Why doing (small) Youtube channel is bad for you

[S21FOLGORE]

First off, let me clarify this.
I am NOT a (so called) Youtuber, even though I make videos and post them on Youtube.
Even though I run two Youtube channels.

I make these videos either for having fun, or as documentation of my life.

The examples of later group are the videos of motorcycle maintenance videos, repairing SureFire flashlight’s pocket clip, etc. These are not meant to be “tutorial” videos. They are documentation of what I have done. Sometimes, I need a reference when I work on something, and the reference made by myself works well.

The first group of the videos are the majority of my creations.
So, the subjects jumps all over, which is never a good thing “if” you want to grow your channel, if your goal is to make money out of Youtube videos.
Since I don’t care about growing the channel / making money, I just ignore all the “do’s and don’ts”.
I pick up the subjects whatever I find interesting at that moment, NOT something that’d potentially gets more views.
I’ve NEVER asked to “click Like”, “leave a comment”,or subscribe to the channel. Because I don’t need them.

That said, there are obvious signs of Youtube algorithm sabotaging my channel.
I don’t really care one way or another, but maybe some of you wants to know something about these.
(Maybe there are some people here vaguely thinking / expecting maybe someday they’ll start making money on YouTube platform.)


One, Copyright claim
Roughly 85% of the time, my videos get “copyright claim”(100% of the claim is about music in the contents), despite the fact that I am fully licensed (to use that music they claimed).
At one point, I wrote the name of the song, the name of the artist, and license # in the description.
Youtube still gives me copyright claim.
So I stopped bothering. I just let my audio provider to handle this.


Two,Shadow Ban about commenting on another channel
I can NEVER leave a comment on the really popular Youtuber’s video.
For example, if I try to post a comment on Peter McKinnon’s video, the comment gets deleted right away, 100% of the time.
What if the channel is not that big? Not over a million subscribers and billions of views, but someone with 5k-10k subs, videos with under 10k views?
That’s when “shadow ban” happens.
I leave a comment while logging with my main channel, the comment is visible while I’m logged in with main channel.
But if I open anther browser window without logging in, or logged in with the second channel, the comment is nowhere.
This is the Youtube algorithm’s sneaky way to “filter” the comment, when they don’t want you to realize that your comment just got deleted right away.

Three, Shadow Ban your contents(videos)
I am fully aware that YouTube is NOT a public space. It’s a privately owned space, and we’re only allowed to play in their field as long as we follow their rules (guide lines).
There’s no “freedom of speech”, period.

Also, what they are after is “profit”.
So, naturally, they want to promote the video that likely gets more views.
The video that are viewed more gets promoted more, the video that doesn’t perform so well just gets buried into the bottom of the endless list of the videos.
Yeah, that’s understandable.
But the YouTube algorithm sometimes does really nasty thing.

You know that when you hover your cursor over the thumbnails of the videos, it plays a small portion of the video, right?
This, you, as a creator, has no control. YouTube algorithm picks up whatever the moment they want.
And guess what, on some of my videos, it intentionally picks up the most boring moments of the video (so that no one will click). Same thing with auto-generated thumbnails, which I never use. They always pick up the worst kind of image out of that contents.

Well, today was supposed to be a day off, but I was asked to work (I work late afternoon - night), so I’m pretty soon off to work.

[S21FOLGORE]

No. I don’t want to be a “YouTuber”.
I do photography and videos for having fun.
Don’t want to do those activity driven by fear.
(If you relay on YouTube income, you are going to make contents because of fear, of not money coming in otherwise.)

On music copyright “wrong” claim issue

There’s nothing I or you can do about it.
Here’s what’s happening.

YouTube/Google has one of the most powerful, most efficient search system in the world.
And they check every single video BEFORE it gets public.
You upload the video.
YouTube check happens before publishing it.
Check completed.
No issues found.

You publish the video (it goes to the public, meaning, anyone can see it now.)
Shortly after, your video gets copyright claim.
Always, ALWAYS after the video goes to public. NEVER before publishing.

Because there are 3rd party companies who are doing a sort of bounty hunter style of business.
They search the contents that uses copyrighted materials, and report to YouTube.
Doesn’t matter if it is licensed or not.
Their system is nowhere near as good or sophisticated as YouTube / Google’s system is.
So, probably they can’t tell if the creator is licensed or not.
Or, maybe they just don’t care.
They get paid for reporting “copyrighted material use found”, that’s all they care, their income.

