VraxLIVE, 3 Million in 3 Months | Engagement Is The Most Powerful Tool on TikTok

Episode title: VraxLIVE, 3 Million in 3 months | Engagement Is The Most Powerful Tool on TikTok

Episode summary introduction: Host Skylerguns talks with Vraxooo, who garnered 3 Million TikTok followers in just 3 months. With nearly 3 million and Twitch Partner status, Vrax knows a thing or two when it comes to TikTok and increasing engagement. Vrax talks about the most important tool when it comes to TikTok, some of ther struggles he's faced after growing a large following so fast, and many others!

Topics discussed in this episode:

- Intro [:40]

- Being a Streamer in High School [8:06]

-  Streaming Before TikTok [11:30]

- What Vrax Plans To Do If He Gets Banned From Twitch [23:30]

- VraxLIVE Talks TikTok and How He Exploded in Growth [25:08]

- TikTok Myths and What is Truly Important [32:41]

- How to Pivot to a New Genre/Game [38:08]

- TikTok’s Poor Conversion Rate [40:22]

- TikTok Inspirations [50:11]

- More TikTok Myths [53:23]

- Vrax’s Advice for New TikTokers [1:04:56]

Resources mentioned in this episode:

- Vrax’s First Viral Video [25:35] 

- @thatkidwiththedeephole on TikTok [36:11]

- Vrax’s Second Viral Video [43:05] 

- Ranboo [50:40]

Calls-to-action:

Follow Vraxooo

Twitch
TikTok
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

Follow Skylerguns

Twitch
TikTok
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to TwitchTok with Skyler guns

Skylerguns : 0:04

How you doing my friend? How you doing

Announcer: 0:06

Twitch streamer.

Skylerguns : 0:08

Alright guys, I'm dead

Announcer: 0:09

at chick talker with over 80,000 followers. If you're a streamer or content creator trying to grow your audience, you're listening to the right podcast. Skyler chats with guests who've achieved success with streaming using Tick Tock.

Skylerguns : 0:22

So how'd you get started? What are your keys to success? How is your success on Tick Tock helped grow your brand,

Announcer: 0:26

learn their tips and tricks and everything TikTok related was it's time to showcase your content and grow your streams using Tick Tock. So let the conversation begin. This is TwitchTok TwitchTok. Here's your host Skylerguns. Ladies and gentlemen,

Skylerguns : 0:44

TwitchTok. I'm your host Skylerguns. And here I have with me, a man that doesn't need much introduction. VraxLive 3 million on TikTok in just a short few months 700,000 it took them two days, he is a full time Minecraft streamer just 16 years old Vrax how are you doing? I'm doing good. How

Vrax: 1:03

are you?

Skylerguns : 1:05

Doing good doing good. A core, you know, idea of this whole podcast is to help others grow and achieve success that others have. And I must say looking at your account, I see that you've definitely mastered the TikTok algorithm or at very least content creation. I mean, 3 million in just a few months is insane. Very insane. I mean, have you like have you fully grasp that concept yet?

Vrax: 1:30

I'll be completely honest, when everything first happened, it was so quickly, you know, from one day being at just 3000 followers to not even three days later being at almost 700,000 followers, it's quick, you know, is given a platform such a large platform to in such a short amount of time that it's a lot to handle, you know, it's not easy, both mentally and obviously, you know, to control it either. Because obviously, it's a huge storm and people that are brand new to, you know, to your content. So it's mostly about making sure you're keeping them engaged. And also making sure that just overall you have a positive community because I'm all about, you know, positive community, stuff like that. And having so many new people come in at once. I didn't know what to expect, you know, like usually, most people, they build up their audiences over time. And it's like a slow build. So you get that connection a lot more. But, you know, having my audience come to me very quickly at a very rapid rate. I didn't really have that one on one connection with a lot of my community. You know, it was all so quick. And it was like, I didn't know what to expect.

Skylerguns : 2:36

Yeah, I mean, you have like a small country on your hands at this point. Yeah. So we'll, we'll get to that part. And we'll talk all about that. But first, I kind of want to get an idea about you for you know, if there's anybody listening that doesn't know who you are yet, you know, 3 million that's a lot of people. So kind of almost. So how did you get your name? That's that's the that's what I like to start with. It's always very curious. Yeah,

Vrax: 3:00

so the name racks. So originally, when I was starting a it's actually kind of dumb, but I use the random name generator. Um, he didn't even fully generate the name for me, but more of the idea behind the verax brand. So I think something that came out was like, VREX, or something like that, right? Um, so I didn't like the way it looked, obviously. So I switched the E tonight. And I was like, Hey, I kind of like this. The problem with raksa with only one Oh, it's taken on everything. So I was like, Okay, I gotta switch it up a little bit. So I put two O's and I was like, Okay, I hate that scratch that. I put a third. Oh, and I was like, You know what, I like it. So I rolled with the name rack. So for the longest time, and only up until recently, I just started, you know, getting to become known as just verax alone because of TikTok. Because, you know, on TikTok I'm not on there is frac. So like I am on everything else. I'm fracked live on there. So most people when they know me through TikTok it's Hey, that's fracks not Hey, that's Vraxoo Oh, so my brain has sort of shifted it to have me more known as just Vraxoo rather than Vraxoo Oh, but the original name behind the whole brain was Rex. Oh,

Skylerguns : 4:13

God got it. That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, I definitely feel that can be a struggle to but I mean, once you kind of get big at a point, you know, then you kind of like choose whatever name you want, ya know? I mean, I don't think there's gonna be any other like very famous. It's funny you say that too. I know that Childish Gambino actually used a random name he used a Wu Tang name generators how he got his so pretty similar there. Um, so what's your what's your background in content creation? Like how did you get started? And how is this something that you knew that you wanted to do?

Vrax: 4:43

Yeah, so I started content creation. It was my freshman year of high school, I want to say was about a month or two into the new school year like I just started into high school. And basically my high school is an Esports team. So we're very fortunate to have a district backed eSports program. Through that I saw you getting more involved, like competitive gaming, and you know, just the esports scene as a whole. And through that, you know, I started realizing, you know, competitive gaming isn't the only thing out there, and I'm not the best that game, I can entertain an audience easily, I can do that. But if you put me into like a competitive game mode, do not expect me to be getting wins for you. All right, you'd like me to try my best, but I'm not there to get you wins. So, um, I originally played Overwatch from high school. So I was on that team for a while. And it was actually my whole freshman year, I stayed on that team. Um, but on the side, they wanted us to stream our games. So we had our team captain stream, whenever we play our games and stuff, and I like really just started loving it, like, not even the fact that it was like being live streamed to people to watch, but just the whole idea behind it, there's a chat there, you know, with people that can watch you, it's discoverability. And basically, I was a drama kid at the time. So I was doing shows and stuff like that. And after my drama show finish, I just realized how like crazy the schedule was, for me, as a high school student, you know, we'd have rehearsals where I'd be staying up till maybe 12am on a school night, and expect it to wake up the next morning and go right back to school. So the schedule is made no sense for me, you know, waking up at 6am, staying at school till 12am, then, you know, having to repeat You know, it was just not ideal for me, my grades were slipping. You know, I wasn't as happy as you know, I knew I could have been. And I was like, You know what, let me give this whole streaming thing a try, you know, I'd be allowed to combine my passionate, both gaming and you know, being in front of an audience into one thing that you know, I can do. So that's kind of just, you know, how I started streaming how I got into it.

Skylerguns : 6:40

That's insane. Well, yeah, I'm 24. So a little bit of an age difference there. So it's weird how things have changed since then, I definitely don't have anything like that. I wish I did. Um, so do your friends and stuff know, like about your following.

