- Get rid of your intros immediately
if you want to grow as a small YouTuber.
These intros are killing your retention rates
and making your videos underperform in YouTube.
You need to get right into the content,
deliver value immediately,
because you only have about eight seconds
(clock ticking)
before you lose the viewer forever.
Number two, focus 80% of your attention on editing
to retaining your viewers
in the first 30 seconds of the video.
This is make-or-break for your video,
because you could lose anywhere from 30% to 50%
of the audience
in the first 30 seconds of your YouTube videos.
To get better retention rates,
what you wanna do is make sure
that you're using audio and visual cues
and proper editing techniques
to keep the pace moving
and to get that content right in front of your audience
in that first 30 seconds
in a way that's impactful
and makes them want to watch the rest of your video.
Number three, stop making selfish content.
The only way to really grow on YouTube is to,
wait for it, actually make videos
that people want to watch
who don't know who you are
and don't really care.
And as harsh as that might sound,
if you are a small YouTuber
and you may want to feel like,
"Well, I wanna express myself,"
or "I want to be authentic,"
and all of those things,
authenticity is important.
Expressing yourself and your personality is important.
Do that in the context of the content itself.
But when it comes to the topic that you are choosing,
you have to put the audience first.
YouTubers who put the audience first will win.
Make it about your target audience and not about you,
and then you will have a better chance
of getting views for your videos.
There are videos on this channel
that I know will underperform
because they're not always in alignment
with the core audience.
They are sometimes another audience
that I might be trying to build,
and that will get less views.
I know which videos will get 50,000
to 100,000 views,
and I know which ones will get 10,000 to 20,000.
If you want to grow on YouTube, prioritize topics
for the largest overall audience in your niche possible.
Just make the videos that you know they want to watch.
Number four, audio is more important than videos,
and this is something that can make or break
your viewer retention
and it dramatically affects the quality
that your audience perceives your videos to have.
We can struggle with poor quality lighting
or even some mistakes in the edit,
but bad audio is a no-no
and it is going to absolutely tank your videos
because we can't suffer through it.
I'm gonna link in the description
to several microphones at different budgets
that can help you,
because you don't have to break the bank on this.
Some of the best microphones are only $300,
and there are some really good options
in the sub-$100 range
if you're absolutely on a budget.
But I will tell you, the biggest YouTubers
typically spend anywhere from $300
all the way up to $500 or $1,000 on their microphones
because they know how important audio is.
And speaking of audio,
that leads us to today's sponsor, Epidemic Sound.
Copyright on YouTube has been a problem
for many creators,
but it is getting better.
However, if you don't want to take any chances
when it comes to copyright and music
and you wanna keep your YouTube ad revenue,
assuming you're getting it,
then you'll wanna use Epidemic Sound
and their awesome library
of copyright-free music and sound effects.
I've been using it across hundreds of videos on this channel
and have never once had a problem,
so make sure you're checking them out.
They'll be linked the description down below.
Thanks to Epidemic Sound for sponsoring this video.
And now back to these tips and tricks.
Number five, learn proper lighting.
You may have noticed that, on occasion,
I will do something interesting like green screen,
but in general,
lighting is very important to YouTube videos
whether you're using a green screen or not.
Nothing can improve the overall video quality
like good lighting,
even if you're just using a smartphone.
So I would tell you that good lighting, good audio,
these things are gonna make or break your videos.
It's not going to always be about the fancy camera gear.
Cameras and lenses are the next step in that evolution,
but if you're gonna invest in anything,
invest in decent lighting for your videos.
I use Aputure lights for my YouTube videos,
but they also have some of the best lighting tutorials
that have been ever made,
so I highly recommend you check them out,
and I definitely think you should
pay a little bit more attention
to lighting in your videos.
It goes a long way.
Number six, start A/B testing your thumbnails.
The biggest YouTubers often will make three
or even up to five thumbnails for a single video.
While you do not need to be nearly that extreme,
it is worth A/B testing your thumbnails
if you think that you're making good quality videos
but you're struggling to get views and clicks.
The packaging is probably tanking
the performance of your videos.
So if you want those good, good click-through rates,
I actually recommend that you could use TubeBuddy
as an A/B testing tool for your thumbnails.
I've been doing this,
and I've seen that you can test thumbnails
and even get a up to 14% better response
on the right thumbnail.
It is something that blows my mind
whenever I see how much the difference
between two thumbnails actually is.
So I would definitely highly recommend this.
