Common delusions of newbie YouTubers
<Someone who only ever watched YouTube decides to start a channel>

The quality of the video I made isn't bad compared to others in this category, and I put a 'nang-nang' amount of effort into it. This should catch the algorithm and hit at least 1k views, right? lol
<After uploading>

<Despair>

What the... I made a decent video, why aren't people watching? Something is... off. Let's try making a new one and uploading again.
<After re-uploading>


WTF, why is nobody watching the video I worked so hard on? Huh?


Wait, it's on the recommended list...

What is this?
<After watching several 'How to grow on YouTube' videos>

YouTube is ultimately all about timing. For newbies, titles and thumbnails are way more important than the actual quality or quantity of the content. 3-step account verification is basically mandatory, and you're at an advantage if you pre-select a category that fits your main goal. Also, go ham on the tags. Don't just upload and publish immediately out of excitement; upload as private first and then schedule it for at least 2 to 24 hours later. Basically, the initial viewer response determines a video's fate. If you publish immediately, the AI hasn't finished analyzing the video yet, so it lacks time to find the right audience. If it's shown to people who aren't interested, it negatively impacts the video, the algorithm drops it, and it becomes a 'dead' video forever, never to be seen again. My hard-earned video blah blah your-junk-is-3cm blah blah...

I realized that thinking 'if I just make a good video, people will find it' was a romantic but stupid thought. And most importantly, most newbies think they made a good video when they actually haven't.
"Users agree that the YouTube algorithm is a cruel mistress, noting that 'hako' channels get treated like second-class citizens with bad buffering while drama channels cheat the system."
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