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Figuring Out YouTube

Andy Black

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@Andy Black
2 years ago I met a successful YouTuber and got great free coaching through him. I decided not to continue with YouTube as I still have a day job and don't want to risk anything and I completely lost interest in the niche that I was targeting. But I definitely saw some success. I produced less than 20 videos in a span of a year (10-20 hours per video including scripting, recording and editing) with two of my videos reaching the 20k views range. My two best performers brought 80 % of my email list signups and netted roughly 10-20 signups daily for my newsletter. Let me know if you're interested in hearing about the process I learn from the pro youtuber guy.
Great results. Is there anything you can share in this thread?
 
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I like this format and found the content interesting but there are a few things I would personally add to the video.

1. Record a separate introduction. The question that kept coming to my mind was how did you meet Tony? What's the relationship? Who is Tony? The discussion touched on it but it would be an ideal intro. Just say who Tony is, how you met him and what you talked to him about.

2. Whilst I liked how Descript has turned this into a video I found it hard to concentrate by the end. I would consider breaking it into sections based on the topics discussed (which you list in the video description). You can do a quick 5-10 second clip to camera for each where you say what you asked/talked about in the next section. It creates that interrupt that stops the viewer from clicking off to something else.

3. Include an ending to wrap up and encourage people to watch the next video or subscribe to your newsletter or whatever.

When your viewer retention stats become available in YouTube Analytics, check how this video does. It should tell you how you retain viewers through the video compared to other videos of a similar length by switching the graph to "Relative Audience Retention" in the "See more" link. This could give you clues as to whether it's worth doing more of these. My initial gut reaction is probably.
100% !!

My YouTube advisors are top notch and said the same thing. My 11 year old advisor said it finished too quick and I should say "Thanks for watching" etc instead of just having it pop up on screen.

For this video I'd lost the will to live having spent hours editing down the transcription, and trying to figure out how Descript works. Plus Descript ground to a halt when I tried to add a simple end-screen.

This video could indeed be shorter. The details about surveying people and hyper-responsives are secondary to the main point of just helping people.

I'm happy to leave this video up as it's something I can direct people to who already know me. It's not going to encourage new people to subscribe or maybe even watch to the end. Maybe I pull out snippets from this video and at the end of each I direct people to the full video?

I'd love this video to be a proper video with b-roll or talking head all the way through, but I didn't want to do that for a 17 minute video, and not for one where two people are talking. I suspect the "perfect" video for this would be scripted, in sections, and with b-roll, screen recordings, talking head, and animations for the full length. I'd not start with this audio though.
 

Andy Black

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@Andy Black maybe you'll find Wavve * Wavve.co useful as well (just learned about it from my pro Exploding Topics account).
Looks great, thanks for sharing. I think there's going to be a LOT of these little tools popping up. The current gold rush is snackable content. People want to consume it, so business want to create it, so SaaS businesses want to help them do it.

Descript can do this too plus more. My ideal is to create snackable video content with the fancy captions rather than just an audio.
 

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My YouTube advisors are top notch and said the same thing. My 11 year old advisor said it finished too quick and I should say "Thanks for watching" etc instead of just having it pop up on screen.
:rofl:
It's hard to argue with an 11 year old. They know much more about what works on YouTube than I ever will.

I'd love this video to be a proper video with b-roll or talking head all the way through, but I didn't want to do that for a 17 minute video, and not for one where two people are talking. I suspect the "perfect" video for this would be scripted, in sections, and with b-roll, screen recordings, talking head, and animations for the full length. I'd not start with this audio though.
Have you thought about trying a different approach?

Rather than trying to edit down a long recording, pick one or perhaps two topics where you have 5 minutes of discussion. Then add the intro and cutaways to that. You will probably end up with a 7-minute video. It's quicker to create and you could probably get several videos out of a single podcast.
 
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Andy Black

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Oh, and that's the first time I've seriously thought about the title and thumbnail.

I chose something with "start a business" in it as the Google Keyword Planner showed that was one of the higher volume searches, on Google at least.

