YouTube Collaboration Basics

[u_v]

Hi all,

Let's talk about YouTube collabs because they're great.

Goes back to the "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" situation here - but it's more than that. Yes, we all know YouTube Collabs bring in more views but it's also exposing yourself to a different kind of an audience, with different opinions and the more feedback to give. Of course, learning from your interactions with your audience can be a huge source of inspiration and help you grow the quality of your content that is leaning towards the preferences of your audience. Furthermore, with YouTube Collabs, you're building friendships, and a whole new network that is only going to do you good when you grow.

So let's get to the basics:

There are two ways collabs usually happen: in-person collabs and virtual collabs. The following basics would be applicable to both:

Basic flow of events:

1. Pick a partner

This is the stage where you look for someone to collab with you - regardless of whether you think they would collaborate with you - they need to pass your test first. Try to answer the following questions when looking for someone to collaborate with:

Does their content type match mine?
Does their personality match mine?
What's their audience like?
Is it worth collaborating? (are they big enough)
How would my audience react if I did collaborate with them?
​

You could look for partners either straight on YouTube, or on forums like YTTalk!

2. Reach out
​

Reach out to them - say 'Hi!' and introduce yourself. Maybe they've heard of you already. Maybe they've been thinking of doing a collab with you too. You never know. So don't be afraid to reach out. Use forums, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. to find a way to contact them.

But don't jump straight to collaborating - if you're trying to do a full, proper video with them, get to know them a little more. You can learn so much from another YouTuber just by talking!

(P.S: Don't get put off by the number of subscribers your potential collab has - if they're way bigger than you, it does not mean they wouldn't want to collab with someone they feel is cool. It can only hurt NOT to reach out to someone who could potentially bring in a thousand new subs!)

3. Decide on a topic
​

You want to reach on a creative agreement with your collaborator on what the video will be about. Make sure your topic applies to a mass audience, so that both your and their audience can relate to it. Remember, these things work out well if it benefits both the channels - NEVER only one way. You will have to be flexible with your creativity - don't be rigid and be open to new ideas.

Once you've got a topic - write a script. This is very important, especially for virtual collabs, the script would tell you what bits to record and when both come together the video would make perfect sense.

4. Meet in-person/share your film
​

In cases where you are lucky enough to live close to the person you are collaborating with - set up a time to meet for the collaboration. In other cases, film your bit of it and send it over. Do your part of the script and visualize how the final version would come together. Once you've filmed your part, upload it on Dropbox or Google Drive and send it over. You want to make sure you've sent the fully-edited version of your part - the specifics of the editing (such as if there are any filters etc. you want to consider) would have to be defined in the script - making sure you've sent the edited version of your part saves your partner time and he/she does not feel that you're simply dumping the editing on them. Do your own bits - everyone's got their own style and you should not lose it when collaborating.

5. Upload and share
​

Awesome. You've got your final video uploaded. Share it with your audience, make sure your partner does the same (social media, email etc. wherever possible).



Be yourself

A very important tip here is that you need to be the your exact same self that you are alone on your channel - your subs are watching your collab video because of the way you are alone. If you're going to give in to the suggestions of your partner to the extent that you lose your personality - the same personality that got you the views and subs you have so far - it's only going to backfire. While I do mention earlier in this post that you need to be flexible and open to new ideas, there is a limit to that. Do not give up what got you the subs you have just because your collab partner has some new ideas. Make sure they respect you and your creative guidelines.



Engage like a badass

Make sure that once the video goes live, you are actively engaging with not just your audience but also your partner's audience. You don't have to appear needy and acting like you're trying to steal their subs, but be nice, say hi and say thanks. Don't be an *******, they're going to be your new subs.



Provide value

This is when you're too small or too early in the game to do collabs - if you can't find anyone to collab with you, give them a shoutout on your channel. Promote their video, react to their video (although I'm not a huge fan of reaction channels myself), mention their channel name, mention their video - give them something. Remember, when you give before you ask, you increase your chances of finally getting what you ask someone for



That's going to be all for the basics of collaborating with other YouTubers, I'd love to hear what you guys think of this!

As always, if there's anything else you want to know about promoting your channel - reply to this thread and let me know!

^uv​

 

[MBGaming]

Nice and straight forward article ! Good one !
When I had 20 subs I reached out for my 1st collab and the other person had 70. We did some gameplay tests to see if our personalities match and if our audience would watch it.
We're still keeping in touch and doing things each month.
It's very nice to grow together with someone and share the success

 

[javacentral]

I've always thought a collab would be fun. Just haven't gotten to do one yet

 

[Porky]

Also if you're a gaming youtuber. Try to collab with someone in your country. It makes scheduling a time much easier if you're both on the same timezone, or similar anyway.

I've done collabs with Americans and it's hard staying up till 3am and still being bringing your A game to the video when their time is 7pm and they're okay to record. Own country is always better, unless you wanna stay up by all means.