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- Jan 10, 2020
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I have been a member on this forum for a few years now on and off. I'm creating this progress thread as a way for me to get things off of my mind and into something that perhaps will provide more value both to me and the readers here.
I started a youtube channel in the food/baking niche about a year ago along with a website, however, I didn't get a chance to spend too much time on it as my youtube channel was taking up too much of my time.
Here are the current stats of the youtube channel:
919 subs as of today.
2.5k watch hours
(not monetized yet)
24 long form videos
6 shorts
Averaging around 2-3 subs a day.
Website stats:
30 articles published
I previously had several other youtube channels so this isn't my first rodeo, although most of them failed, but one did amass 11k subs although I had to put it on the backburner for the time being.
My goal with youtube was never really to just rely solely on it as a means of achieving financial freedom but rather as a source of driving traffic toward my site where I could monetize that traffic better and not become too reliant on youtube in the future as I know youtube and social media companies in general are very fickle.
Youtube realizations especially for the food niche
I knew the food niche wasn't going to be a cake walk but damn is this niche overcrowded and hard!!! I see new channels pop up left and right, but luckily most of them aren't very good. I would estimate that the top 10% of channels are currently getting around 90% of the views with the rest going towards the smaller channels, which sucks for new channels.
I knew going into this that I would need to niche down, but didn't expect that it still wasn't enough. Furthermore, based on what I'm seeing, simply making a good recipe video isn't enough. You need something more to make the audience come back and watch your new videos. I've studied a lot of channels in my niche and I've noticed 2 things from the bigger successful channels:
Most of the channels that are successful have built up a loyal viewership which newer channels don't have the luxury of having. They can put out a crappy thumbnail and still get a tonne of views but if you end up copying that thumbnail thinking it's a good thumbnail, your video will tank. It happened to me before which is why I stopped looking at those channels when trying to get inspiration on a thumbnail.
Just because you have a good thumbnail/title + good video is no guarantee that your video will succeed. If the algorithm suggests your video to the wrong audience right out of the gate then your f%$^ed!!! So far I'm batting around a 1/3 to 1/2 chance of either the video doing well or completely flopping, and looking at the analytics, in most cases, it was due to the video being suggested to the wrong audience when it was published. I've had videos being suggested alongside weird videos like the sims game, marriage problem videos, and hair cutting videos, and even foreign language movie trailers, which all have absolutely nothing to do with my video topic. Likewise, when my videos do end up getting suggested alongside videos with the same recipes, the videos tend to do well. Based on my research, the algorithm takes its sweet time testing your video with different audiences and this can take months, even years before it gets it right. One of my old videos which I published over a year ago, is now started to get views.
Journey so far
I first tested with shorts because they were all the rage at that time with everyone telling me to get on the shorts bandwagon as an easy way to grow your channel. However when I tried it out by uploading several videos, none of the videos ever took off, with my highest viewed short being around 4-5k. I quickly switched back to long form videos which I was more comfortable making.
My first couple of videos did great, with my first one hitting over 10k views and me getting over 100 subs within the first month. Within 2-3 months I was already up to around 200ish subs but then things came to a halt. It was as if youtube just flipped a switch and all of my views and impressions vanished overnight. However, I suspect that prior to this happening, one of my videos that was doing well and had a tonne of views was getting a lot of suggested traffic from one very suspicious-looking cooking channel that was using black hat tactics. They were buying views, subs, and comments. It was obvious by just looking at their comments which were just repeats of each other. I'm suspecting that I got shadowbanned as youtube maybe thought I was doing something suspicious even though I was not doing anything. That channel ended up being abandoned later on which I assume because it got in trouble with youtube but not before making me collateral damage in the process. It could have also been an algorithm update that reversed the amount of impressions I was getting. I never found out the reason.
This greatly set back my plans for growing the channel as nothing I did was working and I barely had any views on recent videos being uploaded.
