- I've condensed my last five years on YouTube
into a six-step formula
that has allowed me to go
from zero to 100,000 subscribers
and make 10K plus per month in the process.
And despite what you may have heard,
you don't need 100,000 subscribers
to make that much money.
In fact, not even close.
And with new changes YouTube has made to the algorithm,
smaller channels are blowing up overnight
by implementing a combination of this exact strategy.
So, what you're about to learn
is not only going to give you
an actionable, step-by-step plan
on how to create your very own profitable YouTube channel,
but it's going to keep you from doing what I did
as well as many other YouTubers
by spending thousands of hours and years
trying to get a YouTube channel to take off.
And at the end,
we'll sit back and analyze my income stream
centered around my YouTube channel.
Now, the six-step formula
for running a successful YouTube channel
can be boiled down into three key points.
Get people to click on your video,
get people to watch the video,
and then get people to come back.
Do this and you can take
any average paying profession
like a dog groomer or mechanic
and turn it into something
that will make you millions of dollars.
But in order to get people to click on something,
you need to make sure
that it's actually something that they want to click on.
And that takes us to Step 1,
market research.
Now, this is the most important part of the entire formula
because you could execute
on the remaining five steps perfectly,
but if you're making videos
centered around something that no one cares about,
then they're not going to click on your videos
to begin with
and you're going to go down the same road I went down
when I first started YouTube
where about the first three years,
I was just making videos hoping that one would take off.
First, we're going to head over
to the only tool I use to run my YouTube channel, vidIQ.
And vidIQ is a desktop version and a Chrome extension,
and we are going to use both.
Now, the first method of research I call channel sniping.
Let's say you wanna start a channel
around one of your passions,
such as cooking.
Well, there are a million things you could cook,
but let's see what some of the top chefs are cooking
here on YouTube.
After installing the extension
and typing in healthy recipes into YouTube,
right away with vidIQ,
we can start finding bigger channels
that are popping up with these particular keywords.
So after clicking on a channel,
hidden in the top right corner,
vidIQ has a tiny button
that says Click on Trending Videos.
And this is where the magic happens.
Immediately, it shows us out of our almost 200 videos
which ones are currently getting views,
and it will sort them from highest to lowest.
Now, usually I ignore some of the more recent videos
because those videos will usually get views
within the first week or two.
But I'm looking for older videos
that are still getting views.
And in this particular example,
there's a video that's over seven months old,
has almost 1 million views,
and it's still getting 100 views per hour
on inflammatory recipes.
So, immediately I'm writing down inflammatory recipes
as a great video topic.
Now, this is one of my favorite research methods
to see what's trending on YouTube,
but before you get too comfortable
and unpack all of your things,
there's one more research method that we're going to use,
finding high-volume keywords.
Now, we're still going to be using vidIQ this time,
but it's going to be inside of the desktop version.
So, inside of vidIQ on the Keyword tab,
we're going to type in healthy recipes.
And the goal here is to find something
that has a high search volume
but lower competition.
And that way,
we can find something that people are looking for,
but we can actually have a good chance
of standing out from all of the other videos
that people are making.
And when looking at some other video ideas
from this keyword,
we find healthy pasta recipes.
And when making a video,
I like to use a combination of both of these methods
to where I have about 10 to 15 video ideas to pull from.
And to get started using this tool,
it's only $1 the first month
if you use my link down below.
And if you're enjoying this video so far,
I'd love it if you'd hit the Like button
because it really helps it out.
Now that we have a nice list of videos to make,
we can move onto Step 2,
the packaging.
I'm not sure if you heard this growing up a lot,
but I know I did.
It's not what you say,
it's how you say it.
And YouTube is the same way.
You could have the best information on YouTube,
but if you don't know how to package it properly,
it doesn't matter.
How you package what you say is everything here on YouTube.
And it's something that I extremely underestimated
my first three to four years here on the platform.
And that comes down to your title and thumbnail.
Now, if we were to make this cooking video,
not only are we going to have to compete for clicks
across other cooking channels,
but we would have to eventually compete
against all other types of videos being made.
And this is why we need a title and thumbnail
that intrigue people to click on it.
Now, there's hours of content
on making titles and thumbnails,
but there's three key things that I try to do
for each one that I make.
The biggest one is creating a sense of intrigue.
