- It is an excuse,
simple as that.
It is never too late to start anything in life.
And that includes YouTube.
All of these channels found their success
on the platform in 2020,
and it become influences in that video topics.
And we're gonna show you how they did it
so you can do the same in 2021.
(upbeat music)
Gaming channels, probably
the most competitive video topic on YouTube
which makes it harder than ever to stand out.
But that's exactly what 100 Percent Zelda did
in just nine months.
30,000 subscribers and 4 million views
is no mean feat for a relatively old game that personally,
I cannot stand.
To be honest, I can't stand "Red Dead Redemption II" even.
However, I really enjoyed "Crackdown Three", yeah.
But it does not matter what I think.
There is still a huge audience for this game.
A 100 Percent Zelda success lies within its channel focus.
How to get the best items?
How to defeat the toughest bosses?
How to uncover the game's biggest secrets?
100 Percent Zelda's value proposition
literally is its channel name.
And it never deviates from this path.
When you have a laser sharp focus,
your channel becomes an authority.
When a viewer knows what to expect from your channel,
you've already built that relationship
and they trust you with their valuable time.
And that is what 100 Percent Zelda is now,
the best in-class channel
for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild;
hints, tips, tricks, advice and strategies.
I think these three videos
in particular best represent the channel.
The thumbnails promise a vast amount of information
about the most crucial aspects of the game.
And these videos obviously deliver as they have
over one and a half million views between them.
We did our first case study on 100 Percent Zelda
when they hit 1000 subscribers
in their first 100 days on YouTube,
you can check it out over here,
but I'm delighted to see you at 100 Percent Zelda
has continued their success throughout 2020.
(upbeat music)
All right, so this channel didn't start in 2020
but to give you some context,
in December, 2019,
they got three and a half thousand views
and 200 subscribers.
And then, this happened,
- I'm here to tell you how to get your stimulus check
as quickly as possible.
This is straight from the Trump administration
and from all the politicians carrying out
the stimulus package.
And then I'm gonna go over the FAQ's with you
and all the screwed up situation.
- Oh yeah, no time wasted straight to the point,
helping tens of millions of Americans get
what they desperately needed
at the beginning of the pandemic
- You notice or if you will notice,
I'm gonna do this in one take, no edits
because frankly it's a bloodbath out there
and I have individuals and small businesses to help.
So if I make any errors, please forgive me.
- Honesty there too, I like that.
Since then, ClearValue Tax
have gone in a stimulus check crusade.
Pretty much all of these videos are on that one topic.
And this content is being pumped out on a near daily basis.
And let's face it when you're making videos
on essentially how to get free money you're entitled to,
these videos are bound to become popular,
especially when you become the keyword authority
for one of the most searched terms of 2020.
And ClearValue Tax made sure they load their content
with that keyword in every single video.
When it comes to education,
less is often more.
The viewer often wants the information as quickly
and accurately as possible
from a credible source they can trust.
Well, this is a tax channel who tells you exactly
who they are in the first 10 seconds.
- My name is Brian Kim,
I'm a CPA and tax practice owner.
- And doesn't worry too much about production values.
They just give you what you need to know
as quickly as possible.
And because they put less into production and style,
that allows them to put more into information
and value more content.
And when I creator finds success with a topic or a keyword,
you don't abandon it,
you become YouTube ambassador.
And right now, and going forward,
ClearValue Tax will be YouTube's leader
in stimulus check information.
On an interesting side note,
this creator doesn't use custom thumbnails most of the time.
When they do, the views actually tank.
But there's a really interesting reason why this happens.
Whenever stimulus check update content is posted,
the creator knows YouTube will serve that content
up to the audience who wants to watch it.
But when the creator strays from that topic,
they recognize that they have to optimize their content
a little bit more to try and engage with
a slightly different audience
about a slightly different topic.
The creator knows that stimulus checks
has a limited shelf life as a keyword.
So they're already expanding into other tax topics
which is a very wise decision.
(upbeat music)
No April Fools here, of course,
3 million subscribers, 12 and a half million views.
May have heard about this channel already
as it became the feel-good story we all needed in 2020.
There's a very simple reason why this channel went viral,
it's value proposition.
You get exactly what this channel
is going to be about in seconds.
This phrase that just so happens to be the channel's name,
so you can't avoid it,
sparks off a light bulb moments in the viewer's mind.
And just as importantly,
it is a relatable phrase to billions of people
all across the world in any language.
The thumbnails are not fantastic.
The content itself is arguably no better
than other creators in the DIY topic space,
but when it's all bundled into the idea of "Dad, How Do I",
that's what helped this channel go viral?
The channel is not without its future challenges, however,
a lot of people have subscribed to the story
and the idea of a channel,
but not that many people watch the content,
especially compared to that tax channel
we looked at earlier.
The challenge lies within the channel's target audience.
Who should be watching and why.
