- I get it, you're frustrated, your channel's not growing,
whereas everybody around you is going viral.
You've tried everything
but simply put, YouTube is against you, right?
Wrong, the chances are you're committing YouTube sins
right now that are damaging your channel,
and you're looking for someone else or something to blame.
I know, I've done some of these things in the past,
and you know, in yourself,
some of the silly things you do on YouTube
that simply don't work.
Let us know in the comments below
what they are so you can help other creators.
So stop doing them
or keep doing them, just don't bother watching this video.
I've just ruined my watch time now, I wanna...
(air whooshing)
Promoting your content to anyone
by any means possible simply doesn't work.
And let's start with the obvious and ancient one,
sub for sub.
Now to be honest, the only reason I'm talking about this
is so that I can pull this little clip out
from the vidIQ archives.
Hey, YouTuber.
- Hey.
- Fancy doing sub for sub?
- Absolutely.
- Great.
(Rob sighing)
♪ Hello darkness my old friend ♪
(inhales deeply)
- Some dodgy green screen right there.
If you wanna waste viable time
gaining worthless subscribers,
good look getting 4,000 hours of watch time out of them.
Posting comments, promoting your channel and content
in other creators videos.
This has to be the most monumental waste of time.
There is for two reasons.
First and foremost, whoop!
Do you see that off in a distance?
Nobody cares.
The only thing anyone cares
about is what you can contribute to the video
everybody's watching, not one of your own.
Second of all.
And most of the time you're gonna be typing
into an echo chamber you've created.
You see this tip mark on a comment.
It means I have to approve it
before it will appear on the video.
Because YouTube automatically assigns all
of its nonsense to the comments, dumpster fire.
And the more you do this
the more likely the content owner is going to
hide your comments forever.
The problem with self-promotion
and 95% of the promotion you do outside
of your own videos and social platform
is that it's appealing to the wrong audience.
And if by some miracle
that wrong audience does decide to check out your content.
It will likely damage much
of the organic work the videos have already done
in terms of getting discovered.
Put simply be patient
and let YouTube's algorithm do the work
because in truth it's not actually an algorithm.
It's a recommendation system.
(air whooshing)
So, the clip I just showed you about a previous
sub for sub video that we made here at vidIQ,
in the past I may have linked to it
through a info card up in the top corner.
And in this sense, it's a good way to promote your content
because it's relevant to what somebody is already watching.
The problem is they kill retention.
If the call to action is strong enough to pull a viewer away
from what they're already watching.
If the viewer is settling into a good piece of content.
(glass shuttering)
The last thing you want to do is send them anywhere.
Just here anyway.
If you do want to use video cards,
leave them till at least the second half of the video
by which time the viewer is likely committed
to the current content
which means they're gonna do one or two things.
They'll either watch the video in the card immediately
and then come back to the original content,
or finish off a video they're currently watching
and then go back to the card.
Also interesting random side note.
I didn't realize this until today
but info cards are now apparently called annotations.
And I always thought these were annotations.
I really do miss these.
Having said that there is a far better way
to promote your videos through end screens
which are more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
But unfortunately I can't show you what I mean right now
because I'd have to do that through a video card.
So I'm afraid you'll have to wait
until the end of a video to show you what I mean.
(beep)
But anyway, back to info cards slash annotations
that have a party trick up their sleeve
that I bet you're not even aware of.
For a very long time,
YouTube was very restrictive
about external links within videos.
But recently YouTube opened this up more
so that you can direct viewers from your videos,
to external links as long as they follow
YouTube's external links policies.
Now, arguably this is even worse
than an info card that sends a viewer to another video.
This is going to send them
to an external link and end the YouTube watch session
which YouTube really hates.
But if that link gets somebody to sign up
to your emailing list
or buy one of your products and services,
the trade off is probably worth it.
For example, here's an exclusive sneak peek
at our new AI title recommendation tool
that will take your idea
or keyword and generate incredible click worthy titles.
How cool is that?
So if you want to take advantage
of this and many other YouTube growth tools
then make sure to download vidIQ right here, right now.
But of course you can carry on watching if you want to.
(air whooshing)
So just between you and me,
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
In YouTube world, every day is a school day.
If you get too comfortable on this platform as a creator
you're going backwards.
And it won't belong before new competition sweeps in
and you see your channel growing to a hole.
Now let me give you a little bit
of personal experience on this.
VidIQ is on the threat.
In the last 12 months, two YouTube educators have burst
onto the scene with fresh educational
and entertaining approaches to YouTube growth.
And Nate from Channel Makers and Ed from Film Booth,
now both have cracked the 100,000 subscriber marks.
And so right here, right now, let me congratulate
both Nate and Ed on their own silver play buttons.
Cheers lads.