So, I want to pose a question to you guys
whenever I make a video.
For example, if you check out Mr. Beast,
he made a video titled "Ages 1-100 Fight."
And the first thing I thought when I saw this was,
"How is a one-year-old and a 100-year-old
"even going to fight,
"let alone fight other people?"
Number two is I try and make
my titles and thumbnails jump out.
So for example, on thumbnails,
I like to use contrasting and very bright colors.
And when it comes to titles,
I like to use a thesaurus
to try and find some unique words
that people may not be using inside of their titles already.
And lastly, and this may be the most important part,
is just paying attention
to what you're actually clicking on.
That's what I started doing
is I started analyzing,
what am I actually clicking on and why?
And I have an entire folder.
When I see a cool thumbnail,
I'll put it inside of this thumbnail inspiration folder
that I can go to see different colors and strategies
that top YouTubers are using
in completely different niches.
They have millions of subscribers.
Now, up to this point,
I would've spent an hour into the research
and an hour into the titles and thumbnails.
But have you noticed
we haven't even gotten to the filming the video yet?
Abraham Lincoln said,
"Give me six hours to cut down a tree
"and I'll spend the first four sharpening the ax."
And that's what we've been doing up to this point.
We've been sharpening that ax.
But now it's time for Phase 3,
which is to cut down that tree,
or I guess write and film the video,
however you want to cut it.
So, I take my video topic
and I'll look at other videos
that have been made in this niche
and I'll start writing down some notes
of the top videos that were made.
And my goal here is to see,
okay, what can I improve on
that these videos did not talk about?
And the second thing is I answer,
how can I add my own personality or twist
into this video as well?
So, this is something I didn't do for the longest time,
but whether you're treating YouTube as a part-time thing
or a full-time thing,
when creating a new product or service,
you need to find ways that you can stand out.
Let's say I were to open up a barbershop
on a street of a bunch of other barbers.
Because clearly I know a thing or two about hair,
if you couldn't tell.
Well, if I was offering the same haircuts
as all of these other barbers,
well, I probably wouldn't get as much business.
But if I found a way to stand out
and I started offering deluxe beard cuts
or something unique in the market
that these other barbers weren't doing,
I would probably succeed
or have a higher likelihood of success.
And I think there's four main ways
of increasing value on a YouTube video.
The first is the timeliness of your video.
Can you beat other people out with the information at hand?
This is something I'm not very good at myself,
but there are a lot of YouTubers
who have grown channels into the millions by doing this.
Number 3 is the production value.
So, how is it edited?
And that doesn't necessarily mean
fancy editing at all either.
Number three is by increasing
the amount of information or entertainment,
the two main reasons people come to YouTube.
Number four is packaging.
So if you can make a better title or thumbnail
than other people,
your video will rise to the top of the search rankings
and it will increase the views that way.
Now, this helps if you're knowledgeable
or at least passionate
about something that you're making videos at,
which I'm assuming that you would be
if you're wanting to make
an entire YouTube channel around this.
And this is actually how I started YouTube
in the first place.
I would watch these videos
of people telling people how to start Amazon businesses,
and it would be not only telling them
the completely wrong thing,
but they were selling them 500 or $1,000 courses.
And, honestly, it kind of made me angry.
So, that's how I started my entire YouTube channel.
So, once I know my edge
and the value I'm going to bring into the video,
now is where I write my script
or at least write an outline.
Now, I write scripts for all of my videos
because I'll just go off on tangents,
and I'm usually talking about
pretty informationally-dense topics
and I wanna make sure that you the viewer or anyone else
understands what it is that I'm talking about.
But regardless of whether
you're writing a script or an outline,
the most important part is having a good intro.
So if I take an hour to write a script,
I'll spend 20 to 30 minutes on just the intro itself.
And with my intro,
I'm trying to answer a few things.
What is the video about?
The second thing is,
why should someone listen to you?
So, establish some sense of authority.
If I were to make a video
on how to hit a million subscribers,
you wouldn't listen to me
because I don't have a million subscribers.
But I have 100,000 subscribers,
so I know what I'm doing from up to that point.
And the third and most important
is what can you expect from this video?
I think the most annoying thing for me
as someone who consumes YouTube
is clicking on a video that has a title and thumbnail
and the first minute,
I don't know what it is
that I'm going to get out of this video.
