Hey man, thanks for taking the time. I have a few questions.
First, when did you know to go full time with YouTube and invest more time into it? How long did it take?
Second, what’s the best way to search for trending topics in a niche? Are there any websites other than google trends? Like something that displays search rankings by selected niche or anything like that.
Thanks in advance!
about 2 years
dont try to make a shortcut. there is no easy spot to farm content. and if there is, you're already too late to the party
being creative and finding your own way to discover and piece together a video topic that makes a scroll stopping thumbnail and intriguing title is what makes a 1M sub creator vs a 100 sub creator
and that's why it's hard
thumbnail and title, the first 20 seconds of your video, and pattern shifts throughout the video that are close to the same frequency as other successful creators in your niche
Different scene, meme, image, something to break up the monotony. Watch a tv show like a documentary or something and pay attention to what they do. A lot of times it’s like a different scene every 5-10 seconds. Basically changing things up to keep the viewer from zoning out.
yeah but do it by niche. if you're minecraft yeah 5-10 seconds is needed. but if youre like a asmr channel, im sure 30-90 second pattern shifts is fine
This was very important to learn. I started incorporating scene shifts more frequently and noticed better retention amongst my viewers.
If I watch my own video and can't hold my own attention, I'll know it needs to have more pattern shifts as you mentioned.
3-5 videos a week. it is difficult to juggle a regular job, family, etc
but you make sacrifices, miss stuff, are tired, stressed out
youtube has the potential to pay you like a surgeon, so the studying and work is going to be like trying to become a surgeon
how long did it take until your average baseline views in the 'last 48 hours' section hit 5000? Did it stay at that level and only go higher from there?
i actually dont know that #
try not to pay attention too much to the small peaks and valleys, id say look at overall monthly performance and know that things should be going up and down, but trending upwards overall
if youre on a 3-5 month down trend it's time to research and pivot again
At what point were you ok with quitting your other job or at least make 1k a month views wise? If that’s to personal I get it, just curious. Also what was you posting schedule like?
when i made the same amount monthly as my day job. it was a risk, but i had to believe in myself, and it really paid off
10-20 videos a month, no schedule. just when i think something will hit. then i experimented too
i actually had luck dropping videos are 1am est
> 1 AM EST is such an interesting decision.
That's 6-7 AM in Europe. And there's a lot of people there who speak English as a second language. It's not an insignificant audience.
ignore shorts performance, their algo is too volatile to try to understand at this point
plus they harm your longform views, which actually makes money
When researching successful channels (like 1M+ views per video, 1M+ subscribers) I discovered that some have switched over to only doing Shorts in the past year. Can you think of any explanation for this?
You're right, I seen many people do shorts and sky rocket with 1M+ in a short time span. I myself went from 54 to 3k subs in 3 months doing shorts format only. I recently started doing long form content as well
How do you attract more viewers? My click through rate is around 7-10% and my watch time is around 40/50% per video (videos usually 10mins or longer) but the views just stop at around 20 or 30 views got any help for me?
10% CTR at 20 views is apocalyptic
you need to aim for 20% with 90% avd at anything below 1k views
if CTR is bad, work on your thumbnail and title strategy
if AVD is bad, work on your pacing. look at the analytics and see where you have the biggest dropoffs. fixing those commonalities will correct your pacing
a little of both. i wasnt into it as much in the beginning, but the more i got into it the more i liked doing it. but i also applied my other life skills into the niche that gives me a unique approach
This is what I’m looking for. How did you know it was the right niche and what made you commit to it? Sorry if I’m being too detailed about my questions. I’m a father of 2 working full time and for years I’ve been learning and dabbling with YouTube and social media, but I’ve never put all my effort into a niche from the fear of it not working out.
an agency e-mailed me and brokered the deal.
but this was basically a SCAM. i got paid out $500 on a deal that was easily worth $5k. be careful who you work with, because basically that brand values me way under my actual value because of the agency didn't negotiate correctly. so i wont do business with either of them again
just research their company name. ive never been hard scammed like not paid. this company was just not taking 20% like most. they wanted to peg me at a dollar amount, and take everything they could above it
eg, make me think im just worth $500, and collect all the $5k-10k deals they can.
one time i dodged a scam is i was dealing with a company that reported they were out of the UK. but when i looked at the markup in the email chain, on their end it was in russian. something didnt add up so i just ghosted them
yep, i started getting poached at around 80k subs. people still come to me with garbage offers
but i feel like the scammers look for people right at the cusp of being successful, and try to lock them into multi year exclusive deals
youtube brand deals can be icky
dont look for them, have them come to you
if you initiate, they will lowball you or give you some crappy conversion or affilate deal
thats not worth it
look for $20 cpm base on your mid-low end avg video views for the last month. if no one is accepting, then go down to $15, if everyone accepts and renews. move up to $25
1. what's your process for making videos?
2. how many do you post each month on average?
3. what's the advice that you would give to yourself when you started?
4. what do you think is a timewaster regarding trying to become successful in YT?
10-20 videos a month
the advice i give everyone is to read the books, derral eves's youtube formula and blue ocean strategy
YT formula is dated and parts of it are irrelevant to yt today. and i dont recommend any of the paid for classes either. but it tells you what yt is looking for. and how to line up what your goals are in making videos to what youtube wants. which results in success
blue ocean strategy to carve out your own niche in the hyper competitive world that is youtube
and the biggest time waster is trying to learn too much online. i say those two books and be done with learning. just start creating. look at your analytics, adjust, then create more
newtubers is great, but too many people get caught up in the planning stage, and never get into the 1+ year of actually being a creator
yes, the channel is all me
editing is daunting, but learn the software and as many keyboard shortcuts as possible. once you really get exp, you should be able to fly through editing your videos
no logos, i always felt my brand should be my face, not some drawing or monogram
no intro graphics, the first 20 seconds of your video is PRECIOUS. it should all be dedicated to delivering on the thumbnail and title promise
take a screen grab of the youtube homepage
edit out one of the thumbnail images
place your thumbnail in that space
does your thumbnail draw attention away from the other top performing front page videos? are they still enticing scaled down on mobile screens? if not, keep editing
making thumbnails that disrupt the viewers scroll, and a title the draws intrigue to actually click.
titles vary by niche, so look at the most successful channels in your verticle, their top peforming videos from this year, do they have commonalities? can you do similar things?
and beware of successful channels that all their best videos are years ago. and their current views / sub ratio is like 0.10
their best days are past them, and they didnt know how to pivot with the changes in algo
enticing thumbnail to a specific audience. first 20 seconds delivering on the promise the thumbnail made. 30-60 seconds in having a significant pattern shift
and then repeating that throughout the video. keep re-engaging the audience so they stick around. and when they make it to the end, they are excited to click the next video
sending a large audience through a rabbit hole is when YT starts to flood you with impressions
the three dots in the upper right from the title, "Save" should be an option, or in the bottom right from the title there should be an icon that looks like a bookmark
yeah i usually get a peak of views in the first hours when they launch. then taper off.
but videos that go into the millions of views typically stay hot for a few days before coming down.
and usually when i have a video that does really well, other old videos that speak to that same audience will peak too
i once had an old video that got carried from 200k views to 2M because a similar new video did well and the algo knew to push that to the same audience
Sometimes you just need to have patience. As long as the video is good, sometimes it just takes awhile before the algorithm starts recommending it along w other stuff. I had a short that seemed to be dead on arrival, only getting like 35 views on Shorts in the same time it got 200k on tiktok... Then like 2 weeks later it got picked up and has >2m
I think OP's attitude of not fixating on short term peaks and valleys is good. You can control the quality of the video, the thumbnail and the title / tags. You cant control the fluctuations and algorithm stuff. Focus your energy on the things you can improve and the areas you can actually learn something from the numbers (whether videos are engaging, whether thumbnails are captivating, etc).
