Building a Brand and Audience Through YouTube in 2023

[TyFrom99]

Much like many members on this forum this year I decided to start a channel for a few reasons. Being born in '99 I've used editing programs my entire life and felt like I wasn't taking advantage of my skillset outside of freelance work. Additionally, I have a genuine passion for creating videos and wanted to establish my own brand and audience on the platform.

I was also introduced to Unscripted and by extension this forum through James Jani, a YouTuber I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

My Approach:
YouTube is a very versatile platform but the videos that stick out the most to me are usually video essay/mini documentaries on business stories or art. In this Mr Beast Spectacle era, high quality well researched videos are trending upwards. Channels that traditionally focus on business/finance stories like Jani or MagnatesMedia produce high quality, well edited stories with great storytelling that could rival any of the dime a dozen Netflix documentaries that seem to plague that platform constantly. Their approach to writing and editing was influential to how I wanted to produce my videos. On the flipside, channels that focus on Film/Music documentaries very rarely have this level of writing and editing but bring value to the fans and present interesting stories related to those artists.

My aim is to bridge these two niches by creating well-edited stories that revolve around artists, businesses, and overarching ideas that connect the two worlds.

Another issue I want to avoid is the abundance of trending topics that result in many creators essentially just reproducing videos that are already available on the platform, most of the time without adding anything of value to the discussion. Because of this I've built my channel on stories/ideas that haven't been talked about before or not to the length I talk about them to. Whether that be a deep dive on how Rap Genius destroyed their own company or how a Martin Scorsese film influenced Kendrick Lamar's last album- You cannot find videos on these topics anywhere else on the platform.

How it's going:
So far I have released 8 videos, opting for a bi-weekly release schedule. With 8 videos I have totaled 26,243 views and 650 Subscribers. This gives me an average of 40 views to 1 Sub and 81 Subscribers per video. For a new creator this is very high. By most estimates the average is around 100 viewers to 1 Subscriber.

The reason I have a great view to sub ratio I believe is because of the quality output of the videos. As I said before, I do have a background in editing that has undoubtedly helped me opposed to the average YouTuber that has released the same amount of videos.

With that being said there are two big downsides to this approach, firstly the amount of time it takes to produce a video of mine is also very high comparatively. I spend anywhere from 40~100 hours producing a video, when others can do that in a tenth of the time. Secondly my approach to not really locking down a certain niche and talking about a vast array of topics that interest me has helped build an audience that also has a wide array of interests-



but this can hinder growth as many viewers that subscribed for one style of video may be turned off by another. They may be interested in film, but not so much in business etc.



As you can see in my long term analytics, a video on an album did very well because it actually started getting recommended on music videos released for that album. Secondly a big way I was promoting my content (reddit) has kind of gone downhill with the blackout related to the api change etc so I'm kind of just letting YouTube recommend the video the best it can.

Future plans:
My goal is to hit 5k subscribers by 2024. I think this is doable if I keep consistently uploading videos on a bi-weekly schedule. As most of you probably know you can't actually directly monetize until you hit 1k subscribers and the platform itself goes against CENTS but building an audience through any social media platform nowadays has the same risks.

I've built my channel talking about unique topics in a high quality way that will (hopefully) promote catalog viewings. So if somebody likes one video they will be inclined to go through my channel and view other videos that interest them. Another big pro to not doing 'trending topic' videos is these videos will not age. Almost everything I talk about will be as accurate/interesting 5 years from now as it is today. This wouldn't be the case if I were making videos on news and drama. This approach promotes what people refer to as 'evergreen' content.

I want to use this thread as a way to document how the channel grows and hopefully share with other creators tips and tricks I find along the way.

Here's my latest video if you are interested in the style/approach I am going for.

 

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[Ing]

that s made really good! I m looking forward to look at your videos. Thanks for sharing

 

[TyFrom99]

that s made really good! I m looking forward to look at your videos. Thanks for sharing

Thank you, thanks for the comment

 

[TyFrom99]

Released my 9th video yesterday.

