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How to grow a dead channel on YouTube. This is a question I always receive through comments, direct messages, or emails.
Learn how to revive a dead YouTube channel in 2023 by fixing common issues like wrong audience, viral video effects, and inconsistency.
Key Takeaways
- Low CTR and watch time cause YouTube to reduce impressions, leading to dead channels.
- Align content with your target audience to avoid attracting uninterested viewers.
- Leverage viral videos by creating related content to maintain viewer interest and loyalty.
- Consistency in uploading is crucial to regain and maintain channel growth.
- Improving content quality and presentation helps attract and retain viewers.
What the video covers
- A dead channel typically has subscribers but very low or no views due to low impressions caused by low CTR and watch time.
- Reason 1: Wrong audience for the right videos can cause low engagement if content deviates from the channel's niche or attracts uninterested viewers.
- To fix wrong audience issues, either start a new channel or make unrelated old videos private and focus on consistent niche content with proper keywords.
- Reason 2: Viral videos can attract subscribers who are only interested in that specific content type, causing other videos to get low views.
- The solution to viral video issues is to create more content similar to the viral video and connect videos using end screens, cards, and pinned comments to build audience loyalty.
- Reason 3: Inconsistency in uploading videos can reduce views temporarily, but continuing with the same channel and being consistent will restore growth.
- If none of these reasons apply, improving content quality, thumbnails, scripts, and editing is essential for channel growth.
- The creator advises against starting a new channel unless changing niches and encourages patience as YouTube finds the right audience.
- Consistency and understanding audience preferences are key to reviving a dead channel.
- Additional resources on thumbnails, scripting, and editing are available on the creator's channel.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Defining a Dead Channel
- 00:41Why Channels Get Fewer Impressions
- 01:18Reason 1: Wrong Audience for the Right Videos
- 02:03Fixing Wrong Audience Issues
- 03:17Reason 2: Impact of Viral Videos
- 04:28Building Audience Loyalty After Viral Videos
- 04:46Reason 3: Inconsistency in Uploading
- 05:52Advice on Consistency and Channel Growth
- 06:31Improving Content Quality and Final Tips
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
When I check the channels of these creators, I see that they have a few common issues that, if fixed, can help their channels grow again.
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So, in this video, I will discuss these key points. And to be honest, growing a dead channel is not as difficult as you might think once you understand why a channel becomes dead.
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But first, let's clarify what a dead channel means. For different people, a dead channel may have different interpretations, but in general, it refers to a channel that has a decent number of subscribers, but its views are either not
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coming in or coming in very minimally. So, people call it a dead channel. Now, the question is, why do channels become dead?
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Why do they face this issue? Well, if a channel's videos are not getting views, it means YouTube is not giving those videos enough impressions.
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And there are mainly two reasons for fewer impressions - low click-through rate (CTR) and low watch time.
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This means people are either not clicking on the videos, or if they are, they are not watching them.
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So, the simple explanation is that people are not interested in those videos, and that's why YouTube is not showing those videos to them, not sending impressions.
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Understand this clearly - it's not that the channel is dead, and that's why people are not watching the videos; it's because people are not watching the videos that the channel is dead.
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But now the question is WHY? Why are people not watching the videos? Well, there can be multiple reasons behind it, and I will discuss each one of them.
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Reason no.1: Wrong Audience for the Right Videos. Let's say a channel's primary audience is interested in gaming, and they upload a video about cooking, which is a completely different topic.
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Of course, YouTube will initially show this video to the channel's current audience. However, since the audience is interested in gaming videos, very few might click on the cooking video, and even if they do, they might stop watching it early on.
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Both of these factors - low CTR and low watch time - will lead YouTube to believe that the video is not clickable or engaging, and hence YouTube will stop recommending it.
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And this is the first reason for a dead channel - a wrong audience, which can hurt your videos.
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This wrong audience can come to your channel due to various reasons, like uploading a video that's completely different from your usual niche, and let's say it goes viral.
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In such a case, there's a high chance that your channel will attract an audience that is not interested in your other videos.
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Another reason could be uploading mixed content that might not align with your target audience.
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But if this is the case for your channel, what should you do? Well, you have two options: either open a new channel or continue with the same one.
