Q3 Report to Subscribers (Part 2)

[watchhowtobegod]

That was very interesting. Thanks.

[merishane]

great video!

[leokimvideo]

also 5 stars

[leokimvideo]

always love your stats videos....stunning work

[hiimnoahwhoareyou]

So, um, I thought we weren't going to have to wait long for part 3?

[longlivechristian]

Long is relative, maybe my not having to wait long he means less than a year.

=)

[hiimnoahwhoareyou]

But in this case isn't long relative to the distance between the two previous quarterly report videos?

[longlivechristian]

hahaha

[camdogie]

Just make videos you want to make and don't worry about getting subcribers to watch them....taking into account the subject of this video...i will now watch some of your other videos to see if i would like to subscribe to you.

cheers

(i'm actually not from europe, i just like that word they say "cheers").

ps very interesting video.

[mickeleh]

good advice. I say "cheers" too. But maybe not as often as you do.

Cheers.

[ChateauOfADoubt]

I'd like to encourage you to to make part three! It's been too long! I hope everything is OK.

[wilsontech1]

This was amazingly interesting. The charts are awesome. Score 1 for Mac!

OMG I can't believe I just said that...

[UnculturedProject]

Wow this is awesome and insightful. Sorry I didn't catch it when it first hit my sub box *ducks*.

How did you do those awesome animations? Where they all done in Keynote?

[mickeleh]

The cosmic zoom and the pictographs were done in Motion. (as was the Sachertorte thought ballon) The bar charts were all done in Keynote.

[starstealer1195]

don't stop doing quarterly reports. those are my favorites

[ChateauOfADoubt]

I always have more views than subscribers because I always post my videos on Facebook, and I think a lot of my friends and family there feel obligated to watch :)

I also do a fair amount of embedding other places, so I think that most of my views are from non-YouTubers.

[mickeleh]

Ah, the miracle of embedding. Good tip.

[seaottersoup]

Smile... grace... modicum... What kind of delusional crackpot philosophy is this? Seriously, you need to reevaluate who to pay attention to.

But <3 anyway.

xD

[jadeddryad]

If you show up in my sub box I will always watch your videos because I am in love with the sound of your voice.

[scratchingcat]

You know what's funny? I watch you all the time and have never heard of NigaHiga before. High Five for selective perception!

[mickeleh]

What you see is always dependent on where you stand. (goin' for an aphorism there. Don't know if I made it or not.)

[scratchingcat]

How about: Your stand point determines your view point?

It is not grammatically correct, but I have never really heard about a point of stand. At least not in a harmless way.

[TheAmazingAnarchist1]

I think I probably have the most ridiculous views-to-subs ratio in the history of this website: 33,000 views, 3 subscribers.

[dangerouslytalented]

I would love to see which channels you find interesting down the other end of the pool, those you think need more subscribers but have not broken through yet.

[Awaitsubasa]

Well, i just recently subscribed to you, and so far I've liked what I've seen. Especially that "acne" song. So if I would give any advice on how to get more views it would be to do more videos similar to that one. Although I really enjoy these reports too.

Keep uo the good work!

/Amalia

[mickeleh]

Thanks much Amalia. I'll do my best to work one up. May take a while, though.

[hexachordal]

I showed this video to my mother the other day, and it was a delight watching her face shift from confusion to enjoyment to delight.

[ShmoNerd]

Don't worry! I'll always Watch your Videos!

[bookeight]

A lot of people can't keep up with their subscriptions if they are subscribed to a lot of people. I also think that people who make videos frequently get less people watching each and every video of theirs- I don't agree with that, I like channels that have one video per week or more :)

Some people just forget about their account altogether after a while if they're busy and such. And there's the subscription box problem as well. Keep on making videos, I think you're doing great :D

[mickeleh]

All of that is true... and probably accounts for a lot of the issue. But it's also true that my views seem to be lower than my subs consistently and by a wider margin than many other channels.

[dangerouslytalented]

I think it has to do with subject matter and tags. I almost consistantly get a number of views well higher than my subs, but my subject matter can be controversial. It is the controversial subject matter that does well in my case. Oh, and the fake rick roll that I did.

