How to start a SUCCESSFUL YouTube Channel

The Hidden SECRETS to Starting a SUCCESSFUL YouTube Channel

Welcome to my YOUTUBE DOMINATION SECRETS course, the best FREE course out there to teach you the secrets of YouTube that other people don’t tell you.

YouTube is…in a word… INCREDIBLE.

As a platform, it continues to grow year after year and it’s gotten far too big for people and brands to ignore.

As I write this;

• YouTube is the second-largest search engine, right behind Google.
• YouTube has 73% of adults in the U.S. using YouTube on a Monthly Basis
• 73% of Adults in the U.S. use YouTube
• Each visitor spends 11m 24s per day on YouTube, on average

And by getting my YOUTUBE SECRETS course, you’re looking to capitalize on those trends and potentially create a YouTube channel yourself.

You know what I think about that?

YOU are my kind of person and frankly, I’m proud that you’ve decided to trust me to teach you the secrets of YouTube.

So, where do we go from here?

Understand what’s coming…

Over the next few minutes, I’m going to tell you things that most people DON’T tell you about YouTube. I’m going to give you advice about things that I’ve learned from YEARS of painful mistakes my wife and I have made so that you don’t have to.

Next chapter I will cover the importance of leading with data. Meaning, before you start a channel, or create a video, you need to use data to figure out what can be successful. I’ve found this to be a HUGE mistake that most YouTubers make in the beginning and if you want to succeed, it’s an absolute requirement.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 1: Understanding Channel Types

In this chapter, the focus will be explaining the two VERY different channel types.

Why is this important?

Most people think that the only way to be successful on YouTube is to film themselves, post the videos, and hope that eventually one or a few of the videos go viral.

Frankly, that’s not even close to the truth.

YouTube itself is a MUCH more complicated beast than what you see on the surface and there are two channel types you can choose when getting started, and one doesn’t involve ever stepping in front of the camera.

When you hear about YouTubers, it’s usually the famous ones or REALLY profitable ones.

• PewDiePie
• Mr. Beast
• Jeffree Star
• Jake and Logan Paul
• David Dobrik

These are the people you know about on YouTube. And for good reason, they’ve eclipsed YouTube.

They’ve gotten so popular on the platform that they’ve propelled themselves into brands and have been featured in the media repeatedly.

And these people are great at what they do.

They create entertaining content, they develop a massive community, and they are completely absorbed by the platforms as they broadcast most of their life for the public to see.

But have you heard of the YouTube channel “NoCopyrightSounds”?

Probably not.

And that’s fine, but it’s currently the 83rd largest YouTube channel that exists with 29 million subscribers.

The model? They provide copyright-free music for creators.

What about “Funny Cats”, have you heard of them?

No? Me either. And sure, they aren’t as big as NoCopyrightSounds, but they’ve blown up pretty big on YouTube.

A quick search showed that their channel has over 260 MILLION views on their videos, which means a WHOLE lot of money.

You see, YouTube is more than just slaving away in front of a camera. There are MANY channels out there where the owner….isn’t in the video at all.

Not only that, but many of the people that own these channels outsource the entire process and simply collect a check at the end of the month.

I call these channels themed channels.

The point of me telling you this is that you do NOT have to slave away and record yourself then edit videos for YouTube every day.

There are a TON of untapped ideas out there and YouTube is a pretty amazing opportunity right now.

But I’m sure you have questions. And frankly, there is a LOT to unpack here.

• How do you determine the channel topic?
• How do you avoid copyright issues?
• How do you know if the channel will be successful?

Generally speaking, if anyone is looking to start a YouTube channel, THIS TYPE of channel is what I recommend first for the following reasons:

• You can outsource everything once you have enough revenue
• It’s very passive
• You can (eventually) sell it if you want
• It treats YouTube as a BUSINESS

Themed channels is really what I think everyone should start. Once the channel is profitable, you can fully outsource everything. But I know it isn’t for everyone.

So, what about Personality-Driven channels?

Let’s take some time to analyze these types of channels.

Personality channels are also an extremely lucrative opportunity on YouTube. In this type of channel, YOU are the brand.

Yes, there will be a lot more time in front of the camera.

And yes, the negative comments on the content you post can feel very personal.

But this type of channel is for the folks who want to be in front of the camera and would like to create a following that looks up to them.

Like the themed channels mentioned above, I have quite a bit of experience here as well..

The thing that’s great about these channels is that it can be an amazing launching point to grow your following from scratch.

And no, you don’t have to focus on online business.

Any particular subject that you’re passionate about and have expertise in is a great place to start with these types of channels.

