Hello friends. Well today I'm gonna tell you how to grow your YouTube channel in
2019. If you're just starting out or even if you've had a YouTube channel for a
while and you're just looking for new ideas and ways to grow here are my top
10 tips for how you can grow your YouTube channel in 2019.
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If you need to the channel hello quick introduction my name's Stef and I make
travel aviation tech videos here on YouTube and I've learned quite a lot in
that time in terms of what makes things work for you when you're trying to grow
but also what doesn't. And I want to share some of those tips with you today
because a big part of what I'm trying to do here on YouTube is help people like
you grow your own channels. So here in no particular order are my top 10 ways my
favorite tips for how you can grow your channel in 2019. Alright tip number one
don't define a niche define a brand. Now there's lots of people who tell you when
you're starting out on YouTube to find your niche find that thing that you're
gonna focus on and that'll be the one thing that people know your channel.
For example I like to fly planes people could say to me your niche should be all
about general aviation and flying planes well I think that's a little bit
restrictive you've got to work out what you like doing as a person and then make
videos about that as opposed to thinking of a niche and starting to make videos
for that niche. Because if you do videos on one subject all the time yeah you'll
build up quite a loyal and a very targeted audience but eventually you're
gonna probably want to move on from that and there are other things in your life
that are going to interest you but you've pigeon-holed yourself in a niche
and getting out of it at that point is going to be harder. So when you're
starting don't think of the niches much think of your personal brand what
excites you and make videos about those topics. Okay number two you're going to
want to have a plan even if you're making a video that's unplanned. I'm a
big fan of structure and I think it's really important to have a structure
behind your video so even if you're doing something that seems unplanned
like a a daily vlog or a travel adventure you're still going to want a
bit of a structure behind it before you start filming. For every video I make I
normally have a bit of a plan already set out on my phone even if it's a vlog
I'll have a bit of a story behind it a set up a conflict and then a resolution
at the end. If it's a product you you still want to have a structure
you want to maybe do the unboxing then you want to look at the tech specs and
the pros the cons and then have a summary at the end if you follow a
structure when you're planning a video when you actually go to shooting that
video it's gonna make things flow a lot easier and it's gonna make the whole
shooting process a load simpler. All right next tip start with a hook. Now
going back to the last point about having a plan for your videos one of the
very first things I do when I'm thinking if a new video is I think of the hook
what's the reason why someone's gonna want to click on this video and continue
watching for example the hook for this video is all about how to grow on
YouTube in 201. It might seem weird when you're first starting out but I really
recommend anyone who's making videos on YouTube
start with your hook write your title have a think about what your thumbnail's
going to be and then film your video. Don't do it the other way around where a
lot of people do when they're starting out which is film the video put it
together edit it and then think oh what's the title going to be and why
people can watch this. Okay next tip is part of your planning process as well
you can I want to have an overarching schedule for your you ... I nearly fell off!
Have a schedule and stick to it. Now don't go for some sort of crazy
schedule that you can't keep - from the beginning don't try and do daily vlogs
from day one I don't believe that's the way for you to grow successfully but I
do think it's important to set yourself some sort of timing schedule and this
isn't by the way this isn't trying to beat the YouTube algorithm. This is so
you can make a commitment to yourself to your channel your audience and stick to it.
And then following on from that tip about schedule tip number five is have a
routine with your filmmaking and stick to it.
My routine for my YouTube videos in the early days was really simple - plan, film,
edit, release, review. And that was it. And the review at the end wasn't a review of the
analytics and I'll talk about that in a second the review was me watching
back that video just as I was uploading it and thinking what would I improve
next time? And after you've done that move on.
if you're wondering by the way where I am this is Melbourne in Australia in the
summertime they're just preparing the cricket pitches down here for all the
games over summer. So you might be watching this in the northern hemisphere
freezing cold getting ready for 2019 but in Australia it's summertime! Okay tip
number next tip listen but don't ask for permission. And what I mean is listen to
your audience listen to what they're saying and take onboard the feedback
that you get for example in comments and people reaching out to you in social
media use that to make changes and improvements on your channel but don't
ask for permission to do something that you want to do. As an example say you run
a tech review channel okay and you're looking to change the types of reviews
you're doing in the future I think it's fine to say something like hey just to
let you guys know I'm looking to do some tech reviews in the future what sort of
things you think I should review what I don't think you should do is ask for
permission something like hey guys I think I might change this channel and
get into doing tech reviews in the future what do you reckon should I do
that or stick to the content I'm doing? Now that's asking for permission and it
really shows a bit of a lack of self confidence in what you're doing and
where you think your YouTube channel is going. And at the end of the day it's
your channel and you're leading your audience to a place that you want to
take them to so by all means listen to the feedback and take on board criticism
and suggestions but don't ask for permission to do something different.