Vrax: 6:54

So I don't really talk much about it. And the reason for that is, um, prior to, like, just streaming and everything in general, like, I haven't really had, like, you know, a stir, I haven't really had strong friendships through school, you know, it's a lot of a lot of my school life, it's been, you know, jokes made at me and stuff like that, and just, it's not the type of environment that I would want to, you know, tell about all this stuff. When I know, you know, throughout my whole life, and being in school with these people, you know, the type of, you know, response that I've gotten from them just being myself, you know, so just realizing that I've kind of kept it, you know, close, you know, just like a close group of friends of mine. Um, but besides that, you know, people may have find found out on their own, you know, cuz obviously, you know, tick tock, everybody uses it, you know, so there's been some people that have found out through just TikTok alone, but I don't like sit there and go up to my friend, I'm like, hey, look, I have this many followers, and I do this, and this is what I'm doing. And, you know, like, I, I don't feel the need to tell them because, you know, I rather only have the people that I know, you know, support me through everything know, rather than, than people that would rather just support me, because, you know, maybe I have the numbers now.

Skylerguns : 8:04

No, that makes sense. That makes 100% sense. Something else too, was, you know, a lot of people they have to grind for years. And you know, a lot of people have to like end up getting like normal jobs, standard jobs and all that. So you're, you're very blessed to be able to get this like really young, do you plan to finish high school and maybe go to college and maybe even get a conventional job? Are you just gonna ride this out as long as you can? Yeah,

Vrax: 8:25

so my parents were very supportive of what I do. But the deal when I started all this was always that I had to finish high school and I had finished college, whether that was two years of college or four years of college, it had to be a minimum of two years of college that I had to get done. So high school has to get done, college has to get done. And then whenever I do have, that, they're completely supportive of him, whatever I choose to do, they don't care about. But they're, you know, they were always supportive. It was just the fact that I need to have some sort of college backing, just in case, you know, this turned South one day because as we all know, content creation is always changing. It's not stable, you know, because you know, income changes every single month, unless you're signs like an organization and you're getting a, you know, a steady income every month. Usually, income is all over the place. You know, one month you may be getting $1,000 a month, you might just be barely getting 100. So, there, they always told me that they're completely fine with me doing this and as long as my grades are up, I get through high school and I get to at least two years of college.

Skylerguns : 9:19

Wow. Okay, and you do all your own editing for pretty much everything you do, right? Yeah,

Vrax: 9:23

pretty much every so TikTok wise, YouTube wise, all that stuff. Even though my YouTube's kind of inactive, we're not going to talk about that. But like TikTok and stuff, I might have, like a friend of mine as an editor do like a TikTok here and there for me from time to do something fancy. But for the most part, everything's done by me.

Skylerguns : 9:39

That's insane. And anybody that edits out there, I mean, they understand how much time that takes truly takes a lot of time. So how do you balance school editing, twitch streaming like everything all together?

Vrax: 9:49

Yeah. So when I first started all this, um, it was more about getting myself into a schedule. So it was like school homework stream and then more time for homework or actually When I started shooting was the other way around. It was school stream to like 8pm event homework, and it was like that wasn't working. So I had to switch that up. Now it's kind of become more like school, leave time for homework, usually I will procrastinate because hey, high school kid, you know, what am I going to do usually procrastinate, then I'll stream then I'll do my homework, you know, at night, but I'll leave myself a good amount of time to make sure I get it done. So it's just been more about getting myself on a schedule with it. And my weekends are mostly free as well. So usually, my weekends are spent, you know, being productive editing, streaming, making content, some sort of stuff like that. And also with TikTok, I've learned that TikTok isn't all about quality, like, I've seen people take years to, you know, edit stuff, or draw something. And it's amazing talent, not trying to take that away from them. But it will not get the attention that it deserves. And what I've noticed is TikTok prefers stuff that is basic and simple, over things that are complex, you know, long term, and like overdone. So it's just, it's just for me, it's pretty simple to edit all that stuff. Because like my TikTok that I post now, maybe take me 1520 minutes, maybe 30 minutes at most at it, you know, and they're quick, simple ideas, I go record them quickly throw a voiceover over them, edited quickly, and we're done.

Skylerguns : 11:20

That's insane. I definitely want to circle back on that. Because I have I have a question about that. Because there's two different you know, two different ways for that, too. So I want to I want to talk about that. So before that you started TikTok you know, you were streaming for a bit and from my understanding you had, you know, a pretty humble following on Twitch. So how did you kind of grow your following before you did any kind of any kind of TikTok? And what was your average amount that you had?

Vrax: 11:44

Oh, okay, so when I started streaming, wow, this is not this is not something I've thought about in a while too. Um, alright, so when I started streaming the first game, I said it was brawl star, it was just a mobile game. Um, I started off with that game, because I was on a laptop at the time, so my laptop could not handle anything. And I have three laptops, 16 gigs of RAM. But it was like an old it may be like sixth or seventh Gen. So when we're looking at like modern CPUs and stuff, that's nothing for streaming, especially when I wanted to stream like fortnight and like all these other games and stuff. It was nothing compared to what I needed. So I was like, Okay, cool. I can I have a phone, I have a laptop, mirror my phone to mirror, my phones, the computer, let's hit start streaming, let's play. That was literally it. So I started off with that. That's when I had zero followers, practically nothing. started off with that met a couple friends, I actually are still very good friends with now to this day. I'm through that game. Um, and then from there, I moved on to a browser game called cranker, which I had a very good viewership then. So that was maybe sitting around the 40s or 50s. It was very, it was very good viewership, especially me barely even having 1000 followers at the time. So it was very just from streaming. So basically, how Conker works is when somebody goes live, it displays the top three streamers of the game based on viewers on the website. So I was getting people coming in from the websites, I'd usually be holding that top spot, a lot of times that I would stream. So I'd have people coming in from the website, you know, joining my games and trying to join my games and like looking to play and stuff like that. So I built a large community off of that, until I started moving into fortnight. So basically at the time, like I said, I slept my laptop, but I knew I loved fortnight like anytime that I was off stream was fortnight for me, you know, I'd be playing fortnight with friends grinding it off stream, I just didn't have the hardware to do it. So at one point, I just took my phone I was like, Hey, I have a phone for a mobile thing. Let's try it did like a couple streams that I want to say like five or six times a fortnight mobile did not go the best. Mostly because I'm not you know, I don't play mobile games. I play mostly PC games. So I'm like, I don't know what the controls were, but I was just doing it for the fun of it, you know. Um, and then basically I found out of this amazing program and the video offers GeForce Now. I'm not sponsored anyway, it sounds like it's a sponsorship every single time I talk about it, but I just absolutely love the program. So it was in beta at the time when I was using it. And basically, I was like, it's in case you don't know what GeForce Now is for anybody listening. It's basically this program that runs on your computer that basically connects you into a cloud computer that runs the game for you. So I was like, Okay, my computer Carolyn the game, so why not just connect it to this, play the game on there, capture it and stream it. So I started doing that sort of streaming a lot of fortnight and that's how I got myself into fortnight. Um, and I suppose for now for a while I want to say over a year I shouldn't fortnight and throughout that time I went from averaging maybe my 40 to 50 from cranker all the way down to like five again, and then building it back up to around 1520 when I started venturing into Minecraft. Once I hit Minecraft that 1520 stayed around the same for the most part, but then once I hit TikTok Like that 15 and 20 turn to like hundreds.

Skylerguns : 15:04

Insane. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that a lot of people go through that same period where they are, they're stuck at a certain level, or no level at all. And, you know, once they kind of find that following on TikTok, or find some sense of community, they explode like crazy. I mean, it is a huge difference. I mean, so it's safe to say like, you know, without TikTok, you definitely wouldn't be close to where you are right now, because you just hit twitch partner.

Vrax: 15:25

Yeah. TWITCH partner. This is a whole nother thing with that going on right now.

Skylerguns : 15:30

We want to talk about that.

