I’m celebrating again. My YouTube channel has reached 5000 subscribers. 5000 people saw my channel and thought, “yes, that adds value to my life, I want to be notified if they make more videos.” I’m grateful to them all.
But YouTube is a menace. I can spend days – weeks even – working on a video only for YouTube to stop promoting to people after 50 views. A video I record quickly with just a pen and paper can go on to be viewed 80000 times.
But even with my most popular video about deriving the speed of light using Maxwell’s equations, YouTube’s algorithms decided enough was enough and stopped promoting it to people quite abruptly.
In my most recent video I tried to make things as interesting as I could. There was a record player and driving around in a car and a computer simulation and some maths too. It took ages to record and cut together. At first, YouTube seemed to be promoting it well. And then, inexplicably, they stopped promoting it altogether.
So whether a video is popular or not seems to be unaffected by how long I spend making it, or its quality, or the thumbnail, or the video title. It seems completely random whether YouTube decides to pick up a video and promote it.
I have 600 videos on my channel now, and lots of recorded live streams (although the live streams aren’t public and there are a few private videos too, still, there are hundreds of physics videos on my channel). There’s plenty to watch. I enjoy making the videos, and I often promote them to my own students as a resource. I’ll continue to make the videos, regardless of my lack of YouTube success. My challenge is to guard myself from becoming disheartened by the arbitrary nature of YouTube’s algorithms and to make sure I don’t try to pander to what’s popular.
What makes YouTube great?
Here are some excellent channels I recommend:
Veritasium: The best YouTube channel there is.
Fermilab: Dr Lincoln corrects misconceptions so clearly!
Electroboom: If you’ve watched these videos, you get it.
Vsauce: There are a few Vsauce channels, they’re all really interesting.
Stand-up Maths: Matt Parker makes really interesting videos, fun to relax to.
Steve Mould: He does excellent demonstrations.
Chris Boden: D’ya wanna see something cool? Careful, you’ll lose hours watching these fascinating short videos.
CeerazzleDazzle Physics: Jason started his channel around the same time as me but already has nearly 60000 subscribers, and for good reason. Worth exploring what he offers.
Physics Online: Every physics student should recognise these videos. After ten years on YouTube, he’s amassed a respectable following!A
Are there any excellent YouTubers I’ve forgotten? Let everyone know in the comments!
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