The Real Reason Your YouTube Videos Aren’t Going Viral: A Step-by-Step Guide

This is for those of you that are amateurs that want to become exceptional YouTubers. I'm going to walk you through what is a common issue that I see with people getting started, why you probably aren't getting views and why you're having a difficulty, difficult time of going viral, and why you're not able to really have success and start making money with the. With the YouTube channel. So this applies to YouTube. Most of you guys know me as a faceless YouTube expert. I've made a couple million dollars off Facebook's YouTube channels, and I've helped hundreds of people create financial success from their YouTube channels. So let's jump into this. So this is a concept that I've been developing as I've just been. I've worked with a lot of beginners, and it's very clear the difference of somebody who's like an amateur versus someone who's like, advanced or a little bit more exceptional and somebody that has lots of success. So we'll dive in over here into the amateur of what we'll typically see. So each of these boxes would be what's considered like, a content format. So a content format would be like, you know, top 10 moments. And then another format could be, you know, how Michael Jordan spends his billions. And then this one could be like Michael Jordan versus Larry Bird. And then this one could be like 10 things you didn't know about Michael Jordan. And then this could be like a Michael Jordan documentary. And so obviously, I'm using Michael Jordan as the vehicle there. But, like, each of these is a different content bucket or a content format. And this applies to keywords. This also applies to formats and, and the whole production style of how you do things inside of your videos. And so what else typically see with an amateur youtuber is they feel like they need to be creative, they need to create something new. They need to change what they're doing all the time because they fear that, like, their ideas get stale and, like, nobody is interested in watching their content. And so a lot of times the issue with this is each of these different videos is made for almost an entirely different audience as well. And we're making so many different videos for so many different audiences, your channel is kind of a channel for nobody. At a certain point, if you're making your videos for all these different audiences, unless you're uploading like five videos a day, which there are some channels where they have multiple audiences and they just upload five videos a day, and it makes up for the different audiences that they're tapping into. Because they're just shooting for an output aspect. But if you don't have some crazy production style, you need to be very intentional with your production. And I'll show you guys some examples. But this is how it should look like somebody who's like more exceptional. And what you'll notice is it's simpler. Typically people that are exceptional at YouTube is they simplify things, they dumb down processes or people that like, you know, you've created so much and it's typically you just go for the frictionless option, like the thing that's easiest, which a lot of times is just what's the most simple idea. Because simple simplicity is able to scale while complexity fails. And so what you'll notice here is it's typically an iteration of like two, three, maybe five different content formats, but they're intentionally trying different things out. And like I said, this can apply to keywords, this can apply to formats, so to buckets. They're really strategic and really intentional. And you know, they may like occasionally instead of doing another blue video here, they may occasionally test out another format, but they're really intentional with trying new things out. And they'll give a lot of Runway before they scratch on an idea. You know, if they do a pink video, then what they're going to do is they'll do three of them, they'll do five of them, they'll do 10 of them before they jump to any conclusions. If one of them, if this, like if all the videos are getting, let's say 10,000 views a video and then they upload this one and it gets 500 views, they don't act emotional, they just know that that's expected and they'll still upload a few more pink videos until it gets to the point where it has a good chance of blowing up. Or they've uploaded five of them or 10 of them over a few months and none of them blew up. And so they move on. And so a lot of times it's just you move slow, slowly, you move fast in the output and the execution. But when it comes to ideas, you're very like hesitant to try new ideas out until you have a strong foundation. Because when you're doing this, when you're, when you're all over the place with your strategy, you're again not making a videos for like a specific audience. And then the consequence of this is just it takes longer for your channel blow up. It's, you know, like maybe you could do this as a shotgun approach first and see what gets, gets 10,000 views first and double down on that. But this is kind of like, honestly, just do a little bit more research on the front end and you don't have to have this problem versus an advanced YouTuber. It's typically really intentional. They're very specific. The videos that they're uploading, they're very specific with their strategy and they're, you know, they're very intentional. It's, it's almost boring. A really good YouTuber, they, they, they're on the side of boring in the sense of just. They keep producing what's already been proven before. And here's the thing about markets, places and marketers and creators is typically a marketer or a creator will get tired of their content way before their