For months I was scratching my head wondering what the hell happened. Each video only got around 200-400ish views at best. I was quickly becoming demotivated. I was spending so much time making videos but getting nowhere fast. At first, I was doing non-talking videos just showing my hands, but decided to switch things up by adding in a voiceover. This didn't help much.
Next I worked on my thumbnails and improved those. Still got average CTR's.
Then I decided to maybe add in more personality in my videos. This seemed to kind of help but not by much. I kept on changing up my thumbnails trying to make something stick. A few months passed by, and slowly but surely the views started to climb up again. And then back in September-October, I had my best month with 2 out of 3 videos I launched doing relatively well during the first 2 days hitting over 1k in views and I was now around 700ish subs. But then November hit and youtube put out another algorithm update. Overnight 80% impressions were gone. Lots of people who I spoke to suffered the same fate.
Damn, I thought. Yeah, this ain't going to work. Despite my best efforts, youtube can literally screw me over overnight by simply updating their algorithm like that. This made me realize just focusing on youtube was a huge risk so I shifted back more of my attention my site and started to cut down on number of videos being published while writing more articles on my site. At this point I just hit around 800 subs but had under 2k watch hours.
My next couple of videos again with a hit and miss. 1/2 did well getting over 2k views out of the gate while the second one completely tanked getting less than 20 views despite the thumbnails being very similar. The one that flopped has all sorts of random video suggestions which would probably explain why it flopped. I've since reduced publishing to only 1 video a month while I dedicate most of my time towards my site.
Current challenges
Trying to output content as quickly as possible while maintaining and even improving the quality of my videos and blogs. Because I'm bouncing back between the two, it means I can't get enough content on either one.
Trying to find a way of standing out is a big challenge. With so many competitors and also youtube algorithm suggesting the content to the wrong audience and me not having a big enough audience yet, its making it quick the challenge to grow. Another yter who I talked with regularly has said my newer videos are entertaining and also relatable and thinks this could be what I need to differentiate myself from other channels, however, based on my current growth I don't know if this is going to be enough. I feel I need something more on top of this.
While I think my video skills are at least decent enough to compete with the top 20% of videos in my niche (top 10% I can't compete yet due to them having better equipment, teams, and a huge audience + channel authority, my photography skills on greatly lacking.
I'm not very good with food photography and this is my biggest weakness. In addition, I don't own a fancy camera nor most of the professional equipment for taking photos like the expensive lenses, modifiers, etc.
I'm spending a lot of time studying/reading/watching videos but I feel I should be taking more action. I guess it's because I always feel like I'm not good enough therefore I need to find more information to improve whatever it is that I'm doing but this is taking time away from me creating something.
I keep on hearing people mention storytelling on yt, however with the food niche I'm finding it quite difficult to do. With other niches, its much easier to tell a story like travel or documentaries but with food, I haven't figured out a good way of doing this yet.
Mental obstacles
I get discouraged easily and it doesn't help with all of the people that I know and communicates with, quitting yt left and right. I've seen so many bigger channels then mines quit because they simply couldn't get any traction on yt.
There's also the part of me that's saying I'm wasting my time, this field is done. I can't compete with these people.
Youtube and even blogging in general is a huge grind and there are many days when I feel like quitting. When this happens I usually can't focus on work for several hours or even a whole day.
Current short-term goals
Publish at least 30 long form videos
Get youtube channel monetized
Publish at least 50 blog posts
Get my email list up and running
Have a tripwire offer ready to sell to my email list upon signup
Mid-term goals
Publish at least 100 blog posts
Get backlinks to my site
Start publishing on Pinterest to diversify my traffic
Get 1k newsletter signups
Get into a premium ad network so that I can monetize my blog
Get to 10k subs on youtube
Long-term goals
Build up an audience on both Tiktok/IG/Fb to diversify my traffic sources to counter google algorithm updates
Have 10k newsletter signups
Have over 500k monthly sessions on my site
Reach 100k+ yt subscribers
I probably won't be updating this thread nearly as much as I want to spend that time working on my channel and site.
