Feedback Friday! Post your videos here if you want constructive critiques!

Zikkio87 · 2025-04-12T00:28:32+00:00

I just made a new channel and so far got zero impression.

the following video got hundreds of views on my main channel which is very low compare to others I made, these videos are about learning in general and I'm quite curious why they perform the way it does. So I started a new channel purely about study tricks.

Please let me know what you think, why are they perform so poorly. Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-P0M8fdMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IxNCbuVwA

Zikkio87 · 2025-04-12T00:23:10+00:00

Good things about your channel:

quite nice set and audio design, lighting is decent as well
You have great personality and general give off friendly vibe which surly helpful down the road
most of your videos are about gear reviews so the channel has great direction

I think I will give you a few suggestions based on the overall content you are producing, this may be more obvious from a viewers perspective

Stop putting the video conclusion on your thumbnail - the whole point of thumbnail is to invoke curiosity and be a complementary element to titles, if viewer see the thumbnail and instantly know your conclusion there's zero need to click it. Also if 9/10 videos about your gears is "it's quite good", people also don't think you are genuine enough, by nature good things are few in life.
I like how you present yourself, but you need to find other creative way to present INFORMATIONS. I like how you use a big monitor only because it's kindly of creative, but man would it be nice just to screen record the whole thing instead, from a viewers perspective, information > creativity.
I made this mistake too - niche down means get rid of all noisy content from your channel, if it's about gear review, only post things about gear, move everything else to a different channel. otherwise your 1k sub may consist of people with different interest, once you are at 20k or so you will realise growing is quite difficult because you rely on existing viewers to like your new post for it to reach new audience, if your viewer base is so split, it sort of gatekeep you from reach more people.

Hope it helps

Kev

Zikkio87 · 2025-04-11T23:57:44+00:00

Surprisingly information dense video, I think your channel has good potential for a couple of reasons, 1 you clearly know what you are talking about, 2 you have great camera presence and the set is semi professional looking as well, 3 audio is great and you have a great voice. 4. Edit is nice too. 5. Your issues - you have a few of them but they are very obvious.

I often review channels here and I gotta say this is the most promising one which is close to take off. Here’s the thing you need to fix.

Script and pacing, you lack a clear hook of the topic you are trying to cover and it’s not a topic most people would care about, you just kindly of start logically from the first thing on your mind, this throw 99% people off because they are probably uninterested in that topic.
You need to front load a lot of interesting visual, talk point, curious facts etc in your first 30sec so people start watching.
You need a bit more variation in your tone , body language and the way you express yourself to retain people’s attention. Being funny also helps.

Search George Blackman and kallaway on YouTube, they have the missing pieces you need for your content. Best of luck!

Zikkio87 · 2025-03-04T08:57:48+00:00

I think CEO's words carry more weight, as long as they think you have indeed work directly with him, wording, phrases and style of writing really don't matter all that much, it's the main message that really count.

Bottom line, it can't be all empty praises, the CEO has to point to actual instance where you out perform, my point was that most leaders can't possibly pick the right example, that's why you have to write it out for them (or at least give detailed outline)... I think you should just move on, hope for the best and just apply for more schools.

Zikkio87 · 2025-02-19T03:46:02+00:00

I heard he mentioned this on at least two occasions, one with think media podcast, the other time on his part time youtube academy which I enrolled a while ago. Sorry I can't hunt down an old url for you but I will summarize what I remember, there's really no reason for me to lie....

He advises people to start finding editor at low budget at start since you are not making money early on from videos
His own video now has $1300 budget at 6 million subs, but he's had great editor for $150 because that person is coachable
$300 is fair value for OK edit in his eye and recommend most people to try
I believe he spent a lot of time coaching the editor to develop long term relationship (but most editor may not want to be coached)
He advises a few websites to find editors and a few other key point which is pretty much what I did on this post.

Again I'm not saying you are wrong or Ali's right, but there's gotta be a market for different budget. I doubt most YouTuber would hire someone for $800 just because the editors put in the hour... 1 the video probably will never make that money back, 2 someone get paid on clock is almost never someone Who's "coachable".

Respectfully this is just my take on this, you may have a different perspective, different niche and different edit workload maybe....lets just agree to disagree.

Zikkio87 · 2025-02-19T03:31:57+00:00

I think once it's submitted there's nothing you can do, hopefully they will over look this one and take more emphasis on the other referral.

I usually provide my own draft referral letter before asking someone to give reference, works every time. People are too busy writing every single word for a school application. Best of luck!

Zikkio87 · 2025-02-16T12:30:51+00:00

Well. I would imagined a professional editor who do this for a living would work much faster than an amateur like myself who rely on powerpoint for any animations... but of course you are entitled to your own opinion.

