The ULTIMATE YouTube Guide!

Jukenut

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Introduction

Let me make it clear about this guide. This guide will NOT make you successful on YouTube. No guide can or ever will. You will no wake up as Niga Higa the next morning even if you follow every step. In the end, It all falls on to you. If you do it right, you will see success, if not, like most people, you will fail and it will all be a huge waste of time.

This guide aim is to GUIDE you on your YouTube journey. YouTube can be the most rewarding experience in your life, or it could be a giant waste of time. Nobody can give you success, you have to work for it.

There won't be any sugar coating in this guide. I am not here to hold your hand walking you through a park, smiling and telling you that you will succeed.

No. Most of you will fail, like 99% of people trying to be "YouTube famous". YouTube fame cannot be achieved easily, so don't expect to.

But that doesn't mean it is impossible to be successful on YouTube. It is always possible BUT it is getting harder every year. So the best time to start is NOW.

Although I run a gaming channel, all these tips that I am going to give out can apply to ALL types of channels. Whether you do cooking, vlogging, or you just want to twerk infront of a camera.. My main focus is gaming though, because I am more experienced in it.

Now, why should you listen to me? What makes my guide different than all the others? Good question.
You should listen to me, or at least try to, because I am a failure. I failed 3 f*****g times trying to do YouTube. I failed for 4 years.

I made three separate YouTube channels that never get to see the light of the day. It began when I was 14 and wanted fame, so I made YouTube videos. Guess where that all lead me to?

But all that failure was all worth it. I learnt from my multiple failures, figured out what I did wrong and corrected them. Then, on September of 2014, I began my new YouTube channel, "JukeNut". All I have learnt from the years, all those failures, I used them. After 4 months of hard work, I now have 5400+ subscribers and am gaining 100 subscribers A DAY. Amazing right? How did I do it? Well, that is what this guide it for. I will tell you my secret.

Before I get started, I will like to shout out the EXCELLENT guides out there, that you MUST read too.

UberDanger' s guide:
http://yttalk.com/threads/overall-growth-guide-for-new-small-channels.104571/
http://yttalk.com/threads/gateway-videos-the-complete-guide.152974/

I am sure most of you are familiar with @uberdanger. He makes guides which are short BUT very effective. Heck, the main reason I had success is because I did what he said in his guides. I have a lot of respect to him, though sometimes I feel annoyed by his personality in his videos(Please don't hurt me Uber)


Freddie Wong's guide
http://rocketjump.com/blog/the-secrets-of-youtube-success-updated

This guide. Oh man. This is probably THE BEST YouTube guide out there. Certainly, the best I have read. Just read it. Nothing else to say.

Welsknight's guide
http://reddit.com/r/letsplay/comments/2oqin6/guide_how_to_grow_your_channel_first_few_months

I recently found this guide in reddit, and this is a short and informative guide. Definitely check it out.

The Secret

The secret to be successful on YouTube is actually simple. Make Quality videos.

Wait. That's the secret? I clicked on this guide, read everything and the secret is something I already knew?

Yes, yes it is. The secret was staring at your face the whole time. But fear not! I will go in more depth on how to create quality videos. That's why I wasted my time writing this guide.

Before Starting Out
Alright, lets get started shall we? I know most of you already have a YouTube channel, but, this section is still very very important. So read on.

Define what "success" means to you
Everyone defines "success" differently. Some thinks getting 100 subscribers is a success, while others consider 1 million subs a success. Define your own meaning of "success".

Commitment
This has to be one of the, if not, the most important thing you have to do. COMMIT to your channel.

Let me tell you something. YouTube is very time consuming hobby. You have to put time and effort in it. Personally, I use up 1-3 hours everyday to get clips for my popular series "Life of a gold". And it takes 1 month to make one. So, generally I spent 30-90 hours to make 1 video of mine. Crazy right?

Put time in your videos. Work hard on your videos. Sounds cliché right? Because it is, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

Like I said, YouTube is not easy, why should a random guy that happens to stumble across your channel subscribe to you, when they are literally thousands of other channels doing the same thing? To make them stay, you have to create quality videos, unique videos. To make them, you have to commit making and spend time refining them.

Full-time YouTubers put a butt load of effort into their videos. Don't expect to match their success if you don't put as much effort as them.

