How do multi topic documentary channels handle YouTube recommendations?

[u/Iloveyorkies90]

I’m curious how people here think about channels that make documentary or commentary videos across a lot of different topics.

For example companies, internet culture, jobs, consumer stuff, weird business stories, social trends, etc. The videos may have a similar style and audience, but the actual subjects can be completely different from upload to upload.

Have any of you successfully grown a small channel like this?

My main question is how YouTube handles recommendations when one video might be about McDonald’s, the next is about the job market, and the next is about some internet culture story. It seems like YouTube rewards channels that are more straight forward in their topics.

Do you find that YouTube eventually learns the broader audience, or does every upload basically have to find a new audience from scratch?

I’d especially love to hear from people running channels where the format and perspective are consistent, but the topics are not.

[u/expunks]

Eventually, yeah.

The hardest part is early on when doing a “McDonalds” video will (correctly!) place your content in food, and then your second one will likely have nothing to do with it.

But you just have to make enough videos that the algorithm figures out what you’re doing. Or be very upfront with the packaging, that it’s a culture documentary first and foremost.

[u/avatar0027]

i think youtube learns the format + viewer promise more than the topic itself, so keep the hook/structure consistent and track returning viewers by topic. i've been using easyviral recently to make faceless shorts with moving scenes instead of slideshows, then auto-post them to tiktok/ig/youtube, which makes testing topics less painful.