Small YouTubers Stuck Below the Growth Curve (collection)
Umbrella collection of small-YouTuber growth friction that doesn't form one buildable pain: stalled-growth grief and quit-contemplation, newbie growth-playbook questions, subs-vs-views puzzlement. Specific content routed out 2026-08-26 to existing panes: views-collapsed/zero-impressions (the duplicate pane), monetization-threshold grief. (Retired title 'Small Creators Stalled by Algorithm Shifts' — the cluster is ~97% YouTube, not multi-platform.)
SOURCES (60)
“I have about 3x more views than engaged views. It is disheartening. About 30k views a day, 10k engaged”
“I'm still pretty new to this style of vlogging and I'm trying to get better at balancing cinematic B-roll with actually bringing the viewer along for the experience. If anyone has some time to watch, I'd really appreciate honest feedback, at what point, if any, did you start losing interest? Were there any sections you'd shorten, cut, or pace differently? I'm especially trying to improve my pacing and storytelling, so timestamps would be incredibly helpful. submitted by”
“Thanks so much for the advice! That's good to hear that posting to multiple channels is diversifying the audience, because I was genuinely starting to worry about working against myself in terms of growing the actual full length podcast audience.”
“Nah you don't need separate channels for every topic, that's a fast track to burnout and having 8 dead channels with 12 subs each YouTube will figure out who to push your stuff to based on what people actually click on and watch, not your channel description. if someone finds you through a Linux video and likes your style they might stick around for the MTG stuff too, that's the whole point of personality-based content just be consistent with your voice and editing style so the chann”
“So i have a small community in my youtube channel and i stream everyday, i usually avarage like 10 to 15 people per stream, but i did notice that sometimes my streams would say that i had 0 viewers, even tho i had like 8 people typing in chat. I started to dig a little bit more into this to know what was wrong, then i realized that the streams were it always said that i had 0 viewers 100% of the times were streams were a follower was, and when he wasnt in the streams everything was normal, then”
“now I have no problem with channels getting a lot of but this channel gained 60,000 subs in 12 days half 100,000 in 12 days I’m gonna say it they’re most likely botting subs because there is no shot you gained that many subs or she most likely has prior content creation experience, which is a lot of a lot of people suspect and that’s my second theory because how the hell did you gain that much when I have spent thousands of dollars promoting my channel and yet nothing works https://preview.redd.”
“My engaged views have always been way lower than my view count. Doesn't matter to me.”
“No. Just focus on improving. Don't focus on everything at once. Maybe this month, you try to improve the thumbnail. Next month, move on to something else. Maybe the title. Or editing. Maybe identifying a more in demand niche. Just keep trying to improve.”
“So I just started a YouTube channel. I published two Shorts (no long-form videos). The first went live 16 hours ago, and the second one went live 2 hours ago. Both have zero views. Did things change in the YT shorts algorithm?”
“Same here man. But it was my first 2 videos, one is an oc speed paint the other is pomni Got posted a day ago, stuck at 3-4 views but hey progress”
“I started my channel in February 2023 and I’ve uploaded inconsistently on it for a while. I’ll take a notion to upload on it, do it for a month or so, and then views and likes go down and then I quit for a few months and the cycle repeats. However, I have a plan to upload 1 short everyday for a year, and if I do, with my current pace on shorts I’ll have around 2.5k subscribers this time next year. However, I’m not even remotely close to being monetized because I have almost no valid pubic shorts”
“Hey! I try to frequently post shorts on my Youtube, Tiktok channel but they are not getting a lot of views. Looking for some honest feedback - are those shorts not interesting enough? How can I improve? Also the game shown is called Warmongers: Empires Reborn and you can currently wishlist it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3468800/Warmongers_Empires_Reborn/ submitted by /u/Arwo10 [link] [comments]”
“Is it something like really really bad? Some successful channels are actually built around that topic (troubled past).”
