Why Most YouTube Channels Fail

Have you ever wondered what's the difference between YouTube channels that thrive, YouTube channels that survive, and YouTube channels that dive? Because I've wondered that, like, why are some YouTube channels so insanely successful and other ones are eking out a meager existence and others yet just live their entire existence on the struggle bus? Well, that's what I'm going to talk to you about on this video. Why I believe most YouTube channels fail. Now, I'm no expert on YouTube. I don't even play one on television. But I've been a student of YouTube for almost two years. I've been a YouTube channel haver, owner, holder, I don't know what even call them a YouTuber. I've been a YouTuber right, since March 15, 2007. We figured out what time is going to work best over time. We figured that out. So, okay, I'm going to do a video a week. Well, doing a video a week works so well for me that I decided.

I might as well do two videos a week. If one is good, two is gooder. Right? Right. So let me do two videos a week. I'm going to do two. And I started doing two videos a week. Guess what? Two videos a week definitely work gooder than one.

I was like, oh, yeah, this is a thing. I got so excited that we started doing eventually three videos a week. Like long form videos a week, and then four shorts, three. And then. So you know what? This once a week thing, twice a week thing, three times a week, things working pretty good. Maybe I should just put up a video every day. But here's what I discovered. See? See, everything in life that is not a test is a guess at best. And it doesn't matter whose guess it is.

Yeah, I'm a poet and I know it. And my feet show it because they're longfellows. Okay, Get a Henry Wandsworth Longfellow. Anyway, I'm done. Okay, so. And I'm very corny as well, so deal with it. Okay, so.

My guess is as good as your guess, as good as the next door neighbor's guess, as good as the guy down the street's guess. Good as the guy who owns the pizza shops guess. A guess is just a guess. And it is just a guess. And so.

I decided I'm going to, like, measure the stuff we're doing. So one of the things I noticed was we were doing a video, a long form video on Monday and a long form video on Wednesday and a long form video on Friday, and then we'd do shorts on Tuesdays. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Okay, it was working okay. But I noticed that as soon as we put up the Wednesday video, the views from the Monday video would slow down. And as soon as we put up the Friday video, the views from the Wednesday video would show down, slow down. So I said, you know what? Three videos a week might be too many. I'm getting ready to go on a little travel fest. I don't know if it was, I don't remember if it was a vacation or if it was just business travel, but like I'm going to be traveling for a while. I said, why don't we do this? Why don't we just test doing two videos a week, one on Monday and one on Friday. Because the video views tend to tank on the weekend on the long form videos. Because people are doing other stuff, right? In other words, they're playing. They don't have time to watch videos like they do when they're at work. Right.

Hashtag just saying. Right? Right.

So anyway, at least that's what I think is most likely happening. Okay? So I said, let's do one on Monday, let it have all the momentum of the entire week and then do one on Friday so we can get some momentum before we go into the weekend. That started working great. Two videos a week got us more viewers. I mean, more views and more subscribers than three videos a week, by the way. Just because that was true for me doesn't mean it's gonna be true for you. Understand that? Okay, cool. So I set my intention. My intention was to show up, but I also set my intention to serve. Here's what I mean. The content that I'm putting on YouTube, I'm not putting it on YouTube for me, in other words, I'm not putting it on YouTube so that I can get viewers, subscribers and money from YouTube.

I put my content on YouTube to serve the people who are going to watch it. Because I know I learned a. I only worked on a farm one day in my life, but I learned the law of the farm. And the law of the farm is this. It's in the Bible too. You reap what you sow.

But the law of the farm doesn't just state you reap what you sow. It also states that you reap more than you sow. Because you sow a seed, you reap a tree.

But it also, the law of the farm also states that you reap later than you sow. And see, some people are unwilling to sow because they are unwilling to wait until later to reap but what they don't realize, if you never reap, you never sow. And I'd rather reap later than never. And so I'm just going to show up to serve because I can't out sow the farm. And I'm going to sow and sow and sow and sow. And when I say so, when I say sow, I don't mean like I take a needle and sew my socks. I mean sow a seed of service that benefits somebody other than me.

It doesn't matter what you're doing in life. If you're doing something worthwhile.

