If you spend a little time on YouTube you'll quickly start noticing view counts. Some videos have paltry amounts. Some have outrageously high view counts. I'm going to spend a little time in this blog discussing this.
Some videos have a tremendous amount of marketing push, publicity, and built-in audience. These are typically blockbuster movie trailers, pop artist videos, or the dramatic once-in-a-lifetime video.
These videos get many, many views. They're propelled to the tops of the charts and get heavy exposure. Viewers tend to watch them more often than search out specific videos to meet unique criteria.
As a result, the same videos get heavy rotation. These videos, by nature, are not necessarily the best videos: they're the most watched/discussed, etc.
Other videos with huge amounts of views fall under the category called viral. These videos, for any number of reasons, have atracted the attention of individuals and have been shared over and over again.
And then, there's the obscure video that no one has heard of with millions of views. Thousands of subscribers to the channel. Thousands of friends. When you look at it you see poor production quality, little value, dubious merit, and very few comments. Sometimes you'll see many comments, spaced several seconds apart. Sometimes you'll see many, many 5-star ratings.
Have you ever wondered how this could be? I used to. I just found out that there are unscrupulous individuals and/or companies that fraudulently inflate their views via browser plug-ins, begging, and other trickery.
Certainly, the method works to generate view counts, but the practice is deceptive and misleads the viewer.
I wonder how many of the artificially viewed videos would stand on their own merits. I'm curious as to how many legitimate views they would have gained by organic growth.
Since finding this out, and understanding the techniques that are used (which I do not use or promote), it makes it easier for me to accept my view count and not equate the relatively small number to failure. I am, after all, an absolute unknown. I don't have many human friends. (Oddly, I believe I have more online friends than human friends!)
It's important for me to get my movies seen by as many as possible (especially PARALLAX), but I want the views to me natural, deliberate, informed choices. Curious clicks via related videos is acceptable, as well. You won't find me cheating you into an reactionary view. I pray that youvenjoy my films on their own merits and by organic growth.
Blessings,
Scott Hampton
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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