Vrax: 15:34

So, yeah, I was super fortunate to get accepted into the twitch partner program, and then obviously got the other news, which will go on about later on. But yeah, no, like, it's always been a goal of mine to achieve twitch partner I've known since I started that it was something that I wanted to achieve. And being able to achieve it now, like so quickly, with everything that happened was TikTok, it completely blows my mind. Because, you know, I would have never imagined, you know, if you would have asked me six months ago, where do you think gonna be at the end of 2020? I would have never told you this, like, I would have never said anything about Tick tock, tick tock would have not been on that list for anything. Because prior to tick tock, I had four other accounts, you know, on Tick tock, and they all failed. They didn't go the way that I wanted them to. They were completely like, just, it was full flop. So I was like, Okay, give me one TikTok then when I met you in the writing stars competition, I'm in round two of that competition. They were like Mega TikTok. I was like, Okay, cool. You want me to go to the one platform that is, you know, success on? Cool. Um, but at the time, you know, I also like, I had a lot of friends that were on the platform, and we're seeing results, seeing success. And I was just like, you know, let me see if you know, I can get on this and do something with it. So I got on it, I started doing something with it. And next thing, you know, I turned into something bigger than I could imagine.

Skylerguns : 16:53

And Zayn. And that's another thing, too, that a lot of people don't see is that you exploded to 3 million followers. But there's a lot of failures up to that point, like you said for other accounts. You know, so a lot of people get demotivated when they see somebody else explode so fast, but they don't really see all the backend stuff and all the failures it took to get there. So it's definitely a big part of it. Something I'm curious about, because you know, when I look at your account, the very first video like you hit the ground running, you came in with an immediate banger that video blew up and I was just banger after banger after banger on TikTok. So what was your background in content creation? Because you didn't you know, all you were doing is streaming. So how did you know how to edit? How did you know how to like stay engaged? Yes.

Vrax: 17:32

Although my first TikTok like I mentioned before, it was for luminosity is rising stars competition. So that one that probably one of the one videos on my channel that is not edited by me. So I have a friend he does a lot of social media stuff I liked. He you know, I talked to him every single day. I was like, Hey, this is what's going on. I need to make a tech talk you, you know, he does TikTok marketing like he does like his areas. I was like, I need to tick tock. And I was like, you know what you're doing teach you what to do. So we got an A call, I got all the footage for him. I sent it over to him. I was like, let's get this song. Let's see what you could do with it was like, okay, we sat in the call throughout the whole thing. Got it all together, that video went up, and I thought nothing of it. Next thing you know, I see it hit the first time like it starts hitting the for you page. So all of a sudden my accounts about hit 100 followers. That's a mix of both Twitter and the video. Um, maybe the video was thinking maybe like 100 likes, but I thought most of that came from Twitter. You know, in my head, I'm like, okay, there's no way this is gonna be like a blow up video. And the first thing, next thing, you know, I wake up the next morning and already almost like 1000 followers, and I'm like, What in the world has happened. And it from there, it was like, I was like, Okay, I'm starting to see results. You know, like, these are the results that I had not seen on TikTok, which made me Give it up the first four times that I tried it. And you know, after seeing all my friends that I had spoken to, you know, seeing success with it. I was like I knew I wanted to get onto tik tok, just not the right way to approach it. So the minute that I started seeing that video start doing well, I was like, Alright, this is it. You know what we're gonna put a lot more time into tech talk, focus on this focus on growing that because now I'm starting to see the growth that I've always killed for I'm not gonna let that go to waste.

Skylerguns : 19:12

Makes sense. Makes sense. So before we start talking about TikTok very heavily, and you know, getting all your juicy secrets that you have for making making a viral. We'll talk about the twitch thing too. So you haven't been able to stream the past week and a half, two weeks, because if you guys don't know, twitch has been banning accounts for people that have made their account prior to turning 13 even though they may be of age now. And who was made before you were the age of 13. They're banning people. There's bigger streamers out there that aren't getting banned, even though they made their account before they were 13. So it's like there's some favoritism going on. And they're kind of leaving you in the dust right now. They're not giving you any kind of answer. They said that you were gonna be banned but they haven't banned you. What's up with that?

Vrax: 19:55

So I basically reached out to twitch support because one of my friends got his partnership denied for his age on his account on matching his actual age. So I had applied for twitch partner and at the time, I didn't know what the you know what the response was. And I was like, Okay, so what's happening here, you know, so I emailed them like, Hey, can we get my birthday change? Here's my, you know, here's my license, it was my whatever my permit, same thing. Oh, I was like, here's, I was like, here's my ID, it was my birthday, can we get it changed, blah, blah. So I in response back and they're like, hey, ah, the account was created if we were 13, which means no longer allowed to be used. That is the email usually people saw before they got banned. And they were usually banned after that email. So I go to twitch immediately after getting that email. I'm like, ah, Mike, I'm still here. So I emailed him back and was like, okay, so I explained to him the story. So here's the story behind my twitch account. Basically, my dad made me an email when I was younger, because obviously, I don't know how to make an email when I'm, like, you know, younger, you know, I had an iPod and stuff and an iPad, but it's like, you know, I don't want to make an email for all this stuff. So I had an email that my dad set up. And he had made a twitch account underneath the email he had made for me, it wasn't, I wasn't using the twitch account, it wasn't even underneath me. Um, he was the one that was using it, you know, that was his account. He just made it at the time wasn't even actively actively using it. Then comes around my birthday, I wanted to get into Twitch and stuff, you know, so I think it was exactly a week after my birthday. I was like, Alright, Dad, this is my email, you're off this account, you're making a new one. And I'm thinking over this one. So I took over the account that's now mine. I'm set a week after my 13th birthday. And then my dad made a new account, which actually, there's actually dates to prove all this too, which I sent over to twitch as well. Because the day that my dad made his account is exactly seven days after my birthday. I'm my 13th birthday. So I send them back that whole story and they basically send me back and they're like, yeah, that falls in violation of our terms of service. I was like, in what way and they were like in the sense that it's trading and selling accounts. I'm like so because my dad gave me an account now it's considered trading and selling like that made no sense to me. And since that email I emailed them and was like Okay, so what's happening the account is getting suspended when's it getting suspended? Should I be expected to get it suspended on a certain day since then they've been nothing partner support doesn't email me back twitches legal team as an email me back nothing.

Skylerguns : 22:18

Wow, that's insane. Yeah, I hear that twitches not the best when it comes to emailing.

Vrax: 22:22

I mean, usually they are and you'd you'd expect, you know, cuz like, as a partner, we get partner support, we have priority support from Twitch, I haven't even gotten a response from them. And I've already gotten three emails saying, how would you rate our service? If you gave me like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here and like, you know, trash on Twitch cuz, you know, I still like there for you, for me to be opportunities with the twitch in the future, regardless of this whole situation? Well, you know, once it all dies out, and stuff I select to work with twitch in the future, but like, how am I gonna, like, the only email that I got from them was, hey, we got your email. And then a week later, just like, Cool, so how is our service like, no communication in between no response, no, nothing. And as a partner, you know, you, you look for that priority support, because you know, you are a partner, you've worked your way up to that level. So you'd expect that twitch would give some sort of like, you know, response to you, even if it's something that you don't like, you know, whether they said, you know, they could have just sat there and told me, Hey, we can help you with this, something like that, you know what I mean? Because that's a lot better than just, you know, sending me an email saying Cool, right, our support, which I will put it on the table, I left them I left them a nice note. I left them some feedback.

Skylerguns : 23:30

Oh, man, what is your game plan if you do get that account banned with

Vrax: 23:36

1000 followers been planned for it, like I said, um, you know, this has kind of been something that's been on my mind, since it all sort of coming to light. Three of like, the four that I've actually got in Bedford are actually my close friends that I talked to you like every single day. So that goes max flusher. Harry, um, you know, we, we all talk every single day. So it's like seeing them lose, their accounts have to restart because they created, you know, you know, their accounts being created before they were 13. It was like, You know what, let me prepare for the worst. So I made myself a new twitch account if underneath the username brax Live, because obviously, people be able to find that because my TikTok. So I made that new Academy for us named brax. Live, my current account currently just sits inactive and unused until I hear about from Twitch. So I'm not going to continue to grow myself on that account, when I might have it stripped away from me any day now. So

Skylerguns : 24:25

that makes sense. I mean, that sounds pretty smart. I mean, if you don't hear back soon, are you gonna start streaming on the same account? I

Vrax: 24:31

don't know the case. It's kind of a rough spot for me, because I don't know how lenient Twitch is gonna be about it until the accounts suspended because I didn't, I also have to remember that I'm still a partner with them. That accounts still stands, and it's still in violation of the Oto s. And at the end of the day, I don't want to also just throw away everything that I've worked for. So it's more of a debate of, if I start streaming again, where will it be? Really, it's going to be more like am I going to stream on my partner to count if it's still standing Or is going to be on the new account? And when's that gonna happen? But it's more, so I'm just waiting to hear back from twitch before I do anything on my own.

