After working with creators for the last year, one thing became painfully obvious to me. A lot of the time, videos fail because their intros are weak.

People on YouTube are insanely impatient now. They have unlimited content to watch, so the moment your video feels slow or boring, they leave and go watch something else.

That’s why the opening of your video matters WAY more than most small creators think. One of the biggest mistakes I constantly see is creators wasting the first 20 seconds saying things that don’t matter to the viewer.

Stuff like: “Hey guys welcome back to another video don't forget to subscribe, like and share with friends…”

The problem is that viewers don’t care about YOU... yet. They care about whether the VIDEO is interesting.

Your intro should instantly answer 3 questions:

- What is happening?

- Why should I care?

- Why should I keep watching?

Another huge thing people underestimate is visual pacing. Even a good intro script can lose retention if visually nothing changes for too long.

Humans process visuals insanely fast. If the screen stays static for long time, people subconsciously get bored.

That’s why big creators constantly add:

- zooms

- subtitles

- sound effects

- cuts

- camera movement

- background changes

- music transitions

Not because tiktok editing is cool, but because constant visual stimulation helps maintain attention. And no, this doesn’t mean you need ADHD editing every second. It just means the video should FEEL alive.

Another thing I rarely see people talk about enough is emotion. Most creators think that you need screaming and fast editing to keep your viewer hooked. But emotional connection is what actually keeps viewers watching.

If viewers FEEL something, they stay longer. That’s why so many successful videos start with:

- a challenge

- a problem

- a bold statement

- a fear

- a mystery

- an emotional reaction

Because it creates investment instantly.

And honestly, one of the best things you can do as a small creator is this.

Before uploading, rewatch your whole video and ask yourself honestly: “If this wasn’t my video, would I keep watching?”

Usually your retention problems become extremely obvious once you do that.

Another good thing you can do as a small creator is study your analytics and look at where viewers are leaving in your older videos. Rewatch those exact moments and genuinely think about WHY people clicked off there and what you could improve next time.

I also dropped a set of workbooks in the comments with more detailed information about this topic for people who are really interested. One focuses entirely on intros, while the other focuses on overall retention.

Hey, as the title says, I spent the last year working with creators from completely different niches, age groups, and countries (mostly US & UK creators), and I wanted to share some patterns I noticed, the most common mistakes small creators make, and what actually seems to matter. Important disclaimer: some of these are subjective observations, not universal rules. But they consistently show up across a lot of channels I worked with. If you disagree or have your own observations, feel free to discuss them in the comments.
Starting with basics first, things very small creators should focus on.

1. Upload consistently

This is extremely obvious, but honestly a lot of small creators still struggle with this. I often see channels under posts like self introduction saturday asking for feedback while uploading 1 video every 2 months, and even that inconsistently. And I always wonder what the long term plan is there, because your channel needs enough uploads for youtube to understand your audience, and you need practice to improve. If you upload once every 2 months and the video flops, you can’t even properly test another idea or improvement until months later.
From what I’ve personally seen, uploading at least once every 2 weeks is a very solid minimum for smaller creators. And honestly, if you make longer content (30+ minute videos), sometimes it’s even smarter to split one big idea into two 15 minute videos. Better retention, more uploads, and more chances to learn what works.

2. Experiment and analyze EVERYTHING

This applies especially to creators getting under 100 views, but itt applies to everyone in some kind of way.
If 2-3 videos in the same format fail, maybe it’s time to try something different. A lot of creators (especially gaming creators) lock themselves into one series and refuse to experiment. I’ve seen channels upload 20 episodes of a series where none of them break 200 views. You should absolutely study creators in your niche, what they’re doing now, what worked for them in the past, and what kinds of titles/thumbnails/topics perform well. But don’t copy 1:1. Take inspiration and try to improve or evolve ideas with your own twist.

3. And most importantly: learn to analyze your own videos.

Check retention graphs, where viewers leave, intros, pacing, music, audio quality, CTR, impressions, everything. Even if your stats “look fine” (10% CTR, decent AVD, etc.) but the video still isn’t performing, something is still wrong. Sometimes the issue isn’t CTR. Sometimes it’s simply that the topic doesn’t interest a broad enough audience, so impressions stay low.
One of the best habits you can build is forcing yourself to improve ONE thing every upload. Even after publishing, rewatch your own video and ask yourself: “What’s ONE thing I could improve next time?” Could be better audio, cleaner editing, faster pacing, a stronger intro, less dead space, different music, literally anything.

