Is it possible to do everything right and still nothing works? I've got the Youtube Blues...

I am just seriously getting into marketing myself and my products/videos online. I'm primarily focusing on Youtube and going to start embedding videos into my websites too for my diversity. I've purchased some products, some are on point, some under-delivered.

I've done almost everything I've read I was supposed to do. Keyword research, optimization, focused on "Likes", Views and "Favorites" but none of this seems to be helping my videos move up in the search ranks in Youtube. The videos themselves are quality and the views that we have are from people are very excited, genuine and some have watched them multiple times (we do cover songs); but none of that is helping us rank. We were on the first page for like one week, fell off, got back on there again, then got moved to page 4 - we weren't actively doing anything at that time.

Now I'm starting to wonder is all of the "advice" I read a little exaggerated and recycled. Because the videos that are ranking in the top are hardly optimized at all. I'm going to try some other things like Tweet Attack and probably Senuke too and some "standard/traditional" things like pitching/submitting to high profile bloggers.

Is it possible that you can do everything "right" and nothing still works? If so, what could I possibly be doing wrong? I know I am competing in highly competitive categories, but would love some tips from some people who have made their way through the trenches. Thanks!