u/AleccSirKaDeewana

I’ve been testing different thumbnail styles for shorts lately and noticed something weird.

My more “designed” thumbnails (multiple elements, text, effects) tend to get ignored.

But when I simplify everything:

• one subject

• strong contrast

• almost no text

they seem to perform better.

Nothing crazy, but more consistent.

I’m still very early so I might be wrong, but it feels like:

if the idea isn’t clear instantly, people just scroll

Is this something you’ve experienced too?

Or am I overthinking it?

​

Lately I’ve been feeling pretty burned out with YouTube, but every time I think about taking even a short break, I immediately start worrying about losing momentum.

It feels like the second you stop uploading consistently, the algorithm, views, and audience attention all start slipping away.

What makes it worse is seeing other creators constantly posting while I’m struggling to even open my editing software some days. Then the guilt kicks in because it feels like I’m falling behind everyone else who’s still grinding nonstop.

I genuinely can’t tell anymore if taking breaks actually hurts channels badly or if creators just mentally pressure themselves too much because of how competitive YouTube feels now. Curious how other people handle burnout without feeling like they’re destroying their own growth at the same time

One of my recent uploads got pushed heavily through YouTube browse features and crossed around 70k views in a few days, but returning viewer numbers barely increased at all afterward. Subscriber growth was decent, but most of the audience never came back for the next upload. Starting to feel like viral reach and loyal audience building are completely different things now. Anyone else seeing this happen with browse traffic lately?

Think about it from their side.

A confident creator who knows their content is good has no reason to boost posts. No reason to buy promotions. No reason to pay for visibility.

But a creator who constantly doubts themselves? Who checks analytics every hour wondering what they did wrong? Who feels like they are always one strategy away from finally cracking it?

That creator spends money.

The confusion is not accidental. The inconsistent reach is not a glitch. The algorithm changes are not random.

Keeping creators in a constant state of self doubt is genuinely good for Instagram's revenue.

Your content is probably better than you think. The platform just needs you to believe otherwise.

Anyone else had to completely separate their self worth from their Instagram metrics to stay sane?

Hey, I am kinda new to this sub, I only saw the CAT papers and found it a little interesting (VARC was tough tho)... Rn, I am a second year Undergrad student at a NIT...

My qualifications as of now are

10th-94.5%

12th-93%

Till 2nd yr end-CGPA 8.8

What is the minimum %ile I should be getting in CAT, to get a call from IIM BLACKI or a reputed college...

TLDR- GEM student with 9/9/8 profile, minm %ile for top IIMs?

A year ago my videos would usually hit 20k to 40k views pretty consistently, but lately even with 84k subscribers most uploads struggle to cross 5k views in the first few days. CTR is lower than before at around 3.7 percent, but retention hasn’t changed much. Starting to wonder if my audience just lost interest or if YouTube stopped recommending the channel as much. Has anyone recovered from a drop like this before?

A spacious home, 2 floors are available.. You can have 1 floor on rent aswell, or both the floors together..

Balcony is also there and 3 room with Living area/lobby and Kitchen bathroom with basic necessities like fan/Gas connection available on EACH FLOOR separately

DM to know more

Location is SheetlaDham colony (Near Santushti Hospital)

I genuinely don’t understand what’s happening because I’ve been posting the same type of content that used to get decent reach, but now some videos literally sit at 0 views for hours. No copyright warnings, no community guideline issues, nothing obvious. It almost feels like TikTok sometimes just stops testing certain videos completely. Has anyone figured out what actually causes this or how long it usually lasts?

Even huge creators on YouTube seem constantly worried about losing momentum, views, or audience attention. One bad stretch of uploads and people immediately start talking about a creator “falling off.” Do you think most creators are secretly afraid of becoming irrelevant online, or does that fear disappear once someone reaches a certain level of success?

So, to summarize, my sister has been on TikTok since the pandemic began. She’s 21, by the way. Throughout the year, whether it’s day or night, she’s always on the camera, making content. Besides her 9-to-5 job, she never hesitates to put herself in front of the camera. The more she posts, the more traction she’s gained. However, I’ve noticed recently that she hasn’t been making any money at all. She’s only surviving on her job, which is great, but at the same time, she’s been piling up bills and asking family for assistance. Am I missing something here? How can someone with so many followers not be making any money? She’s even made videos with other famous influencers, yet she’s still working?

