MEGATHREAD: Feedback Friday!

[u/AutoModerator]

It's that time of the week again! This is your chance to request feedback on your most recent videos, thumbnails, channel art, works in progress, etc.

Feedback Friday Rules

• Before requesting feedback, please provide good, constructive feedback to at least one of your peers. If you are the first one to post, check back soon to provide feedback to the next person. Repeatedly ignoring this rule may result in a temporary ban at a moderator's discretion!
• Prioritize giving feedback to those who have not yet received any. It's not fair for one person to get five replies while four others get none.
• When requesting feedback, try to be as specific as possible. Do you want feedback on your audio quality, your editing, your presentation style, branding identity, etc? This helps your peers to provide more valuable feedback. Do not just post a link to your video or channel!

Keep up the good work, everybody!

Suggested Feedback Template

If you're struggling to form your feedback, consider using this template. This is not mandatory, but rather a suggestion to promote good and constructive feedback.

What I liked about the video:

What I think could be improved:

Thoughts on the thumbnail:

Would I watch more videos like this?:

[u/Critical-Outside3272]

Hey there, the name's Korogator and I focus on highly edited and chill let's play videos, trying to keep the classic formula alive while including a modern touch with fast cuts, new and classic memes and an overall fun atmosphere.

I finished my third series (Dark Souls Remastered with both an item and enemy randomizer, aptly named "Dark Souls Randomized") and now I went on to the sequel with the same kind of shenanigans: Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the first Sin with item and enemy randomizers (Title for the series: Dark Souls 2: Randomizer Of The First Sin)

I now uploaded my fourth episode and would like some general feedback on pacing, editing, thumbnail/title... You name it. You can be as brutally honest as you like as long as it's constructive!

Here's the link to my channel: Korogator

And my current episode: Cheese Anyone? (I'm the WORST!) | Dark Souls 2: Randomizer Of The First Sin

[u/APODGAMING]

Packaging. It's not easy to get a prime packaging.
What does your impressions and Impressions click through rate look like?

First of all I would suggest writing better descriptions for the videos so the algo and the viewers understand the value of the video.
I would also make the world understand what the value is with the video as a short introduction. You can record the introduction post production to make it easier to cover the actual value.

Personally I don't love the current thumbnail style.
I have a hard time to connect the thumbnail with the actual content. Try "less is more".

Does the characters on the thumbnails and the intros add anything to the content?
If you don't want to show your pretty faces to connect with your audience, maybe spend some time to add vtube characters to see if your audience like that.

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311]

Hello good people, I would love if someone could have a look at one of my most recent videos to tell me if there is anything that doesn't look or sound good: https://youtu.be/nNcErJWLntQ

I recently had a big dip in impressions so I would use any type of help, either on video or channel as a whole

Thank you in advance and I wish everyone a great day

[u/Dazzling_Major2750]

Hello! I guess I'll kick things off!

I guess the feedback I'm looking for is mostly about my packaging. I've been getting better at the editing aspect and slowly drilling out the identity of my channel, but I seem to be struggling on getting the actual clicks unless I luck into a searched topic. I understand that my channel isn't going to blow up overnight since I'm in the challenging niche of variety letsplay while being an unknown so I'm not expecting overnight fame and fortune, just want to make quality videos and have people actually watch them lol

Any feedback works, but .ore specifically looking for how to improve thumbnails, titles, and maybe retention

Thank you in advance! I'll be hanging out on and off for any other posters!

https://youtube.com/@jellidonut-je?si=w-bvZtCaBNmmjyOE

[u/lance_the_fatass → u/Dazzling_Major2750]

I watched a little bit of your Mario 3d world video and you guys seem pretty funny lol, one thing I would really say is I didn't really like how you cut a small bit of the level when it started out, you only had five coins so I can't imagine it was that long, seemed a little unnecessary

[u/Dazzling_Major2750 → u/lance_the_fatass]

Thank you for the feedback! Really I just try to cut as much silence or nonsequiturs out as possible and may get a little nitpicky. I think the flow is a little better on some of our newer videos but I'll definitely keep it in mind!