Most of the time, the last person you should be thinking of is yourself. That doesn't mean don't think of yourself. That just means don't think of yourself first. And I am telling you, like.

I want to make sure that, that if I put a video on YouTube, it doesn't waste one minute of any watcher's time. So I'm not making my content.

Long enough to get paid so I can get paid. I'm making it long enough for them to gather enough information to have a transformation. Because if they have a transformation, they'll come back and watch another video. So if I show up for them.

They'Ll show up for me. This is so simple. Maybe, maybe Jesus gave us this formula for greatness in the Bible. Maybe he did. Maybe he said something like, he who would be greatest among you, let him be servant of all. I don't know, maybe he said something similar to that.

And maybe if I take that to heart and I show up with the stuff that I'm putting on the Internet for the people I'm putting it on there for instead of for me, maybe something good will come back to me in the end, even if it doesn't come back to me by the end of today.

And I think most people don't have the intention to show up, and they don't have the intention to serve, and they don't have the intention to solve other people's problems. See, I want to serve at the highest level.

And when I became intentional on YouTube, I think I had already bought this building.

I have put hundreds of thousands of dollars into renovations and equipment, into the studio.

I didn't do that cause I wanted more YouTube views. I didn't do that because I wanted more subscribers. I didn't do that cause I wanted to get more money from YouTube. I did that because my desire was to serve the people I serve at the highest possible level.

And to give them like video, that the content is good, but the quality of the video matches the content. Now, when we first started, we were shooting our videos on Canon C100s. You can get a Canon C100 for 4, 5, $600, $700. That's without a lens. Now you start buying lenses, that's a whole different story, right? But then I found out, wait a minute. I move around a lot. Even when I'm sitting still, I do this a lot. Well, that right there will throw the camera out of focus. And so I found out that Sony FX3s have the best auto focus and the best saturation. You say, I don't know what that means. I don't really know what it means. I know what the autofocus means. Saturation. I think it has something to do with color, but I'm colorblind anyway, so all the colors look pretty good to me, right? But other people can tell. And so I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna make sure, like, when we have the best cameras and we have the best lights and we have that we can do, not the best that exists in the world. I'm sure there are some better cameras in the world, and I'm sure there are some better lights in the world, but the best ones that we can use, right? Because there's such a thing as, like, having overpowered equipment, right? So you don't need to. Some of you are listening to me say this. You're going, I'm going to go buy Canon FX3. You better not, if you don't know how to use it. I don't know how to use FX3, but I got a whole bunch of folk here who do, right? And so I can pay people who know how to use that fancified stuff, but I would start with my iPhone if I had to and do the best video I could with my iPhone and three clamp on lights from Home Depot. I wouldn't get them from Home Depot because they're terrible. I'd get them from Lowe's. I don't buy anything from Home Depot.

You say, why did I say that? Well, because I ordered stuff from them, and the people they send to deliver your stuff will literally, at least they did this to me. They'll lie to you so they don't have to unload the truck.

So anyway, that's a different conversation for a different day. So not gonna do it through Home Depot. So, anyway, three clamp on lamps from Lowe's and an iPhone and let's go. Let's make a video. It doesn't have to be something fancy. You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great. I think Les Brown said that. So credit where credit is due. So have your intention to show up consistently set your intention that when you show up consistently, you're going to serve and you're going to show up to solve other people's problems. Now, when you solve other people's problems, now you have to figure out what type of YouTube channel you're going to start. Because I noticed there are basically.

I'm not an expert on YouTube. I'm not playing one on television. I'm not purporting that I'm a YouTube expert. I am not a YouTube expert, just a guy who studies it. Every day I watch YouTube videos every day I watch them for the purpose of learning some new thing, but also to see how the people who have this YouTube channel are doing this YouTube channel thing. And here's what I discovered. There are basically two categories of YouTube channels. Would y' all like to know what they are? Yes or yes? Yes. Okay. There are entertainment channels and there are education channels. Okay. Entertainment channels get more views than education channels. Why? Because.

The majority of people in the world hyper focus on distraction and ignore intention, which is why most people fail.

