my oddly viral YouTube XS650 video

[DogBunny]

So, about a year and a half ago I made a video of a 1977 XS650 rust bucket that I resurrected.

WARNING: the vid is less than 5 minutes, but it's pretty boring. However for some reason, it has been viewed over 28 thousand times since November, 2017. It averages about 60 views every day.
So, my thought is to see what would happen if everyone reading this viewed it. I'm thinking it might rise in Google's search analytics and go even more viral.
I already warned you that it's boring. The whole purpose of the video was to show that the frame, forks, and wheels were in good, straight, usable condition before I parted the bike out. The vid is just a quick walk-around, and then I drive it up and down my street.
It makes you wonder how many views you could get if you made a video with a bike that was actually nice, or if you did something interesting in your video.
I'd also appreciate it if everyone would leave a comment -- I think that helps with Google's analytics too -- click on the "YouTube" emblem at the lower right to open the video on the YouTube page, and then you can leave a comment below. I promise to answer all comments. If you don't have time to waste, just click on it and then do something else for 5 minutes. I promise to report on whatever happens to my view numbers. THANKS.

 

[member28833]

That 77 XS could have retired and lived awhile longer in the Arizona climate!
I’d ride it , right over to Mailman’s place to see if he could polish it up just a little though

 

[Mailman]

I’d ride it , right over to Mailman’s place to see if he could polish it up just a little though

Ha! Just so happens I’ve got the buffer set up right now! I’m in the turd polishing business you know!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Fascinating. Going viral.

Must be the legs.

The ladies like that...

 

[DogBunny]

Thanks for watching!
A little more info on the bike: I completely forget where or why or for how much I bought it for, but I probably did a compression test which was good. It had no title, but all I wanted was the motor. Spent some time on the motor, including a head re-torque and servicing the advance rod, along with all of the other usual tune-up stuff.
The 1975 tins and seat and carb are from my 1976 daily driver. Nothing like nice original paint tins and a good seat to make a rust bucket look respectable, or a good bike look great.

 

[Bushyeyed1]

Already saw it a long time ago when i was looking into getting an xs650; nice bike.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

The junk I've uploaded hasn't got the hits anywhere near that, but much more than I was expecting, being obscure tech stuff, not of general interest. My silly little 6 second paint shaker vid has almost 1,000 views, and has been found on some other sites.

Some of I_AM_CARBON's videos (nightflyer12345) have gotten high view counts, almost 100k. Mostly his engine and clutch stuff from several years ago.

Did a simple search of "Yamaha XS650" on YouTube, billions of entries. Many with viewcounts exceeding 100k, even more exceeding 20k. Not sure if I see a pattern there, but it seems that the niche XS650 popularity is still strong...

 

[DogBunny]

Thanks again for watching and to those who left comments on YouTube (and here)!

Well, I didn't get much of a bump yesterday... these are my daily numbers for the last 28 days. Maybe today will be better.

Here are my daily numbers for the lifetime of the video.

I have 25 public YouTube videos. It's weird what gets viewed and what doesn't. In second place is another dull motorcycle video, much like the XS650 video, but this time it is of an XT500, and I'm demoing a big bore exhaust to be sold. It has almost 7,000 views in three years.

This is my third place video. It is a very pleasant one minute long, and I DO recommend that you watch it. It was made to demo the amp, which I was selling on Craigslist. People like it because my cat starts singing along with the guitar at the 0:35 second mark. It has been viewed over 4,000 times in 7 years.

 

[gggGary]

That video caught my cat's ear.

 

[DogBunny]

Glad that someone connected with it!
Thursday's viewings were worse than Wednesdays.
I am declaring this thread, and my attempt to push my XS650 video, as a total Fail. I'd say maybe 10 people on this Forum clicked on it? Thanks for playing along to those who did.

 

[Moabite]

....mailman's and jim's restos have 10X those numbers in only a year of views here, those viral numbers...

 

[DogBunny]

Well, yeah, but those threads have genuine content, and people actually like Mailman and Jim...
Those threads do have incredible, viral numbers.

 

[Mailman]

Well, yeah, but those threads have genuine content, and people actually like Mailman and Jim...
Those threads do have incredible, viral numbers.

I watched your videos, both of them. And by the way, my chihuahua liked your guitar playing too!