(beep)
Now having said that we all occupy the same YouTube space.
We all share the same audience.
Therefore, in the cold light of day,
they are my competition.
Now, you know, I be honest and transparent on the channel.
The second half of 2021 was a roof patch
for the vidIQ channel.
Views were down 25%.
And while there are many reasons why this happened
you can't ignore the data
that tells you that these two creators offer
an alternative viewing option.
So had I got too comfortable as a creator?
Was I just coasting along to a million subscribers?
I didn't think I was.
But this was certainly a kick up the backside.
And I wanna thank Ed and Nate
for this passive friendly competition.
Because it certainly helped.
You probably haven't noticed this,
but Dan and myself
have made a lot of tiny changes to vidIQ.
From video formats to the topics we're covering,
from now design, to video length, to presentation.
We've done a lot and we still have a lot to do
but it's paid off more views and the most successful month
for watch time ever on the vidIQ channel.
Never stand still.
Never stop learning.
Always strive for that next 1%.
(air whooshing)
Now let me be clear here.
What we're not talking about is the introduction of a video
which convinces a viewer to watch more of a video.
That's a video hook.
What we are talking about here
is a brief branded graphical segment
that you're just plunking at the beginning
of every video.
Something like this.
(finger clicks)
(air whooshing)
(beep)
Basically, you're just telling people
what your channel's called.
And they probably already know that.
Branded intros kill audience retention
because viewers have seen this type
of stuff millions of times before in decades
worth YouTube watching.
They and rightly so just wanna get into the content.
Now when it comes to this particular YouTube sin,
we are guilty as charged.
I would confidently say that there are at least 500 videos
on the vidIQ channel that have a branded intro.
And the data proves time and time again
that a significant portion of the audience abandon a video
as soon as they see a branded intro.
We did make a dedicated video on this,
but again I can't share it with you
because I'd have to use info cards
that I've already told you not to use.
But just between you and me,
I've linked it in description,
but again watch it after you finish this one.
So instead of a branded intro
what should the beginning of a video contain?
We can use this video as a reference point.
I'm not saying I'm an expert at this yet
but the hook of this video is attempting to do two things.
It's immediately trying to deliver
on the promises made in the title and the thumbnail.
So the viewer knows they're in the right place.
And from there,
it's trying to convince you the viewer
to continue watching through to the end of the video.
I know that's a very simplistic way of looking at this
but you've gotta get away from telling people
who you are, what you do and why they should subscribe
to your channels.
Just wasted oxygen
in the first 30 seconds to a minute of the video.
(air whooshing)
Chances are, if you're this far into the video
you are a passionate creator committed
to growing your channel.
So you probably already know all of this stuff.
But just in case, don't be that channel
that infuriates creators.
And let's start with the obvious,
copyright claims and strikes.
Downloading music, videos, clips, random stuff
either directly from YouTube or from random places
on the internet is a potential recipe for disaster.
If you are getting stuff for free
and using it on your videos,
even if the source of that content says that
it's royalty free, copyright free
et cetera, et cetera, double check, then triple check.
I'm not sure what check comes after that
but do that as well.
If you come from the TikTok creating world,
let me stress this.
YouTube is far more strict when it comes
to matching copyrighted content ID
and the penalties are pretty clear.
Copyright claims will prevent you from earning revenue,
copyright strike after three of them,
will terminate your channel.
And then there's a less obvious,
less well known offense, reuse content.
If you are taking other creators content
and using it without their permission, that's even worse.
Typically the victims of this type
of content theft are small creators who don't
have the resources or the support to tech their content
like big movie studios or large music labels.
These people are creators just like me, just like you.
It still really angers me just how much TikTok stuff
is directly lifted from a platform
and uploaded onto YouTube
clearly not from the original creator.
YouTube really needs to stamp that out
before I truly embrace shorts for example.
Anyway, if you do this type of stuff
you may get views to begin with,
but you're not earning any money
and YouTube will eventually track down your channel.
And let me be clear here.
I'm talking about people
not creators because not creating anything.
People who just steal over creators pieces
of work without any transformational effort.
Creators who take existing content
and transform into an entirely new piece of work
they are more than welcome
in the YouTube community.
But for the thieves of the YouTube world,
well, I'm gonna bring in another Simpsons reference.
Urge to kill rising.
All right, as promised back to YouTube end screens.
Let me show you something truly incredible.
If you get this right, long after a video's published
it can get tons of views from end screens.
In this case, more than 50% of its traffic.
YouTube end screens are turning this video
into evergreen content.
And what's more when people watch a video from an end screen
they tend to watch for longer than other traffic sources.
So if you wanna know how to do exactly that
on your channel,
then I highly recommend watching this video over here.
Yes. That's how you do self-promotion the right way.
(beep)