I finally stopped chasing trends and went back to long-form storytelling

After my last 2 months of short clips tanked and a viewer in Austin told me 'your 20 minute river cleanup video is why I subscribed,' I deleted my entire trend backlog and posted a 30 minute raw edit of a weekend project, and the watch time tripled, so has anyone else found that going against the algorithm actually brought in better regulars?

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grace50819d ago

So what did the analytics ACTUALLY tell you about who stuck around after that long video? I ask because I think most folks get fooled by total watch time and miss the real signal, which is repeat viewers coming back within a week. I had a similar thing happen with a 40 minute build video that I almost didn't post because I was scared people would click off. The raw edit did worse in the first 24 hours, but the comments were all from people who said they felt like they knew me after watching. That's the trade off right? You trade the quick spike for a slower burn that actually converts strangers into regulars. Were your new subscribers mostly from the search or from the suggested feed? Because that changed how I thought about the whole thing. Long form brings in people who are looking for depth, but the algorithm only pushes it if those people finish it. If they finish, the algorithm has to pay attention to them, not the other way around.