Struggling a lot with my channel

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

About two years ago I started sharing my builds on YouTube. I was (and still am) obsessed with building in TS4. My main reason being that I was building anyway, so why not share my creations on the internet? Of course I was looking for some sort of popularity and recognision. Otherwise I would've kept everything for myself. But I also wanted to give Simmers my creations to enjoy. And it has been pretty cool journey.

Now I'm still a tiny channel. I have 39 subscribers and 2200 views. I almost have 2500 downloads on The Gallery. Maintaining a YouTube channel has became pretty hard, because I've had very little results in popularity. It's very hard to see other channels grow so much and mine, not so much. Now I have to admit, I'm not very persistent when it comes to uploading video's. But I think I have put out a decent amount of creations (about 45).
It is incredibely difficult and painful seeing a YouTuber, who once commented on my video, asking me to check out their channel, getting hundreds of thousands of views now. I'm just always thinking: "What would people want to see?" and "What do people want to download?" At first, I put out a few Dutch builds. Almost nobody was interested and I get why. That was just the start of my channel, my building skills weren't very on point then. So I've kind of moved on from that. Then I tried to be more diverse, did a few cottages, a few mansions, some community lots, etc. And some builds were somewhat appreciated. Then I did a build with a specific theme of the year: Halloween. I did a haunted mansion, but that was a flop.

Being present in the YouTube community is very important and I have noticed that. I write a lot of positive feedback on builds by others, since I'm actually interested and it does help with views and getting clicks. I've only asked others to take a look at my channel like twice, since when you ask that the opposite will probably happen. I always comment on compliments others have left on my video's. I almost always subscribe to other build channels who ask me to check out their channel. I've been sharing my builds on the forums here for about a year now. A month ago I joined Twitter to share my builds and I try to be engaging there too, tagging Guru's and The Sims in my creations. I try to make my builds match the cirteria for a Maxis fave. But all of this never leads to anything. I get some nice comments, but it doesn't attract a bigger audience.

Anyway, managing a YouTube channel is hard. I'm not looking for pity and you don't have to check out my channel. I'm just saying it as it is. It's hard to present yourself like this online. I do think you need a bit of luck and the right friends on YouTube to get an audience. The Sims community in itself is pretty secluded and specific. But seeing others getting all this attention after having their channel for like nine months is hard. And it is just kind of draining just doing the same thing over and over again without many results. I'm still not done doing this and I will keep going, but I certainly won't be going to do this for anytime longer than one or two years if things stay this way.

QveenSimsxx · November 2017

Very cool! I subbed and liked your three latest videos! If you could check my channel out as well, please do! Thank you! :smile:
Mine is Qveen Simsxx (sorry i cant send a link, Im not a full member :frowning:

I think that creating a sims youtube channel can be challenging, as i am struggling with my channel as well, but if you really like this, you should continue doing a sims channel. I created my channel only a couple weeks ago, and like you said, my things are not always on point, but as you progress,you'll get more views, likes, and subscribers. You should look up "Sub for sub livestream" on youtube to get more subscribers.
The people who sub to me right now may not be interested, but at least you get more subscribers. When people view your channel page or your video and say "Oh he has 150 subscribers? He must be really good!" That's more views for you, or more people who will care for your channel.

Well, I tried my best to help, and I hope I helped you!

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

QveenSimsxx wrote: »

Very cool! I subbed and liked your three latest videos! If you could check my channel out as well, please do! Thank you!
Mine is Qveen Simsxx (sorry i cant send a link, Im not a full member

I think that creating a sims youtube channel can be challenging, as i am struggling with my channel as well, but if you really like this, you should continue doing a sims channel. I created my channel only a couple weeks ago, and like you said, my things are not always on point, but as you progress,you'll get more views, likes, and subscribers. You should look up "Sub for sub livestream" on youtube to get more subscribers.
The people who sub to me right now may not be interested, but at least you get more subscribers. When people view your channel page or your video and say "Oh he has 150 subscribers? He must be really good!" That's more views for you, or more people who will care for your channel.

