Your vid popped up into our TH-cam feed m despite you guys being ‘away.’ We loved your first series and enjoying your next bit. Nothing wrong with the content and great that you gave our WWl war heroes air time. Will look out for your weekly content and thank you for sharing your travels with us. Keep up the genuine content.
@@jennygreyvensteyn3120 That’s great it popped up. That’s good feedback. And glad you are enjoying the new stuff. It’s a bit different and we think a change up everyone and then is good for us - and hopefully viewers get to follow and enjoy it as well. The WW1 sites are confronting and sad and we should remind ourselves. And we prefer to visit them away from ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day because it’s mostly more peaceful (yes they have to mow and that’s how they keep its so well presented) and you get to wander and take it in. It gets me every time. Thanks for keeping a watch up and yes, it’s always genuine. It’s what we do and like and helpfully others then get to follow along if it’s of interest - provided they get it on the their home screens or subscription feeds. Thanks again.
@@leannechurches5227 Thank you and we’re working and trying to figure out how to make sure people at least get notified so they can watch or at least choose. Thanks for the feedback, it quite encouraging. All the best.
Can confirm that I got a notification as we have a bell set however have been busy and only just sat down for a look tonight. Will definitely watch the series. Love your work. 👍
@@seandolkens4021 Thanks for that. 🙏🙏Seems to be the one way people can at least ensure they get to choose. Appreciate you following along and hope you find rhe new series interesting even though it’s a bit different. Stay safe. cheers
I’m one of your subs and like your videos. I just go down through my list of subs and then see who has a new video and watch them if they sound interesting to me. I do watch quite a lot of yours. You do a great job of edition them. Hope things sort them selves out for you.
@@duncanm6589 Thanks so much. Our subscribers have been a major part of the steady growth and success of our little channel. Provided you are seeing them, that’s fine. At least then you get to decide what you want to watch. And thanks for watching. The editing is hopefully getting better - but sometimes we get it wrong. Yes hopefully if we can get more people to subscribe and have notifications on and they get to watch the new content it should help drive more recommendations and twosome this current issue. 🤷♂️🤞. Appreciate the feedback and the views of course. Safe travels.
Yes, back for a new series. A bit different this time. We will certainly be doing more Oz van travel before too long, but hopefully this epic adventure to the North Pole and region is of interest as something a bit different. Thanks for clicking the bell. Hopefully that means the next vid will be notified to you this weekend. Thanks for watching, the comment and stay tuned. cheers
Good luck for the new series. I saw your teaser post on the Defender FB Forum and that triggered me to go looking, Can't remember if youtube highlighted your post to me. I have now updated the bell icon. Having done Antarctica I would like to make the North Pole but my wife found the Drakes passage to be a very unpleasant experience and is not keen. I enjoy your content and having a defender and still keen to travel outside of WA really enjoyed the first series. Keep going is all I can say. Thanks for the content.
Yes mate, I see your contributions to the Defender forum - thanks for those. 👍Thanks for watching and the comment it’s much appreciated. And keep watching because Paula suffers vertigo and is prone to sea sickness so we will touch on that issue in future episodes because we get it. It’s a very stable ship but is expensive so it’s a valid consideration. We had Drake Lake not Drake Shake in Antarctica on a smaller but still very comfortable ship. Paula got sea sick. It’s a worthy topic given the investment. Yes we love the Defender/ Van / Oz travel heaps and it’s quite a different ball game. But we can’t quite shake off the OS bucket list things either. Again we are going to try to tease out the comparison but once people see a more complete picture of this adventure. Thanks for the notification and we hope that helps those who, like you, don’t mind seeing both options and then choosing. All the best.
Thank you so much and our subscribers and viewers are great also! ❤. We're all great together! 👍🤭. We've had some good feedback about doing some overseas content. We love the Australian van travel heaps. but some of these overseas adventures are too good not to share and hopefully they are a bit different and people can enjoy them. We juts have to find the way to ensure regular viewers who don't know can get to see the vids as they are posted. Thanks again we really appreciate it. cheers
Thanks for your reply. I re-visited the video last night and as the first time I watched it would not load correctly. This was early AM hours when I do have some drop-outs. However other videos did play without problems. Hope this maybe helpfull. I will try laying the video again soon.
Thanks. Hope it loads ok next time and let us know what you think. Appreciate you trying and also taking the time to comment. All that feedback helps build a good picture of whats happening. cheers
Hmmmm. I got the channel updates and new vid feeds ok, however I have noticed that I haven't been receiving new upload notifications for some of the other channels I follow. I am loving these new adventures and good on you both for donating to these worth causes.
Thanks for that. We aren't professional TH-camrs and only a basic working knowledge. But its also a fact that the algorithm changes and the professional guys spend a bit of effort chasing the algorithm and of course many use the other tools like patreons and sponsorship to mitigate the fact TH-cam revenue itself isn't that good unless you are massive channel and can afford to work the process well. At least you were getting ours and maybe that means you do have notifications on. All the best and thanks for watching.
@@cathbp4089 Great to hear that. We are still working out whether that’s a function of those who have notifications on or not. But clearly it worked for some, even if the level of recommendations was well below normal. Thanks for watching and the feedback, that’s encouraging and stay tuned for the next episode. Safe travels.
Enjoyed the latest(Artic/France) video. Always appreciate the effort and content you put in and best wishes for your future adventures. Subscribed previously and notifications on.
Thanks so much. Love the feedback and of course if you subscribed and notifications on, that's why you got to see it. So now we know there was a problem, we are also trying to reach those who normally or often view but maybe haven't subscribed or clicked notifications and are at the whim of the TH-cam algorithm. At least then they can choose. Please stay tuned and again thanks so much for the feedback and for watching.
FYI. I've never seen any of your videos....however this one showed up on my home page! I'll have a look at your lap videos as that is what my algorithm feeds me. Thanks
Thanks mate. Please have a look. If you like - welcome to the channel. Should I make the right assumption about your handle @chickenstrangler?? Yes, the algorithm probably does reflect our Lap - but goes to show, that doesn't mean it's shown on the feeds of others who might be interested. All the best either way. Safe travels. cheers
@@nextleveloz Thanks. We are heading off in December starting with 5 weeks in Tassie. Just started looking at your Tassie vids. Looks good. ( re handle: Just love their work!)
Thanks and glad to be back, so keep to try to alert as many people as we can. Those subscribed AND notifications on are most likely to see the new content. I think more people saw the very first "We're back" because it related to some Oz travel as well, but its the second purely OZ legs of the new adventure that appears to be a little bit hit and a lot miss so far as the TH-cam recommendations go. Appreciated and stay tuned. It gets better. cheers
Hi thanks for watching and the comment. Yes we’d had a break and of course while we were always likely to do more travel and more posts, only as we have content to share. We hope you like thaw new ones even though they are a bit different. We will be back doing some more stuff in Oz in the future as well for sure. cheers
Dave and Paula - you guys ROCK! Raising money is what gets us involved with your channel. We even took out the time to visit Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge for a few days recently because of your vid about the place. For the last vid, I personally didn't expect anything about Fromelles etc. purely because the Thumbnail was a big Ice-breaker!? Had I known it was a fundraiser for Legacy then we would have jumped in a bit quicker. I'm sure some other ex-servicemen would have it suggested in their feeds as well, had it mentioned this in the title? How about a re-release "Editors cut" short 10 minute vid just about the War memorial / French part of that trip with a new title and thumbnail? (if we can only get Paula to stop talking for that long 😊) Lots of love Debbie and Matti L.
