Comment by theshrike79
3 days ago
LTT specifically AB tested the stupid thumbnail vs relevant + titles.
The idiotic clickbait images and titles WORK. People don't use them because they want to, they use them because they have to.
Thus -> DeArrow.
(Or follow the channels via an RSS feed and filter there)
There are great channels that have had acceptable audience growth without resorting to bucket scraping like that. In fact the channels I see that have the most engagement and the most stable view numbers video to video are the ones specifically avoiding the "gaping maw pointing at a red circle" sort of thumbnails and the "YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT" or "X PHENOMENON - THE RESULTS WILL SHOCK YOU" titles. Knowing how Youtube works it's more of a detriment to have those unstable views because that screws with how well Youtube promotes you in the Recommended and Trending pages, and makes it harder to have high paying deals with sponsors since they don't know if your video's going to do five million views or seven hundred and fifty thousand. The only way you can make that work consistently is if you have a captive audience, but people do get tired of it quickly and will start to reflexively avoid your videos. They'll especially avoid them if someone else tried that clickbait format and annoyed or even offended them.
There are children and there are adults. Children have more free time. Children watch more YouTube than adults. So LTT's audience is probably more children too.
Children are attracted to soy-boy suprised pikachu face on clickbait thumbnails. CHLIDREN are ATTRACTED to EVERY second WORD being IN all CAPS!!! They like the three exclamation marks. They like flashy text on MrWhoseTheBoss videos which repeat the same thing the fucking guy is talking but just with flashy text on screen. They like the whizz-bang animations and ADHD addled three-second shots. They like the Mr. Beastification of Youtube.
I'm not a child. I'm too old and weary for that. LTT wants to do it, he can. Godspeed, and may his next twenty million subscribers fill the hole in his pocket and his soul that the first twenty million couldn't. I just ain't gonna be watching.
> repeat the same thing the fucking guy is talking but just with flashy text on screen
This have been a thing on Japanese TV since long ago, doubling down on the punchlines with subtitles or adding a comment or comeback (conveniently, Japanese text takes less space that Western text, so the characters can be relatively large). So I think they just copied it.
>LTT wants to do it, he can.
LTT does not have a choice
Youtube's system is adversarial. There's more content than eyeballs, so if your brand new video is placed in front of like three people who do not click on it, it stops getting shown to people entirely including subscribers!
Clickbait thumbnails and titles are what Google wants, and they provide tooling to encourage it, and punish you if you do not use it.
You want to get rid of clickbait titles and thumbnails? Kill google. Then also legislate it away because it will naturally arise in any such adversarial system.
>They like the Mr. Beastification of Youtube.
Google likes the Mr. Beastification of Youtube. Google would rather every LTT go away and be replaced with another Mr. Beast. It's more profitable that way.
I don't care, simple as that. I'm also in an adversarial relationship with LTT, and with Google.
I realised over the last years that my weariness with the internet was born mostly out of Youtube and Reddit. Reddit I've successfully cut out of my life, Youtube is more difficult to do because much of modern culture happens there. But I've drawn the line at the worst offenders. In tech, people like Dave2D and Marques Brownlee have managed to avoid having stupid thumbnails, so I'd rather watch them. Thereafter, I have a CalmYoutubers.md file that has the (few) channels that I find are not idiotic, so I stick to them.
I've heard this argument before as someone with a small number of subscribers, In use relevant titles and thumbnails (I do partially use AI but that is "make me a Tux image with a builders hat on"). When I post a video I get a decent number of viewers for my channel size.
So I don't believe someone like LTT needs to resort to clickbait. LTT has 16 millions subscribers and half a million views per video. They make plenty of ad-revenue from those videos. If he stopped making videos today, he would still be getting a sizeable income by doing nothing for at least a decade. Even some washed up YouTubers from the past get a low five figure income from their Channels.
A single washed up Youtuber getting residual income is very different from someone running a full-ass company with a bit under 100 employees.
The point being made is that he has plenty of income (it is in the 10s of millions I am sure).
If he has that many employees for his YouTube channel he is letting his expenses get out of control. It is as simple as that.
If he fired everyone tomorrow and stopped making videos, he would probably still be making six to seven figures a year just from people (re)-watching the existing content. I wouldn't be surprised if he has other holdings / properties that generate him income outside of YouTube.
You see this happen a lot on YouTube where someone starts getting a lot of money in via YouTube Ad-revenue and they start trying to operate it like it is a television station and paying for co-hosts and researchers etc. Costs then increase ten to twenty fold. Then once inevitably YouTube change how monetisation works or people get bored with their content and their revenue dips they resort to clickbait, scamming, and other nonsense.
This could all be avoided by just keeping control of their costs. So I have little sympathy for him saying "I have to do the click bait guys", when it was his decision to make those hires and he was already rolling in cash.
> The idiotic clickbait images and titles WORK. People don't use them because they want to, they use them because they have to.
They only "work" if your only goal is to get clicks. Lots of literal toddlers and stupid adults will click on idiotic clickbait. Will they stay and watch the content? Will they understand it? Will they appreciate it? Or, will they just smash their fist at the screen when the next shiny obnoxious looking thing pops up or drool all over themselves until the next video auto-plays?
If all you care about are clicks and views and you don't give a shit about your audience you might as well just start posting disturbing videos of Elsa and pregnant Spider-man because as it turns out that WORKS also.
If on the other hand you respect your audience and don't want to mislead or annoy them with click-bait titles and irrelevant bullshit thumbnails then, yes you will get fewer clicks and views, but the smaller number of people viewing your videos will be people who clicked because they actually care about your content and not just because of bullshit clickbait. Those users will be thankful that your channel isn't polluted with the garbage that plagues so many other videos made by youtubers who don't care about anything but clicks.
Having and maintaining integrity is usually a little inconvenient, but it is also very much appreciated and people with integrity improve the spaces we share. Youtubers sacrificing their integrity for clicks and views isn't something they "have to do", it's just what they choose to do. If their content is actually worth watching then people will watch it without that crap, especially when it comes to an already well established channel like LTT. Don't make excuses for youtubers who care more about clicks and views than they do about their viewers or the quality of what they put out into the world.
It's a business. Clicks (and views) equal money.
You can always "respect your audience", but that won't pay the bills with Youtube's algorithms sadly.
It's not the world I want to live in, but it's the current reality.
A business engaging in unethical practices, not respecting its audience and standing by the quality of its content.