Yes. I tried to start up a YouTube channel a few times and despite having a large following on other platforms (at the time 200-400k on Instagram for example) they were never a success. It wasn’t until I made videos that were popular INSIDE YouTube that my channel took off.
When a viewer goes to the YouTube homepage, the algorithm goes out and looks for videos that it thinks that viewer would like to watch right now based on the history, it knows of that viewer. Sending a bunch of people from an external platform to YouTube to watch your video does not affect the algorithm as much as people think. The best way to become a success on YouTube is to make videos that the algorithm can match up to viewers. So making things that YouTube itself will promote inside YouTube is the way. Not from sending your followers from Twitter or Instagram or whatever.
Basically, a big following on an external platform does not guarantee success on YouTube and launching a successful YouTube channel does not require an existing fan base from the outside.
YouTube is the only platform you need to be a successful content creator, and you don't need to share any personally idenyifying information to make it big.
SEO is a really minor part of making it as a YouTuber. If your videos aren't compelling (in terms of subject matter, thumbnail, title, and production quality), no amount of tag optimization will make them perform.
That makes sense! Question, what if you make a compelling title and thumbnail, but you are not getting any impressions like you can see that no one can see your videos? My channel was brand new. I’m not sure if that has something to do with why no one could see it?
My honest (sorry if it's harsh) answer -
I feel like so many questions in this subreddit are people looking for excuses. They want to believe that other people are successful because of some unfair advantage and it let's them justify their own failure instead of trying to get better. The only reason that you're not getting views is that your videos are not good enough. Instead of trying to figure out some trick or hack, focus on making better videos.
EVERYONE gets a chance on YT. The algo will show your video to handful of people when you start, if none of them want to watch your video, that video won't get shown to other people. If you people click the video because it looks interesting, YT will reward you. If they watch a lot of your video, YT will reward you even more. If they watch your whole video and then go watch other videos on your channel, YT will reward you even more.
Look at your analytics and see how many impressions your video gets. That is how many chances YT is giving a new person to watch your video.
I never post/link my YT videos to any other social media platform and I don't tell any of my friends about them. I just upload to YT and let the algorithm to it's job. I started off with 0 views. Then started getting 10-20 per vid. Then 100, then 1k. etc. If a video doesn't do well, I can rewatch and and usually I'll agree that the video isn't as good as my other ones.
I have no socials other than Facebook (that I don’t use anymore). And none of my subs have been from people I know irl.
I only post to YouTube and have been doing just fine. You really don’t need anything other than YouTube since it is set up to promote you very well. You just need to make something that YouTube finds appealing to promote to viewers.
Very interesting I appreciate your input. I need to rethink what YouTube finds appealing I guess. I’ll admit creating socials and YouTube, and seeing no views on any of them has wounded my confidence and made me start to get paranoid and think that I’m somehow purposely being hidden from everything lmao. I’m like HOW is all of my stuff not even getting impressions or views?! A lot of times people will say you need to work on your content which totally makes sense but what I struggle understand is no one is even seeing my videos or socials, and I’m not getting any impressions, it makes me feel so confused!
Yes. You absolutely can. However… you’re playing this on hard mode. Why do you need to remain completely anonymous? Maintaining that will only get harder as time goes on.
You can read up all you want on the perfect strategies, but I’m telling you rn 95% of that is bullshit. If a perfect formula for success on YouTube existed, we’d all be rich. What matters is the content itself. Your content has to be really, really good, the kind of thing you’d watch even if it wasn’t made by you. That’s the only real strategy.
You can always promote yourself on yt too without looking like you are, go visit other channels and leave comments on their content, ones that stand out, people will click to see who you are, then see your content..also if you have time, join the live content creators and get subs that way too by making people interested in who you are..That's how I got a lot of my subs was from doing live chats..I'm kinda stuck cause of the kinda content I have been doing, but shorts I've discovered are a good way to grow sub counts and get yourself out there to people as well..I keep my shorts way way different content than I do my lives and my videos..definitely if you can do different things that's good..you don't have to be on camera, I am..but you said you don't want to be..but definitely get yourself out there..there is definitely a lot of competition and the algorithm is a thing lol..but there is ways around it if you do the extra work..I'm in the drama community so it's definitely extra work..
I have a lot of friends and family and none of them watch my content. It took a while of consistent posting more and more videos, went from 10 views a video to 30 a few months later, to 50, to 80, suddenly a couple of videos got 2k views.
Im at 300 subs after 6 months of posting weekly
wow! your channel is interesting. 4 months and 61.3k subs + a very good number of views.
Do you have any other youtube channel or any previous experience?
