Growing an MMA news channel on YouTube

[Timmy C]

@Timmy C, how is the newsletter going? Are you getting any subscribers?

Nah not much at all to be honest.

It's not all that surprising to me though to be honest, as I wasn't getting many website visitors to begin with before it just tanked, and i haven't posted to youtube in a long time until today.

Things are pretty shit atm to be honest.

The articles used to show up in Google search for me, but now they don't at all...

The impressions and visits all seem the same on Cloudflare so i have no idea.

I mean... I get that they are not high enough on Google, semrush is showing i am ranking for some keywords, but I used to rank for over 456 of them.....now I rank for like 2 in search console, and 80 or so on semrush for the last couple of weeks.

There is plenty of demand, but it seems to me that google has put the hammer on my website for whatever reason, and I can't fix it it seems as they don't give any information as to why that is.

There is a market, but if i can't capture that market because google doesn't like my site and won't tell me why, it doesn't help me very much lol.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

MMA is a very visual niche. I would focus primarily on YouTube and use it for growing your newsletter which is the only way to not be F*cked if YouTube does the same to you as Google.

As for your website, chances are it's simply too young and got hit more severely by the update. Over time the restriction (if it's there) should be lifted. But I understand it's frustrating to lose the progress. If I were you, I think I'd forget about the website for now, let it age a bit and in the meantime just do video.

In the end, YouTube can explode way faster than SEO which has been historically always slow and always unreliable due to frequent updates.

 

[Timmy C]

Made another video and frontloaded the newsletter promotion at the start.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThvBi-oew4


The video quality isn't as good, but I really don't care atm, just building momentum again after having a long break from videos.

 

[Cameraman]

Made another video and frontloaded the newsletter promotion at the start.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThvBi-oew4


The video quality isn't as good, but I really don't care atm, just building momentum again after having a long break from videos.

Good to see you back with the videos but don't give up on the website either.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[adilbek]

Hey Timmy, Super impressed with your continuing your youtube channel! Already uploaded 81 videos and you seem to be enjoying it a lot. Way to go! I guess it like bjj, just need to show up consistently.

 

[Timmy C]

The 3 videos I did just gave me a few email subscribers, I have one automation set up atm for it but that's it.

I released another today, same deal with the email newsletter promo.

I also posted a story on my Facebook for people to subscribe to my channel.

I want 1k subs as fast as possible.

View: https://youtu.be/SfFsOjNXDEI

 

[Timmy C]

Hey Timmy, Super impressed with your continuing your youtube channel! Already uploaded 81 videos and you seem to be enjoying it a lot. Way to go! I guess it like bjj, just need to show up consistently.

Thanks for that.
Yeh, I can see the improvement from the first video, but would like more views to be honest haha.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MTF]

Yeh, I can see the improvement from the first video, but would like more views to be honest haha.

I have a challenge for you...

How much time does it take for you to record one video?

How much time do you have every day for recording videos?

How much time would it take to record 100 videos and schedule them to go out every day?

If you can record 2 videos a day, it would take only 50 days to have enough content to more than double your current 82 videos on the channel.

One of the reasons why I love content-based businesses is because you can put in a crazy sprint like that and then schedule it to go out regularly for the next few months.

I'm not sure about the blog (SEO is too unpredictable these days) but YouTube seems to offer more and faster scale if you publish regularly (and if you use it for growing the newsletter, you also get the foundation of a safe business). So why not see where this would take you?

 

[StrikingViper69]

Here’s a checklist for your articles:

• How long are they? 700-1000 words is a good guideline, unless it’s necessary for them to be shorter. Go for 3k+ words if you want to get detailed.
• Is the language detailed and specific? When talking about gi’s, do you use the technical words, materials etc to describe them? Eg if you say gi, then google isn’t going to gaf, if you say 10 ply 30% Cotton with an interweave gi, you’ll rank quicker (I made up those words btw)
• Are you using paragraphs, or a giant wall of text?
• Is your written English good?
• Do your articles have subheadings using H2, H3 etc tags?
• Are you linking to other relevant articles on your site? (Internal links)
• Are your images properly sized, good file size, with alt description and caption? Are your images using descriptive file names?
• Does your website look ok on mobile?
• Are your SEO titles/descriptions setup properly?
• Are you getting any external links?
• Can you create a tool? Some sort of BJJ calculator for gi sizes, training frequency or something? Simple tools are a good way to rank and get high quality backlinks.
• What are people in the field searching for? Do you know, or are you guessing?
• Are there crap articles on other websites with lots of traffic? Write a better, more detailed and in depth article.
• Does your website load quickly, or is it slower than Royal Mail shipping internationally?

