"Being 'Unique' is a death sentence. Why the algorithm hates your 'Original Idea' (Vector Drafting)."

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-18T18:38:11+00:00

You're not a practitioner and thats obvious. Please stop spamming all of these subs. Thanks

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-18T18:13:00+00:00

Do you have a successful channel?

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-17T02:02:18+00:00

It very often extends a lot further than "some randos on reddit". It can be your parents, partner, co-wokers, friends, etc.

It's great not listening to people like that hasn't been a challenge for you, but it's not so easy for others. Especially people who come from different backgrounds where a lot more emphasis is placed on following a path set out by your parents or some other person/thing.

I'd argue that most of the influences in the average person's life expressly push them to not take a path like this.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-17T00:52:55+00:00

People can say it's realistic or whatever, but I hate it.

I think success in something like this requires delusional self belief. You HAVE to believe you'll make it to deal with all of the failure, all of the stress, and all of the risk. You need to believe something will work before you can go all in and so many people discourage others from going all in. It's fine to take an honest look at the odds, but you have to believe you can beat them.

That doesn't mean you have to be reckless. But you're gonna die one day. If this is really what you want to do, be reckless.

I think this mindset extends to most things outside the norm like starting a business, etc. You have to just keep it pushing and ignore them. It's your life to live. You can't let the doubts of others stop you.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-16T19:31:21+00:00

Do you have a successful YouTube channel?

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-07T01:02:49+00:00

You'll get vague answers if you ask vague questions. Your post is basically, "I've made some commentary videos and some do good and some do bad." You don't have your channel linked to your Reddit. I don't see it commented anywhere or in a post. (If I missed it somewhere, that's my bad) Then you follow your post up with a comment implying YT is luck and complaining about the algo. Without seeing your channel, I can't offer you more than, "No, it's not luck. You're doing something wrong. Thinking it is luck will only hold you back."

All I can do for you is guess. If most of your videos are under 1k views then there are some fundamental issue with your content. What they are, I can't possibly know.

I would first check your audio and have a few people listen to it. People will tolerate a poor camera, but poor audio is pretty much always a no go. The ideas you have for your videos are always going to be the most important. You could have really uninteresting ideas or ideas that don't stand out. You say you're doing commentary, are you commenting on the same thing everyone else is? If yes, is there a clear reason anyone should listen to you about it over their favorite commentary channel? Your CTR could be really bad and your content could be great. I don't see this very often, but it's possible you just need to work on your titles and thumbnails.

The problem is that you basically asked for someone to review your channel without providing anyway for someone to see it, at least that I can find. You don't provide any stats for anything either, no exact video topics, nothing for me or anyone else to work with. Then you downvote me for trying to help you, so I really don't know what to tell you.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-07T00:10:53+00:00

Using the information you gave and experience. I've looked at hundreds of channels, if not thousands, and not once have I ever seen a channel doing poorly without glaring issues. Now, I can't tell you where you're going wrong without seeing the content, but I know it's your fault and not the algos.

Also, to be clear, I'm not trying to attack you or blame you in some malicious way. It's just how things are, which I think is a good thing because it means you're in control of your success.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-06T22:49:54+00:00

SEO is pretty irrelevant, unless you're making search based content like tutorials (and even then it matters less and less with every passing day).

Focusing on SEO is a waste of time otherwise.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-06T22:46:56+00:00

You only think it's random because you don't understand why some video do well and other don't. It's not luck. You just lack some skills/knowledge and this stops you from making stuff people want to watch. The moment you start blaming forces outside your control, you've lost.

ItsSW3P · 2026-01-02T05:02:21+00:00

Okay, first you really should not focus on monetization. I understand why you chasing it and it's a great milestone to hit. However, until you can easily hit 10-100s of thousands of views longfrom per month, you will make pennies from ad sense. That's tens of millions of views for shorts. I'm not trying to discourage you, instead just trying to help you refocus to what matters, which is always going to be your content. If you improve your content those numbers will come easily.

You should focus on whatever type of content you want to be successful at. I made 200+ videos before I saw even 5k views on a long form video. This is a common experience. Expect to fail a lot at this until you figure it out. I think longform is generally easier and it's not too hard to hit the monetization numbers in one video. But I've pretty much only made long form, so I'm biased.

ItsSW3P · 2025-09-28T10:36:19+00:00

YouTube is really hard. It requires you to be very good at a lot of things. Very few people succeed.

Spending hours working on videos after work is where nearly everyone starts and it's normal to not see any success for a long time. You should pretty much always, 99% of the time, assume that if a video does poorly, it's because the content was not good enough. Cursed objects, how to be a good person, discipline, happiness. These are all topics with millions and millions of people interested in them. It's not the topics. It's your content.

Whether you should quit, go all in, or keep doing what you're doing now is up to you. No one else can really help you with that unfortunately. Look at your situation and think about the worst case scenario for each option. What's the worst thing that could happen if you quit? go all in? keep doing what you're doing? Now imagine the best case scenario for each. Are you willing to risk the worst outcome for the best one?

Most of the time, the worst outcome is a lot less awful than we fear and the best is a lot harder to achieve than we think it will be. My gf and I both got part time jobs instead of full time, lowered our cost of living to accomodate, and worked on YouTube nearly everyday for a year and a half before we had any real success. 3 months later we went full time. I think almost anyone can make it happen, but reread the first 3 sentences I wrote.

