[00:00] that's the only way to get better. [Tom gasps] This is "Creator Support."
[00:14] [upbeat music] so I can exit the workforce with everyone else?" Every single project that you make
[00:29] What you want is to steadily grow, to build up your skills And then when you're in a position to make good stuff,
[00:41] because then people could come and go, That's what you actually wanna do. Make stuff.
[00:53] Upgrading your microphone is worth it. Bad audio is really difficult. if you don't have subtitles on your videos,
[01:07] I think it's 30% of my viewers on YouTube But if you have bad audio, immediately people are like, And if you're on short-form, you're gone in a second.
[01:21] is get the microphone closer to your face. that plugs in and just hold it in front of your face. or something like that.
[01:35] Any-Lingonberry asks, "Do you think thumbnails matter 100%. Thumbnails on YouTube matter so much. The packaging of a video for whichever platform you are on
[01:50] I would much, much rather be doing with a half-hour running length isn't something people would generally choose to watch,
[02:04] Now, And I really dislike that every single thing But time after time after time, is really important.
[02:18] think about what audience that's going to attract I'm kind of old school in this YouTube's AI features in their studio
[02:34] If you are a YouTube creator "Generate some thumbnails from my most recent video," As I record this, my most recent video,
[02:47] a rock shop for the British people watching. like molten sugar flowing out of a cauldron. And what it generated was this giant cauldron
[03:03] And it generated this shot of me with an uncanny valley version of my face. if I'd have, like, photographed myself for it,
[03:17] That's okay for some audiences, I guess. The kettle wasn't that big. So yeah, I could have put that up
[03:33] first, for using generative AI, and second, for lying. who aren't really gonna like the video in the end. but it wouldn't have been the people
[03:47] So yes, thumbnails matter an enormous amount, I also now hate that I have to generate three titles and YouTube will automatically A/B/C test them.
[04:02] It's constant work. I do miss just uploading a video. Sarah Mann asks, "How far in advance do you plan content? For me, I used to have weeks in advance
[04:19] I was making videos that now My old format, the one that ended in 2023, They're short and they're scripted,
[04:34] I had like eight weeks of videos And then COVID hit and I used up all that buffer
[04:46] Like maybe I'd get up to two weeks For the new series, for the stuff I started in 2026, I recorded 41 videos in advance
[04:59] And they're all longer and they're, but they are so good because they were able And I can put references in video one
[05:14] that will pay off in video 23 or 36. If it turns out that something I filmed months ago but I have to work out, how am I gonna deal with that?
[05:28] that already has references from months ago. please, please, please try and have some buffer. Okay, this is a little inside baseball.
[05:43] a good traffic source is gonna differ for each creator, YouTube's advice is to have three types of content: Hub is your episodic, your regular content
[05:57] That's building up the audience slowly over time and they can watch that too. That's the big splashy stuff that draws in people,
[06:11] that goes viral, that makes big waves, gets shared around, That's the stuff that people search for. they type in the keywords, or type in the keywords
[06:23] you're gonna get a mix of traffic sources Okay, Rob asks, "How important Very important but not for the reason you'd expect.
[06:39] with the guy in charge of the YouTube algorithm, His name is Todd, and I cannot remember his last name. I'm not breaching any confidences or NDAs here.
[06:52] replace it with the word audience. And it's generally what the other platforms In any sentence, just replace algorithm with audience.
[07:05] That means that every single video you are recommended How important are the first 10 to 15 seconds of a video Really, really important because after 10, 15 seconds,
[07:17] they are gonna judge a book by its cover, are that cover and the algorithm will just reflect Ecstatic asks, "What is a realistic amount of time to wait
[07:33] Depends on the platform. It's unusual for something to go slow for a while you change the title, the thumbnail,
[07:48] After a while you go, "Okay, well that was not a winner." The stories I've heard from people who use Instagram it's completely random.
[08:01] and it really feels like it's not reflecting the audience. from god on high and going, "You, you shall, But for YouTube you'll probably know in a couple of hours.
