- I'm gonna tell you four things
that completely destroy new YouTube channels,
and we're starting right now.
And look, if you're a new content creator,
just as a heads up,
one side of what I'm getting ready to share with you,
if you do these things, it's gonna destroy your channel.
But on the other side of it,
if you take the information that I'm sharing with you
and you do the right thing,
then it'll actually help you grow faster here on YouTube.
And the very first thing on our list
is how you're thinking about YouTube.
Now, look, how you're thinking about it
might not seem like a lot,
but the way that you think about YouTube
is actually going to determine the way you approach YouTube.
So this is really important.
For example, if you leave everything
that you're doing on YouTube up to luck
because you think to yourself, things like,
"Well, I'll start taking this a little bit more seriously
once I start getting more activity.
And then if I get lucky with the video,
then I'll start taking it more seriously,"
things like that.
If you're saying those things to yourself,
then you are completely leaving it up to luck.
And when you're leaving it up to luck,
that means that you are not going to do the things necessary
in order to improve your luck, so to speak.
In other words, instead of striving to improve,
you're just gonna sit there and hope things work out.
And in most cases, when you sit there
and you just hope things work out
without taking action trying to make them work out,
in most cases, it doesn't work out.
The next thing that will destroy new YouTube channels
is not thinking about who it is
that you're trying to reach with your content.
Let me give you an example.
If I were to put you in a 1,000-acre forest
and I were to show you a photo of a target, and I said,
"Hey, hit this target that's in this forest,"
you wouldn't know which way to point.
You wouldn't know how far it is.
You wouldn't know if you're right on top of it.
You wouldn't know if it's right
over the next ridge or whatever
because you don't know where it is
that you're actually trying to hit that target.
You would essentially just be shooting your arrows
up into the air without any clear direction,
without any clear intention on where it is
that you're trying to get that arrow to go,
and you would be hoping that it would come down on a target.
And unless you got really, really, really lucky,
it would not come down on a target ever,
regardless of how many arrows you shot into the air.
But on the other side of that, if I was like,
"Hey, here is your bows and arrows.
Here is your target that you're trying to hit.
It's like 20 feet away.
You've got a lot of chances to hit this.
As a matter of fact,
I'll just keep bringing you arrows until you do."
Then in that case, there's a really,
really good chance you're gonna hit that target
because you know what it is, you know where it's at,
and you know exactly what it is that you're trying to do,
which is get that arrow to that target,
which is just right over there.
And look, I know I'm not the best at analogies
but let's keep moving.
But that same idea applies to our video content as well.
For example, if you know who it is
that you're trying to reach with your content,
then you can craft your titles,
you can craft your thumbnails,
you can craft the topics of your videos
and even how you're putting your videos together
in a way that's going to most deeply resonate
with that core audience that you're trying to reach.
For example, if you're trying to reach people
that are into basketball, then, in that particular case,
you would make sure the topics have something to do
with basketball or the players.
You'd wanna make sure
that your thumbnails have imagery related
to basketball in them
so that they would be easily identifiable
to somebody that is interested in basketball,
to where they would be able to see
that it has something to do with basketball at a glance.
And in the videos themselves, of course,
because you'd be talking about basketball,
in those videos themselves,
then you'd be talking about all
of the nuances within basketball.
In addition to that,
as you start bringing more people into your channel
from those videos that are about basketball
and they uncover on your YouTube channel that,
"Hey, this person has even more videos about basketball
and YouTube's recommending them more
of your videos about basketball, guess what?
Those people are going to keep coming back
because they are into basketball,
and you've made it super clear that your channel
and what it is that you do is about basketball.
And as a quick side note,
that applies to everything, not just basketball.
So if you're doing gaming content, this applies.
If you're doing beauty content, this applies.
If you're doing motivational content, this applies.
If you're teaching people stuff, this applies.
It applies across the board.
Understanding your intended audience is a huge part
of the game here on YouTube.
So just make sure
that you are spending some time thinking through
who is it that I'm trying to reach
with the content that I'm putting out there,
who is it that I'm trying to connect with
through this content.
And start taking notes, right?
Who's the ideal viewer for your YouTube channel?
What type of themes
or topics do you have around your YouTube channel
that's gonna add value to those people
that you're trying to reach?
Also, think about where those people hang out
on the internet so you can participate with them
in those places where they hang out on the internet.
In some cases,
you'll be able to share your videos with them,
and others, you won't,
but you'll be able to get a deeper understanding
of those people,
plus, connect with like-minded folks
who are into the same things you are
that you're making content about.
