- Here's how I got 700,000 views
on the first video I posted to a brand new YouTube channel.
This video also got me all the watch time hours
and subscribers I needed to get monetized.
Creators like Airrack, Emily D. Baker, even MKBHD
use the same strategy
to see explosive growth on their channels.
And here's the best part.
You don't have to be a spectacle creator
or spend a ton of money on your videos to make this work.
The most successful creators I've seen use this strategy
do it with basic gear
from any room in their house, just like I did.
There are plenty of ways
that creators get more watch time hours and subscribers,
but this is the method that's worked for me,
and I found it to be most reliable.
It's called trend jacking.
You might have heard of it.
It's when creators capitalize on trends
by making content related to popular topics
and the keywords that are associated with them.
For example, February 12th, 2023 was Super Bowl 57.
113 million people tuned in to watch the game.
A quick look at Google Trends will show you
that the people were searching the internet, too.
The keyword Super Bowl was trending
and peaked the day after the game.
This is important, and I will explain that in just a sec.
The top content posted to YouTube around this time
was from the NFL and companies who paid to be a part
of Super Bowl commercials.
But there was a third group of creators.
They posted content related to the Super Bowl
in the form of skits, cooking videos,
business breakdowns, animations,
commentaries, reactions, and so on.
This is trend jacking.
So these creators capitalized on the trend
by focusing their content on the conversations and topics
that people were having around the event.
So when people searched for Super Bowl or related keywords,
their content came up in search results,
or got recommended to viewers based on their watch history.
These creators saw a massive growth
in watch time and subscribers
during and after the Super Bowl.
This creator posted the fifth most popular YouTube short
related to the Super Bowl in February, and at the time,
he only had around 1,700 subscribers.
The video has super simple editing
and appears to have been filmed in his bedroom,
but it still has over 7 million views.
Now, let me show you how to do the same.
It's really simple.
Step one, identify trends.
You have to spot rising trends
or anticipate regular trends early.
Spotting them is as simple
as keeping your eyes and ears open while online.
Ask yourself, what are people talking about,
or where is attention being drawn to?
It's easy when you're browsing Reddit, watching the news,
scrolling through TikTok,
or pretty much doing anything on social media.
For my video, it was a TikTok dance
that was inspired by an old TV show.
I knew people would start going to YouTube
to find the original show and to learn more about it,
so I made sure my video was there to be found.
Another example is Emily D. Baker.
Her channel is about law and pop culture.
I first discovered her
during the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial.
She created content about the trial,
and her channel exploded during this period.
That's all because the trial was trending,
and people were talking and searching about it nonstop.
Those are examples of rising trends,
but anticipating regular trends is actually much easier.
All you have to do is look at the calendar
and figure out which big events are coming up,
but this time, ask yourself,
what will people be talking about
or where will attention be drawn to soon?
Then plan for it.
The Super Bowl, Oscars,
and Olympics are all examples of regular trends
you can anticipate.
Anything with a set date is easy to plan for,
whether it's a big event, holiday,
or even an upcoming release
that you know people are going to be interested in.
Step two, trend tailoring.
Now, don't look that word up.
I made it up.
I use this to describe the process
of taking something that's trending
and tailoring it to fit your unique niche or audience.
Now, it's completely okay
if the trend falls outside of your niche.
With some creativity, you can find ways to tie it back
to what you love to do
and make it interesting to your audience
and the audience that you want to capture.
It's time or some examples.
Pretend that Mr. Beast just released
a new Feastables flavor.
He announced it to his 19 million Twitter followers
and 137 million YouTube subscribers.
You know people are going to start talking about it,
Googling it, and watching videos about it,
and within the millions of people who do
plenty of them will be interested in your niche.
This is your chance to create content
that taps into the trend,
but also connects to your audience.
For example, if I'm a cooking channel,
I'm baking a cake using the new chocolate bars.
If I'm a reaction channel,
I'm reacting and reviewing the new flavor.
If I'm a finance channel,
I'm talking about the business side
of starting a chocolate bar business,
and estimating how much Mr. Beast is earning.
If I had a challenge channel,
I'd try selling the bars at school for a slight upcharge,
then see how much money I can make.
If I'm a fitness channel,
I'd be talking about how many calories
and sugar is in the bar.
Then I'd show my viewers
how they could make a healthier alternative at home.
If I was a commentary channel,
I'd go out in public
and get people to vote
between the Feastables bar and another popular candy bar.
If I was a design channel,
I'd show how I'd recreate the packaging.
If I was a filmmaking channel, I'd make a short commercial,
then document the process.
If I was an art channel,
I'd draw a hyper-realistic version,
and see who could guess which one is real.
I could go on for days.
The point is
you want to take something that people are interested in
and searching for, and hijack it,
and make it work for your niche.
Step three, strategic timing.
The video I posted along with others
blew up because of strategic timing.
I spotted a trend
that I knew people would be rushing to YouTube
to learn more about.
Instead of me waiting
for other creators to make their videos,
I decided to be first, and it paid off.
This is something that's super easy
for smaller channels to do.
It only requires you to act quickly, and if you do,
you will see a huge boost in views and subscribers
and watch them.
Now, here's what I was talking about earlier.
The creators who saw the most success
with the Super Bowl videos
were the ones who posted their video shortly before,
during, and shortly after the game,
while the interest was still high.
If they posted the same video today,
it wouldn't nearly have the same impact.
When something goes viral or starts trending, don't delay.
As soon as something big happens in your niche,
or is a trend that you can tailor back to your niche,
I want you to make a video on it immediately.
This is something that I want you to ship the same day,
because if you wait until tomorrow,
there's gonna be dozens of other creators to compete with.
I want you to find a way to twist it
and make it work for your niche,
because a single well-timed video
can help you reach all of your monetization requirements,
help you get tons of watch time, tons of views,
tons of subscribers, but you have to get on it fast.
Some final notes.
You don't have to do this forever.
It's just a great way to get attention
to your channel fast, especially when you're new.
And I'm gonna be completely honest,
the video that I made was not the best in the world,
and many videos came after it that were frankly better,
but I was first, so at a time,
I was the best video out there,
and that's all the viewers had to watch.
Therefore, it got a lot of views.
Actually, it got 64,000 views in the first week
and 427,000 views in the first month.
This works.
Now subscribe and go create.
(lively '80s music)