#extinction

Well, kid, this is going to hurt, but you have to hear it.

If you are a natural bodybuilder on YouTube trying to make it big, prepare yourself to fight stealth mode for a long time.

Unlike the kids today, I wasn’t born with a Wi-Fi antenna in my mouth. I witnessed the birth of the Internet, Google, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, pagers, cell phones, smartphones…

I was already alive and breathing when they came here.
I was here before we started to communicate with our thumbs.
I was here before the walking smartphone zombies.

Let me tell you…

Right when I started to gain interest in the muscle game, YouTube began its ascension. At the time, there were only a handful of channels, and the clips were recorded with ancient VGA machinery and medieval optics.

Over the years, the muscle content on YouTube grew to epic proportions. Today, you get unlimited videos for a single keyword. This is understandable. There are only so many topics, and thus content duplication is unavoidable. Nevertheless, angry wage slaves from the entire world are uploading videos, hoping to make money and quit their 9 to 5 estrogen loaded jobs.

Here’s how the system operates. YouTube is divided into different niches. This reduces your competition from the entire world to a quarter of the world. In each segment, you are fighting a different type of mainstream monsters. When it comes to muscle, the last boss that you are going to face as a natural muscle constructor are the five trucks of fake natties uploading 24/7.

This is a problem because…

Who would watch your earthly videos when there is so much otherworldly content?

If this is not enough to break you down, there’s more.

Have you ever heard of the United Network of Fake Natties and Pinners? No!? Well, you are about to.

Fake natties and open roid users have developed a strong network which they use to support each other [hug]. They promote each other’s channels and products in exchange for favors and commissions. This is why the online muscle realm is infested with political correctness. No one wants to insult anyone in order to preserve present and future partnerships.

Guess, what? Until you build your name, you will not be a part of this network. Instead, you will be fighting it. I am sorry, but this is how the world works. Your name is not on the list, boy. Move back in line or prepare to eat punches.

The Media Needs Its Magnets

People think that the role of the media is to inform you. This is only partially true. The media is a businessman first and an informer second. Think of the popular TV channels, radio stations, magazines, newspapers and their online forms. Their goal is to attract visitors. If a show doesn’t attract visitors, it’s worthless. It’s a movie that no one wants to watch. You can’t make money when the seats are empty. You have to fill them. And you don’t fill them with regular heroes. You need unnatural ones to capture the attention of the crowd. Those are the magnets of the media. Without them, the informational business suffers.

In the world of muscle, the magnets are guys with big muscles and lean abs. As expected, you can’t be super big and lean as a natural. Therefore, the magnets can only be fake natties. Regular natties have a weaker, borderline nonexistent, magnetic field.

Here’s what you get when you write ”aesthetic natural bodybuilding” in YouTube’s search engine:

My experience as a natty or not officer tells me that most of the thumbnails above contain images of individuals with a highly questionable natural status. There could only be one explanation. Self-proclaimed fake natties and genetic wonders have taken over the fitness segment of YouTube. This creates various problems.

First, it’s harder for naturals to shine. Look, boy, nobody wants to see your 290lbs squat or 210lbs bench press, except maybe your college buddies. Nobody cares that you can a do muscle-up when you have 12-inch arms. You are not impressive. Your competition is miles ahead of you. You can’t match them. You can do 100 push-ups? Who cares? Kali Muscle will get 1000x more views if he uploads a 2-second clip of him doing the duck face. It’s real. No time for kidding, kid.

Do you remember the rise of CT Fletcher’s channel? Before he took over as Chief of YouTube Muscle, the only motion picture of him was his ”How to Bench by a Permabulker” video. But when he hit the YouTube realm with drama infested clips attacking the right hemisphere of the brain, the number of his subscribers began to increase faster than the bank account of a sports player. The support of other previously established channels helped a lot too. Do you think CT’s videos would have the same impact if he was a fragile natural? No.

Do you remember the channel of the HodgeTwins in the beginning? They were just two dudes producing raw, bedroom-quality clips every day. Over the years their physiques surprisingly evolved to the point where gyno started to form. Mystery? No.

What about the crew of aesthetic brahs? Are they supposed to be the epitome of natural bodybuilding? Give me a break. I don’t care that ”they are not that big.” This ”evidence” may be enough for the thousands of teens with semi-functioning brains browsing the Internet, but it ain’t good enough for veterans like me. As the song says: ”Oh Oh You can’t fool me, you don’t fool me.”

How can a natural compete with channels like that? It’s impossible. You will face a lot of frustration dealing with the community.

Furthermore, natties often receive comments similar to those below:

”Do you even lift, faggot!?”

”Try eating a sandwich, son!!!”

”Hahaha 300lbs squat!? I did that after a keg party when I was 10.”

