There are 2 things we can say for sure about Jake Tran:
1. He’s bound to be on some kind of watch list by now.
and 2. He is absolutely crushing it with YouTube.
But what a lot of people might not realise is that before his channel started taking
off like it is today, Jake had been posting videos for well over a year that weren’t
getting much traction. Most of those old videos have since been deleted, but comparing what
he was doing when he first started to what he’s doing now, can tell us a lot about
how to be successful on YouTube.
Today, we’ll be exploring the 4 key reasons Jake Tran is beating the YouTube algorithm,
and how you can potentially do the same.
There are three crucial things that will heavily determine the success of a video: the title,
the thumbnail, and the topic.
Jake Tran is a master of all three.
Because the biggest sin you can make with these three elements is being too boring - especially
in the business niche that Jake is in, which is filled with very generic vanilla content
- so many people are regurgitating the same information in the same format.
Jake on the other hand, picks topics that are incredibly unique and fascinating. Often
they’re controversial things most other people just don’t talk about, like china's
profitable business of enslaving Africa, or the the economics of the Russian mafia.
However, you don’t even have to go as extreme as Jake does. Let’s take this video for
instance, - how the rich and powerful hide their money - immediately I’m intrigued
by the topic, title and thumbnail, which makes me want to click to find out more. But let’s
be clear, it’s a video about taxes, it’s not exactly the most riveting subject, it’s
the way that Jake has packaged and positioned it that makes us want to click.
The reason these three t’s are so crucial is because one of the biggest factors that
determines whether a video goes viral, is click-through rate, which means the percentage
of people who click on the video when YouTube displays it.
There’s no exact magic number to aim for, but if you can get over 10% click-through
rate, you have an extremely good chance of going viral if the video is good quality as
well.
The average click through rate is more like 3% though. Just stop and think about that
for a minute. That means 33 times more people will see your thumbnail and title, than will
see your video. And yet, most people treat the thumbnail and title as an after-thought,
and barely put any time or effort into it. I assure you, you will start getting much
better results by spending significantly more time on these elements.
In fact, a lot of top YouTubers like Jake, create multiple different thumbnails and titles,
and split test which one gets more clicks, because they know this can make or break a
video, no matter how good the actual content is. They also incorporate recognisable famous
faces that attract more attention - just like I’m doing right now with Jake Tran.
However, where Jake really excels when it comes to the 3 t’s, is that he designs them
for viewers, not search engines.
Let me explain. A lot of YouTube advice tells you to essentially stuff keywords into the
title to try and rank in search. So for example, Jake could have called this video something
very literal like ‘how offshore banks work’ which probably gets more search impressions.
But contrary to popular belief, ranking in search is not the main goal if you want lots
of views. I’ve spoken with a wide range of large YouTube creators, from Charisma on
command to James Jani to countless others - and all of them have said the vast majority
of their traffic comes from suggested videos, not search. That’s how you go really viral,
when YouTube is pushing your content in the suggested bar and homepage. I bet that’s
probably how you found Jake’s content - YouTube suggested it to you. And the first step to
get in suggested videos, is a higher clickthrough rate, which means you need a title and thumbnail
that is intriguing and interesting for real people, not just search engines.
So, to sum up the 3 t’s, just remember the golden rule: don’t be boring.
Before you post your own videos, ask yourself if you would honestly click on it yourself
if YouTube showed you that title, thumbnail and topic. If not, maybe some tweaks are needed.
Because even a video about taxes can be made exciting if you present it in the right way.
When Jake started off most of his videos were him talking to the camera, and him trying
to emulate his favourite creators - but his growth spike begun when he switched
to his own unique style: using movie and tv clips to help illustrate what he was saying.
Because unless you’re someone whose already well known, the brutal reality is that people
aren’t that interested in what you have to say. There’s so many thousands of other
people saying similar things to a camera as well, so you need to find a way to stand out
and grab the audience’s attention. Using cinematic clips is definitely one way of doing
that, as it immediately gives the video a much professional and interesting feel.
Especially when you mix that with Jake’s distinctive dry sarcasm. It gives the videos
a vibe that feels unique to him - when you’re watching it, you know it’s a Jake Tran video
because it has a clear identity that you won’t really get elsewhere, and so it stands out
so much more.
Now, maybe you yourself would like to incorporate movie clips like Jake does, and you’re wondering…
‘what about copyright?’
And the quick answer is that there’s something called fair use, which means that you can
legally use copyrighted material if you do it in a certain way. One of the key parts
of this is that you transform the original work into something new - if you just post
a movie clip on its own, that’s not fair use. But Jake turns that movie clip into something
completely different, because he uses that clip to help illustrate what he’s explaining
in the video. Not just that, but he uses a very very small amount of the movie, typically
just a couple of seconds, and adds his own voiceover. So with all these things combined,
plus a few other fair use factors which you can look up, he’s able to incorporate this
movie footage into his videos and still monetize them.
