Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #309 - I’m Breaking the Rules: An Unfiltered Dive Into My YouTube Analytics (Before I’m ‘Supposed’ To!)

Transcript

#309 - I’m Breaking the Rules: An Unfiltered Dive Into My YouTube Analytics (Before I’m ‘Supposed’ To!) · Brandon Fogal Evolution

• 0:00
  Hi, everyone. My name is Brandon Fogel. This is Evolution. We are going to dive
• 0:03
  into my analytics today for anyone that cares.
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  I've said that I wanted to do it when I hit the 4,000 hour mark on YouTube.
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  And I want to explain a little bit about that, what that is.
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  So I'm going to go through my analytics, just show everything,
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  be transparent as I really can be.
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  But I also do want to get into some things where I think I've fallen short and
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  things that I wish I would have done different.
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  Early on, back in 2024, when I first started YouTube, I actually boosted a couple
• 0:31
  videos. I promoted a couple videos to paid for impressions, which was able to
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  get me more views and more subscribers.
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  But then I realized, I found out, I didn't know anything.
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  I was just starting YouTube. I didn't know any of this stuff,
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  but none of that counts towards watch time.
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  None of that counts towards really organic building your channel.
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  And it actually can hurt your channel in the long run, a lot of ways.
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  And I wish I would have done things different, but I just really didn't know
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  what I was doing, honestly.
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  But I did want to describe before we get into this, and I'm going to go through
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  like what I paid for and all that and how all that happened and what kind of came of it.
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  But I did want to explain a little bit about the 3,000, 4,000 hour mark, what that even means.
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  Some people don't know necessarily, but at 3,000 hours or there's different
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  tiers, 3 million shorts views in 90 days.
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  It unlocks different things. You can get channel memberships.
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  People can pay monthly to support your channel and get perks,
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  super chats and super things, shopping and merch features, fan funding features.
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  So I've unlocked that because I've reached the 3,000 hour mark.
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  And then there's the 4,000 hour mark, which is the next tier.
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  It says that 4,000 hours plus 1,000 subscribers or 10 million shorts views in 90 days.
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  You can unlock ad revenue sharing, pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads,
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  display ads, YouTube premium revenue share, full monetization across your long form content.
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  So the big difference, 3,000 hours equals your audience can financially support you, 4,000 hours.
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  YouTube itself starts paying you
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  through ads. So that's kind of like the breakdown of what that all means.
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  And before I get into like the end of it where I'm going to go through actually
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  my, my, when I did the paid, paid ads, or you can do that on YouTube.
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  You can pay for ads, not, not really pay for ads. You can pay for impressions.
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  And whenever I was doing that, I was doing that for like a couple months or a few months.
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  And then I realized that none of it was counting towards any watch time.
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  If you're getting, if you're paying for your ad or I keep saying ads,
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  if you're paying for your impressions,
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  your views, it's really, you're paying for it to be
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  on YouTube and like in front and like in the recommended section
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  and where people can see and they can click into so you're
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  you're paying for those impressions those impressions those
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  watch time it doesn't count at all towards your watch time to get into these
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  tiers in youtube but let's without further ado i want to dive into actually
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  just showing my analytics and i'm gonna move uh so i mean this is this is i'm
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  gonna kind of move me around i was gonna see if i could actually move this around yeah okay you can,
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  I didn't know So you can see I can move myself on there I always was wondering
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  That like if I'm live Can I actually move myself On the screen I guess I can I guess you can.
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  So this is my YouTube studio. So if you're in YouTube, you can see,
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  you kind of control and see all the metrics that are coming in,
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  the views that are coming in, the comments that are coming in,
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  you can respond right away to them.
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  So that's where I'm at. And I, the longest time ago, like two years ago,
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  when I first started YouTube, I remember I started off and I,
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  the first video I did about analytics was like my second like podcast.
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  And I was at 45 subscribers, 45 subscribers.
