[Question] How to improve?

[PsySpy Gaming]

I'm going to start this off by stating what I've already been told and that I really don't have any control over at the moment as I've been working with what I have.

1. Sound quality. I do have a new mic on the way (Zalman ZM-Mic1) that is definitely going to be better than the one that I currently use on my Logitech C525 720p webcam. Beyond that, I need a job or another source of income to get the Blue Yeti that I'm craving.

2. 1080p recordings. I don't want to record and upload in 1080p if I can avoid it at the moment. That is mostly due to system constraints and the amount of time it takes to upload as well as the much larger filesize.

3. Webcam Quality. While I do want the Logitech C920 1080p camera, it's going to be a little bit before I can afford that too. As above, I'm stuck with the Logitech C525 720p until I can get some steady income.

I've been doing my best to improve on my emotiveness and being more 'open' in my videos. I'm almost 100 videos into my channel and my growth is rather stagnant. I've seen channels with five videos have five times as many subs as me.

I try not to script anything and do my best just to react to what's going on in the game as well as commentate on what I see or what I am doing at that point in time. I haven't 'finished' a game yet because most of the time the shorter games that I could have finished are heavily unpopular.

I really just don't know what I need to do. What sort of phases did you go through to improve your quality over video, sound, emotiveness, and just trying to find a way to draw people to your channel?

 

[xingcat]

If you are 100 videos in and you're not seeing growth, then you need to consider if your subject matter is one that will bring people in. Can you maybe try something completely different, just to see if that type of title will get you more views.

Outside of YouTube, how are you promoting yourself? Do you have some regular social media presences you can use to promote your videos? Do you regularly engage with the subscribers you have? Do you regularly engage with other YouTubers who do the same types of videos as you, and have you tried to collab with them or find some other way to help one another?

There's so much going on with YouTube that it takes a lot of concerted thought and energy to build and maintain an audience, so keep going at it, and improve on the things you can, shake up the things that aren't working, and remember that YouTube is a platform, but the people who are watching are what's important.

 

[PsySpy Gaming]

I generally reply to the comments when I notice them. So yes, I do interact with what subs that do actively comment and view my thread. I 'know' there is some sort of problem with YouTube suspending accounts unnecessarily though as well as removing subs from people. I've slowed down on certain videos (Yandere Simulator specifically) because almost my entire audience for that was torn away from me, and YouTube just shrugs and thinks there's no problem with their system.

I use Reddit for the most part to pull in views to my videos, it is rather difficult to stand out with the over-saturation of content there. My videos automatically go onto my Twitter as well, though I only have like 10 followers there. I was promoting more often on Google+ but I've slowed down to series that I actually enjoy and maybe promoting myself there like once or twice a week.

I have a relatively small group of gamers that I work with, but then I'm a little bit biased as to what games I wish to play and/or watch. I don't like CS:Go or CoD videos. I'd rather 'play' League of Legends and Hearthstone than watch someone else play it. Not to mention, those four games are seriously overabundant on YouTube as Let's Plays.

 

[Coffee Nova]

Maybe doing a collab would help? Also I think you should try other traffic sources than just Reddit. Maybe return to other Google + circles or look into Facebook groups for growing Youtubers or those for the types of games you play.

Someone on here gave the advice that however long you spend promoting a video should at least equal the amount of time you spent editing that video. Right now that is something I'm trying to improve myself but I think it is good advice and it has stuck with me.

Also I checked out your twitter and it mostly just the videos you posted but little engagement with anyone. People don't want to follow a twitter just for announcements like that -- don't be afraid to use it to reach out and network a little.

Hope some of this helps. Mostly I think you just have to keep up the grind and try not to think about subs and views so much at this stage. As long as you are enjoying the games you play and record that is all that matters.

 

[Meghan Alex]

I definitely think a collab would help you out, friend. Sometimes channels just get dead- have you tried changing up your themes and such?

 

[PsySpy Gaming]

I just changed out my logo recently, in fact, yesterday. My Banner is new within the last week or so. I re-branded a bit from PsySpy84 to PsySpy Gaming, because the 84 seems unprofessional. My biggest thing is that I lost a huge amount of subs in a YouTube glitch and some of the stuff I was doing on my channel was for them because they were asking for it. Then.. they all went poof overnight because YouTube decided to suspend like a million accounts in one night. Only 55 of them were on my channel, but a lot of YouTubers had the same issue and YouTube said 'not our problem' pretty much.[DOUBLEPOST=1462756356,1462756112][/DOUBLEPOST]

Someone on here gave the advice that however long you spend promoting a video should at least equal the amount of time you spent editing that video. Right now that is something I'm trying to improve myself but I think it is good advice and it has stuck with me.

