Help our YouTube content rank higher

Hello all,

The engagement with our recent YouTube series, including the patient stories and explainer video, has been extremely encouraging. As it has been almost 5 weeks since they were published, I’d like to provide a quick update.

Views and likes

The patient stories compilation video is our most popular and has almost 1.8k views, and 85 likes.

@Dknighten’s video is next with over 1.2k views and 58 likes. Well done Damon and thank you again for your work on this important project.

Our explainer video is next with almost 1.1k views and 69 likes.

Although the views may seem low compared to popular YouTube videos, for our community and a niche disease, it is a wonderful achievement.

Dangerous search results

I commented on a thread last week about a recent Kevin Mann video discussing adverse effects caused by finasteride, where patients voiced their concern about dangerous YouTube content, and discussed the need for action. This is not a problem limited to Kevin Mann, and much content dismissing the existence or severity of our condition is prominent in YouTube’s search results.

Currently, the top result for the search term “Post-Finasteride Syndrome” is a highly erroneous and inaccurate piece from two Australian dermatologists with an undeclared financial conflict of interest. Kevin Mann’s videos also litter the top search results. The top result for the term “Finasteride side effects” is another inaccurate video from the same two dermatologists.

Men considering using the drug will rely on heuristics like YouTube, where information is presented from seemingly knowledgeable actors. This is dangerous and a concern many patients raise, and some have even relied on such information when deciding whether to take finasteride.

Help us rank higher with these simple actions

Thankfully, YouTube is a medium where we can compete on a more level playing field.

Indeed, it has been heartening to see several comments in our videos from men who were considering taking the drug, saying they will now steer clear. But as a community, we can collectively do much more to help our videos rank higher in YouTube’s search results for terms like “finasteride”, “Post-Finasteride Syndrome” and “PFS”.

YouTube’s search engine optimisation algorithms are very similar to Google’s. They do not use any one factor when ranking content in their results or recommending content to users, but instead use multiple criteria to determine what is “quality” content. This guide provides useful advice on how to increase quality and help videos rank higher. These insights are found in many similar articles.

  • Comments. There is a strong correlation between ranking highly and video comment count. If every member of this forum comments on our compilation and explainer videos in particular, those videos will soar up the rankings immediately. A simple comment like “great work guys” or “thanks for shining light on this issue” will suffice, and take less than a minute of your day for each video.
  • Likes. There is a significant correlation between first-page ranking and video likes. Some videos have over 1000 views, yet less than 100 likes. Leaving a like is such a simple action, and combined with leaving a comment will still take less than a minute of your day for each video.
  • Subscribe to our channel. There is a moderate correlation between a channel’s subscriber size and rankings. Even if you never watch another video from the PFS Network YouTube channel again, subscribing will help spread our important message. Another simple action that, combined with commenting and liking, will still only take 2-3 minutes of your day for each video.
  • Shares & views. Videos with more shares & views rank more highly. Pretty simple stuff. You can help by sharing these videos with your family, supportive friends, or through social media if appropriate. This may take a little longer, but combined with the above, still takes less than 10 minutes of your day for each video.

I am extremely vocal about the power of mobilising our community at a grassroots level, in simple and achievable ways. I often observe similar sentiments from forum members, expressing a need for action. This is a fantastic example of how you can take approximately 10-20 minutes of your day to contribute to another small step that advances appreciation and awareness of our condition. These videos are powerfully human, and if we all contribute to increasing their engagement, they cannot be ignored on an important social media platform.

So, what do we ask of you?

Simple. Take 10-20 minutes of your day to view, like and comment on our patient stories compilation and explainer video, and subscribe to the PFS Network channel.

If you feel like going the extra mile, you could also share them through your social media networks.

Many members spend hours each week creating new posts and commenting on threads. So before you comment on your next thread on PH, or create a new topic, please consider taking the time to help our useful content rank higher first.

Best,
Mitch

14 Likes

This is the kind of thing which requires next to no effort, but traditionally does not do well around here.

These are the small actions which will add up to a big change.

Be part of the change.

Once you’ve made a comment, remind other people to make one too.

7 Likes

Come on guys. Complaining about things not moving forward then not even doing something as simple as this doesn’t really hold anywater. i know what it took out of me to do the video for the greater good. Let’s get behind this ’ nothing to lose everything to gain’,

5 Likes

OK, I just made a comment on all 3 videos. I’d forgotten my account password, recovered it, tried to make a new password “you cannot use an old password again” (why does that happen every time?) All that stuff.

Made myself a drink. Came back to the computer, and it was 15 minutes since my last post.

This is not a big task.

So who’s next?

