Good video content- but nobody is watching!

I stumbled on a Youtube channel where they either have the know-how, or have invested money in making some professional video content. They have lapel mics, use autocue, graphics and film effects are added in edit. Its all tied into a very professional website with a blog and clear categories.

To the people the information is aimed at its informative and simple, although the films are possibly a little bit too long in duration (around 6 minutes each).

Lets say the channel is called ‘Bestadvice4u’. (It’s not- but when checking if the username existed for the purpose of this exercise, I signed it up to Youtube anyway!)

I want to touch on where they are going wrong.

OK. They're uploading videos almost every day. Which means using all their resources very quickly. One a week is good enough for what they offer. I recommend a Sunday- its surf-day!

They upload three videos at a time. Which means when any of their subscribers opens Youtube on the front page, only the last video uploaded from that account will appear. Subscribers will never know the other films exist unless they go to the channel page- I made the mistake of uploading several films in one go and couldn't understand why only the last film was getting any hits. So just upload one film at a time per week.

They’re not ‘reading’ results. All the films from the first week only have 20-30 hits, and all have just 1 star. It looks bad and it’s hard to admire them as experts in their chosen field when nobody is watching or responding. So look at what you are doing- if its not working don’t just carry on!

They don’t provoke a response. You need to encourage comments, post the film to a blog, or add a video response- people then come back to see what has been said. Something is wrong when viewers don’t do this.

They may well just be using Youtube to post the videos into the blog on their website and taking advantage of not using their own bandwidth. But clicking the statistics and data shows usually only 1 or 2 people are viewing the videos from the blog. One will be the blogger checking the link worked, the other click the person in the film watching themselves! If things are that bad hide the links (you do this by clicking ‘hide’ next to the links).

My conclusion? ‘Bestadvice4u’ has got money to spend. They’ve had a website made with bells and whistles, it feels professional and they know what they are talking about. But nobody is listening.

The solution.

• Delete all but the last few Youtube films.
• Find other people talking about the subject (you will have literally millions of Youtube videos from people vlogging the very problems they solve).
• Post advice in comments, send a sincere message with advice, add them as a friend. Don’t spam and send hundreds- just half a dozen would start the ball rolling.

Video content and a professional website and blog are not enough when it comes to being discovered, a little interaction can get the results you need.