Small Creators Stalled by Algorithm Shifts
Small to mid-sized YouTube content creators are experiencing inconsistent viewership, stagnant growth, and frustration with the platform's algorithm. They're struggling to understand why their content isn't performing as expected, despite perceived quality and effort, and are questioning the value of paid advertising and long-form content. Many are feeling discouraged and considering abandoning the platform.
SOURCES (60)
“Damn that’s seriously disheartening. TBH YouTube shorts were the only short form platform of me getting consistent new followers or subs in this case… I’m really going to try to get it back up and running though. There has to be a better solution to…”
“I don’t use discord much but would be interested in joining a group that could push each other. I currently make gaming videos, in the trophy hunting niche specifically. Switched niches and am trying to revive my channel since late last year after a few years of no uploads, currently at 373 subs, 300+ long form vids uploaded (19 this year). Working towards 500 subs and 25-50 uploads this year. My channel is the same as my name here.”
“26 shown in feed is too little to have simply been the "hook" that caused it to get no views.”
“I’m glad you provided an update, my channel has 4.5k subs and I was getting consistent views like 20-30k maybe 50k+ then randomly the last 2 weeks I’ve been getting like maybe 10 views in an hour. I’ll keep posting but it’s so weird because I KNOW the shorts i post aren’t bad. I posted the same video on multiple platforms and each video does numbers”
“for youtube specifically i'd space them, not dump them. shorts on yt aren't really a feed, they're an evergreen library that keeps getting served for weeks or months, so a clip you upload today can still be picking up views next spring. two things happen if you dump 20 at once: they cannibalize each other for that first push, and you burn all your "fresh upload" signals in one day instead of spreading them out. each upload is its own separate roll of the dice with the algo,”
“Recently I started editing videos on Capcut and honestly speaking i have improved a lot considering this much less time but when i tried uploading them on Instagram I didn't seem to get any views.i know iam not that good but when I saw other's who are worse than me getting more attention iam a bit conflicted.don't know what to do. So this is my page if anyone is interested please checkout https://www.instagram.com/author\_21c?igsh= MTRja2NoaTQ3bXhwcg== submitted by /u/Fan”
“if you have an engaging following base and you feel the need for that it is almost always the correct feeling”
“high watch time with low sub growth on gaming content usually means search or suggested is finding the video itself, not you as a channel. people are watching because the topic matched what they searched, not because they clicked knowing it was you. id check if thumbnails or intros give any consistent reason to remember the channel beyond this one video, thats usually the missing piece”
“this isnt really a punishment thing, more an audience widening problem. early growth mostly comes from your existing subs and thats an easy crowd to hold. past a certain point the platform starts testing you on cold viewers with zero context, and if retention doesnt hold the same way for strangers as it does for subs, impressions look like they got cut off. worth splitting your retention curve by traffic source if you can, subscriber feed vs suggested usually tell two different stories”
“dog jumping at camera is a decent hook honestly, quick motion, close to camera, thats the right idea. if its still not getting pushed id look at the half second right after the jump, is there a hard cut or does it linger, shorts punishes any dead air right after the hook even if the hook itself lands”
“I think the channel didn’t get warmed up enough. You posted to often to quickly. Spread out your posting schedule. No more than one per day until you start to get views again.”
“They don't hurt but they really don't help unless you're a brand new channel. For example if your content is about the Antikythera Mechanism you might want to put the common misspellings in there so when people search it will pick it up. Honestly it does it pretty well without tags but better safe than sorry.”
“Including keywords in the title and in the video description is more important than the channel name itself. If those are not matched to the video content, combined with the channel name being unrelated to the content - this could result in potentially lower CTR and issues with the suggested videos impressions (gets given to the wrong cold audience). In saying that - your channel is still very new! Try experimenting with a new thumbnail/title in the first 24 hours of upload - it can trigger a sp”
“Completely agree. If you don't hate the editing process, then just straight up filming, editing and sharing a passion is kind of reward enough. Sure it would be good to get rich off it, but even if you never earn a penny, if you're enjoying the process then you're winning. I like to look at the advice from my algorithm and be like "yeah, cool, but I'm going this way." 👍🏽”
“That cliff is normal for Shorts, and it usually isn't a ban. The Shorts feed samples each video on a small pool and keeps pushing it only while it holds attention. A series can ride a wave for a week or two, then one Short doesn't hold and the whole run cools off at once. It feels like a switch got flipped because the drop is so sharp. Check whether the ones still getting views have a different hook or length to the dead ones. The fix is almost always the next Short, not something you di”
“The algorithm pushes them to non-subscribers way harder than regular videos, that's where all the growth comes from.”
