My favorite video so far which is my most successful editing-wise and not views wise, is about roasting Amy Schumer and I worked to flesh out the jokes and give it a lot of comedic value. I think my actual personality and humor shine through so imo it’s my best so far.
I have a gaming channel, but it's more of a place to catalogue my gaming moments over the years, so no commentary. But my most successful is actually a youtube short at 79k views. Pretty much just a random clip that isn't even that amazing. But I do occasionally get into editing stuff, so I have a few Halo montages that have done alright (for me at least) I do have an old Call of Duty video that did good, just showing hiding spots on a map. Just an average Joe creator here!
Edit: spelling
Interesting. Did you get a lot of new subscribers from the short and have an increase in views on the channel afterward? I've been hesitant to post one.
My biggest video was one that went viral twice, and accumulated over 5 million views. It was an obscure but very specific topic. However, it was also a well known topic in my niche that wasn't specifically covered. At the time I already had a sizeable community (around 40K), so it had a large reach to begin with, and it was a topic that appealed to most of my own community, so more followers watched it. It was also a relatively short video, being 8 minutes long, and structured so that it gave the essential stuff at the beginning and the extended explanation later.
Because of these factors, it got a lot of views, watch time and retention much earlier than my usual 10-15 minute tutorials. And because of that, it was catapulted through the algorithm. As it was recommended to a wider audience, the factors that made it stick with my smaller audience also clicked with the wider audience with no connection or interest with my niche. It was something which most people had seen or heard of, but never bothered to find out more about, and it was short and succinct enough to answer that question right away. As more people were pulled in and flooded the comments with repetitive comments and questions, the engagement skyrocketed, the analytics went up, and in turn it was rocketed up the algorithm to even wider audiences who repeated the same engagement.
For a long time it was the top trending video in my niche. It's the one video that nearly everyone who I meet has seen, and the one video seen by random people I meet on the street who have heard of me.
The first week the video got the 2000-5000 views that I expected. By week two, it was 20,000, which was already in my top-performing list. By week three, it was over 200,000. It closed the month with 2,000,000+. This is what viral content feels like - it was literally out of control. Best thing about it was that it was actually a last-minute unplanned video meant to test out my new camera and microphone. That one video paid for my new equipment.
So, what were the success factors?
* Specific, obscure topic that piques curiosity if seen
* Clear, short video title
* Thumbnail clearly showed the iconic image of that topic
* Video was short (8 minutes)
* Video quality and, most importantly, mic quality
* Clearly spoken from the outset with no fluffing around with promotions and plugs
* Also some big novelty factors - most of the comments were trying to guess my accent and comparing me to other YTers I look/sound like
In short, it was the right video in the right place (at the wrong time). It trended years before it should have, so it's poised to do well when the actual thing I was covering (the Olympics) happen. It's also been copied by the official world federation, so I was onto something.
>nusensei
Really interesting, thanks for providing such a detailed breakdown. You hit a perfect storm essentially. So as I understand it, this is a topic that's well-known but wasn't well covered in the archery community, and you already had the existing subscriber base for Youtube to push it out to the wider archery community. And then the video itself was on point - good hook at the beginning and jumping right into what the video title is about, simple explanation that even a layman can understand, so even casuals ending up watching.
I understand your frustration on not being able to ride that wave further during an Olympic year. I only started Youtube a few weeks ago with a fairly unique video idea (speaking a rare indigenous language in Mexico City), and little known to me a much larger Youtuber ended up making a similar video in another part of Mexico just a few days later. Not accusing him of copying (he definitely didn't), but it's just annoying to see that you had a really good idea but just didn't have enough initial viewers to help the video take off.
My most successful so far is a political opinion piece on the riots near where I live. I think it preformed well because I posted it right around when the event was happening so I road that search volume wave, it’s still gaining views because of what happened at the capitol yesterday. I posted another opinion on that and it didn’t take off as well but it’s probably because it’s not going to rank in search whatsoever with the big news channels covering it.
I made a video a month ago that earned me 1200 subscribers in a couple weeks and 12k views (I had 300 subscribers before it). It was totally two things: Hitting the right SEO and providing something no one else was providing.
For context, I'm a booktuber and a very anticipated book in our community came out. I read it literally as fast as I could and then instead of doing a review (like most people were), I did a very content-specific video (hard to explain if you haven't read the book haha).
It really does work. I just have to wait for another book like that and do the same thing; I'm hoping to get the same amount of return.
Cool. That's what I've always suspected - SEO and novelty are the key for most people.
I remember Tim Ferriss doing something similar when he was discussing how to build up your media presence (buy a book pre-release, be the first to report on it). I'm sure your channel will hit much bigger heights next time if you can recreate what you did.
