Episode

4 Jul 2024 · 68 min

0:00

Podcast episode (host: Stacey Lauren) interviewing YouTube consultant Drew Hitchcock about strategies to grow and monetize YouTube channels. Drew describes his background (started on YouTube in 2012–2013; works with large channels up to ~2.7M subscribers) and gives practical advice: make YouTube a consistent activity, batch content, repurpose live/podcast content into longer-form videos, use mashups and clips, prioritize thumbnails and titles, test packaging (TubeBuddy split-tests; YouTube's own A/B thumbnail test rollout), and focus on watch time. He discusses monetization thresholds (YouTube Partner Program: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in 365 days), retention benchmarks (aim ~70% audience retention at 1 minute; 50% acceptable for very long videos 45+ min), subscriber-growth rough ratios (long form ≈100 views per subscriber; Shorts ≈10,000 views per subscriber), pros/cons of Shorts (can harm long-form metrics; consider a separate Shorts channel), and paid ads (can inflate views but attract less-committed viewers). He also recommends using owned channels (email lists/Facebook groups) to seed early traction and treat YouTube videos as part of a nurture sequence.

Questions this episode answers

1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within a 365-day period.

Approximately 70% at the one-minute mark (50% is an acceptable target for very long videos, e.g., 45+ minutes).

Long-form: about 100 views per subscriber. Shorts: about 10,000 views per subscriber.

Largest client channel ~2.7 million subscribers; smallest recently-started client ~436 subscribers.

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