YT videos?

[Deleted]

How many of you watch a full video? If a video is 15 min long, do you watch the whole video or do you find yourself skipping through it?

Same on videos that are longer. How much of the video are you watching?

 How many of you read the description of the video?

 Here is my thing. I make videos for people to view. But, I am always asked questions that I answer in the videos or are in the description.

What I am trying to decide on is how much content do I put into a video?

 I have done a lot of experimenting over the last couple of years with videos. I made some with no talking in them at all. I put in a lot of headers to help people know what I am doing. I did some with nothing but picture and sped up video and no talking or headers.

 Seems to me like it make no difference in what I do, They all get about the same hits/response. Plus, YT is not being friendly in showing my videos. I think it's their way of getting back at me for using ad blockers.

I have also tried to make my videos interesting as I can. I have changed up the intro and the outros. I even tried to add some things in, in the videos, to make them more fun.

 I feel like everything I do to make videos of guitars is a failure. There is a lot of time in making the videos and then hours of editing them. At times now will cut an hour and a half video down to 15 min. That is a lot of lost video. I even have cut them down into 2 or 3 parts. In trying to see if people will watch the whole video.

 I know that they don't because YT tells me how long people watch the video or videos for.

 Well, anyway, going to do like 3 more videos soon. I'll see what happens with them. If I don't start getting at least some thumbs up on videos, then I think it's time to not do so many, if any at all. I only have 26 subs on my new channel, and that goes up or down at times.

 Well, I'll stop for now on this topic. But please let me know how much of a YT video or how long you will watch a video for. I do better on the YT shorts than I do on my full videos. Hum...

[GuitarAttack Forum]

These are the questions of our time. When I do watch videos on YouTube, I rarely watch an entire video, particularly if it is more than about 5-7 minutes. However, I have a one-hour video with over 75,000 views...that hasn't generated much of anything! lol Getting the subs is the trick.

If you can break through the clutter and find your audience, and if what you create inspires fans to rave about it to their friends, your notoriety and subs will grow.

This reminds me of posting my original music. Most people tell you they like it, but it is not really compelling for them and after a few weeks the listens drop to zero. I think that because there is so much content out there people do not know whether something is good or bad.

Because of the Internet and digital technologies, practically everything is made available to the public for free. And now consumers decide what is worthy of their time and attention.

According to a study I found, people who are exposed to music through a gatekeeper tend to like the music more than those who are not. However, this does not necessarily mean that music is better when it has a gatekeeper like a radio station or record label or one of their friends who "knows a lot about music." If you hear a song on a TV show, movie, or on the radio, you are likely to really like it more. I think about all of the songs Apple uses on their commercials becoming hits. Is it because they are great songs or is it because a gatekeeper told us they were great? What do we get served to us?

I remember hearing a really popular band (name withheld) for the first time years ago. One of my musician friends brought their cassette over to my house and said, "You have got to hear this...it is unbelievable. My cousin in California sent this to me." There is the vote of confidence you need to be open to new music being great. Then I started listening.

I am afraid there is probably not a formula for success. I've kind of given up on videos because they take so much time, feature a big workload, and I don't get much reward from them.

But, when you find the formula you will be successful, but you have to create and that gets back to workload.

In my opinion, if you really want to get it moving you are going to have to spend more time and money on promotion.

My opinion only, and Good Luck
John

[antares]

I submit that it all boils down to time/life. I reckon I must have 60-odd subscriptions. If I set out to watch from start to finish everyone's hard graft, the first thing that would go would be visits to the WC and of course sleep. I would not need my legs. I could obviously drink and eat, but I couldn't take time out for the john. And, all the while I would just slip further and further behind in the growing backlog. Also, when I spend time to watch and comment on content, I occasionally later see "black" placeholders containing the text "This video is no longer available" for the odd few and I think "Well that was a complete waste of my time and thought processes because I can't even tell what's gone".