I then thought of a thumbnail that would make sense with the title I came up with.

It's interesting that we can edit the title and thumbnail indefinitely, which means we can change it up and see if it makes a difference.

Initial stats for this video will be skewed because most views are coming from Facebook or this forum ... meaning from people who already know me.
 

Andy Black

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Rather than trying to edit down a long recording, pick one or perhaps two topics where you have 5 minutes of discussion. Then add the intro and cutaways to that. You will probably end up with a 7-minute video. It's quicker to create and you could probably get several videos out of a single podcast.
Yes, that's what I'm doing with the 90 minute workshop that has at least 20 topics in it.

The first nugget was the 4 minute video I posted previously. I pulled out a couple more but haven't posted yet as I want to figure intro, outro, b-roll, animations, etc first and redo the first one. And figure out how I'll daisy chain the videos together.

It's fun and interesting to watch the metrics for newly uploaded videos so I want to publish a bit more often and keep moving forward.
 

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Great results. Is there anything you can share in this thread?

Not sure how valuable this is. Here are my top learnings:
  • Release 1-2 videos minimum per Week
  • Make a list of top topics in your niche. What are the videos with the most views? What do they cover? What's bad? What's good? Make better videos. Don't be creative and don't think "oh this might work". Research what actually IS working TODAY and make it much much better.
  • Focus ONLY on the pure beginners in your niche and help them from 0 to 1. No nerd stuff on YouTube.
  • Every video needs to lead to the funnel. Have a downloadable PDF that sums up the most important lessons from the video for a signup. BUT: This is NOT MANDATORY. There are NO SECRET TIPS ONLY IN THE PDF bullshit. You're being helpful and because you know that people hate writing down stuff, you provided a printable PDF free of charge. "Feel free to take a screenshot and write down notes. If you're lazy, like me, don't worry, I wrote down these steps in a printable PDF file. So next time you try to solve this, just lay it next to you as a cheat sheet and follow the steps."
  • Video Structure: Beginning, Main Part (3-7 Points), End. Every part has three points:
    • Motivation: Why are we talking about this and why is it important to solve this?
    • The result from ignoring this: What happens if you don't solve this
    • Solution: Here's how you solve this
    • Every video has the same F*cking structure, stop trying to be creative and JUST DO!
  • Have a production process
    • Write script
    • Write A and B-Roll skript. Create everything in your mind prior to recording.
    • Record A- and B-Roll (feel free to use stock for B-Roll)
    • Cutting and Editing
    • Repeat
    • Make this a production process, think of a factory, you're here to produce!
 
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Andy Black

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Not sure how valuable this is. Here are my top learnings:
  • Release 1-2 videos minimum per Week
  • Make a list of top topics in your niche. What are the videos with the most views? What do they cover? What's bad? What's good? Make better videos. Don't be creative and don't think "oh this might work". Research what actually IS working TODAY and make it much much better.
  • Focus ONLY on the pure beginners in your niche and help them from 0 to 1. No nerd stuff on YouTube.
  • Every video needs to lead to the funnel. Have a downloadable PDF that sums up the most important lessons from the video for a signup. BUT: This is NOT MANDATORY. There are NO SECRET TIPS ONLY IN THE PDF bullshit. You're being helpful and because you know that people hate writing down stuff, you provided a printable PDF free of charge. "Feel free to take a screenshot and write down notes. If you're lazy, like me, don't worry, I wrote down these steps in a printable PDF file. So next time you try to solve this, just lay it next to you as a cheat sheet and follow the steps."
  • Video Structure: Beginning, Main Part (3-7 Points), End. Every part has three points:
    • Motivation: Why are we talking about this and why is it important to solve this?
    • The result from ignoring this: What happens if you don't solve this
    • Solution: Here's how you solve this
    • Every video has the same F*cking structure, stop trying to be creative and JUST DO!
  • Have a production process
    • Write script
    • Write A and B-Roll skript. Create everything in your mind prior to recording.
    • Record A- and B-Roll (feel free to use stock for B-Roll)
    • Cutting and Editing
    • Repeat
    • Make this a production process, think of a factory, you're here to produce!
What do you mean you're not sure how valuable this is? It's super valuable. Thanks for sharing.