Thanks for that guys, Great comment. And yes, I was also thinking that in the mix of things that are contributing. It's hard to have thumb that covers two topics or ensure the content is in that ideal 20-30 minute length. So yes I am absolutely thinking about what I could have done better as well. It was a brain freeze that I forgot to mention we were coinciding with Legacy week. So in this case its certainly a bit me (uppercut has been given!!) and a bit how TH-cam works. Good idea on the editors cut. I'm not sure if that solves all of the problem with those who normally view - but I take the point it might appeal to those whose interests are matched to the servicve/ military/ history stuff. I'm under the pump finalising the next video so will have to finish that and then e sure I don't cannibalise our viewership in the next week (I appreciate that people are time poor - which is why we've found one per week at 20-25 (maybe 30 minutes) has worked best for us. But given how much the last vid tanked - all options are on the table. Thanks again for the feedback, great idea and thanks o much for watching. cheers Dave and Paula. P.S... if only I could get a word in edgewise 😉🤣
Thanks for letting us know. Much appreciated. Being subscribed helps heaps. But even that seems hit and miss. We’ve posted 2 vids since we’ve been back which it appears you didn’t see, but this one you did. That’s the issue we are eyeing to work out. Always the viewer choice what they want to watch but we would hope that if you’re subscribed you’d get the vid. If you don’t mind maybe click the notifications button as a back up. But totally respect the fact some people like the Oz van/ car stuff more. No issue. That’s the beauty of our group of subscribers there is varied interests. All the best and thanks again.
Thanks so much and glad you got to see it. and the feedback on the topic and the vid has been pretty good - but I will keep trying to get it better as well. the next few weeks of scenery and wildlife is petty speccy. I'm getting a thrill all over again as I edit - even though I wonder how we can ever really capture it. The other thing we are asking people if they can and don't mind, is share the link to the video with family and friends they think might be interested and hopefully that gets more eyes on and more recommendations might follow. Hopefully. But thanks for watching, thank you for the feedback - it's that sort of feedback that at least suggests that even if we can try to improve the presentation at least there is interest in the content. thank you.
I've observed that if the views to like ratio is close to 10:1 than the video is truly on target for your viewers. For instance this video is close to 5:1 at this point. This is outstanding. I've also observed if channels that have been doing very well have longer breaks in content delivery get largely penalised. Also in my subscribed list those same channels get demoted down the list order. In my opinion it's not you it's the algorithm.
Hi thanks for that. I think that’s right although I’m happy to improve what we can also. And regrettably we aren’t full time so we can’t produce interesting content unless we’re travelling, so we just have to try to get people aware again and try to raise the number with notifications on etc. Yes, we expect that with breaks we’d drop down subscribed lists so helpfully we can - with subscriber assistance in watching etc - try to raise the interaction, which might push the impressions up and ultimately more view time. Thanks for those insights, it reflects what we are seeing. Stay tuned and thanks again, cheers
Thanks mate. Much appreciated and IMHO the next one is even better and certainly the polar scenery at the pole and Magdalena Fjord and Greenland is breathtaking and I hope we capture it. I think this is a problem with how TH-cam, that gets so much new content by the second, automates matching. Many of our viewers likely enjoy the around Australia stuff and might not normally view as much overseas travel stuff - so it won;t match people to it. So we just need to try to get as many people who want to keep following along but didn't see it, to be aware its there, to hopefully watch and to subscribe and interact (like and comment) and ideally click the notification bell so at least they have more control. Hopefully. Thanks so much for the feedback. And we must try to catch up and have that overdue beer. cheers
@@nextleveloz I am no algorithm expert but could it be that most people come to your YT vids from Facebook? I know thats where I came from for the last one.
@@cherriehalliday8883 What a lovely comment. That helps heaps. We will keep going for the moment but hopefully everybody understands editing and posting is a bit of work so we hope more people who want to can have the choice to watch as well. But those who are getting it seem to think it’s ok so that’s encouraging for us. All the best.
Did not realise that the second video was out so I am certainly going to view it next. Normally when you release a new one it comes up in my home list but for some reason the last one didn't. Maybe because you had not posted a lot lately or I started watching a lot of other stuff or you are not doing caravan travel. I have clicked the notifications bell now.
No problems and in a nutshell that's the problem we think we've discovered. Because - all else being equal - TH-cam know your interest is van travel, off roading around Australia etc (our regular sort of stuff along with many others), it will recommend that sort of stuff to your home list for obvious reasons. You would likely have seen the first in the series because it related to that. BUT because the second was more of the actual trip - France and then the Polar adventure - these aren't as common interests so TH-cam doesnt recommend them to you even if you like our content broadly. We think. But to put it in perspective, our lowest performing videos would normally get 22,000 impressions (recommendations) in the first several days and often 60,000 plus and then of course depending on interest we'd get anywhere from 1.5k views to 30,000 views depending on interest. Despite good feedback from the notification of the new series, the second vid only got 600 views and only about 2-300 impressions when I looked last. Massively down. So it's not the viewers and maybe not the vid content (maybe a bit -so we will check and work on it) we think it's how the algorithm works. So hopefully the more people click notifications for our channel the more eyeballs we can get on it and that might help get more recommendations. Fingers crossed. thanks for letting me know - its very helpful to know that a regular viewer like you didn't see the vid and we aren't off the planet. Just up on the top of it!!
Thank you. You are too kind. We love sharing and it's been great that so many people are happy to come along on our arctic adventure as well as our Oz van travel. We just need to ensure now that everybody who might want to gets to actually see the vids! Thanks for watching and please don't forget to like, subscribe and hot notifications if you haven't already done so, because the next vid is coming out on Sunday. cheers
Thank you, that's terrific feedback. We don't mind if we have to improve something or adapt, but in this case we think its a bit of that and a lot of the fact regular viewers just aren't getting it recommended to their home list. So we have to try to get the awareness out and hopefully people will share, like, subscribe and hit the notifications to help as well. thanks again, we love having the opportunity to share and send some shekels off to charity in the process/
I loved the last video, so no issues from me about it at all. I did get the notification of the new episode, that’s because I am subscribed, always hit the like, and always comment and have the notification bell on for your episodes. I’m guessing that it’s perhaps because if people don’t have the notifications bell actioned and as you’ve been off TH-cam for a while since the last series it probably doesn’t show up as recommended ? So they possible won’t see this one either? Such a shame and I have no idea how you would remedy this 😢. Also I did see that the ‘we’re back’ episode did get reasonable views 2.2k so it looks like that one was seen, it could be as you mentioned that it’s maybe because it’s not a touring Aus series anymore, same thing happened to another channel I follow when they left Aus travel life and started touring Europe. ??