Also, for those that’ll ask if her followers were bots, no, they aren’t. She wouldn’t even know where to begin to get fake followers. All of that came from her content.

Even successful creators on YouTube seem stuck comparing views, subscribers, and growth with other channels all the time. One person blows up and suddenly everyone else feels behind, even if their own channel is doing fine. Do you think comparison is unavoidable once you become a creator, or is constantly tracking other people’s success one of the biggest reasons creators burn out mentally?

I'm not even angry anymore. I'm just tired.
Built that account for 14 months. Posting consistently, engaging with comments, never posted anything that I thought crossed a line.
Woke up one morning and couldn't log in.
Permanent ban. No warning. No specific reason given. Just "your account was found to be in violation of our Community Guidelines."
Which guidelines? Which video? Which specific thing?

Nothing.

So I went to support. Submitted an appeal the same day.

Day 1: automated response. "We'll review your case."

Day 3: same email, different subject line.

Day 7: "After careful review, we have determined the ban was justified."

Careful review. 7 days of careful review to send me a template.

I appealed again. Day 11 they sent me the exact same email as day 3. Word for word.

What I eventually figured out after reading through this sub for hours:

The first appeal almost never works. You have to submit a second appeal immediately after the first rejection and specifically ask for a human review, not an automated one.

Also filling out the official TikTok feedback form separately from the in app appeal actually gets different eyes on your case. Most people don't know that form even exists.

Still fighting it. But if you're going through this right now just know the first "no" isn't final.

Don't stop appealing. Just change how you're wording it each time.

Has anyone actually gotten a permanently banned account back? Would genuinely love to hear it right now.

https://preview.redd.it/c422aahfe30h1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=133ba7fe0fc2dc4a213ed18a84d6d3d13d10c2c2

A lot of channels on YouTube blow up from random viral videos but struggle to build a loyal audience that actually returns. On the other hand, some smaller creators get fewer views but have subscribers who watch everything they upload. If you had to choose only one for long term growth, would you take a loyal community or massive viral reach and why?

Hashtags. Posting time. Shadowban. I blamed everything.

60 days, two accounts, same niche, same effort.

One with 30 hashtags every post. One with zero just strong keywords in the caption.

The no-hashtag account got 3x more reach. Hashtags did absolutely nothing.

But even after fixing that, growth was still slow.

Then I asked myself three honest questions:

- Would a stranger send this to their friend?

- Does this make someone feel something?

- Is this worth screenshotting?

Every post I had made the answer was no.

Instagram isn't pushing bad content because of the algorithm. It's pushing content people actually want to share. That's it.

The moment I stopped optimizing for likes and started designing every post to be share-worthy saves went up, reach doubled, and growth finally felt real.

Nobody talks about this because it's not a hack. It's just harder work.

What was the thing that finally unlocked growth for you?

I genuinely think having elder sisters shaped me into the person I am today.

Growing up around strong women teaches you things no “alpha male” podcast ever can. My sisters taught me feminism not through lectures, but through everyday life,how respect is shown in actions, how care doesn’t mean control, and how equality starts at home.(best thing ever ngl)..

They taught me that work is gender neutral. One day they’d help me with maths, the next day we’d be cooking together in the kitchen. Because of them, I never grew up thinking ye toh ladkiyo ka kaam h kinda stuff...
(Also yes, I’m probably the best chef at home… had to flex a little 😭hihi)

They also made me understand things most guys around me never even try to learn,like menstruation, emotional exhaustion, safety concerns women constantly think about, and the pressure society puts on girls from such a young age(and the expectations from yall to take care of asshol* guys)

And honestly? I’ve seen the difference. Some guys grow up never truly interacting with women beyond stereotypes, and it shows in the way they talk, joke, behave, or carry entitlement without even realizing it.(locker room is a prime example of the same)

Meanwhile, I was raised by three women who made me a human tbh..

So yeah, having elder sisters is a blessing.
I don’t think I’d be even 1% of who I am without them.

They didn’t just help raise me, they helped me become a better human.

So y'all think having elder sister is actually beneficial?

Feels like subscriber count doesn’t mean what it used to on YouTube. Some channels with huge subscriber numbers barely get views, while smaller creators sometimes pull massive reach consistently. It almost feels like YouTube cares more about each video individually than the actual audience built over time. For creators who’ve been on the platform for years, do subscribers still matter much for growth or are they mostly just a vanity metric now