It finally happened. I hit 100,000 subscribers after 16 years,
and I want to offer a big thank you to all of you that subscribed and watched my videos.
Without your support, I wouldn't have achieved the milestone. Edward Sweeney says,
"I have been watching this channel for five years and found it very useful.
Herman Drost has always been helpful when I've had a question. Well done, Herman". Post a testimonial
in the comments below if there's any way that I've ever helped you grow your YouTube channel.
In this video, I want to share the five big lessons I learned on YouTube over 16 years
and mistakes to avoid so you can reach the goal faster. Here's a harsh truth
about reaching 100,000 subscribers. Did you know that only 1% of all YouTubers
are at the 100,000 level? It takes years of hard work to become an overnight success. For example,
I uploaded three videos a week for many years to achieve YouTube growth. I uploaded two regular
videos and then went live every single Friday. Sometimes, you may not feel like creating a video,
but you do it anyway to achieve consistent growth. YouTube is a long-term commitment,
so you need to be consistent to have success. Bastiaan Bakker says,
"Herman's easy-to-understand and to-the-point videos have helped me understand how YouTube works
and how to improve being a YouTube creator, building an audience and optimizing my videos."
Know your audience. When you know your audience, it's easy to make the right content for them.
One of the biggest mistakes I made when starting my YouTube channel was making videos that I was
interested in but my audience was not interested in. The key to consistent growth is to make videos
that your audience is interested in because the YouTube algorithm follows the audience.
To understand your target audience, you need to know their demographics and their psychographics.
Demographics refers to age and gender, and psychographics refers to motivation and goals.
You can discover these features by adding a poll in your community post. If you have an email list,
pull your list. If you have a Facebook group, pull the members of your group. The more you
understand the target audience, the easier it will be to create the right content for them.
Dumpster Diving Adelaide says, "You've helped me with my channel and gone out of the way for me,
and I really appreciate that, Herman. You have amazing knowledge. Regards, Simon."
What to focus on? The four biggest things to focus on to make the biggest impact on YouTube channel
is topic, title, thumbnail, and watch time. Use the new research tab in YouTube Analytics
to discover the search terms people are using to find videos on your channel.
I also use a keyword research tool, TubeBuddy, to get a competition score
to see if my videos will rank in the YouTube search engine. It also shows the search volume,
related videos, and my top competitors for that particular keyword phrase.
Alternatively, study the comments under videos and under your competitor's videos to see if there are
recurring questions that you can answer in your videos. When you create the title for your video,
make sure you include the value and benefits of your video content. For example, the value of
this video is how to get 100,000 subscribers. The benefits are the lessons that I'm sharing with.
Don't make the mistake of creating a title after you've created the video content.
Instead, think about two or three different titles before you start recording your content.
Your title and thumbnail must complement each other to win the click. If nobody watches your
video, you're not going to get many views and subscribers. Therefore, high click-through rate
is crucial to getting people to watch your video. Your thumbnail is the first thing viewers see
in the search engines and suggested videos and on the YouTube homepage at youtube.com.
Before you create a thumbnail, look at the thumbnails of your top five competitors,
then make a different thumbnail that stands out from the competitors. Use contrasting colors,
bold text, and just a few words, or even no words. YouTube says that if you get a high click-through
rate and a high watch time, it increases the probability of YouTube recommending your videos
on other people's channels. Watch time refers to how long viewers remain engaged on your videos.
The closer you get to 100%, the more likely your videos will be recommended by YouTube.
Also, if you extend the watch time by getting viewers to watch more videos from your channel,
it's more likely they'll be recommended. One of the ways to extend your viewing session
is to link to a playlist containing related videos to the one that you've just watched.
You can do this using cards and end screens. Later on, I'll talk about how you can track the
performance of your videos on YouTube Analytics so you'll know what you need to improve for your next
video upload, so keep watching. Monetization. One of the biggest mistakes YouTubers make
is not monetizing their YouTube channel so they can make money and upgrade their gear.
If you just start a YouTube channel, you can make money by promoting affiliate products.
This means you get a 50% commission for every product that you sell as an affiliate. You can
start generating ad revenue when you become a YouTube partner and have 4,000 watch hours
and 1,000 subscribers. I suggest doing it as quick as possible because YouTube
can put ads on your videos even if you're not monetized. This means that YouTube is getting
all the ad revenue but you get nothing. As soon as you build and engage audience,
I highly recommend doing brand deals and sponsored videos. You can make $500 to $1,000 for each
product review video you make. If you bundle multiple revenue streams together, you can become
a full-time YouTuber and support yourself. You can also create channel memberships once you monetize
your channel. If you want to become a member on my channel, click the join button below this video.
