Mood and YouTube revisited

Years ago when my functional definition of entertainment was still new to me, was testing the ideas and gave a deliberately comic attempt at applying it to YouTube.

But now am like: is actually correct analysis and with my social distancing because of the pandemic, spend more time on YouTube. So thought I'd emphasize and point out a few things.

Like yes, mood is key to size of your audience if have an entertaining channel. 

Entertainment is a SAFE mood control tool for us human beings. Holding a clear mood I call maintaining the mood line. 

If you succeed you get views roughly 50% or higher of your subscriber count.

You are ok with at least 10%. But less? Then most people are ignoring your videos. 

And we, the audience, are not wrong. My recommendation: if views are less than 10% of your subscriber count? Set aside a block of time and watch your last 5 videos in a row. 

Should admit--comedy is how could laser in on mood focus. Like if going to a comedy show and get bursts of funny mixed with sobbing about being broke, single and lonely that breaks the mood? Yeah. (Editing to add: if is part of comedy routine though? Of course that's different--preserves comedy mood.)

So what if cannot figure out mood? I think can learn but am an optimist about practicing to develop skills. Regardless at least can understand why those views vary as they do: audience knows.

So yeah, easy check is--watch a block of your own videos. If you squirm and get moody and hostile or cannot make yourself do it? Then you finally know--how your audience would feel. So they do not watch much. Simple. Have lots of posts on entertainment including at least one on mood line. If you care, you can find.

Advice for The Rock on YouTube

Update Jun 12, 2019: Posted this thing jokingly back July 2016. And not surprisingly, none of this advice was followed by him, but hey, who knows if the guy ever read it. Who cares. Was fun for me to write, but later thought better of having it public for some reason. But now decided, I need it up. ___JSH

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Noticed that noted actor and sports figure Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is promoting his YouTube channel. And watched his first video which has already got over a million views, so figure he knows what he's doing, but what do I care? Can trot out my own advice anyway:

1. Have a mood for each video

Got my own theories of entertainment focused on mood, so of course that's first. And mood should be SAME through entire video clip, and should be easy as videos tend to be short.

2. Have a consistent mood for videos

BEFORE I even click on the freaking video as yeah I subscribed I need to have a rough idea of how it is likely to make me FEEL and it better DELIVER. Which means, have a consistent SET of moods.

3. Forget the noise, range is NOT your friend

On YouTube if you range too much with the mood it will destroy your channel.

4. Forget celebrity, YouTube doesn't care

So except for really um, about to contradict myself but some look SO GOOD, but sure you know plenty of celebs but can just leave them off your channel. Sigh. I shouldn't give that advice. And have them anyway just for fun as won't help view counts.

5. Ignore all advice except mine

Forget any other advice others have given. Just use the above and your own knowledge of entertainment. Having been a performer, should be easy.

Take me seriously if you must but just got in a mood to type up something. I'm not taking me seriously. Going to post anyway as why not?

It's my blog.

Well that took all of ten whole minutes. Guess gotta go find something else now to entertain myself. Maybe I just write too fast? Nah. I'm just that good.

Oh almost forgot! Kick butt on that movie about the Man of Bronze. I figure you were born for that role as character came out before you were born am sure: Doc Savage

Even the freaking name is freaking awesome cool.

Ok, twelve minutes. Twelve whole minutes to write this post? Gotta practice more. But now to editing, and who knows how long that will take.

Oh yeah, no affiliation with The Rock, nor is this post in affiliation with any entertainment folks or YouTube guess should note. Just some guy who likes to babble on his blog. Is fun. Yeah.


James Harris

With my ideas, what video service?

Sometimes I like to just speculate with what would result using my own ideas for something that people think has to be a certain way. Like YouTube is dominant video service and I use it a lot and like it.

But what would change if they directly implemented my ideas?

Remarkably there would be one main thing for sure: option for YouTube channels to allow download of a video after watching for a fee.

That is, people could STILL watch just like usual, but if they WISHED they could also see the option, for those who wanted to give it for their videos, to pay something like $1 US, or maybe more actually depending, and also download.

And yes if they wished they still might steal like people can do now anyway by doing downloads with options not directly allowed by YouTube.

My theories say plenty of people would buy, rather than steal, if they had the option, even if stealing was possible. And yes, plenty would buy rather than just watch over and over again on the site, like they can now.

If that sounds naive or weird to you then you have a divergence of your point of view with my theory.

So if I created a video service myself that would be standard, as consistent with my idea that most people will buy quality once they see it. But that idea that determining quality is key to making a buying decision is standard off the web.

