Fairly straightforward, me and my buddies have tried a couple times to start some kind of YouTube or Streaming channel over the years, but have never really been able to get it off the ground, so I was wondering if any of you guys have had some luck with it or know someone who has. I know it is extremely hard to build an audience in the beginning and get going, as none of us have really been able to break the algorithms and get a good chunk of people interested. I know everyone has all sorts of tips and tricks on what to do to get theirs popular, but I am more interested if anyone has actually managed to do so, as it seems very rare that people actually have. I have seen a couple times small channels luck out and get massive views and subs, but like I said, it relied heavily on luck.

 

The key is perseverance and doing what you love. However, being successful also takes a lot of hard work. Popular Youtubers and streamers have to work constantly to either stream or upload, otherwise their platforms will straight up avoid pushing their content, and thats how a lot of success comes. It isn’t the quality of your content, so much as whether the algorythim deems it worthy to promote or not. If you are not being promoted, you will never gain an audience as no one will see your content. Also, whatever you want to do, you do actually need to either be passionate, or good at.


But if I can offer some advice, everybody and their mother wants to be a Youtuber/Influencer/streamer. That not only means you have so many to compete with, but also when everyone wants to do the same thing, whats so special about it?

A part of me too dreamed of that sort of success, until I realized that a content creator/streamer has morphed from something akin to celebrity status, to just something people do. It’s a job.

 

Seems to me that any dipshit can start a YouTube channel these days. So how hard could it be?

 

Yeah, we kinda ran into that problem. A lot of it is just doing what the masses want and not necessarily what you want to do mostly just following whatever trend is going on and riding that out. As far as work ethic goes, I would have to disagree, as I have seen people who upload twice a day and get no views and people who do it randomly like a few times a week at most get massive views. Like I said, a lot of it is luck and is usually pretty random at it.

 

I'm getting prepped to start one, but it will exist solely to get my music out. I don't care about going viral or anything like that, and will not be bothered if my sub list never gets over triple digits. I'd be doing it to do something I love and expose it to the world. I'm not going to bend my content to cater to someone else. It's my content and I will simply let personal tastes decide how it goes.

 

Good luck, I've started twice, the only thing I would watch out HEAVY right now is DMCA and people stealing your content and audio NFTs, that's kinda a new one, but I have heard quite a bit of people stealing other peoples work through that.

 

One thing I would recommend was make a video about a relevant (at least relevant to a specific fanbase) TV show or movie, and I guess you just play along with it at the right time, until it stops being relevant. That’s what I did when Earthrise came out. I made a video about how stupid the “TELL ME YOU FORGIVE ME” scene was, and it blew up, and it got me my first 1000 subscribers.

 

I saw this exact same thing happen when a guy had like 800 subs who averaged like 50 views a video made one post about the damn deer dog error when trying to buy a PS5 and got a couple hundred thousand views and made about a dozen more about the ps5 and maintained about 100k views and got 10,000 subs in like a matter of a week or so.

It truly is just luck, even on a niche market, i also had an experience like that where one of my videos got a lot more views than the others but never maintained.

Has any of your other videos gotten more popular or was it like me and just one?

 

Whats so special? You get to make video of what you enjoy doing and get paid. You get big your likely to meet celebrities and build connections. Also, tax write offs. Things that you enjoy buying and you can write it off.

I’ve had some success, bout to hit 1,300 subscribers the past 2 years i really was inconsistent because of life things. Not alot but it has allowed me to receive free and discounted products in return for just making a video on them. And not for bogus things , things i actually want . (Car parts / clothes)
Example- i got $100 off these wheels just for making a video on them.

Before YouTube changed the guidelines i used to be monetized. Making $10 a month as a 12 year old was pretty dope lol.

 

A few of them like this

 

If making videos about your car is what your are passionate about(or just your car in general), I won’t knock you for that. But you aren’t going anywhere man, and I mean that literally. Your videos average about 80 views. You are not meeting celebrities, and you are not making connections or networking with anyone.


I remember two years ago when you came on here trying to convince people that you needed to buy a car that, IIRC you didn’t even have a license to drive, because you considered it an investment and that you’d make all sorts of cash from Youtube making videos about.

