1 Million Subscribers - How To Become A YouTube Sensation! (THE GUIDE!!)

[instagamrr]

A bit disappointed to see the harsh criticism on what you've shared, not all of which is particularly constructive. I for one really appreciate the article and relate to it, but perhaps that's because I have a business background.

Let me address some of these responses. First,

I also think it's very easy to make at least one high quality, tightly edited video each day because I do that.

I have to disagree with you. First of all you are a gaming channel - it is much easier for a gaming channel to produce content than channels who create their content from scratch and need to script rather than be spontaneous. Second, by gaming standards your videos aren't tightly edited - they're 20ish minute long unedited let's plays (from what I saw when I checked out your channel), which are the easiest type of gaming video to make. For "tightly edited" gaming videos, look at Seananners or Vanoss. I mention Vanoss because even if his videos are longer, they are still tightly edited to cut out any fluff and only focus on the best parts of gameplay. Their (Seananners and Vanoss) 12 minutes of video is likely an hour of actual gameplay edited down to the best parts with significant time spent in editing.

I'm not saying there isn't a market for what you do, but perhaps instead of criticizing the original article, it would benefit you more to learn from it There are some things to learn, like - edit edit edit your content, and edit some more. The trend on youtube is moving toward highly edited and condensed video because most people don't want to spend more than 3-5 minutes watching a video, and that includes gaming. And if you're not concerned with growing quickly but only doing what you love, then articles like this aren't really for you.

To further elaborate, unedited let's plays are the easiest videos I make. I make them when I need to coast from my regular content because I'm burning out. When I make tightly edited videos like Top10Archive (I made one video like that for my channel), it took me about 12 hours on the editing alone - it was a beast, and that didn't include the ~6 hours of gameplay getting the footage, or the time it took researching and editing that video (if you're inclined to look it up, you can search for the title "Every Easter Egg in Walking Dead: 400 Days in 7 minutes or less").

Second,

Or... make "top 10" videos.

Do you really think it's fair to discredit someone's work just because of the topic they chose? Sometimes, 90% of the work is in choosing the RIGHT idea and running with it, just like starting any small business.

It's honestly frustrating to see smaller channels criticizing someone who is doing something successful and actually decided to share their knowledge. I for one would love to learn more about adwords - I just tried it for the first time 2 days ago and got burned badly. Also, Top10Archive do you optimize your videos to be discovered by search or sharing, and where do you get your ideas for topics from?

Also, GabeandGarret:

There's some good advice in there but like others, your approach is not one I would advise on everything you said.

I would KILL to know your secrets to success behind your channel. For Top10Archive, I think the formula of his channel is pretty easy to figure out and replicate, and his insight provided knowledge into the types of struggles of running a channel like his which I find interesting. But with your channel I cannot figure what it is that makes it take off. I've seen you post before about having evergreen content, and it looks like you're doing what you love and it's naturally taking off, and that's what I hope to do. Is your content hosted on external blogs that drives traffic? Is it that people search for the toys featured in your videos? Care to share? I'd really love if you did. Thanks in advance.

 

[YorkshireYank]

I have to disagree with you. First of all you are a gaming channel - it is much easier for a gaming channel to produce content than channels who create their content from scratch and need to script rather than be spontaneous. Second, by gaming standards your videos aren't tightly edited - they're 20ish minute long unedited let's plays (from what I saw when I checked out your channel), which are the easiest type of gaming video to make. For "tightly edited" gaming videos, look at Seananners or Vanoss. I mention Vanoss because even if his videos are longer, they are still tightly edited to cut out any fluff and only focus on the best parts of gameplay. Their (Seananners and Vanoss) 12 minutes of video is likely an hour of actual gameplay edited down to the best parts with significant time spent in editing.

You're actually agreeing with me there. I know it's easy for me and other gaming channels to produce Let's Play content; that was my point. The article states definitively that if you're putting out 1-3 videos a day, they must be low quality which is what I disagreed with. He didn't specifically say "comedy videos" or "Top 10 lists" but any video. And despite your biased condescension, easy doesn't necessarily mean lower quality.

I guess I misspoke when I said "Tightly edited", but my videos are indeed edited. If you actually watched the entirety of a video rather than just checking the length of it, you'd have found that I do edit out long, boring stretches of a game if I feel it necessary and also insert other edits for comedic effect. I spend about 2 hours editing each one of my videos. Seananners and Vanoss are different types of gaming channels so the comparison isn't really fair. They are quick-fire multiplayer shenanigans so of course only the best parts make it into the video. My videos are supposed to be long form, complete Let's Plays of single player games.

