A serious message to all creators

IF YOU WANT TO GROW ON YOUTUBE, YOUR GREATEST ENEMY WILL ALWAYS BE THE METRICS ON YOUR STUDIO DASHBOARD. YOU MIGHT TELL OTHERS THAT YOU DON'T FOCUS ON THE NUMBERS, BUT IN REALITY, YOUR MOTIVATION IS DEPENDENT ON WHETHER THE NUMBERS SHOW UP IN GREEN OR GRAY. IT'S A DANGEROUS PRACTICE, AS THIS WILL INEVITABLY LEAD TO BURNOUT FOR MANY REASONS. LET'S GET INTO THIS.

FIRST OF ALL, NOTHING MAKES SENSE. WHEN YOUR VIDEOS ARE PERFORMING WELL, YOUR CLICK-THROUGH RATES ARE LOW, AND WHEN YOUR VIDEOS ARE UNDERPERFORMING, YOU HAVE A HIGH RETENTION RATE. ALL OF THIS WHILE STRATEGISTS KEEP TELLING YOU TO HIT A CERTAIN PERCENTAGE FOR BOTH. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING: THOSE NUMBERS DON'T MEAN SHIT. THEY DON'T CORRELATE WITH VIDEO PERFORMANCE ON A CHANNEL LEVEL, WHICH MEANS FOCUSING ON THEM INSTEAD OF VIEWS IS USELESS.

SECOND, IF GROWTH IN VIEWERSHIP IS THE ONLY THING YOU SEE AS SUCCESS, YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF CHASING GHOSTS. IN THE EARLIER STAGES OF YOUR CHANNEL, YOU MAY FIND THIS TO BE A GREAT METRIC FOR SUCCESS, BUT ONCE YOU'RE MORE SUCCESSFUL, IT'S ABOUT MORE THAN TRYING TO ACQUIRE A NEWER AND LARGER AUDIENCE. YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF SPENDING MORE TIME TRYING TO IMPROVE THE CONTENT SIMPLY TO KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE WATCHING. IF YOU DON'T DO THIS, YOU'LL FALL OFF, AS MANY HAVE WHO FAILED TO IMPROVE THEIR CONTENT.

LASTLY, IT'S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE EVERY SINGLE VIDEO BECOME A TOP-PERFORMING VIDEO. GROWING A CHANNEL COMES WITH EXPERIMENTATION, AND EXPERIMENTATION COMES WITH A LOT OF UNWANTED RESULTS. YOU MAY CREATE A VIDEO THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GO VIRAL ON PAPER, BUT IT GETS HALF THE VIEWS SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT SOME MINUSCULE FACTORS. THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU FAILED-IT MEANS YOU'VE CREATED A VIDEO THAT CAME WITH A LEARNING THAT COULD PROBABLY HELP YOU IN THE FUTURE.

I'M NOT TRYING TO TELL YOU TO IGNORE YOUR DATA. I'M ALL FOR DATA, AND I BELIEVE THAT NUMBERS ARE THE EASIEST WAY TO MEASURE OUR SUCCESSES. HOWEVER, EVEN IF YOU'RE A DATA-DRIVEN PERSON WHO WANTS TO USE THE NUMBERS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR CHANNEL, YOU NEED TO CONSIDER ALL FACTORS THAT CAN INFLUENCE THOSE NUMBERS AND WHAT THIS CAN DO TO BOTH YOUR MIND AND YOUR CONTENT.

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