Here are a few different ideas to help you on your way:

• Gaming
• Celebrity gossip
• Lifehacks
• News
• Fail Compilations
• Spoofs
• Top X Lists
• Food reviews
• Makeup Tutorials
• Kitchen hacks
• How-to demonstrations
• Funny animal activities
• Product unboxing (kids toys, in particular)

Personality channels are great because you create a brand, but keep in mind that you’ll have to record all of the content and that can be VERY exhausting over time.

Trust me, I burned out in 2020 after doing three videos every single week for the entire year.

But, if you’re determined to go this route keep a few things in mind:

• YOU have to record every video
• YOU need to be creative enough to come up with interesting ideas
• YOU will have haters, make sure you’re emotionally capable of handling that
• YOU are the brand

This can be very lucrative if you hit it big, but most YouTubers never do. That doesn’t mean you CAN’T do it, it just means it’s going to be hard.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

1) Before you get to the next chapter, I want you to take some time to think about what type of channel you’d like.

Take some time to think about a year from now. Do you want to record videos all the time and be in front of the camera? Or, would you ultimately like to have people working for you creating videos and managing them?

There isn’t a wrong answer to this question, it’s just a personal preference. Being that I’ve done both channel types, I highly recommend the themed channel version.

Next, I will cover why you need to lead with data. Regardless of what type of channel you create, the MOST important thing is to use data to steer your strategy. I’ll introduce you to different tools that’ll help you find out WHAT people are searching for and HOW competitive these terms are.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 2: Lead With Data

In this chapter, we focus on the concept of using DATA to create your channel and videos.

Why is this important?

When people start a YouTube channel, or create YouTube videos, one of the biggest mistakes they make is that they don’t research topics prior to recording. But there are tools out there that tell you how competitive video topics are and how many times they’re searched every single month.

By using data to understand your market, it’ll enable you to make more money, get more subscribers, and increase your video views.

Whether you’re new to YouTube or have an established channel, it’s important to understand the different traffic source types that can contribute to your views.

In other words, the ways that people are finding your videos and your channel as a whole.

YouTube has defined these as the following:

• YouTube Search: Search terms used by viewers on YouTube to find your content.
• Suggested Videos: Views from suggestions appearing alongside or after other videos.
• Browse Features: Traffic from the homepage/home screen, the subscription feed, and other browsing features.
• External: Traffic from websites and apps that embed your videos or link to your videos on YouTube.
• Direct and Unknown: Traffic from direct URL entry, bookmarks and unidentified apps.
• Others: YouTube doesn’t really define what this is, but it’s other sources out there that drove views to your channel.

One of the best ways to be successful with a channel is to focus as much as possible on “YouTube Search” as a traffic source.

The reason?

“YouTube Search” means that you rank for a keyword when someone types it into YouTube. This means that every time somebody searches that keyword, your video will be seen and can be played.

For my channel in 2020, which is basically when I focused on it, 52% of views came from YouTube searches.

This equated to roughly 164,000 views for the year!

If I didn’t focus on using DATA and keyword research as part of my YouTube strategy, I would have had HALF of the views that I did.

Which also probably means half of the subscribers and half of the income.

Simply put, using keyword research to grow your YouTube channel, especially if you’re smaller, is an absolutely essential part of your success.

And it doesn’t matter if you have a themed channel, or a personality-based channel.

This is an ABSOLUTE requirement if you want to succeed with ANY channel in my opinion.

For this type of research, there are two different tools available.

TubeBuddy: This is the tool that I recommend and use myself on our YouTube channels. While the other tool below is also pretty good, I think the interface of TubeBuddy is much better to use and I like how they represent keyword competition and volume. My favorite part about this tool is they have an amazing YouTube channel and a whole playlist for beginners to get started. Plus, at $9/month for access to the keyword research tool, it’s extremely affordable. Keep in mind, the free Chrome plugin they offer is good, but to get all tools you’ll need an account.

(Click Here to Learn More About TubeBuddy)

VidIQ: This tool is a close second to TubeBuddy. I actually started with this tool and it’s even recommended in the YouTube Mastery Course by Matt Par. But after using both tools, I genuinely like the look and feel of TubeBuddy more and felt that it had better training resources. VidIQ does have a better keyword research tool as they provide metrics, so it’s really just a preference thing.

(Click Here to Learn More About VidIQ)

Truth is, both of these tools are good but I strongly recommend you use TubeBuddy as it’s what we’re using to have as much success as we are.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

Whether you have a YouTube channel or not, realize that keyword tools are essential to your success.

Without a keyword tool, you’re basically throwing darts at a dart board hoping one of the videos hits and goes big.

THIS IS NOT HOW SUCCESSFUL YOUTUBERS WORK.

Most of the time, successful YouTubers will start with keyword research to grow their channel and once they have an established following, THEN they branch out to focus on “branded” content that isn’t keyword-focused at all.

But, you NEED keyword research in the beginning to grow that initial audience.

