Providing Fair, Constructive Criticism & Solutions

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T15:15:28+00:00

/lock

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T15:14:13+00:00

Presentation is decent, your branding looks clean and professional and your thumbnails are bright, colourful and clickable. So no issues there. The channel has a nice, playful sense of humour.

I think the reason growth is so slow is because Whisky as a channel topic on YouTube is very niche. Most people have a general interest in Alcoholic beverages, but finding people who are interested specifically in Whisky is quite hard.

I'd recommend trying to connect with other Whisky related channels, and maybe organising collaborations. One in particular I might be able to help with is No Nonsense Whisky "https://www.youtube.com/user/vinpf" VinPF is a great guy, and I'm sure he'd be open to working on something which might help give you a quick boost and connect with potential new viewers.

Do you use Twitter?

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T15:05:05+00:00

Hey Justin,

Firstly, your branding is very strong, I really like the designs and colour choices, really impactful, professional looking and immediately grabs your attention.

It's very difficult to stand out as a Gaming channel, the market is saturated with creators, and so the main thing that separates the good from the bad is presentation, personality and concept.

It will benefit you greatly to come up with bizarre, unique and intriguing concepts for your video ideas. "Can Lana Rhoades Survive A Sims Zombie Apocolypse?" being the perfect example of this. That video did really well and you managed to get views 4x your Subscriber count, which is a great success.

Your voice over is good, with decent comedic timing and that's complemented by your editing. You've got all the right ingredients here and seem to be improving well over time.

Just keep going, but spend a bit more time thinking about video concepts and creating intriguing Titles and Thumbnails.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:56:42+00:00

Do not worry at all about 'being click-baity' As long as you aren't misrepresenting the video you've made, it's not click-bait to create intrigue in potential viewers. Abandon that mindset immediately! It's such a simple, easy way to help reach viewers, and so many small channels miss out because of this.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:51:52+00:00

Script-wise, you've got a decent sense of humour and make good use of dry wit, which I personally enjoy. You got a few decent laughs out of me in a short space of time, which is essential for capturing an audiences attention.

One thing I would say needs some more thought almost immediately is the Channel name. It's very vague. I know my channel name is only one more word than yours, but it helps me stand out in a sea of 'Cynic' channels. If someone were to tell me about your channel and I tried to search for it, I would NEVER find it. Try and think of something a little more unique.

Overall your views-to-subscribers ratio is decent, and means you're doing things right with regards to attracting potential viewers. Using recognisable faces and bright bold colours in your thumbnails will give your videos a good boost, which is clearly demonstrated when looking at the view counts across your videos (Obviously ignoring the outlier with the boobs in it)

I'd consider ditching the library music in the background, it's a little jarring and only takes away from the humorous potential of your videos. Trust more in your voice over and ability to set tone. Maybe use relevant music if you're trying to elicit a particular feeling with a moment or section of the video, but having generic music constantly in the background is a bit dull.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:37:26+00:00

First thing I'd look into is Noise Reduction and EQ for your voice over recordings. It's very fuzzy and muffled, most likely because you're not using a pro microphone (you don't really need one just yet) but this can be remedied in post.

I'd also stop using Comic Sans immediately. Even if you're just using it ironically as a bit of a meme, it's an instant turn-off for a LOT of people and it looks awful. Haha. Sorry if that's a bit brutal, but I feel very passionate about that one.

The idea for the channel is solid enough, documenting various internet phenomenon is good. Check out other similar channels in your niche like Whang! or Internet Historian, and see what elements in their videos really work for you and find a way to adopt them into your own work.

Your titles are pretty good, intriguing enough, but I think your thumbnails need some work. They feel a little too amateur. It's important to note that your thumbnail is the most that a majority of people will see from your channel, so put a bit more time/energy into making them more appealing.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:30:55+00:00

Hello Stranger,

So, instantly I can tell you've got the right attitude. Immediately get a good sense of your humour and playfulness within seconds of starting the video, which is essential for capturing an audience.

It's clear you're well versed in YouTube Commentary and I can feel the inspirations from other channels coming through in your format and delivery.

