Geno A.
Member
Okay - I'm done beating around the bush. I've always felt this way, but I've always been too afraid to publicly voice my thoughts on the "popularity" mechanism of Youtube.
First a bit about me: I am a Let's Play content creator (big surprise there, dime-a-dozen and all), I have been for about 6 years off, and on. My friend and I created the channel I currently host on. We initially were only interested in making on-off Skyrim Mod videos, podcast like blogs, and other video game related guff.
Sadly, he passed away about 7 months ago and it's been a long road of mourning, anger, and depression. I'm happy to say though, that through my inheritance of our channel, uploading onto it, and continuously making content for it has not only been therapeutic, but has also allowed me to see just how much I enjoy using YouTube.
Outside of my small, totally isolated community - my enjoyment ends there.
I am lucky - through my friend's commentary, and my editing skills, we amassed an audience of about 5k right before he passed. Since then it has grown another 2.5k (unfortunately the majority of these subs only subbed for my now defunct Skyrim Mod Show... but that's a different story.) I took these subs in stride and I still to this day create content without the thought of having to please and pander to people to get subs.
Some people play YouTube as a game... I play video games as games. The opposite is just silly.
But yet there are COUNTLESS articles across the web about "How to increase subscriber numbers!" or, "How to drive up your likes!" ... Here's a little secret: it's all b******t.
You can make playlists, add annotations, make silly thumbnails, pander to every Tom, d**k, and Harry out there, and you'll still end up below 1k subs for your entirety on YouTube.
Say you might: "Well I've reached 5k subs! My channel is healthy and growing!" Wonderful - I'm pleased with you honestly, but don't expect your 5k to double overnight... in fact expect it to slow down dramatically as either you become invested in things other than YouTube, or your subs grow tired of your gameplay style.
Now to be clear - there are those middle-tier YouTubers who have 50k-100k subs and do well for themselves, but the train had to start at a station somewhere. Almost always it's a niche that they grew and evolved.
Much like the noxious world we live in - society is ruled by the rich and the crafty. I am lucky - I am neither.
Pewdiepie, Game Grumps, Captain Sparklez - regardless of quality of quantity, these people either somehow grew their niche audience into a phenomenon through the creation of inter-channel jokes, aggressive collaboration campaigns with other popular Youtubers, and connections to upper-tier Youtubers.
Something ain't right. Maybe it's just how the world works - on any given amount of time, things will ultimately become saturated and starved for innovation, leading to an inflation of stale ideas. Only the few who were there first, that mythical 1-Million subscriber YouTuber, will be able to seek their fortune from their work.
My advice - have fun. Do your thing, but don't let the aggravation of subscriber counts, and views consume you.
To all my LP friends - it's a challenging world out there, and it doesn't get any better. Cherish your milestones, but cherish your enjoyment of creativity more.
- Geno
First a bit about me: I am a Let's Play content creator (big surprise there, dime-a-dozen and all), I have been for about 6 years off, and on. My friend and I created the channel I currently host on. We initially were only interested in making on-off Skyrim Mod videos, podcast like blogs, and other video game related guff.
Sadly, he passed away about 7 months ago and it's been a long road of mourning, anger, and depression. I'm happy to say though, that through my inheritance of our channel, uploading onto it, and continuously making content for it has not only been therapeutic, but has also allowed me to see just how much I enjoy using YouTube.
Outside of my small, totally isolated community - my enjoyment ends there.
I am lucky - through my friend's commentary, and my editing skills, we amassed an audience of about 5k right before he passed. Since then it has grown another 2.5k (unfortunately the majority of these subs only subbed for my now defunct Skyrim Mod Show... but that's a different story.) I took these subs in stride and I still to this day create content without the thought of having to please and pander to people to get subs.
Some people play YouTube as a game... I play video games as games. The opposite is just silly.
But yet there are COUNTLESS articles across the web about "How to increase subscriber numbers!" or, "How to drive up your likes!" ... Here's a little secret: it's all b******t.
You can make playlists, add annotations, make silly thumbnails, pander to every Tom, d**k, and Harry out there, and you'll still end up below 1k subs for your entirety on YouTube.
Say you might: "Well I've reached 5k subs! My channel is healthy and growing!" Wonderful - I'm pleased with you honestly, but don't expect your 5k to double overnight... in fact expect it to slow down dramatically as either you become invested in things other than YouTube, or your subs grow tired of your gameplay style.
Now to be clear - there are those middle-tier YouTubers who have 50k-100k subs and do well for themselves, but the train had to start at a station somewhere. Almost always it's a niche that they grew and evolved.
Much like the noxious world we live in - society is ruled by the rich and the crafty. I am lucky - I am neither.
Pewdiepie, Game Grumps, Captain Sparklez - regardless of quality of quantity, these people either somehow grew their niche audience into a phenomenon through the creation of inter-channel jokes, aggressive collaboration campaigns with other popular Youtubers, and connections to upper-tier Youtubers.
Something ain't right. Maybe it's just how the world works - on any given amount of time, things will ultimately become saturated and starved for innovation, leading to an inflation of stale ideas. Only the few who were there first, that mythical 1-Million subscriber YouTuber, will be able to seek their fortune from their work.
My advice - have fun. Do your thing, but don't let the aggravation of subscriber counts, and views consume you.
To all my LP friends - it's a challenging world out there, and it doesn't get any better. Cherish your milestones, but cherish your enjoyment of creativity more.
- Geno
Last edited:
