Patrick3331
Active Member
Successful on YouTube - The 22 step guide to do it the right way
As I have a very different experience on having "success" with my channel I thought I would write a guide on how I made my channel grow. As it seems the majority of channels here are either gaming channels or VLOG's and ranting channels of some kind with the comedy and music channel in between.
As a growth curve of a gaming channel is way steeper and faster from what I have seen over the past days studying some of the channels here on vidstatsx.com, I will write from a different perspective with my Car spotting channel and content creation that involves going out and recording in public, both planned and spontaneous.
So, let me give you my guide on how a channel that has car spotting.
1. First of all, choosing the category/ topic
Chose what you wish to do a YouTube channel about will determine the strategy you should have.
2. Chose an area of interest and stick to it
As my channel didn't start as a pure car channel, it grew only very slow. I started with YT back in 2006 and I was posting whenever I felt I want to post something that I like. This included cars (I was interested in cars since I was a toddler pretty much), city scape, fish tanks at home, knifes, watches and what ever random stuff I thought I want to put on YT. Obviously this was the first mistake, I didn't dedicate the channel right from the beginning and specialised on one thing only! That is what you have to do!
3. Chose the right name - you can't change it afterwards anymore
Another lesson I learned very late was the right name can (don't have to, but it can) influence your success or at least the possibility if people know what your channel is about. My name "Patrick3331" is a combination of my name and a number that was once important to me. It has nothing to do with cars at all and for someone who is searching for car channels my name has no connection at all. A name that reflects your topic would have helped me more in the beginning stage to grow, for example "SickRides" or "Supercars", you get the point.
4. Go across all platforms right from the start
We continue with something that is very important - some may contradict with my opinion here - but you should right away use all platforms that are out there. What I mean is, when you have chosen a name (before you actually start your channel) and make sure that you have the name available on all possible platforms you might be using in the future.
This includes the following (but not only):
Facebook.yourname
Twitter
Instagram
Pinstagram
Tumblr
Reddit
any topic related forums you know or have researched about
your email for business inquiries (for the future)
your website (at least secure your domain name with .com at the end (or which ever webadress is the best for your country
etc.
You might ask, "really, I just want to do a youtube channel", but yes, in my opinion this should be done right at the beginning, it will help you tons once your channel is big(ger).
Imagine you don't do the above in the beginning, your channel has grown to let's say 4000 subs and you decide, let's start a Facebook fan page. You will search for your name and… it's taken! s**t! Now you have to find some name, that sound similar or not even that and your "brand name" is gone! You see, it is important to that even if you might not use it at that point yet, but this way you will have it already secured for the future.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget to keep the accounts alive to not lose them over time due to inactivity.
If you do make use of them right in the beginning, they might become (a) great tool(s) to share your videos on different platforms and therefore get more traffic to your YouTube channel. You have to understand that not everyone likes to search on YouTube or that YT isn't their first website they go to when going online. It might be Facebook, Twitter or any of the other sites. But when you can capture subs and views by utilising the above or other platforms I consider them worth wile and they should be made use of!
5. Video-Quality of your content
I read in another thread that someone answered the question if HD or Full HD is necessary with "no need"! That is wrong, so wrong. This is though only shot term, not long term. Yes, many or maybe even most do not watch videos on youtube in 720p or 1080p due to slow internet connection or because their hardware (PC) cannot cope with the quality, but this is now! What in 2/5/10 years down the line? Internet speed is increasing all over the world, the hardware is getting better by the minute and in not to long people will not watch anything than 720p or 1080p as they will be used to High Definition quality!
I was once told that you should never take pictures in lower quality than the highest possible as you never know if you want to use the picture on day for print outs, the same for videos.
If I look at my old videos, I wish I would have had 1080p available years back, the content would be some much better to watch now. You basically future proof your creations and make the lifespan of the video longer.
6. Schedules - keep your uploads constant and stick to a schedule
Very easy to explain - compare it to your favourite TV show. You know it is aired every Wednesday at 8pm and you are looking forward to it and either get the time to watch it live or you record it to watch it later. Yes, some might argue that Youtube content will be there even 2hours or 3 weeks later, but if you have fans that follow you they want your next video as soon as possible or at least they want to know when the next video will be out! By sticking to a schedule (that you have shared with them) they will be more loyal and they will come and watch your videos as soon as they get published.