Well, I tried my best to help, and I hope I helped you!

Thank you for subscribing! I've subscribed to your channel. I am curious to see what your next video's will be. And thank you for the advice on getting more subscribers. Maybe I'll try a Sub for sub livestream.

PolluxSims · November 2017

I'll definitely check out your channel next time I have YouTube up! I don't do YouTube myself but once I get a new laptop, it's something I'm interested in trying, but I love to watch others so I'm gonna try to give some advice that I think could help.

First, I notice your recent videos are all only a few minutes long. My advice is make them a bit longer. Personally, I prefer to watch videos that 10 minutes or more. Myself, I mainly like to use Simmers as background noise while I'm on the computer, so I can game and watch them at the same time. Longer videos might draw in a bigger crowd. You could also maybe try doing voiceovers for build videos if you're comfortable to, I always like that better than just music, it keeps me interested in what I'm watching.

My other piece of advice is to try more social media promoting. I see you said you tried making a Twitter, try making a Tumblr and posting on there too. I know one popular tag on there is "simblr" (basically a combination of Sims and Tumblr lol), where people post a lot of their stuff. In there, you'll be able to pick up on other tags people use as well. Another thing I'd say is, maybe try streaming on Twitch, and post the videos up to YouTube as well when you're done. Using multiple platforms this way might help draw in a bigger following. I hope some of this might help

NAPK1NS · November 2017

Your builds are amazing! I subbed

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

ladyschrei7 wrote: »

I'll definitely check out your channel next time I have YouTube up! I don't do YouTube myself but once I get a new laptop, it's something I'm interested in trying, but I love to watch others so I'm gonna try to give some advice that I think could help.

First, I notice your recent videos are all only a few minutes long. My advice is make them a bit longer. Personally, I prefer to watch videos that 10 minutes or more. Myself, I mainly like to use Simmers as background noise while I'm on the computer, so I can game and watch them at the same time. Longer videos might draw in a bigger crowd. You could also maybe try doing voiceovers for build videos if you're comfortable to, I always like that better than just music, it keeps me interested in what I'm watching.

My other piece of advice is to try more social media promoting. I see you said you tried making a Twitter, try making a Tumblr and posting on there too. I know one popular tag on there is "simblr" (basically a combination of Sims and Tumblr lol), where people post a lot of their stuff. In there, you'll be able to pick up on other tags people use as well. Another thing I'd say is, maybe try streaming on Twitch, and post the videos up to YouTube as well when you're done. Using multiple platforms this way might help draw in a bigger following. I hope some of this might help

Thank you for the advice! I'm pretty uncomfortable with doing a voiceover and I'm Dutch and I have an accent. Out of all the accents, Dutch is a pretty terrible one to have. I used to make actual speedbuild video's. But my laptop wasn't good enough to record in HD for a few hours and rendering took a long while. Doing all of these little tours is easier to make a video of and I can release more builds this way. Also I felt like many people just skipped to the end for the screenshots. So with all of this I decided to quit the speedbuild video's. Maybe I made a wrong decision. But I think it was worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't have this amount of video's on my channel.
Maybe I'll try Tumblr though! I haven't thought about that at all.

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

Thank you so much!

@Melton23

Heyyysims · November 2017

I checked out your museum and it's actually really cool, I subbed and left you a comment

I understand the frustration with not getting subs/views as I've had a somewhat similar experience. A few suggestions would be to enhance your thumbnails, make them stand out, brighter, more saturated, another font, make your videos longer as well. Maybe try to experiment with different types of content?

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

Heyyysims wrote: »

I checked out your museum and it's actually really cool, I subbed and left you a comment I understand the frustration with not getting subs/views as I've had a somewhat similar experience. A few suggestions would be to enhance your thumbnails, make them stand out, brighter, more saturated, another font, make your videos longer as well. Maybe try to experiment with different types of content?

Thanks for going to my channel! And thank you for the tips!

GoldenBuffy · November 2017

I thought I had subscribed to your channel, but then I just popped over there and saw that I hadn't. So you have gained a new sub!

