Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Moderators, if this belongs in the Saloon, please move it. Thanks. Parts of my youtube channel (Abilene Cowboy Shooter) have sort of exploded, and I don't know why. A little background: I was finally forced to join modern society and get a smartphone when Sprint cut the service to my old flip phone at the end of '21. So I think, okay cool, now I can take some shooting videos, so I started my channel. First I converted some old VHS videos to digital and posted them. Then in February, I handed my phone to Shooting Iron Miller to video me on a stage, which I later posted. Several days later, it suddenly had 500 views. I'm like, what?? Well, it was a while later that I found out that any video that is shot in a vertical format and 60 seconds or less, automatically goes into the "shorts" feed. I'd never heard of youtube shorts, but found out that is what a lot of those people are doing that you see sitting around scrolling on their phones (and I found out you can waste a lot of time that way ). Okay fine. So I start videoing other shooters at each match and posting them, and the views got over 1000 on some. Well, then Sheriff Robert Love (Elder Statesman then, now Cattle Baron) happened. A video of him shooting at the Tejas Caballeros started taking off. It leveled off at a little over 6 million views. I don't know why! He had a good stage, but not blazing speed by today's standards by any means. From the analytics, I see these viewers are from all over the world. So while we were watching this happen with great interest, another video took off. This time it was Skyhawk Hans at the Caballeros annual match "The Whoopin'". And once again, not a blazing speed stage (although his shotgun reloads are very slick). Hans is Cattle Baron and is extremely smooth with the transitions, but the timer operator slowed him by mistakenly thinking Hans was about to shoot a wrong target. Well, that video just kept growing and growing. Today it has 67 million views and is still growing, though much more slowly. I've figured out from the comments that a lot of the viewers are gamers, with lots of comments about Marston and Arthur (Red Dead Redemption characters, I came to learn). There were also a thousand comments about the noose he was holding on to at the beginning of the stage (gallows stage, with starting line from True Grit) with some cries of racism. Well, because these 'viral' videos caused the subscriber number to skyrocket as well, now pretty much any video (short) that I post will get lots of views. There are now 2 more videos in the "millionaire club". One is Dutch Van Horn at the Texican Rangers and he missed the first two shotgun targets. And right now a video of Texas Mac has just passed a million. So again, it is not the amazing performance that drives the views. I've got a number of videos of super-fast folks that get "only" 5K or 10K views. I know Youtube must run on algorithms, but I basically have no idea why some just take off like that. Of course, 99% of these viewers are not CAS folks. Lots of views from Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. As an aside, my older brother was in Indonesia years ago on a business trip, and told me they are crazy for old west stuff there. Church's Chicken was Church's Cowboy Chicken, for example. So I'm just posting some videos after each week's match, and going along for the ride! It is fun seeing a video get 1000 views in its first 30 minutes! Here's Skyhawk Hans' "star" clip. We joke at the matches about how many million it has grown in the previous week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 I spend too much time on YouTube. I do a search on "gunsmith" and come up with lots of hits on video games. Same with guns in general. I see comments on videos of real guns and shooting and they relate to video games. My own channel has a lot of foreign subscribers and others that have no real gun content on their channel. I don't see their interests but I don't live in a country where these activities are outlawed. You video probably got linked to some popular social media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
July Smith Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Congratulations on your channel taking off. Going to need your autograph now that you are youtube famous. Hopefully it will draw in more shooters. I personally think videos showing a wide range of shooters and skill levels is better for drawing in potential victims new shooters rather than videos that just feature 12-16sec stand and deliver stages. Really do need more black powder videos though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 If you take just the youtube ID and do a Google search, your video come up linked to a Chinese martial arts channel. Billions of Chinese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted August 10, 2022 Share Posted August 10, 2022 I hope you've monitized your channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 2 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said: I hope you've monitized your channel. Sadly youtube demonitizes a lot of videos if they feature firearms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted August 11, 2022 Author Share Posted August 11, 2022 3 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said: I hope you've monitized your channel. When I first got message from youtube that said I had earned $140 (from some kind of 'shorts fund'), I signed up to monitize and did get that payment. Then a month later (after Hans' video exploded) they said I had earned a larger amount. But that hasn't been paid yet, I think they say payments come late in the following month, so still waiting for that payment. And then at the beginning of August they say I earned nothing for the next month, even though there were several million views that month, so I don't know how that works, and I may never make any more but I did get something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