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  Right now you can see i'm at 196,000 or 175
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  a lot of those pretty much most of
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  those was when i was running the the pro the impressions
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  or whatever you want to call i guess it's promotions that's what it's pretty
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  much called and it was just putting it in front of a lot of people you can kind
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  of do you want to get more views do you want to pay through youtube to get more
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  views or do you want to is your goal to get more subscribers i was choosing
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  subscribers i thought i thought like why why not why not try to get myself in
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  front of as many people as possible but really,
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  it actually doesn't, it doesn't, if your, if your channel was to just like sell a product, maybe,
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  but like, if you want to organically build your platform or your,
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  your reach and actually connect with people, it really, I don't think is the
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  best way. It can actually hurt your channel in the long run.
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  But I, so, okay, let's just dive into it. You can kind of see a couple of my
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  things. You can see comments, the most recent, most recent subscribers there.
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  This, people that just hear this, that are listening to the podcast, you can,
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  I'm not going to be able to say everything, but if you go to on YouTube and
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  you can see, you can actually see what I'm showing on there.
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  It might be a little bit easier to see everything.
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  So right now it says looking good and views right now in the last, this is the last 28 days.
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  You can see, I have 71,800 views.
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  So this is, this is not having run ads or promotions.
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  I have not done that since I think I promoted
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  and boosted 12 videos and that's what it
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  was at the beginning I was just wanting to like people aren't
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  seeing my content I think whenever I first started YouTube honestly I was
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  I thought the only people that were seeing my videos if I made a video I thought
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  it was the only people that I knew I wasn't even aware that YouTube would recommend
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  you or put you in front of people without like I thought you almost had to like
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  people had to know who you were.
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  You had to build an audience by sharing it on Facebook, sharing it on different
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  platforms to like get in front of people.
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  Like, so I thought the only people that were watching my videos were people
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  like that I'd shared on Facebook, like people I personally knew.
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  Probably none of those people were actually watching my stuff.
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  But like what YouTube does is you put out a video and it starts putting it in
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  front of a couple of different people.
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  And if they click into it, their whole thing is it's like click through rate.
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  If you, they click through it and then also how long they stay on the video
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  and that determines which like next the mechanism to put you in front of more
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  people so really it's an algorithm but it's it's determined by the people the
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  click through and then also how long they watch you.
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  But I'm just going to kind of just show a lot of this stuff on.
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  So this is kind of what analytics look like.
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  I don't know if you, these just show the most recent video. This is the overview actually right here.
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  But right now it says in the last, this is the last 28 days.
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  It says right now, 71,000 views, watch time, 767 hours.
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  And you can see all this is showing up and up and up. I would say like in the
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  last, like probably 10 days, my views and impress, like getting in front of
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  people has really dropped dramatically.
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  And I don't know if it's kind of like, because stuff I've said,
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  I don't know that stuff that I've, I don't know.
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  I'm kind of, I feel like I'm kind of in the doghouse a little bit,
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  but you can see the subscribers right there, negative two 31.
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  So since I had that major boost, which was of all the subscribers,
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  it has just went down and down and down and down but
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  i had to do that i had to change that i mean you could say it almost
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  kind of nuked my channel i don't know i don't it it's just a different way of
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  going about it i wish i would not have but then it's like you always also at
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  the same time you think like well i learned from it it's it's not exactly how
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  i intended i didn't even know what i was doing and instead of just.
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  Throwing this channel aside and starting a new one starting fresh which i mean
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  you can do that as well i mean that's it's everybody's thing but my channel
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  is my name it's like who i am so it's like i'm always probably going to have
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  it but maybe eventually later on i'll start another channel that i actually
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  go into and i actually know more what i'm even doing in the first place.
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  So i'm just going to kind of click around so you can just see i'll just put
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  it in front of here and you can just so this has content views so it just gives
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  a basic breakdown likes subscribers,
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  and just that shows just that where people are seeing you
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  so a lot of my stuff it's pretty much the majority of
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  it is from shorts feeds that's the way that because i do
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  a lot of shorts i the long form content i i create i
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  clip it up in opus clips and actually
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  i have a link in the description if anyone it's it's actually
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  an awesome app it's real it can take your long form
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  content and then it can like through like ai and how
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  it just splices it up and puts it out there that's really
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  how i get a lot of the views because that's why i cut up the big videos i
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  do and do that I'm just going to kind of bounce through this audience and
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  there was something I want to actually show you can kind of just see the negative
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  I'll just kind of click through so people can just see whether you're on here
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  you can always pause a video and just see actually where things are there was
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  something I actually wanted to see show on here in the last video,
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  It was something, it was just something in the last 10 days,
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  honestly, that it's just, it really has just went down.
