TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

The Algorithm, Age Verification, Swear Words and What Would Rob Wilson Do?

• vidIQ • Season 6 • Episode 35

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YouTube's platform is constantly evolving, and this episode unpacks the latest updates that are reshaping the creator landscape. We dive deep into the new monetization policies regarding profanity - not exactly a "sensor update" but rather an expansion of what content can now earn revenue even with colorful language. The crew shares personal philosophies on keeping content family-friendly despite these relaxed guidelines, with Rob noting he's never found cursing necessary for his content strategy.

The conversation takes a serious turn as we examine YouTube's controversial AI age verification system. Instead of relying on user-stated ages, YouTube will now use internal signals to estimate viewer ages - raising important questions about privacy, accuracy, and content access. Dan voices legitimate concerns: if YouTube sometimes struggles with content identification for YouTube Kids, how reliable will age estimation be? We explore the international regulatory pressures driving this change and what it means for both viewers and creators.

Perhaps most exciting for data-hungry creators is YouTube's new viewer analytics categories that segment audiences into "new," "casual," and "regular" viewers. This long-awaited feature finally lifts the veil on viewer behavior patterns, showing that regular viewers typically watch twice as long and consume twice as many videos as new viewers. The team shares strategies for using these insights to tailor content for different audience segments and build stronger viewer relationships.

We wrap up with a spirited debate on the age-old question: are titles more important than thumbnails? Each team member offers unique perspectives based on their content experience. Plus, we're treated to an unexpected surprise when a 90s Celtic punk band shares custom songs they created about VidIQ and our team member Rob! Have questions about these updates or other YouTube strategies? Email us at theboost@vidiq.com - we might feature your question on our next episode.

Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast where Dan thinks everything's loud and no one else does. I'm Travis and I'm here with the entire crew, the most special of podcasts. I'm here with Jen. Say hi, jen.

Speaker 2:

Hello.

Speaker 1:

Rob Say hi Rob.

Speaker 3:

Hello everybody.

Speaker 1:

And Dan.

Speaker 4:

Why is everyone yelling?

Speaker 1:

See, this is the thing. So Dan has problems with his headphones, but we love them just the same. If you're new here, this is the vid iq podcast, and if you're watching on the main channel, hello. We have all types of things to talk to you about. Today we're going to go over the updates that vid iq has talked about on youtube, that youtube has lovingly given us. Have you guys seen all the loving updates that have come out?

Speaker 3:

seen them?

Speaker 2:

I've been making videos every freaking day goodness goodness we'll fill you in, don't worry all right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, in case you didn't know, uh, youtube uh released several updates the sensor update, ai, age verification, the title comparison tool, and we're going to answer some of your emails that you've sent in. If you're interested, we'll tell you how to do that a little bit later, but let's start with that. What I thought was one of the funnier updates that came out this week. Um, it's not really a sensor update, it's more of. You can now make money by saying things that previously you might not have been able to say before, and rob made a great video, uh, this weekoring 70% of the words that he said. What did you guys think about that? Let's start with Rob.

Speaker 3:

Well, fun fact is that I didn't actually say any curse or swear words at all. I was just bleeping out normal words like French and sausage and monetization Savage, on the other hand, couldn't do anything about him and the guy from YouTube couldn't do anything about him. And the guy from youtube couldn't do anything about him.

Speaker 2:

he was like jeez, I mean, come on that was the best youtube video of all time from both of you actually both parties involved.

Speaker 3:

They were probably the highest form of quality we have today I'm a bit indifferent to the update because one of my YouTube policies well, that sounds a bit weird, but one of my own internal policies is that I don't like to curse or swear, and maybe it's because I'm representing vidIQ, but even on my previous channel I didn't like to do that just because I wanted a family-friendly audience to be speaking to. But I guess lots and lots of creators welcome this and it feels like the advertisers have kind of figured out again a little bit more that YouTube is a more how do I put this liberal and accepting place for all types of content. So, yeah, I think it's good news for everybody that I can think of, as long as YouTube are able to correctly, you know, restrict the content for the right audiences so that you know, kids aren't playing videos. And all of a sudden there's f-bombs being dropped in the first few seconds do we do we think that?

Speaker 4:

I know we're going to get to it, but do we think that this update was also tied to the age verification update?

Speaker 1:

it's funny you say that. I was literally going to mention that when we get to that point. But let's real quick. For people who didn't catch it, what is a sensor update? It's not even a sensor update. All it is is it now allows you to have more opportunity to monetize your videos without the yellow monetization icon if you do drop more F-bombs and and other bombs all throughout your uh youtube videos all the bombs oh, there's one.

Speaker 1:

If you drop one of those, you still might get monetized. So um, rob doesn't curse, I'm pretty sure dan doesn't.

Speaker 4:

I think in his regular everyday life he doesn't yes, uh, in my regular everyday life I am like a sailor, uh, but all of my training came from like radio and then came over to youtube and you don't cuss on radio, uh, and I I don't mind it. I don't feel like it's like me having to stifle any part of my personality or anything like that. I think it literally is just a choice. Like rob said, your content appeals to a wider audience. Uh, if you decide not to say those things and not because youtube is going to restrict it, but simply because people watching will be like oh, I can watch this with my kids in the room and it doesn't have to be a big deal absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Uh, jen, what are your thoughts on this? I mean, in the vlogging space, I think you can kind of be yourself, but I don't remember seeing very many. Well, I guess it depends on the vlogger, but it doesn't seem to be a prevalent thing in vlogging as a general rule.

Speaker 2:

I would. I would say probably more yeah, like I don't think it's really that evident in the vlogging space. Yeah, like I don't think it's really that evident in the vlogging space. I don't think it's that I don't know, impactful of an update. Like I think it answered a lot of questions that creators had when it comes to like the rules, like can I curse, can I not curse? It almost felt like they were kind of like rumored, like oh, you can't have it in the in the first few seconds. Well, what words can't be in the first few seconds? So I think there's clarity on it now, but I don't know does is it really a a big deal? Which is really funny, because I'm like thinking back now and I've opened two videos with the f word bleeped out oh, hey so does that mean a little self-reflection right there in that moment.

Speaker 2:

I was like who would do that, who? Would open their video cursing have I ever done that?

Speaker 1:

I don't think so. I always curse, I always bleep out anything. It's very rare that I'll ever. I think it's more impactful. If you like, don't do it, then all of a sudden you do it out of somewhere and bleep it it was a, it was like a reaction style, so I was like that feels like a good intro.

Speaker 2:

I think it was more impactful bleep sometimes, to be honest, it's like I don't know catches your attention more than even just cursing. I don't even think you notice cursing when somebody is like it slips into a video like one or two times, you're just like oh, you're a human speaking like. If that's how you choose to speak like I wasn't like. Oh my god, they said a bad word on the internet speaking of like bleeps themselves.

Speaker 4:

Does anyone else here feel like the the type of bleep you use can either hit or miss, like some bleeps are are funnier than others? Because I found a creator using sometimes they would just, or back in the day they would just kind of like silence their swear words. They've moved on to bleeping, but the bleep they're using it sounds not like a bleep, it just sounds kind of like a low boop and it it's very distracting.

Speaker 1:

It's worse than just saying a curse word yeah, I had a friend that used duck sounds, which I loved. That was great, like whenever he would say something instead of saying well, this mother, you know, anything like that.