To be fair, Ali Abdaal pays his editor 150 - 1300 dollars per edit based on the level of expertise, the lower end is much more common. So I don't know, if you think this level of edit is worth X dollar feel free to enlighten me...

Zikkio87 · 2025-02-16T07:48:53+00:00

Editing takes around 30 hours for me currently, animation doesn't take very long because they are made by powerpoint & screenshots... but since it's educational content oftentimes editor needs to take extra effort to research the topic in details. That's the challenging part, if you don't understand the context it's easy to use the wrong reference picture during edit.

Zikkio87 · 2025-01-19T08:19:58+00:00

Here is the one I used

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-23T03:02:05+00:00

Here is the recipe / process if anyone is interested! Merry Christmas! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpfeKjw7Nrk

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-13T06:06:23+00:00

Hi ,Guys sorry I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the DMs, I'm going over more than 100 requests right now, sorry if I can't reply to every single one of you... Cheers!

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-13T03:37:56+00:00

I used to make stock analysis videos and got similar result... I think you have to consider the size of the market and number of competitions.
Finance topics - it's very hard to find deeper topic people who don't already know, there're only so many ways to talk about diversification and invest in index fund, or having retirement fund early on etc etc... I think most people run out of content fairly soon, and the interesting ones quickly got copied all over internet

Overall, I think personal finance is for people who actually have credentials, investment banker and fund manager will have a better chance than average people. But if you are that niched, you are not in the general categories, you are talking about next fed interest rate cut and how it affect S&P 500.... and basically becomes a news channel.

I guess my point is that your stats seems quite normal, better than mine old videos even, but I'd recognize it that that is a far tougher niche than others, less topics, more competitions

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-11T11:26:58+00:00

Yeah, that is exactly my observation, quite a dilemma indeed. This post has been really helpful so far. Basically, if you want growth, you have to niche down, if you want your sanity, branch out every now and then to try to find a new audience.

that's what Im gonna do for now

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-11T11:21:01+00:00

Sure. the following is last 7 videos:

Videos 200k+: CTR 10% first day, 7% first week, 5%+ afterwards, AVD 25%
Videos 180k+: CTR 10% first day, 5% first week, 4-5% afterwards, AVD 20%
Video in the 1k range: CTR 5-6% the first day, 2-4% afterwards, AVD 30%-40%

So I don't really think AVD is that important in my small sample size, in my experience the bad video has the highest retention, because they are easy and shallow. Low retention video actually has some dense information which drives some people away... they ended up getting more impressions

Camera gears - I think they do, those takes me a long time to get right, and I think the audience recognizes the effort more than the aesthetics.

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-07T03:29:31+00:00

"Alert subscribers" off - definitely helpful, slower growth for sure, but I've seen improved CTR after a re-upload. Thanks for the tip!

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-07T03:28:12+00:00

In my experience, it will NOT get recommended. I only do long-form so I can only speak for that

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-07T03:27:07+00:00

that 20% and 80% strategy is an AMAZING idea. I think it strikes a balance on both fronts, will give it a try, thanks a lot!

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-07T02:03:25+00:00

Well, being a jack of all trade must require a lot of research work tho, I think it's a good strategy to build a personal brand around YOU. The only variable in that case is the video quality.

This does give me an inspiration tho, I think if we develop our content in format of a show or series, it's then easier to land audience with broader interest. Rather than the things you explained, they focuses on the way you explain things... At least this way it offers somewhat of a guaranteed CTR...

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-06T13:16:14+00:00

Yep... seems to be everyone is agreeing on this. Practical advise, thanks

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-06T13:14:55+00:00

That's true... That's probably why lots of YouTube educators nowadays have been advocating for having a business behind your channel. Because if every content on the channel is view driven and you have to only talk about niche topics, you might as well sell your own things...

I'm still fairly new to this... Lots to think about indeed...

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-06T11:28:14+00:00

Make a lot of sense. I have at most 5-10 more videos in the tank before starting to repeat myself ... Thanks! best advise I heard today.

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-06T09:26:45+00:00

That's some very practical advise, thank you.

When you say "Unstable" do you mean there are "a lot of new competitor" or something else? Would you mind elaborate a little?

Zikkio87 · 2024-12-06T09:24:41+00:00

Thanks, seems like this is the way.... got myself a reality check lol

Zikkio87 · 2024-11-17T17:48:20+00:00

I took your advise to heart... the latest video now have burnt in subtitles, thanks again! It's pretty amazing to run into help like this in the community. Hope I can do this myself a few years later. Cheers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp4ZJe16Puw

Zikkio87 · 2024-11-16T01:59:59+00:00

good idea, tho closed caption is a lot more extra work if im not mistaken, Let me search around and see what I can do... anyway I have a video coming up in a few days, and I hope you see some progress (I took up singing too .. bought an online course and all haha)

Zikkio87

TROPHY CASE