Figuring Out YouTube

[MaxT]

Thank you very much Andy, that's very encouraging. I'm going to keep experimenting too it's very interesting, although with YouTube it's risky haha. YouTube remains a superb platform to create a solid audience, I also have my podcast to learn French which is growing little by little, I'm happy with it. These side projects spice up my life and motivate me to continue working on my projects that are already paying off.
Because in the end, I already have profitable products (my apps and my book), what I miss is the audience (and better marketing I imagine), so I continue to work from there- above. The forum is a gold mine for those who want to get started.

 

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[Andy Black]

Thank you very much Andy, that's very encouraging. I'm going to keep experimenting too it's very interesting, although with YouTube it's risky haha. YouTube remains a superb platform to create a solid audience, I also have my podcast to learn French which is growing little by little, I'm happy with it. These side projects spice up my life and motivate me to continue working on my projects that are already paying off.
Because in the end, I already have profitable products (my apps and my book), what I miss is the audience (and better marketing I imagine), so I continue to work from there- above. The forum is a gold mine for those who want to get started.

Can you turn the podcast into a YouTube channel?

 

[MaxT]

Can you turn the podcast into a YouTube channel?

Yeah, I was thinking about that during my walking. With a very simple video editing it can be a good idea to test that

 

[GatsbyMag]

I'm fascinated by YouTube itself as a platform. I watch so many useful YouTube videos on the TV in our living room when everyone's gone to bed. It's mindblowing how our only barrier to getting in front of millions of people is our skill at creating good videos people want to watch.

Makes sense, I thought you were focusing on driving business results hence ROI

But like you said, seems you're playing around with this and you've gotten a tiny bit of ROI as a result.

I was only asking because I've got a channel myself with 50k subs and it's my main source of income, I'm trying to redirect people to my new ecom website and the traffic isn't coming as I imagined.

If I could give you a tip, YT is all about understanding demand and meeting the viewers where they're at, MJ DeMarco said in a podcast once that the market doesn't care about your feelings. Remember that, I wish I knew that earlier on in my journey!

Good luck!

 

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[Andy Black]

If I could give you a tip, YT is all about understanding demand and meeting the viewers where they're at, MJ DeMarco said in a podcast once that the market doesn't care about your feelings.

I get asked the same questions a lot, and would like to direct people to an answer I've saved. I do that a lot in the forum and figure there's more people who could be helped by those answers. Obviously I have to turn the answers into video, which I've not figured out yet.

 

[Andy Black]

I just wrote this up elsewhere but thought it worth adding here:

I've done many different types of videos.

1) Rambly chats where I go off at tangents seem to help people. They like seeing the thought process, and/or they feel they're listening in to an actual conversation. Currently I do the call, cut off the waiting about part in the beginning, then publish.

Example:

View: https://youtu.be/lbi26HUaSKg?si=ASKTTOATfS7KZKnq



2) Presentations that are a bit more structured. These need a bit of prep to create notes so I have a rough outline, but then they're easy since I know my subject.

Example:

View: https://youtu.be/T0swT3kEOQs?si=VxvBvgDHxwZSJLRp



3) Short scripted and heavily edited videos. Yes, this one took ages. But it's been worth it.

Example:

View: https://youtu.be/7z7kx3kJC4M?si=ySLaEt6hvSj46aSJ



4) Short 2-3 minute How-To videos. I can get into a rhythm with these and it almost becomes a little factory churning them out.

I did those for a previous incarnation of my course membership so don't have an examples.


5) Short videos extracted from long. I find this hard work if it's from my rambly videos. I want to get more structured in the original video and maybe Opus Clip can pull out snippets.

Example:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/qqpIfJmiKyM?si=Tek__WtWNCj1nSTl



6) Short scripted videos where I read a teleprompter. These worked pretty good, although would do better if I learned to inject more personality into my videos.

