- Hey, good morning everybody,
and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible.
By the way, today's title and thumbnail,
yeah, it was click bait.
And why was it click bait?
Well, hang on one second while I feed Perdita,
and I'm gonna tell you all about it.
Come on, little Perdit-er.
Whoa, whoa!
There you go, girl.
Whoo!
Tell ya, she is a pretty animal, isn't she?
Unbelievably breathtaking.
Well, you guys know that my mission statement in life
is to reach people about reptiles,
to get them to get in love with reptiles,
to understand reptiles,
to understand how absolutely incredible they are.
Well, the way the system works is that
you gotta put out a sensational title and thumbnail.
Now, I don't like to do what I did today and click bait,
but I did want to make an example of it.
And my point is is that,
does the title and thumbnail really matter that much?
In this case, maybe it kind of does.
Come on Al, come on, bud.
Here you go, baby.
Here we go.
Up, up, up, up, ahh, there you go.
Of course,
Al Machino, the beautiful Machino reticulated python,
absolutely wonderful snake, and the thing is,
is that the way the system kind of works, unfortunately,
on YouTube, on platforms like this, is that the only thing
that we have is a title and thumbnail
to grab people's attention, right?
Now, I know the loyal people that watch me no matter what,
you're going to watch me no matter what,
but honestly, the proof is that if you don't have
kind of a title and thumbnail
that catches people's attention,
you are not going to get as many views.
I know you guys always say,
"It doesn't matter about the title and thumbnail,
"it's about your content.
"You're too good for this stuff,"
but that's unfortunately just not the way things work.
If you don't get people to click,
they will not serve it up to as many people.
We sometimes have a generic title,
and I would love to always do that,
that gets like 50% of the views
as something that's a little bit more sensational.
For instance, the other day,
we actually had a video that was titled
"My Albino Monitor Lizard Attacks Me!"
Oh my gosh, speaking about attack,
this is going to be interesting with Casper.
Come on, buddy.
Come on.
Whoa! Whoa.
Come on, come on, you got it, you g-- ugh.
Whoo, doggy, I tell you what.
Now the thing is, I've got to ask you guys, you know,
do you see a movie title and say the movie sucks?
Do you see a TV title and say that series is horrible?
No, you probably watch it and then make that decision.
Now, maybe the video sucked, I have no idea,
but the fact is is that a lot of times,
people will read the title of a YouTube video
and then make a decision
on that YouTube video's value on that.
Now, did I get attacked by the monitor?
Kind of, yeah.
I mean, he nipped me a couple of times.
He tore me up with his nails, but did he really attack me?
You know, probably, that was a little bit pushing the thing.
And I don't like to do like what I did today,
which is basically lie to you.
I did not almost get eaten by a big snake,
but the only reason I did that
was because I wanted to kind of prove a point, you know,
it's about the content, not about the title.
I wish we didn't have to make a title a little bit more
sensational and the thumbnail sensational.
I wish we didn't have to do that,
but the fact is is that I want to reach people,
and if I can't reach people, it's not going to work.
You know, I can't do a video
every single day for 1,500 and something days
if I'm not reaching people, right?
And unfortunately, I didn't write the game.
I'm just playing the game of how it works.
I'm in a little predicament here
because Ivy actually shed out,
take a look at her shed right here.
It looks absolutely gorgeous.
Now keep in mind that I have been feeding some pigs off,
and so I have kind of that smell right now.
I don't want to get too close to Ivy,
'cause she's going to think I'm food, but wow.
Look at the size of that shed.
This looks like a perfect shed here, too.
Wow, this thing is beautiful!
Originally when I saw it,
I thought that it might be broken up,
but to be honest with you,
it looks like almost a perfect shed.
Wow, that's incredible.
Now the predicament that I'm in is the fact that
I thawed out food for Aries, who's back over here,
but I didn't thaw anything out for Ivy
because I didn't think she was going to shed today.
