- The channel?
100 Percent Zelda.
The achievement?
1,000 subscribers in just three months.
- [Narrator] VidIQ.
- [Woman] VidIQ.
- [Man] Vidiq.com
- Hello, I'm Dan, and welcome back to VidIQ.
We are the YouTube tool, academy, and channel that help
to educate you along your YouTube journey.
I talk a lot about gaming channels here at VidIQ,
and today I'm shining the spotlight on one in particular,
but before we do that, I have a question for you.
Can you describe your channel, whether it's gaming or not,
in just two words?
Two words is pretty generous considering the channel
we're talking about today is one that can describe itself
in just one word, and that's Zelda.
(upbeat music)
They managed to start their channel today in 2020
and they already have 1,000 subscribers and I'm going
to explore with you how you can be doing the same thing.
This channel actually ended up on the VidIQ radar thanks
to one of our channel audit live streams.
You want to stay tuned today because we're also gonna talk
about how this channel not only got their 1,000 subscribers,
but guaranteed themselves a channel audit from us.
A day or so after we checked out their channel
during the audits, they actually shared their achievement
of 1,000 subscribers with us
and all of their Twitter followers.
On Twitter, they also shared with us
and everybody else their analytics and the moment
that their channel blew up
and suddenly was gaining a whole bunch of traction.
To help better understand exactly
what this creator thinks happened to get their channel
to take off to this degree, I reached out to them
and asked if they would share just a little bit of insight.
What I learned from 100 Percent Zelda is, obviously,
they're a fan of Zelda, and not only that, they're a fan
of watching creators on YouTube who play Zelda.
100 Percent Zelda decided they wanted
to start their 100 Percent Zelda channel,
so they started taking note of things they liked
and things they didn't necessarily like about other creators
and the way they were covering the game on YouTube.
In addition to doing competitor research,
they also joined Zelda communities across the Internet
and just paid close attention to the types
of questions people were asking in these communities.
Perhaps the most crucial step this channel took
though was keeping their audience in mind
when they decided to launch their channel.
They determined that if someone was going to subscribe
for 100 Percent Zelda, they had better get 100% Zelda.
This goes back to something we talk about all the time,
niching down, and not only have they niched down to gaming
and then Zelda, but for now at least,
they are all in on Breath of the Wild.
We already know that they've seen explosive growth
covering Breath of the Wild, but the long-term plan
for this channel is to eventually explore other Zelda games,
and as we know, there are plenty of Zelda games
to choose from with more on the way in the future.
Personally, what I think is really helping this channel
with its success is the type
of Zelda content they're creating.
They're not just playing Zelda, they're answering
those questions that they learned about from the community.
What are the best bows, the best shields?
And of course, their most explosive video to date,
Breath of the Wild, which Rupee farming is the best?
They're doing an incredible job, and I think for me,
the biggest takeaway here is know your audience.
100 Percent Zelda didn't just prove this to me once,
they did it twice when they guaranteed
themselves a channel audit.
If you know anything about our weekly channel audits,
it's that we get over 1,000 submissions a week
on the list for randomly-selected channels,
and we also look at people who submit memes
that make us laugh to get us to stop scrolling on Twitter
and hopefully those will also get them an audit.
In addition to the random selections and the memes,
we also do weekly Photoshop battles, and the winner
of that can get themselves a guaranteed audit.
This channel wanted us to audit them, so at first,
they started submitting on the random selection sheet
and didn't really get anywhere.
This creator shared with me that they had never made
a meme before, so once again, they took to the Internet,
did some research, and not only that, they studied us
while we were doing channel audit live streams.
What were the memes that made us stop scrolling every time
and click on the channels that were submitting?
In the end, this was the meme that made us stop scrolling.
We had recently started up a segment in the live stream
where we played Pictionary and they decided
to take a crack at making fun of us for it.
The image they created features a Pictionary puzzle,
and bonus points if you can guess what it means
in the comments below.
The methods that 100 Percent Zelda used here
to grow their own channel are repeatable.
As with any big game franchise, when the game features a lot
of depth like Breath of the Wild, a lot of questions arise
that come up and people are wondering how to do something
in the game, how to find certain secrets.
All of these things translate to video ideas for you.
100 Percent Zelda has started their YouTube journey
by making content that is made specifically
for their audience.
As they continue to grow and people connect with them
on a more personal level, there'll be time to branch out.
Perhaps try different Zelda games,
perhaps try different games, perhaps just play Zelda one day
without putting a whole bunch of research
into a jam-packed, high value, high impact video.
I know I don't probably say this enough, but I understand
that playing just one game isn't for everybody,
and I also understand that playing just one game
on YouTube isn't the only way to grow a gaming channel.
However, as you can see, this is an effective strategy
for growing a channel.
If you want to play multiple games across multiple genres,
then you'll probably start earning some subscribers,
but any time you switch a game, switch a genre,
you need to be prepared for some
of those subscribers to not come back.
I'm sure even in the case of 100 Percent Zelda
if they decided to move away from Breath of the Wild
and cover Link's Awakening, there's going to be a subset
of their audience that says, I just play Breath of the Wild,
I'm gonna wait til the next Breath of the Wild video.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with that strategy
because as gamers, we like to play a lot of different things
but it's important to go into any YouTube channel
with that understanding that you're making videos
for a specific audience and if that audience decides
that they don't want to hang out for a pivot you decide
to take on your channel, there's nothing wrong with that
because in the end, you're actually gonna gain
some new subscribers and you're gonna help out
some new folks who would've never found you
in the first place.
So yes, I understand that one size doesn't fit all
on YouTube, but with a little research and some hard work,
you can make high value, dependable content
that people subscribe for and continue coming back for.
I know that the next time for me that I'm playing
Breath of the Wild, if I come across anywhere
where I get stuck or I have a question
about a better weapon I could be using,
this is the first channel I'm going to check out
because I know that they make dependable,
high quality Zelda videos.
Regardless of whether you're a gaming channel or otherwise,
I do hope you found this video helpful.
Don't forget to subscribe and let us know in the comments,
describe your channel in just two words or less.
Can you do it?
We'll see you next time.