- Because of the type of content that I make,
I'm in a fortunate position to where I get to tap
into the core of the YouTuber community.
And with that comes all of the problems
that we have as content creators,
because I see all of the comments
and all of the requests people are making in the comments.
I get DMs from other content creators,
talking about the problems they have.
I have a form on my live streams
that I do every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Eastern,
where you put your questions about the problems
that you are having so that I can answer them live
during the live stream.
In addition to that, I also have my podcasts
where people can email me the questions about the problems
or questions that they have about their YouTube channels.
So it keeps me pretty informed with what's going on
and all the problems that content creators have.
And to be honest with you,
it's all the stuff that I've also went through myself
and things that I currently go through as well.
But with all of the questions that I get,
people are asking the wrong questions.
What I'm getting ready to share with you in this video
might just revolutionize the way
that you approach your YouTube channel.
And we're starting right now.
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- Okay, so like I said before,
your channel might not be doing well.
Not because you're necessarily doing something wrong,
but because you're asking the wrong questions.
For example, how do I get more subscribers
on my YouTube channel?
How many times have you had it go through your brain,
how do I get more subscribers?
How do I get more people to subscribe to my YouTube channel?
How do I make my channel blow up?
How do I just have more people come in
and participate in what it is that I'm doing?
Well, in addition to the other questions
I'm gonna be talking about with this specific one,
instead of asking, how do I get more subscribers
on my YouTube channel?
I want you to start reframing the way that you're thinking
about getting subscribers on your YouTube channel.
When it comes to you getting subscribers
on your YouTube channel, it's not necessarily about you.
And here's what I mean, instead of thinking,
"How do I get subscribers?"
Think why should someone else who watches my video,
subscribe to my YouTube channel?
What is it? What is it that you're doing with your content
that somebody should subscribe for?
Can you honestly look at your content and say,
"Okay, this is exactly why people should subscribe
to my YouTube channel, this is exactly
what it is that I'm doing on my channel
that should cause somebody to subscribe."
And I'm not talking about calls to action
or how often you upload or anything like that.
What I'm talking about at a deeper level is value.
So what you need to be thinking
is when somebody watches my YouTube video,
what value is it that they get out of my videos?
Why should they want to come back
to what it is that I'm doing on YouTube?
Why should they want to watch more of my content?
Why should they subscribe
so that they can come back and watch more?
Define it, and part of the process of defining it
is thinking to yourself, how can I add more
to the people that are watching my content?
How can I add more value to them?
If I'm a gamer and I'm playing a game,
and people are coming in and participating in my game,
why should they care?
Why should they subscribe to my YouTube channel
from just watching me play a game?
What is it that I'm doing?
Am I really entertaining as,
am I as entertaining as I think that I am?
That's why Help Content is such a powerful thing on YouTube,
because immediately when you're showing people
how to do things, they are getting value
from what it is that you're doing right out of the gate.
Don't get me wrong, that does not mean
that you have to do how-to content
in order to add value to people.
What I'm saying is that you just need to be able to define
the value that you provide through the content
that you're putting on YouTube.
And as soon as you can define that,
and as soon as you can take it to a deeper level and say,
"How can I just keep adding more and more and more
to the people that are coming in and watching my videos?"
If it's entertainment content,
let's say that you're making people laugh.
Like, "How can I be funnier?
Maybe I need to study comedy a little bit more.
Maybe I need to you know, really start fine-tuning
my skillset of telling jokes and my timing
and all that good stuff so that I can make sure
that I'm really going over the top
in terms of making people laugh
so that they can get that particular value out of me."
And that I consistently give it to them in a massive way.
The next question that I always get asked,
and I guarantee you,
somebody that didn't make it this far in the video
is going to ask this in the comments of this video,
because they were just in too much of a hurry
to actually learn what it is that they're trying to learn.
But anyway, when it comes to getting views
on your YouTube channel, instead of thinking,
"How do I get more views?"
Think, "How are people going to find my content?
What discovery mechanisms do I have in place
on my YouTube channel in order to make it possible
for people to find my YouTube content?"
For example, we all know that writing good titles
and that making good thumbnails for YouTube
is an extremely important thing to do,
if you want people to click on what it is that you're doing,
but a lot of people are thinking of that the wrong way.
What they're thinking is
"I need to make a really pretty thumbnail.
I need to make it graphically-pleasing.
I need to make it beautiful.
I need to make sure that I'm adding
these certain colors to it because people say
that you should add these colors to it."
But a pretty thumbnail isn't what makes people click
on YouTube videos.
What makes people click on YouTube videos
is there's something intriguing about how your thumbnail
and title work together
that makes those people want to click on what it is
that you just published,
or that you published a long time ago.
But when it comes to getting people to click
on what it is that you're doing,
just like being able to define the value
that you're bringing to your viewers,
you also have to be to define
why should somebody click on this title?