As I said above, I highly recommend that before you move forward, you purchase TubeBuddy and start to learn how it works to capitalize on the traffic it can bring to your channel.

The next chapter is going to explain something REALLY important to you about YouTube….and this is HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY. Most people look at YouTube and think the only way channels can make money is with YouTube ads. While this is true for some, YouTube ads are really just the BEGINNING of making money with YouTube. There are so many other ways to earn that it’s crazy.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 3: YouTube Ad Revenue is Just the Beginning

In this chapter, we focus on the fact that YouTube ad revenue is just the beginning of how you make money with YouTube channels.

Why is this important?

Many people start a YouTube channel and hope that they can get MILLIONS of views in order to make money with the platform through ad revenue.

But, if you look at the biggest YouTubers and many other smaller but successful YouTubers you’ll begin to understand that YouTube ad revenue is usually a small part of their income.

Why?

Because if you have a successful YouTube channel, you have a successful brand. And brands can make a TON of money if their owners understand how to capitalize on the following.

I’m going to make a very bold statement here that will probably grab your attention.

YouTube Ad Revenue is the LOWEST form of monetization on YouTube.

Meaning, you can make a LOT more money with other strategies if you understand that you are a brand and ads are just a small part of your revenue.

Is that mind-blowing or what?

And it doesn’t matter if you have a personality-based channel or the themed channel that Matt Par talks about.

There are at least a dozen different ways to make money on YouTube and people WILL buy the things that you recommend when they know, like, and trust you.

I could spend all of our time in this chapter going over each of these monetization techniques, but that will lead to an email being over 10,000 words.

I’m going to focus on TWO very specific techniques that all YouTube channels can use to make more money.

1) Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a pretty simple concept.

You give YouTube viewers a link to click (usually in the video description or comment section), if they click on that link and purchase the product/service that you recommend, the owners of that product/service will pay you a commission.

It’s pretty simple and frankly, brilliant.

You win because you get a commission for referring someone to use the product.

The brand wins because they acquire a new customer based on your recommendation.

Let’s talk about an example so you can see affiliate marketing in action.

On my YouTube channel, I help people create and grow online businesses. And, since I’ve had a lot of success with blogs, I like to recommend blogging products that I’ve used and genuinely like.

One product I recommend a ton is called Thrive Themes.

Because I like the product so much, I made a review video talking about why I liked it and why I recommend it to others.

Why did I make a “review” video?

Because when someone is looking to buy something, what do they search into Google or YouTube?

Usually, it’s something like “PRODUCTNAME review” or “PRODUCT NAME review CURRENT YEAR”

They do this because they’re already considering buying the product, but they want to see it in action BEFORE they actually buy it.

This is where your YouTube channel comes in.

By creating review-type videos you can get people to click on your links and buy the product.

Now you’re probably wondering, how much does this stuff pay?

When someone buys that Thrive Themes from my affiliate link, I make somewhere between $40-$120. That’s a good chunk of change!

Below is a screenshot showing you how I’ve used this method to make over $15,000 with Thrive Themes!

And the beauty to this method is, if you can rank your videos with keyword research on YouTube with a tool like TubeBuddy (discussed in the last chapter), you’ll get people seeing those videos every single day and as they buy, you’ll get a commission from the brand every single time!

This, my friends, is the beauty of passive income.

You do the work once (a single video) and if you do it well and YouTube ranks your video, it can pay you for YEARS to come.

BUT…..there are some rules to follow if you want to use affiliate marketing.

1) Don’t recommend crappy products: If I recommended Thrive Themes and it sucked, people would buy it and blame me for recommending it. If you decide to go the route of affiliate marketing, recommend products that you know are high-quality.

2) Always be authentic: When you talk about products or services that you recommend, don’t just say the positives and never mention anything bad. Be willing to explain the negatives of the product or service too, this will build more trust with your viewers.

3) Find programs that match your audience: If you have a YouTube channel about cats, it wouldn’t make much sense to recommend that people buy a fish tank. The two are completely unrelated. When you recommend products or services, make sure they MATCH what your audience is looking for.

Wondering how to get started as an affiliate? It’s really simple.

First, have a reasonably large following. We’ll call it over 5,000 people.

Second, apply to a network like ShareaSale, Amazon, or Commission Junction. Or, if you don’t find the company you want to promote on these platforms just search “BRAND affiliate program” into Google and apply. Most companies have an affiliate program.

Third, reach out to companies and see if they’ll accept you into their program.

2) Creating an Online Course: The next type of way that you can monetize a YouTube channel is affiliate products aren’t for you is by creating an online course.

Though this typically is best for a personality-based channel where you showcase knowledge and expertise (like my own channel) you could also do this on a themed channel as well.

The concept is pretty simple and I’ll explain it using myself as an example.

As I mentioned previously, I help people create and grow online businesses. That said, it would make sense that I sell courses to do so.

