Epiphany about Promoting on Youtube

[PrimitiveTim]

We've all seen the video of the guy that builds these little huts in the woods using only stone tools and he builds everything himself.  The only modern things in the video are his shorts (glad he's wearing them).  This video went nuts and got over 6 million views and some of his other videos broke a million as well.  One thing that aided in his popularity was that some facebook page took his videos and simply sped them up 5x and it got shared everywhere, including to my page several times.  I almost started to get resentful of his work but it was truly amazing and I'm one of his subscribers. 

I took note of how it was edited and it gave me some insight on how people are willing to consume media online.  We want our information to be clear, quick, and interesting/new.  I went around youtube and looked at other how-to style videos and almost all of them were very fast paced and were voiced over.  I quickly realized that I was putting way too much into my videos and this is why I am not reaching a huge audience.  I needed to simplify and focus on the basic details and not try to cram every last bit of information down people's throats. I don't like these quick simple videos because I can't watch them truly have a good enough understanding about how to do what they just showed me. 

So, I came up with a solution.  A while back I made a 3 part series on how to build a bow (admittedly I could use more experience) which totaled over 35 minutes of video to watch.  In the video below I cut it down to 2 minutes and really only explained only the most basic concepts as the scenes quickly cut through the process of building a bow.  So what I'm going to do is make both videos.  Make the quick easy to watch one and leave links at the end to the more in depth videos on the subject.  I think we can get a lot more people interested in this kind of stuff if it is presented right.  The internet has a short attention span. lol
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lhFO0G8wxo

[kleinpm]

I like it. I think part of the problem with reaching a large audience on Youtube is that a LOT of people are not interested at all in making bows so to get a large following you need a larger percentage of primitive minded folks than some other Youtube channels.

Your absolutely correct about the attention span of modern man. I heard on the radio yesterday that the average web surfer will wait only 2 seconds for a page to load. If it isn't loaded in 2 seconds they move on.

Nice job on the video.

Patrick

[caveman2533]

Do you get paid for the ad views also?

[loon]

Yeah, you'll definitely get a bigger audience that way..

I heard on the radio yesterday that the average web surfer will wait only 2 seconds for a page to load. If it isn't loaded in 2 seconds they move on.

I tend to angrily mumble at my computer "LOAD YOU PIECE OF $(&H(*" while frantically tapping F5...

I've seen a few of your videos, Tim. The hemp bowstring making, 2 fletch arrows and glass arrowhead knapping. Really interesting and informative, thanks for sharing

Maybe more videos on foraging, identifying plants that are useful for bow and arrow making would be cool?

[iowabow]

What you are making are not movies but trailers for your movies. You're teasing them to look further. It needs to be just interesting enough to share with a friend who might have an intrest even though the person sharing may have very little intrest in the details of actual bow building. Its like ...Hey look this guy can make bows....cool right...end of conversation.
I was told to always put dumb things in the tab line.....puppy, cat ....things that everyone search to get more hits.

[PrimitiveTim]

Do you get paid for the ad views also?

The way that works is basically voodoo to me.  Yes, but also it depends on how well the ad performs and how relevant it is to the viewer and stuff like that.

I was told to always put dumb things in the tab line.....puppy, cat ....things that everyone search to get more hits.

Lol, I forgot to put tags on it, thanks for reminding me.  I try to put at least remotely relevant tags. lol I'm not so blatant to put justin bieber or dumb things like that

[Ranasp]

I watched your trailer and it definitely made me want to watch the rest of your videos.  Something that your trailer showed me is that you actually know what you're doing.  Last night I was trying to find a good video on field dressing a deer and wasted time watching videos where it turns out the people weren't as competent as they thought they were, or a few videos that were titled "field dressing a deer" but had skipped the part about gutting it and were actually about quartering the deer. 

A good trailer like yours shows the end result, the beginning, and the steps in between.  Kind of like peeking at the chapters in a book.

[Zuma]

Darn Tim, Get the Potus to get
me broadband so I can watch too.
The last handicapped poster,
Zuma

[Del the cat]

Funny you should post this.
I'm doing a series building a Yew ELB starting from a quarter log.
Only a couple of parts to go, mind I'm not really fussed about how many hits it gets etc. I'm just doing it to put some detailed info out there which you can't get from a mere explanation.
I'm currently filming how to dill a horn nock on the skew
So far I've done 8 parts and it's about 35 mins
Del

[JW_Halverson]

Whatever you do, Tim, please do not dumb it down.  Your work is too important to trade quality for quantity. 

[iowabow]

Whatever you do, Tim, please do not dumb it down.  Your work is too important to trade quality for quantity.

video like the black Hills cannibal archer scene just can't find its way to the cutting room floor. That archer was truly amazing and provided nutrition for his entire clan.