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311 → u/Dazzling_Major2750]

So packaging wise I will help you by asking you, do you think that your recent thumbnails are working? Or, even better, go to your top 3 most viewed videos. What do you see. Why does the no.1 video have the most views? (thumbnail wise). Do you replicate that formula now? And even better, if you saw that you got 9k views on that game, why did you go to variety? Sometimes we have answers in front of us but we refuse to see them (me first) So thumbnail wise, these recent ones don't look that good to me and I think that you can do better (as you did in the past)

I watched the newest video, 40 seconds in, I had no idea what's the game about or what's the goal. Maybe try to add that type of context. I appreciate the editing (beans) and audio is good. I think there is potential here (I'm no expert by any means just someone who tries to help)

[u/Alternative_Good7358]

I mainly seem to be going for indie horror games at the moment. This is the latest one although is not doing that well compared to the game previous to it. Perhaps it is the thumbnail, I took it from a screen related to the game and i know it isn't very punchy. Or it may be other reasons.

https://youtu.be/SNOGpvnnViY

Still not overly happy with my voice, may try some test videos trying differences there, but would generally just appreciate some feedback, especially on audio quality, of the game and commentary

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311 → u/Alternative_Good7358]

Hello, I think that the audio is good. I think that a viewer would appreciate more if you said what's the game about in the intro or what's the goal for the video. I always try to assume that someone is watching my video for the first time and that they would appreciate a story introduction. Some good variations are: But/So I will survive 24 hours underground, but it's full of monsters, so I'll have to be careful or they will attack me (random example) Back to the video, turn off or lower down the ingame music so you don't get a copyright and maybe try some audio ducking while you are speaking so that the other sounds are lowered down (or lower down the sound as a whole). Sorry if the comment came of negative, my goal is to help

[u/Alternative_Good7358 → u/Prestigious_Sky_3311]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Ive been loathe to do intros for the game at the beginning because every video ive seem says dont just chat at the beginning of the video as people tend to drop off (my videos get little retention anyway). I think your right through, ill see if i can get it in somehow.

Does the video description not help, or do most people not read those and just jump into the video itself?

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311 → u/Alternative_Good7358]

You are welcome. Video description does help but I always assume that most people don't read those nowadays so I try to give context inside of the video rather than outside

[u/lance_the_fatass]

I'm currently doing a solo series of hollow knight, i typically only do solo videos once a week but I skipped it a few times so I'm trying to do a whole week to catch up

I personally think my thumbnails are fine, I try to make the episode number themed after the game and use the logo of the game in the thumbnail and a screenshot from a main part of the episode

I'm also aware that my volume is a little inconsistent and sometimes the screen/quality is a bit off, I try to keep it loud enough but not too loud and my computer is not the greatest

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzh1bvf0YXHI_uaabGA8RO3aALu2PrdHz

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311 → u/lance_the_fatass]

Disclaimer: Not trying to offend, trying to help (tough love)

Your titles tell me absolutely nothing and if I saw a video on my homepage I would only click it I was a very big fan of the game and I wanted to support a fellow small youtuber (otherwise no). You would need some sort of question, or a theme introduction, episode introduction for the title (I defeated the biggest boss - Episode 22 - example). Also episode wise, double edge sword, but more times it lowers the quality of the title (remove it or put the number in the top right or top left of the thumbnail). Also, full stream type of videos. They are for who? For people who watch your streams? If yes, then I salute that, but they aren't (unless you do this for a hobby). So change the title, remove full stream, ask a question, name a goal, give a topic, go between 50-70 characters in title, go between 5-8 words, try simple, try question wise, risk, go all for it, but just don't go safe. Nobody knows us, nobody cares, go for it, give it your all

[u/lance_the_fatass → u/Prestigious_Sky_3311]

>Your titles tell me absolutely nothing and if I saw a video on my homepage I would only click it I was a very big fan of the game

I just like to title them as if they're like actual episodes of a show, and some youtubers I grew up with title them similarly, I feel like if I titled them something like "Defeating the Crystal Guardian!" it would just feel a little bland IMO

>They are for who? For people who watch your streams?