3 Likes

Done, added a comnent to Damons took a few minutes in total. I’ll add another tomorrow and so on to help crank up the numbers. Ill also try to persuade my family to participate …

1 Like

Liked and commented on around 3 videos. Also subscribed. Come on everyone, it literally takes a couple minutes.

4 Likes

A big thanks @Greek @LazarusRy @Alex50 for liking & commenting! Also there were a few more comments overnight, so thanks to our anonymous heroes. You’re all a bunch of legends.

The compilation video is now at 92 likes, the explainer 75 and Damon’s video 63.

As Greek said it takes less than 10 minutes total and has an immediate tangible result. For those who loathe dishonest youtube personalities dismissing the harms of finasteride, this project is for you!

Let’s see if we can push the compilation video over 100 likes in the next 48 hours. I’ve even linked them in this post to make it as little effort as possible.

5 Likes

Bumping this - thanks to our new anonymous comments.

We’re still at 93 likes for the compilation video, so please spread the word and help get us over the 100 mark!

1 Like

Come on dudes, this is a really simple task that requires minimum effort yet will have a great effect. If we work together, we succeed!

6 Likes

I highly recommend everyone who is able to submit a short video explaining their situation and story for the Youtube channel. Apart from donating to the foundation, it’s the single most important and helpful thing you can do for all of us right now. It is super powerful to have guys from different backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities speaking out about this. It shows that this can literally happen to anybody. If you aren’t able or willing to make the video for any reason, then the absolute least you can do is leave a positive comment, like, and subscribe. Also consider making an anonymous Twitter, Facebook, etc to share the video.

7 Likes

@Sugarhouse i’ve been meaning to send you a quick message about the comments on the videos. I understand deleting the negativity off the videos but to be honest, I’m torn about this. I don’t want for our videos to come across as totalitarian or censoring anybody who doesn’t share the same views. It could be helpful to leave all comments as is and for other people to see the professional, genuine replies and then make their own decisions. I’m not sure about it though. As with most controversial Youtube videos, it can easily turn into a shit show. But just from the few naysayers we’ve had on our videos, they got shut down pretty handedly and didn’t have much to say afterward. I think it may be beneficial to atleast consider leaving some of the negative comments there. I know quite a few were deleted and I was kind of disappointed to see that.

1 Like

Should light this guy’s video up too. Contacting him would be even better

Yea if we could have seen this back in 2011 a 10 years ago would have saved a lot of people suffering.

Sent you a reply in DM @Dknighten but we appreciate your feedback.

We’re at 94 likes and almost 2k views for the compilation - please if you haven’t already, go like our content and leave a comment.

Appreciate all your help.

I just thought I would respond to Damon’s question publicly so all patients understand our perspective on moderating comments on the videos.

Firstly, it’s a matter of time. We are a small team and currently only have 15-30 minutes a day to look at and moderate comments. Although a few are easy to manage, we want to avoid an unruly comments section, and it’s best to nip most of them in the bud early rather than selectively deleting comments retroactively. We’ve tried to leave reasonable comments from opponents, but unfortunately, the vast majority immediately resort to ad-hom attacks.

Secondly, we need to be careful with how we present our community to researchers and clinicians who watch these videos. We are also releasing an upcoming video podcast series and need to keep the tone of our comments sections consistent. Although many patients have been quite reasoned in their responses to opponents thus far, including @Dknighten himself, that behaviour is not universal.

Thirdly, although the comments are quite in our favour at the moment, that’s only because we’re not ranking highly in search results. If and when we do, there’s a possibility the volume of negative comments becomes much higher, and things really spiral out of control. This would make moderating almost impossible, and mean we’d have to close the videos to comments entirely, which looks much worse.

I hope that makes sense, and once again thanks all for your help.

6 Likes

When you take all of these factors into account, it makes much more sense. Thanks for clarifying man.

I’ve liked all and commented on every PFS Network video and left replies on some comments.

The videos were quite inspiring. I’m also working on building up my own courage to tell my story in a video. I don’t know when I’m truly ready and when it will happen… But for what it’s worth my outlook is there.

I worked on a personal written story that I promised I would provide a long time ago but never got around to finishing it. I’m sorry. I will see if I can use parts of it for my video story.

7 Likes

We are victims of the heinous crime and we shouldn’t feel ashamed. They took our joy and happiness, and gave us eternal misery. The world should know about it

3 Likes

There ist a koppen TV YouTube Video (Belgish TV) with two victims from netherlands. One from Amsterdam. In pfs Network. But I think you allready made a comment.

1 Like

I have viewed, liked and commented on all three videos. I was disappointed that no mention whatsoever was made of Proscar, even as a side note.
I feel that we older aged PFS sufferers are the bastard offspring that the majority find easy to ignore. Jim

1 Like