July Smith Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 12 hours ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said: When I first got message from youtube that said I had earned $140 (from some kind of 'shorts fund'), I signed up to monitize and did get that payment. Then a month later (after Hans' video exploded) they said I had earned a larger amount. But that hasn't been paid yet, I think they say payments come late in the following month, so still waiting for that payment. And then at the beginning of August they say I earned nothing for the next month, even though there were several million views that month, so I don't know how that works, and I may never make any more but I did get something! Yep, as others have said Youtube de-monetized most if not all gun related channels. You could set up a Patreon account, lots of people out there are willing to donate to content they like to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Sombra Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 17 hours ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said: When I first got message from youtube that said I had earned $140 (from some kind of 'shorts fund'), I signed up to monitize and did get that payment. Then a month later (after Hans' video exploded) they said I had earned a larger amount. But that hasn't been paid yet, I think they say payments come late in the following month, so still waiting for that payment. And then at the beginning of August they say I earned nothing for the next month, even though there were several million views that month, so I don't know how that works, and I may never make any more but I did get something! Heh! Where my residuals from videos in which I starred? I didn’t sign a release waiving my rights. Abilene, your channel is great. Keep up the great work. La Sombra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Bear Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 8 hours ago, July Smith said: Yep, as others have said Youtube de-monetized most if not all gun related channels. You could set up a Patreon account, lots of people out there are willing to donate to content they like to see. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7667605?hl=en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk James Posted August 11, 2022 Share Posted August 11, 2022 A special shoot out to Jokers Wild for all his hard work on you tube. I'm not sure when he started. It must have been around 2015. He has had videos go viral and some have over 8 million views. Congrats to Abilene for his work in showing off our incredible sport!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted August 12, 2022 Author Share Posted August 12, 2022 2 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7667605?hl=en I had not seen that, though most of it is common sense. Now I'll be sure not to show how to make a silencer for a '51 conversion. I never imagined I'd make any money. Just trying to put up videos of all sorts of shooters. A lot of folks never do video and enjoy seeing themselves or showing it to their family. In the last month I've shot twice with a couple of new buckarettes, their 2nd and 3rd matches. I had to struggle to edit their videos down to 60 seconds and some didn't make it, but some did. The comments on these are all over the place. Because they are not CAS folks, they don't necessarily share the "cowboy code" which would include politeness. Many jibes about the close targets. I will delete comments I see that are profane or overly mean-spirited, or accusations of racisim for example. But with hundreds of thousands of comments and a large percentage in other languages, I can't keep up. A lot of my videos are shaky, some more than others. I've taken to adding an apology for the shaking in the description of some videos. Extreme heat, dehydration, old age, and maybe still a little adrenaline from the last stage I shot. The videos of me shooting tend to be much steadier since I hand off the phone to some posse member. If someone hasn't invented a little gyroscope steadicam thingie that you can strap to the back of your hand (or attach to the phone), they should. I need one. For now, I'm just along for the ride and enjoying the guessing game each week about which ones will get the most views. (example: of 15 videos posted last Saturday, views range from 2.6K to 70K so far) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Catorce Posted August 13, 2022 Share Posted August 13, 2022 I still want to do a spoof with you using the song “faster horses”! Congrats on going viral and having almost 200k followers! Way to go @Abilene, SASS # 27489! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
July Smith Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/11/2022 at 7:33 PM, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said: A lot of my videos are shaky, some more than others. I've taken to adding an apology for the shaking in the description of some videos. Extreme heat, dehydration, old age, and maybe still a little adrenaline from the last stage I shot. The videos of me shooting tend to be much steadier since I hand off the phone to some posse member. If someone hasn't invented a little gyroscope steadicam thingie that you can strap to the back of your hand (or attach to the phone), they should. I need one. Might be worth it to invest in one of these. https://www.amazon.com/DJI-OM-Smartphone-Stabilizer-ActiveTrack/dp/B099ZYBSWB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=KXDS8TQXP9V6&keywords=phone+gimbal+stabilizer&qid=1660485438&sprefix=Phone+g%2Caps%2C1843&sr=8-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