I see some people trying to do a similar thing with free stock footage sites, like Pexels
and Pixabay. At least that’s what i did at first. And free stock footage is fine sometimes,
but the clips from these free sites are so over-used that the clips become repetitive
and boring. I’m willing to bet you’ve seen clips like this in videos before, right?
Which is why I think Jake’s choice to use clips from famous movies and TV shows works
so well. It gives him a much wider choice of scenes, and he can use recognisable actors
and really well filmed shots to help bring the videos to life.
Now, maybe using clips isn’t right for the type of videos you want to make. But the real
message to take from this point, is to consider how you’re presenting your videos. Just
talking to a camera puts you in the same category as the vast majority of people posting content.
What’s going to be your way of keeping people entertained?
The reason this is so crucial is because the other most important metric the YouTube algorithm
really cares about, aside from click-through rate, is average view duration. Which means
on average, how much of your video are people actually watching?
The higher the average view duration, the better chance of the video being suggested
to more people.
And so the simple reason Jake Tran is doing so well with the algorithm, is because his
click-through rate and average view duration are outperforming other videos.
I realise that sounds too simple but I assure you, this is the real key to getting the YouTube
algorithm to promote your videos. Get a high clickthrough rate, a high average view duration,
and you can go viral like Jake Tran does.
The problem of course, is just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy.
So, now let’s let look at one of the key ways Jake Tran manages to keep audience retention
rates high, that you should definitely be using too.
Question. Why are so many billions of dollars spent on movies every year? It’s because
we love stories.
And Every Jake Tran video feels like a story. A mini movie. Taking you from start to finish.
In fact, in Jake’s narrative he’ll often put you as the protagonist of the story. Just
listen to this:
He keeps saying you, because he’s literally taking you through this story.
And so I challenge you to think about how your content can sometimes be wrapped into
more of a story as well. Just look at this video you’re watching right now. The information
itself is pretty dry, talking about algorithms and average view durations, but it’s wrapped
within the story of how Jake Tran built such a successful YouTube channel, going from struggling
creator to full time YouTuber.
And of course, stories can be very simple and short. In fact, there’s an urban legend
that Ernest Hemmingway once had a bet with some fellow writers, when he was challenged
with writing a story that could make someone cry in just 6 words.
Here’s what he wrote: ‘For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.’
He won the bet.
So, the point here is that incorporating anecdotes and stories in your videos, whether from yourself
or something you’ve heard, is a really powerful tool, because they add an emotional memorable
element, rather than just telling someone information.
Jake Tran regularly uses stories to help break complex information into entertaining content,
and this is a perfect way for you to draw people into the video, and thus keep viewers
watching longer, and boosting that audience retention rate.
But now on to our fourth and final point, of why Jake Tran is beating the algorithm:
One thing that is not talked about enough in my opinion, is that most large YouTubers
are not doing it all themselves. If you’re sat there feeling disheartened that Jake Tran
can make a well researched and edited video every single week, bear in mind that he’s
hired people to help him, as most channels do as they grow - including this channel you’re
watching right now.
Building a small team to help you is undoubtedly the fastest way to scale the channel whilst
keeping the quality high, and Jake cleverly tapped into his existing audience to help
find the right team members. On the community tab, he posted about a new job position, which
meant he got applicants who he knew would already like and understand what his channel
is all about.
So when you get to a position where you can afford some help, I think it’s well worth
re-investing money into your channel. For some reason this seems a little taboo for
some YouTubers to talk about this, but it’s undeniably going to accelerate your growth
if you have someone to help with thumbnails and editing and so on.
So hopefully these four principles from Jake Tran have given you some inspiration for your
own content. But if you’re still watching at this point my guess is you’re serious
about growing your channel as fast as possible, and eventually turning it into a business
and hiring a team like we just mentioned with Jake. So if that’s the case, check out the
top link in the description, because our YouTube Business Blueprint programme goes in-depth
about how you can do all of that. It also goes much deeper into ways of boosting click-through
rate, audience retention and much much more. So check that out below and you can get started
right away.
But now I have a question for you… Can we trust Amazon? Don’t get me wrong, from a
customer perspective, using Amazon is great, but there is just one problem… they’re
kinda taking over the world. And whilst that sounds over-dramatic, when you hear that they’re
running physical grocery stores, making Oscar-winning movies, and even opening a futuristic hair
salon - well, you’ll see what I mean. So check out our documentary I made on Jeff Bezos
& Amazon if you wanna know more, that was actually inspired by Jake Tran’s video style.
Or, if you want some more videos about growing on YouTube, check this out here. Thanks for
watching to the end you are a legend, and I’ll see you in the next video.