I read a quote from a retired YouTuber that said 'stop optimizing for the algorithm and start optimizing for your actual viewers' and it hit me hard.

I was scrolling through an old interview with a guy who had 2 million subs and quit because he was burned out. He said most creators focus on what the algorithm wants - short videos, trending sounds, clickbait titles - but forget that real people are watching. I've been doing this for about 4 years now and I caught myself spending more time looking at analytics than reading comments. Last week I changed my approach and posted a 12 minute video about a topic I cared about, no fluff. My views dropped at first but the comments were actual conversations, not just 'nice vid'. Has anyone else tried ignoring the algorithm and felt a difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

keith_rodriguez2d ago

dude this hit me hard too, i went through the same thing last month.

gracewebb2d ago

dude this hit me hard too" - yeah I get that feeling but I gotta say something. It didn't happen the exact same way for me. My situation was different, I saw it coming for weeks before it actually happened. You might be remembering details wrong, @keith_rodriguez. Not trying to be a jerk here but I think a lot of people look back at rough times and think they were the same when they really weren't. The timing mattered a lot for me and it sounds like yours was more sudden. Just wanted to put that out there because it changes how you deal with it after.