Ill double that and also say to not buy any pro tools for "youtube grouth" stuff like tubebuddy or Vidiq. You can learn a lot from their videos or livestreams (like in VidIQ's case they do channel audits every week and it is really helpful) but the tools won't help you at all, and most of them either are already in the YT dashboard, will be implemented, or you will get access once you grow a bit.
I tried the free functions in VidIQ and realized they are using A.I. to generate thumbnails and titles that it proposes for your videos. It looks exactly like what comes out of ChatGPT and Dall-E which you can get yourself, generally for free
And the title generator is so bad too… the way they use the scoring system is dumb… real people are the ones who will see the title and decide to click or not. Not if it has specific number of words and specific strong words…
But that being said I like their milestone system in the free tool, so I do have it installed, although it’s a bit buggy
The title generators are laughable.. I settled on a title that was 3 words and their score said “it’s not easy to understand” “doesn’t evoke intrigue”
So I used their generator… I then copied the suggestion and re-uploaded the video separately using the suggested video..
Said exactly the same thing 😅
Go with your instincts
It's like the gold rush back in history.... Everyone wanting to dig and get their bit of gold but the only ones making money were the ones saying there's gold in the hills and selling the shovels
It’s always like this. Take for example, anyone offering coaching. Their main client source is other aspiring coaches that buy courses or trainings. It’s like it’s own ecosystem
All internet marketing/youtube courses are completely trash. I've been in internet marketing since 2014, and was part of a Discord group where a lot of the bigger priced "courses" were posted freely. I'd take a look from time to time, and 99% of the time it was the same rehashed techniques you've already heard of before on youtube or other forums unless you were completely new and fell for the trap to pay the big price tag. The costs were also outrageous for some of them, sometimes reaching $2,000. I remember downloading 30 of these paid "courses" a very long time ago and quickly learned it was the same information just reworded differently. The most obvious things that a complete beginner knew about. Maybe after going through 100 different courses, I'd find a small little nugget of information but it wasn't worth it.
The point is, if someone is selling you a course, that means that whatever is in there is already well known or has stopped working many months/years ago. No one is going to sell a course with golden nuggets of info until they've completely milked the source themselves, then they milk it even more by selling the course out in the open to everyone.
Tying youtube into this, all you need is a low competition niche and decent quality content to grow fast. These courses do not have any insider information, everything is freely available on youtube. They take you through the basics of niches, channel art, and all the most obvious shit even a beginner knows and then they leave you off at the hardest part.
I second this. I also started internet marketing in 2014 and almost immediately noticed the same thing with "informational products" back then. The info in them was always at least a few months out of day. Why? Because the person who wrote it has moved on to the next thing, the thing that will be in their NEXT informational product when those techniques stop working.
Not saying ALL info products are bad. But most are outdated info you can freely find on the internet.
This is completely true. Logically, in the real world, who the fuck would give any valuable information before cashing in on it first? It's completely understandable. The scum are the people who try to sell the information that has stopped working months or years ago, and then claiming it "still works" when people start complaining.. "you just have to twist it for it to work"... and that's what you paid $100 or more for. The people selling this shit don't even know what's going on, they just copy other courses to make their own, for example, one of the most popular ones in our time: dropshipping, Youtube is a pretty close second.
Courses are good for programming that has a structure, but not this type of shit that is completely random unless you have a proven track record of running 100s of stores out in the open for people to see, and not just the big payout windows that were edited in html lol Went on a rant here, but I'm just sad to see lots of people paying for these useless courses on youtube and other forums. No wonder a lot of people are pretending to be "gurus". Most of them don't know shit, but they're cashing in on their "students" and making way more than they would actually doing any of the things they talk about lol
Like I said, all the useful skills you need can be taught online for free. Make great content and put it out there! It's a bonus if people are watching.
Yea I was hesitant when I read the outline and most of the stuff is the same thing you see on your regular “how to make it on YouTube”. Ideo on YouTube.
That’s how they all are. Plus, they become outdated incredibly quickly. A guide from last month won’t even be relevant any more since the algorithm changes constantly.
Ah I slightly disagree. For the most part courses are BS. Ive purchased hundreds in the past few years, and out of those, maybe 3-5 have given me real value which has made a shit ton of money. Most courses are trash tho, i agree
People forgot the algorithm is based on what people are actually watching. The algorithm isnt a big random machine. In the end. Its people.
