[alphabetting]

>I think too many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently

new content creators should try to not be discourage by this. at youtube's scale there will always be viral lowbrow content because that's what the majority of general public wants to consume. if your content is good and consistent the relevant people who follows your area will eventually find it from their algo.

[fiat_fandango]

I certainly agree - I still think most creators underestimate the necessity of putting in some leg-work to understand your audience and attaching your channel to a niche that has an existing audience at all.

Something that I ended up doing by accident was identifying a niche that a) was low risk (nothing political etc), b) had decent reach, and c) ended up with most of my traffic coming from "browse" and not "search".

Initially, I had no idea traffic coming from "browse" was indicative of content that would likely drive more long-term value outside of "news" videos.

Ironically, videos that feature community drama unfortunately still are my best performing videos.