Daily Youtube Kickstarter Show

[Travis Phipps]

Yo Dennis,

It is funny you came up with the Shark Tank demo from my YouTube comment, because I'm already running ads for Shark Tank keywords for my PPC Consulting and Training Courses. I'll explain why I do this later...

I think it is a perfect demographic for you.

You beat me to the punch, I was going to offer to help you with your YouTube ads. I run ads inside YouTube for several clients, and have a lot of experience. We should jump on a screen share and I'll walk you through some of the options...since I'm your biggest fan, I'll be happy to help out for free. The first thing we need to do is get your channel to show up first when someone types in Rebel Fund Kickstarter...I have to scroll down pretty far to find you...and I'd never find you if I didn't know what I was looking for.

I have some other sneaky PPC tricks you may want to try out. For example, I would find some really popular kickstarter campaigns and run some search ads for the names...and then point direct the traffic to your website. I realize you are trying to increase your subscriber count on YouTube, but I do believe "owning" your audience will be important for your profitability in the future. I'd be happy to discuss those ideas on the call too...

This is an excellent idea you've come up with. There are thousands of ways to monetize this business. I realize it is early on, but there are some really cool things you can do with this. I just came up with these off the top of my head:

1. Taking a percentage of every donation you push to a kickstarter campaign (I don't know about the legalities, but I'm thinking like an affiliate program).
2. You can hold auctions for kickstarter campaigns to get their product on your channel (this may be far off, but people looking for money/investment might be desperate).
3. You can have tool sets for kickstarters (think sourcing products, distribution channels, import/export, cheap mfg, etc, etc). The key here would be to make money every time you sent one of the kickstarters to the resource.
4. After kickstarters have been funded, and they are just selling their product...you can become a "Kickstarter Marketplace". This is one of my favorite ideas. Have those suckers drop ship product for you, and you buy the product super cheap (not your standard 40-50%...but much bigger discounts). I _love_ this idea...
5. Some other top secret stuff we can chat about.

Anyway...I'm telling everyone I know about your channel. Telling them to subscribe.

Good luck!

Travis

PS: Do you have a website up yet? I just did a quick search and didn't see it. You need to start building your list, so we need to get you a site.

 

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[DennisD]

We should jump on a screen share and I'll walk you through some of the options...since I'm your biggest fan, I'll be happy to help out for free.

Appreciated.

I realize you are trying to increase your subscriber count on YouTube, but I do believe "owning" your audience will be important for your profitability in the future.

PS: Do you have a website up yet? I just did a quick search and didn't see it. You need to start building your list, so we need to get you a site.

The website is something I WILL get to, but I don't think the time for this is now. I know the way my brain works. I know through experience that if I have more than a single goal at a time, I fail 100% of the time.

If I can get to ~5,000 real human subscribers/watchers, I know from clientwork that growth will self-sustain and I can shift my focus towards other things, such as website/list growth. Right now, the ONLY thing I want to focus on is YT subs.

You can hold auctions for kickstarter campaigns to get their product on your channel (this may be far off, but people looking for money/investment might be desperate).

The top thing I want to do is start a calendar payment system where people can pay $ to book a day I spotlight their project and adjust the prices to meet demand. An auction is a cool idea too. Def. something to think about

You can have tool sets for kickstarters (think sourcing products, distribution channels, import/export, cheap mfg, etc, etc). The key here would be to make money every time you sent one of the kickstarters to the resource.

This is a cool idea too. Although, the goal of the channel right now is more B2C than B2B. Resources or services intended for project owners (other than straight advertising/product placement) is not something I want to pursue until I'm making $ elsewhere. Going into the Rebelfund brand notebook for future use.

After kickstarters have been funded, and they are just selling their product...you can become a "Kickstarter Marketplace". This is one of my favorite ideas. Have those suckers drop ship product for you, and you buy the product super cheap (not your standard 40-50%...but much bigger discounts). I _love_ this idea...

HELLS YES.
This is what I'm talkin about. A post-kickstarter marketplace would be a GREAT way to monetize traffic longerterm and has potential to grow into something HUGE. Once a few peeps are on board the rest would propel itself.

Thanks for the ideas and support, means a lot.