But in a nutshell,
the more deeply you understand your audience,
the easier it's going to be for you to connect with them.
So, remember that when you're putting your content together.
The next item on our list
that destroys new YouTube channels,
all YouTube channels, I would say,
is not working on your skills
when it comes to the skills required for content creation.
I've made tons of videos on my YouTube channel.
I've made videos on other YouTube channels.
I've made videos for sponsors.
I've made videos for collaborations, all stuff.
I've made a ton of videos,
but I'm still always trying to get better
at some part of the process.
So as you are going through this journey,
always try to improve and think to yourself,
"What could I do better in this video
that I didn't do in my last video?"
Every single time that you're watching your videos,
and you're looking in your audience retention reports,
and you're seeing how people are responding
to what it is that you're doing,
make sure that you're just considering that.
And you're thinking to yourself,
"This is how people responded to this video.
What can I do in this video
that might help them respond a little bit better?
What skills did I apply to this video
that I need to work on on this video
because it didn't necessarily land
as well as it should have?"
Constantly try to get better,
and not just in making video content either,
try to get better at copywriting
so that you can make better titles
and you can look for videos
and you can Google around for copywriting tips.
Try to get better at your thumbnails.
You can watch videos on graphic design.
You can watch videos on photography.
You can even watch videos on advertising
so that you can start to get an understanding
of what actually makes a good thumbnail as well.
Spend the extra time needed
to learn your editing software the best way you can
so you can make sure
that you're putting together good workflows
that you'll be able to use for a long time to come.
Work on your audio.
Oh, okay. You get it.
Just work on all the stuff
and make sure that you're constantly trying to get better.
And one thing that I do wanna mention really quick
when it comes to editing software,
and this video isn't sponsored by them
or anything like that,
but if you are somebody that's looking
for an easy to use piece of video editing software,
Camtasia is a great place to get started
'cause you can screen record with it
and you can edit your videos with it.
So I do encourage you to check out Camtasia.
I'll put a link to them down in the description.
But if you are looking for something that's easy,
it's a great place to start if you're just getting started.
The next thing you can do
to completely destroy a new YouTube channel
and keep yourself stuck down here in the bottom
without making any progress whatsoever
is not to have a theme for your YouTube channel.
It's also called a niche or a niche,
depending on how it is that you wanna say it,
but we're just gonna call it a theme
so we don't have to fight
over which way is the right way to say it.
But here's the thing when it comes to themes.
We're all human.
We're all multi-passionate.
We are all into a bunch of different things.
That's why we have different hobbies,
that's why we read different types of books,
and we do all these different types of things
because we're human.
We're into a bunch of different stuff.
And some people wanna take all of those interests
and they wanna put them on one YouTube channel
and they'll say things like, "Well, I'm the niche."
And look, that's cool, be the niche,
but you might wanna Google around a little bit
and see how much people are looking for you.
And if you find that there's not a ton
of people looking for you,
but you do wanna have a large YouTube channel,
then in that particular case,
it's really advantageous to make sure
that you do put a theme together for your channel
so that you can introduce people to you
so that people will be looking for you in the future,
so then later on down the road, you might be able to pivot.
And look, with all that on the side,
here's the reason that you wanna make sure
that you do have a theme for your YouTube channel.
Because the way that YouTube works
is when you are publishing content and people come in
and they start responding to that content,
then YouTube is going to show them other content of yours
because they think that that particular viewer is a good fit
for your content if they come in and they enjoy it.
The problem happens, or everything breaks down,
I should say, when you publish a video about your vacation
and you have some people come in and they're like,
"Hey, this is a cool vacation. I dig this."
And then you make another video about this app
that you installed on your phone.
Well, right there, just in that next video,
why did the people that enjoyed your vacation video
care about that app video?
And we can do that in reverse.
The people that came in from that app video
because they thought the app might be interesting
or the app might help them in some way,
why would they care about your vacation video
if YouTube suggests that to them
or if they go to your channel page
or your videos page on your channel page,
and they're looking through your content,
looking for something else to watch?
And you can navigate within this.
If you know who it is
that you're trying to reach with your content,
like I mentioned earlier, then, in that case,
you can just run it through the filter of,
"Hey, even though this might be a little bit outside
of what it is that I normally do,
is there a way that I can kind of frame this
and make it relevant to the people
that are coming in for the theme of my channel?"
If the answer is yes, then, in that case,
you can still publish that video, no big deal.
