Figuring Out YouTube

[Andy Black]

I agree!

Things like this too are coming out - AI Video Spokesperson | Make videos with AI avatars in minutes

Soon brands will probably be using AI generated influencers instead of humans lol

Maybe the "verified" mark on social media will verify real humans vs AI bots

Surely we won't need a verified mark to prove we're human? Authenticity is going to take on a whole new meaning...


EDIT: AI isn't all that good tbh.

 

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[Itizn]

Hooks are wrecking my head:

I know this isn't a "hook" but I insta-swipe up whenever someone starts a video with:

"I don't know who needs to hear this but ..."

I'll make a note of other intros that turn me off.

Repeated outros are just as infuriating.
My personal (least) favorite is
"Few people know/get/understand this"

 

[Andy Black]

Repeated outros are just as infuriating.
My personal (least) favorite is
"Few people know/get/understand this"

It's interesting. When marketers tell folks to do something then it immediately becomes a signature of marketers.

I remember when I was bouncing around on Twitter having a ball meeting and interacting with people.

I somehow ended up in a paid membership of Twitter experts discussing how to create good tweets and threads. Using "You" instead of "I" was recommended as people liked reading about themselves. Following their advice I ended up no longer enjoying myself on Twitter and felt I was becoming a fortune-cookie account.

Fast forward to this week and I listen to a podcast of a business owner who happens to have a big following on Twitter. I laughed hearing him advising to talk about your own experiences and emphasise "I" over "you". I loved it.

"Marketers ruin everything."
(Gary V)


I'm posting a bit on LinkedIn, and my preference is just to post natively and not use fancy formats. I can't quite put my finger on what I dislike about fancy formats, but I think I prefer the lesser reach of a more authentic/natural format.

It's the same with video. I don't want the signature of a YouTuber. I myself prefer following people who are less polished.

 

[Andy Black]

Haha. Getting ChatGPT to advise me on how not to be mistaken for a bot. I think the last point is the most important.

Q: How can people on YouTube show they're real and not a bot?

A: There are several ways that people on YouTube can show that they are real and not a bot:

Use a clear profile picture: A real person is more likely to use a clear, recognizable profile picture rather than a generic or unrecognizable image.

Use a consistent name: A real person is more likely to use a consistent name and username across all of their social media profiles.

Interact with their audience: A real person is more likely to engage with their audience through comments, likes, and other forms of interaction.

Create content that is relevant and engaging: A real person is more likely to create content that is relevant to their audience and that is well-produced and engaging.

Share personal details: A real person may share personal details about themselves, such as their location, occupation, or interests, which can help to establish their authenticity.

Use real-life examples and experiences: A real person is more likely to use real-life examples and experiences in their content, rather than relying on generic or scripted material.

 

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[Andy Black]

Can't remember if I shared this already:

View: https://youtu.be/GYnRCb3ppAg

 

[Andy Black]

Seems like I've accidentally got back into YouTube.

Had a call Sunday evening with forum members and uploaded before hitting the hay. No description. No thumbnail. No editing.



I'll see if I can do a Google Ads video in the next couple of days.

I consider YouTube a hobby for the moment. It's just interesting to see how videos do or don't do. And I want videos I can refer people to rather than keep repeating myself.

For that two hour video above, I'd love to do better versions of topics I covered, maybe making notes on Google slides and explaining them quickly with a screenshare and talking head video.

 

[Andy Black]

I haven't published a video this year so far and then publish two in one week.

Today's video is the complete opposite of the one on Sunday. It's 5 mins while the other is nearly 2 hours. And this short one took *hours* to retake and edit, while the 2 hour one was uploaded as soon as I was able to download it from Zoom.

I've still to add chapters to today's video, and maybe some description. I'm not sure about a thumbnail. I don't have thumbnails on any other videos.

I published today's video in it's own thread:

MARKETING - The Shortest Google Ads Tutorial Ever

It took me HOURS to create this. Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Hope it helps! View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M EDIT: Once you're running watch these two short videos to make sense of the metrics...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Sunday's video is in its own thread too:

NOTABLE! - MEETUPS - [TFLF Call Replay] - For teens & students getting started

Hi all. @Lawtiti (who changed his forum name to @Chet Shen) created a Meetup Thread a few days ago and had a Zoom call with @ZCP who gave advice on getting started etc. I offered to do a Zoom where I'll go through some of the main things I think holds people back when getting started, and how...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Andy Black]

Lol...what a fail.