Consistency
This is also related to commitment. You HAVE to put consistent content. "How many videos should I upload a week?" You may ask. Well, that's all up to you. I personally upload once a week, but, you can upload 3 times as much, BUT it has to be good. I will discuss this later below.

Consistency is the key to creating a successful YouTube channel. If you are not consistent, your subscribers will "forget" about you and lose interest in your videos. This is why I emphasize that YouTube is a time consuming hobby, you have to put in the hours to create consistent content, not only that, your content needs to be good too.

Like Freddie Wong said "A consistent audience requires consistent content."

Attitude
You have to have the right attitude when starting a YouTube channel. Most people fail because their thought process is something like "Pewdiepie makes lets plays, and makes so much money?! Heck, I can do that too!". They then proceed to make s****y content and wonder why nobody watches it, and so they quit YouTube.

What is the right attitude? Well, first off:


    • Don't expect to be successful overnight- Success does not come overnight. A lot of famous YouTubers worked years to be where they are now. You should expect to put in years and years of effort too. Sound off putting? Well don't do YouTube then. You may argue that you have seen a couple of people become well known by just making videos for a few months. True, but only a few has accomplished it. Also, they create GOOD content, which is rare. So don't expect it to happen to you too. Because it probably won't.

    • Patience - This is why a lot of YouTubers quit. They lack patience. You HAVE to be patient if you want to do YouTube. Like I stated above, success does not come overnight. It can and probably will take years to achieve fame.

    • Enjoyment - This is perhaps the most important one. If you are not enjoying what you are doing, you will quit sooner or later. Simple as that.


Equipment
Yes, you need good equipment. But don't get me wrong, you don't need to purchase the best camera or gaming rig out there or stuff like that. But, you have to have good ones. No one will ever bother watching your videos if they are forced to watch it in 360p or if your audio is horrible. Everyone now,expects HD videos and clear audio.

So, if you don't have good equipment. Buy it now. You don't have a choice in this one. I am sure you can get good recommendation if you searched online.

Channel

    • Username: Now the fun bit! Let your imagination run wild when deciding this one. But, for the love of God and anything that is holy, please do not come up with a username that a 13 year old will come out with: xxxsex69xxx or 420blazeit. If I see you do this, I will slam my face on my keyboard repeatedly and you will have to pay for the surgery. Come out with eye catching usernames. Don't do something like mine. "JukeNut" isn't the best, but, it certainly isn't the worst. Come up with something unique. I am sure you will come up with something.

    • Type of channel: Do you want to do vlogging? Gaming? Do what you want. But remember. Thousand and thousand of people are already doing what you want to do. So if you want to stand out, come out with something unique. That's the hardest part and I am still struggling with this.

    • Video title: Keep in mind that your title must be catchy and clear BUT not misleading. This is the third most important thing that you have to think of when uploading a video.

    • Thumbnails: Ah, the second most important bit. Thumbnails is the first thing people will look at, then the video title. If it is interesting enough, they will click it. That is why you should not make misleading thumbnails and video title. If they click it and see that it is not what they wanted. They probably will instantly click away or some might dislike your video and spend the next few minutes thinking of the most creative way to insult you or your mom in the comment section. Your thumbnails have to be attractive. You can find how to make an attractive one by watching tutorials on YouTube. I recommend Photoshop to create thumbnails. That's what most people use anyways.


    • Video description: This isn't as important as the other two, but still important nevertheless. Your video description can vary, really. You can make it descriptive, or just make a summary of your video and post your social media links. Make sure not to look too desperate though.

    • Tags: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. I cannot emphasize enough on how important tags are. If you don't bother putting tags, you might as well not upload your video. That is how important tags are. Unfortunately, I am not an expert in tags, I can make tags that will make my video pop up in the front page of the search result, but it will not be at the top. I need to learn more about tags. But for now, you can watch tutorials on how to tag your video properly.
      . Seriously, watch as much tutorials as you can. This is what is going to help you get yourself out there.


Target audience
What type of audience do you want to have? 13 year olds (cough... cough.. PewDiePie), teenagers? Parents?

If you want to swear a lot, aim for teenagers, adult etc.

Audience
Know your audience. Ask them what they would like you to improve on. But DO NOT do whatever they say just to please them. You can never please everybody. Do what you like, but listen to your audience too.

Audience retention
This means the overall measure of your video's ability to retain its audience. You are not creating your first video just yet BUT you need to know about this.