This makes perfect sense in my business.

I create videos on YouTube explaining tips and tricks to start and grow a blog, and then I have a course (or courses) that explains a step-by-step process people can follow to succeed.

And these courses can be a high price tag too! $97, $197, $497, and even higher!

And now…I know what you’re thinking.

Why would people pay for a course when I give away a ton of valuable info for free on YouTube?

The answer is simple. Convenience.

While I may give a TON of great info on YouTube away for free, do you know how hard it is for someone to find all of the information I include in a course in an organized way?

People like a step-by-step guide to help them with a problem.

Plus, with a course, I can throw in worksheets and printable content for my audience that heightens the perceived value of what I’m offering.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

1) If you didn’t get TubeBuddy yet, now you have another reason to do so. Affiliate marketing is an AMAZING way to make quite a bit of money every single time someone buys a product or service you recommend. I recommend you get TubeBuddy today and start researching keywords for your content strategy for Youtube more strategically.

In the next chapter, I’ll be explaining something that many of you will be very happy to hear. That is that SMALL YouTube channels can sometimes outearn BIG YouTube channels by a large margin. How is it possible? Check the next chapter. 🙂

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 4: How Small Can Outearn Big

In this chapter, I’ll be focused on explaining to you how sometimes SMALL channels can outearn BIG channels.

Why is this important?

When people start a YouTube channel, their goal is to grow as large as possible.

And obviously, this makes sense. The larger your channel gets, the bigger your brand becomes, and the more people you’ll reach to sell to or get to watch your videos.

But I strongly feel that subscribers are NOT the right metric to focus on.

Why?

Because subscribers is a vanity metric when you’re still a small YouTube channel. A MUCH more important metric, especially when you’re treating YouTube as a business, is REVENUE.

So many YouTubers get caught up in the trap of focusing on subscribers to their channel.

But what good are those subscribers if they don’t bring in any revenue?

Let’s give two examples of channels and you tell me which one you’d like to own.

Channel 1: This channel is full of scary video compilations. The average video gets 40,000 views and the subscriber count is 65,000. Each video gets between 10–20 comments on average. The average income for this channel is somewhere between $600-$800 per month.

Channel 2: This channel is focused on teaching people how to create lesson plans for homeschooling. The average video gets 10,000 views and the subscriber count is 28,000. Each video gets between 80–90 comments on average. The average income for this channel is somewhere between $300-$400 per month.

Which channel would you rather have?

Based on this information, it’s simple. Channel 1 seems like a better channel as it’s larger and has more views per video.

But there’s something about channel 2 that you should have noticed.

Did you see how many comments each video gets?

Did you think about the demographics of each channel?

Did you think about the content on each channel?

Channel 1 gets the views, but Channel 2 sounds like it’s an incredible opportunity to build a brand.

• Each video gets 80–90 comments, indicating an engaged audience.
• The audience is focused on homeschooling, which is extremely important and people will pay for quality products.
• The intent of the second channel is to learn something, people are always willing to pay to learn.

Let’s say someone decided to go with channel 2. They then created a course using one of the course platforms that sell for $197 each.

While their YouTube ad earnings stay pretty much the same, the course does well and they sell 10–15 courses a month which brings in an extra $1,970 — $2,955.

NOW WHAT CHANNEL WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE?

What you need to understand about YouTube is that subscribers aren’t always the most important metric for revenue.

Sure, if you’re 100% basing your earnings off of ad revenue, then subscribers are incredibly important. But, if you’re treating YouTube as a business (which you should), then subscribers don’t matter as much.

What matters much more than that is engagement and the trust that your audience has in you.

When your audience knows you, likes you, and trusts you, they’re much more likely to buy a course you’re selling or a product you recommend.

And if you have a strong community, you don’t need 100,000 subscribers to make a decent living off of YouTube videos.

Instead of focusing on subscribers, focus on engagement. This is a better indicator of the community you’re building with your channel.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

1) If you don’t have a channel yet, think about a channel you can build that’ll have a community around it. Think about how you could monetize this channel (I recommend at least three revenue sources) and try to think of other ways to engage your subscribers like a blog or creating an email list.

If you already have a channel, reframe the way you think about your subscribers. Businesses can’t run on vanity metrics, so figure out how to better monetize the following you already have.

In the next chapter, I’ll explain why you need to connect with your audience beyond YouTube. The way I see it, every YouTube channel is a great way to get initial exposure to your community, but the real revenue comes when you connect with people on another communication platform that you have more control of like a blog or email list.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 5: Connect Beyond YouTube

In this section, I’m going to explain that in order to grow a successful brand and business on YouTube, you need to connect with your audience beyond YouTube.

Why is this important?

Many YouTubers start a channel, begin to grow a following, and stick completely to the YouTube platform to engage with their audience.

