The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Growing a YouTube Channel to 100,000 Subs

TKRR

Bronze Contributor
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
157%
Nov 27, 2017
70
110
Ohio
This video is relevant:
View: https://youtu.be/cWoABzDr6lw



I also heard that it’s best to put links in the second post in a Facebook thread. I haven’t tested it, just heard it...

That's great video. Something I haven't even really thought about, but it makes sense. People on Facebook, regardless of intentions, are basically just swiping through their news feed, may watch some clickbaiting video, then move on. I think people do go to YouTube to actually watch videos, it is also not as easily to just swipe through it to the next video or post.

Wow, never really thought about all that before. Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel good about sort of ditching a bit of my efforts on FB and moving towards growing on YouTube (for video) instead.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe

Stepping up that thumbnail game!

I am really liking this new format and it is making it possible to put out a lot of great videos daily. I will keeping going with the daily content for now and see how long I can keep it consistent.
 

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Something strange happened today...

I upload this


And right away I had a SEO score of 65+. It was showing me ranking for around 5 keywords really well.

I then edited the video and added in the end screens, a playlist screen etc. After I saved the SEO dropped down to below 50 and the SEO tags were nearly all gone. Kinda confusing since YouTube wants you to add these in but when I did that the video dropped ranking. I messaged vidIQ to get some feedback. Maybe I should be editing them before I publish to the public?

Edit...

Seems to be back working now!!?

Screen Shot 2018-02-09 at 09.50.22.png
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

TKRR

Bronze Contributor
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
157%
Nov 27, 2017
70
110
Ohio
Found this article today... I think it is very useful information. One particularly interesting tidbit was the fact that Tags basically don't seem to matter anymore, because YouTube can analyze the video for content on its own. (scary, haha).

We Analyzed 1.3 Million YouTube Videos. Here's What We Learned About YouTube SEO

It is interesting cause I was looking up some of the keywords I was using to find stuff similar to mine, and almost none of the highest ranking videos had more than 1 or 2 tags, if they had any. There titles seemed to matter much more, but more importantly the content was better. VidIQ even gave some videos with millions of views 20 points or whatever for SEO....hmm I think there is something off there potentially. It seems a worthwhile exploration to remove tags and see what happens to a video or two.
 

DanWasDrunk

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
191%
Jan 20, 2018
11
21
Los Angeles
I like the new format! The face cam is adding a lot!

A video a day is super ambitious. I really only see vlogs or gamers achieving that since those are pretty easy to make.

Stepping up the thumbnail game is super important. Definitely play around with that. Look at other channels and see what they're doing. I've noticed some go really heavy with graphics, and others don't.

Damn, already 428 subscribers. Keep it up! This will be fun to watch you grow.

I'm doing the same thing; here's my channel.

Unfortunately, I can't produce a video a day, but I might play with the format in order to pump out more content. Hence 2-3 of my videos are short comedy sketches.

Found this article today... I think it is very useful information. One particularly interesting tidbit was the fact that Tags basically don't seem to matter anymore, because YouTube can analyze the video for content on its own. (scary, haha).

We Analyzed 1.3 Million YouTube Videos. Here's What We Learned About YouTube SEO

It is interesting cause I was looking up some of the keywords I was using to find stuff similar to mine, and almost none of the highest ranking videos had more than 1 or 2 tags, if they had any. There titles seemed to matter much more, but more importantly the content was better. VidIQ even gave some videos with millions of views 20 points or whatever for SEO....hmm I think there is something off there potentially. It seems a worthwhile exploration to remove tags and see what happens to a video or two.

Interesting... I've noticed that too, actually. Some top ranked videos didn't have any tags, or they had 2-3. I don't know if that's because they already have a huge fanbase or what, but that is definitely something to explore and experiment with.
 

TKRR

Bronze Contributor
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
157%
Nov 27, 2017
70
110
Ohio
I like the new format! The face cam is adding a lot!

A video a day is super ambitious. I really only see vlogs or gamers achieving that since those are pretty easy to make.

Stepping up the thumbnail game is super important. Definitely play around with that. Look at other channels and see what they're doing. I've noticed some go really heavy with graphics, and others don't.

Damn, already 428 subscribers. Keep it up! This will be fun to watch you grow.

I'm doing the same thing; here's my channel.

Unfortunately, I can't produce a video a day, but I might play with the format in order to pump out more content. Hence 2-3 of my videos are short comedy sketches.



Interesting... I've noticed that too, actually. Some top ranked videos didn't have any tags, or they had 2-3. I don't know if that's because they already have a huge fanbase or what, but that is definitely something to explore and experiment with.


