- Let me tell you about the biggest mistake
that you're gonna make on YouTube this year,
and it has to do with what it is that you're filming.
To break this down simply,
let's think of like a Venn diagram.
On one side,
you have the kind of content that you want to produce.
On the other side,
you have the kind of content that your viewers wanna watch,
or an audience wants to watch.
Ideally, you wanna be making somewhere in the middle,
where it's the kind of content that you like making,
but it's also something
that an audience would be interested in watching.
I keep seeing this idea again and again of people saying,
"Just do what you love and you'll find your audience."
Yes and no, because if you just do what you love,
you're gonna be on the one side of the Venn diagram
and you're not actually gonna find
an audience for your content.
Whereas if you're on the other side of this equation,
then you're gonna be doing videos just for an audience
and you are gonna burn out.
So the biggest mistake that you are gonna make
on YouTube this year is just doing what you want,
or just doing content that your audience wants,
and not being in the middle.
In this video, I'm gonna go through 10 steps
on how you can be a successful creator this year.
And these are the 10 steps that I'm using as a blueprint
because when you can live in that center,
where it's videos that you like making,
and it's also videos that your audience enjoys watching,
that's how you can have a successful YouTube channel.
Before we get into these 10 steps,
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All right, let's dig into the 10 steps
on how you can be a successful creator.
Number one is, you need to have a solid idea
of what you're doing here on the platform.
This is probably the biggest thing
that you need to figure out.
What are you doing? What are you making?
And I think a great way to think about your channel
is to think about it like a TV show, not a TV network.
Because a network has a bunch of different shows
that are all under this big umbrella,
whereas a show is very specific
and each show is gonna have its own audience.
And unfortunately, you can't have multiple shows
on one channel and really expect it to grow and take off.
You can vary up what you're doing,
but essentially you are creating a single show.
And with that, you need to think,
are you being educational?
Or are you being entertaining?
Or are you being a mix of both?
You definitely wanna think about,
what is your purpose here on the platform?
Are you gonna be sharing knowledge?
Or are you gonna be sharing something that's entertaining?
This is something that you really need to think about
because it's gonna help dictate how you position yourself
and some different strategies that you're gonna use
depending on the type of content that you are creating.
Once you've figured out your idea,
you can get into step two which is,
come up with your audience.
Who your ideal viewer is?
Obviously you're not gonna know exactly who your audience is
but you're also not gonna be able to think about everyone
that's watching your content all the time.
A good way to think about this is picture one person
that you're making videos for.
You're creating your avatar,
you're creating that one person
who likes to watch your videos.
And so, you wanna think about,
what kind of videos do they like watching?
What kind of things do they like doing?
What kind of person are they as a whole?
How old are they? Where do they live in the world?
You wanna think through all of this.
And if you're making videos for one person in this way,
and you've really isolated
the person that is watching your content,
there's gonna be a whole group of people
that are gonna enjoy your content.
You just wanna think smaller, you don't wanna try
and picture every person that's out there,
because when you start doing that,
you're gonna get all up in your head
and you're not gonna figure out what to make.
Whereas if you could focus in on that one person,
you're gonna know exactly what kind of videos
that person's gonna wanna watch,
and you're gonna know what you need to make.
And you're gonna be able to figure out
when you should say yes to making a video,
and when you should say no to making a video,
and just focus on those
that are actually gonna help your channel.
The next thing you want to think about
is your first impression,
title, thumbnail, hook.
What happens when someone sees your video?
What is the image that they're seeing?
What's the title that you're putting there?
These are all super important.
This is why you'll see on my channel
I try to make my thumbnails super clean
because they stand out when you put them next to videos
that have tons of text and tons of action going on,
and you can't really see what the subject is.
You wanna make things clear and simple,
and this is where I've had the most success
with my thumbnails is making it just super clean.
And if I am using text, I'll only include a few words,
and those few words will compliment my title.
And then when it comes to your title,
you wanna make it read-for-humans.
If you're doing something
that is gonna be more pushed and suggested,
then you're gonna wanna have a clicky title
that peaks someone's interest.
But if you are someone
who's gonna be more focused on search terms,
you'll wanna include those search terms.
And I'll talk a little bit more about suggested
and search later in this video.
But the last thing that you really wanna focus on
is the first 15 seconds of your video.
What happens when someone clicks on your video?
Are they rewarded from that title and thumbnail
and they got exactly what they expected?
Or is it a big long intro
and they have no idea what's going on
until like a minute into the video?
You really wanna think about that first 15 seconds,
that's the most important.
You wanna reward the viewer
for clicking on your title and your thumbnail,
and giving them exactly
what they clicked into your video for.