Video:
Although I tend to do videos on interesting stories related to arts or business, I decided to try and do more of an overarching "come up" story. I went with one of my favorite artists, Vince Staples. I think his music is very underlooked and his contributions to the industry are understated compared to his contemporaries. His life from growing up surrounded by and getting involved in gang culture to becoming a successful musician and parlaying that into becoming a successful actor is super inspirational.

I'm not sure if I'll ever do another documentary style video like this, I think it really just depends on how well this video does, I have some ideas for similar rappers but don't want to just retread the same ground others have done before. Which if you've looked at my channel you'll know I don't really do.

The reaction to my last video (op) was good. It currently sits at around 1400 views and has more views than the two videos I released directly before it. I also got told from a few people that they think it's my best video so far which is cool. I will say it didn't take off exactly like I thought it would but with everything its a slow climb.

Analytics:



As you can see I still get around 50 new subscribers with every video, little lower but thats expected since none of my videos have even hit 2k views recently. The view to sub ratio is still around 36.

Here's where I stand for partner watch hours-


I still have till march till they start lowering (year) although I imagine if I start posting more consistently (2x a month instead of 1x) I will probably hit it by the end of the year. My goal for the end of the year is still to hit 5k subs in total so we'll see.

Ideas:
I've been using Reddit to promote some of the videos. Particularly subreddits that are directly related to the videos r/VinceStaples or r/Rap for example, but also subs like r/MealTimeVideos that focus on interesting medium-long videos.

A few months ago I posted an adapted script of my video "How Rap Genius Destroyed Their Company" to r/HobbyDrama, and it got over 700 upvotes. While these don't necessarily translate into views I did notice a small bump in my view count when posting on that platform.

I think many of the stories I cover could translate well and I'm going to start posting on their more often, while self promotion is usually looked at negatively putting a line towards the end like - The story has been adapted from this video - shouldn't really be a problem.

This has also has me thinking about starting a newsletter that would essentially be the exact same stories I cover but adapted for the medium. I don't think im necessarily at a level right now where there would be an abundance of people that would rather read the stories than watch them but I putting a pin on it for the future. With Substack I know you can have multiple publications so people could subscribe for the video scripts and opt in for any other newsletter I would submit, but I'm not really familiar with these platforms so if anybody has any better ideas that'd be great.

If anybody has questions i'll try my best to answer them.

 

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[Jrjohnny]

Dude, I just watched that entire video.

I like your layout a lot and just your voice.

Good job man!

 

[Panos Daras]

Wow, amazing work! From the editing to voice-over, to the storytelling. For example, the comparison at the beginning of the video where you state option A vs option B (an amazing technique also when used in marketing) is always so powerful. I believe you will hit your 500.000 subs really fast and get monetized. Questions: Is this your voice? Do you do your own editing? Where do you find these clips?

 

[TyFrom99]

Dude, I just watched that entire video.

I like your layout a lot and just your voice.

Good job man!

Thank you man

Wow, amazing work! From the editing to voice-over, to the storytelling. For example, the comparison at the beginning of the video where you state option A vs option B (an amazing technique also when used in marketing) is always so powerful. I believe you will hit your 500.000 subs really fast to get monetized. Questions: Is this your voice? Do you do your own editing? Where do you find these clips?

Thanks also. Yes I do all the narration, which is something I had to learn how to edit/mix. The process for mixing vocals for narration is very different than mixing music for example. The editing up until this point I've done entirely myself also, as far as clips go I like to use clips from films/shows that people will be able to recognize. I usually find a way to get high quality files of these, but I also have around ~400 films on an extended hard drive already.

The stock footage clips I get from pexels.com, it's completely free to use and definitely has some great stuff. If I'm making a video a little more reliant on heavy motion visuals (like my video on film pirate Yify for example) I might get another premium stock footage subscription like motion array or something but I haven't for a few months now.