“I think this is a really undervalued piece of advice! Consistency is SO important and a huge part of the battle!”
This is great advice! I’ve been doing this on Insta and TikTok but not YouTube since the actual episodes are there as long form. Going to start posting the clips of the…
“I have been facing the same issue, I used to average 10k views daily, now its barely crossing 100”
“I have been facing the same issue, I tried every possible change but still only got better by 10-15 views”
“shorts give you that quick rush of views but they rarely lead to a solid long-form audience. i learned that the hard way with a cooking channel i had, shorts hit 10k and the long videos stayed at 50 views. your most viewed long-form video has a clean thumbnail and a really direct title. it tells me the viewer instantly knows what they're getting. the other ones have too much going on in the image and i skip them mentally just scrolling. pull back on the shorts grind for a couple weeks and pu”
mine was same.. and now 500k-1M to just 3k daily .. insane
“The old cliche, it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm only 7 videos in myself, but I'm not really focusing on the subs right now, more concerned with ensuring there's enough quality content to build momentum. If you love it then focus on the content, the rest will follow - I hope.”
“I had a paid account at first and really struggled to get subscribers so I created a free page and that's my main one now. I started my only fans about a month ago and I have 120 fans but only 2 have actually bought my PPV. I'm a bit tired and don't even feel like it's worth it anymore. Alllll the promo feels like it's for nothing.. do you have better luck with sending mass DMs or just having it locked on your wall? I'm just a bit frustrated submitted by /u/Ca”
“Im having this same problem with my nascar wrap videos. Shorts only. On all the other socials im doing much better, but i only have 76 subs on yt. 10k f on tt 5k views 6k followers on fb 20k views, 600 followers on insta 3k views are my averages. Is this just grinding it out and get more subs. Or make long form vidoes for stuff for anything over 30 seconds? Account is about a year old. But just started posting about 5 or 6 vidoes a week the past 3 or 4 months. Started with the same number of vie”
“You should start with making YT shorts first to build and audience and to get YouTube familiar with your niche and your channel to figure out how to push it toward the appropriate audience”
“Well this is a sub Reddit with a lot of new creators who spend time and passion on non slop content. I’ve seen talented newtubers with genuinely good content who have taken a number of months to get to 100 subs and it was not due to poor content. A couple of them hit 100 in the last couple of weeks and fortunately their growth has accelerated since then. A combination of consistent quality, packaging and some luck. People getting 100+ subs on their first post is an absolute outlier for the top 1”
“Views are small for now, but that CTR & retention are much better! submitted by /u/WillingnessJaded2297 [link] [comments]”
“You could try digging into the metrics of your videos, when do people click away, is there something at that point in the video that people dislike? What about the demographics, are you making videos for those people? There's a lot of data there to dig in to”
“problem is youtube have to many slops and low-effort stuff that honestly 1 good edit, fun topic, and good thumbnail, you can easy get few hundred subs. like right now i am at 100k club”
“I think you misread my comment, and that the rest of my message explained my point clearly. I was not saying no channels get to 100 subscribers or the OP won't. I said " most channels never get to 100 subs". This is based on only roughly 40% of active Youtube channels having 100 subs or above, and then add to that all of the accounts by failed Youtubers where they quit and deleted their channels. The original question (which was very much one of those "how long is a piece of s”
“Every channel is different. I average between 40 and 45 likes per thousand views. Tbh, 100 views isn't really a big enough sample size to put any value to how many likes (or lack of likes) you get.”
