What is up everyone?
Welcome back to my channel.
In today's video, we are here to celebrate.
We're celebrating the fact that I went from zero to 100,000 subscribers in just one year
alone.
Yes, you heard that right?
I started my channel back in July of 2018 a year where a lot of people thought that
youtube was super competitive and I still managed to grow my channel through 100,000
subscribers in just one year.
And in order for me to truly thank you guys for all of the support, I couldn't think of
a better way than to create this video where I really break down the top 10 tips or things
that I did that truly moved the needle on how I was able to grow and accelerate on youtube.
So if you're interested in learning how I went from zero to 100 k subscribers in just
one year, then keep on watching.
Alright, so to first kick off this video, I am aware that I've done a lot of videos
on youtube, but I promise you if you stay until the end, there are going to be some
tips and things that I did that I haven't mentioned before on any of my other videos.
That being said, let's go into the first tip, which is a classic thing that I've always
talked and preached about on this channel and that is identifying a target audience.
Now in this video right here, I talk a lot about how to identify a profitable niche on
social media.
However, if you are just starting out, I totally understand if having a super fine tuned niche
is really hard to do.
Even when I started back in July of 2018 a year ago, I really didn't know what niche
I truly belonged in.
Did I want to do mindset videos?
Did I want to do finance videos?
Did I want to do business videos?
I really didn't know what exactly my niche truly was and it's no surprise I've never
done this before and neither have you.
That's why it's so important in the beginning stages that you're actually experimenting
with different niches so that you can understand first of all what you like to do, but secondly,
and most importantly what your audience likes from you as well.
That's why experimentation is going to be key when you are starting out your channel.
However, that doesn't mean that you're going to be doing random things on your channel
and that there's no intention at all.
That's why at minimum I suggest that you at least pinpoint a target audience.
Let me explain.
All right, so like I just previously mentioned, when I started out my videos, I had no idea
what niche I belonged in and if you actually look at the beginning stages of my youtube
channel, you'll see that I was a little bit all over the place at some points I was doing
quit my job videos, graduation videos, mindset videos of business videos, lifestyle videos.
I was really all over the map when it came to the different topics that I shared on my
youtube channel.
But even though I really wasn't sure what my niche was, I at least knew who my target
audience was.
That one person that I really wanted to speak to in all of my videos.
So what I did was I created an audience profile and what I told myself was, okay, the person
that I really want to attract with my videos is that millennial is someone between the
ages of 20 to 25 who just recently graduated university and are now one or two years into
their corporate job and realizing that the corporate grind truly isn't for them.
I really got super detailed on the person that I truly wanted to attract.
So regardless if I wanted to do finance videos, mindset videos, career videos, or anything
else, I knew that at least I was speaking to that one person.
I really dove into this millennial and I asked myself what questions do they have right now
in their stage of life?
And then I created videos and even though I didn't have a niche yet, I was able to experiment
within a scope.
And by experimenting within a scope, you're able to understand as a creator what type
of videos you like to do.
Not only this, your audience can also give you feedback and you're also able to see which
videos perform better than others.
For example, for me, the quit my job videos performed much better than my other ones and
eventually the social media videos that I did also outperformed my other videos as well,
which leads me to my second tip.
And that is if you see a video outperforming or doing really well, you follow that trend.
Now, let me first explain what following the trend means, and I talk a lot about this in
this video right here, so make sure you check it out after this video is over.
But basically there were two incidents in my channel where I saw extreme growth and
that was the first incident where I posted this video outlining why I quit my corporate
job.
And shortly, a couple of days later, I saw that this video was getting a lot more views
than my other videos.
So what I did was I followed the trend.
I started to create even more videos around the topic of quitting your job.
And what happened was I gained even more traffic.
And the reason for this is because this video was a key traffic driver.
I was attracting people that were already interested in quitting their jobs as a topic.
That's why if they were creeping my channel, most likely they were also interested in these
videos as well.
So I was able to double my growth on my channel at the time.
Now the second incident was what really blew up my channel, and that was when I posted
it.
This video right here about Instagram and to date this video has over 2 million views,
which is insane.