4. Now specifically about thumbnails, mistakes I see even on channels with 50k+ subscribers.

- Fancy text over readability

This is SUPER common in travel/vlog content. Usually it’s a beautiful cinematic background, creator standing somewhere, and some fancy aesthetic font nobody can actually read. Sometimes the text is literally white on a bright background and completely blends in. If you don’t believe me, search “Paris vlog” or “Tokyo vlog” on YouTube and scroll for a bit. Some thumbnails from surprisingly large creators are pretty weak.

- Overcrowded thumbnails

This happens in every niche. The most important concept people ignore is focal point. A thumbnail should instantly tell your eyes where to look first. If there are 1 arrow, wall of text, and thumbnail is split into 4 pictures, the viewer gets visually overwhelmed. From my experience, it’s honestly better to make a thumbnail TOO simple than too overcrowded.

- Small faces/reactions

This is another huge one, especially for IRL/travel creators. Example: someone takes a cool Tokyo crossing picture, but they’re standing 15 meters away because the photo was taken naturally on a phone/camera. Then they use the raw image directly as a thumbnail and their face becomes microscopic on mobile.
Your reaction/emotion is one of the strongest tools you have. People need to actually SEE it. What I usually recommend is using the background image separately and then cutting yourself out in Photoshop and enlarging yourself slightly.

- Text repeating the title

This happens WAY more than people think. A common mistake is treating title + thumbnail separately instead of making them complement each other.
Bad example, title: “This Is Tokyo’s Best Tourist Attraction”
Thumbnail text: “BEST TOKYO TOURIST ATTRACTION”
You’re wasting space. The thumbnail should ADD curiosity, emotion, or context.
For example, title: “This Is Tokyo’s Best Tourist Attraction”
Thumbnail: “Overrated?”
Now there is a curiosity gap.

- Probably one of the most common mistakes overall.

A lot of thumbnails explain TOO MUCH. Sometimes hiding information creates way more curiosity. Think about TV shows: would you watch an entire season if somebody spoiled the whole story immediately? Same concept.
A thumbnail should create questions in the viewer’s brain. For example, if your video is about buying a new Mercedes, maybe instead of showing the exact price clearly, you partially blur it or hide part of it. Now people become curious.

Anyway, hopefully at least some of this helps somebody. At the end of the day, the biggest thing on YouTube is still practice, repetition, and learning from mistakes. You improve by uploading, analyzing, failing, adjusting, and repeating the process.

If you ever felt like you're doing everything correctly, putting in the work but your channel still feels dead with no signs of growth, this is for you.

When channel growth feels slow, most creators either give up or start trying to fix everything at once. But fixing everything is like trying to hit a target blindfolded. Sometimes you'll hit it, but 9 out of 10 times you won't.

>Why is my channel stuck?

To answer that question, you first need to identify what's broken, then start fixing it.

Here's a list of things that silently kill your channel (and how to identify and fix them):

Generic content

This is one of the most common issues on YouTube. More and more new channels are popping up, so your content needs to stand out. The harsh truth is that you probably won't grow your channel by uploading Minecraft gameplay videos like creators did 10 years ago. Nobody wants to watch that kind of content anymore.

How to identify it:

This is the hardest issue to pinpoint because there’s no single metric inside YouTube Studio that clearly shows it. There are only two reliable ways to identify it.

The first one is simple, just look at your channel objectively and think like a viewer. Ask yourself one question:

>“If I had 20 minutes of free time before work, would I actually want to watch this video, or could I find something more interesting on another channel?”

Be completely honest with yourself.

Another way is asking people for feedback, but not your family or close friends. That usually leads to biased opinions because people don’t want to hurt your feelings. The best option is asking for feedback on Reddit or other platforms. There are plenty of subreddits where people will give you honest opinions.

How to fix it:

Start using “angles” in your videos. A video angle is the specific twist, challenge, goal, or perspective that makes someone interested in clicking and watching. In simple terms, it’s what makes a normal idea interesting.

