Small YouTubers Always Grow Faster When They Do This

[00:00] I'm going to share with you five YouTube tips that always work for helping small channels turn into big channels. And we're starting right now. If you have a small YouTube channel, you might be in a position right now where you know there's things that you could do to do better,

[00:16] but you're not really sure what those things are yet. Well, I'm going to share them with you. And these are not just general tips. These are the most impactful things that you can do for your YouTube channel. First, you got to get super clear who it is you're making content for.

[00:30] We do a live stream every Saturday at 9 a.m. Eastern where we look at YouTube channels and we answer YouTube questions. During that live stream, one of the most common things that we see is people uploading content that is not targeted towards a certain type of viewer.

[00:43] And now, in modern YouTube, it's more important than ever to make sure that you understand, hey, these are the types of people that I'm making content for, not these types of people. Or I'm making content for these types of people, not these people, plus these people, plus these people, plus these people.

[01:01] So step one is looking at the content that you like to make the most. And then once you know that content that you like to make the most, start thinking about how you can build an actual channel, like a resource for people to where when they think about that type of content, they think about you and your YouTube channel.

[01:19] For example, this video that you're watching right now is on a channel that is a resource for YouTubers. So my whole thing is that I teach content creators how to thrive on YouTube. So I share the tips that you need, and I share the tools that you need in order to do it all.

[01:31] So because of that, I've become known for helping people with YouTube. Just like Mr. Beast is known for entertainment content, just like Marquise Brownlee is known as the tech guy, and just like Reinhardt Burr is known as a resource if you want to listen to amazing cinematic looping music on YouTube,

[01:50] like he's the guy for that. And just like my friend Mike Russell over at Creator Magic, who is known for helping people get up to speed with AI. And just in case you see this, Mike, early congrats on 200K. But the idea is that you want to get all this in place now so that as you have more and more people interacting with your channel and they start loving your content then they can be like oh wow this is absolutely great And then they can start seeing you as a resource for that content which brings us to tip number two channel positioning

[02:14] The example that I like to give for this one is that there are a gazillion fitness channels. There's a gazillion music channels. There's a gazillion YouTube tips channels. There's a gazillion every type of channel. It's just YouTube now. So you've got to think of how you can position yourself and present to others what it is that you do on your channel so that you can position against all of the other people who make content like you.

[02:37] For example, if you do fitness content, do you do fitness content for certain age groups, for certain diets, for certain body types, for certain genders? If you're a cooking channel, are you providing quick and easy to make recipes? Are you providing cheap recipes?

[02:50] Are you providing recipes that you can make in a certain amount of time? Of course, you can mix some of that if you followed tip one and you know who it is that you're trying to reach, but the idea is what are you offering to those people? Just getting clear on those things takes your channel from trying to survive in an ocean of similar content to trying to survive in a river of content, which is much easier to do.

[03:11] The next thing you can do that can make a big difference combined with the other things that we're talking about is making sure that you're considering what you're going to do in your thumbnail before you commit to making a video. The reason I say that is because if you're like most YouTubers, you will make your entire video, and then once the video is rendered out, and you upload it to YouTube, in that moment is where you're making your thumbnail.

[03:31] But that's the worst time to do it because you are pigeonholed into whatever it is that you did in the video instead of first thinking, okay, so this is what I'm going to make my video about. How am I going to package this thing up? What am I going to use for the thumbnail?

