And so it continues…
Me, except I don’t wear glasses (or work on laptop)
Life, at 143 YouTube subscribers, is pretty ok-ish.
My unfocused hydra of content now includes a video on YouTube search engine optimization (SEO).
I figure it will be unwelcome content for anyone that has subscribed, but I still thought it was an interesting area to explore. You see, there are a bunch of content creators that have pitched their tents on just creating content targeting new content creators. I guess I see the appeal… it’s a crop of viewers that are looking to be educated on being successful YouTubers - where else would they go, than YouTube?
The problem is one of value…
WARNING: you may be too young to understand this reference
Yes, these YouTubers have spotted a target-rich area for their videos, but do they have anything useful to say?
After some investigation, I have to say that the answer is “no”.
My video covers two general categories of “educator”.
The liar. The liar will craft video after video explaining all of the easy things you have to do to increase your viewership. Keywords. Tags. Better thumbnails. The perfect title - and so on. This person knows that they don’t have the answers, but make content portraying themselves as a genius. They get views and watch time, ultimately resulting in money in their pockets.
The idiot. Perhaps “idiot” is a little harsh. Perhaps not. These are generally people with naive intuition, or illusory understanding. Through a combination of cognitive biases and heuristics, people believe that they can grasp or predict the behavior of complex systems using limited or simplistic observations. Anecdotal experiences, especially at small sample sizes, aren’t very useful to begin with - but a certain kind of person can still infer an extensive world view without what would normally pass for education or evidence.
Is there a functional difference between the charlatan and the ignoramus?
I’d say functionally, no. I suppose intent counts for something. Idk.
The central point of the video is that YouTube wants eyeballs for hours. If your content makes that happen, it will be shown to the people who want to watch it - because the longer people watch, the more ad revenue they get. Yes, you have to make sure your descriptive elements match up with the video content, but it’s ultimately going to come down to the quality of your content, and the preferences of the audience that’s interested in the content.
There’s only so much gaming of this you can do, because smart people are identifying and shutting down exploits and loopholes.