 

[Gale4rc]

the ONLY thing I want to focus on is YT subs.

perfect

HELLS YES.
This is what I'm talkin about. A post-kickstarter marketplace would be a GREAT way to monetize traffic longerterm and has potential to grow into something HUGE. Once a few peeps are on board the rest would propel itself.

Personally I think you should drop all the revenue ideas you have period. Focus only on growing the channel first and then once you get there you'll have new information that will probably kill any ideas you currently have and lead you in a new direction anyway. but it's your business, not mine, just giving some personal opinion.

 

[DennisD]

Thumbnail Research and Standardization

Thumbnails are now standardized. All will be a large BG image, a cutout of me with a glow, all-caps yellow text, and rebelfnd logo in the bottom right-hand corner.

Before I settled on this, I ripped 50 thumbnails ripped from the most popular videos from youtubers I emulate. Here are the thumbnails, if anybody's interested:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hqcj7ydmhcrmn6b/AADmodCM8RHQy2meRHYlA_Rua?dl=0

The video in an earlier post is me teaching my VA how to follow instructions in my automated emails.. to create the new style of thumbnails if anybody's interested in recreating my process.

I use IfTTT to automate these tasks. Everytime a video is uploaded, instructions are automatically mailed off with assets I have chosen and uploaded before hand.

Here is the new thumbnails in action:

End Card
I picked up a tip from the podcast TubeTalk. They said they use endcards with related videos NOT to increase views or session duration, but instead to drive subscriptions. When people see what other related videos you've done, they're more likely to subscribe themselves.

Of course, increased session duration and more views is always welcome.

I have now standardized this into my own videos (starting yesterday). I used to leave with the Rebelfund Intro. Now I end with an annotated endcard. Please see the end of the above video for an example.

There are now be TWO related videos on the lefthand side, a subscribe button, and a 1/4th sized video of me talking about the videos.

Automated Twitter Video Promotion
I've setup a new way of promoting each video I upload.

When somebody backs a kickstarter audience, they have the option to tweet about it. The tweet template is something like "I've just backed {Project Name} {Project Link}"

I've used IfTTT to set up an automated tweet for the most popular projects I've covered. Whenever somebody tweets "Just Backed RadioTopia" I autotweet to them

I'm going to set up an automated email (with video instructions) to either the GF or the VA to add these IfTTT recipes for each new video.

Hopefully I can get some views, subscribers, and shares through this. I've never tried anything like this before, so we'll see.

The theory is that these tweet go to BACKERS. Once you back a project, you're invested, you feel tied to it's fate. Any positive reinforcement that your $ went to the right place is appreciated by you. These people are emotionally primed (having backed the project THAT DAY) to be receptive to the video.

Of course, maybe I'm just full of horse shit. I guess I'll find out.

 

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[Jakeeck]

I think that twitter idea is fantastic and very creative!

 

[DennisD]

Personally I think you should drop all the revenue ideas you have period. Focus only on growing the channel first and then once you get there you'll have new information that will probably kill any ideas you currently have and lead you in a new direction anyway. but it's your business, not mine, just giving some personal opinion.

It's true that more subscribers could change the wind in my sails and bring me in new directions,
but I like to monetize first and talk later.

There's no reason money can't be made right now, from month one, with what I already have.
The worse that will happen is it just doesn't work out and I'll try again later. The best that happens is I get some cash which allows me to stop working for clients and put even more time into growth.

 

[DennisD]

Twitter Automation Mistake
Ooops. Just made a mistake that caused me to go back through my twitter timeline and delete close to 50 tweets.
The problem was with this recipe from IfTTT:

I was missing the @ before {{UserName}}, which caused me to post as a tweet instead of as an @reply.
Anything NOT starting with an @ gets posted to my public timeline, which means that all of my followers were seeing a post from me every few minutes spamming my videos. Not cool.

Anyways, as you can see, it's fixed.

EDIT: No, it's not fixed. The @reply doesn't process, twitter doesn't allow automated @replies as per terms of service so IFTTT doesn't allow it either. Looks like an employee task was just created.

Community Involvement
I signed up for an account at a YTTalk, a forum for YT creators. I posted an intro with my BG, and I'm participating, learning from them, and teaching what I know.