[unclesaboin]

When I started subscribing to people on YouTube, back in mid 2007, I used to watch every single video of each of my subscription. Since then, I've kept those subscription but I also kept subscribing to more and more people as I found some people that are interesting to me. These days, I am no longer able to watch every video that shows up in my subscription box because there are too many of them.

[unclesaboin]

I have to screen the videos in my subscription box and only watch the ones that seem interesting and aren't too long. If your video is too long or it doesn't have a title that catches my attention, I probably won't watch it. I still have a few subscription of whom I watch every video but they aren't the majority.

[mickeleh]

confession: me neither.

[unclesaboin]

There are people who just subscribe to everyone with the hopes that a certain percentage of them will sub back. Those people don't watch any of the videos from their subscriptions. To them, the number of subscribers they have is more important than the number of subscribers who watch their videos and actually take part in the YouTube community.

[ltmjames]

I think your growth is very nice. Better then mine. but who want's to watch someone doodle. I am new to your stream so i haven't watched your older vid's, I think the best part of your vid's is your open minded opinion and your willingness to listen and respond to comments. that's my 2 cents. keep up the good work.

[mickeleh]

"Will Vlog for Comments" I love 'em. And I'm completely thrilled that most of the comments on my vids are thoughtful, challenging, and literate.

[JoanIsNotTheMaid]

Funny songs. Funny original songs always get good amounts of views.

[mickeleh]

I plan on at least one more funny song this quarter. Two if the muse smiles on me. Or should that be the amuse?

[Sh1nyboots]

*Correction

Number of subscribers is not constant as your chart suggests. Number of subscribers would have to be identified for each individal video to make an accurate judgment.

[mickeleh]

Point well taken. I agree. What we have here is a rising tide of subscribers which--all else being equal--tends to overtake the older videos. (I'll show an example of this in Pt. 3). But since I don't have access to that data, this approximation is the best I can do. While there is some inevitable inaccuracy, I think this is a useful approximation for comparing the results across channels.

[Sh1nyboots]

Number of views is not constant as your charts suggest.

[Toddly00]

also looking smart in that suit bud!

[Toddly00]

you're a smart man!

[BarryAldridge]

Charts are great and keep doing what you are doing Michael.

[undercoveragent832]

As many of the younger people on Youtube get older, go to university, get jobs, families, they may find themselves devoting less time to Youtubing. I know for me this is the case. Not on purpose of course, life just happens. It can be that many people who are subscribed to you don't ignore your videos, they're just not on Youtube regularly enough to see them.

[vulcanbirdbrain]

do a quarterly report entirely in song?

THREE parts?! yay :D

[mikezorander]

The reports may not be the most appealing thing on youtube to watch, but I believe people enjoy listening to you speak. Perhaps you could read out poems or short stories that appeal to you every once in a while. Your voice reading out the poem/story voiced over some illustrations/pictures/animati­ons to assist the listeners imagination. I subscribed after you became a flavour packet. I don't quite know what it was about that video that got my attention, but I do know I enjoyed it!

[mickeleh]

Ah, the Flavor Packet video. I like it, too. It's actually the third most-watched video I've done (after Longtail and the SitC video from my other channel.) I love the vlogramen channel and I'm very grateful to Michael and Stefan for inviting me to contribute.

[iman12692]

You should wear silly wigs!

[mickeleh]

YESSS!

[mickeleh]

Oh wait. That's WheezyWaiter's schtick. Wait again... I was wearing silly wigs before he was born.

[iman12692]

Wear an even sillier wig! Like a green toupee!

[itiselizabeth]

This is damn interesting.

Slightly disappointing to see those figures though! :(

[zunathanzu]

I'm really enjoying this report and all of it's charts.

Tiny suggestion: Maybe you could do some videos about youtube's most subscribed channels and do reports with charts about them.

You could be like the official reporter for youtube telling people how well the most popular channels are doing.

[mickeleh]

Cool idea, but it's impossible for me to get to any deep info on any channel except my own.