“I have been doing Horror Gaming videos on my channel for about a year now and unfortunately the results are pretty abysmal. Getting around 26% retention in the first 30 seconds. 17% retention after the 30 second mark is quite horrid and i do know that i should be improving retention with edits and i believe there is no other way of solving this issue, though i am open to suggestions. My personality isn't something i can comment on myself but it may be uninteresting as it does not seem to be”
“I have been posting on this channel since the start of this week, the channel in psrticular is not new its been since 2020 but this is the first time Im posting in it my hooks are good the idea is good it has potential my average stayed to watch duration the channel is above %50 and the view duration is always %100-90 the videos are on average 20-30 seconds long Ive been posting everyday so like 4 videos so far but I dont have the exact results that Im searching for. I watched hours of shorts an”
“I’m looking to start a new YouTube channel, and I’ve been researching what other channels are doing and how they’re approaching content creation. There are many channels producing what I would consider absolute AI slop. They copy larger creators, use AI-generated audio, AI-generated visuals, AI-generated scripts, and even AI-generated titles and descriptions, with the typical AI “dashes” still visible. On the other hand, there are UGC creators who are putting significantly more effort into their”
“Hey everyone, I'm a small streamer, I don't want much, I just wanted to ask if you could check out my clips and maybe even my twitch if you want (please expect lower quality content, I'm genuinely trying my best and I'm spending as little money as I can because I don't want to waste money, I know growth need time but yk advertising isn't bad) submitted by /u/Mommyaphrodite1 [link] [comments]”
“You should, it's pretty peculiar and rare for that to happen. As a viewer, that would seem like a fun vid to watch, it would make me wonder "is this just pure chance?" or "I wonder how the YTuber will react to the game" or smth like that. It's a pretty good idea”
“You are not giving yourself a fair chance to grow without a mic, reconsider that decision. Next, try and create a story. The hook should not be you playing the game, it should be about a challenge or a tournament you entered or something.”
“Only for your own videos. Why are you bothered about someone else's views? There isn't enough time in the day for that shit.”
“do you think theres a threshold for how niche-adjacent you can go before it starts chugging though?”
“id make one video and treat it like a clean test. youre already getting the search spillover, so youll know pretty quickly if those people actually watch or just bounce”
“So I created my channel called somni-nyx and 4 months after that a roblox game came out called somnis engine. I'm getting views because people are looking up the game and was wondering if I should make videos on the game or not. I think it would be an interesting exparament considering my situation just wanted some other options. submitted by /u/d_theflash [link] [comments]”
“I just started my new gaming channel 2 weeks ago, do you guys have some tips for me on how to improve. I have 8 Subs currently. Yes i do not talk in my videos i am not sure if i want to yet. submitted by /u/B3g3 [link] [comments]”
“hi I have a gaming channel, and it had some really good success pretty quickly, and I was focused on a single video game. I eventually lost interest in that game and didn't enjoy it etc so I stopped playing it and ceased making videos for that game. Over time just for myself and fun, I've uploaded videos for other games (that arent directly related to the first game). However, I have yet to build an audience in those games (or the game that I really like now and will be my main focus) so”
“can you come up with 10 videos you'd actually make without owning a bike? if not, buying another one probably doesnt fix the real blocker”
“Are there any tools out there to figure out why a channel is popular or is getting so many views/subs with so little content and hopefully reverse engineer. As I said in an other pose my last video was DOA. I just found a channel doing similar to me and been around the same amount of time. It has less long form videos than me but while not a huge channel my any means it has 300x my subs than me with more views. Is it just luck or how can I learn from them submitted by /u/ConsistentCu”
“I recently started making Minecraft farm/tutorial videos, and I honestly want some real feedback. Do you actually find this type of content interesting and worth watching, or does it feel too generic? I’m not looking to promote my channel. I just want to know if the content is something people would genuinely watch. youtube.com/@Tomito-z5g submitted by /u/Loose_Bandicoot2904 [link] [comments]”
