This is
one of the most controversial hot
takes in YouTube.
What if I told you
that quality over quantity
is one of the worst
pieces of advice
for most content
creators on YouTube?
And there's actually a much better way
that's working right now
in real time
and getting people to
100,000 subscribers
and helping them build
six figures on YouTube.
See, what a lot of people
don't understand
is if you're a new content creator,
then quality over quantity
is absolutely probably
the worst piece of advice
any content creator could give you.
So why do established
and respected creators with millions
and tens of millions
of subscribers on YouTube
always tell you quality
over quantity?
It has a lot to do
with what has grown them
the most versus
what grew them when they were new.
When they were small.
And when they didn't have experience.
Because what
a lot of them will not acknowledge
is the circumstances
of new content creators
and what I call working class
content creators,
people who work a 9 to 5 job
40 plus hours a week
or might be in school.
And a lot of you also have families.
And the advice that you're getting
are coming from people
who are younger than 30
and don't necessarily have
a lot of personal responsibility
in their life in terms of people
that they directly were responsible for
at the beginning
of their content, creator,
journey and career.
So the advice that
I want to give you today
about how to grow a YouTube
channel going forward
and not focusing on quality
over quantity at the start,
and frankly, sometimes not even
when you've quote unquote
gotten to a certain level
is based
on actual information
and data that we constantly see
in real time in terms
of what channels who are new to
YouTube are doing
in order to grow.
Here's where we have to really start.
Let's look at your situation
in life in the comments.
I want you to tell me
how much you identify with this.
If you're working class
content creator, that means that
when your work is over
and if you're
getting a reasonable amount of sleep,
you probably at most
have 15 to 25
spare hours a week.
That could be
for content creation.
And that's assuming
that you are also,
to some extent, balance
seeing other things in your life,
responsibilities and family.
So your maximum
amount of time
that you can use to create
content is probably 15
to 25 hours per week,
and that's time
that has to be allocated
to researching your videos,
coming up with ideas,
writing your script
or your outline,
making the thumbnails for the video,
filming the video
and recording it,
and then doing all of your optimization
and publishing task,
replying to comments,
and then figuring out
the next video after that.
Now, when I lay all that out and say,
you have 15 to 25 hours a week.
Does that seem like
a reasonable place
to compete
with the highest quality videos
on YouTube from?
Probably not.
And even when we say,
okay, Roberta, well, what if I go
quality over quantity?
What if I pour all of that
into one video
a month?
Well,
even if you did that
and we're accounting
for the fact
that you still are probably
not really experienced
at learning video editing,
you're
probably really slow at video editing,
probably can't afford
the professional grade software
that produces
the highest quality videos on YouTube.
Probably have not been able
to invest
into the perfect lighting audio
camera lenses.
And even if you did, you probably
don't know how to use them yet.
So you have all this time and energy
when you're at your lowest
level of skill and lowest
level of experience,
lowest level of efficiency
in using all of your tools.
So your 100 hours,
compared to a more experienced
person,
is going to have
about a fourth
of the overall quality as a result.
What takes you
100 hours
to produce the highest level of quality
you could make in
a month
is what somebody
with more experience than you,
not even that much more experience
where you could accomplish
in less than 20 hours
and someone who's wildly efficient
can produce the same outcome
as your 100 hours
in 8 hours.
And you know what
the worst part of that is
when you look
at the biggest YouTubers.
They have a team
on top of all of this,
and they get to spend 40,
60 or 80 hours
a week of their own energy
and 40 hours a week of multiple
other people's energy.
And it's their first
and only priority.
They're not taking the scraps
of energy left
from a 9 to 5 job
that they work 40 hours a week at,
and then taking the scraps
of that energy
and then pouring the leftovers
into all this time
to make quality content.
So now you understand why
quality over quantity
is actually terrible advice
from the circumstances
of not being a full time
YouTube already.
If you are not a full time YouTuber
or you don't have the abundance of time
freedom
that comes from being a teenager
or in your twenties, having no kids,
having no relationship,
those kind of things
are a big differentiation
in who gets to make certain levels
of quality content.
The other thing is obviously
the resources side,
the quality of resources
you have to make videos going in
determines the quality of the videos
going out.
And by quality we mean the experience,
which is the production value,
the performance value
and the personality
that you get to drive.
Personality is much more
experience, it's much
more intuition, it's much more
the emotional connection
with the audience.
But production, production
is resources and experience,
and performance
is definitely experience.
And when you're
a new content creator
or growing content creator,
a lot of times
you don't have the abundance
in those areas
that somebody
who is already a full time
and established content creator has.
That's just the truth.
So there are these
massive gaps
in what quality
can even be
for a reasonable person.
When we're talking about a working
class content creator versus
a full time content creator.
When we're talking about somebody
who's been making money
from their content and is monetized
and can reasonably invest into it
versus
someone who's not in that position
and their first priority
is paying their bills.
Okay, Roberto,
so what is the answer if quality over
quantity isn't the answer,
then what is?
Well, first of all, it's
not that I'm saying you shouldn't
make quality content at all.