Thanks and did wonder if the difference was things like notifications and subscriptions - which we think helps deal with the normal way TH-cam might "match" or not match new (overseas/ polar) content to viewers normal interest (van around Australia). So we hope this might alert more people to the fact they might not even be seeing the new content. And we've had a couple of examples of that. The other thing that people might consider if they are inclined, is if they have other social media friends who might be interested in this new content (and/ or the old) - to share the link to the video. The risk is if we have too many with low views, TH-cam won't recommend our content. Of course if the content isn't very good - I will try to step up as well. But thank you, the next video is even better in my view as we get into the polar adventure. So you should see that on Sunday. Thanks once again, love the fact people enjoy it and very grateful for the feedback. All the best.
@@nextleveloz I wonder if in the next thumbnail it could be something like Aussie travellers go to the North Pole? I wouldn’t consider that click bait but maybe including an Aus reference might get a further reach ??
@@robyndehavilland1609 Thanks for the suggestion. I’m open to all sorts of options and that’s now in the mix. I think youtube recommend based on keywords and then people click based on what they see, so it last a multi level thing … we think. 🤷♂️. So all suggestions are very welcome. cheers
I’m surprised to hear that as from my point of view of view the story, filming, and commentary were first class, I can’t think of what you could do to improve any of it.
Thank you that's so kind and of course we aren't averse to doping better if we have mucked something up. We think it's the change of content and location and how that might not match with many regular viewers normal interests - even if they'd like to follow along. In your case I think you did see the vid. But if people do enjoy it the more eyeballs we can get on, the subscribes, the likes, the notification bell and even sharing to others who might actually enjoy the different scenes hopefully helps correct the way the algorithm might apply to our content and our viewers. We hope. Thanks again.
Algorithms are interesting beasts. Not producing a video every week seems to really negatively impact your profile. Ultimately the algorithms are about ad revenue for TH-cam. Your channel is just collateral damage caught in the crossfire. I’ve really enjoyed watching your lap videos and now the North Pole experiences are something completely new and something I’ve never considered before now. Your videos are well made, informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work. Your loyal fans appreciate the effort!
@@stevess3683 Thanks for watching and following the journey. Yes, the algorithms are all about maximising ad revenue for google. It’s a commercial platform. So we have to try to manage it. Not posting every week is part of it for sure, and we simply can’t if we don’t have content to publish - and we’d lose people if we had nothing to share of interest. And that in turn also degrades a channel and recommendations. Of course in this case we got four times as many views and recommendations to the very first “We’re back” vid and that’s probably because it in part related the the normal Oz travel . The second vid is purely OS even if people might have expected it to pop up on thelr home list 🤷♂️🤷♂️. And we’re too small to “beat the system”. The challenge is the fact we know we have repeat and new viewers who aren’t subscribed or don’t have notifications on and even though they saw the news we were back and watched and gave good feedback, they likely didn’t get a recommendation to their home list because the content is different. So we work through it. Thanks for watching and the comment. We agree!! Stay tuned the polar adventure is just warming up … or cooling down 🤔🤷♂️🤣🤪
The polar videos were really good...but...it came up on our feed due to our interest in doing a Greenland/Northwest Passage next year (and we are subscribed). We dont do the 'bell' thing. There 'is' a thing getting around atm as 'most' TH-camrs are going overboard on the clickbait headlines and many 'females in bikinis' superimposed on the 'clickbait' screens. Many of us armchair watchers are simply not watching the clickbait vids now. Maybe be quite factual with the headline and clever with it and the clicks will come. Something like "Our North Pole Adventure on the worlds only passenger ship icebreaker" If you want to superimpose anything a bit funny a pic of the ship with a snatch strap to the 4WD.
Thanks for that. Really appreciate the comment - it’s an interesting and vexed topic - and we absolutely promise you won’t see a picture of me in g string swimmers! 🙈🙈😬😱. On a serious note - your observation is correct and if you’re young and attractive it might get clicks - but TBH very few channels succeed even if they do that. Agree on the clickbait stuff and we try to avoid it. We only say something has gone wrong if it has (and tbh if it’s worth sharing). That said, TH-cam and indeed FB and other platforms do have algorithms that try to assess and match and it then “promotes” certain in demand content. and key words So regrettably it’s not a clean matching service, it’s trying to get total view time up so it recommends certain continent and creators over others. So factual titles don’t necessarily get promoted and a viewer might not see it much unless they do a search on that specific phrase. If a channel, say Nate and Kara, has 2 million subscribers then of course they automatically get a large number clicking and they also work other channels etc. Good on them, no issue from me, but not surprising Google has a revenue model that reinforces those big channels and tending topics of interest and leaving g the rest for a search match. So unless you have somebody specifically asking they might never see the content - even if it’s a subscribed channel. So I wish was more like your suggestion. We hate the click bait, and it’s an amusing idea to me, having the Defender recovering the ship, that’s classic click bait. Defender it 4wd guys wood love it IMO, but if there isn’t Defender content in the vid people abandon the vid quickly and the algorithm then rates it down. So we try not to do it, bar some adjectives in the title. We know our thumbs in the past are probably too busy so we are working on that. Our only gripe on this isn’t that people might not want to watch. That’s life. It’s that we had subscribers who’ve since indicated they would have a look - but for the fact it hadn’t come up on their feeds. It wasn’t until we got the message around a bit. So it’s a small channel and we don’t mind trying to improve where we can, but we can’t beat the algorithm and we don’t want to get too click baity. That’s the only reason we suggest to people who might wish to, to click notifications or follow our facebook page where we always post links to new content. But we don’t have time or desire to do a lot on multiple platforms either. Thanks again- it was a good suggestion and perfectly understandable to people who don’t want to see or repent to click bait. 🙏👍.
@@nextleveloz thanks for the ins and outs of youtube, we are all learning what works and how to see what we want in our newsfeeds but the youtube algorithm is hard to read and get right even for us consumers. keep up good work.
@@petermills1402 And it changes. So we can only do our best and hopefully somebody likes it. Thanks again, we really do appreciate the suggestions. All the best.
You got 3.5k subscribers, don't take it too seriously. Also, I've got 2 things in mind: I think most people here are coming from the Defender videos (just look at the number of views per video), at a time where there were few content on this car, so they will be more interested by this type of content, and also, your thumbnails are way way too busy. Just look at some very good and popular youtube channels (not the exploitative ones) and you'll see they try to get 1 and only 1 very concise single message on their thumbnail, and also a short title. On yours, you put too much on it, you use complex font, etc. You have to resist the urge to try to tell everything in your thumbnail, you can't anyway.
