Youtube Views?

[VirusPunk]

How in the world do people manage to get so many views on YouTube while others don't? Or better yet, how do some videos per channel get thousands of views while the other videos hardly get any?

Take for example: Recently someone deleted a band video with over 10,000 views. I compiled some pictures of said band and uploaded the same song since there are no others available anymore. My video appears on the top of the search when you type the name of the band and the song title, yet it only has 36 views in a week opposed to the 10k the other guy's video had.

So how do people do it? I know this place probably isn't the most appropriate to ask such a question, but I noticed a few people who post on this site actually have quite a large amount of video views on their Youtube channels. So maybe someone here can enlighten me on how it's done.

I have tried everything from putting hundreds of keywords, even keywords that have nothing to do with the video. I have tried those proxy bot programs, advertising on sites related to the subject of the video, yet nothing seems to work.

[TheSelfishGene]

It seems to be that views breed views, and it just snowballs.
I put up this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6z-Gttbd0s) and Kotaku featured it, and it got about 30,000 views from that. Since then it's risen to about 51,000 views (2+ years later).
I put up some videos of other sound drop sets I had, and they didn't get many views. I put annotation links on my videos, which seems to have increased the people looking at the newer ones, but it's still going slowly. I guess people used to do a similar thing with video responses?

I also did some videos of RE2, killing Brad the zombie on nightmare mode - to see how much damage he could take. I did it with a variety of weapons, and each video has 2-3k views (again after 2 years). To show how strong Brad was I put up a video of him killing Leon from full health. For some bizzare reason that one video has 17k views, and I think it's because it has 5x as many comments (mostly idiots asking "What was the point of this video?")

[VirusPunk]

It seems to be that views breed views, and it just snowballs.
I put up this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6z-Gttbd0s) and Kotaku featured it, and it got about 30,000 views from that. Since then it's risen to about 51,000 views (2+ years later).
I put up some videos of other sound drop sets I had, and they didn't get many views. I put annotation links on my videos, which seems to have increased the people looking at the newer ones, but it's still going slowly. I guess people used to do a similar thing with video responses?

I also did some videos of RE2, killing Brad the zombie on nightmare mode - to see how much damage he could take. I did it with a variety of weapons, and each video has 2-3k views (again after 2 years). To show how strong Brad was I put up a video of him killing Leon from full health. For some bizzare reason that one video has 17k views, and I think it's because it has 5x as many comments (mostly idiots asking "What was the point of this video?")

Wow that was you? I remember seeing that video not that long ago. I believe the one I saw was of Leon killing Brad with a knife. I also uploaded a walkthrough playing Nightmare mode, getting a B rank and beating it in under 2 hours with only 4 saves, no cheats or deaths. Received a whopping 50 views average for each video hahahaha! All that time recording, splitting up the video in parts, uploading, garners just 50 views in a single month. Oh well.

I guess it's like you said, views breed views. I guess what I can do is try adding people that like whatever subject my channel happens to associate with and just share it with those people and hope they like/rate the video positively.

[josh21barnes]

I think they also have some Youtube search optimization on this.
Because if your video come outs first if their searching for a particular thing they would probably have a view always. The higher the rank the more views they have.

[nemesiswontdie]

It seems to be that views breed views, and it just snowballs.
I put up this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6z-Gttbd0s) and Kotaku featured it, and it got about 30,000 views from that. Since then it's risen to about 51,000 views (2+ years later).
I put up some videos of other sound drop sets I had, and they didn't get many views. I put annotation links on my videos, which seems to have increased the people looking at the newer ones, but it's still going slowly. I guess people used to do a similar thing with video responses?

I also did some videos of RE2, killing Brad the zombie on nightmare mode - to see how much damage he could take. I did it with a variety of weapons, and each video has 2-3k views (again after 2 years). To show how strong Brad was I put up a video of him killing Leon from full health. For some bizzare reason that one video has 17k views, and I think it's because it has 5x as many comments (mostly idiots asking "What was the point of this video?")

I've watched the Brad nightmare mode video before. I didn't know it was you.

I've had this video up for 2 years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX3tZeimQUA

and its got 42,000 views. But it's also been up for 2 years. And I'm the only person I believe that uploaded the 2 connected songs together, others are separated.

It just takes time. Or unless its a really cute and funny video of your cat or something. Then it will sky rocket.

[Wrathborne]

Ya know, I cant seem to figure it out myself. I tried submitting a toon of mine to Kotaku and Dorkly but neither posted the link as well as experimenting by posting a few popular keywords and getting nothing.

I've pretty much given up on linking my toons to other sites because no one takes them. But I've been pretty luck, managed to snag like 1,250,000 views on my own. I've only been serious about my Youtube account for the last year or so, so thats cool.

I still dont know how most of the system works, but I'm just going to assume luck is a factor.

[Enetirnel]

Well, it can depend on the general content. For example, if it's posted on a community that shares general common interest then it will usually be sent to others' with the same interest, or if you are involved with friends' or other general collaborations you can usually get a link back and/or credit for that and those that like whatever project usually have the same sort of interest and will generally share out your stuff.