If you wanna check out TubeBuddy,
I will link to a free version
in the description down below.
But A/B testing is part of the higher tier paid plans,
and, in my opinion, if you're at least a monetized channel,
it is worth every single penny.
More views is more money.
Number seven, this one may be controversial
for many of you as small YouTubers,
but I'm gonna recommend making 100 videos
in a single topic.
I know, niche-ing down, the dreaded bane
of every creative and artist on YouTube
who wants to express themselves.
Look, here's the bottom line.
I'll give you some numbers, and I can back this up.
I made 100 videos in the graphic design category
that got me 87,000 of my subscribers.
Then, in the tutorials specifically,
I made 100 different tutorials
that resulted in 28,000 of my subscribers.
I would have a Silver Play Button
without making a single YouTube help video anyway.
The benefits of a deep library of content on one subject
are very powerful,
and this is not just for education channels.
Markiplier himself actually made over 100
"Five Nights at Freddy's" videos,
and you can see what that has done for his channel
and it's one of the things he is most known for.
Being able to make 100 videos on a single topic
means that you become known for something.
All of those videos can recommend each other in "suggested",
and gets you binge looping sessions on YouTube,
which ultimately means all of these videos
can work together to grow your channel stronger
than just one or a handful would do.
And that's why the biggest YouTubers,
a lot of them have these deep libraries of content
but a lot of their videos relate to each other.
This is true for Markiplier with "Five Nights at Freddy's",
and this was true for PewDiePie,
who grew off of the "Amnesia" series.
These are both entertainment channels,
not education channels.
Number eight, another trick
for retention rates on YouTube
is to break up your videos
with visually different sections,
which could mean filming in another place,
changing something in terms of your overall background,
your camera angle, or using themes and B-roll
to break up the videos.
By breaking up the videos visually
or even different background music,
this can just create a different shift in the video
that doesn't feel repetitive,
and that's gonna help move the video along
and keep your viewers interested.
Number nine, use the 80/20 rule
and apply it to your content strategy in YouTube.
This is actually gonna help a lot of you
as small YouTubers.
Take 80% of your content
and then make sure that what you're doing
is that is focused on content you know will perform,
get results,
be successful based on your YouTube analytics.
Use the data to decide.
However, use the other 20% of your content
to experiment and to express yourself.
This is gonna give you a little bit more work/life balance
when it comes to your YouTube career.
This is gonna help you not burn out
and feel frustrated
and like you're only doing content for the numbers.
This is gonna help maintain that authenticity,
give you just that little nudge of novelty
that you need, that spice in your life,
and it could lead to some of your best performing videos
because it gives you room to take risks
while protecting the momentum
and the growth you already have.
For practical purposes,
if you're making 10 videos in a month,
make eight of them specifically to perform,
based on what you know from the data,
and make two of those videos in a month
to satisfy yourself artistically
and to experiment with.
Tip number 10, master thumbnail design.
I know you're tired of hearing,
"Make better thumbnails. Make better thumbnails,"
but they are very important.
They're one of the only ways that a viewer has
to judge the quality of your content
and whether or not it's something they're interested in
besides just the topic and the title itself.
Now, in order to master thumbnail design,
you need to master specific software.
Typically, most large YouTubers, like myself, use Photoshop.
If you need a free alternative,
you can use Gimp,
which is a free app version, it's open source.
Or you can use Photopea.com.
That's spelled P-E-A. Dot-com.
Photopea.com.
That will help you as a browser-based version
of something similar to Photoshop and Gimp,
but it's ad-supported,
which means you don't have to download anything
and you can just kind of use it on any machine.
Between these, you will have the ability
to make very complex and more advanced thumbnails,
but, again, that's just to be able to use the techniques.
You want to kind of keep these things somewhat subtle
and simple and not have them cluttered
or, you know, just too fancy to be effective.
To make more effective thumbnails,
what you wanna do is you wanna focus on learning things
like typography, color theory,
basic principles of design,
posing in your thumbnails,
not just with the shocked YouTuber face
but actual body language
and posing and how to use props.
This will go a long way
to improving your YouTube thumbnails
and making them more effective.
When it comes to color and choosing color palettes,
just steal them from sports teams.
The work has already been done for you
and that will give you the best color combinations.
I also recommend learning a new Photoshop technique,
or whatever software you're using,
one to two times a week for a whole year.
That will give you a really good baseline
for being just a little bit more professional
in terms of your graphic
and photo editing abilities.
