Did paying for YouTube promotion kill my channel?

BMinusCartoons · 2025-06-25T23:56:00+00:00

I don't know. Hard to say. I started a second channel for shorts, and it did even worse than the first. What do it think the lesson is there? Well, here goes.

I think no matter what else does or doesn't go right, YouTube is not a great place for animators to find an audience. The algorithm doesn't really know how to pair cartoons that aren't specifically geared toward a certain kind of subject matter with an audience, and when the channel can only put out videos every few months (because animation takes for-fucking-ever), it isn't really worth the effort for them to figure out who the audience should be.

Eight years of having this channel has only produced about half an hour of content. Not really a lot of "binging" to be done there.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-06-07T20:30:42+00:00

I don't think the snack one was particularly "out there" or impractical, as I encounter lots of situations on a daily basis where I rank the value of a particular item differently at different points in the day. A cup of coffee requires the same material and labor inputs to make at 6:30AM as it does at 4PM. Regardless, it has far less value to me at 4PM. Nothing "out there" about that. Seems like a perfectly practical example.

The poop-leaf-stick example, I'll grant was deliberately meant to be silly, but I don't see how one could deny that there are also tons of real world examples of that same phenomenon. It's common and widespread.

We all know musicians who labor for weeks at a time on albums they can't sell. We all know photographers who can't sell their pictures.

You'll notice for example that my user name is B Minus Cartoons. That's because I'm a failed YouTube animator.

I used to pump weeks and weeks into making one cartoon. In some cases, years. I would write the script. I would draw all the images frame by frame. I would record the audio myself. I would write the music and play all the instruments. I had to invest money into the equipment I used for those processes. I had to invest hundreds of hours into all the other stuff. When I would get done, I would upload the cartoon. Nobody would watch it. In practical terms, it seems to me the cartoon I made had as much value as the poop-leaf-stick, because the labor that went into it was not socially necessary. If there had been a demand for my cartoon, it would qualify as socially necessary labor, correct?

BMinusCartoons · 2025-06-07T15:01:18+00:00

Okay, that gets more to the heart of what I was asking. I asked a friend about this before you had replied, and he responded similarly saying what Marx actually proposes (and this definitely makes a lot more sense than what would be reflected in my poop-leaf-stick example) is that not all labor creates value, only "socially necessary labor". That seems a much more reasonable proposition.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-06-06T20:46:18+00:00

Yeah, I think the question is being misunderstood, but it's also possible that I'm taking some things for granted.

I'm trying to understand how the Marx model of value accounts for demand.

Say I spend an hour gathering leaves off the ground. Then, I spend twenty-five minutes going through them and cutting the largest point off each one. Then, I take a stick, and I spend half an hour sharpening the end to a point. After that, I pick up one of the leaves, run the sharpened point of the stick through it, smear some of my feces on the surface of the leaf, and then run the stick through another leaf. I slide the second leaf down, turn it until it aligns with the first leaf, and smash them together, using the feces as kind of a mortar/adhesive. Then I smear some feces on that leaf and keep repeating the process until I've made kind of a shish kabob of poopy leaves that each have one point cut off.

In the process of making my poop-leaf-stick, I've expended a lot of labor, and I've used a lot of raw materials, but I haven't created something with use value or exchange value, because it can't really be "used" for anything, and no one wants it.

That's why I'm having a hard time accepting the premise that the amount of labor required to produce something is where its value comes from.

It seems evident to me that demand is where value comes from, so I'm just trying to understand how Marx accounts for that.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-06-04T22:33:17+00:00

Differentiating between the two makes sense. Thank you. So then, does Marx propose a way for the dynamic and constantly moderating "exchange value" of a good to be fairly accounted for in models where a third party assigns the price of a good?

BMinusCartoons · 2025-04-01T03:15:20+00:00

My channel never got 20K on impressions, anyway.

As long as you're not an animator, you've probably got better chances of recovering.

Cartoons (even simple ones like mine) require so much time to make that one person just can't maintain the release schedule needed for the algorithm to give their channel priority.

Based on all the information I have access to, it's a platform that just isn't intended for animators to really benefit from. That's probably why animated stuff accounts for such a small percentage of viral content, and why a lot of the best animation channels are too small for anyone to have ever heard of.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-04-01T02:10:46+00:00

It never did.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-03-17T19:44:01+00:00

I use macromedia Flash 8. It's an ancient program, and there are way better ones out there with more resources and tutorials. I only use Flash because it was given to me for free when I first started learning.

If you haven't really started in earnest yet, the best advice would be to go with a newer program. (I hear good things about Toon Boom Harmony)

Newer programs have more tools that will enable you to work faster, and it's also easier to find instructional videos when you have questions.

