6.12 /// Why I Chose Honest, Low-Fi YouTube Over Clickbait

What happens when making things online becomes a race for polish, clicks, and perfect pacing—and you decide to go the other way? I open the door to a frank look at today’s creator landscape, from streamers and reactors to builders and reviewers, and ask what’s gained and lost when attention becomes the goal. Along the way I talk about honest, low‑fi workflows, the quiet value of pauses, and why a human voice—hesitations and all—can be more compelling than the gloss.

I share how different formats hook us for different reasons: the shared thrill of trailer reactions, the live community feel of streams, and the step‑by‑step satisfaction of build videos. Then we trace how production values escalated—multi‑camera studios, sponsorships, and six‑figure deals—and how that shift raised both audience expectations and creator pressure. If you have ever felt the tug to be “more professional,” this conversation offers a reality check and a path to stay grounded.

I also tackle the viral myth head‑on. Yes, clever ideas and relentless effort matter, but luck and timing still rule. Rather than chase the outlier, I focus on sustainable habits: simple setups, clear titles that match the content, and workflows that respect your time. We dig into thumbnails, A/B testing, and AI scripting—where they help, where they harm, and how to protect trust when the algorithm wants louder, faster, brighter.

If you care about making things people actually value, this is your compass. Come for the candid breakdown of what works on YouTube and podcasts; stay for the reminder that integrity is a growth strategy too. Listen, share with a friend who’s building their channel, and drop a comment with your take on clickbait versus clarity. And if this resonates, subscribe so you do not miss what comes next.

Transcript

Warm Welcome And Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Hi, welcome to Infinite Brattle.

