Automotive Vloggers (Vol. 5)

Author
Discussion

WilsonWilson

523 posts

149 months

Friday 29th March
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I must admit, I watch lots of youtube automotive content but I'm not subbed and have never 'liked' anything either. The reason is I watch it all on a cheap smart TV from circa 2017 and there's no way I'm trusting my google password to an outdated app running on an ancient version of the Opera browser (I think).

I do occasionally think of going through all the channels and doing it my phone but I don't think I've watched anything on my phone since it was a novelty years ago. Would being a sub who never interacts with a channel be any good to a youtube creator?

JustGetATesla

299 posts

119 months

Friday 29th March
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jayemm89 said:
I can't speak for others, but for me it's key to have a buffer. I try and keep a minimum of two week's content primed and ready, up to 2-3 months in Summer (when I'm filming a lot). It's handy for situations like this week, where I've had to cancel filming three times due to weather.

I am also fortunate in that most of the cars I feature are older ones, so there's no time pressure to get stuff out.

You could tell when COVID arrived in 2020 who worked this way and who did not - I had two months of pre-filmed stuff in the bank, but other YTers pretty much stopped as soon as lockdown arrived because they were filming and releasing with very short turnaround times.

I'm not saying one method is better than the other, but this is the one that works for me. This morning I should have been filming, but instead I used the time to get an edit done.
Thanks for that - very useful. When I do longer trips I know I can get more content shot - I got 4 videos (on different topics) out of one trip in December. Its when I am staying closer to home that I start to burn through buffer content that's already banked.

I also try to have a video held in reserve if I've literally got nothing. Hitting the release schedule seems important both to the algorithm and to my audience, so where I can I'll shoot something thats not remotely topical or time dependent and deliverately not schedule it. Longest I went was putting out a video shot 3 months earlier, which felt crazy to me but I don't think anyone noticed...

Robmarriott

2,638 posts

158 months

Friday 29th March
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Voldemort said:
Also,I have never hit the [like] button. What's the point of that? If I like it I will watch more and if I don't I have already moved on to something else.
If you like it, YouTube will show you similar videos from other channels. It also benefits the channel be pushing it to other people. Weird thing to not understand.

Voldemort

6,147 posts

278 months

Friday 29th March
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Robmarriott said:
Voldemort said:
Also,I have never hit the [like] button. What's the point of that? If I like it I will watch more and if I don't I have already moved on to something else.
If you like it, YouTube will show you similar videos from other channels. It also benefits the channel be pushing it to other people. Weird thing to not understand.
Where did I say I don't understand it..?

Because YT does that anyway... If I watch all of a particular type of video they aren't shy in offering me similar, and if I click away after 30 seconds - well you get the gist.

i4got

5,655 posts

78 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
Voldemort said:
Robmarriott said:
Voldemort said:
Also,I have never hit the [like] button. What's the point of that? If I like it I will watch more and if I don't I have already moved on to something else.
If you like it, YouTube will show you similar videos from other channels. It also benefits the channel be pushing it to other people. Weird thing to not understand.
Where did I say I don't understand it..?

Because YT does that anyway... If I watch all of a particular type of video they aren't shy in offering me similar, and if I click away after 30 seconds - well you get the gist.
They don't show me any recommendations at all. If you switch off your watch history you get a blank home screen. Switch to Subscriptions tab and all you see are those you subscribe to. So if I like a video then it is to help the channel only but has no bearing on what youtube shows me.


acer12

961 posts

174 months

Friday 29th March
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Some good discussion, great to see from the perspective of the uploaders.

jayemm89 said:
I'm at 350K subscribers but 1.2m "unique viewers". Wish the buggers would click that button!

.
Impressive numbers, from what Harry shared on his end of year review video it looks like the under the hood reporting from youtube is fascinating.

The above is case and point to my question on the Car Wizard having 1m subs but only an average of 100k video viewers. I would expect some of the 100k viewers at that are also not subscribers so its an even lower subs to viewers ratio.


I just now need to wait for KillerHERTZ to storm in and chastise us for discussing Automotive Vloggers in anyway other than with an a55licking tone, because British.... you know.

Mezzanine

9,218 posts

219 months

Friday 29th March
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From listening to other podcasters/YouTubers, the subscription numbers are pretty meaningless (outside of vanity/PR appearances) in terms of income. It’s all about watch time these days.

InformationSuperHighway

6,020 posts

184 months

Friday 29th March
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Really enjoyed Alex's Kei car episode yesterday.

I know he is a bit marmite on here, but if you can put up with the screeching and laddish stuff it's great content.


I wish they would get on with announcing Jack and Ethan's involvement. Like him (Alex) or not, it is highly impressive the Youtube empire he is attempting. It's great to see a few Brit's (Mat A as well) making this a success at the numbers normally reserved for the Yanks.

audi321

5,188 posts

213 months

Friday 29th March
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I agree. For the first 2 episodes I watched (months and months ago) I couldn’t stand Taylor 1 bit, now I actually like his input

jayemm89

4,036 posts

130 months

Friday 29th March
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Mezzanine said:
From listening to other podcasters/YouTubers, the subscription numbers are pretty meaningless (outside of vanity/PR appearances) in terms of income. It’s all about watch time these days.
Watch time and view numbers is where it's at.

