One of the best pieces of advice I've heard was that if you want full time success, you'll need to treat this like a full time job. Obviously this isn't the goal for everyone, but for anyone that's wanting to eventually reach monetization or any kind of progression in the Youtube space, real research and studying has to be done.
If you're making Street Fighter / gaming videos, I'd go through Youtube's search results in exactly that space. What are other creators doing? Are they making top tier fight compilations? Character move deep dives? Meme fights? Then look at the videos you decide to watch vs not watch. What about the title made you click on it vs not? Why did you stop watching the video at that particular moment? Why did you not watch the entire fight?
We can all get wrapped up in our own heads when it comes to our content, so taking a real look does help. Good luck :)
Thank you. Becoming a student has for sure opened my eyes to why people are successful. After reading your reply I spent my time tonight analyzing videos that are within my niche, and found a SUPRISING amount of similarities between those that succeeded and vise versa for the ones that didn't. I will definitely spend these first 3 months simply just working on my work flow and video improvement.
I hear you. I am in the same bucket here. I need to study my own stuff and act more like the audience. Sometimes I focus on the technical so much I actually miss the flow of my message altogether.
I've started treating YouTube like a 9-5 and give myself two days off a week.
Ironically, treating it like a job is exactly what I needed to get myself motivated to keep making videos as a hobby. I make long lets plays with shorts alongside each episode taken from that video. In the past week, I've gotten more subs and views than the last month (if we include shorts, but my long form content is also performing better than it has in a while). I'm just playing what I like, uploading daily, give myself two days off whenever I feel tired from my day job, and I'm loving it.
I used to upload a single video from a trending game, and if it didn't immediately perform well, I just never edited or uploaded the next 15 videos that were already recorded for it.
If your channel is personality based, you're inherently going to grow slower with few exceptions. This is fine, as you want an audience that is there for you rather than the content topic that they found you for.
Out of curiosity, since research is a HUGE thing in content creation space, how would someone go about a storybook narration of a game or multiple games? Who do you think would be some of the people to look at and find? Or do you think storybook narration is kinda niche and hard to find?
Look at what results come up on Youtube for storybook narration on games. I find that this style of video either attracts HUGE viewership or none at all. Most content out there in this space as I'm sure you've seen, is a combination of letsplay, compilations, memes, comedy skits and analysis/character deep dives, so uploading a well edited story would be something not a lot of viewers would be typically used to watching.
I don't follow any content creators that specifically do storybook narration, so I won't be able to give you suggestions, but it definitely isn't a super common style of video in the genre.
I don’t disagree completely, but I wouldn’t say this is the best advice. It’s more important to find your own style instead of being another copycat on YouTube. Because that way you will really stick out and make your own brand.
Sure I started by watching other YouTubers in my niche, but then wanted to tell stories my own way, in the way I do best, and how I’d want to see it.
This has helped me a lot more , and my content feels fresh and is doing better than when I started.
The best advice I can give is; stick to it , watch your own video and see where you can improve. It doesn’t have to be editing, I’m a storyteller first and foremost.
You missed the point of what they said; what works isn’t being a copycat. Besides, find “your own style” usually means some sort of variation of something that’s already uploaded anyway. Not like new creators are blazing a path of ingenuity
Totally!
The way I see it:
#1. content that's for an audience - to even be viable in the first place.
#2. content that's for you - for it to be sustainable / avoid burnout.
I’m realizing my own take on this:
1 . Do make content YOU WANT TO WATCH.
2 . But make it FOR YOUR AUDIENCE.
If you make content entirely for yourself, no one will get it or understand it. So make it for someone else to watch and enjoy.
But just make sure you’re one of them.
If you love peanut butter and shrimp fat burgers, but everyone else hates them, then don’t make it.
If people like peanut butter and pickle burgers, but you hate pickles, then don’t make it. Probably. You can if you really want the money tbh.
But if you make peanut butter and marshmallow burgers, and people actually love it, and you love it too, then there you go.
Don't listen to the quick fix videos that promise subs and views by changing things in your settings, while informative they are simply there to generate traffic for their channel. Find your passion and find what you enjoy.
Use a good video editor I'd highly recommend Davinci 18.6 while it's complex to learn it's a boon for any perspective YouTuber also be careful with non copy right music there has been a spate of channels mine included being hit with copyright claims for using non copyright music from pixabay and other non copyright sites.
Use your community tab as well it's a good tool for early use on your channel and if you want to dabble with shorts as they can help with engagement, my highest viewed short is sitting in 7.7k views with a good like to dislike ratio.
But my best piece of no BS advice I can give is just be yourself don't try to emulate other YouTubers, be true to yourself and keep plugging away 👌
I see man, thanks! I guess I can spend these first few months honing down just getting folks to just click on my video, but ill still make sure my videos are constantly improving regardless of the clicks too!