Thanks and we appreciate constructive suggestions 👍. So worth sifting through. some broad analytics because. I was keen to look at things like that also - because we wondered how many subscribers and regular viewers were also interested in wider travel. And yes I accept we only have 3.5k subscribers and it’s only a small channel and for us we don’t seek to make money out of it - except to send it charity. But we just like to do things as well as we can and improve as we can also. So the comments are welcome. If it doesn’t work it won’t kill us or break us. But also it takes a fair bit of effort to vid and edit so ideally you do it well where you can. On the thumbs, yes we have been trying to simplify them the more experienced we got. It was a mistake early to use a template that wasn’t all in simple san serif font for example - agree. And yes a few too many were a bit busy (and the challenge when building is people will be more attracted to content than the brand until they get to know it. So the commmet on simplicity is right. The only trouble with modelling on the big vlog channels alone is they have an established brand and can use a one word country name with a pic of them for example and their subscribers already know the style and what they get - and good on them. But they work across channels, promote etc as well. But still a good guide. Those with few subscribers could do the same thumb and get few inoressins and few views. Google will always promote the larger vlogs for the obvious reason. But thumbs mostly contribute to click through rate - and some topics also just might not be of interest (so capturing the interest is always a challenge). Even the best thumbs need youtube recommendations - to be put in front of people - before they can impact or not. The thumb in question had no fancy fonts and had one message - so we certainly agree with that aim and observation. In this case we had to choose - the France stuff or the Polar stuff. And maybe we got that bit wrong. By later in the first series we were generally getting better click through rates. So there was more recognition from thumbs as we went - even if we can still do that bette. The audience is mixed. The vids on the car got great views but generally lower watch time and as you’d expect on that genre there is more interest in the problems or the fails. No question they get good views, but proportionally lower subscriptions. Often a lot of comments with higher proportions of trolling and at times offensive anonymous comments - people who are in and out and not going to contrinute on the long run. But yes there is certaiy a chunky group of people interested in the off road stuff and we retained a terrific group of people interested in the Defender and off road stuff . Some of the longer lasting subscriber viewers include Defender interested people and who cross over with van towing. A slightly lower but still good view numbers but proportionally higher. group contributing to subscriptions are those interested in van life, towing and Oz travels. For sure. And the demographic is less aligned to the young family in a van group but we have a bit of that. One of the things that contributed to a large chunk of subscriptions was the fact we weren’t the family in van full time genre which is a pretty saturated genre. But yes we always knew there would be a good chunk interested in the variants of the Oz car and van stuff. Agree. While we don’t and won’t need to chase the algorithm for a living we also know there is a number of people who are interested in wider travel - not because that’s where we are developing the channel but because there will always be a bit of that for us. And we introduced the new series we got a smaller level of views but still well within our normal range for a new vid. And that’s where things vary because the newest video is outlier. The issue is partly the fact some people won’t want to follow this content. That’s fine. The bigger challenge is that youtube impressions are well down so the vid wasn’t being recommended for people to even choose. And we have subscribers who actually want to follow along but don’t have the vid come up in their home screen or even in some cases get the notification (blue dot) on their swibsriber list to say new content. So that bit we are trying to see how we ensure people know. And then yes , some want to and some don’t - those who do are watching more of it than usual and of course that’s when the thumb helps people decide (or not). That’s a long answer because I valued the thought process and it mapped my process both before and during and I had a more detailed look at the analytics to sift the difference between what a chunk might prefer - and that’s a factual element - and what others might be interested in. What so hadn’t antiiciipatee is the algorithm pays little attention to people interested in a channel, even subscribers, quite a few of whom have expressed the desire to see the adventure if they knew the vids existed. Great suggestion and yes certainly we have to work on thumbs and arguably more so titles to try to appeal to both ours and maybe a wider audience for this particular series.
I saw the video. I seem to be getting utubers who are not on my subscribed list and pushing my subscriptions out of the way, I've got 4 of yours on my list (on the right hand side) - 2 I have seen but none on the polar. Why put up ones that I have seen.
Thanks for that. I think the challenge here in part is that youtube works on the sort of content you watch and then funnels more of it to you based on content topic and less so the channel. Even if you like our stuff for its content, maybe a bit our style 🤷♂️, it matches Oz travel interests or van travel interest. Even though you might want to follow our wider travels and at least choose of the topic is of interest, the youtube algorithm matches topics first. As were found out - even if you’ve subscribed which surprised us. So we now know that even many subscribers didn’t get our more resent vids to their home page. Maybe you’ve got notifications on ? If not we suggest you do if you at least want to see what we’re up to. It’s interesting because while our channel is small we’d actually been getting a much higher proportion of views compared to subscriber numbers than larger channels with heaps more subscribers who still get much more views but a fraction of their subscriber numbers. It’s too complex for me 🤣🤷♂️. But it’s why the successful channels try to get more of their followers onto their other social media channels like youtube pages, insta, web email lists etc. We can’t invest too much time into multiple channels because it’s not a job but a hobby. But it’s been eye opening. So perhaps click notifications and maybe every now and then do a youtube search on @nextleveloz. We will do what we can to try to improve or work through it and maybe we should encourage more people to like the @nextleveloz facebook page (there is one) which we don’t over work but we do post each new vid to it. Great feedback thank you. It’s easy to forget this is a great platform but it’s number one priority is revenue to google and it has highly automated processing that is focussed on bouncing back what you’ve watched and not who you watch it might want to watch.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I think that is most likely part of the case. We aren’t changing the channel totally and we suspect the Oz van life stuff will always be a larger part of it. But we don’t live full time on the road either so there is a mix in there. And we got some pretty good feedback that there was also a large part of the current subscriber base who were happy / keen on some other content as well . So yes, some mostly interested in van / off road stuff as we do it, some who are very happy to follow our adventures with a bit of a mix and yes as you say maybe there is a new audience to try to share with.. And of course that also relies on youtube recommending to an audience with potential interest - and then getting to see it enough to get to like it (the starting over stuff). If we invest too much in a new audience disproportionate to the rest of the group we end up in no man’s land. If we don’t post at all, people lose interest. In all that there appears to be a fair group of regular viewers who would watch if they had the choice but don’t have notifications on. So if they don’t get the content recommended, they don’t get the choice. And of course if we want to invest in more channels of social media effort to get a wider audience, that’s an option. So all of the above. Noting that it’s not a full time paying job for us - it’s amateur content and we hope to send some money off to charity of any comes. So it’s a balancing act. But at its core the variation in the content isn’t a problem for all people but yes it likely does impact how TH-cams automation treats it, how we make sure people’s know and if some new people join because of the new content and get to see the Oz stuff as well that’s good too. Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated. I agree that’s part of the issue for sure. Hope you keep watching and enjoy our sojourn up north. cheers
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 86 | คู่เอก "คมเพชร vs ชาติพยัคฆ์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m3q_dRYDuU8/mqdefault.jpg)
Your vid popped up into our TH-cam feed m despite you guys being ‘away.’ We loved your first series and enjoying your next bit. Nothing wrong with the content and great that you gave our WWl war heroes air time. Will look out for your weekly content and thank you for sharing your travels with us. Keep up the genuine content.