 

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[TyFrom99]

-

 

[GatsbyMag]

Fellow Youtuber, love the path you're on. Great to see so much progress and sensible execution of Youtube!

 

[door123]

Much like many members on this forum this year I decided to start a channel for a few reasons. Being born in '99 I've used editing programs my entire life and felt like I wasn't taking advantage of my skillset outside of freelance work. Additionally, I have a genuine passion for creating videos and wanted to establish my own brand and audience on the platform.

I was also introduced to Unscripted and by extension this forum through James Jani, a YouTuber I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

My Approach:
YouTube is a very versatile platform but the videos that stick out the most to me are usually video essay/mini documentaries on business stories or art. In this Mr Beast Spectacle era, high quality well researched videos are trending upwards. Channels that traditionally focus on business/finance stories like Jani or MagnatesMedia produce high quality, well edited stories with great storytelling that could rival any of the dime a dozen Netflix documentaries that seem to plague that platform constantly. Their approach to writing and editing was influential to how I wanted to produce my videos. On the flipside, channels that focus on Film/Music documentaries very rarely have this level of writing and editing but bring value to the fans and present interesting stories related to those artists.

My aim is to bridge these two niches by creating well-edited stories that revolve around artists, businesses, and overarching ideas that connect the two worlds.

Another issue I want to avoid is the abundance of trending topics that result in many creators essentially just reproducing videos that are already available on the platform, most of the time without adding anything of value to the discussion. Because of this I've built my channel on stories/ideas that haven't been talked about before or not to the length I talk about them to. Whether that be a deep dive on how Rap Genius destroyed their own company or how a Martin Scorsese film influenced Kendrick Lamar's last album- You cannot find videos on these topics anywhere else on the platform.

How it's going:
So far I have released 8 videos, opting for a bi-weekly release schedule. With 8 videos I have totaled 26,243 views and 650 Subscribers. This gives me an average of 40 views to 1 Sub and 81 Subscribers per video. For a new creator this is very high. By most estimates the average is around 100 viewers to 1 Subscriber.

The reason I have a great view to sub ratio I believe is because of the quality output of the videos. As I said before, I do have a background in editing that has undoubtedly helped me opposed to the average YouTuber that has released the same amount of videos.

With that being said there are two big downsides to this approach, firstly the amount of time it takes to produce a video of mine is also very high comparatively. I spend anywhere from 40~100 hours producing a video, when others can do that in a tenth of the time. Secondly my approach to not really locking down a certain niche and talking about a vast array of topics that interest me has helped build an audience that also has a wide array of interests-

View attachment 50344

but this can hinder growth as many viewers that subscribed for one style of video may be turned off by another. They may be interested in film, but not so much in business etc.

View attachment 50345

As you can see in my long term analytics, a video on an album did very well because it actually started getting recommended on music videos released for that album. Secondly a big way I was promoting my content (reddit) has kind of gone downhill with the blackout related to the api change etc so I'm kind of just letting YouTube recommend the video the best it can.

Future plans:
My goal is to hit 5k subscribers by 2024. I think this is doable if I keep consistently uploading videos on a bi-weekly schedule. As most of you probably know you can't actually directly monetize until you hit 1k subscribers and the platform itself goes against CENTS but building an audience through any social media platform nowadays has the same risks.

I've built my channel talking about unique topics in a high quality way that will (hopefully) promote catalog viewings. So if somebody likes one video they will be inclined to go through my channel and view other videos that interest them. Another big pro to not doing 'trending topic' videos is these videos will not age. Almost everything I talk about will be as accurate/interesting 5 years from now as it is today. This wouldn't be the case if I were making videos on news and drama. This approach promotes what people refer to as 'evergreen' content.

I want to use this thread as a way to document how the channel grows and hopefully share with other creators tips and tricks I find along the way.

Here's my latest video if you are interested in the style/approach I am going for.

Great Work!, I was on the edge of my seat. I was surprised to find out that E Homle's father was VP at Eron. I wonder if those investing in Theranos knew that.