For me, it’s just annoyance. If I find it too annoying, I can just delete the video, or delete the channel itself. (I can live perfectly fine without YouTube.) BUT, think if you are running a small YouTube channel as a business.
When you upload a new video, 8-9 times out of 10, your video gets demonetized, because of the use of copyrighted material. No money coming in, until they finish investigation. (Which can easily take a couple of months.)

About the comment

I NEVER leave offensive, rude comment.
It is quite opposite, actually.

When I leave a comment on someone’s video, (and when YouTube doesn’t delete it), 9 out of 10 times my comment gets “heart mark” (which means the creator likes the comment) with “Thank You” reply.
I’m not making up a story.

Screen Shot 2024-09-04 at 9.47.50 PM by T K, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2024-09-04 at 9.51.39 PM by T K, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2024-09-04 at 9.54.21 PM by T K, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2024-09-04 at 9.56.35 PM by T K, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2024-09-04 at 10.03.41 PM by T K, on Flickr

These are the type of comment I leave. And YouTube won’t let me do it (on major channel.)

Data manipulation
And, I'm not complaining about YouTube not promoting my videos. I said, I don’t like when YouTube sabotaging my video(s), channels., such as “manipulating” the view counts.
(For example, my latest video got 52 or something views. Then, this morning, the view count dropped to 5. How is it possible? Again, think about the case someone actually is relaying on Youtube income… No, I don’t want to be a YouTuber.)

[DarkMonster620]

I have like 4 o 5 videos I've made, all labeled private, I share the link if someone is interested and that is it ... But, the few vids I've seen, that you have linked here in DMF, I have enjoyed

[S21FOLGORE]

Thanks.
Here's the truth of the dark story about Youtube gear review video.
(I wrote for another forum, but I thought this info may be useful for people here, too.)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I wrote in the first post.
YouTube is NOT a public place.
There's NO freedom of speech.
​I have no complains whatsoever about it.
We play in their place which is privately owned (by YouTube / Google).
We follow their rules (guidelines, they say). Fine.

Now, YouTube is a great place to find some info, quickly.
​And some stuffs are better explained by videos, rather than still photos and text.
(BTW, sometimes, illustration is better than photos, to explain things. That's why vehicle repair manual still use drawings.)

Such as rope work, firearms handling, martial arts movements, and ... motorcycle riding and maintenance, etc, etc.
The problem is, YOU have to filter the info.

Everybody can act like an expert, some sort of authority, while in fact that they're just clueless idiots.

That's why I don't watch ANY of motovlogger's videos. NONE.


Another thing is a lot of "gear" videos are actually "paid advertisements.


If "I" type "Peak Design Travel tripod" in YouTube search bar, this is what I get.

Screen Shot 2024-09-09 at 12.25.48 PM copy by T K, on Flickr


(NOTE: If you type exactly the same word in your search bar, you'll get different result. That's how YouTube / Google search engine works.)


This is NOT the top of the list. 4-5 down from the top.

But you'll see the thumbnail, title, clearly making you feel like there's a better deal.

At least, those YouTubers are telling there are "cheaper and better" options out there.

Right?

So, I click on David Manning's video (the top one).

Now, take a look at the right, what kind of videos YouTube is recommending for you...

Screen Shot 2024-09-09 at 12.26.45 PM copy by T K, on Flickr

Do you see this guy David Manning, he made the very similar video 1 year ago, and 2 months ago. (The first one was 2 years ago.)


Not that he has anything against Peak Design.

But he's paid by these companies to make a review videos.

He tells the viewers about the price.

(Peak Design stuff are known for pretty expensive.)

Then, he tells the viewers how they "almost" perform the same.

Deliberately ​omitting the VERY important info.

Those cheaper option tripods have center column so wobbly when extended it's virtually useless if you actually need to adjust the camera height by moving the center column up and down.

One way to lower the manufacturing cost SIGNIFICANTLY is to loosen the QC.

A​​​​nother is loosen up tolerance.

