Starting and growing your YouTube channel isn’t an easy task. In fact,
there is so much information on the internet that if you don’t apply an effective strategy,
you might fail to see any results. When starting a YouTube channel,
you must have a clear goal in your mind: such as, what do you want to do with the channel?
Maybe you are trying to create a bigger brand in order to better market your existing business,
or maybe even your product. Or maybe you are trying to add another stream of income,
so you want some extra cash at the end of the month. Maybe you’re even trying
to start a career on this platform, and you want to make good money in the future.
Whatever your reason for starting is, it has to go beyond the money part. If you’re creating
videos exclusively to make a profit, you will very soon give up: YouTube is something that
won't become profitable in the first months, or even years, except for some rare cases.
You have to build an audience before you start monetizing, and there’s a whole process behind
this. So, you have to be willing to create videos and not see any profits in the first
period of your YouTube journey. If making videos isn’t something that interests you, YouTube isn't
for you, and that's fine. There are many other things that you can do for some extra cash.
A YouTube channel is just like a business: the odds of failure are always very great.
There are many successful channels, but there are many more unsuccessful ones.
This means that you are very likely to fail. In this video, I’m going to show you how to
DRASTICALLY reduce odds of failure when it comes to YouTube. And if you follow me until the end,
you’ll learn some very useful tips that will help you reach more people and grow your audience.
Note: all these strategies are organic and do not include any weird “tricks” or “hacks”,
these are actually based on the fundamentals of marketing and of the famous; YouTube algorithm.
Who’s this video for?
This video applies to you if you're in one of these two situations:
Number 1: you have a YouTube channel and you already have some subscribers and a
small audience that follows your content regularly. You interact with your small
fan base every time you upload a new video. Your problem is that you seem to be stuck,
and you can’t find a way to reach more interested people. This video will show you how to do that.
Number 2: you don’t have a YouTube channel, but you’re planning to start one very soon.
You know that in order to improve the odds of success, you need a strategy,
and that’s why you are here. You’ll learn how to have a great start,
and how to structure your channel so that you can reach many potential subscribers.
If you can’t relate to any of these two situations,
this video is probably not for you. On the other hand, if you feel ready to learn,
keep watching and you won’t regret it. Here on Practical Wisdom, we hate wasting time
so... Get ready to take lots of notes, because we have a lot to share.
Number 1: Strictly Decide What Content You Want To Deliver
It doesn’t matter if you already have a channel or if you are thinking of starting one,
you have to decide once and for all what content you will bring to your followers.
Many channels on YouTube fail because they are so broad that even its creators can’t describe
their content. So, you should stop shifting though industries and niches all the time.
You should probably focus on one thing, and see if it works.
Now, you should obviously experiment and see what works better, but long-term,
if your channel is kind of a jack of all trades no one will follow it.
Imagine being a professional Skydiver. You’ve been doing this for years now, and you’re looking for
someone that likes skydiving on YouTube: you’d love to see content on that topic.
You find a small channel that made a video on skydiving, and you like it so much that
you decide to check out the channel of the creator for more skydiving videos.
But once you’re on their channel, it has nothing to do with skydiving.
Actually, it has nothing to do with anything, there are videos on any topic:
how to cook lobster, how to win a marathon, travel vlogs,
makeup tutorials, everything. Will you subscribe to that channel? Of course not.
The same applies to you. You have to decide what content you want to make and stick to it.
If you want to post something different once in a while, that’s fine,
but most of the time you have to stick to your initial idea.
How to make this decision I know this isn’t easy, especially if you’re
like me and you are interested in many topics. You can experiment and see what works best,
but choosing a topic that is less talked about can really help you avoid barriers of growth.
For example, if you’re trying to grow your gaming channel, that’s going to be hard.
Contrarily, if you create videos on how to find cool rocks, you have more chances of succeeding
since there aren’t many channels that do that. It’s always surprising how many people are
interested in topics that at first glance can’t be successful because there isn’t obvious demand.
Actually, it’s very likely that if you like something,
there’s a big group of people that likes the same thing. In order to choose your topic,
you can do something that in marketing is very common. Take two niches and combine them in order
to create a new, interesting channel, with topics that have rarely been put together.
Being original is very important, and it becomes easy when you just take two passions of yours and
somehow combine them. Define Your Avatar
Your content should change according to what your targeted audience is. I’m talking about the
approach of your videos, everything from the intro to how you talk to your audience. In marketing,
there’s something called an avatar. This is the ideal person that you are trying to reach.