[08:18] or is it just a waste of time?" The best ever introductions were the ones from "Top Gear." So if you are just setting up expectations, great, do it,
[08:32] and you can see people do this, is never conclude a question until the next one is set up. you set up expectation A and B, you resolve B.
[08:47] and then at the end you resolve D and A. if you're subtle about it. "Oh, but you won't believe what happened when we did that."
[09:03] is 10 seconds of 3D animation with dubstep over it and even prestige television has a skip intro button A Reddit user asks, "Is clickbait in your title
[09:18] I would direct you to Veritasium's excellent video on this but as curiosity bait. If you are lying in the title and thumbnail, absolutely not.
[09:31] and they won't come back. part of getting your stuff out to the world is packaging it Back when DVRs and TiVo came along in the,
[09:45] the titles of shows got shorter and simpler. and "Ancient Aliens." rather than the more abstract titles that came before,
[10:00] because they needed to fit in the slot on a DVR guide. on your television, on your channels to just see two words You have to package your content to fit the medium.
[10:13] ThenAdvice asks, "Is it true the better for audience growth and retention?" If you are just sending out stuff
[10:27] the audience isn't gonna care about it either. What you want is something summed up by the word ikigai, what you are good at, what the world needs
[10:39] The stuff that took off for me had all those four things. that I was interested in and that I really did enjoy doing. It was something that the world was interested in and watch.
[10:55] Like how many people are lucky enough put out as much of it as you can. if you're just doing it to tick a box,
[11:07] A Quora user asks, "I want to change my YouTube niche You can't. That's the bad news. that is a continuation of my old content,
[11:23] like viewing numbers are down a bit. 'cause I know from the statistics, they're sticking around and the feedback I'm getting is
[11:36] some of the old audience who don't like this. of novelty and familiarity, try and make it have a connection to the other,
[11:50] even if you're just changing a bit of the format, It is still a stab in the heart and the new thing is getting lower view count.
[12:05] Think of it as starting from scratch You have such a start compared to everyone Subscribers are a useless metric.
[12:18] Controversial opinion, YouTube should take away like there's too much cultural cachet in it, which is a number that only ever goes up.
[12:33] But subscribers is meaningless because it just means and now they're not interested anymore. If you are starting in a completely new niche,
[12:50] Puzzleheaded asks, "What have you learned from brand deals?" is one of those ads that is incorporated into the video. For Instagram, it may be an entire short-form video
[13:06] but what I've learned is that everyone draws the line of what is selling out just below what they're doing. I will never take one from a gambling company.
[13:20] that uses loot boxes and gacha mechanics I won't do that. I don't think those are acceptable. "Oh yeah, sure, I take those, but I don't take
[13:35] who are gonna be looking down on me or have to take those brand deals. obviously, but a brand deal on YouTube will get you,
[13:49] about 10 times what you would get And I certainly couldn't resist that. that when an up-and-coming creator
[14:04] You got a sponsor! Like, get the bag." Roberto Blake asks, "What skills do you personally need Make stuff. Just make stuff.
[14:19] every single thing is improved by actually making things. just worrying about every detail, worrying, Just make stuff, and every other skill
[14:33] Simplyherefornow asks, "What more can I do Or do I just have to wait?" out to the audience, other than repackaging it,
[14:45] Don't go wildly and post it But it is like many things about who you know, If you can collaborate with people,
[14:59] if you can make those connections to other people, There is the method of doing a forced collaboration and make a video like the number of people
[15:15] because that will get MrBeast's fans Are they gonna be interested in your video They're not gonna come back.
[15:27] who are then not going to like what you do next. You try as many as possible and you see what you like
[15:40] But that question feels like it comes from someone a YouTuber, a TikToker, and isn't sure
[15:52] Like they, yeah, absolutely. What about it feels like someone who's like, What genre of music?