Why should somebody they click on this thumbnail
when it's presented to them on YouTube?
Is it just because I made it or is it something
to where it clearly expresses what it is
that they're gonna get on the video?
Did I title it in a way that makes it crystal clear,
the value that they're gonna get out of the video
if they do decide to click on it?
Long-term you're gonna get more viewers on YouTube
than anywhere else that you're gonna share your content.
So because of that, you have to be able to define
why people should click on what it is that you're doing.
When you're writing your titles,
when you're making your thumbnails,
sit back and look at them and think to yourself,
"Okay, why should somebody click on this?
Why is this interesting to somebody?
Why would it be intriguing or compelling enough
for somebody to want to click on it?"
If you can't define it, don't publish the video
until you define it, sit there and just workshop it.
If it takes you an extra hour to work through titles,
or if it takes you an extra three hours to make a thumbnail
to where you can clearly define,
oh yeah, people are gonna love this
once they see this particular thing in the thumbnail,
or I'm focusing all the attention on the right thing
that somebody is gonna care about
when they actually get this video presented to them
on a home page, or next to another video.
If you can define that thing,
you're going to drastically increase your chances
of people clicking on your content.
And then of course, if we revert back
to that first question, in terms of how can I add more value
to the people that are watching my content,
then you're able to get people to click
and you're able to define why,
and you're able to define the specific value
out of what it is that you're doing
and why it is that they should care,
and the value that they're getting out of your content,
which means that your ability to keep them involved
with your videos is also going to be higher.
Which brings me to the next question
of how do I get more watch time on my videos,
so I can get monetized?
The easy way to get more watch time on YouTube
is to make it easy for people to find more of your content.
And in addition to that,
to have people come coming back to your channel.
So just like the other two examples that I talked about,
instead of thinking, "How do I get more watch time?"
You need to be thinking,
"Why should somebody watch my video
for a longer period of time?
Why should they come back to my channel?
Why, why, why, why, why?"
But not the reason that they she'd come back and watch
is because I make good videos.
Thinking you make good videos is not enough of a reason
for people to keep coming back and watching.
Again, you need to define
why it is that people should watch your videos longer,
why they should come back to your channel,
why they should watch that next video
that you're recommending to them as well.
Why the content that you're making easy for them to find,
why they should click on that stuff and watch that as well.
You have to be able to define it.
Part of defining it is actually learning how to use
an awesome tool that YouTube gives us for free,
called the audience retention report,
that shows us literally second by second,
how the masses are responding to what it is that we're doing
so that we can make good decisions
and that we can make it more clear
why people should continue watching our videos
because we fine-tune them over time
in order to make sure that what it is that we're putting out
is something that people will respond to.
But at a higher level, not just respond to,
but something that people will enjoy.
And the more that you analyze
your audience retention reports,
the easier it's going to be to identify exactly
why it is that people should watch longer,
because you are using that information
to make better videos, which then creates
a better experience for your viewers
so that they are getting the specific value
that we talked about before out of your content,
so that they'll want to keep coming back
and watching more of your videos.
So that they'll want to click into your channel page
and go and look at all the other videos that you have.
So they'll want to click on your pin and comment,
or the next video that you recommend in your end screen.
Define it, the next question that you'll see
all over the internet, anywhere that you go
that YouTubers hang out, you're gonna see the big question.
Should I focus on quality or quantity
when it comes to YouTube?
Again, it's the wrong question?
The right question is how long do I plan
on uploading videos to YouTube?
Is this something that I want to be sustainable
over a long period of time?
When you start answering those questions
it's gonna lead you down the path on quantity or quality,
because typically what happens
is if you plan for the long game,
then you're probably not gonna be public every single day
or multiple times per day, because you know that,
hey, I'm gonna be doing this for a long time.
And I don't wanna just completely drive myself crazy
with the content that I'm making,
because I'm putting out so much all the time
and I'm not doing anything else. So because of that,
I'm going to pace myself
so that I can make sure that it's sustainable.
And as a heads up, if you plan to do this
for an extended period of time,
I really recommend that you do pace yourself because,
you know, it's a lot of work, putting all of these videos.
So I really do recommend that you pace yourself
and that you focus on making sure that you're focused
on the other things that we've been talking about
in terms of, you know, value and sustainability
and that sort of thing, because if not,
you can find yourself sometimes in a really bad position
in terms of how your mind starts working
when you start burning out,
when it comes to publishing content all the time.
And another part of that question on quality or quantity
is am I enjoying what it is that I'm doing?
Because if I'm not enjoying what it is that I'm doing,
when I'm putting out all these videos,
then why do I wanna just keep crushing out videos
all the time? But if you've done something
to where you're like, you know, "Hey, this is cool,
I'm having a great time,
but it's not something I wanna do all the time,"
then, you know, pace yourself again
so that you can do it in a sustainable way.