The avatar represents your target: who you are trying to reach.
Take some time and actually carefully define the characteristics of your avatar: everything from
age to occupation, and from hobbies to financial situation. Remember: clarity is key, and the
clearer you are about what you’re looking for, the greater the chances of actually finding it.
Number 2: Bring Value
Like in a business negotiation, you have to bring something to the table. It might not be the kind
of value that is measurable economically, and it could be anything from education to
entertainment. If you bring value to people, you give them a reason to follow you. Create
content with the goal of ACTUALLY delivering, and backing up your claims with actions.
And that’s a good reason to stay away from clickbaity titles and thumbnails.
We’re going to talk about thumbnails later in this video. For now, focus on the value that
you can deliver. WHY should people follow your channel? Answer that question in every video,
and results will show. Number 3: Shareable Content
There are two main ways of gaining followers organically:
Shareable Content: the type of videos that are relatable
and that make people feel like part of a group.
Searchable content: the type of content that
people actively look for in the youtube search bar.
I’ll first cover shareable content, then we’ll discuss searchable content later in the video.
If you are capable of generating “exclusivity” around your channel and community,
people are more likely to share it with others in order to show off their “cool new community”.
To do that, you can give a name to your community.
Instead of referring to your followers as “subscribers” or “fans”, you could refer
to them as something relevant to your channel. For example, if you create content on mountain biking,
you could call them “riders”, or something that suggests that they are more than just subscribers.
Another thing that you can do in order to increase shareability is to create content that people are
proud of watching. It has to be something that people either agree with or want to be identified
as. For example, if you run a channel on writing, you could create a video with the title “proud
to be a writer”, and if other writers agree with what you have to say, they’ll share it.
Are you with me so far? Good. Now let’s talk about the other source of viewers.
Number 4: Create Searchable Content This is also organic and it follows a
basic principle. If people are not looking for your videos, they won’t find them.
So what’s the solution?
Figure out what your targeted audience is looking for and create content that matches
What they want. Maybe your audience are looking for answers on how to do something?
Then Create a tutorial on that topic.
The YouTube algorithm of is very powerful,
and if you create “HOW” or “WHY” videos you’re more likely to rank higher in the search results.
Easily apply this principle to your next uploads, and if you get it right, the algorithm will
literally fall in love with you. Number 5: Consistency & Quality
Consistency You already know about this one,
but still many of you don’t follow this rule. In order to keep your viewers, you have to be active
and continuously interact with your followers. Post regularly, at least once a week. The more
you post the better. That’s because people never forget about you and they’re always looking
forward to more videos of yours. Quality
Consuming content that is low quality is not pleasant. Nobody is going to watch your hiking
vlog if it’s all pixelated and we struggle to hear your voice because of the wind.
Nowadays we all have the necessary equipment to create decent videos,
you are probably using one to watch this video right now.
Just take an extra step and always remember that
quality is better than quantity, the effort is totally worth it.
Number 6: Thumbnail & Title & Description
Thumbnail The colors of the thumbnail have to
be outstanding. The text has to be big and bold, in order to catch the attention of the viewer,
and it has to accurately describe the content of the video while generating curiosity.
If the thumbnail includes a picture of you, it gives it even more context.
The goal here is to stand out and give an idea of what the outcome of the videos is.
Also, keep the text in the thumbnail short and on point.
Title The title has to be
clear on the outcomes that people can expect from watching your videos. Why should people watch your
video and what can they expect from it? Clearly communicate that answer and keep it relevant.
Also, words like “HOW”, and “WHEN”, and “WHY”, as well as dates (for example 2020),
are preferred by the algorithm since the video appears more relevant and up to date.
Take for example the title of the video you are watching right now, you know what to expect from
it and it’s algorithm friendly. If you want to know more about this, look for SEO techniques.
Leave a comment if SEO is a topic that interests you, we might make a video on that very soon.
Description & Tags The description and
the tags are the tools that you will use to tell YouTube what your video is about.
Keep it relevant to the content of the video and your industry. Don’t be too specific,
keep it generic and remember that most people don’t read the description anyway.
The better the YouTube Algorithm understands your content,
the better it will decide when to show it to interested people.
So, in summary, you have to create two types of content. Maybe even alternate between the two.
First, content that is shareable and that your current fanbase will love.
Second, content that people are actively looking for and that is optimized to be found.
And that’s it! What do you think? Was this information useful?
How will you apply these strategies? Leave your opinion in the comments down below!
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