Not all clips are hits

Jan 31, 2008 13:41 GMT  ·  By

In case you only check out YouTube every once in a while, you're most likely to click on the "most viewed" videos in the "related" box. That's ok, many people do it and are not interested in the rest of the process, from uploading to getting paid.

But this is not about partnering with Google's video sharing service, it's about an average of success, if I may call it that, that a video has in its first month. According to a research conducted by ViralManager, user uploaded videos are not that big as you might think in their first month. Here's the Numbers:

70% of videos get at least 20 views 50% of videos get at least 100 views Fewer than 20% of videos get more than 500 views Fewer than 10% of videos get more than 1,500 views 3% of videos get more than 25,000 views Around 1% of videos get more than 500,000 views

Now, take into consideration the actual number of videos being uploaded and you'll see just the average chance of success you'll have if you plan on being an active part of YouTube. Of course, there are a lot of other things that you can do, from placing a sexy image right in the middle of a video, so that the thumbnail catches the viewer's eye, to giving your clip a really interesting name, despite the fact that it's not even remotely connected to the actual content.

But now, really, is it worth it? It's online fame, not real time media exposure, nobody will point at you in the street and say "Hey, aren't you 'askme45andi1llanswer72', the guy who uploaded that video?" That's not going to happen any time soon, so you might as well forget about it. Good luck with your uploading, considering the percentages given above.