There’s quite a lot of work to write a good article, but it can generate traffic for life when you make a good one.

 

[Timmy C]

I have a challenge for you...

How much time does it take for you to record one video?

How much time do you have every day for recording videos?

How much time would it take to record 100 videos and schedule them to go out every day?

If you can record 2 videos a day, it would take only 50 days to have enough content to more than double your current 82 videos on the channel.

One of the reasons why I love content-based businesses is because you can put in a crazy sprint like that and then schedule it to go out regularly for the next few months.

I'm not sure about the blog (SEO is too unpredictable these days) but YouTube seems to offer more and faster scale if you publish regularly (and if you use it for growing the newsletter, you also get the foundation of a safe business). So why not see where this would take you?

To record a video takes me about 10 - 15 minutes, sometimes more depending on if I have alot to say.

I work 12-hour shifts at work, so the days I do work I can't do anything other than shit, eat, sleep, and do it again the next day.

In saying that, the longer days do give me more days off than most other people, so on those days I could do 3 to 4 videos.

I get what you mean about building a backlog of videos, but the style of content being news-related, and fight predictions etc doesn't really lend itself to that strategy.

The website had evergreen articles, but the YouTube channel doesn't. The website was good in my head, as it had that evergreen aspect that the youtube channel lacks in it's present form.

I have backlogged fight predictions before, only for them to be canceled.

Yeh the blog sucks, I despise it now to be honest. I spent a good 2 - 3 months just focusing on articles only to now get knowhere.

I could have spent all that time on youtube instead and been monetized already.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

Here’s a checklist for your articles:

• How long are they? 700-1000 words is a good guideline, unless it’s necessary for them to be shorter. Go for 3k+ words if you want to get detailed.
• Is the language detailed and specific? When talking about gi’s, do you use the technical words, materials etc to describe them? Eg if you say gi, then google isn’t going to gaf, if you say 10 ply 30% Cotton with an interweave gi, you’ll rank quicker (I made up those words btw)
• Are you using paragraphs, or a giant wall of text?
• Is your written English good?
• Do your articles have subheadings using H2, H3 etc tags?
• Are you linking to other relevant articles on your site? (Internal links)
• Are your images properly sized, good file size, with alt description and caption? Are your images using descriptive file names?
• Does your website look ok on mobile?
• Are your SEO titles/descriptions setup properly?
• Are you getting any external links?
• Can you create a tool? Some sort of BJJ calculator for gi sizes, training frequency or something? Simple tools are a good way to rank and get high quality backlinks.
• What are people in the field searching for? Do you know, or are you guessing?
• Are there crap articles on other websites with lots of traffic? Write a better, more detailed and in depth article.
• Does your website load quickly, or is it slower than Royal Mail shipping internationally?

There’s quite a lot of work to write a good article, but it can generate traffic for life when you make a good one.

This looks like something you have copied and pasted from Chat GPT.

I don't mind constructive criticism or even discussion about what I might be doing and how it is wrong, or how to make it better, even if people think I should pivot and why. All of that is helpful, and everyone gets value from it who reads the thread.

It's interesting that you have written all of that, but not even looked at the site, or articles on my site which debunks 90% + of what you wrote.

Do better.

 

[StrikingViper69]

This looks like something you have copied and pasted from Chat GPT.

I don't mind constructive criticism or even discussion about what I might be doing and how it is wrong, or how to make it better, even if people think I should pivot and why. All of that is helpful, and everyone gets value from it who reads the thread.

It's interesting that you have written all of that, but not even looked at the site, or articles on my site which debunks 90% + of what you wrote.

Do better.

If you bring the same degree of arrogance to your work, I can understand why your traffic is 0.

 

[Timmy C]

If you bring the same degree of arrogance to your work, I can understand why your traffic is 0.

It's not arrogance.
It's ignorance from you.
Anyway, blocked.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

Maybe I should make some evergreen videos.

Just sprinkle one in each week and backlog them whilst keeping the same theme of content.

I have surgery soon, so I will do that now and get it organized as I won't be able to post after the operation for a bit.

 

[Bearcorp]

Maybe I should make some evergreen videos.

