- I've been on YouTube for over seven years
and during that time,
I've worked with a lot of successful content creators,
and I've become friends
with a lot of successful content creators
and because of that,
I've learned exactly the things to look for
when it comes to being able to identify
somebody that's gonna make it on YouTube
and somebody that won't.
So I'm going to share with you seven insights
into things that successful YouTube content creators do
that the non-successful ones do not,
and we're starting right now.
The very first thing that the successful content creators do
that the unsuccessful ones do not is they work the process
of creating, uploading and optimizing
and publishing their content into their lifestyle.
Here's what I mean.
As a content creator,
you're gonna be making a ton of content.
And since you're going to be making a ton of content
over a very long period of time,
you can't just do it whenever you have time.
If you wanna stay consistent over a very long period
of time, you have to make time,
and what I mean by that is,
you gotta get it into your schedule somehow.
That means schedule whatever you have to schedule
in order to make sure that you get it done.
A great way to do this is just to open up a Google Calendar
as an example, and just go ahead and start putting in,
Monday, come up with video ideas,
Tuesday, research those video ideas,
Wednesday, make videos on the things that you were like,
yeah, these are good videos to make,
Thursday, edit the video that you decided to make,
Friday, publish that video on YouTube.
Now as a quick side hack, when it comes to productivity,
when it comes to doing all of this stuff
and don't get on a schedule,
one thing that a lot of the content creators
that are successful do,
at least the ones that their content type supports it,
they batch those things.
So on that Monday,
instead of just coming up with one video idea,
they would come up with 10 video ideas.
On that Tuesday, they would research 10 video ideas
and so on.
So if your content type supports it,
you wanna make sure that you are doing that.
If your content type does not support that,
then in that particular case, it's okay, do what you can.
But the idea is to prioritize making content
that you can publish to the internet via YouTube, TikTok,
Instagram, wherever it is that you're putting your stuff,
make sure that you are prioritizing the process
of getting your content together.
The next sign that you are probably going to be
a successful YouTube content creator
is that you are into YouTube.
And I don't mean that the way that you're probably thinking
that I mean that.
what I mean is, of course you're into the culture,
you're into the whole YouTube thing,
but at a deeper level, when you're watching videos,
you're not just watching videos.
Instead, you're watching the creators that you enjoy
and you're looking at how they put their videos together.
You're looking at how they hook their viewers
at the beginning of their videos.
You're looking at how they end their videos.
You're looking at how often they cut the music they're using
and all of the things that they're doing
within their videos.
When you're sitting there scrolling through your phone,
looking for stuff to watch, you're looking at thumbnails,
you're looking at titles and you're screenshotting things
to where you're like, Hey,
that's a really good title right there.
I almost clicked on that, or that's a great title,
I clicked on this.
So that you can see how other content creators
do what they do that's causing them to get success
so that you can take away some information from that
that you could possibly apply to the content
that you're putting together.
And look, I'm not saying that it's weird
to just watch videos if you're a content creator,
because that's, of course,
that's obviously a silly thing to say,
but what I mean is that when you are interacting
with YouTube, just being mindful
of all of these different actions that you're taking,
just being mindful of the things that you click on,
the things that you don't click on,
and also, when you do see content
that is performing exceptionally well,
digging into it and trying to theorize why you think
that it might be doing exceptionally well
so like I said a second ago,
you might be able to apply some of those theories
to what it is that you're doing.
The next thing that separates
the successful content creators that I know
from the ones that are not successful
are the ones that have a plan of some kind.
Anybody can wing it, anybody can have one successful video
that does well and starts bringing a lot of attention
to the channel, that type of thing.
However, the people with the plan that are trying to achieve
very specific goals with their YouTube channel,
those are the people that are putting actions into place
in order to make sure, through their plan,
that they are going to have a successful YouTube channel.
As part of that plan, they know who it is
that they're trying to reach with the content.
They know what they want themselves
out of their YouTube channel and that typically revolves
around some type of goal.
As part of that plan and that goal
that they're trying to accomplish
from their YouTube channel,
they're making sure that they're tracking the right thing,
which is really important.
And as part of that plan,
they define the specific value that they are bringing
to their audience through their content.
The next thing that a lot of successful content creators do
that the non-successful do not is they are targeting
a very specific group of people
with the content that they're making
and they'll run it through a filter.
And that filter is, before they decide
or commit to making a video,
first, they'll ask themselves if the content
that they're considering making is a perfect fit
for the people that they're trying to reach
and is that piece of content going to help them achieve
the bigger goals that they have for the channel as a whole.
