Have You Ever Been a Big Deal on YouTube?

I recently found out that a video I posted on youtube 3 years ago had a large number of views.

It was a 50 second phone video recording of my bike gears not shifting properly. I only uploaded it as it was the easiest way to share video online and I wanted to show some guys on a bike forum and ask for their advice.

It had around 50 views in total over the 3 years and then out of nowhere it got popular and has been increasing by 5k views per day, currently over 60k.

I first noticed it when it was at 23k views. I was going in to check notifications about new subscribers.

I find it so bizarre that such a useless video is being viewed so much.

Who is viewing this? Why are they even watching it? If it popped up in my sidebar, there is 0% chance that I would watch it.

Apparently, it's a lot harder to get paid from youtube vids nowadays. You need over 1000 hours of video watched and 1000 subscribers before you can apply to be paid.

This crazy video may eventually get me the required hours, but no way it's going to get me subscribers, and I'm not posting new stuff anyway.

Very strange, but amusing.

Anyway. when have you had a similar experience or ever been a legitimate big deal?

Related Stores

YouTube
YouTube

Comments

  • +12

    You just want us to ask the link for the video, then you give us the link so that your views increase right….

    • +3

      I dont need your views ;)

      Really though, my description of the video is much more interesting than actually watching it….and I'm not going to end up getting a cent out of it and i have no personal connection to the content. Its not like a million views of this would inflate my ego as much as a million views of a nice drawing i did.

  • +1

    My YouTube channel used to be monetised until they made all the changes you talked about above.
    I did a couple of videos on day one of a product launch and it racked up heaps of views.
    Not sure how that works in this space now, my videos were like a decade ago.

    • Out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you get paid?

  • I hope you monetised it!

  • +4

    I had a video that I put up of a song that racked up over 400k views in over 3/4 years but then got taken down due to copyright…

    • You get paid for that?

      • Nope

  • Is it a common problem? Sometimes I look up on YouTube what I perceive as a niche problem but turns out it's not so niche.

    • It's a niche product. There are even videos with a similar title (different problem, but you wouldn't be able to tell from the title) that have very low views.

      Now that it's gained traction I can understand that the views are going up. I looked at the analytics and 4% of people who are presented with the thumbnail click on it….but who on earth got in popular in the first place??

  • just waitin for a mate

    • That was you?

      • no mate lol, it was actually from a tv show that was posted to youtube. just what came to mind after reading the hilarious post from OP

  • +1

    Apparently, it's a lot harder to get paid from youtube vids nowadays. You need over 1000 hours of video watched and 1000 subscribers before you can apply to be paid.

    You need more than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, and more than 1,000 subscribers.

    • The 1k subscribers seems achievable…… the 4k hours though…

  • +4

    YT is funny.

    I have seen people produce useful content and get little views / likes.

    I have seen others produce neither informative or humorous or skilled (like singing or playing music) and get loads of likes.

    • +10

      A bit like OzB deal posts?

  • +1

    Had like 400 views on a gaming video

    The days of easy money are long gone on YT

    Edit: Cant top this A+ content https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRPQs_kM_nw

  • I uploaded a video 8 years ago of little interest…only in the last few months it has amassed over 525k views and over 500 subscribers (from virtually nothing). NFI why…bots maybe?

    • Did you monetise?

      • No idea how? The post from ozhunter above suggests I can't yet? Need 500 more subscribers?

        • Yep, have just seen that myself.

    • +3

      Just downloaded YouTube Studio, I think it makes sense now…suggested video from another video with over 6 million views…Haha

  • +2

    I'm a big deal in real life. Not just Youtube

    • +1

      your mirror can vouch for that!

  • +4

    This will be because YouTube brought out a new under 1 min tik tok rip off feature. Its called stories and short videos. I've seen a bunch of old short videos popup.

