In my previous post, I wrote how I started youtube and gained my first 1,000 subscribers. You can find it here.
I wanted to go over three things:
- How I decided on what content I wanted to develop
- What I noticed help grow subscribers and watch time
- My recommendations if you are planning to start
1. Developing Content
I think it's perfectly fine not being sure exactly what you want to do when starting off. When I began doing videos, there weren't on anything specific. Began by making video summaries on popular javascript frameworks that were only 2-3 minutes. While they were not great, and I was terrible at talking, performing, I got great feedback. I realised I was performing a little like a robot that talked to fast, and it was something I could work on to improve.
2. Make Content you would enjoy watching yourself
This is a tip I've seen a lot of authors recommend. They usually say that you should write the sort of book you would want to read, and not be directed by the fans. In the same way, I think making the sorts of videos you would want to watch will help you make better content. For me, this was the development and design videos, but I also wanted to do occasional topics about what keeps me motivated to code.
These sorts of videos I found did exceptionally well, however, I also go lucky. I think it's important to keep trying and sharing your content because you never know what will be picked up as popular. My video on staying motivated to learn code was picked up on Reddit and had a heap of discussion, which helped this video do very well. I have tried to do more videos
https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/eu62hn/how_do_you_stay_motivated_to_keep_learning_the/
However, this didn't continue to work when I tried to make other videos like this and found that just making consistently good videos around development and design was the way to go for me.
3. Making it to 1k subs and 4k watch hours
It's not easy hitting the bare minimum requirements set by YouTube to be considered the benchmark for when you actually begin being a YouTuber. I've reached the first one, which is 1,000 subscribers, but for the second one, you really need to put in a lot of extra work and time. 4000 hours of watch time can be achieved by either having a few good videos picked up a lot, or making consistent and long videos.
One YouTuber which is becoming exceedingly popular and does a good job at this is @florinpop17 who does consistently job of live streams recently. Each one is able to be an hour or longer which is create for watch time, but also good in the sense that you can interact with your community which will allow you to retain your audience engage with them more!
Florin Pop: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeU-1X402kT-JlLdAitxSMA
4. Sharing your content & Youtube SEO
While its important to make great content, if nobody sees it, then it won't ever see the light of day. It's important to be confident enough to share your content on platforms your community exists in. Whether this is Reddit, some Facebook Groups or even LinkedIn, by sharing your content, you are getting it in front of your target audience, and if you have done a good job creating something valuable, you will get the views and subscribers you deserve.
I also use a plugin called VidIQ. This helps me better identify what sorts of tags are popular on YouTube so that I can better target those for search. So while I might not get into the top results for certain search terms, I can at least get into 2nd, 3rd or maybe fourth place if my video is valuable.
Conclusion
If you are planning to start a channel, I recommend you do something you know and enjoy. That way you can remain interested in the subject, giving a different point of view, and bring something valuable to the table that other's might not have done before. I also recommend planning your content so that you have structure around what you do, as it is usually easy to tell when people are just making videos for fun and winging it without any goal in mind. Also researching other channels in the content area you are competing in can help you gain a better insight into what sort of quality others are producing how you can improve your own content in comparison to that.
If you are thinking of starting your own channel, I hope this post gives you some insights into the process, and I would recommend you just do it!
Of course, if you want to support me, give feedback, or know more about me, I would be very happy if you followed me on twitter, subscribed to the channel, etc :)
Thanks
Adrian Twarog
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