How to Explode Your YouTube Channel Growth | 22 Minutes of Insights for Success

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe that you have something special to offer, and I'd love to see it explode so that you can help change the planet. So to help you on your journey today, I'm going to look at 7 of the fastest ways to grow a YouTube channel. So one of the questions I get asked a lot by people who want to start a YouTube channel is, Evan, how do I grow? How do I get it going fast? I want to get a lot of subscribers, I want to get a lot of growth, I want to be able to make money, have an impact with my channel. What's the fastest way to get there? So today I'm going to share with you, with the help of my friends, the 7 different ways to quickly grow your YouTube channel.

Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer and I run a YouTube channel called Video Creators where every week we're publishing new videos to help you guys learn how to grow an audience on YouTube so you can spread a message that reaches people and changes changes their lives. A lot of creators, when they start off trying to grow a YouTube channel, they usually think in terms of creating really amazing, high-production video quality content. And that is certainly very important. But they sometimes sacrifice that for not thinking as much about what's going to get people to actually watch their video in the first place. Derral's going to be here with you guys in a second to talk about thumbnails. But titles are also very important. I know a lot of top-level creators on YouTube who spend just as much time crafting their titles as they do the actual content. Content itself, because they've realized that it doesn't matter how amazing the content is if the title doesn't tease a story or pitch some value that the person that they're trying to reach with their video actually wants to consume in the first place. So definitely spend a lot of time learning about headlines, searching Google for how magazines and blogs craft titles, and learning about, like, in the news industry, like, they— the same thing. They've learned that titles get clicks. Titles is what gets people to read their content, or in your case, watch your content. So learn as much as you can about crafting really good content content, and really, especially really good titles.

Tip number 2 is post more frequently. I saw a huge jump in my subscribers, in my views, in my revenue when I went from making 1 video a week to a video a day. A massive jump. YouTube seems to really, really, really care about upload frequency, especially right now. I saw another massive jump going from 1 video a day to 2 videos a day. And I'm at 3 videos a day most days, and there was a little bit of a jump. Between 2 and 3 is a little bit of a jump. So I would say if you're 1 video a day or 2 videos a day, you're getting the maximum leverage out of it, and then it starts to fall off. Now that may not be possible for you right now. You may be looking at that and say, "This is crazy, like making a video a month is hard enough for me." That's okay to be where you are right now. I would look at how do I start to increase my frequency with the goal of getting to 1 video a day. At least 1 video a day should be the new bare minimum. If you want to have success in 2017 as a YouTube creator. If you look at my channel, if you look at GaryVee's channel, if you look at Grant Cardone's channel, if you look at a lot of different YouTube creators, they saw their growth just explode when they went to making daily content. It's just something that YouTube cares about right now. It may not be the same case in a year or 2 years from now, but right now, if you are making daily content, even if it's worse content than your competitors, You will win because it's what YouTube favors at the moment.