I will stop a video if it is of no interest but I do try to watch those I'm committed to right through and that is because I want my commentary to be pertinent so that the creator knows that I'vee sat through all the ads. I have frequently terminated Rick Beato's videos- much as I like and respect him. He has north of 3 million subs and his YouTube income must be significant, but he has to keep that train-a-rolling and his content has become diluted in my view. I would never just comment any video with 2 or 3 words after I've watched it because I believe it is disingenuous, although watching all that content alone would not provide any time for comments, neither considered nor perfunctory.

So what's to do then? I've long since decided that I have to target my allegiances. I would advise against placing too much creedence on YouTube's analytics- they don't tell you -why- folks skip or terminate. Perhaps those folks have watched already and are looking for a time tag to illustrate a comment, or maybe they've seen it before and are revisiting sections for whatever reason? One of my favourite videos is the "Sleepwalk Solo" by Danny Gatton uploaded by Robert Kiitila, but if I click on the Sleepwalk melody and solo variant I instantly fast forward to the solo. I guess that's why Robert uploaded the solo? It really is the most astonishing display of fretboard gymnastics yet it isn't just finger gymnastics.

I don't pretend to know what the solution is, but I do know that everyone is different and "You can please some of the people all the time ..." etc etc. I can only fall back on thanking those creators who go the dozen extra furlongs to provide content, whether altruistically or otherwise, it's all appreciated. Those are the guys whose content I comment upon.

[dnic]

Most of the people that I watch on YT I watch the whole video. I don't use add blockers but I I skip as soon as possible as a rule. I will watch adds if I feel like helping someone develop their channel. Some folks I watch do long format videos. I first found Derek from vice grip garage after my knee surgery. I had plenty of time to veg in front of my comp and 1 hour videos were great. But now I see him post a 1 to 2 hour video and I don't even click on it. I just don't have time for that.

Now there are a couple of us on here that are old guys doing videos. I have to admit I'm not the most interesting guy around and I certainly don't understand what motivates younger viewers watch videos. But from what I see it looks like they like really silly stuff and that's just not me. My granddaughter watches stuff that makes me crazy. Most people aren't watching videos to learn stuff.


So I have do decide to do what I like and if folks like what I like then great. My best performing video is about super glue. If I was trying to build a channel to make money I would focus my energy on super glue videos. Right? I do cut a lot of stuff that I film out when editing. Guess that's why they call it editing. I also don't record everything or I record intending to fast forward in edit.

My analytics say that my videos peak after the intro. I've thought about just running the intro with no other video but instead I shortened the intro or start out with a blurb in front before the the intro. Did it make a difference? No idea.

Your YT videos get more attention with the more comments you get. That's why even bad comments are good comments. Ben Crow often says, fight each other in the comments. That's not because he reads the comments. Buts he knows that helps drive the channel.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the input. I guess it will always be one thing or another in getting people to respond to my videos. For me, I comment on videos I like or if a video says something I think is off in what they had to say.

But in saying that, I don't see why people don't at least give a video a thumbs up. That does not take any time to do at all. I, too, find myself jumping ahead in videos to get to the content I came to watch. Some seem to take a long time getting to the content. For me, I am trying real hard not to linger in getting to what the video is about. I have even started to edit out a lot of talking in my videos. 

 Been looking at a lot of my old videos, so I can improve my videos. I work hard at it. So when some can't even give a thumbs up, it makes me feel as a creator, what's the use of even making the videos. Is anyone really watching? Or I wonder what is it that people are looking for?

I did a short with all it shows is me hogging out for the chambering on a guitar build that I am doing. That short in the first hour got like 4,000 hits. All you can see is wood being cut out of the body. Hum...

 So in doing shorts, it makes me wonder if I am just wasting my time in making the videos that I do? As far as "this video is no longer available" I know for me, I had to end one of my YT channels because of some dip out there was stalking me. I was told by authorities that was something I needed to do. Delete the channel. So I did! I knew in doing, so I would upset a few people. But I did what I thought was best for me and my protection.

