What I Learned from Being Featured on YouTube
I may be on vacation, but I’ve learned a lot in the past 24 hours since I was featured on YouTube (with Viral Video Genius). Let me share these with WillVideoForFood readers…
- YouTubers think this is a “you’ve made it” move, and I’ve received dozens of really encouraging notes from folks. The people in the breakfast room at our Marriott hotel are not nearly as impressed. Neither is my family.
- The comments on a feature video bring out the best and worst of people. I’m either brilliant or you want to (deficate) in my mouth. Yum.
- There’s a proliferation of comment spam. Here’s one I’ve seen way too often:
please don’t read this!
In 1945,a young girl named katu lata kulu came over to America in a grey boat from Africa. A mysterious man killed her by cutting the word “LATUALATUKA” into her back. now that you have read this measge she will come to your house on a full moon and steal your soul unless you follow these directions. Retype this message as a comment for three other videos.I spoofed that spam last night with this video titled LATUALATUKA
- There are a lot of shameless self-promoters out there. I got dozens of video responses that are totally unrelated to my video. I’m in the process of politely declining those (and contacting the creators) unless they’re extremely funny. A few have been related to my video, and that’s really enjoyable.
- Clever self promoters are tagging their videos with my exact tags so their video appears as a related video.
- For reasons I can’t explain, the view count is stuck at 84K views. But at least the ratings are holding up. Usually featured videos get eaten alive by commenters since it’s very hard to find something that will appeal to everyone. I was warned by a few people that had been previously featured so I was ready for that.
- You find a bunch of cool video makers because the funny comments make you curious. So you start clicking their name and subscribing to them. A clever response prompts way more curiosity than “LOL- come look at my videos.”
- Your older videos pop mildly, but very few will go back in time to see many of them. I wonder if anyone will notice if I rerun some.
- Your subscription list grows dramatically. Hopefully those subscribers won’t be dissappointed with my regular stuff.
- The best part about being featured is that your have a good viewer base for your future videos. Instead of waiting months for them to be seen by more than 100 people, they automatically get views and feedback.
- Most of all I learned that persistence pays. As much as I’d like to pretend getting featured wasn’t a goal… it was. Now I need a new goal. Like getting one of my videos seen for a second time on Eefoof.
- One of my most vocal subscribers, TrippleHelix urged me to rest now. He’s got a point. I am on vacation. And if God can rest on the 7th day, maybe too can the viral video genius. See- I was in character there. You knew that, right?
Love the new “Snap” popup on your links. Cool. Is that a WordPress or YouTube feature?
Posting a video response to Viral Video Genuis and your video about that response quadrupled my YouTube subscribers overnight and packed my inbox with comments notices. I’m drowning in YouTubers.
84,000 views in YouTube you got. Same video on Revver: 228. Tsk tsk. Why did you upload TWO VVGs to Revver? Shooting for 400 Revver views?
Point taken about posting unrelated responses but I’m hoping you’ll like the new one. (insert stupid smiley face). And as I said, I reckon you should keep up the momentum – I reckon you could do a whole series around the latest persona. And the pseudo French quotes are funny. What’s funny is that so many dummies think you’re serious “You lost me when you compared yourself to Michelangelo”. Keep going! And maybe in the next one wear a skivvy and reading glasses. Or quote from your latest book – “How to be a serial viral video maker”.
And yeah…what’s with the count? I notice the newer feature (the stare-down) has had 368,000 hits or something against your 132,000?
lol! Is being ‘most vocal’ a good thing? I’m begining to beileve I’m over obsessed.
“I wonder if anyone will notice if I rerun some.”
Me! 😛 If you managed to… Well done!
On the seventh day thee will recieve the ultimate relaxation. (we hope) You know what? Now you’re featured I’m going to have to join the majority. I’ll be studying the comment trend carefully and posting accordingly. Maybe it’ll be a ‘lol’ or even ‘I hate old bold people’ we shall see.
I think the fact you’re stuck on ‘83,607’ Views would be a fantastic piece of evidence for the gootube conspiracy.
You could try reuploading the Mentos video to see how it does now.
I’m a new fan. The pet store video was my favorite. The ending of the Floam video was cute. The humor impairment of the front desk guy at your hotel is sad. He seemed stressed, but how stressful could “checking in or checking out” be?
Puddleglum- thanks for the specific feedback. I love that best.
Zack- there’s a part of me that wants to do that (Mentos) but I don’t want to abuse the new subscribers. We’ll see how the ice skater one does… angela’s fnalizing it.
TH- I can’t sneak a rerun past you. You’ve got an eagle eye.
Marquis- The second was a compressed version that Revver said it would feature.
As you will soon discover, once you’ve broken through the few-hundred-views glass ceiling, the view count only updates a couple of times a day (and not at any predictable time…). I suspect Viral Video Genius will never beat the legend that is Farting Baby in raw numbers, but it will go down as a YouTube classic with the hardcore videomakers. I’m also betting that you’ll get more views from the office-worker types (who, I suspect, don’t spend all weekend on YouTube – unlike kids and… um… us).
Hey, Marquis. Viral Video Genius is an editor’s pick on Revver. 37 views and one star rating, thank you very much.
Where?
Oh, I found it. Four rows down. You should call them and tell them you want Video of the Day. Flout your YouTube stats.
And why did you have to compress your Revver version? Is somebody saying Revver viewers have shorter attention spans than even YouTubers?
Revver viewers are just more efficient. That’s all.
I wonder if they’ll still feature it, or consider it “broke” by YouTube. We’ll see.
Mark- Monday’s my day. I haven’t had a weekday crowd yet. I hope I’m not burried by then. Certainly Barats stuff will draw significant attention.
I’m at 900 subscribers. Hoping to crack 4 figures… just another lil’ goal. I’m getting tired of setting up 200 alias accounts and subscribing to myself, though.
i hate those comment chains