On YouTube, we pride ourselves [hopefully] in the content that we produce. I am the kind of person that advocates against advertising on forums and subreddits. I can very easily prove (and do in this post) the negatives and pseudo-positives that come with using forums, subreddits, and third party applications.
It's very easy to understand why someone would post on a subreddit. "Come here and get some more views" is a pretty tantalizing concept for many YouTubers who are just starting out, but it is easily one of the most destructive practices for your channel. It's also easy to see why a new YouTube can be fooled into believing the "Free views fast" tagline of far too many websites to be true. To communicate my points, I'm going to once again bring back my "Stella" character from the two other posts I made to try to help bring into light the ethics of YouTube channel ownership.
Feel free to take a gander at the two other stories I wrote to help communicate my points, and stay tuned for the final one in this series of forum posts.
| Hollow Views | Wants Over Needs | Abuse of the System | The Prospect of Money |
It's a very simple concept to understand, show up, spend 30 seconds posting your video, and watch the views flow in. To the new YouTuber, this casts itself as the holy grail of potential YouTube growth, but the undertone and side-effects of what happens when you turn to rely on this practice can burn your channel past recognition.
Welcome to YouTube, on your first-ever channel, Stella. You've successfully uploaded your first video, added some generic keywords to your TTD and are ready to watch the views cascade in. A day passes, 5 views. Another day passes, 7 views. A third day passes, 7 views... they stopped. The views stopped! How can this be!? The video is dynamite, on par with the quality of the biggest YouTubers, what could she possibly be doing wrong!?
In a mix of frustration and desire, she sets out onto the internet and inputs the most destructive and most construction Google search term she'll ever put into the engine. "How to get more YouTube views".
She watched some Darryl Eves' videos and gets a grip on what SEO is, but she wants more views with the same amount of work, and ends up on a website called Like4Like.
Like4Like markets itself as an "SEO Tool", which with her newly gained knowledge on SEO from Darryl, it intrigues her very quickly. She inputs her information and begins to see a steady stream of views, likes, comments, and even subscribers come in. While her views are coming in, she finds herself commenting, subscribing, and liking videos on so many random topics and from so many random people that she's come to the realization that she's putting in more effort than she needs to be.
Over the 7 days she was using Like4Like, her channel gained 400 subscribers and little over 20,000 views. She then took to her regular SEO, and her views dropped substantially, the 400 subscribers that she got have all but left. They were dead.
Dead to her, dead to the system, a scar on her YouTubing history. The same type of video that got her nearly 1000 views with Like4Like got 7 views instead.
Another week goes by, and something comes as a total shock to her. While all of her videos remained in tact and ready for people to view, her view count dropped, all the way down to 100. Imagine going from 20,000 views to 100 views. How could this be!? A little research and her thoughts are confirmed. The views, the subscribers, the comments, they were all fake. None of them by real people.
She should've done more research on the website before her desire took over. Searching for reviews on the website showed people whose channels had been terminated due to the use of Like4Like, some have indisputable copyright strikes, and other had their views deducted.
She's wrecked, and doesn't understand how she left herself be fooled by view exchange. Still, in desire, she heads to reddit and posts on /r/newtubers. She gets some views, not as many, and something new happens. Instead of the repetitive "Good video" comments from Like4Like, she's getting people who are saying "Nice video, check out my channel"...
WHAT!? WHAT ABOUT MY VIDEO, MY VIDEO IS NICE, BUT WHAT ABOUT IT IS NICE?! She's infuriated. She has been spammed, and knows exactly where it comes from. The subreddit. Stella quickly cuts her ties and reevaluates her YouTube strategy.
What about the subreddit was actually wrong? It's very simple and boils down to who your video is intended for. When she posted on the subreddit, she was very quick to learn that her channel was just another medium for some guy on that subreddit to try to advertise his video, to try to get more views. They didn't care about her content, they only cared about trying to get their content viewed.
CONTEXTUALLY - Look at the "Creations --> Content" section of this forum and where people advertise their content appropriately. Notice how there is absolutely none of them have replies from the community? Same with the subreddit. They don't care about you or your content, but only about their getting seen, and that's why its a destructive practice.
After failing through so many different attempts at forcing herself through to become the next-big-thing. She realizes, "I can't force myself in. My viewers, the people who intend to watch my videos, they don't know about that subreddit or that website, those people that "watched" my videos don't care about my content, only about theirs... I must work hard, and use YouTube as my sole guide. I must manipulate YouTube's own algorithms to better my standing on the video sharing platform. If not to become big, then to save my own channel, and to stop myself from giving up when statistic are deducted".
Stella went on to see steady growth of her channel for the next year, eventually growing past 50,000 subscribers and then skyrocketing forwards from there. She realized after her desperation that her sole responsibility for her channel is to make sure her content is seen by the people who want to see it and nobody else, and that helped her cater her videos and her SEO towards her intended audience. Her then-found determination for YouTube and nothing but YouTube saw her shine forward.
... And You can too. Realize that YouTube is your home, and trying to find a place off YouTube where you can try to force yourself into YouTube is not going to help you one bit, it's not YouTube... It's pseudo-growth and it will become a part of the plant that is your channel that will quickly die and break off.
It's just as important to understand what NOT to do on YouTube as it is to know what is proper to do on YouTube. Once you understand that YouTube is where your viewers are, you'll find yourself to be happier with where your channel is within the community and you'll try harder (the proper way) to build it forward in the future.