(I have had handles quite a bit of made in China (Norinco)1911s and AKs, back in the 90s. They were SO LOSE, they rattle like you wouldn't believe if you shake them. They still fire all right, but you wouldn't expect any sort of accuracy out of these.)

​

So, an alternative option tripod are barely OK, AS LONG AS you don't raise center column.

But, where's the point of buying tripods that can't hold the camera steady?

​

If I click on the latest "BEST XXXX NOT Peak DesignXXXX" video from 2 months ago, this is what Youtube recommends.

Screen Shot 2024-09-09 at 12.26.54 PM copy by T K, on Flickr

​

You see the same David Manning video, but look at the video (and the channel) I marked with orange.

She runs (basically) the same kind of channel as David Manning.

Paid ads. Fake reviews.

(If you're a REAL professionals, you wouldn't use / recommend travel tripods that wobbles so bad with center colum extended.)

​

So, basically this is why I don't buy things based on YouTube Gear reviews, don't buy anything on affiliated links (I don't buy "important to me" things on Amazon. They are okay to buy consumables. But, nothing really, truly valuable comes from Amazon.)

And, this is why I NEVER ADVERTISE anything on my Youtube videos.

​

(BTW, I have Peak Design travel tripod, two of them. One carbon fiber, one aluminum. They are both great (for what I do).
And, most importantly, their customer service is one of the best out there.
When I call, someone, a real human being in their San Francisco office picks up a phone.
I can talk to a real human, in US, not recorded message, not someone in oversea.
When I needed a parts, all it took was a phone call and sending a photo (of the parts I needed), and the item was shipped out next day.

The warranty covered the cost. I paid nothing.

Well, maybe I should make a video about it...

Oh, and if I try to post this story on one of those videos I showed up there, it gets deleted right away, by YouTube.

I "think", YouTube algorithm take it as "spam".)

<to be continued...>

[S21FOLGORE]

So, here’s what it’s like running small YouTube channel.

This is the screenshot of my latest video analytics, of my 2nd channel (15 subscribers as of this writing) YouTube creator studio.
Take a look at the graph of “impressions” (what it means is how many times YouTube algorithm showed this video in the recommenced video colum on the right side of the screen.

Screen Shot 2024-09-11 at 11.33.48 AM by T K, on Flickr

As you can see, it becomes flat at after 2 hours from the publishing.
Meaning YouTube stopped trying to show this video to the viewers.
So, this particular video on this particular channel is already dead.
If I leave it here, the way it is, this video doesn’t get anymore views.

This is a reality of running a really small channel.
Youtube algorithm will very quickly give up and abandon your video.
They would rather promote bigger channels video because their video gets more view time (which is, in the end, the most important thing to YouTube.)

I have a few options.
I can delete this video and upload on my main channel. (1.2K subscribers)
Most of the subscribers / regular viewers of my channel WILL NOT watch this video.
Out of 1.2k, probably only 20 or so people watch my video because they genuinely enjoyed my creation.
So, realistically, the video would get 36 (20 + 16) or so view counts before YouTube stops promoting this video.
(Those 20 or so who publicly expressed their feelings on the comment section, said they like my honesty, “based on real world experience “ style of video making, and attitude (openly shows my total contempt toward YouTube and big YouTubers). They will watch regardless the genre.)

Or, I can delete this video,
Split into two separate videos.
Turn first opening scene (one minute or so) as a “one minute short film”, upload on the 2nd channel (which is meant for micro short film) with different title and thumbnail.
(And, that was my original plan. I started this video as a sort of Taxi Driver spoof.)
The later part I can upload on the main channel.

The one minute short film is really difficult to get large number of audiences.
Even people who create really, REALLY high quality stuff get very low numbers of views (and subs).
So, in Amy case, anything I  upload on my 2nd channel will suck, in terms of views and subs.
But, at least it would be “the right video in the right place” case.

The main channel is a mixed bags of everything.
It’s not going to grow.
(It is a miracle over a thousand of people actually subscribed, without me asking (NOT EVEN ONCE) to subscribe.)
Youtube algorithm stops promoting video after 24 hours (usually).

[S21FOLGORE]

I changed the thumbnail pic, as well as the title.
NOT a little tweak. Going totally different direction.