And then usually I just click off.
And I go more into depth on this
inside of my YouTube course.
I have a private group right now
where I'm running a promotion
where it's just $1 to start.
But now it's on to editing.
Now, this is something that I've actually outsourced
from the very beginning.
So, day one, very first video
that you can see up on my channel,
I actually didn't even edit that.
And you can find video editors on Fiverr for $5.
I personally think that most people
should focus on the other things of making a video
and outsource the editing.
You actually don't need fancy editing to really succeed.
It just depends on what it is that you're trying to do.
I saw this girl right here.
There was at one point,
she got more than a million subscribers
in about a six-month timeframe
and she has no editing in her videos.
You can tell she just talks right off the cuff.
She doesn't do any editing,
and she has a really great YouTube channel.
But the main thing I look at,
regardless of whoever is editing your videos, is just,
can I cut something out?
Am I repeating myself
or does that actually need to be here?
So, now the video's done,
but on to the next ingredient
of this very important formula, consistency.
There are over 9 million doctors in the world,
but there are only 400,000 YouTube channels
that have more than 100K subs.
Now, don't misunderstand.
I'm not saying a YouTuber is as valuable as a doctor,
but at least one thing they have in common
is that it takes time to develop a skill.
Now, there are so many moving components
to a YouTube channel,
but the best thing you can do
is just pick up the camera
and just start filming.
Rip the Band-Aid off, so to speak.
And if you're worried about
what other people will think of you,
you don't even have to tell them.
I posted on my personal Facebook page
about hitting 100,000 subscribers
after having a YouTube channel of over five years
and over half of my entire friend list,
probably more than that,
didn't even know I made videos on YouTube.
Now, all of this being said,
once you actually develop the skills
to start making videos,
you know how to talk to a camera,
you know how to do proper keywords, titles, and thumbnails,
I do think quality beats quantity.
And YouTube has ran studies
on channels that post consistently every week,
and there's no direct correlation to growth
between channels that post regularly
versus others that post sporadically.
So, quality beats quantity.
However, to a certain degree.
There is a line there.
But once you start posting consistently
comes the part that I neglected for so long,
and that's just looking at the data
and figuring out,
how can I get better?
I used to get so stressed
when looking at YouTube analytics
and I didn't wanna look at 'em,
but now it's probably one of my favorite parts.
And every video,
I write down three things that I can improve upon.
Did people click on the video enough?
Where were people dropping off at?
Did I go on this certain point too long?
What were people saying in the comments?
And doing this is how you can go
from this right here to this right here.
Well, how do I make most of my money here on YouTube?
I mean, there have been some months
I've made 20 to 30 grand.
It doesn't have to do with subscribers.
And, honestly, it doesn't even have to do with views.
Subscribers are more of a glorified metric
and just because someone subscribes
doesn't mean that they're always going to watch
every one of your videos
or forever be interested in all of your content.
And then second is views.
Just because someone is viewing your stuff
doesn't mean that they're interested
in what it is that you have to monetize.
So, per month with ad revenue,
I'm only making between 1 and $2,000
on my current amount of views I have per month.
But how I make most of my money here on YouTube
is through affiliate marketing
or just referring people
to things that I talk about in my videos.
And I have products that I've referred years ago
that I'm still getting affiliate commissions from today.
So if you decide to make a YouTube channel,
whether it's traveling or cooking or whatever it is,
odds are you're probably using something
in that particular area.
And I would just start approaching the companies
that you're already using stuff on
that you're going to talk about
and get an affiliate link
and get a discount for your subscribers.
Give them a reason that they want to click on your link.
Now, I think the most important thing with my formula
on how I've gotten to 100K subs
is just actually taking action.
Because creating a YouTube channel
is the second hardest part
of getting started on YouTube.
The hardest part can be to continue making videos
after months or sometimes even years
of not seeing any growth.
And down below,
I have a group called The Side Hustle Society
that will help you
from hopefully never getting to that point
where you're continually making videos
and not seeing anything from it,
as well as other ways of creating other income streams.
And speaking of other income streams,
if you are interested in learning how to create some,
you can check out this video right here.
But, sincerely, I want to thank you
for helping us hit 100K subs.
I am more grateful than you'll ever know.
With that being said,
we're just getting started.