I'm With Stupid
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 6 May 2013
- Messages
- 20,556
It depends on the platform. Typically followers mean nothing except by increasing the number of people who might see your videos. There are loads of channels on Youtube that have millions of followers, but still only get a few hundred thousand views when they release a new video. On Youtube, watch time and click through are king, because that's how they show adverts. If you can keep someone watching for 30 minutes, they will see 3 adverts in that time. If you can get them to click, they'll see at least one advert before even watching. It's also why it pays way more than Tiktok. I was listening to a podcast with some Youtubers discussing how much Tiktok accounts with billions of views were making and comparing it to how much they are making with far less views, and they said it was fuck all. But then you have brand deals, merchandise, patreon, and all sorts of other ways to make money. But all require extra work, and in many cases, hiring staff. They're probably not designing their own merch, for example.
But with all of these sorts of things, there's a constant pressure to produce content, because of the way the algorithm works. People who are consistent will get viewed more, and then recommended more by the algorithm assuming people don't click past. Content creators often create extra videos in advance of holidays so that their channel doesn't have a period of no uploads, because they can be punished for it by the algorithm. There's a big problem with burnout for these kinds of people because they often don't feel like they can take a break. Every successful, high-quality channel I know about on Youtube eventually has a team behind it. Most creators will start doing everything themselves, but eventually they hire an editor and maybe a camera operator depending on the type of content.
There are quite a lot of good videos talking about how it all works, but obviously it's all constantly changing too as the platforms work out what gets the most engagement.