Skylerguns : 25:08

Yeah, makes sense. Well, I hope they get back to you soon, because I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that miss your streams. So let's talk about TikTok. The main meat and bones of this podcast. Like I said before, I'm sure that you have a lot of valuable knowledge that you might be able to share with some other people that are trying to achieve the same goals. So we kind of talked about your main video and how you started on TikTok. But you know, your real claim to fame, your video that you posted that got you 700,000 followers in three days. Very simple video, and I will link it in the show notes. But basically, it's just you with some Minecraft gameplay in the background, and then a voiceover of you saying, Hey, I'm a Minecraft streamer. You're not following me, you should follow me. You know, give me seven days, I'm gonna post something every day. And you know, if you you choose if you want to keep following me after that super simple, like you said, and that blew up currently at 10 million views. A couple verified accounts followed you 700,000. It's just insane to think about that. And I've actually seen other people recreate that same exact video and have seen success. So it's crazy. I mean, you really started something. So what was your inspiration for that video? And how did you even get that idea?

Vrax: 26:18

Yeah, so I saw a video on my for you page sort of similar to that. And I was like, hey, I want to do something like this, you know, it's really a cool idea. Maybe I'll get a couple 100 followers off of it, you know, because at the time, like I said, You know, I saw that I was finally seeing the progress that I wanted on TikTok. And I was like, I'm gonna capitalize on every opportunity that I possibly can. But for me, ideas do not float through my head when it comes for videos. And if they do, it's like on the spot, and I'll forget about him like five seconds, like so a lot of my inspiration for stuff comes from content that I see from other people. Um, but when I post on to my page, I have some sort of twist on it, whether it's a different game compared to the person that originally posted it, or something like maybe a completely different script compared to what they did. I think a lot of inspiration from other creators, you know, from what other creators are doing what I see doing well, for other creators. I saw this video on my freebie page, but maybe early on, like a maybe it just been posted me and be like 510 minutes, you know, ago after it was posted. I saw and I was like, You know what, let me try this. So I went edited it, had it ready, save my draft. I went out I volunteered that morning, I got out of volunteering, um, when I posted it, shut off my phone, like that was him shut off my phone, left it next to you know, I go home videos today, like 10,000 views already. I'm like, Okay, wow, that's a lot of views. Oh, and then I go live on Tick Tock because I unlocked it. And there was my first time ever going live on Tick tock, someone saying hi to all the new followers, you know, welcoming everybody just introducing who I am. So people got to know a little bit more about who I was. All of a sudden, my viewership went went from maybe 50 to almost 700. And I'm like, What just happened? And all of a sudden, somebody's like, yeah, go look at your video. It's not like, somebody was like, look at your video is that like 100 k views? I'm like, What do you mean? And I go on, I'm, like I just looked at it was at 10 K, I go look 100 k views, I refresh it. 200 K, refresh it like do like throughout this whole stream, maybe a went from maybe 100 k view of sorry, the 10 k views that I started at two, almost 400,000 views and like maybe like an hour long stream on TikTok. And I was like, What in the world just happened? I just went from 3000 followers to 10,000 followers, and it's not stopping. So I was like, TikTok, I need a second. And the stream, just like I sat down. And I was like, I was like what in the world is going on. And all of a sudden, 10 k happened 20 k happen 30 4050 6070 all the way up to 100 K. And I was like, this just happened. You know, like, in the span of just 24 hours, I grew my account from the 3000 followers that I had been holding for about two weeks prior all the way up to 100,000. And that was that's not even where it stopped. You know, the next morning I wake up, it's still climbing, like it was still climbing and climbing for I think that the whole week, the whole week that video was up, it just kept climbing and views climbing in, you know, people seeing it climbing and the amount of followers that i was growing from that. That video I think in total grew me 763,000 lighting the number, the exact number is down to 63,000 followers off of that one video. And that's just, that's just prior to the other video that I made that, you know, helped me grow so much more.

Skylerguns : 29:23

Which we'll we'll get into that one that one's very curious as well. tik tok is, you know, a strange platform because I feel like it's the only platform where you can have a very large following, but your videos will not get pushed to your followers unless you're making a good video, you know, quote unquote good video compared to the algorithm. You know, I'll see accounts with millions of followers getting like, you know, a couple 1000 views on a video. It's quite sad because, you know, a lot of the times it's not that their contents bad. It's just that you know, for some reason, TikTok doesn't like it. And there's people out there that even comment on it's like, Hey, I don't see you on my YouTube. anymore like, I still miss your videos, yada yada yada. You know, you grew an audience very fast. And you promised them seven videos one a day for a whole week. And that was, you know, a big commitment. And it could have easily you could have posted something and it easily could have gotten 1000 views. And your account could have, you know, been dead in the water after that, because I've seen that happen to people blow up officer and video and not be able to hold that traction. So that's what's like, truly amazing to me is that you made certified banger after banger after banger. All seven of those days, you were getting hundreds of 1000s of views. So what was your strategy? And what is your formula for getting a good viral video? How did you hold that momentum?

Vrax: 30:41

Yeah, so once that video went up, um, I kind of had the space to do whatever I want it, you know, it's like, people wanted to see what I could do. But at the end of the day, it's not always what you want to do. Because you have an audience, you have to entertain, it's more about what they want to see. So I went in there with like, maybe two or three ideas to get me through the first like three days, right. But underneath every single thing, I was asking people, hey, what would you like to see? Like, what type of content? Would you like to see whether it's specific game mode? Or like, Is there some sort of series that you want me to start just anything along the lines, they'll get my community to tell me what they were interested in. So I can get a broader idea, like, cuz like I said, I love grabbing different ideas from different people and stuff, right? So throughout this week, it was just like me experimenting with different things for maybe stream clips to stream tips to, you know, just a funny moment that happened in the bed Wars game or something, you know, so it was more about just testing to see what my new audience that I have found love, rather than, you know, just going on, based off of what I wanted to post, you know, isn't trying to get a mix of both. So mix of my style, but with what they want to see. So as in terms of getting a viral video. Um, I've kind of learned that me going against everything that I've ever been told, like, by anyone has worked for me. So when I started TikTok, I always, always post two to three times a day, everyone's probably heard that like that on tik tok, if you want to grow post two to three times a day, you don't reply to comments, cuz that hurts you an algorithm. We've all heard comments like that, you know, I was always told when I started TikTok, replying to comments hurts you an algorithm, because it picks it up as like a fake comment, right? And that, um, what's it called? posting two to three times a day was best for you. I went against all that. I was like, okay, whatever I'm posting once a day, and I'm gonna reply to every single comment that I possibly can. And that's what I did. And that's where I've seen the most success, which makes me laugh because the people around me allow me to do it otherwise. And I said, you know, forget about what you have to say, I'm my own person. I'm trying in my own way. And it's just worked for me.

Skylerguns : 32:42

For sure. And that's one of the reasons why I started this podcast, because I feel like there's all TikTok gurus out there that claim they know the algorithm, and they want to spew all this, you know, stuff about posted into, like all that kind of stuff, like everything you said, and, you know, I just don't I think it's a lot more complicated than that. And I honestly believe that there's nobody out there, you know, yourself included, that can say that they know the algorithm, and they crack the algorithm, and they know exactly what to do to make it work. You know, there's tips and tricks here and there, which, you know, we could dive into for hours, but I don't think anybody really knows it. So let me see a heads, I had a thought in my head. Oh, we circling back to what we were thinking about before. You know, there's two different mindsets that people have when it comes to TikTok. There's either quality versus quantity, there's people that focus on quantity, and posting, like you said, two to three times a day, or even just trying to post something every single day, no matter the video, no matter the idea, just trying to push out content. And then you know, which I would say that, you know, you post you posted pretty consistently for almost, you know, every day, I'm trying to understand what boat that you're in. And then there's the quality, who there's some people that will post once a week, but they spend hours and hours and hours on that video, and they make sure and there's some people that it works, you know, it really depends. For some people, it works for some people it doesn't. So I kind of want to get your input on where you stand. What do you think is most important? Like what do you hold true to that?