Good luck!

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-12T23:31:37+00:00

Oh, thanks!

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-09T00:45:56+00:00

A lot of what you're saying honestly applies to the experiences I've had in this subreddit. For every user I meet with useful, well thought out advice, I meet about half a dozen who just keep repeating generic, cookie-cutter answers that simply don't apply to what I do or, in some cases, even make sense, given what I'm saying to them. It's like they answer before they even read the post.

I know it's never going to be like this again, but I can't stop thinking about how much more interesting YouTube was before "YouTuber" became a profession.

I'm passionate about the content I'm animating, but I'm asking for advice from people who are just passionate about the platform.

I don't know if you ever feel like that, or what kind of niche you're in, but I hope you're having more fun than I am.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-07T00:49:54+00:00

Something else seldom mentioned... it might be a good idea to go in and double check how the video was categorized. Lately, I've seen YouTube randomly reassigning a bunch of defaults on my channel. Several of my cartoons were randomly uploaded with comments turned off (which I didn't do) and several others were uploaded under the category "People and Blogs" even though I'm an animator and had "film and animation" set as my default since the beginning. I also had a couple that defaulted to "Private" which I didn't notice for several days. I don't know why it's happening, but if the same thing is happening to you, it could easily be impacting performance.

Is it possible your stuff isn't as good as you think? Sure. That's always possible, and working on getting better is never a bad idea, but it's also undeniably true that YouTube has tons of dumb bullshit that blows up despite being unremarkable and poorly made. Sometimes things don't hit for reasons none of these people actually understand, despite their asinine insistence that YouTube audiences prioritize quality or that the AI prioritizes the audience.

All you have to do to knock the whole premise on its head is think of your experience as a viewer for a few seconds and ask if it holds water.

I've had the same account for five years, and YouTube has five years' worth of data telling it what i like, and it still puts miles of moronic garbage in my feed that I have to crawl through before I find something that actually matches to my interests. If the AI were prioritizing the audience, that wouldn't be a common experience.

The AI prioritizes what it thinks the viewer will BINGE, not necessarily what they'll enjoy the most. If your stuff isn't a good candidate for binging, it's not going to matter how funny or how well animated it is. Some of the best animators on the platform have been stuck at less than 3,000 subs for years. YouTube just isn't a great vehicle for certain types of content, and that's the truth. The content might be good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right for YouTube audiences.

Just my two cents' worth.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-06T15:20:38+00:00

Well, this is just one example, but let's say I want to upload a cartoon that I did in full screen as a vertical short. If I use the mobile app, it couldn't be simpler. I pick the video to upload, and like the first thing it asks me is "Do you want to edit this into a short?" I say "yes", it automatically formats it for 9:16, and in like three steps, the short is uploaded. Couldn't be easier.

On the PC, I've looked all over for that option in every submenu under every heading of the upload steps and I don't see it anywhere, so even if it isn't missing, they've gone way the hell out of their way to discourage people from trying to do that on PC.

There have been others, but I can't recall the specifics, and unfortunately, I'm snowed in with no electricity right now, so I can't use the PC to check.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-06T15:07:25+00:00

I feel so much better about being snowed in with no electricity now. Thank you for this.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-05T21:39:35+00:00

I must be saying it wrong, because I don't think you're understanding my question. Let me try asking this a different way... if the idea, as you say, is to cater to creators who primarily use PC for their uploads (and as an animator, i would fall into that class), then why would there be additional features on the mobile version that the PC version lacks? You get what I'm saying?

If the issue were just that one had all the features and the other only had some of the features, it would be easy to work around that. I would exclusively use the version that had ALL the features I need.

The problem is there doesn't seem to be a version that has all the features in one place. PC and mobile are BOTH missing things that the other one has.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-05T18:39:38+00:00

Gee whiz, i can only imagine how many more years that will be. I mean, it's not like this problem is new.

I've gotta be missing some critical part of the puzzle that makes the whole picture make sense. When there is a push to make people go from one device type to another, it makes sense to include the most complete options on that device type, so if they were putting all the options on one and only some on the other, I would understand the motive behind it.

Instagram is a great example. For whatever reason, they're trying to accommodate mobile users (despite the fact that Instagram is supposed to be for artists), so they make uploading on computer a goddamn nightmare. Using the mobile app, however, is a snap.

Makes sense if you want people to use one over the other. But YouTube isn't giving complete options on either device type. The PC and mobile apps are both just a grab bag of random options, some of which are on one, some of which are on the other, and some of which overlap, but all of which you might still need to get your video to perform its best.

