The video's author, Yuri Volgin, has been researching YouTube and earning money on the platform since 2014. He describes how the recommendation system works, why videos stop gaining traction within the first few hours or two days after publication, and which actions help a channel grow. According to him, solving the problem of missing views involves three stages: diagnosis, correction, and protecting the channel from mistakes.

Why a Video Gets Few Views

Many creators, seeing low numbers, conclude that the video is bad and that YouTube isn't promoting the channel. According to the author, this is wrong. The video simply hasn't gone through testing yet. The creator's task is to help the platform complete that test.

How YouTube Recommendations Work

A common belief is that YouTube is divided into many niches, each functioning like a TV channel. Viewers choose several favorite "channels" within the niches, and a small creator's video reaches viewers only if it matches the niche. The author considers this view to be mistaken.

According to his description, YouTube:

• has about 2.7 billion users worldwide;
• creates a personal algorithm for each viewer that shows only the content relevant to them.

Thus, the platform does not evaluate a video as a whole and does not pass it in advance to the "right audience." After publication, YouTube gradually offers the video to individual viewers. This process repeats several times: each person sees the video roughly 10–15 times in recommendations and the related videos block.

The decision about relevance is made by the viewer themselves at a specific moment. For example, a long educational video may fail to interest a user on a weekday evening on a mobile device, but interest that same user on a Sunday morning on a TV. The recommendation system, according to the author, is not a single neural-network assessment of a video, but a multitude of simultaneous micro-assessments from individual viewers.

Information about how the algorithm works is cited by the author with reference to the head of algorithm development, Todd Bapre, who confirmed this in an interview.

First Hours After Publication

It is commonly believed that in the first hours only subscribers and regular viewers watch a video, and if they react poorly, the video will not get any further reach. The author considers this view partly correct.

• In the first hours, regular viewers do indeed see the video more often than others.
• At the same time, the video is shown to new viewers who have never watched the channel or last watched it six months ago.
• If the algorithm registers interest from new viewers and weak interest from subscribers, it promotes the video to the new audience. The opposite situation leads to promotion among regular viewers.

The author calls frequent changes to the thumbnail, title, tags, and hashtags in the first hours the main mistake. Such edits can remove elements that attracted new viewers and shift views only toward the regular audience.

Low performance in the first hours or days does not mean low performance in the following months. The author gives the example of a video about finding old comments on YouTube and replying to them, featuring Korocha and Volgina:

According to retention data, new viewers did not react positively to the video. Therefore, YouTube recommended it mainly to regular and casual viewers, who reacted better.

Another video by the author, about Google's secrets, gained 145,000 views. It initially showed a better reaction from new viewers. In this case, the platform actively recommended the video to the new audience as well as to regular viewers.

The author's conclusion: the influence of regular viewers does not determine the fate of a video in the first hours of viewing. The fate of a video over the first few days is also not determined by subscribers alone.

Why Views Stop After 48 Hours

Even loyal subscribers, according to the author, open a new video on average in only 10–15% of cases. Out of 100 subscribers, at best 15 people will watch a new video.

New and casual viewers click on the thumbnail even less often. Their CTR is usually around 5–8%, meaning 5 out of 100 people click on a video that could gain thousands or millions of views. As an example, the author cites a video they made together with Pastor Stas. It gained a million views with a CTR of 3.9%.

When a video stops growing, analytics show a plateau. The reason is that YouTube does not know whom to show the video to next. The sample on which the algorithm bases its conclusions is very small. Micro-views may signal weak engagement, a low average view duration, or viewers leaving quickly right after the video starts. As a result, impressions and views stop growing.

How to Make a Video Obvious to the Viewer

The author's task is not to predict the algorithm, but to predict viewer behavior. A video should be obvious: it should be immediately clear who it is for.

According to the author, non-obvious videos have an overloaded thumbnail with a lot of text, an unappealing title without keywords, and an unclear topic.

The author illustrates the principle with an example: a pie recipe video may be watched by a 50-year-old man who is preparing a surprise for his wife's wedding anniversary, and by a 20-year-old woman preparing for a beauty pageant. What they have in common is their interest in a pie recipe at this moment. The thumbnail, title, opening, first sentence, and first frames should immediately show the video's topic.

Obviousness does not require a complex topic. It is enough to offer the viewer value, for example a pie recipe. You can also highlight something else: a pleasant voice or filming against the backdrop of the Alps. A strong topic also makes a video obvious. For engagement, the most relevant topic in the niche is what matters.

One video is not enough. Systematic work across the whole channel is needed. If all videos are devoted to simple, spectacular recipes, with pleasant voiceover and filming against the same background, then by the tenth video, YouTube and the author get a sample of people who liked the approach, the topic, and the format.

The author cites his own channel, George Droid Games, as an example. For two videos in a row to reach 300,000 and 400,000 views, even more videos were needed.

The more specific, high-quality data YouTube receives, the easier it is for the platform to recommend a video more widely. Over time, a video the author considered hopeless can get a second wind thanks to consistent work with obvious content.

Механизмы вывода видео из застоя

Автор выделяет два механизма, которые помогают вывести видео из застоя.