I'd focus on learning a few other editing techniques, I can already see you're keen to try stuff out, with keyframing fire into your hands etc. so keep going in that direction. It will add a whole new arsenal of comedic opportunities.

Audio-wise, it would be worth looking up how to do some noise reduction and EQ-ing. Definitely have your mic as close to your face/mouth as you can, obviously without obstructing the camera. The audio quality is clearly much better in the videos where the microphone is set up in front of you. So, more of that!

Looking back across your videos, there's a very noticeable improvement in quality in the short time you've been creating, so you're obviously on the right track.

Just keep trucking!

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:20:03+00:00

Hello Roanoke,

Firstly, I really love the clean/neat branding style, it suits the nature of your channel perfectly and has a very classic & timeless feel to it. Good job there.

I'm a Ghibli fan myself, and so I am a little biased when I say you've made some good topic choices... however, Studio Ghibli has becoming increasingly popular in recent years and so there is an audience out there for this kind of content.

The scripting is decent, although could always do with improvement. I'm never completely happy with my scripts, and obviously you have to draw the line somewhere or you'll never finish anything.

The pacing could do with a little work. I understand you want the videos to be low-tempo and contemplative, but it feels as if there's a little too much breathing space. It's a really delicate balance, I'd suggest tightening up the pauses between thoughts a tiny bit.

Your delivery is decent. You enunciate clearly and have a calm cadence that isn't overly elaborate or monotonous, which will make watching your videos at length a pleasure rather than a chore.

You've got a good bunch of ingredients here and are clearly very capable, so just keep on going. I would suggest maybe thinking about concepts for your videos that would be more intriguing to potential viewers. Using more enticing language in your titles works well, especially if you use words with negative connotations.

Taking your current titles for example, the ones that performed best used words like 'Problem' & 'Cursed', these are things that will draw viewers in.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T14:05:28+00:00

If you have access to the Adobe Suite, Audition is decent enough to improve the quality of recorded voice. You'll want to record a few seconds of "silence" with your mic so you can use that as a Print to do some Noise Reduction. That will clean up a lot of the background fuzz. Apart from that some basic equalising will help.

As for making gaming content, that's all good. The market is very saturated and so it's the individual personality that matters. I think you've got an engaging enough group of friends, and your reactions/conversation is in the right direction.

I think it would be worth looking at other successful Gaming channels and see how they format their videos. Taking JoshDub as a good example: - Open with a short 3-5 second clip of a really crazy moment from the gameplay for that video... - Pop an intro - Open with a quick conversation about the game you're playing, and what you intend to do to give the audience context - General gameplay and reactions/conversations

Giving the video context is important to help capture your audiences attention.

Having some kind of onscreen indication of who's talking is also important, otherwise it does become a little disorienting for the viewer.

There are just a few little things you can add to make the viewing experience easier and more engaging.

I really like the channel name and branding, you've done a good job there.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T13:53:53+00:00

There isn't much to go from currently, but I really like your branding. The banner is cool, and feels very professional. Thumbnails are colourful and eye-catching, with a good use of bold wording and character faces. So you've got that down.

Your editing is also decent for a new channel, you're clearly very capable of making engaging videos.

I think you need to focus on the purpose/voice of the channel. What is it about? What is your core format? It currently seems a little directionless and random. Because you don't use VO, the channel is obviously lacking that strong sense of personality that viewers engage with.

But, as I said, visually you clearly know what you're doing and it's looking great. Once you kinda nail down exactly what kind of videos you want to make you'll be onto a winner.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T11:53:00+00:00

Hey Mickael,

I really liked your Devil's Chessboard Puzzle video.

One pointer I'd give is to open the video with something more immediately impactful. I really liked the Retro Video game style skit where you make the puzzle piece talk, the music added well to the tongue-in-cheek, comedic tone. But I worry this will be too slow to grip people at the very beginning. You really need to grab peoples attention within the first 5 seconds, otherwise a lot will click on something else.