Which is great.

Unless of course, something goes wrong and they can no longer connect with their audience on YouTube. And yes, this happens more than you think.

Let’s start this section with a hypothetical situation.

You started a YouTube channel 6 months ago. While most of your videos did alright, there was one particular video that went completely viral.

You check your subscriber count and this ONE video adds 1,000 new followers over and over and you’re getting over 20,000 views every single day on this one video.

This goes on for 10 days, and then day 11 hits.

YouTube decides that your video is no longer worthy of being viral, so it stops recommending it to people.

At this time, your brand would have been exposed to the following:

20,000 views x 10 days = 200,000 viewers

1,000 subscribers x 10 days = 10,000 new subscribers

Amazing, right?!?!?

Well, here’s the problem with this.

Even though you have a channel with 10,000 new subscribers and you got over 200,000 views, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to reach all of those new subscribers.

FOR REAL?!?! That doesn’t make sense….

I know it doesn’t, it frustrates me to no end. But this is how YouTube is.

Even though someone subscribes to you, they don’t necessarily see when you post a new video. In fact, even if they subscribe to you AND click the “bell” icon to get an alert, even this isn’t a guarantee.

Why?

YouTube prioritizes watch time when people get on to their platform. Their goal is to keep users on the platform as long as absolutely possible.

So, if someone is a loyal follower of one YouTuber, and randomly subscribes to your channel after seeing a single video, YouTube is likely to show the other YouTuber videos BEFORE they show another one of yours.

This makes sense for YouTube. They know that you always engage with one YouTuber, and this new channel is kind of a question mark in terms of how much you really like it.

THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH YOUTUBE.

It’s great to start and build a brand, but in order to be successful on YouTube and with your brand as a whole, you need to grow on another platform as well.

When I say this, most people think I mean social media. And yes, diversifying to social media is great, but you have the same problem there as well.

Instagram for instance, only shows your content to users that it thinks will engage. So, again, you’ll be a slave to an algorithm that could change at any time.

So, what do I suggest you do?

Two choices:

1) Start an Email List: In my opinion, this is the easiest solution and I recommend you use Getresponse to do it.

You start an email list and you tell people to go sign up for it.

You see, email is the absolute BEST way to stay in contact with your followers. Why?

Because email is a 1 to 1 communication.

People give you their email addresses WANTING to hear from you.

On social media, you’re just one voice among many others screaming for their attention.

But that isn’t true for email. With email, you can contact each subscriber directly with no other noise involved.

Plus, you can set up something on the Getresponse Email Plus plan called an automated email campaign.

This basically means you set up a campaign where every time someone signs up for a list, you send them a series of emails. In fact, you’re in an automated email campaign right now. I could never personally email the 100+ people who sign up for my email list daily.

In addition, when people sign up for your email list, you can tell them about new videos you publish which GUARANTEES that they know about it and they can go watch it at their leisure.

That said, even the Email plan on Getresponse will work to start off with.

Lastly, and this is really important, Getresponse has landing pages. This means all you need to do is create ONE landing page and send all of your YouTube viewers to that page to sign up.

No need for anything more complicated than that.

This is how you get a TRUE fan base. Don’t just rely on YouTube to show your videos, you’ll be very disappointed.

Get their email list and build your following through email. There have even been studies that indicate that email marketing is 20x more profitable than social media of any type.

2) Start a Blog: Blogging is the entire reason why I’ve been able to buy the house that I’m in. It’s what feeds me and my wife every month. It’s truly a business that I love and has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for me every year.

And not my main blog wealth-ideas either.

Blogging is an amazing way to compliment a YouTube channel. You have a voice on YouTube, and then you have a voice on your own site as well.

This is how you create a big brand for yourself. You diversify across two or three platforms. But I only advise you to do this once you have a decent-sized channel.

Let’s say over 5,000 subscribers.

Until then, it’s best to just launch an email list.

If you really want to launch a blog now though, HOLD ON!

I have a whole other course called NICHE BLOGGING INCOME GENERATOR for those interested in this process. It’ll walk you through the process, step-by-step.

But I want you to finish this course first.

At the end of this course, click here to join NICHE BLOGGING INCOME GENERATOR if you’re interested. And if not, no problem. Just start an email list with Getresponse and you’ll be all set.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

1) Click here to sign up for getresponse: This will enable you to always have access to your follower’s email addresses, no matter what platform you use.

2) If you want to start a blog, please be patient! I promise at the end of this course I’ll give you access to join my other course, NICHE BLOGGING INCOME GENERATOR, which will help you greatly in the process.