[IJethrobot]

I saw a mickeleh video up, and it was the perfect break I needed from my take-home midterm (I hate 'em-- I'd rather do them in class and have 'em done with). I also checked out Power of 10. Very impressive for its time, I really enjoyed it.

My folks are here visiting and they really like your videos. : )

~ Jethro.

[mickeleh]

Considering that it was all done without digital compositing, After Effects, or Photoshop, it's astonishing. BTW, a little less than a year from now, we'll be at 10/10/10. The Eames office is planning a big celebration of the film for then.

Your parents.... they have YouTube accounts, maybe?

[IJethrobot]

Sadly, I couldn't convince them. It's just a passing interest for them. They mostly just go on to see what I'm up to.

Funnily enough, they haven't said anything about the "Jethro Makes Sounds" video...maybe they haven't watched it?

~ Jethro.

[Marj12592]

That's sad. If you're subscribed, doesn't that mean you want to watch the videos? Or it should, right?

Well, I haven't stopped watching since I subscribed. =)

[mickeleh]

Thanks for watching, empathizing, and commenting. I'm trying not to put an emotional value on the numbers. Just report them and strategize on how to move them.

[radioschizo]

Though some of my videos got a lot of views from being responses or tributes to bigger youtubers, most don't get more views than subs. I don't think my videos are really that eye catching and all that though.

Love the graph animations man. I love the effort you put into this channel.

[cheeya9000]

I get about a fourth or a seventh of subscribers to watch my videos. I'm not completely hurt by it. I just wish more would actually comment, but I guess I get the views because the person left the page before the end. Lord knows people can't sit around for 3 minutes for the end of a terrible video, but they can last for 5 minutes of "HEY IT'S FRED!"

[bandgeek8408]

Yeah, I have the same problem. I have over 150 subs, but I'm lucky if my videos break 60 views. I think people subscribe when I do a more involved or funny video (like the rap), and then are a bit put off when I post videos that are just of me talking.

[mickeleh]

If you bring 'em in with a high-effort video, you establish a new quality-threshold for yourself. You can't fool audiences (for long). It's great that you can do really good stuff. Now you have to decide whether you are willing to fight for more views by doing it all the time (or at least most of the time.)

[ghostwritten87]

I don't know why more of your subscribers don't regularly watch :( Your videos always brighten my day. Hmmm . . . perhaps you need snappier vid names? Or perhaps people subscribe expecting something different . . . please don't change - you just need to find a way of reaching out to new ukelele/wisdom loving potential subscribers.

[mickeleh]

I have a theory about why that is. But I don't know how to test it. Maybe I'll mention it in Part 3.

[defect530]

Rayan is just brilliant I watched his new video probably 3 or 4 times! funny funny funny

I noticed people that get a lot of hits use video titles like "girl punched in face" or "fat guy breaks arm". You can go real big and just mention "Twilight" in a title. =)

[mickeleh]

How about "Fat Guy Breaks Arm on Girl's Face in the Twilight" I tried that trick once, by mentioning Susan Boyle in the title. Feeling bad that I missed the moment on Balloon Boy. But I see that the Vlogbrothers have gone to that well often enough to make up for it.

[defect530]

"Fat Guy Breaks Arm on Girl's Face in the Twilight" might just work, maybe Ill use that.

[TheMidnightVlogger]

I love charty videos XD

And your tie!

[mickeleh]

I went right from filming this to a Dan Deacon concert. I think I was the only one there with a tie. I think I was also the only one there over the age of 25. But the club said, "All Ages." And Dan told me he loved my shoes. Twice. Didn't mention the tie. Oh, wait. I took that off and shoved it into my pocket.

[MZB1993]

You seem to have the opposite problem to me, you have Quantity not Quality (In terms of your subscribers YouTube Habits not your videos they are of course quality :D) You have alot of subscribers but they seem to be the type that tend to subscribe after seeing one video and then not check their subscriptions much, the kind that subscribe as recognition of a good video not as a commitment to your channel. My problem on the other hand.. (Character limit reached I will continue in a reply)

[MZB1993]

...Is almost the opposite, I have only 375 subscribers but the vast majority of those are people I have met online and keep in contact with, so they tend to watch alot of my videos as they (in part) subscribed to keep in contact with me.