So I'm going to have to get Aries out
and feed him outside of the enclosure,
because Ivy will definitely go steal that food,
for no doubt about it.
But look at the size of that shed right there.
Ooh, doggy, girl, you're looking beautiful!
And just take a look at the size of that.
I mean, that is one long shed.
And I always talk about, you know,
I've said this every time Ivy sheds,
don't measure your shed,
'cause this is at least four foot longer
than she actually is, but that's a long shed,
that's pretty amazing.
So I'll spread it out, I'll dry it out,
and we usually just hang it from the tree
and stuff like that
because it's just too cool to throw away.
And by the way,
when I say that you don't want to throw these away,
we have a bunch of these, so do me a favor.
If you're in the U.S., comment down below, let me know.
I'll pick a random commenter,
and I'll actually mail the shed to you.
Again, it'll offset the comments of hatred
for the click bait of the title, if that makes any sense,
but we'll dry this out, get it all set up.
We'll wrap it up and ship it off to you, again,
down in the comments,
but unfortunately, only if you're in the U.S.,
because we can't export even a snakeskin
without CITES paperwork,
because it is a CITES 2 appendix animal,
so only in the United States.
(low-fi funky music)
Sunfire, wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!
Come on, girl, come on.
(guttural sound)
Oh, she's ready to go.
She's looking beautiful, what a good snake.
And I tell you what, I guarantee you,
mark my words, guys.
I guarantee you that I will get more dislikes on this video,
and I will even give some bad comments
about the title and thumbnail, which I understand.
I mean, maybe I deserve it today
'cause I did click bait you guys,
but it was about the point.
Whenever I have a little bit more sensational thumbnail
and title, I get more dislikes
and I get more negative comments,
but the negative comments
are never on the content of the video,
they're always on the title itself,
which I think is just weird, you know what I mean?
It's like, watch the video, then if you don't like the video
and you want to comment, that's fine.
I mean, you can completely do that,
but unfortunately, again,
it's the way the system works, right?
I mean, it's just unfortunate, but we don't have anything
but a title and thumbnail to attract people.
Again, like I said earlier,
the people that follow me all the time,
you're going to watch all the time
and I appreciate you so, so much,
but we have to expand and actually get new people,
and the only way to get new people is when YouTube serves up
as a recommended or suggested video,
and they look at the title and go,
"Oh my gosh, I've gotta watch that, that looks really cool,"
and then you hope that you grab them with the content
and start educating them and entertaining them
and get them to become reptile lovers, right?
And that's why I do what I do,
and I think it's weird
that sometimes I get a lot of backlash for it.
But let me know in the comments
if you guys are starting to understand the mindset,
why I actually try sensational titles and thumbnails
to get people to watch.
Like I mentioned earlier,
a little bit of a dilemma when it comes to these guys,
because I want to feed Aries today,
but Ivy, now that she's shed,
she's going to want to steal his food.
So what I'm going to do is
actually try to get him out of the cage,
but he is definitely going to be smelling food,
so it's a little bit tricky.
Come on Aries.
Let's go, bud.
Oh, this is when it gets dangerous.
Oh!
- [Cameraman] Ooh!
- Don't try this at home.
So I'm going to basically do what a lot of people do
with, like, a feeding tub, right?
So I'm going to put them in here,
and then I'll offer him food.
Hey, ready, buddy?
Come on.
Whoa, yeah, he took it just as soon as he smelled it,
he was like, he was on the run there for a minute,
but as soon as he was like, "Oh wait, there's a smell,"
he grabbed it immediately,
so we'll just go ahead, put them in here,
and let him feed in here, away from Ivy,
so that they don't fight over food,
and then after he's done, I'll put him back.
I'll probably give an hour or so
for the smell to kind of go down a little bit,
then I'll put him back just so they don't fight,
but tell you what, he's a little Anaconda,
but it still took a bit of energy to get them out of there.