You're still doing the right thing
because you're framing it in a way
that still makes it interesting to them.
Before we move on,
I wanna make something just crystal clear here.
So if you are somebody that is uploading content
and you're just like,
"Hey, I'm just putting some stuff up here
for my friends and family to watch.
I'm not trying to grow a big channel.
I'm not trying to get tons and tons of views,"
things like that, in that particular case,
you can do whatever you want and it's not a big deal,
and everything that I'm saying right here
doesn't even technically apply to you
because you're not actually trying to grow the channel.
But if you're somebody that's like,
"Yeah, I wanna get a decent amount
of consistent views on my channel.
I wanna grow my channel over time.
I wanna have a decent community that I can publish content
that they can enjoy on a regular basis," and all that,
in that case, it's really important
that you get the ball rolling
by having that theme for your channel.
And then, like I mentioned before, you can, of course,
pivot later or test pivoting if you want to.
And just to highlight what I'm saying here
from YouTube's perspective,
I wanna share with you a screenshot.
In this screenshot from the creator tips section
of the YouTube help pages,
they say the recommendation system,
which is the system that shows your videos
to people on home pages, suggested videos,
and other places on YouTube,
recommends videos by factoring in
what videos the viewer has enjoyed in the past.
That way the system can surface videos
the viewer is most likely to enjoy.
What videos are often watched together.
The system may then identify videos
viewers are likely to watch
but haven't been exposed to yet.
To put some emphasis on this one,
just like it said in the graphic,
when people are watching videos together,
then YouTube detects
that people are watching videos together
and therefore are likely to show some of those other videos
in the originating videos to other people
who use YouTube in a similar way.
So when you have a consistent theme across your channel,
then what happens then is it's more likely
that people are going to watch videos
back to back on your channel,
and therefore help YouTube with this process,
which will also help YouTube find the right viewers
for your content,
which will then, in turn, help you grow faster.
They also say to determine this,
that they look at how much of a channel
or a topic a user watches.
That way the system can identify what content
to recommend to the viewers.
Again, this is where having a theme
for your channel really comes in to help you out big time
because then as people just keep coming back
to your channel on a regular basis
and they keep enjoying the topics
that you're talking about or making content about,
then what's going to happen
is YouTube's just using that information
on how users are interacting with your content
in order to find new users
that might also enjoy your content as well
as long as you keep serving people in the way
that keeps them watching more of your content
and coming back to your channel.
And here's another thing
that some of you're probably thinking.
Well, I watched this other channel
and on this other channel,
they talk about all of these other topics.
It's this big YouTube channel.
They've got hundreds of thousands
or millions of subscribers in their channel.
They talk about all these random or seemingly random things.
It might seem like it's seemingly random from the outside,
but in reality,
what's really happening is those content creators,
they know who it is that they're making content for,
and they're targeting that content
towards a specific type of viewer.
It might be a more broad audience type of viewer,
but they still have it narrowed down
to the type of people that enjoy their content.
They've also narrowed it down to the type of content
that they put out on their channels
that people respond to at a higher rate than others,
and that also helps them fine-tune things
in order to make the channel a better resource
for the type of content that that type of viewer consumes.
Another place having a theme
or a niche or a niche really comes into play
is long-term sustainability with your YouTube channel.
If you're just making a bunch of random stuff,
you might have some videos pop,
and you probably will if you're making good content,
but the problem happens when it's not consistent
in terms of you're not putting out content
that's going to continually bring viewers back over time,
or you just start really diluting
who it is that you're making content for
and you don't really have a clear audience
for everything that you're putting out.
But, anyway, if you come up with a theme for your channel
and you start making content around that theme,
then it's just gonna make YouTube a lot easier for you
at least when you're getting started.
And then once you get going,
you start having an audience come in,
that's where you start putting out some content
to where you start dipping your toes in the thing about,
"Let me just try making this type of content
and see if people are here for the content
or if they're here for me."
And in a lot of cases, you're gonna find out
that they're there for the content,
but in some cases it is
where people are there for the creators.
So when you do have a channel like that,
then, in that particular case...
I don't know why I'm doing this,
and I'm just kind of pointing off the screen
right over here.
I don't even know why...
I'm just gonna...
(upbeat music)
Get a theme together
and you'll make YouTube a lot easier on yourself.
And another thing, if you have a new YouTube channel
and you're trying to get your first 1,000 subscribers on it,
click into this video right here.
It's gonna help you get there faster.
And if you haven't yet, make sure you subscribe.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you next time.