I just checked the views on todays video and saw the thumbnail YouTube picked:





So I knocked up something in Canva with my limited design skillz:

 

[Cameraman]

Lol...what a fail.

I just checked the views on todays video and saw the thumbnail YouTube picked:


View attachment 49937


So I knocked up something in Canva with my limited design skillz:

View attachment 49938

I just watched the 5 min video - it's pure gold.

You answered so many of the questions I struggled with when I was trying Google Ads a few months back. It would have saved me hours of research.

I'm going to try again with Google Ads when I can schedule some time in. That's not an excuse, I have my head immersed in Amazon Ads testing and how to scale them at the moment.

Seriously - thank you for publishing this. It's been added to my saved videos list.

 

[Andy Black]

I just watched the 5 min video - it's pure gold.

You answered so many of the questions I struggled with when I was trying Google Ads a few months back. It would have saved me hours of research.

I'm going to try again with Google Ads when I can schedule some time in. That's not an excuse, I have my head immersed in Amazon Ads testing and how to scale them at the moment.

Seriously - thank you for publishing this. It's been added to my saved videos list.

Ooo. Great feedback. That's the reaction I'm after. I'm tired of all the long tutorials that take 5 minutes to start. I want mine done and dusted before other people start.

(I'm not meaning my long rambling chats of course.)

 

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[Cameraman]

Ooo. Great feedback. That's the reaction I'm after. I'm tired of all the long tutorials that take 5 minutes to start. I want mine done and dusted before other people start.

(I'm not meaning my long rambling chats of course.)

I think short concise videos are the best. I try to keep my videos between 5 and 8 minutes but I sometimes stretch to 12 minutes if I'm doing a software review. People don't have time for rambling intros when they are trying to find out the answer to a problem.

What I really liked about this video was that it answered a lot of the questions I had as a new user. You didn't assume that I knew what you were talking about like a lot of the other videos and articles I had to go through at the time.

It may be a good idea to do a series of short videos aimed at the complete novice and covering the basics. "Silly things" like why do I need three titles and two descriptions? Or how do I send the people who click to a specific page of my website? What about that Poor optimisation score - should I be worried? How many keywords should I target? How do I come up with a reasonable bid for my ad? These are the things which may seem obvious to someone who uses Google ads but it isn't to someone completely new. I wasted a lot of time trying to research these and other similar points that no one seems to cover well.

Just a thought.

 

[Andy Black]

I clicked over 1k subs a couple of days ago. It's only taken 10 years, lol.

Anyway. I'm surprised the 2 hour video has had so many views. I know a lot came from the forum, but not that many. YouTube gave it a little push as well I think.

The short 5 minute one took hours to produce.

The latest video is an 8 minute extract from the 2 hour video. It took a while to pull it out, but it was easy enough with Descript.

Three very different types of videos.


I've messed about with thumbnails a bit to make them more consistent, and to have a short headline and a short subtitle. I just grabbed a template from Canva and amended it. Graphic design and colours is a blind spot for me.

The video title is longer and more to try and get in front of searches.

I'd like to pull out 15-30 second YouTube shorts from the 8 minute video. I might as well upload them to TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well. And maybe Instagram if I can figure that out. Actually, doesn't TikTok allow landscape videos up to 10 mins now? I'd better check that.

@Timmy C mentioned I could do Lives now that I've over 1k subs. I'll mull that over as I think one of my strengths is being live.

Oh, and I've unlisted most of my Google Ads videos. I'm not sure whether to put them on a different channel as the content is so different from the other chat and presentation videos. Curious what you guys think about separating them into different channels.

 

[Cameraman]

I clicked over 1k subs a couple of days ago. It's only taken 10 years, lol.

Anyway. I'm surprised the 2 hour video has had so many views. I know a lot came from the forum, but not that many. YouTube gave it a little push as well I think.

The short 5 minute one took hours to produce.

The latest video is an 8 minute extract from the 2 hour video. It took a while to pull it out, but it was easy enough with Descript.

Three very different types of videos.


I've messed about with thumbnails a bit to make them more consistent, and to have a short headline and a short subtitle. The video title is longer and more to try and get in front of searches. They're still not great as the red writing is a bit hard to read. I just grabbed a template from Canva and amended it. Graphic design and colours is a blind spot for me.

