- What if I started a YouTube channel
and shared my passion with the world?
I get millions of views.
I get interviewed by Oprah.
And then I could sign huge marketing deals,
create my own brand, get money, fame, glory.
Yeah, it's not quite like that, is it?
If you started your YouTube channel
and you feel like maybe it's not going so well,
you feel like maybe it's dying or it's failing,
then today we are gonna talk about the steps
that you can take to get it back up and running.
Before we do though, let me know in the comments
why you clicked on this video in the first place.
What is the thing you think you're struggling with the most
that is keeping your channel wherever it's at right now?
So first, I actually just wanna congratulate you
on even starting a YouTube channel in the first place.
Go on, come on.
You deserve this.
It takes a lot to leave your comfort zone
and put yourself out there on the internet.
It can take a little bit of time to get yourself
up and running at a pace that feels really rewarding
and where you see actual growth.
With a little bit of help, we can get you there.
It might help you to know that starting a YouTube channel
in the first place takes a lot of work,
even for those channels who make it look easy.
What you see posted online is the finished product
of somebody's incredible amount of time,
hard work and effort.
It's only the tip of the iceberg.
I think it's about time we start having an honest discussion
about what goes into making one simple looking video.
Ideating, research, coming up with titles, thumbnails,
editing the entire video.
I mean, all of these things,
if you've been on YouTube for any amount of time
are not new to you and you know how difficult they can be.
Even the biggest channels on YouTube
are taking these same steps
whether or not they're doing it by themselves
or they have a team of people helping them.
It's all the same amount of work
that goes into creating a video.
It's a lot.
So, it's especially frustrating when you're posting videos
and nobody seems to be watching them.
In order to have that frustration though,
you still have to post.
You still have to put in the same amount of work.
You still have to try.
So, let's talk about once you've had a few videos
on your channel.
They're not doing what you want them to do.
What can you look at to make sure
your next video doesn't suffer the same fate?
Number one is watch time.
And this is the total amount of time that people spend
watching your videos on your channel.
If you notice that a video's watch time is really low,
then that is a signal that your video
might not be engaging enough
or it might not be covering the topic
that people expected it to cover
when they clicked on the thumbnail.
It could also be things like your production value,
such as audio quality.
Perhaps your audio is a bit distorted or muffled
and it's really hard to understand what's going on.
You have to put yourself in your viewer's shoes
and try to ask yourself, would you watch this video?
Be honest with yourself here.
In a scenario where you're going back in time
and you're remaking this video, what are some things
that you could have done better in that moment?
Similar to watch time but a bit more specific
is audience retention.
This is simply a measurement of how much of your video
a viewer is watching before they leave.
The audience retention graph in your YouTube Analytics
is your best friend here.
If you're looking at the little watch timer
and you're trying to ask yourself
why things don't look so good?
Well, your audience retention can help you
reveal specific parts of a video
that might have had people leave early.
Paying attention to your audience retention
is really gonna help you narrow down
what the problem might be.
Are people leaving too early?
If so, are they hearing you say something
that makes it sound like you're about to end the video
even though you're not?
Are people dropping off right in the beginning?
Perhaps you have an intro
that is just way too long or distracting.
Are you getting that slow gradual decline?
Some people are staying towards the beginning,
but by the end of the video, they're almost all gone.
This could mean that your editing
simply need some improvements.
You need to keep your video
at a really nice comfortable pace
so that people don't feel bored and leave early.
As I list these different metrics,
I understand it might be a little frustrating
because none of these are gonna give you
a really, really clear answer
as to what is actually going on with your channel.
I understand that struggle because I go through it myself
with our videos on this channel.
So my goal today
is just to help you get in the right mindset
to start to diagnose the issues that are going on.
Anyway, let's just get back to the list.
I just wanted to give you a little bit more context
because this can be very frustrating sometimes.
So next, traffic sources.
Where are your views coming from?
Search, recommendations, external websites?
Understanding what's driving the most traffic
is going to help give you some answers here.
For example, let's say you made a video
that was meant to be blowing up in search.
You did your research.
You know this is a topic that people
are always looking for answers on,
and you know that not a lot of people cover it.
Yet, your search traffic stinks.
That could be a sign that it's time
to do a little bit more keyword research.
There's obviously videos still ranking
above yours on that topic,
so it's time to go back to the drawing board
and change your title and your thumbnail.
And yes, you can change it later on.
It's okay.
Another interesting one is traffic from external websites.
If you notice that a specific blog or a Discord server
is sending you a lot of traffic, investigate that.
