- If you happen to watch a lot of vidIQ videos
and live streams, you've probably heard us say
a couple of times, you should be niching down your content.
But for some people, that's a little easier said than done.
- vidIQ. - vidIQ.
- [Man] vidIQ.com.
- Hello, I'm Dan and welcome to vidIQ.
We are the YouTube tool academy and channel
that help to you educate you along your YouTube journey.
And don't forget to subscribe
because today, we're going over niching down your content.
I'll begin by asking you this question,
feel free to answer it in the comments.
What kind of gaming channel are you?
I would start taking notes
because this one's gonna be a biggie.
(upbeat music)
Now, why niche down?
Well, we all know that YouTube videos
get discovered through search and recommendations.
The more you can specialize in one thing,
the more your video gets recommended
over somebody else's because you're seen as the expert.
Effectively, you become an authority
on that game or subject.
As your videos get views and decent watch time,
YouTube sees that and understands that, hey,
this person is an expert on Animal Crossing.
So this is essentially a very basic way
that channels grow and get discovered on YouTube.
And when it comes to gaming, I always like to tell people,
if they can, to niche down to jut one video game.
After you've picked one game, you can niche down
even further because if you're a newer channel,
just playing a game through probably
isn't enough to get it discovered.
So instead, you can niche down within a niche
and discover tips and tricks, mods,
and different community aspects that help get your channel
more traction as it starts to grow.
But that advice doesn't really apply
to every single gaming channel that there ever was.
For example, if you're channel that does game reviews,
reviewing one game over and over
doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Maybe you just play a game from start to finish
but how many times can you really do that
before it kinda gets old for everybody?
Perhaps your thing is every time you turn on a game,
you discover bugs and glitches and crazy things
and you like to show those off, no matter what the game is.
These are just some hypothetical examples,
but they're examples that I've seen all over YouTube.
But you'll be happy to know
that there is a way to niche down in all of these cases.
This should seem obvious, but when trying
to find your niche, it's always good to play things
you already enjoy, things you love or have a passion for.
So let's say for example's sake
that you've been covering Halo
and you've been doing it for quite a while.
You're starting to feel like maybe it's time
to jump on a different trend,
pivot a little bit, play a different game.
And right now, as an example, Animal Crossing is huge.
But swapping over to Animal Crossing
just because it's kinda trending,
you think it'll get some views
might not be the best move for you and your audience.
If you don't even really like Animal Crossing,
then you definitely shouldn't play it.
Even though Halo isn't as popular right now,
you're good at it and you're equipped
to answer those questions and bring that value
to your audience as a fan of the game.
So for this hypothetical YouTuber,
I wouldn't suggest playing Animal Crossing.
I would instead suggest moving on
to a first-person shooter game that happens to be new
and the closer it relates to Halo, the better.
Think of it this way.
Let's say your favorite car mechanic channel
decides one day to start making workout videos
in their garage instead of fixing cars.
Even as the viewer if you support their decision,
you'll likely click away until their next car video.
And that's exactly how your Halo audience is going to feel.
Eh, I'll just wait until my favorite YouTuber
decides to pick up Halo again
or at least a game kinda similar to it.
Of course, it won't be enough
to simply play Animal Crossing,
even if you do love it.
Simply doing an episodic play-through of a game like that
that's been covered by a lot of other big YouTubers
is going to make it impossible to stand out.
But don't get discouraged because you can still grow
covering the game, but just in a different light.
The strategy you need to be taking on
is niching down within the niche itself.
Using Animal Crossing as an example, what could that mean?
Well, you could be making tips and tricks guides
on how to earn money in the game.
You could teach people how to breed flowers
or use Animal Crossing as design tools.
There's always going to be time
to do those big, broad play-throughs later on,
but as you're trying to grow
as a new Animal Crossing channel,
you need to establish some authority and credibility,
and to do that, you need to help the community out
with questions they're asking about the game.
If you struggle to do that, you'll find
that most games out there these days
have a whole community of passionate players
and they typically hang out
in the game's Discord, forums, what have you.
I encourage you to join these communities
and learn from the players within them.
Learn the things that they're excited about,
the things that they're frustrated by.
And make videos around that
because that is a gold mine for content.
Now, that's all great advice if you're just trying
to be the Animal Crossing channel,
the go-to for all things Animal Crossing.
But what about the channels
that cover games a bit more broadly?
Channels that do gaming news and reviews?
Yes, it is possible to niche these channels down
and I would highly recommend it.
Now is probably not a great time
to be doing a review of this game.
If you've been following this at all, you probably know,
but a lot of creators got this game early.
As a review channel, you have to compete with that.
So if you can't get the game early,
the next best time to review it
is on the day that it releases.
If you're covering major titles,
this can get very expensive very fast.
So instead, why not start small?
Like YouTubers, game developers
are on their own journey to grow their business.
So I recommend looking at sites like Steam and itch.io
and check out their massive catalog of indie games.
I recommend looking at games that you actually enjoy.
It's not enough to just play indie games
but what type of indie game?
I could tell you that for me, the genre of indie game
I would cover is life simulation and farming
because those are the ones I know the most about
and I can bring the most to the table.
It may seem less exciting to cover an indie game
that doesn't quite have an audience yet,
but if you're the first to the party,
as that game markets itself, you'll also benefit
from people searching for it and going, what is this game?
Let me look for a review.
I don't want you to feel discouraged
or boxed in by any of this advice by any means.
One day, you would like to become a YouTuber
with a 100,000 subscribers and you would like to think
that whenever you pick up the latest, greatest game,
thousands of people are gonna come and watch.
And that can still happen for you over time.
What's really unique about video games
is that you can scale your channel by playing games
that are a smaller size, just like you are right now.
And as you grow you channel, reviewing these smaller games
or playing these smaller games,
you're going to establish a lot of credibility.
And eventually, you'll be able to pick up
one of these big releases and get people to watch it.
As you grow your audience,
there'll be plenty of time to niche up, if that's a thing.
As I explained with my PewDiePie video,
he started almost exclusively playing horror games
and it took him a lot of time
to start playing different things
and establishing his authority and credibility
and bringing his voice to even other game genres.
Niching down your content
really means something different for everybody.
Cover subjects that you're excited about,
that you're passionate about,
and that you have some expertise in.
Don't be afraid to test the waters occasionally.
But if you are going to do something different,
just be sure that you have something
to bring to that conversation.
Thank you so much for watching.
Don't forget to let us know in the comments
what kind of gaming channel you run here on YouTube,
and we'll see you next time.