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Day 5, video 5
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.bro the "yeh yeh oh yeah" is getting on my nerves ahahahha.Day 5, video 5
haha yes, getting some consistent feedback on that one. I had my editor fix that up last night and all future videos will have the bumper video updated. It's way cleaner now and I think it will be way better. It might not show up for a few vids because we're a bit ahead so I'm getting the editors to go and adjust it for their vids they've already edited and we've approved.bro the "yeh yeh oh yeah" is getting on my nerves ahahahha.
Nice video, short and direct to the point.
Haven't taken the time to go and watch but subbed regardless to support and follow your journey! (Also in the same market so I'm sure I'll find your content helpful + inspiring.
Kudos to you for going after it. Keep it up.
I’m not a YouTube expert but I’ve heard that the YouTube algorithm is primarily based on watch duration and clicks per exposure. So while subscribing to someone to support their channel is well-intentioned, if you are presented with their videos in your feed and you don’t actually click them and watch them for the duration you are actually making the algorithm disfavor their videos.
If I’m completely off on that, please let me know.
Actually, I wasn't saying to not produce daily.Agree with Andy, do what Valier is doing.
- They get you started.
- When it comes to creating talking head videos or recording podcasts, they help you get over yourself.
- You learn blazingly fast.
- You get into a habit and a rhythm.
- You develop and hone an end to end process.
- You can learn things when you make "mistakes" and do something different and get a different reaction.
It's recommended because it improves the CTR of the videos. I know it looks silly, I'm going to be testing out different thumbnails to see what works. I'll start with these ones and then try out other designs and see what sticks. I started with these ones because it was so easy to get started - I spent 10 mins taking 80 photos of myself with different expressions and then paid someone on Upwork to cut them out and make them transparent. Now my content manager can create new thumbnails for each video with the transparent pngs that were created and they're very versatile.Do you think the funny faces people currently pull on their thumbnails is a fad? The YouTube coach I had wanted me to do it but I passed. Actually, I often just pick one of the three suggested stills as a thumbnail and end up caught mid sentence anyway.
That's a good point. I saw a channel where the thumbnails were just large bold white text on a black background. I think they were testing out new ideas for thumbnails to see what works. You'll never know what works best until you give it a go.I wonder if it will get to a point where everyone’s doing it, and what would then stand out? I tried some videos with bigger writing and no face on them.
I'm incredibly hesitant to push ads straight to the videos. I did a lot of research into this and the risk is much higher than the potential reward (in my opinion). What's the risk? Well, Youtube really really values the engagement stats on your videos. Stuff like the average view duration, whether they subscribe after watching, session time, if they click to other videos on your channel afterwards. So if you push paid traffic to your videos then you could potentially tank these stats big time. You'll get a lot of views but if those people don't stick around then Youtube gets data saying that your content isn't valuable.Are you going to run any ads to get any of the videos “going”?
I'm testing out different lengths. For these ecom marketing videos, a lot of videos by others are getting a lot of traction when they are 1+ hours long. I think if I'm providing value throughout then people will stay on for the long haul - especially if it's a very targeted video towards a specific problem that the person searched for on Youtube rather than just stumbling upon it via the suggestions in the sidebar. I'll see how they go!
Man, this is incredible feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this out.Hey man, first of all respect for the grind so far! You have a solid streak going on, keep it up!
Secondly, I have a few pointers if you don't mind (I’ve spent the last 1.5 years editing videos for multiple channels, all of them 500K+ subs)
People have praised the editing quality here, I have to disagree. I think it’s alright at best, and absolutely needs improvement if you want people to stick around.
So here are a few things that I think are hurting you big time:
So, bottom line is: you get what you pay for when hiring cheap editors lol. It’s fine though, these should be easy fixes and actually requires less work from them. To recap here's what I'd have them do:
- The music is very loud. It’s distracting. You guys need to dial it waaay down. It’s an informational video, not a dance party. Especially when you switch to sharing your screen and your voice goes even quieter, the music overpowers everything and it’s very hard to concentrate on the info. Background music should only be as loud as to break the awkwardness of silence and/or overpower background noise. (You could also switch up the genre of music and have something more neutral or fitting to the topic.)
- Same for the sound fx. Too loud. It should be more subtle.
- Speaking of sound fx, too much. Adding a whip whoosh sound to every single cut not only accentuates the cuts, but it gets annoying real fast. Especially when that same whip whoosh is added to every graphic element too. Too freaking much. It’s annoying, distracting, and quite honestly screams “cheap overseas editors.”
- I generally think you guys should keep everything more simple. Sound fx for the graphics is fine but totally not necessary. Even the zoom in-zoom out transitions (which intend to hide the cuts by looking like camera switches) are unnecessary and can get annoying if done too much. There’s nothing wrong with jump cuts, this is youtube, not some corporate documentary.
