- I wanna have a discussion about YouTube as a whole
and why your approach to YouTube might be holding you back.
When I first started on my YouTube journey,
I just wanted to make videos
and be creative and just have fun and make fun content.
And I think that's how a lot of us
get into making YouTube videos.
We enjoy making videos.
And this is a way that we can build a business
and a career around making the videos that we
enjoy going out there and making.
But the problem comes up that,
well, that's not what necessarily a YouTube audience wants.
And a lot of creators will start with vlogging
because they think that that's the easiest form
of content to start creating.
Go out there shoot your experience and post it to the world
and people are gonna be interested in that content.
That's not necessarily true.
So I've been thinking about this whole concept
of building a YouTube channel
and what it means to have a channel.
And so in this video
we're gonna go through a winning strategy,
that's gonna help you find your direction,
figure out exactly what you're doing,
so that you can come up with some great ideas
for your next video.
Now, before we dig into this YouTube strategy
I wanna say a special thanks to our sponsor
which is Soundstripe.
And I've been using Soundstripe for all of my music
on both of my channels
and Soundstripe provides better music,
sound effects and stock footage
for your videos without dealing with copyright strikes.
One of the things as creators we have to worry
about is the music that we're putting in our videos.
And we wanna make sure
that we're using music that's properly licensed,
so that we don't have any issues.
Now, how Soundstripe works is that it's a library
of music and you could start searching by different sounds,
by different moods, by different instruments
and find exactly the kind of music that you need
for the project that you're working on.
And then when you find a track that you like,
you can find similar tracks to that sound.
And so as you find music, you'll be able to
find similar tracks that will help with your edit.
You can also create playlists
out of the tracks that you like.
So I have a playlist, that's all retro style music
because I like to use that for some of my intros,
but then on my second channel
I do a lot of stories around adventure.
And I explore the history
behind some of these unique places and using more
cinematic style music fits these videos much better.
And Soundstripe is unique because you won't find this music
on any other licensing platform because they
commission their music directly from the artists.
Now I use a lot of sound effects in my video
and they have a pretty expansive library of just different
random sound effects that you can use
for all styles of content.
And also if you need stock footage for your videos,
well, they also have a stock footage library.
So make sure you head down to the description.
I'll include a link that has more information
about Soundstripe.
And I highly suggest you check out the creator plan,
which is perfect for YouTube videos.
Make sure you use my code "JEVEN 20" for 20% off.
I think one of the things that's really holding a lot
of creators back is this idea
that you're trying to make a channel
around topics that you are interested,
in rather than actually thinking
through what a YouTube channel actually is,
and building content for this brand that you're developing.
You might have some success doing that,
especially if you're a personality
and people enjoy just hanging out with you,
but for a lot of creators out there,
this is not the best approach
to actually making a channel and building your brand.
When I was doing my vlogs
I did like 200 or something vlogs on this channel.
And I got a few thousand subscribers.
I think I got it up to around 5,000
before I really flipped and changed the way I approached it.
And I'd started doing more videos
around just filmmaking in general
and actually just making videos
specifically targeting creators and how to use cameras
and how to make better videos and do lighting
and camera and audio and all the things that go
into actually creating YouTube videos
and a big part of that was drones.
I got into drone flying pretty early on.
I made a lot of videos about drones
and they're a very popular topic on this platform.
They still are a super popular topic
and I continue to make videos about drones.
However, this isn't just a drone channel.
I make content on this channel
that's geared towards creators who wanna make better videos.
And I have an approach to that, which is just going
out into nature and shooting more adventure style videos.
However, at its core
I still make content that is education for creators.
Now for a long time
I was trying to make content that was also
adventure style content,
but those didn't really do that well.
They would get some views
and they're more personality driven, but they were
on more of that vlog side where
it wasn't so specific on what I was doing.
And it was geared towards a different audience.
Those videos, weren't like here's creator education
but I'm also gonna climb a mountain.
They were let's go climb a mountain.
And so on this channel
people might watch that who are part of my community.
I'm sure there's some
of you out there that enjoy that style of content,
but the random person who stumbled upon that video
isn't gonna care about this video.
They're not gonna care about a new camera
that came out or a drone or a technique
on how to use your gimble.
None of that matters.
They saw an adventure video
and they might have clicked subscribed from that one video.
But then all the rest of the videos are no interest to them.
And you'll hear from all the creators
who do YouTube education, niche, niche, niche,
or have a focus or have a direction,
that's gonna really help your channel.
But I want you to think about it in a different way.
Take a step back from your channel
and think about why you're actually creating content.
Is it content that you enjoy making
or did you actually come up
with an idea of what you think an audience would want?
And you're making videos for that audience.
Now, obviously you are gonna have to have interest
in the videos that you're creating,
but ultimately when you take a step back from everything
you need to approach this like a business
or like a TV show or like a movie.
There's gonna be an audience
for that specific style of content.
And you want to keep making content for that audience.
You don't wanna make things that are all over the place
unless you don't really care about growing.