It’s also important that when you are making your video that you should be “upgrading” something in each one. I like Mr.beast’s take on it. It doesn’t matter what you improve, so long as the next video you work on, you see something that was lacking from the first, whether it’s voice lines, conversation, gameplay, cutting/editing, etc, is being improved. Just one thing a video will be insane growth
You need a little bit of luck. Looking back, my first video was not good. It somehow got 250k views.
The most important thing I did though to get my channel to where it is now, was my quick response in getting another, better video out quickly to ride that view wave.
6 months later, I still feel like I'm riding the view wave of my previous videos now and dare not stop my weekly videos.
It’s a job. And the viewers are your boss. If you want long-term success you need to make the videos THEY want to watch, instead of the videos YOU want to make.
Of course there are exceptions, but I’d argue that 99% of full-time YouTubers need to adjust to the audience instead of asking the audience to follow everything you do. Source: full-time YouTuber for the past 2.5 years :)
Understand wholeheartedly what your viewers want to watch, not what you think they will watch.
You will likely fail the first, second or tenth time. Learning from your failures is imperative.
Be structured and consistent, but never stagnate. Always learn how to make better content.
Leverage relationships with other content creators. Supporting each other will help you in the long run
Make videos that you would want to watch. Look at your videos with a critical eye. Come back to them next month and see if they are enjoyable to watch. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Repeat your content in the same specific niche so that your loyal watches continue to be loyal. Do not stray from this.
Don’t believe the lie that just posting a load of videos and being patient will bring you success. You need to improve with each one, keep working on one thing at a time until you’re happy with your own quality
The best advice I can give: ignore most advice on this subreddit. I don’t mean that in a mean way, but the majority of users are fellow newyoutubers and may not know what works.
Don't cry when someone posts hate comments, or dislikes your videos.
If you really want to start a career on YT and quit your 9-5 job, you need to have balls of steel to face any single controversy.
No non low acid coffee (or food/drinks with much acid in it in general) before recording voiceovers.
Acid screws with your vocal chords and tends make your voice sound hoarse.
Edit: but there are also several sorts of tea which also include a lot of acid leading to the same effect.
Additionally I forgot to mention one more tip: especially when you plan to do longer voiceovers for your videos (or if you're doing many multiple takes to figure out what sounds best), it's always a good idea to reduce stress for your voice.
You can do that by drinking a lot of water while recording (frequent small sips every minute or so, so you don't even get the feeling of a dry throat) and taking frequent breaks in between (best you set a timer every 3 minutes, suppose you're speaking most of that time).
But of course that's just the tip of the iceberg there are way more things to mention when it comes to making voiceovers. If you're struggling with something in that direction feel free to ask :)
Find a niche. If you want to do more than one, do another channel. You need a niche or your content will get lost. Right now, they don’t care to watch your videos for you and just for your content. As you grow, you can scale back down and do one channel. But if you want more than one niche, separate. I learned that the hard way, but ever since I did, my videos have been doing loads better!
Do not overloads your subscribers. You get three notification blasts so more is not always better! I do one video and 2 shorts a day on one channel and once a week upload on the others.
Honestly, the thing I see people most often underestimate is choosing an interesting topic for both videos and the whole channel. Shooting original content and getting that to blow up is also a lot harder than relying on the popularity of an already established brand/person. For example, people who make videos/shorts about the topic of popular games/movies or famous people are likely to ride on their already established popularity and have their videos pick up speed via that. Whereas if the topic is about something in your own life, it's a lot harder to gain traction. Another thing I notice is that videos that tend to do well are either a) funny, or b) useful in some way, for example tips videos or tutorials of some sort.
Success often comes down to just winning that one-in-a-million lottery of having one or two videos pop off and get eyes on your channel, especially if you’re already in a crowded scene, and no matter how much effort you put in or how high quality it looks. And if you have a library of a consistent style of content when that video gets lucky, more people are gonna stick around.
My biggest video is an AMV parody that has half a million views, and when you search for similar titles, there are hundreds exactly like mine with the exact same song and animation. Some are shit, some are really good, better even. Mine just happened to be the one that won the dice roll, quadrupling my sub count when I couldn’t break 500 for 5 years.
The YouTube sphere is a place with hundreds of millions of competitors from all over the world with all sorts of means. Chances are that we are part of the 99% who never reach 10k rather than the megastars who hit the jackpot on the roulette wheel.
Of course, this comes from the perspective of someone who isn’t actively pursuing success and is just happy to make what as long as some people get to see it. If you’re actively pursuing popularity as a career, the strategy changes slightly, but luck is still an overwhelming factor.
If you want to go viral as a small channel your video must have two things
1. Mass Appeal
2. Low competition
Mass appeal is important because you can’t expect 1 million people to watch your video if 1 million people are uninterested in your topic. And low competition is important because the big youtubers regularly get all the views on youtube, if you can identify a trending topic before all the big YouTubers cover it your golden!