It seems that usually it kind of goes like this -

No footage available, gets high views. Over time that footage quality is seen as low quality and something new is uploaded, due to the other one being up for longer the newer and better one doesn't usually get as much attention as the other one seems to be sorted by the age/popularity higher in the search than the newer and better quality one.

For instance, on my old YT account (I use it as my secondary/backup one now) I uploaded some Final Fantasy VIII footage four or so years ago and the footage went up to around 139,213 views but other ones of a similar strain only went to around 30,000 views due to what I was uploading was previously uploaded by a well-known/linked to person. However, since that person's account has been terminated it's gone up a few more thousand views.

If I put in the specific key words into the search, I end up with one of mine that shows up first on the list due to the age combined with the views on it that have gone up over time - it's the first on the list with one from the same year, with almost the same title/keywords shows up in the middle due to the lack of views.

However, if you embed it somewhere or link it to someone with the same interest then it just seems to suddenly start to boom to be honest.

I just upload stuff for fun, or if there's nothing in regard to good quality OR literally no footage at all of something and I might embed it on a forum post, or say a profile page on a site and those that have the same interest view it, favorite/link it out and it just starts a chain that continues.

So, if it's a more well-known one then it'll be more likely to be linked out UNLESS a person is looking for something specifically then most of the time you honestly won't find something. Though, a good way to get views if what has views isn't the exact thing that's tagged with the views is to either leave a video response, curiosity strikes people and they'll check it out OR send a message and most people are happy to leave annotations and links to something more relevant in regard to the subject/content.

For example, Wrathborne's toons do include video games are part of a parody point and those ones will usually be sent out and shared across the community (hell, I uploaded an ad with Old English Sheepdogs in it, I have two myself and found the exact upload in the breed's main community site/forums shared out repeatedly just due to the general shared interest in the breed and/or media featuring it).

So, somewhat luck the rest of it sheer coincidental interests in most cases or so I've found.

I honestly haven't particularly cared much about views as I've just found if someone finds it interesting or good quality, they'll share it out or if I get involved in things instead of doing it entirely by myself then I usually find I'll have link backs or even some doing a little promo link to me - majority of the time I never actually notice it until someone points it out.

Really, don't worry if you only get a small amount of views within such a small span of time - if you want more, link it out and you'll get more usually but just leave it there and you never know what happens.

*Shrugs*

[Gradon]

Sherry Gets Owned

They're Not Gonna Get Us Sherry

Two of my most popular videos related to Resident Evil on YouTube.
They accumulated over 30 odd thousand views, but that's over the course of 4 years.
lol.

[Pikminister]

It sure helps if your video gets embedded on popular sites that share similar interests.

I remember posting a video about the first CGi Resident Evil movie and it got more than 100,000 views within a month or so. But stupid Sony flagged it (why Sony hates free publicity is beyond me) and YT took the video down. And they took my whole damn account away with it as well. I had to re-upload every video. And lost all dah views in the process.

Presently, how many views my videos get is not a relevant issue me. Considering that they could take my account down any day for pretty much any reason. So why worry about it.

[VirusPunk]

Presently, how many views my videos get is not a relevant issue me. Considering that they could take my account down any day for pretty much any reason. So why worry about it.

Well the Internet is really the only way for me to promote my music, so I would at least like people to hear it. I don't expect to get 100,000 views, or even 10,000 for that matter. But the fact something I worked really hard for months on only has 107 views is kinda depressing.

[Enetirnel]

Well the Internet is really the only way for me to promote my music, so I would at least like people to hear it. I don't expect to get 100,000 views, or even 10,000 for that matter. But the fact something I worked really hard for months on only has 107 views is kinda depressing.

Hm, with that being the case - have you tried discussing a collaboration with someone that may enjoy your musical style and in return it's a bit of promotional material for you?

For instance an animated series, or even a parody/spoof series. I know a lot of them deal with copyright issues often and usually spend a bit of time looking for music or artists' that would allow them to use their music without an issue so if you found one you particularly enjoy, try and chat with them, get to know them a bit and eventually see if you can talk them into using your music with a promotional exchange on both sides essentially?

I know it probably sounds silly, but most of the time I see people making comments asking about music used in them, who did it, if they're on YouTube and the like so it could be worth looking into perhaps as essentially it would be shared views.

[VirusPunk]

I've collaborated with other bands in my area, but they're pretty much in the same underground status as I am.

[JcFFx]

To this day I still don't know how youtube works...

I mean, yes, I get it if my vids get views because there's some internet meme behind it.

But say I uploaded some gameplay videos... I did a bunch a while back playing RE:UC... Somehow, Part 2 of a vid got almost 3 times the amount of views as part one of that vid... o.o


A while back I also posted some vids of me playing RE Outbreak. 3 Parts. Lots of search words were tagged.
After that, I made an almost deliberately shitty RE Remake parody (which I've since deleted). That vid had almost no tags to it and I had very little subscribers.
I eventually deleted parts 1 and 2 of that RE Outbreak video... because in 1 week, that parody obtained almost 10 times the views...

As for part 3 of that video, I kept it, because to this day it's my 6th most viewed video... |:


As a side note, it kinda saddens me when some of my personal favourite vids gets less views than "other-stuff-I-made" vids... =/