Also I checked out your twitter and it mostly just the videos you posted but little engagement with anyone. People don't want to follow a twitter just for announcements like that -- don't be afraid to use it to reach out and network a little.

It doesn't take me a super long time to edit a video and usually I spend more time than that promoting it. It's just that I don't feel like I am 'standing out' from other people. And I do engage a bit with people, but mostly with Katie and Sam_KIA (a youtuber that just hit 15k subs). I don't have a lot of people to connect with and I don't really know 'how' to connect with people very well. I'm pretty socially inept. One of my friends wants to do a Minecraft Let's Play Collab and I'm like.. I'm sick of minecraft and there are a bazillion minecraft videos on YouTube.

 

[Coffee Nova]

I just changed out my logo recently, in fact, yesterday. My Banner is new within the last week or so. I re-branded a bit from PsySpy84 to PsySpy Gaming, because the 84 seems unprofessional. My biggest thing is that I lost a huge amount of subs in a YouTube glitch and some of the stuff I was doing on my channel was for them because they were asking for it. Then.. they all went poof overnight because YouTube decided to suspend like a million accounts in one night. Only 55 of them were on my channel, but a lot of YouTubers had the same issue and YouTube said 'not our problem' pretty much.[DOUBLEPOST=1462756356,1462756112][/DOUBLEPOST]

It doesn't take me a super long time to edit a video and usually I spend more time than that promoting it. It's just that I don't feel like I am 'standing out' from other people. And I do engage a bit with people, but mostly with Katie and Sam_KIA (a youtuber that just hit 15k subs). I don't have a lot of people to connect with and I don't really know 'how' to connect with people very well. I'm pretty socially inept. One of my friends wants to do a Minecraft Let's Play Collab and I'm like.. I'm sick of minecraft and there are a bazillion minecraft videos on YouTube.

Then you need to return to doing what you want to do and not just what former subscribers were asking for. Youtube removes subs and views all the time -- to big and small Youtubers. That is just how their system works to cut down on spam and adsense violations. Best thing is to just move forward with your channel and content and not dwell so much on that inevitable part of Youtube life.

I don't have much advice for connecting to other people because I'm not socially adept myself, but forums like this are a good place to start.

 

[xiplays]

I think my biggest hurdle was being more enthusiastic when talking. I'm always working on it and with every video I can really see the improvement. With me, I feel like I can always improve on something, no matter how satisfactory, or how great it is. Always setting goals for improvement has helped with this stuff.

Any filming I do, I just use my iPhone 5s haha. And I use the phone earphones for audio when I'm doing voice overs. It's not the greatest quality but it's decent enough. I've been having a browse of some new mics though.

 

[PositivelyBrainwashed]

I watched a few videos and I didn't find anything bad about your audio and personality. I think you really just need to buckle down and study how Youtube's SEO works. The first 48 hours is absolute crucial to get lots of views with at least 30% audience retention rate and possible much more if you're in a saturated niche. So after you upload a video, you gotta promote like crazy. If you spent 4 hours on one video, you should probably spend at least 4 hours promoting. This is assuming your title and tag was well researched. You gotta find a way to make it to Youtube's front page in the searches. I looked at a few of your videos and some had no shares, and some with 1-2 shares only on reddit. Consider finding forums specifically to your niche, or facebook groups and find tons of google+ communities.

Reddit alone I can think of at least 4 subbreddits any new youtuber should consider posting their videos on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewTubers/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMoreViewsYT
https://www.reddit.com/r/vids/
https://www.reddit.com/r/unknownvideos/

 

[PsySpy Gaming]

Thanks for the advice PB, I already am subbed to NewTubers though I don't post every single video there as I don't want to spam the whole of reddit with every single video that I make. That being said, I'm subbed to 15 vids channels now (with those three you gave me) and with 10 minutes between posts minimum there, that's 150 hours or effectively 2 and a half hours of promotion just for Reddit. I can start using the few groups I'm a part of in Facebook again as well as Google+. One of the ones for Google+ is specifically for Yandere Sim, so I won't post anything not YanSim related there. But I can join groups that are specific to the types of videos that I'm making.