 

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[Cybom]

Your growth is quite impressive !
Really great editing quality ! Also creating YouTube content on my side (different type), your videos are really inspiring.

 

[TyFrom99]

Fellow Youtuber, love the path you're on. Great to see so much progress and sensible execution of Youtube!

Great Work!, I was on the edge of my seat. I was surprised to find out that E Homle's father was VP at Eron. I wonder if those investing in Theranos knew that.

Your growth is quite impressive !
Really great editing quality ! Also creating YouTube content on my side (different type), your videos are really inspiring.

Thank you guys.

Also haven't really had a full update in a minute so I'll try to explain as best as I can.
My goal was hit 1000 Subscribers by my 10th video, I was kind of missing that mark which is fine I know growth is slow so I was happy with it just growing steadily.

I released my 9th video on Aug 20th, almost a month ago.

The video is a documentary on rapper Vince Staples, somebody who's come up is really interesting to me and has some of my favorite albums of the past few years. Vince is a very overlooked artist so I thought it'd be cool to do a video on him, and hopefully give some viewers a new artist to listen to.

At the time I had 700 subscribers. The video did pretty well (better than my last 2) getting around ~3k views in it's first week.


On August 27th Vince does his first interview in around a year on the Joe Budden podcast. As I said before he's kind of overlooked so for a lot of people listening in this was their introduction to Vince. This caused him to get trending on Twitter because his interview clips can be hilarious.

This sent my video skyrocketing and within the first two weeks it had over 30k views. That was almost 3x my next most viewed video. It also allowed me to enable monetization of my videos and get accepted as a member of YouTubes partner program.



Now here's where YouTube's features become really useful. In the Vince Staples video there's a section where I use clips from the Genius Verified video of his song 'When Sparks Fly'.



As you can see in the top right corner I linked to a previous video I made on how the Genius destroyed their own company. It was my third video and had around 4k views after 5 months.

Enough people clicked on the card/video in the sidebar that the video started getting picked up by the algorithm and in the past week has exploded bigger than I ever could have imagined.

These are the current analytics for the rap genius video.


As you can see the video was pretty much dead in the water until 155 days after release - when my Vince video started doing really well.

This has in turned promoted many videos in my catalog to more viewers, utilizing YouTube's card and end screen video suggestion features.

As you can see in OP before the Vince video my entire channel had 26k total views and 700 subs. These are my current statistics -






I don't know if I can really give any advice outside of stressing the usefulness of YouTube's implemented video recommendation features. Without these I could've never capitalized on the hype my newest upload got. Of course Ill try my best to answer any questions if you guys have any.

 

[GatsbyMag]

Thank you guys.

Also haven't really had a full update in a minute so I'll try to explain as best as I can.
My goal was hit 1000 Subscribers by my 10th video, I was kind of missing that mark which is fine I know growth is slow so I was happy with it just growing steadily.

I released my 9th video on Aug 20th, almost a month ago.

The video is a documentary on rapper Vince Staples, somebody who's come up is really interesting to me and has some of my favorite albums of the past few years. Vince is a very overlooked artist so I thought it'd be cool to do a video on him, and hopefully give some viewers a new artist to listen to.

At the time I had 700 subscribers. The video did pretty well (better than my last 2) getting around ~3k views in it's first week.
View attachment 51411

On August 27th Vince does his first interview in around a year on the Joe Budden podcast. As I said before he's kind of overlooked so for a lot of people listening in this was their introduction to Vince. This caused him to get trending on Twitter because his interview clips can be hilarious.

This sent my video skyrocketing and within the first two weeks it had over 30k views. That was almost 3x my next most viewed video. It also allowed me to enable monetization of my videos and get accepted as a member of YouTubes partner program.

View attachment 51412

Now here's where YouTube's features become really useful. In the Vince Staples video there's a section where I use clips from the Genius Verified video of his song 'When Sparks Fly'.

View attachment 51413

As you can see in the top right corner I linked to a previous video I made on how the Genius destroyed their own company. It was my third video and had around 4k views after 5 months.