Just sprinkle one in each week and backlog them whilst keeping the same theme of content.

I have surgery soon, so I will do that now and get it organized as I won't be able to post after the operation for a bit.

Recaps of classic fights, “throw back Thursday” kind of style could make for good evergreen content, even history of the sport, the purchase of Pride and Strikeforce as examples, fighters careers, maybe uncovering content that hasn’t been widely shared.

I’m a bit of a an old school wrestling fan and when I’ve got some free time it’s always good to watch a bit of 90’s wrestling recaps, some of the people involved back then have their own podcasts now, Bruce Pritchard, Kevin Nash, Vince Russo…

Something to consider rather than always needing to be breaking news, you’re competing against the best in the business, people with inside knowledge and access to fighters and the content for that.

 

[Bearcorp]

View: https://youtu.be/HgalWSsz5tg?si=ihEeP3Jv_cABARiA


That’s an example of a You Tube page that makes history style videos regularly.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

View: https://youtu.be/HgalWSsz5tg?si=ihEeP3Jv_cABARiA


That’s an example of a You Tube page that makes history style videos regularly.

Oh man, old school wrestling was incredible. I'm getting nostalgic haha.

I think you are spot on with the drawbacks of the current content style im producing.

It's something I have been aware of for some time, but with the website now in the shitter, I guess making evergreen content to mix in with what I do already on youtube is probably a good move.

 

[MTF]

I get what you mean about building a backlog of videos, but the style of content being news-related, and fight predictions etc doesn't really lend itself to that strategy.

The website had evergreen articles, but the YouTube channel doesn't. The website was good in my head, as it had that evergreen aspect that the youtube channel lacks in it's present form.

You answered this already in your next posts. You can continue publishing news-style videos to gain subscribers but over time I'd fully transition into evergreen videos. Otherwise this just becomes a job where your work is only providing returns for a week or two until your news is old news.

People who are into history are usually way more deeply invested in the topic. Mostly nerds and old timers (whose identities revolve around MMA) would watch these kinds of videos. And these people are probably your best customers.

You don't want people who are casually into MMA, looking for news about a big fight so they know what their buddies are talking about. You want hardcore fans who love everything about the sport and can spend hours watching content about it (that isn't news).

 

[AceVentures]

When I watch UFC promotional content, what I learn is the way they build excitement with story telling. Can you do the same with iconic fights? Or even fights that aren't iconic, but through your story telling ability you get to reveal to your audience a perspective they didn't have.

Make it emotionally charged with music. Maybe even focus on underrepresented fighters and share their backstories. Find their pictures on IG from 10 years ago and try to tell a story about where they came from and what this fight meant to them, the challenges they overcame and the lessons learned.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[BizyDad]

A little late to the thread and drama.

The complete loss of traffic shows a complete loss of Google trust. Some possible reasons:

1. You make health recommendations (supplement, diet). This may have triggered the YMYL algo and your site was determined to not have enough expertise, authority, or trust to be doing that.

What Are E-E-A-T and YMYL in SEO & How to Optimize for Them

E-E-A-T and YMYL can have a huge effect on your Google search rankings. Here‘s what you need to know.

www.semrush.com

Solution: delete (pause) those articles and wait up to 6 months for the next core update to rescore your website. If I am right, your other rankings will pop back up as normal. You aren't doing anything anyways with the blog, might as well give this a shot.

Also, you are selling stuff, but you have no return policy nor is there an easy way to get a hold of you. Even if your return policy is "We offer no refunds" create the page and say that. And create a contact us page.

Do those 3 things and let the site sit for the next several months...

2. If that doesn't work, other possible reasons for a complete site-wide drop:

• Too much affiliate stuff too soon (not likely, but some of these pages have a lot of affiliate links))
• Issue with Google Users bouncing too fast. Check historic analytics data for dwell time and bounce rate. If users hate your site, Google ain't going to love it
• Poor links pointing to your site
• Poor links pointing away from your site
• Site too slow
• You maybe got hacked (Google would give an alert about this)

On that second to last point, your speed tests came back fast enough, but as I browsed your site, every 5th page or so gave me a "hang" to where it took 7 seconds on desktop or as long as 15 second on mobile (I counted, so not exact) load time. There is something fishy...

And about the bounce rate, honestly, I found your article to be confusingly organized, and the content to be more opinion based than truly in depth. You do cite sources, but the sources cited are often (what I assume) are random blogs (if they are authoritative I never heard of them, but I also don't follow the space".

