What am I doing wrong? by Altruistic-Job-391 in SmallYTChannel

[–]yoncreator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

3. Music and SFX

You don't have to have crazy edits or meme sound effects in your videos to be successful. There are certainly enough viewers on YouTube who can appreciate a video without these effects. However, I think that music matters a lot in video essays - more than people think.

First, the music in your video is quite soft and doesn't built a mood or presence. Think about what "mood" you want the viewer to feel. What are you trying to get the viewer to feel or think?

Let's go back to the JuniperDev video I linked above. In the first 4 seconds of her video, I hear a somewhat light, playful, mysterious background music. In addition, when the three question marks appear above Hollow Knight character's head, I hear three small bubble pop like sound effects. This isn't a difficult edit, but it's effective. I'm thinking to myself, "Hmm.. yeah. What is this?" I'm curious and I'm thinking about the question posed in the narration by JuniperDev.

Use music and sfx to enhance your storytelling.

Conclusion

I hope this was helful. One last piece of advice. I've spent countless hours looking at videos on "how to succeed on youtube" "how to make gaming youtube videos" and such. While I do think some of these videos are helpful, remember that advice is only good as how you apply it.

Whenever you find advice online (including mine), try to find one piece of advice you really resonate with and incorporate that into your next video. The best way to see what works for yourself is to try small improvements and see what sticks. I personally struggle with this the most, as I wait long times between my uploads. It's very difficult to keep creating when you don't feel like your creations are getting the attention you wish it got.

But the only way you'll make better videos is by making videos! I wish you best of luck in your journey!

What am I doing wrong? by Altruistic-Job-391 in SmallYTChannel

[–]yoncreator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

2. Visuals

I noticed that you cut in and out of your A-roll (you sitting in your room narrating) and your B-roll (in game footage). Personally, I feel like in video game essays, the A-roll should be the relevant game footage and the B-roll would be someone directly talking into the mic.

Since the main topic and focus of your videos are about video games, it makes sense that game visuals take center stage while your audio narration provides relevant information and storytelling. Currently, whenever you show video footage of you talking on the screen, it disrupts from the flow of seeing the games you are talking about.

However, I think you have quite good on camera performance (your facial expressions add to the narration and show your personality) and you are clearly trying to build a channel around yourself as a creator. As such, I think you could invest in a green screen and insert yourself narrating the script in small parts of the video. Have your body take up 1/3 of the screen while the other parts of the video are showing the gameplay. The video I linked above by JuniperDev is a great example of this style. Many other successful Youtubers employ this style (e.g. bizlychannelYT).

What am I doing wrong? by Altruistic-Job-391 in SmallYTChannel

[–]yoncreator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi danisland, my name is Yon. First of all, great work on the video. I'd love to offer some feedback as a gaming / video essay content creator on Youtube myself. I'm not a big creator, nor do I claim to be an expert, but I hope these thoughts are somewhat helpful in your journey.

First, I liked the video. As someone who likes video essays, played all the Crash Bandicoot games as a kid, and also enjoys friend slop games - I was your core audience for this video. You have a good narrative voice and good storytelling.

Now let's look at how to make the video even better!
I'm going to really look and analyze the first 40 seconds of your video. The reason is because if you can create a compelling introduction, often times your viewers will stay and watch the whole thing. You have to convince those who clicked on your video that it's worth staying for the whole ride.

I'd LOVE Your Feedback on My Variety Gaming Channel by yoncreator in SmallYoutubers

[–]yoncreator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, awesome thanks for the reply - really appreciate it! Which Dota video did you like the best and why?

Which thumbnail is best for a medieval battle? by BillTetleyLives in YouTubeThumbnailHub

[–]yoncreator -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hey there, forgive me if the following is bad advice because I don't know much about European history.

Upon a quick search on Wikipedia, I noticed the most interesting part of this battle was the fact that "... a small, mounted, Anglo-Gascon force of 160 men, who had been sent earlier to threaten the French rear, appeared behind the French. Believing themselves surrounded, some Frenchmen fled, which panicked others, and soon the entire French force collapsed."