Why Make Content At All

Types Of Creators And Formats

Production Values And Careers

Viral Dreams Versus Reality

Editing Culture And Real Talk

Stephen 0:41

If it's your first time here, welcome, welcome, welcome. You'll get used to the squeaky seat. Still not oiled it. It's been about three years. Welcome. I'm wearing my Belfast Giants top today. Lots of grey in my beard. And a ghost theory cap, which is kind of relevant to today's topic of content creators as Ghost Theory are a channel that I follow on YouTube. And I'd advise you to go and give them a follow as well if you're into paranormal activity. And what I would say is kind of like an honest channel, I would hope to say. If you're into paranormal activity, yeah, go and give them a watch. Not a sponsor, they don't know I'm doing this. They don't know even who I am. I suppose. And also I'm using the front camera of my phone today to film this. So let me know if you see any noticeable difference in quality. You shouldn't, because I believe the front camera is HD the same as the back. And it just means I can see your time and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, so content content content content creation is something that's been around for a while now. It's something that I think people have become used to, uh, to a to a degree. Um I haven't. I suppose I've been a content creator for a while with my podcast, but I even though that is content creation, I kind of see that in a different light to YouTubers and such things, and the fact that it's like an audio only thing, and I suppose it depends on the level you take it to. And I don't I don't put as much effort in as I probably should. And I thank you for watching this and sticking with me if you've listened or watched any of these episodes or or a regular listener, thank you. But I know that I probably should make things a bit more streamlined by now. This is the sixth season, I've started doing video this season. Um but yeah, like I I haven't dived into it. I'm not commercially driven, I suppose is the thing. Um I'm definitely not scripted, and I want things to be natural. I want it to be honest. I want you to watch this and think this is just a guy prattling on in his room with lots of random stuff around him, chatting about things that you may relate to, and that's my whole ethos, uh, as I've said many times on this podcast. Um But I think we've got so used now to the content that we absorb being highly produced, scripted, manipulated, and clickbaity-y. Uh I've mentioned clickbait stuff on the show previously, and yeah, clickbait is something that really, really gets my goat. I don't like it. I think um it should stop. I think from a point of view um of of my podcast, yes, sometimes the titles are a little bit clickbaity, but I I I think for more of my titles they're representative representative of what's in the episode, but they may cause you to be quizzical rather than just mislead you. Um I don't think there's any titles I've made that would not reflect something that's in the actual podcast. I would hope so. If you can think of anything different, then let me know. I've just realised my little sign's not on. Um not show the YouTube though. Yeah, let's just have it just play random stuff. There you go in the background there. Um yeah, so I made a few notes for once because I wanted to like cover a few critical areas that I thought were were were valid and were necessary to um you know cover in in this episode. Um so I think that there's there's some there's several different types of like streamers and several types of videos like streamers, reactors, people that will cover subjects, people that build stuff. And I think they're kind of like the the the kind of plethora of people that are out there, they're kind of like the different subjects than other main ones I would say. So you've got your reactors, they're the people that will will watch someone else's video or an event and react to it live and kind of see you're watching someone react to a video that you may have reacted to to see how they react. It's a bit a bit strange. It's very popular though, and I have watched people react to things, and it is kind of sometimes compulsive viewing to if you've never seen the video as well, to to watch someone else have a comment about it. I do this mainly for for trailers of films. Um so I follow a few people that will react to trailers like Black Nerd Comedy, uh, for example. Uh they'll watch a trailer, and maybe it's nice to have that kind of geeky connection to see if they've picked out something that you've picked out or they may have spotted something different. So you kind of got the reactor people, uh, sometimes it's just people reacting to fell video, like Garen, the Irish chap, he's very famous for reacting to stuff and then having his own viewpoint. You know, people just stream, so they play a game and they stream it, and they just do strict live streams or they live stream playing board games, pretty much anything, really. I think you can pretty much stream anything you want to do live, really. Uh, and generally they can be live as well as pre-recorded, so a lot of people use Twitch and then upload them to YouTube. Um and then you've got kind of people that build stuff, uh like Colin Furz, these are channels that I I subscribe to, and a lot of his his videos are about construction or building something fun and how he's done it and what he's put into it and the outcome of it, and it's always a bit crazy. Um Nate on the internet as well as someone else I watch, he's building a Lego castle alone, which is pretty cool, a 3D, like an enlarged Lego castle set. Um and then you've got people like Ghost Theory who have a subject matter they take it out on. I suppose it's about like podcasting as well, isn't it? Like, you know, we all have our own subject. I I don't ironically, having said that, I will talk about anything, um, as you all know, if you're a regular listener. Um so yeah, there's there's their main there's l there's others as well. There's people that review things, unboxing, like unbox therapy is is a massive channel who gets sent new phones, and well, that's ironic, a phone just appeared on the screen behind me, as I said, phone. How bizarre. Uh yeah, so yeah, you get channels like that that will just unbox stuff and review things. Um and then you got the format that people do it in. I wanted to have like a specific background of my things, but people have very clean-cut backgrounds, people have signs, you know. The production value in YouTube videos nowadays, it's not just someone sat in a broom cupboard anymore, uh, or in a corner of their room or in their bedroom. People have studios um because they're making money out of this thing. People have made this a living, uh, they've made it their career of what they're doing. I am now a content creator. Uh I think for the first time, I can't remember what I was filling in my insurance, and it was like list your job, and I was scrolling through and it actually listed content creator as a role and a job, and I was like, wow, that's how far we've come that you can't actually rightly so list that as a list that as a as a creator because many people do make good money. Um but I I think that the whole content creator thing has gone out of hand, and I'll come back to that. I I'll come back to that. Um because anyone can jump on the bandwagon, here's me. Um and that's not always a good thing. I think and I think sometimes sometimes