I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas season, or at least a peaceful one. Love and hugs to all.💖
Here's looking forward to a wonderful 2023 (it has to be, doesn't it ... the last few years must have just been saving up to make it amazing, it's the only explanation).
BAD Timing? Now This Is AWKWARD! 🎄 😇 (Christmas Romance Short Story) #comedy
Hello, Lovelies. I hope you are all doing well, Long time no talk. Let's just say it's been a bit of a year and look forward to Christmas and 2023 💝
My YouTube channel Tales with Tasha, is still going strong and slowly building an audience. Please, do check it out if you haven't already. New stories every day as YouTube shorts :- some fun, some terrifying, some mystifying and more.
This week I have a longer story as well, in the spirit of Christmas. You can listen for free at Tales with Tasha and pick up a copy at all the usual eBook places as well. Great for sitting down to over a nice cup of hot chocolate, or you beverage of choice.
Fallen Angel: A Christmas Romance
LGBTQ+ Christmas Romance
Kay is preparing for her and her husband Greg’s annual Christmas party when the angel falls off her tree. She’d put him right back up there, only now he’s six foot two, naked and adorably confused. Not one to argue with Christmas magic, Kay sets about trying to figure out what is going on as well as make sure her guest is no longer sans clothes.
I have watched many, many YouTube how to videos on what to do to make the
algorithm love a video, and I have tried lots of their tips. What I am coming
to realise is this:
It does not matter how good your video content is if you are a small
channel, the only way to get ahead is to play the game and chase the
algorithm.
One proviso, is that I am talking about my experience with YouTube shorts,
which is one of the best ways to grow a channel from scratch at the moment.
Longer videos require other techniques as well, but there is a lot of
crossover.
The number 1 tip that seems to finally be working for my channel is this:
❗Write the title before even starting the video.❗
I spent months deciding on my stories, then trying to come up with titles that
would grab viewers, and I was getting a steady viewership, but it had
completely stalled in new subs and viewing number. In the past 2 weeks I have
completely changed my strategy and my views have gone up considerably, so has
my like count, as well as gaining new subscribers. I mean, it's nothing
astronomical yet, but growth is growth.
This is my strategy:
Sunday, go to "What is popular on YouTube" playlist.
Look at the most successful topics.
Create click-bait titles for my five shorts for that week, based on various
hot topics.
Decide on my overall story themes (first week I did Midsomer Murder
parodies, this week comedy horror)
Come up with stories that incorporate the title somehow, but fit the theme.
Note that the end of my title does not hide the true nature of my short, I
do not want to lie to people and make them feel betrayed. However, it does
count on the fact most people scan the beginning of the title first and
don't bother with the end.
The story itself is a ridiculous murder in a craft shop in an old mine.
It technically fits the title and it's supposed to be funny, so will
hopefully make them smile and even if they have been tricked, they won't
mind that much.
Results
From getting anywhere from 10 to around 100 views on a vid, using this
technique I managed to get all of last weeks vids to around 200 views, and
some of my older titles are getting some more views too.
I link to a different playlist at the end of Monday's vid and the
playlist for the week from every other vid that week.
Of course it does depend on the topic, and sometimes I get it wrong. This
week, Monday's vid, only has 40 views and I'm planning on changing up the
title some more once I can think of how to do it, however, Tuesday's, is
currently at 1,150 and still going up.
Changing the title can work too - one of last week's vids did not do well
overnight, so I changed up the title and managed to bring it up to the same
level as the others. It's a bit of a game against the algorithm, if you
haven't realised that yet 😉.
Conclusion
There are many factors in creating a good title, but getting the popular buzz
words in there, seems to be a really, really important one. So far the one
that gets the most traction for me is "Scam/Scammer". It is a sad fact of life
that negative connotations get more hits. However, if I can get a bit of
humour into someone's life using a click-baity title, I count it as a good
thing.
We shall have to see how this continues to pan out.
Updates
25-Aug-22: Wednesday's vid has ~480 views this morning, so not as good as "Scam", but "Scandal" seems to be a good word.
