- Today, I wanted to check in with a YouTuber
that I've been following for some time
because they know firsthand
how to make a YouTube channel successful.
- I'm Josh Strife Hayes.
I make MMORPG content on YouTube.
- He's being too humble here.
Listen, he's made not one
but several successful YouTube channels,
and that's because he's figured out
how the YouTube algorithm works.
YouTube is now Josh's full-time job.
During my call with Josh,
I actually asked him what it takes
to get to 1,000 subscribers in his opinion.
His answer was really smart
and we're gonna save it till the end of the video
because there's a whole bunch of other stuff
we need to cover first.
The whole reason I wanted to talk to Josh today
is because he's managed to get
hundreds of thousands of subscribers now
on multiple channels.
So I wanted to ask him about the key factors
that made that possible.
- I've been a performer for most of my life.
While I was training to learn to act,
I also got involved in teaching
because whenever you're learning to do something,
you end up teaching the people below you as well.
So I was also teaching people how to act,
the basics and concepts of theater.
What would happen is I would come home
from a difficult day of school
or a difficult day of university
and I would play video games in order to relax.
I would play online games like "RuneScape."
I'd play offline games like the old PlayStation 1 games.
And then one day at home I thought,
"Maybe I can combine my love for these things?
Maybe I can teach people how to play video games?"
- And just like that, Josh did something right.
Something we see over and over again
during our Tuesday channel review live streams
are the channels that we find who are working,
who are actually doing pretty well on YouTube,
all have the same kind of thing in common.
They create content around, like, a topic
that they already know a lot about and enjoy in real life.
What is the word for that?
- I was super passionate about teaching
and I was super passionate about entertaining
and I was super passionate about video games.
And all I wanted was somewhere
to store videos that I was making
that allowed me to combine all of my passions.
- Passion, that's the word I'm looking for.
And listen,
that's gonna be the first success factor for you.
You could be on YouTube because you wanna get famous
and make a little bit of extra money.
And listen, there's no shame in that.
But for Josh, like most other successful YouTube channels,
it started with passion
and to document what he loves to do the most.
Well, here's how he put it.
- What shines through in YouTube videos is passion and love.
And it sounds really stupid but it is.
It's love for what you do.
When I watch someone
who absolutely loves the subject they are talking about
and is super passionate about their entire subculture,
it comes through.
- One of Josh's passions is obviously gaming
but there are so many gaming channels out there.
They're all out there trying to crack the code
for the YouTube algorithm.
But here's the second thing
that set Josh apart from the rest.
I didn't find out about Josh Strife Hayes
because of his gaming content, although it helped.
I actually found out about Josh Strife Hayes
through his second channel, Josh Strife Says.
Josh has managed to create a channel
where even though he is a gamer
and he's playing a video game,
he actually can use these videos to share topics
about anything that's on his mind
that he has an opinion about.
And this is all made possible
because he's mastered the art of entertainment on YouTube.
So I asked him.
I want you to rank yourself on this scale.
On one side is gamer, on the other side is actor.
On that scale, where do you lean more as a content creator?
- I find that I love existing in the middle of that
and I love having the chance to go to either side.
So what I decided to do was use the game as a crutch
to effectively push through any dead air or dead space.
And then whenever I see a chat comment I want to respond to,
or a moment in the game I find humorous,
I can simply step away from the game
and then start entertaining.
- A lot of content creators,
and especially I would say in the gaming space,
don't quite fully appreciate the amount of effort
that can go into the pre-planning process
of making any video.
In a good top tier video on YouTube,
nothing happens by chance.
When MrBeast arranges a scavenger hunt
that takes place across a deserted island,
he's not gonna leave anything up to chance.
It all takes weeks if not months of planning
and he's gonna know every single aspect
of that recording session before he gets into it.
When Mark Rober wants to make a video dropping a car
from 150 feet onto the world's strongest trampoline,
you better believe he already planned for everything
that has to do with that video beforehand.
Similarly, when the top gaming channels on YouTube
make a "Minecraft" video, they don't just hit record
and hope that something exciting happens.
They make sure that something is gonna happen to that video.
And if they're smart, they'll plan a lot ahead of time.
Because the goal in any video on YouTube is to entertain,
educate, or inform as long as possible
and as quickly as possible, as soon as the video starts.
- Within the first minute or so
'cause people's attention spans are very short,
you want people to be hooked
and then take them on a journey.
So when someone sits down to watch a video of mine,
I want to give them a reason to watch at the start
then expand on that reason and fill in all the gaps.
And then at the end, end with a conclusion
and ask either what they think or why I think this.
Every video is a short story from start, main bulk,
and then finish.
And if you aren't telling a short story with your video,
why would someone continue to watch it after the start?
- Which brings us to factor number three.
A very important part of building a YouTube channel,
which many content creators don't give enough importance to
but Josh has absolutely nailed
is engagement with the viewers.
- Engaging with the audience
and wanting them to feel part of your community
makes them feel that you aren't just a faceless,
soulless, corporate shill.
You aren't just making these videos
because you know that it gets engagement.
You're making these videos
because you love making them and you love sharing.
- You have this very nice scripted piece of content.
What's the best way to get the audience involved?