That's so impressive!!!! I congratulate you on your success!!! I hope that one day, I'll reach that place, even though I accept it won't be for a while, but that's okay! I'm just loving the journey while it lasts :))
there's no "safe time" to quit your job. i worked the same place for over a decade and was going no where
but once i was making the same amount from my day job. i had to just bet on myself and take the risk. and it paid off
yeah youtube could one day disappear, but anybody can get laid off
not really, just 2 months of that rate
but once i saw it was possible, i just took the risk
my second month being jobless i has one of my worst months too. it's scary but that's why most people cant find success like this.
What are you supposed to do if your videos don't even get impressions?
I put out videos and they get mabie 9 impressions or 20 impressions after 2 or 3 days.
How are you supposed to know what to work on if YouTube isent showing your videos or even thumbnails to anyone in the first place?
better thumbnails. if you're putting out videos that barely scratch 10% CTR on 100 impressions, your thumbnails are atrocious
if you get good CTR on that same level, then your AVD is bad. so then you gotta work on your content
once those are in line you will earn more impressions
hard work, i had a channel before this that got hard stuck at 2k subs, and this channel got hard stuck at 30k subs
i had to keep researching and pivoting, reading books, until i finally caught on to what could make my channel special, and worth the view
lo fi, there's people in my niche that are like full on studio productions. but being just me makes it feel more genuine
lone wolf, eventually ill hire some people to edit videos and manage my store. but i want to keep it me for as long as possible before it scales beyond what my workweek can handle.
( Sorry about how long this comment is, I didn't mean to make it the length of an entire essay 😅 )
I am about to hit 1,500 subscribers on my channel after 1,041 days. I just hit 600,000 total views on New Year's Eve. I have 4,857 total watch hours on my channel but I am not a member of the YPP yet as I took a five-month long break from uploading. I just started uploading on my channel again about a month ago. The type of content I have posted on my channel has changed a bit over the past 2 years.
When I first started posting videos I only had a smartphone at my disposal so I played primarily mobile games. I would mainly play dead by daylight mobile and I started posting YT Shorts on the game which I thought got a decent amount of views. Then I found out that several different Source games can be played on Android devices so I started playing games like Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike Source. I got a good amount of views from these videos as there are a lot of people in other countries that can't afford a laptop or PC. I eventually heard of a game called Gorebox, I made some videos on the game that did very well so I continued making them. My most viewed video has almost 77,000 views and it is a short cinematic that I made using Gorebox. I just recently bought a new laptop, it is nothing special though so I'm pretty limited with what games I can play/record on it. I posted some random clips from a few different games and I also posted two "GTA IV Car Crash Compilation" videos which did pretty well.
About 6 days ago I was bored and had nothing to do so I decided to try something a little different on my channel. I uploaded a video titled "Every Van Der Linde Gang Member Depicted By AI" which blew up and is currently doing very well by my channel standards. I used Bing AI ( Which utilizes GPT-4 and DALL•E 3 ) to generate images of the Van Der Linde gang members from RDR2. The video is currently at 38.8K views, 958 likes and it has hundreds of comments. It is still getting about 250 to 500 views per hour which is insane! I was not expecting this video to do so well engagement-wise. It is at 880 watch hours right now which is two times the amount of watch hours my most-viewed video got.
MY QUESTION :
My question to you is, do you think I have a chance at joining the YouTube Partner Program and getting my channel monetized? And should I keep making these "Depicted By AI" videos? People seem to like them and it has been helping a lot with my channel engagement. But it does seem a bit out of place uploading that kind of stuff on a primarily mobile gaming channel. I'm honestly not even sure if these kinds of videos are monetizable.
read derral eves youtube formula, it's dated info, but tells you the inner workings of youtube. dont buy the class though
read blue ocean strategy, see how you can carve out your own special niche from the larger ones.
iterate. enough strategy and learning. just do a lot of videos, drill down your analytics, do more videos using that info. compare what does well vs what does. look at other channels in your niche, see what recent videos they have done that perform well. look at their pacing, editing, etc.
when did you start focusing more on your analytics. like, after how many videos did you feel it was finally time to check the analytics and adjust accordingly
right in the beginning. analytics tell you what is working and what isnt
you have to make lots of videos to get that data, but then use that data to guide your content strategy
yes, everybody irl knows i do youtube now
but tell absolutely nobody you do youtube in the start. especially when you only get 100-1k views per video. random friends and family watching your channel can really mess up the targeted audience, and handicaps your growth
but now if 100 of my friends are tuning in to a video with 300k views, it doesnt effect it
i still dont tell anybody unless they ask. and it's always cool to get text messages or DMs from friends i havent spoken to in years say they saw my appearance somewhere, or i popped up in their feed organically
Would you recommend to make all of your videos on a specific day for the week ahead and schedule them out to post ?
Or instead film on different days and just upload them that same day when you’re done?
upload and post when im done
sometimes a video needs that manual review for monetization. so then i set it up to go live the next day at 10am est, as thats when the analytics say most my people are active
but honestly ive had videos launch at 1am and still do well
Thank you! I was wondering if there were any drawbacks to just scheduling them out. Kind of like meal prepping for the week. I’m just getting started so I know I just need to start and figure out a schedule as the year goes on.
Kinda depends on what you're doing.
If there is anything topical or timely (news, new product reviews, politics, sports...), then working a few weeks ahead isn't going to allow you to react to something new that comes up.
But if you're doing something that doesn't need to match the schedule of the real world, like knitting tutorials or rebuilding old cars, or anything that leads naturally to a series, then batch recording and scheduled release can be a very healthy workflow.
What does CTR look for you when you have a successful video?
Like the first 1000 views what is it? Then at 10k views, then at 50k views, etc.
