Before this year, I didn’t know much about video marketing. I had never launched a YouTube channel. Mid 2016, I decided to get more serious about my other website’s YouTube channel and start posting videos on a consistent basis. I’ve also started posting videos once a week on the YouTube channel related to this blog.
To solidify my commitment to video, I purchased the Canon EOS 70D Video Creator Kit, which came with the Canon EOS 70D w/ 18-135mm Lens, Rode VIDEOMIC GO, and Sandisk 32GB SD Card Class 10.
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I also purchased the LimoStudio 700W Photography Softbox Light, which I’ve used when I haven’t had access to ideal lighting conditions. I’ve been pretty happy with that purchase. No complaints thus far.
To give you an idea of the quality of the video this camera produces, I’ll share a video below that I posted on this blog’s YouTube channel. This video talks about how I earned my first six figures online.
I reached my first 500 YouTube subscribers for my other website recently and I wanted to share how I did it, along with some of the things I’ve learned.
Before I get into that, I’ll share my stats with you to give you an idea of the channel’s growth. The chart below shows subscriber growth on a monthly basis.
As you can see, I got serious about the channel and started posting early 2016. I was using my iPhone camera to take and post these initial vids. At that time, I was using the Grifiti Nootle iPad Tripod Stand, the Grifiti Nootle Universal Phone Tripod Mount, and the BOYA BY M1 Lavalier Microphone. It wasn’t until summer that I started started to post high-quality videos with more frequency.
I hope that you get something out of this post! Remember that all great things start small. I ALWAYS celebrate accomplishments, even if they seem small, like my first 500 YouTube subscribers.
1. Create Videos For An Audience
I don’t know how to make you famous. If you’re trying to create an entertaining YouTube channel, I can provide some tips, but ultimately, I can’t give you a silver bullet as to how to be successful.
However, if you’re trying to leverage YouTube videos for your business, I can give you a proven plan for what works! At its simplest level, you must create videos with an audience in mind.
You have to put out videos that are going to be helpful, useful, and solve a viewer’s problem. You have to put out videos that add value. It’s very similar to both blogging and podcasting. This is all content marketing!
Before I make a video, I ask myself:
- Who will care about this content?
- How is this content helpful?
If I don’t think a lot of people will care about the video’s topic or find it to be helpful, I won’t make it! I’m not making videos for me. I’m making videos with an audience in mind.
2. Promote Your Content Aggressively
I got a really great question on one of my YouTube videos recently. I’ll share the comment below.
The reason that I’m okay with aggressively promoting my YouTube videos is because I’ve put so much work into making sure the video is helpful or useful to the viewer.
I’m 100% certain that the information I’ve shared or resources I’ve mentioned on the video is going to make a big positive difference in their life. If I made crappy self-serving videos, I’d probably feel like a spammer or guilty about sharing the video.
You have to be willing to promote your YouTube videos. This includes sharing them on social media and with your email list. While yes, if you follow my advice, you will see video views from the YouTube marketplace, you have to be willing to market your own videos early on. This is especially true of new channels.
I have been promoting my YouTube videos on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, SnapChat, email list, and my blog/forum. You can see the chart below of the traffic I’m driving to the videos (external traffic).
Don’t just hope that YouTube is going to promote your videos for you. You gotta put in the work to drive visitors into their marketplace, especially if you expect them to reward you with their algorithm.
3. Learn About YouTube Analytics
I was already familiar with Google Analytics, so I picked up YouTube Analytics fairly quickly. If you’ve never dealt with an analytics program before, you MUST learn as much as possible about YouTube’s analytics dashboard.
Spend a week and literally read everything on the topic. Figure out what all of the key terms mean, what the numbers mean, how the graphs work, etc. This will save you so much time down the road. It will also make you more likely to create videos that get views.
There is so much information you’ll gain. As a marketer, this information is gold. You’ll be able to see:
- Which videos lead to subscribers
- Where your views are coming from
- How traffic sources compare
- The number of people clicking links in your videos
- How long people watch your videos for
- Which videos are making you money
- and more!
To give you an example of the power of understanding how the analytics dashboard works, I’ll show you this stats report I generated which tells me how many people are watching my videos on their computer vs. their phone.
This chart shows that 60% of my viewers watch my videos from their computer, 30% watch my videos from their phone and smaller numbers from their tablet, TV, and game console.
That information can guide decisions that I make in the future, like whether or not I should use annotations (which are only viewable via desktop), or what content to link to.
Another cool report that I’ve drawn up is the number of people clicking various annotations that I have in my videos.
This chart tells me that yes, people are checking out the resources I mention in my videos! They’re clicking through to the websites and the resources that I recommend looking into. This is another measure of how engaged they are.
When I look at this chart, it tells me that I’m delivering relevant content to my audience. If they didn’t think my videos were helpful, they wouldn’t bother sitting around long enough to watch the video and check out the links I mention.
If I didn’t know anything about YouTube analytics, I’d be flying blind. I’d literally have no idea whether or not I was putting out videos that resonate. Pretty much, I’d be guessing. This is the exact wrong way to operate in the online world, especially when you have all this information at your fingertips.
The most important takeaway for me has been that YouTube is a worthwhile investment of my time. I’m comfortable putting in more hours to produce more videos because I’m seeing trackable results.
4. Tap into SEO
If you’ve been reading any of my other blog posts, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of SEO. One of the reasons that my channel has been growing is that I’ve been tapping into the YouTube search algorithm, and yes, it has been paying off!
Below, I’ll share a chart showing how my traffic is growing as a direct result of SEO. Keep in mind that you actually have to create amazing videos that resonate before you begin to see any kind of SEO traction. Of course, the same goes for blog posts and other forms of content.
Boom! All my hard work is paying off! Of course, this is SEO within the actual YouTube marketplace. However, I’m also seeing growth in the Google search engine. I’ll show you a chart that reflects that below.
This chart is mighty steep, so I’m actually anticipating more traffic coming from this source in the future, which is another one of the reasons that I’m going continue putting out YouTube videos!
5. Yes, YouTube Is An Open Marketplace
One of the big surprises that I’ve had after launching my first YouTube channel is the huge amount of traffic I’m seeing from related videos and channels. People are browsing YouTube for certain topics, watching videos, and then coming across my videos!
Unfortunately, it does take time to build up a credibility on your videos before they’re recommended in any way. In my opinion, that’s why this chart seems to be a bit jumpy.
Knowing that YOUR videos can be discovered through other channels might alter your overall YouTube strategy. Maybe you’ll make videos with the specific intention of them being discovered through another person’s channel.
It might open up some possibilities for collaborations down the road to grow your subscriber base even more. If you and another person have a very similar audience, you can cross-promote and grow together!
6. You Can Actually Make Money
I’m proud to announce that yes, I am actually making money with YouTube. Over time, I can see this being a larger revenue generator, but I’m taking a similar view to it as I do with how I made my first $19k through the AdSense program.
If I had more of an entertaining channel, I think that I could make a living with YouTube ads alone. However, since I don’t, I’m planning on using YouTube as content marketing to drive traffic and generate leads. Those leads and traffic will be monetized in a few different ways, which I’ve outlined here.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment down below and let me know what your YouTube channel is about.