Hi, I'm Sean Cannell with Video Influencers, and tip number 3 is tap into the power of YouTube Live. Now, YouTube Live's actually been around for a while now. You could go live with a streaming device from your computer, you could use Google Hangouts and go on YouTube Live, but it wasn't until this year that they added the ability to simply go live just from the mobile app on your phone. And this presents a big opportunity for you and for me as creators. So there's really 3 big reasons why I think it's important to tap into the power of YouTube Live. And the first one is it can add videos to your weekly upload schedule. Like, this is a big deal, right? Because the demand of how many times we should upload per week to get favor with YouTube, get favor with the algorithm, stay engaged with our audiences, is getting higher and higher every day. I'm hearing people saying at least be posting 3 videos a week. I know Evan says post 2 to 3 videos a day, right? So the demand in how many times we should be uploading is going higher. And the nice thing about YouTube Live is it allows us to do more uploads. I mean, it's a finalized video once the video's done going live per week in a simple manner. No editing, you know, less production and things like that. You know, I think the second big reason that YouTube Live is so powerful is it creates depth with your audience. You know, edited videos are great, but sometimes they don't show off as much of our personality as going live does. And so, live allows you for the chance to do Q&As, have people to get to know you better, and just kind of see you in a real, minute-for-minute, unscripted, unedited context. And then the third huge reason that you need to be using YouTube Live is it is a chance to grow your audience. And here's how. If you actually think about your livestream and the video optimization ahead of time, then your lives can rank while you're live, even if they don't rank later. Let me explain what I just said. So if you think about a title, like I help with YouTube tips on my channel, so maybe, um, how to get more subscribers on your YouTube channel, like a very searchable, thoughtful optimized title. From our studies, and we've done probably over 50 of these, we've noticed that even if that video doesn't rank for that title on the replay, that it actually is usually number 1 or number 2 for the time while the video is live. So for, if the livestream is about an hour, that video is at the top of search for like an hour. And what we've noticed is when your livestream's over, we actually see the subscriber growth. It says the channel grew by 10 subscribers, or grew by 20 subscribers. And even during our lives, we've tested this and said, hey, how long have you been a part of the Video Influencers community? And some people will say, I just found you right now. Does that make sense? So the key is, if you think about an optimized searchable title, what people are actually typing in in search, and you title your livestream that before you go live, you have the chance to meet new people and grow your audience during the time of that livestream, if not beyond that as well. If the video continues to be ranked high in YouTube search. Okay, so I hope you're convinced that you should be doing livestreams every week, and I wanna just give you one power tip for YouTube Live, and that is this. Always go live with the replay in mind, because one of the most powerful things about live is not just the people who join you live, but the fact that there's gonna be a rebroadcast, there's gonna be a video that lives on your channel forever if you leave it public. And so I think the biggest tip here is there's a lot of things you could do with the replay in mind, but I just like to over-communicate at the beginning, assuming that people are coming that aren't there live. And what I mean is I still open up the video with a strong hook, declaring, you know, saying out loud what the topic is about, or leading with a qualifying question. And then I also like to even explain what people can expect. So I might say something like, You know, this video is gonna be about 20 minutes of content that I have for you guys, about 5 points, and then it's gonna be Q&A. So if you're watching on the replay, you can know that these first 20 minutes you can get all the points, and if you wanna hang out, we'll do, you know, you can rewatch the Q&A that'll last for about another 40 minutes if the livestream, you know, is really long. And so the point is, overcommunicate and speak to not just the live audience but also speak to your replay audience, and then the lifespan of your YouTube Live can be a lot longer than just the people who watch live, and you can hook the interest of replay viewers. So whether you go live from your computer or whether you just grab your smartphone and go live from your mobile device, I encourage you to try to go live at least once a week or more with valuable content to grow your brand, and I expect that you'll see powerful results.

Hey, it's Jeremy Vest from vidpow.com. Tip number 4 is how to optimize your videos for discoverability. The most important ranking factor on YouTube is watch time, or how long someone watches your video. Most YouTube channels get their most organic traffic through the suggested videos on the right-hand side. That means your thumbnails and titles should be really, really awesome. My favorite thumbnail title combo is from Vsauce. He just has a yellow box and the title says, "This is not yellow." That intrigue is absolutely brilliant and he's got over 17 million organic views on that video. A few things I like to do to make our thumbnail stand out is to use a brand or a color pattern or a logo on all your video thumbnails. What this does is is it creates a pattern on the right-hand side suggested videos so that the brain sees all of your branded thumbnails. If it's in position 3, 7, or 9, it just visually sees them all and your viewers are more likely to click on your thumbnail. Another thing I like to do is think of the 3 E's. Eyes. Eyes are the subconscious window to the soul and do help with people clicking on your thumbnails. Emotion. Try to paint a picture with your thumbnail. If something exciting is happening, make sure that that is featured on the thumbnail. And excitement. You want to make sure your thumbnail is exciting to give someone a reason to click on it. I highly recommend saturating and pumping up the colors about 30 or 40% more than normal so that when you zoom that thumbnail down real small, it's not bland. It really pops. Another thing I like to do is sharpen. In Photoshop, I use the Unsharpen Filter mask, I sharpen a lot more than natural again so that when the thumbnail is really small, it's a little crisper than the competitors' thumbnails next to you. And for titles, I like to start typing in the YouTube search box to see what auto-populates. Typically this is the most searched for term and should give you a lot of great ideas on what people are actually searching for in YouTube. You want to balance the title with keyword-rich information people are searching for with a reason to click on the video. And I also like to use broader topics. So if you have 100 tutorials on hairstyles, you want to make sure you add the word hairstyle waterfall braid so that you start ranking for what the video is about and also the broader category in which the video is in. Another great way to get discovered on YouTube is to collab as much as you possibly can.