 

[Mailman]

Speaking of viral. I’ve posted photos of all of the bikes I’ve owned in the last 12 years on various forums. I’ve also got an Instagram account.
Just out of curiosity one day I googled ( images) for all the different bikes I’ve owned, and damned if all my bikes didn’t pop up.
Accessories too, I’ve done a lot of product reviews, they all came up. Windshields, travel trunks, saddlebags, horns, lights, you name it, it all popped up.
Something else that’s strange, my Instagram account for my XS2 has proven very popular in Indonesia, for some reason, and I have found my images on OTHER peoples accounts! It’s really weird!

 

[DogBunny]

The interweb IS weird and inexplicable. But your images' high rankings aren't too surprising -- you've invested time and effort into your postings, and somehow Google's algorithims have rightly recognized you. If only there was some way to monetize that...
BTW, I still don't have a smart phone, and I really don't even know what Instagram is (nor am I on Facebook). I'm beginning to get a bit concerned about what I will do the next time I have to sell a car. Craigslist has started charging $5 for listings in the Car & Truck category, which I don't mind paying, but I think this will hasten Craig's irrelevancy as car sellers increasingly use other venues that I am pretty much not privy to.
On a related note, all of the YouTube comments that I got on my XS650 video were pretty unexpected -- among them were two people who asked if I was selling the bike. One more way to sell an unusual car, I guess, make a great video of it and put it on YouTube.

 

[xjwmx]

You don't sound that much like Trump.

 

[Gator xs2]

So, about a year and a half ago I made a video of a 1977 XS650 rust bucket that I resurrected.

WARNING: the vid is less than 5 minutes, but it's pretty boring. However for some reason, it has been viewed over 28 thousand times since November, 2017. It averages about 60 views every day.
So, my thought is to see what would happen if everyone reading this viewed it. I'm thinking it might rise in Google's search analytics and go even more viral.
I already warned you that it's boring. The whole purpose of the video was to show that the frame, forks, and wheels were in good, straight, usable condition before I parted the bike out. The vid is just a quick walk-around, and then I drive it up and down my street.
It makes you wonder how many views you could get if you made a video with a bike that was actually nice, or if you did something interesting in your video.
I'd also appreciate it if everyone would leave a comment -- I think that helps with Google's analytics too -- click on the "YouTube" emblem at the lower right to open the video on the YouTube page, and then you can leave a comment below. I promise to answer all comments. If you don't have time to waste, just click on it and then do something else for 5 minutes. I promise to report on whatever happens to my view numbers. THANKS.

A diamond in the rough.

 

[650Skull]

Glad that someone connected with it!
Thursday's viewings were worse than Wednesdays.
I am declaring this thread, and my attempt to push my XS650 video, as a total Fail. I'd say maybe 10 people on this Forum clicked on it? Thanks for playing along to those who did.

Well i looked......lol........When you look at the number of people on the site there is only a small percentage of members who are active. Can get a high as 20% for a short time, but like now at 5:15PM over here in Oz, there are 111 people on the site and only 4 members..

Speaking of viral. I’ve posted photos of all of the bikes I’ve owned in the last 12 years on various forums. I’ve also got an Instagram account.
Just out of curiosity one day I googled ( images) for all the different bikes I’ve owned, and damned if all my bikes didn’t pop up.
Accessories too, I’ve done a lot of product reviews, they all came up. Windshields, travel trunks, saddlebags, horns, lights, you name it, it all popped up.
Something else that’s strange, my Instagram account for my XS2 has proven very popular in Indonesia, for some reason, and I have found my images on OTHER peoples accounts! It’s really weird!

Found some wiring diagrams, from this site and made on this site, on a payed site. They state if there is a copyright infringement to get in touch with them.........I tried and all that came up was a list of sister sites that again linked to sister sites and there was no way to contact the actual site.............. I started to fully copyright, (and added "not for commercial use") on any pic, wiring diagrams or parts manual pages if i do extensive alterations to them to use in pictorials that i post on here, or just post in general.

 

[Mailman]

So, about a year and a half ago I made a video of a 1977 XS650 rust bucket that I resurrected.

WARNING: the vid is less than 5 minutes, but it's pretty boring. However for some reason, it has been viewed over 28 thousand times since November, 2017.

Thought this needed an update……as of now it stands at 88,000 views!

 

[DogBunny]

Hey Mailman, thanks for that.
I am still perplexed by how many views this gets -- about 25 a day, down from 60 when I started this thread, and by how many comments it gets -- one every few months or so. Which I ignore, as I am completely over this video.
It was nothing more than a video made to sell the bike. And, it took as long to make as it takes to watch.
My hydraulic clutch mod vid, on the other hand, took hours, and hours, and HOURS to make, and it only gets about 10 views a day. But, I guess that's pretty good considering that it is a niche video.