It's very easy to understand why someone would post on a subreddit. "Come here and get some more views" is a pretty tantalizing concept for many YouTubers who are just starting out, but it is easily one of the most destructive practices for your channel. It's also easy to see why a new YouTube can be fooled into believing the "Free views fast" tagline of far too many websites to be true. To communicate my points, I'm going to once again bring back my "Stella" character from the two other posts I made to try to help bring into light the ethics of YouTube channel ownership.
Feel free to take a gander at the two other stories I wrote to help communicate my points, and stay tuned for the final one in this series of forum posts.
| Hollow Views | Wants Over Needs | Abuse of the System | The Prospect of Money |
It's a very simple concept to understand, show up, spend 30 seconds posting your video, and watch the views flow in. To the new YouTuber, this casts itself as the holy grail of potential YouTube growth, but the undertone and side-effects of what happens when you turn to rely on this practice can burn your channel past recognition.
Welcome to YouTube, on your first-ever channel, Stella. You've successfully uploaded your first video, added some generic keywords to your TTD and are ready to watch the views cascade in. A day passes, 5 views. Another day passes, 7 views. A third day passes, 7 views... they stopped. The views stopped! How can this be!? The video is dynamite, on par with the quality of the biggest YouTubers, what could she possibly be doing wrong!?
In a mix of frustration and desire, she sets out onto the internet and inputs the most destructive and most construction Google search term she'll ever put into the engine. "How to get more YouTube views".
She watched some Darryl Eves' videos and gets a grip on what SEO is, but she wants more views with the same amount of work, and ends up on a website called Like4Like.
Like4Like markets itself as an "SEO Tool", which with her newly gained knowledge on SEO from Darryl, it intrigues her very quickly. She inputs her information and begins to see a steady stream of views, likes, comments, and even subscribers come in. While her views are coming in, she finds herself commenting, subscribing, and liking videos on so many random topics and from so many random people that she's come to the realization that she's putting in more effort than she needs to be.
Over the 7 days she was using Like4Like, her channel gained 400 subscribers and little over 20,000 views. She then took to her regular SEO, and her views dropped substantially, the 400 subscribers that she got have all but left. They were dead.
Dead to her, dead to the system, a scar on her YouTubing history. The same type of video that got her nearly 1000 views with Like4Like got 7 views instead.
Another week goes by, and something comes as a total shock to her. While all of her videos remained in tact and ready for people to view, her view count dropped, all the way down to 100. Imagine going from 20,000 views to 100 views. How could this be!? A little research and her thoughts are confirmed. The views, the subscribers, the comments, they were all fake. None of them by real people.
She should've done more research on the website before her desire took over. Searching for reviews on the website showed people whose channels had been terminated due to the use of Like4Like, some have indisputable copyright strikes, and other had their views deducted.
She's wrecked, and doesn't understand how she left herself be fooled by view exchange. Still, in desire, she heads to reddit and posts on /r/newtubers. She gets some views, not as many, and something new happens. Instead of the repetitive "Good video" comments from Like4Like, she's getting people who are saying "Nice video, check out my channel"...
WHAT!? WHAT ABOUT MY VIDEO, MY VIDEO IS NICE, BUT WHAT ABOUT IT IS NICE?! She's infuriated. She has been spammed, and knows exactly where it comes from. The subreddit. Stella quickly cuts her ties and reevaluates her YouTube strategy.
What about the subreddit was actually wrong? It's very simple and boils down to who your video is intended for. When she posted on the subreddit, she was very quick to learn that her channel was just another medium for some guy on that subreddit to try to advertise his video, to try to get more views. They didn't care about her content, they only cared about trying to get their content viewed.
CONTEXTUALLY - Look at the "Creations --> Content" section of this forum and where people advertise their content appropriately. Notice how there is absolutely none of them have replies from the community? Same with the subreddit. They don't care about you or your content, but only about their getting seen, and that's why its a destructive practice.
After failing through so many different attempts at forcing herself through to become the next-big-thing. She realizes, "I can't force myself in. My viewers, the people who intend to watch my videos, they don't know about that subreddit or that website, those people that "watched" my videos don't care about my content, only about theirs... I must work hard, and use YouTube as my sole guide. I must manipulate YouTube's own algorithms to better my standing on the video sharing platform. If not to become big, then to save my own channel, and to stop myself from giving up when statistic are deducted".
Stella went on to see steady growth of her channel for the next year, eventually growing past 50,000 subscribers and then skyrocketing forwards from there. She realized after her desperation that her sole responsibility for her channel is to make sure her content is seen by the people who want to see it and nobody else, and that helped her cater her videos and her SEO towards her intended audience. Her then-found determination for YouTube and nothing but YouTube saw her shine forward.
... And You can too. Realize that YouTube is your home, and trying to find a place off YouTube where you can try to force yourself into YouTube is not going to help you one bit, it's not YouTube... It's pseudo-growth and it will become a part of the plant that is your channel that will quickly die and break off.
It's just as important to understand what NOT to do on YouTube as it is to know what is proper to do on YouTube. Once you understand that YouTube is where your viewers are, you'll find yourself to be happier with where your channel is within the community and you'll try harder (the proper way) to build it forward in the future.
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