I know how it feels. You work really hard to grow but nothing seems to work. Or maybe you have some growth and then it just falls off a cliff. Meanwhile other channels in your niche are growing faster than ever, for no reason! You just feel like the algorithm hates you, but WHY?! Let’s talk about it.

But first let me introduce you to Bobby. He was working on his channel for 3 years and still kind of felt lost. He was slowly growing, but not enough for the amount of work and effort he was putting into his channel. But, he was determined. His story is exactly what a lot of people feel when they think that algorithm hates them. So he did a couple consultations with us and went through Video Labs and his next video exploded. Why? Because he looked at the data and did the work.

He decided to do a video showcasing his mistakes. (-Focusing on the negative, which we have stressed gets the clicks.) Then, he focused on his thumbnail and hook (not being longwinded) and the work paid off.

So what can you do when you feel like you’re hated by the algorithm. First of all, it’s a VERY real feeling and you aren’t alone.

But instead of finding some worms to eat, I would encourage you to make sure your channel is actually declining. It’s really hard to see what’s actually happening by looking at your channel overall. Instead, go into your analytics and separate your recent videos. It might just be that your older videos aren’t performing the way that they used to, but your new ones are doing really well – and that’s great!

Scenario 1

Let’s say you’ve made 100 videos and they’re all around 100 or less views. It feels like you’re doing everything but honestly, there’s probably a lot of work that needs to be done. But you don’t know what you don’t know. Start with the thumbnail. Is it teasing the content or just describing the content? Is the thumbnail giving it all away or is it just sparking curiosity? Is your thumbnail too cluttered and the text is too small. It doesn’t matter how good the content is nobody clicks on it.

Or maybe content is the issue. Do you have any human elements? Are you telling any stories? Any primal branding elements. Your content might be great, but if they don’t care about you as a person they will go anywhere for that content.

Scenario 2

You were growing and everything was great but then everything halted. Maybe you just plateaued or maybe the views just fell off a cliff. You didn’t change what you were doing so why did your views change? Why did the algorithm turn on you?

My question would be, why are you still doing the same thing? You can’t do the same thing forever and expect to succeed. You will eventually fade out of relevance. -Just like the bands we listened to as kids and never changed. Think of Taylor Swift. I’m not a big fan of her, but she has changed her music with every album and that has kept things new and fresh and she has just grown in popularity. So what is the 2.0 version of you? Maybe you need to find out.

Scenario 3

There are other channels in your niche that are doing the same thing you are, but are growing faster. Why does the algorithm favor them over you?

Fist of all, were those people doing it first? If they were the first on the scene, people may look to them as the “OG” and be dedicated to their perspective.

But what it is more common is that those people have a better human connection with their audience. They share themselves, their stories, their reactions, etc. Are you sharing who you are or just giving them a list of steps to do something. Maybe you could teach something in a very unique way. That will set you apart and keep people coming back to you.

POWER TIP

Another listener submitted the power tip for this week. Have your own power tip, ! Or, better yet, join the podsquad community in . There’s over 600 creators in there and we’re all sharing tips, ideas, feedback, and more over video chat there.

is one of the creators in the Podsquad on Volley and she submitted this tip: Stay on top of your target audience. It’s not something you figure out once and then you’re set. We evaluate ours every year using a survey similar to what Christy-Lyn uses. If you want access to that survey, the psychology behind each question we ask, and how to use the data to inform your content strategy on YouTube, go to .

Keep changing lives!

Tim Schmoyer