10 years on YouTube: what I've learned (brutally honest tips/advice)


Have you overdosed on quickfire ways to grow your YouTube channel or your Instagram?

I'm here to tell you you're wasting your time.

I do social media as my job, I mean I charge people to do their social media. I know and understand the algorithm, what it wants and how it changes. What it wants it's the most ultimate gaslighting abusive relationship.

Remember the time when YouTube responded really well to videos under two or three minutes and everyone started crafting the art of making a two to three-minute video?

Now it rewards half-hour videos. And the rules keep changing.

It’s not about what makes it a good video!

You can create a good video that's a minute long, you can have a good video that's an hour long. The new trend with long videos has to do with the ads: to put more ads inside, you need longer videos.

It’s like trying to write books about what's trendy right now. As the trend switches, we feel the urge to switch, too.

It's so much better to make something that isn't on trend or within the algorithms’ hungry little needs! It's more rewarding to focus on your needs and ideas, not the algorithms.

Also, the word of mouth is still a real thing. Not everything relies on algorithm, we’re still people looking for the connections to people.

They are probably five or six youtubers I really love. I mean I love them so much that I I don't need their videos in my subscription feed! Because I come and check their channel. If I haven't heard from them in a bit I'll just go to their channel: have they uploaded anything recently? I remember that they exist and I go and seek out their content enthusiastically.

And I think it's better to see people actually as humans. It’s better if they remember who you are then rely onto a computer having to remind them that you exist, right?

Obviously notifications and telling people that you're making stuff and marketing your selves is good but I but I think that it's much better to prioritize making content that people will remember and follow you in the same way that we've got friends.

You don't need to set up automatic your reminders for friends to ask you for coffee! They'll be like: ah haven't seen her in about a week, let me see if she's free for a coffee. Because they were just thinking about you in their head.

I think maybe we should all start consuming less content but consume it more enthusiastically?

I'm definitely trying to do that.

Next year, I want to read the back catalogue of a few authors I really love and I want to complete TV series that I really care about.

Life is short. Your feed shouldn't be an endless stream of homework for other people to sift through.

I think it's better to not make content that feels like homework for other people even if it’s following the algorithm well.

There are lots of people that have loads of the followers that don't really post that often. Contrapoints comes to mind. Every single one of her videos is a masterpiece and she provides like every two months but it's always worth it and I always remember to check if she's uploaded another one.

I think about how you balance knowing about the algorithm and being like: okay, Instagram wants me to post every day, Instagram wants to put everything on my stories and push myself to the top of people's feeds all the time… YouTube wants me to upload at least once a week. Okay. And and I do try and upload regularly but if I think pushing myself to upload regularly it's gonna affect my mental health, affect my relationships… then no, I won’t.

And I want to upload something meaningful, you know? Not just “content”. If I upload but don't really mean it… why, right?

#некниги