---
title: 'How to Escape Small Channel Hell on YouTube'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=P3zU3BzaBWc'
video_id: 'P3zU3BzaBWc'
date: 2026-09-06
duration_sec: 643
channel: 'Nate Black'
---

# How to Escape Small Channel Hell on YouTube

> Source: [How to Escape Small Channel Hell on YouTube](https://youtube.com/watch?v=P3zU3BzaBWc)

## Summary

The video addresses the unique challenges small YouTube channels face compared to larger ones, emphasizing that the algorithm and audience behavior differ significantly. The creator, Nate, offers practical strategies to overcome these hurdles, focusing on producing more quality content, acknowledging channel size, and seeking outside perspectives to escape the 'small channel hell'.

### Key Points

- **Different Rules for Small Channels** [00:00] — Small channels operate under different rules than larger ones, exemplified by slower video processing times (1-2 hours vs. 2 minutes) and impression patterns that spike then flatline, indicating algorithm testing.
- **Why the Algorithm Prioritizes Larger Channels** [01:35] — It makes sense for YouTube to allocate more resources and impressions to larger channels because they have more proven content and audience data, making them a safer bet for limited impressions.
- **Combat with Focused Data** [02:33] — To combat these rules, creators should give the algorithm more 'focused data' by publishing more quality videos, which increases the chances of gaining traction and building a proven backlog.
- **Drop Everything Else** [03:35] — A book (linked in the pinned comment) suggests intentionally dropping non-essential activities to focus on publishing more quality videos, a strategy to escape the small channel trap.
- **Audiences Act Differently** [04:38] — Audiences behave differently around small channels due to human psychology; early adopters are more willing to engage, often being deeply niche-focused, similar to approaching a sparsely attended farmer's market booth.
- **Acknowledge Your Channel Size** [07:13] — Acknowledging your smaller channel size with authenticity builds audience respect; comments like 'why isn't this channel bigger' indicate you're doing things right.
- **Blind Spots and Outside Perspective** [08:10] — Smaller channels suffer from blind spots due to less data and feedback; seeking outside perspective, like through collaborations or 'roast' videos, helps remove the box and gain third-party insights.

### Conclusion

Small channels face distinct challenges, but by consistently publishing quality content, acknowledging their size, and seeking external perspectives, creators can overcome the algorithm's biases and audience hesitations to achieve visibility and growth.