Speaker 4:

But I like the duck personally, I like that I like when it changes up, there's ducks and I don't know. They just use different words and they use different images over their mouth to just be funny. But I think when in doubt it's better to silence it. I think you can get the bleep wrong and then it loses that like effect. It's more distracting. That's just my opinion.

Speaker 4:

I don't know if anyone else feels that way dan I couldn't agree more that's a good, that's a good bleep, that's a funny bleep so that's like a classic sensor, like beep, yeah yeah like that's the one where I think it's the best yeah, people identify with it.

Speaker 1:

So, speaking of this, what dan mentioned earlier, ai age verification first of all. What? What's going on with this dan? What is this update?

Speaker 4:

yeah. So the way it's going to work and this has already been rolled out in other regions. It's just coming to us next is that youtube is going to going forward, ignore what you've told them your age is and they're going to use their signals on their end to determine, like a rough guesstimate of, whether or not you're over 18 um, maybe even more ages, for all I know. I don't really. You know, I don't know how much they'll actually tell us on the surface. So I I made a video about it. I think that I I covered the update and then I actually added to the video later because I was editing it.

Speaker 4:

I'm like I'm kind of missing part of the thing I wanted to say, which was do we need this? Like people aren't liking it. I see that they're not liking it, but I was so focused on getting all the facts straight to the update that I'm like, oh, I forgot to give my opinion on this and I think I'm gonna get roasted. So I I came back and I'm like hey, uh, I don't like. I don't think this is great, and I would say the main reason I don't like it isn't necessarily well one, it's the privacy concerns. I don't know who I'm going to be giving my personal information to.

Speaker 4:

But the other reason I don't like it is that there's other things that other friends of mine who are parents have seen on YouTube Kids that made them stop using YouTube Kids, for example. Stop using YouTube kids, for example. And I'm like hey, if, if the content itself isn't being identified correctly across YouTube as it is, if that's true, then are they going to be getting people's ages Right, like, and? And if you, if you guess that someone's over 18 and you're wrong, and now you can custom videos in the first few seconds and all this other stuff, like, isn't this potentially going to do more damage, more harm than good? And I don't know. All we can do is speculate as usual, and as usual, I think stuff like this rolls out. Youtube makes a whole bunch of mistakes. They learn, they fix it, but that, yeah, that's where I'm at with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, according to YouTube, they've been doing this in the UK for a while now and it supposedly is successful. As is the case with most of these things, they've usually been testing it with a group of people before we ever hear about it. Um and I heard it explained multiple times and it's more about the type of content that you will be suggested uh, as well as like different uh guard rails they put in place for the different age groups, and it's really complicated for a company like youtube because internationally, countries have different rules, regulations and laws regarding this stuff. So none of this is easy and it's definitely not going to be perfect. They they kind of admitted that, hey, you know, maybe we'll make a mistake, but that's why they're rolling it out slowly. Um, I don't think from a creator's perspective, this is going to affect many people. I certainly am not thinking about it. If I'm creating something, are any of you worried about it from the creator standpoint?

Speaker 3:

I would imagine any creators who are worried about this may be erring on the side of malicious intent and bad actors anyway, if they're trying to target a certain audience, although they're not technically trying to target a certain audience if that makes any, not technically trying to target a certain audience, if that makes any sense. So yeah, I think generally you know, similar to the AI monetization update, I think if you are a morally and ethically sound creator then you know theoretically you should be pleased that YouTube is trying to safeguard the users of the platform.

Speaker 2:

Gentendo what do you think? I think that was really well said. I think if you're not doing anything wrong, like what do you have to worry about? Like I can't think of an instance where this would be detrimental to a creator who was just honestly making the right content for the right audience. So, as a viewer, I think YouTube's going to think I'm 80 years old, but that's a viewer problem, hey yo.

Speaker 1:

So another update that came out recently, which I think I say update that came out. It didn't really come out Like the information about it came out. The actual feature's not out to everyone. It's the title comparison tool, which is similar to the thumbnail tool. I remember when the thumbnail tool first came out, everyone was excited about it and then people were like, well, can I do that with titles? And I know from a perspective of me and this will come up in a game later on I think titles are incredibly important. So to now have certain people so far, which vidIQ is one of them have access to be able to change titles and thumbnails as a package.

Speaker 3:

Actually matter of fact. Rob, can you tell? Us how it works uh, based on what you've seen, how you use it on a podcast, it's gonna be a bit hard, right? So you can test three variants of titles the thumbnail remains the same. Three variants of thumbnails the title remains the same. Or you can do three variants of whatever you want.

Speaker 4:

So different title, different thumbnail but importantly, a title is married to a thumbnail. It doesn't just keep rotating them around correct yeah yeah yeah, that's a good point that's interesting.

Speaker 3:

It's actually an important point if you understood that, listeners, good job, well done I mean it's not that complicated to understand.

Speaker 1:

But I think what is important is, unlike titles which just kind of switch through and rotate and try to figure out like over time what's working best, this you still have. There's still an error potential from the person not understanding what a good packaging is between title and thumbnail because you could put the wrong quote, title and thumbnail together based on what you have, thinking that that's the connection where it would be better if youtube rotated them around. It's like oh, this title with this thumbnail actually performs best. I wish I know this is asking for too much. Three titles, three thumbnails, and it just rotated them through and it combined the things until you had a winner. How?

Speaker 3:

would you display the results of that, though I don't know?

Speaker 2:

Not my problem. One million views.

Speaker 3:

Yes, okay, that's right.

Speaker 5:

This is for Dan's benefit One million views.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

You win. I have to say.

Speaker 4:

Now that we've explained how it worked. I've used this a little bit. I've come to the conclusion that I hate it, at least for me. For me, I hate it. So here's where I'm at with it, because I was trying to test three thumbnails with three different titles.

Speaker 4:

The decision fatigue in packaging a video set in very quickly, because sometimes when we're thinking of video ideas and maybe a lot of creators out there can relate to this we think of like a dozen or so titles that can work with the video, based on different bits of research.

Speaker 4:

Sometimes you just have one good title, but sometimes, depending on the video you're making, you're like oh, this could be called a lot of things, and trying to figure out which title should go with which thumbnail was the most exhausting experience, just in the few videos I've tried this with. I'm at a point now where, for my own mental health, I am only doing one or the other. I will either test three thumbnails or I will either test three titles, but I will not mix and match anymore unless it's like very clear what should go where. But if it's not clear and I'm having to sit there and think about it too long, I'm just going to make bad decisions. My confidence is going to shoot through the floor in my packaging, and that's just my personal experience with it. Other folks out there might be making smaller changes than I'm making and maybe it's a little easier for them.

Speaker 1:

Well, so for titles, we always have advocated for having or, sorry, for thumbnails. We've always advocating three way different thumbnails. How are you using the tool? What are you doing specifically?

Speaker 4:

I'm taking the thumbnails that we decide for a video, which have been pretty different, and I'm taking the different title suggestions that come in and like that ideation process and I'm literally having to try and match. Like. So when, when we give title and thumbnail advice generally, we say like hey, your title and your thumbnail should work together and they should kind of tell a little story, how do you do that? Like, imagine an author trying to make a book and they have like the option of three book covers and three titles for their book and they're just sitting there like, okay, I'm gonna have to put all of these out at the same time but only one is gonna sell the best. It's so much more pressure, like that's like trying to sell three books that say the same thing. I, I just that I don't know, I don't feel like I'm, I'm, I'm still learning, I think the best way to use it.