If you're someone who wants to make this a business,
you're someone who wants a career out of this,
you wanna earn income off
of the videos that you're creating,
well, you want to see channel growth
and to see channel growth,
you need to have more of this focused mindset.
And this is why you've probably seen some
of your favorite creators start splitting their channel
into multiple channels.
Someone like Peter McKinnon, he now has a vlog channel
that's more on the side of like whatever he wants to create,
so his main channel can focus on film and photo.
I have a buddy in the Overland community, Justin B. McBride,
who I've gone on some adventures with
and he just split his channel into a gear channel
and then an adventures channel because there is crossover.
But at the same time
there are people that are just interested
in the Overlanding gear.
And some people that just wanna watch the adventures
he goes on and you look at someone like Mr. Beast,
he has his main channel.
He has reaction channels.
He has different language channels.
Like he has a ton going on under
his whole umbrella of Mr. Beast.
Now this isn't a new phenomenon.
This isn't like a new thing that creators are doing,
but there are more creators
who are understanding this concept
that one channel, one audience,
and building content specifically for that audience.
And if you want to do multiple things,
well you kind of have to have multiple channels.
Now, lemme show you one creator
who's really embraced this concept
and he has a whole range of channels.
Now this is the creator Simon Whistler.
Now he doesn't just have one channel.
He has a whole range of channels
and I'm sure he has a whole team doing post work research
and everything, but just looking
at his whole brand and everything that he's doing,
you really get a sense of how YouTube works
and how you should approach your channel.
And it might give you some clarity
on why you might be approaching your channel
in the wrong way.
So this is one channel.
This is Mega Projects
and he has 700,000 subscribers on this.
And if we go to the about tab, you'll see that
this is a channel about humanity's greatest achievement.
So this is all
about big projects that have changed humanity.
And we go to his videos
you'll see that he's posted two hours ago
three days ago, five days ago.
He posts very regularly on this channel and they're concepts
like the B Bomber, the Russians automated nuclear submarine.
NASA's incredible neutral buoyancy lab.
Like all these big projects.
Now this is just one channel
and you could see how this is kind of all centering
around one topic, but Simon has a bunch of other channels.
So if we go back to his home screen
and we go down to his other channels
you'll see that there's a whole list of channels here.
There's side projects, Biographics,
Geographies, Brain Blaze.
Today, I found out Top Tens, Highlight History
the Casual Criminalists and Into the Shadows
and all these channels have hundreds of thousands,
if not millions of subscribers
and they're all independent and different.
So if we go to Geographics and we go to the about
you'll see that this is a channel
that's all about discovering the world one place at a time.
And then you'll see that as just different
interesting stories about different places in the world.
And also the universe.
There's some things about space in here as well.
Now let's go back
his channels and let's check out Brain Blaze.
And this is a channel about fun facts
both in history and present.
So let's go to his videos,
you'll see that he has like the world's
most famous celebrity trials
or amazing Twitter screwups
or the craziest things seen on live TV.
So it's completely different
than his Geographics channel and also completely different
than his Mega Projects channel.
And you could keep going
through all of his different channels.
Look at his about, you'll see exactly that
it's a one liner that tells you what the channel's about.
And then all of his videos are going to reflect that
and you'll see that the content in all
of these channels really focus in on one audience.
And so if somebody wants to learn about Mega Projects,
well they're gonna keep coming back to that channel
and keep learning about these different things,
but they don't necessarily care
about these fun facts from history.
And so this is where you wanna start thinking
about your channel in a different way.
What is the thing that you're doing
on your channel and what is the audience gonna care about?
Now, I know some of you are gonna say,
well this creator can do a bunch
of different things and people will still watch 'em.
Well, that's true.
If there's a person who has built their channel
around them as a person,
well they have a little bit more freedom
to kind of do anything
because their niche is essentially them.
It's that person is the niche.
It's not necessarily the topic
and whatever that person does, someone's gonna follow.
And a good example of this is Casey Neistat.
Watch Casey Neistat to hang out with him
and to be along the journey of whatever he's doing.
He could be first class on a plane
or he could be flying a new drone
or he could be surfing in LA.
Like there's just so many different topics on his channel,
but it's not the topics that bring people back.
It's him as a person.
And so if you are a personality
and you're building a channel around you,
well then you could have a little bit more flexibility,
but this is a conversation that you need to have
with yourself.
Are you the focal point
of the conversation or are you educational?
Are you bringing education around a topic?
And if so, well, what is that topic?
Because that's what you're building your content around.
You're not necessarily building your content around you.
And so you need to think about,
well what is the whole point of your channel?
And this could be boiled down to a value proposition
which is a one or two sentence
that explains exactly what you're gonna do.
And if you could boil your channel
down into this one concept, well, it's gonna be much easier
for an audience to understand what it is that you're doing.
So one food channel that I enjoy watching is
the Best Ever Food Review Show.
And his value proposition is simple.
I travel to unique parts of the world to hunt
for the best foods that each country has to offer
and share these stories with you in my videos.
Super simple.
