your viewer is not your audience, it's your community

Community is the heart of KZbin. The question is what does that look like for different creators in different spaces.
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Legal Notice: Channel Makers is a product of Income School LLC. The “Channel Makers” name and O logo mark are trademarks of Income School LLC. Income School LLC is a limited liability company headquartered in Idaho, USA. Results mentioned not typical. No business is guaranteed to succeed, in fact, most new businesses will fail. It takes hard work, skill, and time for a new business to grow. The name “Project 24” is not a guarantee of success in 24 months, but refers to those who have a goal of creating an online business in 24 months. Some will succeed, others will not-just like any business.

[@ChannelMakers]

What is your least favorite community building activity? Let me know why!

[@selbermachenguru]

Beeing consistent. Because I try to teach art and creativity it feels like lying to my viewers when I tell them to be spontaneous but train the opposite on my own page.

[@Max_RPM]

I like to read community polls and posts on Channels Makers. It shows to me that the channel is alive and this is a huge community. The post with 100-200 comments is real content. I can spend an hour to read it.

[@OpenAirOutdoors]

I read and reply to all comments and I do my best to remember names. I believe there is nothing more appreciative than remembering someone's name. I did do a "live from the lake" once and there was about 10 folks that cam on and you had a blast👍 thanks for sharing✌

[@Homegrown_Hillary]

This was actually the first video from this channel Ive watched all the way through in a while. Can I pinpoint why? Not really, except I know I’m much more likely to click on a thumb featuring Ricky or Nathan (familiarity, I guess? Already established trust? And Nathan has great, chill camera presence.) But I really enjoyed the low-key vibe. 👍

[@jmilkslinger]

For me, it's because it's honest --- it lightly and tactfully addresses the elephant in the room.

[@ThePlantPoweredRunner]

100% awesome!! Great video. I love connecting and interacting with my audience❤😊. You’re getting better with your on camera presence

[@ChannelMakers]

Thank you! That's really nice of you to say! - Nathan

[@portalsandpathways]

It’s good to hear this. The engagement is a big part of many channels I watch. Thank you

[@laurenball_illustrator]

I really appreciate your thoughts on this. It's giving me a lot to consider for my own channel. I didn't realize how much these similar thoughts have been churning in the back of my mind, so thanks for making it!

[@eyesonindie]

This less edited style is similar to the kind of videos found in my niche, so I do like it! I happen to be in a niche that's all about community. A lot of channels have discord servers or voxer accounts where they can chat with others in real time (in addition to going live on KZbin). Tons of channels do monthly challenges or read-a-longs. Lots of tags. There's a very common activity called "Buddy Reads" where you find one other person in the community to read a book with. And you do that totally off KZbin...just the two of you.This fall, I let my viewers pick six books for me to pre-order and read. That was fun! It's actually quite a robust community, though the opportunities for actually earning a living off it are very slim.

[@xavthomas]

I love, and have always loved, seeing you on Income School channels, Nathan

[@lys_is_me]

Hi Nathan 😊 I like this style of video, it does exactly what you said by making it feel more genuine and authentic. I think that's important these days because there have been so many channels in the past few years who seem to be chasing money and attention more than giving back to their audience. I chat with my community all the time and love the feedback and to the connections. Right now we are planning a video for the end of the month that is an "at request recipe". I only started watching channel makers around the time the transitions all happened but I love the new style much better than how it was before. It feels much more connected

[@MarlenesHomeandGarden]

I've found LIVE videos are very helpful. Many love the immediate interactions but more than 1/2 of my viewers watch the replay. Great ideas overall.

[@TheLazyScrapbooker]

Great info... I've got to finish the last half after a meeting, but I'm already inspired to try Lives.

[@TheArtofValue]

Thanks for this video, as a relatively new YT creator I appreciate the advice.

[@michaelmay9059]

It's mind blowing that there are adults out there that have been programmed so thoroughly, that they can't handle the smallest unimportant change in their lives (such as a host changing on a yt channel they are subscribed to) they fear change so much that this change which has no bearing on their lives drives them to take time out of their actual lives and write a disparaging comment to the new host. Unbelievable 😒

[@WhiskeyBank]

Interesting video. I really liked that you talked from your own experience as a "viewer" and how you & others engage with KZbin channels (i.e. what made you watch them, follow them, why lives are important as a viewer, etc.). Sometimes I get so caught up on what to do as a "creator", I forget that it's the "viewers" that are important and I need to listen and follow what they want from me, instead of doing what I want to do to make my channel successful. Thank you for the ideas to build a community!

[@EvelynM-vlogs]

This style is my fav, but only to a point. There is another channel similar to this that has gone this route but uses two hosts in conversation mode. They converse so much that it feels like most of it is filler with actual points few and far in between. I have dropped watching those two hosts for that reason. Time is precious.