July Smith Posted August 14, 2022 Share Posted August 14, 2022 On 8/11/2022 at 7:33 PM, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said: I will delete comments I see that are profane or overly mean-spirited, or accusations of racisim for example. Shortly after George Floyd when we had all the BLM riots going on I posted a short video of myself shooting frontiersman to Instagram. I was using all sorts of SASS related hashtags to try to increase views. Well I accidentally used #blackpower instead of #blackpowder. I got so much hate over that I deleted my account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted August 14, 2022 Author Share Posted August 14, 2022 1 hour ago, July Smith said: Might be worth it to invest in one of these. https://www.amazon.com/DJI-OM-Smartphone-Stabilizer-ActiveTrack/dp/B099ZYBSWB/ref=sr_1_3?crid=KXDS8TQXP9V6&keywords=phone+gimbal+stabilizer&qid=1660485438&sprefix=Phone+g%2Caps%2C1843&sr=8-3 Very interesting. I will have to investigate this more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted September 13, 2022 Author Share Posted September 13, 2022 It was an interesting week so I thought I'd give an update. YouTube sent me a silver (aluminum) "Creator Award" for passing 100K subscribers (174K now). The next level is 1 million subscribers, so I'm not going to hold my breath for that! I knew that the first three guys in my "million views club" would be at the Texican Rangers match and picnic last weekend, so I took advantage and got a group pic with them (L to R, Skyhawk Hans, me, Sheriff Robt. Love, Dutch Van Horn). BTW, Skyhawk is up to 71 million now. And I'm still making money! . Texas Mac's video is up to 3.5 million now, but I don't see him except at larger matches. Most of the videos now are getting the majority of their views, between 1K and 200K, in the first 30 minutes to 1 hour after posting. Then very few after that. A few keep slowly rising. The craziness continues. Lever Action Kid's channel will be passing mine in total views any day now. But I don't care, good for him! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Sombra Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 What a group of scoundrels! Congratulations, Abilene. La Sombra (Whose videos has only 4.7K views. No love for the sombrero.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dream Chaser, SASS #79316 Posted September 13, 2022 Share Posted September 13, 2022 Love the videos you take. I also love to video shooters but am not on your level. Most of mine I just post on a Facebook page but have considered getting back to youtube to which I do not think I have posted anything in r3cent years. Any suggestions. And for those of you who have been on a posse with Abilene, he not only does a great job videoing but he is a tremendous help on a posse. Don’t tell him but he is a favorite of mine to posse with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Catorce Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 21 hours ago, La Sombra said: What a group of scoundrels! Congratulations, Abilene. La Sombra (Whose videos has only 4.7K views. No love for the sombrero.) Your new sombrero may do better… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itchy Trigger Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 I want to know why he only films my worst stages!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 32 minutes ago, Itchy Trigger said: I want to know why he only films my worst stages!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Larger selection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Catorce Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 57 minutes ago, Itchy Trigger said: I want to know why he only films my worst stages!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Comic relief? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abilene, SASS # 27489 Posted September 14, 2022 Author Share Posted September 14, 2022 It does seem like I sometimes jinx the shooter, as far as jacked out rounds or shotgun misses, etc. Only a couple of times has someone asked me to not post their video. On the other hand, when something is really bad like a rifle jam with 8 misses, I just delete it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Sombra Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 1 hour ago, Abilene, SASS # 27489 said: It does seem like I sometimes jinx the shooter, as far as jacked out rounds or shotgun misses, etc. Only a couple of times has someone asked me to not post their video. On the other hand, when something is really bad like a rifle jam with 8 misses, I just delete it. @Itchy Triggerthat explains where the videos of you went. The digital circular file! La Sombra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itchy Trigger Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 La Sombra, be careful - even in comic relief I got twice as many views!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warden Callaway Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 YouTube is crazy. If anyone watches Duelist1954, you know he's mostly about black powder and historical reenactment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 What a total pile of BS, he's having to deal with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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