On your path to YouTube success, you may stumble into some pretty serious roadblocks. Certain things can hold your channel back, and you may keep repeating them without even realizing what you’re doing. However, once you learn to recognize the mistakes you’re making, you can adjust your sails and get back on course.
These are the mistakes that keep your channel from growing.
You’re focusing on quantity over quality.
The YouTube algorithm favors channels that upload frequently. Viewers often favor channels with frequent uploads, too. The more content you have to offer, the more views you can get.
However, the mistake comes in uploading so many videos that you begin to sacrifice the quality of your content. If you’re batch filming enough videos to upload five days a week, your videos probably won’t be as interesting as if you’d taken the whole week to craft one amazing video.
For example, look at top creator Shane Dawson. For awhile, he was uploading videos five times a week. While he had a consistent viewership, his channel wasn’t really growing. Only hardcore fans wanted to watch him test life hacks and review fast food everyday. However, when he stopped his daily uploads to focus on his new documentary-style videos, his subscriber count skyrocketed.
You aren’t connecting with your target audience.
Maybe you want your videos to appeal to everyone. Maybe you like to use video ideas that seem like they’d be popular or take inspiration from a wide variety of creators. While there are channels with mass appeal, however, the majority of successful channels focus on their target audiences.
Before you can connect with your target audience, you have to figure out who they are. These are the viewers you want to reach. To get an idea of who your target audience should be, imagine yourself having a million subscribers. If you were to do a meet-n-greet, what of fans do you imagine coming to meet you? That is your target audience.
Sometimes, your target audience will shift from the idea in your head to the reality of viewers who find your content interesting. For example, Natalies Outlet started out making lifestyle content targeted at young women her own age. However, as she continued uploading videos, she found that her audience skewed a bit younger. Now, her target audience is younger viewers.
Your content is all over the place.
If you started your channel without a clear intention for your content style, you may keep trying new things until you find what you enjoy the most. While this is fine in the beginning, as you grow as a creator, you should choose a niche for your channel.
Niche content does incredibly well on YouTube. For example, gaming and beauty are two of the biggest communities on the platform. To find your niche, create more of the types of videos your viewers like the best.
As your channel evolves, so may your niche. It’s all about responding to what your viewers like the best. Loey Lane began as a beauty vlogger, but as her scary stories began to get more views than her tutorials, she decided to focus on more paranormal content.
You aren’t concentrating on watch time.
Your views and subscriber count aren’t the only factors the YouTube algorithm is considering. One of the biggest buzzwords on YouTube is watch time. This means that how much of a video viewers are watching matters as much as the number of people who click play.
To get more watch time, make your videos at least ten minutes long. You can also increase your watch time by promoting older videos through playlists.
Check out the video below for more tips on increasing your watch time.
Now that you can recognize the mistakes that are holding you back, you can start working on your channel growth. Focus on quality, find a niche, and prioritize watch time.
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Kristen Harris enjoys listening to a wide range of music, from Taylor Swift to, on occasion, Celtic instrumental. She also spends her time writing, reading, and baking.