Vrax: 34:06

Personally, in my opinion, quality doesn't even have to be your key factor. I think it's just more about consistency, not even not even quantity, it's more consistency than quantity or quality. And the reason I say that is because I've had videos that I've put hours work into do terrible, and then maybe I'll post something similar to it with like the same quality and they do well. So I don't really think quality has as much of you know a balance between it because as we'll see on the for you page, there's a lot of content that looks like people put it together in 30 seconds, whether it's a kid that goes viral accidentally for just holding the record button down and laughing to the camera for something and people loving it. Or you know, it's complex, somebody making like a just a super, you know, detailed painting or something you know, like there's there's no really balance between quality of the video and how many times you're posting because what I also notice as well At least from my experience of people that I see posting a bunch, their videos don't do as well, because I just want to push out 10 videos of yours to the for you page all at once you know what I mean? So what I've noticed is, it's a lot better to just get yourself on a consistent basis, whether that's one to two times a day for you, or maybe even three times whatever works best for you. Just make sure that the content you're pushing out, you didn't even have to be good quality. Just make sure it engages your audience. That's literally it. Like, if you see any of my videos that have like, gotten me my following. It's all stuff that it keeps the viewer hooked, and it keeps them wanting to engage with the video and not just my video in general, but my account in the future.

Skylerguns : 35:42

And do you have a strategy on posting time do you post?

Vrax: 35:46

I'll be completely honest, people were like, It was at this time it was at this time, I was like, Yeah, cool. I'm free, cool post. Like, it's kind of like, if I'm free, I'll edit it together. I'll put it together. And I'll have it all up like in like that same time span. So it's like edit posts done.

Skylerguns : 36:01

Makes sense. Yeah. Something I wanted to mention, too, I it's just funny, like people blow up for you know, like you said, the easiest reason so simple. I'm always wanted to talk about this. I don't know if you've seen this account, but this account used to come up on my page all the time. His username, it's a kid, right? He's like, probably got to be like 1213 years old. It's a kid and his username is that kid with a deep hole, obviously, very poor choice and username there. But basically, he found this like random pipe in the middle of, you know, near his house or something like that. And he would just drop stuff down the hole. And it's like a really long pipe that goes really far down. You know, you drop a bottle, and you know, so his whole account was just based off of people recommending to throw stuff down there. And he would throw whatever down there. And then I actually I haven't seen him on my page in a little bit. It looks

Unknown: 36:51

more like dub what he's done.

Skylerguns : 36:54

So what happened is, I did a little digging, and I went to his profile, because I was like, I haven't seen him in a while, you know, his content stopped being pushed. He deleted all his videos. He has like maybe five videos up. I searched through the comments, I guess some lady found out what he was doing and called the police on him. Because the whole the pipe goes down to like the sewer system. So he was based Oh, no. But that kind of ties into what you said before how sim how something so simple can blow up your account. He has 1.5

Vrax: 37:25

comments now somebody said show us the cop store. And he replies like No, I'll lose followers.

Skylerguns : 37:32

It's so funny. It's funny, dad is great. And now, you know, his his content is not anything in relation to what he was using. 100% You know, I think what if you're looking at it right now, what's his last video have like

Vrax: 37:48

27,000. And it was posted last day, January.

Skylerguns : 37:52

And he was getting like million 27,000 75,000 62,000 112 91 171.

Vrax: 37:58

And then the ones before and that looks like before we deleted 993,000 a 1.5 million. So definitely a big difference.

Skylerguns : 38:09

On that topic. I know TikTok loves consistency. And that's why niching down very soon and early is very important. And trying not to like branch out and explore too much. I think that when you have a larger following you have more of that freedom to like kind of branch out. But it's definitely going to be a struggle. You know, all of your content is mostly 100% Minecraft related. So let's say you know, you switch games in the past, let's say that you want to switch games again. Have you thought about that? Do you think that you're gonna make another account? Are you just gonna roll with the same account,

Vrax: 38:41

I've kind of thought about that. Um, I also know that a very popular game between my community just because of the amount of videos that I've been tagged in, um, is Roblox. So Roblox has been a game that I've been considering going into and just like giving it a shot and seeing how it does on my page. Um, but I can't sit there and safely say, you know, what would happen if I switch games? Because, you know, for all I know, I could switch to Roblox and you know, start pulling, you know, five times my view count. Now, you know what I mean? So, there's really no telling what would happen, it would just be more about, you know, what is my community stance on it? So does my community enjoy it isn't that they're, you know, looking to keep engaging with, it's more about just seeing, like I mentioned before, like, how are they going to react to it? And also, how much content can I get from that game? Because not all games have full amounts of content, like we've seen with fortnight, a lot of like, the stuff in fortnight, it's been done already, a lot of content and form has been repeated. Because there's only so much you're able to do in the game like fortnight, you know, so it's gonna be more about like, you know, what type of content can I make from that game? You know, what type of audience Am I targeting? Like, whether it's younger, older, or like, you know, people that are, you know, play the game every single day, or don't play it as often like, do I have to explain stuff in depth? Or can I be like a little more laid back with stuff? So it's a lot of like thinking just more like what audience Am I going to Targeting with these types of videos, rather than, you know, I didn't pay views don't matter to me, you know, if a video doesn't million views, that's great and all, but I can I can care less videos, 100,000 views, you know what I mean? Like, I've been super fortunate where most of my videos are sitting over 500,000 views each. But at the end of the day, in my head, I'm thinking that my audience enjoys and that I'm enjoying, I have no problem with the view dropping, you know what I mean? That's not an issue for me,

Skylerguns : 40:22

to touch on what you said, you make a great point views don't matter at all, and neither does follower count. I've seen like huge accounts with a huge following, not be able to convert any of their followers to you know, anything. So something that I love to hear about, and I kind of kind of get a lot because I struggle with myself is how do you convert all those followers to get them to do what you want to do, whether it's following your Twitter, following your twitch stream, participating in the giveaway, all that kind of stuff, because I've seen huge conversion for you.

Vrax: 40:51

So something that I've noticed is that Tick Tock is one of the worst platforms for conversion, like, because compared to other platforms, like on Twitter, if you have a million followers, you can get yourself to 100,000 followers on Twitch, for example, right. But for me, like I'm gonna just say, from my experience with TikTok, like before K, I was seeing maybe 4000 followers, I'm now at 3 million followers. And, you know, I've only been able to convert over about 30,000, which it's still it's still a very, you know, huge amount compared to what I was at before, but at the same rate, it's nothing compared to other social media platforms and other social media platforms, you know, like conversion rate. And a big part of the attitude is people come on to TikTok with the idea that they want to watch short videos, they don't want to go off TikTok. You know, TikTok is an addicting app that people will not click off, unless there's some sort of incentive, like, the way that I've seen it work best is giveaways, you know, because then it's like, hey, click the link in my bio, when this takes like five seconds to do it, people will go because you know, now people have an incentive to click on it, you know, but if you're just sitting there saying, like, hey, go do this, unless you have like a super committed bait a fan base, you know, like an account with 1 million followers, maybe you'll be lucky to convert 50,000 twitch followers, if you can, you know, so the conversion rate on TikTok not the best I've been definitely You're very lucky when it comes to converting across a large amount of my platforms. In terms that, you know, I grew my twitch from, you know, a viewership of like, 15 to 20, to you know, where I'm singing now. And also with Twitter, you know, I grew a large amount through Twitter as well, like, I've been super fortunate. But I know a lot of others currently find success in converting that over. So

Skylerguns : 42:27

yeah, it definitely depends on how you go about it. I think a lot of people are afraid to start using TikTok. because of that reason, because they're like, conversions bad, but I don't think people can't go in there with that mindset. You know, I talked about this last week, and I'm sure you might agree with me too, is like when you're starting out on TikTok, you know, you shouldn't go in with the goal, hey, I'm gonna tell everyone to go to my Twitch, I'm just gonna make that my core focus, you kind of have to make actual content to grow that fan base and then make people want to go over to your twitch in the first place, because the content that you're putting out. So that's, that's one of the things that a lot of people kind of, you know, get confused about. So talking about before, so this is the second video that you posted, that made you blow up to the three pretty much the 3 million that you're at right now. This video is the TNT video, I'm sure that some of you guys, if you're on TikTok, you might have seen it. Basically, the core concept is you told everybody that for every follower, you get, you're gonna place one block of TNT on this world and blow it up at the end of a certain day. And you got you had to place what was it 2 million.

