General

The bad news is "middle-aged white dude who talks about games" is a pretty crowded genre. What do you have that makes you stand out? Focus on that.

For advertising, here are some ideas

Try to do collabs with other (hopefully bigger) channels.

In any discords you are in with a self-promotion style channel, post a link to every new vid upload.

The longer people watch your videos, supposedly the more often they will have your videos recommended in their feed.

Try making some shorts (even short rehashed segments from your main channel) and crosspost those to tiktok as well. YouTube is pushing shorts really hard right now.

Maintain a strong social media presence for your channels, posting every time a new vid comes out. On days you arent releasing, make other game related posts, behind the scenes stuff for upcoming videos, promoting old videos when appropriate (hey new game in X series was just announced, check out my video on the history of X), etc.

Go to video game and game-adjacent conventions and do live panels. You can potentially record add those to your YouTube, and advertise directly (with business cards, prizes, etc.) to the exact audience you are seeking. Conventions mighy also help you meet other YouTubers which could make the suggestion on collaborating easier. (OMG!Con is currently accepting and reviewing panelist submissions for the convention in June)

Keep releasing stuff at least every couple of weeks. Consistency will get you a large backlog of videos so that once someone does find you they will be there forever going through old stuff too.

Be lucky. Sometimes that's all it really boils down to. One video that goes viral and then you get a flood of subscribers as a kickstart.

Modern social media wrapped up: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRtgkeVQ/

Rooting for ya Frank, wish I had better insight!

I have no clue on how to grow a YouTube channel other than what other creators have shared:

Find your thing, be genuine, keep at it, then try to game the YouTube algorithm. The Spiffing Brit advertises that he uses VidIQ for a lot of algorithm based things. He did a video somewhat recently on using AI systems to generate various components that was pretty entertaining and informative.

One other thing. My personal feeling is that "YouTube-face" thumbnails are a blight on humanity, and I instinctively block most channels that rely on them.

Others may not be so annoyed by them.

benstylus wrote:

Statistically, thumbnails and titles seem to matter a lot.

I'm in probably a similar boat to you though, I'm not really the market for these kind of videos. What seems to happen a lot is one channel does a topic then all the other big/aspiring channels have to cover the same topic.

benstylus wrote:
What's a "YouTube face" thumbnail? Literally a person's face for the thumbnail? Or something else?

nonamesleft wrote:

Unless you have been off YouTube for years you pretty much already know. But just in case...

https://youtu.be/c2XqFcOrXs0

benstylus wrote:
Ah, got it. I stopped at around 20 seconds in the video, but I get the point.

nonamesleft wrote:

But do they annoy you, or entice a click out of you?

benstylus wrote:
When I see it, I often think right away that there's probably exaggeration going on.

I think I'm neutral about it. It doesn't really bother me, but it doesn't entice a click from me either.

Youtube-face aside, what's more likely to get a click from you, a more interesting title or a more interesting picture?

People see the picture first, so including a brief title in the picture itself is often helpful, especially if you have a specific series of videos on your channel.

Some examples from my feed

image

FailRace's "Driven till Destruction" is an ongoing series. It's helpful to know - if i'm in the mood for a silly race, i will skip this video for now since Driven to Destruction is typically a solo series. Granted, if you have never watched the channel before it may not mean as much but it is still descriptive of what the video will contain.

4 stars out of 5 for the thumbnail.

image

Retrobreak's video about cancelled and resurrected GBA games doesn't have a title, but you can clearly see the games he is holding and they are not typical big name releases. That might be enough to get you to read the actual video title, or even just click through to see what games those are. Note the natural face, a refreshing sight in a world of overexcited people with their mouths wide open waiting to receive a big d...

4 stars for the thumbnail

BastichB completely repeated the title of his c64 racing games video in the thumbnail. Not the most attractive thumbnail, but it gets its point across and if you want to know about c64 racing games we'll there you go.

2 stars for the thumbnail

image

Technology Connections has a coffee maker with a short amount of white descriptive text, and a little humor.

5 stars

BastichB again, this time with a documentary about Arcade games from the 90s. Much better picture than the c64 racing games.

4 stars

I scrolled down and down and reveled in the lack of YouTube face on my feed this day. It will be back as it always is. But I am ready to instruct YouTube that as long as I draw breath, it must never recommend that channel to me again.

@benstylus Vampires vs Garlic? :) That's funny. I might just watch it.

But I see how you broke that all down. Thanks for that. Why the 4/5 for the GBA games vid, but 5/5 for the coffeemaker? Because the coffeemaker one is telling you more or less exactly what to expect plus a little humor?

Actually don't know anything about that one. Without the title on it I don't think it would catch anyone's attention

Thumbnails are actually something I'm still actively trying to improve on. I'm in small discord of 3-5 other creators (3 of them are well over a few thousand) and they have been helpful with some aspects.

For thumbnails, I've been advised to keep them as clean as possible and was encouraged to throw myself on it. I was told to exaggerate them more, but that didn't feel genuine, so I found a common middle-ground... I think?

Strong social media presence is a bit difficult for me to sty motivated with, since the IG and FB pages for my channel have very little to no following. I have ben trying to network with other creators and have done a few collabs, and have some future ones in the pipeline.

I'm also planning to attend at least 1 or 2 local conventions this year, although I wasn't really planning to get a booth or anything, as I don't know if its really worth the cost, at this stage in my channel's life.

Frank wrote:

Booth and panels are two different things. A lot of cons have attendees sign up for panels. (You just have to submit far enough in advance). Often there are perks like discounted or free admission, depending on how many panels you do.

benstylus wrote:

Ah that's a good point. I don't actually think one of them has panels, as it's more a retro swap meet of sorts.

I will have to figure out details on the other and to see if there is still any panelist openings.

If you decide to come to omgcon let me know. I'm one of the heads of the programming department so approving and scheduling panels is a big part of what I do

benstylus wrote:

That would be fun, but driving or flying to Kentucky + hotel would be a bit costly for me right now.

If you need any wide format signs printed for the conventions let me know. I can also print good business cards and other handouts, send them directly to you for a good discount.