My experiences with YouTube and other platforms have been mixed.<p>I recently setup a personal channel for the occasional development video, for when the content doesn't quite fit into just a written blog post. On such a new channel with no prior uploads and without posting the videos anywhere else, I got close to 500 views on a video about the Godot game engine in less than a month. Yet, another video about Ansible had under 50 views in 3 months.<p>Meanwhile, a separate gaming YouTube channel where I upload Twitch VODs and such has over 100 videos, yet the most viewed video has under 200 views and there are like 20 subscribers on that channel, whereas on Twitch there are 50 followers.<p>I don't think it's quite possible to figure out the YouTube algorithm, but in general, I get the feeling (through my lack of success), that:<p><pre><code> - Picking good video topics (popular subjects) probably helps.
- Picking a good video format (edited videos up to 30 minutes in length, instead of something like unedited stream VODs/super long videos) probably helps.
- Good presentation (good visual quality and content, some effects/transitions and just competent video editing) probably helps.
- Good audio (decent mic, audio not peaking but being balanced, some EQ, limited background noise, well articulated speech) probably helps.
- Getting people who are actually interested in your content watching it and interacting with it (likes, comments, watch time) probably helps.
- You probably need all of that, as well as a good amount of luck and the right kind of personality/manner of presenting to succeed.
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In regards to that last point, I absolutely do not think that I have the right personality for this (for example, too passive/monotone voice), yet I don't mind using YouTube for those blog videos or stream VOD backups for the sake of it. Others probably experience 10x-100x the growth that my channels might. For example, a friend who streams on Twitch has gotten 50 followers in about 3 weeks on a new account, yet it took me over a year to get there.<p>I recently figured I'd try out YouTube Shorts on the gaming channel - I got about 400 views in a single day after bringing over some Twitch clips, but then views for those more or less fell off a cliff. Seems like they were presented to a wider audience at first to see if they're interested and when there wasn't too much interest, the content wasn't offered up that much.<p>The same applies to other types of videos - if you make development videos and nobody is interested in the topic or your video itself, then growth is unlikely. Thus, try to go for quality over quantity, yet upload somewhat regularly, if possible. Probably share the videos in any relevant communities as well.<p>I wouldn't call my experiences positive, but I guess that helps avoid survivorship bias ("Hey, I failed at the thing, here's some of the stuff I did and it didn't work."). At the end of the day, try to have fun doing it, listen to what the more successful people out there have to say, yet be prepared to put in more work than initially anticipated, sometimes with way less than optimal results. Good luck!