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It's your choice. The advantage of a new channel is that YouTube won't have any data, and it will start finding a new and fresh audience for you right from the first upload.
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That's the reason why, in this situation, I would go for a new channel. But since the title of this video is "How to grow a dead channel," I know that most of you would prefer to continue with the same channel.
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In that case, I recommend making your old videos private, especially the ones that are not related to the niche in which you want to create videos in the future.
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This is especially important if those videos are still getting views, so that you can stop attracting the wrong audience as soon as possible.
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Then, start consistently creating videos on the topic that your desired audience is interested in.
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Use necessary keywords in the titles and descriptions, make your videos clickable and engaging. It might take some time, but gradually, YouTube will find the right audience for those videos, and you'll start getting views.
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Reason no.2: Viral Video. You might wonder how a viral video can lead to a dead channel.
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Well, let's say I have a gaming channel focused on Minecraft, where I do gameplays, builds, challenges, and more.
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One day, I uploaded a tutorial video, and it went viral. I got thousands of views, and as a result, I got thousands of subscribers.
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I thought my channel had grown, but when I uploaded the next video, which was a gameplay, it hardly got any views.
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The same happened with a challenge video; hardly any views. Basically, the other videos didn't get views.
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But why? It's a simple thing - the majority of people subscribed only for that one type of video, the tutorial, and since there was no connection between that video and the rest of my content, they probably wouldn't click on any other video at that moment.
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That's why, due to a viral video, you might get a lot of subscribers, but there's a chance that views won't come on your other videos.
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But the question is, should we call the channel dead in this case? I don't think so.
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The problem here is that the audience on the channel is not loyal. They came for a specific type of video, and they don't care about the rest.
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The solution? Give them more of what they want! Make more videos similar to the viral video.
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It's a very simple advice, but it always works. You can make a part 2 of the viral video, create a series based on it, or anything related to it.
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And in the follow-up videos, you'll see comparatively more views. Soon, when those viewers watch 3-4 videos on your channel, you'll notice that they are interacting with the channel and checking out the other videos too.
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So, you can maintain a 1:1 ratio of videos based on their interests and videos based on your interests.
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You can also connect the different videos on your channel with end screens, cards, and pinned comments.
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This way, you can make your audience loyal. Reason no.3: Inconsistency. Okay, because of this mistake, my old channel has literally died 5-6 times.
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Basically, if you haven't uploaded any videos on your channel for a long time, let's say for 1 year, and then you come back and upload a video, you might get fewer views initially.
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Why is this happening? There's no direct reason for it, and YouTube itself doesn't provide a clear explanation because there are exceptions to this; it doesn't happen with everyone.
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Now, this is quite normal, but some creators get scared and think that their channel is dead.
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They believe that YouTube has shadow-banned them and things like that. So, I get emails like, "I haven't uploaded videos for so long, and now I'm not getting views.
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My channel is dead. Should I start a new channel, or should I continue with the old one?" In 99% of the cases, my answer is that you should continue with the same channel.
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Yes, the views might have decreased by 50%-60%, but they haven't gone to zero suddenly, right?
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So, the viewers you still have are precious. So, don't start a new channel. You can start a new channel only if you plan to upload videos in a completely different niche.
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In my old channel, I had to take breaks due to exams, so whenever I came back and started uploading videos, the views would go down, but, of course, I would be consistent for a few days, and the views would start coming
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in again. So, if your channel is dead due to inconsistency, simply become consistent, and you'll see growth.
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Alright, these are the 3 reasons I mentioned for a channel becoming dead. If none of them apply to your channel, meaning you don't have the wrong audience, you're not inconsistent, and still your channel is not growing, then chances are that you simply
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need to improve your content. So, focus on improving the basic skills YouTubers need, like making better thumbnails, writing good scripts, and improving your editing.
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I have videos on all these topics on my channel, so you can check out that playlist.
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So, that's it for now. I'll see you there. Bye!
Topics:YouTube growthdead YouTube channelincrease YouTube viewsYouTube algorithmcontent strategyviral videoYouTube consistencyYouTube audiencechannel revivalYouTube tips 2023