@@jennygreyvensteyn3120 That’s great it popped up. That’s good feedback. And glad you are enjoying the new stuff. It’s a bit different and we think a change up everyone and then is good for us - and hopefully viewers get to follow and enjoy it as well. The WW1 sites are confronting and sad and we should remind ourselves. And we prefer to visit them away from ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day because it’s mostly more peaceful (yes they have to mow and that’s how they keep its so well presented) and you get to wander and take it in. It gets me every time. Thanks for keeping a watch up and yes, it’s always genuine. It’s what we do and like and helpfully others then get to follow along if it’s of interest - provided they get it on the their home screens or subscription feeds. Thanks again.
We watch what ever you put up.
Love it all.😊
@@leannechurches5227 Thank you and we’re working and trying to figure out how to make sure people at least get notified so they can watch or at least choose. Thanks for the feedback, it quite encouraging. All the best.
Can confirm that I got a notification as we have a bell set however have been busy and only just sat down for a look tonight. Will definitely watch the series. Love your work. 👍
@@seandolkens4021 Thanks for that. 🙏🙏Seems to be the one way people can at least ensure they get to choose. Appreciate you following along and hope
you find rhe new series interesting even though it’s a bit different. Stay safe. cheers
I’m one of your subs and like your videos. I just go down through my list of subs and then see who has a new video and watch them if they sound interesting to me. I do watch quite a lot of yours. You do a great job of edition them. Hope things sort them selves out for you.
@@duncanm6589 Thanks so much. Our subscribers have been a major part of the steady growth and success of our little channel. Provided you are seeing them, that’s fine. At least then you get to decide what you want to watch. And thanks for watching. The editing is hopefully getting better - but sometimes we get it wrong. Yes hopefully if we can get more people to subscribe and have notifications on and they get to watch the new content it should help drive more recommendations and twosome this current issue. 🤷♂️🤞.
Appreciate the feedback and the views of course. Safe travels.
Didn't know that you guys kicked off again. Definitely clicked the bell.
Yes, back for a new series. A bit different this time. We will certainly be doing more Oz van travel before too long, but hopefully this epic adventure to the North Pole and region is of interest as something a bit different. Thanks for clicking the bell. Hopefully that means the next vid will be notified to you this weekend. Thanks for watching, the comment and stay tuned. cheers
Good luck for the new series. I saw your teaser post on the Defender FB Forum and that triggered me to go looking, Can't remember if youtube highlighted your post to me. I have now updated the bell icon. Having done Antarctica I would like to make the North Pole but my wife found the Drakes passage to be a very unpleasant experience and is not keen. I enjoy your content and having a defender and still keen to travel outside of WA really enjoyed the first series. Keep going is all I can say. Thanks for the content.
Yes mate, I see your contributions to the Defender forum - thanks for those. 👍Thanks for watching and the comment it’s much appreciated. And keep watching because Paula suffers vertigo and is prone to sea sickness so we will touch on that issue in future episodes because we get it. It’s a very stable ship but is expensive so it’s a valid consideration. We had Drake Lake not Drake Shake in Antarctica on a smaller but still
very comfortable ship. Paula got sea sick. It’s a worthy topic given the investment. Yes we love the Defender/ Van / Oz travel heaps and it’s quite a different ball game. But we can’t quite shake off the OS bucket list things either. Again we are going to try to tease out the comparison but once people see a more complete picture of this adventure. Thanks for the notification and we hope that helps those who, like you, don’t mind seeing both options and then choosing. All the best.
Looking forward to some overseas contents. You guys are great to watch.
Thank you so much and our subscribers and viewers are great also! ❤. We're all great together! 👍🤭. We've had some good feedback about doing some overseas content. We love the Australian van travel heaps. but some of these overseas adventures are too good not to share and hopefully they are a bit different and people can enjoy them. We juts have to find the way to ensure regular viewers who don't know can get to see the vids as they are posted. Thanks again we really appreciate it. cheers
Thanks for your reply. I re-visited the video last night and as the first time I watched it would not load correctly. This was early AM hours when I do have some drop-outs. However other videos did play without problems. Hope this maybe helpfull. I will try laying the video again soon.
Thanks. Hope it loads ok next time and let us know what you think. Appreciate you trying and also taking the time to comment. All that feedback helps build a good picture of whats happening. cheers
Hmmmm. I got the channel updates and new vid feeds ok, however I have noticed that I haven't been receiving new upload notifications for some of the other channels I follow.
I am loving these new adventures and good on you both for donating to these worth causes.
Thanks for that. We aren't professional TH-camrs and only a basic working knowledge. But its also a fact that the algorithm changes and the professional guys spend a bit of effort chasing the algorithm and of course many use the other tools like patreons and sponsorship to mitigate the fact TH-cam revenue itself isn't that good unless you are massive channel and can afford to work the process well. At least you were getting ours and maybe that means you do have notifications on. All the best and thanks for watching.
Definitely was provided opportunity to watch, and enjoyed the vid!
@@cathbp4089 Great to hear that. We are still working out whether that’s a function of those who have notifications on or not. But clearly it worked for some,
even if the level of recommendations was
well below normal. Thanks for watching and the feedback, that’s encouraging and stay tuned for the next episode. Safe travels.
Enjoyed the latest(Artic/France) video. Always appreciate the effort and content you put in and best wishes for your future adventures. Subscribed previously and notifications on.
Thanks so much. Love the feedback and of course if you subscribed and notifications on, that's why you got to see it. So now we know there was a problem, we are also trying to reach those who normally or often view but maybe haven't subscribed or clicked notifications and are at the whim of the TH-cam algorithm. At least then they can choose. Please stay tuned and again thanks so much for the feedback and for watching.
I watched it and thoroughly enjoyed the video. I didn’t see Santa.
Glad you enjoyed it, it’s an amazing place. And Santa was nowhere to be seen. All the best. cheers
FYI. I've never seen any of your videos....however this one showed up on my home page! I'll have a look at your lap videos as that is what my algorithm feeds me. Thanks
Thanks mate. Please have a look. If you like - welcome to the channel. Should I make the right assumption about your handle @chickenstrangler?? Yes, the algorithm probably does reflect our Lap - but goes to show, that doesn't mean it's shown on the feeds of others who might be interested. All the best either way. Safe travels. cheers
@@nextleveloz Thanks. We are heading off in December starting with 5 weeks in Tassie. Just started looking at your Tassie vids. Looks good. ( re handle: Just love their work!)
When the first new video popped up I was really happy you were back.
Thanks and glad to be back, so keep to try to alert as many people as we can. Those subscribed AND notifications on are most likely to see the new content. I think more people saw the very first "We're back" because it related to some Oz travel as well, but its the second purely OZ legs of the new adventure that appears to be a little bit hit and a lot miss so far as the TH-cam recommendations go. Appreciated and stay tuned. It gets better. cheers
I thought you had stopped putting out videos, I love the ones I have seen.
