- ♪ Don't forget to ask for comments, shares, and likes ♪
- (chuckling) Facts.
- You want to do things that you want to do,
but if you want to get the views, sometimes you have to do
what's trending, and unfortunately, that's the truth.
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
♪ (action music) ♪
- Hey, I know these guys.
- (man #1) Man, it's been three days and we only got five views.
- Us. - Yeah.
- I feel like every YouTuber's had that reaction to their channel
at one point, like, "Oh, I only have five views?"
- (man #2) We worked two weeks on that one, too.
- (man #1) Plus there's four of us.
If we all watched it, technically, there's only one view.
- (man #3) Actually, I watched it twice.
- I've been there. Man, I've been there.
- (man #2) I gave up my job so we could take this seriously.
- (man #3) Yeah, we all did. - Oh my gosh!
I love Ryan Higa.
- Ah, Ryan Higa!
- (Nigahiga) Why, hello there!
Are you having a hard time getting people to view your videos?
- Yep. - (Ryan Higa) Are you in a tight spot
right now because you gave up your job to pursue YouTube as a career?
Welcome to "How to Get Views on YouTube."
- (laughing)
- Do you have notes and a pen? - Oh shoot.
- Tell me, Ryan!
- ♪ So you made a silly clip or a funny skit ♪
♪ Something new, uploaded it ♪
♪ But you barely got a single view ♪
♪ Still passionate, and you wanna stay true to you ♪
♪ Failing again and you don't... ♪
- This was me for so many years.
- ♪ YouTuber tips said do what you wanna do ♪
♪ Well, that's nice and all ♪
♪ But we all know that is not the truth ♪
♪ It ain't 2010 ♪
♪ There's a whole set of new rules ♪
♪ Here's the real ways to get views on YouTube ♪
- Oh my god, I'm dead.
- DIY slime. - It's true!
- Ooh, shade at the slime game. Shade at the slime--
Ooh, okay.
This is like a recap of everything: Salt Bae, put Vevo--
yeah, okay.
- ♪ Take the latest trend, shove it in the title ♪
- (cracking up) We did a video like that!
- ♪ ...or just buy an iPhone ♪
♪ You can take a couple strangers, make 'em kiss in a white room ♪
- I've seen every single one of these videos.
- ♪ Get something people like and fill up a tub ♪
- I mean, he's not wrong.
- ♪ Maybe even compare $1 versus $1000 food ♪
- We did that. - We did that.
- We did that.
- ♪ Forget that original sketch ♪
♪ Unless that sketch is about politics ♪
- And because it's only 2018, someone's gonna class that as racist.
Race-- thank you!
- ♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Don't forget to ask for comments, shares, and likes ♪
- (chuckling) Facts.
- ♪ And if you're still not getting views ♪
♪ Just offend the entire nation ♪
♪ Change your hair ♪
♪ You're in the news for cultural appropriation ♪
♪ Sorry ♪ - (both laughing)
- ♪ Play a game, Q and A ♪ - This is so clever.
- Oh my god, this is so good.
- ♪ And you keep posting everyday ♪
♪ Quantity or quality, what do people wanna see? ♪
♪ It ain't that hard if you reread ♪
♪ Only one ends with a "TITY" ♪
- (chuckling)
- ♪ You're selling out this way ♪
♪ But are the views still coming in? ♪
♪ Actions are louder... ♪
♪ ...still coming in? ♪
- You wanna know how you get views on YouTube?
Clickbait!
- ♪ And, no, I'm not throwing shade ♪
♪ The strat's an art in itself ♪ - Throw shade? Ah!
- ♪ So what else can get you views? ♪
♪ How about a house tour, dude? ♪
- I've done, like, six house tours.
- ♪ Type your own name into Google... ♪
- It's bad that I did that four days ago.
- ♪ But if your growth is still so slow ♪
♪ Maybe it's time for GMO's ♪
♪ Just head down to the watering hole ♪
- Oh god, the watering hole? - Yes!
- So real!
- ♪ Take the shot, he'll take shots back ♪
♪ You call it war, I say collabs ♪
- Oh my god. That's 2017 as a whole.
- ♪ Now you're finally getting views ♪
- Wow, this is all true. It's all very accurate.
- ♪ Here's the number one way for you to get views on YouTube ♪
♪ Sign a contract, promo YouTube TV ♪
- Yes. - Mm-hmm.
- ♪ Make a YouTube Red series ♪ - Mm-hmm.
- ♪ Rewind it back and you'll be trending ♪
- Facts.
- Being a YouTuber in trending is an urban myth.
This is a lie.