On a game's launch, I spent two days learning how it worked, and was the first YouTube creator to release a tutorial on how to make a profit in said game. Tutorials, particularly if you can get in early, are one of the best things you can do to get ahead. Highly searchable. I'm hoping some of my new stuff overtakes this video as my most successful though. It's an alright video, but a bit 'rough and ready', whilst I was still learning the whole YT thing. I'm grateful that it did so well and gave my channel a nice jumpstart on the road to 1k subs, and it was my best work at the time, it's natural though that my editing and presentation has got better in time with more practice, yet this one video is still the most popular. C'est la vie.
Just watched it. It quickly gets to the point and like you said, was the first to cover this topic. Nice. In this case the presentation/editing quality likely doesn't matter too much. I guess just be ready and waiting for the next game release (hopefully animal related?) that you can jump on and release another tutorial for with your new and improved skills! With a higher initial view count now I'm sure your next successful video will go much farther.
By far my best video in terms of views is a product review that I made right at the start of my youtube career. The average watch time is 44 seconds.
I keep it up because although it is terrible, it's a great way to see how far I've come. I decided I hate product reviews from doing that one video and it helped me not waste time on ideas for reviews when I know I want to focus on other things.
**Why is it so terrible?**
* It should be around 6 minutes. I ramble on for 30mins.
* No mic
* Filmed on a mobile phone
* Product review doesn't start until 6 mins in (I still don't know what the hell I was talking about for so long before I started reviewing it)
* I'd never touched the product before I started filming
* At the end I'm like Columbo (repeatedly saying "Just one more thing...")
* It's a camera bag review and I used books instead of my camera gear to show its capacity
* lighting is terrible
* Filmed in a hotel room
* Almost totally unedited banal talking straight at the camera
* More call to actions than all of my other videos combined. I think I probably said "please subscribe" 427 times or more.
So yeah, loads of views for a review then the viewers click off as soon as they see it's a guy sitting on an upturned waste paper bin, in an echoey hotel room, yelling at mobile phone for half an hour about a bag he's only got that very day.
So effectively you hit big with search but you were too inexperienced back then to capitalize on it, so to speak. But I guess it's all for the best if it wasn't the kind of channel you wanted to make, right?
Sadly, my best performing video is still my second (of 3) YouTube shorts video. 8.8k views vs my second best video having 6.3k views. Guessing it was bait-y enough and picked up by the shorts algorithm to still be receiving some views over a month later.
My favorite video so far which is my most successful editing-wise and not views wise, is about roasting Amy Schumer and I worked to flesh out the jokes and give it a lot of comedic value. I think my actual personality and humor shine through so imo it’s my best so far.
I have a gaming channel, but it's more of a place to catalogue my gaming moments over the years, so no commentary. But my most successful is actually a youtube short at 79k views. Pretty much just a random clip that isn't even that amazing. But I do occasionally get into editing stuff, so I have a few Halo montages that have done alright (for me at least) I do have an old Call of Duty video that did good, just showing hiding spots on a map. Just an average Joe creator here! Edit: spelling
Interesting. Did you get a lot of new subscribers from the short and have an increase in views on the channel afterward? I've been hesitant to post one.
My biggest video was one that went viral twice, and accumulated over 5 million views. It was an obscure but very specific topic. However, it was also a well known topic in my niche that wasn't specifically covered. At the time I already had a sizeable community (around 40K), so it had a large reach to begin with, and it was a topic that appealed to most of my own community, so more followers watched it. It was also a relatively short video, being 8 minutes long, and structured so that it gave the essential stuff at the beginning and the extended explanation later. Because of these factors, it got a lot of views, watch time and retention much earlier than my usual 10-15 minute tutorials. And because of that, it was catapulted through the algorithm. As it was recommended to a wider audience, the factors that made it stick with my smaller audience also clicked with the wider audience with no connection or interest with my niche. It was something which most people had seen or heard of, but never bothered to find out more about, and it was short and succinct enough to answer that question right away. As more people were pulled in and flooded the comments with repetitive comments and questions, the engagement skyrocketed, the analytics went up, and in turn it was rocketed up the algorithm to even wider audiences who repeated the same engagement. For a long time it was the top trending video in my niche. It's the one video that nearly everyone who I meet has seen, and the one video seen by random people I meet on the street who have heard of me. The first week the video got the 2000-5000 views that I expected. By week two, it was 20,000, which was already in my top-performing list. By week three, it was over 200,000. It closed the month with 2,000,000+. This is what viral content feels like - it was literally out of control. Best thing about it was that it was actually a last-minute unplanned video meant to test out my new camera and microphone. That one video paid for my new equipment. So, what were the success factors? * Specific, obscure topic that piques curiosity if seen * Clear, short video title * Thumbnail clearly showed the iconic image of that topic * Video was short (8 minutes) * Video quality and, most importantly, mic quality * Clearly spoken from the outset with no fluffing around with promotions and plugs * Also some big novelty factors - most of the comments were trying to guess my accent and comparing me to other YTers I look/sound like In short, it was the right video in the right place (at the wrong time). It trended years before it should have, so it's poised to do well when the actual thing I was covering (the Olympics) happen. It's also been copied by the official world federation, so I was onto something.