In the next chapter, I’ll explain why editing is the hardest part of owning a YouTube channel. Realistically, filming the content itself is pretty fun. But the editing part is a HUGE headache and I’m going to explain a few different things you can do to make it easier on yourself.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 6: Editing is the Hardest Part

In this chapter, I’m going to explain to you why editing is the absolute worst part of a YouTube channel. For those that already have one, I’m sure you know why, and for those that don’t…you’ll learn. To help with this problem, I’ll also explain three options to fix this problem.

Why is this important?

Recording YouTube videos is really not all that difficult. For most people that start a channel, you’re just talking about something you’re knowledgeable about, or you’re recording your everyday life.

That’s the easy part.

The hard part is editing the video to be engaging enough to hold the attention of your viewers. THAT is a challenge and something that take a lot of practice.

For every single reasonably high-quality video on YouTube, there was an editor behind it using their skills to make it look good.

After going through it myself, I think most people would be astonished at how boring a YouTube video would be without good editing. For instance, my own channel focuses on explaining how to create and grow online businesses.

While this information is helpful and I know a lot of people enjoy it, I can only imagine how many people would never have subscribed if it was just me staring/talking into the camera without any editing effects.

But thankfully, early on I realized that in order to be good at YouTube, you either need to be a decent editor yourself, or hire someone else to help you do it.

That said, there are really three options that people can go with to solve this problem.

1) Edit Videos Yourself: Editing takes time to learn and requires a certain set of skills to do effectively. That said, if you’re convinced that you have the ability to edit videos yourself or you’re willing to learn, this list of the best YouTube editing tools should help you.

2) Hire VidChops to Help: Vidchops is a video editing service and they spend 100% of their time on video editing. This company is dedicated to helping your YouTube channel grow and they do so by providing you with awesome videos. I ONLY recommend this to people who already have a profit with their YouTube channel or have money to invest in the channel itself. Their prices are very reasonable starting at $325/month for four videos per month which, for a professional shop? Not bad at all. Click here to learn more about them.

3) Find a Freelancer to Help: This solution can be a little difficult to some, but it’s definitely possible if you’re patient and find the right person. Here, you’ll find a video editor overseas (usually the Philippines is a great place) to help you edit the videos that you create on YouTube. There’s a lot to this because you have to train them, manage them, and create procedures for them to follow. But, if you can get this right, you can usually get videos edited for around $25-$50 each depending on your editor’s cost and skillset. Just like the first option, I ONLY recommend this to people who already have a profitable YouTube channel or have money to invest. If you want to get started, you can use Upwork.com to find a freelancer.

ACTION STEPS OF THIS CHAPTER:

1) If you already have a YouTube channel with some profit, or have money to invest in your channel, I HIGHLY recommend that you try VidChops to help you edit your videos. I know it’s hard to spend money on this type of thing, but what businesses do you know that never spent a dime to grow? Investing in your business is the key to growth. Plus, VidChops has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

In the next chapter, I’m going to give away a bunch of “tricks of the trade”. Meaning, I’m going to throw a bunch of general pieces of advice at you that’ll help you succeed as a YouTube creator. After being involved in YouTube for years with my wife, we’ve accumulated a pretty substantial amount of knowledge of what it takes to succeed on YouTube and I’ll share it with you.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 7: Tricks of the Trade

In this chapter, we examine different Tricks of the Trade.

Why is this important?

Everyone thinks that YouTube is as easy as creating a channel, throwing videos up, and you’ll eventually get famous. Unfortunately, that just isn’t true! There are a lot of tactics and strategies that go into building a successful YouTube channel and today, I’m going to share a bunch of them with you.

For this list, I’m just going to throw bullet points at you and elaborate as I see fit. I’m doing this so I can pop in from time to time as I learn more tactics and add them. That said, realize that none of these points are more important than the others. It’s in random order and I advise you to read it all through.