The number of content you publish depends on your topic and your available time, do not over promise anything like "a video every 12 hours if you cannot deliver it"! I personally stick to "one new video every day" and I schedule them to be public at the same time every day!
7. Reply to all comments - show respect
This one I would consider the easiest way to get respect and give respect back to your viewers. If someone takes the time and leaves a comment below your video, be kind enough to answer this comment, even if it is just an acknowledgement like "Thank you". This will get your more interactions and your video ail get a little push every time someone comes back to reply to your answer and others might get motivated to leave a comment too. Snowball effect...
8. Intro - Outro
If technically possible make an intro and an outro. The intro should be short (max. 5 seconds) as a longer one is annoying for your regular viewers. They know you, have already subscribed and they don't want to see it every time. 5 seconds they don't mind, but 10-15 seconds or more, no way they will do that and they might get annoyed by it at one point.
The intro should have your name in it and maybe even the "call of action" to subscribe (that's what I have). Something related to your channel, with a bit of music and attractive to the eye.
The outro should have the "call of action" to subscribe and a preview of the next video and if possible the date when it will be published as annotation (so that you can remove it and change it with an annotation that will right away bring yo to the video when it will be published. If you can technically add your other platforms you are using in the outro like Facebook or any other social network or even your website if you have one.
Ask for subscriptions once or twice in the video, ideally in the intro and/or outro. Don't overdo it though, just a quick "subscribe" or a subscribe button with an annotation that will get you to the subscribe page to make it quick.
9. Annotations
As already mentioned, you should use the for two things mainly, "call of action" to subscribe to your channel and link to other videos of yours! Don't overdo it and don't spam your own videos full of annoying annotations.
10. Video response below your own video or related videos of others
Video responses needs to be treated like free advertisement for you. If you leave a video reply in someone else's video that is successful already and doesn't mind (though most people unfortunately mind as they think it's competition) it might get your views from other videos that you would have not gotten otherwise. If no one approves your video response just leave them on your own videos, they might get your viewers (or new viewers) to watch another one of your videos once the finished the first one.
11. Video tags
Very important, check SEO optimisation on google for more on this, but checking Adwords for the right tags might get you the views that you might not have gotten without. Tags determine if someone will find your video when searching for a certain topic or word, the more that use the same words, the less the chance to get views on search engines.
12. Video description
The description below your video is like a short info for the views to find out what this video is about. You can post info about what you have done in the video and what they can expect. If the video is longer you can leave a summary of the content with the respective timing so the viewers can "jump" to the right sections for them, i.e. "main character fight" at 3:34 min. for the gamers here.
13. Friends on youtube / "partnership" with others who do the same
Do not under estimate the importance of friends. They can help you out with advise or even real help when you are stuck with something or even cross promoting each other. "Partnership" here is not meant with networks for monetization, but for partnering up with someone else that does the same thing and do a collaboration video with him/her. For example, you both review a game, maybe even an online game and you play together to beat a main character. Both of you can use certain parts of it in your respective video and cross link and cross advertise each others videos afterwards.
14. Leave comments on other videos
Important aspect to get you out there, every comment in others videos get you the possibility to be seen by others. However, do not spam, meaning don't leave comment like "I have a better video about this" or "this video sucks, check out mine"! This will get you "enemies" rather than friends. With leaving comments on videos you like you might get
friends that will leave comment in your videos and this way both of you can benefit. Win-Win situation!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not wait too long to reply, keep a formula of max. 24 hours after having received a comment otherwise it doesn't make a difference anymore or only a little one. In the business world emails for example need to be answered within 24 hours, that's the standard, but the earlier the better.
15. YouTube Analytics/ Vidstatsx
This is again coming back to SEO, if you don't know who your "market" is, how do you know if you reach the right people! Let's say you do music videos to attract teenage girls, but you don't check analytics. You might actually attract middle aged men instead but you don't know it. If you would know, you could target this group more intense and focused and create content for them to get this audience to increase or you could change your music to get those teenage girls instead!
I believe that the potential in actually fully utilsing the analytics it huge and I think most don't even really look at them. If you see that you get a lot of views on a particular video from a particular area you should eyry to copy that success and do more videos like this. If you see certain videos are not getting you the results, skip them and try something else instead.
16. Check your "competition"
It's actually not nice to call anyone "competition", but hey, you make videos for people to see them and to get views and subs. If you think you are the only one out there, well, something is wrong. If you check the ones that do what you do but better, you can try to "copy" them with their success or do something that is better and in the longterm overtake them. Your competition doesn't sleep and if they do it's your chance to create something better.