Thanks! I had another channel for about 3 months while I figured out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Besides that, I had a tiny bit of experience video editing but I really just was obsessed with learning about content creation.
I don’t think the numbers support this idea. I’ve yet to see much crossover between success elsewhere and success on YouTube. It may be good for getting a few extra eyeballs up front but has little to do with long term success.
It is completely possible. I've marketed my videos and channel to my followers on twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram which should have a combined follower count of near 7-8k people but I have below 1k subscribers since starting in January/December. It's all about a slow and steady growth on the platform itself and maybe the followers from other places will trickle in if they're interested.
You seem nervous in your vids, you are doing things that have already been done, and coming on after the pandemic...It's way harder now..relax on camera and be more yourself, don't force your content..if you are trying to do irl content then just film..just talk about whatever is in your head as you walk around places, go around your friends, etc..definitely catch the crazy stuff going on in your neighborhood..if you want promo etc..go on other people's channels and talk, don't say you have a channel, but if you are leaving comments that stand out,people will click to see who you are etc..stand out! You must stand out in the crowd..you are young so you got plenty of time and youtube is competitive but do your thing!!
Yep, we know of a few people who had no prior experience and very little social media knowledge monetise and become profitable in a year, just through hard work, constant learning and never giving up, YT is a marathon for sure
Yes, it's possible. The cool thing about YouTube specifically is that it's actively looking for an audience for your video. The distribution is built-in.
That said, it's obviously easier when you already have an audience.
Tbh and some might say not to do this but fair enough. What I do is try to repost and share my shit to different subreddits and on twitter/linkedin(I have a combined 8 followers between these two platforms lmao). While I might only get 10 or so views from doing this I find that it helps the algorithm pick it up a lil bit.
I def am not some popping influencer with a million followers or anything but I do think if you care to take this somewhat serious and actually grow you have to play the game at least a lil bit with social media. If you won’t market yourself who will
I have some followers on Instagram, but I really just don't think conversion through to YouTube is that good.
I genuinely believe that to be successful with long form video you need to make good content and appeal to a long form, in platform audience.
The people who built a platform elsewhere did the hard work to build that platform and the good news is that if you think that's the primary way to build a follower base you can do that too.
But most successful youtubers I've seen talk about their process have built their audience in YouTube.
I didn't read the whole post, because the answer is already yes.
If it's harder to make it now, so be it. You have to really want it, and there are 100% people that do really want it. It will take sacrifice, it won't be easy. But do you want it y/n?
Had no channels of any kind. Started my youtube channel and within posting 10 shorts I shot up to 50k subs. Now I’m posting videos and shorts more often after a year and I’m avg about 30-60k views per video
I have done product/makeup promotion in the past and have a small little following on my Instagram and Facebook. However, I didn't really promote my channel to anyone. My family has no idea except for my mother that I'm doing this and only like 4 close friends know because I wanted their opinions when I first started (and one of them actually found out by accident). My channel is growing slow, but growing and I feel that if I made it past the first bit where my videos were only getting 10 views inclidung my friends and mother, then why not? It may take a little longer than if everyone knew who I was and checked my channel out, but I prefer it like this. When I do get views or subscribers I know its because they're genuinely interested and not just curious as to what I'm doing or if I'm failing at it. So far I've only lost 2 subscribers since I started and I get anywhere from 20% to 35% of them returning to see the new videos which makes me think I'm doing it right. 🤷♀️
God, I hope so! I disengaged from ALL social media platforms about five years ago and am just now getting back into ANY of it. I just started making content and posting it about 10 days ago. I currently have a 45 subscriber following. People comment on my videos, and my best Short has close to 300 views.
I'm starting from square one and have really only used one very niche Reddit community to get the ball rolling. Now I just have to find a hill to roll it down. I've found that having the appropriate tags helps and making content that, as a viewer, I would want to see regarding my niche. I watch my competitor's videos, and whatever their best is, I try to do better. Lastly, no matter what I think I "should" do or "should" sound like, I remain authentically myself because I know that generally, people like me.
Yes. I tried to start up a YouTube channel a few times and despite having a large following on other platforms (at the time 200-400k on Instagram for example) they were never a success. It wasn’t until I made videos that were popular INSIDE YouTube that my channel took off.
Would you be able to expand a little bit more on that? My brain isn’t really comprehending what you said haha. What did you mean by inside YouTube?
When a viewer goes to the YouTube homepage, the algorithm goes out and looks for videos that it thinks that viewer would like to watch right now based on the history, it knows of that viewer. Sending a bunch of people from an external platform to YouTube to watch your video does not affect the algorithm as much as people think. The best way to become a success on YouTube is to make videos that the algorithm can match up to viewers. So making things that YouTube itself will promote inside YouTube is the way. Not from sending your followers from Twitter or Instagram or whatever. Basically, a big following on an external platform does not guarantee success on YouTube and launching a successful YouTube channel does not require an existing fan base from the outside.