And so that you can get more joy out of it,
because part of this whole thing being a marathon
is that it's something that we enjoy,
being a content creator, making content,
connecting with your community
and building communities and all that stuff.
It's things that we enjoy.
That's why we start doing it in the first place.
So because of that, you know,
it's important to make sure that you are giving yourself
a little bit of an edge by making sure
that what you're doing is sustainable.
Another question that you'll also see,
all over for the internet on YouTube communities
is how do I make better thumbnails?
Instead of asking, how do I make better thumbnails,
first, think, "What do I know about design?
What do I know about imagery?
What do I know about grabbing someone's attention
with an image? What do I know
about how colors work together?"
And don't get me wrong.
I don't want any of this stuff to come across the wrong way,
because we all have things that we are learning
along this process and we don't know sometimes
the right question to ask until
we do know the right question to ask.
So I'm just trying to use this as an opportunity
to help give you some perspective on, you know,
what it is that you're doing,
because I think a lot of people are really focused
on the wrong things, but anyway,
just wanted to get that out of the way, so let's continue.
But when it comes to your thumbnails, you know,
think, "How many design videos I watched, right?"
I'm watching these videos on how to grow on YouTube,
but how many videos am I watching on design
so that I can really make good thumbnails?
How many videos am I watching on psychology?
So that I can start, you know, really start getting
into how brains work in terms of, you know,
not at like a neuroscience level or anything like that,
but just from like, you know, just to get some insights
on how people respond to certain things,
like calls to action, for example.
Another thing that you gotta be asking yourself,
if you are trying to figure out,
"Hey, how do I make better thumbnails?
Am I A/B testing my thumbnails?
Am I actually testing my thumbnails,
so that I can start defining
what it is that my audience responds to?"
Yes or no. If the answer is no,
then you need to start testing your thumbnails.
But again, you got to start asking the right questions
to make sure that you can provide the right path
for yourself in order to get the success that you're after.
And if you need something to help you test thumbnails,
you can use TubeBuddy for that,
I have a link to it down in the description below.
So this next one I get asked in my live streams a lot,
because there's a lot of people, not everybody,
you know, there's plenty of people.
You might be one of them that are on YouTube
because you are doing this as a hobby,
because you're just doing it as a way
to connect with other people that love what you love.
Now, there's also the other people that are like,
"Hey, I wanna do this as a thing," right?
"I wanna be like a YouTuber.
I wanna do the whole full-time YouTube thing."
And they're asking, "Hey, how do I go full-time on YouTube?
What is it that I have to do?"
Which is a good question, because in that situation,
what is it that I have to do
is a really, really good question.
Because when in that situation, what you got to think about
is you have to think about, okay,
how the questions that you need to ask
are how am I currently monetizing what it is that I'm doing?
How many streams of possible income am I creating now,
as let's say, if you're just getting started?
You know, if I look into the future,
what can I think of that I could possibly do
to monetize what it is that I'm doing
in a bunch of different ways?
And another part of that is also looking at your competitors
and being like, "Hey,"
the question, how are my competitors monetizing
what it is that they're doing?
Because in order to go full-time on YouTube,
you need to make sure that you're implementing
some monetization ideas as fast as you possibly can,
because yes, absolutely, you can crush it
and add revenue if you're getting crushed with views,
but most creators don't get crushed with views.
So because of that,
you have to think of all of the different things
that you could possibly ever do with your YouTube channel
in order to be able to generate a full-time income
for yourself so that you can do it all the time.
For example, in my situation,
I have eight different ways that I monetize right now,
and I've actually taken a step down, it was more.
But I have eight different ways that I monetize right now.
And within those eight different ways,
there's a bunch of additional things
or a bunch of different stems off
of those eight different things
that I monetize from as well.
So that's how I'm able to do this stuff all the time.
So if you are somebody that wants to do it full-time,
you just have to start thinking from that point of view,
in terms of, you know, what is it that I'm going to do
in order to be able to monetize?
And how fast can I actually implement some of this stuff
so that I can start having the videos
that I'm making now working for me from now,
all the way into the future,
as my channel continues to grow?
Because it can create a snowball effect of sorts
with your income, just like a snowball effect happens
when you're actually growing your channel as well.
But the questions that you're asking
and the way that you're thinking about this stuff
can make a really big difference on the results
that you're actually getting here,
because it prompts you to take the right course of action
in order to do what it is that you're actually wanting to do
with your content.
To see more detailed information about all of the things
that I've been talking about here in terms of the questions
that are being asked,
I have a series that I'm working through
that you can click into right here,
that answers a lot of the questions
that I've actually been talking about here in detail.
So you can click into that now, and if you haven't yet,
make sure you subscribe.
Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.