Example:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/xYEEhRyF1qA?si=DmfTdrvV8kTZcyhx

 

[Cybom]

Hey Andy,

I don't have enough experience to give much advice so take it with a pinch of salt but I just have a random though on the shorts you create from longer videos/discussions. Perhaps you can emphasize more the important words you say to give more impact.

For example instead of "Make it perfect", you could emphasize the "perfect" word and separate it from the sentence:
"Make it"
...
"PERFECT" (maybe with fancy color)

Just a random thought

 

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[MTF]

@Andy Black do you have any thoughts/resources on putting a hard-coded watermark in YouTube videos for building a brand?

I'm curious if it helps to always display a small logo somewhere in the corner (apart from Youtube's watermark) to protect the video from being shared online without proper attribution and to get people to remember the channel more (as in, "oh, I recognize that logo, I've watched this channel").

 

[Timmy C]

@Andy Black do you have any thoughts/resources on putting a hard-coded watermark in YouTube videos for building a brand?

I'm curious if it helps to always display a small logo somewhere in the corner (apart from Youtube's watermark) to protect the video from being shared online without proper attribution and to get people to remember the channel more (as in, "oh, I recognize that logo, I've watched this channel").

Not sure how this would work.

You can easily crop watermarks out.

 

[MTF]

Not sure how this would work.

You can easily crop watermarks out.

You can but protecting the video is just one aspect. I'm more interested in the branding aspect on YouTube and specifically for faceless channels where you're using stock videos and people may not build any awareness of you (as opposed to talking head).

 

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[Andy Black]

@Andy Black do you have any thoughts/resources on putting a hard-coded watermark in YouTube videos for building a brand?

I'm curious if it helps to always display a small logo somewhere in the corner (apart from Youtube's watermark) to protect the video from being shared online without proper attribution and to get people to remember the channel more (as in, "oh, I recognize that logo, I've watched this channel").

I've not read anything about it. As a consumer, most of the videos I see don't have watermarks, and the ones that do don't make me remember them. I only notice official ones (aka ones I knew about already, such as Warner Brothers etc.).

 

[Andy Black]

You can but protecting the video is just one aspect. I'm more interested in the branding aspect on YouTube and specifically for faceless channels where you're using stock videos and people may not build any awareness of you (as opposed to talking head).

Create the videos in a consistent style?

I'd recognise Paddy Galloway's videos for instance. They're a similar format (or were a few years ago when I watched a few).

 

[Cameraman]

@Andy Black do you have any thoughts/resources on putting a hard-coded watermark in YouTube videos for building a brand?

I'm curious if it helps to always display a small logo somewhere in the corner (apart from Youtube's watermark) to protect the video from being shared online without proper attribution and to get people to remember the channel more (as in, "oh, I recognize that logo, I've watched this channel").

I sometimes use my Logo as a lower-third overlay with an animated title. It lasts about 7 seconds while I'm introducing the video.

I only do it for brand awareness, but I mention my brand and use the logo whenever I can to help people recognise it. No one ever mentions they've seen my logo though, but I do get recognised, as does my voice. Perhaps that says a lot about my supposedly valuable logo.

 

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[MTF]

Create the videos in a consistent style?

I'd recognise Paddy Galloway's videos for instance. They're a similar format (or were a few years ago when I watched a few).

I'm using the same two outro scenes but otherwise keeping a consistent style is hard for faceless videos, at least when using a simple tool like Pictory that doesn't give you that much customization.

I'll look into competition again so that I can possibly use the watermark AND have a more consistent style.

I sometimes use my Logo as a lower-third overlay with an animated title. It lasts about 7 seconds while I'm introducing the video.

I only do it for brand awareness, but I mention my brand and use the logo whenever I can to help people recognise it. No one ever mentions they've seen my logo though, but I do get recognised, as does my voice. Perhaps that says a lot about my supposedly valuable logo.