17. Make a series - keep it consistent
A series of videos with a string/ connection will keep your viewers interested in the next part. It's very easy, imagine your favourite TV show again, when it does get exiting, they finish the episode and show you a little trailer of the next episode and if you want to know how the story will continue you will have to come back for the next episode! Same applies for your videos, make the series out of them and don't show all what you have in one 25 min long video that no one will ever watch until further than minute 5:00!
18. Length of your video
This is a tricky one, but YouTube analytics helps you with that. It obviously depends on your topic, but if you do reviews they should be informative but precise and down to the point. If you play games they obviously will depend on the action in the game, but you should cut out the boring stuff that doesn't effect the result of the game. In my case, my videos are kept between 1:00 - 2:00 min. if possible as I have checked that my viewers retention is around 1:00 min. So why do I make videos longer than that? Because certain things cannot be shown in such short time and the ones that like to see all details of the car will watch until the end.
19. Make something new once in a while
If you are successful with a certain style if video, id doesn't mean that this will continue for ever! Once in a while it is advised that you will make something new to keep your loyal fans entertained and to refresh you content. It will not only be positive for your audience but as well for you and give you a new push that can motivate you and keeps you out of the routine!
20. Try to get featured on related websites - cross link it in your description - thank them for it to get you featured again in the future
That's obviously out of your hand in most of the cases. But, if you produce good content (which should be your main idea) and you do get featured on some related website - thank the website admin or whoever did feature you and put a link in your video description. You can even leave an annotation in your video saying that your video has been featured on this and that website or forum - which can generate more traffic for the website operator who in the end could feature another one of your videos. Win-win again!
21. Meet with people who do the same - online or in real life and exchange ideas
YTtalk is a great platform for this already, but if you have someone that does what you do and you can meet up, do so in real life. Sitting over a coffee and discussing what you both love and enjoy doing can trigger some great results and maybe even end up in the above mentioned partnership.
22. MOST IMPORTANT
Make the next video the best you have done so far - every time!
Thanks, I hope this helps the new guys here and/or even some of the ones that have already several thousand subs on their channel.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
cheers
Patrick3331
As I have a very different experience on having "success" with my channel I thought I would write a guide on how I made my channel grow. As it seems the majority of channels here are either gaming channels or VLOG's and ranting channels of some kind with the comedy and music channel in between.
As a growth curve of a gaming channel is way steeper and faster from what I have seen over the past days studying some of the channels here on vidstatsx.com, I will write from a different perspective with my Car spotting channel and content creation that involves going out and recording in public, both planned and spontaneous.
So, let me give you my guide on how a channel that has car spotting.
1. First of all, choosing the category/ topic
Chose what you wish to do a YouTube channel about will determine the strategy you should have.
2. Chose an area of interest and stick to it
As my channel didn't start as a pure car channel, it grew only very slow. I started with YT back in 2006 and I was posting whenever I felt I want to post something that I like. This included cars (I was interested in cars since I was a toddler pretty much), city scape, fish tanks at home, knifes, watches and what ever random stuff I thought I want to put on YT. Obviously this was the first mistake, I didn't dedicate the channel right from the beginning and specialised on one thing only! That is what you have to do!
3. Chose the right name - you can't change it afterwards anymore
Another lesson I learned very late was the right name can (don't have to, but it can) influence your success or at least the possibility if people know what your channel is about. My name "Patrick3331" is a combination of my name and a number that was once important to me. It has nothing to do with cars at all and for someone who is searching for car channels my name has no connection at all. A name that reflects your topic would have helped me more in the beginning stage to grow, for example "SickRides" or "Supercars", you get the point.
4. Go across all platforms right from the start
We continue with something that is very important - some may contradict with my opinion here - but you should right away use all platforms that are out there. What I mean is, when you have chosen a name (before you actually start your channel) and make sure that you have the name available on all possible platforms you might be using in the future.
This includes the following (but not only):
Facebook.yourname
Pinstagram
Tumblr
any topic related forums you know or have researched about
your email for business inquiries (for the future)
your website (at least secure your domain name with .com at the end (or which ever webadress is the best for your country
etc.
You might ask, "really, I just want to do a youtube channel", but yes, in my opinion this should be done right at the beginning, it will help you tons once your channel is big(ger).