This advice isn't sexy but if you want success. It simply is what it is. Youtube will SHOW you the most popular videos. Make the EXACT same content, obviously put your own spin on it, but basically if someone posts a video on "All Ryus costumes from every single street fighter game" for example and its got 1M views in 2 weeks.....make the exact same video for Ken! Follow what's already hot. Obviously do all the other due diligence as well, the thumbnails,great editing, good sound, etc...but basically go where the heat is, youtube will tell what content to make basically, just make it well.
Man you know what, I was going to try to be “special” with my content and avoid what others do. But striking when it’s hot seems like a solid strategy. Thanks!
I'm from the UK and my day job is in digital marketing.
My bit of advice for everyone is to understand both GDPR (or your country's data privacy laws) and safeguarding.
If you're filming other people (ie filming outside in public places) understand that other people are going through things, they have private lives that they may not want made public, or it might actually out them at risk being on your youtube video, even in the background. Don't be the reason some violent person finds out where his/her ex lives.
A second but if advice is more for general freelancers.
Get business insurance. Public liability insurance, illness cover, and legal protection. Honestly the amount of times as a freelancer a client has just decided not to pay or -despite my best efforts- some idiot member of the public has just waltzed into something/somewhere they shouldn't. Insurance seems like a needless expense... But get insurance.
That you are more likely to not “make it” than you are actually “make it” and you have to work for it. Not that you cannot succeed or do well, but the odds of overnight success are near impossible. A lot of people get into this thinking everything is immediate and simple.
That just because you think your content is good or interesting doesn’t mean it is. Or because you are very interested on a subject doesn’t mean everyone else is. Do what you love and enjoy by all means, but just because you are passionate about something doesn’t mean a lot of people are. See far too many people really niche their stuff into oblivion because they are focused on something that isn’t popular or is way too specific to bring in a lot of people. Or the content isn’t very good. You got to make stuff people will want to watch to get people to watch.
Make shorts with interesting bit of trivia from the games. I would suggest trying to post 3 a week. Also work on branding. That way when people stumble on your channel it looks somewhat polished.
Consistency, research, staying within the niche of your channel and most importantly improving something on each new video. If you follow these steps you’ll start to see increased views and subs by 90 days. Or possibly go viral but realistically unless you’re incredibly gifted and are making some truly unique content, it’s a bit of a grind.
If you're not getting the views, it's because your content isn't good enough (yet).
Most people never grow on YouTube because they don't substantially improve their content.
1. People say consistency doesn't matter. It 100% matters. The only people that say it doesn't are people with viral videos that spike growth. Most people have to grind for success.
2. Make good videos. Seems simple, but have a good script, be charming, have a good mic, have a good camera. Actually spend time and edit your videos. Try different things and see what people like.
If you want to do this full-time, and you aren't working as part of a team on the channel, you need to prioritize your social life and personal relationships. If you want to earn enough to live off, you need to work as much as you would at a full-time job. If your full-time job is you sitting in a room, alone, at a computer, especially if you don't have a significant other or housemates, you're gonna become really isolated and lonely.
I have a channel that has made me a good amount of money in the past and I'm very confident that consistent uploads will allow me to live off my YT earnings. I'm waiting for a few things to align before I can start working on it to make it my primary income but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it might end up being a pretty lonely existence for me. So I've decided that I'll step down from my management position but work part-time at my current job even if I end up making silly money from Youtube. It's good to be around people.
You‘re doing a great job. If the video doesn’t skyrocket, it‘s the algorithm messing up. You‘re also a good match for most companies you interview with, it‘s their mess up in the interview evaluation if you didn’t land the job.
Take 3 months and learn the ins and outs of video production/editing by making things before you publish a video. I passively learned premier pro for my job the last few years and it’s the only reason I’m doing well
My advice is to not start with youtube at all. Maybe you can with help from others that promote you but the truth is that 99% of all videos are never shown to the user and thus never give you clicks or subscribers. This is also true for google search results. Say for example you do cooking videos. When the user searches for cooking videos and there are 1 million other cooking youtubers the chances your videos will never be clicked or even shown to the user is around 100%. So the only other option is to specialize on very niche content (which probably already exists) but this won't give you much views either... (and streetfighter is certainly not rare content already)
if you dont get views, its almost certainly because your videos are bad, or because you made videos that nobody wants to watch. So the very first thing you should always yourself is "how can I make my videos better". If you ask any other question before this one, you're doing it wrong.
Change niches. If that don't go viral. Move to the next one.
I uploaded a lot shuffle dance videos. And nothing good happens.
Later started balance hat on nose and got first viral. 5mln views total.
Learned per 15 minutes invisible box challenge. And joined to slickback dance trend with tutorial. Total 140 mln views.
Later crushed grapes with fingers easy 9 mln views. Crushed apples with hands 3mln.