Enough people clicked on the card/video in the sidebar that the video started getting picked up by the algorithm and in the past week has exploded bigger than I ever could have imagined.

These are the current analytics for the rap genius video.
View attachment 51414

As you can see the video was pretty much dead in the water until 155 days after release - when my Vince video started doing really well.

This has in turned promoted many videos in my catalog to more viewers, utilizing YouTube's card and end screen video suggestion features.

As you can see in OP before the Vince video my entire channel had 26k total views and 700 subs. These are my current statistics -

View attachment 51418

View attachment 51416


I don't know if I can really give any advice outside of stressing the usefulness of YouTube's implemented video recommendation features. Without these I could've never capitalized on the hype my newest upload got. Of course Ill try my best to answer any questions if you guys have any.

First and foremost, this is inspiring bro.

Your execution is impeccable thus far, you've also built such a powerful foundation by choosing to grow subscriber count via quality of content vs quantity + frequency. I think this will give you strong 'staying power' if you get what I mean.

I have a few questions, if you don't mind answering:

MONEY:

1. How accurate is your estimated revenue for the month? for example, are you on track to making $2000 this month?

VIDEO PRODUCTION:

1. How long does it take you on average to make a video?
2. What video editor do you use? I'm using clipchamp
3. When I edit my videos, I'm always thinking to myself "how can i ensure the next 30 seconds is as engaging as possible, what sounds/effects can I add to prevent my audience from clicking off?" - do you have a similar mentality or do you think about it differently?

COMPETITION:

1. How do you intend to differentiate yourself from other narration channels? James Jani stands out because he has a face and name which he presents mid-narration. Despite how great your content is, are you worried that it may not be enough to build a loyal fanbase that you could drive towards an email list/patreon/3rd party service?
2. UPDATE: I re-read your thread again and I see your niche is MUSICAL/HIP-HOP NARRATION - so I know this goes into your differentiation and I suppose it's enough for now as you're getting started

I hope my questions aren't intrusive/offensive in anyway, I'm genuinely curious. Last time I asked a Youtuber here about monetization they got angry lol

 

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[commited]

I wasn't expecting to get actual value from a random video but it's actually really good, keep it up

 

[Guest12k7911]

Which editing software do you use? I really liked your videos

 

[TyFrom99]

First and foremost, this is inspiring bro.

Your execution is impeccable thus far, you've also built such a powerful foundation by choosing to grow subscriber count via quality of content vs quantity + frequency. I think this will give you strong 'staying power' if you get what I mean.

I have a few questions, if you don't mind answering:

MONEY:

1. How accurate is your estimated revenue for the month? for example, are you on track to making $2000 this month?

VIDEO PRODUCTION:

1. How long does it take you on average to make a video?
2. What video editor do you use? I'm using clipchamp
3. When I edit my videos, I'm always thinking to myself "how can i ensure the next 30 seconds is as engaging as possible, what sounds/effects can I add to prevent my audience from clicking off?" - do you have a similar mentality or do you think about it differently?

COMPETITION:

1. How do you intend to differentiate yourself from other narration channels? James Jani stands out because he has a face and name which he presents mid-narration. Despite how great your content is, are you worried that it may not be enough to build a loyal fanbase that you could drive towards an email list/patreon/3rd party service?
2. UPDATE: I re-read your thread again and I see your niche is MUSICAL/HIP-HOP NARRATION - so I know this goes into your differentiation and I suppose it's enough for now as you're getting started

I hope my questions aren't intrusive/offensive in anyway, I'm genuinely curious. Last time I asked a Youtuber here about monetization they got angry lol

Which editing software do you use? I really liked your videos

As far as estimated revenue is concerned I've heard from others that it may be off my 1-3% but is generally pretty accurate. Adsense only pays out once a month so I can't really confirm that.

On average it can be anywhere from 50-100 hours. This really depends on the video though, my next video is longer than usual and the research phase has already surpassed 100+ hours.