- ♪ They will take care of you ♪
♪ Play ball and you will benefit too ♪
- (scoffing) The tea. The tea is real.
- ♪ These are all the best ways to get views on YouTube ♪
- (all) Yeah! - Well played. Yep.
- (man #2) Look at all this money!
- (man #4) We are set for life.
- (man #5) Wait, hold on. Guys, guys, guy.
I just found out how we can make even more money.
- (man #2) What? - (man #4) How?
- (man #5) There's ads on Facebook now.
- Oh my god. (chuckling)
- (man #5) ...been uploading on here and upload them on Facebook
and make twice as much money! - (man #2) No way!
- (all clamoring)
- (Nigahiga) Ooh, that sucks. - Uh-oh.
- (man #4) Wait, what sucks?
- (Nigahiga) Well, you guys just said the F word twice,
so that's two strikes on your account.
- (man #3) What? Two strikes?
- (Nigahiga) One more and you guys are--
- (man #4) We didn't say the F word!
- (man #5) Yeah, we were just talking about
how there's ads on Facebook now.
- (Nigahiga) And there's strike number three.
- Demonetize?
- (Nigahiga) ...strike number three.
- (man #2) Whoa, whoa, wait. - Oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! (laughing)
- That's funny. - That's so good!
That was so well written.
It's so real and it makes me kind of sad,
but also we're not alone in this industry.
- That literally just described my channel in a nutshell.
- I feel like everyone can relate to this.
Are trends that obvious to viewers?
- Everyone can enjoy that video, but if you're a YouTuber,
you really get it.
I started back in 2010.
None of the rules that applied back then apply now.
- Ryan Higa seems to know how to take controversial topics
and put it in the best way possible.
- (FBE) So that was "How to Get Views on YouTube,"
uploaded to Ryan Higa's channel. - Of course.
- (FBE) The video touches on a lot of the criticisms
that YouTube creators have faced this year.
Overall, do you feel like what Ryan was singing about
had some truth to it?
- Literally, I feel like every single thing that he said
has truth to it.
He hit the nail on the head.
- It's too real!
I know he's like, "Yeah, go make a video of Googling yourself."
I'm like, that was me a few days ago.
- YouTubers are so different now, and I feel like the YouTubers
who have been around that long can see it
and they're kind of bitter towards it just because it's different.
- Now it's become very political and very, you know, money based.
It's a shame. It's a shame.
- Definitely, there's a lot of truth to it,
the YouTube community.
There's trends all over the place and everyone just keeps up with them.
- You want to do things that you want to do,
but if you want to get the views, sometimes you have to do
what's trending, and unfortunately, that's the truth.
- Back in the older days of YouTube, people were co-creators.
There wasn't a competition between creators,
whereas nowadays, it really feels like it's almost cutthroat
to try and think of the next thing first.
It's not so much a playground as it is a race.
- Even making thumbnails and finding-- - It resonated.
- ...will get you clicks. That is an art form.
- To me, a completely accurate representation
of where YouTube is and not necessarily where
it's going to be, but definitely where it's at right now.
All of the things that the people are doing right now
to make money doesn't mean that's what's going to carry you
into the future, and any of this could go away at any moment.
That's why you have to be grateful for everything you have,
especially, you know, in this YouTube game.
- (FBE) In the video, Ryan sings about the difficulty
to get views on original content that doesn't fall
into the trends of YouTube, hence why so many channels
now seem to make similar videos across the YouTube platform as a whole.
Do you feel like you have to participate
in these types of trends in order to get views?
- We definitely feel like we have to take part in trends
and stay topical as much as possible, but we also try really hard
to be like, no, we're not just doing it
to be a part of the trend.
We're addressing the trend and trying to make ourselves different.
- I'll upload a video and I know, okay, this is more of a trending one,
and then there's ones that are more original,
but it's interesting seeing how they perform differently.
- I always think of an original way to do the trend, in my personal way,
so I feel like it becomes original content at the end of the day.
- For us, we've always just posted content that we like,
and what we do is when there are trends,
we try to take those trends and make them into our own.
For example, the 10 things to do with slime,
we made a sketch out of it.
- It's either I do my kind of own thing
and I do the videos that I would like to see done,
or I jump on the bandwagon, and that's kind of where
YouTube is right now, and you have to make that choice.
- A lot of the creators, they face that,
where they're like, "Ooh, I want to do book reviews,"
but it's like, eh... people probably won't watch
the book reviews that much, but I'm cool with doing
reaction videos, so you got to really compromise.
- 95% is the stuff I want to make, and then 5% is to try
and stay relevant.