“Anyone who can suggest something to me, and why most of my videos are stuck after 3/5k views and most of the top content goes to 30k, 27k, 26k, 24, 23k, 22, 20k, 18k, 15k, 12k, 10k Stay time on all my shorts is more than +70%, and the average view percentage is +90% Am I unloading wrong...... Why aren't my shorts getting millions of views? I have uploaded 60 shorts and 1 long form video submitted by /u/itsaliraza [link] [comments]”
“Guys, i was accepted into the youtube partner programme and was eligible for these super chats and subscriptions etc etc. Though it was the 3 mil views on shorts within 90 days one. I haven't yet reached 10 mil views but i was wondering if i will be accepted for monetization when i get 10 mil in 90 days cuz the catch is i post top 3 ranking vids (i got like 20k subs), so you know like pick top 3 moments rank them and stuff. I've heard it's quite risky , but on the same hand i got acc”
“I started posting brook and jubal content like a week ago, I mostly got my followers from following back, And some videos do get about 200 to 1k views, Im just wondering what else could i improve so I'd get more views and likes and whats the best hashtags and time to post submitted by /u/Yagiyuta [link] [comments]”
“one a week is thin. thumbnail impressions dont say much about Shorts feed distribution though, check the Shorts-specific "Shown in feed" number before blaming volume”
“Check the device type. If it's TV, that's most likely reason. Sadly you can't do much about it. It’s been happening a lot recently to new/small channels. Youtube just keep finding new ways to screw small creators. Corporate greed always win.”
“Generally speaking if ur a shorts creator. Doing longform on the same channel is probably gonna do more harm than good. you have to first understand viewing behaviour is incredibly different for both shorts and long form. People who mainly watches shorts may not have the patience and attention span to sit through a long horizontal video. Secondly it’s the returning subs. Shorts subscribers are mostly useless and don’t return at all. You wanna be building an actual fan base who can recognise you”
“This is the way. I'll be the first to admit the first videos on my channel were sloppy as fuck. But I've worked hard to make the more recent ones more sticky and clickable and it seems to be paying off a little now.”
“Thank you for the resource I'll check it out! I hope I didn't come across as confrontational, I genuinely like to learn”
“I recently started creating content on YouTube, but I’m barely getting any views right now. I’m still very new, so I know I probably shouldn’t expect much in the beginning. At the moment, I’m experimenting with different types of content and honestly posting somewhat randomly because I’m still trying to figure out what works. How long did it take before you started getting consistent views How did you get your first 100 or 1,000 views? submitted by /u/Former_Constant2331 [link]”
“Do you guys think it's worth paying YouTube to advertise my page? Is it worth it? I made my channel 2 days ago and I only have 160 views from 4 videos. Should I wait or pour some money? submitted by /u/wrapcannon [link] [comments]”
Bro same story! I also started with Shorts (Mix Feeds - 26 Aug). What worked for me: DON'T make new channel. Keep same. YouTube algorithm separates Shorts feed and Long feed now…
“De nada! 😊 Good luck with your reaction channel! If you need more ideas for funny clips, let me know. Happy to help fellow new YouTuber! Kapil from Mix Feeds”
“Odds man Someone has to get the crazy numbers to keep the dream alive It's like Santa clause. You'll never get millions of subs but they put out little fake channels making you work harder to give them learning and training materials for Gemini I mean copywrite content. Lol it doesn't happen, music, YouTube, all arts We took the tech of needing ten million people to build a desk And applied it to the creative arts, we don't need a million YouTube vids, but they won't stop and”
“I started my channel revolved around me gaming, reacting to videos, and clips of my streams. All of my subscribers come from shorts. They get okay views, usually in the thousands. My long form vids however, get like 0-20 views. Should I make another channel only for long form? And keep this current channel for shorts? Or, should I make shorts content specifically on my long form content that only gives a taste, so if they want the full experience, they need to watch my long form video? Also, how”
