numberwang said:
What I am noticing is an unusual high like/view ratio on your videos typically around 30 likes per 100 views. Everything above 10% likes/view ration is very rare. There are two explanations:
a) you have a small but very dedicated fan club of around 30 followers that like nearly every video instantly
b) someone is buying bot likes for your videos. The problem with like bots is that they don't actually watch your vids and yt algos are optimized for long view retention. This will lead de facto to a shadow ban or very low algo ranking of your vids and this low overall views. |
There is a LOT more to unpack, here. Though, I can tell you it's (a) pretty easily thanks to data that, once again not mocking you, is not publicly available which prevents you from getting the whole picture. Granted, there are a few "fans" that I'm pretty sure use multiple accounts: there are some people who, when they comment, I consistently see the Likes go up by 2 or 3. Fortunately, that's just a few of them, and they seem to be aware that does damage if they use their alt accounts and only watch for 5 seconds to hit the Like button which leads to the data that proves it's (a):
- Audience retention is the percentage that someone watched a video for, something you can't see publicly. If bots were used to boost Likes, the audience retention percent would PLUMMET because the bots would only watch for 1-2 seconds before closing the video.
- If you want to know the "organic" viewerbase, it's about 50-70 viewers, and between 20-30 likes that are purely organic. Just for you, I just took this screen grab of my GT7 review as I haven't posted it here, yet, so it's running on nearly pure organic metrics at the moment. The video is 5 min long, and you can see the audience retention is a healthy >60%, and the likes/dislikes are at 29/1 with a healthy CTR (click through rate) because the only people watching it right now are people subbed to my channel. Of course, the next statements I'm going to make will really back your noodle.
- Posting videos here and on N4G is actually what does damage to my channel. Example: when I post videos here, I get about 10-15 views on average (yea, not a lot!), and maybe between 20-30 if the thread creates discussion. Of these views, most of those are fractional: the audience retention drops by an average of 20 seconds when videos are posted here. I've been tracking it, funnily enough, done by posting here individually and not anywhere else on a given day. Additionally, YouTube CLAIMS that the CTR is only from YouTube impressions, but that's not true, either: when posted here, the CTR drops anywhere from 1%-1.5% consistently. I post here because this is one of the OG forums I used to be on and I know there are some good people, here. I don't actually benefit from posting here other than a handful of views, it actually does damage to my channel to be posting here (and N4G to a lesser extent at N4G mostly drives readers to my site as opposed to watchers of videos) 
But of course, there are many things that you also cannot see that allow me to extrapolate more information than is ever going to be publicly available. Let me tell you a really fun one: I think with your data-driven mindset, this one will be worth a good tongue-in-cheek chuckle!
During season one, I started tracking CTR and audience retention based on the thumbnail as I started to develop a format. Guess what? When the thumbnail does NOT contain my face, the CTR is higher, but there is a STEEP drop-off in audience retention once my face appears. When the thumbnail DOES contain my face, the CTR is lower, but the audience retention is far more stable because it's clear the person saw my face and does not mind and continues to watch the video. Obviously there are variables such as content and relativity to what's "hot", but I tracked it over the course of nearly half a year before I made the decision to just not have my face in the thumbnail because the higher CTR was overall better than the higher audience retention (though realistically, one would want both!).
This data alone says so much about both subtle racism and also how people judge others before they've even heard a single word or know a damned thing about them. Just my face, alone, was a factor in the data. So now, for season two, knowing my caricature is niche, I put my face in all reviews. And get this, even in season two, this data still proves true: thumbnails that DON'T have my face have a high CTR but DRAMATICALLY drop off a CLIFF once I appear with my "howdy hidey ho". You can see the quality of the content hasn't even been reached, yet!
The world's a crazy place, and sometimes the truth is in the numbers. Ergo, I very much understand why so much of modern technology runs off data and not "feedback". What people tell you and how they think often differ: most people aren't honest enough AND we've made strides in lambasting sexism and racism since, as you can guess, it's wrong to genuinely mock/hurt someone for something they did not choose at birth. I sure as hell didn't choose to be born an ugly ass Asian dude, I can tell you that! lmao
Anyway, I think we've digressed a bit too much, but know that I very much understand data, and that I'm on your side, here, that my channel isn't doing too great... But hey, as long as I'm helping someone to make better buying decisions and maybe get a chuckle or two, at least I'm doing SOMETHING for others, right? 
sethnintendo said:
Your videos/reviews are pretty good and I'll continue watching them when you post about them on here. Not saying much but I hardly watch YouTube videos and never subscribe to anyone.
That being said I would like to remind that angry video game nerd used to be angry Nintendo nerd. I was even friends with him on myspace when he was first making a name for himself. He expanded beyond Nintendo games and found an audience. Not sure how he is doing now and haven't watched a video from him in ages but he was able to transition from Nintendo to everyone. Although he mainly just specialized in making fun of shit games. |
Yea, that's what I had said before: if I had stuck with just Nintendo, surely I'd have built a much later following FIRST before shifting to my "true nature". But also, hindsight is always 20/20 lmao... That, and I'm a pretty "out there" kind of guy, I hate deceiving people. I'd make a fucking terrible politician!