## Transcript

We need to be real here. YouTube simply isn't the same for small channels as it is for larger channels. In fact, let's play a game. Howdy, howdy, everyone. Nate here. In the small channel game on YouTube, there are two places that we could be. We can either be hidden and struggling
forever and ever and ever, or we can be visible and do specific things to get out of that hidden place forever. You see, as I've been recently working with hundreds of YouTube creators,
one-on-one, having access to the analytics of the channel itself, a few things have started to become very clear to me. Number one is that small channels have different rules. They don't perform the same
as larger channels. In fact, I'm going to give you some examples of how the rules are different for smaller channels. On this channel that you're watching right now, when I upload a 4k video, a high resolution video, which all of my videos are, it takes about two minutes for that video to
process before it is essentially ready to publish right then. Now contrast that with a client's channel that is significantly smaller. When we upload a video to that channel, same thing, 4k resolution, similar length of video, it takes at least an hour to two hours to process. Another
example, and this comes from multiple clients' channel, I have seen the behavior over and over again of publishing a video having a spike and then a flatline, meaning that the algorithm decides to test that video and then stop giving impressions to that video for a period. And sometimes that
pattern will repeat. You'll have a test period, a flat, and then another test period, and then another flat. And I could go on and on with how the rules are different for smaller channels. And in fact, I am going to give more examples throughout this video. The important thing here is we are not
mongering. Is that the right word? We're not complaining here. Because as far as I can tell, with the examples I gave, the faster processing time on my channel versus a smaller channel, it makes sense that if a channel has more data to work with and more audience to prove their stuff
with, then they'll give more allocation of resources to that channel versus a brand new or a smaller channel. It also does make sense, and this may be slightly controversial here, it makes sense that if there's a limited amount of impressions to give to all of the YouTube users
on the YouTube platform, they would give slight priority to larger channels. If for no other reason, then again, the larger channels have more proven content. They have a backlog of videos that are showing that they're more successful with their audience. And so I'm seeing this impressions
and flatline behavior being a testing period behavior, which I'll explain a bit more of that later on. So if smaller channels have different rules than larger channels because of the various reasons I've listed and many more that I couldn't fit into this video, what do we do about it? We
make it so that your channel cannot be ignored We make it so that your content is the best content that it can be And we make it so that you as the creator of that content are no longer hiding You choosing to be radical You choosing to stand out and face fears and do things differently which will lead to this
visibility. All right, so how do we combat these different rules that small channels have? We do it with this, focused data. What we need to do here is give the algorithm, give the YouTube platform more data. And if you want a real human way to explain that, it's more videos. It's more
content. No matter where you are with your small channel at this point, if you find ways to give more videos for the algorithm to test, it's almost always a positive thing. As long as those more videos are still quality videos, as quality as you're capable of. So I hear you. We're watching
this and you're thinking, Nate, I want to give more videos. I want to do more of these things. I want to give more of this focused data to the algorithm, but I'm just booked up. I have thought long and hard on this, especially since it's something that I myself have struggled with.
There is a book that I read or more listened to recently that absolutely transformed how I looked at this. I'm going to put a link to the book in the pinned comment if you want to get it for absolutely free. But in that book, it describes the concept of dropping everything else, intentionally
just dropping everything else that doesn't give you the focus that you want. And it gives really viable strategies for how to do that, how to allocate your time in order to do that well. So what I'm suggesting here is if you feel like you are in small channel tech, I do that for the
algorithm, then you get really decisive in cutting off the things that are not contributing to publishing more quality videos. Because the more tests that we give the algorithm, the YouTube platform, the more likely it is that you will finally get the traction enough to have that
proven backlog of content. It's going to work. And if that is your goal, to get out of this small channel heck forever, drop everything else and do this. All right, the next thing that keeps your small channel hidden is this. Boop the like button on this video. How did that get in here? Oh my
goodness, how did that get in here? But really, if you're liking the presentation of this video and it's being eye-opening and helpful to you, I'd love if you booped the like button on it. Thank you for doing that. But really, here's the next thing. Every small channel faces this. Audiences literally act different around small channels than they do around large channels. And this has much
less to do with the YouTube platform itself and much more to do with human psychology, which the YouTube algorithm tends to follow. You see, for small channels, audiences act, I put strange because that was the shortest way I could say of, they act differently in a lot of different ways.
Like, for example, the types of people that are willing to comment on a brand new channel on a video without many or any other comments are very different than the types of people who are willing to comment on a video with lots of comments In fact let me give an example Have you ever been to a farmer market where there a lot of people selling stuff and got their booths set up and they got stuff all set out on the table and
they've got their price tags and they're just kind of sitting there expectantly? Have you ever been to one of those? How do you as a person meandering around this farmer's market behave differently in front of a booth that has a bunch of people crowded around it versus a booth with no one in
front of it? In fact, you can see the person sitting behind the table at the booth and they make eye contact with you a mile away, and you make eye contact with them, and you're still a mile away from them, and you're walking up to them. How do you act differently? There's too
much pressure. It's the same thing as when you go to the mall, and you walk into a clothing store, and there's like five employees and one of you. You feel like you're going to get ganged up on. It's not a direct parallel, but there are more parallels than you might think between those two scenarios. That that I just explained, and smaller audience behavior. So the audience that you get
are the type of audience that are okay with being early adopters. They are okay with being the only person at this booth looking at your trinkets. They have the time of day to do so, meaning they are willing to take a bit more of a chance with you
versus a larger channel that has proven that they know how to make quality videos that respect people's time more. So they're willing to take a chance, but also they're often very into a niche, further into a niche than the general or broader YouTube audience.
Now, the algorithm does actually treat this differently as well. They give impressions somewhat differently for a small channel audience as well. How do I know this? Well, have you ever gone really into a niche? Like you've watched an extensive amount of videos on a certain specific topic or a certain niche.
You've watched a whole bunch of them in a row on YouTube. Have you ever gone back to your home feed or the home screen on your mobile or desktop and seen small channels pop up like videos with 15 views on them? My theory here is the more an audience member shows they're deeper into a niche, the more likely the algorithm is to show smaller channels' videos to that niche,
which is one of the arguments for the so-called niching down, because you're more likely to appear to that niche. Okay, so real talk here. How do we combat the audience acting differently? We do it with this. Your channel just is smaller, and that is a fact.
So it's actually greatly to your advantage to acknowledge that and acknowledge that with your audience. When your audience comes to one of your videos and feels like, wow, this person is present, they're authentic, they're acknowledging where they are, and of course they're going to do great things in the future, they really respect that.
So you bringing them into your videos and expecting them to be there and enjoy the experience with you with your presence does huge things for you. And I've said this before, I'm going to say it again here. When you start getting comments to the tune of wow why isn this channel bigger Or comments addressing you directly saying thank you so much for for making this video This video deserves way more views than it has When that starts happening that is one of the indicators that you doing this right
The next thing that keeps your small channel perpetually hidden unless you change it is this. Blind spots. I have a unique perspective here in that this is what I do,
and I am interacting with creators like yourself along the whole spectrum from brand new to very, very successful every single day. Across the board, when I sit down with someone, this is going on at least in some degree.
You see, we all have blind spots when we're trying to accomplish something. There are things that we're just not seeing or ideas that haven't been introduced to our mind or awareness yet. But this is exacerbated in smaller channels because we don't have as much data to work with.
We don't have as much real-time feedback from the audience because our videos are more hidden. And that is a huge disadvantage unless you're able to intentionally get outside perspective. In fact, that is perhaps the number one thing that I see when I'm talking with creators like yourself.
It's hard to know what to focus on or not. So how do we combat that with this? What I am calling removing the box, or essentially getting yourself outside of yourself and your own creation bubble to see what's happening from a third-party perspective.
Because answer me this, have you ever built a large YouTube channel before? If that's a no, then your being able to see it before you've done it will be a huge advantage for you. It's one of the reasons why I do my roast videos here on this channel, aside from them being all about heckfire and darnation.
And by the way, I don't have any issues with swearing. I just intentionally don't put them in my videos because it's just not my brand. But where was I? Oh yeah, it's roasts. It's one of the reasons why I like to show as many real examples as I can
because it allows me to put you as a viewer outside the box and deconstruct what I am seeing as a third-party perspective. So what you need to combat these blind spots is to get outside the box,
to remove the box and get outside perspective, outside thought patterns. I have a video in the works about this very thing, collaborations and getting outside perspectives on what you are producing. I am going extensive with it using real examples and real processes that I have used with great success.
So I am going to put that here when it's ready. In the meantime, let's focus on this one, focused data. What are the next most important focuses we can do to give the algorithm as much of the correct data as possible? In order to do that, you'll watch.
I'm moving up the chain Life camera has to feel the beat in my veins