- There's this common misconception that I've seen
amongst YouTube creators regarding the YouTube algorithm.
It's this idea that you have to outsmart the algorithm
or that the algorithm hates you.
That attitude though, really frames the YouTube algorithm
in a super negative way,
and that's especially a problem for any creator
who's just getting started.
So instead of treating the YouTube algorithm
like some kind of enemy that you need to defeat
I thought today I would change the narrative.
I want you to become friends with YouTube algorithm.
And the idea here is
that you're gonna become such good friends
that it's not gonna be able to help itself
but to recommend your content to more viewers.
By the end of this video, it's my hope
that you start to think of the YouTube recommendation system
in a whole new productive way
so that the next time you upload a video
you get a lot more views.
In order to demonstrate the points that I wanna make
let's first give the algorithm an identity.
We're gonna call him Albert
because Albert the algorithm sounds kind of funny to me.
Now, Albert's in a really difficult position
because he's kind of split
between two different groups of friends.
On one side there's you, the creators,
and on the other side are viewers,
the people simply logging into YouTube
to just watch some videos.
Now, Albert would like nothing more than to introduce you
to all of his viewer friends.
Unfortunately, for you, every single viewer
has their own unique individual tastes.
So in order for Albert to make sure that the introduction
of you to his viewer friends goes well
he has to make sure that he finds exactly the right types
of viewers for your content.
And all he is really doing is just finding people
with similar interests
to the things you're covering on your channel.
Well, that makes sense right so how does he do it?
Don't worry about it, all right, it's none of your business.
What I'm trying to say is that nobody really knows
how Albert goes about finding the right people
for the right content on a day-to-day basis.
On this channel we spend a lot of time
trying to make sense of it all,
but at the end of the day, Albert is kind of a mystery
even to the people who created him in the first place.
So don't worry about him.
That's Albert's personal life
and you focusing on it so much is frankly kind of rude.
But seriously, do you guys, do you guys think it's safe
to be hanging around Albert?
First thing you have to do is start telling Albert
a Little bit about yourself, and he doesn't text.
So you're gonna have to do this
by just posting videos to your channel.
So you do, you start telling Albert all about camping.
You're showing him places you like to camp.
You're showing him how you prepare for trips
you're showing him deals
on the supplies that you buy before a new trip.
You tell Albert about that one time when you went hiking
you saw this bear on the trail.
You give him your list
of the top five nature trails throughout the country.
Instead of trying to conquer Albert
you treat him like a friend and you tell him everything.
Once you do, one thing becomes really clear to Albert
and that's you really like camping,
maybe even a little too much, but you love it.
And good news, Albert knows exactly which friends
he wants to introduce you to.
So Albert being the selfless friend that he is
is gonna go out of his way to consistently
find you new people to show your videos to.
Sounds pretty harmonious, right?
Happily ever after.
Well, it's not that simple.
You see, as creators, people, we're not exactly content
to just like one thing, to have one hobby.
You might love camping, but you might also love movies.
So one day you decide to tell Albert
all about a movie you saw,
so you give him a full blown review
of your thoughts on this movie.
Albert's gonna look at this
and he's gonna think to himself,
"Huh, you know what, I'm gonna actually know some people
who like this movie."
So he's gonna decide to introduce you to some of them.
And what do you think happens next?
Well, since this metaphor is like super long
I'll explain it like this.
What you've just done is you've taken a camping channel
and you've uploaded a movie review to it.
In doing so, you've essentially asked the algorithm
to find you some viewers who might wanna watch it.
So Albert's very likely to go
to your viewers who generally like the camping content
and then give them the option
to watch this movie review that you did.
It's gonna become clear to Albert really fast
that they're not super into it
when they likely don't click on it.
But Albert is actually really persistent
because what he's going to do is not only show it
to your regular camping viewers
he might actually try to find some viewers
who typically click on videos like this movie review.
And by now, since you're such an experienced creator,
the people who watch this content might actually
really like it because they like your editing style
and everything is just really resonating with them.
And if those new viewers happen to really like this video
that's gonna excite Albert a lot.
And what he's gonna do is show those new viewers
the camping videos
because he wants to show them everything he knows about you.
There's just one problem with that though.
Just like the camping viewers
didn't really wanna watch the movie review,
the movie review viewers probably aren't super into camping.
As the creator behind this channel,
this puts you in a bit of a bind.
Do you wanna hang out with your camping friends
or do you want to continue hanging out
with your new movie review buddies?
In theory, you could try to split your time
between both groups of people
but what you're probably likely to find along the way is
that gaining subscribers is gonna slow down a lot.
What this means for you
as a creator is slower growth across your whole channel.
Because trying to be all things to all people
is a fantastic way to confuse the algorithm
very, very quickly.
You're likely to get to a point
where you're just kind of spinning your wheels forever
because you're not doing a good enough job
of building up that momentum you need
to get into the recommendation feeds
of the same type of viewer over and over again.
So if you start covering a popular topic
even as a newer channel, YouTube is probably gonna go
out of its way to find viewers
for that content that are hungry for more on that topic.
When you double down on that content
you're starting to feed those very same viewers
more of what they already love
and you're also building credibility along the way.
Once viewers have seen enough of your videos
that is the point in which they're likely to subscribe
and chances are it is going to take more
than one video to convert somebody
from viewer to subscriber.
Don't confuse Albert the algorithm.
Also, as you're growing your channel
don't make these mistakes right here
so that you can start making money
with your YouTube channel a lot faster.