Humans get bored easily. Usually on YouTube, if the first 10 seconds of your video is not entertaining, they will click away.

To counter this, you have to make the first 10 seconds of your videos as interesting as possible. That is why I always speak negatively about intros. Intros just make people click away. Nobody wants to see your channel name display on their screen for 10 seconds. I advice against putting intros. Instead, if you are doing a gaming channel, put one of your best clips at the beginning. Do not put your best as, if you do, the rest of your video will probably bore them out and they will click away.


Know your competition
Man, there are a lot of competitors, are they? Now think. How do you stand out? Well, firstly, you have to be unique. I have mentioned this multiple time in the thread already. Now it is time to emphasize a little.

My channel got popular recently because of my unique videos. Nobody has done what I am doing now. That's why people watch my videos and subscribe to me. And if people are already doing what I am doing, I am doing it better than them.

Seriously, be unique. Find a way to be different than all the hundreds or thousands of people. Maybe you have a unique voice? Maybe you are really energetic? Maybe you can come up with the funniest jokes in an instant? Find it and utilize it in your videos. This is important. Don't forget this.




Alright! You have read it this far! Congratulations! You already know what to do before you start out. Now what do you do when you have the equipment, software, figured out your username, channel type and know how to be unique? Well, now you have to know how to create good quality content! Yay....



Creating good content is hard. I can't really guide you through this. You have to learn it by experience. But I will try, as hard as it may be.

The first tip I can give you is:

Focus on content, not on viewers
This one is hard. Everyone will always focus on how many view they have gotten etc. I do this too. But you have to remember to just focus on the quality of your content.

From FreddieW:
How do I get views? How do I get good ratings? What do people want to see? The answer to all these questions is good content.

“Good” is entirely subjective, I might add. Look at Fred’s success – he didn’t get that successful from people hating those videos. At one point, the majority his audience loved them and were passing them around. But his audience was young and fickle, and if there’s one thing I know about being 11 years old, it’s that when I was 13, I hated everything I liked at 11.

The biggest mistake I see in a lot of channels is putting all their effort into grabbing viewers. They’ll spam other videos, they’ll send mass messages, and pay for shady promotion schemes in the hopes of gaining an audience that way. I’ve seen a lot of comments asking for people to “Please check out my channel!”

Think about this: when’s the last time someone handed you a flyer on the street? Did you throw it away? Would you have thrown it away if it was your friend handing it to you?

Total strangers advertising themselves isn’t enough. There needs to be more of a reason to make the effort to watch something. The easiest way to do this is have content that’s so good, people’s friends are sending it to them.

And if you trick somebody into watching one of your videos, what are the odds they’ll ever come back? What are the chances they’ll actually pass that video along to a friend? If your content isn’t appealing, a viewer won’t even finish your video before they close the window.

In short, don’t take a viewer-centric approach, i.e. “How do I get people to watch my video?” This doesn’t work.

Quality >Quantity
You probably already know this, so I will not explain much. It is always better to create and upload a quality video once a week than to upload average-ish video 3 times a week. This is why a lot of YouTubers (nigahiga etc) dont upload frequently, but they do upload consitently. Quality is always important.

Enjoy making your videos
Seriously guys, if you are not enjoying it, there isn't much use to waste your time and upload. Your viewers will know if you are not enjoying it anymore. Try to enjoy it, don't stress it too much.

Gateway videos
This is what UberDanger call it. If you do not understand, go see his guide that I linked above.

Another term for it is "sticky video". It basically a video series that can have viral potential. For example. @uberdanger 's gateway video is "Adventure of AD/AP...." and he makes a series out of it. This is the main reason why he is so successful. It has viral potential, when people watch it, they will probably share it to their friends. You want that.

If you do not make gateway videos, it will be really hard for you to become successful. almost every gaming YouTuber has a gateway video and is the main reason for their success.

To make a gateway video, your video must be:
1) Preferably 3-10 minutes
2) If you have a long gateway video, every second of it MUST be entertaining.
3) Good editing
4) Clear (HD)
5) Appealing music
6) Unique (no one has done it before)

There are a lot more factor but you will learn them as you create them, like I did.

Length
A lot of people advice you to make all your videos short as possible. This is somewhat true. But what you really want to do is make every second as entertaining as possible.

