Should I Split My Channel?

[TheVeganAtheist]

Hello everyone,
something has been on my mind for a while and I wanted to get the community's input on it. I have 76k subscribers on my youtube channel, however I've noticed that people with far fewer subscribers (for instance Unnatural Vegan - 35k subscribers) gets often more views per video then I do. I think this may be due to the split in who subscribes to my videos. Most of her subscribers will be vegan, vegetarians and people interested in going. My subscriber base is a mixture of vegans, vegetarians, atheists, and theists. For the sake of simplicity, lets say that 50% of my subscribers are on my channel for the vegan videos, and 50% are for the atheist/religious critique videos. The atheists subscribers generally will not be viewing my vegan videos, and vegans generally wont be viewing my atheist videos. So in a sense I have a 38k subscriber for each demographic (if its 50%, which I doubt it is... Id say I have more atheist subscribers then vegan).

So, what do you think about the follow idea. Start up a new channel devoted specifically to my vegan videos, while the current channel will become a atheist/religious critique only channel?

I've noticed that my patreon project hasn't done well either, and I wonder if its due to non-vegan atheists who like my atheist videos not wanting to put money into vegan advocacy, and theist vegans who don't want to give money to someone who critiques their beliefs.

If I were to do this, I was thinking of naming one "TheVeganA", and the other "TVAtheist"

Concern I have:
I don't want to see a dramatic drop in subscribers on my original channel if many migrate to the new channel.


Thoughts?

[EmperorPalpatine]

Well, it's hard to predict, granted the members of the forum would be happy with what would bring in the most videos, it is hard to say what would truly benefit your viewer base. (Crazy to see unnatural vegan mentioned, she's one of my favorite)

My opinion is generally worthless, but I don't see any advantage in splitting the two apart, particularly because non-vegan atheists babbling about rationality and philosophy over a steak would probably benefit from having their view challenged. It would honestly be cool to see more videos pointed towards non-vegan atheists, as it seems atheists of all people, should hopefully be able to change their beliefs in light of new evidence, naive as it may be for me to hope that that would be the case. It should obviously be noted that I have never run a YouTube channel, so I have no experience backing up my thoughts..

Good luck!

[Jebus]

Don't split. You have a unique niche. This is your thing and I believe it will pay off in the long run.

[Kyron]

While I understand the idea. I don't think it'll help in interesting atheist meat eaters about veganism and vegan theists about atheism. I think it's generally a pretty great and beneficial idea you had to show how they're based on the same principle - science and rationality. Atheist meat eaters aren't generally going to look for vegan videos and the same for vegan theists. Putting them on the same platform gives them a bridge to discover more about them.

Unnatural Vegan has really been challenging a lot of "asshole" vegans and pseudoscience, which meat eaters hate too, and this creates some common ground.
It's also kinda mooching off of something popular, but it's effective.

[brimstoneSalad]

In terms of active youtube viewers:

Most of your vegan viewers are also going to be non-religious or atheists. Most of anybody active on the internet is non-religious, or at least not terribly offended by criticism of religion.

So, I wouldn't worry about that much.

Some of your atheist viewers may have been opposed to veganism, but those jerks already unsubed with the first Dillahunty video. So, I wouldn't worry about that either.

You should have a fairly homogenized viewer base, that's neither opposed to atheism nor veganism. While some may just not be interested in half of your videos, I don't think they're offended by your content in either case, or particularly worried about inadvertently supporting it. Also, even if they were, I don't think most people even think about those kinds of things that much.

I think you just have a LOT of really old subscribers for whom your videos show up on the list, but don't even notice.
It's probably mostly a difference in dead subscriber weight.

Have you used many of the statistical tools youtube offers to explore the engagement of your viewers?

I have 76k subscribers on my youtube channel, however I've noticed that people with far fewer subscribers (for instance Unnatural Vegan - 35k subscribers) gets often more views per video then I do.

It depends on the video.
I think she also puts out a lot more content than you do, which keeps her viewers coming back.
She posts several videos every week, and that can make a big difference.

For you, content frequency might be even more important, since (as you said) it's possible each half of your viewers are only interested in half of your videos. Which means you need several videos a week for each demographic.

So, what do you think about the follow idea. Start up a new channel devoted specifically to my vegan videos, while the current channel will become a atheist/religious critique only channel?

I wouldn't split stuff up.

For one, it's not clear if it would help, and it could hurt.

But more importantly, doing so may make it more difficult to reach the atheist subscribers with a vegan message, because it will be easier for them to avoid your vegan videos. This may be a "convenience" there's no good reason to offer, and could be harmful in the long run.

[TheVeganAtheist]

Thanks for all the great input. I won't split the channel up. I can't imagine producing 2 videos per week. I'm busy enough working on a single video that I don't have time to double production. I was hoping that having a weekly release would help, yet most of my last videos seem to top off at around 10k views and very slowly crawl up from there.

[garrethdsouza]

This is not directly related to the channel but In regards to the forum logo, what's your take on having a symbol for vegan (like the green V commonly used) http://elcigarrodevapor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/vegan-symbol.png in addition to the red A atheist symbol?