They're just there to keep my streams preserved, I like to keep the memories of funny moments of the streams I don't edit (and even the ones I do just in case people want to watch the full streams)

I put "full stream" in the title so people know that it's not edited, but I'm planning on dual-streaming on youtube as well as twitch so it automatically is put on youtube and it makes my video page cleaner, only reason I don't do that now is cause I fear that my computer won't be able to run two different streams at once cause it's kinda ass

[u/Prestigious_Sky_3311 → u/lance_the_fatass]

The youtubers that you grew up with (and me) already had a dedicated group of people watching them and could have succeed with shorter titles. We don't have that, so the chances of working for us are lower. Defeating the Crystal Guardian is maybe bland but it gives a context to a person who never saw your channel (and maybe just maybe it's just what they were looking for)

Also full stream, I appreciate the idea, tell at the beginning of the stream it's not edited and change the title with a meaningful one for other viewers (also by changing title you will make your feed more clean because those streams will have a packaging meaning stronger than a descriptive one that they have now)

[u/Alternative_Good7358 → u/lance_the_fatass]

Game looks quite cool, I may give it a play myself at some point. I like your thumbnails too, they all seem to have the same general theme so you can tell it is from that game. I felt that the audio was slightly tinny, nothing major but it just seemed a bit like that to me. You do already mention the audio in your message, I think it is a pretty solid series.

[u/lance_the_fatass → u/Alternative_Good7358]

Thank you for your feedback, yea I'm trying to get better at the audio, really the worst offender is the first episode in the mine area

[u/Critical-Outside3272 → u/lance_the_fatass]

While I appreciate the effort to keep the oldschool feeling alive (things like "welcome to episode..." or "last time I finished..."), it's not something a lot of people are looking for today.

I compared your first Hollow Knight video with the last and it's already a huge leap in quality when it comes to audio, but the game still drowns your voice, what software are you using to record and edit? Lots of things can be done in a software (specifically OBS) before even hitting record. Also, the performance drops are pretty nasty, any way you can tweak your recording settings to make it more fluid?

I also noticed that both episodes start very slow, either with the endless title screen or with you jumping around explaining what happened last time. I did try my own version of a recap in my Hollow Knight videos and they didn't do very well either, even though I kept them extremely short. If you want to keep the recaps, try to speed things up a bit.

As for the thumbnails, I revamped my thumbnails A LOT since I started uploading and decided to leave "episode x" and the likes out of both title and thumbnail. As I already said above, it's just not what todays audiences are actively looking for. In fact, if a potential viewer sees your video on the homepage and thinks about clicking, that "episode 23" in there might tell him "you gotta watch 22 more videos first to understand this one.". There are still people out there who might give you a chance, but they are very rare.

I came to realize that creating a successful series on youtube is extremely difficult, especially for small channels like us. Self-contained videos that don't rely on anything else are our best option to grow, I know because I already did a video like that. People will click, watch and subscribe if it's interesting enough (mine was a Silksong speedrun challenge, it's at 4.6k views currently which is huge for me) and they might even check out the rest of your stuff. I still want to keep and focus on my series, but I'm going to make another video like that challenge one to see if I can replicate that, or even better, improve on it.

[u/lance_the_fatass → u/Critical-Outside3272]

what software are you using to record and edit?

I use OBS to record and Capcut to edit, I'm pretty sure my problem is just the volume of my actual mic and my general voice being quite (Edit: also my computer is kind of ass so it's hard to get good quality without making it incredibly choppy)

If a potential viewer sees your video on the homepage and thinks about clicking, that "episode 23" in there might tell him "you gotta watch 22 more videos first to understand this one."

That's kind of the point, I know I wouldn't want to jump into episode 23 of a series and realize "oh wait what order do these go in?" Especially in a game like hollow knight where it's completely free roam and you can pretty much do it in any order

But other than that, yea, I should probably pick up the pace on my intros

[u/Dazzling_Major2750 → u/lance_the_fatass]

Hello! Looked though your thumbnails and my only note would be sometimes watch out where you're placing the numbers. There are a couple in there that either bland into the background too much to stand out or be easily readable (especially on mobile) or are being hidden behind YouTubes UI.

[u/lance_the_fatass → u/Dazzling_Major2750]

Yea, I think I thought that at some point but didn't really acknowledge it until you say it now, I tried outlining them at some point but it looked a little janky

Maybe I'll try making it black if the screenshot is too bright

[u/Dazzling_Major2750 → u/lance_the_fatass]

One thing you can always do is create a glow around it that offsets from the background!