My first interaction with the YouTube Algorithm

[lonerockz]

I recently posted 5 shorts to Instagram and got fairly average views/likes. I decided to post those over as YouTube shorts. One of the 5 is me lane splitting in SF and being blocked a little by a Tesla. In the video I put some text over the video "Always a Tesla". No where in the description or in the tags did I use "Tesla". All of my other shorts have a tiny number of views. That one video had over 1,500 views in the first hour. Then at 65 minutes the traffic flat-lined and over the next 4 hours I've had about 100 more views.

I can only assume that using the word "Tesla" in the video is something that YT likes and so it put me on a lot of peoples feed.

I now have personal experience why creators can be so frustrated by YT. I'm really incentivized to produce things that include popular terms. Ugh. On the plus side it netted me 3 subscribers!

 

[lonerockz]

As I prepare to launch my channel, I've been educating myself on shorts and whatnot. I found this video that explains the reaction to my short:

I think the word Tesla was the trigger to why my video got shown in the first place. The video gave me some interesting insight into Shorts and has me thinking that I should indeed be creating shorts. Ugh, now I have more work to do to launch!

 

[Hippo-Drones]

What is your goal for your channel, why are you starting one?

 

[lonerockz]

To be loved by enough people that not only is the empty hole in my heart filled but that Youtube pays me enough to fly by private jet.

Seriously though, I enjoy the filming and photo-taking part of things. But looking at raw footage and thousands of pictures is boring and dull. So the act of creating a video is forcing me to edit that down into something interesting. I have enough pride in my work that I think it's something that many people would enjoy if they watched it. So I'd like to share it.

As for a payoff for me? I have a pretty darn good job that pays me enough that getting an extra thousand a month from Youtube will not matter to me. I count my lucky stars for this. It would be hugely gratifying to be riding my bike on a trip and have someone walk up to me and say they watched my video, and it inspired them to take a trip, and they'd like to tell me about it.

I'm a very data/metric-driven person. So when you say "Goal," I equate that to actual followers. I'd consider it successful if I got to the point where YouTube would let me monetize the channel. Not that the money would matter, but that it's a sign that my work met the bare minimum. I don't believe that I can ever be successful enough that Youtube would pay me enough that it would actually matter. I'm never going to be ItchyBoots!

I recently discovered a tiny channel that I think is pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/@onehundredtravels There are many things he could do better, but I've watched far worse from much bigger channels. He has a small library of 12 videos that he's posted over 9 months. He has only 90 subscribers. I'm pretty sure that he is not happy with the fact that he's putting his heart and soul into this and has so few subscribers. I'd like to avoid feeling like a failure. And obviously, you need to do more than produce above-average content to get noticed.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

Good answers
It is good to be driven and an idea of where you want your channel to be, but I'd not stress too much about making the algorithm and big growth, if shorts are not your thing, or add too much work, don't use them. If they do float your boat and is an addition you are happy/eager to take on, then go for it. I'd just remember that long form and short form videos, are often a totally different audience, so need to be totally different videos in feel and energy.
I have no clue how all the cogs whirl and gears spin to make a big channel work, hence why I have a relatively small channel still after 7+ years of making motorcycle related content, and I am happy with that, as it allows me to make the videos I want to make rather than feeding the system with content I don't enjoy making.
Guess I'm just trying to say "Have fun" with it all.

 

[lonerockz]

The funny thing about the whole process of creating videos is that I don't really enjoy editing a video. So 20 seconds or 20 minutes doesn't really matter to me.

What I do enjoy is the challenge of doing something new. Solving the puzzle of how to make a 20-second short that is interesting and something I would watch is exciting to me. So making the first few will be exciting. Making the next 20 will be dull. Unless I introduce some new challenge into the process to make it worthwhile.

I've already written the scripts for 15 shorts. Its fast and easy as I don't want anything longer than 20-seconds. It is an interesting intellectual puzzle to tell a story in such a short format and still have it be engaging.

 

[MotoWolfUK]

I recently posted 5 shorts to Instagram and got fairly average views/likes. I decided to post those over as YouTube shorts. One of the 5 is me lane splitting in SF and being blocked a little by a Tesla. In the video I put some text over the video "Always a Tesla". No where in the description or in the tags did I use "Tesla". All of my other shorts have a tiny number of views. That one video had over 1,500 views in the first hour. Then at 65 minutes the traffic flat-lined and over the next 4 hours I've had about 100 more views.

I can only assume that using the word "Tesla" in the video is something that YT likes and so it put me on a lot of peoples feed.

I now have personal experience why creators can be so frustrated by YT. I'm really incentivized to produce things that include popular terms. Ugh. On the plus side it netted me 3 subscribers!

