Ecom Youtube Challenge - Building a channel with 120 videos in 120 days

[Andy Black]

Good question, I finally have some time to sit down and write out some thoughts:

Some things I learned through the process:

• Building an audience is a fantastic way to get to know your audience on a deeper level and find their problems and pain points. I have shifted my business significantly since starting, focusing in on helping my audience as much as possible, and also learning how to speak to them in a language they understand: “their problems”.
• Building an audience builds HUGE trust. On many sales calls now, the prospect will often want to take a screenshot of the call to show their friends because they can’t believe their speaking to me after watching my videos for months. They say things like “it’s so weird to actually see you respond to me in person rather than just watching” “It‘s so weird to hear your voice as it’s been in my head for so long”. It’s made it a lot easier to close deals with great clients that I really want to work with and can confidently get results with. I don’t have to beg for clients, or work with clients that I know will be tough to deal with. I can pick and choose, which has resulted in a huge amount of testimonials and case studies (we have about 20 on our website now).
• Sometimes you just need to jump in, commit, and do it. It’s so hard to start something like this challenge, that’s why I came here for the accountability. Though, it’s been worth It. I’ve now built an asset that’s generating consistent views, leads and business and we’re growing rapidly because of it.
• It’s also made hiring a lot easier. People want to work with a business that’s ’winning’. We’re not huge, really, but I’ve been able to blast my email list when needing to hire and picked up some great candidates, one of which I have hired which has been awesome. It also attracts higher level talent that want to be a part of something big and cool, to work for a company that’s doing something in the space.
• Change their state. This is the best advice I can give. When you change someone’s actual state of being you gain huge trust and they’ll listen to everything you say. They need to set up Google Analytics? Make a video that means by the end of 5 minutes they can verify that it’s set up and then you get all the credit. It proves to them that you know what you’re talking about. If you can help them with just one thing like that, you can help them with many more. So many blog posts and gurus have waffle content and hide things behind lead magnets and courses. Give people real value up front and you’ll have them for life. Simple and well-known advice but it’s true to a T.

What would I do differently?

• I would start with better production value and editing from the start. This is a double edged sword. It would take longer to start and get into the rhythm but my early videos are now immortalised because many of them have ranked well and have received tens of thousands of views. To be honest, they are great value, but I know that if I spent more time on the production side they could have done even better.
• Learn how the Youtube algorithm works, inside and out, and play to your advantage. This means editing your videos well to remove any fluff, improve the scripts so you don’t waffle or go off track. I’d go through each video monastically before publishing to optimise them as much as possible. Though, this being said, there‘s so much value to ‘just starting’. I think that if I tried to do 120 videos in 120 days with a high-production level approach I would have burnt out.
• Don’t make waffle videos just to fill space. I went after some keywords that were low volume and low competition but they ended up falling flat, not generating traffic, and actually hurting my channel. I would also make some videos that I thought were valuable but the audience weren’t interested in them at all. Sometimes you might think you know what your audience NEEDS but that doesn’t really matter if they don’t know they need it. It’s a lot harder to convince someone they need something (even if they really do) than to just give them what they need first, build trust, and then they’ll go through the valuable content.
• Don’t get caught up in video topics or niches that suck you dry. GMC Suspensions were a big topic last year and I made some great videos on it which generated a lot of views. I also went ahead and made a course on the topic which was one of the first quality resources available. It made some good sales for a few months but died away as an army of people from Fiverr took my course, learned everything and then started offering a service for $5. I spent a lot of time creating that course and it was profitable overall, but I should have focused on my core service and hiring. You can make the most popular videos in the world. They’ll generate ad revenue, but if you’re looking to build a business around the channel then you should keep in mind how you’ll monetise it.
• I wouldn’t have made it all about me and my name. I wish I used a pen name for the channel. This is just because now my videos are up and immortalised, if I ever want to go under the radar or wipe myself from the internet, it’s going to be much harder. I would have built it around the brand, which would make it a lot easier in the future if I want to hand off the ‘acting’ to someone else. I can still do it, but I’ll need to transition.
• Get the business model or service dialled in before starting. I had too much business and have had a waiting list for months and months because we grew and I didn’t have the team to handle it. I’d rather maintain a high quality service than hire rookies just to get the sales. It would have been great to have a good foundation first so I could make the most of the sales.
• Charge what your worth and the value you provide. It took a long time before I caught on that I should be charging more. The clients were getting a super sweet deal and I was at full capacity so I was turning away clients. I now charge something more reasonable and it’s increased profits too.
• Don’t get an ego. This started happening as my channel took off where I though I was hot stuff. I had to check myself and bring it back in because it brought emotions in that were not conducive to running a business. I started thinking more about what I thought people needed to hear rather than helping people with their problems. I’ve found that when I’ve stopped doing this I lose their attention quickly. Something to keep in mind. Focus on helping people, getting them from A to B and you’ll build their trust. Monetisation comes naturally after that.