And have you struggled at all with those techniques?
Have you found yourself trying really hard
and then people aren't leaving the comments
you expect them to leave?
- You can generally get people to engage
by leaving comments or likes.
And the reason YouTubers do this
is because it increases the engagement metric of the video.
That's why they always say, "Comment, like, and subscribe."
'Cause if you do all of those things,
it almost triples the power of everything
and throws it into the stratosphere
and that's when the videos get shared.
Sometimes, people put mistakes in videos on purpose
and, of course, I've done this as well
and people love commenting on mistakes.
They love going,
"Oh, you made a mistake there. I'm gonna write a comment."
And I'm thinking, "Brilliant, that worked."
As far as Twitch goes,
you need people to be coming on the journey with you
and you want to make that journey fun.
It's why I started doing the "RuneScape" streams
of just following people around of kind of felt
almost offloading the effort of playing the game
onto the community for me.
It's much more difficult to push engagement on YouTube
because you've only got the video
and then you can't really engage.
But I make sure that whenever I upload a video,
I'm always premiere the video
so it goes live for everyone at the same time.
And I'm always in the premiere chat.
- Can you sell me on premieres?
Because it's something our audience asks about all the time.
And other than the engagement part,
which I think is really awesome and important,
it's hard to convince me like, why not just post the video?
Why not just schedule it?
- Whenever I finish a video, I think,
"Right, I finish this, this is content
but can I make the content an event?"
The film experience doesn't begin
when the lights dim and the film starts,
it starts the moment you hear about
the existence of the film.
As soon as you see your first poster,
as soon as you hear your first advert,
as soon as you watch your first advert,
as soon as you see someone wearing a T-shirt
with the characters on it.
Soon as you walk into that cinema,
are there banners unfurled around the side?
Are they playing the theme music?
Are there cosplayers walking around in it?
How immersive is this experience?
The phenomenon of going to experience an event
begins long before the event itself
and that enhances the human experience of it
and the intensity of the memory that you have with it.
So when I put a video out, I want it to be an event.
I want it to be a moment that the community
can all come together and share and feel like
even though you're sat in your room by yourself,
there are thousands of people around the world
watching the video at the same time that you are
and we're all experiencing and laughing together.
And then once that's finished,
we all go to Twitch at the same time.
We all go on to YouTube Live and we all discuss the video
that we've just seen at the same time.
It turns it from being soulless content
into an event that the community experience.
- Respecting, understanding, and giving real value
to his community has definitely played a huge part
of what has made Josh so successful
and what has allowed him to go full-time.
And what helped Josh go full-time,
it wasn't just ad revenue either.
He's created a whole system that not only pays his bills
but maintains his channel's integrity as well.
- And eventually, I had about six months saved up
and I thought, "Right, I'm gonna make the risk.
I'm gonna quit my job.
I'm just gonna focus on YouTube full time."
And as soon as I did that, I got this dreadful fear
that I just have to do what everyone says.
I have to make sure the thumbnails are perfect.
I have to make sure the tags are perfect.
I have to make sure the edits are perfect.
I thought, "No, no, no.
I'm gonna carry on doing what I'm doing
because that's what the audience want.
That's what the audience have resonated with so far.
That's what got me these numbers, I'm gonna carry on."
And as soon as I started doing it,
the sponsorship offers came in.
And I really didn't wanna take them
because I didn't like it when I was watching a video
and halfway through, you get a one minute
to a two-minute sponsored segment and I thought,
"Right, I need to justify to myself financially
why I'm not taking these."
So I started a Patreon and I said,
"Hey, guys, this is mostly so I don't have to accept
these sponsored offers."
Unless I completely agree with them
and I think that it's beneficial to the audience,
I don't wanna take them.
The benefit that any of the audience get
when they either subscribe to me, support me on Patreon,
or do Super Chats on YouTube is just to allow me
the breathing room to ignore companies
and make the content that the audience clearly care about.
- And this is where I asked him the big question.
Number one piece of advice
for somebody who comes up to you and says,
"How do I get 1,000 subscribers?"
- Create content that has value to 1,000 people repeatedly.
Share your passion for something
that at least 1,000 people in the world
also have a passion for.
If you want 1,000 people to subscribe to your channel,
entertain 1,000 people.
Whether this is with your skill at something,
it doesn't need to be a game, it can be your hobby.
Whether it's with your passion at something.
Whether it's with your knowledge at something.
When someone clicks that subscribe button,
what they're saying is,
"The content you are making has value to me,
it fulfills my life with something that wasn't there before
and I want you to keep doing it."
When someone clicks that subscribe button,
it's not because you've asked them to.
It's not because you've told them to.
It's not because you've begged them to.
And please, please, for the love of God,
it's not because you've gone to any kind
of sub for sub group and you've all decided
to boost each other's channels 'cause that does not work.
It's because what you create has value to them.
That's the secret to it.
Just make videos that have value to people,
whether it's through entertaining or knowledge
and they will sub to your channel.
- Honestly, it's great advice
and I couldn't have put it better.
What's interesting about Josh's story
is that the tactics he used are similar
to this creator's story right here.
This is yet another creator who managed to go full-time
and in this case, really beat the odds.