I haven’t even thought about looking into the algorithm,. Not surprised regarding Tesla - it’s a great talking point with all its fans and also it has quite a few haters so it’ll get traffic from both parties

 

[lonerockz]

I haven’t even thought about looking into the algorithm,. Not surprised regarding Tesla - it’s a great talking point with all its fans and also it has quite a few haters so it’ll get traffic from both parties

It's not a great thing to change the algorithm if you aren't creating that content. I don't plan on having Tesla content in my videos, so making it look like I do will just make people unhappy with my content. I just thought it was an interesting interaction.

 

[Moto Mengy]

The word "Tesla" in your title or video does seem to get clicks. I had my Model Y in my April Fools video last year and it generated quite the buzz, both good and bad!

 

[lonerockz]

I've been continuing my experiment with Shorts. I made two shorts that are in a "story" format. They are both 20ish seconds long. I made sure to have long descriptions so they might hit some search terms.

Youtube quickly put both out in the shorts feed to see how they would do:

You can see the similar behavior of both. Initial checking this thing out, but then flatline. But both netted me new subs! Which for a beginner like me is important. Considering these take only a few minutes to make they are totally worth it! I don't know if I have enough content to keep pushing these out one a day, but I do have 12 more scripted and voice over recorded.

Btw, my super low energy just a clip with music over it do not get pushed out. I may have had the settings wrong and set "made for children". Might do one more experiment there.

In the clip I linked above he pushed out about 12 or so before it really caught on and his videos started generating lots of views, probably from people that went to his channel to see his other stuff.

I've read that one of the big metrics Youtube uses to keep your short on the shorts feed is shares. So I shared it out a few places to see if that will help them out. I think that is why the first one continues to rise.

 

[MotoWolfUK]

The short experiment is neat.
Hmm. Wonder if there’s any good free software/app that can gather analytics from multiple platforms.

 

[lonerockz]

My shorts experiments continue.

I did watch a clip from a channel that talks about how to grow your channel that said, basically, shorts are a complete waste of time. They don't pay (which I don't care about); more importantly, they don't drive people to your long-form content. So the jury is still out on if they are worth it or not.

In the meantime, I'm still creating them. I'm getting faster and can pump one out in about 20-30 minutes. Most of that time is adding subtitles.

I did have a little experiment yesterday. Usually, YouTube shows my short to about 1500 people before it dies off. Some last to 2000, and one got to 3500. Yesterday's short died at 250! I was bummed, although it did get me a subscriber, but no likes. The original short-ended with a question. I re-cut it and moved the question to the front. The video is all the same, just rearranged. That version got me 1700 views, 45 likes, and 3 subs! Both versions are on my shorts feed, so you can check them out and see the difference. They're only 18 seconds long, so not a huge waste of time.

 

[lonerockz]

Another update on my Shorts experimentation. I have now posted 20 Total Videos.
6 Low energy shorts with music only - 1,700 views total. Only the "Tesla" video got blasted out.
9 Narrative Shorts - Most have about 2,000 views each.
1 Tips Short - 1,300 Views.

All but one of my shorts hit an immediate plateau within 90 minutes of me uploading. I have one short that is still getting put into the shorts feed and gets about 400 views a day. I have no idea why, it gets similar statistics to my other shorts.

I posted my first tips short at the same time I made the long form video available. The Short got a below average view count, BUT it netted me an above average subscriber count (+5). My guess is that YouTube is getting to know the audience for my content better and so it is targeting people that are more likely to want my content. I plan to make 5 more tips shorts from that single long video with hope of driving people to actually watch the full video.

At this point 30 of my 40 subscribers are from my shorts.

My first travel video is now 9 days old and has 240 views, but 40% of those are external links from places I put links to it. My second travel video is only a few days old and is growing much slower.

The struggle continues!

 

[Moto Mengy]

My main problem with shorts is this: I don't like watching them, so I'm not motivated to make them for others to watch. I'd rather make videos I would like to watch and make and post them for others to also possibly watch too.

Every time I think I'm gonna try making shorts again I stop during editing because I just don't like them.

 

[lonerockz]

I hear you! Most shorts are just a waste of time. I can look at shorts or tick-tock and realize 30 minutes have passed, yet I remember nothing! Because it wasn't worth remembering.

That's part of the challenge for me. To create something that I will watch. My full tips video is just over 5 minutes. I've created 6 shorts from it that are cut-down versions of the tips. Each is under 30 seconds. They only take about 10 minutes to make. If they work, and drive traffic to the long version, then it was totally worth the time.

 

[motonomad]

Hmm. Perhaps I will make a short where all I am doing is riding my motorcycle yelling tesla repetitively like an insane person