- Hey YouTubers, it's Roberto.
And today in this video I'm going to give you my
top 10 tips for smaller YouTubers.
Now some of you might now that I recently
hit a major milestone.
I hit 10,000 subscribers and I wanna thank
each and every one of you.
But I need to define what a smaller YouTuber is.
So, you can identify yourself in my opinion
as a smaller YouTuber if you have under 50,000 subscribers.
Why 50,000?
Because if you are at 50,000, then you're really
on your way to potentially getting 100,000 subscribers
which will award you the silver play button
from YouTube and once you hit 100,000 subscribers,
you're arguably on your way to a million.
So if you are on your way to that silver play button
category or that gold play button category,
you would be a bigger or larger YouTuber.
So in my mind if you have 50,000 subscribers or less
you're a smaller YouTuber whether that's 100 subscribers,
10 subscribers to 10,000, you are a smaller YouTuber.
So with that in mind, those of you who are smaller
YouTubers who want to grow your audience I have 10 top tips
for you and in later videos I will go into more detail
about each of these so just make sure you stay tuned
for that and don't forget to hit the subscribe button
if you're not already subscribed to the channel.
So, here we go.
Let's start with my number one tip
for smaller YouTubers.
My number one tip is to post weekly content.
When I actually got started about a year ago,
yes, I've had the account longer,
but I didn't really start really becoming
a YouTuber until I started doing weekly content
and that was a big change for me and it was a big push.
And I started with doing weekly Photoshop tutorial videos
and I think I started doing those sporadically
and then I made an actual point of doing them on Thursdays,
so that was a big deal.
And the reason it's important is because
if you're doing weekly videos then you're producing more
content so people can get used to it,
they come to expect it, and they'll tune in
just like they would for a television show.
So it's important to do weekly content
and it also tells YouTube that you're being active
so there's a better chance that it will promote videos
in your account and do suggested video stuff for you
on other people's channels if you are an active YouTuber.
Tip number two, try to reply to most of your commenters.
I know it's hard to reply to every single comment
but it's actually really important and it helps you
build a relationship with your audience
and people really care about that.
A lot of people, myself included, will sometimes
feel a little annoyed when they go through the trouble
to comment on somebody's YouTube channel
and they compliment them or they ask them a question
and then weeks at a time will go by with no response.
I don't always reply to every single comment,
but I try my best to.
The reality is that once you hit a certain threshold,
if you were replying to every comment,
you would never actually be doing any of your real work
or producing any new material so when bigger YouTubers
don't reply to you try not to take it too personally
because they do have sometimes thousands of videos
getting hundreds of comments a week,
so they can't necessarily or realistically reply
to all of them.
Sometimes I'll actually reply to questions in a video
by just making a video that answers that question
instead of replying individually to people
who are asking the same question
or if I've already answered the same question
to another commenter, sometimes I may not get to it
or I, you know, may not say that I wanna do it
and I'll just do a video instead.
So in some way, shape, or form, whether it's by
doing another video or by actually replying
in the comments or in a direct message,
try to stay engaged with your audience
and to reply to them.
You'll have a better reputation and you'll build
a better rapport with them.
Number three, keep finding ways to improve your videos.
So that's definitely a big deal and it's something
that I really took to heart.
One of the things I did to make sure that I improve
my videos was I invested in really good video lighting.
I keep changing some of my setup in terms of positioning,
sometimes I'll use the Mac here as the backdrop
for certain specific videos I'll change up the style
and I'll use my white background or my black background
or I'll use the bookshelves now when I'm going
certain reviews like book reviews or when I'm doing
vlogs or what have you.
So changing things up, trying to make your videos better.
One of the other things I did was I improved
the audio quality with the lapel mics
and I spent like no money on my lapel mic.
This lapel mic is a newer lapel mic,
spelled N-E-E-W-E-R.
I'll do a whole thing about that but it's a cheap
lapel mic, I think it's less than five bucks
on Amazon and you can tell that they audio quality
is actually really solid.