 OK, people not wanting to waste their time. Hum... If people don't have time to waste on watching videos, then why are they even on YT or FB looking at stuff? Seems to me if one has time to look at a video then they can spend 30 seconds to comment and give thumbs up. Otherwise, it makes a creator feel like the video that they posted is a waste of time. At least that is how it makes me feel. But maybe no response is best. That way I don't have to deal with people! LOL!

 Well, the videos I do is always an experiment for me. Some seem to do well as far as hits go, and some not so well. Again, I am not trying to get to where YT will pay me for the videos I do. I am too far away from ever doing that. It just would be nice if I could get people to respond to what I am doing. I guess it's not that big of a deal.

 I have fun making videos, and I guess that is all I should be grateful for. If nothing else, the videos do show that I do make guitars and other things. I am not afraid to show what and how I do things. That is a lot more than some out there can do. I see a lot of comments on videos where people say stuff that they can't back up what they are going on about. They have nothing on their channel/s to show or back up their comments.

 So, for now, I'll keep on doing what I do. YT and I are not seeing eye to eye on some things at the moment. So I don't know how long I'll keep on doing what I do as far videos go. It's all over Ad blockers. I don't understand why I can't block ads. It's only on one device that I have it on. There is no blocker on my cell phone or on my other computer. The ads they let on there are nothing but Scam/spam ads. A lot of junk ads that I have no interest in at all. Talk about wasting time? One of my videos had 7 ads added to it. Tell me again, how is that fare? That was on one of my 30-min videos! That video had a lot of hits at one time. But the hits stopped. There has been no more hits on it for a long time now. Is it because of all the ads? Makes me wonder. I know for me, I will stop watching a video that has too many ads attached to it. Again, the ads have nothing to do with the video or anything I would want to use or buy. I don't get paid for the ads on my videos. I feel I have a right to block anything or anyone from my view online. YT, FB and other places should not have the right to tell me what I can or cannot do in that right to protect myself online.

 I told YT just the other day That I do not need them to live on, nor do I need YT for anything else in my life. There is nothing on there that is going to be a life altering thing for me. I don't need YT, FB, TicToc, or other media in my life. We all at one time were doing just fine without all the online medias telling us what, where and how things are.

 I am going to once again be making some big changes for next year. One of them will be less and less online things. There are no future builds in the making for next year. Only finishing up on ones I have put on the back burner. Next year I won't be doing as many videos. I am also not going to posting on here as often as I have. Like for so many of us, life is changing for me. One big one is my health. But I am not going into that.

I will do a video on the completion of the neck though P90 guitar. Waiting on the weather. It's been way too cold to do anything in the shop as far as guitar building goes. I still need to put the last few coats of the clear on it.

 Next year will be an interesting one. With it being an election year. The medias will be going nuts in 2024. It will be in some ways a hard time here in the USA. Not looking forward to 2024 at all.

 

[antares]

I think that just clicking on a video does the trick. Advancing through ads doesn't really matter? I click/tap through the ads instantly (as in as soon as they'll let me.) As some of you know, I have but one video uploaded and it is "private" and certainly not set up for pecuniary gain. One day I watched it and the YouTube machine streamed ads to me, so although I know TANSTAAFL, I have zero guilt about dodging the ads. Grasping clutching grabbing clawing so and sos. T'was ever thus.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

I just looked at my YouTube Studio and clicked on the little dollar sign ($).

Come to find out, to start making money as a YouTube partner you need 500 subscribers, 3000 public watch hours in the last year or 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days.

I looked over my numbers on the app, and it is interesting to see all of the data. Still trying to piece it all together!

John

[dnic]

TANSTAAFL, had to look it up. You crack up Steve.

[Deleted]

Dec 18, 2023 11:00:24 GMT -6 GuitarAttack Forum said:

I just looked at my YouTube Studio and clicked on the little dollar sign ($).