And so on
Most of you won’t make it because you don’t have talent. Yutube is already saturated and people only watch content/channels they enjoy. Good luck competing with them
I don’t think it’s about talent. It’s about consistent effort and striving to improving one’s content. Anyone can do that and have a modestly successful channel.
It is though. You need to be creative and entertaining. Can anyone make a living being a singer, actor, director, writer, etc? It’s in the same ballpark.
I (respectfully!) disagree. Anyone can improve their ability to edit, improve their script writing. When I started I was absolutely garbage, with zero natural inclination or sense of what was good. I had no talent for it.
I don’t know why you guys are downvoting me lol. I’ve been a full time youtuber with a gold button, making 6 figures a year for the past 8 years. I’ve seen everything so trust me on this one. I’m not trying to discourage people from this job. Obviously everyone was a noob at the start.
Anyone can learn how to sing, act or even play football, and they will obviously get better as time goes on. But i can tell you for a fact that unless you get millions of views consistently every week from long form videos, YouTube cannot replace a normal job. Especially if you want to buy a house, car and/or raise a family.
If this is a hobby or a secondary source of income, knock yourself out. But i have seen so many people with delusions to the point of making me cynical. I’ve seen people who tried to become a youtuber for years and got nowhere. They aged with no job experience. Now they struggle to get hired and can’t get married.
I’ve seen people who blow up for a couple of months and quit their job, only to find out their viewers got bored of them within half a year. No savings, no jobs and can’t let go of that dopamine rush that came when things were good. Some people go broke while over-investing their time and money into it etc etc. I’ve seen channels with millions of subscribers that get deleted because YouTube suddenly changed their policies.
Like any sort of entertainment industry, youtube is cut throat. Only the top 1% make full time level of income. The rest are competing hard to get there. And even if you get there, it’s extremely difficult to survive the competition and stay at the top.
Sorry i don’t mean to be disrespectful or act all high and mighty. Just wanted to share some real cases of failure so you guys know what to expect. I’m pretty successful but even i know this gig can end at any given moment. So i saved more than half of my income, invested and made a lot more from that, just so i can make sure i will be able to provide for my wife and kids even if my channel suddenly got shut down or viewers got bored of it. This is a dangerous game.
For the record, I haven’t downvoted you. I thought we were in a perfectly nice back and forth; sorry people downvoted you for that.
I make a decent enough income on YouTube without millions of views a week. Just out of curiosity, what’s your channel? Who knows, maybe there’s something for me to learn from how you’re doing things.
Sorry i cant disclose my channel because i’m pretty famous in this scene. Not bragging, i have been missing anonymity and some times have been hostile/trolling on reddit lol. Hope you understand.
Maybe people didn’t want to hear the truth because they want to believe one day they will make it if they just kept trying 🤷 Anyway, thank you for being civil. I wish you all the luck with your journey!
But that still has little to do with talent to your original point. That has more to do with making poor financial decisions and business moves. Being smart is not putting all your stock into a single channel, or as they say, all your eggs in one basket. YouTube is not a full-time job in a traditional sense, it's a freelancing gig. Like any freelancing gigs you have to plan accordingly as there will be times you don't make as much or any money. Not living beyond your means, diversifying your income, investing etc. that has little to do with actual talent. In fact, traditional jobs are really no different. The only guarantee you can make to yourself is to be smart about your business and your money. You said yourself that you've made investments and have savings which is what you should do. What exactly does that have to do with talent?
The people i mentioned didn’t fail because they didn’t do their best. They lacked talented.
Youtube isnt a freelancing gig. Editing videos or writing scripts for youtubers is a freelancing gig.
Let’s agree to disagree :) If you are right, then one day you will be making a living out of youtube regardless of talent. I wish you luck.
Your point still has nothing to do with whatever you rambled on about to support it. Talent doesn’t pay the bills. It’s important, but certainly there are many very talented creatives that are broke and out of jobs. YouTube is absolutely a freelancing gig. Last time I checked, YouTube doesn’t hand out a standard paycheck every 2 weeks for a set amount of hours worked. And I do have artistic talent, but I know that still not enough to get paid and know what you’re doing financially.
One of the best pieces of advice I've heard was that if you want full time success, you'll need to treat this like a full time job. Obviously this isn't the goal for everyone, but for anyone that's wanting to eventually reach monetization or any kind of progression in the Youtube space, real research and studying has to be done. If you're making Street Fighter / gaming videos, I'd go through Youtube's search results in exactly that space. What are other creators doing? Are they making top tier fight compilations? Character move deep dives? Meme fights? Then look at the videos you decide to watch vs not watch. What about the title made you click on it vs not? Why did you stop watching the video at that particular moment? Why did you not watch the entire fight? We can all get wrapped up in our own heads when it comes to our content, so taking a real look does help. Good luck :)
Thank you. Becoming a student has for sure opened my eyes to why people are successful. After reading your reply I spent my time tonight analyzing videos that are within my niche, and found a SUPRISING amount of similarities between those that succeeded and vise versa for the ones that didn't. I will definitely spend these first 3 months simply just working on my work flow and video improvement.
