Quantity vs Quality. Which do you think YT cares about?

[Jungle Explorer]

A lot of YT experts are claiming that YT openly has stated that "Their algorithm Favors (gives preferential treatment to) videos that come from channels that post new videos frequently". When pressed on what "Frequently" YT indicated that 3 videos a week was the minimum to meet that standard, but that the system actually preferred channels that posted new content DAILY.

So obviously, YT wants creators to look at YT as a Full Time Job. The questions is, is it possible to produce quality content on a daily basis or even three a week? I don't know about you, but personally, making a good video takes time. First you have to come up with a subject. Then you have to do research about that subject. The you have to write a script and then plan your video sequence. All this before you even start filming. Then after the filming there is the video editing and then finally the uploading. Does anyone here think that it is even possible for a creator to keep up that pace and still produce quality content on a daily bases? I doubt there is. So does YT care about quality or Quantity? I think it is obvious quantity is what they are really after.

Now to test whether or not YT actually prefer channels that post new content daily. I performed a test. Because YT is not my full time job I only make videos in my spare time, which is usually the weekend, so I normally only upload 3 to 4 videos a months (how dare I follow every single sitcom show on TVs example and only release new content once a week. LOL!) . So, instead of posting new content once a week, I saved up my videos over the course of a month and a half and then posted one video a day for 10 days. Here is a graph of what happened after I performed my test and I think it is very conclusive about what it shows.

So, in the Traffic Sources graph above, you can clearly see that during the months of July and August when I did not post any videos, my channel was pretty much stagnant. I started posting a video each day on August 29th thru September 9th, after which I stopped posting (ran out of content). You can clearly see the massive effect it had on my channels traffic. But as the graph shows, it did not effect all traffic source, just two and the one it really effected hugely was the "Browse Features" source. The graph also shows that this boost ended because I stopped posting new content.

So let's talk about the two traffic sources that were effected by this test. Suggested Videos and Browse Features. Both of these sources are areas in which Youtube is actually promoting your videos. They are adding your videos to the suggested videos that show up in the side bar when you are watching another video. The Browse Features are the videos that show up on the YT home page. Now if you look at the graph above you can see that even when I was not posting any videos at all, I was still getting most of my traffic from Suggested Videos (Purple line). It did go up after to posted a bunch of videos and it has stayed up for the most part. But now look at the Browse Features. I was getting almost no traffic from that source and then it goes through the roof. Here are the view counts before the test and at the peak of the test.


Here is my traffic sources view counts on 08/28/17

Here are my traffic sources views after the test.

Here are my Traffic Sources views after not posting a video for a month.

I think the above evidence is very clear. Youtube only cares about quantity and not quality. So the trick is to just post new stuff as fast as you can, because, you can take your time to make really good content, but youtube is not going to respect you for it.

 

[Brenden]

YouTube has long had a very skewed way of doing things. However, it is an automated process. They do not sit there and watch your videos, in fact they usually could care less about you using their service unless you're in the millions or nearing it.

Honestly, as someone who makes and watches videos I look for quality. You can produce as many videos as possible, but if they're all garbage then people will stop watching or not watch at all and if views go down, so do subs which in turn kills your channel.

 

[Jungle Explorer]

YouTube has long had a very skewed way of doing things. However, it is an automated process. They do not sit there and watch your videos, in fact they usually could care less about you using their service unless you're in the millions or nearing it.

Honestly, as someone who makes and watches videos I look for quality. You can produce as many videos as possible, but if they're all garbage then people will stop watching or not watch at all and if views go down, so do subs which in turn kills your channel.

Very true, but you by the same token, no matter how good your videos are, if they never get found because youtube penalizes you for taking too much time on them, then you are still killing your channel.

The simple truth is, as my graphs clearly shows, youtube does care about small channels, but only if they are cranking out massive amounts of content.

Big channels don't need YouTube's help to get found. It is the small channels that need help to get noticed. So small channels have to cater to YouTube's Quantity over Quality policy.

 

[Dutchie Abroad]

I think the above evidence is very clear. Youtube only cares about quantity and not quality.

This seems an incorrect conclusion to draw, as quality isn't in a direct correlation to not uploading daily. What Youtube cares about is consistenty. As most people know, Youtube is trying to compete with television. That is why they are stimulating channels that have longer videos and more content. They want people to spend more time on their platform. However, in order to do this they also need quality.

Nobody is going to fully watch at a 30 minute playthrough with less than HD qulity and a creaking microphone. Watchers care about quality, and thus will Youtube. The algorithm is indeed designed to push channels/videos that are wathced regulary and as you can imagine, videos that are pushed, but not watched are dropped out. So yes, quality matters.

This ties in closely with the discussion that big companies are taking over Youtube, because they are able to crank out high quality content every day. It is all related to how Youtube is trying to be a profitable business, not a platform trying to makes us rich and famous.

 

[FleXiNaToR]

I think this statement is correct to a certain extent. Quality over quantity definitely is better then quantity over quality because the viewer won't sub to you because you make a video everyday but because you make quality content. Youtube say that they will promote your videos if you post consistently.The difficult part about this is that it gets hard to keep that quality if you post consistently,You should try to balance the two.

 

[Jungle Explorer]

This seems an incorrect conclusion to draw, as quality isn't in a direct correlation to not uploading daily. What Youtube cares about is consistenty. As most people know, Youtube is trying to compete with television. That is why they are stimulating channels that have longer videos and more content. They want people to spend more time on their platform. However, in order to do this they also need quality.

