Various Video Suggestions

[Christopher Kratz]

Greetings Eric! I am a relatively recent subscriber but I have been watching your videos left and right over the past couple weeks. So, if you have noticed a slight bump in views, it was probably me. After watching the video you made in 2017 regarding the future of ETCG and the drop in views, I sat down to really think about ways you can get people’s attention again. Let me preface this by saying I have not been bored by any of your videos and absolutely loved the Fairmont Project series. However, I understand that you do have to cater to your audience to an extent. Therefore I came up with a couple ideas I hope you find interesting:

1) Systems: Although I’m sure the quick fix videos are helpful to many people, I always found that understanding the problem can be the most beneficial tool, rather than just trying things others have suggested without really understanding what you are doing and why you are doing it. I have noticed that you do often explain how things work but it is often buried within another video. Therefore people will never get that bit of information unless they were attracted to the original video. For instance, you have mentioned how the majority were not very interested in the Fairmont Project. If you explained how a certain automotive system worked within one of those videos, many of those people have never viewed it because they avoid the Fairmont video. So, maybe it would be a good idea to create an ongoing series about how the various systems within a car works and common issues seen (very general). Systems such as the EVAP, brakes/abs, ignition, secondary air injection, etc…

2) Twist on Giveaways: People like getting free stuff, obviously. But perhaps you could make a game out of it that would help increase your overall views as well. For instance, say you are giving away a ratchet set. In order to win (or be entered into a drawing) you have to recite a quote or a moment within one of your past videos. Given that you have posted a ton of videos, a hint or two may help make it seem like it is not such a daunting task, such as “In one of my Barbara’s van videos, what did I do….blah blah blah”. Chances are most people will not know it off the top of their head but if all they have to do is watch a handful of Barbara’s van videos to find out and possibly win, they would probably be willing to do that. People cannot skip through because they don’t know what they are looking for so they most likely learn something along the way. Meanwhile, your views go up a handful per person. You could even present it as a cheesy game show type thing, if you wanted to get creative, call it “Remember when…?”. The prizes don’t have to be big things either, simple things that are low cost to you such as signed pictures or things from your shop, etc…

On a side note, while I cannot say that every single video is directly beneficial to me, I do enjoy watching them. At very least, you make things entertaining (when you got the new tool box, compressor air system around the shop, etc…). Your passion for what you do really comes through. Me personally, I would love to see another build series (Mustang?) because I too enjoy building and creating things. I also would love to see the Live Q&A come back, I thought those were good videos where the people could really get what they want. However, because people can’t seem to keep it short, maybe you could put a character limit in the Live Q&A section of the forum to force people to keep it relatively brief.

Regardless, I hope the views come back up and you can continue doing what you seem to love doing. I’m definitely on board. Stay dirty.

Topic

[EricTheCarGuy]

Thank you for the views and the suggestions.

I agree, I could have done the #FairmontProject videos a little better with more targeted videos that explained more about the systems I was working on. I still have several videos to go in that series that will air at some point. With these I plan to take a different approach which is likely more in line with your suggestion.

I’ve had a big give away planned for a couple of years now. I’m not prepared to talk about that now, but when it goes live, know that it’s been in the works for some time. I was just waiting for the right time.

The live Q&A videos were easy to produce, but didn’t get many views. They also take a lot of time to prep for. I’ll get back to doing them again at some point, but not on a regular basis. Perhaps once a month.

The new videos I’m producing now are more targeted to a wider audience. You’ll see those roll out in the next few weeks. I hope this updated style is more in line with what people are looking for from me.

Thanks again for the suggestions and the views.

[Author]

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