[00:01] might just seem like a typical teenager but what if i told you he's actually one of the smartest creators on youtube thomas simons or as you might know him has gone from being an unknown minecraft youtuber to having well over 7 million
[00:15] subscribers in just one year a lot of people would look at growth like this and think it was just a fluke but when you start to dig a little deeper it becomes clear that this guy had a master plan to take over youtube
[00:28] i mean just listen to him talk this isn't a kid who stumbled on youtube i check my subscribers per day every day and i check you know my viewers on the learning about the algorithm and stuff and making sure it can be as big and
[00:42] don't want to get the green up arrows but i want to work out how you get green up arrows and how you get these videos they're getting 10 million views so what does a 16 year old know about growing on youtube that the rest of us
[00:54] well in this video we'll break down the truth behind tommy and its rise to the top of youtube there's more to this than meets the eye by looking at tommy's numbers something pretty insane is revealed he
[01:07] grinded for two years straight without seeing any real growth after all he was just another kid making minecraft videos in his bedroom but in july of last year tommy completely blew up
[01:19] with the dream smp a minecraft server started by this guy collaborate with some of the biggest names in gaming explanation for his growth i can already hear people saying well
[01:35] that simple just have famous friends but there's been over 30 other gamers in the dream smp and none of them have experienced growth only dream himself is growing at a similar rate
[01:47] were to ask tommy himself he would probably give you a simple answer like this um look what the people who you want to be like are doing i think why are they doing that and then
[02:01] and then do it you know but after i watched and analyzed all of his videos a few interesting patterns began to emerge here are the three main factors behind tommy's exponential growth
[02:14] let's figure this out so a lot of you might be wondering collaborate with dream in the first place dream is a nice guy but he doesn't just make videos with anyone
[02:26] back when they made their first video together tommy had just under 200 000 sure he was already seeing some decent growth but it was nothing compared to about to happen i think even back then dream realized this guy was going to
[02:40] he noticed tommy had a very unique attribute that would set him apart and no it's not his english accent it's factor number one tommy has mastered youtube storytelling so at this stage we all know keeping
[02:54] people on your video is very important for the youtube algorithm and so much of this comes down to using good storytelling techniques youtuber should ask themselves about their videos
[03:06] is this an interesting idea is the video both entertaining and engaging and is it easy to follow this might seem overly simple but for effective storytelling you need all three
[03:19] entertaining video on a great idea but if people can't follow along and they get confused they'll just leave youtube in many ways is about making it keep watching your video tommy uses some interesting tactics with
[03:35] with every upload let's take a look at him in videos now contrary to popular belief i am and i don't know how either however in britain when you're 16
[03:49] you have to go to college 16 to 18 you have to go to a college and recently about two months ago i started college the other thing that i am is a minecraft player whether or not you're a youtuber or not being a
[04:01] thing now today i'm going to be telling you about how after only two weeks my entire college found out that i am a minecraft youtuber the first thing you'll notice is tommy
[04:15] footage every one to three seconds he's introducing a new element or changing position to add movement this instantly hooks you into the video if you look away you'll miss something
[04:28] but he does this while still making it easy to follow a lot of context without ever feeling he told us he was 16 he was in college and he was a minecraft youtuber
[04:41] viewers it could be the first video from him you ever watch and you won't feel lost my intention was to keep the channel quiet because one thing you don't want your first impression to be to
[04:54] a load of new people is hey i'm a minecraft youtuber something else text and there's actually a psychological reason for this reading is an active activity whereas
[05:08] listening and watching is passive this basically means that by having text on screen at all times tommy is asking for more of your focus the same time in terms of keeping people entertained
[05:23] tommy has a formula if you watch any of his minecraft videos they're edited so that there's a funny moment at least every one to two minutes momentum for the joke and when it happens it's giving the viewer exactly
[05:36] what they came for [Music]
[05:48] retention this doesn't explain how his videos are getting picked up in the first place which takes us on to factor number two system a lot of people still think youtube
[06:02] search is how new people get discovered but for big growth it's really all about this is when youtube placed your video as suggested beside someone else's or on the youtube homepage known as browse all of my videos that have gone
[06:15] viral have done so by getting over 90 traffic from these two sources so how recommended system well youtube primarily look at the data points from the video's performance but your titles and descriptions can
[06:29] help you to categorize your video and recommend it to the right person if we first look at tommy's titles you'll notice some obvious things he uses the keyword minecraft in pretty much every single gameplay video
[06:42] youtuber's name like dream or technoblade instead these are high interest keywords by associating his videos with them it's telling youtube that this is a video on
[06:54] people but his descriptions are where he does something a little more intriguing in the first line he'll always repeat name drop anyone featured in the video however it's actually when you scroll
[07:07] down that we discover something curious in every description he includes two blocks of text like this and when you read them they don't actually make much sense especially this second paragraph this is
[07:19] tommy finding a way to include extra words related to his niche he's basically writing sentences using only high interest keywords for example including the words but lava rises might give this video a better
[07:31] chance of being suggested next to an upload like this keywords into his title and description as possible tommy's trying to increase the chances it gets recommended to more people
[07:43] this video is going to be relevant to a larger audience you'll notice a lot of other people in the dream smp also do this in theory this could be creating a recommended loop of their content
[07:55] making good videos is always the number one priority but perhaps this is a bit one priority but perhaps this is a bit of algorithm magic sauce placed on top
[08:07] youtubers understand and that is factor number three tommy in it is a branding genius if you look at tommy's channel page the all the thumbnails look exactly the same he has the same
[08:22] t-shirts now this might confuse some people but power of his brand branding in business is usually done with a logo but on youtube it's done with thumbnails
[08:36] builds a level of familiarity with his viewers now when he uploads there's zero decision making time his audience sees and clicks right away another thing that helps build his brand
[08:48] if you think about his ideal target audience it's probably someone around the unique thing about tommy is most people his age would have no idea how to grow a youtube channel like he's done tommy has been able to brand himself as
[09:01] while all the while possessing the youtube knowledge of someone much more now i'm going to give a prediction on where tommy will be in a year's time but first i've got something else to share if you're like me seeing this sort
[09:14] your own channel so what if i told you you could learn subscribers for free well that's possible with skillshare is an online learning community that i've been using for years
[09:29] something new i search it on skillshare and they've got me covered that the one and only mkbhd just launched his own class called youtube he breaks down his tips and tricks for getting more views and beating the
[09:44] people would literally pay thousands of dollars for this advice creators in history share all their youtube secrets also if you play minecraft that are interested in how tommy in it uses mods
[09:56] teaches you exactly how to make a minecraft mod from scratch skillshare is very affordable as it is but for you guys i've got a special link for a free trial to the premium version you can sign up in literally 30 seconds
[10:10] and it really supports the videos i make at no cost to you its future growth i think he could easily be sitting on 20 million subscribers this time next year but what do you think if you enjoyed
[10:24] i've got the worst ratio of non-subscribers on all of youtube also if you want to connect with me make twitter linked below for now though i'll see you
[10:36] linked below for now though i'll see you in the next one