Come to find out, to start making money as a YouTube partner you need 500 subscribers, 3000 public watch hours in the last year or 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days.

I looked over my numbers on the app, and it is interesting to see all of the data. Still trying to piece it all together!

John

Looks like YT has changed some things. A few months ago I had to have 1000 subs and 3,000 watch ours. I'll have to check into it again.

 But I am still way too far away to make any money.

 I just can't get my head wrapped around how some get a lot of hits and subs and some don't. I look at a lot of videos on YT. Most of them aren't any better than anyone else. But yet they have 1000 subs and thousands of hits! Some videos to me are down right boring. But yet they have a huge fallowing. Their content is no better than mine.

 I do feel at times that YT plays favorites toward some. Every time I open up YT, there are the favorites of YT. Seems to me, YT needs to let some of us others have a change at being seen by many and not a few. YT is always on me on building my YT channel. But how can one build something without the help of people seeing what we do?

 I don't have hundreds of dollars to put into making videos. I don't have the money to hire people to edit them, and I have no way of getting sponsors to help promote my videos. I don't know, it just seems out of balance to me.

[Deleted]

Looked on my YT channel. It is showing I need 1000 subs and 4,000 watch hours in a month to monetize. There is no way I'll ever reach that according to the response I am getting on my videos.

 I also looked at some of the other ways for YT to let me do thing on YT. They want too much personal info for me to sign up. They won't even let me pin a comment right now without giving them my driver's license and or a picture ID. Not going to do that. I feel they already know who I am, they don't need my life history to go with it.

 I also will not participate in their survey they want me to take for their demographic stuff. None of their business what I think about things.

 So, After talking with the wife, I am going to keep posting some videos and try not be concerned about how many people are watching.

 The video I posted a few days ago has had over 200 hits. And some have given it a thumbs down. According to YT, it has gotten an 83.3% like rating. The other % is people that have given me a thumbs down. That video is on the Minwax tung oil finish.

I have another video at 75% and one at 90% The rest are at 100% Again I find it odd and somewhat funny that people will give these videos a thumbs down, and yet I thought people had no time to even do the thumbs thing.

 I did see where YT is thinking of getting rid of the thumbs up or down. I feel they should maybe stop using it. Seems like not many use it anyway.

Well, it has been fun while I have been on Guitar Attack and YT. But I can see it all coming to an end someday. I have become so bored with everything.

 I was just in, working on the NT P90 build. Trying to get the finish done it. Decided to work on it in the house. Got board of it really fast. A small part of me would like to get it done, then the other part of me says "Oh Well".

 Went out to my chair and went online. Or tried to get online. Fist, MS had to do an update to the computer. Then Firefox had to do an update. 30 min later I could get online. LOL! Then I had a notice from YT about some things. Then there are other things online I had to deal with. At what point do you say enough is enough?

 All this tech is supposed to make like easier and more fun. But for me, it has not done that.

 Again, next year there are going to be some big changes in my life. One of the big things for me, I will be going back to some of the things I used to do in school. That will be going back to doing art. My son and wife has gotten together and bought me this awesome art set and some canvases for painting on. So, I'll be getting back to doing that. Been wanting to do it for a long time now. It's been years since I did anything like this. I'll see how much I can remember. LOL!

 Going to slow way down on everything else. I am going to do some more remix of videos and or re-do videos of guitars and amps I have on hand. But they will be a few and far between. I will be making an end of year video, and I'll go more into what is coming up for my channels. I will also give an end of year review on haw things went this past year.

 With the way prices have gone up, my wife and just can't afford for me to keep on making guitars. I don't buy and sell all that much. Selling one guitar in 2 years is not keeping my hobby alive. The guitar hobby has priced itself out of reach for me. I might do some rebuilds along the way. But the parts have gotten more expensive as well. Plus, my doctors bills are so expensive, even with insurance. They seem to think someone that is retired is rich. Now in days, doctors charge the insurance a price. If the insurance does not pay or only pays for part I/we have to pay the price. Medicare does not care about us. They pay less and we pay more. So, we are strapped. We go nowhere and do nothing. We hope to do some traveling next year. But we have to drive anywhere we go. I can no longer fly do to my health issues.