Thanks. The reason I'm asking is because I've been waiting for about 10 days already for Pictory.ai to fix their bug with my logo getting pixelated in my videos. They said it only affects some customers and so far can't find a solution which is kind of ridiculous that they can't fix it still after so many days.

I've been waiting to publish my videos (I already have 16) as I wanted to add the logo but I'm not sure how much longer it'll take (if they even fix it) so I'm pondering just removing the logo and publishing the videos without it. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in the importance of the logo.

 

[Andy Black]

I'm using the same two outro scenes but otherwise keeping a consistent style is hard for faceless videos, at least when using a simple tool like Pictory that doesn't give you that much customization.

I'll look into competition again so that I can possibly use the watermark AND have a more consistent style.



Thanks. The reason I'm asking is because I've been waiting for about 10 days already for Pictory.ai to fix their bug with my logo getting pixelated in my videos. They said it only affects some customers and so far can't find a solution which is kind of ridiculous that they can't fix it still after so many days.

I've been waiting to publish my videos (I already have 16) as I wanted to add the logo but I'm not sure how much longer it'll take (if they even fix it) so I'm pondering just removing the logo and publishing the videos without it. Maybe I'm putting too much faith in the importance of the logo.

I have little faith in the importance of logos. The value is in the content, and your ability to get it in front of the right people. Start publishing the videos, and use the YouTube watermark as your logo. You'll find soon enough that it's hard to get anyone to find your videos, never mind worrying about people copying them.

 

[MTF]

I have little faith in the importance of logos. The value is in the content, and your ability to get it in front of the right people. Start publishing the videos, and use the YouTube watermark as your logo. You'll find soon enough that it's hard to get anyone to find your videos, never mind worrying about people copying them.

Yeah the copying I'm not worried about, that's just a side bonus. It's mostly the recognition I'm thinking about considering I may use some of the same stock videos as other people in the niche.

 

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[Andy Black]

Yeah the copying I'm not worried about, that's just a side bonus. It's mostly the recognition I'm thinking about considering I may use some of the same stock videos as other people in the niche.

People will recognise quality. If you start getting traction I *suspect* the next step will be to not use commonly used stock videos, although "Daily Dose of Internet" uses the same videos lots of other channels do.

 

[MTF]

People will recognise quality. If you start getting traction I *suspect* the next step will be to not use commonly used stock videos, although "Daily Dose of Internet" uses the same videos lots of other channels do.

Thank you for your help. You inspired me to check out competition again. I investigated Lumen5, reached out to their support to ask if they have some of the best features that Pictory has and turns out that they do (despite not mentioning it on their website which is why I ignored them).

I'll be remaking all my videos there and uploading as soon as possible (and getting a refund from Pictory - their fault that their engineers can't fix a bug in reasonable time). Hopefully I'll share some data here soon

 

[Andy Black]

Thank you for your help. You inspired me to check out competition again. I investigated Lumen5, reached out to their support to ask if they have some of the best features that Pictory has and turns out that they do (despite not mentioning it on their website which is why I ignored them).

I'll be remaking all my videos there and uploading as soon as possible (and getting a refund from Pictory - their fault that their engineers can't fix a bug in reasonable time). Hopefully I'll share some data here soon

Looking forward to the updates.

I played with both those tools, and various others. Not to much depth, just to see what can be done now-a-days. Text to video is an amazing skill/service if you can figure it out.

 

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[Timmy C]

Looking forward to the updates.

I played with both those tools, and various others. Not to much depth, just to see what can be done now-a-days. Text to video is an amazing skill/service if you can figure it out.

You fiddled with capcut? I have found it the easiest video editing tool to use, and it's free.
Can do videos super fast now.

 

[Andy Black]

You fiddled with capcut? I have found it the easiest video editing tool to use, and it's free.
Can do videos super fast now.

I was using Descript which was great for talking head videos. Hmmm... I might still be paying for that and am not using it at the mo.

