Every video intro needs a hook, a
teaser that delivers more on the video title
and thumbnail, something that pays off
later on down the road. Gaming channels,
they're no different. Hello folks welcome
back to vidIQ, my name is Rob.
If this is your first time in these...
ever-changing surroundings, we are the
YouTube tool, and channel that aims to help
you get more views in less time. Today
we're wanting to focus on the challenge
that faces gamers wanting to start
YouTube channels in 2018 with so much
competition. So we put together ten top
tips to help you get there. Now if you're
not a gamer, don't worry,
stick around. Many of the
strategies that we suggest to you today
are relevant for all types of channels,
We just want to put it in a video
game context. Let's start with tip number
one. The most important thing about your
channel is not the video game you're
going to cover, it's you. While the
average viewer may find your content
through a Youtube search, or suggested
videos from related videos, they
stick around because of what you can
uniquely offer to your audience. Whether
that's through the humor that you have,
the energy, the enthusiasm, the passion,
it's all about how you and your content
makes your audience feel beyond any
video game that you're actually playing.
I want you to answer two questions in
the comments below
right now. Question number one: why do you
go back to your favorite video game
YouTubers? Is it because of the video
games they're playing or because of the
personality of the channel and that they
connect with you directly? The second
question is: if they pivoted from the
video game that you're interested in,
would you still go to their channel
irrespective of what video game that
they're playing next? So for some of you
this may be your first challenge. Get in
front of camera, talk directly to your
audience while you're playing your video
games. If you're not ready to do that, get
behind the microphone so that people can
hear you. Maybe do a face reveal
later on. The key element is make you the
star of a channel not the games that you
play. With that being said the video
game or video games that you cover on
your channel are immensely important to
you. The golden rule of any
YouTube channel is that if you're
passionate about the topic that you're
covering, you'll be passionate about how
you share it with your audience and that
always comes through in the videos that
you produce. Let's test your passion
here's another challenge for you: what is
your favorite video game right now and
if you were to start a YouTube channel
on it could you come up with ten quick
video ideas in five minutes? Now this may
sound like a tough challenge so I'm
going to challenge myself right now. My
favourite video game is Clash Royale,
here are ten quick video ideas I can
come up with off the top of my head. 5
funniest glitches in Clash Royale. The
best comeback so you've ever seen in
Clash Royale. How to spend your money on
the right cards on Clash Royale. What is
my favorite card deck? Best strategies
for two-on-two gameplay. Which cards
should you be requesting from your clan?
5 new game modes I would love to see in
Clash Royale.
What should I spend my Clash Royale gems
on? Rare and real at Clash Royale
merchandise? And finally the top 5 Clash
Royale youtubers. I bet you had no idea
what I was talking about there except
for 2 or 3 people watching this video
who have played Clash Royale and that's
the audience you need to appeal to with
your gaming content. You want to really
focus down and concentrate on a target
audience with a specific value
proposition that they can relate to: who
should be watching or why should they
care? We've brought this up many times
before, it applies to video game channels
as well. Tip number 3: research... research...
no really I do mean this, research. There
are millions of gaming channels on
YouTube right now so how do you stand
out from the crowd? We've already talked
about making you the star of your
YouTube channel and taking your
personality to the forefront but when it
comes to the games you need to be able
to answer questions that nobody else can
answer, faster than anyone else, or better
than anyone else. I'm going to use a
Clash Royale as the example again. Every
couple of weeks they release new cards
for you to play around with. About two
weeks ago a new card called the giant
snowball was released. Now you don't
really need to know anything about that
other than if you search on YouTube for
Clash Royale Giant Snowball Tips,
you'll find all the big
channels at the top of a search rankings, but if
you just go down a little bit, you find
this one channel with only a thousand
subscribers but a video that has a
hundred and fifty thousand views. Wow
how did this happen? The video answers a
very specific question about one
particular game, the metadata is
relatively good and it was one of her
first videos out on the topic.
What's more astonishing is if you check
the channel, this is the first video this
channel has made and it has a 150,000
views and has gained 1,600 subscribers
from that. So this, if nothing else, is
proof that you can start a gaming
channel in 2018 if you do the right
things. Because I have a passionate
knowledge about that video game, I know
what to search for. It should be the same
for you whatever game you are interested
in, but let's take an example of a game I
know nothing about which is Fortnite
other than it's a shooting game. I did a
couple of searches and within five
minutes I was able to search for best
shotgun in Fortnite save the world
2018 as a longtail keyword and instead
of finding channels with millions of
subscribers I found channels with a few
thousand subscribers getting tens of
thousands of views. So it is possible to
do on any type of game, you just have to
think of this from a really specific
point of view. Are there any Easter eggs
that you know of that nobody else does?