It's important to be surrounded be people undergoing identical struggles, keeps my head in the right place and the support is genuine and needed.

I am not signing up for a kickstarter forum yet. Those are attended by CREATORS, not the BACKERS so it wouldn't help me grow my channel by much. That'll be a more important step later, when I have the support.

I want to find somewhere that my audience is/hangs out, but it's difficult to find/target.
I don't think there IS a place they hang out. I guess this is why it's such a big opportunity for me,
I'm CREATING the place they hang out lol.

 

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[DennisD]

Automated @Replies Update:

EDIT: No, it's not fixed. The @reply doesn't process, twitter doesn't allow automated @replies as per terms of service so IFTTT doesn't allow it either. Looks like an employee task was just created.

I eneded up doing research and finding a workaround that let me STILL autotweet @replies to followers. I won't be sharing it here. It's against twitter TOS and I don't want people to know about it, because it's giving me a good traffic boost right now.

How do people feel about being autotweeted at? Pretty good, actually! No complaints at least, a ton of favorites and a few replies:

So this is cool. I'm glad that nobody sees me as spamming them (or if they do, nobody's actively complaining).

Video Quality
I feel more confident in my ability to create good core content. As I start writing the scripts further ahead of time, there's more time for me to reflect, add jokes, take away lulls, and all-around refine the videos. Two recent videos that I feel I did a pretty good job at:

I am looking to script everything a week ahead of time to further refine videos and maybe have them prerecorded.

Instagram
I recorded this video with intention to upload it to instagram:

It's a damn shame, because releasing one of those a day to instagram for each video would undoubtedly EXPLODE my account there. I KNOW it would.

But the app isn't letting me do it. I'll have to record the SCREEN with a cell phone and upload that. I'll see if it still comes out okay and is worth the trouble. I guess we'll see. The barrier to entry being high means I might end up being the ONLY PERSON ON INSTAGRAM WITH COMPELLING VIDEO.

Let me know if you know another way to get preedited video to instagram. I tried a few workarounds and it's just not happenin for me.

Tumblr
I originally verified this niche with Tumblr, I still have something like 22 followers on Tumblr, I decided that I might as well start posting here again.

I spotlight a few kickstarter projects a day, rip their photos, and give a paragraph of commentary... as well as post all my videos here. I'll do this for a few weeks, report in on how it's going. I have a feeling that Tumblr will become one of my biggest traffic sources.

I can't explain why, it's a gut feeling. I guess we'll see.


Money
Still no money made off of this. It'll come, I know it... but it's tough to keep doing this and investing this much time into something that's not fruitful yet. I think it actually means I need to put MORE TIME AND ENERGY into it.

I have a few other things in the works, you'll see.

I will update with anything else of relevance as it happens.


EDIT:
Two more updates for those who are interested. My current Subscriber Count, View Count, and sources of traffic. (the first 5 subs are just me from various accounts)

 

[Deleted2BB3x9]

Keep up the social media, I think that would really build up your fan base quickly.

You could post kickstarter related news, on the projects they backed, Inspiring stories, etc. Then cross posting to showcase your youtube channel.

What are you currently doing on social media?

 

[DennisD]

Keep up the social media, I think that would really build up your fan base quickly.

You could post kickstarter related news, on the projects they backed, Inspiring stories, etc. Then cross posting to showcase your youtube channel.

What are you currently doing on social media?

7-14 twitter posts/day, sharing links, quotes, retweeting others. Links to my videos peppered in.

No facebook activity really, so just automated sharing. I literally have no audience aside from friends and family on facebook and really nothing to offer. Rather than split my focus and figure out how to win on FB, I'll keep focus on Twitter and Tumblr until things are automated enough to justify FB.

 

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[ChasingPaper]

If you have any questions PM me. I have a YouTube account with 2.5 million views, and almost 20k subscribers.

 

[evlttwin]

This really is a GREAT idea. Just keep trying everything on social media and you will eventually gain traction. It might not make money in the first few months, but once you get an audience I could see it exploding.

 

[Gale4rc]

it's tough to keep doing this and investing this much time into something that's not fruitful yet. I think it actually means I need to put MORE TIME AND ENERGY into it.