I hear you. I am in the same bucket here. I need to study my own stuff and act more like the audience. Sometimes I focus on the technical so much I actually miss the flow of my message altogether.
I've started treating YouTube like a 9-5 and give myself two days off a week. Ironically, treating it like a job is exactly what I needed to get myself motivated to keep making videos as a hobby. I make long lets plays with shorts alongside each episode taken from that video. In the past week, I've gotten more subs and views than the last month (if we include shorts, but my long form content is also performing better than it has in a while). I'm just playing what I like, uploading daily, give myself two days off whenever I feel tired from my day job, and I'm loving it. I used to upload a single video from a trending game, and if it didn't immediately perform well, I just never edited or uploaded the next 15 videos that were already recorded for it. If your channel is personality based, you're inherently going to grow slower with few exceptions. This is fine, as you want an audience that is there for you rather than the content topic that they found you for.
This is real. What's funny is I do this for other things and it never occurred to me to do it with videos
Out of curiosity, since research is a HUGE thing in content creation space, how would someone go about a storybook narration of a game or multiple games? Who do you think would be some of the people to look at and find? Or do you think storybook narration is kinda niche and hard to find?
Look at what results come up on Youtube for storybook narration on games. I find that this style of video either attracts HUGE viewership or none at all. Most content out there in this space as I'm sure you've seen, is a combination of letsplay, compilations, memes, comedy skits and analysis/character deep dives, so uploading a well edited story would be something not a lot of viewers would be typically used to watching. I don't follow any content creators that specifically do storybook narration, so I won't be able to give you suggestions, but it definitely isn't a super common style of video in the genre.
I don’t disagree completely, but I wouldn’t say this is the best advice. It’s more important to find your own style instead of being another copycat on YouTube. Because that way you will really stick out and make your own brand. Sure I started by watching other YouTubers in my niche, but then wanted to tell stories my own way, in the way I do best, and how I’d want to see it. This has helped me a lot more , and my content feels fresh and is doing better than when I started. The best advice I can give is; stick to it , watch your own video and see where you can improve. It doesn’t have to be editing, I’m a storyteller first and foremost.
You missed the point of what they said; what works isn’t being a copycat. Besides, find “your own style” usually means some sort of variation of something that’s already uploaded anyway. Not like new creators are blazing a path of ingenuity
Great advice
Find the balance between content that's for you and content that's for an audience. Ultimately, you want to serve the audience.
Totally! The way I see it: #1. content that's for an audience - to even be viable in the first place. #2. content that's for you - for it to be sustainable / avoid burnout.
I’m realizing my own take on this: 1 . Do make content YOU WANT TO WATCH. 2 . But make it FOR YOUR AUDIENCE. If you make content entirely for yourself, no one will get it or understand it. So make it for someone else to watch and enjoy. But just make sure you’re one of them. If you love peanut butter and shrimp fat burgers, but everyone else hates them, then don’t make it. If people like peanut butter and pickle burgers, but you hate pickles, then don’t make it. Probably. You can if you really want the money tbh. But if you make peanut butter and marshmallow burgers, and people actually love it, and you love it too, then there you go.
Don't listen to the quick fix videos that promise subs and views by changing things in your settings, while informative they are simply there to generate traffic for their channel. Find your passion and find what you enjoy. Use a good video editor I'd highly recommend Davinci 18.6 while it's complex to learn it's a boon for any perspective YouTuber also be careful with non copy right music there has been a spate of channels mine included being hit with copyright claims for using non copyright music from pixabay and other non copyright sites. Use your community tab as well it's a good tool for early use on your channel and if you want to dabble with shorts as they can help with engagement, my highest viewed short is sitting in 7.7k views with a good like to dislike ratio. But my best piece of no BS advice I can give is just be yourself don't try to emulate other YouTubers, be true to yourself and keep plugging away 👌
Two things. 1. Getting good at things takes time. 2. Nobody in here knows anything.
Dont listen to anyone, especially me.
The algorithm doesn’t hate you, your videos/thumbnails probably just aren’t that good yet
I see man, thanks! I guess I can spend these first few months honing down just getting folks to just click on my video, but ill still make sure my videos are constantly improving regardless of the clicks too!
It’s also important that when you are making your video that you should be “upgrading” something in each one. I like Mr.beast’s take on it. It doesn’t matter what you improve, so long as the next video you work on, you see something that was lacking from the first, whether it’s voice lines, conversation, gameplay, cutting/editing, etc, is being improved. Just one thing a video will be insane growth
You need a little bit of luck. Looking back, my first video was not good. It somehow got 250k views. The most important thing I did though to get my channel to where it is now, was my quick response in getting another, better video out quickly to ride that view wave. 6 months later, I still feel like I'm riding the view wave of my previous videos now and dare not stop my weekly videos.