As you rightly imply, the major reason having more subs is helpful is when approaching sponsors or car companies etc. In spite of it being a fairly useless metric in isolation, they still use it.

fridaypassion

8,565 posts

228 months

Friday 29th March
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Overall watch time should be a more visible metric for sure. I still subscribe to Paul Wallace but he never comes up in my feed as I've not actually watched a video in a long time so I'm a pretty useless statistic for that subscriber count in a zombie sub.

The YT feed can be a bit lacking in that way as I subscribe to a couple of channels that hardly put content out and it never comes up in subscriber feed you have to manually check. Not easy using smart TV which is what I normally view on.

Mezzanine

9,218 posts

219 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
jayemm89 said:
Mezzanine said:
From listening to other podcasters/YouTubers, the subscription numbers are pretty meaningless (outside of vanity/PR appearances) in terms of income. It’s all about watch time these days.
Watch time and view numbers is where it's at.

As you rightly imply, the major reason having more subs is helpful is when approaching sponsors or car companies etc. In spite of it being a fairly useless metric in isolation, they still use it.
I presume they are still quite stuck in the old days of print media ideas of audience retention and physical subscribers.

InformationSuperHighway

6,020 posts

184 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
fridaypassion said:
Overall watch time should be a more visible metric for sure. I still subscribe to Paul Wallace but he never comes up in my feed as I've not actually watched a video in a long time so I'm a pretty useless statistic for that subscriber count in a zombie sub.

The YT feed can be a bit lacking in that way as I subscribe to a couple of channels that hardly put content out and it never comes up in subscriber feed you have to manually check. Not easy using smart TV which is what I normally view on.
I have to go back and manually search for his channel most weeks as I never get presented his latest video.

Looked this morning and he's at 800k+ subs.. what a waste of a channel.

jayemm89

4,036 posts

130 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
Mezzanine said:
I presume they are still quite stuck in the old days of print media ideas of audience retention and physical subscribers.
Yes, it is a great frustration. Lots of companies on both sides are still stuck in a 1990s mindset.

614-HSO

1,318 posts

48 months

Friday 29th March
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Dracoro said:
I think the problem with subscribing is the term itself, for many people (prob moreso middle aged to old) “subscription” means paying regularly (e.g. like magazine subscriptions) for something. So prob don’t subscribe as they think they have to pay for it.

“Subscribing” in YT world is obv free but I think many YouTubers miss that chance to tell those watching that subscribing doesn’t cost anything and that it’s simply a way to effectively bookmark/notify them of new content.


Who is not going to click the subscribe button because they think it will cost them money?

InformationSuperHighway

6,020 posts

184 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
614-HSO said:
Dracoro said:
I think the problem with subscribing is the term itself, for many people (prob moreso middle aged to old) “subscription” means paying regularly (e.g. like magazine subscriptions) for something. So prob don’t subscribe as they think they have to pay for it.

“Subscribing” in YT world is obv free but I think many YouTubers miss that chance to tell those watching that subscribing doesn’t cost anything and that it’s simply a way to effectively bookmark/notify them of new content.


Who is not going to click the subscribe button because they think it will cost them money?
You'd be surprised.

There are plenty of folks that post on facebook saying 'This post declares that Mark Zuckerberg cannot use my personal data etc..'



Janluke

2,585 posts

158 months

Friday 29th March
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I keep my subscriptions low to keep my subscription feed sharp, too many subs and that feed becomes cluttered and just a repeat of the home feed.

The algorithm keeps my home feed current

Subbed and support JayEmm btw

614-HSO

1,318 posts

48 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
InformationSuperHighway said:
614-HSO said:
Dracoro said:
I think the problem with subscribing is the term itself, for many people (prob moreso middle aged to old) “subscription” means paying regularly (e.g. like magazine subscriptions) for something. So prob don’t subscribe as they think they have to pay for it.

“Subscribing” in YT world is obv free but I think many YouTubers miss that chance to tell those watching that subscribing doesn’t cost anything and that it’s simply a way to effectively bookmark/notify them of new content.


Who is not going to click the subscribe button because they think it will cost them money?
You'd be surprised.

There are plenty of folks that post on facebook saying 'This post declares that Mark Zuckerberg cannot use my personal data etc..'
I am surprised people still use FB!

Janluke said:
I keep my subscriptions low to keep my subscription feed sharp, too many subs and that feed becomes cluttered and just a repeat of the home feed.

The algorithm keeps my home feed current

Subbed and support JayEmm btw
I am currently subscribed to 376 YT channels, one of those is JayEmm!

Mezzanine

9,218 posts

219 months

Friday 29th March
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376 YouTube subscriptions?

Jesus…

614-HSO

1,318 posts

48 months

Friday 29th March
quotequote all
Mezzanine said:
376 YouTube subscriptions?

Jesus…
It's showing a couple less on the app for some reason though.