Our 13 year old uses CapCut.

 

[MaxT]

Hi everyone, I haven't published on the forum for a while, for YouTube if you publish for the shorts format (reels, tiktok, YouTube shorts), there is the capcut tool which will save you a lot of time: Capcut
For example, I use it to convert my videos to the classic format (YouTube for example), to the shorts format (less than 60 seconds or more). So, I hope that this will have helped some, good continuation in the youtube adventure to everyone

 

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[Andy Black]

Hi everyone, I haven't published on the forum for a while, for YouTube if you publish for the shorts format (reels, tiktok, YouTube shorts), there is the capcut tool which will save you a lot of time: Capcut
For example, I use it to convert my videos to the classic format (YouTube for example), to the shorts format (less than 60 seconds or more). So, I hope that this will have helped some, good continuation in the youtube adventure to everyone

I must have a play with Capcut sometime. Even my kids and neices/nephews know how to use it.

 

[goldminer]

nice thread i am also doing youtube
i recently starteda 120 days youtube challenge
but i am not able to reach my expectations you can check my progress on my profile

here is my growth till now

 

[MaxT]

I'm slowly but surely approaching 200 subscribers, since the end of December I've been maintaining the pace of one video per day. It's paying off little by little, I'm still very far from monetization but hey, I really like doing this and it takes me around 1.5 hours per morning alongside my other projects. If you know of Facebook groups or other ways to promote your YouTube channel, I'm interested If you want take a look of my channel, it's about tech : https://www.youtube.com/@TechTendanceXYZ

 

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[Andy Black]

I'm slowly but surely approaching 200 subscribers, since the end of December I've been maintaining the pace of one video per day. It's paying off little by little, I'm still very far from monetization but hey, I really like doing this and it takes me around 1.5 hours per morning alongside my other projects. If you know of Facebook groups or other ways to promote your YouTube channel, I'm interested If you want take a look of my channel, it's about tech : https://www.youtube.com/@TechTendanceXYZ View attachment 54598

Well done. Keep going.

Are you able to get people onto an email list at all? Then you could email people when you drop a new video too.

 

[rishj]

I started a YouTube channel when I was 13 years old now I'm 15. At that time I didn't have much knowledge on how to grow a YouTube channel but as time passed I learned a lot new things about YouTube Algorithm, I got these stats in like 2 months of regular posting. I'd say consistency is the key. A few tips:-

1) Try not to delete a short/long video you have posted, YouTube doesn't like it at all
2) The More engaging the videos are the more engagement and the more YouTube Promotes it
3) NEVER CHANGE NICHE WHILE POSTING SOMETHING (This is how my channel died)
4) People like big numbers put in something interesting in your Thumbnail.
small tip: people gets more attracted to negative titles cause that gets them curious.

If I had proper guidance on how to use YouTube. I could've turned this into a gaming channel where I play Minecraft and other games. But This Channel Is almost dead tho i still have 8.1k subs. I got like 11k subs in like 1 month. But It's decreasing with time. I hope you find something helpful from this post. Thanks.

 

[MaxT]

Well done. Keep going.

Are you able to get people onto an email list at all? Then you could email people when you drop a new video too.

It could be a good idea, but I publish each days a new video, some will think it's like "spam" no ?

 

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[Andy Black]

It could be a good idea, but I publish each days a new video, some will think it's like "spam" no ?

Maybe, or maybe you give them the option to get a weekly email where you send links to all the daily videos with a summary of each? Or maybe people love a short daily email?

Test it?

 

[MaxT]

Maybe, or maybe you give them the option to get a weekly email where you send links to all the daily videos with a summary of each? Or maybe people love a short daily email?

Test it?

Indeed, it could be cool, why not one news per week summarizing all the news for example, it could make you want to go and watch the videos in question. What solution do you recommend to implement this? Receiving email > Autoresponder etc. MailCheat(Chimp)? Thanks to you Andy