So I plug that directly into the camera,
I shoot on DSLR, et cetera.
So however you're gonna improve your videos.
Whether it's lighting, audio, your backdrops,
your setup, adding motion graphics, what have you,
doing title intros, just always find some small way
that you can improve your channel.
Number four, organize your channel.
Okay, now this was really something that I had
to really think about how I was gonna do on my channel.
For a while I did it based on just topical stuff
or based on a series I was doing
and eventually I decided that even if I wasn't going
to necessarily put out content every day
I was gonna try and organize my content
by what days I release videos so I went through
a Monday through Sunday deal on the homepage
of my channel so Mondays are graphic design videos,
Tuesdays are tech videos, Wednesdays are DSLR film
and photography, Thursday are Photoshop tutorials,
Fridays are YouTube videos,
Saturday are Speed Art videos,
and Sundays are Game of Thrones even in the off season,
which I gotta catch up on,
but the point is, I found some way of organizing
my channel.
So I highly suggest you do that.
You don't have to do it by days of the week
and like I said, I don't do a video necessarily
every single day, but if I'm gonna do that topic,
I'll release it on those days most of the time.
So that's how I organized my channel.
You can do whatever makes sense for your channel.
A lot of people will do it by a name of a show
that they were doing on their channel
or by a topic or an audience, so you know,
whatever fits for your channel.
Number five, make cool thumbnails.
I can't stress this enough.
If you wanna get more subscribers and views
you gotta get people actually watching your content
and engage with it and a lot of times the first
experience they have of your video is going to be
the thumbnail.
So make sure you're doing a cool thumbnail
that grabs their attention, stands out against
the white background and that also matches up
with the title of what you're gonna be doing in your video.
Number six, put your videos where you can find them.
In other words, promote your videos.
Don't just post your videos up the YouTube, set 'em
and forget 'em.
Go ahead and put them in places where people
are likely to find them, that are going to care about them.
Go ahead and put them in Google groups,
invite people to them in Google hangouts,
Facebook groups, Twitter, you know,
just wherever it makes sense without being spammy
to put your videos so that people are actually interested in
them can find them.
If you do movie reviews, maybe you sign up
for account with Movie Copilot and you put
your videos there so that people interested
in movie reviews can find them.
If you're doing game reviews, there are plenty
of sites that let you post game play videos, et cetera.
So just put your videos where your audience are.
Number seven, look and sound like you're actually enjoying
what you're doing or what you're talking about.
I can't stress this enough.
It was a little harder for me
because again, I was trying to do a more professional tone
to some of my videos, especially the graphic design stuff
but over time I realized that I need to incorporate
more of my personality and that I was actually going
to have a lot more fun doing that and just being
more of myself, not that I'm not professional in real life
or anything like that, but I felt like,
you know what, I need to establish more of a personal,
informal connection with my audience
and I need to do that by just being more of myself
and being less reserved and less held back
and less stiff, so that's why I started doing
and it really made a difference for me,
it got a lot more people interested in the channel
and interested in me personally
and also the work that I do, so I though that that
was really important and I definitely want to pass along
that advice.
So make sure that you are talking like you have some energy
to you, don't shoot videos when you're tired,
I used to do that all the time, I would shoot videos
either very late at night, very early in the morning
or after I come back from a run or something,
and I feel like those videos
weren't necessarily my best work.
And sometimes I still do that but it's something
I try to avoid, so make sure that you,
you know, you're not hungry, you're not thirsty,
that you're in a good mood and that you have a lot of energy
when you're doing your videos 'cause it will translate
to your audience and it will affect how they receive you.
Number eight, make videos you'd want to watch.
So I started doing Photoshop and graphic design videos
because that was a lot of what I was looking for
on YouTube a long time ago and nobody was really doing
them or doing them what I thought was very well
at the time, there are a lot of great YouTubers
doing that now and you know, I'm happy to be a part of that
community but at the time people weren't making
the kind of things that I needed advice on
and the things that I needed help with
so I started making those things for other people
that I felt that I was good enough at, et cetera.