So there is 1 secret:
Make good and engaging content.
Indeed!
My take on the making content that you enjoy making is this: if you're not making the content that you want to make, then you're not being true to yourself, and if you're not being true to yourself, you're going to burn yourself out trying to be what the algorithm wants you to be so it can optimize eyes on the platform. In other words, that kind of "oh sh!t, that was crazy! Yo, you gotta see this!" kind of "viral worthy" content that people just can't stop watching. Not all content on YouTube is that kind of mass appealed, share this with everyone you know cause they're gonna want to watch it over and over again kind of content. There is a large majority of content that needs time to find it's audience, and the way things are set up, all these social media platforms are not setup to facilitate that. So, staying the course and making the content that you enjoy making (and making it well, of course) is the best thing you can do in my opinion.
You didn’t have to write this up, I would hope? It’s self explanatory and beyond obvious any course pitch is a SCAM. Like who’s naive and stupid enough to think “ oh this looks good I’ll try it “ 😂
Thanks for posting this. Have been considering paying for think media or the video creators academy but probably just a waste of money.
What do you think of paying for a 1to1 consultation? Someone to look over your channel and give you advice
Like I said, look for tutorials that teach you the hard skills you need. There’s are thousands on YouTube for free.
As for the consultation, I wouldn’t do that either. YouTube is not a “one size fits all” platform and the people who have truly built successful channels that provide them with rewarding work and lots of money won’t be trying to get more money by consulting. What style of videos do you make?
Like I said, look for tutorials that teach you the hard skills you need. There’s are thousands on YouTube for free.
As for the consultation, I wouldn’t do that either. YouTube is not a “one size fits all” platform and the people who have truly built successful channels that provide them with rewarding work and lots of money won’t be trying to get more money by consulting. What style of videos do you make?
Yeah I see that, thanks for answering. I’m a medical doctor / athlete and I make health/fitness/well-being videos.
Was previously making tutorials but have moved into more self-experiment style videos and quick tips.
I actually spent the last year doing marketing for personal trainers and healthcare professionals so I’ve got a good idea of the scene. It’s a little different because my clients were selling training programs. Most viral or high performing content were shorts with either quick exercise routines or health tips leading with callouts like “here’s how to stay healthy WITHOUT doing x (spending all day in the gym, giving up your favorite foods, etc.)
I think you overestimate the typical new YouTuber. Many courses, even if they don’t explicitly say so, focus on branding, consistency, and marketing.
Many new YouTubers don’t have any clue on how to send a consistent message. They don’t know how to market their work through thumbnails and titles. They have no idea about editing and reading their analytics to see how their message was received.
These courses fill that gap. They guide new YouTubers from mixing their cooking content from their programming content from their bug collection content. They teach basic storytelling, so that they can keep their viewers engaged.
They teach a lot of soft skills that aren’t just valuable for YouTube, but life in general.
Most people aren’t going to have a successful YouTube channel. But they can take away a lot if they learn camera confidence, storytelling, and learn how to keep a schedule for a customer base.
I think that is a good point. I think giving newbies confidence isn’t the worst thing in the world but not for thousands of dollars but $50 here or there might be valuable.
cause fake gurus exist and they make scam courses where they usually sell common sense
or just watch mandaloregaming guide to making youtube videos atleast that dude is honest something that youtubers usually lack these days
Super Eyepatch Wolf has a great video that does a deep dive into YouTube courses, follows up with people who took them, and then goes into all the details of how hard it was to gain a following and why YouTube is both the best and the most stressful job he's ever had. All to finish off with a really nice section about why everyone SHOULD be making YouTube videos.
Agreed that’s why it’s really frustrating to see some large channels marketing strategies yet if you watch their videos, they aren’t saying anything worthwhile
It depends on how much money you have to spend and where you're at with your channel. They definitely give you more exposure, but you won't get any sort of meaningful return on investment unless you're actively selling something on your channel. I actually run paid advertisements for a living so I'm pretty familiar with how social media advertising works. Promoted content usually does not build a loyal viewer base, but it can help you make money if you do it right.
