Getting views on YouTube can be tougher than it seems. While great content is critical, racking up views involves much more than just quality videos. Creators face obstacles around optimizing titles and thumbnails, promotion, search visibility, audience retention and more.
Mastering YouTube’s algorithm and understanding what triggers it to recommend videos takes time and expertise. For creators trying to build an audience and gain momentum on YouTube, it’s important to be aware of the most common pitfalls and roadblocks that can slow down or limit view growth.
Finding the Right Niche
With so much content on YouTube across virtually every topic, finding a unique but popular is niche critical yet challenging. Creators need to identify areas of interest that are not oversaturated, but still have significant search volume and viewer demand.
Researching Different Niches
When you first start out on YouTube, it’s important to test different niches to find out which kind of content people respond best to. Researching the best channels and most viewed videos in different categories can tell creators what the viewer wants. The broad niches that are popular these days are gaming, comedy, DIY, beauty, family and product reviews.
Competition and View Counts Analysis
Along with researching niches, creators should consider the amount of competition and the average number of people who view a channel and its videos. However, breaking into highly competitive niches with existing creators as a small channel can be quite difficult. In niches with low viewership demand, it will be difficult to generate significant views, even with competition.
Trying Different Content
Especially for first-time YouTubers, creating different types of test content helps determine a good niche fit. For example, someone interested in comedy may test short skits, commentary, reactions, parody music videos, and vlogs. Seeing content get the most positive response from a test audience helps creators zero in on a specific style and niche.
Avoiding Creator Burnout
YouTube creators are under immense pressure to create content that feeds the algorithm, constantly. While some creators might be tempted to purchase YouTube views as a quick fix for visibility, this approach rarely solves underlying sustainability issues. The never ending content demands paired up with income instability eventually wears out the most passionate creators. Intentional lifestyle choices need to be made to avoid this burnout.
Setting Reasonable Expectations
Unrealistic expectations around view counts, subscribers, and video output set creators up for disappointment and frustration. Tying self-worth to arbitrary benchmarks causes emotional distress. Creators must define success on their own terms to avoid relentless comparison anxiety.
Taking Regular Time-Off
Stepping away from YouTube for set periods every week allows mental rejuvenation from its pressures. Creators should completely disconnect to pursue hobbies, socialize, or relax without distractions. Returning recharged boosts motivation and creativity.
Ignoring Negative Feedback
Harsh commentary and trolling come with the territory, but creators must limit their impacts. Obsessing over negative feedback distorts self-image and zaps inspiration. Creators should moderate comments, block offenders, and direct attention toward positive connections.
Building a Loyal Audience
On YouTube, channel success is driven by having an engaged, loyal audience that regularly views and interacts with videos. Building this loyal following is critical yet takes significant time and effort. Creators need consistency, value, and engagement to convert casual viewers into subscribers and fans.
Achieving Upload Consistency
Inconsistent upload schedules confuse subscribers and cause creators to disappear from their subscribers’ homepages. To build loyalty, creators should establish an upload cadence, such as posting 2 videos per week, and stick to this schedule. This trains subscribers to expect and look forward to new videos.
Providing Value to Viewers
Viewers subscribe to channels that provide value through helpful information, entertainment, or emotional connections. Creators should ensure each video delivers substantial value to the audience instead of filler or subpar content. Understanding the audience and what they want to get from videos is key.
Engaging with Your Community
Loyalty requires two-way relationships between creators and fans. Creators can encourage engagement by responding to comments, asking questions, hosting live streams with fans, and collaborating with similar channels. This level of connection makes fans feel invested in the channel’s success.
Improving Video SEO
YouTube’s search engine is the second largest globally. However, with over one billion hours of content watched daily, standing out is enormously difficult without search engine optimization (SEO). Creators must master YouTube SEO to gain more views from searches.
Researching High-Ranking Keywords
The first step is finding keywords and phrases with high search volume that a video can potentially rank for. Creators should research what viewers are searching related to their niche and identify lesser-used long-tail keywords for targeting. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, VidIQ, and TubeBuddy can help with keyword research.
Optimizing Titles, Descriptions and Tags
Properly utilizing titles, descriptions, and tags optimizes videos to rank higher in YouTube searches. Titles and descriptions should feature the most important keywords. Tags allow additional relevant keywords and phrases to be added. Getting these elements right improves the odds of discovery in search.
Analyzing Competitors’ SEO Practices
Reviewing the SEO practices of top-ranking channels provides useful intelligence for optimization. Creators can model successful title formulas, assess ideal tag quantities, and incorporate popular keywords used by channels dominating the search rankings. Leveraging competitors’ SEO strategies accelerate search visibility.