I'd like to pull out 15-30 second YouTube shorts from the 8 minute video. I might as well upload them to TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn as well. And maybe Instagram if I can figure that out. Actually, doesn't TikTok allow landscape videos up to 10 mins now? I'd better check that.

@Timmy C mentioned I could do Lives now that I've over 1k subs. I'll mull that over as I think one of my strengths is being live.

Oh, and I've unlisted most of my Google Ads videos. I'm not sure whether to put them on a different channel as the content is so different from the other chat and presentation videos. Curious what you guys think about separating them into different channels.


View attachment 50043

Have you thought about preparing a few set examples like presentations to give in the longer videos but designing them in such a way that they are easy to cut out as shorter videos?

Have you looked through the retention graph in the longer video to see if there are any areas where people are watching more?

 

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[Andy Black]

Have you thought about preparing a few set examples like presentations to give in the longer videos but designing them in such a way that they are easy to cut out as shorter videos?

Yes, preparation up front makes it much easier to pull out sections.

I know a course creator who did a live presentation every week. He prepared slides beforehand and talked through them. At the end of each section he stopped recording, did a Q&A, and then started recording again at the start of the next section. He then had lots of files already created for each section of the course. The downside would be forgetting to hit record again, but maybe slides saying to stop and start could help.

And this is why I think it's good I keep doing the editing. Going through the pain of editing is forcing me to get better at creating in the first place.

Have you looked through the retention graph in the longer video to see if there are any areas where people are watching more?

I had a quick look. The videos are so different I don't really know what to make of it.


I didn't mean to get back into the YouTube saddle. What got me back in was doing that call 8 days ago and uploading it so people could watch the replay. Then I wanted to do that short Google Ads video. Then I've been surprised at the number of views of an unedited 2 hour video, which now has me thinking as I do those sort of recordings all the time, but not as prepared as I could be.

 

[Cameraman]

And this is why I think it's good I keep doing the editing. Going through the pain of editing is forcing me to get better at creating in the first place.

I couldn't agree more with this. I don't really like the editing but it forces me to do better prep. The editing is then much faster.

You probably have a good audience on YouTube just waiting for the next video.

 

[Andy Black]

I'm slipping down the rabbit hole again...

Just watched this video about thumbnails. Interesting that videos sort of autopsy when hovered over. Nate explains that the thumbnail, title, *and* first 15s of the video are super important, and that there's a trend for big writing in that first 15s (presumably because that "hover play" doesn't have sound on?).

I like the idea of the image telling the story of the thumbnail and the text just supporting it.

I clearly have work to do here.

View: https://youtu.be/TZSFgZhTfRQ

 

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[GuestR401x3]

Check out Derral Eves content and his book The YouTube Formula. He's the YouTube coach for Mr. Beast, The Piano Guys, and a lot of the other biggest channels in the world. He has a lot of content on growing your channel.

 

[Cameraman]

Check out Derral Eves content and his book The YouTube Formula. He's the YouTube coach for Mr. Beast, The Piano Guys, and a lot of the other biggest channels in the world. He has a lot of content on growing your channel.

I would suggest treating the book with caution. I've read the book multiple times and there are some good ideas. I personally found more of a sales funnel for his more expensive courses and conferences. I tried to implement ideas over 6 months and didn't achieve much other than complaints from my regular viewers.

The idea that you need the algorithm to notice you is sound and that a lot of the information about what people like and don't like is in your analytics. But the problem with trying to make videos appeal to an algorithm is that you are going about things backwards. You need to appeal to your target audience. The algorithm is designed to detect when you achieve that and then push the video to similar new viewers.

A good example is filling a video with jump cuts, a fast-paced narrative and a lot of sound effects. That may keep a younger audience engaged and watching but it can be a complete turn-off for an older demographic. Where I do agree with the book is that you need to figure out who your audience is, what they want from your videos and then a good way to deliver that to them.

You don't need to be Mr Beast to make a good income from this game.

 

[Andy Black]

Check out Derral Eves content and his book The YouTube Formula. He's the YouTube coach for Mr. Beast, The Piano Guys, and a lot of the other biggest channels in the world. He has a lot of content on growing your channel.

Thanks for sharing/recommending @jetstoltz. I might have that book already, but I find it hard to complete books so wouldn't have read it even if I did have it. I like podcasts and YouTube for learning, especially for subjects that change so rapidly.

