- Now, we can't cover every game
that you could possible make a YouTube channel around,
but this one's kind of worth the exception.
- [Man] vidIQ.
- [Woman] vidIQ.
- [Man] (whispering) vidIQ.com.
- Hello, I'm Dan, and welcome back to vidIQ.
We're the YouTube tool, academy, and channel
that helps to educate you along your YouTube journey.
Don't forget to subscribe because today we're discussing
if it's even worth attempting to start a channel
around a 10 year-old game.
But before we get there,
I have a question for you.
And this is for anyone who's ever played Minecraft.
How long have you been playing Minecraft?
Or to make it easier,
What year did you discover Minecraft?
So, it's 2020, and we're discussing a game
that's already over 10 years old.
So could it possibly be worth your time to even attempt
to start a channel around it today?
At vidIQ, if we were to tell you to start targeting
things that trend high in search
as it pertains to gaming, you would rightly assume
that we're probably discussing newer games,
trending titles that have just recently come out
and have a lot of searchibility around them.
Minecraft, however, came out on May 17th, 2009
and today it still ranks pretty high
when you consider some of the games you'll find it alongside
whether you're searching YouTube Gaming or even Twitch.
I would consider Minecraft to be sort of an outlier.
It's just one of the few games
that has this kind of staying power here today in 2020.
Given its age and the amount of time
the public has had its hands on this game,
how is it even possible to start a channel around it
and get discovered?
The first thing to note would be the mod community.
People modifying Minecraft
and adding all kinds of crazy shenanigans to it.
These talented individuals can take a lot of credit
for Minecraft's longterm success
because Mojang, their developer,
has allowed them to have at it and add whatever they like.
Speaking of Minecraft developer Mojang,
they themselves have listened to their audience
and created high-quality, jampacked updates
year after year that add a bunch of content to the game.
Since being purchased by Microsoft,
Minecraft has branched out also into merchandise
and even spin-off games like Minecraft Dungeons.
With all that in mind,
the content possibilities around Minecraft
are about as endless as the procedurally-generated worlds
that exist within the game itself.
These content ideas include things like just news.
Covering game updates, new mods.
Tutorials, covering how to build something
or how to use red stone
or even showcases of popular Minecraft mods
or maps or texture packs.
You can do Minecraft speed challenges
or even speed builds.
You can follow the community and explore trending challenges
such as Minecraft Bed Wars,
which a ton of YouTubers have made content around.
And of course, there's always the classic let's play.
You and your audience just having fun, exploring Minecraft.
Every example I've just listed has been covered
in some form or fashion by a whole bunch of people
on YouTube already, and you've probably noticed,
so what are the tips for standing out today?
What I would explain to any creator covering
a massively popular game,
is that content that gets you discovered,
even early on, is always the high-value content.
Instead of just playing the game, like a let's play,
you should probably look to answer questions
or do a review of a new mod or a map.
Take something you're good at in the game,
and do a tutorial around it.
I'm always going on and on about making content
that answers some kind of question.
But I wanna emphasize what I mean by that.
Believe it or not,
there are still people discovering Minecraft today
for the very first time,
and due to the type of game it is,
there are endless possibilities
and thanks to that, there are endless amounts of questions
that these newcomers are going to have.
How do you survive your first night?
What's the best texture pack I could be using?
What are the top five Minecraft mods today?
Every single one of those should almost word for word
be the title of your video.
Don't forget, when people search on YouTube,
they oftentimes will literally input the question
that they want answered into the search bar.
It's also worth noting that thanks to updates to Minecraft,
there's always a reason to go back
and update your old content
because the game updates, the mods update,
the texture packs update.
I'm picking on Minecraft specifically today
because it's just one of my all-time favorite games
and I've been playing it since 2009.
And even today I still stumble upon videos all the time
that cover concepts or mods or features of the game
that I've just never known about.
I've never traded with the Piglins before.
Didn't know it was a thing.
Hi!
(gasps)
He gave me ender pearls, you were right!
There aren't really a lot of games
that are going to have this sort of staying power.
And also an interest for us as content creators,
and for the audience out there who watch the videos,
so there are likely people out there
who are wanting to start their Minecraft channels
for the first time,
and I hope you found these tips helpful.
Or if you're playing another super popular, older game,
hopefully these tips can be translated for you
in a manner that helps you create content
and come up with ideas to satisfy
the longtime, loyal audience,
the loyal fanbase of that game.
And if you did find this helpful,
I do hope you will subscribe.
Let me know in the comments once again,
how long or what year did you discover Minecraft.
How long have you been playing this game?
Let me know in the comments.
I will see you in the next one.
Catch you later.