Speaker 4:

But some folks, the advice is actually don't do three majorly different thumbnails. Do a thumbnail with a slight change in each variation. So for us, with those youtube update ones, if you've seen our main channel, it'll be like one of our faces next to like a fake kind of tweet from youtube or a reworded one with like big, bold text on it. And sometimes what we'll do is we'll keep the same face and change all those different boxes of text in each thumbnail, or we'll do the opposite we'll change our facial expressions and keep the text the same, and so those are really easy. And then the titles need to be clear to the audience, and I'm trying to feel the stress of just me saying all this like just trying to explain it.

Speaker 2:

I'm internally stressed, thank you. I'm internally stressed. I'm listening to this and I'm having like immediate flashbacks the first time using it I'm not the only one.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean, I get stressed just listening to dan. Sometimes he says things he's like, and then I opened the bag of bread and the bread was different shapes. I'm like, oh my god, this is so stressful. Who cut this bread?

Speaker 1:

unbelievable dan makes everything so stressful to me, yeah, um, I get it, though. I get what you're trying to say there. And then this again, this goes back to what I said. I wish you could just have three thumbnails, three titles and let it figure it out algorithmically, like don't put that on me, uh, don't you put that on me, uh, you know that's a. Anyone knows that movie?

Speaker 4:

let me know, hit me up but does anyone else here feel like thinking about your packaging to that degree can have a more detrimental effect?

Speaker 2:

yes, yeah, because I feel like it's it's taking so much of like the decision making and planning off of the video. To begin with, we're like I have this idea, this is going to be what the title is, it's going to be what my thumbnail is, and then I'm going to go make the video, and then you have to come up with these other variants that can potentially not represent the video as well, or you're trying to run all three tests in every single way, and I completely agree with that. It's exhausting. I definitely have my own feelings on how it works, but I think I don't know. I think it takes excitement away from publishing. Like you go to finally like publish that video and you're like I don't even know what I did here and I don't even know what's gonna work.

Speaker 1:

Like yeah, by the way, for those who don't know, uh jen publishes based on the way something feels, so you might want to take her step with a pinch of salt.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you should. Yeah, you should not. Listen to me, I am personally a fan of doing like one test or the other To me. When I like knew the title test was coming out, I did not know you were also going to be able to integrate different thumbnails per title. I thought we had separate. I'm going to run a title test, I'm going to run a thumbnail test and personally I think that's how it should be done. I don't think they should be mix and match, because if you're trying to collect data on that, it is such an insane amount of data and you have to do it in such a controlled way where you're running an experiment for, like at this point, like six months.

Speaker 2:

So with the title, I would say the first time that I used it I went crazy. I was so excited. I was like I'm gonna do three thumbnails and three titles and it was, you know, not a lot of strategy going into it, but just like off the wall, like see what's gonna happen. And then, the second time they used the tool, I was like I don't want to use thumbnails at all. I use the same thumbnail and I only title tested.

Speaker 2:

And I intentionally did three styles of title. I did one meta. I did one that works on our channel really well, and then I did what I would consider like a more modern, conversational, like minimalistic approach to see what actual title formula connected with the audience best. Now I will say that video absolutely tanked. It was like our worst 10 of 10. So the information itself was not great. So coincidental maybe, I don't know it was a video that had a slow start. But that is how I would continue to test it. I would only test one or the other or very minimally alter a text within a thumbnail to just better enhance the title that you chose.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, I just think it's a lot of information rob, what are you thinking about this, as you've heard what we all think, yeah, I guess from a perspective of how it works, I do describe it as it just works in the sense that it's very easy to set up. I mean, I know it takes a lot of effort to do the titles and the thumbnails themselves, but actually the way that YouTube has set up these features is pretty intuitive. But actually the way that YouTube have set up these features is pretty intuitive and is it nice to have, even if you don't necessarily use it. I'm sure there are teams of creators who have like thumbnail designers and title experts are having a field day with this, but maybe from an individual creator's point of view it is just more stress and paralysis of choice.

Speaker 3:

What I found with the thumbnail testing when it came out is that even after having it now for 18 months, has it really influenced how I make my thumbnails or how different they are? And I still can't give you a definitive answer to that because the results seem to be so similar A lot of the time, like the video is a one of 10, regardless of, like, the different variants we have. All the videos are 10 of 10, regardless of the variants you have, and it doesn't really move a needle enough on examples. It tends to be like 34%, 32%, 33%. It's like, oh well, that wasn't very conclusive. Maybe that's user error, maybe I'm not applying big enough changes, yeah, um. So yeah, there's kind of that. Oh great, we've now got title testing. And then it's like, uh, I'm not really getting the same conclusive results as I was previously, and now I don't know if I want to use it as much yeah, I know is, and this kind of happened with the the thumbnail uh thing which, you know, creators for years wanted to have.

Speaker 1:

Then we got it and then a lot of people like I don't use it because it either doesn't work or I don't like the way it it works and, um, at least youtube's trying to give us the tools we ask for. But it does beg the question, like are these tools? Are they necessary? I think they're. They're helpful at times at at times they they're helpful to tell us we don't actually need them. Uh, we need to understand our audience a little bit better. I think that's the best thing that they've done with these tools has made us realize that maybe we don't need them I will say that during live streams we advocate for using it and I feel like our advice there is pretty good.

Speaker 4:

So we'll see a channel that is doing something with their thumbnails that we kind of collectively don't agree should be. They should be doing, and I'll always say hey, by the way, if you agree with us or you're dubious about our advice, try it, test it. You have the thumbnail testing ability now. It's usually something small, like take your logo off the thumbnail and see how your next video performs, and I love it for those things. And in my mind, as I'm giving this advice, usually I'm thinking to myself they don't even need to use this more than a couple times, like once they kind of like learn from it that their logo on the thumbnail does or does not work as well, then they don't have to keep using it, and I think that's kind of like the joy of having these tools is, like we probably shouldn't be considering using them for every single video. They're probably meant really for just like those small moments of like okay, will this type of title work for the video, or will this type of title?

Speaker 4:

Oh, one time I had a video go out and it got terrible views and I was really confused by it. So my personal channel and I woke up the next morning and it just hit me like a ton of bricks, like oh, I didn't make the title about the audience, I made it about me. And so I went to my computer, I changed one word in the title I think it was like from my to something else or whatever and the video blew up the next day. It just completely blew up. I didn't have title testing or anything, I just had intuition, just raw, like sleep on it intuition, and like those are the moments where I've had like a lot of success with changing things. I I did not, I would not have thought to test two variants of that title. I just titled it poorly and three titles would have would not have changed that in the moment. I just needed to like see the results, come in and go oh, okay, and learn the hard way I love that.

Speaker 1:

What a great, what a great story that was, uh, one of the last updates I want to talk about. It's actually really important. It tells us more about our viewership and finally, uh lifts the veil of uh, of like hidden information that youtube has is the viewer updates are not even subscriber, but our viewer updates the regular, casual and new. If you haven't seen this, what an incredible update this is. It takes your audience and separates them into categories new, casual and regular and then there's definitions of each Essentially your regular viewers what you would think they are. They come and watch your content kind of regularly, casual, just every so often gets to see your content, I think it's like once a month, every couple of months or whatever, and it was like someone who's maybe never seen you before and it shows you things like average view duration and that sort of thing, and it's been so useful, I think, in disseminating what content works for what type of person.