I started a youtube channel in the food/baking niche about a year ago along with a website, however, I didn't get a chance to spend too much time on it as my youtube channel was taking up too much of my time.
Here are the current stats of the youtube channel:
919 subs as of today.
2.5k watch hours
(not monetized yet)
24 long form videos
6 shorts
Averaging around 2-3 subs a day.
Website stats:
30 articles published
I previously had several other youtube channels so this isn't my first rodeo, although most of them failed, but one did amass 11k subs although I had to put it on the backburner for the time being.
My goal with youtube was never really to just rely solely on it as a means of achieving financial freedom but rather as a source of driving traffic toward my site where I could monetize that traffic better and not become too reliant on youtube in the future as I know youtube and social media companies in general are very fickle.
Youtube realizations especially for the food niche
I knew the food niche wasn't going to be a cake walk but damn is this niche overcrowded and hard!!! I see new channels pop up left and right, but luckily most of them aren't very good. I would estimate that the top 10% of channels are currently getting around 90% of the views with the rest going towards the smaller channels, which sucks for new channels.
I knew going into this that I would need to niche down, but didn't expect that it still wasn't enough. Furthermore, based on what I'm seeing, simply making a good recipe video isn't enough. You need something more to make the audience come back and watch your new videos. I've studied a lot of channels in my niche and I've noticed 2 things from the bigger successful channels:
- They started years ago when there was less competition and so grew a large following relatively easily (obviously)
- They either do something different or they add personality into their videos
Most of the channels that are successful have built up a loyal viewership which newer channels don't have the luxury of having. They can put out a crappy thumbnail and still get a tonne of views but if you end up copying that thumbnail thinking it's a good thumbnail, your video will tank. It happened to me before which is why I stopped looking at those channels when trying to get inspiration on a thumbnail.
Just because you have a good thumbnail/title + good video is no guarantee that your video will succeed. If the algorithm suggests your video to the wrong audience right out of the gate then your f%$^ed!!! So far I'm batting around a 1/3 to 1/2 chance of either the video doing well or completely flopping, and looking at the analytics, in most cases, it was due to the video being suggested to the wrong audience when it was published. I've had videos being suggested alongside weird videos like the sims game, marriage problem videos, and hair cutting videos, and even foreign language movie trailers, which all have absolutely nothing to do with my video topic. Likewise, when my videos do end up getting suggested alongside videos with the same recipes, the videos tend to do well. Based on my research, the algorithm takes its sweet time testing your video with different audiences and this can take months, even years before it gets it right. One of my old videos which I published over a year ago, is now started to get views.
Journey so far
I first tested with shorts because they were all the rage at that time with everyone telling me to get on the shorts bandwagon as an easy way to grow your channel. However when I tried it out by uploading several videos, none of the videos ever took off, with my highest viewed short being around 4-5k. I quickly switched back to long form videos which I was more comfortable making.
My first couple of videos did great, with my first one hitting over 10k views and me getting over 100 subs within the first month. Within 2-3 months I was already up to around 200ish subs but then things came to a halt. It was as if youtube just flipped a switch and all of my views and impressions vanished overnight. However, I suspect that prior to this happening, one of my videos that was doing well and had a tonne of views was getting a lot of suggested traffic from one very suspicious-looking cooking channel that was using black hat tactics. They were buying views, subs, and comments. It was obvious by just looking at their comments which were just repeats of each other. I'm suspecting that I got shadowbanned as youtube maybe thought I was doing something suspicious even though I was not doing anything. That channel ended up being abandoned later on which I assume because it got in trouble with youtube but not before making me collateral damage in the process. It could have also been an algorithm update that reversed the amount of impressions I was getting. I never found out the reason.
This greatly set back my plans for growing the channel as nothing I did was working and I barely had any views on recent videos being uploaded.