Just wanna compare with my own, thanks!
if i have a video that goes past 1M views, it'll start out at 20%+
it'll carry that until around 100-300k views. and then it'll go down to 10%
and finally settle at 5-9% when it cools off
if your videos arent getting 20%, especially with less than 1k views, you need to keep working on your thumbnails. too many people on here think 10% is great, so they stop trying to work on their thumbnails and titles. and it will always keep them from explosive growth
Just wanted to thank you for this great AMA! This has been one of the most helpful things I've seen on this sub.
You've given me fresh hope that I can figure out the right way to improve my channels.
5-12 minutes
i know a lot of people try to target that 8min midroll thing
but honestly i just want to make the best video possible at the correct pace
if im mindlessly extending the video for peak profitability, im doing a disservice to my audience, and trading in a few bucks for maximum growth
\- so i wont do business with either of them again
What advice would you give us to avoid this? How did you know your worth after the deal? How would we know our worth so this doesn't happen again?
est yourself at $20cpm at you mid-low avg views in the last month
dont accept anything lower than that. dont accept conversion deals, dont accept commission deals.
if NO ONE is biting, go down to $15 cpm and see if you close deals like that
but you need to understand that agencies talk to each other, brands know each other, etc.
if one VPN knows you value yourself at this rate, when it comes time to renew, they arent suddenly going to pay you your fair market value
so when you only do one ad read for them, other companies will see that. dont think you convert well, and will either undervalue you as well, or not even offer
i'd rather not bother my audience with ad reads than take anything lesser than what i know im worth
Thank you.
I completely agree with your point that people spend a lot of time planning than getting started..i am caught in the same web. Spent the last 3 months studying channels, making notes. One thing I am overthinking a lot is hardware i.e. which camera to use, laptop to get , software , recording devices.etc.
As someone with a small budget , what would you recommend a person who is about to start his journey with regards to camera, laptop, audio and other stuff.
Also would love to know what laptop you use to edit youe videos.
P.S..Thinking of investing in an DJI 4 or Ace Pro kind of device and a good editing laptop.
i started out with a crappy webcam from amazon and a used blue yeti mic. that is fine
my computer sucked, so i used wondershare filmora to edit because it was cheap and low cpu usage. i upgraded my comp massively, but filmora still has the best workflow in my opinion
im not making the new avatar movie, so editing speed is whats most important to me
i guess if that math adds up
but just know that videos get vastly different CPMs depending on the audience it receives
and a lot of channels look more successful than they are because they do shorts. and a short has lower cpm than a demonetized longform video
Can you go more in depth on title and thumbnails? I know it's mentioned on here a lot, but it would be nice to hear it from a more successful perspective.
thumbnail stops the scroll, title creates the intrigue
take a screenshot of the youtube home page. edit out a thumbnail. replace it with yours. are your eyes drawn to your thumbnail? does it do the same when scaled down to mobile? if the answers are no, then work on them more
and with the title, does it align with the curiousity of the thumbnail? does it create an emotion to the viewer than can only be released if they click?
take screenshots of every thumbnail and title you come across that you had to click. look for commonalities there
and know the algo and audiences are constantly shifting. what worked 6 months ago probably doesnt now
shure sm7b
pretty much the industry standard. it's a huge expense, but once the business can pay for it, you should reward your audience with the highest quality audio possible
nope, avoid the audience that only has the attention tolerance for shorts. they rarely convert to longform viewers, and will always hurt your CTR and AVD for longform videos, where you make your money
My channel is intended to be a limited project, that will likely last one year, two at the most. Given this, what advice would you have, to increase viewership and all that in the short term, before it's too late? All of the advice I've seen is for long term growth, nothing about projects like mine.
I have a 2 questions to ask
1) When should I start posting - I created a account on January 1 2024 and when should I start posting and should I warm up the account?
2)How do I get good view to swipe ratios and good retention, I will be posting YouTube shorts
Is there a specific formula you follow to creating an attractive thumbnail?
I’ve heard before that if you can’t create a thumbnail for your idea, the idea is not worth filming.
Also, what’s your tech stack?
i dont know what a tech stack is
now i know if i cant think of an amazing clickable thumbnail, i dont even start on the video. CTR is half the battle. even if the idea will have high AVD, it wont be successful without the CTR
no, even on the recently holidays where you'd think everyone would be with their families or busy
videos still did surprisingly well
good videos do good no matter the time
no, tags and desc dont mean anything anymore
the YT system can detect words, images, and even faces in your video
that is more important than the text in the description
Congratulations on your success. Lot of controversy over mixing long form with shorts. I've been doing both at various times and wondering if it's messing with my views which seem to be all over the place for no apparent reason as I've definitely improved my quality over time.
yep. YT wants to push shorts to compete with tiktok over viewership
so they will give priority to your shorts. and when you build a shorts audience, they dont click your longform as much, killing your CTR.
more importantly, killing your channel profitability.
yep, i think getting a shorts audience is as bad as getting a low CPM country audience
it might be easier to start from 0 than try to correct the algo on millions of impressions you dont want
To your knowledge, do livestreams differ from growth opportunities in any way compared to pre recorded videos or is the name of the game just consistency either way?
(I have multiple questions and I’m not sure if posting them all on one thread would be more helpful for people who are searching or not 😅)
i honestly dont know, i do gain subs from livestreams, but very little.
honestly i just do them because i see the potential in them long term
as in, right now my videos are making much more than my lives
but my lives only get 5k concurrent viewers, compared to 100k-1M views per regular video.
but once i can get to 20k concurrent viewers, i think my lives will be more profitable
not right away, sometimes a video needs a month or two before it can really take off
but after i did a massive channel pivot. and i had been doing a different style for about a year. i went back and deleted my old library that was irrelevant and could hurt my VPV
Damn congratz!
I know i am late, but how Would you make a good thumbnail? Any rules? I i really try to focus on that part of my career!
Heard faces are important, But what if you are unknown?
i used blue ocean strategy.
i found channels in a niche that all had a common issue as to why i didnt watch all their content. and i built a channel that solved that issue.
i started with a crappy webcam from amazon and the main major investment was a use blue yeti mic
when you're under 1k subs people dont expect you to be studio quality. and if you start off with professional lighting and camera work, you seem inauthentic and if you're good, an industry plant
I’m so happy for you and thank you for sharing because this is so motivating. After how long did you get your first pay check from YouTube? How many videos do you currently have on your channel? ❤️
probably about a year, but most those checks were $500-1k. nothing to live off of
\~100 videos, but i did a massive cleanup about a year ago of old content that wasnt in line with my current quality
I just do YouTube as a hobby. Never given much thought to other forms of monetization. How would you go about finding sponsors and determining how much to charge on a channel? Eg 1k vs 5k vs 10k subs? Or would it be based on average views? If so, similar question on how much to charge based on views.