- Now, I didn’t watch all your vids, but in the last one “How to get a Custom Domain for Ecommerce store” at 0:50 there are 2 takes left in (and both of them are illustrated with graphics lol) which is something to take up with your editor. I’m pretty sure it’s a language thing, they probably didn’t realize that it was the same thing twice, but in any case they should pay more attention to stuff like that.
- Also, some of the effects are just unnecessary and distracting. Like that matrix number stuff at the IP address line at 1:00. I see the intent, it could be a fun gag, but without the sound and it should end at the end of the sentence, no need to let it run for another.
And finally (this is where my technical expertise ends and I just give my opinion) I honestly think your thumbnails could be cleaner too.
- No sound fx, unless absolutely necessary for some gag (like the explosion) or an actual scene transition (like talking head to screen sharing) and never louder than your voice.
- Jump cuts instead of zoom cuts.
- Bring down the music by like 20db at least and maybe find something less dancy and more chill. You can really set the atmosphere with music (I mean have you seen @Valier's vids?!) so why EDM and not jazz or hiphop or classical?
They are high quality, but not very interesting and often very cluttered. They don't jump out on youtube. They look like generic guru thumbnails and most of them have so much text that I don't even want to start reading it. So personally when I see them at first glance here's what I think: "some ecom guy talking about setting up some complicated google whatever thingy" and I bet you that's most people's thinking too.
By far the cleanest looking one is the How to Build a Shopify Brand one. That's a banger, dude. I think you should strive for more of that clarity. Basically as little text as you can get a way with, and make sure people can read it and understand it in an instant.
Also, I think you could even drop the funny faces, because you're not a reaction channel and nobody knows who you are, so your face doesn't really add anything. I understand that this is a daily challenge and time is limited, however I'd encourage you to experiment with more creative stuff. Put yourself in the mindset of someone looking for your videos. What would grab their attention? A pile of money? A fancy car? An analytics graph? Some big bold words on a solid background? You could even do a search in your niche, take a screenshot of the top results and photoshop your thumbnail in there, see if it stands out or not. (Mr Beast does this all the time and he's doing all right.)
Anyways, I'll stop there, I feel like I'm just rambling now. I hope this helps and sorry if I come across as kind of a d*ck - I can get emotional about bad editing lol.
Best of luck dude, keep up the grind! I'll be watching!
I just use YouTube to host videos I embed in posts in the forum. I mostly don't even write a description.What's worked so far with your videos @Andy Black ? Do you have any data on those with bigger writing/no face?
I'm incredibly hesitant to push ads straight to the videos. I did a lot of research into this and the risk is much higher than the potential reward (in my opinion). What's the risk? Well, Youtube really really values the engagement stats on your videos. Stuff like the average view duration, whether they subscribe after watching, session time, if they click to other videos on your channel afterwards. So if you push paid traffic to your videos then you could potentially tank these stats big time. You'll get a lot of views but if those people don't stick around then Youtube gets data saying that your content isn't valuable.
That's a good idea for testing out the drop-off in engagement on a separate channel/video so you don't tank the original. I want to explore youtube ads later - probably after 30 days so that I can get a good starting benchmark for the engagement stats on my videos so I know if I'm tanking them with ads. It's a tough call because I haven't found anyone that's done this well but maybe I can crack it with some testing.I'd like to run ads to videos I post in my Andy Black channel. I'd figure out where people drop off and keep amending the video till I've dialled it in, then I'd upload the optimised video it to a completely separate channel. I'm not trying to rank for anything on the Andy Black channel.
I’ve had 4 leads so far but they’re either not qualified, not ready or not a good fit. It’s still early days but the fact that people are already reaching out to me when I’m barely starting is a really good sign that I’m building trust and authority in my space.Did you say you'd got some clients already out of doing this?
Awesome content @Andy Black . I think the subtitles on the screen work well and it’s nicely edited. You’ve already got a good amount of starting views already. Are you going to keep going with this one?I put a play-now button in some of my thumbnails.
Here's a mess about channel I created. I'll go back to adding videos to that sometime:
View attachment 33582
I'll come back to that channel when I start those campaigns again. I paused the YouTube campaigns because I was getting more email signups from paid search campaigns, and then I paused the paid search campaigns when the MailCheat(Chimp) account got banned.Awesome content @Andy Black . I think the subtitles on the screen work well and it’s nicely edited. You’ve already got a good amount of starting views already. Are you going to keep going with this one?
Btw, I’ve been learning a lot about self-liquidating offers to grow my email list recently and that’s something I want to tackle in the coming weeks.
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