Idea, avatar, first impression,
it's kind of the key things
and if you mix that with some awesome content,
that's the secret sauce
to growing a successful YouTube channel.
However, there are some other things we can think about.
The next step in this blueprint that I'm laying out is,
come up with 100 video ideas.
Is this a channel that you can make videos for long term?
Or is it only something where you have five ideas?
Something that I suggest you do right now
is come up with 100 video ideas which I know sounds crazy
but it actually will help you
because if you ever get to a point
where you don't have a fresh idea,
you can look back on these ideas.
But also, it just makes you think about,
can I do this long term?
And is there a lot of different ideas
that I can come up with for this channel?
For this show that I'm creating?
And in my notion, I have like 500 ideas.
I constantly, I'm just putting new ideas.
And then, every few weeks I'll go through
and just kind of clean it up and get rid of stuff
and reposition where I want things to go on my channel.
But I'm constantly thinking about my channel long term
and how I can make this sustainable,
and what kind of content is gonna fit my avatar.
But also, something that I enjoy making,
and how I can keep doing this again and again,
week after week, after week, after week.
And this flows right into my next step
which is get consistent.
You need to figure out a rhythm that makes sense for you
and what you have going on in your life.
If you can make a video every week,
that's a good way to approach
making content on the platform.
There was a period where I did two videos a week
almost for an entire year,
and I saw a massive growth on my channel.
But now I have other things going on in my life,
I have two kids, and one a week makes much more sense.
You just have to figure out how much content you can make,
and you're gonna figure this out by actually making videos.
How long does it take you to shoot a video?
How long does it take you to edit that video?
And then how long does it take you
to do the rest of the upload?
You have to do titles, thumbnails,
you have to do all of your description.
You have to think through the entire process
of a video from start to finish,
and you need to work on how long does that take?
And once you can figure out how long that process is,
then you can start to see,
"Okay, I can do one of these a week."
Or, "I can one of these every other week."
And you'll just find a rhythm that makes sense for you
but the key is being consistent.
You wanna stay consistent
as much as possible on the platform.
You wanna be thinking of YouTube long term,
this isn't something that's gonna happen overnight.
And it's also something
that you're not gonna give up in a few weeks.
You wanna be thinking, how can I make this a career?
And how can I do this year, after year, after year?
You just need to come up with
what consistent means for you right now,
and just start making videos.
The next step is get a one wheel like this guy...
but really, the next step is to stop spending
so much time consuming and spend more time creating.
If you want to build a business,
you're not gonna sit around and sit on Twitter all the time.
You're gonna put all your effort
into building that business.
while YouTube is a business,
so you wanna treat it like a business.
You wanna spend your time
actually focusing on making videos,
and doing the things that's gonna move the needle,
and not just sit around and consume everyone else's content.
There is definitely ways
that you can consume content with a purpose.
Whenever you're watching a video,
and you're watching it to see what other creators are doing
and to get ideas and inspiration,
keep a notepad by you.
You wanna sit there and take notes,
and you actually wanna remember the different things
that you're actually seeing in these videos,
and things that will help you make better videos.
You don't wanna just consume for entertainment.
If you really have to treat it like a nine-to-five,
then treat it like a nine-to-five,
and don't consume for entertainment
until you're home done with work.
And this is something that I have to keep telling myself,
get away from watching everything, get off Twitter,
and just focus on making videos.
Like today, I'm out here location scouting this park,
and you know what?
I had this video idea and so I thought it'd be great.
Make a video, don't sit here on my phone,
looking at Instagram and Twitter as I'm wandering the park
and checking it out for a client job.
But actually make something of my time
and spend some time and work on a video.
That's what you wanna do,
you always wanna be thinking
about how can you treat this like a business,
and not just something fun that you're doing.
The next thing you wanna do is take advantage
of the features that are available for you
as a creator here on the platform.
The big thing right now is YouTube Shorts.
And if you go on YouTube's Twitter,
they're constantly talking about Shorts,
and pushing Shorts and this idea of make more Shorts.
If YouTube's pushing that,
then you should probably be making Shorts.
I just wanna pause the video for a second,
have a little conversation about Shorts
because it's still a feature that's being tested.
Which means that yeah,
it could work super well for your channel,
or it might not work super well for your channel.
If you look at someone like MKBHD,
he has a separate Shorts channel.
Whereas you look at somebody like my buddy Tony Jeffries,
he's been including Shorts in his content
and it's really making his channel blow up.
I think when it comes to Shorts
it's something that you wanna test,
and you make your own call whether Shorts is something
that you wanna include in your content strategy.
Take advantage of all the different things
that YouTube offers,
and don't and just focus on one style of content.