My problem is attracting new people to find my videos and subscirbe to my channel! How do you do that?

[mickeleh]

One way is to post interesting comments on other people's channels. They tend to notice you after a while and check you out. Pardon me now, while I check out your channel.

[MZB1993]

Ahh I see what you did there :P

I just read through your comments and noticed how you reply to (almost?) all of them, I do this myself but I only get 20 or so comments on my videos :P. That sort of commitment twinned with a great video just got me subscribed :D

[mickeleh]

I love the comments. I want to encourage folks to comment often.

[unclesaboin]

That's how I found your videos, mickeleh. I saw your comments on a lot of the videos that I liked to watch. I found a lot of the people in my subscriptions that way.

[nenalyzed]

charty charts charts! incredible how you keep on doing it :D I just love watching them :D And it was very nice to get a good view on who is 'bigger' on youtube. of course there's nigahiga, but I had no clue charlie was bigger than vlogbrothers! or that buck was even more well known. in a strange way it does make sense... even though I tend to believe that the world exists out of nerdfighters...

[mickeleh]

Glad you like the charts. I made more than I could fit into this video. So, there's a part 3 coming real soon.

[splicegrrl]

Oh, I love charty charts. *swoon*

Fascinating stuff, although I don't have an explanation for it or for why people would subscribe and then not watch the videos in their subscription box.

I watched your videos long before I subscribed, and I don't know how many people that's true of, probably a few. But I'm glad to be subbed now.

[vlogtag]

I love your charts! Awesome!

~Helen

[MikeMarino]

Oh, I love all your videos mickeleh.

[songsfrompaul]

The quartely report never ceases to fascinate me. I'm very lucky in that a large number of my videos so far have passed my sub count - I reckon that's a mixture of OurMixTape boosting my channel views and the fact that music videos and songs are generally much more "replayable" and tweetable...

[mickeleh]

And you have the sibs, too. I agree with you about music. Although, if you check the vlogbrothers it turns out that giraffe sex is even more powerful than music.

[zottepark]

great video! Sometimes I get more views than subscribers, but most of the time its the opposite. It makes me sad..

[cheekychen]

this was really interesting. They should factor this style of analysis into the insight feature. It'd make a good app too.. Similar to the kind of tools for twitter analysis.

[seaottersoup]

For all 16 of my videos, I have more views than subscribers. On average, the number of views is 6.5 times my subscriber count. I could look at this as great success. On the other hand, for every 104 views, I gain only 1 subscriber, and I could see this as abject failure: the people who click on my videos are rarely moved to subscribe. When I look at the actual numbers (28 subscribers, 2900+ views), I'm inclined to accept the latter characterization as more accurate.

[mickeleh]

Failure? Bah. I love your videos. They are calming, meditative, and beautiful. As for subs vs. views--aside from the obvious view-boosts that people sometimes get for being featured/spotlighted--I don't think I understand the variations any more than when I started to look into it.

[paisleypower30]

I have that too, a lot of my early subscribers just stopped watching I think, I run about half the number of subscribers to views. Some just sub everyone they find.

Some of us also have so many we really are choosy abut what we click on. I have been very fickle lately, and only clicking on things that really interest me, though I like everyone that appears in my subscriptions. It can be difficult.

I applaud that you want to change, and please people, but I hope you don't change too much :)

[mickeleh]

Please? Yes. Pander? Never. (maybe occasionally). I hear a lot of folks complaining about fewer views lately. I think you're on to the biggest factor of all: there's just too much to watch. Back in May, YouTube said they had twenty hours of new uploads every minute.

[unclesaboin]

I like that you were able to say what I meant and keep it under the character limit. It took me three comments to say pretty much the same thing. ;-)

[mickeleh]

I thought, maybe you were getting an early start on NaNoWriMo. Hmm. Writing a novel in YouTube comments. It's a possibility.