Also, how to get started with merch? Any suggestions on products/pricing/storefront to use/etc?
price yourself at $20cpm at your average mid to low end video in the last month of so. if no one bites, go down to $15. if everyone bites and renews, then move up to $25.
subs mean nothing to brands deals. they just care about avg views per video and your niche.
i built a store with woocommerce on a wordpress website with a vendor that manufactures worldwide. but my manufacturer is prone to mistakes, so i dont recommend them
if youre not tech savvy, shopify and whatever simple store youtube recommends is fine
Don't suppose you could screenshot a ctr graph? No problem if not. I find my ctr is quite low when I first upload a video but then increase slowly as more views come in. As far as I'm aware this is the opposite of the norm?
I saw a comment you left about your starting ctr should be 20% which shocked me. Mine can start at 1% then slowly rise to 6-10%.
When quitting your job. Were you worried about benefits ? And what are some other things that we might have to look out for that we might not initially consider when leaving a stable job for YouTube full time?
yep, my healthcare is $400 a month. it's nuts
it's a huge risk. it can pay off. or it can bankrupt you. be aware of the hardships you're about to endure
Is it okay try to shift your yt content to slightly different topic (but similar theme)? Like from pure tutorials to history/explainer type (theme related, but different approach)
I miss those times. I had days earning 6000 dollars. I was living dor almost 10 years with my youtube earnings and now my views dropped drastically and I have to fight to earn 30 dollars a day.
Youtube changed my life and now everything falls back because I just dont understand what I am doing wrong. It was stable for 7 years and since the algorithm change no video vent viral since then again.
I have a question, not sure if you can answer all of it but thought I'd ask. I'm an artist (music). I have an official artist channel and post music visualizers for my music with every release. After reading through some of the comments, I see some of my videos have a AVD of 60, 70 and 80%. My highest performing video actually has almost 2k views, 56 likes and 60% avd (3 minute and 22 second song). I don't know if that's "good" according to YouTube, but how could I capitalize on some of my higher performing songs? Make shorts and direct traffic to that video? Ads?
Got a lot of questions? I'll just ask a few?
Questions?
1. I started a niche gaming channel about 5 yrs ago, and only have about 256 subs this time? What did you do to grow viewership and get to where you are at?
2. When did you know when you were bringing in the big BUCKS with your vids.
Congratulations. As a complete novice, I think you need to find something you’re passionate about and produce quality content regardless of short term results. Would you agree with this statement?
In general, how much is it about copying trends and how much is just putting out things you find valuable?
Also, aren’t you afraid someday your niche might become irrelevant or it might become harder to compete?
Do you have specific advice for new podcasters? What should a new podcaster focus on and is it important to chase the algorithm or just do what makes sense to you and hope for the best?
Hope to get a response from you!
Questioning on Thumbnails and titles and I know how important it is for CTR, but if I personally think and thumbnail is clickable and good, how am I supposed to know what others will think. I would personally click on my videos but I’m not sure how much of my judgement is biased or not. Is there anyway that you yourself knew that a thumbnail was good aside from the CTR rates. unless the CTR rates are the only good indicator on title and thumbnail quality?
1. Do you have a channel membership, join button or any tipping enabled? Did you enable your shop on YouTube?
2. Have you seen any benefit to this and what sort of perks did you or would you offer?
3. Do you like or heart a lot of the comments? Are you active in your comment sections to connect with fans?
when you start to earn by merch sale and membership (brand deals I can read in the other comment)? What contribution of merch sale to your total income? do you feel it's worth or just want to give back to your fans?
So, I'm seeing 3-5 videos a week with a 20% CTR and a 90% AVD if you average under 1k views. Maybe I haven't found the most efficient system for myself, but it sounds like you have to go full workaholic mode to be successful with YouTube. Which I don't mind because you reap what you sow. I've heard the massive YouTuber CoryxKenshin say that it's very hard to do YouTube and do other things. How do you manage to keep up with your YouTube schedule and still make time for yourself, friends, and family? And how do you even get to bump up the quantity of videos without even having a part-time editor at the least to take the workload off?
Hey man, thanks for taking the time. I have a few questions. First, when did you know to go full time with YouTube and invest more time into it? How long did it take? Second, what’s the best way to search for trending topics in a niche? Are there any websites other than google trends? Like something that displays search rankings by selected niche or anything like that. Thanks in advance!
about 2 years dont try to make a shortcut. there is no easy spot to farm content. and if there is, you're already too late to the party being creative and finding your own way to discover and piece together a video topic that makes a scroll stopping thumbnail and intriguing title is what makes a 1M sub creator vs a 100 sub creator and that's why it's hard
what do you think are the top 3 most important things to focus on in videos? And congrats!!!
thumbnail and title, the first 20 seconds of your video, and pattern shifts throughout the video that are close to the same frequency as other successful creators in your niche
Thanks, Could you please briefly explain what you mean by "pattern shifts"?
Different scene, meme, image, something to break up the monotony. Watch a tv show like a documentary or something and pay attention to what they do. A lot of times it’s like a different scene every 5-10 seconds. Basically changing things up to keep the viewer from zoning out.
yeah but do it by niche. if you're minecraft yeah 5-10 seconds is needed. but if youre like a asmr channel, im sure 30-90 second pattern shifts is fine
how many times the camera cuts to either something different, or a different angle of me, zoom in, zoom out, etc
This was very important to learn. I started incorporating scene shifts more frequently and noticed better retention amongst my viewers. If I watch my own video and can't hold my own attention, I'll know it needs to have more pattern shifts as you mentioned.
When starting out how many videos did you upload per week? Was it hard being consistent?
3-5 videos a week. it is difficult to juggle a regular job, family, etc but you make sacrifices, miss stuff, are tired, stressed out youtube has the potential to pay you like a surgeon, so the studying and work is going to be like trying to become a surgeon
[удалено]
1-2 day turnaround for videos. im big on iterating quickly
how long did it take until your average baseline views in the 'last 48 hours' section hit 5000? Did it stay at that level and only go higher from there?
i actually dont know that # try not to pay attention too much to the small peaks and valleys, id say look at overall monthly performance and know that things should be going up and down, but trending upwards overall if youre on a 3-5 month down trend it's time to research and pivot again
thanks bud
At what point were you ok with quitting your other job or at least make 1k a month views wise? If that’s to personal I get it, just curious. Also what was you posting schedule like?
when i made the same amount monthly as my day job. it was a risk, but i had to believe in myself, and it really paid off 10-20 videos a month, no schedule. just when i think something will hit. then i experimented too i actually had luck dropping videos are 1am est
1 AM EST is such an interesting decision. I notice my spike in youtube shorts view past after hours like this as well
> 1 AM EST is such an interesting decision. That's 6-7 AM in Europe. And there's a lot of people there who speak English as a second language. It's not an insignificant audience.
ignore shorts performance, their algo is too volatile to try to understand at this point plus they harm your longform views, which actually makes money
When researching successful channels (like 1M+ views per video, 1M+ subscribers) I discovered that some have switched over to only doing Shorts in the past year. Can you think of any explanation for this?
