Comment by threecheese
3 days ago
Unfortunately, any “creator” who wants to be searchable on YouTube needs to optimize for that algorithm. I have the same feelings as you - and it includes pictures of their face pointing to something, with a particular expression of surprise.
I give Jeff a pass though, and make sure I send alternate goodness signals like liking his YT videos after I watch them. He’s one of us.
It's not about being searchable, it simply gets more clicks because of our stupid human brain. That's why there is a surprised face on half of them.
It makes a noticeable financial difference for creators and almost everyone seems to have accepted it.
Unfortunately, I agree.
I give Jeff a pass because he's Jeff, but even Jeff can do better.
For the unknown clickbaits that show up for me on YouTube, I put hard "Don't recommend this channel" feedback into the algorithm.
I publish the blog posts for the technical audience, and the YouTube videos for a living.
And unfortunately, I and all the other YT creators I've talked to have experienced the same thing: a more technical title will give you half or worse in terms of views. You have to play YouTube's game if you want to have any kind of audience.
I find a ton of channels that are buried not because they don't have great content, but more because they don't 'package' it well.
It's something I learned in my programming career: no matter how much I despise marketing, marketing is necessary. And on YouTube marketing is almost entirely the thumbnail and title.
I always take real pictures, show the exact subject and topic covered in the video, etc. — but I stretch the title a bit because that's an immediate way to get 2x-3x the views (and they're not click-away views, either, it's a large portion of the audience who would simply not click at all otherwise).
How does this 2x-3x increase in views translate to revenue, might you suppose?
Have you considered who is clicking on your videos? Is the audience that clicks on "You won't believe!" different to "You can do this"?
Or do you only care about eyeballs, and not who is behind the eyeballs?
I care about paying for my mortgage, sustaining my work, supporting my family... it's how I make a living.
Again, my blog is made for the more technical audience.
With Google diverting search traffic away, there's about a 1:1,000 ratio of blog visitor to YouTube viewer now.
If you don't like my YT channel, please subscribe to the blog. I write a separate and more detailed blog post for almost every video, and the titles are more technically accurate. (I also post videos on Floatplane with the more accurate titles, for direct channel supporters.)
And I care about all eyeballs, not just technical ones :)