Should I Just Do What's Popular?

[videoeditgr]

It's extremely discouraging to spend a s**t ton of time and effort into a video only for it to fail.

It doesn't fail.
It will be there, tomorrow, next year etc.
phaistos disk took 2000 years to be famous and decoded! hahahah!...
You never know.
Anyway:
If it was fun doing it, if you did it as a passion project, it worth the time and effort.

 

[Destroyer30i6]

As people have mentioned, it is purely down to why/what makes you do Youtube. The perfect scenario is you can combine the two, however, that is not always possible. If you purely did the hot topics and latest trends, would you enjoy it as much as when you do videos you enjoy? if the answer is yes then great... if it is a no then it may start to reflect in your content (not that into it, less effort)

I personally try and do both, but I don't force it, if it doesn't work for me I don't do it. I know when I make videos purely for the clickbait the videos aren't as funny and I don't put that extra effort into making it funny or 'perfect' because my heart isn't in it.

Something to think about, if you are energetic, fun, interesting, and relatable, people will watch your videos regardless, yes you may not get the massive CPM that comes with a clickbait video but you will organically grow a following.

 

[ssatchell]

Because whenever I make a video that I wanna do, if it isn't a hot topic or some kind of clickbait, it fails tremendously.
I spent an entire month on my latest video, and it only has about 50 views. Yet my most popular videos have a few thousand views.
Should I just make sure that I'm only making videos based on what's currently popular? It's extremely discouraging to spend a s**t ton of time and effort into a video only for it to fail.

I think that you should do you. It depends on what you're priorities and mindset on creating is. If you want to do it as a hobby and for fun, you do you! You shouldn't care about the numbers in this case, because in the end who's life are you living? If you're doing it for career purposes I guess you could follow the crowd and do what is the hot trend. But if you want to combine both then you could do what's popular but put your own little twist on it, doing so will be like your "trademark".

 

[GrannyGamer]

I agree with most comments here, it really depends on what your look for with yt. If you don't do what's popular or trending less people will find you. However, once you have a good loyal base of subs, they will end up watching whatever you do as you become the clickbait for the person you are, not so much the content. I see some of the biggest youtube gamers playing really old, unpopular games and they get hundreds of thousands of clicks purely as it's them that's playing it, not the game itself. Be true to you and find that nice balance, best of luck!

 

[petehawkmusic]

Find a nice balance between the two. You'll find your own place and if your heart's into it, others will be too because the good qualities will shine through.