My YouTube Struggles as a Beginner with 15 Years of Experience | Growing my YouTube Channel EP4

[@RichHilsden]

Going to be a long comment. I don't know what caught my eye about your channel, but I watched this video and a few others. KZbin is hard, I ebb and flow with mine as well. You do so many things well. You production value and thumbnails are really really good. When I watched your silent V-logs I thought they were so beautiful and inspiring. The amount of work you put in to those is obvious. I am going to offer a bit of unsolicited advice (take it or leave it). I would encourage a bit more focus on your channel in general. I feel like you make 3-4 different kinds of videos. Which makes it hard for a subscriber to be excited about the next thing you make. We won't know if we are going to get something we like or not. So maybe narrow down the types of videos you make. I would not make longer videos just to chase watch time. In fact A single 3 minute video that does really well (say 16k views) will get you over the top on your watch times. If I have learned anything (and I am still learning BTW) it's to spend more time on planning the videos than anything else. For example on your latest silent V-log it was so good, but I didn't know what I watching. If you simply made a video about fixing the windshield with your dad, and you titled the video helping my Dad, and the entire video was about your relationship with him, that would have been amazing. Or, you could have made a video about the Cats in Greece and just focused on them and how people interact with them. You are a talented film maker. Give me a story, not just a day. I would consider re-editing stuff you have already posted to try different techniques. Trust me, we won't mind if we see the same footage but cut in a different way. In general, try shorter more focused content for now. Good luck, you really do have some great content. I can't film the way you can. It's beautiful stuff.

[@JimMakosCom]

That's EXACTLY what I am planning to do: reuse some of that footage and create standalone stories for future videos. I expect these to perform better, similar to other videos with a specific story along with the visuals, such as the video about Google Updates. But making and producing silent vlogs is relatively easier. These make me pick up the camera more. I used to press the record, don't myself of why I'm even shooting as I never published the footage, ending up not recording anything. Meanwhile I find myself watching this kind of videos from others who have been successful with silent vlogs. Obviously, I'm not doing it correctly. But at least I keep the channel updated. I totally get that subscribers may feel confused. Even this new idea of making shorter stories would end up with another Playlist of videos, confusing them more. I suppose your advice on focusing on a single thing stands. But I have done that before, and after four or five videos, I quit making them. These weekly updates and the silent vlogs are the videos that made me post more regularly than ever before. Maybe I'm now so committed to building and growing my channel that I might stick to a new format more. But I'm afraid of stopping the silent vlogs despite the low performance. I mostly do these to stay in the game and not second-guess myself. Again. Thank you for your support and super helpful feedback. You're the first creator with nearly 100k subscribers to comment on one of my videos. This is not to diminish the value of comments from other people, of course. It's just that you back up your advice with proven experience. And it's not that you just comment a sentence. You went above and beyond to leave such a long comment. I very much appreciate that and wish you succeed in whatever dreams you're working towards. ✌️

[@initfrank]

Your consistency will pay off anytime now!! Like another comment said, keeping the title shorter might help, and thumbnails could be a bit more eye catching!! I recently started my journey and watching this video was a big eye opening experience for me! Your perseverance is to admire!!

[@JimMakosCom]

The sooner it pays off, the better for my mental health! I'm happy to hear you found this helpful. That's the whole point of making these. I rewrote some of the titles yesterday, and I'll go through my thoughts on that in the next episode, as I have a different view of the titles' length. Thanks for your kind words, and good luck, Frank! Starting is half of everything.

[@wantabiz]

Hey my friend, nice video! Just an idea -> Why don't you shoot video's answering the questions you asked in the section: Learning the Technical Side of KZbin ? Keep grinding! You'll get there.

[@JimMakosCom]

Because I don't consider myself an expert in that field. Then again I'm not an expert KZbinr and I still do this series! You might be right, I should probably make videos on those questions. I see people with much less experience than me talk about those topics, so I guess you've got a point. 👍

[@wantabiz]

@@JimMakosCom 😅

[@WheelieAwesomeAdventures]

I need to get it together!

[@JimMakosCom]

I had a look at a couple of your videos. Your content is certainly unique. I would create a few videos, sharing more personal stories that people can relate more with you (other than traveling). All the best and GL!

[@TrueEsc]

U need one video that 🎯. Useful information, I sub. I feel the same but I'm only in the beginning of this journey 😅

[@JimMakosCom]

Yep that's what I'm hoping for making about 100 videos per year and having a 1% chance 👊

[@darrensurrey]

I'm disappointed for you. I guess the trick is to keep going and your people will find you. Fingers crossed! And yes, you can become the "niche". The people who love you will find you if you keep going!

[@JimMakosCom]

Yes, that's the plan. Eventually, 99% quit, and 1% make it. The trick is to enjoy doing this and care about the numbers as little as possible.

[@darrensurrey]

@JimMakosCom yeah definitely! Like trading, just psychology!

[@MyCreativeDisorder]

If in 15 years you uplaoded only 150 video - 10 per each year - that is your biggest problem...

[@JimMakosCom]

I never considered KZbin my main platform until now. Better late than never

[@MyPlanB2023]

+20min from me.. ;)

[@JimMakosCom]

thank you for your valuable time🥰

[@SoroushTorkian]

So I stalked your channel page. Based on my first 20 second impression here's what my primitive brain is immediately thinking: - "Keep your titles short bro" - Entice your audience with some sort of value (for example, I saw you talked about cypto, you can title it more clickbaity "How to Start Trading Crypto TODAY")... It's OK to make it a wee bit clickbaity sounding. The title is not that important if you're still on the same topic , as the video originally intended as well. Think of it like an ethical clickbait lol. If you feel bad about it, just do a short caveat at the beginning lols. You'll be forgiven, you're still giving the same value regardless. - Remember, the audience is super lazy (I'm lazy too), and the internet punishes wordiness unlike English class at school. - Vlogs are better for when you have an established community. Otherwise, I'd take parts of the blog and turn it into an informative video. - You can make the episodes part of a playlist, but don't actually call them E some number... this way, the title and the video can work as a standalone, and as an episode in your ongoing series. - Looking at your popular videos, it looks like you already had the above tips down pat, so just review what worked in your 7 year old videos and follow that formula for the new things you want to talk about. You can even revisit the old topics because most of us forget a video we watched from 6 months ago anyway... just repackage it. Good luck bro! Channel looks good in general though, hope you get 10,000 subs soon.

[@JimMakosCom]

Thanks for your valuable feedback and the time you spent on that; I really appreciate that. About your points: - I'll explain my thinking on titles' length in the next episode; I rewrote some titles today. - I am not a fan of clickbaity titles, even if it's "ethical"; I know this will harm my channel's performance - We are all lazy as we get older and we are only going to become more lazy with the AI - I agree on the vlog thing. I'm considering breaking up some parts of my weekly films to create standalone, much shorter videos (2-4 minutes) with a story and value. But I'll continue making these vlogs, as they are great practice for me - although I have begun second-guessing creating these, lol! - I moved the E## part of the title to the end but I won't be dropping these. Will explain more in the next episode. - Yep, I used to follow some of that advice before in older videos. But I found making those videos challenging. Maybe revisiting that workflow now that I'm more experienced might be less overwhelming. 👊