I made a big mistake in my last YouTube video!
Let me explain why the ending of my latest video will feel a bit... "meh"
I received the same feedback a number of times about my latest YouTube video:
The end about inheritance felt a bit rushed. I would have liked to have seen an example of good inheritance.
I'm missing more practical examples at the end
… just to quote a few!
This was not entirely unexpected. In fact, before that part of the video was animated and the voiceover was recorded, I received an email which included:
My suggestion to you would be to make sure that you have a strong example that proves the statement.
The statement in question is the one made at the end.
But, I didn’t.
Sure, this may turn out to be a mistake - but it wasn’t mindless. Instead, it was an intentional risk.
You see, my audience is small. I launched the video at 7:00 this morning and I am writing this at 12:00. In those 5 hours, the video has received 166 views. 90% of those views have been from my own promotion on Twitter, Discord and a few other places.
And… that’ll likely be it!
My previous video, which has the same audience, has been published for 20 days and has received 964 views. Again, with the vast majority of views coming from external sources.
YouTube doesn’t know my content.
It has no idea who’ll find my videos interesting.
One of the strongest signals YouTube can receive that your video is worthy of sharing with others is Watch Time. But, an even stronger signal than Watch Time is creating a Watch Session!
Apparently - this is all new to me!
When someone watches one of your videos, and they enjoyed it, YouTube knows. They figure this out based on many signals. One of them being the volume of time they stuck around watching the video. If that viewer decides to go from one video to another video: this is a Watch Session. It is a strong indicator to YouTube the viewer not only liked your video - but they will perhaps enjoy your other content, too.
In the future, when YouTube is considering what content to show these viewers - it’s now a little more likely your content could be listed in their feed.
And this brings us back to the “mistake” I made in my video.
Leaving an Open Loop at the end of a video can leave viewers with unanswered questions and ultimately disappointed. However, if you have more content on your channel for these viewers wanting to close that loop - you’re very close to starting that incredibly valuable Watch Session!
But my channel is small.
In the future, I will have a great video to close that loop. But, until then, I need to take the criticism on the chin.
It’s still a great video. I’m very proud of it. I need to remind myself in this moment that it’s only a single video. This video’s success can not be measured today, this week, or even over the next 3 months.
Instead, it was a piece of content that needed to exist to ensure that future viewers had a compelling reason to continue watching.