people have overblown expectations about what they can get out of becoming a content creator. They'll see someone like Mr Beast who is so successful at what him and his team do that I think they think they can um emulate that, and that it's not that simple. It sometimes takes a really good idea, you know, a bit of hard work, and sometimes it just takes luck. Sometimes it takes someone to watch your video and share it, and it's a snowball and become a bit of a a viral video. And we've seen people like that over the years that have had that experience. And Mr Beast was kind of no exception to that rule. I mean his first video was him counting from zero to a hundred thousand, I believe. Um which is insane, that's what he did, and it went viral, and from that point on his his channel started to grow. Um Yeah, but back in the day there was a very there was a very kind of semi-scripted kind of art form to YouTube, and jump cuts were a massive thing, so the little pauses that I put in, they they would be systematically removed, so there wasn't any pauses, the video was just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And as much as I um like to talk, uh I don't think I could I could do that. Firstly, editing it would be terrible. All them pauses and all that silence to cut out would be an amount of work, but it it doesn't flow right, that's not how conversation works. I don't think it shifts expectations in the real world then. When people speak to real people, they're expecting no pause, and that's how I think of it anyway. I think that um the more we expose these things, the more you think it's the normal, which it isn't, and I think people forget that things on YouTube aren't representative of real life almost. Like people have edited that and and manipulated it and put it out there, and that's not how a conversation works, and it is one way as well, it is one way when you watch a video, there's no unless you're commenting and and chatting, but that's not like a face-to-face conversation, and it it's a it's a weird format, and even with podcasting, it's it's I've I've said on many shows like if you can get some input to me, if you can come back to me with something, um it helps me out loads because I know that someone's out there. So yeah, I think content creation, I think, was a good way of getting things out there. For me, it was a mental health thing as well, it's a welfare thing. I like to kind of do this to make myself it's it kind of gives me a bit of release of things that I want to say out of my head. Is that didn't sound like a right the correct sentence. Um but it it gets things out of my brain, and hopefully someone's gonna enjoy the things that I talk about and and and and speak about and just ramble on generally about. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that, I don't put any airs and graces on it. Uh started doing YouTube, I think because I felt it's like a more engaging, it can be more engaging because you've seen someone talking at you rather than just listening, and I think that could be more interesting for some people. So I just kind of wanted to extend it to because I watch a lot of YouTube, and I think I started realising that I do listen to a lot of podcasts, but then I started watching podcasts, and I was thinking maybe for some episodes people would prefer to watch than listen, and vice versa. So that's kind of why reason I went to YouTube, but YouTube's brilliant, all these platforms are brilliant because nowadays you don't need that much equipment, like everyone carries a video camera in their pocket, everyone has the ability to upload to YouTube from their pocket. So if you've got a smartphone, you can make YouTube's. YouTube? I sound old then you can make YouTube's, you can make YouTube videos, and you can create a channel and you can just upload, and whether one person or five million people watch it is fine, isn't it? It's whatever you you've put yourself out there in the universe, and it's better than not doing something. I think when it comes to me is the quality of the content that's being put out. I would like to hope that mine isn't just a load of crap, if I'm honest with you. I would hope that my content has some value and makes people think and maybe correlates to what people's thoughts are already and resonates with people, etc. And maybe brings some new thinking to things, and people go, Oh yeah, yeah, you're right there. Um but yeah, I think we've always had that in in the world of YouTube, which is nearly 20 years old now, I think. I think YouTube started in 2007, 2008, I think. And um maybe a bit before that, and maybe getting confused. But we've had 20 years of content now, and I I enjoy doing the videos actually. It's the editing can be a bit annoying because I don't like to I don't cut the videos down, but I I have these two cameras that I swap between just like that, and that can be a little bit tiresome for me. Um it just adds a little bit of extra pressure for me to get something out there. So when I was just doing the the audio one, it was really quick and simple for me. I record it and it was all it was on my recorder and I transferred that to the computer, didn't have to do anything else with it, it went straight uploaded, it went straight to uh my my my um host which is Buzz Sprout, and um yeah I would pretty much just do some titles, think of a title, do a bit of edit on text and and upload it and and they do the rest. Whereas now I create the video, uh edit it, like slicing the different things together, putting the titles on it, um then I have to master it, take the audio from it, upload the audio separate to BuzzSprout, upload the video separate to YouTube, and then I have to wait for it to upload. I normally do all the stuff on BuzzSprout, then copy and paste it back into YouTube so it matches. YouTube has to do their content uh matching stuff and copyright stuff and um it's a process, uh, and it can take a while. Uh I'm getting better at it, I must admit, I'm getting faster at editing and getting faster at uploading and doing the do. But there's a little bit of pressure, like I'm recording this the day that the podcast goes out, and it's nearly half one. The podcast goes out at five, so uh when I finish this episode, it'll give me a few hours to do that. It'll probably take me 45 minutes, an hour to get everything edited and uploaded. Um when you've got a busy life and you're doing stuff, it it can it can put a bit of pressure on you. And that's something I didn't want, but now I've committed to doing the videos. I feel like I can't not do a video with the accompanying audio. Uh I feel like I have to do both now, um, which does somewhat put me under pressure. Uh I'm going away for a couple of weeks uh during this season, so I'm uh I've I've been away w once already, managed to get an advanced one done, hoping to get some advanced ones done for going away. Uh again during during during this season, and um yeah, there's a little bit of pressure to that. Um anyway, what was I saying? Yeah, I'm not scripted, and I think back in the day, I think people just had an idea of what they were saying. I don't think they were fully scripted, there wasn't the the kind of uh social media YouTube video like kind of standard or gold standard that people were doing, and I think some people led the way with the jump cuts, for example, and for production levels and yeah, and and technology improves as well, doesn't it? Like, you know, we we have improvements