Speaker 1:

Dan, jen and Rob, now that that is on the vidIQ channel especially, what type of things have you kind of walked away from looking at that? Rob? You did an entire video on it. What kind of things do you? What do you think about this. Is this good, bad, indifferent?

Speaker 3:

I'm still trying to figure out the long-term value of these metrics, but what it tells you off a bat is just how powerful regular viewers are, in that they watch for twice as long typically on your videos and they watch twice as many videos as new and casual viewers. So ideally, what you want to do is take these new viewers on a journey through to being more loyal viewers. What I'm still trying to struggle and grasp with is like how, how you actually do that and how much these figures will actually move and change, because it feels like they're quite rigid, like it's going to require a lot of effort and testing to move the needle, especially like on regular viewers Like ours is currently at 5%. Like what would we do and how much effort would we have to put into it to get that up to 6%, for example, and at the same time, would that have a detrimental impact on the new viewers coming in who maybe aren't understanding the community style content that we're trying to push to the viewer?

Speaker 1:

yeah, if you're watching the youtube uh video, you can actually see what uh rob's talking about here for the last 28 days. Oh, maybe I'll zoom in on this a little bit. Um, essentially, you can see new viewers, casual and regular. And, to rob's point, how many average views per viewer, which is one of the most underrated pieces of uh data I think you can. You can come across which is how many average views per viewer, which is one of the most underrated pieces of data I think you can come across, which is how many times people are watching your content in a given time period and the higher this number is. For example, our regular viewers is four times. That's great. And our new viewers is 1.7, which is almost two. In other words, someone who's never seen this before comes through and likes it so much they've come back half of another time. I don't know what that means, but for sure almost two times. Dan, when you see stuff like this, what is the first thing that hits you? Just from, like, the perspective of a creator.

Speaker 4:

I think this is one of those things where you as a creator kind of get to be involved in the decision of what you want these metrics to look like. And what I mean by that is if you want that average views per viewer number to go up, you would need to make content that is consistent and I the best example, just from my gaming roots here. The best example I could give you is if you were doing a serial let's play kind of like thing, like zach scott game style, where he plays through a game from beginning to end. Episode one is going to appeal to a lot of new viewers because people are just interested in the game. Some of those new viewers may come back for two, three, four and five etc. Because they enjoyed the content. Those become casual to regular viewers.

Speaker 4:

And I think if I I've asked him to see these metrics, he never. He said, oh, I'll get, I'll get those for you, and then he forgot um, hopefully I get to see them at some point because I think they'd look a lot different from ours. Because he does that so much, I think he would have a lot of returning viewers. I think his hour views per viewer probably pretty high, because there's always the next video to go to. Um, if you do a lot of shorts, like I've been doing, your new viewer number is probably very high.

Speaker 4:

In fact, I kind of went on a run recently on my personal channel where I did more shorts and I didn't stream as much and my monthly audience, the total number of people, is just kind of going down. Overall I'm I'm getting a lot of new viewers but overall not getting as many viewers. So the other thing I wanted to say is that it's important to focus on all of these, but at any given moment, if you're like, how do I get more regular viewers? You have to sit down and kind of analyze your content and figure out why it just keeps appealing to new people over and over, as if you're every time you post.

Speaker 1:

It's like restarting your channel a little bit jen, if you were coaching someone with this and these analytics that just came out, what kind of things would you be focusing on?

Speaker 2:

I think it's so fun. I was like I love that we have like this on mobile too. Sometimes we get things that are just like so in depth only on desktop and we have such an easy to read. Like I'm looking at my phone right now and it's so easy to see when you scroll right down the three swipe aways where it's popular with new viewers, popular with casual viewers and popular with regular viewers and you see those top five videos and it's like you can very easily back and forth compare what videos have made it into all three, which videos are specifically making it just for new viewers, and also monitoring this.

Speaker 2:

Like if you're doing a channel pivot in any kind of way. Like you want to be seeing those regular viewers kind of go down, but you want to see these analytics look different for different phase that you are on, for whatever you're trying to do on your channel. Like you're trying to build community. Like you had a great burst of discoverable content. Now you're trying to get more regular viewers. Like you want to be seeing that chart just shift a little bit and start to see those videos. Well, you also want to be rewarded, like if you're intentionally trying to make community content you want to see that fall under your regular viewer category.

Speaker 2:

So I love this. I think this is so simple to monitor at just like a glance, like, oh, I made that video, wow, that's attracting to my casual viewers but also my regular viewers. Or, even better, it's like, wow, my new viewers and my regular viewers both love that. So we've kind of had the unicorn effect there. I just think it's great. I think it is such an easy tool and analytics can be just so consuming. This is one I think, even just surface level, just seeing what your content is doing is awesome.

Speaker 3:

Just seeing what your content is doing is awesome.

Speaker 2:

My cautionary counterpoint to that, jen, is that, especially when it comes, to percentages in YouTube analytics.

Speaker 3:

the base question we often get is well, what's a good percentage? And, as you've just rightly pointed out, depending on what phase you are in creating content, you may want very different percentages. Like, if you're making viral content all the time, you want new viewers to be like as high as possible, because that's what you're trying to do. You're just trying to viral hit after viral hit but at the same time, if you have too many regular viewers, then that means your content might be too niche and it's not reaching out and picking up new audiences. So this is going to be like a very fluid number, which means it's going to be hard to give like general advice. It's going to be, as you said, like really tailored for the individual.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think if I was looking at this when I was still coaching people, I mean, first of all, I would have been over the moon for this data. I'd be like Holy. I would have been over the moon for this data. I'd be like Holy crap. Finally, all the things that I've assumed and hoped are right here in front of me goes right exactly to what Jen said, and Jen and I've talked many times in the podcast about buckets, content buckets and, depending on what content bucket you're using, will dictate what these numbers should look like. And when you have the discoverable stuff, just like, just like Jen said, your new viewers should be high and what you hope to see is that that return viewer uh, the return number how many views per how many videos per review their viewer they're, they're coming back to watch is higher than normal. Um, because you want to hook them in. Right, the whole point of making discoverable content is to bring new people into the, into the house, so to speak. Um, your casual audience might not, uh, be as interested you. You never know, right like you might just be going for something that's wide range.

Speaker 1:

I would assume some of your casual and your biggest fans would want to watch everything you do. But let's be real, that's not how it normally works. But that big number of new viewers is where your subscriber numbers will grow. It doesn't mean your average view duration is going to look good. As a matter of fact, I would argue, if it's discoverable content, your average view duration is going to look good. As a matter of fact, I would argue, if it's discoverable content, your average view duration is probably going to be terrible comparatively. But that's okay. We have different buckets for different reasons. And before we move on to the next thing, what are our buckets? By the way? What is it with IQ buckets? I don't even know, Does anyone know?

Speaker 4:

Definitely YouTube updates. Updates for sure and discoverable. I I've broadly I consider it's two of them. There's youtube updates and there's like growth videos, but I we could probably get more nuance than that small channel bucket.

