EricReacts
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Update on channel issues
🕑 Added 2022-01-13 06:32:19 +0000 UTCMost of this is unimportant but for those of you who are curious about the YouTube algorithm, I'd like to share my findings.
SO. I'm glad I didn't go through with starting a new channel after all. For those of you who missed that update, I was having serious problems with YouTube suggesting my videos. After doing some research into the YouTube algorithm and other related channels, I think the I've found the problem... and the solution.
When I started doing movie reactions, I could only find one other channel that was doing them at the time, so the algorithm suggested our videos whenever someone searched for movie reactions. Eventually, other people started doing them, and they focused on what I now know is the most important YouTube metric: watch time. They used much more movie footage than I'd been using, and they kept their discussions very brief (a minute or two) to keep the percentage of the video watched high. So while I don't think of other reactors as competition, I'm guessing the algorithm did, and would suggest other channel's videos over mine. I'd been operating under the incorrect assumption about fair use being limited to 10 minutes because I had previously gotten copyright strikes for going over, but I realize now that those were probably coincidental. I also theorized, and hoped, that the bogus community guideline warning that coincided with the dip in views was also coincidental.
Now that I had a theory about how watch time influenced video suggestions, I had to test it. I started with Encanto. As a movie on Disney+, I knew my way around copyright issues due to extensive testing with the Marvel shows. Encanto will probably become my most viewed video in a month or two. Ghostbusters: Afterlife didn't perform quite as well, but still much better than the vast majority of the new movie reactions I'd been doing recently that are more popular (Venom: Let there be Carnage, No Time To Die, Dune). And Eternals is starting off even faster than Encanto did, though that's bolstered by the fact that I'm the only one who has a reaction video up for it at this point in time.
So it seems like I've found the solution. Bonus, it makes editing much easier now too. One change I WON'T be making is shortening the discussions. I love sharing my thoughts with you all after watching shows and movies. It's the reason I even started doing YouTube in the first place.
I'll be reaching out to the other channel that had movie reactions even before I did because I've noticed their views have plummeted in a similar way to mine in the last year or so, and they also limited their footage usage to 10 minutes. Hopefully that gets them back on track as well.
I have a few upcoming movie reactions that I'll probably go back to and add more footage, and hopefully this trend will continue. I might go back and add more footage to videos I felt underperformed at some point too, but that's way down the line when I'm feeling more well rested. Anyway, this whole YouTube situation would have been much more anxiety-inducing if I didn't have you all. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey and for your support ❤️
Comments
Eric Reacts
I gave that some thought as well, but will hold off on doing that for now. Could be a possibility in the future
Alec Lindsey
Random thought, what if you uploaded your discussions as a second video after the main reaction? That way people who are just there for the reaction won't give your main reaction a ~50% watch time, and while the discussions would probably get less views than the main reactions, I think they'd have a much higher watch time percentage, as they'd only be watched by viewers who want to hear all of your thoughts, which I think would be a great boost if your theory about watch time percentages holds water.