I use Davinci Resolve (free) for all of my editing. I highly recommend using Envato Elements or MotionArray subscription services to get templates and FX. These have sped up my editing tremendously and allows me to do things I otherwise wouldn't be able to do.

how can i ensure the next 30 seconds is as engaging as possible, what sounds/effects can I add to prevent my audience from clicking off?

Yeah this is a big thing when I'm writing/editing. I never want to leave anybody feeling bored so I try to make the visuals as interesting as possible during every possible second. I really hate having the same clip play for longer than 10 seconds unless it's crucial for context. Sound effects also help greatly but I use them very subtly so you wouldn't really notice them unless you focused on them. James is a big reason I started my channel also.

As far as competition goes I'm not sure, I just want to make great videos. I lean more hip hop focused than other channels in the business/culture niche so it does help me stand out, as well as the fact most hip hop related channels generally don't make very good videos. But I think a big reason some of my subscribers really like my channel is the variety of videos I make, I didn't really niche by content but more by style. Regardless of what I'm talking about I aim to make the video interesting, entertaining and informative- with very smooth and easy to follow storytelling, along with high quality editing.

I do think I can break down my channel into two types of stories though, one is cultural stories or explorations on artists, films etc. and the other is what I'd call "Stranger Than Fiction" - true stories related to business/media that make really interesting videos. I've setup playlists on my channel page with this in mind.

 

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[Actionpreneur]

Much like many members on this forum this year I decided to start a channel for a few reasons. Being born in '99 I've used editing programs my entire life and felt like I wasn't taking advantage of my skillset outside of freelance work. Additionally, I have a genuine passion for creating videos and wanted to establish my own brand and audience on the platform.

I was also introduced to Unscripted and by extension this forum through James Jani, a YouTuber I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

My Approach:
YouTube is a very versatile platform but the videos that stick out the most to me are usually video essay/mini documentaries on business stories or art. In this Mr Beast Spectacle era, high quality well researched videos are trending upwards. Channels that traditionally focus on business/finance stories like Jani or MagnatesMedia produce high quality, well edited stories with great storytelling that could rival any of the dime a dozen Netflix documentaries that seem to plague that platform constantly. Their approach to writing and editing was influential to how I wanted to produce my videos. On the flipside, channels that focus on Film/Music documentaries very rarely have this level of writing and editing but bring value to the fans and present interesting stories related to those artists.

My aim is to bridge these two niches by creating well-edited stories that revolve around artists, businesses, and overarching ideas that connect the two worlds.

Another issue I want to avoid is the abundance of trending topics that result in many creators essentially just reproducing videos that are already available on the platform, most of the time without adding anything of value to the discussion. Because of this I've built my channel on stories/ideas that haven't been talked about before or not to the length I talk about them to. Whether that be a deep dive on how Rap Genius destroyed their own company or how a Martin Scorsese film influenced Kendrick Lamar's last album- You cannot find videos on these topics anywhere else on the platform.

How it's going:
So far I have released 8 videos, opting for a bi-weekly release schedule. With 8 videos I have totaled 26,243 views and 650 Subscribers. This gives me an average of 40 views to 1 Sub and 81 Subscribers per video. For a new creator this is very high. By most estimates the average is around 100 viewers to 1 Subscriber.

The reason I have a great view to sub ratio I believe is because of the quality output of the videos. As I said before, I do have a background in editing that has undoubtedly helped me opposed to the average YouTuber that has released the same amount of videos.

With that being said there are two big downsides to this approach, firstly the amount of time it takes to produce a video of mine is also very high comparatively. I spend anywhere from 40~100 hours producing a video, when others can do that in a tenth of the time. Secondly my approach to not really locking down a certain niche and talking about a vast array of topics that interest me has helped build an audience that also has a wide array of interests-

View attachment 50344

but this can hinder growth as many viewers that subscribed for one style of video may be turned off by another. They may be interested in film, but not so much in business etc.