Hi thanks for watching and the comment. Yes we’d had a break and of course while we were always likely to do more travel and more posts, only as we have content to share. We hope you like thaw new ones even though they are a bit different. We will be back doing some more stuff in Oz in the future as well for sure. cheers
Dave and Paula - you guys ROCK! Raising money is what gets us involved with your channel. We even took out the time to visit Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge for a few days recently because of your vid about the place. For the last vid, I personally didn't expect anything about Fromelles etc. purely because the Thumbnail was a big Ice-breaker!? Had I known it was a fundraiser for Legacy then we would have jumped in a bit quicker. I'm sure some other ex-servicemen would have it suggested in their feeds as well, had it mentioned this in the title? How about a re-release "Editors cut" short 10 minute vid just about the War memorial / French part of that trip with a new title and thumbnail? (if we can only get Paula to stop talking for that long 😊) Lots of love Debbie and Matti L.
Thanks for that guys, Great comment. And yes, I was also thinking that in the mix of things that are contributing. It's hard to have thumb that covers two topics or ensure the content is in that ideal 20-30 minute length. So yes I am absolutely thinking about what I could have done better as well. It was a brain freeze that I forgot to mention we were coinciding with Legacy week. So in this case its certainly a bit me (uppercut has been given!!) and a bit how TH-cam works. Good idea on the editors cut. I'm not sure if that solves all of the problem with those who normally view - but I take the point it might appeal to those whose interests are matched to the servicve/ military/ history stuff. I'm under the pump finalising the next video so will have to finish that and then e sure I don't cannibalise our viewership in the next week (I appreciate that people are time poor - which is why we've found one per week at 20-25 (maybe 30 minutes) has worked best for us. But given how much the last vid tanked - all options are on the table. Thanks again for the feedback, great idea and thanks o much for watching. cheers Dave and Paula. P.S... if only I could get a word in edgewise 😉🤣
I really only watch the overlanding video's to be honest though this one is the fist video I have seen popup from you for a while. I am subscribed.
Thanks for letting us know. Much appreciated. Being subscribed helps heaps. But even that seems hit and miss. We’ve posted 2 vids since we’ve been back which it appears you didn’t see, but this one you did. That’s the issue we are eyeing to work out. Always the viewer choice what they want to watch but we would hope that if you’re subscribed you’d get the vid. If you don’t mind maybe click the notifications button as a back up. But totally respect the fact some people like the Oz van/ car stuff more. No issue. That’s the beauty of our group of subscribers there is varied interests. All the best and thanks again.
I loved seeing the last video, you are doing an amazing job. Please keep them coming whether they be over seas or Aussie adventures.
Thanks so much and glad you got to see it. and the feedback on the topic and the vid has been pretty good - but I will keep trying to get it better as well. the next few weeks of scenery and wildlife is petty speccy. I'm getting a thrill all over again as I edit - even though I wonder how we can ever really capture it. The other thing we are asking people if they can and don't mind, is share the link to the video with family and friends they think might be interested and hopefully that gets more eyes on and more recommendations might follow. Hopefully. But thanks for watching, thank you for the feedback - it's that sort of feedback that at least suggests that even if we can try to improve the presentation at least there is interest in the content. thank you.
I've observed that if the views to like ratio is close to 10:1 than the video is truly on target for your viewers. For instance this video is close to 5:1 at this point. This is outstanding. I've also observed if channels that have been doing very well have longer breaks in content delivery get largely penalised. Also in my subscribed list those same channels get demoted down the list order.
In my opinion it's not you it's the algorithm.
Hi thanks for that. I think that’s right although I’m happy to improve what we can also. And regrettably we aren’t full time so we can’t produce interesting content unless we’re travelling, so we just have to try to get people aware again and try to raise the number with notifications on etc. Yes, we expect that with breaks we’d drop down subscribed lists so helpfully we can - with subscriber assistance in watching etc - try to raise the interaction, which might push the impressions up and ultimately more view time. Thanks for those insights, it reflects what we are seeing. Stay tuned and thanks again, cheers
Loved the last video and particularly admired the content and production values. Sub'd and re-viewed.
Thanks mate. Much appreciated and IMHO the next one is even better and certainly the polar scenery at the pole and Magdalena Fjord and Greenland is breathtaking and I hope we capture it. I think this is a problem with how TH-cam, that gets so much new content by the second, automates matching. Many of our viewers likely enjoy the around Australia stuff and might not normally view as much overseas travel stuff - so it won;t match people to it. So we just need to try to get as many people who want to keep following along but didn't see it, to be aware its there, to hopefully watch and to subscribe and interact (like and comment) and ideally click the notification bell so at least they have more control. Hopefully. Thanks so much for the feedback. And we must try to catch up and have that overdue beer. cheers
@@nextleveloz I am no algorithm expert but could it be that most people come to your YT vids from Facebook? I know thats where I came from for the last one.
We think your content is great. Keep going guys 😊
@@cherriehalliday8883 What a lovely comment. That helps heaps. We will keep going for the moment but hopefully everybody understands editing and posting is a bit of work so we hope more people who want to can have the choice to watch as well. But those who are getting it seem to think it’s ok so
that’s encouraging for us. All
the best.
Did not realise that the second video was out so I am certainly going to view it next. Normally when you release a new one it comes up in my home list but for some reason the last one didn't. Maybe because you had not posted a lot lately or I started watching a lot of other stuff or you are not doing caravan travel. I have clicked the notifications bell now.
No problems and in a nutshell that's the problem we think we've discovered. Because - all else being equal - TH-cam know your interest is van travel, off roading around Australia etc (our regular sort of stuff along with many others), it will recommend that sort of stuff to your home list for obvious reasons. You would likely have seen the first in the series because it related to that. BUT because the second was more of the actual trip - France and then the Polar adventure - these aren't as common interests so TH-cam doesnt recommend them to you even if you like our content broadly. We think. But to put it in perspective, our lowest performing videos would normally get 22,000 impressions (recommendations) in the first several days and often 60,000 plus and then of course depending on interest we'd get anywhere from 1.5k views to 30,000 views depending on interest. Despite good feedback from the notification of the new series, the second vid only got 600 views and only about 2-300 impressions when I looked last. Massively down. So it's not the viewers and maybe not the vid content (maybe a bit -so we will check and work on it) we think it's how the algorithm works. So hopefully the more people click notifications for our channel the more eyeballs we can get on it and that might help get more recommendations. Fingers crossed. thanks for letting me know - its very helpful to know that a regular viewer like you didn't see the vid and we aren't off the planet. Just up on the top of it!!
Love your videos whatever you do!
Thank you. You are too kind. We love sharing and it's been great that so many people are happy to come along on our arctic adventure as well as our Oz van travel. We just need to ensure now that everybody who might want to gets to actually see the vids! Thanks for watching and please don't forget to like, subscribe and hot notifications if you haven't already done so, because the next vid is coming out on Sunday. cheers
We thought the video was great and looking forward to seeing the rest
Thank you, that's terrific feedback. We don't mind if we have to improve something or adapt, but in this case we think its a bit of that and a lot of the fact regular viewers just aren't getting it recommended to their home list. So we have to try to get the awareness out and hopefully people will share, like, subscribe and hit the notifications to help as well. thanks again, we love having the opportunity to share and send some shekels off to charity in the process/
I loved the last video, so no issues from me about it at all. I did get the notification of the new episode, that’s because I am subscribed, always hit the like, and always comment and have the notification bell on for your episodes. I’m guessing that it’s perhaps because if people don’t have the notifications bell actioned and as you’ve been off TH-cam for a while since the last series it probably doesn’t show up as recommended ? So they possible won’t see this one either? Such a shame and I have no idea how you would remedy this 😢. Also I did see that the ‘we’re back’ episode did get reasonable views 2.2k so it looks like that one was seen, it could be as you mentioned that it’s maybe because it’s not a touring Aus series anymore, same thing happened to another channel I follow when they left Aus travel life and started touring Europe. ??