Speaker 3:

Let's talk to small channels about something that they're struggling with how to? How to improve? Yeah, and then, Then the experimental buckets which keep breaking because we're not sure what to put in them.

Speaker 1:

That's true. We overflow that bucket.

Speaker 3:

Sometimes Ross which comes out.

Speaker 4:

We just drop stuff in it and it just falls through.

Speaker 1:

The bucket has holes in the bottom, alright. So if you're watching the YouTube video we actually have talked more about this than you've seen so far a lot of it's been edited out. If you want to see the whole thing, there'll be a link in the description below. And also, if you're a listener to the vid iq podcast, whether you're listening on audio podcasts or on youtube, you know that we take your emails and we answer them. So we got two. We got one from a regular, and the way you reach out to us is you send us an email at theboostatvidiqcom and we may answer it. And today we are going to answer two of these. One of these just came in. Jen and I are going to go into the studio soon, so I have a bunch of those already ready for that. This one just came in from Frank the Dank, which is a good friend of ours. He comes in all the time.

Speaker 1:

Wait a minute, what's going on here? Am I sharing the right screen? What's happening? Oh, no, that's the wrong screen. I mean it's right, but it's wrong. Let me try this again. This is the part that you'll see on the podcast channel and not on the main channel. So the main channel didn't see anything about what just happened. Oh, I have to do with the entire screen. That's why, here we go, all right, frank, today.

Speaker 1:

What up vidi crew, my favorite podcast that motivates me, makes me hungry, makes me laugh and teaches me not to be a conspiracy theorist most of the time not, not really, but I'm puzzled, I don't know what to do. Lately, my videos have been absolutely tanking like single digit views a bad feeling after finally getting to where I was getting at least a hundred or hundreds of views per video. To top it off, I went to my analytics and my videos are hardly getting any impressions, like not even 200 in a matter of weeks. I have a personal YouTube account that I use just for viewing and I subbed to my channel with all notifications and it's not getting any.

Speaker 1:

I decided it was time to put on my sleuthing cap and turned on restricted mode, which we've talked about on this show many times, and cap and turned on restricted mode, which we've talked about on this channel many times. And, of course, none of my recent videos are there, and a ton of my old ones have disappeared. To add to the despair, not a single one of my more than 200 live streams are visible either. I really don't believe in shadow bands, but this one really has me concerned and wondering what the heck is going on. I appealed a list of videos that I feel should not have been restricted. Of course I'm reasonable. Some of them deserve it. I got a potty mouth, so I understand that I didn't get that anymore, yeah that should be a problem.

Speaker 1:

Also, I'm am I unreasonable to think it's horse poo that you can't see restricted in youtube studio? Come on, it's a real son of a bear figuring out what videos have been banished from the shadow realm. This person does not have a potty mouth.

Speaker 3:

I'm sorry, I know right, son of no, dan, he typed out this question and put it through ChatGPT to replace all of the, but we do need to talk about this.

Speaker 1:

While we've definitely talked about shadow banning, whether or not it's real, what he's describing is real and we actually we described it live on a live stream once when I was showing you guys, remember, I showed you that one channel was that rob. It was like a video channel.

Speaker 3:

They were reviewing films I think horror films and we turned on restricted mode and every single video disappeared from what I remember like and they weren't getting very many views either.

Speaker 1:

We were like this is kind of weird, they're not getting very many views. Um, very much like frank. What do we think is happening here and what do we think he should do? We definitely want to help Frank out. Frank's a good guy.

Speaker 3:

Well, it feels as if they've gone for the lowest common denominator, least path of resistance, reason why suddenly their videos are getting view. Which is to blame? A setting, I'm not clear if their videos were already restricted. It feels like they started doing the research and then discovered their videos were restricted. Maybe they have been for years, I don't know.

Speaker 3:

I mean, we obviously have to ask the obvious things like have you had a change of topic? Like, did you receive a copyright claim or is it like there's been a guideline strike? Is there something else that could have influenced it? So, as usual, we don't have the full picture influenced it. So, as usually, we don't have the full picture. But you know, there are times when we've seen on channel audits where all of a sudden channels just seem to lose all of their views and like we don't have an explanation for that. Uh, we we like to think there isn't a quote-unquote shadow ban in effect, but youtube must have some kind of controls that perhaps affect channels. But now am I being drawn into the conspiracy theorist attitude. Dan jen, help me out before I say my tinfoil hat.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, I like this. I have a new conspiracy that I'm dealing with.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing to do with this, but I don't. I think this is like a really complicated one and, while I would love to have like really helpful advice, this feels like something like I would reach out to YouTube. I would try my best with YouTube support so like they can actually look into your channel and tell you what the issue is. And I know people have issues with YouTube support all the time and I would just say keep trying until you get someone that's helpful.

Speaker 3:

They did say, Jen, though, in the comment of it, how they not appealed some. They appealed some yeah yeah, how do you appeal a restricted video? I didn't realize that was a thing.

Speaker 2:

I have no idea either, but I do like that. They said you should be able to see restricted content in studio.

Speaker 1:

I agree with that. Yes, I agree with that 100%.

Speaker 2:

I brought that up to YouTube.

Speaker 1:

I've been like what's going on?

Speaker 4:

So just going down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole here, I've always kind of wondered if, once you draw YouTube's ire and you make a mistake, you end up in a different system where my videos are scrutinized heavily, and here's why I think this might happen Again. This is me with a tinfoil hat on. Okay, I'm not trying to freak anybody out.

Speaker 2:

I like your tinfoil hat Keep going.

Speaker 3:

I have something to add to this, okay, so when you're uploading a video to YouTube.

Speaker 4:

I just did this so I could get the language exactly right. I'm uploading a video right now. I've already posted, I'm going to delete it. So first there's the details tab where you fill out have, if you're monetized, you rate your video whether or not it's sustainable for ads, and there's a whole bunch of questions. It's inappropriate language, adult content, violence, and it goes on like so you admit to youtube that you have, uh, you know, adult content in your video or whatever. Now, usually for me I don't cuss or anything, so I go through those really quickly and I say none of the above. When I click that, youtube tells me at the very bottom, before I hit next, it says your rating accuracy is high, so we'll monetize your video with your input. If there's a strong sign your input isn't inaccurate, your monetization says, may change. So there is a system in place for monetization where I'm being judged every time I upload a video and they're saying right now, we trust you don't screw up is how I read into this.

Speaker 4:

And so if that system exists for ad suitability, could it not exist for? You know, community guidelines, like things that you bump up against my something to add was exactly what dan just said.

Speaker 3:

So well done, dan. Yeah, it's just, but there's a trust system already in the monetization level. So is there something that's hidden behind the scenes, or more of a just like accepted content level that we just don't know about?

Speaker 1:

this feels like a new segment on the podcast youtube conspiracy theories. Maybe we will start this in the coming weeks, which means you got to hit subscribe if you haven't already or if you're listening to the audio podcast. Definitely make sure you're leaving us a great review.

Speaker 3:

Can we license the x files music? In the meantime, I'll do a manual version of it. Speaking dan, have you watched x?

Speaker 1:

files. No, no, of course he hasn't anything that was ever popular you.

Speaker 3:

You have earned a television down at some point in your life, right?