Is there a big patch coming out with new
weapons that you want to cover before
anybody else? Think about how you can
offer something valuable, new and unique
to your audience before anybody else, or
as I said earlier better than anyone
else and you're onto a winning strategy
when it comes to a gaming channel. Tip
number four: stick to your guns
There's two ways to look at this, first
of all stick to one game for a period of
time. I know that you're going to be the
personality of your channel but you need
to build a rapport with your audience on
a particular game, a particular topic.
I've seen so many channels play Need for
Speed one day, FIFA 18, the next WWE 2k 18
the next day. Your audience is
not going to know where you are and what
you've decided on. The second way to look
at sticking to your guns is if
you have successful content, double down
on that strategy. If you found a
particular secret which is really
interesting to your audience, find
another way to look at that secret or
something that's very similar. You'll be
able to use the vidIQ channel audit
tool to see which is your best content
over the last 30 days. Check on that on a
regular basis and see if you can double
down on more of that content.
Tip number five: have the relevant set up.
We're not going to say have the best set
up right now because you may not be able
to afford it but there are three staples
of any video gaming channel. Those being
a webcam, a dedicated microphone, and some
sort of recording software. Some
practical, affordable, best-in-class
suggestions include the Logitech c920
webcam, the yeti snowball microphone, and
OBS which is a completely free screen
recording program for computers. You
might want to do another search on
youtube to find more specific
suggestions but there's plenty around
and at some very affordable prices. Tip
number six: thumbnails. Make sure they're
customized and they look damn good. If
you look at any of the top gaming
channels on youtube you will see that
their thumbnails are a work of art.
Really bright, oversaturated lots of
punch that really draws you into the
visuals when you're deciding what to
watch next. A very common mistake
gaming channels make is to take a
screenshot from the game and use it as
their thumbnail without any further
editing or context. And what some
channels do is use the same screenshot
over over again with multiple videos
and that just really isn't appealing at
all to the casual viewer. I understand
as a video creator myself that
there is a huge temptation to just push
that video out of a door once it's
finished, but you should be spending at
least 30 to 60 minutes on your thumbnail
making sure that it's not too cluttered,
that the one or two objects in that
thumbnail really tell a compelling story.
We've got a dedicated video on
thumbnails that you can watch in one of
these corners (I haven't quite worked out
what my directions are yet on this
camera) but do take a look at that and
also look at the top youtubers in your
video game sphere and see how
they craft their thumbnails. We're
seeing now smaller channels on YouTube
in terms of video game content producing
amazing thumbnails. It's a really
competitive area and video creaters are
understanding more and more that
thumbnails are vitally important
whatever channel size you are. So
thumbnails make sure you work really
hard at them. The strength of that
thumbnail must be reinforced by the
title and that's tip number seven. It's
time for another challenge but this one
is a really simple one. I'm going to show
you two titles: which would you rather
click on... one is a purely functional
title, you might see at the top of an
essay. The second one is compelling, it
tells the story. I'm intrigued, I really
want to know what happened to that guy's
head. Now as for tip number eight let's
go back to the beginning of this video:
every video intro needs a hook, a
tease that delivers more on the video
title and thumbnail. Something that pays
off later on down the road: gaming
channels they're no different. Tip number
nine. No game lasts forever, at some point
you will have to pivot. This ties itself
all the way back to tip number one, which
is you are the star of your channel. Once
you've built an audience, gained their
trust, they become subscribers, super fans,
then you should be able to take them on
a journey wherever you like. You might
want to start with games that they may
be familiar with or comfortable with. So
for example, a lot of Clash of Clans
YouTubers went on to Clash Royale. For
Fortnite gamers you might want to move
on to Call of Duty when the next one of
them is released or a
similarly themed topic. When you've
built a huge audience, you can go
wherever you want. That might be
nostalgic, retro games that you're a big
fan of or your favorite games of all
time. For example, mine is Goldeneye on
the N64 but I don't think vidIQ is
quite ready for a let's play on that -
although do let me know in the comments
below I'd be delighted to do that.
[Music]
But to summarize: find an audience, become
their best buddies and then take them on
a gaming journey wherever you want it to
go. And finally, tip number 10... it's a boss
level fight... you ready for this one... yeah...
patience. It seems like these days
everybody wants to have a gaming channel
on YouTube, even famous wrestlers do
which is really odd to know. I think I
actually look like one of them. The
competition is more fierce than ever
before and it's relentless, in fact you
could say it's like putting your video
game on the hardest difficulty setting.
Are you dedicated enough to beat it?
That's up to you.
Thank you very much for watching, enjoy
the rest of your video making day, and if
you don't mind I've got a game of my own
I need to finish off.