Hi, I'm Matt Galen, founder and CEO of Little Monster Media Co., where we help people build audiences primarily on YouTube, but really across social. And tip number 5 is to make videos that are between 7 and 16 minutes in length. And really the sweet spot is about 10 to 12 minutes. So when we think about the algorithm, essentially the way we like to think about it is that the algorithm takes in feedback from the audience and based on that feedback through their actions on YouTube and the time they spend on YouTube, YouTube tries to provide them with the best experience to keep them on the site for the longest. And I think what the algorithm has found, at least currently, is that videos that are between 7 and 16 minutes in length are delivering those longest session times. In our research that we published right around VidCon, which is titled "Cracking YouTube," in 2017. What we found was that videos that were 7 to 16 minutes in length had the best viewership as a percentage of their own subscribers on the first day, second day, 7-day, and 30-day. In fact, on the 7-day and 30-day, it was 50% higher than videos that were shorter in length and around 25% higher than videos that were longer than 16 minutes. What we looked at after that was the average view duration of those same videos, and we were looking at about 77,000 videos across 1,100 channels, all topics, all niches. So I think it's a pretty good sample size for YouTube. And basically what we found was that videos that achieved an average view duration of 5 to 8 minutes were the ones that were doing the best across those same time ranges. And those average view durations really look like a big curve. And essentially, videos that got shorter average view durations didn't get as many views in any of those 4 time frames. Videos that were longer, for the most part, got a little bit less on average. And so what I think this indicates to us is that the audience has shown the algorithm, and then the algorithm reinforces reinforces that by feeding them back suggestions based on that, that essentially videos that are shorter lead to shorter sessions, in part because every time someone's made— forced to make a choice on YouTube, they're forced to make the choice of whether or not to leave YouTube and go somewhere else like Reddit. And for videos that are longer, people might be making the decision to leave YouTube because they've already invested a significant amount of time time in watching video there. And so it's really hard to, as a creator or as an editor, to say I want to make a video that gets a 5 to 8 minute average view duration. However, you can do some back of the napkin math as it pertains to your own channel. So if you regularly put up videos that are 10 minutes in length and you get a 40% average view duration, which is a little bit low, well, your videos are going to be doing about 4 minutes. In terms of average view duration, and that's gonna be on the lower end. However, if you can make a 15-minute video that's just as entertaining and you still get that 40%, you know, now you're looking at, you know, getting into that 5 to 8 minute range, kind of sweet spot where you're gonna get the most views as a percentage of your subscribers on the first day and the second day and the seventh day and up to 30 days.

Hi, my name is Peter Hollens. I am an a cappella singer on YouTube and also the founder of the Hollens Creator Academy. Right now in 2017, the fastest way to grow a YouTube channel is to do your homework. You have to be able to do the research and development and look for the 5 to 10 people online, on YouTube, and even on other platforms platforms that are creating the exact same similar type of content that you want to make. I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are not 100% unique and innovative anymore. There is always somebody else out there that is making similar content to you, and it is your job to be able to understand how they got to where they are. Why are they successful? How often do they upload? How do they community manage? Are they responding to every single comment? How are they monetizing their content, their brand that they're putting out there? Are they also running a secondary business so that that's where they're getting their money? Most people can't make a living off of just ad revenue, right? We are now dealing in an age where we are trying to get people's attention, right? The metric that we need to pay attention to is how often you can keep somebody's attention, you want to get it for as long as possible, right? So how are these people keeping people's attention? How are they making money? How are they communicating with their audience? How often are they uploading? And even break it down to how are these people uploading and making their content? What makes it special? It behooves you when you start to copy. Picasso said, "Good artists copy, but great artists steal." So don't be afraid when you're starting to use somebody else's algorithm and make it your own in the beginning. Give them, give them, you know, give them credit in the description, but start there, okay? So reverse engineer your big idea. Find those 5 to 10 people, find out what they're doing, why they're successful, and make it your own. Good luck.