I feel your pain. Like you, and many others, I have a YT channel as well, and though it's not all Sims based (I play other games as well), it's hard to see others who do similar work as you gain in popularity and grow much, much quicker than you, when you've been at it longer. So days I want to just toss in the towel and just give up. But I remind myself the main reason why I share my game play is simply because I'm having fun, and I want to share that fun with others!

Getting a new subscriber - or five - is super cool, and getting comments are awesome as well. The feedback lets me know that others are enjoying what I put out. So my advice to you would be, as long as you are enjoying it, still having fun, then don't stop. It doesn't matter if you become super popular or stay where you are, just as long as you are having fun!

Also, don't worry about your voice or your accent. That doesn't matter to viewers. But I'll be honest. I HATE. HATE the way I sound. I think my voice is super deep for a woman, and I cringe inside when I live stream or record a video. lol But others have no problem with it.

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

Thank you for subscribing @GoldenBuffy! I have taken a look at your channel too and I think it's great! You are very consistent in uploading. I don't think there is anything wrong with how you sound. I think everyone cringes when hearing their own voices on record or something.
It is very hard doing this, but I'm still having fun. I don't know what other creative outlet I would have if it wasn't for this game!

GoldenBuffy · November 2017

You are very welcome! I love your build style. I honestly wish I could build in game, but I've been playing since The Sims, and I can't build outside of a square and plopping a roof on it. lol Yes, The Sims and other games are my outlet as well, and without them I think I'd be bored out of my skull!

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

GoldenBuffy wrote: »

You are very welcome! I love your build style. I honestly wish I could build in game, but I've been playing since The Sims, and I can't build outside of a square and plopping a roof on it. lol Yes, The Sims and other games are my outlet as well, and without them I think I'd be bored out of my skull!

Thank you!
Well, build mode definitely takes some time to completely understand. At first I was really bad, but doing it regularly made me build the way I do now. The gameplay aspect is something that I'm very bad at though. Having a family of more than three Sims is already too hard for me, haha. Don't know what I'd be doing if I hadn't started playing this series.

ajaxpost · November 2017

NickSims wrote: »

Thank you for the advice! I'm pretty uncomfortable with doing a voiceover and I'm Dutch and I have an accent. Out of all the accents, Dutch is a pretty terrible one to have. I used to make actual speedbuild video's. But my laptop wasn't good enough to record in HD for a few hours and rendering took a long while. Doing all of these little tours is easier to make a video of and I can release more builds this way. Also I felt like many people just skipped to the end for the screenshots. So with all of this I decided to quit the speedbuild video's. Maybe I made a wrong decision. But I think it was worth it. Otherwise I wouldn't have this amount of video's on my channel.
Maybe I'll try Tumblr though! I haven't thought about that at all.

Hi, first off I should be open about my preferences ... I've given up on Sims 4 at the moment, and I generally don't like speed-builds, especially those with a loud and 'aggressive' music track. Now, with that said ...

When I watch a build video it's to learn something, perhaps get some inspiration or tricks and tips that might improve my own builds. I find video tours of a build much more helpful for that and it's even better when the creator gives some sort of back-story or explanation as to why they made certain design choices.

As has been said, your house tour videos look really good, the camera work is excellent and the editing allows us to explore and enjoy each room. If they could be improved, for me anyway, it would be good to know why you choose the particular designs, what sort of Sim would live there, or how they might be used in game. You've said you're not comfortable/confident doing voice-overs, and I understand that, perhaps you could add some text annotations? I'm thinking of you as the property sales agent describing to us, the prospective purchasers, exactly why our Sims need these wonderful places.

There are lots of Sims 4 channels out there and it's difficult to stand out so don't fret too much about subscribers as long as you are enjoying the game and creating the videos, as @GoldenBuffy said "I remind myself the main reason why I share my game play is simply because I'm having fun".