Yeah, I think my next post I'm going to limit to 3 tags. Just to see if it matters.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

minivanman

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
265%
Mar 16, 2017
1,722
4,562
54
DFW
I'm very hard to please but I think you nailed that stranded in Georgia video. From the music to the beautiful female. Great work!

Just an fyi... the way to get a lot of views on Youtube is to have a beautiful girl in the video. Did you know us guys will watch a 1 hour video of a beautiful girl talking about the dirt she found under a couch cushion? And if she is in a bikini some will watch it twice! :)
 

BD64

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
218%
Jul 26, 2017
384
839
27
Denver, CO
@Fox

Liking the videos so far, especially with the travel/drone footage. You've got some good camera skills. Come skiing/biking and we'll get some good action shots.

Also, just a heads-up. I've heard that Facebook has started penalizing groups where too many links are posted that direct people outside of FB... Not 100% sure about this but it would make sense that they want people to stay within their platform.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
@Fox

Liking the videos so far, especially with the travel/drone footage. You've got some good camera skills. Come skiing/biking and we'll get some good action shots.

Also, just a heads-up. I've heard that Facebook has started penalizing groups where too many links are posted that direct people outside of FB... Not 100% sure about this but it would make sense that they want people to stay within their platform.

Thanks for the offer. I have been in Boulder once before and loved it. When I am back I will hit you up!

Ya good point with the links (especially FB ones!), I will try cut back.
 

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Great thread.

I'm a fan of the channel and your experimental approach to getting this going.

Watched a couple of your videos and will continue watching. Good luck @Fox.

I'm very hard to please but I think you nailed that stranded in Georgia video. From the music to the beautiful female. Great work!

Just an fyi... the way to get a lot of views on Youtube is to have a beautiful girl in the video. Did you know us guys will watch a 1 hour video of a beautiful girl talking about the dirt she found under a couch cushion? And if she is in a bikini some will watch it twice! :)

@Fox

Liking the videos so far, especially with the travel/drone footage. You've got some good camera skills. Come skiing/biking and we'll get some good action shots.

Also, just a heads-up. I've heard that Facebook has started penalizing groups where too many links are posted that direct people outside of FB... Not 100% sure about this but it would make sense that they want people to stay within their platform.

Thanks a million!

I will try get some more travel content up soon. I got a fun surf edit I am working on.

Screen Shot 2018-02-12 at 19.55.17.png

The stats aren't bad for the last few days.

I need to keep being consistent and also more organised with video ideas and production.

Todays video had some issues with background noise (construction) so I had to hold off for a few hours.
I ended up with something decent but not as good as it could have been.


Aiming for 1,000 subs by the end of this month but maybe its way too ambitious.
 

masterneme

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
256%
Apr 13, 2015
320
819
41
Do you give any attention to Google+?
Are you sharing your uploads to web design subreddits?
Have you tried to make comments on other popular videos to attract some traffic?

Great job man I definitely want to see how this progresses.

Edit: Any thoughts about livestreams? The combination of Twitch+Discord is becoming very powerful (and popular).

Edit 2: I forgot about the new Youtube rules, so the question "are you monetizing your videos" is now "are you going to monetize your videos?"

I want to know your thoughts about this because it is said that if you don't monetize your videos they won't get as much exposure from the algorithm.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Do you give any attention to Google+?
Are you sharing your uploads to web design subreddits?
Have you tried to make comments on other popular videos to attract some traffic?

Great job man I definitely want to see how this progresses.

Edit: Any thoughts about livestreams? The combination of Twitch+Discord is becoming very powerful (and popular).

Edit 2: I forgot about the new Youtube rules, so the question "are you monetizing your videos" is now "are you going to monetize your videos?"

I want to know your thoughts about this because it is said that if you don't monetize your videos they won't get as much exposure from the algorithm.

I would only monazite if it improves my rankings. Which I think it will.

Even with 100s of thousands of views a month it isn't that much. The better play is having a back end product or some other way of making money. Sponsorship, branding etc.

I haven't been using reddit cause I don't want to be seem to be spamming. I would like to share on the web dev reddits but I know it isn't how they wan t things over there and I respect that. I am hoping that the content gets good enough that people would naturally start to share it.

I don't use twitch or discord. I want to just focus on one channel and optimize that first. Maybe I will start a twitter but then that will be it. I got the main FB, inside FB, and YouTube so its a lot to keep an eye on.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,566
68,699
Ireland
Darnit. I'm watching this thread but didn't get any notifications.

Good work @Fox. Love the thread itself, even though I've not watched all the videos. It's everything a progress thread should have ... breadcrumbs for others to follow, an insight into what you're doing and why rather than just how-to steps. It's great to follow-along.