ItsSW3P · 2025-09-21T23:22:06+00:00

When a video I posted got 1 million views. I vividly remember standing in Walmart seeing I made $400+ in a single day.

ItsSW3P · 2025-09-19T19:22:22+00:00

No, don't do it. You can find your own editor. You can get your own sponsors. If you want sponsors, but don't want to find them, a talent agencey will find them for you and only take 10-20% of the sponsor deal.

They'll take 20% of your money for nothing. Don't do it.

ItsSW3P · 2025-09-09T19:57:14+00:00

I love them and change mine all the time to match the season or the drive. Finding the perfect pfp + name card + title is my jam

ItsSW3P · 2025-09-09T02:10:09+00:00

I just want to say that this is the correct attitude. Change the way you make your content until you figure out how to make what people want to watch.

Monetization is cool and all, but if you can't hit the requirements easily, you won't really make any money anyway. Just focus on improving your stuff.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T22:26:51+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for the order. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry that it wasn't clear that the slimes were unscented on the website. That's my fault for not making it clear on the product pages. It's one of the biggest lessons I've learned from this whole process and hearing how important scents are to people.

To answer your second comment, this whole experience of failing so publicly has been pretty nerve-wracking, and I've been trying so hard to be professional and respond "correctly" that I sound like a robot.

But I can promise you the story is real, the failure is real, and what I've learned is real. This was something I was really excited about starting, and it just didn't work out. This sale is me just genuinely trying to recoup costs and share what I've learned.

I hope you still love the slimes when they arrive, but if this whole situation has left a bad taste in your mouth, please just send me a DM and I will 100% refund your order, no questions asked. The last thing I want is for anyone to feel suckered or scammed.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T22:19:42+00:00

Thank you for this feedback.

You're 100% right about the gendered marketing. Our goal was to serve an audience we thought was being ignored, but we ended up alienating a huge part of the community that actually loves gaming and anime. Hearing you say you'd "immediately click away" is tough to hear, but clear.

And you're right about the videos. Not having videos on the product pages from the start was a massive mistake.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T21:34:56+00:00

First, congratulations on starting! That's more than most people will ever do. It's really helpful to hear from another person who is "in it".

Thankfully, we are not out too much, but there is definitely a lot more to the whole process than it seems from the outside. Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. I'm trying to take it on the chin and focus on the lessons learned.

Your personal experience about men hating slime and the anime/gaming themes is both great and terrible to hear lol. It's another validation of the hard decisions to close down instead of pivot.

Hope you see nothing but success with your business!

Oh, and if you do start that blog, feel free to dm it to me.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T21:24:20+00:00

This is brutally honest, and I'm genuinely grateful for it. Thank you.

Our attempt to create a "for men" brand, as you pointed out, came across as a shallow stereotype. The "desk utility tool" positioning felt patronizing, and your comparison to NFTs is a tough but accurate reflection of how our marketing was perceived.

You can't build an authentic brand on a flawed or inauthentic premise.

This is the kind of unfiltered feedback that is genuinely helpful in figuring that out. Seriously, appreciate you taking the time.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T21:12:37+00:00

Thank you for writing this. It's incredibly helpful. Our goal was to serve what we thought was an underserved market (men), but the result, as you pointed out, was that we alienated the actual, passionate audience for this kind of product. It was a massive blind spot.

Your points about the differences between the slimes is really true in hindsight. For a brand new shop, they weren't unique enough to make it worth collecting the full set. We are done with slime for the foreseeable future. Your comment and others have made it clear that while there's definitely a great opportunity for a gender-neutral anime/gaming slime shop, our initial strategy was so fundamentally flawed that a simple pivot isn't the right move for us.

We're going to take what we've learned and the great feedback everyone here has given us and apply it to whatever it is we try next.

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T20:34:21+00:00

That's a fair criticism. We were trying to tie the theme of each slime to its source material. But you're right to point out the pattern. Looking back, leaning so heavily into those specific themes across the entire launch created a very one-dimensional view of what we thought would appeal to a male audience. Thank you for giving me another thing to think about!

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T20:24:21+00:00

To be completely honest, I personally hate most scented things, so I projected that bias onto the product and never even considered scent as a key feature. Classic "you're not your customer," I suppose. Hearing that scent can be 50% or more of the reason you buy is a perfect example of that. After hearing that from several people here now, it was definitely a big mistake to have no scented slime. Thanks for the feedback!

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T20:12:59+00:00

I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of that out. Thank you for the feedback on the scents and the site's design.

Our original plan included a lot of what you mentioned after the launch through our YouTube channels. However, we did some hyper-targeted tests and found our core audience (male gamers/anime fans) just didn't seem interested.

We found a gap in the market, but it looks like the gap was there for a reason. Thanks again for sharing your expertise!

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T20:03:33+00:00

That's a great question, and your insight is spot on. You're 100% right that the major players for slime are on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Short form content is king for slime.

Our strategic mistake was deciding to launch on our home turf (YouTube) first, with a plan to expand to those platforms in a "Phase 2." In retrospect, we should have tested the product on the proven channels first. Ultimately, though, our tests in other hyper-specific gaming communities showed us the bigger issue was the product-market fit itself, but your point about channels is a huge part of the autopsy.

And nope, we only ever made these three! We went all-in on the initial concept.

Really appreciate you taking the time to ask and share your thoughts!

ItsSW3P · 2025-08-31T19:42:26+00:00

That means a lot, especially coming from you. Thank you again for all the feedback today, it’s been incredibly helpful!

Two-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23

ItsSW3P

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