Here’s a simple example:

• “Japan vlog” = generic idea
• “Trying the weirdest Japanese foods and ranking them” = strong angle

Both videos are filmed in Japan, but the second one gives viewers a reason to click because it creates curiosity and offers value (they can learn about food and use that knowledge when visting Japan themselves)

Weak intro

A weak intro destroys your watch time and retention. After getting someone to click on your video, you need to keep them hooked for as long as possible. Strong watch time and retention signal to the YouTube algorithm that your videos should be shown to more people.

How to identify it:

Go to YouTube Studio, select your video, open the Engagement tab and scroll down to the audience retention graph. Hover your mouse over the timestamp where your intro ends.

Your intro retention should be at least 65%, ideally over 70%. If it’s below 65%, the issue is either your intro itself or (this might surprise you) your thumbnail/title.

How to fix it:

Intro issues:

• It’s too long (15-30 seconds is ideal for most videos)
• It’s not engaging enough (this improves through practice and studying creators in your niche)

If you're 100% sure your intro is weak and don’t feel like analyzing other channels, I have a private guide that I use with best practices for creating strong intros. Just comment if you want it and I’ll post it.

Thumbnail/title issues:

If you're clickbaiting viewers with your thumbnail/title, or simply failing to deliver on the promise made by the thumbnail, people will click off instantly. That’s what destroys intro retention.

Weak video editing

Strong editing matters because people now have extremely short attention spans due to short-form content. Depending on your audience, your videos don’t need to be hyper edited to the point where nobody can focus, but you still need to do more than creators did 6 years ago. Simple cuts and background music alone usually aren’t enough anymore.

How to identify it:

Go to YouTube Studio, select your video, open the engagement tab, and scroll down to audience retention. Focus on “Average percentage viewed” metric.

• 3 minute videos should be around 62%
• 10 minute videos should be around 44%
• 30 minute videos should be around 30%

If your numbers are lower than that, your editing likely needs improvement.

How to fix it:

The simplest way to improve this without hiring an editor or spending hours learning advanced editing techniques is by using pattern interrupts.

The human brain gets bored roughly every 10-15 seconds, so viewers need constant refreshers to stay engaged. That’s why you should use pattern interrupts such as:

• Quick zooms (and zoom outs)
• Changes in camera angle
• Shifts in speaking tone
• Sound effects
• Text on screen (only to highlight something important or emotional)

Even the smalles changes like a laugh or sudden emotional shift can reset attention and keep viewers invested. When used consistently, pattern interrupts make your videos feel more dynamic and unpredictable, which encourages people to keep watching.

They also help highlight important moments, making your content more entertaining and memorable.

Weak video packaging (thumbnail + title)

Video packaging is the first thing viewers see, it's your thumbnail and title.

Personally, I think it’s the most important part of every video. People will never see your personality or editing if they don’t click first.

If your packaging underperforms, everything else suffers too.

How to identify it:

Go to YouTube Studio, content, select your video analytics and head to reach tab.

Then look at:

• Impressions
• Impressions click-through rate (CTR)

Impressions show how many people saw your video on the homepage, search, or suggested feed. CTR tells you what percentage of those people actually clicked on it.

Based on this, you can tell how well your thumbnail and title performed.

The best way to judge your CTR is by comparing it to your own older uploads, but I also prepared a benchmark based on 26 smaller channels that I currently help with thumbnails.

• Bad: 10K impressions / 2% CTR
• Average: 10K impressions / 4% CTR
• Good: 10K impressions / 6% CTR

One important thing to remember when looking at CTR is impressions. CTR can easily become inflated when impressions are low.

For example, a 16% CTR with only 200 impressions is heavily inflated and won’t give you any useful data.

On the other hand, CTR naturally drops as impressions increase. A 4% CTR with 1.2M impressions is actually good, not average.

How to fix it:

To fix a low CTR, you need to improve your thumbnails and titles.

This post is already long, so I won’t write a full thumbnail guide here (you’ll find more detailed guides on my profile).

Instead, I’ll explain what good thumbnails and titles should actually do.

Good thumbnail:

• Grabs attention on the homepage
• Doesn’t try to explain the entire video
• Uses short text hooks to increase curiosity (2–3 words)
• Is clearly visible on smaller screens
• Can be understood in less than 2 seconds

Good title:

• Works in synergy with the thumbnail (title: “This Lure ALWAYS Works! How to Properly Fish a Spoon Lure” thumbnail text: “USE SPOONS”)
• Gives context about the video without spoiling everything
• Creates curiosity (bad: “I Tested Lures vs Flies” good: “I Tested Lures vs Flies... The Results Surprised Me”)

Not doubling down on things that are already working

This is another issue most creators run into without even realizing it.