If the content passes through that filter,
then it's going to be a great fit for the YouTube channel.
If it does not, then they just won't make the content.
And that's a really important part
of being a successful content creator
is knowing what to make, but also being okay
not making some of the stuff that you wanna make,
or at least not putting it on the main channel
that you have because we're all humans,
except for Elon Musk, of course,
and we are all interested in tons of different things,
and because of that,
not everything is going to be appropriate
for the audience that we're trying to reach on YouTube.
When you do focus on a very specific audience
with your content,
a big win with that is that when you publish videos
on your YouTube channel, you're publishing content
that you know that the people that are interacting
with what it is that you're doing,
that they're most likely to enjoy that piece of content,
which is a win, and in addition to that,
as you publish new videos,
as new people are coming into those videos,
YouTube has relevant content to suggest to those people
based on their interests as well.
And when somebody loves one of your videos
and they click on your channel name
to go to your YouTube channel
and they land on your channel page and they see, wow,
this channel has got all of these videos
that are exactly what it is that I'm interested in.
It's all cooking stuff, or it's all skateboarding stuff,
or it's all Fortnite or Call of Duty stuff,
which then makes your entire YouTube channel a great fit
for that particular person,
which then in turn is going to increase the likelihood
of that person subscribing, which is a win.
And as a little side tip,
just in case you're new to YouTube,
channels that focus on a particular audience,
they typically grow faster too.
So if you're really wanting to get things moving
in this coming year,
make sure that you are focusing on a very specific audience
for your content.
The next thing that successful content creators do
that the non-successful do not
is they are constantly learning,
but learning only gets you so far.
The next thing that they do within that learning
is they apply what it is that they learn.
They run tests on their YouTube channel
through the content that they're publishing to learn
how the things that they're learning
are impacting their audience, their channel,
how it applies to the videos that they're putting out
and all of that.
Unfortunately watching YouTube videos isn't enough,
listening to YouTube podcasts, it's not enough,
reading YouTube related articles and blogs, it's not enough.
You've gotta take that information in,
apply it to your channel by testing
all of the different concepts that you hear about.
And of course testing the ideas that you come up with
as well because just because you're new
doesn't mean that you can't have some great idea
that you can apply to your YouTube channel
that will make it take off.
Which brings me to the next thing
that most successful content creators do,
which is experiment.
Look, on YouTube with every single video that we put out,
we're all essentially taking stabs in the dark.
Now, of course, we know that if we put out
this type of content, people typically respond to that.
We know if we do these types of things,
people typically don't.
However, you have to constantly be experimenting
with what's going on in your YouTube channel,
because you can catch a stride for awhile,
but then, after that stride's over,
because things are constantly changing,
people's interests are changing, YouTube's algorithms change
and all of that, so because of it,
you have to make sure that you're constantly experimenting
in order to keep everything moving
with what it is that you're doing.
And through experimentation is where you're most likely
to strike YouTube gold as well,
because you're testing things that you don't normally do.
So in that particular case,
what ends up happening is you try a video idea
that's relevant to your audience, of course,
but you try that video idea and you try something
that's fresh and new for your audience,
but it still pertains to their interests.
And sometimes those videos are gonna flop,
but other times those videos will be the videos
that will put your channel on the map.
So because of that, do not be afraid to experiment,
especially as a new content creator.
The next thing that successful content creators do
that the non-successful do not is they just don't quit.
So, they say that in order to fail, you have to quit, right?
Because as long as you keep going,
you keep trying, you are going to figure it out.
But at the end of the day,
a lot of the people that could have possibly succeeded
are the people that ended up just closing everything down,
and they're like, you know what, YouTube isn't for me.
I did it for a month. It didn't work out.
I didn't get the views that I want.
Or I did it for six months and I didn't get the views
that I wanted there.
I did it for a year and I didn't get the views
that I wanted there, so now I'm just gonna go ahead
and wrap it up, this YouTube thing isn't for me.
And you know what, it might not have been,
but I guarantee you within all of the people
that have quit YouTube, that there are a ton of them
that would have had huge YouTube channels
that would have been able to fully tap in
to the opportunity here on YouTube
if they would've just kept going.
So don't stop, and look,
if you are somebody that is just getting started
with your YouTube channel,
and you're wanting to give yourself the best possible chance
of succeeding here on the platform,
click into this playlist right here,
it's filled with videos that are gonna help you
with your YouTube channel.
You can go ahead and do that now.
Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.