Thanks and did wonder if the difference was things like notifications and subscriptions - which we think helps deal with the normal way TH-cam might "match" or not match new (overseas/ polar) content to viewers normal interest (van around Australia). So we hope this might alert more people to the fact they might not even be seeing the new content. And we've had a couple of examples of that. The other thing that people might consider if they are inclined, is if they have other social media friends who might be interested in this new content (and/ or the old) - to share the link to the video. The risk is if we have too many with low views, TH-cam won't recommend our content. Of course if the content isn't very good - I will try to step up as well. But thank you, the next video is even better in my view as we get into the polar adventure. So you should see that on Sunday. Thanks once again, love the fact people enjoy it and very grateful for the feedback. All the best.
@@nextleveloz I wonder if in the next thumbnail it could be something like Aussie travellers go to the North Pole? I wouldn’t consider that click bait but maybe including an Aus reference might get a further reach ??
@@robyndehavilland1609 Thanks for the suggestion. I’m open to all
sorts of options and that’s now in the mix. I think youtube recommend based on keywords and then people click
based on what they see, so it last a multi level thing … we think. 🤷♂️. So all suggestions are very welcome. cheers
I’m surprised to hear that as from my point of view of view the story, filming, and commentary were first class, I can’t think of what you could do to improve any of it.
Thank you that's so kind and of course we aren't averse to doping better if we have mucked something up. We think it's the change of content and location and how that might not match with many regular viewers normal interests - even if they'd like to follow along. In your case I think you did see the vid. But if people do enjoy it the more eyeballs we can get on, the subscribes, the likes, the notification bell and even sharing to others who might actually enjoy the different scenes hopefully helps correct the way the algorithm might apply to our content and our viewers. We hope. Thanks again.
Algorithms are interesting beasts. Not producing a video every week seems to really negatively impact your profile. Ultimately the algorithms are about ad revenue for TH-cam. Your channel is just collateral damage caught in the crossfire. I’ve really enjoyed watching your lap videos and now the North Pole experiences are something completely new and something I’ve never considered before now. Your videos are well made, informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work. Your loyal fans appreciate the effort!
@@stevess3683 Thanks for watching and following the journey. Yes, the algorithms are all about maximising ad revenue for google. It’s a commercial platform. So we have to try to manage it. Not posting every week is part of it for sure, and we simply can’t if we don’t have content to publish - and we’d lose people if we had nothing to share of interest. And that in turn also degrades a channel and recommendations. Of course in this case we got four times as many views and recommendations to the very first “We’re back” vid and that’s probably because it in part related the the normal Oz travel . The second vid is purely OS even if people might have expected it to pop up on thelr home list 🤷♂️🤷♂️.
And we’re too small to “beat the system”. The challenge is the fact we know we have repeat and new viewers who aren’t subscribed or don’t have notifications on and even though they saw the news we were back and watched and gave good feedback, they likely didn’t get a recommendation to their home list because the content is different. So we work through it.
Thanks for watching and the comment. We agree!! Stay tuned the polar adventure is just warming up … or cooling down 🤔🤷♂️🤣🤪
The polar videos were really good...but...it came up on our feed due to our interest in doing a Greenland/Northwest Passage next year (and we are subscribed). We dont do the 'bell' thing. There 'is' a thing getting around atm as 'most' TH-camrs are going overboard on the clickbait headlines and many 'females in bikinis' superimposed on the 'clickbait' screens. Many of us armchair watchers are simply not watching the clickbait vids now. Maybe be quite factual with the headline and clever with it and the clicks will come. Something like "Our North Pole Adventure on the worlds only passenger ship icebreaker" If you want to superimpose anything a bit funny a pic of the ship with a snatch strap to the 4WD.
Thanks for that. Really appreciate the comment - it’s an interesting and vexed topic - and we absolutely promise you won’t see a picture of me in g string swimmers! 🙈🙈😬😱. On a serious note - your observation is correct and if you’re young and attractive it might get clicks - but TBH very few channels succeed even if they do that.
Agree on the clickbait stuff and we try to avoid it. We only say something has gone wrong if it has (and tbh if it’s worth sharing).
That said, TH-cam and indeed FB and other platforms do have algorithms that try to assess and match and it then “promotes” certain in demand content. and key words So regrettably it’s not a clean matching service, it’s trying to get total view time up so it recommends certain continent and creators over others. So factual titles don’t necessarily get promoted and a viewer might not see it much unless they do a search on that specific phrase.
If a channel, say Nate and Kara, has 2 million subscribers then of course they automatically get a large number clicking and they also work other channels etc. Good on them, no issue from me, but not surprising Google has a revenue model that reinforces those big channels and tending topics of interest and leaving g the rest for a search match. So unless you have somebody specifically asking they might never see the content - even if it’s a subscribed channel.
So I wish was more like your suggestion. We hate the click bait, and it’s an amusing idea to me, having the Defender recovering the ship, that’s classic click bait. Defender it 4wd guys wood love it IMO, but if there isn’t Defender content in the vid people abandon the vid quickly and the algorithm then rates it down.
So we try not to do it, bar some adjectives in the title. We know our thumbs in the past are probably too busy so we are working on that.
Our only gripe on this isn’t that people might not want to watch. That’s life. It’s that we had subscribers who’ve since indicated they would have a look - but for the fact it hadn’t come up on their feeds. It wasn’t until we got the message around a bit.
So it’s a small channel and we don’t mind trying to improve where we can, but we can’t beat the algorithm and we don’t want to get too click baity. That’s the only reason we suggest to people who might wish to, to click notifications or follow our facebook page where we always post links to new content. But we don’t have time or desire to do a lot on multiple platforms either. Thanks again- it was a good suggestion and perfectly understandable to people who don’t want to see or repent to click bait. 🙏👍.
PS sorry for the typos. On my phone currently and my thumbs aren’t working properly. Hope you get the gist.
@@nextleveloz thanks for the ins and outs of youtube, we are all learning what works and how to see what we want in our newsfeeds but the youtube algorithm is hard to read and get right even for us consumers. keep up good work.
@@petermills1402 And it changes. So we can only do our best and hopefully somebody likes it. Thanks again, we really do appreciate the suggestions. All the best.
You got 3.5k subscribers, don't take it too seriously.
Also, I've got 2 things in mind: I think most people here are coming from the Defender videos (just look at the number of views per video), at a time where there were few content on this car, so they will be more interested by this type of content, and also, your thumbnails are way way too busy.
