1 out of 1,000 — 2 out of 10,000 — What are the Odds???

Some dude back in the day told us the numbers — “One out of a thousand, two out of ten thousand.”

Take the time to click onto this “10,000 baal runs” video and look at the number of views that have accumulated on this now-famous youtube video of mine — at this date, it reads: “258,478”. More than a quarter-million hits.

Think about it. That means that A QUARTER MILLION viewers stopped by one of my channels, “gorebagdotcom”, to see this video, and most of them laughed at the punchline, just as you did or will do when you see it, and most of them forgot about it less than a second after the video ended and another one popped up. Out of a quarter of a million viewers, 350 liked it, 350 hated it. The other 258,000 were indifferent, or didn’t notice.

I made the video with nothing particular in mind except the gag. I never expected it to garner a quarter of a million views. In fact, the number of views were no part of my consideration — I hadn’t noticed that the views were counted and recorded, but they are.

You’ll note that at the top of the “more info” section, there’s a direct link to urthgame, goddgames and gorebagg.com. There are ways of tracking how someone gets to your website — which trail they followed — and out of a quarter of a million viewers, far fewer than 1% followed the trail for even one click, and fewer than 1% of those managed to find their way to the orbs, the exercises, and the Ashram.

That’s a totally acceptable number, and represents a success rate that is far above the average, yet it results in only a few people finding their way to the Ashram per year.

Numbers are small, unless you’re selling something popular and addictive, and we’re not. Most people get through their whole lives without ever wondering who they are or where they came from or where they’re going.

You’re not like them, and that’s why you’re an outcast.

Want more numbers? The subject matter here is why I deleted my all-powerful bragging-rights Level 99 Character, who had just won a world-wide race to the top and came out Number 1 in the Assassin category of Diablo II.

Here’s a video that features my “Faces of War” pastels and one of our audio tracks with Jimmi Accardi and Bob Bachtold. It’s currently scoring 108,283 views — an eighth of a million people saw this video and had the opportunity to track down the pastels or the music or both, but most did not — they promptly forgot and went right on to the next amusement or attraction.

Very few indie audio tracks get that much attention, but there’s more.

Here’s a huge number of hits — 279,000, about a third of a million views — on “lez kiss”, a video that actually was filmed in a GoDDGames environment as a machinima. The subject matter? Norton Street and reincarnation, but from the cover photo, you’d never know it. Sneaky? Of course it is, and on this planet, it has to be.

Here’s “the L Word Lesbian Lez Kiss” video that is currently at 210,000 views, and hasn’t anything on it except a rolling title that starts out, “The most unusual lesbian kiss ever. Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived three lesbians, a papa lesbian, a mama lesbian and a little bitty baby lesbian.”

Of course it’s the three bears. I put one of our audio tracks behind it, more or less at random. It was an early attempt at a youtube video, and I hadn’t planned on keeping it around, but it has served us well, so it stays there for the moment.

“How to Make Your Own Sculpture Armature Fast Easy Inexpensive” was a quick video we taped while I was doing a weekend sculpture workshop, and we added video footage when at the store buying the parts for the armature. This was just a straightforward presentation with the idea in mind of art education, yet it brought in over 70,000 viewers and always has hits on it, every day, but does it lead people all the way in, to the Ashram or to work ideas? The answer is a resounding “NO!”, and that’s the way it should be. Very few folks need to follow a Path — they’re far too busy.

“The 50s Chord Progression” is just a straightforward no-gimmicks instructional video on guitar basics, yet it got a healthy 15,553 views so far. Most videos of this type seldom go beyond 50 or 60 hits, and some get none at all. Cats and Kids, if you just want a lot of hits.

Here’s a pleasant surprise — my tenor Zen flute demo drew more than 23,000 viewers — this is a rather obscure instrument and the use of it as a Zen Flute is even more obscure, and yet, it got a very honorable number of hits for the type of video it is.

16,297 hits for this little TF2 song, “When a Heavy is Doing His Job”. I did dozens of songs like this, but just try to find them! They’re on youtube, but it’s now impossible to search youtube directly. Most people depend on their friends to tell them what to watch.

In this Information Age, information is mighty hard to get hold of. Behold the Tower of Babble. Babble On, dudes.

Bottom line: Video views do NOT translate into anything.

If you’re marketing, don’t look to youtube for answers. I’m strictly using my youtube videos to illustrate various work-issues, especially on guitar, flute, drums and other instruments, plus dance and movement. No better way to get it across. I’ve also started making jewelry videos that indicate work-rhythms and flow, along with hand-eye coordination and correct breathing, good perception of work area, etc., all demonstrable on video, and that’s my present purpose for video.

In the end, numbers are a dead-end. Hits are interesting, but unproductive. Somewhere in those thousands of folks, the few for whom the video was intended are there, obscured by the crowd. I don’t promote my vidoes. They get posted and that’s the last I see of them, until I do a blog like this about them, then I revisit them and see what has happened to them in the years that have passed since they arrived in the public forum.

Some of my very best videos have only a few dozen hits, some have none at all. The search functions on youtube suck, so you’ll have to find them outside youtube, on google, and even the right search terms don’t always work, even with no competing terms, and if there are competing search words, you haven’t much of a chance.

I have active videos on dozens of channels, most of which you won’t be able to locate, even if you know the name of the channel.

See You At The Top!!!

gorby