Next tip analytics don't matter. Okay let me caveat that by saying at least at
first so in the early days if you're just starting out you can get obsessed
by analytics you can get obsessed by how many people are viewing your videos. I'll
be honest with you when I started out I used to view my own videos just to see
the view rate going up by one person and that was really exciting in the early
days so I get it I get it can be exciting to watch those numbers tick up
and to see which videos are performing better than others. But in the early days
don't obsess over your analytics. I honestly believe analytics are only good
when you've got a bit more data to start comparing things on when you're just
starting out and you maybe have 10 videos you're not gonna get a lot out of
seeing which videos performing better than others. Wait till you've been doing
this for a while before you start comparing yourself to other videos that
you've put on before you compare your likes to your dislikes before you
compare which videos got suggested by YouTube and which ones didn't. That's
important in the long run but if you're just starting out it's more important to
focus on producing the content the obsessing over the analytics behind it.
And analytics can be a really dangerous way as well and can get you into a bad
habit of comparing yourself to other people and that's my next point! So next
point - stop comparing yourself to other people. There are a million and one tools
out there that you can use to check your statistics and compare yourself to other
YouTubers and that can be one of the most demoralizing things that you can do
as a YouTuber and can really prevent you from growing. The best advice I can give
regarding analytics is if you are starting out or if you've been doing
this for a while just turn off those comparison tools. Stop looking at other
YouTubers as competition to your channel because they're not. There is a big
enough audience out there for everyone to have a decent amount of views and a
decent amount of growth on their channel. You don't need to think that what other
people are doing is affecting how you're going to grow so stop comparing and just
focus on what you're trying to achieve not what someone else might be doing
better or worse than you.
For the next tip I think it's very important to set a
goal but you've got to set a realistic goal now if your aim on YouTube in 2019
is to get to a certain amount of subscribers or make a certain amount of
money I honestly think you've already failed on YouTube because that's not the
way to measure yourself. The goals that you need to set go back to the earlier
point say to yourself I'm going to aim to make X number of good quality videos
and upload them to my channel every week. If that's one if there's two if that's
seven if that's fourteen, whatever it is, that should be your goal. Not the number
of subscribers you're getting not the amount of money that you're expecting
from the channel but your output is the key way that you should be measuring yourself.
And finally watch a little but not a lot it's important to see what
other people are doing out there on YouTube and I consume a load of YouTube
content I do but in the early days it can actually be quite detrimental to
watch too much content from what other creators are doing on YouTube.
You definitely want to see what's out there and you definitely want to get
inspiration from other creators and get ideas as well to be honest for content
you could be making and how you can be making it, but you don't want to fall in
the trap of when you've watched too much content from other people and you start
mimicking their actions and their content and all of a sudden your channel
isn't yours anymore it's a bit of a hybrid of everything you've watched.
If you get stuck if you've started out and you don't know
where to go or if you've been doing this for a while and you just not sure which
direction to take your channel but you want that growth in 2019 use the tips
that I've mentioned up until now in terms of the scheduling and the planning
and the ideas and how you're going to come up with the content and film it all
of that but what it comes down to is just be yourself. If you'd be the truest
version of you and produce content about things that you really believe in people
will watch it. People will find you through whatever methods you either
introduce them to your channel or your content gets suggested but they will
find you. It's the long-term play there's no short term plays I don't believe in
YouTube, your channel's not going to blow up you're not going to go viral tomorrow.
You've got to put the work in but if you're yourself and you're not copying
others it's actually the easiest way to sustain it over a long period of time,
and seeing as it is a long-term play you need to be able to sustain it over a
long period of time. Those are my top 10, well my top ten and a half tips, those are
my top tips for 2019 for how you can grow your YouTube channel. What are your
tips? Let us know in the comments below if you don't agree with something I've
said here or if you've got better ideas for how all of us as creators can grow
our channels in 2019. Give us a like if you enjoyed that content do make sure
you subscribe to this channel as well to help this channel grow in 2019. I really
appreciate everyone who's subscribed to date. Thank you as always for watching
good luck for your goals in 2019 and I'll catch you the next video.