“i mean never is to strong like i got 100 subs in a day after my first video so its not "never" but yeah if you got 100 subs you are in 1%”
“Been "watching" Redditor youtubers while doing cleaning, cooking and gardening work for the past few months, and I've noticed a very drastic increase in adds. Not just adds, but 2x 30 seconds - 2 minute unskippable adds, on the content. Yes, I'm aware that youtubers need to make their bag for the hour or two they put in, however... is a 25-30 minute video of someone reading reddit drama really worth having 200+ unskippable, 2x2min adds every 30 seconds or so? Not even the bigge”
“I just started taking YouTube seriously and trying to get my first 1 thousand subscribers right now I’m at 15 and I’m starting to feel stuck my video are not doing so well about 5 to 12 views per video and I just need so tips and advice for my channel submitted by /u/Far_Equivalent1596 [link] [comments]”
“Ive read some people have over 80% or 90% stay to watch ratio which seems impossible It’s been a lot of fun making shorts. I just have terrible swipe away rates. Anyone else have a similar issue? Channel is only two weeks old so maybe YouTube just doesn’t know who to show my content to yet It’s piano songs so I’m not really sure what to change other than which part of song it plays first haha submitted by /u/SuperSleepyYeah [link] [comments]”
“This is my first YouTube channel, and I started uploading Shorts only two days ago. So far, I’ve uploaded 6 Shorts and received around 16.7K total views , which is roughly 2.8K views per video on average . My best-performing Short has about 8K views , while the others are between 1.4K and 2.1K views . I’m also getting likes and comments, so the videos aren’t only receiving views. My average audience retention is around 60% . I’m completely new to YouTube and still don’t really understand what co”
“I'm up to 1100 subs in a month. But my watch hours and views are lacking. Any suggestions for helping those metrics? submitted by /u/NicoToscani71 [link] [comments]”
“for some reason i also have been getting 100 or less views and almost none of my shorts views are from the shorts feed I usually average 1-2k on each short and I haven’t changed the topic of my shorts at all”
“I mean, I'm sure it HAS happened, but I don't think it represents the norm especially not for smaller content creators. In the current youtube sphere I personally (all anecdotal experience from just being in the space and talking to and reading the thoughts of others) don't think most viewers are watching smaller/upcoming channels for the game itself. Again, the BIG exception to this is if you're highly skilled at some facet of gaming. Like, if you're doing speed runs of From”
“I'm only saying this because (based on you bringing up the value of sticking to a niche) it seems like getting views is an aim of yours. If your videos don't have some kind of unique hook to them (like challenges, impressive gameplay, etc.), it's going to be tough for them to stick out in the vast ocean that is YouTube. I'm not saying this to suggest you have to change your approach, but rather to encourage you to set appropriate expectations. Gaming is one of the most crowded ca”
“I was recently laid off and am going to start a gaming YT channel. I have been looking at other channels etc. and have come to some conclusions about what would have potential/help my channel, and would love to know, before I make decisions/post for the first time, if my conclusions are correct: It's better to find a niche, even a small or unpopular one. In my case, it would be relatively lighthearted/comedic/silly playthroughs of PS1/2 games (for example The World is Not Enough on PS1). The”
“This is a niche question, but I hope someone more experienced than me can pass some much needed wisdom. I've been running a music YouTube channel for 2 years now, 419 subscribers, and the view counts for each video is... variable. I've struggled to grow. I dream to be a well-known musician, I enjoy writing songs and video game music, that's my passion. I simply just upload music videos onto this channel, and that's it. I don't promote my music in public, and I only make short”
“So like most people i had 2 shorts that got 900 and 700 views and then after that they all became flat 0 with nothing, should i keep uploading or nah? submitted by /u/NoOrganization9927 [link] [comments]”
“So i managed to monitize a channel(commentary) and the views were good (long form/short form) but the views felt low this week and I found a guy on discord that said he made 25k usd making ranking videos. And he said that we wants to partner with me to try to do ranking shorts on my channel and split 50/50. Should I agree? And try the ranking niche? Or just move on with my own commentary that i started with submitted by /u/Remarkable-Sign-8707 [link] [comments]”
“The youtube algorithm looks at what your viewers like and suggests your videos to similar people, so if you do movie videos and the people who watch that stuff watch your videos it will recommend it to them. But now imagine suddenly you upload a gaming video, and it recommends it to the people who like movie stuff, they won’t click it, will they. YouTube will just take that as your video was trash and stop recommending it.”
“What made that short special in comparison with your other shorts? Did u tried a different hook? Or a some changes from the rest?”
“I upload my VODs, demos, and reviews of games I play on twitch. I also make a short each day I stream, to promote the channel. I'm also gonna start posting movie recommendations. I keep my VODs as unlisted, so my channel doesn't seem daunting. Any critiques you might offer?? Feel free to ask any questions Channel: @shanemabus submitted by /u/shanemabus [link] [comments]”
“I didn't start out wanting to monetize at all myself but eventually when you put in the effort required to sustain a show and keep it relatively high quality while investing money and time to make it better, etc.... you will want some ways to sustain that (unless you don't care about your time or money, I guess). =)”
“I reached 200 views on one video but that mainly came from Reddit submitted by /u/IllustriousAd6418 [link] [comments]”
“Well not great videos but More effort and More relaxed ,Been thinking maybe should just give up , Have to figure out whats wrong or IS everything i do wrong 😁 submitted by /u/Confident-Dust-8485 [link] [comments]”