“It seems I can’t post pictures to show you unfortunately. On the YouTube studio app, it would have a green arrow or a red arrow or a grey arrow which would indicate my success on that video compared to my averages. On my most recent video, I cannot get this to display. Is there any reason why? can I fix this? submitted by /u/Angle_3013 [link] [comments]”
“So i am 16 y/o high schooler and when i was 14 i decided that i don't want to be a corporate rat so in those 2 years i tired many things like print on demand, survays,selling digital products etc( never worked btw) . But at last i find out that content creation has the most potential for making that 0 to something. So 2 months ago i started my short yt channel. At first i thought ai generated contant will do but after some videos reality hit me i started making those videos myself and not de”
“I got 1021 subscribers and it's growing actually my most viral video hit was 137k and my total view count is 376K -Would LOVE to get some tips on how to grow more -And i will be happy to answer your questions submitted by /u/Aseadd [link] [comments]”
“Hey guys. I just rebranded my old Anime channel into a new channel, and I'm not getting any new views. Its been a few years since I properly uploaded long form. Should I keep this as an anime channel and make a new talk channel? Some stats I hit 2.8k subs with anime and a few videos had 200k+ views. Any advice? submitted by /u/kirito11400 [link] [comments]”
“Consistency is also not the same thing as frequency. It's accurate to say posting 3 times a day every day is consistent just as much as it is to say posting once a month is consistent. To your point, yeah being realistic about frequency helps. It's better to consistently release 1 or 2 videos a month or every few months even if that's what it takes to make sure the videos are good, rather than rapidly churning out as much low effort garbage as possible regardless of how "consist”
“I was posting regularly content on my channel. It was mostly sermons and shorts from the sermon with occasional reaction videos and things. Life got crazy and I didn’t post for weeks. My shorts went from regular 1K views easily to hardly any. Did that break absolutely kill my channel? Is it fixable just need to keep posting to get going again or is this channel dead? submitted by /u/Nice-Elk9007 [link] [comments]”
“Hey guys, so recently I’ve gotten into making Roblox gaming videos. I used to get around 50-60 views but with my new video, it has dropped to barely 30. How do I get more people to click on my videos? Do I have to do my own marketing? submitted by /u/kokichi_Ouma3 [link] [comments]”
“Hey, I don't really like how this is going. I started a YouTube channel last week and so far I got 10 subscribers and 5k views. And only 4 comments. How do I have such a huge amount of viewers without many of them subscribing? I am trying to get monetized soon but how will I get there with such a low subscriber rate? submitted by /u/Several_Staff_8735 [link] [comments]”
“I’m only a month in and slowly but surely growing, which means Youtube is starting to show my shorts to the right people. For now I’m only uploading shorts but I want to start uploading long-form videos too. I don’t trust Youtube systems that much though. I noticed that every time I private, delete or reupload any short, for the next 24 hours my shorts do not get distributed at all. I want to upload long-form videos soon but worried it will cause a bit of chaos in my shorts distribution since I’”
“I am honestly not sure. We have been organically promoting on all of my social channels, including LinkedIn, where I have about 2K followers. We are also doing a lot of shorts content for YouTube. So these are our aggregate numbers are 6K views and about 75 hours of watch time. Our top short hit 1.5K in 24 hours, but the episodes themselves are only at 400 views on YT (we have 4 out there, but the third just dropped today).”
“I've had a German gaming YouTube channel for a little over a year. After experimenting a lot, I'm now trying to focus on a few long-form formats. I have three formats planned: Elden Ring Bossfight, where I have bosses fight each other, and Pokémon Randomizer Runs. Now I'm considering adding Master Duel Challenges. So, my questions are: first, what do you generally think of these formats? And second, are three formats too many for a small channel like mine? Is that too much of a mix?”
“I've got 2 channels - one is only 12 days old but should hit targets in next couple of weeks. That's because I feature new interviews with well known musicians. So @ClassicSongChats - 7 videos in past 11 days, 950 watch hours, c250 subs, best video = 7.5k views at mo but going up rapidly. My first channel, @WithouttheBeatles also monetised in first month. 18 months later we average 8k watch time per month and coming up to 8k subscribers, Ll organic. Best video is almost 500k views. Lesso”