Avoid My Big YouTube Mistake
Even OG YouTube experts make mistakes – and I made a big one.
A few months ago, struggling to come up with a new video idea, I used one of my favorite brainstorming and analytics tools, VidIQ. VidIQ wasn’t the mistake. It's super helpful. The mistake was that I came up with an idea that was too far outside my channel’s core value proposition of helping creators. My idea was how to find clients as a video editor. The thinking was, if creators need a side hustle, they can use their talents to get freelance jobs editing videos for others. I did that for years and made great money. So, I used VidIQ to find me the ripest topic and title opportunities around that idea. According to their data, it appeared to be a fat, juicy topic on YouTube that few others were making videos about.
The good news?
VidIQ did its job brilliantly. It came up with a long list of “low competition” ideas and titles ideas for how video editors can find clients. And based on those recommendations, the video I made grew and grew until it was my most popular upload, bringing in viewers, subscribers, and ad revenue – every single day.
The bad news?
It became clear that the viewers of that video were not my intended audience. They were not YouTube creators. They were freelance video editors looking for work. And these viewers were pouring into my channel every day, like seawater through an open hatch on a submarine. Just take a look at the top suggested traffic of my channel:
Suggested video traffic from the Creator Dynamics YouTube channel
As a result, the creator-centric videos I’ve produced since have struggled to take off, and in my opinion, it’s because the video-editing crowd were skipping those new videos in their feed, or watching only a few seconds, hurting the reputation of my new content.
When viewers skip over new videos from a channel, deciding not to watch, it creates a negative signal to the algorithm. With enough skips from each specific viewer, the algorithm will stop recommending your content to that person.
Read that sentence again if you didn't understand it. 👆
The point? The algorithm is brutally selective. And this is why you see channels with 500,000 subscribers but can't get 500 views on new uploads. It's similar to the situation that my clients Vicky and Josh found themselves in. (Interview here if you missed it.) This unintended audience was causing what I call “algorithmic damage” to my channel, so I made the hard decision to unlist the video about editing. I’m now attempting to steer my viewership back in the originally intended direction. I’m confident it will happen – it'll just take more videos on topics that my creator-audience cares about.
The Lesson:
When brainstorming video ideas, try not to veer from the core reason people have been watching in the first place. If you think you’ve already made this mistake, consider unlisting videos that are bringing in the wrong audience. Over time, this should improve the health of your channel.
NOTE: YouTube engineers deny that “algorithmic damage” is a phenomenon. They claim that each upload is evaluated individually, on its own merits, and that any channel can experience explosive growth at any moment. But I know too many creators and have seen too many channels experiencing otherwise. I respectfully disagree.
If it’s ever of interest, 3 options:
Book a quick call or channel deep-dive with me to get a fresh perspective on your channel, from a veteran strategist and former YouTube employee.
Try VidIQ for $1 through my personal affiliate link. It is a very effective tool, so again, just choose your ideas carefully!
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-Matt