Speaker 4:

yeah I'm building a plex library.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he has a television next to his dvd collection plex um next one. And again, you can send us a message hang on.

Speaker 3:

I'm sorry I need to pause this podcast. Weird plex dan, but okay oh hey, hey, all right I love you none of the vid.

Speaker 1:

Iq main channel would have heard that joke anyway, uh, if you're again, if you want to send us a message, you and you're listening to audio podcast, there's a link in the show notes to allow you to send a sex message. Or if you're listening to everywhere else on the youtubes and all the other places, you can, of course, send us an email to the boost at vid iqcom, which is exactly what this next person did death city mutants. We were a band that was on our way in the 90s, that had something of a large local following, but we broke up like bands do.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the drama.

Speaker 1:

A fan from back then had dug up an old video and put it on YouTube and we saw some comments and the guys and I have been talking about getting back together, so we started to load some of our old songs onto YouTube and create AI videos for them, since we didn't have any video footage from back in the day. Anyway, I have another YouTube channel, so I've been fans of your show for a while. We recently got back in the studio and we were recording some new songs and riffing and jamming, came up with these two songs for vidIQ and all you do for us. I hope you enjoy and we haven't made a video for them, but maybe we have a unique sound. We were a Celtic punk hair band is probably the best way to describe us, so it might not be your style, but we hope you enjoy.

Speaker 1:

We love a review of, or some ideas how we can better grow our channel, recapture our old fan base, introduce our music to a wider audience. Our channel is death city mutant, so I have both songs. I will play them. I will not play the entire song because it'll take forever however, uh, there are very one.

Speaker 1:

Is uh a theme, more or less a theme song uh to this show. So let's listen to that first is anyone familiar with celtic hairband?

Speaker 3:

I've never heard of this.

Speaker 2:

I have an idea in my mind, what this is going to sound like. Well, wait until you hear it.

Speaker 1:

Wait until you hear it. Okay, this is the first one. This is, uh, basically would be like the tube talk uh vid iq podcast kind of theme song. Here we go. I'd like to point out this is not ai, by the way, so that's the other thing. Uh, well, you say that well, they said they went back in the studio.

Speaker 1:

This is the problem with this. I am super impressed by someone making an actual song for us like it overly impresses me. But we are now in a in a time where ai music is so prevalent that you almost expect it, right? Yeah, I'm assuming none of this is ai. I'm just going to give them props. They were a 90s band. They didn't have ai music back then. This is music. I believe this is brand new. Literally, they went to a studio. I believe this with all my heart. Here we go.

Speaker 5:

I found my clan in the digital mist Through voices that cut like a blade. They speak the words I need to hear when the battles make me afraid, tragedy, kind. My way Through the storm and through the fight, we rise together. We fall as one. In the noise, we find our voice.

Speaker 3:

I'm just imagining you two now walking down as a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania.

Speaker 1:

I'm a mark for any time that someone says my name in a song. I'm always about that. So that's the first one and we appreciate it. If you're listening to the audio podcast, maybe we'll put it at the very end of the audio podcast, but voices that cut like a knife.

Speaker 1:

Now there's another song, and what I love about this song is the chorus. So if you're listening to the audio podcast, you'll probably hear more of it than on the main video channel. Probably on the main video channel you'll probably just hear the chorus, but here, listen to what the hook is for this. I love it.

Speaker 5:

The wasteland of forgotten channels, where any algorithm feeds on dying hope. I watch creators fall like broken angels, their dreams consumed by the machine's cold throats. When the fuse are bleeding out and the passion turns to doubt, what would Rob Wilson do when the platform tears you through? Would he stand and fight the war or accept there's nothing left? Rob, you just got a theme song. What would Rob Wilson do? Stop, tell me. What would Rob Wilson?

Speaker 1:

do I mean hello?

Speaker 3:

Here's what I do. I go to settings, advanced features, delete channel Done.

Speaker 1:

Savage, rob Wilson, death City Mutants. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3:

Immediately. That song is going to be put into Slack Live streams spot. What would Rob Wilson do?

Speaker 1:

We need the shirt. Where's the shirt?

Speaker 2:

What would Rob Wilson?

Speaker 1:

do with the horns. Yeah, yeah, we need that.

Speaker 2:

I love it so much.

Speaker 1:

I think what you just did, uh, they were like you know what kind of things can we do to grow? I think you just did it. Uh, we have to play that song in at least one vid iq channel. Uh as your theme song, as your intro, like when you come on, what would? I agree, I can see you like flying through skies and, like you know, uh knocking out, um, uh, monetization the yellow things and hitting them like a superhero.

Speaker 3:

We've also been talking about having a more corporate end screen, so I think just that for 20 seconds at the end of every single video.

Speaker 4:

There's a lot of YouTubers that kind of do that kind of end screen where they feature a song or whatever. You could do that.

Speaker 3:

And you know what we should do Whenever it's somebody else. Like it just has the AI voice come in. What would Jen do I was?

Speaker 2:

going to say I'm cutting to that song at least once in every video I make. From here on out, just a dark, black and white screen of eternal struggling. What would Rob Wilson do?

Speaker 1:

I hope that that was edited so amazingly during the the video here, because what an amazing song. Thank you so much, destiny mutants. Okay, last thing we're gonna do a little game.

Speaker 4:

Hang on they wanted some advice.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's what I'm.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, okay well, yeah, we said delete the channel down yeah, that is what you would do.

Speaker 4:

So yeah, I guess there's your answer.

Speaker 1:

No, um, music is hard. Not gonna, not gonna lie, that's a hard one. Uh, anyone have any advice for a music channel trying to gain back their? Uh, I mean, other than doing the obvious, which would be like covers I.

Speaker 4:

I have a couple things, so one I noticed in their email. Of course they're like well, we, we got some of our songs and used ai visuals for them and I wanted to just let them know that you should pay attention to the comments on those, see how people are vibing with it, because if you use, obviously, ai visuals, people might assume it's ai music as well.

Speaker 1:

And if you don't want that assumption you know that's.

Speaker 4:

That's something I would just consider, and the other thing I was going to say is that you already have this talent and the writing is excellent.

Speaker 4:

I would say you should be making songs for other things, even like it's not songs you would necessarily put in an album just to gain attention in youtube and youtube shorts like write a song about current events, uh, you know, whatever it is that's interesting you, whether it's politics or just like entertainment, news or whatever it is, and the the like what would rob wilson do is like there's a funny song.

Speaker 2:

I don't know if it's intending to be funny, I think it's funny to us.

Speaker 4:

But like the, the comedy is there in, sometimes just pointing things out with music, and I think you could get a lot of traction on your regular stuff if you do really off the wall stuff like that wait, have you guys seen the tiktok, where they make an emo song using only taco bell hot sauce packets as lyrics?

Speaker 2:

what wait, you guys need to get on the side of tiktok. I'm on. I'll slack that to you guys later, but it's I. It made me think of from like what dan was saying, though, because I've also seen um creators who like make an entire song of just like amazon reviews and like things that are generally funny, but also like your musical talent is like backing that up. So I think there is a lot of opportunity to have fun, since the humor is there, but, of course, with your own original music yeah, I think using your musical talent in unique ways gets people's attention, especially on shorts I love it.