audience gets tired of the content. Like this Twitter account that I'm posting this video on. A lot of the stuff that I do, like, even this post right here, I've posted like 100 of these things at this point, at this point in time. And people love, they, they eat it up. And it's just because, like, just because I might be kind of like, eh, you know, this is whatever. Other people love it. And because other people love it, I'm gonna keep doing it. You know, it's just like I don't dictate what people love. Now I'm gonna sprinkle in some of the things that I'm a little bit more passionate about in the mix of it. But you know, it's pretty emotionless that I make this content because it's just like, it's does really well. People love seeing this type of stuff and it does extremely well. And so I'm gonna have that as one of my core strategies that I do. Just because it guarantees you a certain result. Because. And then what I will do is with a little like with 20% of the content I'll play with and I'll wiggle with it. 80% I just do what's already proven. 20% I will mess around and have fun. And if I'm a little bit more on the risk averse side and like a little bit more testy then, or the less like, yeah, the more risk averse, then what I would do is maybe 50% I'll test and then 50% I'll do what's already been proven, you know, so instead of, you know, like, I'll just plug in just a few more of these pinks and then maybe I'll do a few red strategies in the mix of here as well. But what you'll notice, you know, I'll try one, maybe two. And so what you'll notice is it's still not chaotic. It's still pretty intentional, what you're doing. So what does this look like? Let me pause and I'll show you a couple examples. Okay. I got two examples of channels I just came to mind when I was talking about this. So the first one is one of them that's been blown up recently. This channel is, like, going crazy. They started two months ago, and they've done like, 200,000 subscribers, and in the last 20 days, they've done, like, 12 million views. It's insane. But what you'll notice if you look at this channel, they do the same videos over and over again now that he's gotten a little bit more views and a little bit bigger. I think he's testing a few things in the back in the past, but we'll just take one of them. So. Just got worse. Okay. If you notice. Just got worse. Got worse. You'll see he's already done it four times. So he did it with this video, the Mulaney. He did it with the Mr. Beast. Just got worse. And then he did it with Jojo Siwa. And then they did it with Dante's situation. Just got worse. And then they also just did. Went or, like, too far, whatever that strategy is. You'll see he did this one seven times. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7. And then he's now doing, like, Is blank. So he did. Is done. Is crumbling, is weird. So he's testing on the terrible idea. But in reality, it's just like he's. He's really limited the amount of, like, he's doing, like, two content strategies. Like, one content strategy that is kind of just playing with the variable a little bit over and over and over again. The channel is super unoriginal if you look at it. And then you even see with the thumbnail strategy. I don't know if there's a pen. Oh, there is a pen. Okay. So you'll notice with this, with like, he did a. This is bad. Like, you'll see, like, he does this thumbnail star right here, like, where it's just like the person on the face, and then just like. And now it's losing all the markings. But you get to the point where it's like the person's face, the text next to it, and there's that strategy. And then he's also testing or they. I don't know if it's a guy or girl, but that's running this channel. Then they do one where it's the person's face, and then they do, like, a Twitter tweet that plays along with it as well. And so we'll see if we look at it in a thumbnail viewpoint. He's doing, like, two thumbnail strategies, like, over and over again. And now he's attesting a third one. He's really just. They're just really doing two thumbnail strategies. And the content strategy, they've only done, like, one main content strategy, and now they're playing with it. And then they're going to do the exact same thing with the hook in the video, with the sound effects, with the music, with the voiceover, with the, like, the transition, the effects that they use. They're limiting the variables. They. They found something that's working, and then they just quadruple down on it. And then they just in. Plug. Plug in different ideas into that formula. And then Even, like, the Mr. B situation, like, they, you know, they're like, oh, it worked. Let's do it again. And they're pretty. You know, they're pretty intentional with what they're doing. So I'm gonna show you guys another channel right here. So this one's a little bit of a different niche, obviously. This one's kind of like, in a little bit more of, like, the geopolitical type of side of things. And what you'll see is when they first got started, they're doing, like, how China got stuck. Sri Lanka has fallen apart. Sweden, Finland are not in NATO. Thailand escaped colonial. Colonialism. And then they did this video that was like the dark side of the Korean miracle and the dark side of South Korea's incredible economic success. And this video went bonkers. So what'd they do? They did another one, and it got 6 million views. And then they did another one. It didn't do as hot, but it did pretty good. And then their next video, which we lost her. Okay, so then they tried doing a different format. It didn't do as good. And then they went back. It did. So. So. And then they tried another format, and then they kind of disappeared from