Uploaded October 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Followup video: bit.ly/17kEOd3
A rare talk about YouTube that isn't a rant or a whine. I look to Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" theory to explain what's behind some of the changes that keep vexing creators.
OFF-SCREEN VOICE: Jon D. Booker youtube.com/midteavlogs
From the End Screen:
Why I Love Breaking Bad (no spoilers): bit.ly/17HdIZ3
Hank, Buck, and Pork: bit.ly/19N1QYm
Why the Shutdown? (Playlist): bit.ly/19N26Xk
Billie Holliday "Am I Blue": bit.ly/19N2jtF
Follow me on Twitter at
twitter.com/mickeleh
Find more Mickeleh videos here
youtube.com/mickeleh
Please subscribe: http://bit.ly/15UdZg...
YouTube is a quintessential Long Tail business.
Long Tail? Do you know about the Long Tail?
The year before YouTube was founded, Chris Anderson, who was then the editor of Wired published an article and then later a book explaining the Long Tail.
Any titles-driven business, whether it's TV, movies, books, music, games, is always dominated at any moment by a few mega-hits. The number one. Top ten. Top one hundred. And if you look at the charts, the farther out you go, the smaller the sales, the less money anyone makes. That much is obvious.
But what might not be obvious is Anderson's key insight:
If you're running physical store or cinema complex, there's just so much space. You only have room to stock a limited number of titles. If you want to make money you have to sell the hits.
But online. If you're selling digital goods. Bits on servers. There's no practical limit to how many titles you can stock. As a seller, you don't have to worry about inventory. You can't over-order. You can't run out. Someone clicks, you serve a stream or a download. A million people click, you can serve a million of 'em.
Now creators who live out on the long tail—folks like me, aren't going to see much action We're not going to see a lot of money.
But imagine you owned the whole fricken tail which youtube does, Look at the volume of the long tail and compare it to the volume of the top channels. It's about the same size.I don't have YouTube's data. I might even be bigger. Or smaller.
YouTube can sell nearly as much—or maybe even more advertising by aggregating the long, long tail as they can by monetizing the hits.
But there are two keys to it: signing up more pilots—to make the tail longer But also getting the passengers to stay and watch another video That makes the tail taller. A lot of the changes of the past two years are all about getting that extra view that longer session. People active on YouTube like the word community. But surrounding the community is, frankly, a group that's more accurately called an audience.
These are folks who don't upload.
Who barely understand the U-I. And don't want take time to figure it out. Who don't subscribe. They don't leave comments.
One of the things YouTube is solving for is how you get Passengers to watch a little longer? Because YouTube's real customers—the advertisers—will pay for that.
Next time you see a change in YouTube, think of it from that perspective. Don't think about how they're messing with the pilots think about whether they are helping the passengers.
Note: This is a sponsored video for the peron75 channel
For collaborations and business inquiries, please contact via Channel Pages: ChannelPages.com/mickeleh
Followup video: bit.ly/17kEOd3
A rare talk about YouTube that isn't a rant or a whine. I look to Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" theory to explain what's behind some of the changes that keep vexing creators.
OFF-SCREEN VOICE: Jon D. Booker youtube.com/midteavlogs
From the End Screen:
Why I Love Breaking Bad (no spoilers): bit.ly/17HdIZ3
Hank, Buck, and Pork: bit.ly/19N1QYm
Why the Shutdown? (Playlist): bit.ly/19N26Xk
Billie Holliday "Am I Blue": bit.ly/19N2jtF
Follow me on Twitter at
twitter.com/mickeleh
Find more Mickeleh videos here
youtube.com/mickeleh
Please subscribe: http://bit.ly/15UdZg...
YouTube is a quintessential Long Tail business.
Long Tail? Do you know about the Long Tail?
The year before YouTube was founded, Chris Anderson, who was then the editor of Wired published an article and then later a book explaining the Long Tail.
Any titles-driven business, whether it's TV, movies, books, music, games, is always dominated at any moment by a few mega-hits. The number one. Top ten. Top one hundred. And if you look at the charts, the farther out you go, the smaller the sales, the less money anyone makes. That much is obvious.
But what might not be obvious is Anderson's key insight:
If you're running physical store or cinema complex, there's just so much space. You only have room to stock a limited number of titles. If you want to make money you have to sell the hits.
But online. If you're selling digital goods. Bits on servers. There's no practical limit to how many titles you can stock. As a seller, you don't have to worry about inventory. You can't over-order. You can't run out. Someone clicks, you serve a stream or a download. A million people click, you can serve a million of 'em.
Now creators who live out on the long tail—folks like me, aren't going to see much action We're not going to see a lot of money.
But imagine you owned the whole fricken tail which youtube does, Look at the volume of the long tail and compare it to the volume of the top channels. It's about the same size.I don't have YouTube's data. I might even be bigger. Or smaller.
YouTube can sell nearly as much—or maybe even more advertising by aggregating the long, long tail as they can by monetizing the hits.
But there are two keys to it: signing up more pilots—to make the tail longer But also getting the passengers to stay and watch another video That makes the tail taller. A lot of the changes of the past two years are all about getting that extra view that longer session. People active on YouTube like the word community. But surrounding the community is, frankly, a group that's more accurately called an audience.
These are folks who don't upload.
Who barely understand the U-I. And don't want take time to figure it out. Who don't subscribe. They don't leave comments.
One of the things YouTube is solving for is how you get Passengers to watch a little longer? Because YouTube's real customers—the advertisers—will pay for that.
Next time you see a change in YouTube, think of it from that perspective. Don't think about how they're messing with the pilots think about whether they are helping the passengers.
Note: This is a sponsored video for the peron75 channel
For collaborations and business inquiries, please contact via Channel Pages: ChannelPages.com/mickeleh