I love how the PDF is just a helpful summary to save them writing notes.

To date I've been relying on my ability/ease at doing things live. That's not the only way though, and I'd like to create super tight videos the same way I try to create threads in the forum that are as tight as I can make them. A factory process is exactly what I had in mind, and you've fleshed out as a repeatable blueprint.

I loved the part about focusing on taking people from 0 to 1. My goal is to give aha moments, in my courses and in the forum, so people can then proceed on their own.

Lol at "No nerd stuff on YouTube".

I'll mull this over.
 

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Andy Black

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Aim for 10 minutes per Video.
I'd like my videos to be even shorter than 10 minutes, maybe a max of 5 minutes.

I noticed how I'll binge watch a channel for an hour when each video is "just 5 more minutes".

A recent ThinkMedia video mentioned 5-8 mins being the sweet spot.

No fluff, no background story, no hero story, just deliver value

I'm allergic to fluff. When the first 5 minutes is preamble I leave and never come back.

My original course videos were super short (max 4 mins I think). If the lesson title was "How to add keywords" I didn't start by saying "In this video you're going to learn how to add keywords." That seemed redundant. I had a lot of feedback from people saying how they liked how "no fluff" my courses were.

I think no fluff is a great differentiator. There's so many how-to videos that don't serve the viewer because they meander all over the place. Even YouTube creating automatic chapters is an indication they recognise this is a problem for viewers.

I'd like to see if the thumbnail and title is enough to set the scene and forgo introductions completely.

I know this isn't quite what the algorithm wants, but I'm more interested in the people that persevere through to the end. I may even setup YouTube ad campaigns to retarget those that watch to the end of videos.

Saying that, I like Laurel Portie's strategy where she calls out her ideal prospect at the start of her videos, but she's also using a specific type of ad strategy with those ads.
 

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I saw these community posts. I often find them more interesting than the actual videos (but I don't like videos much and text is always more interesting to me).

As for your video in the previous post, I don't get it. If I want to read, I'd rather read a regular transcript formatted as an article. If I want to listen, why would I read the subtitles? I can only see it being useful for non-native English speakers who want to practice while listening to content that interests them. But again, I don't like audio content so maybe that's just not for me.
Interesting point

the way I think about it is - when you come across a video that has subtitles, where do your eyes go immediately?

for me, it's the subtitles. It keeps me hooked much longer than if they aren't there
 

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I 100% agree with the no fluff element. I’ve produced a online course that is selling well and the number 1 feedback is always about how it is straight to the point.

I consider it a value skew - save the customer time by cutting the crap and telling them/showing them what they need to know.

Luckily I’ve always been kinda blunt when explaining things so it works on my favour.

If anyone is struggling to cut the fluff I’d recommend going back through your script and questioning if each sentence or word bring maximum value or has a purpose. If not. Cut it out
 
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Andy Black

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Interesting point

the way I think about it is - when you come across a video that has subtitles, where do your eyes go immediately?

for me, it's the subtitles. It keeps me hooked much longer than if they aren't there
Subtitles grab and keep my attention too. It's very effective for shorter videos (like the 4 minute video I published prior to the 17 minute podcast video).

I think 17 minutes reading subtitles is tiring though, as @Cameraman said. In an ideal world that podcast video would be broken up by b-roll, slides, chapter intros/outros, etc. I just lost the will to live by the time I got the video edited down. Maybe that's where I pass a video off to someone else...
 

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I consider it a value skew - save the customer time
Saving time is the ultimate value skew.

People that value their time will pay to save time. People that don't value their time won't.

Tip: Sell to the people who value their time.
 

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Two of my YouTube consultants are doing YouTube shorts today...

20220812_194227.jpg
 
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Two of my YouTube consultants are doing a YouTube short a day...

