Analyzing A Hit YouTube Video

So for a YT video to go viral it's a case to steepening the curve :)

Oof the image they use with the "looking good".. Like, you're on your hot air balloon, just getting lucky to be blown upwards just before hitting those buildings?! Blegh.

Jasper

Well I really don't understand it either, but I'm trying to.

Fran Blanche

Controversy.

Fran Blanche

Rare displays are getting to be few. Not sure what I'll do for the future...

Fran Blanche

Yea, I know.

Fran Blanche

Wait. Fran is trans? Who cares? Fran posts great stuff. I will keep paying.

James Boatright

The viewers who don't fall for baited headlines are the viewers you want.

Joe Hrdina

I also keep regularly getting the “Stop watching...” video In my recommendations. So much that I contemplated writing a comment about it. I think it is a combination of several factors. It is sort of ranty - you are in the image talking for most of the video. Apparently the topic is considered controversial so the trolls inadvertently give it a lot of interaction such as comments and shares etc. Apparently a combination made, if not in hell, then In the deep bowels of the YouTube algorithms. Anyway: Keep up the good work you are doing! It is wonderful to find a person who also loves antique display technologies! :-)

I've noticed the 'Stop watching these videos' video being recommended recently, even though I've already watched it several times. It does seem odd that this is picked before other more relevant ones.

David Peaker

"View" is a powerful word for attracting interest, especially when combined with a novel word such as "Bina". People are always interested in new ways of "viewing" things.

I guess several of your top videos now were on vintage electronic display technologies. You got Bina-view, NIMO tubes and Nixie tubes. Then there was DSKY which is another one related to that. Then there was one on early LED displays which did well. You got more hits than misses when talking about old displays, so there is kind of theme there for break-out videos. So that might be worth looking at expanding. You got a space race/cold war vintage technology theme which is doing well. Again you got DSKY which crosses over with the space and vintage displays theme.

It's not the shiny polished surface of videos I would say. ElectroBOOM or bigclivedotcom have much more subs/views because their proportion of entertaining content is much bigger than yours or Daves in the EEVBlog. To understand the brilliance of your project work, I think, the viewer has to know how special it is to build something out of raw materials instead of - let's say LEGO™. And there are not so much out there I guess. Your projects are solid craftsmanship with much dedication and sometimes very entertaining, too. ;-)

I've been trying to figure out an application for a single-character display, but the only thing I can come up with since you've only got one, is a franken-display (FRANken-display?) which uses all different kinds of single-character displays to scroll a message. That would be pretty awesome, although difficult to read. (Also posted this on YT, but I thought I'd cross-post here in case you don't spot it amongst the noise.)

UpLateGeek

I am sure!

Fran Blanche

The analytics show the external traffic as well and for this video the driver was Browser Features, which is the main push in the YouTube platform for videos. Suggested videos was second.

Fran Blanche

It's a sticking point for the opposition that i am a "trap". This means that they watch a video of mine and get a "rise" out of looking at me, then find out days or weeks later that I am trans, which means that I have tricked them into becoming a homosexual and they are now an affront to god, which means that they have two choices, they can either kill me or themselves. What a pickle for both of us! But that is the sequence for the mega-trolls.

Fran Blanche

Big Clive has linked to it in his latest video so that'll probably help too.

Hi Fran, I wonder if this is less to do with YouTube algorithms and more due to outside influances. Searching for BINA-VIEW on Google I can see on the 7 April it appeared on Hackaday.com (https://hackaday.com/2020/04/07/bina-view-a-fascinating-mechanical-interference-display), on the 8 April is was posted on Reddit.com (https://www.reddit.com/r/mealtimevideos/comments/fwmel8/binaview_the_rarest_and_most_complicated_digital) and on www.newsbreak.com (https://www.newsbreak.com/news/0OgPRm8T/bina-view-a-fascinating-mechanical-interference-display), so generating a lot more traffic to it. I had this once with an Android app I had published, it just trickled upward with just a dozen installs a day for many months then suddenly went off the chart. I Googled it and found someone had picked it up by chance and had demo'd it as an article on an Android website, so generating extra traffic. So rather than YouTube being involved in this with their sneeky algorithms, it may just be nothing more than having been advertised to a wider audience via other websites? Got my membership card and stickers today, loved the space themed stamps, thank you.

Leigh

I'm not a statistical guru, or an expert on human behavior, or indeed someone who who knows the inner workings of Google's algorithms. But none of this makes any real sense to me, therefore I can have no suggestions or be of any help. I'm just speechless.

Dr Andy Hill

I also suffer from the curse of having eclectic content (although a bit less so than your), but I'm still lucky enough to still have fairly linear growth. The other channels that give you the same format and style and length and subject almost every time usually do much better at gaining an audience and get a higher sub/view ratio.

EEVblog

What idiot would think that you have to put THAT issue into EVERY video? That's beyond insane.

EEVblog

People like (and will share) novel unusual stuff.

EEVblog

I don't produce a ton of content (mostly actual websites, less youtube, more Instagram) but I have defintiely found that when I have posted spoof clickbait titles, I get a LOT more traffic. It's not spoof in the traditional sense, I put relevant content to the audience, but the title is something that directly copies the style of clickbait style ads (IE, Dan dishes the dirt on the scene!) The title of your post has those types of loaded terms (Rarest, Most Complicated,) then the description "I challenge you to find another Anywhere". That, along with the high quality videos that you always do and gear/component breakdowns probably got you launched into a million different "you might like" engineering streams. I'm no SEO expert, but sometimes it's the most simple things that get you tagged into a jetstream. Keep up the great work!

My opinion: that is just a really interesting subject. You did a great job explaining it. I don't think you can "can" that stuff. Finding something very unique and techie is rare and lucky. Explaining it well is all you.

Robert Sanges

Hi Fran, unfortunately I had noticed the "Stop watching my videos!" being pushed by YouTube. I was quite confused when it popped up as a recommended video after the BINA View. I'm really happy your channel had a nice boost. :-) Edit: btw I say unfortunately because it has no relevance to the BINA View