They upload a video, it blows up and then completely change direction with the next upload, which flops. Then they blame the YouTube algorithm.

How to identify it:

First, identify your outlier videos. This will show you which topics and formats your audience is most interested in.

You can either:

• Sort your channel videos by most popular
• Use a browser extension like VidIQ to spot outliers more easily

Then start making more videos similar to those outliers.

You can also double down on other things like your packaging. If a video gets a strong CTR, try creating a similar thumbnail and title for the next upload.

Once you clearly see something working, your main job is to keep the momentum going. Videos don’t blow up randomly. People are interested in that type of content and want to see more of it, not something completely different.

Final thoughts (this post is already too long)

Most channels don’t fail because YouTube is against them. Usually, there are just one or two major weak points holding the entire channel back.

The hardest part is identifying those weak points. Once you do that, channel growth becomes much more consistent because now you’re improving the right things instead of guessing.

Hope this helps somebody!

CTR

First of all, don't obsess over CTR. If you see it dropping after 24 hours don't panic, it's completely normal. It drops naturally as YouTube pushes your content more and gives you colder impressions (newer broader audiences).

A 4% CTR with 800K impressions is completely normal, I'd even say it's pretty good.

The best sign that your thumbnail and title are strong is your CTR in the first 24 hours. But don't compare it with other creators CTR that you see posted here, compare it to your own older uploads.

Watch time

Your watch time should mainly come from not subscribed viewers. The first people that see your video are your subscribers and returning viewers. They either see the video on the home page or get a notification.

You can check it in Video Analytics > Engagement > Audience Retention (click "See more" at the bottom) > Segments (on the left under Type) > Subscribers and Non-subscribers.

If you see more viewers as "Subscribed" your video most likely didn't perform well enough to get pushed further.

On the other hand, if you see a majority of "Not subscribed" viewers, then it means your video broke out.

Impressions and views

If impressions and views are flatlined or look like they're slowly flatlining, there's a 90% chance that the video is dying and probably won't get pushed further.

If both are trending upward you're in the green. An upward trend in impressions and views is the strongest signal that your video is still being pushed and can blow up any time from now.

Even if it's slow and inconsistent :) This happens because YouTube's algorithm takes time to figure out what audience to push your video to, especially on newer channels.

Retention Graph

From my research, there's lots of strong case studies showing what good average view duration looks like by video length.

YouTube doesn't share this publicly, but most YouTube strategists that work with tons of different channels post this.

To be 100% sure I don't spread misinformation here, I also analyzed 14 of the best performing channels that I'm currently working with.

Here's how it looks:

• 3 minute videos should be around 62% for median and 82% for top 10% uploads
• 10 minute videos should be around 44% median and 61% for top 10% uploads
• 30 minute videos should be around 30% median and 49% for top 10% uploads

So if your retention looks similar to these, your video has a strong chance of getting pushed to more people.

Intro Retention

Your intro retention should be at least 65%, ideally over 70%.

To check this, just head over to your retention graph and hover your mouse over the timestamp where your intro ends.

If it's not 65%, it's either an issue with your intro itself or (this might shock you) an issue with your thumbnail/title.

Intro:

• It's too long (15-30 seconds is perfect for most videos)
• It's not strong enough (this comes with practice and analyzing other creators videos in your niche)

If you're 100% sure that you're stuck making weak intros and don't feel like analyzing other channels I have a short guide with best practices for creating addicting intros. I can either post it here for everyone or send it directly to you.

Thumbnail/Title:

When you're clickbaiting viewers with your thumbnail and title, or simply don't deliver on the promise made in the thumbnail, people will click off the video instantly. That's what tanks intro retention.

Those are the 5 early signs I look for to see if a video has a chance of going viral.

P.S. I saw a couple of people commenting under my previous post that it's AI slop. This post was written entirely by ME and is based on what I've seen on the channels that I currently work with. I'm adding this here to beat the AI allegations. If you're still reading this, thank you :) Hope this post helped you.

People seriously underestimate how much sub for sub messes up your YouTube algorithm. Let’s say you run a Battlefield channel. You start asking random people to subscribe just to boost your numbers. A Fortnite fan subscribes to your channel even though they don’t actually care about Battlefield content. Maybe they watch 10 seconds of your video or never click at all.

