Filmmaker Says that Consistency is the Key to a Successful YouTube Channel
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- June 11, 2014
Content may be king, but consistency keeps it on the throne
By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS)
When considering starting up a successful (and hopefully profitable) YouTube channel, one has many factors to consider. But the most important factor, according to one Youtube Creator, is the ability to reliably put out content without break or excuses. Consistency, it turns out, is just as important as the type of content you put out.
Since you're reading this post, I'm sure you are already convinced of the importance of creating and owning content, but what good is your content if nobody can find it. For building a successful YouTube channel, I've found that?consistency is one of the most critical factors. -Christopher Sharpe
Chris Sharpe produces a pair of popular YouTube channels, Cooking with Hilah and Yoga with Adrienne. Both with different subjects, but potentially similar audiences. Wanting to increase views and subscriptions, Sharpe began to experiment with their content schedule. “Over the past year, I've been experimenting with quantity, quality, upload times, scheduling, and even not publishing anything,” Sharpe writes on his blog, “I've found that implementing a clock-work like schedule can help to?increase views, audience engagement and subscribers.”
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Sharpe said that the two channels he produces, he found that even though they put out great content for both, if that content wasn’t consistent, it didn’t really matter how good the videos were. “Even though we had increased the amount of content, our publishing schedule was inconsistent,” admits Sharpe. He had hoped that even though it wasn’t on a regular basis, the amount of videos they would put up would make up for it. “It was a LOT of work, but I figured it would be worth it if it boosted all our numbers… It didn't,” Sharpe discovered.
Sharpe said that putting out a ton of content all at once, during the holidays no less, ended up burning out himself and the production staff, and so they took some time off. That ended up putting them in a vicious cycle that caused their numbers to suffer.
But rested and refreshed, Sharpe determined to produce content on a regular, reliable basis, every week. It took a few weeks to see the results, but eventually, he found that audience engagement began to rise.?”Then after we hit this publishing schedule on a consistent basis for four weeks, the peaks start to get regularly higher and now we are exceeding our previous publishing day numbers,” Sharpe discovered.
As a result, he found that his viewers were rediscovering his channel through their subscription feeds, and the “What to watch” page on everyone’s Youtube portal. This led Sharpe to two important conclusions:
- Subscribers have come to expect a video is coming at a specific time. They watch the video (engagement).
- YouTube picks up on this engagement and delivers more of our videos to the subscribers during those key engagement times.
Sharpe says that Google’s analytical tools can also help in shaping when is the optimal time every week to launch a new episode. Many just put it up when it’s done, but if you are careful to see when the audience is engaging your channel, you find the best time to premiere each episode. “When you're creating content on a regular basis, publish it on a regular basis down to the exact time of day,” Sharpe concludes. “Use your analytics to look at certain times when your subscribers are engaging with your content, pick something that looks good and then stick with it for at least three months.”
And if you think about it, this is a lesson we’ve known since the beginning of televised entertainment. A TV show isn’t hit or miss. It makes their dates every week, at the same time, and people come to rely on that kind of consistency. Why wouldn’t it be the same with viewers online? Not everyone is going to watch it Sunday night at 8pm, sure. That’s not what the online world is about. But people do rely on the consistency of their entertainment, and if they don’t get it, they go looking for that elsewhere. So, according to Sharpe, the key take away is that while content may king, if that king isn’t consistent, he’s quickly deposed by someone else.
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