View attachment 44705
Nice! I also use the same Logitech webcam - for some reason the quality of it used to be really bad in my case… then randomly after many years I ran some disk cleaning utilities and suddenly the image is super clear and crisp, many people I chatted with frequently thought I got a new webcam lol.
 

Andy Black

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Here's my first YouTube short.
  • It took me a little while editing down that previous 4 minute video so it was under 60 seconds. I enjoyed being ruthless though.
  • It was all done in Descript.
  • I may upload it to LinkedIn and other places on Monday.
Curious what you think!

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/4yNpRwkMt6o
 

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Here's my first YouTube short.
  • It took me a little while editing down that previous 4 minute video so it was under 60 seconds. I enjoyed being ruthless though.
  • It was all done in Descript.
  • I may upload it to LinkedIn and other places on Monday.
Curious what you think!

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/4yNpRwkMt6o
So awesome!

One piece of feedback I could add is to start with a hook at the beginning - just so people know what they'll be learning instantly

it does have one at the top - but for me my eyes went directly to the subtitles, and it took a few seconds before I understood what the video was about

Maybe when going through your clips go into earlier parts of your video (could be wayy earlier in the long form video in this clip) where you have a hook that then becomes the beginning of a video like this one?
 
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Shorts that draw me in start with a clear statement about the video.

Starting by stating the title of the video would be my suggestion.
 

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There is such a wealth of tools at our fingertips now it’s fantastic. Even for people like me who don’t code you can produce 99% of what you need with Clicks not Code.

It’s truly a amazing and exciting time to be building your own thing.

I’m not sure if anyone else has the problem of shiny object syndrome but I find that I see all these different tools and fight to try and stick to one piece of software.

Regarding Shorts: You could use them as a Lead Magnet. Demonstrate the Value and Outcome in 60 seconds then link to a more detailed video or your website for a detailed explanation. You’d then be leading with Value and grabbing their Attention which would help bring them home.
 

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So awesome!

One piece of feedback I could add is to start with a hook at the beginning - just so people know what they'll be learning instantly

it does have one at the top - but for me my eyes went directly to the subtitles, and it took a few seconds before I understood what the video was about

Maybe when going through your clips go into earlier parts of your video (could be wayy earlier in the long form video in this clip) where you have a hook that then becomes the beginning of a video like this one?

Shorts that draw me in start with a clear statement about the video.

Starting by stating the title of the video would be my suggestion.
Good feedback. I could make the headline stand out a bit more, or animate it into the video itself.

For this particular video I don't think I've space to add an intro and still keep it under 60s.

I also wonder whether intros are really necessary. I personally like videos to get straight into it and am trying to start part way in so people have to "catch up".

Something I heard was to start a short part way through the video as people are more likely to loop though and watch more than once. It seems a bit sneaky tbh. I may test that sometime.
 

Andy Black

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Regarding Shorts: You could use them as a Lead Magnet. Demonstrate the Value and Outcome in 60 seconds then link to a more detailed video or your website for a detailed explanation. You’d then be leading with Value and grabbing their Attention which would help bring them home.
Yeah. I'll test sending people to a lead magnet or the longer videos. For now I'll start without intros and outros so I get a baseline.

I did put a tiny cta at the bottom of the video that only the eagle eyed will spot.
 
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Andy Black

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I wonder if I should unlist my longer chats for now...

Screenshot_20220813-091644_YT Studio.jpg


Shorts seem to get more views alright...

Screenshot_20220813-091545_YT Studio.jpg
 

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Whoa. The interface even looks like Descript. Good find. What makes it more creator friendly? I'm pretty happy with Descript at the moment, except for a possible performance issue.

I was curious about Descript so I checked their website and it's atrocious. The sales page feels like it's half-finished with some random text, company logos and pretty much nothing else. I couldn't even find any images or videos of how it works and I gave up after a couple of minutes. It put me off so much I searched for Descript alternatives. Type Studio looks way friendlier and their homepage actually tells what their software is about and what it can do.