And that will lead to just better thumbnails
and make you a better YouTuber.
Number 11, when it comes to titles,
make them simple to read
and also, make them a little bit shorter
so they don't get cut off
in the different areas of YouTube.
60 characters is probably what you should be shooting for.
We actually did an experiment on a new channel of mine.
We've uploaded 50 videos over the last 50 days,
and we experimented
and we found that simple and strong titles are effective
and can get us anywhere from five to 20 times as many views.
And this is a small YouTube channel
that has less than 1,000 subscribers,
and we've been able to get videos
to have thousands of views,
if not hundreds of views,
and it's been working pretty effective.
Just keeping the titles simple,
but having something strong and emotional in the titles
has done wonders, and I feel that if more of you
make your titles simple and strong
and you make them clean, clear,
and just very concise,
your videos will get more clicks
and perform better
when that is combined with an effective thumbnail.
Number 12, videos that start and end abruptly
get more retention.
And that's another thing that we got
from the 50 videos in 50 days.
All these videos have a 50% to 75% retention rate
and these videos are between one minute long
and four minutes long,
and they're not YouTube shorts.
So what that data tells us
is that when you respect the viewers' time
and you don't waste a second of their time,
that the videos inherently perform better.
So we've been able to get these massive
50% to 75% retention rates
just by running this experiment.
The videos are not even overly edited.
They actually have almost no editing at all,
since it's all clips from my stage talks and interviews.
So there's no editing that's even dragging this out.
So when combined with effective editing
and abrupt ends and beginnings, guess what?
You have an even better chance of high retention rates.
Number 13, stop making random videos on YouTube.
Randomness and chaos is overrated.
Make intentional videos.
Have a plan.
You're spending a lot of time on this.
Have a plan and make sure that that plan
is grounded in understanding your viewers,
understanding your audience
or your desired audience,
and putting the audience first.
Your YouTube career will be much better
if you figure out how to serve people
and if you make a really good plan around it
that focuses on what they care about a lot more.
And if you wanna combine that with what you care about,
then that's great,
because now you both are getting something out of it.
It has to be a win for you and a win for the audience.
It seems obvious, sounds like common sense.
I can tell you it's not common practice
in the YouTube community,
and that's the problem.
Number 14, be consistent to get results.
Being on YouTube for five years means nothing
if you're taking massive breaks and are not consistent.
If you've uploaded 100 videos in five years,
that's not you being on YouTube for five years
in any meaningful way.
You need to be consistent,
and what consistent is,
for most content careers on YouTube,
is not missing a week of uploads
or not taking breaks longer than two weeks at a time.
Mental health and breaks are important.
Life gets in the way, but in any career,
we don't usually get to take massive breaks
and expect career growth to come out of it.
You can even look at exercise or dieting.
You don't get to do it casually and expect results.
YouTube is not something that most people can do casually
and get results.
So I would tell you
that a good plan is to upload one to two times a week.
If you're gonna upload 50 to 100 videos a year
and you're working to get 1% better
every time you upload one of those videos,
you have a much better chance of succeeding on YouTube
over the next five years
than being casual about it.
Uploading 200, 300, or 500 videos
over the next five years
has a much better chance of success
learning things, understanding your audience,
and getting the right data and right results
than somebody who's casual about it
and uploads 100, 150 videos in that same amount of time.
There is a such thing as quantity
and consistency mattering in life
because it compounds effort and compounds the interest.
Compound interest is the greatest force in the universe.
Number 15, and this is the most important thing,
do not base your growth on other people's growth.
You are not them.
You don't have the same journey as anyone else.
You don't have the same circumstances as anyone else.
Comparing is a good way to wreck yourself,
burn out, and be unsatisfied
and have unrealistic expectations
for your YouTube channel.
90% of content creators do not get to 10,000 subscribers.
A lot of them quit very early.
Most of them never even make their first 100 videos,
let alone their first 500
or even their first 1,000 videos
that would ultimately give them enough input
to have a good outcome.
Out of 100-million channels worldwide,
there are only 3-million in the YouTube partner program,
which tells you most people
don't even make it to YouTube partner.
So that means that if you wanna have a successful channel,
you're gonna have to be in this for long haul.
But if you want to grow a successful YouTube channel
and you want to know what specific things you have to do
and do them in the right order,
then you need to watch this other video that I've made
on exactly how to grow a successful YouTube channel
so that you can be in that top 10%.
I will link that video in the description down below.
Stay awesome and I will catch you next time.