Speaker 1:

All right. So final thing we're going to play a little game here. We are each going to have like a little hot take and see if we can convince the other people that our hot take is correct. So I'll start, and that is super simple. I believe titles are more important than thumbnails. Change my mind, jen start. Do you think you agree with me, as you should, because I'm right, or do you disagree with me and tell me why?

Speaker 2:

you said which ones are more important titles no, I'm gonna disagree why, I used to think this was the case until title testing came out don't use YouTube against me.

Speaker 1:

What's wrong with you?

Speaker 2:

I used to think that was the case. I think that, no matter what, you have to have the best thumbnail to grab attention and the title is what makes somebody watch. But I don't think you could just have a title stand on its own as the most important feature.

Speaker 1:

Okay, rob Wilson, what do you think?

Speaker 3:

I'm going to be a bit of a fence sitter here and say that if you're very familiar with the creator, then you just see the thumbnail and click and watch. You don't really care what the title is. I think if you're unfamiliar with the creator, the thumbnail will catch your attention and then the title, yes, will probably convince you to click. But there's also the consideration of you always need a title. You don't always need a thumbnail, because that can be automatically selected for you. So you know, I'm kind of like 51% 49. So you know, I'm kind of like 51 49, like yeah, probably the title confirms the click, but like the viewers got to get to reading that title and I think the thumbnail helps a long way. But and also, you've got autoplay as well. On mobile you only see the thumbnail for like barely a second. Then the video starts playing as well. So yeah, yeah, I'm convincing myself that, travis, I think you might be right.

Speaker 4:

I'm firmly in your camp where I think it really depends on the creator and the video. They're certainly created to demonstrate it, neither matter. Like I think I'm always critical where he just puts sometimes a couple words and he's just staring at the camera. You build up a personality like that and the following is like you don't really have to worry about it or, for all we know, he's tested a lot of things. He stresses that stuff, just like we do. For all we really know. I don't know the guy, um, but yeah, I I definitely can see why a title would matter. Uh, I could see why you could just use a thumbnail with the, the title, just as like a, an empty character or something, or period or something like that. I've seen that work too. So it just it's that like anything on youtube. I really think it depends um, but I see where you're coming from.

Speaker 1:

So my whole thought behind it is not the, the edge cases of, like someone who's so popular you can put whatever and it works, or the people who never give views, because, whatever I think about all the things that uh matter to a creator, which is the, the actual view right, which is the click and um, sometimes the the title does that, but we've seen so many times. Or the thumbnail does that. We've seen so many times where the thumbnail is trash and the video has millions of views and it just so happens, the title is really interesting. So that was my hot take on that, rob. What is your hot take and what should we convince you of?

Speaker 3:

all right. So I I wanted to google this to make sure I said this correctly. But, like creators, this is a two creators if you love something enough, you need to set it free, and that is subscribers. What am I in by that is? Now we have this new metric, which, at the top end of it, is called monthly viewers, monthly audience. That is basically your subscriber count, because, like it's more Well, it's kind of it's more temporary, it's like a reflection of where your channel is right now, rather than how many people have clicked on a red button. And I think, in order to let the subscriber button free, it means that it could be reclaimed by viewers, because right now, in my opinion, the subscriber button is trash. You click on it and then you have this one page of subscriptions and it doesn't do anything else.

Speaker 3:

There are new tools that are kind of screwing things over a little bit.

Speaker 3:

What I've heard a lot is that people who maybe, for example, live in the Netherlands but they watch a lot of English contents and now auto-dubbing is automatically defaulting their language to their native language, even though they prefer to listen in English.

Speaker 3:

So I'm thinking about how the subscriber button could help on that, like you could set defaults for channels Like I want to listen to this channel in its default language, like not necessarily the one that YouTube decides through auto-dubbing, or if I am watching a channel and I've watched a few videos instead of me having to subscribe to the channel, it prompts you. I would say you've been watching this channel quite a while. Would you like to subscribe to them? With these options Like show me, send me notifications when is when we go live, or send me notifications when there's a new show or long form, like a lot more customization other than like the three options you have right now, and I think that only works if the viewer is basically in control of a subscriber button rather than it being this all important, not very important vanity metric for creators all that to say, subscribers don't matter.

Speaker 1:

Is that what you're saying? Hot take, yes, yeah, all right hard. I agree with this.

Speaker 3:

I'm not even gonna argue oh, oh well, it's not really hot. Take then, is it?

Speaker 4:

yeah, you're not very good at the game, it's a very lukewarm.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm ready to go rob.

Speaker 2:

I was. That's funny. I was gonna have one of mine be like. Your audience is. Who's unsubscribed not?

Speaker 4:

your subscribers. Hey, hey, I like that, but also bad at the game, like it's not controversial. Yeah, exactly bad, I think maybe listeners thanks for taking that bullet, rob.

Speaker 2:

Glad I didn't use that one what do you think about, like?

Speaker 3:

do you think the the subscribe button should be binned, or do you think it needs to be resurrected? Do you think it do you think about, like do you think the subscribe button should be binned, or do you think it needs to be resurrected? Do you think it can be saved and used for a new purpose?

Speaker 1:

My hot take is get rid of the subscriber number and the view numbers on videos. That's my hot take.

Speaker 3:

Would you replace it with anything, because I tease the idea of replacing it with monthly active viewers.

Speaker 2:

I saw that and I liked the way it looked.

Speaker 3:

I think it would put even more pressure on creators. Well, like if your public number could move so much from month to month.

Speaker 2:

That feels like there'd be a lot of pressure I think that depends on the kind of content you make, because if I'm watching a long and it's showing that number and they're a shorts creator like, that's no credibility for their long form content. Like do you know what I'm saying? Like you get, oh, you get like three monthly million views or something, but you just started making like it's all shorts, like do you know what I mean? Well, yeah, a little bit like I don't know family friend, now slowly fading into a distance.

Speaker 3:

John would have that problem, wouldn't it? Because, like, he's had shorts which get hundreds, what tens of millions of views, but he's also making long form content in a moment and he's trying to figure out how to, you know, get those views from shorts to ones, and right now he's getting thousands of views. And so, as you say, like, this guy gets 60 million active views a month.

Speaker 2:

It seems like sketchy when you look at it in that sense, because you're seeing a video. Yeah, I don't know. I I will own it all the time. I need a little bit of social proof because there is so much content in the world like I as a viewer, like I will own up to the fact, like I will take that I will watch a video that has more views over a new video for the most part terrible.

Speaker 2:

I've been there um it's I mean, I'm not gonna not watch a video because they don't have views, but if it's, if they're versus each other, I'm gonna watch the one with just more credibility like it's. It is probably gonna be a better viewer experience for me than somebody's second video, and that's just like matter of fact it proves the longevity of the channel in a way, and, like you, assume that they've.

Speaker 4:

They've taken their licks to get to where they are and they are going to produce a more succinct answer to your question, for example, or something like that. It is unfair thank you great fair to the new creators who are working hard, but is definitely like a passive thing going on in my brain as I'm looking for videos.

Speaker 2:

I would say it's unfair, though, because those creators have put in their time.

Speaker 4:

They've earned that, but like well, hold on, because then you talk about clickbait starts a new channel and they've put in their time, but it's a new channel, I don't know here's.

Speaker 1:

Here's the answer. This is the answer. Listen, I'm just gonna tell you, I'm gonna solve surprise guys.