Imagine you don't do the above in the beginning, your channel has grown to let's say 4000 subs and you decide, let's start a Facebook fan page. You will search for your name and… it's taken! s**t! Now you have to find some name, that sound similar or not even that and your "brand name" is gone! You see, it is important to that even if you might not use it at that point yet, but this way you will have it already secured for the future.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't forget to keep the accounts alive to not lose them over time due to inactivity.
If you do make use of them right in the beginning, they might become (a) great tool(s) to share your videos on different platforms and therefore get more traffic to your YouTube channel. You have to understand that not everyone likes to search on YouTube or that YT isn't their first website they go to when going online. It might be Facebook, Twitter or any of the other sites. But when you can capture subs and views by utilising the above or other platforms I consider them worth wile and they should be made use of!
5. Video-Quality of your content
I read in another thread that someone answered the question if HD or Full HD is necessary with "no need"! That is wrong, so wrong. This is though only shot term, not long term. Yes, many or maybe even most do not watch videos on youtube in 720p or 1080p due to slow internet connection or because their hardware (PC) cannot cope with the quality, but this is now! What in 2/5/10 years down the line? Internet speed is increasing all over the world, the hardware is getting better by the minute and in not to long people will not watch anything than 720p or 1080p as they will be used to High Definition quality!
I was once told that you should never take pictures in lower quality than the highest possible as you never know if you want to use the picture on day for print outs, the same for videos.
If I look at my old videos, I wish I would have had 1080p available years back, the content would be some much better to watch now. You basically future proof your creations and make the lifespan of the video longer.
6. Schedules - keep your uploads constant and stick to a schedule
Very easy to explain - compare it to your favourite TV show. You know it is aired every Wednesday at 8pm and you are looking forward to it and either get the time to watch it live or you record it to watch it later. Yes, some might argue that Youtube content will be there even 2hours or 3 weeks later, but if you have fans that follow you they want your next video as soon as possible or at least they want to know when the next video will be out! By sticking to a schedule (that you have shared with them) they will be more loyal and they will come and watch your videos as soon as they get published.
The number of content you publish depends on your topic and your available time, do not over promise anything like "a video every 12 hours if you cannot deliver it"! I personally stick to "one new video every day" and I schedule them to be public at the same time every day!
7. Reply to all comments - show respect
This one I would consider the easiest way to get respect and give respect back to your viewers. If someone takes the time and leaves a comment below your video, be kind enough to answer this comment, even if it is just an acknowledgement like "Thank you". This will get your more interactions and your video ail get a little push every time someone comes back to reply to your answer and others might get motivated to leave a comment too. Snowball effect...
8. Intro - Outro
If technically possible make an intro and an outro. The intro should be short (max. 5 seconds) as a longer one is annoying for your regular viewers. They know you, have already subscribed and they don't want to see it every time. 5 seconds they don't mind, but 10-15 seconds or more, no way they will do that and they might get annoyed by it at one point.
The intro should have your name in it and maybe even the "call of action" to subscribe (that's what I have). Something related to your channel, with a bit of music and attractive to the eye.
The outro should have the "call of action" to subscribe and a preview of the next video and if possible the date when it will be published as annotation (so that you can remove it and change it with an annotation that will right away bring yo to the video when it will be published. If you can technically add your other platforms you are using in the outro like Facebook or any other social network or even your website if you have one.
Ask for subscriptions once or twice in the video, ideally in the intro and/or outro. Don't overdo it though, just a quick "subscribe" or a subscribe button with an annotation that will get you to the subscribe page to make it quick.
9. Annotations
As already mentioned, you should use the for two things mainly, "call of action" to subscribe to your channel and link to other videos of yours! Don't overdo it and don't spam your own videos full of annoying annotations.
10. Video response below your own video or related videos of others
Video responses needs to be treated like free advertisement for you. If you leave a video reply in someone else's video that is successful already and doesn't mind (though most people unfortunately mind as they think it's competition) it might get your views from other videos that you would have not gotten otherwise. If no one approves your video response just leave them on your own videos, they might get your viewers (or new viewers) to watch another one of your videos once the finished the first one.
11. Video tags
Very important, check SEO optimisation on google for more on this, but checking Adwords for the right tags might get you the views that you might not have gotten without. Tags determine if someone will find your video when searching for a certain topic or word, the more that use the same words, the less the chance to get views on search engines.