[@youtubegrowthexpert]

I like the less edited style keep up the good work 👍

[@WillieDeJarnetteMarketerDNA]

I’m glad you made a video like this

[@willeton]

I have tried to interact with my followers, but I get few likes or comments, but a lot of likes and watch time hours. It is a walking tour channel, nothing fancy. So I dont what the answer is in my circumstances.

[@TheArtofValue]

Thanks for the vid, I appreciated the candid style. I’m a P24 member so it’s interesting to see how you guys have been dealing with transitioning this channel from the previous presenter, including currently hiding those previous videos I see, for reasons I haven’t seen explained yet (perhaps it’s in the forum, I’ll look). Keep up the good work, and it’s interesting to see, especially for those channels which might later change presenters as they grow. Not an easy thing to do, especially without being able to plan for it, which can happen.

[@ChannelMakers]

We’ll definitely talk about that on this channel. I (Ricky) talked about it for a few minutes in a recent mastermind.

[@PointlessNostalgia]

Nice video! I always try and post something to the community tab several times a week. I have done 1 live stream just before Thanksgiving and the people were super nice and friendly. I keep wanting to do another, but the issue is scheduling it.

[@anamericanentrepreneur]

Good ideas my friend!

[@PulpParadise]

"As of January 2024, there is no minimum subscriber count required to stream on KZbin from a desktop....KZbin may limit mobile livestream viewers if you have under 1,000 subscribers....KZbin does not charge anything for live streaming, but you should have a minimum of 100 subscribers and your account must be verified using an active phone number." (From the Google Generative AI response to my question about how many subscribers you need to live stream on KZbin.)

[@n4thejourney]

Helpful video! I'd love for you to go deeper on memberships. It could include what people are offering and charging. I'd also like to hear about different gaming options. Thanks for for insights on community!

[@ChannelMakers]

Great suggestion! Thank you! :)

[@WeiseGuy91]

These casual videos are nice occasionally, good format change. However I personally need chapters when people do this style because sometimes the free form style can go on and on more than they realize, and I’d like to skip to the next segment.

[@MyFireVideos]

Thank you

[@HolzHammerSagas]

Does building a community include replying fairly promptly to all the people who have left you some quite lengthy and well thought out comments..? 🤔😁

[@ChannelMakers]

If that's feasible for you. It definitely doesn't mean killing yourself to respond in depth to every question people throw at you. That's not really a fair expectation for people to have. You have to decide which comments you can and should respond to and how much time you can dedicate to that activity. Ideal more interaction is better.

[@MollysFineArt]

Thanks for sharing the great info! I've been struggling with creating a community. I'm planning more live sessions hoping that will help.

[@ChannelMakers]

Great plan! - Nathan

[@ondeestapaula]

Thank you for this video😊

[@ChannelMakers]

My pleasure 😊

[@dr.renjithkumarm397]

One lovely Hai from India.... Watching eagerly this topic...thank you

[@nataliesweet-cw6cr]

I enjoyed this video and it helped me remember this community concept, thank you.

[@Carina_Rose]

Cody is funny, lol.

[@ChannelMakers]

He sure is!

[@selbermachenguru]

Years ago I thought the internet is a fail as a whole because negtive attitudes have been much more engaging. BUT I saw here on youtube that kindness and being friendly and positive IS growing. So I appreciate your lovely way of presenting the information to us very very much! Please keep up the spirit, we all have to work on spreading kindness. That's why I am here and will come back.

[@your_spirit_guide]

yes the audience on KZbin are kinder than those on TikTok. You can often see the unkind comments on TikTok putting the creator down

[@Jd7172g]

I disagree with the consistent publish idea. I think it’s much more important for a beginner KZbinr to try and publish good content. Posting 1 video a week is easy, posting 1 good video every 3-5 weeks is actually a lot harder but will grow your audience more. From a friend side, I’d rather see a really close friend who I have a great time with every month or so than a boring friend every week

[@designmorsels]

Seems harder on KZbin than TikTok

[@your_spirit_guide]

KZbin although seems harder, it has more opportunities to monetise as compared to TikTok. There are a lot of space to post your affiliate links and your services on KZbin video description but not on TikTok. Sometimes TikTok will also disable your link to other platform on your profile page. The comments from audience on TikTok can also be more harsh than those on KZbin and TikTok does nothing about it when you report them TikTok is hard to earn from ads revenue unless you have at least 100k followers and your content must be original. Most TikTok content creators earn from selling things online at TikTok live. If you are not promoting any physical products, then KZbin is better for you

[@CesarJoel]

Small channel but been building a very good community using lives. My lives are small 20-40 online but they engage a lot and feels great. Great information and video format.🫵