Vrax: 43:32

So basically, the video that blew up surprisingly, was the third video that I had posted about this whole thing, which makes the it's funny to me. Because if I would have not continued as a series, this would have never done the amount of views that it did, you know, um, so the first video basically said, you know, for every new follower that I get, I'll place a block and a block of TNT as long as they fall within the month of January, right. So, at the time was getting about the 780,000 calls, I want to say but hit 800,000 um, basically, I post that video gained about 60,000 followers. Um, I posted a video about it. I was like, Yeah, cool a lot. He followed me off of that. Yeah, so I'll place it tomorrow, give you an update tomorrow. Basically, the video that blew up was reply to a comment someone saying that my computer is going to die on me after I blow up the world and stuff and it's just me placing down 6000 blocks TNT for the 60,000 people that followed the day before. Next thing you know, I go to sleep I wake up and I'm at Angie. Okay. I'm like, Okay, cool. We're getting somewhere. Next thing you know, I think it was like two hours after that. 900 K. 1 million and literally, like I actually it's been super cool. So I've actually logged like the whole every single milestone to Twitter. So I have I have every single milestone from like, I think the lowest I think it's 3000. So from 3000. I logged it every 10,000 up to 100,000. Then every 100,000 and then I've been tracking it by like the millions like keep like track of how like you All my gross like, there's timestamps to follow all this stuff. It's awesome. Like, legit just started something so slow, right? It was like, Okay, I'm getting followers getting followers. Also, this is one big peak all the way up from like 800 K to a million then 2 million, 3 million all in the span of like 72 hours.

Skylerguns : 45:18

That's crazy cuz I feel like you didn't even have a chance to celebrate and he feels any of those milestones because you hit one milestone, bam, another milestone.

Vrax: 45:26

Basically I hit it. So it was the night that I was hitting one mil I remembered Exactly. It was maybe like 1am my cousin was sleeping over. We were supposed to be sleeping, because obviously is one of my little cousin. But he knew that I was doing TikTok and all this stuff. And he was like, hey, you're about to hit a million. So what do you mean? He's like, Look, so we pull up a live tracker, we're sitting in my room, it's 1am My parents are sleeping. And we're just sitting there watching, we're like, when's it gonna hit Wednesday night? When's it gonna hit, and it hit and we screamed, like, like, we screen like, there was no holding back. And at that point, luckily, like I like so basically, throughout all this, I've had a couple of panic attacks just because of like, just how quickly it's all happened. You know, like, it is not a may look easy, just have you know, a large community come to you very quickly. But it's not It comes with a lot of stress, you know, in terms of like, you know, need to make sure your contents good and that you're still pulling you know that viewership from those new followers and stuff like that. So that got all very stressful to me while still managing school because my grades will be at the time. So while I'm trying to manage school and streams and all that stuff, it was just like everything was growing so quickly and happening so fast that like, I personally couldn't handle it, you know, when that first 150,000 followers happened. So luckily, when the 1 million happened, all this started happening, I was a lot more under control and like able to handle it all rather than you know, when I first started and had my first video, you know that when big? So

Skylerguns : 46:48

yeah, I can understand how it can be stressful too. How did you get the idea for the TNT video so

Vrax: 46:54

the TNT video it was actually another game that idea that I got it from so like I said, I love pulling ideas from other people and putting my own twist on it and my own like theme on it and my own personality on it. So I believe it was fortnight actually I came up with for you page. Um, it was some guy I think he was gonna buy one v book for every new follow that he got. And I saw it I saw this video earlier. I don't think that I don't think their video did as well as they had hoped for it. But I know it didn't, it did pretty well for them. Um, but what's going on? I saw that I was like, Okay, wait a second, I have an idea. So, basically, I was like, I'm gonna place a block of TNT in Minecraft blow up in the month, you know, cuz, you know, what I realized was the way that my strategy wasn't my content that has gotten me to blow up was getting people to follow for a longer period of time that keeps them engaged, that whole period of time was like, okay, you know, we did it, we did a week the last time I did this, let's try the full month see where we go with this. Next thing you know, it's like, I'm placing these these blocks TNT, I'm thinking nothing on like, you know what, you know, maybe a couple 100 followers, you know, it's all gonna be fine. And a month when a bulk like a world is like 500 TNT at most. Next thing, you know, 2 million blocks of TNT in this world, we had to blow it up. So the whole idea from it literally came from one person's video that I saw. And I was like, I want to put my own twist on it. And this whole Minecraft idea went like spiraling out and like when like, from Minecraft into other games, like often my videos like I saw people doing my same idea I saw people doing I actually saw one arm where people were it was the fortnight one again, but it was somebody else doing it this time, I don't even think they realized the original video, arm boys, but it was just legit, just like that one video kind of just started as like a trend in the sentence, which got a lot more traction. Because, you know, once you have people, you know, crediting me for this video and stuff and doing it on their own, more people gonna funnel in to see what this video is all about, like, what what does this person talking about? You know, that's why people give credit in the first place, you know, so the original person gets credit for, you know, their idea. And like, I can't even tell you I've seen I've had friends do the idea. I've had other larger content creators, you know, do this idea. And they've seen pretty good numbers like throughout the series, like, but the only thing that I've noticed is, a lot of them were not able to hold it. Because at the end of the day, it's a whole month as a whole that for you know, it's not just like, Hey, give me a week, you know, like I did with my first video. It's like, Don't give me it's not it's not like giving me a week anymore. It's give me a full month, 90 to four months with the content to appeal to this brand new audience that you know, I'm seeing once again, large peak this large rise and it's like, you know, I think I was doing that TNT video. I don't think I have a single video that was underneath a million views, which is completely insane to think about like, it was just million few millions, like I could post anything if I wanted to. I could really post a video of me saying like, Hello, and that probably would have done a million views to at the time. Like literally, I like literally I was posting videos that I was not even proud of and I'm just like, Okay, I need to just get this up like I need to like go do homework or something else right? Or I need to step out or something like that. These were videos that a lot of these videos were like stuff I wasn't even proud about and a lot of these videos sitting well Over a million views each like and that was just because people weren't engaged with the TNT series. So as long as I can then going on, they would still be engaged and still, you know, be coming back for more.