Still messing with Monday's title to try and get the vid seen - have not found a golden combination yet 😉.
SCANDAL at the PALACE! Princess of Nowhere!😲 #shorts (1 min story) (FUNNY Ghost Story)
I'm very sorry that today's post is going to be late and that I owe so many
people visits back and replies.
My father was rushed into hospital on Sunday at about lunch time and it threw
the whole week out completely. He's back home now having been discharged on
Wednesday, but I am having trouble catching up.
Please forgive me and I hope you are enjoying the AtoZ.
Best wishes,
Tasha
[EDIT: Very sorry, Y may not happen, and if it does it will be very late. Got a phone call at midnight from my sister, and just spent 4 1/2 hrs waiting for an ambulance to take my father back to hospital. It is now 4:20 am and the family are finally getting to bed.]
YouTube - What They Don't Tell You X is for X-Rated?
My AtoZ theme this year is my YouTube journey with my new fiction
channel, and all that I have learned - plus some free fiction - scroll
down to the embedded vid for that.
YouTube used to be a platform where anything went except blatant pornography,
then it became uber popular and it started cracking down because of its ad
revenue. Then there was the whole debacle about children watching it, even
though no one under 13 should be able to create an account, and it got
worse.
YouTube does not allow pornographic content in video, text,
audio or images. All of their examples say "for the purpose of sexual
gratification" which is a very wishy-washy term, but if you don't want your
vids age restricted or worse, your channel deleted, avoid such things. Given
that YouTube is notorious for banning or restricting things because someone
else reported it, rather than actually investigating properly with actual
human beings, just avoid adult content.
There are certain words that will get your vids age restricted and/or
demonetised too, like swearing and sexualised words even when not used in a
sexual context. Given that YouTube is not supposed to be for children under 13
in the first place this is very, very annoying, but we don't get to argue with
it. We just have to watch what we say.
Does it annoy you too, that a site supposed to be for adult and teens is so restrictive because of prudish advertisers?
Current YouTube Episode
April's Theme - Ghost Stories
New story every week day at 4pm GMT
Please subscribe to never miss a vid (it's free).
About the AtoZ Challenge
The A to Z Challenge happens every April. Bloggers from all
over the world come together to post every day in April, apart from Sundays,
inspired by the letters of the alpha bet. A = April 1st etc. Some of us have
themes, some of us don't. Click the image below for more info and links to
other participants.
YouTube - What They Don't Tell You W is for Write is Down
"Paper is to write things down we need to remember. Our brains are used to
think." – Albert Einstein
My AtoZ theme this year is my YouTube journey with my new fiction
channel, and all that I have learned - plus some free fiction - scroll
down to the embedded vid for that.
Whatever you plan to say in your vid, write it down.
We are fallible
creatures, and it never hurts to have a prompt. There are some people in this
world who can decide what they are going to say and say it without any need for
help whatsoever, I, for one, am not one of those people.
I find there are two ways to make sure I am on the right track (and this goes
for presenting in general):
Bullet points – these make for a freer style. Bullet everything we want to
say and then move from one point to the next coming up with the exact
words we want to use on the fly. This is good for a conversational feel.
Writing a script – this is good for stories and for subjects that need
exact details. This is what I use most, since I am telling stories and I
want the words to be well chosen.
Now that I am becoming more practiced at making vids, I want to start to
introduce more of the bullet point style for my intro and outros.
Do you prefer to bullet point things or write it all down when you need to
speak in front of others, be it on video or live?
Current YouTube Episode
April's Theme - Ghost Stories
New story every week day at 4pm GMT
Please subscribe to never miss a vid (it's free).
About the AtoZ Challenge
The A to Z Challenge happens every April. Bloggers from all
over the world come together to post every day in April, apart from Sundays,
inspired by the letters of the alpha bet. A = April 1st etc. Some of us have
themes, some of us don't. Click the image below for more info and links to
other participants.
@beren_writes
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