YouTube has an identity crisis and it’s not really clear on where they want to be as a platform. YouTube has gone under countless overhauls in the past couple years and nothing has really seemed to click.
A celebrity joining YouTube isn’t new. Will Smith, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson have been on the platform for a while, but they aren’t really YouTubers in the sense that an independent creator is.
These celebrities have produced content mainly funded by YouTube to bring eyes to the platform on the hopes that they’ll stick around. Some of that content has even been locked behind a paywall with the YouTube Red service. Even with some of the success that these celebrities enjoy on YouTube, it still shows that YouTube isn’t really sure how they want to style their platform in the future. Employ old media celebrities and bring more old media style or do more of what made YouTube unique in the first place.
Jack Black is bringing fresh content to YouTube.
Jack Black is a celebrity and made a lot of waves a couple weeks ago by posting a 30 second YouTube video stating he was going to be creating a YouTube channel focusing on gaming. He called the channel Jablinksi Games and gave no other information leaving fans and other creators to speculate on what his content would focus on.
The second video was a vertical 50 second video acknowledging his 1 million subscribers and letting people know they could expect actual content every Friday.
The third video would keep Jack Black true to his word and it followed him around the Pinball Museum in Las Vegas. The video was 3 minutes long and incredibly casual.
In only 2 weeks, Jack Black has amassed 3 million followers and 23 million views. But not everyone is excited.
Smaller YouTubers jealous of Jack Black’s success
There are a lot of grumblings among small YouTubers. Specifically those who have been creating content for years and still have under 10 thousand subscribers. It’s kind of heartbreaking to be working at something and then see someone with seemingly less experience than you come in and clean house.
A lot of gaming channels are now worried that YouTube won’t be as accommodating to smaller as they have been to Jack Black leaving the small channels in the dust. How can they possibly compete with Jack Black?
Smaller YouTubers who complain don’t understand the platform
If you’re a smaller YouTuber and you’re worried that your 100+ views per video are now going to go to Jack Black, you haven’t been paying attention to the platform and I’m very disappointed in you.
You cannot just post a video on YouTube and expect it to get a million views. There are 300 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute and your 10 minute video talking about an obscure video game that no one has ever played is not going to be as searched for as a popular movie star who has had countless articles and videos made about him landing on a platform. It’s just common sense.
As I have written in previous articles – you should start to consider why you got into YouTube in the first place. If you’re just doing it as a hobby to share with others, then Jablinksi Games isn’t going to impact your channel in the slightest.
If you’re doing this for a living to pay rent then Jablinksi Games isn’t going to impact your channel in the slightest. Actually, making videos complaining about it might help your channel grow.
It stands to reason that people can watch multiple channels throughout the day or even the week. Jack Black is posting 1 video a week and Pewdiepie posts 1 video every day and Rich from Review Tech USA posts multiple times a day. None of those channels steal viewers away from your channel.
There is a lot of intersection of each of those channels fans. And people love to binge watch content about the same topic which is why YouTube recommends videos about the same topic.
Building an audience takes a lot of work
One of the things that I have learned about being a YouTuber is that your base audience helps you grow. Having subscribers who watch your content will help YouTube determine whether or not your video should be suggested to others who aren’t subscribed to your channel. Then it’s up to you to entice those viewers to stick around and subscribe. The more subscribers you get to view your content on a consistent basis the more YouTube sees your channel as good for the platform.
Views are great for your channel, but engagement is key. You can have thousands of subscribers, but if only 2% of those subscribers are watching that channel, it’s not as valuable to YouTube as a channel with a 10 to 20% watch rate.
And if you are one of those channels that has 500+ subscribers with only a handful of views per video, then you need to take it upon yourself to review your channel objectively and determine where the trouble spots are to improve.
If you’re just doing this for fun and are enjoying yourself, my advice can only help you grow your audience. If you’re doing this to pay your rent, you should already being doing this.
The age of YouTube handing out money to anybody has long passed. YouTube is a business that manages to get a ton of content for free. It’s up to you to decide how much your content is worth and if you’re not getting paid appropriately you need to change or leave.
Don’t blame Jack Black, blame yourself.
