The reason why you won't succed

[Courtney Candice]

Ever work in a warehouse or retailer job? Crappy pay and it takes years to make something decent. Don't expect YouTube to work a different way. Every first step in anything is going to be a struggle. This is what they call the build up!!!

I agree with 100%

 

[World's Greatest]

one who wants to succed on Youtube should start by learning how to make a 2min long entertaining video, then a 3min long etc.. "

Oh, I got this one down pat. I have even went into the 13hrs video a few times. But it is still a lot of work. It's not something I learn though, it's just that I am using a software that no one else has. If I don't have this software, I could never be a youtuber.

In the end, I don't think it is creating entertaining videos to improve watch time. If everyone create entertaining videos, they are still fighting for the same views. Like what I heard when I was young - "Do things in this world that only you could do." Create content that no one else in this world could duplicate unless they expand a lot of money and time.

 

[adams eats]

Overall watch time is more important than retention. My retention isn't the best (32% overall, and 50% for subs) but overall watch time is growing rapidly. Which could correlate as to why suggested is my number one traffic source at the moment, below that is search and browse features.

 

[Wookiees]

I have 1,325 subscribers right now and average about 4000-5000 views per vid. if I went about 5-6 videos in a row that got only 50 views, I would definitely quit. If there wasn't any growth from the start, I'd also quit as well.

What i'm saying here is that if someone came on this forum to learn how to get more audience and after 1 or 2 years of hard work here they still have 50 views it's not because they don't have enough luck but because they keep making video that nobody wants to watch. We all know a lot of channels making weird videos with a lot of success. To my mind the subject of the video is not the problem.

That's not the point. The point is that overall watch time is more important than retention. It's been tested quite heavily now. Follow the YouTube figureheads and you'll see what I mean. 10-minute watch time for a 30-minute video (33% retention) is better than a 5-minute watch time for a 10-minute video (50% retention). There's a reason why watch time is shown in your analytics dashboard and not retention.

Proof?

This is all based on speculation. Again, there are people and channels that have dissected the algorithm much more extensively.

Ok so say I'm a small youtuber and i made a 20min long video with 4min watch time. What does it mean for my channel ? -Better seo, more chance get a viral video
Now say I made a 5min long video with 4min watch time (80% awt). What does it mean for my small channel ? -People went through the entire video, so from what i experciend youtube's algorithm will start showing your videos in their recommandations. Than has an immediate impact on the views. Proof ? Very easy to verify by finding two videos... So I keep saying that whatever you say in your video, if it has a 10% awt you can't consider that you are making quality content. Last but no least, to my mind (without any proofs) the chance that someone subs to your channel or watch your other videos, is much more higher with this kind of content, instead of 20min longs video that have 10% wt.

That being said I don't think that making a video with 80% awt is easy. It requires a lot of work to learn of the speak to the viewers, learn how to ask rhetorical questions to arouse one's curiosity for the 30 next seconds, then another another question to keep them 30 more seconds etc.. But achieving this goal of making high retention videos will definitely be more helpfull than making 10min+ long video with 10% awt which brings nothing to "SMALL" youtubers.

To be clear, of course watch time is important, however learning how to get high retention will be much more beneficial to small youtubers. By starting with 2min long videos and aiming at 80% awt, they will learn how to make 3min, then 4min, .., then15min long videos with the same awt, and at the same time they will gather a huge audience naturally. So one more time this subject must be much more debated than "when should I upload my video ?" ..

 

[Alexander Hoff]

My old channel has simple crappy video that has over 400k views. Most views are from the last 2 years even though the video is 8 years old... It got barely anything the first few years.

It's a crappy video but it's something people are actually searching for. There are way more interesting videos that do the exact same thing.


I've seen tons of amazing videos with no views and horrible videos with tons of views!

Same with channels. I've stumbled upon people who are WAY better than me at making music, but they still have less subscribers and views!

 

[KatyAdelson]

I see what you mean -- content IS king. Being able to take a step back and analyze your work honestly is an important skill to practice. It's also very hard to do - you made the video and spent a lot of time on it and tend to be bias about how good you think it is. If you wait a year or two and rewatch the video, it may come across as cringy and not nearly as good as what you thought of it when you first made it.

Because it's hard to see how "good" your content really is from your own opinion, it's best to look at YouTube analytics for some insight. Retention time is a great statistic because it doesn't lie. You can see exactly when people start to lose interest in your video and perhaps find patterns that you may be able to optimize.

Even still, Watch time is said to be what is currently driving the system. I think YouTube realized that dinging a channel that created a 2-hour documentary with a 30-minute watch time (25% retention) vs. a channel that made a 2 minute video with a 2 minute watch time (100% retention) wouldn't right. I think any channel that can get their users staring at their computer screen for 30 minutes is worth promoting, and I'd imagine YouTube would think something similar. I'm sure there is some optimal video length vs %retention that will cause YouTube to push your videos out the furthest with the lowest amount of effort. I'm not really interested in finding that balance, but I'm sure there are people out there who are trying to figure it out.

That said, all of the other things, like SEO, thumbnails, etc., are still super important! They are tools to help find an audience. YouTube does it's Recommended video thing, but the tags and thumbnail need to be optimized to have people click on the video through the search results. "YouTube recommended videos" are driven by the algorithm and video performance. This stuff is beyond our control once the video has been published, but we can still control our tags and thumbnails! ^_^

 

[Uncivilized Elk]

Watch time is more important than audience retention on the whole when it comes to YT promoting your videos on the homepage and suggested videos.

A 20 minute video with 50% retention will become suggested far more than a 5 minute video with 80% retention.
I haven't seen anybody actually try to make an average equation for when the two begin to even out though. Striving for videos of a certain length is pointless though. All you should strive for is videos people will watch a lot of, how long or short should depend solely on the content itself, not on your hopes of getting promoted.

 

[Yachts For Sale]

I'm really surprised that everybody are giving pieces of advice about titles, keyword, the right time to post videos, the lenght a video should have etc.. but anybody wonders "how to engage my audience ?", "How to make videos with 80% or more average watch time", "what will make a viewer to come back to my channel after seing one of my video ?"

Personally I would welcome more threads that discuss strategies that lead to greater engagement and consequently longer watch time periods.

Threads that deal with SEO in all it's many forms are certainly interesting and some of the advice on this forum has been helpful to me, but it is always good to hear about tactics that keep viewers "on the hook" too.

I think that maybe the reason that there are not too many discussions on the subject is that whilst SEO is a fairly scientific subject that creators are happy to admit they need to learn, video quality on the other hand can be quite emotive. For many creators their videos are their "babies", and considering that the quality of the video is poor is like admitting that you have an ugly baby. Nobody wants to do that.

the source of the problem is a lack of self criticism

I'd have to agree with that too. To improve the quality of your videos you really have to be prepared to accept that others do it better than you and learn from their example.

 

[World's Greatest]

but overall watch time is growing rapidly.

I thought cooking channels have good watch time, it seemed I was right. The viewers have to watch every minutes to get the information from the video. Congrats.

 

[Daisyah]

I get what you are saying cause after 2 years it would seem like you should be more accomplished than that, I honestly feel that I would want to give up after two years with little growth but then again some people don't do YouTube for the success some people just dont really care.