The small minority of people who succeed at anything in life, they hyper focus on intention and ignore distraction. And that's why they succeed. Now, I'm going to define intention. I'm going to define distraction so you can know what I mean when I say it. When I say the majority of people in the world hyper focus on distraction, I am talking about anything you focus on that does not move the needle in your favor. So if you're focused on anything that doesn't move the needle in your favor, you are going to keep failing because you're hyper focused on distractions. For instance, broke people watching a football game. To me, that is as dumb as a box of rocks. For a person to be broke and watch a football game or a basketball game or a golf tournament or a race. You're watching somebody else win when you're losing. How could that possibly be interesting to you? Unless you're studying how to win and then you're delusional enough to call those people on that team your team.

They might be your team, but you ain't their team.

Is that too tough? Am I swinging too hard first thing in the morning?

Myron, don't you want to see them? No, I don't. Want to see them. I want to be them. I want somebody watching me play games for money on tv. That what I want. I'm broke and I want to watch somebody Play. Get paid $30,000 to play a game. And I'm broke, trying to figure out how to pay my light bill. But I'm getting excited because my team won. No, you are making your team lose because your real team is your family.

Broke people watching tv.

Child, please.

When I was broke, I didn't have a tv. Why I'm not gonna watch other people live their dreams while I'm living a nightmare.

I'm gonna learn something to correct, to turn this nightmare into a dream come true.

I'm gonna learn something I didn't know.

Okay. Got a little attitude.

Okay, so entertainment channels get more views. As I was saying, they get more views than education channels. Why? Because most people are looking for something to distract them. Now.

Okay, so entertainment channels get more views. As I was saying, they get more views than education channels. Why? Because most people are looking for something to distract them. Now, I'll be honest with you. I watch some Entertainment videos on YouTube. The ones I watch are probably not as entertaining to you as they are to me. I like to watch lions fighting hyenas and crocodiles fighting hippopotamus and I like stuff like that. Right. I. I'm just keeping it real. I like it. It's entertaining. It's like I want to. I don't want any of the animals to die, but since one of them's gonna, I want to see which one.

I don't want any of them to die. I don't. I love little animals and stuff. I don't even step on insects. I'm a very peace loving person. But I don't mind watching a fight.

I'm just saying.

Okay, so.

The reason y' all are laughing at me, because it's true about you too, right? Okay. Anyway, maybe it's not. Maybe it's not. So entertainment channels get more views, but the views are worth less. They're not worthless, they're just worth less than the other type of channel.

The other type of channel is an educational channel.

Educational channels don't get as many views as entertainment channels, but education channels get higher quality views. Now, what do I mean by that? Okay, so now we're going to talk about the business of YouTube.

When you have above a certain number of subscribers.

And you have above a certain number of watch time hours and.

Your video is above a certain amount of time. That's three aboves, right? Then YouTube will pay you for views. Okay, Now I think the number of subscribers you have to have is that it's still 1,000 thousand subscribers. This is the main way to make money on you. I mean, this is not the main way. This is the main way YouTube pays you. Okay, so it's called YouTube monetization.

So you have to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch time hours and 4,000 in a 12 month period. 4,000 watch time hours in a 12 month period. Okay, so which means people have to watch your videos for 4,000 hours in 12 months. Well, okay, cool. So now all I have to do is figure out how long does the video. The video needs to be at least 8 minutes long. So I need to have at least an 8 minute long video and people need to watch my 8 minute long videos at least 4000 hours within. I don't know if shorts count or not. Maybe towards monetization. Maybe they do. They do. It just takes a lot more because shorts are only a minute. So trust me, eight minute, like your long form videos, you want them to be eight minutes. And then after that YouTube starts paying you. So first they start charging advertisers. What they charge advertisers is called cpm. Cost per thousand. That's what they charge advertisers who want to buy ads on your YouTube video. So for every thousand videos you get paid, I mean Google gets paid cpm. Well, they share that CPM with you in the form of rpm, which stands for revenue per thousand. Okay, now here's what's cool.

Entertainment channels, I've seen them do, like talk about how much money they make, right? Entertainment channels think they're doing well if they get 7 to $10 CPM and 3 to $5 RPM.

But if you have an educational channel, that's nothing.