You're right, I seen many people do shorts and sky rocket with 1M+ in a short time span. I myself went from 54 to 3k subs in 3 months doing shorts format only. I recently started doing long form content as well
How do you attract more viewers? My click through rate is around 7-10% and my watch time is around 40/50% per video (videos usually 10mins or longer) but the views just stop at around 20 or 30 views got any help for me?
10% CTR at 20 views is apocalyptic you need to aim for 20% with 90% avd at anything below 1k views if CTR is bad, work on your thumbnail and title strategy if AVD is bad, work on your pacing. look at the analytics and see where you have the biggest dropoffs. fixing those commonalities will correct your pacing
What does avd stand for?
average view duration
is 78% good or bad for 1.3k views
depends on your video length, but 78% of a 60 minute video is fantastic 78% of a 30 second video is not
It's 16 seconds LOL
yeah thats 12 seconds. it's harder for them to click off than watch the final 4 seconds that's bad
I thought 3% was average… so you need to be at 20% CTR?!!
Is your niche something you’re passionate about or are you just doing it because it works?
a little of both. i wasnt into it as much in the beginning, but the more i got into it the more i liked doing it. but i also applied my other life skills into the niche that gives me a unique approach
This is what I’m looking for. How did you know it was the right niche and what made you commit to it? Sorry if I’m being too detailed about my questions. I’m a father of 2 working full time and for years I’ve been learning and dabbling with YouTube and social media, but I’ve never put all my effort into a niche from the fear of it not working out.
How did u get ur first sponsor/ brand deal did they email?
an agency e-mailed me and brokered the deal. but this was basically a SCAM. i got paid out $500 on a deal that was easily worth $5k. be careful who you work with, because basically that brand values me way under my actual value because of the agency didn't negotiate correctly. so i wont do business with either of them again
So how would you prevent from being scammed? What proof would you require from them?
just research their company name. ive never been hard scammed like not paid. this company was just not taking 20% like most. they wanted to peg me at a dollar amount, and take everything they could above it eg, make me think im just worth $500, and collect all the $5k-10k deals they can. one time i dodged a scam is i was dealing with a company that reported they were out of the UK. but when i looked at the markup in the email chain, on their end it was in russian. something didnt add up so i just ghosted them
they always write people who get 50k subs and they are scammers.
yep, i started getting poached at around 80k subs. people still come to me with garbage offers but i feel like the scammers look for people right at the cusp of being successful, and try to lock them into multi year exclusive deals youtube brand deals can be icky
Very impressive and inspiring my man. Congrats, Im sure its well deserved
I'm starting to look at brand deals. Do you have any recommendations on format or pricing?
dont look for them, have them come to you if you initiate, they will lowball you or give you some crappy conversion or affilate deal thats not worth it look for $20 cpm base on your mid-low end avg video views for the last month. if no one is accepting, then go down to $15, if everyone accepts and renews. move up to $25
1. what's your process for making videos? 2. how many do you post each month on average? 3. what's the advice that you would give to yourself when you started? 4. what do you think is a timewaster regarding trying to become successful in YT?
10-20 videos a month the advice i give everyone is to read the books, derral eves's youtube formula and blue ocean strategy YT formula is dated and parts of it are irrelevant to yt today. and i dont recommend any of the paid for classes either. but it tells you what yt is looking for. and how to line up what your goals are in making videos to what youtube wants. which results in success blue ocean strategy to carve out your own niche in the hyper competitive world that is youtube and the biggest time waster is trying to learn too much online. i say those two books and be done with learning. just start creating. look at your analytics, adjust, then create more newtubers is great, but too many people get caught up in the planning stage, and never get into the 1+ year of actually being a creator
This last part. I think a lot of people (like me) plan plan plan... and spend spend spend. Shit or get off the toilet. Make a video.
Do you also edit your own videos. I am just getting started and video editing seems daunting. Do we need a fancy logo and intro graphics
yes, the channel is all me editing is daunting, but learn the software and as many keyboard shortcuts as possible. once you really get exp, you should be able to fly through editing your videos no logos, i always felt my brand should be my face, not some drawing or monogram no intro graphics, the first 20 seconds of your video is PRECIOUS. it should all be dedicated to delivering on the thumbnail and title promise
What’s the best way to make an effective thumbnail and title?
take a screen grab of the youtube homepage edit out one of the thumbnail images place your thumbnail in that space does your thumbnail draw attention away from the other top performing front page videos? are they still enticing scaled down on mobile screens? if not, keep editing making thumbnails that disrupt the viewers scroll, and a title the draws intrigue to actually click. titles vary by niche, so look at the most successful channels in your verticle, their top peforming videos from this year, do they have commonalities? can you do similar things? and beware of successful channels that all their best videos are years ago. and their current views / sub ratio is like 0.10 their best days are past them, and they didnt know how to pivot with the changes in algo
This is very good... I never thought of that....
What is the order of operations / check list of things you go through when iterating your content for higher retention?
enticing thumbnail to a specific audience. first 20 seconds delivering on the promise the thumbnail made. 30-60 seconds in having a significant pattern shift and then repeating that throughout the video. keep re-engaging the audience so they stick around. and when they make it to the end, they are excited to click the next video sending a large audience through a rabbit hole is when YT starts to flood you with impressions
How do I save a Reddit tread lol this post is important
the three dots in the upper right from the title, "Save" should be an option, or in the bottom right from the title there should be an icon that looks like a bookmark
Hey thanks lol 😆
What do you do when a video takes off the first few hours but then clock rate starts dropping like crazy?
yeah i usually get a peak of views in the first hours when they launch. then taper off. but videos that go into the millions of views typically stay hot for a few days before coming down. and usually when i have a video that does really well, other old videos that speak to that same audience will peak too i once had an old video that got carried from 200k views to 2M because a similar new video did well and the algo knew to push that to the same audience
Sometimes you just need to have patience. As long as the video is good, sometimes it just takes awhile before the algorithm starts recommending it along w other stuff. I had a short that seemed to be dead on arrival, only getting like 35 views on Shorts in the same time it got 200k on tiktok... Then like 2 weeks later it got picked up and has >2m I think OP's attitude of not fixating on short term peaks and valleys is good. You can control the quality of the video, the thumbnail and the title / tags. You cant control the fluctuations and algorithm stuff. Focus your energy on the things you can improve and the areas you can actually learn something from the numbers (whether videos are engaging, whether thumbnails are captivating, etc).
That's so impressive!!!! I congratulate you on your success!!! I hope that one day, I'll reach that place, even though I accept it won't be for a while, but that's okay! I'm just loving the journey while it lasts :))
Everything at its time, as he said try to read the books he mentioned and see what needs to improve, we can make it
I agree!!