Post on your community feed, make Stories, make Shorts.
take advantage of the whole spectrum
and you'll be able to engage with your audience
in a bunch of different ways.
The next thing you need to think about is,
take advantage of search.
Not every channel can take advantage of search,
so if you're an education channel take advantage of search.
YouTube is the second largest search engine
and Google is number one in terms of search engine.
And when you type in something like, how to vlog?
Your videos could pop up.
Here's my video number one on YouTube
under the search term, how to vlog.
And now that this video's gotten so much attention
from search-based traffic,
it is also getting pushed heavily in suggested,
and so it all can snowball.
But if you're a newer creator,
or you have those opportunities
to actually use search traffic,
take advantage of it.
Use search keywords,
think of what people are typing into YouTube
and take advantage of that.
I have a video that I shot when I first started on YouTube,
it has nothing to do with my niche, nothing at all.
Or niche, however you wanna talk about it.
It's a video on how to deep-fry a turkey.
If you type into YouTube right now,
how to deep-fry a turkey,
this video's gonna pop up.
And it's my father-in-law talking
about how to deep-fry a turkey.
It's a super useful video
for someone who's learning how to deep-fry their turkey.
And every Thanksgiving,
this video gets so much search traffic,
and every year it's growing more and more exponentially.
This has nothing to do with my channel,
nowhere near anything to do with my channel,
and it still performs super well.
So the search algorithm is good,
and use it if you have those opportunities on your channel.
The next tip is,
you really should focus on this idea of curiosity
because the highest clicked type of video
on YouTube are videos that peak someone's curiosity.
I'm sure you've experienced it when you've been on YouTube.
And there's just been like 10 things
that you'll find deep within the ocean.
And you're like, "Oh, okay, I'll click that video."
And then you end up getting sucked in
and you watch this video for its entirety,
and then you end up going down this rabbit hole of videos,
and then you're somewhere completely different.
And you're like, "I don't even know
why I came on YouTube in the first place."
You wanna stop someone dead in their tracks
and you wanna get them to click your video.
And if you can come up with these concepts
that are just interesting,
something different, something unique,
a lot of people are gonna stop
and start watching that video.
When you start coming up with your 100 ideas,
start looking at them and think,
are these stoppable videos?
Are these gonna get someone to stop what they're doing
and actually watch it?
And you wanna find those really interesting ideas
that's gonna peak someone's curiosity,
and they're just gonna wanna see
what's behind the curtain of whatever this video is.
And my final step for you is, follow the trends,
and I mean the trends on your channel.
Obviously there's trends, YouTube as a whole,
and just what's going on in the media,
but follow the trends for your channel.
And this is why you'll see some channels
that have some videos that are almost like a duplicate.
Like you'll see on my channel
I have the biggest mistakes drone pilots make
and I've done this a few times.
Each video has different information,
each video is a little bit unique.
However, that title and that concept performed super well
and they continue to perform well.
And so you wanna look
for these opportunities on your channel,
and follow what your audience is responding to.
And if we go back to the beginning of this video
where I was talking about the biggest mistake
that you are gonna make on your channel.
It is, you wanna make sure
that you're making content within the middle.
Something that you enjoy making,
but also something that your audience enjoys watching.
And the more that you pay attention
to what your audience is watching,
then you'll be able to start seeing these trends
and figuring out,
"Okay, I'll make more videos in this style."
When I first started my YouTube channel,
I was doing a travel vlog channel,
I told you, I have a video about how to deep-fry a turkey.
I did not know what I was doing when I first started,
but over time I started finding different things
that were performing well on my channel.
And it really started when I started doing drone videos.
And over time, I found a trend
of a style of video that I liked making,
but also that my audience enjoyed watching.
And through the process of making a ton of videos,
I have found certain videos that I enjoy making
and my audience enjoys watching.
But I definitely still make those videos
that push in one direction or the other.
And when I start making videos
that are just for my audience,
I definitely feel the burnout coming on.
And when I make the videos just for me,
they don't get viewed.
I'm constantly playing this battle,
I'm constantly figuring it out for my channel.
So no matter where you're at on your journey,
if you're just starting,
if you have hundreds of thousands of subscribers,
if you have millions of subscribers,
these things that we're talking about in this video,
there are gonna be something you're gonna continually
work on years into the future.
And it's just something that you're constantly evolving
and you're constantly paying attention to.
And at the end of the day, put your effort into the stuff
that actually moves the needle.
Make videos, stop focusing on everything else.
Go make cool videos, make videos you like making,
and make videos that your audience enjoys watching.
And next, if you wanna see some other mistakes
that you're gonna make as creator,
make sure you watch this video right here.
I'll see you on the next one.