It's sad to see the way YouTube has gone,
but there's not much else you can do about it,
especially with animators.
Animators are one of the most creative,
original people you can get on the platform,
yet because their videos are only a minute and a half long,
which probably took them two months to make,
on YouTube nowadays, with the algorithm,
it's like you need to have over 10 minutes.
They're getting pushed to the side!
Because it's going mainstream, they're trying to capture
everyone's audience.
"Hey, you like the Jimmy Kimmel show?
Well, now it's all in trending."
They're trying to bring in all the people from the outside
to try and go on YouTube because that's where they think
TV is now going.
No! Keep it for the creators!
I need a drink! Ah, I'm heated! (laughing)
- (FBE) So something Ryan is maybe alluding to in the video
is how, in the last couple of years, the recommended section
of users' homepages has changed. - Oh, yes.
- Oh, yeah.
- (FBE) From the research we've done at FBE,
there's a lot of things going on, but one big issue, it seems,
is when a video goes live, if the subscribers of the channel
that YouTube does recommend it to don't click on the video
or do not watch enough of the video, the engine will not send out
that video to the recommended pages of many other subscribers,
even if they normally always watch that channel's videos.
- Yeah, I mean, even in my own subscriptions,
when I look at YouTube, I'm subscribed to 350 things.
How could you ever show me 350 things if each creator
is being asked to produce daily content?
- (FBE) If that's true, how does that factor
into viewership issues?
- Well, I don't even know what the homepage is anymore.
I remember back in the day, like 2010 days,
a yellow subscribe button, horizontal subscription box.
You went on Youtube.com and your subscriptions
were on the homepage.
At the end of the day, things are always going to change,
and YouTube is gonna continue to grow,
and it still remains a blessing to even be able
to have an audience on the platform.
- If you upload a video, all your subscribers should know
about it right away.
I know the subscription box has been a little loopy these days
because I've had a lot of people complain about it.
You just gotta hope for the best, to be honest,
when you upload a video.
You never know what's gonna pop off.
You never know what your fans are gonna see.
- There was a time maybe last April, May, June,
where all gaming YouTubers, their subs just dropped,
their views just dropped, and no one really knew why.
And what we kind of figured out is trending and recommended
just completely gave up on gaming videos.
For us trying to find new viewership,
you kind of need to spread yourself out
and do a lot of different things that you didn't really want to do
in the past, but because you want to try and stay up there,
and you want to stay "relevant," you don't really have a choice.
- YouTube, as a service, is a part of Google as a company,
which is, at its base, it's not an entertainment company.
It's not about whether or not you can access entertainment freely
and equally-- it's about collecting data,
collecting trends, and selling that data.
- We don't really look at our analytics.
Our dad looks at them all.
He could answer that question. - He really could.
I mean, he's here right now. Could we bring him in?
- The truth is that a lot of people don't really know
exactly what's going on with the analytics,
but I know they did change it at one point.
They've marketed it more towards family friendly content.
You guys don't say bad things, so the analytics kind of help.
- Thank you for your help!
- (FBE) So finally, this video is talking about
how to get views on YouTube, so what is your advice
for all the people watching?
How do you get views on YouTube?
- This is the most cliche answer you're gonna have all day,
but, honestly, just being yourself because no one wants to see
the same person. Just be you.
- Whether it's gaming videos, makeup videos,
reaction videos, just put a twist on it
and make it entertaining.
- A good thumbnail. I'll give you one right now.
Are you ready?
See? Now you go to Photoshop. There's something
in my hand right there-- you just, boom.
That's it.
- Do not try and cheat the system.
Work hard and make sure that you are proud
of the stuff that you're putting out there
because if you're not proud of it, people are gonna see through it.
- The ugly answer is to follow trends
and just promote yourself everywhere, which sucks.
- Just keep putting more content out there.
Find people who are around your sub size.
Don't be there at five subs, asking a guy with 20 million subs,
"Can I collab with you?" It's not gonna happen.
It's a matter of sharing audience, and then when that audience
comes over, it's a matter of making them your own.
Collabs, stay motivated, consistency, and don't let Jimmy Fallon
get you down. (laughing)
- Thank you guys for watching this episode of YouTubers React.
- Subscribe to all of the creators in this.
The links are in the description.
- (both) Thanks for watching! Bye!
- Hey, guys, Ethan here from FBE.
Thank you so much for watching this episode of YouTubers React.
A big thanks to all the creators who came in to shoot this episode
with us, but also a big thanks to Tom West,
Kenzie G, and Christopher Sanchez for watching last week.
Bye, guys!