Save yourself a lot of time, and ditch my eBook about how to get popular on YouTube. There’s one common denominator to getting regular YouTube views and subscribers. It’s a secret possessed by the regular names we see on YouTube’s most-popular videos of the day. People who retain wildly enthusiastic fans who watch, rate, favorite and forward videos. I once did it (more for my own discipline) and didn’t realize how vital it is.
Frequency. Routine. Post daily. Like you brush your teeth, exercise or poop.
It’s a simple thing, really. When my tagline was “Nalts makes a video everytime you poop,” each of my new videos was seen at least 40-50,000 times. Now I’m intermittent and people simply forget to look.
Sure you could argue that there are other factors. Not everyone that posts daily has views, and not everyone that gets loads of views posts daily. But it’s the single biggest common denominator, and therefore I proclaim it a “best practice.”
Take a look at the people that dominate the “most highly rated,” and tell me something they else have in common besides mostly vlogging and not sketch. They are (in no particular order): Shaytards (aka Shaytard), CTFxC (CharlesTrippy), SxePhil (Phillip DeFranco), WhatTheBuckShow (Michael Buckley), KassemG, Livealivalive, ShaneDawsonTV (and various other channels), CommunityChannel, FailBlog, MichelleFan, and a few more. I’m not hyperlinking their name, because you can find them all here sooner or later (most popular videos of the week on YouTube). There are videos that get more views, but these are the individuals that command a vivid audience.
It makes sense. It’s still a social media, and you can’t be very social if you’re out of mind. I don’t mean to marginalize the talent here. These are gifted people, and it’s not fair to write off their success to frequency. But I hold, as exhibit A, the fact that some of these people had more “packaged” content channels, and their daily vlog channels eclipsed their initial presence.
One exception among them: JimmyKimmelLive. Only 60K subscribers, but lots of recent views. Maybe one day Kimmel will grow up to be a YouTube star.
I agree..
If I posted a video every day around the same time, I got more views..
but post a video randomly once every couple of weeks, I had less views ;/
So a schedule seems to work well as they expect a new video on that time and day.
You are correct Nalts, in fact in the partners help forum it tells you to post frequently and at the same times. Fun fact, about 10 days ago I had the runs and you posted several videos on Nalts and UncleNalts channel that day.
Im sure you are totally right on with this … I just dont GET how people have the time/energy/creativity etc etc to post something EVERY DAY. I mean, I post pretty regularly, especially lately, coming up with new video short ideas etc, but its like puling teeth trying to get people to SEE them. i just am unsure of WHAT on earth i would post every single day. id have to quit my job and would probably run out of ideas after 60 straight posts lol. i cant imagine that those who DO post daily have winner/quality videos each and every time. i mean, how can they? even a great baseball player is only 3 for 10, so ….
It’s been a few day Nalts and I need to poop. Put up some more videos.
Yep. I have to agree with you here Kevin. I made a whole lot of friends and consistently got views while I was making new vids and interacting with the community.
Post a new vid everytime you poop. Good mantra! Need to remember that!
ze frank proved that didn’t he? and wasn’t that why everyone stared to post more often?
people are looking for a lot of things, but most of all they want to feel like someone is talking to them or just them.
There’s a whole study on the phenomenon. More than interesting.
Further, people want to be included in projects, antics, or the conversation, like here, now, after all that’s what community is, isn’t it?
This isn’t across the board advice, but more true than not, if you’re an internetleberty or even a semi-inertnetleberty unless you have some extraordinary talent or provide some utterly outlandish and foolish behavior you’re boradcasting to the world, you better nurture your hard core peeps if you want to stay relevant or on top.
But, don’t kid yourself, it’s a lot of work to breast feed and maintain a fan base and sometimes they bite.
(I had dinner with an organic mother of 5 tonight, yikes!)
it’s really all about burners and who or what’s on the front.
I got more to say if anyone’s interested and a great short story that needs a collab –
Hey man, long time reader (ever since I noticed you’re in my hometown of Doylestown), first time to comment.