But all of his videos center around this concept.
Now this doesn't mean
that you can't have a personality in your channel,
if you are focused on one topic, that's,
not necessarily just you.
I think personality is what sets you apart
from every other creator.
So if you're someone in the food niche,
well you're gonna have a certain approach
and a certain way that you make your videos.
That's gonna attract an audience.
But if you're doing unique foods when you travel,
well when you take a step back, you look at the channel,
it's more about unique foods when you travel
and you are just that personality who's driving the videos.
Now there's always gonna be exceptions.
You might find a channel and you'll say,
oh, they did a video that's not specifically
in line with their value proposition.
Well, you can have flexibility with what you're doing.
And especially as you get bigger,
'cause no matter what style of content you're creating,
you're gonna have a core audience
who's gonna enjoy the content that you're making.
So even if you're making content
that you can find on other channels,
well, there's gotta be viewers that just like the way
that you do it, there's just something about it.
And they just enjoy watching your videos
and hanging out with you, even if it's not a specific
personality driven style channel.
So ultimately you need to kind of step away
from your channel and look at it
from a viewer's perspective.
I think one thing that happens
with a lot of creators is we get so wrapped up
into our own channels and it almost becomes
like part of our identity.
When in reality, it's a show.
You're a character in your own show and you need to look
at the bigger picture of what it is that your show is about.
And if you have just this general vlogs
and travel and filmmaking,
well it's not gonna be that interesting for a viewer
who has just stumbled upon your channel.
Whereas if you're a drone specific channel
someone's like, oh, I go here for drones.
And I like the way that this creator has
approached their content.
Well, you're gonna keep getting people coming back
for your drone content.
But if you had like a drone video one day
and then the next day
you're like walking through the Hills, doing a hiking video.
Well, those are like two completely
different styles of content.
And there's gonna be people that overlap that like both,
but it's not a good approach to YouTube
versus having one channel that's a drone channel
and another channel that's a hiking channel.
You're gonna build different audiences.
And you're gonna also have the freedom
to build different styles of content for each channel.
And you're not trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,
once you have kind of set your niche and what you're doing.
And this is why I've said in the past,
we need to look at our channels like shows, not a channel.
Channel's kind of a deceiving name
because you think of a channel and you think
of something like Discovery Channel or National Geographic.
They have a lot of different shows under their umbrella,
but ultimately our channels are not channels.
Our channels are like a TV show.
I mean, they're different than a TV show,
but that is ultimately how you kind of want to approach it.
You wanna approach it as a show?
What is the next episode in your show?
And there's different approaches to this.
You could have episodic where everything flows together
and it's kind of the journey,
or it could be more of like a magazine style show
where you just open a magazine.
It's different stories, but they all have the same flavor
and they have the same feel to everything that you're doing.
And they're all around one style of topic.
Now, a creator that you should look
at for this style of content is Tom Scott.
He's built a very successful channel.
He has multiple channels as well,
but he just did an interview with MKBHD
about his channel and just kind of his approach.
And he takes this magazine style approach where
it's just a bunch of random videos,
but when you start watching them
you understand what you're gonna get episode to episode,
you're gonna get the same feel.
You're gonna get the same type of video.
And you're gonna know Tom Scott's approach.
And for people that enjoy watching his content
you're just gonna be engaged with whatever he does.
However, his channel's not about him as a person.
It's about these stories that he's telling about
and they have a central theme
that kind of ties them all together.
So I don't have all
of the answers on how to be a successful YouTuber.
There's tons of channels out there that break
down every little aspect and a lot of YouTube educators.
But ultimately if you can find your approach
to how you're gonna start your channel,
you're gonna have a lot more success
than if you're just putting random content
and seeing what sticks.
Really think about what it is
that you want to make and take a step back
and look and see is there a central idea
that all of your videos kind of gravitate around?
And then as soon as you can identify what that is
you'll know what not to make
and you'll know what videos you should make
to continue going down this path
that you wanna follow for your channel.
Now, I don't recommend new creators
starting multiple channels.
If you have a successful channel
and you've started to grow it
and you've started to see which direction you're going
with that and then you have different interests,
well then maybe start a second channel,
but it is a lot of work to just do one channel.
And that's also why we get so wrapped
up into making it part of our identity
because we spend so much time doing this one thing,
but ultimately, if you want to make this a business
you wanna make this a career
and you want this to be something you wanna do full time,
you need to have that central focus
and really just pursue that.
Just follow that idea, that concept, go down that path.
And as you learn how to grow this one channel,
well later on,
you have opportunities to start other channels
with different ideas and different concepts
but you really need to build that first channel
and really get it going
and understand what works and what doesn't
for when you're making content around this one idea.
Now let me know down in the comments
your value proposition for your channel.
What is the one or two sentences
that defines exactly what you're doing?
And if you haven't already,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
because on this channel
I teach you the tools and the methods
on how to be a creator and next,
make sure you check out this video right here.
It goes through a ton
of different mistakes when you're starting
out as a new creator, I'll see you over there.