Long story short, this video right here is something that I posted back in January as
a collaborational effort with my friend Natasha and at the time we were wanting to do something
that was about Instagram, that about social media.
And I honestly thought that it was a little bit out of scope for the topics that I generally
like to do on my channel.
However, after posting that video, it went viral.
I started getting thousands and thousands of views that I normally wasn't getting on
my channel now because Instagram was so out of my comfort zone.
It took a while for me to actually catch onto the trend and as you can see here, the next
three videos I did after that video were still my typical content pieces.
However, sooner or later I started catching on and very similar to what I did with the
quit my job video.
I started to create more videos around Instagram and those videos did significantly better
than the typical videos that I had on my youtube channel.
Basically, the key lesson here is that if you already noticed a video that's generating
a lot more traffic than normal, what you need to do is actually create more videos of that
similar nature to capitalize on the targeted traffic that you're getting.
Obviously the people who watch this video are interested in Instagram, but if they go
to my channel and look at my profile and there is no other videos about Instagram, then they're
probably not going to subscribe.
On the flip side, if they look at my channel and see that there is already a library of
videos about Instagram and they're already interested in Instagram, then they're most
likely going to subscribe to my channel and what I want to add here is that the beauty
of all of this is following my first tip, which is instead of fine tuning your niche,
at least fine tune your target audience because I know that as millennials, they're still
interested in Instagram, and had I not given myself the permission to experiment, I probably
would have never done this video right here and now.
My entire niche revolves around social media and Instagram plays a really big pillar within
my business, thanks to the fact that I experimented in the first place.
That's why I do not stress so much about niching down.
However, do give yourself that permission to experiment with that target audience in
mind.
Now at this point in the video, I have a feeling that some of you are probably feeling discouraged.
I know I felt that way whenever I found out that a youtuber had that many subscribers
because of a viral video.
Well, first of all, just because you have a viral video doesn't mean that you're going
to convert subscribers, which by the way is why you should watch this video.
But secondly, if you don't have the opportunity to have a viral video or you're not there
yet or you're still waiting for that chance for youtube to pick up one of your videos,
the third tip that I have for you is to create searchable content.
Now, this tip was introduced to me by one of my mentors, Sunny Laranduzzi so make sure
you go to her channel and send her some love.
But basically I learned from her that there is absolutely no point in doing content like
vlogging and all these things because on the Internet people don't know you.
That's why it's so important to actually create content that people are searching for.
If you even use my channel as a prime case study, even to this day, a year later, I'm
only posting content that's educational that I know people are physically typing into their
search bar because when people are searching for this content, I want them to be able to
find my videos.
The end of the day, youtube acts exactly like Google and people are searching for content
every single day and what are the best ways to be found is to show up on search.
Now, if you are someone who's struggling to figure out what content ideas to do, make
sure you check out this video that I have right here because I actually break down a
lot of the tools that I use in order to do my research.
That allows my content to show up in search.
So make sure you check out this video that I have right here, but basically in a nutshell,
what you want to do is ask yourself what questions is your target audience asking?
What are they actually searching on the Internet?
In my case, people are searching for how to grow on Instagram with a small following.
How to quit my job without a backup plan, how to quit my job to start a business, how
to get a hundred k followers in less than a year.
My audience is searching for that, so you got to ask yourself, what is your audience
searching for in that search bar?
Now moving onto my next tip, there's one thing of actually creating searchable content, but
there's another about being smart about the content that you want to do and actually make
sure that you rank on the first page very similar to when you're on Google.
You're probably not going past page three.
You're probably only clicking on things that are on the first or second page.
That's why it's really important when you're doing your youtube content that you're being
strategic about your titles, about your keywords, about the type of content that you're doing
so that you're not competing in a very competitive space and that you're still going to be able
to rank on that first page based on the keywords that you've selected.
That's why what I suggest in order to give you a competitive edge is to use third party
apps like two buddy and vid IQ.
Now I am an affiliate for both of these platforms and I use both of them at the same time.
I love to buddy and I also love it IQ, so make sure you check out the website and understand
which one is best for you, but I'll leave the links in my description box below if you're
interested in downloading either of these two plugins.