Do you think that this depends on the niche your videos are focused toward? I post interviews and tips for my blog niche about every two weeks or so and after a year and a half of it, I only have about 230 subscribers. Furthermore, my vids don’t get many views on YouTube, but they’ll get almost 1,000 downloads in iTunes within the first week. I wonder if it’s because my audience is mostly older, like 30s-50s, and they don’t use YouTube the way teens and 20s do, but they love their iPhones and thus get my content there instead.
I’m curious to see if my niche would actually tune in if I posted a video every day for a month or if they would just be annoyed by it.
@6 “internetlebrity”? That’s hard to say. How about “ceWEBrity”?
anything that precedes “lebirty” should be as long and as hard to say as possible.
There are plenty of extremely popular channels that don’t post regularly (Smosh, Fred, DaveDays, Nigahiga, CollegeHumor, etc.). While I think posting daily helps to connect with an audience, I’m not convinced that it qualifies as a “common denominator.” However, it could be that there are viewers who like to feel a daily connection with certain YouTube personalities. I find that the channels you listed as examples of regular posters are channels that I tend not to watch and so I’m sure that this suggests at least one way of grouping viewers by the type of content they are predisposed to enjoy.
Yo, what up wit da Weekly eMail Newsletter thing that don’t fit in da column properly?
This is excellent advice. I was actually thinking about this recently. Glad to have it be validated by a youtube expert. But lately, I’ve been posting videos more regularly and I’m starting to see my views increase and more buzz overall. Great advice, will definitely keep up with posting daily videos.
I’ve always felt this way but never had the balls or discipline to stick to it. I think I’m gonna try. Maybe a MWF to start…
@blackturtle.us – here are some possible answers:
Smosh – they posted frequently and they were there first. They built up the massive following that fuels their present day domination – not to mention they got really damn good.
Fred: A phenomenon with clever date & time release and inexplicable to me.
DaveDays: Dave writes catchy songs and I suspect he “reached out through YouTube Mail”
Nigahiga I’d bet he “reached out through YouTube Mail”
CollegeHumor – really well crafted, written material with a solid brand established pre-YouTube — also has paid, dedicated writing staff, production and tech team — great stuff in a steady stream
Didn’t work for me and I posted daily for like 857 straight days. And answered each and every comment for over 2 years.
Marquis- you do raise good evidence that it’s not as simple as I suggested in this post. Just when I think I understand the human condition, I’m baffled what people love and don’t. Maybe your videos are too dark for the teenage viewers? Maybe they want to look at pretty, sarcastic or happy fat people? It’s odd. Because I like a mix… one moment seeing buckley squeling with joy, and the next confronting the struggles via your Steven-King like eye of life in another place. Perhaps a life I once lived or will live…
Marquis, I think it’s probably due to the harshness level you exhibit. I’m not levying that as criticism, though – I am not really a regular viewer but I certainly appreciate the almost surreal level of thick dysfunction and weirdness your videos can exhibit sometimes. Maybe you hit a bit closer to home than people want to deal with.
You’re like real Reality TV, you know? I don’t think people want that; I think they prefer the sitcom-gone-wild approach. That’s not advice, either… I’m just trying to figure out why your channel hasn’t done better than it has.
MDJ, watching somebody’s daily vlogs is sort of like vicariously living through another person. I think most people would prefer to see happy people and cute kids (e.g. Charlie) than ugly, scary people like Bethzilla.
I watch your stuff on occasion, but a little bit of it goes a long way for me. Too often and my brain suffers from overdose.
Well, nobody can say I didn’t give it a good try. I started with cutesy little animations about homeless shelter life, created while IN a veterans homeless shelter. I think I’ll go back. Y’all have the pretty, poopalicious, gay pop cult sitcom-gone-wild thing covered. I’m not EVEN gonna stick my toe in those shark-infested waters!
I agree about people loving kittens, babies, etc., but i find its still tough as hell to get views initially… until you have a name for yourself in the youtube world. with advice from a friend who has thousands of subscribers and views on her channel, i made two comedy videos using my cats and titled them i love you cat part one and two. people who saw it loved it,thought it was funny etc,but i still had trouble getting it over a couple hundred views… theres so many really funny things out there that dont get views,and then ill see something thats just …well…dumb…and its got 10,000 views and i never understand why. its all very confusing lol.