I've had my CPM on my channel be as high as.

$85.

It averages around 40. Okay. My average CPM on live videos and long form recorded is about $40, which means my average RPM fluctuates between about $17 and $25. So we'll just call it $20 per thousand views. Okay, now does all of that make sense? Okay.

This would have been beneficial for me to know because I was on YouTube for 14 years before I ever heard of YouTube monetization. And I already had enough views and enough videos. I just never turned on monetization because I didn't know it was a thing you could turn on. And so after I bought this YouTube course, Zach comes to me and says, hey, I'm gonna turn on monetization. This was in February of last year. I'm like, what's that mean? That means YouTube's gonna start paying you for your videos. And I thought to myself, okay, when I start putting up videos, because I already had, like 40 or 50 videos on YouTube. Oh, that means when I start putting up videos, YouTube's gonna start paying me. Well, he turned on monetization in February of last year. I hadn't put up a new YouTube video since July of the previous year. So the next month, he comes to me and said, we made $305 last month. I said, for what? He said on YouTube. I said, for what? He said, because people watched your videos. I'm like, okay, it didn't. Still didn't click the next month. It clicked the next month. He came to me, said, well, you know, we made $353. Whoa, whoa, timeout, bro. What do you mean we made $353 last month? Yeah, for the videos you already have on YouTube. But I haven't put any new videos you. For the ones you already had on there just because we turned on monetization. So I was missing out on about $300 a month. But it was more than $300 a month because as soon as I figured out that they pay me for all these old videos that I didn't even know people were watching, I became hyper. Intentional, right? Okay. So we became intentional. We showed up to serve people. Here's the decision I made. I made a decision at the end of March. I said, we're gonna do one video a week for the next 10 years. I don't care how many views I get. I don't care how many subscribers I get. I don't care how much money I make. I'm just going to do a video a week for 10 years. I believe that I'll probably have a million subscribers in 10 years if I do that.

And a million subscribers. If you have a million subscribers on an educational channel that gets significant views, you should make somewhere between 50 and $100,000 a month.

Just wanted to make sure you understood that. Now, I'm going to end with this. I'm going to give you all some of our stats because there's a website called that you can look up and do research on how much money people's YouTube channels make. It's about. It's about 25% correct. In other words, I make about four times as much as they say I make on that website. I don't even Remember the name of the site? I looked it up the other day and I can't remember the name of it. Social Blade, socialblade.com you can like, it'll tell you how much money everybody's YouTube channels make. I looked at mine like I made way more than that. Okay, so? So in the last 28 days, we got 2.9 million views. In the last 28 days, we got 471,000 watch time hours. In the last 28 days, we gained 50,600 subscribers. In the last 28 days, WE made $50,000 in the last 28 days from YouTube monetization.

Why am I telling you that? Because.

How many of you have a YouTube channel, okay? If your YouTube channel is not successful, whatever that means to you, how many of you have not become intentional about showing up yet, like consistently same time, same day? Right? That's the thing. How many? So just pick that one thing to do and show up with an 8 minute video once a week or once a month at the same time, on the same day and just decide you're gonna do it. Not to get the views.

Not to make the money, not to get the subscribers. But here's the greatest benefit you're gonna get. If you take my advice on what I said in this video. Here's what you're gonna get. Eventually.

Eventually. Everybody say, eventually you're gonna get good at YouTube.

Now, I don't know how long it's gonna take. It's probably gonna take a couple years, but that's okay. The couple of years are gonna go by anyway.

I believe it's probably gonna take me another year and a half to two years. And I'm gonna be good.

And I'm not being humble and I'm not being funny. I know I'm not good at YouTube yet, but here's what I am. I'm getting better every week. Every week I get better and I keep on doing it. And I'm telling you, in a year and a half, two years.

Look in here, look in here. Say, what does that mean? That means it's about to be on. What does that mean? It means. Katie, bar the door. What does that mean? It means. It means, look out, here we come. Okay? For those of you who are just like, look out, here we come, okay? So if you will take my advice on this, I promise you, you will be blown away by the results you have in 10 years or less. Thank you for watching this video. I hope it blesses you in some way, shape or form. Peace out, Cubstouts.