Though, of course, it is always nice to know that there are people interested in what you're doing and if you enjoy interacting with other Simmers I'd agree with @ladyschrei7 about using other social media like Twitter, Tumblr, even Facebook and Instagram and, of course, these forums, to increase your 'visibility'. Personally I would avoid sub-for-sub type operations, quite a few are run by scammers (and blatant subscription farming is against the YouTube TOS anyway) but of course, just as you've been doing, it can be slow but commenting and subbing on other, especially smaller, channels should build up a nice circle of virtual friends.

One final piece of content advice I might offer here is that mixing up your content may help. Mine is mostly Lets Plays, which do 'OK' but I added in a couple of tutorials and they got a LOT of views. In games like The Sims, there are always lots of options that are easy to miss so if you discover something useful or can explain a feature that some players are having trouble with you could get a lot of extra attention.

Anyway, for what it's worth I really like your video style (and your builds!) so I've subbed so that when I return to TS4 I know where to find some high quality builds!

aricarai · November 2017

Seems like you've gotten some good advice @NickSims.

If you look at your videos with the highest views, they're your speed builds (so longer videos may be the answer). Like @ajaxpost said, I, too, like to see how a builder puts together a creation. Voiceovers do help, but if you don't feel comfortable doing them, definitely don't do it. There's plenty of YTers out there that don't do them and still have a high sub count.

Promote the heck out of your content and tag not only gurus, plus tag other Simmers - they're pretty good about retweeting and helping others out. I think the more Simmers that you engage with, the better.

But remember, at the end of the day, do it because you love it

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

Thank you so much for all of the advice @ajaxpost! It is really helpful and I'll definitely take your feedback into my future video's. Maybe I will mix up the channel a bit. Or add a some backstory to my builds. And thank you for subscribing. I subscribed to your channel too!

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

@aricarai I've noticed too how my speedbuilds did better than my tours. But I also think it has a bit to do with time and the kind of builds I did. Since there were also a few speedbuilds that didn't do that well. In the upcoming time I think I'll try to come up with a new format. And like you said, I should promote my stuff way more. Thank you for your advice!

ajaxpost · November 2017

NickSims wrote: »

Thank you so much for all of the advice @ajaxpost! It is really helpful and I'll definitely take your feedback into my future video's. Maybe I will mix up the channel a bit. Or add a some backstory to my builds. And thank you for subscribing. I subscribed to your channel too!

You're most welcome, and thank you!

To be honest, unlike @aricarai I didn't notice your view counts but I'm not too surprised if the speedbuilds get the most, they are quite popular and I think I'm in a minority in not really liking them.

Don't be afraid to try new ideas and styles but do it because you enjoy it or want to experiment with new ways of expressing your creativity, not just to chase views. Equally, don't be afraid to drop stuff that is getting in the way of you doing the things you really enjoy.

Whatever, have fun! Good luck.

aricarai · November 2017

ajaxpost wrote: »

NickSims wrote: »

Thank you so much for all of the advice @ajaxpost! It is really helpful and I'll definitely take your feedback into my future video's. Maybe I will mix up the channel a bit. Or add a some backstory to my builds. And thank you for subscribing. I subscribed to your channel too!

You're most welcome, and thank you!

To be honest, unlike @aricarai I didn't notice your view counts but I'm not too surprised if the speedbuilds get the most, they are quite popular and I think I'm in a minority in not really liking them.

Don't be afraid to try new ideas and styles but do it because you enjoy it or want to experiment with new ways of expressing your creativity, not just to chase views. Equally, don't be afraid to drop stuff that is getting in the way of you doing the things you really enjoy.

Whatever, have fun! Good luck.

Definitely that advice from @ajaxpost is right on the money! Also, why don't you check out vid.me? It's kind of a combination between YouTube and twitch and a lot of Simmers have started making channels for there. It's a lovely community - I made a post about it here.

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

@aricarai Maybe I'll try vid.me. It looks pretty cool I guess!

comstarhatesu · November 2017

Hi Nick! I checked out some of your builds and they're awesome! Keep up the great work! I subbed

. If you could check out my channel, I'd be very grateful. Thanks!