…oh and when i say I see a video thats DUMB getting 10,000 views, im not talking about a comedy video. Then it would be a matter of taste… Im literally talking about videos Ive seen that are just NOTHING…like one example is a guy just looking into the camera and talking in this really monotone voice about the tiger woods situation. hes not saying anything interesting,hes babbling,its not supposed to be funny…its just him talking and it has like 11,000 views. Now i know some of those are because of the tag/name tiger woods, but still…. its just weird what people find compelling enough to click on i guess.
putting aside professional commercial content
I think there are at least four types of tubers and some in-betweeners…
the phenomenon tuber
the variety tuber
the vlogers tuber
the misc tuber
Still, different things appeal to different people.
the ones who collect people and grow over time are the the variety and vlogers and sometimes, depending on the content and number of posting and always to a lesser degree, the misc.
the phenomenon is pretty much about timing.
the misc depends, they’ll have hits and misses, but growth is like the vloggers, really depends on the company they keep.
then there are variety vlogers which probably grow the fastest after the phenomenons. The one’s who make it are the most dedicated of tubers.
growth for pure variety depends on the chances you are willing to take and how often you post.
So I don’t think it’s a cut and dry situation, but bits and pieces of several old and new world spices.
mdj – did you really think you would attract buckstyle groupies? and why would you want them? your channel screams ‘stay away superficial non-thinking adolescents minded churlish-guttersnipes!’ (see, my word)
the people who like to watch other people’s lives watch the rich and famous – now if you were the Beverly Hillbillies you’d have one of the most popular channels on youtube – proof – the Osbournes and Sopranos.
People love to watch dysfunction, but only in comfort.
They want to think, if that poor uncouth slob can live so well there must be hope for me, and let’s face it, hope is what keeps a good number of people still roaming the planet – proof – Haiti.
You’re stuff especially, the family is too damn depressing for me and if I have to watch that I want to be paid like a New York Psychiatrist.
However, when you put the content in poetry, mystery, or irony with abstract or created imagery I’m fascinated and will watch, cause you’re not dishing me a pig freshly slaughter on the table yelling, “dinners ready, chow down!” you’re preparing it.
-also like the cute and a good catch –
thing is, I don’t really want to know your kit and kin that intimately and besides they’re just plain ol scary.
You have an eclectic audience, people you could sit down with, have a coffee or a beer, shoot the breeze, get to know a bit. Quality over quantity. Feeling pretty assured they aren’t stalking you or looking to ride your coat tails.
I’m not trying to be preachy, I know you know all this, just too tired to edit.
@22 “churlish-guttersnipe” is your term?
I can find at least three instances of those exact words being used before:
Tim Knight, June 28 2002 in a Google groups discussion
http://bit.ly/TimKnight2002
Amos, July 20 2006 on a political discussion thread
http://bit.ly/Amos2006
StalkerOfNalts, Jan. 12 2010 replying to @ZackScott
http://twitter.com/StalkerOfNalts/status/7675190821
The chronological proximity of your post to the latter would seem to suggest that your use of the term was not independently improvised, but perhaps you have evidence of your usage of the term prior to that instance.
*SoN returns to silent lurking mode.*
(Be aware: all discussion on this blog is carefully monitored.)
^ d00d I got your IP
How did I miss a post that had “Poop” in the title?
Speakign as a YouTube Partner, I can tell you that frequency is an ingredient, however at the end of the day you have to promote your channel and videos – relentlessly. You cant just upload a fantastic video and hope for the best. There are a plethora of ways to do this on YouTube. I have a background in search marketing so I always start with keyword research – how are people searching for my content?
There are some conferences coming up that are going to have sessions around video optimization and distribution. I will be speaking at SMX West in Santa Clara and plan on speaking at PubCon in Dallas and Search Engine Strategies in New York. You can network quite a bit here and then go to the bar to really talk nitty-gritty.
http://www.mescreen.com/?3742 HEre’s a way to increase your youtube view counts
I started this site to help everyone get a free source of subscribers and friends for any group they belong too.
Called – Subscriber Central:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/subscribercentral/