For example. if you create a 3 minute video, but your video only has 1 minute of entertainment and you create a video which is 30 minutes long, but have 30 minutes of entertainment. The latter will be more successful. Why? Lol don't ask me that.

It doesn't really matter if your videos are long, as long as every bit of that video is entertaining.

The reason why I advice your gateway videos to be as short as possible is because it is very hard to create a gateway video which is long and entertaining. You want your viewers to watch to the very end of your gateway video. So as a general rule, keep yours short.

Appealing content
This. This is where many people go wrong from what I seen in this specific forum. I am not trying to bash you guys or anything but..... why make videos of old video games. Just... why? Nobody will have any interest in it anymore.

Create content that is appealing. Maybe a new released game? I don't know what is appealing now. But researched about it. Don't create videos of games that was created in 2000. Lol. The audience for that is too small.

One of the reason I have a burst of subscribers recently is because I create videos of a game (CS:GO) where it is still very popular to this very day. Heck, it got even more popular recently thus more people watching my videos, making me have more views and thus subs.

Make your next video always better than the previous one

Another popular tip. Rather straight forward. Make your upcoming video better than the previous one. I have seen some channels that create gateway video, the first few of them were really good, but then the later ones were crap. Thus less people watching, and you never want that to happen.

Don't make too much type of content
Basically, do not create too much type of content, For example, You have 2 series of gateway videos. Don't push yourself and make 10. Your subscribers will lose interest. See this video for more info.


Alright, hopefully now you have the basic idea of how to create quality content! Good! Now here are some more tips:

Audience
Now another audience tip. You have regular viewers now. Great. Now, interact with them. Every time they comment on your videos, comment back. Show that you care. This is how you are going to make loyal viewers. Get to know them, talk with them (comment section or via social media), and soon you will have a bunch of loyal subscribers.

Hate
You receive your first hate comment/message. "Fuk u, I h8 yr vids." What do you do?

Rejoice! What?! Yes, you heard me, rejoice!

You have gotten your first hater! Great! This means your channel is growing and more people are seeing your videos. You are doing something right! Go out and celebrate. You deserved it!

All successful people, YouTuber or not, have haters. It just the way the world works. They may be jealous of your success or maybe they just hate your face.

But remember, if the majority of your viewers are haters. You are doing something very very wrong.

Now, what do you do after you have done celebrating? Well, ignore the hate, don't let it get to you. Seriously, it can be hard especially if you get multiple of them. But just ignore them.

DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT, REPLY TO THE HATER. THAT IS THE WORST THING YOU CAN POSSIBLE DO.

Remember criticism is NOT hate. I will explain more below.

Criticism

You now got your first criticism. "Your videos are great, but you can improve by doing this and this" or "This video isn't good as your other videos, here's why...."

First, read the comment, then re-read it. Were they right? Do people agree with him? Make changes then. Do you make jokes excessively and you got criticize for it? Make jokes less frequently then.

Don't forget to thank them for their criticism. They spent their time coming up with constructive feedback and want you to improve, so at the very least, Thank them or acknowledge your mistakes to them.

Now you have, a small fan base, make good and unique videos. It's time to promote (You can promote your channel before you even have a fanbase, like I did, but you have to make sure your videos are REALLY good).


Promotion


Ah, this is the one many people struggle in. First and foremost, before you promote, you need to have good content.

If a restaurant is advertising a new salad, you purchased and ate it. Horrible. So many better salads out there. Let's go to a new restaurant where they sell better salad!

Reddit

This is probably the best place to advertise. The only place I advertise. It has net me hundred of thousands of views.

You should go to uberdanger's reddit guide first before continuing
http://yttalk.com/threads/the-smart-dingus-guide-to-reddit.101288/

Basically you have to find an appropriate sub reddit to promote. Then promote it. BUT WAIT.


Is your content good enough to promote? I know you are tired of me saying this. But seriously, only promote your very best video. No, your very best video is not you commentating on a game, and it has 6 likes. Don't.

Promote your gateway videos here. It has to be good. If not, you will get hated, your video will get disliked and if you continue promoting, you will be perma banned from reddit. It's harsh, so only promote your best gateway video.

Make sure to follow the 6:1 submission rule of reddit, or you will be banned. You can find more info if you bother searching it up.

Yeah, twitter, facebook and all that crap. Not effective. Reddit is your only option.