And then other people were making them,
they were doing great tutorials, I didn't feel
like their production values were good
or I didn't feel like their ability to speak
and present was what I would've wanted or needed,
so I decided to be that person.
I decided to solve that problem myself
and that's how I really got into doing YouTube videos
and then later I started wanting to do videos
that I like, am interested and care about
like the review videos, and things like that
because those are videos I enjoy watching.
I enjoy watching people's movie reviews
and video reviews for shows and video games
'cause I like talking not only to the people
who make them but I like people talking to the other people
like you who will be watching them and reviewing them
in the comments and adding your two cents.
I like being one of those people, I make some online friends
that way, I find out about other communities,
I find links to things that I want to buy by doing that.
So that's why I make those kind of videos myself,
because it's the kind of thing that I enjoy and I watch.
So if you ever run out of ideas
of what you should be making, think about
what you actually enjoy watching and ask yourself
if you didn't make this video, would you still watch it?
Number nine, try to stick to a schedule.
Now I already mentioned this, but sticking to a schedule
really helps.
One, you should stick to a schedule of when you're going
to make and shoot your videos, 'cause that will help you
get some structure, you should also stick
to a posting schedule so that your audience knows
what to expect from you.
Now don't beat yourself up if you don't stick
to your schedule, I fail at my schedule quite often.
As many of you who have subscribed know,
but I try to make up to it.
A lot of times I'll say that a video is gonna come out
on this type of day and it'll come out the next day
or the day after that.
But I feel it's more important to deliver on it
and be late rather than make you guys wait a week
for that particular type of content,
so I'd just rather do that.
If you try and stick to a schedule and you can be
consistent, you'll find that more people
are tuning in, more people are subscribing
and that it'll just help you personally
be more productive about how you approach your videos.
So my 10th most important tip for smaller YouTubers
is to stop obsessing about your numbers.
Don't be in analytics every minute of every day,
checking your numbers because it's not gonna be helpful.
You're not going to be thinking about
the great content you can make, that's time
you could be replying to the subscribers you do have,
that's time that you can be promoting your content,
or you could be thinking of new ideas
instead of obsessing about the numbers you don't have.
Be grateful for the subscribers that you do have,
be grateful for the opportunity to create great content
and to share it with people and just focus on
continuing to be awesome.
Because in the end if you do that,
the numbers will eventually come.
So just kind of keep that in mind,
be encouraged and don't let the numbers depress you
or affect how you're gonna do things.
It can be important to look at your numbers
and see what your audience is gravitating to,
but you should only really use it in that way.
You shouldn't decide that a video is good or bad
based on how many people are viewing it,
but on what people who are commenting on it
are saying, up to a certain point,
and by how you personally feel about whether you did
your best job or not.
Oh, let me give you guys a final bonus tip.
If you're a smaller YouTuber and you haven't checked out
the YouTube Creator Playbook,
then you should definitely check that out.
I'll leave a link in the description below.
But it's a great free resource
that tells you a lot about how YouTube works
and gives you a lot of ideas for how to address
production, promotion, and your presentation
as far as your videos and how to gain more followers,
more influence, and just make better quality videos
altogether.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this top 10 list.
If there's anything you think that should've made the list,
definitely leave that in the comment section below.
Let me know your ideas as a larger YouTuber
or a smaller YouTuber in the comments section below
and things that we can do, any of us,
or even that I can do personally to improve
the channel and videos in general,
get more views, more subscribers, 'cause I'll take
a good idea no matter where it comes from.
I don't care if you have 10 subscribers
or 10,000 subscribers, if you have a good idea,
I'm more than happy to listen to you.
Anyway, like this video if you like it,
don't forget to subscribe, check out the other great videos
on this channel, and as always, guys,
thanks for watching.