I doubt by much) from the plentiful amounts of funny moments montage videos I see out on Youtube currently.

D.Thomas said:
trouble with lets plays is a 5 min recording will fly by and you will notice you have got nothing done in the game. The only way to squeeze good content in 5 mins is to chop it up something silly. Which will then turn it into a highlight reel anyway.
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I agreed on that... I have even noticed with some of our other videos. A 40 minute recording barely even scratches the surface of the game. Which is part of the reason I would like to keep our 15 minute videos going.

RiffRaff said:
I would also suggest to try add something unique to the channel, something that people haven't seen 1 million times before or if they have you do it in a way that competes with the best :)
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Thank you very much RiffRaff for the complements! I am glad that you enjoyed checking out our channel! And I have been trying to figure out what we can do that is unique... I have thought once I have more editors (Aka I train my guys how to edit) starting up a Throwback Thursday series where we play older games. (Like I have a Super Nintendo older games) I know that is still done on Youtube. But not as frequently in the major channels from what I have seen.

SamuelBrice said:
A highlight doesn't sound that bad - it could also help people who are busy and don't have the time right at the moment to watch the full video but they can watch the full one later.
Click to expand...
I agree on those points Samuel! And it would perhaps intrigue them enough to make time to watch the full video.

Thank you all for your feedback so far! It seems that this may be a route I will need to pursue a little more and try out for our next video release. If you have more ideas, critiques or comments I of course am all ears!
 
So I made my first attempt at making a trailer for one of my videos today and released it! We will see how the response turns out in views I guess. Should be the first one on my channel since I can't post links =P
 
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