It's that you should understand
why it's not reasonable
with what you have
where you are right now
to compete
with the highest quality
content on YouTube
or the highest quality content
of your type, style or niche.
So what I would do is
I would do an audit and say,
what does it take
to produce
that quality of content
from a product standpoint
in terms of how much time would it take
to produce and edit
that style of content?
And what you need understand
is for a lot of it,
it's 100 to 200 hours.
So you need to understand,
you need to know that and that's 100,
200 hours from an experienced person,
which means it's going to be
probably for X that time
for an inexperienced person
to create the same thing.
So I would start to focus on
becoming a better video editor
and a better technician
when it comes to lights,
camera, audio and lenses.
I would learn the techniques
that I ultimately produced
much more polished content
than you're currently capable of.
Start studying the camera angles,
the settings I would
look at YouTube studio tours,
I would look at video editing
tutorials and process videos
to start to get a better grasp of this.
I would
also look at a lot of filmmaking
content like DSLR Shooter.
Those are like really good start.
I know that a lot of you probably
watch more entertainment
than you do education,
but you need to watch
more of those things.
There's also videos on this channel
that focus on
video production, video editing,
cameras, lenses, lights
and so on.
The other thing you can do
is start to streamline your process.
You can get faster
at everything you're doing
so that getting to quality ends up
not taking nearly as long.
With the limited 15
to 25 hours
that you have per week,
some of you have less than that
per week.
So the other thing is you need to also
look at what content
you are reliably
and capable of making consistently
and sustainably
with the resources and budget
you have, but also the time
and energy you have.
Time freedom is a real thing
and it doesn't make sense
to come home after a long day at work
and then try to make videos
with your scraps of energy.
Maybe it's something you need to do
on your days off
when you're at your peak levels
of energy and performance.
Such a performance comes off
better on camera,
and this could make a huge difference
for connecting with the audience.
So, Scott,
make you feel better
when you're editing.
You're going to have less mistakes
to take out and you're going to like
what you're working on much more
when you're not straining
and struggling.
And also, a lot of you,
you need a quiet environment
in order to film.
You need to build a schedule, system
and structure around.
When can I film the parts
that require audio?
Do the audio parts
when you're have peace and quiet,
don't wait for peace
and quiet to edit.
That's what God gave us good
headphones for.
I'll link to some in the description.
A lot of you keep
waiting for perfect circumstances
to make everything or anything at all.
You have no business filming
the B-roll
that's going to have audio in it
when it's quiet.
Do that when it's noisy.
Do it when it doesn't matter.
When it's time to make something
that requires your voice
and you need voiceover
or you need to do it direct to camera.
Do that when it's quiet
or when no one's around
and when you have ideal circumstances.
Film when you can.
Less about filming
when you feel like it.
Film when you can.
That's a big tip.
Now, why all of this matters
is because you still need
a acceptable level of quality
that provides
a good experience for a viewer.
When we say make quality content,
we're talking about what's the best,
most engaging
experience for the viewer.
That's what quality is.
It's the experience we get.
Okay.
I don't want you to prioritize quality.
I want you to have a standard
and a threshold
for quality
that is sustainable and consistent
and reliable for you to produce
without negatively
impacting your lifestyle
or your health.
That's what's
going to make all of this work.
What you need to do instead of thinking
about quality over
quantity,
is think about high
value and high volume.
When everyone says,
Oh every night
and YouTube is saturated.
It's really not.
It's not saturated with
someone who consistently
and reliably
makes a high volume of content
that also is high value
for the viewers of that content
and the creators
who are growing today,
even if they don't hit
a million subscribers, the creators
today, they're growing faster
and that are making profitable
content are looking at what is high
value to my audience,
where they give attention, time, energy
and interest, too.
All right.
So if you find a high value
niche that you can capitalize on
with your own experience
and ability to either entertain,
educate, solve problems, inspire.
If you can find something
that's in demand,
something that's in demand.
So high value is in demand,
high levels of attention
are already being given to this.
Right.
So if you find something
that's in demand, high value,
and then you produce
a high volume of that,
you go 100
videos deep in a year,
150 videos deep in a year.
You become the daily content creator
for that niche.
Then you're going to be successful.
One of the best
examples of the strategy
I'm talking about
is Star Wars Theory.
Star Wars Theory is one of my personal
favorite YouTube channels
daily videos
about Wait for It
Star Wars.
So there's an audience
whose Star Wars
content is high value, too.
There are people
who have generations of their family
that have grown up on Star Wars.
There are people who've
grown up on the Clone Wars,
grown up on the original trilogy
or the prequel trilogy.
Now you have the sequels
that no one wants to talk about.
So there's all these things
you have the Disney plus shows now.
This is an audience
that already has tens
of millions of fans
around the world.
Right.
Same thing for niches
like Harry Potter
or Lord of the Rings, talking content.
Right.
These are high value.
And the thing is,
this is entertainment stuff.
So that's high value.
There is a high level
of audience engagement
that exists for this.
And we don't have to guess.