 

One of the things Drill Sergeant Lewis told us back in '93 was "Don't get attached to the acronyms to the point that you confuse your relatives and friends about what you do. Assume nobody knows what they mean."

That's great advice since I'm really trying to grasp what you're referring to.

 

If you are serious about doing this, then I would 100% look into this because it could land you in some hot water, especially if someone steals your work claims it as their's and somehow gets the rights to it first. The music industry is not one to fuck around with as they have VERY good lawyers and love to squeeze out every penny they can.

Right now, the hot new scam is NFTs, people steal your work and claim it as theirs and with the new pushing of Audio NFTs, it is totally possible since you would be a smaller channel that if someone stole your work, it could be a hard sell to prove its actually yours. So once again if you are serious about it, definitely look into and even if you aren't, but still want to make stuff and post it online, make sure you do all the ways to claim it otherwise someone could DMCA and take all the credit.

 

...

DCMA

After looking it up I came across over a dozen links to a Department of Defense subdivision.

Could you PLEASE define DCMA rather than assume everyone knows the same shorthand?

 

It's not like I had no luck, but I was pretty much a small Youtuber who was struggling to get views because I was not playing by the algorithm game, wasn't doing it for the money, and I had an irregular schedule. I had over 2 thousand subs but my views were abysmal, so I ended up quitting content making because there was no point in making something nobody is going to watch.

DMCA = Digital Millennium Copyright Act

 

Okay, DCMA.

So essentially me copywriting my songs will stop this? Done deal.

 

I disagree with the bolded snippets above. Longevity takes hard work, but there are some flash-in-the-pan Youtubers who consistently put out trash, nonsense and shock content and are instant success stories overnight. Case in point, there was some clown who went around to Target and Walmart popping the heads of LeBron James toys and this idiot gained a HUGE following. His vids were cell phone sloppy and something that a 3rd grader could make, but for whatever reason, people seemed to like his juvenile content and subscribed to his channel.

For some creators, "all you need is a little Energon and a LOT of luck." Sometimes, going viral is all about timing and being lucky that someone who has a significant following discovered your content and shared it. I make cosplay videos at various comic conventions I attend and some of them range from several thousands of views to a few hundred. One vid I made only got like 10 views, which baffled me. I noticed that the sooner I publish my vids after the show, the more views they get, so timing is a huge component.

Persistence and putting your work out there is key. Tagging people helps along with sharing your vids on every forum you frequent. Sharing your content on various social media outlets is also key, and the more outlets you use, the better chance you have of success.

 

The saddest thing is a lot of the time, these viral people typically tend to be the scum of the Earth by being some of the dumbest people alive and continually making stupid people famous. I would agree 100% with what you said. There's a reason why for some Godawful reason the masses pick the Kardashians over philosophers and it makes zero sense. The interent loves to make stupid people famous and for the most part, leave genuine people lost in the algorithms. Hell, I mean look at all the twitch trash, they wear less clothes than pornstars, have zero talent and yet can make 6 figures. It makes no goddamn sense. All the while, you see time and time again of genuine people getting lost in the nonsense that is social media. Sadly, a lot of it is stuping down to their levels, and putting out the most braindead content as that's what the masses want typically.

 

If you reread what i said , i said “IF YOU GET BIG” you have the opportunity to make connections/ meet celebrities, make money / do it for a living.

Yes , i did say that . But i also didn’t put the work in to make better content or be consistent etc .

I landed a job thats making me great money , i make my own schedule practically, i now have the ability to work less and make more and get to make YouTube videos for fun when i want. If down the road it grows bigger and i get to make a living off it great , but if not , at least im still doing it for fun and not stressed financially. Plus im still saving hundreds of dollars on car parts (which are expensive for corvettes) just because i do it for fun.

so in my head im winning. And i know i can go further if i push it .

 

If you're only starting a channel for your music, I'd suggest not using Youtube. While I have no personal experience on the matter, I've heard countless horror stories where record companies or other companies that hold a lot of copyrighted music literally DMCA anything that sounds remotely like something they own. And even if you have irrefutable evidence that you are the sole copyright owner of what you posted, Youtube will not do anything about it because you do not make them money.

Not likely.

Even less likely.