it a little bit. Why? You pay taxes? Amazon doesn't. And then they went back to the dark side and it crushed. Dark side again, crushed. They tried a different strategy. Tried a different strategy. And they're like, well, let's go back to the dark side. And then crush it. Crush. And then now they're kind of. They started playing with the formats, with the thumbnails, even though it's basically the same video idea, the Dark Secret. So they'll play with the thumbnail and title combo a little bit, but you'll see another 2 million views. So they just keep going back to this same content strategy where they just do the Dark Secret of or the Dark Truth of and then. Or the Dark side of and then whatever country. And then the commentary that they're making, like the political commentary that they're making on the situation of that country. And they are doing that over and over again. And then over time they've tested new strategies, but you'll see even now, like, let's see, they've kind of disappeared. They went away a little bit from it, but even now they still go back to this Dark side content because it works well. And honestly, if anything, my advice would be for them is to go back to the dark truth and just keep doing those things because it's working and then keep iterating new formats until you find something that crushes and you can do that over and over again. But if you go to their popular videos, basically all of the videos that did really well for them, and I think even this one used to be Dark Side, this Finland one, I think, if I remember correctly, but for the most part, all their videos that are doing really well is the Dark side. This one right here is in Deep trouble. Here's why. They could probably try this one out a few different times. Let me see if they did that one. No, that was the only Deep Trouble. So they could try that Deep Trouble format. Yeah, it looks like they haven't tried that one yet either. So. Yeah. So Deep Trouble. You could do that strategy and try that a few more times because it was proven. But you'll notice, like, most of their success was the same video over and over again. They just kind of plugged like a slightly different country and a different subject into the same formula and then they basically had the same thumbnail strategy. And so what you'll notice is people that have an advanced skill set, they're typically really intentional with their strategies and typically they're a lot more boring than what I showed. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing that you are boring and why you shouldn't have any originality in the content that you do. Because here's the truth is creativity is expensive whenever you're creative. It's just. It requires a lot of effort as a creator to come up with things. And so now creativity is incredible as well. I view it as, you know, the theory of Evolution, you know, or like evolution and genetic mutations, where genetic mutations are good and when you find the right genetic mutation, you know, a. What's the word that I'm looking for? A species that is created can be a species that's able to live longer than any other species that's out there because it develops a new trait. Like the birds and you know, a lot of these Amazonian like forests and stuff and like how they develop all these beautiful colors and stuff. But a lot of times is it's, it's dangerous. Most times when you try new stuff, the chances of it being a great mutation is wrong. Like it's, it's pretty low, it's pretty light, unlikely that the DNA mutation is successful. And so the same thing with content. So typically when you try new stuff and go against the norm, your chances of success are dramatically low. Like on. When it comes as a creator and especially when you're a smaller creator, it's even lower. Like at least that channel I just showed you. Explain. With Dom, he can try new stuff because he has an audience, he's gotten a lot of views and so he kind of has momentum and people will kind of watch his stuff stuff regardless. But obviously you can see when he tries new stuff he's not typically getting a million view videos. And as you become a bigger creator, you can try new stuff a little bit more. But when you're an amateur, when you're someone just, just getting started, when you're this person right here and you have not been doing YouTube for that long, you want to eliminate as much creativity as possible and purely just do what's already working out there. And what that'll do is it'll get you progress, it'll build you momentum, it'll help you have success. If you see what's already working in the marketplace, you just do that. And then once you start seeing success from what they're doing, then you can kind of start creating your own tests and your own variations. But in the beginning you really need to hone down on just a few strategies and do them over and over and over again. And one more thing I like to add to this concept of, of, of, of amateurism and versus exceptionalism when it comes to content. Strategy is think of it this way as well. Each of these videos, each of these different formats, like especially if you're doing like a top 10, if you' if you're doing like a list, like yeah list goal video, a documentary style video, you're doing a story driven, like narrative driven video and Then you're doing like a news video. Not only are each of these different audiences, but they each require different styles of production. Like a content strategy that's more news driven. Typically you have to be a lot more aggressive with the emotion inside of it. You know, you typically have to be like, like this is crazy, like how dare they. And, and you have to be like, oh my gosh, this is insane. And you have to