1. Повторные просмотры. Если первый микропросмотр успешен, зритель даёт каналу второй шанс. Это происходит, когда зрителям нравятся подход к созданию контента и очевидность. Такие видео отображаются во вкладке аналитики канала с метками «очень много», «много» или «средне». Подход из таких роликов стоит повторять в будущих видео.

2. Перенаправление зрителей на другие видео канала. К концу ролика остаётся примерно 30% зрителей, которым понравилось почти всё. Многие из них уже поставили лайк, подписались или думают об этом. Авторы часто просят лайки или комментарии в момент, когда зрители обычно закрывают видео. Вместо таких общих призывов автор рекомендует направлять лояльную аудиторию к одному релевантному видео. Фраза вроде «посмотрите мой канал, там много интересного» неэффективна. Второй вариант — размещение продажи собственного продукта для тех, кто больше всего интересуется автором и его историями.

Для перенаправления используются конечные заставки (end screens).

Five Elements for Getting a Video Out of a Slump

The author outlines five steps:

1. Make the video obvious to every viewer and to the algorithm as a whole.
2. Create links to other videos through end screens.
3. Stick to one channel, one topic, one format, or one approach.
4. Keep publishing videos in this mode.
5. Don't draw final conclusions about a video's performance from data from the first hours or days after publication.

The author notes that the system does not work without the fifth element: the channel's creator, who maintains motivation. To do this, he offers four rules.

Four Rules for Maintaining Motivation

1. Don't depend on a specific result. Authors burn out when they set an unattainable goal. For example, the goal "earn $10,000 a month from a channel in 90 days" almost guarantees burnout. If the priority is sharing knowledge, the goal is achieved regardless of the number of views. A desperate pursuit of a specific result often leads to wrong decisions. The author notes that many authors, including himself, started YouTube channels in 2023, but most of them are inactive today.

2. Think long-term. The author does not recommend videos that promise to earn $3,000 in 30 days from scratch. In his view, a channel is a system that takes a long time to reach operating mode but then starts to work. This holds true provided all videos are created according to the rules. The author began receiving stable income from his own channel only after two years of active management. Videos like "$100 a day without any action" are not worth watching. Instead, you should analyze competitors, not small ones but large ones that are two or three steps ahead of you. The task is to understand their approach, catch up, and surpass them.

3. Engage in dialogue with viewers. A pinned comment with a question, questions within videos, and community posts help build relationships with a loyal audience. A loyal viewer is the main way to pull a video out of stagnation and get the first views. Regular viewers also sustain the author's motivation.

4. Don't stretch out the presentation. The author recommends a direct presentation without drawn-out moments. The value for the viewer should be obvious, and the transition to the main point should be quick. Viewers respond with high retention. For this, the "two examples" principle applies: for each claim, use no more than two examples, otherwise the viewer will get bored.

What to Do After Escaping a Plateau

The author notes that many creators whose channels start to grow make the same mistakes. Instead of using their success, they destroy the channel at the moment of growth.

1. Retaining the experience of previous videos. A single successful video can indeed bring success on YouTube. But before it, as a rule, you need to create about a hundred more videos. The successful 101st video is the result of the previous 100, not the exceptional talent of the creator. The author recounts that three years ago, in the first year of the channel's existence, he had four consecutive videos with good views by the standards of the niche. Then he made a mistake, returned to his previous approach, and made a mistake again. Unstable views are the result of the author's failure to sustain momentum.

2. Maintaining consistent quality. The channel is the foundation. If one video succeeds, viewers move on to the earlier videos. Therefore, quality must be ensured from the very beginning. Minimum requirements: a good microphone for quality sound and an understanding of the audience's interests. Entertainment content should be free of boredom and drawn-out moments. Educational content should be free of unnecessary filler. If a viewer watches a good video and then gets a recommendation from the same author with poor sound or a video about repairing a motorcycle's fuel pump, they are unlikely to become a regular viewer of the channel.

3. Creating several high-quality videos on the same topic. A dozen high-quality videos on one topic earns more trust from YouTube and viewers than a single video. The author points out impostor syndrome: if a creator considers themselves unworthy of running a channel on the chosen topic, they either don't publish videos, publish a couple and abandon the channel, or stop publishing after one successful video out of fear of releasing a bad one. The author advises not paying attention to others' opinions and continuing to move forward.

Summary

Low view counts do not mean that the algorithm or viewers have rejected the video. The video simply has not yet gone through full testing. Successful creators are not the ones who got lucky and had a video gain millions of views right away. Successful creators keep making videos, even when views drop or stall for certain periods. Every video is another attempt in front of the same person, who is hidden among thousands and millions of different viewers.

The author cites the Exile channel as an example, whose first videos, published nine years ago, gathered millions of views.

When the creator has made dozens of videos that are understandable to this viewer, on a strong and in-demand topic within which the channel remains, and has brought this viewer back to the channel dozens of times, while not paying attention to dips in the first hours or days after publication, a decisive moment arrives. After it, the creator's life can change noticeably thanks to a single successful video.