- Let's talk about the first signs
that your YouTube channel might be failing.
Low subscriber counts, no viral videos, dislikes,
negative comments on your videos,
or the feeling that the YouTube algorithm
just isn't treating you fairly.
If any of these sound like you,
let us know in the comments below
which one you worry about the most,
because I'm here to tell you that our single one of these
has anything to do with a failing channel,
but this does.
(finger snaps)
Alright, alright. Maybe you don't believe me yet.
I get the skepticism,
so let's break down these failing four so that we can
rebuild your confidence and determination to succeed.
But before we do, I have one more very simple question.
Do you enjoy being a YouTuber, a content creator,
whatever you wanna call it?
Are you motivated to spend time, well, a lot of time,
a lot of your spare time not getting paid to do this?
Do you like making videos?
We all share the same answer to that question, right?
- Yes! Yes!
- Good, let's get cracking.
Having a low subscriber count on your channel
after a few months on YouTube is not necessarily
a sign of failure.
After all, it takes time to build an audience on YouTube
and everybody grows at different rates.
Not to mention the countless channels
that are getting way more views than subscribers,
which is typically a great sign.
It means that YouTube is constantly testing the content
with bigger and bigger audiences,
and the subscriber count simply can't keep up with that.
Now, it seems crazy that we still
have to convince creators of this fact,
but subscriber counts are much more a vanity metric
and a means to unlock monetization
than they are a reliable indicator
of an actual audience size of a channel.
And it has been a few years
since I've touched on this subject,
but here's the easiest example to explain what I mean.
Take Mr. Beast and T-Series
when it comes to subscriber counts
for two largest channels on YouTube,
but take a look at their view counts from video to video.
One is very high and consistent
and the other is all over the place.
Now of course, neither review channels
could be described as a failure,
but the subscriber counts on those channels
bear a little relation to the view counts on the videos
as clearly demonstrated
in the biggest example of them all,
different audiences react very differently
to different types of channels.
And as a result, the subscriber count of any channel
is a very unreliable way to judge success.
Return viewers, which is a number you can find
in your own YouTube studio,
is always going to be the number I'll point you towards.
It accurately reflects the health of your channel right now,
in particular, your core community.
Those people who are coming back to your content
on a regular basis.
And if that's growing, your channel is succeeding.
What returning view is typically, one, is consistency.
I know, I know, some of you hate it
when we consistently bring up this important YouTube step,
but it is an absolute fundamental.
It builds the know, like, and trust factor of your channel.
And it does start to the point
where loyal viewers don't really pay attention
to the thumbnail and the title of their favorite creator.
They're just going to watch a video
because it's from their favorite creator.
As for not going viral, being seen as a sign of failure,
be very careful what you wish for.
Obviously by their very nature,
they are rare and often set unrealistic future expectations,
and often, they force you into a niche or a topic
that you just don't much care for.
In actual fact, going viral can actually set you up
for future failure.
What creators tend to discover is that when they go viral,
nothing that follows matches that viral success.
As a result,
all of their channel members fall down a metric mountain
over the following weeks and months,
and that can be a really mentally tough challenge
to understand and overcome.
Incremental improvement is a far more sustainable way
to grow a YouTube channel.
And I think this graph I found on Wono's Twix feed
when we recently interviewed him
is the perfect way of visualizing
the dangers of going viral.
What you are much more likely to encounter on your channel
are what I call viral moments.
This is where one of your videos isn't just a 1 of 10,
but it's 300%, 400%, 500% more views than usual.
Now, that might only be
1,000 views, 10,000 views, 100,000 views,
but it matters a lot to you, right?
And that is the type of moment
that you can feel proud of and celebrate
and most importantly, capitalize on
because it was likely achieved through consistency
and can be replicated.
Really, in all honesty, I would say 99% of creators
should avoid going viral,
and you'll find out why really soon.
And now it's time for a fun fact.
Over its lifetime, the VidIQ channel has received
more than 200,000 dislikes.