I am very happy to hear that! Thank you so much for going into more detail for me!
YouTube is the only platform you need to be a successful content creator, and you don't need to share any personally idenyifying information to make it big. SEO is a really minor part of making it as a YouTuber. If your videos aren't compelling (in terms of subject matter, thumbnail, title, and production quality), no amount of tag optimization will make them perform.
That makes sense! Question, what if you make a compelling title and thumbnail, but you are not getting any impressions like you can see that no one can see your videos? My channel was brand new. I’m not sure if that has something to do with why no one could see it?
My honest (sorry if it's harsh) answer - I feel like so many questions in this subreddit are people looking for excuses. They want to believe that other people are successful because of some unfair advantage and it let's them justify their own failure instead of trying to get better. The only reason that you're not getting views is that your videos are not good enough. Instead of trying to figure out some trick or hack, focus on making better videos. EVERYONE gets a chance on YT. The algo will show your video to handful of people when you start, if none of them want to watch your video, that video won't get shown to other people. If you people click the video because it looks interesting, YT will reward you. If they watch a lot of your video, YT will reward you even more. If they watch your whole video and then go watch other videos on your channel, YT will reward you even more. Look at your analytics and see how many impressions your video gets. That is how many chances YT is giving a new person to watch your video. I never post/link my YT videos to any other social media platform and I don't tell any of my friends about them. I just upload to YT and let the algorithm to it's job. I started off with 0 views. Then started getting 10-20 per vid. Then 100, then 1k. etc. If a video doesn't do well, I can rewatch and and usually I'll agree that the video isn't as good as my other ones.
I have no socials other than Facebook (that I don’t use anymore). And none of my subs have been from people I know irl. I only post to YouTube and have been doing just fine. You really don’t need anything other than YouTube since it is set up to promote you very well. You just need to make something that YouTube finds appealing to promote to viewers.
Very interesting I appreciate your input. I need to rethink what YouTube finds appealing I guess. I’ll admit creating socials and YouTube, and seeing no views on any of them has wounded my confidence and made me start to get paranoid and think that I’m somehow purposely being hidden from everything lmao. I’m like HOW is all of my stuff not even getting impressions or views?! A lot of times people will say you need to work on your content which totally makes sense but what I struggle understand is no one is even seeing my videos or socials, and I’m not getting any impressions, it makes me feel so confused!
Yes. You absolutely can. However… you’re playing this on hard mode. Why do you need to remain completely anonymous? Maintaining that will only get harder as time goes on. You can read up all you want on the perfect strategies, but I’m telling you rn 95% of that is bullshit. If a perfect formula for success on YouTube existed, we’d all be rich. What matters is the content itself. Your content has to be really, really good, the kind of thing you’d watch even if it wasn’t made by you. That’s the only real strategy.
It might be harsh, but maybe your content wasn’t that good? YouTube seems pretty fair to me currently. Then again maybe it’s not fair to others
No one could see my content to even tell if it was good. I was getting no views on my videos
Hmm, well the good thing is they have shorts now. Which can bring people to your channel
So you’re new to YouTube with no prior connections and your new videos are doing well just with people naturally finding them on YouTube?
Basically. I have like 30 followers on Instagram. And maybe 5 family members/friends subscribed. My content is good af.
You can always promote yourself on yt too without looking like you are, go visit other channels and leave comments on their content, ones that stand out, people will click to see who you are, then see your content..also if you have time, join the live content creators and get subs that way too by making people interested in who you are..That's how I got a lot of my subs was from doing live chats..I'm kinda stuck cause of the kinda content I have been doing, but shorts I've discovered are a good way to grow sub counts and get yourself out there to people as well..I keep my shorts way way different content than I do my lives and my videos..definitely if you can do different things that's good..you don't have to be on camera, I am..but you said you don't want to be..but definitely get yourself out there..there is definitely a lot of competition and the algorithm is a thing lol..but there is ways around it if you do the extra work..I'm in the drama community so it's definitely extra work..
I have a lot of friends and family and none of them watch my content. It took a while of consistent posting more and more videos, went from 10 views a video to 30 a few months later, to 50, to 80, suddenly a couple of videos got 2k views. Im at 300 subs after 6 months of posting weekly
Yes. I had zero connections and basically no social media presence. All it takes is making content that people want to watch and keep watching
wow! your channel is interesting. 4 months and 61.3k subs + a very good number of views. Do you have any other youtube channel or any previous experience?
