of all the things YouTube has “contributed” to society, the need for YouTubers to game the algorithm by giving their videos click-baitey thumbnail photos of them reacting with mouth-gaping astonishment has gotta be the cringiest.
@onlinegoddess the worst is when it’s a channel that you already follow — and you know they’re good — but then they find themselves forced into this crap so their work doesn’t vanish down the algorithmic hole. Sigh.
@habibcham@tantramar Yes it is unfortunate that some YouTubers feel they have to move to this kind of tactic to make it worthwhile. YouTube carries a lot of blame as they make it harder to monetise videos fairly these days and keep so much of the profit for themselves.
@tantramar@onlinegoddess@habibcham To be fair, most views come from new viewers. @snazzyq was on The Talk Show recently and said that something like less than 25% of views on a video would be from subs
@habibcham@ravipatel@tantramar@onlinegoddess Certainly for my particular channel, but the click-thru rate is so much higher with my face it’s bananas. I think that’s true for a lot—if not most—channels.
@snazzyq@habibcham@ravipatel@tantramar@onlinegoddess same for the GitHub channel too. I tried YouTube face as a test and then it worked and I have to make myself look like an asshole each video. It sucks but it’s what works
@film_girl@tantramar@snazzyq@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess On a related note, I used to do just a voice over for my videos, but they really started to click for people when I was actually on video too. There’s absolutely some element of people finding other humans more interesting, even if they’re making a stupid face, which I’ll give you can be cringe.
@film_girl@tantramar@snazzyq@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess@matt
“ I can’t be principled when there is that much of a difference.” That goes to the heart of the problem, and not just on YouTube. We have a society now in which the lack of principles is rewarded. The desire to be popular and recognized overrides the willingness to be unembellished and straightforward. It’s sad that even @snazzyq,with all his content, can’t garner subs from that alone.
@snazzyq@jeber@tantramar@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess@matt exactly. And sorry to disappoint but I have a job to do. If the choice is to make good content with a goofy thumbnail that gets engagement and helps me stay employed or or create good content with a thumbnail w/out my face that no one watches that I then have to defend resource allotment about, I’m not going to lose sleep over doing the thing that works. The content is good, I’ll put my damn face on the thumbnail.
@snazzyq@jeber@tantramar@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess@matt and Quinn has a job to do too. We are at the whim of Google’s algorithm. It’s a black box and we can just hope our best stuff gets featured. And I’m smalltime. We don’t monetize so we already get dinged. Quinn’s content is great, I’d rather see it in my feed than not. And anyone who wants to shame him for doing what it takes to get seen should probably consider whether they’d purposefully handicap their income out of a
@snazzyq@jeber@tantramar@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess@matt misguided since of piety over something that doesn’t matter. Movie posters are often cringe too and no one shames actors for taking publicity stills or directors for letting a studio put out something cheesy. This is no different.
@film_girl@snazzyq@tantramar@habibcham@ravipatel@onlinegoddess@matt
I hear what you’re saying. My concern is that even when the content is good, it won’t get the exposure it deserves because some algorithm has decreed that videos with funky thumbnails should be promoted over quality videos. And that does affect your income. Crap should not be favored over quality. And silly stunts shouldn’t be rewarded when the content is wanting.
@snazzyq@habibcham@ravipatel@tantramar@onlinegoddess I can’t speak to every channel, but I’ll add that every YouTuber I know has similar stats. Mine is a little out of whack because a recent vid spiked to much higher view counts than normal, but I’m usually around 75-80% of views coming from non-subscribers as well.
The face thing is totally annoying, but if the video is good, then 🤷♂️ Great books can have lame covers too 😋
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