of phone technology to make it accessible to everyone, and then some people have separate equipment. I was considering buying some separate camera equipment just for doing the video part of this and for the vlogs, and I decided well no, I'll see how it goes. I've got a phone, let's see how it goes. But some people have like five or six cameras set up, uh sync to get together with fancy, fancy software. Um, yeah, it's it it's quite crazy. People at sponsorship have sponsorship deals now, and there's crazy money involved in that. I've heard of YouTube channels and Instagram influencers as well, because the videos on in Instagram, very high production levels, some of them. Uh, and they're like six-figure deals. Uh some people have had seven figure deals with Spotify and Spotify video, which is which is insane, like that people could go from like doing what I'm doing technically to to doing that. Um and again, I've I've never had it's always in the back of your mind, like, what if someone listens to my podcast and likes the idea of it and what if I suddenly take off? And I kind of like wouldn't be close to that, but I also part of me goes, oh, it'd be so much work. Would people like I probably wouldn't and have a full-time job, I probably could do this full-time, but I I'm just like the the pressure of that, I I enjoy the the the doing it how I do it. Uh maybe it would take less pressure because it would be a full-time job and you'd have days and days and days to think about stuff. I probably still would leave it to three hours before recording, before doing anything. Um but I'm not scripted whatsoever. I think a lot of videos now seem to be very scripted. Um AI has now become a thing, which is really annoying. AI videos, AI narration, um, and I think one of the biggest things that annoys me, and I was considering doing this, and Sarah said, don't, um, but it does have an impact for click click-through. Uh, and that's the you know, the the cover art that people put on for their for their YouTubes and for the podcasts. I used to put different cover art for my podcasts um when I first started as Steven Speak. Uh, I I don't do that now, I just keep the same infinite prattle cover art for every single podcast. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Uh I did see an increase in click-through rate when I used to change them, so maybe I should. But again, it's just another level of of work to say, right, what do I add to that one? You know, if I'm talking about this, do I add a picture of that on it? Do I do this? And it's just another layer of something to to change and upload and and store. I may do that in the future again. Um I I don't know, I don't know, but cover art on on some YouTube videos, there's a pattern at the moment where it's very much big bold statements on their cover art. Almost look it's looks like it's using MS Word Word art, so Microsoft uh word art, really, really basic text, and it'll just the the title of the video be um Can You Do This With This? And then on the video it'll say, I can't believe this happened. Um and it's kind of like clickbaity to bring you in, and but it kind of adds a bit of excitement to the picture, whereas as you know, for my YouTube channel, uh it's just normally a s a still of me sat here smiling, normally all looking weird at the camera, um, because that's just what YouTube has chosen to be that image for that video. Um and I'm wondering, should I do some sort of clickbaity kind of picture? But I don't want to, I don't feel like that's that's me, that's not my style. I kind of want to be true to myself. And a lot of videos are very in your face. Mr Beast, we we were watching Mr Beast videos this morning, actually. Um and when you watch his videos, they're so compelling, and I think they are like the gold standard for videos, they appeal to all ages, I think. Like I'm 42 and I enjoy that video. I think young kids would enjoy his videos. I think older people would enjoy watching the videos. There's there's a level of silliness to them, but seriousness to them. There's sometimes some slight educational stuff, they're visually satisfying and they're quick and punchy. Even the ones that last 40 minutes, there's enough going on to keep your interest, it's changing. It's it's quite a thing he's created. And I know I mentioned Mr. Beast earlier on, but when you when you look at his level of production, you know, it is insane. Uh but his videos do cost a lot of money. Uh this costs me an hour and twenty of my Sunday or whatever day it is that I do it, uh all in. And really cost me no money apart from the electricity to charge my phone and use my laptop. That's that's all it is. Whereas MrBeast's videos cost millions. So yeah, a slight difference there. So yeah, I just think that people label I don't even know what the point of this video was actually now. I've lost all thread. I made notes, but they they make no reference to some closed loop. Hey, it's me. You know what you were getting into. Um But yeah, I think that the whole content creator thing. I think when when I said I was gonna start making YouTube videos, it kind of scared me a little bit. I was thinking, oh my god, am I a content creator? But I thought I already am, being a podcaster, but now I'm a YouTuber, uh officially, um because my podcast did upload to YouTube just as audio. Um I hope that I join YouTube as a content creator this year as a beacon of simplicity, I would say. I hope I'm I I'm a I'm a symbol of a bygone era with no jump cuts, with n with n with no fancy stuff. Yes, I've got a bit of a tile at the beginning, a bit of a tile at the end, like put some captions on the screen, and you know, but I hope I hope that I'm I'm kind of a symbol of hope for how YouTube could be and make people make their own choices about when they see. Like when they see m see my pip my picture on YouTube and they go, Oh, look at that guy, he looks interesting, the title of his video seems interesting, I'll click that, rather than some clickbaity word art on the on the on the image, and some convoluted title to the video, um and A-B testing things going on, which you may have noticed on YouTube. Sometimes you'll see a video and then it'll have different artwork. That's something YouTube are doing now to content creators. If you didn't know, you can choose to upload multiple different artworks and titles to see what people are clicking on. So you can basically hone your advertisement skills basically. Uh and I've done it myself on a couple of things, but I my channel's not popular enough basically to get any results. Uh I don't have enough people clicking through my videos. Um and that's fine. That's fine. If you are watching, I'm deeply appreciative of you. Um and you think someone else would like it, share it. You know, do that whole you know, do that whole YouTuber thing where I say like, share, and subscribe. Um but yeah, seriously, thank you very much for for listening always to this podcast. Um it still helped me so much. It and I hope it helps you, and I hope that you get something from it as much as I do. And yeah, basically, take care of yourselves, and I'll see you on the next time. And remember, on the next time, I'll see you next time, and remember, God, keep prattling.

Switching To Video And Platform Choices

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Thanks for listening to Infinite Prattle with your host Steven. Follow me on the social network at InfiniteProntal. And don't forget to subscribe.