Skylerguns : 50:10

That makes sense. I think that kind of goes into what you said before to like, making stuff that you don't want to make just because it pleases your audience. I mean, not that that's like a bad thing at all. But like you said, it keeps them engaged. And that brings up a huge point, too. I mean, you know, taking inspiration from other creators is a good way to start too. And I think that it's important to be a content consumer before you become a content creator, because that's how you get those ideas. And that's how you find out what works. Did you have any, like, inspirations? Did you have any TikTok ORS that you kind of looked up to before you started that you kind of

Vrax: 50:40

Yeah, so when I started Minecraft, TikTok there's Minecraft, the large Minecraft content creator now of Emma ranbu. Basically, if you guys aren't familiar with him, basically, a lot of his following came from TikTok. So back in like September, he has started up TikTok had not even 100 followers on YouTube yet. I mean, hundreds of followers subs on YouTube. Yeah. Right. And if you just look, it's just him just showcasing his personality throughout each of these videos. Like I think every other week, he was having another progress upgrade. So it went from 100 to 1000 to 10,000 to 20 3040. Like up to 100. Like he said, the best conversion rate that I've ever seen on TikTok. Like it like if I pull it up really quickly, I don't know exactly off the top of my head, how many followers he has. You see if I can pull up really quickly. He's sitting at 1.2 million followers, right? His first video if I scroll down very quickly, if this one is a lot of videos, it was September 11 of 2020. And it was basically in the day that he had 100 subs was that same day later on. He had 100 subs that same day later on the next day. Sorry, not even the next day, an hour later hits 200 next thing, you know, day later at 600. Then the same day, he's at 1000 now and the next day No, it just kept going for him. Like throughout these videos are just him showcasing his personality as a Minecraft creator, which has opened so much from now he's sitting at I think like a million subs on YouTube right now. And that all started because of TikTok

Skylerguns : 52:12

do you do you have an idea on how he was able to like find that success because you know conversion rates so

Vrax: 52:17

a lot of his videos like if like his first video, I know it was like, Hey, are you looking for like a new Minecraft youtuber to watch? Right? Or like it always, like his videos always went back to the fact Hey, lights like, Hey, I'm a Minecraft YouTuber, if you like my content, watch longer stuff here, you know. So for those people that didn't want to short term stuff, they were going over there. And on top of that he got into the Minecraft community at the perfect time. Because from September to like now, Mike has seen the crazy rise. So if he didn't get in when he did get in, I don't know where he'd be at right now, to be completely honest. But he got in when he did with Minecraft. So when Minecraft are rising, and all these big names that are rising, he was already collaborating with all these guys, because they weren't you know, they weren't like the top names at the time, you know. So as mica started to rise, all their names started to rise, the game gained popularity, they grew all their social medias, and he just blew up from it. It's completely insane. But when I started when I started getting into Minecraft TikTok um, he's always been a huge inspiration for like, you know, I would love to, you know, be able to do something like he's done with, you know, his platform.

Skylerguns : 53:23

Do you think that, you know, there's a theory going around, you know, one of those algorithm conspiracy theories that TikTok doesn't like videos that mentioned the words like twitch or streamer or YouTube because it'll pick up on those words and not push those videos, because it's possibly a video trying to take people away from their TikTok platform. Do you think there's any merit to that? Or do you think that's kind of BS,

Vrax: 53:43

I've heard that. But at the same time, it goes back, it goes back to my argument about shadow bans, which I'm like, I'm very strong about it, like social media and stuff. I fought people on social media over like this idea of like Shadow bands and like that they exist and stuff personally like just quickly to cover that. I personally think that shadow bands are a thing I used to use. Like I used to use the idea of a shadow band for like my past accounts not doing as well as like an excuse. I feel just the mentality people get into and their videos aren't performing as they please, like back themselves up. Because like not every video is the for you page. And it's not because of a shadow ban, like none of my videos is patently offensive for you page, but they've still done decently well. But that only has to do with them not hitting the for you page or I mean, it's just that maybe they talk to you and push it out that day. For whatever reason, maybe the day that I posted, it just was a bad time to post and it didn't get pushed out, you know, but I personally learned that the idea of a shadow ban, at least in my opinion, people can disagree with this is just an idea and new excuse not really an actual thing because I know because at the end of the day TikTok laws promoting smaller content to larger audiences. That's that's how the platform grow. And that's how small creators see so much growth. So I don't think TikTok would limit that by putting a ban on someone's account. You know what I mean? Like I personally don't believe in that. Um, But going back to your question stuff, like, personally, I can reiterate the question one more time. It's like a completely off topic there.

Skylerguns : 55:07

No worries. I mean, the topic of a shadow ban is very intriguing to like I said, there's so many conspiracy theories, nobody knows for sure. Except TikTok themselves. But do you think that TikTok kind of may actively doesn't push up videos that mentioned the words twitch or YouTube? Yeah,

Vrax: 55:21

so I, once again thing that's an excuse, like the shadow banning stuff going back to that that's where I was going with that. Oh, what's it called? So personally, when at least in my experience, like I've, at the end of my videos, I always put like a little twitch thing like a live little animation that shows my switch username, so people at the end of the video see quickly is like a quick little one second thing, it says my YouTube and my twitch That said, if people like my content, they can go there. And it's worked very well. And as I have videos, where I'm like, like, what do you call my original first blog video, it actually proves that they don't stop it from those words, because in my first blog video, I said, Hi, I'm Vraxoo. I'm a Minecraft Twitch streamer. So that video would have not done well, for me saying the word Twitch, you know what I mean, but it didn't insanely well. So personally, I just think that's a myth. And I think there's a lot of these myths that go around TikTok that are just used as excuses. Um, which I'm not gonna sit here and lie, I've used the excuses to, you know, I've sat here and said, hey, my account shadow ban. You know, I think we've all had a time where we've all said that at least once, you know, but from my experience now, with TikTok, and understanding the platform a lot more now, I think he's just used a lot more than excuse rather than actually something that happens.

Skylerguns : 56:26

Makes sense. I mean, yeah, there's so many conspiracy theories, I mean, so that we could go into forever, like all those, you know, things, but I nobody knows for sure. I mean, and the algorithm is so complex, so convoluted, it's really hard to like, really master and it changes a lot. I mean, you know, because I, there was a point in time where I kind of thought I understood it, because the way that it would work is, you know, in the Warzone community, I'm sure it's probably the same for you. TikTok live is a blessing for creators. TikTok Live, for some reason boosts your account, like, you know, if I don't go tick on TikTok live for a day for I will get maybe like 50 followers, but if I went on TikTok live, I get like 300. And it's I don't know why I don't even talk to the camera. I literally just leave it on while I'm streaming. You know, like most people do me too. So I don't know why. Yeah, that's, that's one of those things. That's not a myth TikTok live helps. But there was a period where I would post a video, it would get about 200 to 300 views, those are just my followers. And then right at around the 30 minute mark, it would hit the for you page, and it would get like a couple 1000 views. And then at that point, that's when it gets determined whether it gets pushed to other people. And I would go live on I would post a video, and it would go live on TikTok 30 minutes later, right when it hit the for you page. And that was my strategy. And you know, a few months ago, it actually that stopped working, I would post a video and it would sit at like 100 views. And like two hours later explode to like 20 K, and I'm

Unknown: 57:47

like, Whoa, what

Skylerguns : 57:48

what happened? What

Vrax: 57:49

have you heard around that TikTok has like an algorithm wipe every single month is what I've heard around, which is why you see like all these YouTubers that like you know, specialize and like you and like TikTok and stuff, I always like doing like algorithm update videos at the beginning of the month, because Tick tock, I noticed that this month to the most TikTok has like a different need for content for certain content every month, you know, because like one month, there might be a certain trend, but they don't want that trend to go on for the next six months, you know what I mean? Because if not, it gets boring, people are gonna get off the app. So personally, this is one of those things, this is one of those myths that I'd like do believe in about the algorithm wiping every month. One to allow new creators into it to give them a chance to have that one blog video. And to to also sit there and get the old trends out and allow room for new trends to come in.

Skylerguns : 58:38

Hmm, makes sense. Yeah, I mean, it's it all we can do is speculate. I've also heard that TikTok doesn't like gaming content. Another one of those things like just in general, some people find success, and some people don't. But I've also heard that, you know, for some reason, they just don't enjoy gaming content, because they're not,

Vrax: 58:54

it all depends technically on what is going on. And because you can do a gaming video, but like, if it's like just raw gameplay clips, usually won't perform as well as if you were maybe doing an informative type of video, because TikTok is all about, you know, being informative, and like entertaining and stuff like that. So clips are cool every once in a while. And that's kind of why I've like steered away from doing twitch clips and stuff like that. But original content that was made just for TikTok that either informative or engaging, that type of stuff does the best because they know that's what that's what's gonna keep people scrolling through TikTok you know, they don't care about if somebody posts you know, a clip of them, you know, maybe maybe you posted a video a funny video of you dying, that's cool and all, but they can care less about that, you know what I mean? Like, they are looking for the stuff that's gonna keep people engaged and people watching for hours. You know?

