A question about using my content creation ways to YouTube:
What are your thoughts on applying this “more and faster content” philosophy to youtube?
From what we can see people who post the most frequently on there are the ones who make the least views and money whereas the ones who take their sweet time and heavily balance it out with quality get way more views and money.
So I guess the philosophy of daily contact with your audience wouldn’t work as well there due to how the site works.
What are your thoughts on it?
First, a caveat:
I am not a “YouTube” guy. So I don’t keep up with its ever-changing rules and algorithms and biases… or play dodge ball with its censorship and de-platforming shenanigans. To rely on such a platform as anything other than supplementary (like we do with BerserkerMail’s YouTube channel) is a recipe for frustration and, I would argue, a horribly foundation to 100% rely upon for selling and/or distributing content.
Personally, I don’t create any content based on algorithms.
I don’t even create content based on clicks.
I base it on…
Relationships.
That is the only “algorithm” I care about.
I’d rather have ONE engaged person consuming my videos/audios/emails/books/other content than a million non-engaged peopled consuming it. I write, record, and talk to one person, not a crowd. To one person, not a list. To one person, not a crowd. When people go through my content I want them to feel like I’m communicating with them and them alone.
This goes back to old school Mister Rogers when he was told by an early influence of his that TV (video content) was all about:
“one little buckaroo”
That is who he was talking to.
And it added a huge layer of both humanity and influence to his content. I daresay he was the single most beloved and biggest “brand” of the 20th century — even bigger than Disney (not financially — although I believe he could have been if he’d chose) and any single President or world leader — just going by sheer number of people – and generations of people – who loved and knew about him, and who still do.
You think he made his show based on some fleeting rules or algorithms?
No.
He had the exact same format for 33 years.
On a public supported channel.
At a time of the day when most people were at work.
Obviously, this does not lend itself to businesses who wrap their livelihood’s up in click-based monetization on a platform they don’t control, run by a company that has long ago abandoned caring about making a profit and instead exists to serve a social agenda above all else.
So those are my thoughts on it.
Here are a couple more related thoughts:
1. With Congress trying to ban TikTok…
I don’t know what to tell all the online marketers who screwed around building a TikTok audience instead of an email list the last several years. Except, maybe a quote from the crazy Irishman in the movie Braveheart when he tells William Wallace (as arrows are raining down on their heads and puncturing through their thin, wooden shields):
“The Lord tells me he can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re fooked!”
Anyone who relies on a 3rd party platform is in the same boat.
Yes, even if it’s a so-called “based” one like Twitter.
Ffs build an email list, back it up, and get their snail mail addresses.
2. Many years ago (on the old “Better Networker” site — which served as a great article directory at the time for the home business niche) my friend & computer scientist the late Jim Yaghi once showed people the inanity of relying on soft metrics like clicks and views, etc.
In this case:
There were certain articles that got thousands of shares.
Maybe even 10’s of thousands, but I don’t remember exact numbers.
And he wrote about how dumb it was to base an article’s success or monetization on shares, which people assumed was the gold standard metric at the time. And he illustrated how dumb it was to care about shares by showing how almost all those popular articles got way less actual views than shares.
i.e., nobody was reading them, they were just mindlessly forwarding them.
Not all that much actual “engagement.”
This was probably back in 2009 or 2010 and that mentality has only gotten worse.
Immoral of the story:
Unless, I suppose, you get directly paid a lot of money based on views alone there is little reason to create content for clicks or opens or views or shares or anything you see so-called influencers obsessing over. None of them are direct response people. I doubt very many have businesses that’d survive if they were kicked off YouTube at all. So I suggest creating content for the creation/expansion/fortification of the relationship with the person you are trying to reach/teach/help with your content, so they go wherever you go, to whatever platform or media you use.
i.e., talk to that One Little Buckaroo.
You don’t have to ignore all those other metrics.
But to wrap your business around them is foolish.
* Build/grow your list.
* Create content for that list.
* Sell it to that list EVERY day (despite what some idiotic algorithm wants)
* Sell those buyers something else.
Focus on that and the rest will take care of itself. Then, if you want many more of my insights & experiences with selling with email check out the paid Email Players Newsletter.
Here is the link to learn more:
Ben Settle