So why can't you now? Ask the parent company of YouTube why.

If you can I don't know of it. As I remember to put in disclaimers. Better safe than sorry.

Funny enough Steve Jobs broke the thinking on downloads of songs, with iTunes when he forced the ability to buy songs. Of course he was a genius. Without him? Who knows what would have happened there. But for real, for those who make money from sales on iTunes imagine if that option were not there. One guy made it happen.

Why didn't music industry want to do before Steve Jobs so he had to MAKE it happen? Ask them.


James Harris

When beyond promotion

A lot of the web to me is clearly promotional, like if I talk about my open source project here, even though it's free, people could assume am promoting it. And now it's clear that promotion is extremely valuable, as for instance on YouTube artists can go from millions or views at a billion or more, to huge actual sales.

However, often I think can hear a tone that seems to think any view or listen or consuming of information should be a purchase of some kind, which is contrary to basic human behavior. Like, can you imagine if the radio forced you to pay for each song you heard?

The problem I think can be about greed and distrust. There ARE apparently artists for instance who were looking to get paid for every single listen, even where people are just checking out their music. And I'm sure there are executives willing to try and force people to pay for anything and everything as well, even if something were just being promoted. And such people have generated a LOT of hostility.

The problem though is, when should you go from promotion to purchase? And thousands of years of human commerce tells us--when the potential buyer decides.

People typically will try to determine quality and buy something. Like you test drive a car. Or try on clothes.

Trying to force the buy, by the seller tends to make people angry, or generate other hostile emotions or maybe at best, simply run away behavior.

On the web, some have pushed against normal human buying behavior, in my opinion, from simple greed and distrust. They either don't want people checking for quality first, or they don't trust people to buy quality after. And they try to make it seem like any human interest should give them the option to force a buy. Or they talk as if just checking something out, is stealing from them. Such behavior is clearly stalling things, as actually limits business opportunity, generates distrust and anger, and in my opinion is just wrong.

MOST people I suggest to you are NOT thieves. While the modern web, and much of the early rhetoric that came out when people had limited options to buy, where things still are way too limited, were lots about various executives whining about what they saw as relentless thievery by people it sounded to me like they clearly hated.

I will admit I want ALL of those executives out of business. In my opinion they don't belong in business as they hate humanity.

There is a better way. Trust people to buy quality. Then you have to show them quality first, then give them the option to buy. Not complicated.


James Harris

Web audience is real

Sometimes really am talking things out a lot for myself, which helps to build context. For me posting public knowing other people will read helps reinforce, and yes, make it real. And with the web, including social media, did find myself at times concentrating on numbers as abstractions, but remember, I'm not one.

And plenty of times have been on the web looking at something, from someone, and finally would think to myself, to this person I would just be maybe a statistic, as one of, a relatively few people checking something out! But of course to me doesn't feel that way. And has helped me to realize for people who do come across my content, they are NOT just numbers.

If one person is there that matters.

Needing to emphasize that message to myself is ALL about immediate feedback in my opinion and we may be the first humans to have the ability to talk to so many people with so little feedback. And it's just radically different than say, standing in front of an audience of people where you can GET a reaction from them of some kind so easily. Sure maybe you'll get that on web, but lots of times just will not.

But for EACH person coming across what you have public regardless, person's time and attention is important to that person, maybe can be even more than if sitting in an audience.

I want that sentence for me to ponder. And why? Well you're more free, say at home, reading something. As have been in audiences where am like, huh? And look around, to see how others are reacting. But with web things it's just me often. And my opinion can run from amazement and awe, to far, far less, and there's less likelihood there will be other feedback, except yes, some of those web metrics.

Like on YouTube will admit there are times I'm like, huh? And see, oh, millions of views, and tens of thousands of likes, so let me think harder on this thing. But without that? It's just my opinion on what am seeing, and to me? My opinion is very important to me, which is yes, meta.

But maybe that's the thing! The meta me reality of the web for the people coming across what you have is what's missing if you just see numbers and think about how YOU feel if a few hundred or less. But for EACH of those people?

Their attention is a really big deal.

And I think it is a transitory thing, as web is so new really even if it doesn't still seem it, where you can have people who may be calm about a few hundred with some social media metric, but imagine instead standing front of a few hundred people. If still calm then fine. If terrified, then guess what?

You were all along, whether you knew it or not, or accepted it or not.


