From the ice-age to the dole-age to the YouTube-age, there is but one concern I have discovered:
Some videos are bigger than others.(with apologies to The Smiths).
I have been working hard in the last couple of years to make better videos. I feel that I am getting the hang of how I am able to improve them. But what I really cannot fathom is the number of people who watch each video.
For each one I do much the same thing: pop the video on Vimeo / YouTube, stick it on my blog and the video page of my website, then mention it a few times on Twitter and Facebook.
Yet the number of people who watch each one varies so much. And often the films that I think will be the best / most popular do not do particularly well.
I’md be very interested to hear any ideas about this in the comments below, as well as any tips on how I can reach a wider audience: it currently works out as quite a lot of time spent editing per single viewer!
I absolutely loved building this wild hut and I thought the video would be really popular. So far, it has not:
Whereas I feared this film was a bit boring (mostly because I was in so much of a rush to catch my train and therefore hardly filmed anything!) yet it has been far more popular.
The popularity of this rather stupid swimming microadventure is a reminder that people are interested in more than long, challenging journeys
Whilst the enduring popularity of the Sleep on a Hill video gives me hope that the microadventure concept can continue to grow:
I was really pleased with the first film I made this year. With some really nice shots and only 1 minute long, I thought that more people would enjoy it.
I’md be very interested to hear any ideas about all this in the comments below, as well as any tips on how I can reach a wider audience: it currently works out as quite a lot of time spent editing per single viewer!
In my opinion, I think you first need to get your fans on Twitter/Facebook excited about your expedition before you actually go on it. Get them really pumped up for watching the video so they have something to look forward to.
Of course if it is possible, a few glimpses/scenes of a big video you’re about to make always help as well. And obviously if more people subscribe to your YouTube/Vimeo and like your Twitter/Facebook pages then there will be more viewers, so perhaps that’s something you need to currently focus on….
Your videos are extremely well made/edited and very inspirational (especially the 10 minute long Greenland Expedition movie), so you have nothing to worry about on that side… Hope that helps :-)
I only watch the videos of the small things because I think to myself, “I can do that!” I rarely do i,t but it is more accessible than the big stuff.
Ray Mears has built loads of ‘Wild Houses” :0)
I’ve noticed that people are ultimately worried about themselves. They don’t like you because of who you are but they like you because of how you make them feel. I’ve read both “Moods of Future Joy” and “Thunder and Sunshine” and I loved them because it wasn’t some distant notion but a real adventure that I could be on tomorrow. I think your Microadventures ides is great because it is right along those lines. What I wanted to watch as I scrolled down the page was the coast to coast and the sleep on a hill videos, which are by no chance the most popular. I agree dexey, I see them as tangible for me. Moreover, I am convinced of that simply by their title.
The 2nd video is inspirational and has a scope beyond an adventure – it’s about an attitude change. The hut vid is more a ‘how to’ boys adventure. It’s about you guys, not about the viewer.
I’m personally attracted to your videos when they inspire and challenge my psychology, not just show me what’s going on.
Maybe analyze the popular ones and see whether that the common thread?
You are a motivational speaker after all :) and people want to share inspiration.
imho of course …
You’ve probably looked at this already, but the best advice is from YouTube itself:
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=141808
I think that your low view count hasn’t got anything to do with your videos per say, but rather the fact that, in reality, you’re ultimately targeting a niche group of people, and so your view counts will naturally be low.
If you want your view counts to increase, you need to do something that will attract a lot of attention, and produce something the ‘mainstream’ -want- to watch. How many of the videos you’ve created and the micro adventures you’ve done been your own ideas? You should create a poll or something on Surveymonkey and distribute it everywhere, not just in Expedition circles, but everywhere else too, and ask people for their ideas on what you should go and do. Whatever the number 1 response is, do it, no matter what it is. Even if you don’t like it, least you know a lot of people will watch it.
Maybe go to each county in the UK and do a micro adventure there, highlighting local sights, and publicise it through local papers. That way, local tourism gets a boost, and your popularity does too!
Hope this gives you something to think about :-)
Hello, first time i post here, so i have to star with the, great blog man!
Now, we have to start with the separation between Vimeo and Youtube, the first its for filmmakers, and the second for the audience, while youtube is enforcing people to watch similar videos and therefore raising your view count, vimeo is focused on groups, so if you want to raise the count on Vimeo you have to go to those groups and join them, and your videos, works a lot like tags in blogs. Saw that your videos where in dslr cinema and 5d only, this is quite low for vimeo.
I have to say, that the videos are really good, but as someone said, there are way too specific and the counts wont be that high, also, a separation between videos its a good idea, if you put one today and another 5 days from now, one of the two will get more views and the other will be “forgotten” because of the other.
Well, this is just an opinion, no studys or such, but i work making films and your videos are really good, so i know you get more viewers in time.
Greetings from Chile :D
Hi,
As you know I love watching your videos, and my family and I usually sit down and watch them together (and get very inspired and motivated).
Re. the number of views, I think the aims behind your videos are a bit conflicting… on the one hand you want to inspire and motivate potential adventurers (likely to be a fairly limited audience) but on the other hand you want lots of views (more likely to be achieved by something mainstream). I don’t think achieving both of these aims at the the same time will be easy.
Personally, I hope you stick to aiming to inspire (even if it is just a small number of views) as my family and I certainly appreciate every second of your videos, rather than worry about mass appeal at all costs.
Keep up the good work!
Gday AH!
I love your videos personally and have seen you get better as you suggested.
You talk about “more views”.
Why do you want more views? From who? Anyone? Or folks that might actually take action from the video? Do you want folks to signup for your newsletter?
What is your purpose, and end goal for producing these?
I can guess, but doesn’t the metrics part of this start with your goal/why?
Hope all is well sir! Cheers to you
Al,
It seems to me that you have a straightforward marketing issue, and a good opportunity. Your broadest base of supporters/readers/customers are those who read motivational and aspirational blogs and books. Motivation as a topic is huge and worldwide. You just need to make more people aware of what you are doing, especially in the US. One way of doing this is to write guest blogs for really big sites with 500,000-1,000,000 readers . I know you do guest articles now but maybe aim for bigger sites. Why not contact Tim Ferriss for I think your content is terrific, you just need to get exposure for your blog (not necessarily worry about individual videos- your quirky topics are what makes you interesting).
For what it’s worth, I though the Wild Hut Microadventure was awesome, pretty inspirational. I definitely thought that here was something I could/should do. But perhaps that’s because I live in Canada, have ready access to woods and trees already fallen and have experienced the joys of wild hut building a couple of times. Perhaps it’s what we see as possible, can dream ourselves into doing. A swim across a lake is do-able, even in February. A night out atop a hill seems amazing, particularly in contrast to the constant go of London. So, for me, with two young ones in tow, building a wild hut seems like the perfect microadventure.