From YouTube’s perspective, that can send mixed signals. Your videos get shown to people who aren’t really interested, those viewers scroll past or leave quickly, and the algorithm starts struggling to figure out who your actual audience is supposed to be. YouTube’s entire system is based on finding the RIGHT audience, not just getting bigger numbers. Dead subscribers and fake engagement hurt way more than they help.

And constantly posting your channel under self promo threads or introduce your channel posts doesn’t lead to long term growth. Most people there are other creators trying to grow their own channels, not your real long term viewers.

If YouTube isn’t naturally expanding your audience, that usually means something about the content itself needs improvement. Maybe the hook is weak, the thumbnail isn’t clickable, the pacing is bad, or the topic simply isn’t interesting enough yet. It’s way better to spend time improving your videos than chasing fake engagement.

A small audience that genuinely watches your content is infinitely more valuable than 1,000 random subscribers who don’t care about your niche.

Instead of sub for sub:

- collaborate with creators in your niche,
- improve your thumbnails/titles,
- post in communities where people ACTUALLY care about your topic,
- study retention and analytics,
- make content people want to come back to.

YouTube is way more complex than most people think. There are a ton of variables in the algorithm, and it’s constantly evolving (especially over the last 5 years).

Things like watch time, CTR, engagement (likes, subs, comments, shares), and probably many more hidden factors we don’t see all play a role.

I see a lot of smaller creators here asking why they’re not getting views, so I’ll try to explain what’s most likely happening if you’re sitting under 50 views per video.

From what we understand, the YouTube algorithm now works somewhat similarly to short-form platforms, but with one key difference.

On TikTok, content is forced onto the viewer, they either watch or skip. On YouTube, viewers are first shown a thumbnail + title and then decide whether to click.

Let’s say your video gets shown to 50 people. To get views, you NEED to get them to click.

If you can’t do that, your channel simply won’t grow.

1) The idea is the most important part

Without a strong idea, there is no video. Ultimately, the idea is the biggest factor in whether someone clicks or not.

You can be charismatic, have great editing, and expensive equipment, but if the video idea itself isn’t interesting, it won’t work.

When I help creators grow their channels faster, I explain it using the "purple cow" concept.

People see normal cows every day and ignore them, but if they saw a purple cow walking down the street, they’d stop, stare, and tell others about it.

That’s how your content needs to feel. That’s also why basic gameplay videos don’t really work anymore.

Back in the day, people watched gameplays because they couldn’t play those games themselves. Now 80% of people can do that, and there are way more creators recording generic gameplays.

So if you want views, you either need something new or a familiar idea done in a unique way.

2) Packaging

Once you have a strong idea and a well made video, packaging is what determines whether anyone actually clicks.

Packaging = thumbnail + title

This is where a lot of small creators mess up. They spend hours on the video and then rush the thumbnail in 15 minutes or worse, they generate the thumbnail using gpt.

That can kill the whole video right after upload. If YouTube shows your video to 50 people and 40 click, it will push it further. But If only 20 people click, it slows down.

YouTube is a business that wants to earn as much money as possible. To do that, it promotes videos that get attention.

Even if your idea is great, a weak thumbnail and title can reduce clicks enough for the video to stop getting pushed early.

3) Giving up

A lot of people also quit too early or blame the algorithm instead of improving.

Uploading 2 videos and expecting results doesn’t work. YouTube algorithm needs to learn more about your content to understand who to show your videos to.

And if you’ve uploaded multiple videos and every one flops, you need to pinpoint your bottleneck.

Low CTR = weak packaging
Low impressions = weak idea

4) Double down

Finally, when something works, double down on it instead of going back to what wasn’t working. It’s the simplest way to grow your channel faster.

One channel I’m currently helping with packaging uploads videos about fishing. At first, the content was a mix of everything, cooking fish, fishing, vlogs, tips, equipment, etc.

Then we noticed that videos with tips were getting the most views on the channel, so the next clear move was to double down on that type of content.

He uploaded 4 more tip focused videos, and they blew up.

In the last 28 days, he gained 207K more views (320K in total), 5.2K more watch hours (10.6K in total) and 363 subscribers (+943 in total).

Hope this helps 🙌