- If you really want to grow a YouTube channel,
I'm gonna tell you five critical things
that you need to keep in mind.
We're starting right now.
(hip-hip music)
What is going on?
My name is Nick.
Welcome to another video.
If this is your first time here
and you want to learn how to grow your channel,
make videos, and all types of other YouTube related stuff,
start now by subscribing and clicking the bell
so you don't miss anything.
If you're making videos for YouTube,
it makes sense that you're wanting more people
to see those videos and that you want more people
to keep coming back to your channel
to watch even more of your videos, right?
So, the things that I'm going to cover today
are critical elements that you need
to keep in mind for growing your channel.
Number one.
It's important that you get very familiar
with your audience retention reports
inside of your YouTube analytics.
But why is this important, you might ask?
Because on YouTube, watch time is key.
The better your retention, the harder the videos
are gonna work on your behalf.
Plus, the longer that new viewers watch,
the more likely they are to subscribe to your channel
which is extremely important if you're trying
to grow your channel.
Plus, the longer the people watch,
the more likely they are to take other forms
of engagement on your channel.
Comments, likes, a subscribe, adding to a playlist,
sharing your videos, which can also help
your channel grow because it's pulling more people
into your content in addition to the positive signals
that you're sending into YouTube.
The second critical thing is that you look
at the platform itself with all the different options
that it has and you take advantage
of all of those options to build yourself
a rock solid watch time trap.
Watch time trap, you say?
What does that even mean?
A watch time trap, in a nutshell,
is where you create all of your content
based around playlists, based in reference
to other videos and things like that
so that you can constantly be sending people
to more and more of your content
so that since you're tapping into their interests,
they are more likely to watch more and more
of your content because you're verbally
making a reference for them to go watch your content.
And you have things popping up on the screen
to draw their attention where they can go watch
more of you stuff.
You've got pinned comments, links to other playlists
in your descriptions.
You've got series playlists put together
so that YouTube is recommending your content
next to each other and all that stuff.
All of it.
The idea is basically to where when somebody watches
one video, you're creating all of these other opportunities
for them to watch and consume more of your content
which then, again, increases your chances of engagement.
Them being a subscriber, them watching more of your content,
and so on.
Next one on the list is learn to rank your videos in search.
Now, hang on here a second.
Search is a major traffic source
and if you're not tapping into it,
then you're missing out on all of the additional traffic
that you can get from search.
Now, of course, once things start swelling up,
most of your traffic is most likely gonna come
from browse features and suggested features.
But, you're getting all of the traffic
that you get from those features
plus you're getting the additional,
let's say, 20%, 25%, 15%, whatever it happens to be,
from search.
So, if you have a lot of views, it gets amplified.
If you have a little bit of views,
then it helps you pull in more traffic,
which is critical when you're trying
to grow a YouTube channel.
There are tons of videos about how
to rank your videos in search.
So, make sure that you spend the time educating yourself
on how to use SEO on YouTube.
Also, TubeBuddy can help you with coming up
with titles, tags, learning how to rank your videos
in search and things like that.
I'll put a link to them down in the description below.
Next up is making great effective thumbnails.
The importance of making thumbnails is something
that I can't emphasize enough.
You have to win the clicks.
You can have the best content on earth,
but if your thumbnails suck and your titles suck,
nobody's gonna know.
If you're a mobile user, I'm also gonna put a link
in the description to my brother's channel.
He just recently put out a video about
how to make thumbnails on your phone.
So, that one will take care of you
if you do all this stuff on your phone.
Next up is production quality.
Here's the thing.
It's not the 1980s.
We have expectations.
You have to make sure that your video quality
is at the very least up to par.
What I mean by that is you have decent lighting
in your videos.
You don't have to go buy stuff,
you can use the sun if you need to.
Your audio sounds decent, which is also extremely important
and adds a lot to the production quality.
Even if you're making videos on your phone,
this stuff is still critical.
You frame the shot at least sort of right.
Look, these days, making a video
in a dark room with bad audio,
it's just not gonna cut it.
You have to level up your game.
Go outside if you have to.
Make your videos there.
But, the truth is, I'm just being real with you here.
The truth is you have to level up.
In addition to these critical elements of growing
a YouTube channel, I have an entire playlist
on how to get subscribers on YouTube.
I'll put a link to it up here.
Go and watch those videos because all of the stuff
that I share in those videos are gonna help you
grow your YouTube channel.
If you want to learn more about growing your channel,
making videos, and all types of other YouTube related stuff,
start now by hitting the round subscribe icon
so you don't miss anything.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you next time.