• You MUST use data to have success. I know I talked previously about this in an email. Still, if you aren’t using the TubeBuddy tool for keyword research to determine your video topics, especially when you’re starting out, you’re going to be very unlikely to succeed. DO NOT just randomly come up with topics and throw them on a channel, it simply doesn’t work. Use a tool like TubeBuddy or VidIQ to understand what people search for and how competitive it is.
• The Rule of 33. I’d love to say I came up with this one, but it was one of the gems that I picked up in the Matt Par YouTube Mastery Course. When starting a channel, so many people wonder how/when they should start to see some level of success. According to Matt, and from what I’ve seen in a number of my own channels, you should upload 33 videos on topics you think MAY do well to begin and by the end of that, analyze your data to see what’s working. Why 33? I don’t know, but this number is a great benchmark and it does work.
• Create a High-Quality Logo to Look Professional. In order to do well on YouTube, you need your channel to appear professional. Most people think they should create a logo themselves and that can come off as really amateur. Instead of going that route, use a professional tool like to make a logo that fits your needs.
• Watch Time is the MOST crucial metric on YouTube. Generally speaking, YouTube wants to keep users on the platform for as long as possible. That said, in your videos, it’s HIGHLY recommended that at the beginning of the video you explain a reason for your viewers to watch at the end. And, at the end of your video, recommend another video right after that is related to the video they just watched. Your goal as a creator is to increase watch time on your channel. This will lead to many “recommended” videos, equating to large growth.
• Start a themed channel over a personality one. I know we talked about the themed channel model previously, but it really is the best YouTube model in my opinion. I personally feel everyone should start with this model and NOT start with a personality-based channel.
• The Click-Through Rate (CTR) of Thumbnails is also very important. When you have a small following and publish a video, it’s not uncommon to see your video near the top of the search right after you publish it. But, as time goes on, it will fall lower and lower. The reason for this? Your thumbnail didn’t entice enough people to click on the video. Because of that, YouTube decided it didn’t belong at the top.
• Migrate your audience OFF of YouTube. While having a large YouTube audience is great, having a large email list where you can quickly and easily connect with your audience, or tell them to buy a product, is the best way to make more revenue. So make sure that you start an email list with getresponse to stay connected with them whenever you need to reach out.
• Faces Increase Click-through. I’m not sure exactly why this is, but faces showing emotion generally increase the CTR of your thumbnails. So, if you pair your face with an exaggerated expression, plus 5 words or less to describe the video, usually it’s a pretty good combo.
• Outsource Your Video Editing. For the sake of your life, outsource the video editing as soon as you can. It truly is a HUGE time suck and you are much better off filming videos that make money, not editing them. Again, I recommend VidChops for this.
• Tags &Descriptions matter. You’ll notice that both TubeBuddy and VidIQ focus a lot on video tags and descriptions. These are important because YouTube isn’t all that great at understanding what your video is, but the text you provide helps it understand the context. Meaning, any of the tests you associate with a video (title of the video, tags of the video, description of the video, timestamps) all matter for the purpose of ranking at the top when people search for your keyword.
• YouTube videos are often embedded in Google search results. In my eyes, this is a HUGE reason why YouTube is so valuable. Google is far and away the biggest search engine and now that they are embedding YouTube results in there, it gives you a chance as a YouTuber to get significantly more views on your videos. To increase the likelihood of them embedding into Google search results, include all the details in the content of the video and add detailed timestamps.
• Transcripts can help SEO as well. To take video SEO a step further, you can try uploading video transcripts to each video you create. This, again, gives YouTube more context about what the video is and can help rankings.
• Careful using YouTube cards. Years ago YouTube created “cards”. At the time, they were great. it was a way to have a call to action (CTA) in the video and then in the top right, on the desktop or mobile, a little popup that people could click and go to where you needed. While this sounds great in theory, there is a HUGE problem. If you use these too often, it reduces your watch time. If your watch time is reduced, the video will probably crash and burn. So only use YouTube cards near the end of your video and use them sparingly.
• Pinned comments are a gem. When someone has a CTA for their videos, such as signing up for an email list, they’ll put the link in the description of the video. And yes, I do recommend this. But an even better place if you already have a small following is to make a comment in the comment section and “pin” that comment. It makes it much easier for people to see the CTA you’re trying to accomplish.
• Easy on the ads. When I started my YouTube channel, I had an ad after every 3 minutes of my video. This was GREAT for revenue but awful for engagement. After years of experience, I can confidently say that you should run preroll ads on your videos, and then have an ad between every 4–5 minutes thereafter for each video. Too many ads may equate to short-term income but will lead to long-term slower growth.
• Laugh at the haters. This one is a BIGGIE. YouTube is not for the faint of heart. There are going to be some incredibly mean and rude people who say awful things to you in your YouTube channel comment section. I still get these sometimes and I simply laugh at the insults. Some of them are actually pretty good! But, to silence these people without them knowing they are silenced, click on the “Hide User From Channel” option. What does this do? It allows the user to think that they’re continuing to say mean things on your channel and they even see themselves in the comment area….but NO ONE ELSE DOES. It’s brilliant, frankly, and I’m glad YouTube thought of it.
• Don’t swear. This one is stupid, but generally a good idea. If you swear on Youtube, there’s a good chance that your videos will not be able to be monetized. So try not to swear, it’ll make sure you don’t have any of these issues.
• Invest ad revenue, don’t take a draw on profits. The biggest way to grow on YouTube is to grow a team to help you. If you have to start and shoot your videos/edit them yourself, I get it. But once you make some sort of profit from your channel, invest every dollar back into it. This is what will help you grow exponentially. Again, treat YouTube as a business and you’ll be able to make it one.

ACTION STEPS OF CHAPTER:

1) Read through the list above, again, and make sure you understand each of those points clearly and use the resources I’ve provided when you need them. If you don’t understand everything, connect with me and ask for more info. These are all crucially important for your success and I want to make sure you have plenty of it.