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

comstarhatesu wrote: »

Hi Nick! I checked out some of your builds and they're awesome! Keep up the great work! I subbed . If you could check out my channel, I'd be very grateful. Thanks!

Thank you! I subscribed to you too. Your childhood home looks beautiful!

CoteDAzur · November 2017

Hey, do you have a thread with pictures of your builds at all? I'm not a fan of the gallery images! They somehow make good builds look a bit poop, I'll watch some videos too but of course it would be nice to look at a few more than that allows me to right now!

SimmerNickYT · November 2017

Rumpelstiltskin wrote: »

Hey, do you have a thread with pictures of your builds at all? I'm not a fan of the gallery images! They somehow make good builds look a bit poop, I'll watch some videos too but of course it would be nice to look at a few more than that allows me to right now!

I don't have a thread. You can find some pictures on my Twitter though, but I started sharing there a month ago. So there are not many to find there. I think I'm gonna start a thread with my builds. Thank you for taking a look at my builds!

comstarhatesu · November 2017

NickSims wrote: »

comstarhatesu wrote: »

Hi Nick! I checked out some of your builds and they're awesome! Keep up the great work! I subbed . If you could check out my channel, I'd be very grateful. Thanks!

Thank you! I subscribed to you too. Your childhood home looks beautiful!

Thank you very much!

Lady_LuSsh01 · December 2017

> @NickSims said:
> About two years ago I started sharing my builds on YouTube. I was (and still am) obsessed with building in TS4. My main reason being that I was building anyway, so why not share my creations on the internet? Of course I was looking for some sort of popularity and recognision. Otherwise I would've kept everything for myself. But I also wanted to give Simmers my creations to enjoy. And it has been pretty cool journey.
>
> Now I'm still a tiny channel. I have 39 subscribers and 2200 views. I almost have 2500 downloads on The Gallery. Maintaining a YouTube channel has became pretty hard, because I've had very little results in popularity. It's very hard to see other channels grow so much and mine, not so much. Now I have to admit, I'm not very persistent when it comes to uploading video's. But I think I have put out a decent amount of creations (about 45).
> It is incredibely difficult and painful seeing a YouTuber, who once commented on my video, asking me to check out their channel, getting hundreds of thousands of views now. I'm just always thinking: "What would people want to see?" and "What do people want to download?" At first, I put out a few Dutch builds. Almost nobody was interested and I get why. That was just the start of my channel, my building skills weren't very on point then. So I've kind of moved on from that. Then I tried to be more diverse, did a few cottages, a few mansions, some community lots, etc. And some builds were somewhat appreciated. Then I did a build with a specific theme of the year: Halloween. I did a haunted mansion, but that was a flop.
>
> Being present in the YouTube community is very important and I have noticed that. I write a lot of positive feedback on builds by others, since I'm actually interested and it does help with views and getting clicks. I've only asked others to take a look at my channel like twice, since when you ask that the opposite will probably happen. I always comment on compliments others have left on my video's. I almost always subscribe to other build channels who ask me to check out their channel. I've been sharing my builds on the forums here for about a year now. A month ago I joined Twitter to share my builds and I try to be engaging there too, tagging Guru's and The Sims in my creations. I try to make my builds match the cirteria for a Maxis fave. But all of this never leads to anything. I get some nice comments, but it doesn't attract a bigger audience.
>
> Anyway, managing a YouTube channel is hard. I'm not looking for pity and you don't have to check out my channel. I'm just saying it as it is. It's hard to present yourself like this online. I do think you need a bit of luck and the right friends on YouTube to get an audience. The Sims community in itself is pretty secluded and specific. But seeing others getting all this attention after having their channel for like nine months is hard. And it is just kind of draining just doing the same thing over and over again without many results. I'm still not done doing this and I will keep going, but I certainly won't be going to do this for anytime longer than one or two years if things stay this way.

hey i'll check out your vids, could you also check mine Lady LuSsh

The Sims Forums

Struggling a lot with my channel

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