[16:06] are you gonna stick around and do that? Try a lot of different instruments Beneficial_List asks, 'how do you deal with burnout
[16:20] [exhales] I'm not a therapist. If you are just starting out and you're burned out and it's not working,
[16:36] If it is your job and you have this schedule, like if you have this schedule that you have to hit you suck it up and you do it because it's your job
[16:52] as you go. that is not advice for YouTube, I know folks who make content for platforms like that,
[17:06] there because it is, by necessity, intimate. and for Instagram or for anything the more you tear off pieces of your soul,
[17:21] into the fire of the engine, the more you do that often, And there are only so many pieces of your soul
[17:33] and so many memories that you can fuel the engine with. if you can do this and still maintain a wall there's just something there, that's gonna help a lot.
[17:49] without being a people pleaser?" who kind of plays the heel online like lovely in person, like actively seems to dislike the audience,
[18:06] but the audience like that and he plays this character but that's still pleasing the audience. I've always said I want viewers, not fans.
[18:20] and to come back and enjoy that. but ultimately part of the job is pleasing the audience Lonelylupine asks, "Are attention spans shortening
[18:36] I think we are getting used to taking in more data that isn't like comedy or drama or something
[18:49] If it's scripted, I'm up to three times speed. If it's just someone reading a monologue because if you're reading and you're a fast reader,
[19:02] I think that people are taking in more information now Is that a bad thing? Ask us in 100 years. of this year's social scientists and neurologists,
[19:17] Noele asks, "How has your content evolved and what lessons have you learned along the way?" technically in the 20th century,
[19:31] I think, in that I was writing HTML for a GeoCities page. So the answer is I just kept throwing ideas out there until one worked, and then once it did that kept evolving.
[19:43] I generally hate anything I've done in the past. 10-year series that I'm really proud of and would say, I'm like, "I could have done that better."
[19:57] Absolutely. what content your audience likes?" They'll tell you, they will tell you so much in comments,
[20:09] like you will get so many messages, but whether you pay attention to them is up to you, but maybe that's not what you want to do anymore.
[20:24] The audience would like four albums to the one album they really like of yours, You have to manage those expectations and accept
[20:40] what you put out and maybe that's okay. you used to be doing in the past and brings in some people Trustnobody asks, "Is the idea
[20:56] and financially reckless?" I met someone a few weeks ago, and apologies who has just got 5,000 TikTok followers
[21:08] I tried to suggest politely, because it was just someone I will say that explicitly now in the hope Don't do that. That's a really bad idea.
[21:22] I was very, very lucky when I started that. 15 years of throwing stuff at the internet, I had kind of, "Oh, okay, this might be working,
[21:36] when I had a bit of savings and the place I was working at, So I was lucky enough and that was luck. But bear in mind that I had that,
[21:52] There are so many people out there who don't have that luck If you have spare time, you are in such a better position. If you have spare time and spare money, congratulations,
[22:07] It is financially reckless to jump out of a job That is massively unfair. But unfortunately, capitalism.
[22:19] on content creation?" Never have a hobby that turns into a job, It's infuriating.
[22:32] because I can do, because I'm passionate about it please do tell me how to do it. Bbll asks, "What happens to influencers and content creators
[22:46] which I will note is from the subreddit, So I get the feeling there's a bit of cynicism The answer is the same as for a TV presenter
[22:59] If they had a couple of hits and then nothing else, maybe money from old views and things like that, They'll go and find a job somewhere else,
[23:12] Michael Underwood is a kids' TV presenter when I was sort of in college. Kids remember him, but he's a teacher now and he's on TikTok
[23:27] "Oh yeah, I remember you off the TV. He's reaching an audience, "Oh yeah, I remember you. I've got good memories of you.
[23:42] What a wonderful thing to have. Again, like starting from zero, don't frame it as a loss. you have this chapter in your life
[23:54] have good memories of and get good things from. Pop culture is ephemeral. Relevancy is ephemeral. and the comedown sucks.
[24:07] And there are still some good ripple effects Please go watch my videos as well. [upbeat music]