Live data from Hacker News

I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

alexhyett.com

151–156 of 156 posts

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also worth noting that the algorithm is not the only meta and posting consistently might be more or less expected depending on your audience, topic and so on.

Absolutely, each audience has different expectations for what "quality" even means. Though I'm not really sure where "the algorithm" (I kinda hate how anthropomorphized it is) doesn't play into even in your scenario. Browse and Search are the two largest ways to grow traffic, and both are algorithmic to different degrees... unless you just mean like, growth is not a goal on YouTube for you, in which case, yeah you ca…

> But the language used around this topic is often implying that "the algorithm" will "punish you" if you like, post too often, post too little, post at different times...

These are all kinda true though?

- If you post too often your notifications get bundled, so now it's "x published two videos" instead of "x published that amazing video",

- if you post too little then people are less likely to recognize your username and thus just not click on it unless the creator really left an impression (this is probably the most dependent on the audience however).

- if you post at differing times you suddenly have to increase your audience significantly as your usual watchers won't be on YouTube at that moment, so you're effectively missing out on the initial upvotes by your fanbase until much later, reducing the chance of the video going into trending.

I mean they're not the only variables and they become pretty much non-issues as the channel grows, but all of these effects can be directly measured in clicks when the audience is still pretty small

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a more positive way to think about MrBeast's behavior of giving away money isn't that he's doing it for views, but that he's doing it for fun. There is a documentary about how actor Bill Murray will occasionally spend a bunch of money on a random stranger that he meets in public. I see this trend of rich YTers giving away free money as evidence that the creator economy has lowered the barrier to entry to phil…

Mr Beast, like Willy Wonka, may well be doing things for the pure childlike whimsy. Was Willy Wonka the good guy?

> Was Willy Wonka the good guy?

That's an interesting question. Here is my amateur psychoanalyst take on Wonka. This is based on the Gene Wilder version of Wonka. It is the one with which I am most familiar.

Wonka was a shut in with sociopath tendencies. He hates other people because they're infinitely less intelligent than him. They see him as magical because of the things he creates, but to him the inventions are obvious. Other fictional characters with this trait: Rick Sanchez, Elwood Ralson.

He is a creative who wants to quit his job (maybe he got bored, or just got more interested in his Great Glass Elevator). But he doesn't want to close his business, because if he does that then the chocolate world will be taken over by the uncreative people that he hates. He doesn't care about his customers, he just cares about the creative process of chocolate-craft. Also, he loves his employees because they share his love of hard work, and he probably feels like a parent to them since he saved them from the horrors of their homeland.

He wants to find someone to take over his business. Someone who he knows will be capable of the creativity that he is. He hates children a little bit less than adults, so he concocts an elaborate factory tour/job interview because it was the only possible way for him to interview children.

So my answer the question, is Wonka the good guy, is yes. Because he worked hard to ensure that his creative process for chocolate-craft would continue to exist in the world after he was gone. He is an inventor that loved his invention.

Plus any harm that could have possibly be done to his factory guests, could easily be undone by his "magic". Just like Rick Sanchez.

This was fun. Thanks for asking.

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#153
post #118

I've been contemplating creating YouTube videos like the Khan Academy ones, but for a niche area. The aim is to help students understand the subject, so I don't need a camera. But I do need some form of a touch device where I can write, draw graphs, show text, etc. and just record that. And there will be no monetization. Anyone have any recommendations for such a setup?

This is what I use - An inswan document camera is $99. itube studio is $20. Connect the inswan to your laptop. Now you can use regular paper pencil to write, draw graphs, show text, pictures etc. Use PhotoBooth to make a video, which is an mov. Then use itube studio to convert it to "Youtube" mp4, which has the right codec etc, & then upload to youtube.

Thanks! I was hoping to use my iPad to do the drawing, etc. as my drawing skills are non-existent. Is there a way to "screencast" an iPad screen and convert that into a video?

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#154
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s good to see you here! I totally agree with quality there (although not from personal experience) but taking as an example your videos, Idk how you first came up with the idea of the “wife mode” but now your video have gone from something I totally nerd on to something I call my wife to watch with me, which she does with minimal eye rolls and actually enjoyment from her part! Haven’t found that many other maker c…

Not a maker channel, but Technology Connections fills a similar niche in our household. Simultaneously in-depth enough for me and accessible and interesting for my wife.

Yeah! His video about dishwashers completely changed and greatly improved our dishwasher experience!

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#155

I’ve found that content quality is much more important than posting consistency. This is because there’s a nonlinear relationship between views & quality. For example a video that is twice as good might be capable of getting 10 times as many views. If that’s true it implies that (within reason) spending more time to make a better video is the best strategy. Intuitively this makes sense: would it be better to make 1 m…

Yeah, and I believe the reason for this behavior is the fact people subscribe if they found a video worthwhile. Then, once they're subscribed, they'll check their feed every once in a while and it will contain recommendations based on which channels they're subscribed to. It then doesn't matter how often you post or when (quantity), it is all about whether the video interests them (quality).

The mistake here is thinking that high quantity / low quality would lead to satisfied customers; not in the long term. When the quality is too low they'll unsub, simple as that.

My problem with YouTube videos in general is they don't cut to the point. They have too much fanfare around the point, stuff which does not interest me. I expect such behavior in advertising, not in content. To me, it lowers the quality of the content because it lowers the signal-to-noise ratio.

Re: I Posted on YouTube Consistently for 1 Month. This Is What Happened

#156
post #150
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Mr. Beast is a billion-dollar brand now, I'm surprised his name hasn't crossed ways with you before.

I just saw an article about how he averaged $1 MM a week in profit on his videos last year. He's probably not a billion-dollar brand yet, but he's probably at more than half way there.

Time will tell. https://fortune.com/2022/10/27/youtube-creator-mrbeast-seeki...
Post reply on HN