I'm 6 months in and have hit my 4000 watch hours and am close to 500 subs. My CTR is hovering around 5.5% and my engagement is pretty good. It seems like people use my channel for research, but don't want to sub. All that to say, I'd love some feedback on if the CTR is what the problem is (even though they rank high with the tools) or if there's something I'm missing on getting subs. Thanks!

Leaving tomorrow to begin a 12 day experiment…videoing in public on a cruise ship. I will be working hard to create value and separate myself in what feels like a crowded niche of cruise vloggers.

Hey folks, I'm trying something new out recently, I'm about venturing into thus service called Thumbnail Design so I already did all the necessary things to be qualified as a professional seller including setting up a sellers account on fiverr, but something is missing in my setup which is MY PORTFOLIO, so that's why I'm pleading to those who won't mind Me designing FREE youtube thumbnail and I'll be needing just 5 portfolios and I need them to be different from each other just to have variety of thumbnail designs on my portfolio. So anyone interested can just comment how they'd like the thumbnail desing to be and the actual time you'll need the thumbnail for posting and please guys in this area I really need you to be honest with me about the exact time you'll need the thumbnail design so it'll reduce the workload and grant opportunity to others too .. Thanks in advance guys I really appreciate your support towards this. Each time I see your designs on my portfolio I'll remember you're the set of people who helped me with this.

Hey folks, what exactly does it mean when out of nowhere a video from 3+ months ago starts gaining traction. They say each new video should be the one that gets better which I think is true, but does this mean the algorithm is finally finding my audience and just took some time? (Context started in May, and for a while my demographic was only 55+, but now it's evening out.) Also if this has happened to you, did you see steady growth after? Thanks!

Right, so I was having a scroll through my usual tech feeds when this popped up and made me stop in my tracks... YouTube's just launched this "Hype" feature worldwide that lets viewers give a boost to creators with under 500K subscribers. There's literally a new button next to the thumbs up that lets people "hype" up to 3 videos each week. These hyped videos get points and appear on special leaderboards you can find in the Explore section. The clever bit is that smaller creators get bigger multipliers - so if you've got fewer subs, each hype is worth more points. Hyped videos show a special badge too, and apparently, they're planning to let people purchase additional hypes down the line (already trialling it in Brazil and Turkey). Here's what's got me thinking though... This could really shake up how we craft our titles and opening hooks. If viewers can only hype 3 videos per week, they're going to be dead selective about what gets their support, aren't they? Picture yourself scrolling through your subscription feed, knowing you can only champion 3 videos this week. You're going to pick the ones with titles that make you think "Bloody hell, people need to see this" or "This creator deserves to blow up." The psychology here is mental - it's not just passive watching anymore, it's active endorsement. That's a completely different level of emotional investment from your audience. Practical thought for creators: Reckon it's worth mentioning this in videos? Something like "If this was helpful and you fancy supporting smaller creators like myself, have a go with that new Hype button - you get 3 per week and it genuinely makes a difference for channels under 500K"? Because let's be honest, most viewers haven't got a clue this feature exists yet. But if they realise they can properly help boost creators they're passionate about... that could drive much more intentional engagement. Anyone else reckon this changes how we should approach titles? Instead of just optimising for clicks, we might need to optimise for "hype-worthiness" - making people feel like this video genuinely deserves one of their precious weekly hypes.