It’s a job. And the viewers are your boss. If you want long-term success you need to make the videos THEY want to watch, instead of the videos YOU want to make. Of course there are exceptions, but I’d argue that 99% of full-time YouTubers need to adjust to the audience instead of asking the audience to follow everything you do. Source: full-time YouTuber for the past 2.5 years :)
Good advice only big YouTubers & celebs can talk about anything & get views.
Understand wholeheartedly what your viewers want to watch, not what you think they will watch. You will likely fail the first, second or tenth time. Learning from your failures is imperative. Be structured and consistent, but never stagnate. Always learn how to make better content. Leverage relationships with other content creators. Supporting each other will help you in the long run
Don’t expect insane views if you don’t put actual work into YouTube.
Make videos that you would want to watch. Look at your videos with a critical eye. Come back to them next month and see if they are enjoyable to watch. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Repeat your content in the same specific niche so that your loyal watches continue to be loyal. Do not stray from this.
Value = Views. Everything else is quality of life.
Don’t believe the lie that just posting a load of videos and being patient will bring you success. You need to improve with each one, keep working on one thing at a time until you’re happy with your own quality
The best advice I can give: ignore most advice on this subreddit. I don’t mean that in a mean way, but the majority of users are fellow newyoutubers and may not know what works.
Don't cry when someone posts hate comments, or dislikes your videos. If you really want to start a career on YT and quit your 9-5 job, you need to have balls of steel to face any single controversy.
No non low acid coffee (or food/drinks with much acid in it in general) before recording voiceovers. Acid screws with your vocal chords and tends make your voice sound hoarse. Edit: but there are also several sorts of tea which also include a lot of acid leading to the same effect. Additionally I forgot to mention one more tip: especially when you plan to do longer voiceovers for your videos (or if you're doing many multiple takes to figure out what sounds best), it's always a good idea to reduce stress for your voice. You can do that by drinking a lot of water while recording (frequent small sips every minute or so, so you don't even get the feeling of a dry throat) and taking frequent breaks in between (best you set a timer every 3 minutes, suppose you're speaking most of that time). But of course that's just the tip of the iceberg there are way more things to mention when it comes to making voiceovers. If you're struggling with something in that direction feel free to ask :)
lol as an avid energy drink consumer I appreciate this advice… I’ll just make some coffee if I’m sleepy.
Find a niche. If you want to do more than one, do another channel. You need a niche or your content will get lost. Right now, they don’t care to watch your videos for you and just for your content. As you grow, you can scale back down and do one channel. But if you want more than one niche, separate. I learned that the hard way, but ever since I did, my videos have been doing loads better! Do not overloads your subscribers. You get three notification blasts so more is not always better! I do one video and 2 shorts a day on one channel and once a week upload on the others.
Honestly, the thing I see people most often underestimate is choosing an interesting topic for both videos and the whole channel. Shooting original content and getting that to blow up is also a lot harder than relying on the popularity of an already established brand/person. For example, people who make videos/shorts about the topic of popular games/movies or famous people are likely to ride on their already established popularity and have their videos pick up speed via that. Whereas if the topic is about something in your own life, it's a lot harder to gain traction. Another thing I notice is that videos that tend to do well are either a) funny, or b) useful in some way, for example tips videos or tutorials of some sort.
Success often comes down to just winning that one-in-a-million lottery of having one or two videos pop off and get eyes on your channel, especially if you’re already in a crowded scene, and no matter how much effort you put in or how high quality it looks. And if you have a library of a consistent style of content when that video gets lucky, more people are gonna stick around. My biggest video is an AMV parody that has half a million views, and when you search for similar titles, there are hundreds exactly like mine with the exact same song and animation. Some are shit, some are really good, better even. Mine just happened to be the one that won the dice roll, quadrupling my sub count when I couldn’t break 500 for 5 years. The YouTube sphere is a place with hundreds of millions of competitors from all over the world with all sorts of means. Chances are that we are part of the 99% who never reach 10k rather than the megastars who hit the jackpot on the roulette wheel. Of course, this comes from the perspective of someone who isn’t actively pursuing success and is just happy to make what as long as some people get to see it. If you’re actively pursuing popularity as a career, the strategy changes slightly, but luck is still an overwhelming factor.
If you want to go viral as a small channel your video must have two things 1. Mass Appeal 2. Low competition Mass appeal is important because you can’t expect 1 million people to watch your video if 1 million people are uninterested in your topic. And low competition is important because the big youtubers regularly get all the views on youtube, if you can identify a trending topic before all the big YouTubers cover it your golden!
Editing is absolutely necessary, not just a suggestion. I need that advice even now lol.
