- Why is it when you post a video,
it gets hardly any views,
whereas someone else posts a video on exactly the same topic
and it gets tons of views?
It's all to do with the algorithm, right?
Well, no, actually.
More often than not, it's about humans,
and how we interact with your content.
And the chances are you're not intriguing
them enough to click.
Here's how to fix up in eight minutes.
Three questions for you.
One word answers in the comments below.
Do you research video titles
before you start your own video?
Do you write a title before you start a video?
And do you write multiple titles,
before you start your video?
Now, I know some of you are cheating
and saying yes to all of those questions.
I know that the majority of creators
simply don't do this, or do it halfheartedly.
I should know because I'm guilty
of it myself sometimes,
but not today.
You see, I can't be lazy
about writing a title for this video,
because I'm working with a title expert
by the name of Jake Thomas.
I dunno which one of them is the title expert,
to be honest.
The last time we collaborated on a video about titles,
it got half a million views in six months.
So we're doing it again.
So yeah, Jake, dog, no pressure,
but to prove we've kicked off with the right approach,
here are the many titles we came up with
and the intent behind them,
before we started this video,
every week Jake publishes a newsletter called Creator Hooks
where he scours through YouTube and finds the best titles
and tells us why they're so successful.
So I thought after over a year,
of finding hundreds of awesome YouTube titles,
I asked Jake, what are his favorite five
and why they would work
for any creator no matter what topic they cover on YouTube.
So there's a lot to like about this title.
There's also one thing that I don't like,
which we'll talk about that in a second.
But one of the main things that I love about this
is that it's talking about habits and habits
is kind of like a power word on YouTube right now.
This title does two things to kinda like spice up the habit.
One, it's a list of habits, and then two,
it's a list of one minute habits.
So four one Minute Habits makes this video really tangible.
And then it's also talking about a big benefit,
habits that save me 20 plus hours a week.
It's got a huge broad audience.
Everybody wants to save 20 hours a week.
Also, the timeframe of One Minute Habits,
that makes this video way more enticing.
The one thing I didn't like about this video
is that it kind of finishes with a little bit
of keyword stuffing.
I don't really think that was necessary.
Typically, shorter titles are easier to read.
Also, a couple of other examples
of titles talking about habits.
"3 Habits that Will Make You a Beast in Matches."
"3 Feminine Habits Men Find Wildly Attractive."
And then, "Accountant Explains
Money Habits Keeping You Poor."
So this video went viral pretty recently
so habits are kind of on fire on YouTube right now.
And now we get to the most important part of a video,
applying all of this to your channel.
What Jake is doing here is teaching you title formulas.
So take this title and simply fill
in the blanks for your topic, your audience, your channel.
- So I really like this title because it's a big warning.
So it's got a lot of negativity, right?
Telling you to stop doing this.
It also has a lot of curiosity.
In the thumbnail, it has an arrow pointing
to the place where many people are standing in doubles
it probably comes natural to them.
It's like a best practice.
So when a YouTube title says,
"Stop Doing a Best Practice"
it grabs your attention because it kind of goes
against everything you've been taught,
everything you assume is right
and challenging assumptions is a great way
to get people to click.
There's also kind of a prerequisite to this title
and that is knowing your audience.
He knows that,
this is where his audience is standing when
they play doubles.
He knows their audience hopes dreams, fears, best practices.
If you know that for your audience,
that's gonna let you use specific words and kind of speak
to them on a deeper emotional level
that they feel like, oh man,
this creator really gets me.
A couple of other examples of titles using
this stop or a warning and negativity,
"Why I Stopped Riding Carbon Frames."
If you're a biker,
you probably assume that riding carbon frames is good.
You kind of stop, you do a little bit
of a double take, like, hey, wait, what's going on here?
"Stop using VLookup in Excel."
"Why I Switched to Index Match."
Again, telling you to stop doing something that's good
or beneficial or that'll save you time.
Grabbing your attention
with a warning and in curiosity there.
- Oh, kind of feeling a bit redundant to be honest.
Jack's got this covered.
- So the main thing I like about this title is
that it's giving the audience a new opportunity.
They have new hope, they feel like, oh,
maybe this is finally gonna be my big break.
So that gets them really excited about it.
Also, it's talking about changing.
The audience probably put in their,
like their biggest dreams
and changed forever, right?
They fill it in the blank there.
So it builds a little bit of curiosity
because it's open-ended and it's a little bit
of a cliffhanger, but also it lets the audience just dream
and kind of like, plug in whatever their biggest goal is.
I also, I use this framework in an AB test recently.
So title A was, "This Will Have a Huge Impact on Your Mix,
Excite Audio, Lifeline Console,
and then title B was,
this plugin will change the way you mix forever.
And that actually increased the CTR by 40% here.
A couple of other channels that use the word change here.
This study changes everything we know about bass fishing.
"This Genius Device Will Change Videography," again,
open-ended, but you know, promising
a big benefit here.
If you are finding these onscreen title formulas
a little difficult to use, then fortunately,
VidIQ does have a tool that'll do it for you.
When you're uploading a video to YouTube,
all you need to do is type in a couple
of relevant keywords into a title
and then click generate title and VidIQ will come
up with something that's really curious, intriguing,
aim for big goals, you name it,
pick your favorite one job done.
But now back to Jake.
- "Five Things You Should Never Tell Coworkers."
The two click triggers here are,
it's a list and it's a little bit of a warning,
but also it attracts a big broad audience.
Pretty much everybody has coworkers,
so everybody can relate to this.
Kind of feels like a little taboo, a little controversial.
What are these things that you should never
tell your audience?
Not like, adult only kind of stuff,
but it might be, right?
You never know.
You gotta find out.
A couple of other examples of titles using,
kind of lists and never,
"20 Halloween Candies You Should Never Eat,"
"Start Doing This and Never be Poor or Broke."
Again, "Things I Never Pack, Travel 2022."
So, again, that's a list
of things that she never does, right?
So that is a great,
a great framework that almost any channel can use.
- This is my coworker, by the way.
It's called Jasper.
And he literally does nothing
which is why he should never have a dog as a coworker.
Useless.
So there's a couple things that I really like
about this title.
One, it's simple, right?
You're just talking about meal prepping
for the week and under an hour.
That timeframe, in under an hour, does a lot here.
It gets rid of the audience's biggest excuse.
So they're probably thinking, man, I'd love to meal prep
for the week, but it's just gonna take so much time.
Also, it kind of,
it increases the value of this video.
We can achieve a big goal in a short timeframe, right?
In under an hour also we're talking
about just meal prepping for the week.
So that's a pretty basic desire.
You're talking about achieving a goal.
Got a couple of examples here.
How to make compost in 10 days,
become a better reader in eight minutes.
How to change your life in three weeks.
And a thing that's interesting
about this one is that this video can get views
from browse, suggested and also,
and it can help you rank in search,
because you might search how
to meal prep knowing that kind of your
biggest excuse is that it's gonna take a long time.
And also your biggest desire is that it's gonna
take a short time.
Also, it's such a great kind of value prep,
such a great topic that it can also,
cause, make people click in browse suggestion, right?
So this is a great framework,
that again, almost any channel can use.
- And that is one of the biggest things you
should be taking away from this video.
We've looked at all sorts of channels
from finance to fishing to fitness, but in each case,
Jake is able to identify a title formula that you,
whoever you are on YouTube, can use.
And if you want to learn more
about these specific techniques that are used
in these titles,
then check out the video Jake and I did over here,
which has already got half million views.
Thanks for contributing.