In our FINAL chapter, I’ll explain my thoughts on whether or not it’s too late to begin a YouTube channel. This is a really common question for people looking to start, and we’ll investigate this question in great depth.

YOUTUBE SECRETS Chapter 8: Is it too late?

In this chapter, we’ll discuss whether or not it’s too late to begin on YouTube.

Why is this important?

Many people want to start on YouTube, but they think that they’ve already missed the boat. After all, there are tens of thousands of YouTube channels out there and so many successful YouTube channels.

That said, does this mean you shouldn’t start? Should you focus on something else instead?

Mr. Beast started in 2012.

David Dobrik started in 2013.

My wife and I started TWO themed channels in 2020.

I focused on growing my own channel in 2020.

My wife just started a NEW channel in 2021.

You know what we all had in common?

WE STARTED.

None of us made excuses. None of us worried what the channel could, or couldn’t be. None of us doubted ourselves so much that we decided to never begin.

And although I’m not nearly as successful as some of those big-name YouTubers, and our themed channels are much smaller, if you treat YouTube like a business….you can be successful.

In fact, for those looking to start a themed channel,I honestly think this business model is JUST STARTING to be talked about publicly.

I’m sure that for years there have been certain people making a killing with this model.

I wasn’t one of those people. But now, my wife and I are very much focused on creating this as a revenue stream for us and it’s looking like an amazing opportunity to begin today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future.

The thing I like about YouTube is that it is MUCH easier to rank a video in YouTube search when compared to ranking a blog post on Google.

That said, NO. It is NOT too late. It might be if you keep waiting, but right now…today START.

ACTION STEPS OF CHAPTER:

1) You need to begin your channel if you haven’t already. If you decide to do this, get a keyword research tool as it’s an absolute requirement in my opinion. You can choose between TubeBuddy or VidIQ.

2) If you don’t have a good logo yet, check out this tool. It’s a VERY good option to have control over your logo without hiring it out to a random freelancer.

Go to the next chapter to see a little something special I have for you. Yes, the YOUTUBE SECRETS course is over, but in next chapter will sum up the next steps and I promise you don’t want to miss it.

YOUTUBE SECRETS — Completed!

Hey friend,

YOU DID IT.

Now you know a LOT of the secrets that most people have no idea about when they get into the YouTube world.

So, where do you go from here?

I’ll give you a list of things to do so and you can “choose your own adventure”.

1) Enroll in my NICHE BLOGGING INCOME GENERATOR course CLICKING HERE: I mentioned in my last couple of chapters that I had a course to help you build a blog and this is it. NICHE BLOGGING INCOME GENERATOR will help you understand how to start and grow a blog of your very own. By the end of this course, you’ll launch your own blog (I show you how) and have a better understanding of how to grow it. CLICK HERE to enroll and check your email.

2) Enroll in my FREE course FOUNDATIONAL KEYWORD RESEARCH by CLICKING HERE: My other course, FOUNDATIONAL KEYWORD RESEARCH explains how to use keyword research to get thousands of blog visitors every single month. By the end of this course, you’ll understand why keyword research is crucial, the importance of keyword search intent, and some of my best-kept secrets about keyword research and its importance for your blog. CLICK HERE to enroll and check your email.

3) Create a Logo For Your Channel: I’ve tried many different tools out there and I’m convinced this is the best one to create your YouTube channel logo and some of the other assets you need.

4) Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: I post here weekly and have a LOT of helpful content related to online business here.

5) Join the Facebook Group: If you haven’t done it already, join the group. I want you as part of the community.

Subscribe to my email list.

From here on out, you’ll be getting emails from me weekly.

These emails will make you aware of the new content I’m putting out and help you stay connected. I also intend on making more courses that are focused on over-the-shoulder tutorials, so that people can get their questions answered on particular topics when they have them.

Make sure you stay subscribed and engaged to continue to receive the emails.

You are absolutely awesome for being part of my community and I hope I’ve given you more confidence with YouTube.

I can’t wait to learn more about you in the coming days/weeks/months/years.

Need Help Setting Up And Optimizing Your Youtube Channel?

I Can Help

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably watched a YouTube video or two in your lifetime. But have you ever thought about creating your own channel? It’s actually not as difficult as you might think, and I can help!

There are a few things you need to do to get started: first, create a Google account if you don’t already have one. Then go to www.youtube.com and click on the “Create a new channel” button. You’ll be prompted to enter some information about your channel, including its name and description. Once that’s all set up, it’s time to start uploading videos!

To make sure your videos are seen by as many people as possible, it’s important to optimize them for search engines using keywords that describe what they’re about. I can help with this process and also offer tips on how often to upload new content and other ways to grow your audience. Contact me today and let’s get started growing your YouTube channel!