YouTube channels often play dirty tricks to earn more money and more views. Sometimes, these views are not quality views, but this hasn’t stopped these channels yet, and more channels keep threading the same path.
So…
1) Changing thumbnails and captions of same video multiple times
Some channels choose to change the thumbnail and caption of the same video after posting it on YouTube as many times as possible. The advantage is that someone who already viewed that video previously will unknowingly click on it again.
There are many advantages to this trick, which include:
1) Increase in the channel’s watch hour
2) Increase in YouTube ad revenue
Even if you exit after discovering that you already watched the video, your exit won’t change the fact that there is an extra view to the video which will add at least an extra second to the channel’s watch hour.
Also, if there’s an advert as soon as you click on the video or before you realise it’s a video you’ve already seen, which often happens, that will be some good monetary value to the channel.
This one keeps hurting my feelings because I’m an animé lover, and many channels in this niche are guilty of this emotional damage
2) Buying views from vendors
It’s very hard to grow a YouTube channel these days because almost everyone wants to be a content creator, making it harder for a new channel to stand out. Funny though, old channels also have their share of bitterness because the more channels that are created on YouTube, the more they’ll need to share their viewership and sometimes completely lose to channels with better content.
As a result, most channels you won’t want to believe are guilty of this. They buy views from vendors.
There are two types of views though:
1) views from bots which are not real quality views
2) views from real random people who watch your videos when they’re offered incentives by those vendors. This type is hardly or never detected by YouTube algorithm because they’re real people.
This is how many channels magically increase their channel’s popularity and subscription. These viewers watch ads like any voluntary viewer, which in turn brings in more money for these channels.
How I got to know this information is going to be my little secret buddy
3) Click-baiting: using misleading captions
Have you ever seen captions like:
1) your hair will grow 3 inches in 7 days if you do this!
2) this is how to make money overnight… Exposed!
These are all click-baits. The channels know that people will be attracted by these impossible promises and will most likely click on the video to find out its content.
It doesn’t matter if you exit immediately after clicking, you have already added to the number of views and watch time, and that’s all the channel owner cares about.
Don’t ask why I used the examples above, reason is really personal
4) Posting the same video twice
Many channels are guilty of this. It’s either they’ll re-edit and reshuffle the information to make it appear different, or they’re directly repost a video from the past.
Some channels however indicate that the video is a throwback, while most don’t indicate. But whatever the case, the fact remains that the channel keeps repeating past videos instead of creating new content.
I watched a travel vlog or documentary (I don’t know the channel owner’s favourite term ) where there was quite an interesting storyline, but the problem was that five videos on that same channel were about the same information. The only difference was that the editor started from different set-off points but eventually incorporated the same story. One of the videos started with a river, another started with a rock… Yeah, I mean literal river and rock. Don’t be surprised, it’s a documentary after all, these things are naturally common. But as the video progresses, you easily discover that it’s the same adventure. People were quite pissed in the comment section, but he still posted three more versions of the same video weeks later. For him to fearlessly post it again, I guess some people were born with the heart of a gorilla… Or, do you have a better explanation for such bravery? Leave your suggestions in the comments below.
5) Stealing other people’s video without permission
While writing this information, I had to buy an extra crate of self-control to avoid mentioning names. I guess I’m just scared of someone dragging my tiny butt to court but I’ll win though, because I have serious evidence… Yet the court isn’t my favourite vacation site, except if I’m the lawyer, not the accused
Well, it’s hard these days to scroll through an entire list of recommendations without seeing a video you’ve previously seen on a different channel. This is more popular in the animation and comedy niches. Often there’s no editing and sometimes no credit to the original owner, just outright plagiarism. Mukbang and ASMR niche often give credit and sometimes include a plagiarism disclaimer when reposting videos from other channels, but comedy and animation niches are quite some fearless breed.
6) Using other creator’s ideas
This is not exactly plagiarism, but if you enjoy watching comedy, you must have seen this too many times already. You’ll watch a comedy where a bigger channel acted a particular comedy script and a smaller channel will instantly repeat the same script, though sometimes with a little tweak, e.g., channel A acting like a crowing chicken and channel B changing their script to a crowing dog they’ll automatically forget that dogs don’t crow though sometimes, the copycat end up nailing a better script, I guess karma accepts bribe once in a while
The sad thing is that these methods sometimes hurt these channels because when many viewers quickly exit videos on a channel, YouTube algorithm soon begin to notice and might think that people do not like the contents of those channels and that can affect how often YouTube will recommend them in the future.
Therefore, using these methods may work for a while and bring in instant results, but they’re not a sustainable way to grow and keep a healthy channel.