Improve performance with YouTube Analytics. When you can track the performance of your
channel and videos, you'll know exactly what you need to improve to
grow your YouTube channel. For example, if you go to the overview tab in YouTube Analytics,
you'll be able to see the top 10 videos that are currently driving the most traffic to your
channel. When you know this, you can make another video approaching the topic from a different angle
to generate the same kind of traffic. If you click on the content tab in
YouTube Analytics, you'll see the key moments for audience retention. You'll be able to see
the top moments in your video where you kept viewers engaged, often referred to as spikes.
The dips in your audience retention graph means that viewers became disengaged from your content.
When you make your next video, try to improve the engagement by 1%, by eliminating the dips.
Your goal should be to improve every video you upload so you can grow your channel fast.
Under the content tab, you can also see how viewers discovered your videos, through YouTube
search, suggested videos, or external means. Keep in mind that the fastest growth of your channel is
going to come from videos that are recommended by YouTube. If you click on the audience tab, you'll
be able to identify the videos that are currently growing your audience. You'll also be able to see
the channels your audience watches, so you can study those channels to get new content ideas.
Here are 12 secrets to grow your YouTube channel fast and avoid common mistakes. Upload
consistently. When starting YouTube channel, you want to upload consistently so you get a lot of
practice to make better videos. You'll also give YouTube time to accumulate data about your videos
so you can track the performance in YouTube Analytics. When starting out, try to upload at
least once a week, and if you want to accumulate watch time hours fast, include live streams.
Upgrade your gear and background. If you monetize your channel early, you'll be able to generate
enough revenue to upgrade your gear. This may include your camera, microphone, lighting, or
background. For example, when I started my YouTube channel, I just used the camera on my iPhone 4S
and the iMovie software that came with my computer. Later on, I upgraded my gear.
Don't compare your channel with others. When you compare your channel with other
channels that are doing better in your niche, it steals your joy and becomes demotivating. Instead,
focus on improving one thing in each new video that you upload. Create a video series. Instead
of thinking about a solo video, think about a series of videos based upon a
common theme and add them to a playlist. When you create a new video in the series,
link to that playlist in the end screen. This will result in viewers binge-watching multiple
videos in a row which YouTube really loves. Typically, I'll link to the next best video
after the one that they've just watched. Avoid telegraphing the end of your video. Instead of
saying something like "thanks for watching," invite viewers to watch your next best video.
Schedule your videos ahead of time. This helps you to avoid the stress of uploading
a video when you don't have time. If you make your videos under stress, it'll be noticeable
to the viewers watching your video. Typically, I'll script and film two
videos at once so I'll be two weeks ahead on my upload schedule. Boost audience retention.
Watch time is the number one factor for ranking your videos on YouTube search, suggested videos,
and getting your videos recommended on the YouTube home screen. Therefore, I highly recommend
studying your audience retention graph to see where viewers are disengaging from your content,
then when you make your next video, try to improve your audience retention.
Alternatively, you can experiment with uploading short videos which are typically under 60 seconds.
They also appear under the shorts shelf when people are watching videos from the YouTube app.
Take a break. It's easy to get depressed or demotivated if you don't get many views or
subscribers on your videos or channel. When you take a break, it allows you to view your
channel from a different perspective. I typically go for a run or cycle the
trails around my home to clear my mind and get new ideas for future videos. A couple of times a year,
I'll go on vacation to the beach or go on a road trip. Have fun. If you're not passionate
about your niche and enjoy uploading fresh content on a consistent basis,
it'll be hard to keep going when the going gets tough. There's going to be times when you're not
motivated or too tired to make videos, but you do it anyway because you want to be consistent.
YouTube's a long-term commitment. If you don't show up every day and put in the hard work,
your channel won't be a success. Here's the big takeaway. Stop obsessing over views and
subscribers. Instead, think about sharing value with the people that you wish to serve. If you do
that, your viewers will want to watch your videos and keep going back for more of your content.
Let me ask you a question. Do you want to know the secrets to audience engagement on YouTube
so you can get your videos recommended by YouTube for free? If that's a yes,
watch the video on the screen right now for 12 ways to keep
viewers watching your entire video. You'll be glad you did.