I'm not saying there isn't a market for what you do, but perhaps instead of criticizing the original article, it would benefit you more to learn from it There are some things to learn, like - edit edit edit your content, and edit some more. The trend on youtube is moving toward highly edited and condensed video because most people don't want to spend more than 3-5 minutes watching a video, and that includes gaming. And if you're not concerned with growing quickly but only doing what you love, then articles like this aren't really for you.

There is absolutely a market for what I do. Most of the top channels on Youtube are long form Let's Play channels that edit even less than I do, or not at all. Even Pewdiepie and Markiplier began as simple Let's Play channels and both still do long form LPs, they just split them up into shorter 10 minute chunks. I could very easily do the same for my 20 minute videos but for some reason, it feels insulting to the viewer to do that.

I'm not worried about "most people" watching every second of my video simply because I made it 3 minutes long. I'm concerned about the "right people" watching my videos. And I do think there are enough of those people to make my channel successful eventually. I'm very interested in growing quickly which is why I read these articles to make my channel as great as it can possibly be so my intended audience can find me, but this article contains some very bad advice for most people on this forum. We aren't trying to run businesses here, we're only trying to run our little corners of Youtube.

 

[instagamrr]

Apologies if I come off as blunt, but I hope you'll see that I'm actually trying to help you by pointing out that the advice in the original post is quite solid and it's not beneficial to encourage people to disregard it so quickly.

There is absolutely a market for what I do. Most of the top channels on Youtube are long form Let's Play channels that edit even less than I do, or not at all. Even Pewdiepie and Markiplier began as simple Let's Play channels and both still do long form LPs, they just split them up into shorter 10 minute chunks. I could very easily do the same for my 20 minute videos but for some reason, it feels insulting to the viewer to do that.

... We aren't trying to run businesses here, we're only trying to run our little corners of Youtube.

Pewdiepie and Markiplier began years ago. Doing what they did two years ago and replicating it today does not really work, as now youtube is far more saturated than it was even two years ago. To do exactly what they did and make it work again would take luck - to do what Top10Archive did doesn't take much luck, he found a formula that works and can be replicated. He's being kind enough to share it. That's the point.

You don't have to listen to my advice, Top10Archive's advice, or anyone's advice for that matter. There is some very good advice you are writing off because of your ideology, and I wanted to point that out for other, newer youtubers reading this thread so that they don't disregard advice from people that has proven to be successful.

Many people will disagree that youtube is a business, but Markiplier treated it as a business from the start and that's very apparent from the set formula he's had from the beginning. Most of the channels that grow quickly treat it as a business because everything about youtube is similar to being a small entrepreneur. You have to find the right idea, consistently produce content for it, maintain your customer base, market and promote. If you fail to do that, you likely won't make a living from it and it will always remain just a hobby.

TL;DR: If you want to just run things as your little corner of youtube, that is certainly viable and there is nothing wrong with that but you will be at the whims of luck to grow. If you run it as a business, you don't need luck, you need consistency and the right idea.

 

[YorkshireYank]

To treat yourself as the CEO of a company rather than the content producer is silly advice though, you have to admit that much. Top10Archive does not need 3 script writers, a voice over artist, and 2 video editors at 80k subs. That's insanity and I think that's what most of us in this thread were criticizing. Also his cut and dried statement that a channel that produces more than 1 video a week is automatically low quality is something else that new Youtubers should not be taking to heart.

 

[instagamrr]

To treat yourself as the CEO of a company rather than the content producer is silly advice though, you have to admit that much. Top10Archive does not need 3 script writers, a voice over artist, and 2 video editors at 80k subs. That's insanity and I think that's what most of us in this thread were criticizing. Also his cut and dried statement that a channel that produces more than 1 video a week is automatically low quality is something else that new Youtubers should not be taking to heart.

Fair enough, I think there's some room for constructive criticism on that. I also think there's something to learn from it.

For example, when you get to around my size, you start to realize you probably shouldn't do everything on your own even if you can. I need merch for example, my viewers have requested it for months. I'm a good artist. I could invest my resources in buying a tablet and my time in doing the drawings for the merch myself, or I could pay someone who will probably do a better job at it. Either way is viable, but one thing is certain: the time I spend on creating merch is time I could spend making videos or promoting my channel. Which is the smarter business decision?

(I'm still probably going to create my own though just because I like the challenge.)

Certainly though I do think that the number of videos produced per week is entirely dependent on the person producing them. I'm learning the hard lesson that I should probably produce less content and make it higher quality myself, but there really is no guideline on how often to publish - it comes down to what you are personally capable of producing. Good luck with your channel!

 

[mirket]

Do you really think it's fair to discredit someone's work just because of the topic they chose? Sometimes, 90% of the work is in choosing the RIGHT idea and running with it, just like starting any small business.