(low-fi funky music)
Night Fury has been extra crazy here lately,
I mean, really crazy,
and I don't like the way he's up on his glass
by any stretch, because that's going to mean
he's going to come down a lot quicker.
Night Fury, come on, buddy.
Come on.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Here we go, and there you go.
There it is.
Whoo!
I tell you what, how perfect is that?
I mean, the fact that a snake
can literally be target trained is crazy to me.
It's absolutely incredible,
and again, he's been really food aggressive
this last little bit, so this is going to come in handy
to kind of break them of that again.
What a beautiful snake.
Moomoo time!
Whew.
There you go, oh my gosh, she was ready to go.
Woohoo, doggie!
I tell you what, that's crazy.
Now I'll be honest with you, when we first started YouTube,
certainly with Snakebites TV,
if you guys haven't checked out that channel,
maybe you shouldn't, I'm not sure,
but that was super sensational,
and maybe even in early on in the vlog,
we did some sensational content,
but we work really, really hard
to make the content that we produce not sensational.
We want people to really see
a great, positive side of reptiles.
Now, do I occasionally mess up?
Of course I do.
I mean, I'm human and stuff like that,
but I mean, the content that we do now,
we really feel is educational, entertaining and positive,
you know?
And so it does suck a little bit
when you get beat up about a title,
because you're like, "Well, wait a second,
"why did you watch the rest of the video?"
And I don't mean to complain guys, because again,
I'm very blessed,
but I'd like to know from you guys
down in the comments too what you think, like,
is there a solution that I can do where
it's, you know, kind of both ways?
I don't know, again, I understand YouTube,
'cause this is what I do,
and a lot of times people don't understand that
by putting out a non-sensational or a bland title,
you just won't get a lot of views,
I mean, that's just, it's the reality of it,
and that is unfortunately the way it is.
I don't know what you guys think.
You know, let me know in the comments what you think,
'cause I don't want to upset people,
and I don't want more dislikes on this video than normal
because it's click bait-ish or whatever the case is,
and again, maybe I deserve it on this one, but again,
I did this whole thing
because I really wanted to talk to you about this
and to see what the future should be, you know?
I mean, how do we address this in the future
so that we're being the best possible beacons of positivity
in the reptile community?
(low-fi funky music)
I think my guy Snazzy is ready to go.
All the snakes today were so fired up to eat for sure.
Come on, Snazzers, come on, buddy boy.
Come on, come on, here you go.
Whoop, oh, there you are.
Whew, I tell you what, love feeding snakes,
and when I feed snakes,
it gives me a chance to talk to you guys.
And again, I'm sorry if I offend anyone
with our titles and thumbnails,
just remember that I'm really doing it
really to try to reach people, you know?
I mean, it's, we put a lot of work into the vlog,
we put a lot of work into all our social,
and it would be silly to work that hard
and to potentially not be able to reach the people
that we would love to reach, right?
So in the end,
I hope that you understand why I do the type of things
that I do, and like I said, other than today,
I don't lie to you.
I may just kind of stretch the truth a little bit
if that makes any sense.
I've always going to have it.
I mean, again, the albino monitor,
absolutely was crazy trying to attack me,
but we just took it to the next level,
so I hope that you understand that,
and I hope that you forgive me if I offended you.
So I hope this explains a little bit,
and it is a little advice
if you're starting a YouTube channel,
I'm telling you, if you do it the right way,
don't lie to people,
but make sure that people want to click on your video.
It's going to help you a tremendous amount.
If you enjoyed this feeding video,
here's a playlist right here.
You can see all kinds of feeding videos.
If you enjoy that, right up here, can you do me a favor?
Subscribe to my podcast.
I talk about topics like this in longterm,
an hour or two hours we'll talk about stuff like that.
Really get into the definition.
On this side, I hope that you're subscribed
to this vlog channel.
If you're not, hit that subscription button,
turn your post notifications on,
have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to someone,
and I promise, I'll see you tomorrow.