Now moving onto the next tip that I have for you and that is leveraging other platforms.
When you are first starting out on youtube, it's really hard to be found.
That's why it's so important to leverage other platforms in order to drive traffic to your
youtube channel.
Specifically what I would do is when I was finished editing my videos, I would actually
create a 32nd teaser clip or even a 15 second teaser clip of the most exciting parts of
my video.
And what I would do is I would repost this clip on Facebook and on Instagram stories.
Doing so allowed me to share my video in a very creative way and to entice people to
want to click on my video and watch the full thing.
And what I noticed in the beginning stages of my youtube channel, majority of my traffic
came from Instagram and Facebook.
What you also want to do is you want to increase visibility to your youtube channel.
This means updating the link in your bio on your Instagram account to your youtube channel,
updating your cover banner or any other social links within your Facebook in order to promote
and drive traffic to your youtube channel.
And not only this as a bonus, what I also like to do is participate in Facebook groups.
So the more that I was engaging in these Facebook groups, I was driving traffic from the Facebook
group to my Facebook profile and from my Facebook profile to my youtube channel.
So as you can see, it really does take a platform in order to grow another platform.
So it's so normal in the beginning if you've got to hustle on other social media platforms
to grow and bring exposure to your youtube channel.
However, that doesn't mean that you have to shamelessly plug anywhere and everywhere because
you got to make sure that the traffic that you're driving to your youtube channel is
still of quality.
And what I mean by this is that watch time is king on Youtube.
And if you are shamelessly plugging your youtube channel on random groups that don't even have
your target audience, then most likely those people are visiting your videos, watching
two seconds of it and then clicking out.
And because they're not watching the full video, it's going to hurt your watch time
at the end of the day.
And that's why you really want to focus on getting targeted traffic that's of quality.
All right, so with that out of the way, moving on to the next tip and that is increasing
your post frequency.
Now, increasing your posts frequency isn't something that I would necessarily recommend
to anyone.
If you are someone who's just starting out, just do one video a week, commit to that.
Do not do two videos a week.
If you are someone who doesn't have that much time, don't do two videos a week, but if you
are a fulltime YouTuber, I highly recommend it and the reason why is because what I noticed
in my own channel is the moment I started to double the rate of my videos, meaning I
went from one video a week to two videos a week.
I also saw my subscriber rate double as well.
Not only this because I started to do more videos, meaning I went from four videos a
month to eight videos a month.
It accelerated my growth as a content creator, I became a lot more efficient.
I became a lot more confident.
I was able to experiment a lot more and therefore I was able to fine tune my messaging, my positioning
and everything like that a lot faster.
That's why I definitely see benefits of doing two videos a week.
However, I do not recommend it if you are someone who is still trying to get a grasp
of youtube because it will add a lot more to your plate if you are not organized.
So only take this advice if you are someone who's already comfortable with doing youtube
videos.
Now, speaking of organization, another thing that really helped me get a better grasp on
youtube and become a lot more organized and therefore a lot more faster and producing
videos is batching my content.
So if you are someone that's interested in accelerating your growth by increasing your
frequency, I highly recommend that you check out this video right here where I share with
you step by step my entire workflow of how you can batch your videos.
Now, I really don't want to repeat the information that I've already given in this really extensive
video, but basically if you batch your videos and you do your videos in advance and you
already have a content plan ahead, you're going to be able to do a lot more when it
comes to your content within your videos.
Now this kind of leads me to my next tip, but basically because I have visibility of
my content plan and I know exactly what videos are coming up within the next couple of weeks
and even months, I'm able to tease my videos.
Now, I already mentioned this tip and this video right here where I go over the ultimate
youtube script, but basically because I know exactly what videos are ahead of me at the
end of all of my videos, I'm always teasing you guys and telling you guys what the next
video will be.
By doing this, it actually increases the chances of people clicking the notification bell and
also secures my views for my next video.
Now again, just so that I don't repeat myself.
Make sure you check out this video right here because I really go in depth of why this works
and also other things that I recommend in terms of increasing your watch time and getting
more views on your video just through scripting.