Hi, I'm Derral Eves, and tip number 7 is make your thumbnails more clickable. A lot of content creators put a lot of energy and time into their video, but they overlook something that is completely important for their success here on YouTube. The most top-performing videos that ever occurred on YouTube YouTube are using custom thumbnails. And by creating a custom thumbnail, it gives you the opportunity to really showcase what your video is going to be. So let me give you a couple tips how to make your thumbnails more clickable. Before you actually pick up the camera to start shooting your content, that you're thinking about something, you're thinking about the thumbnail. What thumbnail would be engaging? How can it relate to the video content? And so on. Next is a really important factor is you need to think mobile. More and more people are accessing YouTube around the world on mobile devices, so you need to think, okay, this needs to look good on mobile. And, and two, when you're actually designing this custom thumbnail, that you are putting it to the size of how someone would see it on a mobile device. Next, you need to make your thumbnail actually stand out because really there's a lot of competition on YouTube. When someone is actually searching and see a myriad of results of videos, or they're watching a video and they see, hey, here's all the different things for suggestion, or they're on the browse feature on their mobile device, there's a lot of competition. What our goal is is to really pull in the potential viewer, say, oh, this is interesting enough, this makes sense, I wanna see more. And when they see more, that's when you actually get the view. Now let me give you a perfect example of this. Now a client that I work with is Studio C, just amazing YouTubers, and here are two different types of thumbnails. Now the first one is a great type of thumbnail, and a lot of people would be very satisfied with this thumbnail because it has all the right features. You know, we have the law of thirds that you're able to see from there, and then two, you know, it's very engaging and it's telling a story, which is really, really important. But if this video is competing with 20 different types of videos, how can we make it stand out even further? Well, in this example is how we optimize the thumbnail, and you're able to see the color pulls it in. We actually have something that kind of explains even more than just the title would, and it's really talking about what's in the video, and it gets people more curious about what's going on. Now besides the law of thirds and adding color to your thumbnails and really pulling people in. Your thumbnail should tell a story. Now in this example, Team Edge has competitions that are going on and this is a standalone thumbnail with no title and it tells a story of what's going to actually happen in the video. Now I'm going to show you an example of something really simple but it's probably the most important thing about clickable thumbnails. Is your clickable thumbnail should be complementary to your title. It needs to be a clickable title and they work together. Now I'm gonna give you a really simple example of this and you don't need to overcomplicate this. So here's a great thumbnail, which is the color yellow, and a great title, which is "This is not yellow." These complement each other. You can see the simplistic results that Vsauce actually did But it's the strategy, it's really thinking about it before you actually create your content. It's also taking time when you're creating your video to set up shots for the thumbnail and to really thinking about how the thumbnail and title come together to really tell the story. And that's how you actually have more success on YouTube because what happens when you have a great thumbnail and a great title that are clickable people will start clicking on it. And based on your content, the time that you actually spend on your content, you know, and they retain on the video, YouTube will actually promote you more. This is the way it is and this is how you have success.

So, thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. And thank you so much to all my friends who contributed their expertise. These are the people I look up to in the YouTube world as well. And I really appreciate them spending some time to share their tips with you. I'd love to know what do you guys think, what did you take from this video, what lesson was most applicable to what you're doing in your channel. Share your thoughts down in the comments below. If there's an 8, 9, 10 that I missed that you want to add, leave it below as well. And if you want to vote on what 7 Ways video I do next, check out the link in the description. You can go there, have your say, and I might just do it in the next edition. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Tim Schmoyer who started off this video. Tim was also kind enough to provide a blurb for the back of my book, Your One Word, and then he shared it on Instagram. So Tim, I really appreciate all the love and support. I hope you enjoyed the book. It means a lot to me. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.