You've barely been doing this. Talk to me in 6 months and then there might be an issue if it hasn't scaled.

2k views 49 subscribers - You could've gotten more than this with one good link from a blogger instead of hustling people on social media. Please don't call what you're doing marketing, it's not. What you're doing is spamming people.

#toughlovei'mrootingforyou

 

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[tafy]

Dennis, just watched you vid on the ice cream scoop, was entertaining but I felt that you stretched it out too long.

My thoughts...
1. Be a bit more brief but do 3 products in one show. Then do every 3 days.
2. Im not sure that castleforge media branding is good for you here, you should brand it in your own name as you are the face of the videos. It confuses me when i watch your video then you have the castleforge branding show up at the end.

 

[Jakeeck]

Just wanted to say that I thought your "Never Lose Another Thing Again" was fantastic. Keep it up!

I also disagree with Gale. Your videos are no more "spam" than Facebook ads are, which recommend products based on your search history. That's pretty much exactly what you're doing, shooting out content to people who are clearly interested in this kind of stuff. If you got negative feedback, there'd be reason to stop doing it, as you know. I think what you're doing is smart. You've only gotten positive feedback so far.

 

[DennisD]

Dennis, just watched you vid on the ice cream scoop

Where did you watch the ice cream scoop video? That was for Castleforge before I decided to do this channel (those videos are what inspired me to do this channel, actually)
Check the videos posted in this thread for Rebelfund videos (Youtube.com/rebelfund)

What you're doing is spamming people.

Maybe, but it's 50 views/hr to buyers who directly support the what these projects are about. More targeted than any blog mention would be. It was very important to me to get this automated. Now that it is, it takes me 0 minutes to put a new video into the system and continue targeting new peeps while I spend my time elsewhere.

and yeah, I am upset with myself that I haven't monetized this yet. I will continue to be hard on myself until I do make money with it. Regardless of what's normal growth for other channels, I expect more out of myself.

Just wanted to say that I thought your "Never Lose Another Thing Again" was fantastic. Keep it up!

Thx, that's my favorite video so far and my new benchmark to hold new videos up against.

 

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[GravyBoat]

I liked the FInd Anything video as well. I'm the kind of guy who F'in HATES wasting time watching Youtube videos like these, but I know about 30 others that consume their days with it. I will spread the word to all of my contacts who watch Kickstarter religiously.

Best of luck!!

Gravy

 

[ChasingPaper]

@DennisDuty Just started progress thread for YouTube might be worth subscribing to so you can be notified. I will be posting some tips and such as I grow, and other things along the way.

 

[Gale4rc]

Maybe, but it's 50 views/hr to buyers who directly support the what these projects are about. More targeted than any blog mention would be. It was very important to me to get this automated. Now that it is, it takes me 0 minutes to put a new video into the system and continue targeting new peeps while I spend my time elsewhere.

and yeah, I am upset with myself that I haven't monetized this yet. I will continue to be hard on myself until I do make money with it. Regardless of what's normal growth for other channels, I expect more out of myself.

Good stuff man! Keep it up.

 

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[DennisD]

Trying Something New

After watching the creator of annoying orange talk about his videos and how annoying orange popularized itself, I decided I will take time every now and again to experiment with different types of videos.

They may not be perfect, they may be successes or failures, but what's important is that I'm taking the time to actually DO them.
This is a video I scripted, animated, and created over this weekend.

More stuff to talk about that's upcoming.... but I've decided I will talk about things only after they're done. I don't want to say "I plan on this and this and this". It just takes away my steam.

I will do them FIRST and then talk about them.
Talking first is too dangerous a habit to fall back into.

Edit:
This just happened and it made me so happy.

 

[Gale4rc]

updates?!?!

I just subscribed. Waiting for you to make this idea take off like I know you can.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

I just went through and watched all of these!

These are awesome!

You need to tap into the thisiswhyimbroke audience!

They love cool, new, nifty things like this!

Almost as much as I like compact sentences that end in exclamation marks!

 

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[DennisD]

I just went through and watched all of these!

Thanks a ton, I appreciated it.