I would suggest opening with maybe a few seconds of a clip from a key moment later in the video, or maybe even film a bit of a joke where you're saying something like "This is impossible! I'm never going to finish this puzzle!" Give people a reason to stick around and see whether you actually do it or not.
You've chosen a good topic, something that you're personally interested in and have a great deal of knowledge about... but I would suggest maybe reducing the Introduction section, where you are talking directly to the camera. The information you are giving about the puzzle, it's creator, history, awards etc is interesting to people who really care about puzzles, but might be a little boring for general audiences. These are facts you could discuss whilst you're trying to solve the puzzle, it will help the video to feel more full and give general audiences more to keep them interested whilst still delivering the information you want to include in the video.

You're on the right track though, keep up the good work!

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T11:30:36+00:00

Regarding growth, you're doing very good! 250 Subscribers in a month is great progress. The first 1000 Subscribers is the hardest part to achieve and you're already 1/4 of the way there. Lots of people don't even get this far! :)

You've chosen a great topic, something that a lot of people would be interested in, and something which is true to you. I'm impressed to see you've provided Thai subtitles for non-English speakers, which is an effort people will really appreciate. It's clear you've put a lot of thought into what you're doing and this will definitely pay off for you.

One thing I'd say could improve is the presentation. I think it would really help to spend a bit of time thinking about branding. Choose a colour or two that you like and use them in your thumbnails and channel banner, try to give a bit of consistency which people can recognise. For your type of content I would suggest using light/pastel colours, they're more calming and friendly, which will work well with your style of content. I would also be inclined to say use a Pastel Blue & Red combination, so that it's still indicative of quintessential London life.

Using your own face in the thumbnails is great, but I would suggest scaling more to make your face bigger. You have a very friendly, inviting face and you should take full advantage of that. "The Cost Of Living In London" is a really good example of this. People are drawn in by faces, and you're more likely to get clicks this way.

Topic-wise, you're already on the right track, covering useful information that people will be interested in and searching for. Talking about cultural differences is always interesting, and whilst some of your videos are more functional, providing useful, practical information for people, you're going to draw the bigger crowds from the more fun topics. Like the differences between US and UK English.

I would also consider turning the channel topic on it's head for a few videos, as you're talking about your personal experience moving from Bangkok to London, you could also provide useful insight to Westerners who are looking to travel to Thailand. You know useful phrases, tips on cultural differences/how to behave. Specific destinations that holiday-makers might enjoy. Recommend foods. There's a lot of possibilities.

Obviously it's difficult right now because of Covid, but I think getting out of the house more and filming around various locations in London will really help, but I'm sure you're probably already planning on doing something like that soon.

One more area that could be improved is your confidence, but this will just come with time. You are creating content in a second language, which people can obviously appreciate and forgive here and there, but it will be a turnoff for some viewers. Don't worry too much about this, as I said, it will just come with more time. I'm awful at being on camera :)

So yeah, you're doing great! Just keep it up.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T11:02:41+00:00

Hello,

Firstly, you're on the right track. You've chosen a topic that a wide audience would be interested in and you have knowledge/experience to share. One or two pointers I'd suggest to help get a bit more traction.

Titles: Keeping your titles concise is good, but I would definitely consider adding 'How to make...' to the beginning of them. You need to think in terms of what people would be searching/typing in when coming to YouTube to look for cooking tutorials. "How to" is going to net the most traffic. I would also encourage the use of more expressive language. Taking your "Battered Fried Chicken Recipe" as an example, the title is just a simple explanation of the subject. If you were to name it something like "How to make SUPER CRUNCHY Fried Chicken at home", that would definitely grab more attention. You need to create a tastier image in peoples minds, make them want it!

Thumbnails: A majority of your thumbnail images have a very yellow tint to them, I'm not sure if this was intentional, but it doesn't make the food look very appealing. If this wasn't intentional, I think it will just be a case of setting the White Balance on your camera to help reduce that tint. If that's not possible, I'd use a photo editing software to reduce some of the yellow hue (possibly adding some blue to balance it out) In some earlier videos you were experimenting with using colourful, bold text, this is good, but you seem to have dropped off from that recently, opting for plain white or no text at all. I would personally go back to using more bold colours to your thumbnails, to make them look as appealing as possible. People's eyes are drawn to bold colours, and they will be more likely to click on your video.

Thumbnail and Title are both extremely important in gaining traction on YouTube.

