YouTube: How to get my videos noticed?

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

snip.

You assume my videos are utter shit, which they aren't. I do a different things with each video and trust me, the stuff is pretty unique. They are better than most videos I've seen with like 10k views - which are entitled "Dragon riding" - which is just the part where you fly to Skulfdan on Odahviing. Okay, they arent better than some of the songs people have made of Skyrim, but they deserve more views than a video recorded on someone's TV with a phone -_- , which get like 100k views.

I know nothing about Skyrim so I can't speak for that game specifically, but as for the rest.

I'm not assuming your videos are rubbish, I'm assuming your videos don't look as good to everyone else as they do to you. I've seen some videos on YouTube which have had so much money spent on them they're practically professionally produced, and I'm guessing you aren't one of those.

And again, there is a Skyrim glut on the internet right now, and views beget views, so while your video might be better than the cell-phone guy, if he got his up before every other owner then his will have been watched first, and then they will have gotten more views, which means they appear first when YouTube lists them, which then gives them more views etc.

The big question would be 'how many other videos of Skyrim are there out there? I'll return to my own video-recording. I record of version of Wake Me Up When September Ends. There are thousands and thousands of people who have covered this song, they've done it before me or they've done it beter than me, so obviously they get more views. I record of version of Joe Walsh's Help Me Through the Night, which has perhaps five other cover version on YouTube, so my video is right there on the front page, and it has 5,000 views.

What unique search terms would lead people to your videos? What would make people link to it from other sites? What would make people say to their friends 'hey, watch this.' You are one maker among hundreds, who are also doing things which are probably pretty unique. One thing I know about Skyrim is that it has hundreds of glitches, as well as hundreds of entirely different ways of just playing the vanilla game.

YouTube is based on luck and stupidity, if you're not being stupid, you'd better be lucky.

 

[Kyle1527]

Have a personality that people will like.

I watch Total Biscuits videos because I like his personality as he presents himself. I'll watch videos of games he puts up that I'm not very interested in, just because I enjoy his view on things and his witty persona.

Your videos could be amazing, but if you don't have a good personality you're boned.

I suppose it could also help to try get your videos liked by more well known youtubers, though how you'd go about doing that without being obvious I dont know.

I'd also suggest don't mark Skyrim videos.

Every time I upload a really good video it gets ignored for the first two days
I mean they aren't commentaries of anything, just short funny or cool skyrim clips at the moment. So do I have to make enough videos or something...I don't know; any help would be greatly appreciated.

How do you know they're really good? And as I stated above, I watch Lets Plays or video game footage by people for the commentaries, not to see something like a funny bug or the person pretending to teabag an npc. I'm not saying you have these in your videos, which leads me to probably the most important point.

If you want people to watch your videos, where are the links to them? How can I judge your video unless you provide me a link? I could be a lazy or busy man. Had you provided a channel link in your OP I might have clicked it, then I might have subbed.

You've got to advertise yourself

The Escapist doesn't allow advertising sadly, I could probably PM you a link to my channel or something. Also I kind of hate advertising - because when you do it people tend to dislike your videos without even watching them.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

You can buy views if your really that desperate.

No, literally, you can pay to get views and get a lucrative Google partnership deal if you don't mind the high chance of getting banned and having no soul.

 

[Wintermoot]

tagging if you don,t tag they don,t get noticed.

 

[Delicious Anathema]

Have breasts, it works apparently.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I just uploaded a video of me killing all the guards in Riften - all at once, in two minutes, alone...with a sword and no healing spells....is that impressive/good enough?

That sounds really boring and mundane now while I don't have Skyrim I could easily replicate that in Oblivion or most RPGs where I am a high level and to be honest even when I do it I find it so mundane. There is nothing here that hasn't already been said about making these videos.


Here is something educational.
Look at this girl, now back to you, now back to girl and back to you. Sadly, you are not this girl but notice what she has that you (probably)don't? That is an easy way to get views.

 

[CezarIgnat]

I found that praying to the dark lord gets you the best results.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Personal standard of quality, make it high.
Patience, learn it.

Popularity: earned it.

 

[silversnake4133]

Well, humor is always a good revenue to take. If you're relatively funny and punctual with jokes, or have a "hypnotizing" voice then you might get a pretty good following. But if you just talk while you play, blog in a narcissistic way, and/or you're 12 or under then you definitely won't get noticed anytime soon, or people might find you annoying. So if anything either be funny, have interesting conversational points, and offer tips for playing the game. That's why popular Let's Players are usually funny, are from the UK or have a noticeable (albeit understandable) accent, or offer quality entertainment in the form of content and the actual video.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

spam ... /v/

Do not spam /v/. We do not appreciate it.

OT:
Have breasts in the video thumbnail. It is annoying, but it is how you get views.
With Skyrim videos, have undressed female in game characters. If the breasts are too different from the rest of the video it will make people downvote and leave immediately.

 

[willsham45]

I think there a number of things you got to do. I have no idea which you may or may not have done.