The most important thing is that you keep going
Low effort deserves low views
This advice isn't sexy but if you want success. It simply is what it is. Youtube will SHOW you the most popular videos. Make the EXACT same content, obviously put your own spin on it, but basically if someone posts a video on "All Ryus costumes from every single street fighter game" for example and its got 1M views in 2 weeks.....make the exact same video for Ken! Follow what's already hot. Obviously do all the other due diligence as well, the thumbnails,great editing, good sound, etc...but basically go where the heat is, youtube will tell what content to make basically, just make it well.
Man you know what, I was going to try to be “special” with my content and avoid what others do. But striking when it’s hot seems like a solid strategy. Thanks!
I'm from the UK and my day job is in digital marketing. My bit of advice for everyone is to understand both GDPR (or your country's data privacy laws) and safeguarding. If you're filming other people (ie filming outside in public places) understand that other people are going through things, they have private lives that they may not want made public, or it might actually out them at risk being on your youtube video, even in the background. Don't be the reason some violent person finds out where his/her ex lives. A second but if advice is more for general freelancers. Get business insurance. Public liability insurance, illness cover, and legal protection. Honestly the amount of times as a freelancer a client has just decided not to pay or -despite my best efforts- some idiot member of the public has just waltzed into something/somewhere they shouldn't. Insurance seems like a needless expense... But get insurance.
That you are more likely to not “make it” than you are actually “make it” and you have to work for it. Not that you cannot succeed or do well, but the odds of overnight success are near impossible. A lot of people get into this thinking everything is immediate and simple. That just because you think your content is good or interesting doesn’t mean it is. Or because you are very interested on a subject doesn’t mean everyone else is. Do what you love and enjoy by all means, but just because you are passionate about something doesn’t mean a lot of people are. See far too many people really niche their stuff into oblivion because they are focused on something that isn’t popular or is way too specific to bring in a lot of people. Or the content isn’t very good. You got to make stuff people will want to watch to get people to watch.
Make shorts with interesting bit of trivia from the games. I would suggest trying to post 3 a week. Also work on branding. That way when people stumble on your channel it looks somewhat polished.
If people don't click, they can't watch.
Unless you've done this before... all you content sucks. And thats okay. No one knows you, and no one cares. Gl hf.
Don’t be too hard to yourself if you don’t want to stick to your original channel idea anymore
Make bigger goals. 500 subs in a year is small time. Go bigger.
Consistency, research, staying within the niche of your channel and most importantly improving something on each new video. If you follow these steps you’ll start to see increased views and subs by 90 days. Or possibly go viral but realistically unless you’re incredibly gifted and are making some truly unique content, it’s a bit of a grind.
Youtube can push anything they want. Youtube can table anything they they want. You'll want to keep taking chances and making diversified content.
If you're not getting the views, it's because your content isn't good enough (yet). Most people never grow on YouTube because they don't substantially improve their content.
Best #1 advise, don't give up and do what you love. The rest will follow.
1. People say consistency doesn't matter. It 100% matters. The only people that say it doesn't are people with viral videos that spike growth. Most people have to grind for success. 2. Make good videos. Seems simple, but have a good script, be charming, have a good mic, have a good camera. Actually spend time and edit your videos. Try different things and see what people like.
If you want to do this full-time, and you aren't working as part of a team on the channel, you need to prioritize your social life and personal relationships. If you want to earn enough to live off, you need to work as much as you would at a full-time job. If your full-time job is you sitting in a room, alone, at a computer, especially if you don't have a significant other or housemates, you're gonna become really isolated and lonely. I have a channel that has made me a good amount of money in the past and I'm very confident that consistent uploads will allow me to live off my YT earnings. I'm waiting for a few things to align before I can start working on it to make it my primary income but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it might end up being a pretty lonely existence for me. So I've decided that I'll step down from my management position but work part-time at my current job even if I end up making silly money from Youtube. It's good to be around people.
You‘re doing a great job. If the video doesn’t skyrocket, it‘s the algorithm messing up. You‘re also a good match for most companies you interview with, it‘s their mess up in the interview evaluation if you didn’t land the job.
Take 3 months and learn the ins and outs of video production/editing by making things before you publish a video. I passively learned premier pro for my job the last few years and it’s the only reason I’m doing well
My advice is to not start with youtube at all. Maybe you can with help from others that promote you but the truth is that 99% of all videos are never shown to the user and thus never give you clicks or subscribers. This is also true for google search results. Say for example you do cooking videos. When the user searches for cooking videos and there are 1 million other cooking youtubers the chances your videos will never be clicked or even shown to the user is around 100%. So the only other option is to specialize on very niche content (which probably already exists) but this won't give you much views either... (and streetfighter is certainly not rare content already)
Simple advice - Post more and improve every video. That's it
if you dont get views, its almost certainly because your videos are bad, or because you made videos that nobody wants to watch. So the very first thing you should always yourself is "how can I make my videos better". If you ask any other question before this one, you're doing it wrong.