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  And I'm like, what did I say 10 days ago that really screwed the pooch?
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  I guess. I don't know. They did something.
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  I did something. And I really don't, I don't cuss really. I don't say a lot of bad things.
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  I want to make my stuff more, you know, that it's people.
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  They don't have to watch because I guess if you're going to be in front of, I think that's why
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  YouTube probably saw that i was getting close to
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  that mark where they could start monetizing me or i could start
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  being monetized and like they really pull pull the brakes back like
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  almost it's like almost a teaching lesson you gotta like take i'm taking
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  everything like as what can
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  i get from it you know and it could be the best
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  thing for my channel could be the best thing teach me
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  how i'm what i'm doing what i need to correct what i
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  need to change actually i'm going to jump over to
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  so you can see that you can see it where is i'm kind of just saying
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  this is the live breakdown so you can see this is the subscriber count
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  so you can see in the last this is the last
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  month last 28 days but it's just slowly dwindling down
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  it's gone down and i think because a lot of it it
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  was that i put in front of people that really necessarily don't
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  watch my stuff anymore they don't really they don't because i've
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  in the past when i first got on youtube i would watch
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  something or subscribe to somebody but not necessarily go back
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  and find them you know i wasn't they it can
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  be just somebody you subscribe to i i've made
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  it so that like the people that i'm subscribed to is more like who i
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  really feel invested in who i really i i need to subscribe to them so i understand
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  that that's not like and really subscriptions and followers isn't the biggest
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  thing anymore it's it's more of an interest driven like all the platforms are
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  becoming more just interest driven where the interest is so this is my actual
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  video as you can see uh in the in the content section.
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  You can see, and you can see the likes, the dislikes. So in YouTube itself,
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  you can't actually see dislikes, but in YouTube studio, you can see it.
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  So these are my shorts videos.
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  Come through here. Cause I wanted to, this is where I'm actually live right now.
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  And you can see the right now. So like I was like for a while,
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  I was getting a lot of views. I was getting put in front of people doing hot topics.
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  But ever since, like, I think it was the Dan Bilzerian video, to be honest.
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  I think that that is what, whenever it was like that 12%, you know,
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  and a plane of a clip of him saying something like kind of crazy.
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  I think maybe that is what really tanked it really, really, uh,
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  shot me in the foot or whatever, because ever since then, it's just like,
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  it's not, and it's the same thing with TikTok.
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  Like on TikTok, I'm not necessarily getting, not necessarily getting in.
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  Like, I'm like, can't even go live really on there because I must, you have to be careful.
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  It's like you can maybe learn from someone's mistake i i but i maybe i just
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  screwed that up or whatever
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  be more careful what you put on youtube what you put on because it's
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  not necessarily they're going to cancel your channel or remove you but they
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  just won't show you to anyone you know and it's like when you're on youtube
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  it's like what do you necessarily you're not seeking a topic out usually it's
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  what's in front of you that you're going to watch all right so what am i even
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  trying to do i'm trying to get to okay so this over here you get further over
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  post playlist that you can see here's the promotions.
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  This is what I, and you can, if you're just listening to this, you can actually go.
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  So this is the, the, the videos that I promoted early on and back in 2024,
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  there's 12 total videos.
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  I'll actually start at the beginning. I started basically doing about almost
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  like $200 a video and it's basically you're paying for impressions.
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  And so at these, like I'd pay for like $200 and it would get you almost like a million impressions.
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  That's not guaranteed that somebody's going to click in and watch your video,
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  but you can see the impressions to the views, to how many subscribers gained from that.
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  And I'll just start from down here. These are the videos like early on.