Like seriously, Descript would be a great case study of how NOT to create a landing page lol.
 

Andy Black

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I was curious about Descript so I checked their website and it's atrocious. The sales page feels like it's half-finished with some random text, company logos and pretty much nothing else. I couldn't even find any images or videos of how it works and I gave up after a couple of minutes. It put me off so much I searched for Descript alternatives. Type Studio looks way friendlier and their homepage actually tells what their software is about and what it can do.

Like seriously, Descript would be a great case study of how NOT to create a landing page lol.
Their YouTube channel is good. I can't remember how I found out about Descript. I watched their videos first and then went to signup on their site. I never even read their sales page, which is interesting now I think about it.
 
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Here's a great video where Mr Beast is asked about his strategies and thoughts on YouTube, by someone high up in YouTube itself.

View: https://youtu.be/C1jDk_2Yeno



One of the comments gives a good summary.

2022-08-13_22-55-26.png



I already knew YouTube will show videos if they result in more watchtime (high CTR and high retention combined). It's the same with Google Ads ... if you want to understand how they work then just think like Google.


My own takeaways (for now) were:

1) Hook people at the start. It could be as simple as "We're going to fill a pool with jello!" A video without a good hook will not go viral.

2) People are more likely to watch your next video if they liked your last one.

3) YouTube doesn't just want watchtime. They want people to watch something they enjoyed or inspired them. They don't want people to wish they had that 15 minutes of their life back.

4) Jimmy (Mr Beast) will potentially spend 10 hours to get a 15 second section just right. He says it matters. I've been shoving videos up knowing there's bits I could do better but I've lost the will to live by that stage. That's not good enough. I think I'd rather produce the video in my mind's eye than publish just to "be consistent".

5) A big part of click-through-rate is "the big idea". A guy sitting in a corner for 24 hours isn't as interesting as a guy sitting in a cell for 24 hours. Jimmy spends an hour brainstorming for big ideas every day. I've been weak at this.

6) He talked about how he helped someone create a video for his small channel that blew up and got 3m views. Again, I think it's less about posting lots of videos and more about posting quality videos that people watch and therefore the algorithm shares.
 

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Here's a great video where Mr Beast is asked about his strategies and thoughts on YouTube, by someone high up in YouTube itself.

View: https://youtu.be/C1jDk_2Yeno



One of the comments gives a good summary.

View attachment 44718



I already knew YouTube will show videos if they result in more watchtime (high CTR and high retention combined). It's the same with Google Ads ... if you want to understand how they work then just think like Google.


My own takeaways (for now) were:

1) Hook people at the start. It could be as simple as "We're going to fill a pool with jello!" A video without a good hook will not go viral.

2) People are more likely to watch your next video if they liked your last one.

3) YouTube doesn't just want watchtime. They want people to watch something they enjoyed or inspired them. They don't want people to wish they had that 15 minutes of their life back.

4) Jimmy (Mr Beast) will potentially spend 10 hours to get a 15 second section just right. He says it matters. I've been shoving videos up knowing there's bits I could do better on but I've lost the will to live by that stage. That's not good enough. I think I'd rather produce the video in my mind's eye than publish just to "be consistent".

5) A big part of click-through-rate is "the big idea". A guy sitting in a corner for 24 hours isn't as interesting as a guy sitting in a cell for 24 hours. Jimmy spends an hour brainstorming for big ideas every day. I've been weak at this.

6) He talked about how he helped someone create a video for his small channel that blew up and got 3m views. Again, I think it's less about posting lots of videos and more about posting quality videos that people watch and therefore the algorithm shares.
Great summary and insights, thank you!

The last part of point 6 made me think of James Jani - pure quality over quantity. Obviously if you CAN have both then that will be even better, but I do think quality is more important than just churning videos out regularly at the sacrifice of quality.

Another point I remember someone making about James’ channel - fewer videos creates a feeling of scarcity for existing subscribers, so more hype and excitement when a video is finally released!
 

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