Or for example, look at the "case study" on this page The 6 Best MMA Supplements For Recovery

It's a few paragraphs about a guy who talked to a supposed expert about a product. There are no quotes. No citations. That's not actually how a case study works. That's just a random story about a guy.

A lot of your content relies on personal experience, and that's better than nothing, but your about page lists you a simply a fan and the writing could use a dash more credibility imo. No offense, you might really know your stuff, but personally, I might just bounce and find a more authoritative blogger.

Your videos are solid though. Love those.

 

[Timmy C]

You answered this already in your next posts. You can continue publishing news-style videos to gain subscribers but over time I'd fully transition into evergreen videos. Otherwise this just becomes a job where your work is only providing returns for a week or two until your news is old news.

People who are into history are usually way more deeply invested in the topic. Mostly nerds and old timers (whose identities revolve around MMA) would watch these kinds of videos. And these people are probably your best customers.

You don't want people who are casually into MMA, looking for news about a big fight so they know what their buddies are talking about. You want hardcore fans who love everything about the sport and can spend hours watching content about it (that isn't news).

I was going to do this a few months ago to be honest, but I noticed people who already do these style of videos getting copyright strikes left right and centre due to using UFC footage.

UFC seems to be very anal about giving youtube channels copyright strikes, and I noticed most of the channels that do this sort of thing are using UFC footage and getting punished and demonitized.

There is no way I can see at all to make a history style video that is watchable without using their footage. This would be a big issue for me.

I think evergreen is a way to go moving forward, but I don't want to risk using UFC footage as they are smashing channels that use it.

 

[MTF]

I was going to do this a few months ago to be honest, but I noticed people who already do these style of videos getting copyright strikes left right and centre due to using UFC footage.

UFC seems to be very anal about giving youtube channels copyright strikes, and I noticed most of the channels that do this sort of thing are using UFC footage and getting punished and demonitized.

There is no way I can see at all to make a history style video that is watchable without using their footage. This would be a big issue for me.

I think evergreen is a way to go moving forward, but I don't want to risk using UFC footage as they are smashing channels that use it.

Any chance you can do interviews with old-school fighters? Then you won't need UFC footage.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

Any chance you can do interviews with old-school fighters? Then you won't need UFC footage.

I can try to get it done, no harm in trying?

I Also know some up and coming fighters coming out of Melbourne that currently fight with this promotion: Hex Fight Series | Australia’s best MMA Promotion

 

[MTF]

I can try to get it done, no harm in trying?

I Also know some up and coming fighters coming out of Melbourne that currently fight with this promotion: Hex Fight Series | Australia’s best MMA Promotion

Interviewing up and coming fighters could also be nice. You could talk about their training schedule, diet, gear, etc. And if they were to get more famous, that's a win for you as well.

 

[MattR82]

For the website, and you're probably already aware, but the comments sections under any articles on mma fighting.com and bloodyelbow get censored a lot which really piss people off. bloodyelbow is lefty madness with the admin lol. Are you a member of any of those comments sections by chance?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

A little late to the thread and drama.

The complete loss of traffic shows a complete loss of Google trust. Some possible reasons:

1. You make health recommendations (supplement, diet). This may have triggered the YMYL algo and your site was determined to not have enough expertise, authority, or trust to be doing that.

What Are E-E-A-T and YMYL in SEO & How to Optimize for Them

E-E-A-T and YMYL can have a huge effect on your Google search rankings. Here‘s what you need to know.

www.semrush.com

Solution: delete (pause) those articles and wait up to 6 months for the next core update to rescore your website. If I am right, your other rankings will pop back up as normal. You aren't doing anything anyways with the blog, might as well give this a shot.

Also, you are selling stuff, but you have no return policy nor is there an easy way to get a hold of you. Even if your return policy is "We offer no refunds" create the page and say that. And create a contact us page.

Do those 3 things and let the site sit for the next several months...

2. If that doesn't work, other possible reasons for a complete site-wide drop:

• Too much affiliate stuff too soon (not likely, but some of these pages have a lot of affiliate links))
• Issue with Google Users bouncing too fast. Check historic analytics data for dwell time and bounce rate. If users hate your site, Google ain't going to love it
• Poor links pointing to your site
• Poor links pointing away from your site
• Site too slow
• You maybe got hacked (Google would give an alert about this)

On that second to last point, your speed tests came back fast enough, but as I browsed your site, every 5th page or so gave me a "hang" to where it took 7 seconds on desktop or as long as 15 second on mobile (I counted, so not exact) load time. There is something fishy...