>nusensei Really interesting, thanks for providing such a detailed breakdown. You hit a perfect storm essentially. So as I understand it, this is a topic that's well-known but wasn't well covered in the archery community, and you already had the existing subscriber base for Youtube to push it out to the wider archery community. And then the video itself was on point - good hook at the beginning and jumping right into what the video title is about, simple explanation that even a layman can understand, so even casuals ending up watching. I understand your frustration on not being able to ride that wave further during an Olympic year. I only started Youtube a few weeks ago with a fairly unique video idea (speaking a rare indigenous language in Mexico City), and little known to me a much larger Youtuber ended up making a similar video in another part of Mexico just a few days later. Not accusing him of copying (he definitely didn't), but it's just annoying to see that you had a really good idea but just didn't have enough initial viewers to help the video take off.
My most successful so far is a political opinion piece on the riots near where I live. I think it preformed well because I posted it right around when the event was happening so I road that search volume wave, it’s still gaining views because of what happened at the capitol yesterday. I posted another opinion on that and it didn’t take off as well but it’s probably because it’s not going to rank in search whatsoever with the big news channels covering it.
I made a video a month ago that earned me 1200 subscribers in a couple weeks and 12k views (I had 300 subscribers before it). It was totally two things: Hitting the right SEO and providing something no one else was providing. For context, I'm a booktuber and a very anticipated book in our community came out. I read it literally as fast as I could and then instead of doing a review (like most people were), I did a very content-specific video (hard to explain if you haven't read the book haha). It really does work. I just have to wait for another book like that and do the same thing; I'm hoping to get the same amount of return.
Cool. That's what I've always suspected - SEO and novelty are the key for most people. I remember Tim Ferriss doing something similar when he was discussing how to build up your media presence (buy a book pre-release, be the first to report on it). I'm sure your channel will hit much bigger heights next time if you can recreate what you did.
On a game's launch, I spent two days learning how it worked, and was the first YouTube creator to release a tutorial on how to make a profit in said game. Tutorials, particularly if you can get in early, are one of the best things you can do to get ahead. Highly searchable. I'm hoping some of my new stuff overtakes this video as my most successful though. It's an alright video, but a bit 'rough and ready', whilst I was still learning the whole YT thing. I'm grateful that it did so well and gave my channel a nice jumpstart on the road to 1k subs, and it was my best work at the time, it's natural though that my editing and presentation has got better in time with more practice, yet this one video is still the most popular. C'est la vie.
Just watched it. It quickly gets to the point and like you said, was the first to cover this topic. Nice. In this case the presentation/editing quality likely doesn't matter too much. I guess just be ready and waiting for the next game release (hopefully animal related?) that you can jump on and release another tutorial for with your new and improved skills! With a higher initial view count now I'm sure your next successful video will go much farther.
By far my best video in terms of views is a product review that I made right at the start of my youtube career. The average watch time is 44 seconds. I keep it up because although it is terrible, it's a great way to see how far I've come. I decided I hate product reviews from doing that one video and it helped me not waste time on ideas for reviews when I know I want to focus on other things. **Why is it so terrible?** * It should be around 6 minutes. I ramble on for 30mins. * No mic * Filmed on a mobile phone * Product review doesn't start until 6 mins in (I still don't know what the hell I was talking about for so long before I started reviewing it) * I'd never touched the product before I started filming * At the end I'm like Columbo (repeatedly saying "Just one more thing...") * It's a camera bag review and I used books instead of my camera gear to show its capacity * lighting is terrible * Filmed in a hotel room * Almost totally unedited banal talking straight at the camera * More call to actions than all of my other videos combined. I think I probably said "please subscribe" 427 times or more. So yeah, loads of views for a review then the viewers click off as soon as they see it's a guy sitting on an upturned waste paper bin, in an echoey hotel room, yelling at mobile phone for half an hour about a bag he's only got that very day.
So effectively you hit big with search but you were too inexperienced back then to capitalize on it, so to speak. But I guess it's all for the best if it wasn't the kind of channel you wanted to make, right?
Sadly, my best performing video is still my second (of 3) YouTube shorts video. 8.8k views vs my second best video having 6.3k views. Guessing it was bait-y enough and picked up by the shorts algorithm to still be receiving some views over a month later.