Nobody is going to fully watch at a 30 minute playthrough with less than HD qulity and a creaking microphone. Watchers care about quality, and thus will Youtube. The algorithm is indeed designed to push channels/videos that are wathced regulary and as you can imagine, videos that are pushed, but not watched are dropped out. So yes, quality matters.

This ties in closely with the discussion that big companies are taking over Youtube, because they are able to crank out high quality content every day. It is all related to how Youtube is trying to be a profitable business, not a platform trying to makes us rich and famous.

There is certainly a lot of truth here, but you are forgetting one really important factor. It is called, YOU tube, not Big Business tube.

Do you know what YouTube's original slogan was? I do. I have have been with youtube since 2005. The original slogan was, "Broadcast Yourself".

So youtube is a place for individuals to become "Famous". Or at least that was the whole intent of the platform. So you might want to take that into consideration before you say things like, "Youtube is trying to be a profitable business, not a platform trying to makes us rich and famous."

The bottom line is this. The small channels are the Heart and Soul of youtube. The big channels represent a small fraction of the total content that gets uploaded youtube. people come to youtube to see what the little guy has to say. They heare what the big guys have to say all day long on TV radio and everywhere else. People are sick and tired of hearing the big guys. They want to hear from people like them.

This is what Youtube is supposed to be about. That is what the platform was created for. If youtube forgets the small guy, they will end up with the same content as every other platform and will have nothing unique to offer.

If what you say is true, then they really need to ditch the name YOU tube, because it is no longer about the individual anymore.

 

[Dutchie Abroad]

There is certainly a lot of truth here, but you are forgetting one really important factor. It is called, YOU tube, not Big Business tube.

Do you know what YouTube's original slogan was? I do. I have have been with youtube since 2005. The original slogan was, "Broadcast Yourself".

I get your point, but that was 12 years ago. Which business stays the same over that time? I mean, look at Apple. 'Does more, costs less'? Don't think so. Every business evolves over time and will change its business statement and strategies to actually stay a viable business.

The bottom line is this. The small channels are the Heart and Soul of youtube. The big channels represent a small fraction of the total content that gets uploaded youtube. people come to youtube to see what the little guy has to say. They heare what the big guys have to say all day long on TV radio and everywhere else. People are sick and tired of hearing the big guys. They want to hear from people like them.

This is what Youtube is supposed to be about. That is what the platform was created for. If youtube forgets the small guy, they will end up with the same content as every other platform and will have nothing unique to offer.

I absolutely agree with this and I'm pretty sure Youtube knows this as well. Eventhough it doesn't look like it, they do support their top creators and are trying to cultivate new talent (with advise and training courses). But they need to lure in those big companies as well to grow as a business.

If what you say is true, then they really need to ditch the name YOU tube, because it is no longer about the individual anymore.

Ah, sadly it doesn't work like that. Youtube is a brand to stay. Imagine if Apple suddenly changed to 'Pear' or 'Cloud' or 'Concrete'. That's years of brand loyalty and recognition gone. Youtube will stay Youtube, even if the You part will become smaller over time. Which it won't, in my opinion. As you sad, the small (and big) channels of creators are the heart and soul of Youtube. But that does not make this platform any less of a business.

 

[Sinc]

Complicated to say but a mixture of both would have great results on any channel. Neither matters if you wish to reach the trending tab though, that has been proven to be greatly biased and accessible only to those who youtube themselves deem worthy, even if their work isn't "trending".

 

[Yachts For Sale]

From your post I don't think that even you believe that YouTube does not care about quality. You describe the process that you go through for every video you publish, and it clearly takes up a fair amount of your time, so would I be safe in assuming that the videos you uploaded as a part of this test were of your usual quality?
The test would be more accurate if you uploaded any old rubbish, since you want to find out if YouTube places no importance on quality.

What YouTube "wants" is for viewers to enjoy spending time on the platform, advertisers to spend money with them, and creators to keep uploading content.

The question of what is a "quality" video is quite another matter. A video that is technically brilliant might also be incredibly boring, so as far as YouTube is concerned I think that the level of engagement is the best metric for quality. Watch Time gets pole position on your analytics page for that reason...it would be interesting to see the same set of stats that you posted above, but for watch time. I'm guessing that it is pretty much the same?

I get your point, but that was 12 years ago. Which business stays the same over that time? I mean, look at Apple. 'Does more, costs less'? Don't think so. Every business evolves over time and will change its business statement and strategies to actually stay a viable business.

Good answer!!! Did you say in another post that you study marketing?

 

[Jungle Explorer]

I agree that youtube is a business, but that does not mean it cannot fail due to bad policy decisions made by people who forgot their base. I have lived long enough to see the biggest fail. Take Yahoo for example. Or Microsoft. Microsoft was once the only game in town. Now, it is in a destant third place in some markets and not even a player anymore in the smartphone market. They still have a good position in the business market because of depenency, but are losing ground to open source, with some countries leaving them. AnD where is Kmart?..... Even the undefeatable giant walmart has lost it's original vision and is losing huge ground to amzon.com.

The SMALL creator is the backbone of youtube. YouTube's anti-small creator policies are creating a hole, and someone will step up to fill it. You simply can't start a business around the little guy and them forget the little guy and expect to well