I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing here but, uh, do subscribe,
because I’ve got some awesome stuff planned. In January 2020, James Jani posted his first
YouTube video, and publicly set a goal of 1,000 subscribers by 2021.
In reality, he would end up reaching over half a million.
And if you create videos yourself, you’ll know the YouTube algorithm is like your God.
It can bury you. Or it can change your life…
In James’ case, and in just a couple of months,
he went from $0 to over $30,000 a month in YouTube ad revenue alone.
And at just 20 years old, and after posting only 10 videos,
he now averages more than 10x the views of some of the biggest business & entrepreneurship channels.
And yet, if you’re a creator who has been pouring countless hours into creating videos
and getting nowhere, it’s tempting to conclude: The algorithm isn’t fair.
It only helps the big channels. It’s just pure luck.
But what if I told you, there is a formula for YouTube success, and that just like James,
you can follow it too? Through a combination of James’ posts,
along with my own research and conversations with him, this video will delve into James’
incredible YouTube story, how he beat the algorithm, and how you can too.
James originally planned to be an actor, but after failing to get into the drama school he wanted,
and having virtually nothing in his bank account, he decided he
needed to figure out a way of making money. A few google searches later, and he found
himself in the world of online entrepreneurship. Here, he heard a lot of bad advice which would
later lead to his ‘fake guru’ video, but he also heard some useful lessons, such as the simple
concept of making money by creating solutions to problems, which would eventually lead to an idea…
“The problem that I noticed was a lot of ingenious people in the entrepreneurship niche on YouTube.
The solution that I came up with was getting into that space with more of a genuine voice,
but also standing out with what I learnt through my acting,
and bringing that into the niche as well”. And so when the pandemic hit, and James found
himself out of work, it meant he had time to double down on this idea for a YouTube channel.
And thus he began learning video editing, and researching how the YouTube algorithm works.
And whilst you may think from here it was all plain sailing, after 5 months of doing YouTube...
James had about 400 subscribers. it was actually in the next 2 months
where the magic would happen, because without posting a single extra video,
his subscribers increased to over a quarter of a million. So… what the hell happened?
“And then I just wake up one morning, I just go through my morning routine, and I look at
my phone and I see normally I get like 0-10 views an hour, and suddenly it’s 15-25.”
YouTube had started recommending his content to others. But then, the insanity began. The views
per hour just kept rising. 100 views an hour. 1000 views an hour. 5000 views an hour. Every hour the
number jumped up, and the momentum kept building. “It was just nonstop, my heart
was just going crazy, non-stop.” Now, you may have heard that nobody
knows how the algorithm works, and it is true that nobody knows all of the exact intricacies, because
it uses machine learning… However, we definitely know enough, including what the algorithm looks
for when it decides which videos to promote. And so before we get into the specifics of
James’s strategy, let’s just recap the basics: the YouTube’s algorithm wants to keep people on
the platform as long as possible - that means the viewer has a good experience,
they consume more content, and as a result they see more ads so YouTube make more money.
But of course, the algorithm can’t judge what’s good content, it relies on user data.
And whilst there’s countless metrics it looks at, there are 2 big ones that matter most:
Number one, is Watch time - or in other words, how much time do people spending watching a video,
and what percent of it do they watch? And
Number two, Clickthrough-rate - which means when YouTube displays the video,
what percent of people actually click on it? And this makes sense, YouTube have limited spaces
to recommend videos so they’re going to promote the ones that people watch more and click on more.
However… you might be sat there thinking this is pretty common knowledge, and it doesn’t really
give us anything practical to focus on. So, what did James figure out that most creators don’t?
Well, I believe there’s 4 key things to focus on, and [#1: The Packaging]
When it comes to YouTube, information is a commodity, there is no shortage of people talking
about pretty much any subject imaginable, including the topics James talks about.
In fact, James’ current most popular video, the Untold Truth about Money,
is heavily based on the books of M J Demarco,
who has his own channel where you can hear from him directly, and yet it has far less views.
Because with YouTube, the crucial part is not just the information itself but the
way the information is delivered and packaged. And yet I think a lot of people focus so
much on what they’re going to say, and not enough on how they’re going to present it.
Thanks to his acting background, James instinctively wanted to create videos that had
a clear narrative where it isn’t just someone telling you the information like a lecture,
it was more like learning from a movie.
‘I knew that if I created videos point blank talking to camera,
I didn’t think I could stand out enough’
And so one great way James really hooks attention is keeping his videos unpredictable. You don’t
know if it’s going to be an animation next, a movie scene, a YouTube clip, James talking - the
video is filled with all these different elements, and so of course that’s going to keep people
watching longer than if the whole video is just a single shot of someone speaking to a camera.
Another way James packages the information in a more engaging way is by using stories,
because once a story starts we instinctively want to keep watching to know how it ends.
And so James will often present his whole videos like a story; for example this one
where he has a prologue asking you to come on this journey with him, and then in the next part,
he puts forward the problem that gets you amped up, before eventually getting to the
solution - it’s like he’s guiding you through the topic from start to finish,
and so a lot more people watch to the very end of the video, which we know the algorithm loves.
And whilst this doesn’t mean you have to use the same style as James in your videos,
I think the core principle of blending information and entertainment together
to create a more story-like feel, will almost always get people watching longer.
And sure, there are people who are successful with much simpler videos, but generally they
have an already established audience who are coming to hear their perspective… when you’re
a small channel, the format and packaging of what you say is your way to stand out from the crowd.
And so this typical advice to just copy exactly what the big channels are doing
is flawed because then you’re competing with them directly. And you’re not giving people a reason
to watch your channel over someone else's. Instead, James managed to create his own
unique dark-documentary style, by drawing on the skills he had, and combining that with
really great editing. And once he found a style that worked, he doubled down on it.
But when you really stand back and look, you see that most channels that have had explosive growth
achieved it by finding their own unique style too; like another of both mine and James’ inspirations,
Jake Tran, he’d been posting for over a year with slow growth whilst trying to replicate
what other youtubers were doing, it was only when he found his own satire video essay format
that his growth skyrocketed. He created something fresh you can’t really get anywhere else.
So, the question is: how can you package your message in your own unique way?
But wait a minute… being unique, using stories, keeping the delivery unpredictable - that stuff
all makes sense, but we’re talking about millions and millions of views from just 10 videos here…
Which is why this second component was so key In James’ success: Emotion
Research has shown that almost all viral videos have something in common:
they elicit an emotional response. Joy, fear, laughter, outrage - it doesn’t even matter
if the emotion is positive or negative, what matters is the content makes you feel something.
We are significantly more inclined to share things that have an emotional impact on us.
A great example is this channel that went insanely viral, racking up millions of subscribers.
And yet, the only thing that differentiated it from countless similar channels,
is it was shared with this message:
“his father left when he was 12, now he has a YT channel called “Dad, how do I?”
to help kids who’re growing up without dads.
teaching them basic tasks that you’d usually ask your dad for help on.”
That emotional connection behind it made all the difference. And James uses this concept incredibly
well, whether he’s making you feel angry about MLM scams, feel anxious about wealth inequality,
or feel excited about escaping the rat race - his content evokes emotions.
And so the question you should be asking when making your content,
is how do you want your audience to feel?
One simple but massively underutilised way of influencing this, is the music of your videos.
Whereas most YouTubers just slap a random repetitive generic song behind their content,
James clearly spends a long time researching the exact right track that sets the vibe of the video.
It’s amazing how much the music and even sound effects
can stir up emotions and draw you into the video even more.
Another way of creating a deeper emotional connection
is by talking directly to the viewer. James regularly does this,
but here’s just one example: ‘And then there’s you’
He’s hitting on real pain points for people, and making the video feel personalized to them.
However, despite all of these engaging emotional triggers he uses,
James would not have had such explosive growth if it weren’t for this third factor:
Scarcity
Now, if you look for YouTube advice, you’ll constantly hear that you need to post more.
And sure, consistency is good, but not at the expense of quality. This idea of just
churning out videos every day can often lead to burnout with very little to show for it,
because it’s incredibly hard to make a video that has great watch time without putting much
thought into it. That’s why James literally plans and scripts his videos before filming anything.
And I’m not saying every video has to be a masterpiece,
but if you had 10 hours to spend on making videos,
I think creating 1 amazing video has so many advantages over cranking out 10 average videos.
The first reason for this goes back to that all important click-through rate. If you’re posting
loads and loads of average rushed videos, it’s very unlikely your audience is going to watch
them all. Even if they like your stuff, when it pops up on their feed they’re more likely
to think ‘eh, he’ll post again tomorrow’. Garyvee is a great example, millions of subscribers but
there’s not the same ‘instant click’ factor. And if your own subscribers don’t respond
that well to your videos, YouTube is much less likely to push it to a newer wider audience.
Contrast that with creators like James, Lemmino, countless others who don’t post quite so much,
and yet you almost click immediately when you see a video of theirs.
In fact, I’ve seen several comments literally saying: ‘I see a James Jani video, I click’.
And this means even if your thumbnail isn’t perfect, you’ve got this ‘built up trust’ with
your audience that the video is gonna be good, which does wonders for your click-through rate,
and builds momentum with the algorithm because every video you put out is performing well.
For example with James, you may have never gone looking for a video about
MLM scams, but because you’ve seen some of his other videos and you know he puts so much
effort into each one, you click and watch it anyway because there’s this expectation level.
You’re also much more likely to watch the video to the end because you know it’s gonna be a
little while before you get another video. In fact when the video’s really high quality, you
may even go back another time to watch it again. So remember, just like with most things in life,
scarcity increases perceived value. It’s supply and demand!
And not only does all of this help with watch time and clickthrough rate,
but it also helps with another factor YouTube seems to be increasingly
favouring: the number of returning viewers to your channel - the people who come back to watch more
and more of your videos.
And this helps explain why James’ channel blew up so suddenly; YouTube started pushing one of
his videos a little, but because the quality was so high, people then checked out another video
on his channel, and when that quality was high too, a lot of people will have gone and watched
most if not all of his videos. And so this created this snowball momentum effect that
started getting the algorithm to recommend every one of his videos, because it could see people
must be really satisfied with these videos since they’re essentially binge-watching them.
But that wouldn’t have happened if his other videos hadn’t been up to a high standard as well.
And so all of this is really a fancy way of saying to prioritise quality over quantity,
which sounds ridiculously obvious, but with social media people seem to be going the other way.
And sure there has to be some balance, but I really think the evidence suggests doubling
down on quality is still the best route. You want to build up a reputation as a channel of quality,
so that people want more content, they’re left looking forward to your next video,
and wanting to through your back catalogue of old videos. Each video feels more special,
and has that instant-click factor which sends all the right signals to the algorithm.
But not only that, scarcity allows you to spend more time on other crucial things that
you couldn’t possibly have time for otherwise. If James tried to crank out 2 videos every week,
he couldn’t possibly spend so long researching, planning, and hyping up videos. He also wouldn’t
be able to spend so long looking at his analytics, and it was clear from chatting with him he really
pays attention to who is audience and what they like, such as watching on the audience
tab in creator studio where his viewers are coming from and what they’re watching.
Plus, when you double down on quality, you can spend longer carefully crafting an enticing,
clickable thumbnail, since it’s no use having great content if nobody is clicking to watch it.
A good tip for this is looking at your favourite channels and sorting their videos by most popular
to see which thumbnails did particularly well for them. James has also said he takes screenshots
of thumbnails that catch his eye when browsing youtube, so he has a folder of inspiration when
it comes to making his own. Remember, it’s not always the most aesthetically pleasing
thumbnail that does best, it’s normally the ones that create intrigue and grab people’s attention.
You’re not trying to win a beauty contest, you’re trying to get people to click.
But to summarize all this, YouTube want to promote the best content they can, so ultimately
if you focus more on making content people really want to watch, you can’t go far wrong.
However there’s one final ingredient to James’ success that’s not talked about often: Mass Appeal
To explain this, let’s go back to James’ YouTube story,
where his first video began getting picked up by the algorithm.
You see, to decide which content to promote, YouTube essentially runs countless mini video
battles, or split tests, where it compares different videos to see which performs better.
The one that users respond best to, gets pushed a little more, to a slightly wider audience,
and if it wins the next battle, it gets pushed a little more again.
And this is what happened with James’ Fake Guru video,
and why the number of views per hour kept jumping up in increasingly large increments.
It kept outperforming other videos it was paired against, and so got pushed wider and wider.
And all the things we’ve talked about so far contributed to that,
but a crucial thing to bear in mind is that viral videos almost always tend to have pretty general
appeal that almost anyone could enjoy, because it means YouTube can keep pushing it to wider
and wider audiences and it can keep performing well. And James does this perfectly,
he may focus on niche topics, like the fake guru video, but he presents the information in a way
that even if you’re brand new to the concept, you can still enjoy the video and find it interesting.
And I’m not saying make generic content, I’m saying the way he introduces concepts
makes his videos accessible for almost anyone, which mean they can have far wider reach,
and YouTube can keep pushing them to a broad audience of millions and millions.
Now, if you’re wondering how you can increase your mass appeal, I’ve got some tips for you:
One of those is fame jacking, where you essentially ride the waves of someone else’s fame,
which I am absolutely doing with James Jani in this video.
But in that first video that took off for James, he incorporated several recognisable
faces in the business niche, because it means even if nobody had heard of James at that point,
they probably recognised some of these gurus, and people are much more inclined to click if they see
a familiar face or name. Other YouTubers have done this too, like meet kevin blew up by incorporating
Grant Cardone in his titles and thumbnails which attracted a whole new audience to his content
who wouldn’t have otherwise watched. Fame jacking allows you to tap into an existing fan base,
and reach a much wider audience immediately that you can appeal to.
Another way to give your videos wider appeal, is to consider the searchability of your content,
especially when first starting out. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, integrated
with the first, so focusing on keyword phrases that people are actually typing in the search box,
like specific questions, is a great way to reach a wider audience. For example, James is the top
result for ‘is university worth it?’ an incredibly searchable question that so many people have.
Whereas nobody is searching for a video called ‘My thoughts on my uni’ or Uni vlog 2’.
So, focusing on this searchable evergreen content that people can keep discovering for
years to come, can give your videos a much wider reach. And there’s free tools like VidIQ and
tubebuddy that can help you find keywords - just make sure you can repeat them your title, tags,
start of description, and video file name to maximise the chance of ranking for it.
So there we have it - 4 key reasons James Jani is winning, and within each of those is multiple
techniques that are geared towards maximising the metrics the algorithm cares about most,
like storytelling to boost watch time, fame jacking to increase click-through rate.
However! Before you click away, there are 3 big questions left we need to answer.
Like, how do you get initial traffic when you have 0 subscribers & views?
Promotion! James posted teaser clips on his social media, shared links on relevant sub-reddits and
forums in a non-spammy way, and also got his name out there by commenting on other youtube channels
in a similar niche. Funnily enough, back when he had just a few 100 subscribers, he commented on a
lot of my old videos and this was how we connected and began talking. And I’m very glad we did,
because as you may have guessed, he has definitely inspired me to double down on quality over
quantity myself, with my own documentary-style videos, which honestly I just feel better and
prouder about making. In the entrepreneurship niche in particular so many videos just feel
like they were designed to get leads for someone’s funnel so they can sell something,
and so it’s been inspiring for me to see James’ much more authentic approach paying off big time.
But, the second question you may have is, how did James get so good at video editing? Since
clearly that is a crucial part of how he’s been able to execute on this strategy.
And this leads us very nicely into today’s video sponsor, Skillshare - yep, you know
this channel’s heading in the right direction when it starts getting sponsored by Skillshare.
In case you haven’t yet heard, Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of
inspiring classes. And James has said he used skillshare himself
to learn video editing. In particular, he said he really liked Daniel scott’s premiere pro
essentials class, and that has helped him learn a large amount of the techniques
you see today in his videos. I’m going through it too and it has been really helpful.
And now for the great news - The first 1000 of my subscribers to click the link in the description
will get a totally free trial of Premium Skillshare Membership
so you can explore your creativity too.
And it’s not just video editing and youtube - there’s classes for entrepreneurship,
freelancing, animation and many many more, with new premium classes being added all the time.
It’s totally ad-free, and less than $10 a month with an annual subscription.
So, feel free to check it out for yourself with that free trial link in the description.
But now the final question you may have left
about James’ videos … is how is he able to legally use other peoples copyrighted content?
The short answer is that the way he does it falls under fair use,
but to understand how you can do this too, I’ve made this explainer video right here.
Alternatively, you can check out some of my documentary style videos inspired by James,
and how I’m trying to apply many of these techniques myself. Because of course, this is
all just a framework, it doesn't mean it’s easy, but James is definitely proof and inspiration
that with the right strategy, effort and persistence, you can beat the youtube
algorithm. I really hope this was useful for you, best of luck, and I’ll see you soon!