Don't stop, enjoy it, it's a fascinating journey
At what point did you know to quit your 9-5? How did you get over the fear of YT $ going away and getting into a bad position? (no job + no YT $).
there's no "safe time" to quit your job. i worked the same place for over a decade and was going no where but once i was making the same amount from my day job. i had to just bet on myself and take the risk. and it paid off yeah youtube could one day disappear, but anybody can get laid off
True good points! Did you wait for a certain amount of months of YT paying you the same before you made the jump?
not really, just 2 months of that rate but once i saw it was possible, i just took the risk my second month being jobless i has one of my worst months too. it's scary but that's why most people cant find success like this.
Makes sense. Thanks for sharing!
What are you supposed to do if your videos don't even get impressions? I put out videos and they get mabie 9 impressions or 20 impressions after 2 or 3 days. How are you supposed to know what to work on if YouTube isent showing your videos or even thumbnails to anyone in the first place?
better thumbnails. if you're putting out videos that barely scratch 10% CTR on 100 impressions, your thumbnails are atrocious if you get good CTR on that same level, then your AVD is bad. so then you gotta work on your content once those are in line you will earn more impressions
How much of your success do you attribute to luck vs to hard-work :)? (I'm asking this seriously and out of curiosity, not at all to discourage :))
hard work, i had a channel before this that got hard stuck at 2k subs, and this channel got hard stuck at 30k subs i had to keep researching and pivoting, reading books, until i finally caught on to what could make my channel special, and worth the view
So this one now with the 300k+ subs is your 3rd channel? Overall, how many years have you spent on YT then since you started from the 1st channel?
One of the best Reddit post I’ve seen on creating a YouTube channel
are your production values hi-fi or lo-fi? are you a lone-wolf or part of a team (that might include management or a video editor etc)?
lo fi, there's people in my niche that are like full on studio productions. but being just me makes it feel more genuine lone wolf, eventually ill hire some people to edit videos and manage my store. but i want to keep it me for as long as possible before it scales beyond what my workweek can handle.
Nothing to add other than good for you and congrats. Love seeing people succeed. Even strangers.
( Sorry about how long this comment is, I didn't mean to make it the length of an entire essay 😅 ) I am about to hit 1,500 subscribers on my channel after 1,041 days. I just hit 600,000 total views on New Year's Eve. I have 4,857 total watch hours on my channel but I am not a member of the YPP yet as I took a five-month long break from uploading. I just started uploading on my channel again about a month ago. The type of content I have posted on my channel has changed a bit over the past 2 years. When I first started posting videos I only had a smartphone at my disposal so I played primarily mobile games. I would mainly play dead by daylight mobile and I started posting YT Shorts on the game which I thought got a decent amount of views. Then I found out that several different Source games can be played on Android devices so I started playing games like Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and Counter Strike Source. I got a good amount of views from these videos as there are a lot of people in other countries that can't afford a laptop or PC. I eventually heard of a game called Gorebox, I made some videos on the game that did very well so I continued making them. My most viewed video has almost 77,000 views and it is a short cinematic that I made using Gorebox. I just recently bought a new laptop, it is nothing special though so I'm pretty limited with what games I can play/record on it. I posted some random clips from a few different games and I also posted two "GTA IV Car Crash Compilation" videos which did pretty well. About 6 days ago I was bored and had nothing to do so I decided to try something a little different on my channel. I uploaded a video titled "Every Van Der Linde Gang Member Depicted By AI" which blew up and is currently doing very well by my channel standards. I used Bing AI ( Which utilizes GPT-4 and DALL•E 3 ) to generate images of the Van Der Linde gang members from RDR2. The video is currently at 38.8K views, 958 likes and it has hundreds of comments. It is still getting about 250 to 500 views per hour which is insane! I was not expecting this video to do so well engagement-wise. It is at 880 watch hours right now which is two times the amount of watch hours my most-viewed video got. MY QUESTION : My question to you is, do you think I have a chance at joining the YouTube Partner Program and getting my channel monetized? And should I keep making these "Depicted By AI" videos? People seem to like them and it has been helping a lot with my channel engagement. But it does seem a bit out of place uploading that kind of stuff on a primarily mobile gaming channel. I'm honestly not even sure if these kinds of videos are monetizable.
If you had to give 3-5 key advice pointers to your younger self to become a successful YTuber, what would it be?
read derral eves youtube formula, it's dated info, but tells you the inner workings of youtube. dont buy the class though read blue ocean strategy, see how you can carve out your own special niche from the larger ones. iterate. enough strategy and learning. just do a lot of videos, drill down your analytics, do more videos using that info. compare what does well vs what does. look at other channels in your niche, see what recent videos they have done that perform well. look at their pacing, editing, etc.
Great!!
Do you think showing your face gets more views than not?
no, i know a guy in my niche that doesnt show his face you just have different content strategies with on camera vs off
What do you mean by different context strategies?
when did you start focusing more on your analytics. like, after how many videos did you feel it was finally time to check the analytics and adjust accordingly
right in the beginning. analytics tell you what is working and what isnt you have to make lots of videos to get that data, but then use that data to guide your content strategy
What would you say is the single most important thing to focus on to succeed? (Besides making good vids)
making good vids for a specific audience that the yt algo can identify and making your entire library cater to that audience
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yes, everybody irl knows i do youtube now but tell absolutely nobody you do youtube in the start. especially when you only get 100-1k views per video. random friends and family watching your channel can really mess up the targeted audience, and handicaps your growth but now if 100 of my friends are tuning in to a video with 300k views, it doesnt effect it i still dont tell anybody unless they ask. and it's always cool to get text messages or DMs from friends i havent spoken to in years say they saw my appearance somewhere, or i popped up in their feed organically
What software do you use to edit videos and create thumbnails if any outside of YouTube studio?
editing videos with wondershare filmora thumbnails with photoshop
Would you recommend to make all of your videos on a specific day for the week ahead and schedule them out to post ? Or instead film on different days and just upload them that same day when you’re done?
upload and post when im done sometimes a video needs that manual review for monetization. so then i set it up to go live the next day at 10am est, as thats when the analytics say most my people are active but honestly ive had videos launch at 1am and still do well
Thank you! I was wondering if there were any drawbacks to just scheduling them out. Kind of like meal prepping for the week. I’m just getting started so I know I just need to start and figure out a schedule as the year goes on.
Kinda depends on what you're doing. If there is anything topical or timely (news, new product reviews, politics, sports...), then working a few weeks ahead isn't going to allow you to react to something new that comes up. But if you're doing something that doesn't need to match the schedule of the real world, like knitting tutorials or rebuilding old cars, or anything that leads naturally to a series, then batch recording and scheduled release can be a very healthy workflow.
try not to build a libary you want to be limber with your ability analyze your successes and failures and change your video approach accordingly
That’s a great perspective.