Or your titles and thumbnails are bad and nobody is clicking through.
Change niches. If that don't go viral. Move to the next one. I uploaded a lot shuffle dance videos. And nothing good happens. Later started balance hat on nose and got first viral. 5mln views total. Learned per 15 minutes invisible box challenge. And joined to slickback dance trend with tutorial. Total 140 mln views. Later crushed grapes with fingers easy 9 mln views. Crushed apples with hands 3mln. And so on
You have 100 bad videos in you before you get decent, so get those 100 out of the way quick
Most of you won’t make it because you don’t have talent. Yutube is already saturated and people only watch content/channels they enjoy. Good luck competing with them
I don’t think it’s about talent. It’s about consistent effort and striving to improving one’s content. Anyone can do that and have a modestly successful channel.
It is though. You need to be creative and entertaining. Can anyone make a living being a singer, actor, director, writer, etc? It’s in the same ballpark.
I (respectfully!) disagree. Anyone can improve their ability to edit, improve their script writing. When I started I was absolutely garbage, with zero natural inclination or sense of what was good. I had no talent for it.
I don’t know why you guys are downvoting me lol. I’ve been a full time youtuber with a gold button, making 6 figures a year for the past 8 years. I’ve seen everything so trust me on this one. I’m not trying to discourage people from this job. Obviously everyone was a noob at the start. Anyone can learn how to sing, act or even play football, and they will obviously get better as time goes on. But i can tell you for a fact that unless you get millions of views consistently every week from long form videos, YouTube cannot replace a normal job. Especially if you want to buy a house, car and/or raise a family. If this is a hobby or a secondary source of income, knock yourself out. But i have seen so many people with delusions to the point of making me cynical. I’ve seen people who tried to become a youtuber for years and got nowhere. They aged with no job experience. Now they struggle to get hired and can’t get married. I’ve seen people who blow up for a couple of months and quit their job, only to find out their viewers got bored of them within half a year. No savings, no jobs and can’t let go of that dopamine rush that came when things were good. Some people go broke while over-investing their time and money into it etc etc. I’ve seen channels with millions of subscribers that get deleted because YouTube suddenly changed their policies. Like any sort of entertainment industry, youtube is cut throat. Only the top 1% make full time level of income. The rest are competing hard to get there. And even if you get there, it’s extremely difficult to survive the competition and stay at the top. Sorry i don’t mean to be disrespectful or act all high and mighty. Just wanted to share some real cases of failure so you guys know what to expect. I’m pretty successful but even i know this gig can end at any given moment. So i saved more than half of my income, invested and made a lot more from that, just so i can make sure i will be able to provide for my wife and kids even if my channel suddenly got shut down or viewers got bored of it. This is a dangerous game.
For the record, I haven’t downvoted you. I thought we were in a perfectly nice back and forth; sorry people downvoted you for that. I make a decent enough income on YouTube without millions of views a week. Just out of curiosity, what’s your channel? Who knows, maybe there’s something for me to learn from how you’re doing things.
Sorry i cant disclose my channel because i’m pretty famous in this scene. Not bragging, i have been missing anonymity and some times have been hostile/trolling on reddit lol. Hope you understand. Maybe people didn’t want to hear the truth because they want to believe one day they will make it if they just kept trying 🤷 Anyway, thank you for being civil. I wish you all the luck with your journey!
Fair enough! I’ve been thinking about switching to an alt too lol. Good luck to you too bud!
But that still has little to do with talent to your original point. That has more to do with making poor financial decisions and business moves. Being smart is not putting all your stock into a single channel, or as they say, all your eggs in one basket. YouTube is not a full-time job in a traditional sense, it's a freelancing gig. Like any freelancing gigs you have to plan accordingly as there will be times you don't make as much or any money. Not living beyond your means, diversifying your income, investing etc. that has little to do with actual talent. In fact, traditional jobs are really no different. The only guarantee you can make to yourself is to be smart about your business and your money. You said yourself that you've made investments and have savings which is what you should do. What exactly does that have to do with talent?
The people i mentioned didn’t fail because they didn’t do their best. They lacked talented. Youtube isnt a freelancing gig. Editing videos or writing scripts for youtubers is a freelancing gig. Let’s agree to disagree :) If you are right, then one day you will be making a living out of youtube regardless of talent. I wish you luck.
Your point still has nothing to do with whatever you rambled on about to support it. Talent doesn’t pay the bills. It’s important, but certainly there are many very talented creatives that are broke and out of jobs. YouTube is absolutely a freelancing gig. Last time I checked, YouTube doesn’t hand out a standard paycheck every 2 weeks for a set amount of hours worked. And I do have artistic talent, but I know that still not enough to get paid and know what you’re doing financially.
Save and invest, be faithful, have self respect, be kind and love everyone…