Paddy Galloway has a good channel and I think @Fox joined his YouTube programme too.

 

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[Andy Black]

You need to appeal to your target audience. The algorithm is designed to detect when you achieve that and then push the video to similar new viewers.

^^^ This. It's the same logic for SEO. Appeal to people. The algorithms try to detect what appeals to people.

 

[TampaHomer]

I was at the kitchen island yesterday evening with some post-it notes and the kids gathered round to see what I was doing.

"I'm going to create ads to show people some stuff, and then if they like it they can click through to here to blah blah."

My kids know YouTube pretty well, and know about ads too.

Here's the advice they gave me about the ad:

• 11 yo: You have to stop them clicking “Skip ad”. You probably have five seconds.
  
  
• 9 yo: Get straight into it.
  
  
• 7 yo : Don’t be boring.

That is great advice from your consultant group.....Seriously!

 

[Andy Black]

Blimey... a couple of DMs this evening.


On LinkedIn:



On Facebook:

 

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[Andy Black]

That is great advice from your consultant group.....Seriously!

Dayum. Thanks for bumping that and bringing it back to my attention. A few years later and I'm still marvelling at how smart they are.

 

[Timmy C]

I'm slipping down the rabbit hole again...

Just watched this video about thumbnails. Interesting that videos sort of autopsy when hovered over. Nate explains that the thumbnail, title, *and* first 15s of the video are super important, and that there's a trend for big writing in that first 15s (presumably because that "hover play" doesn't have sound on?).

I like the idea of the image telling the story of the thumbnail and the text just supporting it.

I clearly have work to do here.

View: https://youtu.be/TZSFgZhTfRQ

I find thumbnails and titles being half the battle, and at times it can feel very random as to what get's a good CTR.
My CTR for my channel over it's lifetime now sits at 7.0% which if you asked me if i could get that a few months ago, I would be ecstatic with. But it doesn't necessarily mean the video will be your most viewed either.

Your thumbnails are already fairly good considering you have only really just started with them Andy.

 

[Andy Black]

I posted this short a couple of nights ago and didn't link to it as I wanted to see how it did in the platform.

256 views on YouTube. 53 on TikTok.

We're in Spain at the moment and I don't know if that affects TikTok.

It seems a bit too zoomed in.

It has more of my natural hand waving and tonality/pace than my scripted ones, although there's a lot of jump cuts. I think I prefer this to the scripted ones as it's more natural. I'll try a few unscripted vidoes direct to phone in portrait mode, maybe with bullet points to keep me on topic.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/qqpIfJmiKyM

 

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[Timmy C]

Oh, my sister and I pumped tik tok for several months, but it turned out pretty well for us. 10 thousand subscribers in 4 months

Thats good stuff. I think mine sits at 60 followers for my mma news channel haha.
I just cant seem to get attention.

 

[Andy Black]

Oh, my sister and I pumped tik tok for several months, but it turned out pretty well for us. 10 thousand subscribers in 4 months

Well done. I'm at 108 followers, but have only posted once this year.

Thats good stuff. I think mine sits at 60 followers for my mma news channel haha.
I just cant seem to get attention.

Are there big MMA or combat channels on TikTok?

 

[Timmy C]

Well done. I'm at 108 followers, but have only posted once this year.


Are there big MMA or combat channels on TikTok?

Yeh a few.
Not many though.
It's nothing special, them just talking for a minute or so.

 

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[Cameraman]

I posted this short a couple of nights ago and didn't link to it as I wanted to see how it did in the platform.

256 views on YouTube. 53 on TikTok.

We're in Spain at the moment and I don't know if that affects TikTok.

It seems a bit too zoomed in.

It has more of my natural hand waving and tonality/pace than my scripted ones, although there's a lot of jump cuts. I think I prefer this to the scripted ones as it's more natural. I'll try a few unscripted vidoes direct to phone in portrait mode, maybe with bullet points to keep me on topic.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/qqpIfJmiKyM

I watched the full video when you released it and I thought it was very good. The short is done well but it lacks the impact of the longer video.

 

[Andy Black]

I watched the full video when you released it and I thought it was very good. The short is done well but it lacks the impact of the longer video.

Yeah, I think it's not quite right. Having more actionable tips would help.