Just look at some very good and popular youtube channels (not the exploitative ones) and you'll see they try to get 1 and only 1 very concise single message on their thumbnail, and also a short title. On yours, you put too much on it, you use complex font, etc. You have to resist the urge to try to tell everything in your thumbnail, you can't anyway.
Thanks and we appreciate constructive suggestions 👍. So worth sifting through. some broad analytics because. I was keen to look at things like that also - because we wondered how many subscribers and regular viewers were also interested in wider travel.
And yes I accept we only have 3.5k subscribers and it’s only a small channel and for us we don’t seek to make money out of it - except to send it charity. But we just like to do things as well as we can and improve as we can also. So the comments are welcome. If it doesn’t work it won’t kill us or break us. But also it takes a fair bit of effort to vid and edit so ideally you do it well where you can.
On the thumbs, yes we have been trying to simplify them the more experienced we got. It was a mistake early to use a template that wasn’t all in simple san serif font for example - agree. And yes a few too many were a bit busy (and the challenge when building is people will
be more attracted to content than the brand until they get to know it. So the commmet on simplicity is right. The only trouble with modelling on the big vlog channels alone is they have an established brand and can use a one word country name with a pic of them for example and their subscribers already know the style and what they get - and good on them. But they work across channels, promote etc as well. But still a good guide. Those with few subscribers could do the same thumb and get few inoressins and few views. Google will always promote the larger vlogs for the obvious reason.
But thumbs mostly contribute to click through rate - and some topics also just might not be of interest (so capturing the interest is always a challenge). Even the best thumbs need youtube recommendations - to be put in front of people - before they can impact or not.
The thumb in question had no fancy fonts and had one message - so we certainly agree with that aim and observation. In this case we had to choose - the France stuff or the Polar stuff. And maybe we got that bit wrong.
By later in the first series we were generally getting better click through rates. So there was more recognition from thumbs as we went - even if we can still do that bette.
The audience is mixed. The vids on the car got great views but generally lower watch time and as you’d expect on that genre there is more interest in the problems or the fails. No question they get good views, but proportionally lower subscriptions. Often a lot of comments with higher proportions of trolling and at times offensive anonymous comments - people who are in and out and not going to contrinute on the long run. But yes there is certaiy a chunky group of people interested in the off road stuff and we retained a terrific group of people interested in the Defender and off road stuff . Some of the longer lasting subscriber viewers include Defender interested people and who cross over with van towing. A slightly lower but still good view numbers but proportionally higher. group contributing to subscriptions are those interested in van life, towing and Oz travels. For sure. And the demographic is less aligned to the young family in a van group but we have a bit of that. One of the things that contributed to a large chunk of subscriptions was the fact we weren’t the family in van full time genre which is a pretty saturated genre. But yes we always knew there would be a good chunk interested in the variants of the Oz car and van stuff. Agree.
While we don’t and won’t need to chase the algorithm for a living we also know there is a number of people who are interested in wider travel - not because that’s where we are developing the channel but because there will always be a bit of that for us. And we introduced the new series we got a smaller level of views but still
well within our normal range for a new vid.
And that’s where things vary because the newest video is outlier. The issue is partly the fact some people won’t want to follow this content. That’s fine. The bigger challenge is that youtube impressions are well down so the vid wasn’t being recommended for people to even choose. And we have subscribers who actually want to follow along but don’t have the vid come up in their home screen or even in some cases get the notification (blue dot) on their swibsriber list to say new content. So that bit we are trying to see how we ensure people know. And then yes , some want to and some don’t - those who do are watching more of it than usual and of course that’s when the thumb helps people decide (or not).
That’s a long answer because I valued the thought process and it mapped my process both before and during and I had a more detailed look at the analytics to sift the difference between what a chunk might prefer - and that’s a factual element - and what others might be interested in. What so hadn’t antiiciipatee is the algorithm pays little attention to people interested in a channel, even subscribers, quite a few of whom have expressed the desire to see the adventure if they knew the vids existed.
Great suggestion and yes certainly we have to work on thumbs and arguably more so titles to try to appeal to both ours and maybe a wider audience for this particular series.
I saw the video. I seem to be getting utubers who are not on my subscribed list and pushing my subscriptions out of the way, I've got 4 of yours on my list (on the right hand side) - 2 I have seen but none on the polar. Why put up ones that I have seen.
Thanks for that. I think the challenge here in part is that youtube works on the sort of content you watch and then funnels more of it to you based on content topic and less so the channel. Even if you like our stuff for its content, maybe a bit our style 🤷♂️, it matches Oz travel interests or van travel interest. Even though you might want to follow our wider travels and at least choose of the topic is of interest, the youtube algorithm matches topics first. As were found out - even if you’ve subscribed which surprised us. So we now know that even many subscribers didn’t get our more resent vids to their home page. Maybe you’ve got notifications on ? If not we suggest you do if you at least want to see what we’re up to. It’s interesting because while our channel is small we’d actually been getting a much higher proportion of views compared to subscriber numbers than larger channels with heaps more subscribers who still get much more views but a fraction of their subscriber numbers. It’s too complex for me 🤣🤷♂️. But it’s why the successful channels try to get more of their followers onto their other social media channels like youtube pages, insta, web email lists etc. We can’t invest too much time into multiple channels because it’s not a job but a hobby. But it’s been eye opening. So perhaps click notifications and maybe every now and then do a youtube search on @nextleveloz. We will do what we can to try to improve or work through it and maybe we should encourage more people to like the @nextleveloz facebook page (there is one) which we don’t over work but we do post each new vid to it.
Great feedback thank you. It’s easy to forget this is a great platform but it’s number one priority is revenue to google and it has highly automated processing that is focussed on bouncing back what you’ve watched and not who you watch it might want to watch.
I think part of your issue may be you now need to capture a whole new audience given your topic has completely changed.
Just a thought 👍
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I think that is most likely part of the case. We aren’t changing the channel totally and we suspect the Oz van life stuff will always be a larger part of it. But we don’t live full time on the road either so there is a mix in there. And we got some pretty good feedback that there was also a large part of the current subscriber base who were happy / keen on some other content as well . So yes, some mostly interested in van / off road stuff as we do it, some who are very happy to follow our adventures with a bit of a mix and yes as you say maybe there is a new audience to try to share with.. And of course that also relies on youtube recommending to an audience with potential interest - and then getting to see it enough to get to like it (the starting over stuff). If we invest too much in a new audience disproportionate to the rest of the group we end up in no man’s land. If we don’t post at all, people lose interest.
In all that there appears to be a fair group of regular viewers who would watch if they had the choice but don’t have notifications on. So if they don’t get the content recommended, they don’t get the choice. And of course if we want to invest in more channels of social media effort to get a wider audience, that’s an option. So all of the above. Noting that it’s not a full time paying job for us - it’s amateur content and we hope to send some money off to charity of any comes. So it’s a balancing act. But at its core the variation in the content isn’t a problem for all people but yes it likely does impact how TH-cams automation treats it, how we make sure people’s know and if some new people join because of the new content and get to see the Oz stuff as well that’s good too.
Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated. I agree that’s part of the issue for sure. Hope you keep
watching and enjoy our sojourn up north. cheers