”375lbs deadlift!? No wonder your back looks like it belongs to Mickey Mouse.”

”14-inch biceps!? Fuck me dead!? I had 16-inch arms after 3 months of training!? You feel me, boy!?”

Aggressive feedback is not the biggest issue, though. You don’t get paid to receive nice comments. You get paid for views. This is the real problem. Natties have poor ratings and earn less money.

Welcome to Muscle Capitalism

When you think about it, the effect described above is a direct result of capitalism.

Economists say that the best side of capitalism is its ability to create competition which in return generates products and services of higher value. If more people are competing to provide the ultimate service, there are two major winners – the customer and the companies that offer the best thing in town.

According to this principle, natties lose the capitalist war on YouTube because they fail to provide the best service to the customers [viewers].

Surprisingly, it’s true. Roid lifters technically provide a better service.

Let me explain.

In theory, the channels are meant to inform you how muscle construction and body fat obliteration are done. And we all know that fake natties often speculate and come up with ridiculous theories because their otherworldly physiques make them look like authorities. This is not the real service. We are not looking for information as much as we are looking for entertainment. And fake natties offer us the best clown/hero/Ferrari experience. Nobody wants to look at regular everyday cars. We want more. We need more. Fake natties satisfy our wishes for better or worse.

Capitalism has a downside. When a corporation becomes exceptionally large, it can simply eat the small fish and steer the wheel in the desired direction. Whoever has the bigger capital wins.

An example in the muscle world would be the web page T-Nation – a veteran muscle site with an enormous following. The page is growing every day because experts from the community are writing content for it 24/7. Most articles are produced by different authors. How is that even possible? Easy. The writers do it for promotion and a check. A small site cannot afford to pay for a daily article. The battle is not even close.

The same holds true for YouTube. You can’t be as competitive as channels that can afford better recording equipment, video editing, music mixing, expert consultation…etc. The crowd is attracted by flashy stuff. When you can’t provide it, you are forgotten.

Nevertheless, no one can stop you from uploading your videos on YouTube. Thousands of kids do it every day. But when you are not competitive in comparison to other channels, the effort and time invested in each clip may not be justifiable unless you are doing it as a hobby.

Still, I don’t want to be the one to kill all hope for those who aspire to become video content creators. That’s why I came up with E-Mu$$le and the following principles.

How To Generate Attention as A Natural Bodybuilder

On paper, attracting visitors/viewers is fairly simple. All you have to do is:

1.Choose a niche
2.Detect problems
3.Show people how to fix those problems
4.Add flavor to your content
5.Repeat until success…or death – whichever comes first.

You Gotta Have a Niche

Many YouTubers upload all kinds of nonsense videos. From unboxing to how-to-tie-your-laces videos. This strategy works for some, but even in that case the creator is operating in a niche – vlogging a.k.a. annoying people.

You need to narrow things down. Niches allow you to do that.

The benefit of having a niche is that it gives you focus and reduces the competition. Randomness rarely works. For example, it would be inappropriate for a beauty magazine to upload articles from the financial press. Luckily, we already have our niche – muscle and strength.

Note: When a niche is very large, you may even have to look for a niche within the niche.

Detect Problems and Fix Them

Valuable content fixes or at least exposes problems. If you know how to do something, show the world how it’s done. If you see something wrong, scream so that they can hear you.

In my opinion, this is the trickiest part. As you already know, YouTube has been supersaturated. This means that the subjects you can talk about are narrowing as we speak. Therefore, if you can add something unique to your movies, you better do it. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. Just focus. There’s always something.

Bonus: Start a smart beef

The main principle behind the beef strategy is simple:

If they are not talking about you, spit in their face so that they start.

You have to be smart nonetheless. Sometimes this can get your channel deleted, especially if you are still a baby. Moreover, you need a unique character to keep moving forward.

Add Flavor to Your Content

You already have the basic formula for valuable content – you find a problem, possibly a solution, and present it to your audience. This is not enough. To win the crowd’s attention, you need to do more. You need to entertain people. You don’t want to present dry information without style. Therefore, the true and complete growth formula is:

(problem + solution) x entertainment = growth

Once you are done with the informational part, add flavor to your work. Show the world that you are not a robot.

To accomplish this task, you have to reevaluate every single skill you have. Write down everything you can do and abuse the hell out of your skills during the creation of your content. Don’t be afraid if at first, your work is a little cheesy or borderline shallow. At this point of the game, you are simply trying to find your style. It will take years to mature and take it to killer status.

Repeat

This is a cyclic process. You never get to rest, unfortunately. You have to be creating more and more content. This is one of the hardest parts, but it is a necessity if you want to grow. Spin the wheel.