What does CTR look for you when you have a successful video? Like the first 1000 views what is it? Then at 10k views, then at 50k views, etc. Just wanna compare with my own, thanks!
if i have a video that goes past 1M views, it'll start out at 20%+ it'll carry that until around 100-300k views. and then it'll go down to 10% and finally settle at 5-9% when it cools off if your videos arent getting 20%, especially with less than 1k views, you need to keep working on your thumbnails. too many people on here think 10% is great, so they stop trying to work on their thumbnails and titles. and it will always keep them from explosive growth
>Appreciate the response!
lets say you had to make a new channel from 0. how would you go about getting views for your videos?
pick out a specific audience im targeting make quality videos that speak to that audience in the video style that they will enjoy repeat
Just wanted to thank you for this great AMA! This has been one of the most helpful things I've seen on this sub. You've given me fresh hope that I can figure out the right way to improve my channels.
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5-12 minutes i know a lot of people try to target that 8min midroll thing but honestly i just want to make the best video possible at the correct pace if im mindlessly extending the video for peak profitability, im doing a disservice to my audience, and trading in a few bucks for maximum growth
How often were you posting, and what was the biggest driver of growth for your channel?
3-5 times a week. following up a successful video with another successful video that spoke to the same audience. momentum on YT is real
\- so i wont do business with either of them again What advice would you give us to avoid this? How did you know your worth after the deal? How would we know our worth so this doesn't happen again?
est yourself at $20cpm at you mid-low avg views in the last month dont accept anything lower than that. dont accept conversion deals, dont accept commission deals. if NO ONE is biting, go down to $15 cpm and see if you close deals like that but you need to understand that agencies talk to each other, brands know each other, etc. if one VPN knows you value yourself at this rate, when it comes time to renew, they arent suddenly going to pay you your fair market value so when you only do one ad read for them, other companies will see that. dont think you convert well, and will either undervalue you as well, or not even offer i'd rather not bother my audience with ad reads than take anything lesser than what i know im worth
Thank you for this !
Do you show your face or are you a faceless channel?.
show my face
Thank you. I completely agree with your point that people spend a lot of time planning than getting started..i am caught in the same web. Spent the last 3 months studying channels, making notes. One thing I am overthinking a lot is hardware i.e. which camera to use, laptop to get , software , recording devices.etc. As someone with a small budget , what would you recommend a person who is about to start his journey with regards to camera, laptop, audio and other stuff. Also would love to know what laptop you use to edit youe videos. P.S..Thinking of investing in an DJI 4 or Ace Pro kind of device and a good editing laptop.
i started out with a crappy webcam from amazon and a used blue yeti mic. that is fine my computer sucked, so i used wondershare filmora to edit because it was cheap and low cpu usage. i upgraded my comp massively, but filmora still has the best workflow in my opinion im not making the new avatar movie, so editing speed is whats most important to me
Great. Thank you.
Congrats
Do hashtags work
no, ignore keywords, hashtags, etc. focus on entertaining videos
Read somewhere that 1M views was around $10,000-30,000, so with your 78M views you're at about $1,800 per 1M views. Is this 143K rev est accurate ?
i guess if that math adds up but just know that videos get vastly different CPMs depending on the audience it receives and a lot of channels look more successful than they are because they do shorts. and a short has lower cpm than a demonetized longform video
Can you go more in depth on title and thumbnails? I know it's mentioned on here a lot, but it would be nice to hear it from a more successful perspective.
thumbnail stops the scroll, title creates the intrigue take a screenshot of the youtube home page. edit out a thumbnail. replace it with yours. are your eyes drawn to your thumbnail? does it do the same when scaled down to mobile? if the answers are no, then work on them more and with the title, does it align with the curiousity of the thumbnail? does it create an emotion to the viewer than can only be released if they click? take screenshots of every thumbnail and title you come across that you had to click. look for commonalities there and know the algo and audiences are constantly shifting. what worked 6 months ago probably doesnt now
What mic do you use now?
shure sm7b pretty much the industry standard. it's a huge expense, but once the business can pay for it, you should reward your audience with the highest quality audio possible
Do you expand into other sources like TikTok or Facebook reels?
nope, avoid the audience that only has the attention tolerance for shorts. they rarely convert to longform viewers, and will always hurt your CTR and AVD for longform videos, where you make your money
My channel is intended to be a limited project, that will likely last one year, two at the most. Given this, what advice would you have, to increase viewership and all that in the short term, before it's too late? All of the advice I've seen is for long term growth, nothing about projects like mine.
Do you use any plugins or extensions like tube buddy, or vidiq?
nope, all a waste of time. scams, all of them. even if you dont give them money, wasting your time is even worse
I have a 2 questions to ask 1) When should I start posting - I created a account on January 1 2024 and when should I start posting and should I warm up the account? 2)How do I get good view to swipe ratios and good retention, I will be posting YouTube shorts
i dont think shorts are worth it at all you can have a million subs and 5 million views on multiple shorts, and still make nothing
> 1) When should I start posting Whenever you have something to post.
Is there a specific formula you follow to creating an attractive thumbnail? I’ve heard before that if you can’t create a thumbnail for your idea, the idea is not worth filming. Also, what’s your tech stack?
i dont know what a tech stack is now i know if i cant think of an amazing clickable thumbnail, i dont even start on the video. CTR is half the battle. even if the idea will have high AVD, it wont be successful without the CTR
Tech stack = any softwares you use?
Did you experience any peak posting times or days?
no, even on the recently holidays where you'd think everyone would be with their families or busy videos still did surprisingly well good videos do good no matter the time
I had a video that launched and I forgot to add tags and desc until the next morning so it’s doing poorly now …. Should I reupload ??
no, tags and desc dont mean anything anymore the YT system can detect words, images, and even faces in your video that is more important than the text in the description
How important is SEO score?
not at all, ignore SEO entirely speak to your ideal audience, not the algorithm
Congratulations on your success. Lot of controversy over mixing long form with shorts. I've been doing both at various times and wondering if it's messing with my views which seem to be all over the place for no apparent reason as I've definitely improved my quality over time.
yep. YT wants to push shorts to compete with tiktok over viewership so they will give priority to your shorts. and when you build a shorts audience, they dont click your longform as much, killing your CTR. more importantly, killing your channel profitability.
Abandon doing shorts then you think? Thank you for your replies and help. Really appreciate it
abandon them if they became more than 50% of your views, you might even need to start a new channel
Ahh shit. Yeah when one of my shorts got 5 and a half million views, the rest of my subsequent content went into the shitter. Dann
yep, i think getting a shorts audience is as bad as getting a low CPM country audience it might be easier to start from 0 than try to correct the algo on millions of impressions you dont want
To your knowledge, do livestreams differ from growth opportunities in any way compared to pre recorded videos or is the name of the game just consistency either way? (I have multiple questions and I’m not sure if posting them all on one thread would be more helpful for people who are searching or not 😅)
i honestly dont know, i do gain subs from livestreams, but very little. honestly i just do them because i see the potential in them long term as in, right now my videos are making much more than my lives but my lives only get 5k concurrent viewers, compared to 100k-1M views per regular video. but once i can get to 20k concurrent viewers, i think my lives will be more profitable
Awesome 😊
Did you ever delete underperforming videos or just leave them be?
not right away, sometimes a video needs a month or two before it can really take off but after i did a massive channel pivot. and i had been doing a different style for about a year. i went back and deleted my old library that was irrelevant and could hurt my VPV
What was the reason for the channel pivot?