For anyone else reading, take note that @Fox is not proclaiming to be an expert at YouTube. He's confident enough to show himself making it up as he goes along. Also note how others are happy to help because he's adding value first, AND because he's listening and responding positively to feedback. There's some big lessons in there folks.

There's a lot of wisdom in the phrase: "People listen to experts, they follow leaders." (Dan Gallipoo aka Doberman Dan)


I'm not a YouTube expert, but went through a couple of Udemy courses a year or so ago.
Here's what I remember, but either didn't get round to doing, or didn't test:
  1. Create your own tag and use it for all your videos so that hopefully YouTube will show one of your own videos after your own. E.g. foxtag12345

  2. Paying for views can help with organic views. YouTube gets to see if people watch them all the way through, giving them a clue whether the video is relevant to the keyword it was found for. Those views could be super cheap from some country with very low cost-per-view ... and it will still help. (I've no idea if this is all true, but it makes sense).

  3. Those closed captions really help, not just for @jpanarra, but for SEO. (Which reminds me I need to add them to the latest video I dropped in here... and @jpanarra linked to some documentation on doing that.)

  4. Other stuff that I can't remember ... I'll dig out my notes.

Someone who's prolific on YouTube is Jerry Banfield (Will You Join Me, Jerry Banfield, at JerryBanfield.com?).
  • He's a kinda earnest guy but interesting and churns out the content.
  • He's big into Steemit at the moment, but had plenty of Facebook courses and probably has YouTube videos as well, oh and lots of gaming and self-development videos too. He seems to have incorporated daily video recording into his life. Totally different style to yours @Fox... but maybe someone worth just checking out to see what he does, why and how.
  • He also had about 2,000 videos up on Udemy too before they banned him and he switched to Slideshare (Udemy Course Coupons + Promo Codes by Jerry Banfield << scroll down a bit for his wee announcement)


EDIT: Found this note from a course Jerry part created:
The COMPLETE Digital Marketing and Sales Funnel Blueprint!

uGI93V4.png
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

jpanarra

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
293%
Jan 9, 2014
965
2,825
34
Indianapolis, Indiana
Thanks for the mention, I mean its a massive help for people out there like myself (Deaf or other challenges) that feel like our access to information from people like you who really want to help.

Also, you guys really have the nice feature of the auto-transcribe, (i dont because my language is visual) so if you plan on doing you tube, please take advantage of this feature so It'll help people out and not only that, it'll help you index your videos like Andy said. Its a WIN-WIN scenario!

For anyone who reads this. If you don't know how to turn it on or want to write the subtitles, just send me a pm and I'll be more than happy to help you out!
 

jpanarra

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
293%
Jan 9, 2014
965
2,825
34
Indianapolis, Indiana

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,566
68,699
Ireland

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
The last 28 days...

Screen Shot 2018-02-16 at 07.48.10.png

Posting more consistently seems to be helping a lot.

Working really hard on getting good content that people will get value from and engage with.
Youtube puts a lot of weight on user engagement so you want to focus on material and a format that get people commenting.

I have been pushing this a little more in the videos... "comment if you...".

My last video has an average view time of 11 minutes which is crazy. It has the best response so far...



I have been studying a lot of great channels that grew really fast. A huge noticeable thing is the consistency in their branding. Similar thumbnails, title font, intro and outros, camera style, video greeting, vlog or tutorial format. As a viewer it is really rewarding cause you look forward to the same style of content you enjoyed before with some small differences. I think this is a huge difference between okay channels and great channels.

 

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
So I will keep this updated from now on each month:

>>> Current Goals <<<
Videos

Goal: 100
Current: 7
Subs
Goal: 1,000
Current: 312
Views
Goal: 100,000
Current: 4,628
Watch Time (minutes):
Goal: 500,000
Current: 22,760
[/QUOTE]

So up quite a lot on these sats within only 12 days. I missed some uploads last week but good progress was still made...

Screen Shot 2018-02-19 at 14.19.16.png

Or over the last 28 days...

Screen Shot 2018-02-19 at 14.19.39.png

Todays video...


I will wait till the end of the month and then have a big post on some things I have noticed.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 11.01.16 a.m..png
At over 1,000 minutes of watch time a day now (16 hours).
Kinda cool stat!

I tried doing my first interview style video yesterday which went really well. Chris just got a huge sale and had tons of great insight into what a deal like that takes to close. I didn't say too much cause I want to let whoever I invite on do most of the talking.


At the moment just trying to be consistent with content but I when I have the chance I have a lot planned to get things to the next level.
 
