Largely by accident also, it’s worth noting. The YouTube algorithm has a large amount of inertia in it and the first mover advantage is the dominant variable. The people who got big early when the algorithm was stupider and the competition was orders of magnitude less have stayed big. Staying big is very easy because if you have more than 2m subs YouTube will never downrank a video and thus you’ll gain a lot more subs and it all feeds on itself. If you’re below that line, you’ll forever struggle to keep your head above water. You spiral up or you spiral down, and there’s no upward mobility to speak of.
It’s also worth noting all the “advice” that big YouTubers give on mastering the algorithm is nonsense. It’s all based on guesses, superstition, and n=1 success, so none of it is reliable or objective. They also literally change the algorithm hourly, so any advice that might have been good once no longer is. Mr. Beast (and others) set up YouTube consultancies that are just grifting within the ecosystem.
(Source: I’ve been a full time YouTuber for five years and like all of us have spent much time studying the algorithm).
I was specifically referring to Veritasium’s video where he talks about why he changes thumbnails and video titles, sometimes several times, in the first day or two after releasing a video. And why everyone has those god-awful reaction shots in their thumbnails. Basically…because it works. I am not a YouTuber (I did make a half-hearted effort to do that back when I was heavily into playing Marvel Contest of Champions, but I very quickly realized it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay more work than I was able to do), so I will defer to your experience, but I did find this video interesting.
Oh trust me, I’ve heard all that advice a thousand times and seen the videos like that one where they claim it works. Except, as I said, it’s always n=1 and correlations at best. Not shown in that “data” are the thousands and thousands and thousands of videos where such things make no difference at all. AB Testing (which is what these guys are doing) doesn’t establish causation of any one change. It is throwing darts. You hit on something that works in that one case but you cannot say why. The “why” part is where they all start making it up. “Because faces draw the eye” or “questions make people click” or whatever. None of that is based on anything exception superstition and rumour. It’s not evidence unless they can reproduce those results without all the influences of their channel in the algorithm. Maybe a face in your thumbnail moves the needle 0.1%, maybe not. But it’s pointless effort if factors that you don’t control (like algorithm inertia and clickbait content) are 99.9% of your views.
The effect at play here is the same one as most successful people engage in. They got successful, they don’t really know why, but they start attributing it to their own cleverness in any way possible. This is human nature. We all do this to some degree. The guy born into wealth who succeeds at business writes books about what a good business man he is, and the YouTuber who lucky in the early algorithm days goes around telling everyone how good at the algorithm he is.
I do actually know what I’m talking about on this stuff. I’m no Mr. Beast, but my house, car, and property were all paid for from YouTube. I do okay at it.
I can’t believe that substituting a semi-clandestine ecosystem of fungible subcontractors for internal capacity development led to subpart results.
It’s like someone whose background is in mismanaging ERP implementations via whatever body shop has the slickest pitch deck decided to get into food services.
Funnily enough i noticed in the last two days that this video from Smarter Every Day keeps the same thumbnail but changes the color hue of the metal piece in the thumbnail. It flips back and forth between a golden brass color and a blue color, i didn’t save a screenshot of the brass color on youtube but doing a quick search i can see it:
But yeah when i noticed the change in color alternating between the colors seemingly at random i first thought i was imagining it and then i was sure it was being done on purpose to get people to click on the video (though i haven’t watched it)
‘Donaldson told a fan in June that he was disappointed with the MrBeast Burger offering. “Yeah, the problem with Beast Burger is I can’t guarantee the quality of the order. When working with other restaurants it’s impossible to control it sadly,”’
Hmmmm… I can think of a solution, doesn’t generate so many clicks though.
It’s at times like this I really feel like I’m an alien living inside a sci-fi novel. Youtuber ghost kitchens? Why would anyone want a random burger “branded” by a Youtube “influencer”, much less why would 10,000 people stand in line for one? I just… I don’t…
Is it? Honestly, like most have expressed in this thread, I don’t understand what his talent is. I don’t get his appeal at all. It seems inexplicable that so many find him so entertaining that, as @Shuck said, people would line up for mystery food from this guy’s weird brand empire.
He doesn’t even really have a thing that he does. He’s not a comedian, or someone who builds things, or someone who reports interesting stories, or makes music, or anything else. He’s… a human embodiment of a brand that exists just to exist.
He’s pretty much a money man. He doesn’t really have original ideas, he just piggy backs off whatever is relevant in a given moment and has enough capital to execute his version of whatever “that thing” is in a given moment with enough pizzazz to get a lot of attention and money.