I haven't been posting here because I haven't had a lot of time as-of-late and any update I make, I want to be MEANINGFUL.
Basically: I ran out of cash and had to stop putting 100% of my effort into RebelFund so I can do clientwork.
Instead of 5 episodes/week, I'm doing 1 episode/week.. and will ramp it back up as soon as I can.

It looks like subscriber rate is unaffected, slowly climbing everyday.
I did my first sponsored episode.
Dude sought me out, found me email, and emailed me asking to pay to be on the channel.
It was a DAMN good product that deserves success so I was happy to.

This is some nice early verification that the show has real $making potential. I didn't plan on taking my first paid sponsor until I reached 500subs, and I was at 100 subs when I took his offer. The numbers I posted on my wall next to my desk are REAL GOALS and I'm more excited than ever.

Now I've just gotta find a way to do more episodes. I'm looking into how much it'd cost to hire and train an editor in my style. Yes, Editing is my 'unfair advantage' and I've done it professionally for years.... but I really need help. The mental exhaustion is getting to me, and with a show where I'm not only the producer, but also the performer, it really gets to me.

 

[Maxjohan]

I like your videos quite a lot.

Good luck.

 

[Travis Phipps]

Hey @DennisDuty - I was going through some old YouTube subscriptions, and I forgot all about this project (until just now).

It looks like you put the Rebel Fund idea on hold, but I did see your KickStarter Project for Original Spin. That looks legit. I'm sorry I didn't know about it when you launched the project, I would have totally contributed (if it isn't too late, I'm still up for donating).

I'm curious how that played out for you, and if you are considering the game to be a success..and what the future has in store for Original Spin (incredible name and design...btw).

Hope you're doing well!

 

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[Randomized]

I didn't read many of the replies here but.... I have some suggestions after watching a few videos...

1) Better mic and camera! They aren't all that expensive! You're a funny guy and not bad looking... Let it be known.

2) Get your green screen background custom to YOUR channel! Rocks? Really? Common man throw something together with that intro you have! Make sure the viewers know who they are watching when they see your videos!

3) Once you get a little reputable get your hands on the products! People are going to want to know about what YOU think about the products.... Not just a reread of the kickstarter page.... make it personal and honest.

4) Stay positive. You have a great attitude in your videos. Keep it up. I enjoyed watching.

I'm only 15 but these are some of my opinions on your content.

- David

 

[DennisD]

Hey @DennisDuty - I was going through some old YouTube subscriptions, and I forgot all about this project (until just now).

It looks like you put the Rebel Fund idea on hold, but I did see your KickStarter Project for Original Spin. That looks legit. I'm sorry I didn't know about it when you launched the project, I would have totally contributed (if it isn't too late, I'm still up for donating).

I'm curious how that played out for you, and if you are considering the game to be a success..and what the future has in store for Original Spin (incredible name and design...btw).

Hope you're doing well!

Thx.

Original spin ended up costing more than it made due to unforseen circumstances. I'm more experienced now and currently working on a videogame I will Kickstart while the board game stuff chugs along at a slow pace.

I suck with physical product logistics and delivery. Digital products have always been my specialty, so I expect to make more $.

The media and coding is done, I'm just tying it all together. Once I have a project that's making the $ I want I'm rebooting rebelfund, but specifically targeting indie games.

 

[DennisD]

I didn't read many of the replies here but.... I have some suggestions after watching a few videos...

1) Better mic and camera! They aren't all that expensive! You're a funny guy and not bad looking... Let it be known.

2) Get your green screen background custom to YOUR channel! Rocks? Really? Common man throw something together with that intro you have! Make sure the viewers know who they are watching when they see your videos!

3) Once you get a little reputable get your hands on the products! People are going to want to know about what YOU think about the products.... Not just a reread of the kickstarter page.... make it personal and honest.

4) Stay positive. You have a great attitude in your videos. Keep it up. I enjoyed watching.

I'm only 15 but these are some of my opinions on your content.

- David

Thx David.

Actually, that's not a greenscreen, I was testing a video concept using a practical backdrop I picked up for a few bucks.

The problem with the product review thing is many Kickstarters don't HAVE products to ship. Although, two of the videos I've already shot WERE paid for by the KS I reviewed.

I'll be rebooting this next year after my Inc. Is in better shape and has a video editor to take some work off my hands.

 

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