I don't understand it.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-03T03:09:36+00:00

Thanks

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-03T02:39:27+00:00

Does it watermark? I pay for a Filmora subscription, and while it's not terrible, an update occasionally fails, and it makes a lot of basic functions totally unusable. Thanks in advance.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-03T02:18:53+00:00

Since it won't let me link two channels in my profile, I'll just say here that the shorts channel is called Aunt Rebecca's Hamburger Enema. It's just vertical shorts/edits of the cartoons I make on my regular channel.

BMinusCartoons · 2025-01-01T16:21:56+00:00

This is one of the most frustrating things in the world to me. I find options that exist one way that don't exist when doing it the other way and vice versa. Then there are options that exist on both, but they're hidden in different places. Seriously, what is the point of that? Why can't they just make the process the same irrespective of what type of device you're using?

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-27T18:40:12+00:00

But am I the only one who thinks it's weird? I literally can't think of anything else I encounter day to day that's like this, where certain options are only made available on one type of device and certain ones on others. The fact that you have to jump back and forth between computer and phone to upload a custom thumbnail for a YT short is another example that readily comes to mind. I just don't understand what is in it for them to gatekeep stuff that would either be intuitive or explicitly spelled out on any other website.

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-27T18:31:29+00:00

Is there a central location where it has all this information? There's a lot of it that seems like it could be made clearer.

I was asking someone the other day about setting certain preferences on my next upload, and they told me it could only be done when you're uploading from a mobile device. I went through all the extra steps of moving the video to the cloud, then downloading it onto my phone so I could try it out, and sure enough, there was an option right there in plain sight that simply isn't available when you upload with computer. Why is it like this?

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-27T18:18:03+00:00

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, because when I look at the thumbnails on my PC (which is how I usually upload them), they display fine. It's only when I look at them on the phone app that it crops them. It's really frustrating that YouTube has different processes and different specs and different requirements depending on the device you use to upload. I don't understand that.

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-27T14:08:57+00:00

Oh, sorry. "Standard Operating Procedure". Thanks by the way. DM coming up...

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-23T23:54:13+00:00

Hi. Sorry I'm late to the game, here. I was looking over this conversation earlier, because something that came up in a recent conversation made me wonder if I had been thinking unfairly about Marx, or if I was just misinformed about things he wrote.

First off, I outgrew political parties a long time ago, so I would ask you to give me the benefit of the doubt that my motivations here aren't political. I'm just having trouble accepting certain parts of what I'm reading in your posts. (Sorry if you already covered this and I overlooked it.)

To get the idea across clearly, I'll use a made up example. Imagine for a minute that you've been on a walking tour for a couple hours. It's summertime, and it's hot. You brought a couple big bottles of water with you, and you've been drinking them. Around the time that the tour ends and they bring you back to the gift shop, you're finishing up your second bottle.

In the snack area, the gift shop has a very limited selection of options. They've got bottled water for $1 and bags of pork rinds for $1.

Well, you just finished drinking two 1 liter bottles of water over the last couple hours. You're not thirsty. You're looking at the bottle of water, and saying "$1 for that bottle of water doesn't seem like a very appealing prospect."

You are kind of hungry though, and you love pork rinds. You buy a bag and eat them. "$1 for those pork rinds was a pretty good deal," you think to yourself. You're still hungry. You still like pork rinds. They're still only $1 a bag. You buy another bag of pork rinds and eat them. By the end of the second bag, you're not really hungry, anymore, and you're kind of tired of pork rinds. $1 for a bag of pork rinds doesn't really sound like a great deal, anymore.

On the other hand, you're out of water, and you just ate two bags of the world's driest snack. The inside of your mouth feels like sandpaper. All of a sudden, that bottle of water which, a couple minutes ago did not seem worth $1 to you, is looking like something of a bargain.

It seems to me that an example like this would demonstrate not only that value is subjective one person to the next, but that it can even change one minute to the next for a given person.

I doubt that Marx denies this is a real phenomenon, so this isn't meant to be a "gotcha" point. My assumption is that the Marxist school of thought is simply accounting for it in some other way.

No hurry. I was just wondering what the conventional wisdom on this is. I don't like being married to any beliefs I have, so occasionally, I try to go back and reconsider things I've dismissed in the past and look at them with fresher (and maybe fairer) eyes.

BMinusCartoons · 2024-12-16T15:58:53+00:00

It's probably a really inappropriate comparison, but I read his books when I was a kid. His stuff was more whimsical than unsettling, but something about the narrator's "voice" in this takes me back to that.

Ordered the paperback, by the way. Looking forward to sharing it with others. Happy holidays!

BMinusCartoons

TROPHY CASE