 Well, again, I'll do what I can when I can. Sorry to sound like a downer.

But I thought that some of you would like to know what is coming up with me and my guitars.

[dnic]

Yes 1000 subs and 4000 hours was my understanding for videos. I think John was referring to shorts about monetization.

Pretty much all my guitar money comes from repairs.

Still praying for you and Nancy. Keep trucking buddy.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Dec 20, 2023 10:26:35 GMT -6 dnic said:

Yes 1000 subs and 4000 hours was my understanding for videos. I think John was referring to shorts about monetization.

It looks like there are two levels to the scheme...the 1000/4000 is step 2 for more monetization.

Not sure I'll even make the first gate! lol

John

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2023 14:34:22 GMT -6 GuitarAttack Forum said:

Dec 20, 2023 10:26:35 GMT -6 dnic said:

Yes 1000 subs and 4000 hours was my understanding for videos. I think John was referring to shorts about monetization.

It looks like there are two levels to the scheme...the 1000/4000 is step 2 for more monetization.

Not sure I'll even make the first gate! lol

John

Too much for me. I may not be around by the time I can monetize. So YT is no help in keeping my hobby alive. 

  We live way out in the country. There are no places to buy hard woods. I would have to drive from 4 to 9 hours away to get to the closest place.

 Having wood shipped would be OK if I were buying in bulk. But I cannot afford to spend that kind of money for a hobby.

I'm too old to get a job that would pay me enough so I could afford my hobby. Plus, my health won't let me work. I keep asking people to give me two million dollars, but so far no one has given me any. LOL!

 So at this point I'll just keep on keeping on with some videos. I am planing on doing some soon on some guitars and redo the ones for my amps.

 I have to get over the fact that it's not in the cards for me to make money on YT or anywhere else. I only wish I could get enough wood together to make an acoustic guitar. Been pricing the woods. Again, it's just out of my reach. Not going to happen too soon.

 I do have enough guitars on hand that need some work. I may switch gears and not make guitars, but do repairs on the ones I have on hand.

 I have more on hand than I thought I did. So them projects will keep me busy all year next year. Plus my other home projects I make out of wood for the house. Already been doing some of them project. It's a nice change from doing guitars.

 If I was around 30 or 40 years old, I would attack the YT thing and I would make it successful. I do know how to market a product.  Been to collage in marketing and business management. I know how to market it.

 

 One of the things I am not willing to do is making 1 to 3 videos a day. I would have to treat YT as a job. Too old to want to do that.

My one dream I had when I was younger was to have a guitar store. I wanted a store that not only sold guitars, but made "Kustom" guitars. I was almost there in AZ. But then my health got really bad, and I wound up selling everything off. I stopped working on guitars. Still not 100% these days and according to my doctors I have to learn to do things I like to do but in a slow pace.

 That is what I am trying to do. Reorganize my life.

Well, thanks for the responses to this subject. I know I am not the only one that has dealt with YT and FB on posting and trying to develop their thing. I know it can be done, but there is a lot of hard work involved in doing so. But, I guess that is the way it is for a lot of things in life.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

I think you should go for it. Make a lot of short videos. Get on TikTok. You have the time to do it - it might turn out really cool for you.

You are not ready to quit yet...you should go all in.

John

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2023 21:53:53 GMT -6 GuitarAttack Forum said:

I think you should go for it. Make a lot of short videos. Get on TikTok. You have the time to do it - it might turn out really cool for you.

You are not ready to quit yet...you should go all in.

John

Thanks! I'll do some thinking on it. I did the TikTok thing before. It was not my cup of tea. But I could look into it again. I'll see...