James Harris

Thinking more on promotion

Have been looking around at things on the web more curious about how people are trying to make money, where lots seems to do with promoting things. And have talked about promotion here before, where am now pushing the labeling system, as most such posts should have "promotion" as a label at the bottom.

One thing that got to me recently while watching something on YouTube which was thankfully honest where vlogger said was being paid for by a promotional partner was it seemed nonetheless kind of awkward. And thought to myself, what if you could tell a story after about a product instead, where it wasn't so much a product review either, but just a personal story of that product, where it was stated upfront that the product supplier reviewed and approved of the story?

And here will note I have no paid endorsements of any kind and at this time, have chosen total transparency with a commercially focused blog I call Seriously Commercial having endorsement info on a page. That idea being if someone sees something I post or tweet or whatever and wonder if am being paid for it, they can just check that link.

So why this idea then that someone would tell a story after of a product, with it known the endorsement was business partner approved?

To me allows you to encapsulate, with total transparency, lowers trust needed, and frees you up otherwise to just be yourself without strings attached.

For instance, let's say someone wanted me to endorse a product and I did video. I might say, ok, let's see, and video receiving product in the mail. Step through using it, and even chat about my process. Edit some video, send back to company to see if they liked, and then upload. Viewers could choose to watch or not, but otherwise they could be comforted in knowing that my other content was completely free of such things, even if products got mentioned. Then it would just be natural flow.

So then lots would be about trust of that person as well, as to whether being honest or not about opinions. Like what if receive something, decide it is crappy, and just send it back? Viewers would never know. But if instead someone just fudges for the money? I think over time viewers would figure out.

Oh yeah, otherwise might already have a story but guess more complicated there as how to set up the business arrangement then? Sitting here pondering nothing comes to mind, so moving on.

What would my dream list of products be? Will not say. Am just musing here and I think it helps the purity of my process. Have managed to avoid such things for obvious reasons up to now. But am thinking more both about how to use the web to make money, and how best to do so without feeling icky, which for me is very particular to me, as to what does or not.


James Harris

My perspective on why money is so useful

Few years ago really started thinking more about money at least partly because was puzzled by big corporations at that time trying to figure out how to make any. And it may seem distant but was not long ago when companies like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were really being challenged by people asking, but how will you ever make money?

And came up with my own opinions about money, which I concluded is simply an abstraction for a favor. And that money is best used between strangers for things of least importance. For instance, if someone is dying of thirst you wouldn't charge them for a drink of water, if you're a decent human being.

Of course my opinions of where money works best and what it is, might not be agreed upon by others, but establishes the basis for where I will continue from here in this post. And I've talked a LOT more on the details in other posts on more than one blog.

Some may have a distaste for money, but then how do you solve the return a favor to a stranger problem? Like say you're hungry and visiting a community, what if people in such situations tended to knock on doors until they found someone willing to give them a snack? And with that snack, how would you repay the favor to the kind homeowner?

In some imaginary idealized world, one might imagine such a thing to be routine, and people might readily give food like snacks at any decent hour to complete strangers asking for it knowing they would do the same.

In our world even a very decent person, who gets a favor from a stranger, can struggle to pay that favor back, or even forward, without, yup, money.

And the simple solution in our world? Go to a store for your snack. Pay for it with money. Favor to you of the food and having it readily available is easily returned by you in the form of money. Cash or credit maybe.

One of the things I've seen in my opinion with people who DO want the idealized world is that they often underestimate the value they bring to the table with their own efforts. So for instance, maybe that person thinks a simple thank you is always enough. Or maybe a pat on the back. Or maybe they will draw you a pretty picture!

Often some of the most vocal people in decrying money are people who don't seem to think too long and hard how they should return favors for the efforts of others.

If not money, what WILL you give in return for a favor to you from a stranger? A smile?

I think there ARE people in this world who don't really think they should give anything back, except maybe a smile or thank you, for even extraordinary efforts on their behalf from others. Yup. There are such people I believe. I think to their credit some see the entire world as just a giant community and that as members of a community such things should just be given to them. So to them I guess, no one is a stranger? Everyone is just a member of their community who should help them?

A basic reality though is that you may be quite willing to return a favor to a stranger, who helps you, and it is a Big Deal how that is done. You don't even know that person well. How do you know they want what you have to offer?

Well, if it's cash, it's easy, right?

If you are a store owner, that stranger can yes, smile, as he hands over the money for his snacks, walks out the door and goes on his way. Everybody wins in the transaction.

Well, as long as they're healthy...um, not going there! You want it. I'm not going to get on your case for buying your snacks.


James Harris