Is the viral video dead? In installing an algorithm to favor “engagement” over clicks, and seemingly in response to the “Reply Girls” controversy, where two women specialized in making videos that were responses to the most popular videos on YouTube.
The problem is that, in making this change, YouTube has damaged the dollar earning of many, it would seem thousands, of YouTube Partners. The result has led to an outcry on the YouTube Partner Forum, and in videos, like mine, that express displeasure with YouTube’s change.
Has my income been impacted? Yes. I have almost 1,900 videos, some have far greater views than others. The great aspect of this business is this can be fixed, but it calls for new approaches both for existing and new videos. What helps me is that my videos are spread over a large array of topics; but that’s not true for some others.
Now, I have to unwrap a new strategy that involves a cash prize for selected and designated videos that asks you to watch the video to its end, and then follow me on Twitter to be placed in a drawing to win.
The point of this is that viral videos have captured the imagination of the World, and so equal revenue generation. By reducing the traffic generated by those videos, and thus harming video producers who have worked to make viral videos, YouTube is impacting its own expressed desire to help its partners earn a living from what they do.
More on this development, soon.