It means that somebody out there found your content helpful
and they're sharing it with others.
It's a good thing.
Next up is audience demographics.
It's really good to understand who is watching your videos.
This is gonna help you continue to narrow your focus
on a specific audience.
You could look at things like age, gender,
and where people are watching from.
If you happen to get a lot of viewers
from France, for example,
but you make English speaking content,
maybe it's time to invest a little bit
in getting your videos captioned in French.
Another one not a lot of people talk
about would be devices and browser.
What are people physically using to watch your content?
If you have a lot of people watching on television sets,
then are they gonna be able to click the like button
even though you're begging them to in the video?
If people mostly watch on mobile,
are you making graphics that are really hard to see
because they come in way too small?
The goal here is to make sure
that your videos are compatible
across as many devices as possible.
But primarily, wherever your audience is watching,
I would lean into that one being the favorite.
Personally for me, if a lot of people
are watching my videos on television sets,
I might consider my next investment to be a 4K camera.
Another obvious one we talk about all the time
is click-through rate.
We talk about this all the time,
and I kinda mentioned it briefly before,
but you wanna make sure that your titles
and your thumbnails are clickable.
This is a tough one to measure
because click-through rate percentages look different
across all types of channels and videos.
Click through tends to start off kind of high
and then throughout the day it gets lower and lower
because your video ideally
is reaching a wider and wider audience.
On top of that, as your channel grows,
your average click-through rate
will continue to change as well.
So, I just look at YouTube giving me positive signs
on my click-through rate when I post a new video.
Is it telling me that my click-through rate is higher?
Do I get the little green check mark in my dashboard
to say that the thumbnail and the title
are working as usual today?
Signals like that tell me I'm on the right track.
At the end of the day though,
if I have a high click-through rate but not a lot of reach
and I'm not getting the viewers I expect to be getting,
then maybe I'm just covering a topic
that doesn't have a very big audience.
In any case, to improve click-through rate,
it takes research.
Look at the titles and the thumbnails of the videos
similar to yours on YouTube that are doing well.
Take time to learn more about the softwares
that you like to use for creating thumbnails.
Having awesome titles and thumbnails
is not something that will come to you overnight.
It just takes practice.
So, those are the steps you could take
to identify your core issue.
But now, what do you do with this information?
Well, you look to improve, and for some,
that might actually be pivoting altogether.
It's okay to pivot and change your mind,
especially if you haven't really built up
a massive following yet.
I promise you, nobody is sitting at their desk
waiting for your next upload,
and it better be the one they're expecting it to be.
So during a pivot, it's important to make content
that you are passionate about first and foremost.
Making content you're passionate about is the best way
to stay motivated so you can make as many videos
on this topic as possible
and continue to cater to that same audience
time and time again.
Maybe that was your problem.
You took on a topic that you thought was kinda cool
or interesting or would get a lot of views,
but at the end of the day, you weren't passionate about it.
I promise you, covering topics on YouTube
for the sake of views
will always put you in the same situation.
As you look to improve, don't be afraid
to try some new things and experiment with different styles
and formats for all of your videos.
This is another case where I would also tell you
to go look and see what other creators are doing.
If there's a cool gimmick that you really love
on someone's channel,
don't be afraid to steal it a little bit.
Take it, iterate on it, make it your own,
but try to find fun things to do
that make your videos stand out.
Another thing you could be doing is using social media
to connect with your viewers outside of YouTube.
Subreddits, Discords, Facebook pages.
Wherever your audience is hanging out,
learn from them by being involved.
Ask questions, read comments,
look at questions other people are asking.
This can inspire video ideas but it can also just help you
build a stronger connection with the people
you're trying to reach with your content.
And then of course, another approach that can help you
fix a lot of problems on YouTube is consistency.
If you're finding it hard to consistently
make YouTube content,
then it's time to treat this like a job.
Like the job you want it to be.
So, lay out your weekly schedule, get it in front of you,
and then find times that you can actually block out
for creating YouTube content.
Treat this like you would any other obligation,
and if that means you only have one time every single week
to work on YouTube, that's okay.
Maybe that means you don't post as often as you would like.
But dedicating that time and those resources
is going to help you create really high quality,
well-researched videos.
What I'm saying is don't just post content
for the sake of posting content.
And don't post a whole bunch of content
only to take a break for like a month at a time.
Trying to find a schedule that works really well
with your day-to-day life
and make content as consistently as you possibly can.
And this conversation we just had
plays into the hand of another video we've already made
about tips to get seen by the algorithm.
If this is something you're struggling with,
that's the video for you.