  • +3

    I posted a video that got I think a quarter of a million views in a short timespan. All I did was add some funny music and subtitles to it with Windows Movie Maker. I've been learning After Effects since then, maybe I should try it again. YouTube offered me monetization and I took it, but I think the most I earned was 3 cents. The one video I uploaded didn't get many more views after that. But then again there's a million teenagers who know After Effects better than I ever will who are uploading content daily, I probably shouldn't bother.

  • +1

    My 10 year old son (at the time) uploaded a 30s video of his dirt bike revving with his new exhaust to show some friends. This was 8 years ago. He recently stumbled across it with 50k views. WTH.

  • +1

    It's not Youtube and it sounds like a meme but my dogs have 10k followers on Instagram.

    My wife turned out to be a good marketer on the side but she stopped bothering with the account 2 years ago after she got in to an accident.

  • +4

    I have 2 channels. One gets 2-9k views a day, the other gets 10-20k a day. Upload 2 videos on each channel a day, most views on a video is 66k. Made $3000 October and $4000 November.

    • How is it possible to make that money with so few views?

      • +2

        My cpm ($ per 1000) is $8-10 as my audience is majority first world young women (the audience with one of the highest cpms) My cpm before youtubes cut is like $21 -$23

  • It had around 50 views in total over the 3 years and then out of nowhere it got popular and has been increasing by 5k views per day, currently over 60k.

    Youtube use Dominion voting machines to count their viewers. You must have a lot of Democrat viewers.

  • Maybe it's the YouTube algorithm and you got lucky?

    I've come across some random recommended clips where other viewers made the comment about the video being a random recommendation by the YouTube algorithm (and the comments received lots of likes)…

    I think the last random one I got was a tug of war championship that was posted 8 years ago… Turns out the Taiwanese are very good at it… I have no idea why the clip was recommended but I admit it made for very fascinating viewing!

  • Yeh. Several years ago I uploaded like 6 of those top 5 videos. Just looked recently and they’ve all got several million views.
    Seems tips to success is upload and wait lol

  • I uploaded a video called "Ric Flair hates everyone" almost 12 years ago.
    Recently, it surpassed 1 million views.

    I can't monetise it, since it's all WWE footage.

  • When I moved to Sweden in July, I found myself with much more free time on my hands - so I decided to start a channel on personality (seemed like a niche area which I know a lot about)

    I've got about 8k view across the channel now ~500hrs of watch time and just under 400 subs.

    So yea, not 'a big deal' - but pretty cool to see it grow! Hoping to crack the 1k sub mark soon :)

  • Back when Youtube came out I posted a video and it made it to the most popular page. I think it had like 20 views lmao.

  • I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

  • I've been considering starting YouTube for quite a while and now it has been suggested to me also. It's pretty scary though.

  • +1

    You can actually dig into your account and get some metrics on where your views are coming from. It could be a quirk of the algorithm driving views to you, or perhaps an influential cycling website is using your video to illustrate a concept they're describing in their content.

    To answer your question, I (badly) produced a 2 minute video of a tour I did to North Korea a few years back. It has a few thousand views (think maybe 3k last I checked).

  • +1

    I had a short video of track cycling that was set as the recommended video next to a really popular video about a track cycling crash so I got a few views that way, 12k views, and I have a video that is ripped from an ABC Australian Story on an old Ford Falcon powered by steam that has 200k plus views. It ended up on a lot of Automotive blogs so I got a lot of views that way. Most of the footage is archival so ABC can't strike me :D

  • -1

    So what…. Utube is viewed by millions every day. Your views are possibly half by mistake, and even then people possibly stopped viewing 30sec in.
    Why are you all thinking you will become famous via tube or tic Tok… are you all brought up so insecure of yourselves?

    • Did yo uread any of this?

      Most of us said we dont care and some guys earn big money…

  • A mates wife has a channel where she does a heap of product reviews. She's Filipino so the majority of her videos and subscribers are also Filipino.
    I just checked her page and she has 1.25mill subscribers and 1.6k videos.
    Mate said not long ago she earns a couple hundred grand a year along with plenty of samples.

Login or Join to leave a comment