View attachment 50345

As you can see in my long term analytics, a video on an album did very well because it actually started getting recommended on music videos released for that album. Secondly a big way I was promoting my content (reddit) has kind of gone downhill with the blackout related to the api change etc so I'm kind of just letting YouTube recommend the video the best it can.

Future plans:
My goal is to hit 5k subscribers by 2024. I think this is doable if I keep consistently uploading videos on a bi-weekly schedule. As most of you probably know you can't actually directly monetize until you hit 1k subscribers and the platform itself goes against CENTS but building an audience through any social media platform nowadays has the same risks.

I've built my channel talking about unique topics in a high quality way that will (hopefully) promote catalog viewings. So if somebody likes one video they will be inclined to go through my channel and view other videos that interest them. Another big pro to not doing 'trending topic' videos is these videos will not age. Almost everything I talk about will be as accurate/interesting 5 years from now as it is today. This wouldn't be the case if I were making videos on news and drama. This approach promotes what people refer to as 'evergreen' content.

I want to use this thread as a way to document how the channel grows and hopefully share with other creators tips and tricks I find along the way.

Here's my latest video if you are interested in the style/approach I am going for.

You are doing great! I am also youtuber, I have every skill for making videos graphics designs, motion graphics, character animation, video editing and more but I stuck on getting views.

When I first started my youtube channel my views were high, more than I expected but suddenly my views started to decrease even after uploading more and more. What is the mistake am making?

 

[TyFrom99]

You are doing great! I am also youtuber, I have every skill for making videos graphics designs, motion graphics, character animation, video editing and more but I stuck on getting views.

When I first started my youtube channel my views were high, more than I expected but suddenly my views started to decrease even after uploading more and more. What is the mistake am making?

It's really hard to answer this question without seeing your channel.

 

[Actionpreneur]

It's really hard to answer this question without seeing your channel.

Okay how much time it takes for you to start getting views? The reason I asked you this question is because I'm grinding for 1 year without result, and give me advice for being successful YouTube like you.

 

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[GatsbyMag]

Okay how much time it takes for you to start getting views? The reason I asked you this question is because I'm grinding for 1 year without result, and give me advice for being successful YouTube like you.

Bro, please show some respect to OP's time and ask better questions.

If he tells you "it took me 4 days to start getting views", what will you do with that information? My advise is that you watch this thread silently and experiment more on your channel with what you learn.

 

[GatsbyMag]

I didn't really niche by content but more by style

Thanks for your explanation above, I've downloaded DaVinci and will take a look at how it fares in comparison to ClipChamp.

Niching by style is a unique approach and gives you a lot of freedom to cover a wide variety of subject matter whilst still remaining relevant to your audience and allowing the algorithm to continue promoting your channel.

My main takeaway from your story? I must double down on my video quality. I want my community to feel like they watched a 4-5 minute Netflex movie/documentary whenever they watch my content. Nothing is better than a product that sells itself. And in our case, our product is the videos we put out.

I sometimes make the mistake of trying to figure out how can I 10x my income from Youtube - show more patreon ads? start a newsletter and sell merch? make a course related to my niche?....I end up falling in the spiral of chasing money and getting frustrated. The truth is that if I can build a "Productocracy" as MJ puts it, all those questions will be answered for me. I need to focus on the most important thing which is my customers and solving their problem.

 

[mxboy44]

Thanks for the imense value and insights you've provided. Im really impressed seeing your yt account still growing, even though you stopped uploading. May I ask why you stopped doing so ?

 

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[ErickMendez]

Thanks for the imense value and insights you've provided. Im really impressed seeing your yt account still growing, even though you stopped uploading. May I ask why you stopped doing so ?

not sure why he stopped uploading but I really do have respect to those who can make this type of content and upload consistently.

It takes alot of time to do the editing process, and i wouldnt be suprised if he got tired with making those types of vids.

