Here's my best advice if you're looking to grow your youtube channel in 2022. All my tips and
tricks from how i got from zero to a hundred thousand subscribers. And stick around because
i'm also going to give my four big things that I'd do differently if i had to do it all over again.
I'm just down at the airport today doing a couple of things on echo yankee zulu but i
thought i'd shoot this video for you because i know a lot of you also have youtube channels
and i know a lot of you are aspiring youtubers as well so hopefully these tips and tricks
help you if you're just starting out or if you've got an existing channel
but you're looking for ways to grow it in 2022. now you've probably heard on
other youtube channels the phrase gear doesn't matter well i kind of agree
and disagree with that i'd rather say gear does matter but some gear matters more than
others in my camera bag with all the cameras and lenses and tripods and battery packs
the one bit of kit which is more important than anything else is this this is the audio recorder
i use to record my audio when i'm flying and the reason why it's important is because people will
turn off if your audio sucks it doesn't matter how good your picture quality is how good your
camera might be you might have an amazing shot a great drone sequence but if people
can't hear what you're saying or if it's crackly that is a bigger reason to turn off
than bad visuals so yes gear does matter but in my opinion audio is the most important part
okay next up you've probably heard other channels say that you have to pick a niche your niche has
to be aviation for example i don't really agree with that either i think your channel can include
a niche like for me of course it's aviation and travel those are my two things but well i do do
other stuff as well and mixing it up i think is really important not only will it attract new
viewers because you're appealing to a slightly different audience when you make other videos
but it also keeps you interested and keeping interested in the youtube videos that you make
is critical because this is a long journey it took me five years to get to 100 000 subscribers and if
you get bored halfway through that because you're just making the same video over and over again
you lose interest your viewers can tell by your videos that you've lost interest
and you're not going to grow as fast as if you're really engaged and really motivated
in your own youtube journey another myth you'll hear on some other channels then is that story
is king storytelling is the most important thing about youtube well yes and no i mean
if you're setting out to produce videos that are story based then of course storytelling
is really important but if you want to set up a channel which is just all about aviation say
and you just want to show the facts then do that if you want to run a travel channel and
just do reviews of business class and economy on commercial airlines then just do that you don't
necessarily need a story behind it for people to want to watch that content storytelling is
important if you want to tell stories if you want to do tutorials or you just want to make videos
in a linear fashion which document your experiences and share that with people
there's still an audience out there for that kind of content as well
next tip don't copy like i was very casey neistat in the early days i'll be honest because i used
to really like casey's vlogs everyone who got into youtube at some point has probably watched
his content but i think i mimicked what casey was doing a little bit too heavily in the early
days and i kind of regret that a little bit so if you're starting out or if you're finding
yourself watching someone else's channel a lot and mimicking them just talk to the camera like you
talk to any other of your friends stop trying to do impressions of other people who are successful
and just be the most honest and true version of yourself when you're talking to the camera just
use your own voice completely be yourself be the most honest version of yourself
and you'll have an audience that stays with you for a lot longer than if you just do a
kind of half-assed impression of another youtuber that you really like watching
there are going to be times in your youtube journey when you feel like giving up and all i
would say is well it's kind of a stupid thing to say but don't if you feel like giving up though
change things go back to what i was saying before about maybe changing up your content type or
do something which i wish i could do a lot more of but it's hard being here in one of the most
remotest parts of the world but collaborate find someone else who does a similar thing to you
online or just someone you look up to and reach out to them ask if you can make a video together
pitch them an idea of something you want to do with them because that can really reinvigorate
your spark to get your youtube channel back on the road again back on the road back in the air again
that would have been a better analogy i'll edit that use your social media channels to promote
what you're doing on youtube but don't do it in terms of hey i've got a new video click here to
watch it because not many people do trust me not many people click on those links it's better to
show unused footage behind the scenes stuff that people can't see just by watching your
youtube videos show them what it's like to make the youtube video that's going to more organically
involve your audience in what you're doing as a youtube creator and it's gonna more likely
encourage them to come across because they want to watch the finished final product and from there
then it's your job on youtube to convert them to a subscriber and final tip before i get into
my four big things that i wish i would have done differently don't over edit your videos effects
and plug-ins can be really exciting especially when you're first learning about editing in the
early days of your channel and you're going to think it looks freaking awesome but trust me three
years later when you look back you're then going to think it looks a little bit naff i mean we're
not trying to make james bond videos here let's be honest there's a time and a place for plugins
just prepping echo yankees earlier this is just the camera mount that i use for the gopro 360
on top of the wing for a couple of big flights i've got coming up which i'll share with you
on the channel over november and december but before i go here are those four things that i
would change if i had to do the first hundred thousand subscribers on youtube all over again
first thing i would change ignore the stats which seems like a really counter-intuitive thing to say
in a video about how to get to 100 000 subscribers but it can be really demotivating and demoralizing
so if you run a youtube channel and you've got the youtube studio app on your phone uninstall it you
may be thinking well then how can i respond to comments how can i see if my video is doing well
or not well what i do now with videos is i'll publish them and on my laptop i'll jump into
youtube studio for the first hour or two after uploading respond to comments see how things are
going close the laptop and i walk away from it if your video is going well you're gonna love having
youtube studio on your phone but if it's not going well and you're out with other people you
can then just get into that funk of oh my god why am i doing this my channel will never grow and it
really can start to affect you on top of that the youtube studio app gives you commentary like this
video is not performing as well as others maybe people don't like what you're doing maybe you're
rubbish in what you do maybe you should just go and jump don't let the app dictate your happiness
throughout this youtube journey some videos will never do as well as you want them to that's just
the nature of having an audience having consumers having a market they will decide what they want to
watch not you but please don't have a middleman sitting there between you and the audience
also hammering you when things aren't going as well as you want them to secondly again counter
intuitive to this video but just go out and film more and research less stop googling how to get
to 100 000 subscribers stop looking at lighting techniques cameras that you should be buying i
did get quite obsessive on youtube in the early days about how to make youtube videos how to grow
to 100 000 subscribers and i let other people tell me what to do maybe just quieten those voices down
a little bit and listen to what you want to do similar to that point and something i said earlier
in this video the third thing i wish i changed is i wish i experimented more and didn't worry
about what i thought people would think about the videos i made some videos about running because
i love to run and i was petrified about whether people would think oh i signed up to this channel
because i like planes why are you putting content on here about running and i wish in that first
five years of youtube i would have experimented a little bit more with content outside of my comfort
zone because i think at the end of the day if you do the same it just makes you a better creator all
round and the final thing i wish i would have changed in this journey is i wish i would have
gone in my own direction sooner what i mean by that is about four months ago i sat down with
a notebook and i wrote down all the things that i absolutely hated about videos in my genre how the
camera was used how the person spoke to the camera what sort of stories were being told the thumbnail
design what people were putting in the thumbnails how many people put their wives in a bikini in the
thumbnails all the stuff that i really disliked i physically wrote down in a book and i promised
myself that i would never do those things in any of the videos that i produce and since that
point i have a little manifesto for myself and i refer to that now when i'm making these videos
and videos that i'll make in the future and you know what i have a real sense of happiness and
pride in my work now because i'm not doing any of those things that i really really disliked
in all the other videos that i was watching on youtube drop a comment down below with your tips
and tricks how you've grown a youtube channel how you think you could help others grow their youtube
channel it just really helps the community as a whole because at the end of the day isn't
that what we all want just more better aviation and travel content here on youtube i know i do