Promoting Videos External to YouTube
While SEO helps gain views from searches within YouTube, additional promotion outside of YouTube is essential for growth. Relying solely on the platform’s internal discovery mechanisms severely limits potential viewership. External outreach should focus both on social media and niche communities.
Leveraging Social Media
YouTube synergizes extremely well with social media for cross-promotion. Creators should leverage platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit to raise awareness of new videos. Tailoring posts and hashtags to each site and its users drive more traffic to YouTube.
Outreach to Niche Communities
Niche forums, groups, and websites external to YouTube concentrate on passionate, engaged audiences. Securing features, mentions, or partnerships with niche sites and communities exposes videos to more potential fans. Landing pages, outreach emails, guest posts, and sponsorships help cover more niche territory.
Standing Out from Competitors
YouTube creators are not just competing for views — they’re competing for audience mindshare. Differentiation is needed to capture viewer attention with inexhaustible content across every imaginable genre. To break through niches and be noticed within a crowded online landscape, creators require unique value propositions.
Providing Fresh Perspectives
Familiarity with the topic from a new angle enthralls people overwhelmed with repetitive content. Creators should refrain from recycling the same ideas and instead deliver new commentary, unique formats and funny videos in different ways. Thanks to novel approaches, videos are refreshing not forgettable.
Creating Higher-Quality Content
Investing a little bit more effort into scripting, cinematography, graphics and editing often translates to more views. Videos that are polished, high-quality productions feel more engaging and shareable. They can analyze the production values of top channels, and if they like the elements that most resonate with these channels, they can use those to create their own.
Leveraging Personalities
YouTube fosters highly personal connections between creators and audiences. Channels thriving through unique personalities inspire incredible viewer loyalty. Rather than emulating others’ video styles, creators can cultivate and amplify their own distinctive personalities through unfiltered authenticity.
Dealing with Inconsistent Viewer Retention
Viewers quickly clicking away from videos signals content failing to captivate audiences. YouTube analytics breaks down audience retention, or the average percentage viewed of a video. Inconsistent or declining retention means creators must reassess their content and strategy.
Identifying Dropoff Points
Analytics retention reports reveal when most viewers lose interest and exit videos. Creators should pinpoint patterns causing early exits, such as boring introductions, confusing transitions, or disinteresting topics. Diagnosing the dropoff moments provides direction for improvements.
Enhancing Thumbnails and Titles
Unenticing thumbnails and titles failing to deliver on expectations contribute to quick viewership exits. Creators should ensure thumbs and titles accurately reflect video context while remaining irresistible. More exciting visuals and descriptive titles pique curiosity to stick around.
Battling YouTube Algorithm Changes
YouTube continually evolves its recommendation algorithm determining which videos viewers see. Major algorithm shifts can crater views and tank channels, especially those overly reliant on past approaches. Adapting to changes allows creators to regain lost momentum.
Pivoting Content Strategies
Typically, algorithm tweaks target certain types of content the platform wants to downrank, such as excessive length or niche-focused content. In fact, creators affected should pivot content formats, subjects, and styles to suit the new algorithm preferences. It’s about chasing the trends, chasing the data, and making the needed adjustments.
Strengthening Audience Bonds
Algorithms favor channels with strong viewer engagement and strong community relationships. Unlike a purely reactive response to changes, creators can instead strengthen audience connections with repeated interaction, special content and cross-platform outreach. The more resilience you need, the tighter the viewer bonds.
Diversifying Traffic Sources
Channels that are overly dependent on YouTube’s algorithm lack resilience against updates. Creators should diversify exposure by promoting videos on multiple social platforms, collaborating with influencers, and exploring brand sponsorships. Widening distribution funnels reduces reliance on a single traffic source.
Sustaining Income and Revenue
While YouTube offers the possibility of ad and sponsor income, it is inconsistent for the creator. Diversified, stable revenue building provides more creative freedom and allows for more channel investments to grow further. Financial planning can mitigate the risk of income volatility to the sustainability of the channel.
Looking for Multiple Income Streams
Income is directly proportional to views, and YouTube ad revenue is the only source. This results in very extreme financial peaks and valleys. To become stable, creating other earning options—affiliate links, merchandise, fan funding platforms, and sales of digital products—also becomes a thought worth exploring.
Managing Finances and Savings Strategically
Creators who deal with payment fluctuations need financial literacy. Managing volatility involves budgeting, keeping expenses minimal, saving surplus earnings and planning taxes for 1099 status. Weathering temporary view drops means building emergency savings funds.
There are many hurdles to overcome on the way to YouTube success, but creators who approach the challenge strategically can overcome common pitfalls. As a creator, you need to derive your greatest potential from YouTube with authenticity, resilience, financial prudence, and an understanding of how the platform works.