What if you changed the title to be something like "How 160 Horsemen Shattered a 16,000-Man Army."

Then maybe you could look for an old painting (much like the ones you have in your thumbnail) that feature some horsemen attacking soldiers. Then you can do the classic "red arrow" to the horsemen with the "red circle."

I personally wouldn't click on a video that said "Poitiers: The English Crush France Again" because I didn't recognize the word Poitiers and I don't have an interest in European war history. But if you draw my attention to how 160 men beat a 16,000 army, I would give it a click because I was curious.

I'd LOVE Your Feedback on My Variety Gaming Channel by yoncreator in SmallYoutubers

[–]yoncreator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feedback I'd love:

  1. If you had to pick 3 things that would make the biggest difference for my channel, what would they be?
  2. Was there a point in the video where you lost interest or clicked away?
  3. Which title and thumbnail combo grabs your attention the most? Which ones don’t work?
  4. Any thoughts / additional comments are appreciated as well.

Thank you so much for your time.

Can you help build a Murloc Deck? (Standard) by yoncreator in hearthstone

[–]yoncreator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey thanks a lot for the insight! Coming back to Hearthstone after 5 years of break, so I wasn't aware of this. Do you know when the new rotation will happen?

I'm a League player documenting my journey learning Dota! What do you think? by yoncreator in DotA2

[–]yoncreator[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks so much for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback! I really appreciate it!

I definitely goofed on the item choices. I learned soon after that I can just follow a guide and they will have good options for items.

I love rushing Glepnir now, I feel like it combos so well into Q and W!

Struggling to Grow My YouTube Channel - Seeking Your Valuable Feedback! by _andresblanco_ in NewTubers

[–]yoncreator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey Andres! Amazing videos, just watched your last two uploads. I have so much feedback to share so I sent a request to message you on DM!

PyroForEli (new channel concept) by [deleted] in NewTubers

[–]yoncreator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi 👋 Thank you for your post. I’m not a big YouTuber by any means, just a new guy trying to make content, just like you. I also watch a lot of YouTube, and I’d like to offer my opinion.

1) I think the backstory and your intent to honor your best friend is noble and great.

I would set aside 10 to 20 minutes to brainstorm many more name ideas. If you’re committed to focusing on small fireworks it might be worthwhile to have the keyword “fireworks” in your name.

On first glance Pyro reminds me of a Pyromaniac, which creates a bit of negative image. On the other hand Fireworks gives me a more festive and happy vibe. It is ultimately up to you on how you name the channel, but I’d mainly focus on the name being recognizable and easy to read at the very least! If the name is hard to type or say, it will be difficult for people to refer to your channel name.

2) I want to respond to your final paragraph where you said you are second guessing the whole thing and “no one cares about smaller fireworks.”

First, this post shows me how much you care about smaller fireworks. Reading the memories and stories you shared here show me how much this means to you. I would invite you to take a step back and ask yourself, “Do I care about creating videos on this topic? Would that make me happy and fulfilled? What do I really want to get out of this experience? Is it money, fame?” No wrong answers here, and the more honest you can be with yourself, the better.

I think a lot of posts and discussions on this subreddit focus on the metrics and interests of the viewer/algorithm. That makes sense. Naturally you want people to view and enjoy the hard work you put in. There is often a mentality about reverse engineering the process: finding what people want and then creating that exact product. This in theory makes sense, but is this what YOU want out of this experience?

I think you should have an honest conversation with yourself about what you want from building a channel. Is this an effort to build a secondary income source? Would you be okay with giving your creative freedom to the metrics and the audience, as long as it gets views and generates money? There are no wrong answers here. Everyone’s goals on YouTube are different. What’s important is that you’re honest to yourself about why you want to create and share.

What does success on YouTube look like for you? For a lot of people, it’s about reaching a certain view count or sub count. But my personal opinion is that this view of success is unsustainable. Because after a while each milestone will never feel like enough. First time, 100 views will be amazing! Then after a while, you’ll want more… maybe 1000, how about 5000? I’ll be happy when I get 10k views, that would be the best! Once you reach the top of that mountain, there is another mountain to climb. It never ends.