Skylerguns : 59:43

I think that's very funny too. Because I mean, the more that TikTok grows, the more you have to fight to get an audience and the more you have to work to be engaging. I'm actually going to be doing I'm going to have a guest next week who you know, is all he does is post twitch clips, but he's really nasty at the game. Isn't Asian boy and he's very nasty at Warzone. He posts the nastiest clips. And I watched him for a bit. I mean him, we're kind of at the same level and he exploded to like, almost, you know, he's at 250,000. Now, I think strictly from just posting twitch clips, so nasty.

Vrax: 1:00:15

And I'm gonna sit here and lie, some people find success from it. But it's also the approach that you take from because like I said, if you're just posting like, you know, stuff that happens, like a montage style thing that's long, no one will care, do it and keep scrolling. But if it's like, for example, I know in the Minecraft community, Hannah rose, who's on exit, actually, um, she does an amazing job at like, posting her twitch cuz like, all her stuff on Twitch. I mean, yeah, all her clips from Twitch, get turned into a TikTok format that's made specifically for TikTok. And her stuff does amazing. And it's, it's between fails, funny moments, clutch moments, crazy wins, like traps and bed wars and stuff like that. Like she is like one of the few people I could say does switch clubs very well.

Skylerguns : 1:00:59

I think a lot of people kind of adapted that style too, because I think that in the beginning, people were just posting those rock lips, the black black space there. But now people have kind of learned how to adopt it into that which again, like you still have to fight for that if you're just posting twitch clips. So I mean, it's very curious. You know, for some people, it works for some people, doesn't it and it honestly just depends. Especially, you know, two of the most important things when it comes to TikTok. And I'm sure you agree with me on this is you've got to have a hook, you have to have a hook in the beginning because you know, between one to three seconds, that's how long you have to capture your audience. And if you have dead air in the beginning of your clip with nothing exciting going on, they're gonna scroll past it.

Vrax: 1:01:36

I'm gonna sit here and say that I tell you everything is one to three seconds. I honestly think it's like the first point five seconds because the first frame, it's literally like, people I've I've done this myself as well, I'll scroll, I'll see what it looks like. And I won't even like it. I won't even listen to what he has to say. Like, I'll just be scrolling at night or something. And I'll just have like my volume all the way down. Because you know, people like to you know, do those jumpscare videos at night? I don't need to, you know, have, like 12 and night. Oh, but what's it called? Um, no, like, I I will judge stuff based off of what I see in the first frame. You know what I mean? So, personally, I think that 123 second rule is kind of out the window. It's kind of more now about, honestly, the first frame, like what are people going to see the minute they click on your video, they're gonna see a black screen? Or are they going to see like a game that they like that you know, makes them want to stay for the first one to three seconds, you know, that first frame, in my opinion, is a lot more value than those first one to three seconds. Because if they liked the first frame, don't even worry about the one to three seconds, they'll stay for a good 510 seconds, you know what I mean? minimum, if they just liked what they're seeing in the first frame, whether that's a game of they like or a content creator that they like, or that they're familiar with? If they see them, they're gonna say,

Skylerguns : 1:02:47

yeah, I think something is good advice to tell somebody to is like, you know, if you're actively consuming TikTok content, which you should be as a content creator, I would say, you know, when you're mindlessly scrolling through your TikTok for you page, and you skip videos, go back to those videos and try to analyze why you're skipping them. What about that video is making you skip it because maybe that's the same reason that people are skipping

Vrax: 1:03:09

the same with videos that you like, like, what made you stay to watch that video, like I've done that with a lot of my videos, like Bs, a lot of videos that I've seen, like, you've probably seen them, it's the Minecraft ones where people start off with like a power cord. And just like, either you're short, or you're cute or something like that, like where they jump to the void or something like that. Um, you've probably seen some of them. Um, but what's cool, I did one of those, you know, just to see cuz I'm friends, I'm friends with the guy that like, does all those types of videos and stuff. I was like, you know, I'm gonna give this a shot. He was like, okay, go for it. So I went set up a world didn't want it was like you're short at the end, right? And people, I don't know what is about those videos, but you just put watch the end for a surprise or something like in the title or just like as a caption. People love those videos. And we'll stay till the end. And then once it hits the end, it shows like, whatever the message is, whether you're sure you're cute, you're dumb, you're stupid, whatever it is, like, then they're going to the comments and start saying stuff. So one, you're getting more watch time. And two, there's a higher chance they'll watch it over twice because they're engaged the whole time. So

Skylerguns : 1:04:11

that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, that's interesting. That makes me think, too. It makes me think I should probably start applying some of that stuff, too. So I guess something else I want to know too is let's say, you know, you've had multiple accounts. Let's say that you had to start over from zero, let's say for whatever reason, your account got wiped, and you had to start all over. Nobody knew who you are. Let's say you're a complete nobody. Do you think you'd be able to recreate the same success that you did? Or do you think that a part of it is luck?

Vrax: 1:04:36

Um, I definitely don't think so. And the reason for that is my trends already seen it's time you know, I mean, the whole TNT thing, stuff like that. Um, I would definitely, I definitely I could do it. It would just take a lot of time and planning to figure out some sort of trend or series that I can get going to keep people hooked again, you know, so.

Skylerguns : 1:04:56

So what advice would you have for people that are like, let's say that they don't have Have any TikTok account at all their streamer they want to grow? What advice would you tell them to kind of see at least some of the success that you have?

Vrax: 1:05:07

Yeah, like I mentioned, the beginning, consistency is the best don't like, don't like be a, don't be too on top of the quality of it. Because at the end of the day, like I said, TikTok can care less about your quality, they're just more about isn't engaging, that should be your target. When you're making videos, make sure it's engaging, you can literally record it off your phone, and people will still watch it, if they feel engaged in some way, whether that's because they feel that there's an incentive at the end of the video. Because they feel that, you know, there's something that they want to see. Just make sure whatever content you're posting is engaging, don't just have it sit there and just be boring and plain, do something different. And also, if you're hopping on a trend, make sure the trend is not the trend. And it's kind of counterintuitive, when I say that, you know, do a trend, it's not a trend. Um, boys are called by that I'm basically saying, if you're going to do a trend, because this is gonna help you stand out from everyone else, because everyone else is doing the same thing. So at the end of the day, it's just like, even with content creation, what makes you stand out from everyone else is doing the same exact thing.

Skylerguns : 1:06:12

That makes sense. That's that's 100% true. Other than that, I think that's pretty much every question that I had, I think that I learned, I learned a lot talking to you, that's for sure. I hope some other people did. Whether you already have a following or you're trying to, you know, establish a following from scratch. Is there anything that you want to talk about or anything that we didn't get a chance to

Unknown: 1:06:30

recover practically everything?

Skylerguns : 1:06:32

Yeah, definitely. I mean, we're over about an hour now. So that's definitely a very in depth talk. Well, I think that's pretty much all that I have. If you want to take a moment and plug your socials and plug anything that you got going on, by all means. Go ahead.

Vrax: 1:06:46

Yeah, so you guys can find me at brax live on TikTok. And if you click the link in my bio, there's a link to all my socials that stays updated. So easiest way to find me.

Skylerguns : 1:06:57

Sounds good. All right. Well, you can check them out on TikTok. He's about to hit 3 million. So if you aren't already following them, you probably should be. But that's all it that's all I got. This was TwitchTok I'm your host Skylerguns with my guests brax live rack so racks, whatever you want to call them. I hope you guys learned something today, and I'll see you guys next episode.

Announcer: 1:07:15

Thanks for listening to TwitchTok with Skylerguns. Hopefully this podcast inspires you to elevate your creation and pushes you to achieve your goals. Hey, if Skyler can do it, anyone can. If you have questions for the show feedback, sponsorship inquiries, or you want to be on the show, email Skylerguns tv@gmail.com. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you can stay updated with all new episodes. And make sure to follow Skylar on all socials at Schuyler guns. This has been a Skylerguns production