[unclesaboin]

Good one! :-D

[hellobettsy]

this was really great. I subscribed and I will defiantly be watching your videos

[mickeleh]

Thanks, so much. And please keep commenting.

[crimsong19]

I do my best to view every new video.

Woo hoo! 3 cheers for Pomplamoose!

[mickeleh]

Their stuff is great. And very re-watchable. I think repeat viewings is one of the reasons their view counts are generlly high. As for Single Ladies, not only did they have a boost from the feature, but, as we all know now, Beyonce had the greatest video of all time.

[IJethrobot]

ha ha ha. Nice Kanye West reference at the tail end there, mickeleh. : )

~ Jethro.

[chubbster321]

Definately 1 of my fav youtubers

[mickeleh]

Thank you so much :D

[odderanswer]

Fascinating! The problem with figures like these is that they get me thinking 'yes, but...' and a torrent of supplementary questions rush through my head some of which have been posed by others. The accuracy of YouTube data is a big one. The logic of human beings another!

You're beginning to make me feel very scruffy when I watch your videos. Please don't change though. I think it is for me to smarten up.

[mickeleh]

I suit up for the Quarterly Reports to give them more of a boardroom feel. I'm not doing a general wardrobe upgrade for YouTube. It'll be back to t-shirts tomorrow.

[hubertcumberdale2008]

Interesting to see the numbers. Good Job Mickeleh.

[mickeleh]

Thanks. I agree the numbers are interesting. But still don't know what to make of them.

[hubertcumberdale2008]

I see. Well, I for myself am havin just a bunch of subscribers but my ciews are almost always way over my subs.

Abd ob the collab channel I am on, it is the same. I don't know what to make out of them either.

[mmmStaley]

The first bit made coffee come out of my nose =D Yay for more charts! Also, yay for being mentioned lol

[xpericfilms]

the fact that your views are short of your subs could just be completely down to the youtube subscription box being broken.

[mickeleh]

Maybe... but then, wouldn't everybody be short? I think there must be other factors at work. Though I don't know what they are. (I have a theory that I may talk about in a future video)

[AlleyWater]

Oh my that was very interesting. Wonderful charts truly.

[mickeleh]

Thank you so much.

[karpadiem]

woah. This. was. amazing.

[jamfozz]

Subs and hits are a big thing me and billtvmacon talk about on skype, (I'd love to see his charts =D P.S. Wow Pompalmoose has a massive amount of hits!

James =D

[mickeleh]

Add me. I'd love to join those chats.

[fallofautumndistro]

Can I have copies of your excel files? I'd like to chart some of my vids like this.

[mickeleh]

Not sure my excel files will help you. There's some extra work that went into the charts outside of excel.

[doctornoise]

well put together! My vids always fall short too :P

[danny280490]

shame not more of your subs watch your vids tbh, keep up the good work

[mickeleh]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm actually more focused on those that do watch than those that don't. And I'm especially focused in those that comment. :=)

[morot172]

I have 26747 times more viewers than subscribers, but I'm only posting those videos that nobody really likes ^_^

[pixonu]

Woah, great video, loving the effects! :D

[mickeleh]

Thanks, Dave. I completely busted the effects budget on that one. Glad someone noticed.

[MusicFromBlueSkies]

I have a theory. Even those who are getting way more views than subs still have the same percentage of their subs watching. However they also get external views. Take Julia Nunes for example, like me she does cover songs and people find them when searching for the original. There's also features - nerimon and pomplamoose's 'break out hits' were both featured, or spotlighted... Spotlit?! Shawn gets a lot of support from friends sharing links... Subs are just becoming a smaller piece of the pie.

[mickeleh]

Good theory. How would we test it? Also... more views does not necessarily equate to more people. Especially with songs. When people love a song, they'll go back again and again. That's what I've done with your songs. Till I bought your album.

[MusicFromBlueSkies]

Ahhh so my mistake was bringing out an album! Actually a very good point though. I think the only way to test would be to get inside those people's insight data.

[mickeleh]

And please keep making that mistake. I love your music.

[AleeEvermore]

First (sorry)