Well I can say that is certainly better. It's no longer default or plain.
If you take that same image into a paint program (like Microsoft Paint, or GIMP, both of which are free), you can even figure out where in the image you can add a name to it. If you look at your banner, there's some nice open space in the upper right, there's a good half of the image that shows only what seems to be a rug. I'd say this image would be great for making the focal points the items. Meaning getting rid of that rug space up on top. Which is easily where you can fit a name. I can DO that for you if you want..But honestly, you will certainly need to learn some editing skills for thumbnails anyway. If you want, I actually did a video on that..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGjgbI4Q2c&list=PLBP_EM4c-6mU0KG7QX731tXdTheoYL7-iI provide in that video how to get GIMP as well as how to basically use it for thumbnails, but the tips work for literally any other things too. And if you save the image and the name ends up maybe too large to fit on the banner, or something else is wrong, as long as you leave gimp open and don't close the project, you can move the pieces around and resave it. giving you multiple tries to get it right. That's what I did with my banner. I kept moving the parts around the image and resaving and testing to see if it fit.
I see you made the more recent playlists be up at the top. That helps for sure. I'd say still if you can do that "custom" thing I mentioned before, that'd make it look a little more like a professional channel. It looks more casual right now, as in one you aren't using to try to gain exposure. It still comes off as a "just a place for my videos" channel.
Yea, that is for sure a bad camera to be using then. You basically from here on out will never grow with that quality. You're very VERY far behind everyone else. You aren't even in the lowest quality people would bother with these days. Again, you have to spend money to make money. You need to get better equipment and put WAY more effort into your content before you can expect any growth. Idk if you've been uploading since 2007, or you just uploaded them later, but I'm gonna guess since then. I thought your over 1,000 subs was impressive for such a niche, but never mind that. That's actually REALLY bad progression for 10 years. Nothing about your channel says "watch me". I'm trying to not sound like a prick here, and it's hard. Because these days saying anything bad about anything get's you the title of satan. So I'm trying to be as nice as possible, but like I said, nothing about your channel give off the impression that you WANT subscribers or views. It looks like a memory bank and that's all. You have zero efford put into any of your videos. And no, holding a camera and hitting record is not effort. Effort is going out and getting a camera that can produce the quality that people actually watch, which is some type of HD, usually higher HDs like 1080p. It's not required, but getting one with a microphone input and getting a good shotgun mic to put on the camera for better audio, and at least putting some kind of editing effort in. These videos are not a quality (in general, as in good or bad quality) that says "I was made to be watched by a bunch of people!", but rather they say "I was made to be watched by the friends and family of the recorder for memories". THAT is why your views went down. The effort. Or lack there of. If you want to edit, download Movie Maker. It's free. The fact that you also didn't bother to se if there was any free software to edit your videos is abundant by the 30 videos from one single panel you have that all for some reason were separate videos. Even 7 year olds who film on their phone know that. By not bothering, you're basically telling your viewers that what they deserve isn't worth your time. They deserve a video that's good, but you don't bother with it, so why should they?
Now I don't want to get something twisted around here. So I'll say it now. Everything you're doing is fine. BUT, it's only fine for a "just for me" channel. If you want an actual audience, you have to actually DO something to make that audience want to stay there. That's where the effort on your part comes in. You can't put zero effort into your channel and expect people to subscribe to it.
As far as a camera, like I said. Pawn shops are your best friend. They are usually filled to the brim with slightly older models., You can also find them on anywhere that people are selling things. Facebook groups have been made for this purpose, where it's similar to offerup, letgo, and craigslist. Where you can pick a populated place like a starbucks, to meet up and do the sale. You can test it out before buying and make sure they work. Same with the pawn shops, you test before you buy. Pawn shops legally have to let you test items out before any money is given, so no rip offs there. Go through the menus of them and look for the "movie settings" (usually called that, depends on the camers, but the settings for recording), and if they say at least 1080p then you should be fine.It'll have a little "film strip" icon next to it with the frame rate, 30FPS is usually 29 point something, but it's the same thing.
You'd be amazed at how many people look weeks after. In fact, most people are trying more to get back into the swing of their daily lives before they look online. In fact, I don't think literally ANYONE stops looking around for them after a few days..So far, out of every channel I've ever seen, literally EVER, you're the only one who thinks that. EVERYONE I've ever seen takes teh time to edit theirs a little at least, then upload it on a schedule. Of course, I mean the ones who are on youtube for more than just a memory bank.
And the multiple questions making it longer is a good idea. If you want to make your life easier, start with a camcorder. The Sony Vixia HF R700 (Review from me below), is only $200 at walmart, and way cheaper if you can find it used (which you can, it was popular before the newer version). It does 1080p60FPS. And it can record for hours at a time. You can easily get the majority of a q&a panel on one single video. Trust me, people will watch it even if it's like half an hour, because that's what a panel is. It's also a good camera to get footage around the con. It also does auto everything. Auto exposure, auto focus, auto white balance, etc. so you never have to mess with the settings to get a good video quality. It takes a second to auto adjust, while recording, but that's every camera.
You don't need the best camera in the world. You just need something that is up to date with quality standards.
Here's the camcorder review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRYvJtNfYnY&index=13&list=PLBP_EM4c-6mXTpSo2x-ToMCe5hDFFbH8N&t=1295sAlso with editing, you keep saying you don't know how to merge clips together. This would be because you didn't put that effort forth that I mentioned. 5 seconds on youtube and you'll get millions of videos on how to use any program. But honestly, you just open whatever editing program it is, and drag the files into it. it auto puts them all side by side in movie maker. Heck, you can drag your mouse to highlight all of the clips you want to make into a single video, and drag the entire highlight into movie maker, and it'll auto put them in the same order you had them in on your computer (which is usually Alphabetical).
I have an idea if you don't mind hanging out at con for a little while. We can meet up and I can try to go over things a little better. It's easier to explain things that way. When I type, I have to think about my words a LOT more, and I start to get confused with what I'm typing, so I don't usually like explaining this way lol
As for the shorts lol Depends. If you're going a lighter color, don't. Usually won't work. If you are going to a darker color (as in going from white, to literally any other color, or from gray to black or whatever) then it depends on the material. If it has a mix of material, I'm not sure. Natural fibers like cotton you need regular dyes. Like Rit, or whatever that you can get at joanns or something. Most dyes are for natural fibers only. So it would need to be 100% natural for that. If polyester, or other man made fibers iDyePoly is the most well received brand. It's, as the name states, for polyester and other non natural fibers. So basically a natural fiber is something grown, like how cotton is not produced in a factory, but is from a plant. whereas polyester is plastic that's cut SUPER thin to be used as a fiber for fabrics.