And about the bounce rate, honestly, I found your article to be confusingly organized, and the content to be more opinion based than truly in depth. You do cite sources, but the sources cited are often (what I assume) are random blogs (if they are authoritative I never heard of them, but I also don't follow the space".

Or for example, look at the "case study" on this page The 6 Best MMA Supplements For Recovery

It's a few paragraphs about a guy who talked to a supposed expert about a product. There are no quotes. No citations. That's not actually how a case study works. That's just a random story about a guy.

A lot of your content relies on personal experience, and that's better than nothing, but your about page lists you a simply a fan and the writing could use a dash more credibility imo. No offense, you might really know your stuff, but personally, I might just bounce and find a more authoritative blogger.

Your videos are solid though. Love those.

Wow man thanks for writing that up!

Good point about the return policy, I will fix all of that up.

Yeh, it looks like i need to improve upon the content that is on the website as I agree with what you wrote.

With the content being around my personal experience, I just don't want to pretend I am something I am not. I have some skills, but I don't want to pretend that I am a pro or anything.

Thanks for writing all of that, it was very helpful.

 

[Andy Black]

Wow man thanks for writing that up!

Good point about the return policy, I will fix all of that up.

Yeh, it looks like i need to improve upon the content that is on the website as I agree with what you wrote.

With the content being around my personal experience, I just don't want to pretend I am something I am not. I have some skills, but I don't want to pretend that I am a pro or anything.

Thanks for writing all of that, it was very helpful.

Cool. Better than despising the website. ;-)

 

[BizyDad]

Wow man thanks for writing that up!

Good point about the return policy, I will fix all of that up.

Yeh, it looks like i need to improve upon the content that is on the website as I agree with what you wrote.

With the content being around my personal experience, I just don't want to pretend I am something I am not. I have some skills, but I don't want to pretend that I am a pro or anything.

Thanks for writing all of that, it was very helpful.

Glad to help. I think personal experience is good. It lends to authenticity. Keep that coming. My critique is that it isn't enough. Try and find some ways to increase the authority/expertise. It is a tough tap dance to accomplish as a one man show.

Get quotes from other experts maybe? Occasionally have someone else write an article? (Someone you know, not some seo solicitor that filled out the form on your soon to be added contact us page). Try and get yourself published other places as well so you aren't just a fan with a blog, but closer to a journalist covering pugilism. See how I used a big fancy word?

That also can help raise the gravitas. Word choice. Being thorough in your word choice speaks to expertise. As a concrete example, there was one page I saw, I think about Gi's, and you used "BJJ" over and over. But you never once said Brazilian Ju-Jitsu?

Deeper articles will naturally have a variety of keywords sprinkled throughout. To get a better sense of what type of words/phrases/topics you might be leaving out, take a look at the top 10 ranking articles and make sure you are putting your own spin on the topics they include in their articles. And pay attention to the word choice they use as well.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Timmy C]

I released a few more videos after the latest UFC event.

View: https://youtu.be/G_C_-la9wjs?si=Xe8i-E4UZP9XGB2O


This one below I made controversial on purpose, it seems to get engagement. Haters bring in views for sure!

View: https://youtu.be/uAlg29wIYg8?si=Cr43S_7N6itMyBr9


I also have 3 more videos done that are scheduled for next month and the month after that, as I'm taking @MTF advice on making a backlog.

i am gonna try squezze in 3 more videos by tomorrow and schedule them for the months ahead before i go back to work.

 

[Timmy C]

This is more the style of video I was hoping to produce when I started the channel, but ran into copyright issues as I touched on in the thread.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3E66LbuZEI


I see many creators use copyright footage from the UFC, and yes they do get a large following, but it means nothing as they can't monetize the account. So all of those views are a waste, and they aren't really doing anything to capture those viewers.

I spoke to another creator in the same niche who ran into this issue, and he said that his stuff does not get copyright striked anymore, as he suggested to only use UFC promo footage or anything cageside. They seem to be fine with using footage that hasn't been broadcast.

Granted, this does take alot of time... But it is better quality.

The rest of my stuff is just off the cuff, and winging it.

I did make some changes to the website, as was suggested but not much to be honest.

I haven't really focused on it, what I can tell you is some of my pages have been deindexed haha.