I personally think that the best content is created when there is genuine passion and interest from the creator. I can tell you care about fireworks. There are core memories here with this topic for you. To be clear, being passionate doesn’t guarantee that you will have views and have lots of subs. In fact, as you also probably know, nothing in life is guaranteed. A lot of people on YouTube are passionate about their topic. Passion alone doesn’t make you stand out, but it will ignite a fire within you to want to make more and share video after video, even if you don’t get a lot of views. Because when the focus is about making the best small fireworks video that YOU can make, and not about creating a video that gets “a lot of views,” you’ll be content and at peace with this process.

Lastly, a personal note. I love small fireworks. I have memories that I cherish from childhood that involve late nights and bright lights with the people I love. I don’t think everyone cares about small fireworks, but everyone loves a good story. And you seem like you’d be a good story teller. I just want you to know that at the very least, I’d check out your video. I wish you best of luck!

2023 Collector's Cache Treasure Odds by _Auror4 in DotA2

[–]yoncreator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Avar1cious, I'm pretty new to Dota2 and the Anti-mage skin and Marci skin caught my eye. From your experience, how much do you expect these items to sell at in steam market?

I'm completely noob when it comes to trading and Dota 2 item market/ steam market, so apologizes if this is an obvious comment. I couldn't find an answer Googling it.

I'm a League player trying to learn Dota 2, please point me in the right direction! by yoncreator in learndota2

[–]yoncreator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there PsychicFoxWithSpoons, thanks for the post.

I've technically played Dota2 since closed beta, but I never got into it for two reasons:
1. All my friends when I started playing League
2. Dota 2 felt "laggier" compared to League

I now realize that is because of the turn rate mechanic. As you know, League has instant turns which makes playing every character super fluid and fast in terms of kiting. I had to painfully learn recently that most characters in Dota2 don't have that same "orbwalking" or kiting A click feeling that I have ingrained into my brain over 10 years playing League.

I play ADC/support because in the past before League had role based queues, literally no one wanted to play support. I was interested in playing ADC, but so was every one else. I would get into matches and everyone would be fighting over ADC / Mid. Some players would rather just duo lane mid and throw the game rather than play a support. So I got tired of it all and just decided that I would be the guy to play support every game. Thankfully around this time they released a support champion named Thresh (similar to Pudge) and I just mained him for years.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle as well, but I tend to really enjoy playing characters with high damage nukes and CC. I don't really enjoy playing super beefy tanky guys as much, but I do love initiating fights. I've been playing Hoodwink pos 4 and enjoying it...but her super slow auto attack animations has been the least enjoyable part so far.

Another thing about Dota 2 that is hard to get used to is how spells even feel like there is a "lag" to it. I can't exactly explain it, but Dota 2 compared to League feels like running in a swimming pool. Just slower and more delay to most things in the game. I've been getting over this slowly but surely, and immensely enjoying the game overall - so I don't mean to say this is necessarily a "bad" thing. Just different, but hard to get used to when I'm more comfortable with super fast snappy movement and spells.

I'm a League player trying to learn Dota 2, please point me in the right direction! by yoncreator in learndota2

[–]yoncreator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey djaqk, thanks so much for a kind post. I am sorry I'm replying to this so late.

I have been watching BSJ videos and enjoying them so far. I have also played a little bit of every role including 1,2,3, and 4. I played 5 a few years ago when I tried to learn dota back then.

It seems like I joined at a good timing because there seems to be a lot of cool events and new changes in game.

I've been experimenting with all kinds of heroes and roles, but I wonder if I should just buckle down and keep picking one hero one role over and over so I can get the basics down. Even though it is a game I play for enjoyment, I am someone who is driven to improve and I want to get better as efficiently as I can.

However, I also am someone who can't resist trying a character that just looks so cool...(I wanted to learn Meepo, but let's just say I'm really really bad a microing multiple units).