What would I do more of?

• Queueing up videos in advance. I did do this many times but there were one or two times in the challenge where the publishing caught up to the bank of videos I had saved up. I’d focus on another project for a week or two and I’d be back at the stressful point of filming, editing and publishing with almost no videos spare.
• Hire multiple editors at once. At the start we had 4 and we paid them on a per-video basis. This made it easy to calculate my expenses and we could save money in periods of less editing. It also meant that if one editor got an ego about their editing (which did happen), and they try to raise their rates because they think that the channel’s success is all due to them, you have a backup. This actually happened and I told him that I have 3 other editors taking jobs and he changed his tune entirely and actually offered a discount to us if we provided him more videos. You don’t want your channel being held hostage like this and having to find a new quality editor mid-way through without disrupting production.
• Spend time building the branding assets and not iterating with videos. My first videos had bad audio, low quality titles and transitions, and overall lower quality editing. I wish I did more video tests before posting videos that have now become vital to the viewers of my channel.

Overall it’s been awesome. There are many channels out there with more subscribers and views but my viewership are super niche and targeted. I love this because Youtube has figured out who watches my content and are better able to recommend me to other people too.
I’m excited moving forward. I’m still posting one video a week but soon we’ll focus on SEO and blog post content and build that up as a traffic source.

What a write up. Will have to come back and study this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Blackman]

Hey @Phikey , I know it's a bit of a broad topic, but what's your choice/recommendation when it comes to web hosting for e-commerce sites?

I've been on Hostgator's shared hosting plan for many years and never felt the need to upgrade, because I'm not getting much traffic (approx. 100 visitors/day), but sometimes when I see my store load up quite slowly and even down for a few minutes once it a while, it really makes think if I'm on the right plan, even with not much traffic.

I don't know much about hosting, but it seems like that the "next step" from shared hosting is VPS, which is a bit more expensive, but offers better performance and more stability.

Any particular companies you would recommend and would you say it's a good idea to upgrade to VPS with my current traffic?

Thanks for your help

 

[Phikey]

Hey @Phikey , I know it's a bit of a broad topic, but what's your choice/recommendation when it comes to web hosting for e-commerce sites?

I've been on Hostgator's shared hosting plan for many years and never felt the need to upgrade, because I'm not getting much traffic (approx. 100 visitors/day), but sometimes when I see my store load up quite slowly and even down for a few minutes once it a while, it really makes think if I'm on the right plan, even with not much traffic.

I don't know much about hosting, but it seems like that the "next step" from shared hosting is VPS, which is a bit more expensive, but offers better performance and more stability.

Any particular companies you would recommend and would you say it's a good idea to upgrade to VPS with my current traffic?

Thanks for your help

Hmmmm, honestly I don't have a good recommendation for hosting as 99% of our clients use Shopify (which includes hosting too). I wish I could help more, but it's not something I have worked with for a very long time.

 

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[Levon]

@Phikey, this is awesome man. Congrats! Do you mind if I do a feature on you on LinkedIn (i.e. carousels)? I want to share your story

 

[Levon]

Yeah go ahead! Shoot me a link too, would love to see it.

Quick update:
I spent 18 months making music, travelling the world creating my DJ sets in beautiful places.
Last month our profit in the business had a drop by 50% so I dove into the business to see what the hell was going on. Turns out there were quite a few problems and the profit was just a symptom of what was going on. The team structure, the project management, and our main lead source (Youtube) was not being maintained. If we didn't make changes soon, we would head into a nose-dive over the coming 6 months. The CEO had maintained the profit for 18 months but it seemed a lot of it was treading water.. and the unavoidable drowning was coming within the next 6 months.