Take a look at these two videos,
is the channel for parents with young children
who need help with reading stories
or for parents with teenage kids
who wants to get into DIY.
If it's both, then you're diluting your audience
a little bit.
(upbeat music)
All right, so you may be wondering
why this channel is in the list.
5,000 subscribers and 45,000 views in three months is good
but it's not YouTube defining.
Not yet, anyway.
That's because I believe this channel
is one Reddit share away from going viral.
It brings those classic adventure books
into a YouTube world.
Each video plays part of a story
and at the conclusion of a video,
you decide where the story goes next through end screens.
It's a novel approach
to YouTube I haven't seen anywhere else.
And viewers love something new
and interesting to experiment with on the platform.
It also targets two crucial YouTube metrics
key to a video success.
Video watch time and session watch time.
You've got to watch the whole video
to follow the story, right?
And then to continue the story,
you have to click on the video.
This type of engagement is what YouTube loves
and you can tell it's working
because each time a viewer has two options.
The view counts for the subsequent video roughly half
meaning the viewer is choosing one
of the two videos available.
As I say, this is a brilliant idea
that I've never come across before on YouTube.
And when you can create something new,
interesting, and exciting,
that builds an audience on YouTube.
The problem is this creator
has used YouTube tools to do this,
which means that it can be reproduced quite easily.
So pass, I'm talking to you directly now,
you have headstart,
but be careful of the creators
are gonna quickly try and catch up.
(upbeat music)
Yeah, I have no idea how to pronounce this channel
but holy smokes,
425,000 subscribers and 50 million views in three months.
How on earth is it possible,
working to the next generation of video creators,
YouTube Shorts, all of them.
You know that we've talked about YouTube Shorts ad nauseum.
So to paraphrase,
YouTube have introduced a new video consumption platform
to its 2 billion users.
And right now there are not enough YouTube Shorts
to serve that audience,
which means that there is huge opportunity for creators.
Opportunities like this.
It seems as if Minecraft will be forever popular on YouTube
and these short vertical clips of impressive
and satisfying bot builds
are taking YouTube Shorts by storm.
And even though this video is short
I have no doubt that this construction took hours to build.
I know that some of you hate YouTube Shorts already
but it looks like given the phenomenal success of Tik-Tok,
short form content is here to stay.
And as a creator, you can't ignore it.
This creator siezed the opportunity
and has built a huge channel very quickly.
There is just one huge caveat to YouTube Shorts.
You can't really make any money out of them.
That's because ads aren't served on YouTube Shorts just yet.
And none of them watch time from YouTube Shorts
goes towards and monetization requirements.
It's gonna to leave him (indistinct)
(slow upbeat music)
Ignore the channel start date on this one.
Matt published his first video on June 1st of 2019
but it still took him over a year to figure out YouTube
and this simple quality or lack of
is the reason many channels fail on YouTube.
Patience.
There are always going to be exceptions.
YouTube will shoot some channels to the moon and back
but for most creators,
it takes hours, weeks, months,
sometimes even years of dedicated hard work
before it starts to pay off.
And when Matt figured out his corner of YouTube,
he turned the volume all the way up to 11.
Here are Matt's most popular YouTube videos.
You might start to notice a pattern.
The all begin with exactly the same title,
iPhone 12 release date and price.
I've seen this strategy used countless times before.
I know because I've done it myself.
When you identify a title at YouTube rewards you with,
go all in with every angle you can find on the subject.
Now then, while Matt has been able to capitalize
on the iPhone 12
as a trending tech topic,
what he also did at the same time was create a formula
which he can replicate with pretty much
any piece of tech product.
The content formula is in place.
All you need to do is switch out the subject
such as alternative Apple products, alternative smartphones
and then new tech such as video game consoles
put simply when it comes to blank release date and price,
as a video title in the tech space,
Matt is now a YouTube authority on this subject.
(upbeat music)
This channel is growing so fast,
they may already have a billion views
by the time you see this video.
In September of 2020,
Jake had 40,000 views in total on his channel.
Then he discovered YouTube Shorts
and started uploading custom made Among Us 3D animation.
He siezed the opportunity
and became a subscriber millionaire in just 80 days.
Now, if you want to learn everything there is to know
about Jake's successful YouTube journey,
you can check it out in this full case study over here.
There is one thing I want to center on in this video.
And that is a quality that all successful creators have.
Mark my words in one year or less,
I will have 1 million followers.
Saying this now so I can point back to it in October, 2020.
It is this tenacious drive,
this relentless determination,
this unstoppable passion that gives you the creator
absolute control of your destiny.
It is never too late to explore your passion
and share that passion in your own way
to an audience that shares that same passion.
YouTube is your free megaphone.
Pick it up, stand on your platform
and shout loudly and proudly.
The opportunity is still here.
It hasn't changed.
The question is, have you changed your attitude?
Press record, press upload, press publish.
Welcome to YouTube 2021 edition.
(upbeat music)