 

[Michael Ankrah]

Much like many members on this forum this year I decided to start a channel for a few reasons. Being born in '99 I've used editing programs my entire life and felt like I wasn't taking advantage of my skillset outside of freelance work. Additionally, I have a genuine passion for creating videos and wanted to establish my own brand and audience on the platform.

I was also introduced to Unscripted and by extension this forum through James Jani, a YouTuber I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

My Approach:
YouTube is a very versatile platform but the videos that stick out the most to me are usually video essay/mini documentaries on business stories or art. In this Mr Beast Spectacle era, high quality well researched videos are trending upwards. Channels that traditionally focus on business/finance stories like Jani or MagnatesMedia produce high quality, well edited stories with great storytelling that could rival any of the dime a dozen Netflix documentaries that seem to plague that platform constantly. Their approach to writing and editing was influential to how I wanted to produce my videos. On the flipside, channels that focus on Film/Music documentaries very rarely have this level of writing and editing but bring value to the fans and present interesting stories related to those artists.

My aim is to bridge these two niches by creating well-edited stories that revolve around artists, businesses, and overarching ideas that connect the two worlds.

Another issue I want to avoid is the abundance of trending topics that result in many creators essentially just reproducing videos that are already available on the platform, most of the time without adding anything of value to the discussion. Because of this I've built my channel on stories/ideas that haven't been talked about before or not to the length I talk about them to. Whether that be a deep dive on how Rap Genius destroyed their own company or how a Martin Scorsese film influenced Kendrick Lamar's last album- You cannot find videos on these topics anywhere else on the platform.

How it's going:
So far I have released 8 videos, opting for a bi-weekly release schedule. With 8 videos I have totaled 26,243 views and 650 Subscribers. This gives me an average of 40 views to 1 Sub and 81 Subscribers per video. For a new creator this is very high. By most estimates the average is around 100 viewers to 1 Subscriber.

The reason I have a great view to sub ratio I believe is because of the quality output of the videos. As I said before, I do have a background in editing that has undoubtedly helped me opposed to the average YouTuber that has released the same amount of videos.

With that being said there are two big downsides to this approach, firstly the amount of time it takes to produce a video of mine is also very high comparatively. I spend anywhere from 40~100 hours producing a video, when others can do that in a tenth of the time. Secondly my approach to not really locking down a certain niche and talking about a vast array of topics that interest me has helped build an audience that also has a wide array of interests-

View attachment 50344

but this can hinder growth as many viewers that subscribed for one style of video may be turned off by another. They may be interested in film, but not so much in business etc.

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As you can see in my long term analytics, a video on an album did very well because it actually started getting recommended on music videos released for that album. Secondly a big way I was promoting my content (reddit) has kind of gone downhill with the blackout related to the api change etc so I'm kind of just letting YouTube recommend the video the best it can.

Future plans:
My goal is to hit 5k subscribers by 2024. I think this is doable if I keep consistently uploading videos on a bi-weekly schedule. As most of you probably know you can't actually directly monetize until you hit 1k subscribers and the platform itself goes against CENTS but building an audience through any social media platform nowadays has the same risks.

I've built my channel talking about unique topics in a high quality way that will (hopefully) promote catalog viewings. So if somebody likes one video they will be inclined to go through my channel and view other videos that interest them. Another big pro to not doing 'trending topic' videos is these videos will not age. Almost everything I talk about will be as accurate/interesting 5 years from now as it is today. This wouldn't be the case if I were making videos on news and drama. This approach promotes what people refer to as 'evergreen' content.

I want to use this thread as a way to document how the channel grows and hopefully share with other creators tips and tricks I find along the way.

Here's my latest video if you are interested in the style/approach I am going for.

Damn this video is so informative and good, editing skills solid 9/10. Hope he continues to make more honestly

 

[Emperor7]

Quick update, since he hasn't been active. @TyFrom99
This is satisfying..
So far he has grown to a total of 46,000+ subscribers
I watch one of his videos a long time ago, didn't know he is on this forum..
Check out his recent views..
Genuinely happy for him..

 

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