It was time for me to leave my care-free life as a musician and give my team a helping hand.

But first... Who's to blame for this?

Me. I am. 100%.

Why?

• I was eager to hand over the reigns of my business and get out. I didn't do the proper training and oversight that I should in the early months of the company. It was my first time handing over to a new CEO and I was hoping I could leave it and walk away. I had read about Andrew Wilkinson (founder of Tiny) and how he installs CEOs in his businesses. I tried the same but the difference with me was that I didn't choose a CEO with past experience scaling the same business model. I put someone in charge that was further behind than me in growing businesses.. so in reality, the business actually shrank in many ways (operations, systems, team structure became chaotic, etc). Many of the mistakes I had made years ago were suddenly showing up again. When I made that mistake in 2019 I learned, installed systems in place, and never made it again. But because he was learning how to grow the company, he didn't know why that system was in place so some things were removed and suddenly we're repeating past mistakes. E.g. chasing multiple services/income streams for different buyer personas rather than focusing on helping 1 buyer persona with their problem.
  • Solution: Don't hire a CEO until we find the right person. Also create operating manual, systems, and ways to monitor using them.
• As part of this I hadn't put the systems in place to make sure the systems were followed. I hadn't set the business up like a clockwork machine that maintained consistency. It was at 80% there but without management maintaining the systems, they fell into disuse.
  • Solution: Create clear systems and checklists for each role, along with an operating manual, and regular checks to make sure we're following our processes.
• I didn't put the expectations in place or a team in place to make sure we continue making Youtube videos (I had told the new CEO to build this team but he didn't have the experience so he tried doing everything himself.. his perfectionist tendencies meant that we never published videos). The team had been testing other lead sources but hadn't been able to crack them and had spent a lot of money on software and staff.. while our main lead source was neglected.
  • Solution: Focus our capital on the most profitable lead sources first (like YT) and once that's maxed out, test others.
• I didn't create a lasting offer. The market changed and I see now that competitors have all read $100m Offers and are offering wild guarantees. No longer is our high level of expertise a compelling USP when put up against someone with a crazy money back guarantee (we're going to offer something similar soon).
  • Solution: Create a new offer that stands the test of time (it will always need to be reworked).
• I didn't push the CEO to move faster. I was so happy to have the business running by itself without me at all (and it maintained the same profitability for 18 months while I was living my best life.. so I'm not too upset). He's more of a technical operator than an entrepreneur. He wanted things to be perfect before implementing. He took a long time to make decisions (when we need to make decisions quickly once we have 80% of the data). This meant that things just didn't get done and it impacted the culture of the entire business. I feel like I'm coming back to a totally different business that I left. The culture has changed a lot. But already within a few weeks the changes are happening. I know things will be good soon, but it requires a bit of elbow grease for now.
  • Solution: Get everyone on the same page, aligned on our goals and how their role achieves our objectives.

How I feel?
Honestly, kinda happy and excited, and relieved that I know what to do. It was an amazing 18 months away. I had incredible experiences, freedom, and I made massive steps ahead in my personal development. It sucks that the CEO didn't grow it the way I wanted, but it still maintained profitability and now I'm going to scale it successfully.

What's next?
I've got a big list of stuff I've gotta do. I'm pulling 10 hour days to get things on track. I'm working closely with the team to understand how we can move forward. I'm not thinking about a new CEO yet, I want to get the business in the right place and growing first. Once the business is running smoothly, I'll go back to music, but still manage the business in a lighter capacity. I'm delegating everything, getting our systems set up and making sure they're always followed from now on (rereading The E-myth Revisited again.. very helpful).

The journey continues, thanks for all the support from day 1 (3 and a half years ago). I'm excited for what's to come.

Awesome, would love to connect on LinkedIn. I'm a little swamped with my FT job, co-hosting a podcast, and juggling freelancing but I'll be back to posting in December. Thanks for the update, too—all the best with your company.