And so what we're basically saying here
is that the entire population of Des Moines, Iowa
dislike me.
And I'm cool with that
because I never had any plans to visit there.
There's gonna be one person in the comments
who's gonna take real offense to that, isn't it?
In truth though, I am happy about dislikes
because it means that our content
engages the audience enough to care.
And on the flip side,
you are always going to have more likes than dislikes,
and we've got 4.5 million of them.
As a creator, you have to accept
that you won't please everybody nor should you try to.
In fact, it can be a good thing
to have haters or non-believers.
If people know what you are not,
then they have a better understanding of what you are.
Think Apple, you definitely know who they are as a company
and who they don't appeal to,
and Apple make no apologies for that, and you can apply this
to literally any sports team on the planet.
There will always be more non-believers, haters, and trolls
than there are diehard fans.
But this hasn't stopped
Real Madrid, the New York Yankees, or Dallas Cowboys
from becoming globally recognized entities.
If your videos were getting
no likes, no dislikes, no comments,
I'd be much more worried,
'cause that means your videos aren't doing enough
to make people care.
In your own little way, celebrate those dislikes.
Just don't overthink them and put all of your efforts
into likes and positive comments.
But if you think all of this is nonsense,
I highly recommend you read a book called "Primalbranding."
So the reason I wear these glasses now
and how they become so iconic on the channel,
even though I think they look a bit silly on me.
Now, as for the algorithm
having a vendetta against your channel
because it's too small for YouTube to care,
a complete and total myth.
Over the years, we've done several case studies
that prove this to be wrong.
That includes a gaming channel
that covers a nostalgic 1990s space simulators
that got over 100,000 views on its very first video.
We interviewed a travel couple that quit their channel
so that they could start a new one
and redefine their target audience.
They didn't advertise this new channel
to their old audience.
It was a fresh start and it only took
five days and two videos for that channel to take off.
Look, I don't wanna dive deep
into the algorithm in this video.
Regular viewers, or should I call you return viewers?
Hell, some of you might even be subscribers,
should be well versed by now in the YouTube algorithm
since we've dissected it over the years.
The two main takeaways of a YouTube algorithm are this.
Number one, replace the word algorithm with audience.
Focus on that.
And number two, YouTube doesn't push creators' videos
to viewers.
It's the complete opposite in fact.
Viewers pull in videos
through their own personalization taste and watching habits.
Because here's the thing, you can control your audience,
how you target them, how you communicate with them,
how you engage with them, but you can't do anything
to control the black box that is the YouTube algorithm.
And besides, YouTube themselves
don't even call it an algorithm.
They label it as their search and discovery systems.
But if all of this has nothing to do
with a failing channel, then what's the problem?
Put simply, it's you.
If your subscriber count is causing anxiety
and you're frustrated
that you haven't had a viral video yet,
then you're just gonna feel like YouTube's really hard
and then it becomes a drag and it just feels like a chore.
If dislikes and negative comments
begin to erode your confidence,
then your passion is gonna start to waver.
And if you let the YouTube algorithm control your feelings,
then you'll start to believe that there is no solution
to the impossible.
When you start to think and then feel
that you're failing at YouTube,
I'm afraid it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When it comes to the feeling of failure on YouTube,
I always try to look at it from this point of view.
No matter how small your channel is,
how many struggles you are facing,
or how many challenges you think are impossible right now,
every single successful creator on the YouTube platform
has gone through this many times over and more intensely,
because that feeling of failure never truly goes away.
In fact, it grows as your audience does
because you have a greater sense of responsibility.
Remember, Mr. Beast started at zero views
and zero subscribers,
and he's definitely failed at YouTube more times than you.
He just kept going and figured it out.
So it all goes back to that very simple question.
Do you enjoy making videos?
If the answer is yes, then that is the passion
that will make sure you never fail.
And as for that incredibly niche gaming channel
that got over 100,000 views on their first video,
proving all of the algorithm haters wrong,
this is where you'll find the case study.