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  I was just, and then you just think you're really growing, but it's not necessarily
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  you're growing organically.
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  You're growing because you're putting, you're paying to put yourself in front
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  of people instead of it letting the video itself.
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  And I'll just put this in front of you so you can kind of see it instead of
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  just the video itself being good and people clicking in people watching.
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  And that kicks the mechanisms, the algorithm. So it puts into more people and
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  then in front of more people.
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  And that's kind of the best way so right here you kind of you can
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  see how you can all you all if you are watching this
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  you can see it it's all in front of you right there and up to
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  the the highest one i paid for was you
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  know 1300 and i got almost 10 million impressions
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  for so from that that was like but but most
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  of videos were just like 200 200 200 i think they're
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  pretty much all 200 there's two videos that i paid more
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  than that to put in front of people but i really didn't
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  know what i was doing and then i realized none of that was counting at all
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  towards organic watch time to to grow
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  the channel to actually and it kind of really really
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  set me back and i had to just and that was back in i think i
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  stopped back in probably september of 2024 and ever
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  since then i've kind of just re re maneuvered everything
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  so that's pretty much it that's i wanted to go through
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  basic analytics i think i've showed like most of i
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  don't know what else it really is like this is oh this is this might be good
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  right here i wanted to find that one analytic where it actually shows real time
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  here's more stuff you can just see based on every video you can see like where
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  people are watching the impressions so right here i wish i wonder if i could
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  filter it by just like long form content.
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  But itself these are ones that it's like
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  the ones that have done well but not necessarily not necessarily the
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  ones that are most recent for me like so
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  like for a while i was doing like and i was getting a
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  lot more just organic regular views and click
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  through i think that my click through rate has been pretty good it's just something
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  i did something i said and it's like can you ever get back in youtube's good
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  graces we shall find out i'm i mean i'm not a person like if like I don't necessarily
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  like I'm doing this for a lot of reasons but really because it's just like I like doing it and I like.
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  I guess being real and being just like, what is the word? I'm trying to think
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  of the word I'm trying to think of self-expression.
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  Maybe that's what it is. Self-expression.
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  I like doing it. It's just, and it's really caused me to grow,
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  really caused me to even think through what I even think about certain things.
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  And every video I look back, I'm like, man, that was really stupid. Why did I say that?
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  A lot of the stuff, a lot of the stuff that I say, I say, and even mid saying
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  it, I'm like, man, this is sounds so stupid.
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  I'm saying, but because I guess it's the being able to think through it and
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  get it out of your mouth, but then it doesn't come out the exact way that you're
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  wanting that I'm wanting a lot of the times.
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  And it doesn't even, I don't even represent myself that well because it's coming
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  out wrong, if that makes sense.
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  But it's all, it's, I think every video it's shaped me.
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  It's helped me to get better and more clear
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  in what I think and more clear and try to articulate what
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  i believe so that's kind of that's really
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  it i don't know if there's much i think i've jumped through it's hard
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  for me like to click through and all this and like actually find the stuff that
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  i was wanting to show but like that was the main stuff like i just kind of wanted
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  to go through there and how i've i think uh exposed whatever i showed whatever
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  like it's been kind of odd at times it's i think i've learned a lot and i'm
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  i i i think it's being fresh being,
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  I want to feel like transparent, like, yeah, this is, there's nothing to hide.
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  This is who I am. This is what I am. So people like, I don't think,
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  I think you can show, you don't need to hide anything. I don't need to hide anything.
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  So I don't know if this all sounds weird. I think every video,
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  I, I hope I'm improving. I hope I'm getting better at what I'm doing.
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  It's a lot of times you don't feel like it, but I think you got to look at like
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  almost the, instead of the day by day, but like month by month,
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  year by year kind of thing.
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  So two years into this and that's where I'm at.
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  I've learned a lot. I, I, for anyone that does watch and jump in,
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  I really appreciate, I, I love you being there.
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  I love talking to you. I love you sharing this journey with me.
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  And so we'll leave it at that. I hope you have had a good Memorial weekend and
• 16:55
  I'll see y'all in the next one. See y'all.