Now onto my next tip in terms of the things that I did that really helped accelerate my
channel and that was upgrading my equipment.
Now if you are just starting out your channel, I highly recommend and the smartest move actually
is to work with what you already have, be it your iPhone or anything else.
There is no need to upgrade your equipment too soon.
However, over time as you do your videos, you are going to get feedback from your audience.
For me, what I found from my audience telling me is that many of them didn't like this white
background that I used to use and a lot of them complained about my audio issues.
That's what I knew.
It was time to invest in a better office set up and also invest in better audio and even
for me at 100,000 subscribers and a year later I'm still using a lot of the equipment that
I started out with.
That's why it's really important to start slow when upgrading your equipment.
However, if you are at a place where you have your own audience members giving you feedback,
asking for you to upgrade and also you're starting to get monetized on youtube and making
a good paycheck from Youtube, I highly encourage you to invest that money back into your channel
and upgrading your equipment because what you also need to realize is that the audience
experience is also really important.
If I had crap audio, a lot of you guys would probably be super annoyed and for me my responsibility
is to make sure that your viewing experience is also good and that you want to finish my
videos from top to bottom.
That's why as you grow in your channel, make sure you are also prioritizing upgrading your
equipment and making sure that your channel matches the quality that your audience is
now expecting from you.
So for me, now that I finally hit the a hundred k mark, I now want to reward myself with a
good upgrade.
I'll be upgrading my equipment, a my camera, better lighting, better audio, and I'm really
excited for that.
So make sure you hit the notification bell because soon enough I will be posting a video
about my equipment upgrade.
But in the meantime, just know that as you grow and develop on your channel, make sure
to prioritize your audience feedback and also the quality of your videos because that user
experience for that audience is going to be really important in order for you to grow
a lot faster.
Now speaking of upgrading the next tip that I have for you, that really helped me grow
a lot faster with hiring a video editor.
Even though I was decent and competent in video editing, I certainly wasn't the best
and it wasn't until I hired my video editor where I really saw an increase in the quality
of my videos.
By having her edit my videos for me and having someone who knows a lot more than I do, I'm
able to communicate my message a lot better to my audience, which then increases my watch
time and for new people who are coming onto my channel shows that I have a quality channel
and allows them to want to subscribe to my channel for even more videos.
Not only this, I would not be able to do two videos a week while running my business if
I didn't outsource my video editing.
For a while I was doing all the editing myself and I nearly caused myself to go into a massive
burnout just by trying to do everything on my own.
That's why by having a video editor, all I do is the filming, the scripting, the researching,
and then I send all my clips to her and that allows me to actually focus on creating even
more content while she's editing all my videos in the, now I understand that hiring a video
editor is out of a lot of people's budgets.
However, if you really want to outsource this and you are someone who's working nine to
five and doesn't want to spend too much time for this, then I highly recommend that you
just take a portion of your paycheck and invest in a video editor that you find at a cheap
rate on upwork.
Now again, I also believe that as a content creator, you should probably try to do a little
bit of editing yourself in case at any point in time your video editor is sick or quits
on you.
At least you can edit the videos yourself.
However, if you do want to accelerate your growth by increasing your frequency, creating
more content, I highly, highly recommend hiring a video editor.
Now at this point in the video, I talked a lot about the things that I did right, the
key things that truly helped me grow my channel from zero to 100,000 subscribers in just one
year alone.
But what about mistakes?
What about the mistakes that other people are making or that I've made myself?
Well, if you're interested in learning about some key mistakes, then you're in luck because
I want you to hit that notification bell because in the next video I'm going to talk all about
the rookie mistakes that I see a lot of new youtube making that are actually hurting their
growth.
So if you're interested in watching that video, make sure you hit that notification bell in
the meantime, while you wait for that video to release, make sure you also check out these
two videos right here.
I talk a lot about social media, content creation, entrepreneurship, and coaching.
So if you're interested in any of these topics, then I highly recommend these two videos right
here as well.
As always, guys, I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for all of your support.
I cannot wait to make even more valuable videos for you as you go through your own content
creation journey.
As always, I hope you guys have a great day, a great week, and a great life, and I'll see
you in the next one.
Bye guys.