For months I was scratching my head wondering what the hell happened. Each video only got around 200-400ish views at best. I was quickly becoming demotivated. I was spending so much time making videos but getting nowhere fast. At first, I was doing non-talking videos just showing my hands, but decided to switch things up by adding in a voiceover. This didn't help much.
Next I worked on my thumbnails and improved those. Still got average CTR's.
Then I decided to maybe add in more personality in my videos. This seemed to kind of help but not by much. I kept on changing up my thumbnails trying to make something stick. A few months passed by, and slowly but surely the views started to climb up again. And then back in September-October, I had my best month with 2 out of 3 videos I launched doing relatively well during the first 2 days hitting over 1k in views and I was now around 700ish subs. But then November hit and youtube put out another algorithm update. Overnight 80% impressions were gone. Lots of people who I spoke to suffered the same fate.
Damn, I thought. Yeah, this ain't going to work. Despite my best efforts, youtube can literally screw me over overnight by simply updating their algorithm like that. This made me realize just focusing on youtube was a huge risk so I shifted back more of my attention my site and started to cut down on number of videos being published while writing more articles on my site. At this point I just hit around 800 subs but had under 2k watch hours.
My next couple of videos again with a hit and miss. 1/2 did well getting over 2k views out of the gate while the second one completely tanked getting less than 20 views despite the thumbnails being very similar. The one that flopped has all sorts of random video suggestions which would probably explain why it flopped. I've since reduced publishing to only 1 video a month while I dedicate most of my time towards my site.
Current challenges
Trying to output content as quickly as possible while maintaining and even improving the quality of my videos and blogs. Because I'm bouncing back between the two, it means I can't get enough content on either one.
Trying to find a way of standing out is a big challenge. With so many competitors and also youtube algorithm suggesting the content to the wrong audience and me not having a big enough audience yet, its making it quick the challenge to grow. Another yter who I talked with regularly has said my newer videos are entertaining and also relatable and thinks this could be what I need to differentiate myself from other channels, however, based on my current growth I don't know if this is going to be enough. I feel I need something more on top of this.
While I think my video skills are at least decent enough to compete with the top 20% of videos in my niche (top 10% I can't compete yet due to them having better equipment, teams, and a huge audience + channel authority, my photography skills on greatly lacking.
I'm not very good with food photography and this is my biggest weakness. In addition, I don't own a fancy camera nor most of the professional equipment for taking photos like the expensive lenses, modifiers, etc.
I'm spending a lot of time studying/reading/watching videos but I feel I should be taking more action. I guess it's because I always feel like I'm not good enough therefore I need to find more information to improve whatever it is that I'm doing but this is taking time away from me creating something.
I keep on hearing people mention storytelling on yt, however with the food niche I'm finding it quite difficult to do. With other niches, its much easier to tell a story like travel or documentaries but with food, I haven't figured out a good way of doing this yet.
Mental obstacles
I get discouraged easily and it doesn't help with all of the people that I know and communicates with, quitting yt left and right. I've seen so many bigger channels then mines quit because they simply couldn't get any traction on yt.
There's also the part of me that's saying I'm wasting my time, this field is done. I can't compete with these people.
Youtube and even blogging in general is a huge grind and there are many days when I feel like quitting. When this happens I usually can't focus on work for several hours or even a whole day.
Current short-term goals
Publish at least 30 long form videos
Get youtube channel monetized
Publish at least 50 blog posts
Get my email list up and running
Have a tripwire offer ready to sell to my email list upon signup
Mid-term goals
Publish at least 100 blog posts
Get backlinks to my site
Start publishing on Pinterest to diversify my traffic
Get 1k newsletter signups
Get into a premium ad network so that I can monetize my blog
Get to 10k subs on youtube
Long-term goals
Build up an audience on both Tiktok/IG/Fb to diversify my traffic sources to counter google algorithm updates
Have 10k newsletter signups
Have over 500k monthly sessions on my site
Reach 100k+ yt subscribers
I probably won't be updating this thread nearly as much as I want to spend that time working on my channel and site.
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