Both my channels are eligible for "Thumbnail A-B test".
But I found that even though I set up multiple images for the test, sometimes YouTube actually doesn't do the test.
(Channel too small, video view counts too low, not worth running a test, I guess.)
This video was such a case.
So instead of relaying YouTube's system, I decided to do my own test.

From this one,...
Youtube_thumb_1.2 by T K, on Flickr

... to this one...
Youtube_thumb_2 by T K, on Flickr

The title was changed from
"The best fanny pack for Fuji X100V"
to
"Taxi Driver"

To me, the first 60 seconds of this video is the most important part.
And, I don't say so, YouTube algorithm will not understand the link between this video and Taxi Driver.
And that's the whole point.

[S21FOLGORE]

Here are some GOOD examples of my Youtube videos.


One





Just recently someone left a “Thank you for posting this” comment.

The first comment after 4years since its posted.


I posted quite a bit of these videos back then.

Partly because Ducati’s service manual was incorrect here and there.


I posted “How to change coolant” video specifically for that reason.

(If someone tries to do the coolant change on S4R and if it happens to be his first time experience, it is VERY possible that the bike doesn’t have enough coolant in the system after the job is completed. And if he goes out for test ride, it is VERY possible the bike gets overheated.)


I like making this kind of videos, sharing the information.





I don't need to make money out of something like this.

And who cares about view counts / hours?


As long as YouTube/Google doesn't try to HIDE it, keep it easy to find (for those who are searching the info), I have no complain.

[Monsterlover]

Holy shit. I knew the yt algorithm was a thing but.... Damn.

[S21FOLGORE]

So, I've found out who's giving me false copyright claim illegally.

That company is, Artlist.

Yeah, one of the biggest music, sound effect provider in the business.
I get my music from Audiio, which is a much smaller business, than Artlist or epidemic sound, but still a competitor to Artlist, in a sense.
(For the record, I use bunch of other "free" service for sound effect, for the kind of sound I cannot obtain myself.
For example, I have probably 6 or 7 sound effect of "1911 .45ACP fired" file. Shot in close distance indoor, shot in close distance outdoor, shot in long distance outdoor open field, shot in mid distance open filed, shot in mid distance near buildings...)

Anyway, I filed dispute claim by myself.
They (Artlist) have 30days to respond.
If they don't, YouTube automatically take down "copyright claim".

I also posted a comment on this video.
Let's see if Youtube will delete this comment or leave it there.


@MonsterS4R996 is me.

[Monsterlover]

It's still there. I gave it a thumbs up in case that will help

[S21FOLGORE]

It's still there. I gave it a thumbs up in case that will help

Hi, thanks.

It is sad to see one of the leading business is doing that.
Essentially, what Artlist is doing is,

"You didn't obtain music from us. So we claim ownership. We don't care whether you actually are licensed or not, if your channel gets demonetized, jeopardized. You're not our customer, so we don't care. We claim our right."

In a long run, this kind of behavior will hurt everyone on this platform.

[Monsterlover]

What would stop you from doing the exact same thing to them, claiming copyright infringe?

[S21FOLGORE]

I think what you are saying is "why we (small individuals, regular people who are running very small YouTube channel) can't / don't report "finding copyrighted items found" to YouTube"?

I think, technically you can.
Because, occasionally, someone claims owning copyright of the music that is "copyright free" or, even worse, "public domain", illegally upload that particular music to YouTube's copyright ID data base.

YouTube Audio Library music is safe, because they are already added onto YouTube's content ID data base, it's impossible to do false copyright claim.

"Copyright free music" that are floating around on YouTube and internet in general, are NOT SAFE to use.
No one owns copyright means no one is protecting the ownership of the copyright.

[S21FOLGORE]

It's still there. I gave it a thumbs up in case that will help

Maybe your thumbs up helped, seriously.
I (literally) just got back from work.
And I got notification from Youtube, Joseph Martin (the creator of that video) replied to my comment.
So I left a reply, explained what they have been doing, as objectively as possible.

Glad I filed dispute claim (without doing so, I wouldn't have found out who has been doing this).
Glad I do YouTube just for fun. (People who are relying on YouTube income would be too afraid to do what I just started. I don't care if I loose YouTube account.)

" You think I'm a hero? I am not a hero. I'm a drifter with nothing to lose."-Jack Reacher (2012)-