1. Content of the video needs to be good
2. Needs a good title that a. Tells everyone what the video is about and b. contains key words that could link your video to other simular videos.
3. A good discription, same as title.
4. Link your videos, make them responces or show them on forums maybe.

Don't expect views then you can be surprised when you get 1,000 10,000 or more.

It might also help if you read comments and ajust acordingly.
+ Subscribers = + views = + subscribers and so on.

 

[JordanXlord]

Tits. Find creative ways to put tits on your video.

GENIUS!!

*writes it down on a list*

Time to use this Secret of Internet fame to Rule the World Buhahahahahahaha

 

[JSDodd]

1) Make your content orginal and high quality.
2) Upload consistently, i.e. have some kind of timetable
3) Have patience, even the real 'big names' took quite a while to get going
4) Make good use of tags

But mostly, be original. As everyone else is saying there's thousands of people posting skyrim videos so anyone watching yours will be looking for something fresh and not just the gameplay. Adopt a persona that you use in your videos, give tips or hints, point out unusual or glitchy things in the game, just do something that consistently makes you different from all the other people posting.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

A few things that make a difference...

Proper key words/tags. They are the single-most important consideration for strangers to find it by searching (or having it displayed as a similar/relevant option). Google won the search engine wars decisively all those years ago because theirs was the first engine to bring up relevant results consistently. That is how we search now, on Youtube as much as anywhere.

Word of mouth, Twitter, Facebook, Forums, Blog - If you have logins with social networks or friends with functioning ears the aforementioned are all free publicity. Obviously you should be sensible about the who, the where and the how you publicise. Posting it as a link in your FB status for example means you're effectively promoting it to everyone on your friends list.

Beyond that, as Willsham and others have suggested, among the other factors that affect page views are:
- Popularity of subject
- Quality of content
- Picture quality (not essential, but it helps)
- Thumbnail
- Boobs (sad, but true)
- Thumbnail of boobs (sadder, and truer)

One sneaky thing also is to subscribe to other, popular YT users and/or have others subscribe to you. For some unknown reason, some people actually use the site's community features.

Oh and lastly (and I do not mean this offensively or personally to anyone), if you are a slightly nasally, american teen, please do not do a voiceover. If one is necessary, get your dad, or better yet Morgan Freeman to do it. If I hear that sort of teen voice starting "Hey guys, what's up?" (which they all do without fail!) I will either close the tab immediately or turn off the sound if I believe I really need to see its contents (achievement guide, etc).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

To elaborate on the importance of tags/key words, YT and Google sort results by relevance. That is why they are effective. They guage relevance in a number of ways, but primarily, it works like this.

I search for [coke mentos]
I get a page of x number of results
The first few are less than 10 seconds long, low quality, etc. Eventually I see one with a good description, thumbnail and length. I click it.
Watch video entirely.
YT tallies a view for that video against the search terms I used.

Over time, with many viewers, that tally will go up and differnetly for each video. If I tell my friend to see that video, it gets word of mouth exposure and passed around our circles.
As that particular video gains popularity, the site decides it must be more relevant to the terms used as more users click it than the others above it. So they move it up the ranking, such that the next time someone searches for the same thing I did, the more popular one will be presented before the less popular.

 

[Jfswift]

I'm not sure how true this but I was reading a book called the tipping point that looked at why certain trends took off and what not. One theory presented was that certain people are really good at networking/communications and if they notice something they like, they'll tell, everyone. (Also, it needs to be a quality product. I think the right people need to see it and it needs to be quality in order to get high views but that's just my opinion).

 

[Mr.Mattress]

Try to find something that feels like it should exist on Youtube, but doesn't. For Example, Candle Cove. You look for videos everywhere, but all you see is static or that one 2 minute video where the puppets scream for a minute of it and then then second half is the static. Therefor, I have decided to make Candle Cove myself:


The Episode should be out soon, but not relatively soon.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Just title a video "Justin Biber plays Skyrim". Million hits, all of them underaged girls, two seconds.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Also remember that many of these tips will get you a lot of hits, but only the first 3 seconds of your videos watched, as people realise that there's not actually any tits or whatever gimmicks the title/thumbnail offered.

Really I think the whole 'be good and be lucky' is the way to go.

Rules really seem to go out of the window when you're talking about 'viral' success tho, there's a video of a dog chasing some deer I think, called Fenton, and it's had millions of hits, but it's not particularly good, funny, or unique, I really don't get why it's gone so nuts.

I think partly it's that it was retweeted by certain famous people, who's fans then retweeted it without thinking, or decided that it was great purely because their favourite people said it was.

I've kinda seen why many viral videos get big, but Fenton/Benton I don't get really.


Ok, having watched it again, I'm kinda getting it, but still not sold on why it's quite such a big thing. I guess again, it's mainly luck.

 

[HeatproofShAdOw]

Just keep posting videos of high quality, and don't spam other videos/forums and shit with your channel. Eventually, you'll gather more and more subscribers, and/or get luck and have a video with a shit ton of views.