Commenting Won't Help You, No Matter What

paullaskovids

paullaskovids

Well-rounded punk
This is kind of an op-ed\rant but I found my experience the past week or so to be interesting but harrowing.

A week or so ago the Fine Bros put out their Elders React to FourFiveSeconds. A lot of comments came rolling in from people like "I'm x age and I know who Paul McCartney is..." since there was mention of the whole "Kanye's gonna give this guy a career" Twitter thing in the video. Nobody seemed to have commented sarcastically yet so I took my chances with "I'm not born yet and I know who Paul McCartney is." Well, the +1s started rolling in. And then they kept coming. And then there were odd\funny comments. For the longest time I was thinking, "Holy s**t, if I knew how many people would like what I'd have said, I would have made it more obvious somehow that I make YouTube videos too."

The +1s on that comment are now almost 900 and it's the toppermost comment on that video. How many channel views did I get (judging by my trailer video) as a result? Just a few. Eventually I did slightly hint that I make videos, in a joking nonpromotional way, "I got a top comment on a React video. Not sure if I should be offended that this is my greatest achievement on YouTube, more than any video I've ever made..." This really didn't help at all.

Out of all this, I got a handful of views and one subscriber. Technically that's a pretty good visitor-to-subscriber ratio, but out of almost 900 people who liked my comment? No more than that were curious if I made videos? I find that really interesting and a bit disappointing at the same time. Would it have been better if my display name on YouTube was actually my username (including the Vids bit) instead of just being my name? Maybe that would get people to think, "Oh he makes Videos too and sounds funny, maybe I'll click his picture and see what he makes." I don't know. But right now, as far as I can see, even if you make a bunch of really good comments that get stupidly popular, it's not going to help your channel unless you hint in your username that you make videos. Let that do the promotion for you while you focus on quality comments. Perhaps that's what us small guys who are using our real names need to do until we gain enough following to remove it? Just some theories at this point. I have yet to try that out for myself.
 
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To me, commenting is sometimes a matter of luck, but sometimes also relevance. For instance, two comments on two different videos gained a subscriber each, if you make a clever comment in a video relevant to your channel, the chances of somebody coming your way are higher, if you ask me.
 
paullaskovids said:
This is kind of an op-ed\rant but I found my experience the past week or so to be interesting but harrowing.

A week or so ago the Fine Bros put out their Elders React to FourFiveSeconds. A lot of comments came rolling in from people like "I'm x age and I know who Paul McCartney is..." since there was mention of the whole "Kanye's gonna give this guy a career" Twitter thing in the video. Nobody seemed to have commented sarcastically yet so I took my chances with "I'm not born yet and I know who Paul McCartney is." Well, the +1s started rolling in. And then they kept coming. And then there were odd\funny comments. For the longest time I was thinking, "Holy ****, if I knew how many people would like what I'd have said, I would have made it more obvious somehow that I make YouTube videos too."

The +1s on that comment are now almost 900 and it's the toppermost comment on that video. How many channel views did I get (judging by my trailer video) as a result? Just a few. Eventually I did slightly hint that I make videos, in a joking nonpromotional way, "I got a top comment on a React video. Not sure if I should be offended that this is my greatest achievement on YouTube, more than any video I've ever made..." This really didn't help at all.

Out of all this, I got a handful of views and one subscriber. Technically that's a pretty good visitor-to-subscriber ratio, but out of almost 900 people who liked my comment? No more than that were curious if I made videos? I find that really interesting and a bit disappointing at the same time. Would it have been better if my display name on YouTube was actually my username (including the Vids bit) instead of just being my name? Maybe that would get people to think, "Oh he makes Videos too and sounds funny, maybe I'll click his picture and see what he makes." I don't know. But right now, as far as I can see, even if you make a bunch of really good comments that get stupidly popular, it's not going to help your channel unless you hint in your username that you make videos. Let that do the promotion for you while you focus on quality comments. Perhaps that's what us small guys who are using our real names need to do until we gain enough following to remove it? Just some theories at this point. I have yet to try that out for yourself.
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It all depends on the type of comments. For example, in theory, irrelevant spam comments can get you noticed but are also hated, negative comments. More personal comments to a good friend on Youtube can sometimes get more positive attention.
 
Comment would probably increase the chance of users checking out our channel, trying the luck, better than nothing :) Provided that we are not spamming! :P
 
I wonder if people would have been more likely to check out your channel/sub if your comedy sketches were a more prominent part of your channel? Just because what they liked about your comment was your sense of humor. On the bright side, 900+ people know you're funny now ;)
 
I think it's because it's so easy to click +1, just like it's easy to click Like on FB. It takes no effort and it's a quick way to show that someone saw and enjoyed what you said. But yeah I don't see how it converts to channel views/subs since that takes a bigger commitment from the person. However, me personally, I hover over the name of someone in the comments and it can be as simple as having a catchy banner that makes me click into their page. Catchy banner and channel description. So I recently updated my banner and plan to update my description and will try the commenting scene again. :Blackalien2:
 
It increases your visibility but think about it logically. Why would someone check out your channel if they thought you were funny in a comment? They might but realistically, they've read your comment, agreed and moved on. I think you were right when you said the ration was pretty good, I just don't think you should expect too much more.
 
Stop commenting on videos and see where your numbers end up in the coming weeks. You'll probably see a slowdown. It most definitely is the key to success.

But you shouldn't comment for the gains anyway. You should comment because you have a genuine interest in the video that particular YouTuber put out.
 
I wouldn't obsess over who's reading your comments, put that energy into your video making. I think being an involved and engaged YouTuber overall is important for SEO, but I wouldn't necessarily equate a single popular comment with an increase in views.
 
But if you hadn't made that one comment you'd be a few views down and a subscriber down?
Usually, the commenting thing works if you regularly comment on the same sort of videos. Because someone might watch 5 different YouTubers and see that you comment regularly on all them five and be like "I wonder who this person is, they seem to be into the same YouTubers as me and their comments are usually pretty cool".
Thats how I find accounts, I tend to watch a few videos and if I see a username that looks familiar I get curious. Usually it looks familiar because they are commenting everywhere, but then I end up seeing if they create content etc.

But when I +1 comments, I tend to be just searching through the comments rather than curious about if this random commenter has videos or not...
 
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