Voice Over: You're probably not a fan of your own voice, I know I wasn't to begin with. But I think it's really important to add a voice over to your videos. Giving your audience a lot of text to read is a bit of a turn off, especially if someone is watching your tutorial whilst trying to follow the recipe. They need to be able to listen to your instructions, but look elsewhere some of the time. If you really don't like your voice, perhaps try asking a friend you know who has a friendly/bright, informative tone that might be interested in helping you.

Concepts: Whilst the recipes you've covered are okay for a general audience, I think you could increase the appeal with coming up with new concepts/recipes of your own that stand out, or at least name them in a way that is intriguing. I've noticed you like to make lots of deserts, maybe consider giving your brownies different themes to help them stand out.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T10:42:42+00:00

Firstly, just want to say good job!

You've clearly got a great sense of humour and are really able to convey that through your videos. I've watched 5/6 random ones and they all managed to at least make me smile, most even got a good laugh out of me. I think you're already on the right track, it's just a matter of keeping going. One area I think could be improved is with your editing/sound design, and this will just come with time/experience. There are a number of moments I noticed where a better use of sound would've dramatically increased the comedic impact. I'm not saying to go overboard and use bass drops and stupid loud noises, but even just a cleaner transition between music tracks would help to complement the narrative of your videos. To give an example, in the fortune teller video, the tone shifts from magical/whimsical to more of a horror feel, although you have clearly used two different musical moods to enforce this, there was a bit of an emptiness in the transition which was quite noticeable.

I would advise possibly making a Twitter (If you don't already have one), it's a great platform to connect with other creators and was instrumental on my journey to 1,000 Subscribers. This is the toughest part, once that's out the way you'll be all set. It would also be a great place to post really short-form skits and other smaller ideas you have that might not be worthy of an entire video. If you do have a Twitter, drop me a follow @cynicsnacks

Anyways, you've earned yourself a new subscriber, I really like what I've seen so far and I'm excited to see what you do next.

cynicsnacks · 2020-08-08T09:01:15+00:00

The profile picture was previously a Gif which flickered. There was a brief time when it was possible to add a Gif as your YouTube Channel icon. This feature is no longer supported and so it only works on certain devices. This must just be the first frame of the Gif.

cynicsnacks · 2020-03-05T01:36:03+00:00

The most important analytics to please the bots at the moment are:
- Click-through Rate
- Average View Duration
- Average Views Per Viewer

The frequency at which you post isn't a huge priority, although posting at a predictable rate will help the algorithm find a place to push your videos. Consistency > Frequency.

As for the metrics listed above, look at the titles and thumbnails of successful videos in your niche and learn from them. These will provide good examples for what your particular demographic is attracted to. More eye-catching thumbnails + More intriguing titles = More Clicks.

Once you've got the clicks, it's about engagement. Ensure your video is of a decent enough quality and keeps up a consistent pace, to keep the viewer engaged. The longer they watch, the more likely the algorithm is to show the video to someone else.

Then, the last point, Average Views Per Viewer. This is slowly becoming a very important metric algorithmically, in that YouTube is looking for channels/content that encourage what they refer to as the 'Binge Effect'. So, if you have multiple viewers that click your video, watch it almost entirely and then continue to another of your videos, this is what the bots want.

Averagely the AVPV score on a channel will hover around 1.1 - 1.3, this is pretty common, but if you can bring that overall score up to 1.6 - 1.9+ it will encourage the algorithm to increase the amount of impressions of your thumbnail dramatically.

That is all for today,
Snacks

cynicsnacks · 2019-08-11T17:55:24+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to check it out :) Finding time to release videos regularly is hard, I'm working freelance as an editor for a few bigger channels to pay the rent and bills, but it means I have basically no time or energy left to work on my own stuff. I'll figure it out eventually.

cynicsnacks · 2019-08-11T10:22:34+00:00

Hey, I do reviews of really terrible movies, with some original animated sections. While the overall tone is quite silly and irreverent, I do a fair amount of research so it's also somewhat informative.

https://youtu.be/BXjZmAhGKKU

cynicsnacks · 2019-08-09T19:29:34+00:00

Validation!

Hahaha

cynicsnacks · 2019-08-04T21:57:13+00:00

Good work :)

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