We know if somebody then becomes
on the daily content
creator in that niche,
that is a very specific advantage.
Meanwhile, somebody
who really goes high
quality, works their little heart out
and makes a Star Wars
fan film will not be as successful
as someone who's doing
law and character analysis
every single day.
One of those things is gonna be high
quality over the top.
Spends,
you know, tens of thousands of dollars,
takes months to film,
shoot, edit,
and it's
going to get less of an outcome
that someone that basically reads
from Wikipedia every day
in education,
it becomes something very similar.
It's actually really easy
to grow an audience
with tutorials
around a software
and go heavy on that.
Honestly, in a lot of ways,
if I was a gaming channel
and I wanted to grow,
I would get into a new video game
and I've actually seen this work.
I would get into a new video game
and I would do everything
that someone that is new to
that video game would care
about and be interested in.
If I know
that's a super accessible game
and it would be a game
that is new
but has a massive advertise in budget,
they're splashing it everywhere.
There's paid ads
in every social media platform.
I jump on a game like that.
It's the same thing
with product tutorials.
With product tutorials.
I would look at what is getting
the most advertising
push across Amazon
and Facebook and Twitter,
and I'd be reviewing those products
and I would know that there's
a massive audience for that.
And if I could make a system
in a workflow that let me do that
three times a week,
five times a week,
every day, more
than whatever
the market leader is doing,
the person
who's making the highest quality
but inconsistent.
What if, since
so many people
care about that thing now,
what if that person
that gets 10 million views
every upload?
What if I had content
that could capture
1% of their audience?
But I did that every single day.
And I'm not telling you
to be a daily content creator.
I'm just making a point here.
High value plus high
volume is going
to be massively successful
for a lot of you
who are working class content creators
or have just transitioned
to being full time content creators
instead of chasing
the unicorn
of quality,
thinking that somehow,
some way,
you're going
to be one of the handful of people,
one of the 3000 channels
that have 10 million subscribers,
or one of the 30,000
out of 100 million channels.
They have a million subscribers.
And the thing is, you don't even need
to be one of the
like 350,000 channels
out of 100 million
that have 100,000 subscribers
as a silver play button
to be successful
and to make a full time income
and move
from being a working class creator
to a full time content creator
who does this for a living.
The harsh truth is that most of
you will not be able to compete
on quality
for years
in your Creator journey
just because you don't
have the experience, the resources
and the time freedom
that that requires
to compete in that arena.
But you can make more
than the acceptable
threshold of quality
that's required to grow in your niche.
What is getting you?
You realize how many creators
don't make the highest quality content,
but have videos that they know
have given them
a thousand subscribers on one video?
That's the quality
that people said yes to you
has the highest quality
that you've produced
as a content creator.
I know that
even from my own experience.
So from a growth
standpoint, in terms of
I want more subscribers,
you can take the level of quality
that you had
that produced the most subscribers
and realize that
that's what people said yes to.
They're not asking for anything
more than that.
It's just my ego at this point
and not me feeling
like I'm making something
that competes with my heroes
or my idols or people
with millions of subs.
That's just ego talking, thinking
that you have to chase
that level of quality
or what you do doesn't matter.
That's ego and insecurity talking.
Whereas if you want to go with quality,
I would tell
you make the highest quality
thumbnail possible,
make the highest quality
title possible,
you know, and pick
high value
topics and ideas.
Focus more on the quality
of your ideas,
the quality of your titles,
the quality of your thumbnails,
because that is the value that you're
demonstrating in the marketplace
at a glance.
Before anyone gets to see how fancy
your cinematography or editing is,
they're judging you
completely on the idea,
which is the topic
that title
and the thumbnail
and the timing
in terms of it is relevant
to them right now.
And the thing is, the more you upload
in a high value topic,
the more relevant that topic is,
the more relevant you are.
And a high tide raises all ships
when someone makes a viral video
on that same idea
and you have a hundred videos
on that idea,
do you know what happens?
YouTube needs to have
some suggested video
to put next to that viral video.
If you have 100 of them,
guess what YouTube thinks
is the most relevant content
to put next to
that viral video
that somebody made on the same topic,
the same idea.
Think about that for a minute.
I want to see more of
you succeed in YouTube.
And I think that if a lot of you
focus on topic,
title, thumbnail and timing
in terms of the value proposition
that you have
and making a high value
piece of content
that people will pay attention to,
instead of focus on
chasing a high quality video
and then complaining
and being frustrated that
you made all this effort
and time you put 100 hours into it
and didn't get results.
I think a lot of
you should focus on value
and then volume in terms
of that consistency and showing up
and being a community
that people can participate
in every day be their daily habit,
their daily ritual,
or even their daily addiction.
I think that's a better strategy
for growing on YouTube.
But let me know what you think
in the comment section.
If you enjoy this video,
make sure you check out my video
on the most profitable
niches on YouTube
if you'd rather be paid than popular.
Also, if you want to be a full time
content creator,
make sure you're checking out
my playlist linked
in the description down below.
Stay awesome
and I'll catch you on the next video.