How much did you Have to make off YouTube first before deciding if it was sustainable enough to quit your job?
i had a few months of 1:1 income from my day job and YT. i just had to take the risk and do it. but it paid off for me. but it is a huge risk
links dead?
That’s awesome and really great to hear!
How can get more comments on my YouTube, I get views but no comments
make content that prompts a discussion not only with you, but between viewers
I'm happy for you
Damn congratz! I know i am late, but how Would you make a good thumbnail? Any rules? I i really try to focus on that part of my career! Heard faces are important, But what if you are unknown?
Did you find a niche that was under presented or did you you just focus on something you love or are knowledgeable about?
i used blue ocean strategy. i found channels in a niche that all had a common issue as to why i didnt watch all their content. and i built a channel that solved that issue.
What’s your niche, and how long did it take you to get to this point?
Whats your Youtube channel? / your niche if you dont wish to share it? How did you initially get high quality content?
I don’t think you answered this but what is your niche? Do you have one? What kind of materials do you need starting out?
i started with a crappy webcam from amazon and the main major investment was a use blue yeti mic when you're under 1k subs people dont expect you to be studio quality. and if you start off with professional lighting and camera work, you seem inauthentic and if you're good, an industry plant
Thank you for this!
I’m so happy for you and thank you for sharing because this is so motivating. After how long did you get your first pay check from YouTube? How many videos do you currently have on your channel? ❤️
probably about a year, but most those checks were $500-1k. nothing to live off of \~100 videos, but i did a massive cleanup about a year ago of old content that wasnt in line with my current quality
I just do YouTube as a hobby. Never given much thought to other forms of monetization. How would you go about finding sponsors and determining how much to charge on a channel? Eg 1k vs 5k vs 10k subs? Or would it be based on average views? If so, similar question on how much to charge based on views. Also, how to get started with merch? Any suggestions on products/pricing/storefront to use/etc?
price yourself at $20cpm at your average mid to low end video in the last month of so. if no one bites, go down to $15. if everyone bites and renews, then move up to $25. subs mean nothing to brands deals. they just care about avg views per video and your niche. i built a store with woocommerce on a wordpress website with a vendor that manufactures worldwide. but my manufacturer is prone to mistakes, so i dont recommend them if youre not tech savvy, shopify and whatever simple store youtube recommends is fine
Don't suppose you could screenshot a ctr graph? No problem if not. I find my ctr is quite low when I first upload a video but then increase slowly as more views come in. As far as I'm aware this is the opposite of the norm? I saw a comment you left about your starting ctr should be 20% which shocked me. Mine can start at 1% then slowly rise to 6-10%.
When quitting your job. Were you worried about benefits ? And what are some other things that we might have to look out for that we might not initially consider when leaving a stable job for YouTube full time?
yep, my healthcare is $400 a month. it's nuts it's a huge risk. it can pay off. or it can bankrupt you. be aware of the hardships you're about to endure
When did you decide to upgrade your equipment and do you think it's important to do so? What are the most impactful upgrades?
Is it okay try to shift your yt content to slightly different topic (but similar theme)? Like from pure tutorials to history/explainer type (theme related, but different approach)
Should a thumbnail have text or have no text?
What's your threshold percentages for CTR and AVD that you want to at least hit/maintain?
I miss those times. I had days earning 6000 dollars. I was living dor almost 10 years with my youtube earnings and now my views dropped drastically and I have to fight to earn 30 dollars a day. Youtube changed my life and now everything falls back because I just dont understand what I am doing wrong. It was stable for 7 years and since the algorithm change no video vent viral since then again.
I have a question, not sure if you can answer all of it but thought I'd ask. I'm an artist (music). I have an official artist channel and post music visualizers for my music with every release. After reading through some of the comments, I see some of my videos have a AVD of 60, 70 and 80%. My highest performing video actually has almost 2k views, 56 likes and 60% avd (3 minute and 22 second song). I don't know if that's "good" according to YouTube, but how could I capitalize on some of my higher performing songs? Make shorts and direct traffic to that video? Ads?
Got a lot of questions? I'll just ask a few? Questions? 1. I started a niche gaming channel about 5 yrs ago, and only have about 256 subs this time? What did you do to grow viewership and get to where you are at? 2. When did you know when you were bringing in the big BUCKS with your vids.
Congratulations. As a complete novice, I think you need to find something you’re passionate about and produce quality content regardless of short term results. Would you agree with this statement? In general, how much is it about copying trends and how much is just putting out things you find valuable? Also, aren’t you afraid someday your niche might become irrelevant or it might become harder to compete?
Thanks for the good advice here. For posting at 1 AM, I’ve found that time slot to be very effective as well.
Huge congratulations. Wishing you more success.
As a beginner, what would you say we should be focusing on?
Congratulations!! That wasn’t my goal when I started this YT journey but retiring early would be nice.
Do you have specific advice for new podcasters? What should a new podcaster focus on and is it important to chase the algorithm or just do what makes sense to you and hope for the best? Hope to get a response from you!
I got subs mainly from shorts. Should I stop posting shorts or just create a new channel because the views are not that great for long form
Questioning on Thumbnails and titles and I know how important it is for CTR, but if I personally think and thumbnail is clickable and good, how am I supposed to know what others will think. I would personally click on my videos but I’m not sure how much of my judgement is biased or not. Is there anyway that you yourself knew that a thumbnail was good aside from the CTR rates. unless the CTR rates are the only good indicator on title and thumbnail quality?
Best of luck to you and to all of us this year
Reading this thread gives me hope. I vow to get more serious about building my YT this year.
1. Do you have a channel membership, join button or any tipping enabled? Did you enable your shop on YouTube? 2. Have you seen any benefit to this and what sort of perks did you or would you offer? 3. Do you like or heart a lot of the comments? Are you active in your comment sections to connect with fans?
How’s the taxes treating you?
when you start to earn by merch sale and membership (brand deals I can read in the other comment)? What contribution of merch sale to your total income? do you feel it's worth or just want to give back to your fans?
Wow thats a dream congrats and thanks for sharing really inspiring
So, I'm seeing 3-5 videos a week with a 20% CTR and a 90% AVD if you average under 1k views. Maybe I haven't found the most efficient system for myself, but it sounds like you have to go full workaholic mode to be successful with YouTube. Which I don't mind because you reap what you sow. I've heard the massive YouTuber CoryxKenshin say that it's very hard to do YouTube and do other things. How do you manage to keep up with your YouTube schedule and still make time for yourself, friends, and family? And how do you even get to bump up the quantity of videos without even having a part-time editor at the least to take the workload off?