End

If you do happen to achieve success months/years after reading this then...
Congrats man, you earn every bit of it. I hope you are enjoying your success. be sure to remember me if you ever get huge! :)

And don't forget, enjoy making videos.


Last words


I hope you find my guide helpful. YouTube is not for everyone. 99% of people will fail. It's hard like that. Too many competitors, so much expectations from people....

But failure or not, I hope you did enjoy your journey in YouTube. It's a magical world there. I mean, a person that is probably halfway across the world from you, is watching your videos and enjoying it! How cool is that?!

I have spent 4 hours making this guide. I do this for free but I would appreciate a like or a comment telling that you appreciate my guide or something. Or you could even criticize some of my points. At least make me acknowledge that you have read it.

I would like to thank @Michael for being helpful, @uberdanger for creating guides helping me in my YouTube journey and finally you guys for reading.

Anyways, I am so tired now, 4 hours of typing and thinking. I could almost faint any moment now. So I hope you enjoy and let me kn-


 
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GamersName

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Now i need a mug of coffee after reading this. A really great and valuable guide, someone should make it a sticky thread.
 

Chance C

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Though it is a good guide, good guides dont really contain swear words in it, therefore I give it a 9/10 for quality and effort, the downside of the swear words was kind of pointless.
 

Jukenut

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Though it is a good guide, good guides dont really contain swear words in it, therefore I give it a 9/10 for quality and effort, the downside of the swear words was kind of pointless.
I put my personality in this guide. I swear a lot thus this guide having them
 

Chance C

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I put my personality in this guide. I swear a lot thus this guide having them
I like the guide a lot i can give you that for a fact, would love to know where you / how you tag your videos properly as I think that will help me out, what sort of base tags do you put?.

fair enough if you swear a lot, sometimes swearing isnt needed in a sentence and it makes something go from a age 3+ video to a 12+
 

Selim Keles

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Great guide Dude that was probaly the best guide I've seen i will take that all in and try to make my videos first things first I need to buy a webcam soon
:welldone:
 
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XiaoK

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great, time for yam cha lol
 

Aviticus_Dragon

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This is mostly common sense. I have yet to read a guide that actually brings something new to the table. Most of these guides are saying the same thing in different ways. At the end of the day - Reddit is powerful (your growth seems to have come from posting there considering you have 50+ upvotes on all your videos), and quality videos are key.

Still though, for those new to the YouTube scene it may help so thanks for taking the time to write it.
 

Kijana

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This is mostly common sense. I have yet to read a guide that actually brings something new to the table. Most of these guides are saying the same thing in different ways. At the end of the day - Reddit is powerful (your growth seems to have come from posting there considering you have 50+ upvotes on all your videos), and quality videos are key.

Still though, for those new to the YouTube scene it may help so thanks for taking the time to write it.
I agree. He made it seem like he actually had something new to share but instead it was a combination of old guides along with advice we all hear from the experience of Youtubing. I was reading it waiting to hear something new that could actually prove helpful but before I knew it, I was done reading it. It's a great read for newbie Youtubers that never heard any of this stuff but nothing that can really help someone that's been struggling with YouTube for years.

YouTube is a game of luck and/or experience. You either get really lucky or you learn the best methods to gain subs. No guide will ever teach you how to become successful because you need to learn how to be successful on your own. If you are really dedicated and love YouTube, you might eventually reach a peak of enlightenment but it's not a guaranteed (keyword: might). Youtube isn't for everyone and 99% of us won't reach the height of success.
 
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LDClaudius

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I tried to actually worked on my resolution for 2015 last holiday, but I had to tell myself to keep my goals very simple. Like, I want to avoid reading comment and don't say anything on the internet (beside Reddit, YouTube, etc.). I didn't want to say anything because I like to have my own secrecy. Plus, I told myself to not care about the subscriber or viewers and let them come (same thing I'm doing for Twitch). And I tried hard to look for a game I though "Oh, this is a game I want to play and it feel like it appealing to me" like DayZ, Insurgency, and Star Citizen. I also covered that issue I had with the gaming industry back in 2014 where it explained why I never bought any newly released games. For that sake of this discussion, I'm not simply going to say it been bad, but it was OK. To me, I was better off sticking with Indie games. Regardless of what happens to my channel, it not going to matter since I'm going to pursuit my own interest elsewhere.