Why does actualized youtube have relatively few views?

[ilja]

For 1 mio. subscribers 70 000 is relatively low. it is generelly the case on youtube, but why?

do people subscribe to leo because they liked a video once and forget about it or is it too difficult to consume leo's videos long term or are the topics not fun enough?

anyone got solid knowledge?

Edited April 29, 2021 by ilja
grammar

[SolarWarden]

The people that subscribed to him a few years ago aren't watching his videos cause they are radically different than what they watched that time.

[ilja]

@SolarWarden hm, not necessarily saying much.

[SolarWarden]

@ilja @iljasay that the first 200k subscribers resonated with the stage orange self-help videos that he made in the beginning.  Then when he started to do stage yellow content, he got more stage, green subscribers. The previous stage orange subscribers stopped watching him cause the stage yellow content didn't resonate with them anymore but didn't unsubscribe. 

That's one possibility.

Edited April 29, 2021 by SolarWarden

[ilja]

@SolarWarden  i like it

[SamC]

3 hours ago, ilja said:

For 1 mio. subscribers 70 000 is relatively low. it is generelly the case on youtube, but why?

do people subscribe to leo because they liked a video once and forget about it or is it too difficult to consume leo's videos long term or are the topics not fun enough?

anyone got solid knowledge?

because his vids are literally 4 hours long

 

[Roy]

3 hours ago, ilja said:

hm, not necessarily saying much.

It's exactly the answer.

- People hop along and subscribe for a certain type of content, but then the content changes so they stop watching. Leo's content from start to finish couldn't be more radical lol.

- The videos have gotten ridiculously long compared to what they were years ago. Naturally filtering out a ton of people.

- It's a self-help channel. People subscribe after watching some videos for a particular issue that they need help with. After they get what they need they leave and stop watching.

 

Try convincing most people to watch a 4 hour video on the metaphysics of reality in "Sameness vs Difference" vs 15 minutes of "How to make a girl fall in love with you". 

Edited April 29, 2021 by Roy

[Jacob Morres]

he stopped making viral kind of content and moved more into quality and depth

[Hardkill]

Yeah, it is odd. All of his content in each of his videos have been brilliant. While I am skeptical about his advocacy of psychedelics, I still think that each of one his videos are chock-full of vital knowledge and wisdom. They all deserve at least several million of views. 

[Shin]

22 hours ago, ilja said:

For 1 mio. subscribers 70 000 is relatively low. it is generelly the case on youtube, but why?

do people subscribe to leo because they liked a video once and forget about it or is it too difficult to consume leo's videos long term or are the topics not fun enough?

anyone got solid knowledge?

You need to think and do inner work to appreciate and understand the videos now.

[DocWatts]

No more of a mystery than why there's more people who've read Harry Potter than a dense literary text like Ulysses.

While I commend Leo for trying to make the topics of his videos as accessible as he can, fact of the matter is that things like metaphysics and ontology are dense, challenging subjects of discussion whose relevance to most people's day to day lives isn't immediately obvious.

Considering the depth of the subject matter, I'm honestly a bit more surprised that some of his videos have gotten as many views as they have.

[ilja]

Those are all good considerations.

[hoodrow trillson]

Lower but relatively high views means more loyal watchers vs extremely high views from clickbait and elaborate titles designed to grab your attention.  I'll let you figure out which one lasts longer

[Emerald]

On 4/29/2021 at 2:05 PM, ilja said:

For 1 mio. subscribers 70 000 is relatively low. it is generelly the case on youtube, but why?

do people subscribe to leo because they liked a video once and forget about it or is it too difficult to consume leo's videos long term or are the topics not fun enough?

anyone got solid knowledge?

Usually only 5-10% of the subscriber base tunes in. This is the norm for YT channels.

[snowyowl]

Leo is starting a new channel with edited highlights of his videos - see his latest blog & YT video. I can appreciate the dilemma; I try to follow him and this forum but it's a challenge. There's many vids posted in the threads here I've no hope of watching. I can believe the 5-10% statistic, I'm pretty promiscuous about subscribing to channels, over 80 so far and if I don't keep up with watching them, the YT algorithm drops them down the list, and stops notifying me of them. I've forgotten about the channels at the bottom of my subscriber list

On a related note, there's a very low "like" count for most channels - around 1-2% is typical - are most viewers lazy and taking it for granted? 

Edited May 1, 2021 by snowyowl

[Emerald]

5 hours ago, snowyowl said:

Leo is starting a new channel with edited highlights of his videos - see his latest blog & YT video. I can appreciate the dilemma; I try to follow him and this forum but it's a challenge. There's many vids posted in the threads here I've no hope of watching. I can believe the 5-10% statistic, I'm pretty promiscuous about subscribing to channels, over 80 so far and if I don't keep up with watching them, the YT algorithm drops them down the list, and stops notifying me of them. I've forgotten about the channels at the bottom of my subscriber list

On a related note, there's a very low "like" count for most channels - around 1-2% is typical - are most viewers lazy and taking it for granted? 

I usually get one like every ten views or so within the first days after posting as my subscriber base is tuning in. So, about 10%.

Then, with the general population, it goes down to about 1 in 15.

But it’s never been at 1-2%.

Yet again, I just have around 50,000 subs. So, maybe larger channels have a lower like to view ratio.

[Leo Gura]

6 hours ago, snowyowl said:

On a related note, there's a very low "like" count for most channels - around 1-2% is typical - are most viewers lazy and taking it for granted?

You can't like a video without being logged in.

Most YT viewers are not logged in. Nor do they care about clicking buttons.

[Hansu]

10 hours ago, snowyowl said:

if I don't keep up with watching them, the YT algorithm drops them down the list, and stops notifying me of them

The algorithm also favors short 5-20 minute videos with maximum amount of ads over longer videos.

When I searched "How to meditate" on youtube, Leo's 35 minute video on the topic comes up eleventh.

This is despite the fact that Leos video has the second most views. But I guess our average attention span cuts off around 7 minutes, at least thats what the algorithm seems to think.

 

EDIT: I think the search engine is intended to work as follows:

1 Find the videos with highest watch time to video lenght ratio

2 Suggest similiar videos (and cat videos) so that after the viewer finishes the first video, they go watch another one

3 Repeat until the viewer exhausts their dopamine receptors

And vola, maximum amount of profit has been aquired. Someone who watches Leos 35 minute video on meditation with presumably low ad count (I dont know how many ads there is in Leos videos) and then goes off to meditate generates a lot less profit than watching 60 minutes of maximum ad, candy colored videos with trigger sounds and images. Watching Leos videos is not good for Youtubes business

Edited May 2, 2021 by Hansu

[Parththakkar12]

That's the thing about the 'clips channel'. A part of Leo's brand was the long videos, just the fact that they're long! That's what made him unique on youtube. People looking for in-depth content will gravitate towards the long videos any day!!

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Parththakkar12 said:

That's what made him unique on youtube

Rogan videos are 3hrs long and no one ever complains. Life is so unfair

I guess I gotta start hunting elk now.