G

GuestU54368

Guest
I've been following the thread and your channel and first of all I've wanted to commend you for your effort and consistency, both in producing and publishing content!
And also thanks for this progress thread, because it gives great insights into the process.

If you don't mind, a few tweaks may help you on the channel:
-the front page of the channel could be improved by having a little ad-hoc video that introduces you and the channel, with a description on the side.
-tied to that, would it be possible to modify the name of the channel to include something to do with Web Design? Like O'Rourke Web Design or something like that? Just to make the "brand" more connected with what you do, especially since you are at the beginning, so people would search more for the topic rather than the person.
-consider having a more personalized banner, with a tagline or "web design help" or something of that kind on it; this helps focus your channel as soon as somebody lands on it.
-write a few more lines on your "about" page, to describe what you want to give with this channel, why, etc.
-just a note, it would maybe look nicer if you had the full screen video of you instead of it being a window on your Mac desktop (like in the Website sale video).

Obviously these are just my opinions and suggestions, so feel free to discard!

Keep it up!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Youtube as a platform is pretty shady lately and its hard for newcomers to advance as easy as they would some years ago.

This video explains the whole thing pretty much. Power of owning everything to your name.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1if_kLguQ4

That video was hard to watch, only lasted a minute.

Anyone thinking big on YouTube isn't going to focus on monetization.
Video monetization is around $500 - $1000 per million video views.

To put that in perspective my friend has been doing YT for over a year and has well over a 100 videos with 15k subs.
His channel is on around 1.2 million views total. So his ad revenue for the year is maybe $600 - 1,200.
BUT he runs a business that gets a huge spotlight from his YT channel, growth there is in the 100s of thousands.

People like to bitch about YouTube cause its good for video views and always a relevant topic. Big channels run on outrage media so its great to have an enemy and work everyone up (more comments and playtime).

Really though YouTube is still great, its easy to grow a channel, and there are 100 ways to make money out of your own channel separate to YouTube.
 

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
I've been following the thread and your channel and first of all I've wanted to commend you for your effort and consistency, both in producing and publishing content!
And also thanks for this progress thread, because it gives great insights into the process.

If you don't mind, a few tweaks may help you on the channel:
-the front page of the channel could be improved by having a little ad-hoc video that introduces you and the channel, with a description on the side.
-tied to that, would it be possible to modify the name of the channel to include something to do with Web Design? Like O'Rourke Web Design or something like that? Just to make the "brand" more connected with what you do, especially since you are at the beginning, so people would search more for the topic rather than the person.
-consider having a more personalized banner, with a tagline or "web design help" or something of that kind on it; this helps focus your channel as soon as somebody lands on it.
-write a few more lines on your "about" page, to describe what you want to give with this channel, why, etc.
-just a note, it would maybe look nicer if you had the full screen video of you instead of it being a window on your Mac desktop (like in the Website sale video).

Obviously these are just my opinions and suggestions, so feel free to discard!

Keep it up!

Yes! I need to work on all of these for sure.

One thing I won't be doing is changing the channel name though. I don't want to get locked into a niche and would rather build a personal brand. Who knows what happens over the next ten years and I don't want to have "coding masterclass" and I move into property in 3 years.

I for sure need to work on branding, a channel intro video, back ground image, intro reel, etc. This will be a focus point for next month.

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

DanWasDrunk

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
191%
Jan 20, 2018
11
21
Los Angeles
That video was hard to watch, only lasted a minute.

Anyone thinking big on YouTube isn't going to focus on monetization.
Video monetization is around $500 - $1000 per million video views.

To put that in perspective my friend has been doing YT for over a year and has well over a 100 videos with 15k subs.
His channel is on around 1.2 million views total. So his ad revenue for the year is maybe $600 - 1,200.
BUT he runs a business that gets a huge spotlight from his YT channel, growth there is in the 100s of thousands.

People like to bitch about YouTube cause its good for video views and always a relevant topic. Big channels run on outrage media so its great to have an enemy and work everyone up (more comments and playtime).

Really though YouTube is still great, its easy to grow a channel, and there are 100 ways to make money out of your own channel separate to YouTube.

Amen. That's something that you got me thinking a lot about. That ad revenue would be nice, but definitely not going to get rich off it or anything these days. And I definitely don't want to be 100% tied down into somebody else's platform. Then it's everything by their rules. They have your business by the throat.

I definitely need to come up with a valuable product or external business idea. Either a consumer product, an seo review website, or my own production company, but I need to do more research and I'm literally just spitballing tie-ins.

This thread is great, though. You're making a ton of progress and I can't wait to see where this goes.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top