YouTube Wants You To Be Successful!
I have two YouTube channels, and they are apparently among the best kept secrets on the Internet. But I've discovered hope!! (There are links at the end of this article as I try to give credit to people and organizations that have shared their time and knowledge.)
Here's why and how YouTube want you to be successful:
YouTube does not create any videos.
YouTube grows by adding quality content created by someone else.
- Other people come up with the ideas.
- Other people invest in hardware.
- Other people invest in software.
- Other people have the talent, learn the skills, or hire/recruit talent.
- Other people invest the time. Often lots of time.
- Other people invest, invest, invest, invest....
YouTube gives every video a chance to succeed.
It's a complicated, considering that 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and every day over 30 million visitors will watch 5 billion videos.
Somewhere, someone is looking for what you uploaded. And YouTube will give them a chance to pick it out by showing your video thumbnail.
There are two places where your thumbnail will be shown. Obviously we all want to be first, or at least high, on the "search results" page, but that's probably unrealistic for your first video or two. Your video thumbnail is randomly shown on the right side of the page where a video is watched, under the "Up Next" column.
From what I've learned, YouTube measures three time periods after you post your video:
- The first 24 hours
- The first week
- The first month
Here is what YouTube looks for:
CTR = Click Through Ratio
YouTube offers analytics! You can see exactly what YouTube sees.
I've seen many techniques to improve your CTR:
- Add a hi-res, relevant & informative thumbnail
(something about judging a book by its cover) - Create a title that attracts interest and piques the viewer's interest
- Use the description to explain how watching your video will answer the viewer's question
- Put your video in front of viewers, especially interested viewers
- Invite your friends for early clicks
- Embed tags (lots of advice here)
Watch Time is important
You obviously want and expect viewers to sit through your whole video. Accept that as unrealistic as more people open your video. YouTube analytics will tell you the average length of time a viewer hangs in there. Here's what you can do to improve that:
- Your content must be timely, relevant, and thorough.
- Your content must solve a problem for your viewer - why should they spend their time with out? How will they be better off?
- Talking heads are boring. Include graphics or cuts from your "B" roll.
- Beware of poor audio. If the viewer cannot hear you because of your equipment, or the viewer cannot understand your words, then their watch time will be really short.
- By the way, poor video can be forgiven if content and audio is better than average.
Engagement is important
Remember, YouTube wants visitors to hang around YouTube, and if your viewers are engaged with what you produced then that raises YouTube's interest in promoting you.
- They want your viewers to "vote" with their "Like" button. Ditto for saving your video to their watch list.
- Words in the comment section shows the YouTube algorithm that people are hanging around for a few extra minutes.
- The holy grail for engagement is when a viewer shares your video with their friends. That gives your video (and YouTube) access to a whole new pool of people!
Just do it!!
The time to start is now! The oft-repeated quote goes something like this: "Better done than perfect."
Most people with YouTube channels say they often look back at their early productions and cringe because their skills and reputation have grown over the years. Right now all of my videos are cringe-worthy, and many are unlisted. 😎
Secret Hint: Later, you can move your videos from "public" to "unlisted." That will assuage any embarrassment and still allow past fans to revisit your work.
- Visit my curated list of links below
- Do your own YouTube search for "YouTube Channels"
- Contact me for mentoring, or hire me as a technical consultant
All links below should open in a new tab...
Accolades!
I've been attending seminars and workshops here in Pinellas County that have been scheduled through SCORE, TBTC (Tampa Bay Technology Center) and Pinellas County Meetups.
Tony Rockliff gives the best value for time spent at workshops. Kudos, too, to Chris Romero who brought Trish Leto as a speaker to one of his Pinellas County Meetups. Trish primarily markets through FaceBook. Other people have popped up on YouTube, including Tanya Aliza and Gillian Perkins.
The similarities between these three ladies (Trish, Tanya, and Gillian) and their products are remarkable. They all have similar sites and want to teach digital marketing, using themselves as examples of how they can make someone else successful.
When you sign up for their free product/newsletter, they will enter your email address into their drip email marketing campaign, much like Barbara Grassey did with her "write a business book" classes.
The videos I'd recommend are from Gillian Perkins: YouTu.be/sUjoDA0fx8s It's an 8-minute video she recorded Aug 15, 2019. It eventually led me to a similar 16-minute video she had recorded the year before (YouTu.be/AE6M3hcHnyw).
Gillian's videos are well done. They are informative, focused, well paced and tightly edited!!
You can search YouTube for more/similar information. Gillian introduced me to Chalene Johnson, who shows how to create Instagram videos: Courses.ChaleneJohnson.com/video-series-1
PS: I am not recommending pushing money in anyone's direction without due diligence on your part. You might want to read this article from Entrepreneur titled 5 Harsh Truths About the Internet Marketing World. Trish, Tanya, Gillian, and now Chalene use the same formula: pretty blondes with an animated presentation. That does not diminish the quality of their information, but it does reinforce the first bullet of the 5 Harsh Truths article.
My Channels:
Professional: A Better Computer Inc ~ YouTube.com/channel/UCmQwu7GmAwP99NQCm8j7aTg
Personal: Rick Jaggers ~ YouTube.com/channel/UCc9lwvHaf_sSj0EZNkDALHQ
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