Speaker 2:

this is my hot take. Now I started a war, let me take advantage of this.

Speaker 1:

You remove the views and you put in something that's a an amalgamation of cause. You know, youtube always tells us that they have these, these signals of people enjoying the content. You put that there instead, either like a like percentage or a view. Like average viewer likes this at 80 percent, or something like that kind of like what netflix did. If you remember, netflix took away the thumbs up, thumbs down percentage and they've they've now changed it with something like things you'll like and it's like an algorithmic. This is a percent, so give it a percentage of what you'll like this, the chances of you liking this like 80 percent, almost like uh, what is it? Rotten tomatoes. Give me that instead. I don't need to know the views. Tell me how much I'm gonna like this video this is a hotter take no, no what damn, let me explain something to you.

Speaker 1:

I can find five different? Absolutely not I'm not saying people should do hot tomatoes, I'm just saying there are. I can give you five videos with millions of views you would not interested in. But if the percentage there said dan's only 10 gonna like this, you're probably not gonna watch it.

Speaker 4:

No streaming service has gotten this right, though so far netflix tries I didn't stop my problem like I'm just saying youtube is not gonna get that right and, like rotten tomatoes, judges movies so poorly, like whether it's critic reviews or user reviews. I've gotten I've seen movies that have such amazing rotten tomato Tomatoes scores.

Speaker 1:

You see movies done. He's actually seen them.

Speaker 5:

He's on Plex, guys. He's on Plex.

Speaker 4:

Plex has Rotten Tomatoes built in. I've stopped judging based off of it because it gets wrong for me personally all the time.

Speaker 1:

But there's no algorithm for that.

Speaker 4:

I'm talking about using algorithms. That's the problem. I don't think an algorithm can nail it.

Speaker 1:

It already has.

Speaker 4:

But it doesn't know my mood.

Speaker 2:

Okay, but what if I want to watch something new? How is it going to know if I'm going to like?

Speaker 1:

it.

Speaker 5:

Look at your homepage.

Speaker 2:

If. I Google right now how to make butter by hand.

Speaker 4:

They're going to be like there's a 0% chance. You like this, it's already doing this, I know, but my doom scroll starts at the homepage. That's what I'm saying page. That's what I'm saying. Sometimes I'm not in the mood. Sometimes I hit watch later and I come back to it later because I'll be in the mood maybe later. But that's the thing. Like I just don't want to go deeper down that rabbit hole. I already doom scroll enough. This sounds like a you problem dan I'm probably not alone.

Speaker 4:

There's probably other people who feel like I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I'm kind of youtube chill, I'm kind of team dan I, I am, I, I kind of am. I also feel like YouTube suggestions have gotten like a little quick to assume things I want to watch again.

Speaker 1:

I still don't think that views answer that question succinctly or accurately, but having said that, we'll hold on to that conversation for another time. Dan, what is your hot take as we wrap this thing up?

Speaker 4:

My hot take just became a little more serious. I'm gonna go with my silly one. Maybe we'll come back to it. Um, I think that cat videos are the best videos. Oh, no, hard stuff goodbye, I think it's been nice to know you, dan.

Speaker 4:

Now here's the thing anyone can make a cat video and have it take off. All they need is a cat and a crappy phone camera. It doesn't matter if they know how to edit, it doesn't matter if the cat's really doing anything, it's just. It just works. Cats, people like cats. However, if you've like a dog and you want to do the same thing with a dog dogs yeah, you got to impress me dogs. I expect some training is involved. I expect that dog do something cool.

Speaker 4:

Cats, oh my gosh. It looks so adorable and that's cat videos and anyone can do it. You don't even need to be like a youtuber, you don't have to watch vid iq to do cat videos. Just do cat videos and you could get views.

Speaker 3:

The cat videos are easy cat videos are the best videos you know, this podcast and video is going to be so weird now because we're just going to have these moments of silence where, like, all of Dan's stuff is going to be edited out, because everything you've just said is invalid.

Speaker 2:

Wait, wait, wait. Okay, dan, I am not actually going to argue this too much because I think cats do like the dumbest stuff, like my dog is quite dumb, but not as dumb as a cat. Literally like accidentally head-butted. The front door this morning was like forgot it was closed, like I, he, but a cat will like literally fall down the side of a fridge for no reason at all.

Speaker 2:

And it's funny because cats like are always like. Okay, I feel like I mean, at least I have eight more lives after that. So I do think there's always something funny to watch about a cat.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting.

Speaker 2:

I think this also kind of falls into like children getting hurt too Like whoa what?

Speaker 4:

Not what, what? What are you? Was that?

Speaker 1:

your take. Let's edit that out.

Speaker 2:

We don't want to get canceled children getting hurt videos are the best children are taking over you're not gonna have to give youtube your credit card information to watch this video this turned into just rob and travis doing a podcast and both we've just been age gating you know what this is is because I'm watching so much like daily dose videos and there's always like kids and cats in the same compilation of like them falling like off their bike in like a hilarious way, not actually getting hurt. Wait, you guys not watch daily dose no, I avoid content like that oh my god, it like auto plays on my tv. It's so funny falling off of stuff and getting like auto plays on my TV.

Speaker 4:

It's so funny, falling off of stuff and getting maimed and I can't.

Speaker 2:

It's so funny, obviously like they're okay Cause it's on the internet.

Speaker 1:

Actually, I'm going to ask one thing before we go, and this is something that Jen and I talked about. I'm not going to tell you which side of the fence we land on. We talked about a concept of when you're, if you're on your home page and you're like, oh, I want to watch that, I want to watch, I want to watch that, do you click on it and open it into a new tab and fill up tabs and then go through your tabs and watch them, or do you just watch them and then like, go back and go back and forth? Do you? Do you pop open new tabs, rob, and do you think it's weird?

Speaker 3:

and do you think it's?

Speaker 1:

weird, I tend to just add it to watch later and then okay, so you use watch later.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, like an like on and off 2010, okay, uh dan, my watch later list currently has 400 plus videos, so is it useful at that point? Uh well, most of them I've watched and you can just click a button to clear it. But uh no, I go to it a lot. It has. It's useful because I can use it on TV and my phone and everything else.

Speaker 1:

But if you're like on your desktop and you're like, you know I got lunch break here. I'm just going to watch three or four videos. Do you pop them out in the new tabs or do you just watch them consecutively?

Speaker 4:

I guess I just don't use my desktop in that way, so I probably wouldn't. Yeah, I probably don't.

Speaker 1:

As usual, dan messes up the question. We appreciate you for watching us here this week. If you're watching on the main channel, there's a link in the description below for the unedited version of this video. Trust me when I tell you you missed a lot of stuff. And if you're listening to the audio podcast, you know, leave us a five-star review, even though we talked about kids getting hurt. I don't know why Okay?

Speaker 2:

Why we did Okay.

Speaker 1:

Okay, jen did that I didn't do that.

Speaker 2:

We just had to add a little more controversy to that episode.

Speaker 1:

All these videos are going into restricted mode now If we're in restricted mode and you have not seen?

Speaker 2:

us. It's my fault.

Speaker 1:

It's definitely Jen and Dan's fault a little bit. Definitely, make sure you hit this button right here where you can subscribe to our podcast channel and watch the full unedited episode right here. We'll see you in the next one.