If you’re an avid YouTube watcher, you may have noticed a lot of DIY channels on the platform. But there are those that stand out among other DIY channels. For sure, you have stumbled upon at least one 5-Minute Craft video or two. Their videos can rack up several million views in just one day after being uploaded. 5-Minute Crafts’ YouTube channel is also the 14th most subscribed on the platform. This says so much about how big the channel is.
No wonder some other channels are copying 5-Minute Crafts. There’s Troom Troom, Crafty Panda, Blossom, and many others. These channels are trying to directly imitate the 5-Minute Crafts formula to gain views. But there’s one thing you may notice while watching content from these types of channels. They feature bizarre DIY hacks. But despite this, people are still spending time watching them.
This brings us to the question; why these types of videos are so popular especially on YouTube? What elements do they have that make them rack up millions of views? Here are some factors that make their videos thrive.
They’re eye-catching
The studios behind these channels know what to do when it comes to enticing audiences. One thing they have in common is the thumbnails they put on every video they make. These thumbnails are often colorful but most of the time, don’t make sense. That adds up to the mystery of the videos and sparks curiosity. So what happens if the people seeing those thumbnails get curious? Well, most people would click the video out of curiosity. That’s how these channels attract viewers and gain views. And since their thumbnails are colorful, they can effortlessly attract kids.
We all know that when kids get to love one channel, they’ll be into it until they find a new channel to watch. Children contribute to the millions of views these channels get every day. That’s only because of how these channels make their videos eye-catching, from the thumbnails down to their bizarre content.
Decently produced
It’s undeniable that a lot of the videos these channels make are outrageous. Some are even weird. But what makes people come back to their channels and watch more videos from them? It’s because their videos have good quality. They don’t look cheap. The scenes look clear and crisp which tells people that the camera they use in shooting these videos is expensive too. From the looks of it, they have legitimate video production companies and professional studios where they shoot. Of course, if the videos are well-created despite their weird content, people are still going to watch them.
They always have new videos
There are times you run out of things to watch on YouTube. So what you do is go back to those channels you are subscribed to. You’re most likely going to end up watching a newly uploaded video from one of those channels. If you’re subscribed to content farm channels, you’re going to watch their new videos. That’s because they always upload new ones.
5-Minute Crafts, for example, uploads two videos every day. But most of those videos are a collage of spliced clips from other videos they’ve already uploaded. But to keep their content fresh, they get clips from those old videos and combine them with other old clips into one new video. People tend to watch newly uploaded videos if they want something fresh. If your channel uploads new videos constantly, your subscribers would never run out of something to watch from your channel.
They’re clickbait-y
If you see a title like ”How to Sneak Food in Class” paired with a thumbnail that shows lips that are about to eat lipstick, you may find it funny. But since you want to see more of this absurdity, you’re going to click the video and watch it. That’s the power of click-baiting. They may seem laughable but their bizarre content is winning the internet. Internet news site Vox had an interview with the owner of Troom Troom. He said that the channel’s videos are about entertainment, not service. That’s exactly what people get from the moment they click on that weird clickbait-y thumbnail.
They know the algorithm
Owners of YouTube channels must know how to play with the platform’s algorithm. That’s a way for them to successfully get views. Channels like 5-Minute Crafts, Troom Troom, Crafty Panda, and the like have perfected this game. Aside from super attractive thumbnails and entertaining but weird content, they also use SEO to make their videos get traction. They know all the words to use when giving their videos a title. They mostly bank on DIY, hacks, funny pranks, and more.
As digital marketers say, if you use words that are optimized for the algorithm, you’d surely be able to be on the first pages of a search result. This is why the videos from these channels come first when you search for “hacks” on YouTube. That gives them more views.
Some may think that these channels are cheating their way to get views. But if you think about it, they’re just good at mastering the formula to get their videos viral. You can even imitate their methods if you have a YouTube channel. These methods aren’t new. It’s just that these channels have learned how to utilize them properly.