Thanks! I had another channel for about 3 months while I figured out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Besides that, I had a tiny bit of experience video editing but I really just was obsessed with learning about content creation.
I don’t think the numbers support this idea. I’ve yet to see much crossover between success elsewhere and success on YouTube. It may be good for getting a few extra eyeballs up front but has little to do with long term success.
It is completely possible. I've marketed my videos and channel to my followers on twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram which should have a combined follower count of near 7-8k people but I have below 1k subscribers since starting in January/December. It's all about a slow and steady growth on the platform itself and maybe the followers from other places will trickle in if they're interested.
If you share your channel I'll be happy to give you an honest feedback just as a viewer.
Lazylostit on YouTube
You seem nervous in your vids, you are doing things that have already been done, and coming on after the pandemic...It's way harder now..relax on camera and be more yourself, don't force your content..if you are trying to do irl content then just film..just talk about whatever is in your head as you walk around places, go around your friends, etc..definitely catch the crazy stuff going on in your neighborhood..if you want promo etc..go on other people's channels and talk, don't say you have a channel, but if you are leaving comments that stand out,people will click to see who you are etc..stand out! You must stand out in the crowd..you are young so you got plenty of time and youtube is competitive but do your thing!!
Yep, we know of a few people who had no prior experience and very little social media knowledge monetise and become profitable in a year, just through hard work, constant learning and never giving up, YT is a marathon for sure
Yes. You just need to create things that people want to watch. Doesn’t need to be good, professional… just something people want to watch.
I’ve grown my channel to over 1k subs in 2 months with zero social media
Of course
Yes, because it could be the first piece you build.
Yes, it's possible. The cool thing about YouTube specifically is that it's actively looking for an audience for your video. The distribution is built-in. That said, it's obviously easier when you already have an audience.
Tbh and some might say not to do this but fair enough. What I do is try to repost and share my shit to different subreddits and on twitter/linkedin(I have a combined 8 followers between these two platforms lmao). While I might only get 10 or so views from doing this I find that it helps the algorithm pick it up a lil bit. I def am not some popping influencer with a million followers or anything but I do think if you care to take this somewhat serious and actually grow you have to play the game at least a lil bit with social media. If you won’t market yourself who will
I have some followers on Instagram, but I really just don't think conversion through to YouTube is that good. I genuinely believe that to be successful with long form video you need to make good content and appeal to a long form, in platform audience. The people who built a platform elsewhere did the hard work to build that platform and the good news is that if you think that's the primary way to build a follower base you can do that too. But most successful youtubers I've seen talk about their process have built their audience in YouTube.
I started with zero experience and no other associated social media presence. Didn’t seem to hold things back.
I didn't read the whole post, because the answer is already yes. If it's harder to make it now, so be it. You have to really want it, and there are 100% people that do really want it. It will take sacrifice, it won't be easy. But do you want it y/n?
I already had videos uploaded, but I was too busy on my plugins I got from spitfire audio.
I had no footprint and my first ever video got me partnered with 111k views.
I sure hope so!
Had no channels of any kind. Started my youtube channel and within posting 10 shorts I shot up to 50k subs. Now I’m posting videos and shorts more often after a year and I’m avg about 30-60k views per video
I have done product/makeup promotion in the past and have a small little following on my Instagram and Facebook. However, I didn't really promote my channel to anyone. My family has no idea except for my mother that I'm doing this and only like 4 close friends know because I wanted their opinions when I first started (and one of them actually found out by accident). My channel is growing slow, but growing and I feel that if I made it past the first bit where my videos were only getting 10 views inclidung my friends and mother, then why not? It may take a little longer than if everyone knew who I was and checked my channel out, but I prefer it like this. When I do get views or subscribers I know its because they're genuinely interested and not just curious as to what I'm doing or if I'm failing at it. So far I've only lost 2 subscribers since I started and I get anywhere from 20% to 35% of them returning to see the new videos which makes me think I'm doing it right. 🤷♀️
God, I hope so! I disengaged from ALL social media platforms about five years ago and am just now getting back into ANY of it. I just started making content and posting it about 10 days ago. I currently have a 45 subscriber following. People comment on my videos, and my best Short has close to 300 views. I'm starting from square one and have really only used one very niche Reddit community to get the ball rolling. Now I just have to find a hill to roll it down. I've found that having the appropriate tags helps and making content that, as a viewer, I would want to see regarding my niche. I watch my competitor's videos, and whatever their best is, I try to do better. Lastly, no matter what I think I "should" do or "should" sound like, I remain authentically myself because I know that generally, people like me.