Need an honest critique on this video

ScootWookie

Yeahhhhhhhhh!
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
14
Reaction score
4
Channel Type
Gamer
Hi everyone,

I am a smalltime MotoVlogger out of Washington DC and have been producing content for approximately one week. I am getting pretty positive praise, however I am not quite sure if this praise is indicative of how truly good my content is since I do not have many subs, nor many views.

This video is one of my better ones I had produced, and am looking for honest criticism so that I can continue focusing on the good, and changing the bad.

This video contains strong language, so be forewarned.

 

iGM

That Scottish Guy
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
312
Reaction score
112
Location
Scotland
Channel Type
Youtuber
So I am going to be honest, like requested.

What is good:
- The content has a comedic style, which works (for me at least)
- The image quality is great, nice smooth 1080p
- The frame rate is great, crisp 60fps

What could be improved:
- The audio, try investing in a microphone (such as a shotgun mic etc.)
- The video title and description are not doing you any good for SEO
- I personally think that you spent too long rambling on with the same backdrop/scene, this can lead to people getting a bit bored. You will never really see a movie that will not have movement or some kind of action for several minutes. In my own opinion, people want to be entertained in a video. You have a video, so use it. If people want to hear you talk to them without using the video much - they can just go and find a podcast or tune into an online radio station - you know?
- The video dragged on a little too long for what it was, as a gear review it was a little bit too long. Try compressing the comedic style you have into a shorter, faster paced video showcasing your gear (to avoid viewer abandonment)

But yeah man, nice job! I hope I can help somewhat :D
 

ScootWookie

Yeahhhhhhhhh!
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
14
Reaction score
4
Channel Type
Gamer
IGM,

Thank you for the reply, this confirmed a lot of the original concerns I had when making this particular video....If you see my others, to include the chain maintenance video I put up a while ago they do not have the static backdrop issues. We have been having some awful weather and I just threw this together to kind of fill the void so to speak. Now, when you say SEO, you mean search engine optimization correct? I have been getting views trickling in ridiculously slow and I fear I have some really poor optimization going on despite the majority of community interaction being very positive. What would you suggest I do to remedy this issue? I am really new to the Youtube game, and still don't know how to get the most out of my content and channel. Any insight you could provide would go a really long way into making my channel much better in the long run.

Im definitely going to invest in a better mic for my DSLR, I was using the internal mic and it is really tinny sounding.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iGM

iGM

That Scottish Guy
Joined
Oct 21, 2015
Messages
312
Reaction score
112
Location
Scotland
Channel Type
Youtuber
IGM,

Thank you for the reply, this confirmed a lot of the original concerns I had when making this particular video....If you see my others, to include the chain maintenance video I put up a while ago they do not have the static backdrop issues. We have been having some awful weather and I just threw this together to kind of fill the void so to speak. Now, when you say SEO, you mean search engine optimization correct? I have been getting views trickling in ridiculously slow and I fear I have some really poor optimization going on despite the majority of community interaction being very positive. What would you suggest I do to remedy this issue? I am really new to the Youtube game, and still don't know how to get the most out of my content and channel. Any insight you could provide would go a really long way into making my channel much better in the long run.

Im definitely going to invest in a better mic for my DSLR, I was using the internal mic and it is really tinny sounding.
I do mean Search Engine Optimization, yes. What I suggest is perhaps using a Chrome Extension plugin called TubeBuddy - it helps you manage tags, keywords and such like as well as suggesting potential keywords you may want to use.
If you navigate to the SEO and Marketing section on YTTalk there are tons of good, in depth, comprehensive guides to help you get off your feet when it comes to SEO but some quick tips I have started to implement more recently:
- Make your video title accurate, precise and word it in such a way that people will be intrigued to click on it (but don't word it in such a way it is clickbait, find a fine line between the two)
- Make your description include your title in the first sentence or two. For example if you made a video on "How To Make Bottled Beer" for example, make sure you include that title somewhere in your first few lines. So to further the example, something like this, "Hey everyone, so in today's video I will be showing you how to make some bottled beer for your next party!". Or something similar.
- Make sure you use all tag space allocated to you, you have 500 characters so you may as well use them all
- Do not use short one word tags unless it is a specific word/jargon word. Try to make your tags phrases related to the video topic.
- Try to add tags that would match up with what people would actually type into the search bar, obviously in relation to what your video is about. Keeping the bottled beer example, you may want to tag "easy methods for making beer" or "best way to make beer" and so on.

Now I am no expert on SEO, never have been but doing the above ^ has managed to get me around 6.5k subscribers and 2.5 million views on my gaming channel (and I aim to do the same with my second channel iGM Productions). I highly recommend browsing the SEO and Marketing section on these forums too to pick up some tips.

Hope this helps :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScootWookie

ScootWookie

Yeahhhhhhhhh!
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
14
Reaction score
4
Channel Type
Gamer
I do mean Search Engine Optimization, yes. What I suggest is perhaps using a Chrome Extension plugin called TubeBuddy - it helps you manage tags, keywords and such like as well as suggesting potential keywords you may want to use.
If you navigate to the SEO and Marketing section on YTTalk there are tons of good, in depth, comprehensive guides to help you get off your feet when it comes to SEO but some quick tips I have started to implement more recently:
- Make your video title accurate, precise and word it in such a way that people will be intrigued to click on it (but don't word it in such a way it is clickbait, find a fine line between the two)
- Make your description include your title in the first sentence or two. For example if you made a video on "How To Make Bottled Beer" for example, make sure you include that title somewhere in your first few lines. So to further the example, something like this, "Hey everyone, so in today's video I will be showing you how to make some bottled beer for your next party!". Or something similar.
- Make sure you use all tag space allocated to you, you have 500 characters so you may as well use them all
- Do not use short one word tags unless it is a specific word/jargon word. Try to make your tags phrases related to the video topic.
- Try to add tags that would match up with what people would actually type into the search bar, obviously in relation to what your video is about. Keeping the bottled beer example, you may want to tag "easy methods for making beer" or "best way to make beer" and so on.

Now I am no expert on SEO, never have been but doing the above ^ has managed to get me around 6.5k subscribers and 2.5 million views on my gaming channel (and I aim to do the same with my second channel iGM Productions). I highly recommend browsing the SEO and Marketing section on these forums too to pick up some tips.

Hope this helps :D
Helped immensely, already got to work with changing a few things! Thanks for the advice, this is good stuff!
 
  • Like
Reactions: iGM

Kelkschiz

YTtalk Mad
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
371
Reaction score
195
Age
46
Channel Type
Animator
The good:

- You have a natural nicely sounding voice.
- Your commentary has character and is engaging.


The not so good:

- Generally I thought the video footage could be improved a lot. My personal goal is to make the video footage so good that when you turning off the sound you still get to see something worthwhile. Especially the first part of the video we mainly get to see one shot (the helm on the table), which is not very interesting to look at for that amount of time. I would have shot some additional footage that illustrate the things you are talking about. For instance, you mention some effects of the helmet mounted camera. That would have been an ideal moment to show some footage that actually shows the effect you are talking about. If you can't come up with appropriate footage for the things you are talking about then you may wonder if making a video is the right medium to tell that story with.
- I also thought the video was too long. It was not too long in an absolute sense, but it included too much stuff that didn't really relate to your subject. At the same time I also got the feeling you missed some stuff. In short I would give some more thought to the structure of your video: Think about what it is important to talk about and realize that most people watching your video may know much less about the subject than you. Leave out unrelated stuff or be more ruthless during editing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScootWookie