Two guys – partners – are struggling to make YouTube work for them. But they’re simply not getting the views or the subscribers they hoped for.
And so they make a pact: They’re going to do five videos a week for a few months and see if that kick starts anything.
It most definitely does.
Once they got serious about staying consistent and they invested a lot of effort and time into that goal, they started to get more and more views as well as more and more subscribers.
But what really surprised them was that some of the videos that did very well were not the videos that they thought were going to do well.
Some of videos that they made off the cuff, that were about little things they wanted to cover on a whim, blew up.
YouTube rewarded them for that.
And then those videos started to get shared everywhere.
Other videos that they spent a ton of time on, putting in a lot of effort to make them high quality, just didn't go anywhere.
What's surprising is how unpredictable YouTube can be. The YouTube algorithm can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and it can be difficult to predict.
Maybe the best way to continue to grow your channel is to just keep doing videos. Because you never know, that next one could be the one that hits 10 million views.
Here are a few tips on how to grow your YouTube channel. They may or may not apply to you, but I chose these because they’re maybe a little unusual from what you normally hear.
1: “Hey brillo hair guy, shut your mouth.”
If you’re making videos and allowing comments, you’re going to get trolled. It’s just a fact of life. Some people are going to hate on you, click the thumbs down on your video, and say some really stupid, mean stuff.
That’s not important.
What is important is how you react to it.
If you want to delete the comment, go ahead.
If you want to leave the comment and reply to it, then take the high road. ALWAYS take the high road. Never reply within the first hour of reading the comment. Wait until you are cooled off and level headed. And then, be a better person than they are. Others will respect the heck out of you for it.
That’s all well and good, but there’s something else I need to say about troll comments…
…somehow, some way, you’ve got to find the key to letting the comments slide off of you like water off of a duck’s back. If you don’t, you’ll start second guessing yourself, trying to please everyone and end up pleasing no one.
Maybe you don’t read the comments. Maybe you have someone else read the comments for you.
Or maybe you decide that you don’t give a flying flip what anyone else says.
Because first they hate on you, then they try to be like you.
If you let a handful of trolls bring you down, then they have won their sick little game.
Do you know what H.A.T.E.R.S. stands for? Having Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success.
Learn to either ignore or love the haters and they’ll never touch that flame that burns inside of you.
2: Post a lot of videos.
Okay, we already talked about this, but I wanted to bring the point home.
If you want attention on YouTube, quantity matters.
Find out what people are searching for and then take those long tale keywords and create short videos.
Don’t get all elaborate and fancy – just you talking will do fine. Have some personality, have fun with it, and tell them what they want to know.
Make lots of these and you’ll do great.
Which brings us to…
3: Make content that MATTERS to YOUR target audience
It’s not just about giving out answers people want, it’s also about giving the right answers to the right people.
This is basic, and yet many people don’t do this. They’re all over the place and then they wonder where the audience is.
If you have a few videos meant for one target group, and a few more for a second target group and a third, it’s going to confuse the heck out of people.
Choose your target market and make every video for them.
4: Make videos about videos
Okay, that sounds weird, but stick with me.
Someone makes a dynamite video with their point of view on a topic.
You turn around and make your own video on the same topic but with your point of view, or maybe your own idea or tip, or whatever.
You’re directly referencing their video in your title and in your video. If their video gets play, then yours will get play, too, just through the piggy back method.
Bonus points – Know that the original video creater will notice you and your video. If they don’t see it, someone will tell them about it, guaranteed.
This can be an excellent way to introduce yourself and maybe even make a new friend in the business.
5: Thumb – Title – Hook – Start – Fun
To make engaging videos that grab people by the throat and make them watch until the end, do all of the following:
A: Have a truly great thumbnail, one that bounces off the page and into their eyeballs.
What makes a thumbnail pop? Spend an hour on YouTube just looking at thumbnails, seeing which ones jump out at you and WHY. Check the date the video was posted and how many views, too.
At the end of that hour you’ll have some key insight on what works and what doesn’t.
B: Have an amazing title that is totally irresistible.
It’s entirely possible to spend as much time on your thumbnail and title as the entire rest of the video, for good reason.
C: Have a hook – the one thing that just grabs their attention.
How to make $100 day? Boring. How to make $100 a day with a bag of parsley, a whisk broom and a picture of Madonna? I’m all ears.
D: Start the video with something that holds them until the end.
None of this 30 second introduction nonsense and you’ll get around to the meat of the topic in 3 minutes. I hate that stuff, and so do most people. Don’t even say your name until you have them hooked. Just dive right in, give them a tiny taste of the treat to come, and then you can quickly introduce yourself and get right back to the topic.
E: Have fun.
Weird but true, if you have fun recording your video, people will have fun watching it. Just be yourself and enjoy the process – even the mistakes and flubs. Be self-deprecating, smile, be nice to your audience – just act like you’re on a fun date with a gorgeous man/woman and you’ll get the idea.
6: Keep your mental game strong.
What does this have to do with making videos and getting subscribers?
Look at the biggest channels and the biggest names on YouTube, and you see people who give it everything they’ve got in every video. They’re always “on” in one form or another.
To continue to think of great video ideas and make those videos, you’ve got to stay strong mentally. Get exercise, eat well, sleep enough and do whatever you need to do to stay the course. Believe in yourself and your goal, whatever that might be, and revisit that goal daily.
Do this and when you reach a hurdle, you’ll be able to leap over it rather than shutting down and quitting like most people do.
7: How to get links to your videos
This is really important, so pay close attention.
To get links to your videos, to get people talking about your videos, to get people sharing your videos on social media, this is what you need to do:
Create videos worth linking to, talking about and sharing.
Yes, it was a trite answer, sorry about that.
But it was a TRUE answer, too.
I could offer you a hundred gimmicks on how to get people to link to and share your videos.
But if you do the things I listed in #5 above, you won’t need those 100 things.
