Does consistency really matter?

Hi Youtubers!
Straight to the question...Does having an unstable schedule, when it comes to upload on youtube, affect your channel growth? Why do they say all the time, you have to be consistent ? Same day, same time of the day? Does it really matter?

IMO being consistent means continuously putting out content. I don’t believe having an unstable schedule will affect your growth at all. With YouTube it’s all about putting out content especially when you’re first starting out.

The consistency you’re hearing about means just continuing posting without pause, not keeping an exact schedule.

There was a “war” between animators and YouTube based on this thing.

YouTube’s algorithm was punishing animators for posting once a month and animators were standing there helpless because what they did took a lot of time and, therefore, they couldn’t keep up with the algorithm.

One of the mistakes many people make is confusing upload consistency with upload frequency.

Frequency means how often you upload, and consistency means how consistently you upload, whether it be 1 new video each week or 5.

Consistency can provide benefits in a lot of different areas. One of these areas is actually content creation.

When you know you have to have a new video uploaded every Monday and Thursday, for example, you can structure your time so you become more efficient with the video creation process. When you upload at random, even if it’s just 1 video, it can actually be harder to remain consistent than if you had a set schedule and uploaded more frequently.

From an algorithmic point of view, I’ll put it this way: more uploads = more opportunity for growth. However, just because you upload every single day, it doesn’t mean you WILL grow, you just have increased chances because you’re accumulating more views, watch time, etc.

In conclusion, consistency is important for reasons that many people don’t think about, like content creation efficiency.

Not an expert on youtube but with my experience, consistent is what make everything better.

I really appreciate all your answers guys, but if you were told to choose, what would you pick as the one factor that will ensure growth on youtube in the shortest amount of time in your opinion?

If you are planning to keep your audience engaged (vlog for example), then you should upload consistently.

ican said:

I really appreciate all your answers guys, but if you were told to choose, what would you pick as the one factor that will ensure growth on youtube in the shortest amount of time in your opinion?

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Niche and content.

The entertainment niche is the best one imo, especially what Skeppy and MrBeast are doing with money contests and stuff.

@https://www.blackhatworld.com/members/s1mer.1203546/er, is the entertainment niche profitable? I mean, what sort of monetisation strategies you would apply on this kind of niche to expect a good income?

I haven't noticed anyone mention the actual reason consistency is so heavily stressed when talking about YouTube: your subscribers.

It's not about algorithm. It's not all about growth. Consistency is an aspect of user experience. I'll give you an anecdote: My ex used to watch DIY Youtubers constantly. They all had schedules and would post consistently, on the same day, every week. No matter what. At some point, she had seen all of these youtubers videos, yep, their entire archives. (Isn't this the ideal, to have every sub watch all your videos, maybe even more than once?) How excited do you think she was when a new video came out, on time, as expected? How disappointed do you think she'd be if they didn't?

I watch some podcasters on Youtube who post the same time every day, like morning radio; I like to listen with my coffee and start my day. If they posted at 3am Mon, 5pm next Thurs, 6pm Fri, whenever, however, do you think they would retain more users this way or the former?

Some may not think consistency is important to growth but it is a basic function of human biology as far as your subs behavior: anticipation and expectation. We enjoy familiarity, we enjoy when our expectations are met.

All in all it's about what you're trying to do on Youtube. If you're making one-off How-Tos or Car repairs, I suppose it wouldn't matter much as these are search traffic oriented. Ask yourself, if you were a super fan of your content, what would you prefer?

Edit: To answer your question the number one factor that will contribute to growth is content quality followed by supply/demand. Maybe both equally. You can make really amazing dog foot print paintings but unless your dog is Da Vinci no one is going to watch this, no market. On the other hand, if the content quality was Da Vinci level, then you might have something...

I'm by no means knowledgeable in from a BHW perspective, but I've been running a YT channel for nearly two years now (educational, not for any marketing) and in the past 8 months it started growing pretty consistently.

I've tried to do weekly videos and for the most part I've stuck to it... though the exact upload dates are all over the place. But in the last 3 weeks, thanks coronavirus shenanigans, I've not been able to get a video done.

In those 3 weeks my sub count has risen from about 2.8k to just under 3.2k, which is the fastest growth in that period of time I've had.

I'm not pretending to have any conclusions, just thought I'd offer some real world data.

For comparison, there are two channels in my niche with over 1m subs. One channel uploads a new video every Sunday at the same time like clockwork, another can go months without a video and then upload two in a week.

@JohnArn , Thanks, you are makin such a good point.
@beagrie , You haven't uploaded since three weeks ago?

beagrie said:

In those 3 weeks my sub count has risen from about 2.8k to just under 3.2k, which is the fastest growth in that period of time I've had.

I'm not pretending to have any conclusions, just thought I'd offer some real world data.

For comparison, there are two channels in my niche with over 1m subs. One channel uploads a new video every Sunday at the same time like clockwork, another can go months without a video and then upload two in a week.

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Like you said, the pandemic. This is why your subs have had the largest 3 week growth period. There are simply more youtubers milling youtube, sitting at home trying to be educated, or just people bored and browsing. I'd say this was absolutely a missed opportunity, had you been uploading consistently still, to capitalize on this time period. You would have seen a growth much larger than 400, IMO.

JohnArn said:

Like you said, the pandemic. This is why your subs have had the largest 3 week growth period. There are simply more youtubers milling youtube, sitting at home trying to be educated, or just people bored and browsing. I'd say this was absolutely a missed opportunity, had you been uploading consistently still, to capitalize on this time period. You would have seen a growth much larger than 400, IMO.

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Yeah, good point. I guess more people are sitting around with nothing to do. As for the missed opportunity part, I don't doubt it but unfortunately, it wasn't something I could help. I've never looked at my YouTube channel as a source of income (until now; Covid made me unemployed) so it was always a low priority thing. Still, the next video's recorded and half edited. Maybe I can capitalise on the tail end of the opportunity.

No, consistent mean continiously upload video. like 1/week, you can do it in any day at that week. bur for 52 week you upload each week.

ican said:

@JohnArn , Thanks, you are makin such a good point.
@beagrie , You haven't uploaded since three weeks ago?

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About two and a half weeks to be exact. And I'll be uploading again tomorrow (editing video as we speak).

beagrie said:

About two and a half weeks to be exact. And I'll be uploading again tomorrow (editing video as we speak).

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Good to hear that, I hope it went good
What is your channel about if I may ask?

Maintaining consistency will make users engage and help to retain user interest. It's not like maintaining an exact schedule but posting with pace and keeping the site active will help to improve performance.

Consistency doesn't means posting everyday on same time. It means to post videos regularly and avoid taking huge breaks in between.

Consistent To keep your audience fed but looking for more content from you