Why Niches are Important on YouTube
What You Already Know if You Write Articles
Writing about a variety of topics on a website is one thing. Many major sites easily get away with that because their content is very segregated from each other in different category pages. It's a little less drastic for writers making posts to a website compared to YouTube as it only notifies the accounts that you choose to. Even then, you probably have RSS feeds or weekly mailing lists that will eventually notify somebody about your content. If you've ever spammed people with notifications of your new content, then you know that trying to draw people in too much with your own links leads people to remove you from their social media accounts.
Why People Subscribe to You in the First Place
If you're on YouTube then you really need to understand why niches are important for your success. People only care about what is relevant to them. If they originally subscribed to you on YouTube because you make a lot of quality Hearthstone content, then more then likely they are not going to care about your hello kitty island adventure game content. Something to remember about why niches are important to YouTube is that YouTube is also a big social media site. The thing about YouTube, perhaps something they can work on improving, is that whenever you release a video to a channel, all of your subscribers are notified whether they want to see it or not. If you are out there posting lots of content that's not up your audiences alley then you must have an excellent personality that commands the attention regardless of what is being presented.
YouTube is Harder than it Looks
It's actually very hard to have a grade A video personality and that's why news anchors get paid big bucks to sit on stage and deliver the news to consumers. That said, even they have limits to what is and isn't acceptable to present on their channels. Most likely you are going to lose subscribers if you go too far outside the niche that your audience is accustomed to. It can be very annoying to content creators that you have to keep your content focused when you actually want to experiment with other material and not have to make a brand new channel or website. However, video consumers are extremely spoiled these days. A YouTube viewer literally has access to anything they want to see at the click of a button and very few people, if any, have sworn allegiances to your channel.
Building an Audience takes Time, Effort, and Consistency
Niches are important no matter where you go online but it's a bigger deal when you're literally throwing links in front of the faces of your audience. If content is going to show up on your other social media pages then the same rules apply. Building an audience is hard enough so please be careful when you choose to show your audience unrelated content. They are smart when it comes to what they want and it's not so easy to lure them without highly relevant bait.
What Happens without a Niche?
Here are a few examples of how your channel will suffer when you don't have a specific niche
- You upload a video different then what your audience is used to. Unless it specifically revolves around your personality (like a VLOG) then most of your audience ignores it. You can't trick people into clicking on new types of content so easily.
- You upload a different video, they get annoyed because they watch your channel for one thing. Do it enough times and they simply leave.
- You upload a video that is clearly promotional in nature. Viewers on your channel call you a sell out because they watch you for content and not to be sold on the value of someone else's service.
In Short
- Have respect for your audience and they will place more value towards you, the work you do, and your content.
- You can have multiple channels on YouTube, so there is really no need to cram everything into one.
- Because YouTube is so flooded, you likely will have more success focusing on the one thing people like you for then trying to branch out so early anyway.
- Your subscription count is more important than your immediate views when it comes to YouTube. Focus on content that increases your subscriptions rather than cashes in on the latest trends (unless it relates back to your channel's purpose - then by all means)
- Remember that just like building a website, building a channel is a gradual process. Unless you strike lucky, it's something that will take a while. Give it time, be consistent, and focus on your quality rather than jumping to a new topic to cash in.