[03:44] What am I going to use for the title? And the reason you want to start thinking of this first is because if you can't come up with a good thumbnail or title, then you might want to work on the video idea, right? But if you can come up with a good thumbnail or title then once you start recording your video you can consider what you did for your thumbnail and title and the expectation that the viewer might have when they come into the video Because if you use one thumbnail and title it going to create a different expectation for the viewer that clicking on that video compared to another thumbnail and title that you might choose So if you think of all that first then you can make

[04:16] sure that everything matches all the way across the board as people are interacting with your content. Oh, and by the way, there's a really cool free tool called Creator Dashboard that lets you embed your thumbnails into YouTube so you can see what they're going to look like on YouTube before

[04:30] you decide to go with that one. So you can make sure it stands out and stuff. I'll put a link to that down in the description or you can click on the QR code on the screen. The next thing that will help you improve your channel is to make sure that you're being very intentional about how you

[04:42] start your videos. And what I mean by that is what is the viewer seeing and what is the viewer hearing when your video first starts and how well does it match your thumbnail and title, which is why we mentioned the thumbnail thing just a second ago. But when it comes to the beginning of your videos,

[04:55] you want to make sure that you're not wasting people's time. You want to make sure that any buildup that you do is going to be relevant to the viewer in some way. And you want to try to focus really hard if your video intros just kind of suck right now, you want to make sure you focus

[05:07] really hard and experiment a lot on that first 30 seconds of your video because really it can make or break your video. Things to experiment with when it comes to your intros if you're having trouble in that first 30 seconds. First, make sure that you're thinking about the thumbnail and the

[05:20] title and the expectation that they might create in the viewer's mind and make sure that you're letting them know that they're in the right place by showing the right things or saying the right things. Number two, if you have a really big drop in your video's first start and you have music

[05:32] playing, try making some videos without the music and see if it makes a difference. Third, people are judgmental. So because of that, just as an experiment, when you first start your video, if you are on camera and your retention sucks when your videos first start, instead try starting your camera with

[05:46] b-roll or something else on the screen other than yourself while you're talking. And of course that one only applies if you are on camera in your videos. The next one is emotional match. So something to experiment with once you know your framing in terms of your filming on your title of the video,

[05:59] then make sure that you are matching the emotion. So, for example, if you're packaging everything up in a dramatic way, then make sure that when it first starts, it's kind of dramatic. If you are packaging things up in a way to where, you know, it a little bit more sentimental and a little bit more emotional then make sure you meeting the viewer in that place when they first come into the video If you are making something that is you know hype and excited make sure you matching that energy when they come into the video But experimentation with

[06:23] emotional and energetic matching at the beginning of your videos can also make a difference. The next thing that can make one of the biggest differences, because a lot of times content creators just need to practice, is to work the process of creating and publishing content into

[06:37] your lifestyle. It's one of the hardest things to do and it's one of the places where most content creators drop the ball because they're just not able to stay consistent. And when it comes to consistency, I don't mean you have to publish a video every week, but what I'm saying is that you

[06:49] do need to consistently publish if you want to improve as a content creator. And you need to keep feeding YouTube's system with additional content so that they have more content to show people and you start building out your body of work around your channel. But most importantly

[07:04] is you work that process into your lifestyle so that it becomes attainable. Because right now, if you are not working that process into your lifestyle of creating and publishing, then you're just doing it where you have time to do it versus scheduling it and saying,

[07:18] okay, these are the days, these are the times that I'm working on my videos so that I can make sure that I'm able to publish content. Because when you don't do that, it's really easy for life to get in the way and to just stop publishing videos because other things are going on.

[07:31] and the next thing you know, a bunch of time has passed and you still haven't published any videos. And of course, not publishing is definitely not going to help your channel. The approach I recommend for this one for people that are serious about growing a YouTube channel is to literally

[07:44] schedule time to do different parts of the job. So for example, you know, schedule a time to come up with video ideas. Schedule a time to research those ideas. Schedule a time to script out your videos or write bullet points. Schedule a time to record your videos. Schedule a time to edit,

[07:57] so on and so forth. The idea here is that by scheduling everything out, you're essentially making space for the opportunity that YouTube can provide. Now, if you have a small channel and you are serious about growing your YouTube channel and you like really want to get the most out of

[08:10] videos that you're publishing to YouTube, click into this playlist right here. I've got a nice handful of videos in here that's going to help you with that. You go ahead and click into that now and I'll see you in the next video. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time.