It's honestly frustrating to see smaller channels criticizing someone who is doing something successful and actually decided to share their knowledge. I for one would love to learn more about adwords - I just tried it for the first time 2 days ago and got burned badly.

Yes I do. Do you really think that it is equally hard to succeed in every category on YouTube? There are harder ones and there are easier ones. Top X videos are among the easier ones.
What frustrates me is when people look at somewhat successful channels like angels and think everything they do is perfect. What is wrong with criticizing someone bigger? Do we live in a world where the person-that-ranks-higher has the absolute authority?

 

[instagamrr]

Yes I do. Do you really think that it is equally hard to succeed in every category on YouTube? There are harder ones and there are easier ones. Top X videos are among the easier ones.
What frustrates me is when people look at somewhat successful channels like angels and think everything they do is perfect. What is wrong with criticizing someone bigger? Do we live in a world where the person-that-ranks-higher has the absolute authority?

It's always easier to tear something down than it is to build something up. Yes, he does have higher authority in my eyes. Why? Because he has proven success. You'd also find he has higher authority in google rankings based on his achievements, so I think it's pretty clear as a whole that someone who has proven that they are successful at what they do has more authority in giving advice, and a smart person looks for the golden nuggets in it that can be applied to themselves.

The prudent youtuber will weigh all advice they see, but what I'm hearing in this thread is a lot of jealousy and excuses for why other people aren't doing better themselves.

Also, of course some categories are harder than others to succeed. But if your singular goal is to grow quickly and you chose a difficult category, that would be a mistake in your decision making. The smart thing to do would be to chose a potentially popular category that isn't overpopulated.

Believe me, I think of starting a second channel all the time in a category that would be easier to grow because it's simply more logical and I'd still enjoy it

 

[YorkshireYank]

The prudent youtuber will weigh all advice they see, but what I'm hearing in this thread is a lot of jealousy and excuses for why other people aren't doing better themselves.

I think you're just being haughty now to say thing like that. Most replies in this thread admitted there are some nuggets in the OP that are worth thinking about, though they are few. It isn't jealousy nor is it excuses for us to point out some eyebrow raising "advice" in that post and to warn future start-ups to not take every word as gospel simply because the guy managed to accrue a good number of subscribers. We are simply doing what you suggest we do; "weigh all advice they see" and in this case, most of us have deemed the advice to be misleading and inappropriate, and attribute his success to an easy choice of field.

Yes, I'm sure he has a lot of wisdom and experience that is worth listening to simply because's done it longer than most of us, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything he says is the golden truth and should be followed at all costs.

 

[mirket]

I didn't say higher authority, I said absolute authority. They are not almighty and unquestionable.

Maybe I couldn't explain myself well. To clarify, I acknowledge his success as a businessman. He chose a right category, and seems to do a good job outsourcing work. If you see YouTube mainly as a way to make money, this seems like a decent guide. On the other hand, if your goal in YouTube is making money by doing the thing you enjoy, this guide might not be your thing. This was what I meant in my first post with "don't seem like a successful youtuber but a successful businessman."

For you, if you can find something that is easier to grow would give you pleasure, by all means that seems like a more viable option

 

[instagamrr]

I think you're just being haughty now to say thing like that. Most replies in this thread admitted there are some nuggets in the OP that are worth thinking about, though they are few. It isn't jealousy nor is it excuses for us to point out some eyebrow raising "advice" in that post and to warn future start-ups to not take every word as gospel simply because the guy managed to accrue a good number of subscribers. We are simply doing what you suggest we do; "weigh all advice they see" and in this case, most of us have deemed the advice to be misleading and inappropriate, and attribute his success to an easy choice of field.

Yes, I'm sure he has a lot of wisdom and experience that is worth listening to simply because's done it longer than most of us, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything he says is the golden truth and should be followed at all costs.

Calling me haughty because I have a different opinion isn't constructive or valid. You really attacked the credibility of his work when you said, "Is there any YOU left in your YOUtube?" and I don't think that was fair. If anything, it was quite haughty. But I prefer to refrain from personal attacks.

Regardless, I've made my point and I bid you adieu

I didn't say higher authority, I said absolute authority. They are not almighty and unquestionable.

Maybe I couldn't explain myself well. To clarify, I acknowledge his success as a businessman. He chose a right category, and seems to do a good job outsourcing work. If you see YouTube mainly as a way to money, this seems like a decent guide. On the other hand, if your goal in YouTube is making money by doing the thing you enjoy, this guide might not be your thing. This was what I meant in my first post with "don't seem like a successful youtuber but a successful businessman."

For you, if you can find something that is easier to grow would give you pleasure, by all means that seems like a more viable option

I do 100% agree with that.