be kind of like on that, you know, just sensationalism side when you're making news related content versus when you are making like narrative driven content there, it's a lot more about emotional connection. It's about, you know, developing a relationship with the audience through the subject matter that you are creating. When you're doing, when you are doing a little bit more of a story based content versus if you're doing a listicle there, it's about having more sensationalized subjects inside of it. And not necessarily sensationalized, but more in evocative topics that you are covering inside of your videos. And so it requires you to have, you know, good, like wtf Facts we like to call it with my students, what the fuck Facts. You know, things that are just like shareable and memorable. And it requires a little bit more of emphasis on that when you're doing a listicle video. And so if you're a complete amateur, all of these require different emotions, different styles of production, different formatting of creation. And it just requires a different mind frame for each of these pieces of content. And so if you're trying new formats all of the time and you're talking to different audiences, you're learning production too to add it all, like to add to the complexity. You are setting yourself up for a lot of unknownness as to what you're doing. And so a lot of times like the best thing that you can do is amateur is just do the most simple ass production and do it over and over and over and over again. If you're doing news content and that's it and you just plug in a new person like this channel curse over here where they do the same videos over and over again, they just plug a new person in. You're able to get good, you're able to have videos that are better than everybody else's videos because what you're doing on the platform of YouTube is you are competing with other people's content. You're competing for a. And the better you are at competing for attention and capitalizing on the attention of people and having people flock to your videos versus Anybody else competing with other people's content, you're competing for attention. And the better you are at competing for attention and capitalizing on the attention of people and having people flock to your videos versus anybody else's videos, the more views you're going to get and the more money that you're going to make on the platform. And so the best, the only way you're going to get good is in a reasonable time frame. That doesn't take long as time is by simplifying the variables so you're able to get good at simple variables. That means finding something that's already proven. Like, literally, like, how I do this. I'm not saying to do this specifically, but how I would do it is I'd watch this video, Brian's world is crumbling, and I would limit the variables. I would just plug in some other kid youtuber or something like that that's just as big. I say, he's too old. And I would put, like, their face right there. I'd put money in the background. I'd say, blank is crumbling. And then I would watch the video and do everything just like they did. And then the only variable that I changed was the person that was in it. And then I just keep switching the person that the video is about. And then I would try some of these other formats and I would just keep it really simple, really boring. It's just obviously not downloading and re uploading someone's video or doing the same topic, but taking their strategy, their format that is already proven, that's already working out there. Plugging a new keyword into it, a new person, a new thing, and then making that video go viral. And then now that you have an audience, now that you have. Now that you have momentum, then you can start to try other formats and you can try other strategies because now you'll know whether or not it's good. When you have no audience whatsoever, when you have no one watching your videos, you could have made the most beautiful masterpiece in the world that is known to mankind. But if you don't have momentum, you don't have an audience, and no one's watching your videos in the first place. It's going to take a long time for that to get attention and to get reach. So I recommend just getting an audience first, getting momentum first, at least kind of getting some skill sets and make some money first so you can quit your job or whatever it is your goals are. And then from there, then you can start to get a little bit more creative. Once you're going. But a lot of times the marketplace gets tired of a subject significantly slower than the creator does. So be aware of that. You guys need to stop trying to be too creative here, at least in the sake of getting results. And then as you get more results, then you can kind of get creative as you go. And one more point to add to that rant is you look at the channel like Mr. Beast, like, the dude does the same, like five videos over and over again. That's it. Like, even at the pinnacle of success, it's like these people that are really successful, they. They typically have, like, just a couple ideas that they just do over and over and over again. And they just switch ideas with, like, I spent 24 hours buried alive. I spent 24 hours in ice. I spent 24 hours in a circle. I spent 24 hours in lots to leave your, like, you know, you get the point. It's like, I spent 24 hours this and then last two blank this and then would you rather this? You know, it just does the same strategies over and over again. And that's just because it's. If it's working, why fix it if it ain't broke? So that's what I got applies to your channel, applies to your strategy, and your results are going to become significantly easier to acquire.