Sailing Videos

Part of the thought process was that my posts are repetitive, and as a result engender much complaint, but the reality is the information is actually very simple. But I cater for the neophyte and if there is one who reads each thread and the thread has one or two of my posts I am more than happy to ignore the critics and post for the one or two who have not read my posts previously. The other thought was that people seem anxious about anchoring (hence the success of the 'bigger is better' - it reduces anxiety because everyone says - bigger is better! and it sounds logical).

I thought thus that if I had some interesting, entertaining videos it might allow me simply to provide links. But I'm not trying to be lazy - and though I'm not sure I can inspire maybe I can 'comfort', re-assure.

Personally I do take comfort from anchor threads as I now see posts mentioning recommendations I made that 10 years ago that were rejected out of hand. Like you I am invited to present at reputable yacht clubs - and I know people take note - as I am requested help them improve their rode.

But ignoring personal gratification - we enjoy anchoring, we enjoy the ability to choose a location, convenient for fishing, climbing a hill or the absence of neighbours - we would like to share the idea that anchoring is simple (with care) and has enormous benefits.

Now whether we can fulfil these simple ambitions with a series of videos.....time will tell.

I'm from roughly, I guess, the same generation as you Concerto, I still have my slide rule (museum pieces now), remember log tables and adding machines (which we don't have), pocket calculators and communication by Telex (or when disaster or outstanding success had resulted - cables). So I know that an 8 year old has software skills I will never learn (but have a football team of grandchildren - on whom I will lean).

I will be summarising this thread, for my own benefit, and will rely on it as part of my education (it will save me making silly mistakes).

With thanks to all.


I hope others will read the thread, maybe continue to contribute, some be inspired, and hope the thread is of benefit to more than just me.


I'd also like to think that printed media can somehow find a new role, accepting that the printed page has a finite lifespan, to publish video and join the 21st Century - and have a sustainable future. Much of what I have 'done' has been because I was paid for the end result - as Vyv Cox will attest testing chain, shackles, anchors costs money - if we want data in the future - someone needs to pay for it.


Apologies - a bit of drift into philosophy.

Jonathan
 
@Neeves

I came across this Australian YouTube Channel this week, love the tag line 'Motor Sailing for Old Dudes'. Although I have almost had a heart attack at his battery wiring!


To date one of the best Australian sailing channels is Free Range Sailing, but they have swallowed the anchor and are not living ashore

 
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This series is quite inspirational:


The guy is:
extremely brave in the face of adversity,
very good at producing spectacular videos,
quite unlucky...

I look forward to the continuation of his series
 
There are 30,000 hour of video uploaded to YouTube every hour. There are 100's of sailing channels trying to get the algorithm to push their videos. You will never see most of them because the algorithm only responds to regular and frequent submissions. The chance of a single video being selected by the algorithm and anyone seeing it is remote in the extreme.
 
There are 30,000 hour of video uploaded to YouTube every hour. There are 100's of sailing channels trying to get the algorithm to push their videos. You will never see most of them because the algorithm only responds to regular and frequent submissions. The chance of a single video being selected by the algorithm and anyone seeing it is remote in the extreme.

Yes, It helps to carefully name your videos. Even if you are loading film for family and friends you may also feel you want the stuff to be seen by a slightly larger circle, so:

"My Sailing Holiday 2002" Will be pretty much lost, which is fine if that is what you want.

"Racing my Bavaria 40 sailing yacht across the South China Sea, Singlehanded 2002" Will come up on some searches, esp more specific ones concerning that type of boat or that specific sailing area. The more the videos are watched, the higher up the pecking order they will appear.
 
There are 30,000 hour of video uploaded to YouTube every hour. There are 100's of sailing channels trying to get the algorithm to push their videos. You will never see most of them because the algorithm only responds to regular and frequent submissions. The chance of a single video being selected by the algorithm and anyone seeing it is remote in the extreme.

I don't understand the algorithm at all, I posted this video pretty much as a one off as I don't get enough time to regularly put out videos and posted the link to a single handed sailing group on facebook. It got a few hundred views from there and then the algorithm took over and somehow gave me 60k views. I think the choice of thumbnail maybe helped the click rate? I Doubt I will ever get that many views for anything ever again but it was nice to have a few comments and chats with people based on the video.

 
Yes, It helps to carefully name your videos. Even if you are loading film for family and friends you may also feel you want the stuff to be seen by a slightly larger circle, so:

"My Sailing Holiday 2002" Will be pretty much lost, which is fine if that is what you want.

"Racing my Bavaria 40 sailing yacht across the South China Sea, Singlehanded 2002" Will come up on some searches, esp more specific ones concerning that type of boat or that specific sailing area. The more the videos are watched, the higher up the pecking order they will appear.
For the YouTube algorithm the title will be irrelevant. Tagged with #sailing. #boats or #sailboat, which the algorithm acknowledges will mean a single video will never make the search. The last time I looked you needed at least 1 million views on your channel before it would promote a video. That was a long time ago.
 
I don't understand the algorithm at all, I posted this video pretty much as a one off as I don't get enough time to regularly put out videos and posted the link to a single handed sailing group on facebook. It got a few hundred views from there and then the algorithm took over and somehow gave me 60k views. I think the choice of thumbnail maybe helped the click rate? I Doubt I will ever get that many views for anything ever again but it was nice to have a few comments and chats with people based on the video.

No one understands the algorithm, but your starting to hit on the secret. You posted on YouTube and promoted on FB. FB allows you to target an specific interest group which allows you to build a following to a point where the YouTube algo might picks it up.

It's a huge undertaking to do anything meaningful.... constant cross platform promotion.... twitter, Instagram, a website, FB, Patreon, YT and anything else you can find. It won't work without regular publication (weekly). And for what? The pay is poor unless you can go viral.

Chasing the algorithm is why sailing channels have gone dry. They compete with other classes in the algorithm and run out content trying to keep up with the weekly schedule.

As far as thumbnails are concerned how do you look in a bikini;)
 
For the YouTube algorithm the title will be irrelevant. Tagged with #sailing. #boats or #sailboat, which the algorithm acknowledges will mean a single video will never make the search. The last time I looked you needed at least 1 million views on your channel before it would promote a video. That was a long time ago.


Only part of the story, as we know, and no great concern for the vast majority of Youtubers who don't want to earn anything from their content, don't want to "build a channel" and don't particularly care about the algorithms, As long as a search will reveal their content and area of interest that's dandy.

.
 
The title is not irrelevant, the title is context, as is the description. If the spoken words in the video match up this will reinforce that context giving your video credibility. This determines who they will show the video to when being targeted. Your video will also be shown to various random people to gauge whether it will entice new people to watch. The number of times your video is shown to people is determined by a mixture of your view count and click through rate, the latter is influenced heavily by title and thumbnail being attractive or clickbaity. If you have zero subscribers or views and your thumbnail gives you a good enough click through, your video will be shown to more and more people until it reaches saturation point.
Your subscriber count only affects who definitely sees your videos. They subscribe, and your videos will appear in their feed.

It's not that opaque, in fact it's pretty obvious how it works when you pay attention and know a bit about these platforms and data. In addition you need to be 1080p with good audio. 4k isn't pushed as it's expensive for the platform so won't help much.
 
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