- One of the biggest traps we see
smaller YouTube channels falling into
is making the same mistakes over and over and over again.
And it occurred to me that we hadn't really
gone over what the most common ones are.
We literally see these every single week.
So today I thought I would sit down
and take you through a whole bunch
of common ones so that hopefully we can save you
a ton of time and a ton of headaches in the future.
Because if you continue making these same mistakes
you're never gonna see real growth in your channel.
And I can attest to this firsthand
because these mistakes are exactly the same things
I was doing when I first started.
So what I've done here is I've picked five channels
and all of these are ones we've actually seen before
during our weekly channel review live streams.
These are some channels that have already asked us
for feedback in the past
and so now we're gonna dive a little bit deeper
because each one is a great example of a different mistake
or misconception that we've seen a lot.
So in no particular order, let's start
with our first example, and that is So The KDrama.
The common mistake they're making is actually
kind of a newer one on the list,
because they are making YouTube Shorts,
and in a lot of cases these Shorts don't stand on their own.
In fact, if you zoom in on this
you can see that there's actually a call to action
in the video itself, inviting the viewer
to go somewhere else to see the full video.
Why is this even bad?
Well, if you're making YouTube Shorts,
it's really important to respect
the Shorts viewing audience.
When viewers are watching Shorts
they're in a different mindset or mode
so it's incredibly difficult
to get them out of the Shorts flow
and then over to your long form videos
in that particular watch session.
And that's because Shorts viewers are just kind of looking
for a quick hit of dopamine.
For a lot of them though, there may come a time
when they're a little more ready to settle in
in front of the TV or their tablet
and watch long form videos.
That is when your long form videos hopefully get recommended
to them because they're already a fan
of your incredible Shorts.
So here's what you do instead,
I want you to make a YouTube Short
that's about 20 or 30 seconds long.
It can even be a piece of a longer video.
Remake this for YouTube Shorts.
Focus on one simple point.
Give these viewers an interesting fact
or something to laugh at.
As long as what you're making on your YouTube long side
of your channel, your Shorts viewers
at least the ones who wanna watch long form videos
will jump over because YouTube will recommend
your long form videos to those Shorts viewers.
It's important to keep in mind though, that sometimes
there are just Shorts viewers.
There are people who use YouTube
and just wanna watch Shorts.
So in that regard, you're really not losing anything
by making Shorts, right, because you're catering
to an audience you wouldn't have had anyway.
The next channel we're looking at is called Lil_P66
and they are making a very common mistake
with their thumbnails.
At the time of reviewing their channel
their thumbnails were incredibly hard to read
with a very interesting font choice, and in some cases
red texts that blended right into the background.
While the thumbnails themselves are of a very high quality
in terms of the elements being used
and how they're being used,
when you get them down to thumbnail size,
that's when it gets very hard to focus
and it takes you a long time to see
what the video's really gonna be about.
This is a problem because when people are browsing YouTube
they're kind of just scrolling and scrolling.
They're not gonna take the time to stop on your videos
and try to decipher them.
The red text mistake is something we talk about a lot
as well, because red text is just notoriously difficult
to read in most circumstances.
We'd recommend you stay away from red in those cases,
and you try to use colors
that are gonna create a really nice contrast
between the text and whatever's behind it.
Shout out though
to Lil_P66 who's made some really nice changes
to their thumbnails since our channel review.
I love the font choice.
I think these are much easier to read.
John Nuer is our next channel
and this one's pretty interesting.
At the time we did give them some pretty general tips
about titles, thumbnails, things like that.
But during this review
we were actually inclined to click into one of the videos.
The big mistake John was making was lighting.
And as you can see in this particular video
the background is actually really cool looking
but John is blending right into it.
In fairness, not all of John's videos are like this
and we may have clicked into a video that was uploaded
on a bad day, but having bad lighting is just
one more thing that we see a lot.
So this comes down to skilling up as a creator.
Watching videos like this one is important
but do not forget about the other production side
of the YouTube creation process.
Find yourself some courses or tutorials on various elements
of YouTube that you feel like you could approve upon
whether it's lighting tutorials
or thumbnails using a Photoshop tutorial
anything of the sort, every skill you develop
as a creator directly impacts the content that you create.
For example, if you wanna be a car mechanic channel
that's gonna be pretty hard to do
if you don't fully understand how to mechanic cars.
I'm gonna throw you a curve ball and we're gonna talk
about a channel that actually isn't making a lot
of mistakes here at all.
This is WheelSpins360
and they're a relatively new creator.
I'm including this channel for a very specific reason.
Look at their first video.
Well over a thousand views on their first video
and their latest videos are also doing quite well.
So why are they on my list?
Well, they're here to prove a point.
One of the biggest misconceptions we see from small channels
on YouTube is this idea that YouTube hates small channels.
This channel is targeting a specific audience
and making value driven content for that audience.
Their titles and thumbnails are
of an incredibly high standard, and it makes me feel
like this probably isn't their first YouTube rodeo.
So if you've ever felt like you needed a certain level
of fame to get anywhere on YouTube, that's not the case.
All you really need is the right skills
a good amount of focus, and some patience
and you too can see similar results.
Now I'm gonna use a channel called SHUBHRO PLAYS
to demonstrate what I believe is
one of the largest mistakes creators make
when they're first starting out on YouTube.
And that mistake is creating content with an incredibly
low barrier to entry.
This is a gaming channel that does long form walkthroughs
of video games that they're playing.
Each video is about 45 to 60 minutes long, and they seem to
be just parts of one very long play through.
The reason I say this content is a low barrier to entry
is because they're not doing anything that another channel
couldn't easily replicate.
And believe me, a lot of channels are replicating
this strategy.
Any new creator can simply buy a new game, press record
on their capture software and get a little bit of commentary
as they just simply play through it and then upload it
with little to no editing.
In the case of this channel, the titles and thumbnails also
really aren't doing much to demonstrate any specific value
in any one of these videos.
If you wanna stand out on any space on YouTube
but especially gaming, you have to bring more
to the table, especially now.
Start with a game or a topic that interests you,
and then start doing research to figure out
where the audiences of those similar interests
are on YouTube.
Show them secrets, take on challenges.
Look for trends in your space.
Just simply playing a game is exactly what
this audience is going to do
as soon as they buy it for themselves.
However, your videos in this case could help
these people who are playing the game with various parts.
Maybe they're having trouble with a boss fight
maybe they can't find the puzzle solution to a certain area
in the game, and that's what I mean by offering value.
That kind of content is very specific.
It serves a very specific purpose
and it is for a specific type of person.
Speaking of providing value
this video right here is going to help you get
some more views the next time you post some videos.