12. Video description
The description below your video is like a short info for the views to find out what this video is about. You can post info about what you have done in the video and what they can expect. If the video is longer you can leave a summary of the content with the respective timing so the viewers can "jump" to the right sections for them, i.e. "main character fight" at 3:34 min. for the gamers here.
13. Friends on youtube / "partnership" with others who do the same
Do not under estimate the importance of friends. They can help you out with advise or even real help when you are stuck with something or even cross promoting each other. "Partnership" here is not meant with networks for monetization, but for partnering up with someone else that does the same thing and do a collaboration video with him/her. For example, you both review a game, maybe even an online game and you play together to beat a main character. Both of you can use certain parts of it in your respective video and cross link and cross advertise each others videos afterwards.
14. Leave comments on other videos
Important aspect to get you out there, every comment in others videos get you the possibility to be seen by others. However, do not spam, meaning don't leave comment like "I have a better video about this" or "this video sucks, check out mine"! This will get you "enemies" rather than friends. With leaving comments on videos you like you might get
friends that will leave comment in your videos and this way both of you can benefit. Win-Win situation!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not wait too long to reply, keep a formula of max. 24 hours after having received a comment otherwise it doesn't make a difference anymore or only a little one. In the business world emails for example need to be answered within 24 hours, that's the standard, but the earlier the better.
15. YouTube Analytics/ Vidstatsx
This is again coming back to SEO, if you don't know who your "market" is, how do you know if you reach the right people! Let's say you do music videos to attract teenage girls, but you don't check analytics. You might actually attract middle aged men instead but you don't know it. If you would know, you could target this group more intense and focused and create content for them to get this audience to increase or you could change your music to get those teenage girls instead!
I believe that the potential in actually fully utilsing the analytics it huge and I think most don't even really look at them. If you see that you get a lot of views on a particular video from a particular area you should eyry to copy that success and do more videos like this. If you see certain videos are not getting you the results, skip them and try something else instead.
16. Check your "competition"
It's actually not nice to call anyone "competition", but hey, you make videos for people to see them and to get views and subs. If you think you are the only one out there, well, something is wrong. If you check the ones that do what you do but better, you can try to "copy" them with their success or do something that is better and in the longterm overtake them. Your competition doesn't sleep and if they do it's your chance to create something better.
17. Make a series - keep it consistent
A series of videos with a string/ connection will keep your viewers interested in the next part. It's very easy, imagine your favourite TV show again, when it does get exiting, they finish the episode and show you a little trailer of the next episode and if you want to know how the story will continue you will have to come back for the next episode! Same applies for your videos, make the series out of them and don't show all what you have in one 25 min long video that no one will ever watch until further than minute 5:00!
18. Length of your video
This is a tricky one, but YouTube analytics helps you with that. It obviously depends on your topic, but if you do reviews they should be informative but precise and down to the point. If you play games they obviously will depend on the action in the game, but you should cut out the boring stuff that doesn't effect the result of the game. In my case, my videos are kept between 1:00 - 2:00 min. if possible as I have checked that my viewers retention is around 1:00 min. So why do I make videos longer than that? Because certain things cannot be shown in such short time and the ones that like to see all details of the car will watch until the end.
19. Make something new once in a while
If you are successful with a certain style if video, id doesn't mean that this will continue for ever! Once in a while it is advised that you will make something new to keep your loyal fans entertained and to refresh you content. It will not only be positive for your audience but as well for you and give you a new push that can motivate you and keeps you out of the routine!
20. Try to get featured on related websites - cross link it in your description - thank them for it to get you featured again in the future
That's obviously out of your hand in most of the cases. But, if you produce good content (which should be your main idea) and you do get featured on some related website - thank the website admin or whoever did feature you and put a link in your video description. You can even leave an annotation in your video saying that your video has been featured on this and that website or forum - which can generate more traffic for the website operator who in the end could feature another one of your videos. Win-win again!
21. Meet with people who do the same - online or in real life and exchange ideas
YTtalk is a great platform for this already, but if you have someone that does what you do and you can meet up, do so in real life. Sitting over a coffee and discussing what you both love and enjoy doing can trigger some great results and maybe even end up in the above mentioned partnership.
22. MOST IMPORTANT
Make the next video the best you have done so far - every time!
Thanks, I hope this helps the new guys here and/or even some of the ones that have already several thousand subs on their channel.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
cheers
Patrick3331
[DOUBLEPOST=1369407168,1369406781][/DOUBLEPOST]Great advice Patrick!