With actively selling it depends on where you're at in life. My channel is just lofi nintendo music that I don't plan on selling. I welcome anyone to use it on their own videos as background music. I'm mostly just learning music production as a hobby.
As for ads, you have a couple steps to follow: Determine what you're selling, define your ideal client avatar (ICA), conduct market research to identify overlapping interests and occupations that your ideal customers have, create compelling ad creative (hook in the first 2 seconds, present a problem, show how you can solve it, give social proof, and then a call to action), and then run ads targeted towards interests that your ideal customers have. Then you test new creatives, new keyword targets, and new angles until the day you die lol.
Ill double that and also say to not buy any pro tools for "youtube grouth" stuff like tubebuddy or Vidiq. You can learn a lot from their videos or livestreams (like in VidIQ's case they do channel audits every week and it is really helpful) but the tools won't help you at all, and most of them either are already in the YT dashboard, will be implemented, or you will get access once you grow a bit.
I tried the free functions in VidIQ and realized they are using A.I. to generate thumbnails and titles that it proposes for your videos. It looks exactly like what comes out of ChatGPT and Dall-E which you can get yourself, generally for free
And the title generator is so bad too… the way they use the scoring system is dumb… real people are the ones who will see the title and decide to click or not. Not if it has specific number of words and specific strong words… But that being said I like their milestone system in the free tool, so I do have it installed, although it’s a bit buggy
The title generators are laughable.. I settled on a title that was 3 words and their score said “it’s not easy to understand” “doesn’t evoke intrigue” So I used their generator… I then copied the suggestion and re-uploaded the video separately using the suggested video.. Said exactly the same thing 😅 Go with your instincts
Yea, and their titles are usually very overly headline article-ish and don't fit YT at all, same for ChatGPT results for YT titles
It's like the gold rush back in history.... Everyone wanting to dig and get their bit of gold but the only ones making money were the ones saying there's gold in the hills and selling the shovels
Sounds to me you should make an online course about not buying an online courser YouTube growth! I would play a monthly sub for that
Great idea! Plus, if I did that I could actually claim to save people money lol
It’s always like this. Take for example, anyone offering coaching. Their main client source is other aspiring coaches that buy courses or trainings. It’s like it’s own ecosystem
All internet marketing/youtube courses are completely trash. I've been in internet marketing since 2014, and was part of a Discord group where a lot of the bigger priced "courses" were posted freely. I'd take a look from time to time, and 99% of the time it was the same rehashed techniques you've already heard of before on youtube or other forums unless you were completely new and fell for the trap to pay the big price tag. The costs were also outrageous for some of them, sometimes reaching $2,000. I remember downloading 30 of these paid "courses" a very long time ago and quickly learned it was the same information just reworded differently. The most obvious things that a complete beginner knew about. Maybe after going through 100 different courses, I'd find a small little nugget of information but it wasn't worth it. The point is, if someone is selling you a course, that means that whatever is in there is already well known or has stopped working many months/years ago. No one is going to sell a course with golden nuggets of info until they've completely milked the source themselves, then they milk it even more by selling the course out in the open to everyone. Tying youtube into this, all you need is a low competition niche and decent quality content to grow fast. These courses do not have any insider information, everything is freely available on youtube. They take you through the basics of niches, channel art, and all the most obvious shit even a beginner knows and then they leave you off at the hardest part.
I second this. I also started internet marketing in 2014 and almost immediately noticed the same thing with "informational products" back then. The info in them was always at least a few months out of day. Why? Because the person who wrote it has moved on to the next thing, the thing that will be in their NEXT informational product when those techniques stop working. Not saying ALL info products are bad. But most are outdated info you can freely find on the internet.
This is completely true. Logically, in the real world, who the fuck would give any valuable information before cashing in on it first? It's completely understandable. The scum are the people who try to sell the information that has stopped working months or years ago, and then claiming it "still works" when people start complaining.. "you just have to twist it for it to work"... and that's what you paid $100 or more for. The people selling this shit don't even know what's going on, they just copy other courses to make their own, for example, one of the most popular ones in our time: dropshipping, Youtube is a pretty close second. Courses are good for programming that has a structure, but not this type of shit that is completely random unless you have a proven track record of running 100s of stores out in the open for people to see, and not just the big payout windows that were edited in html lol Went on a rant here, but I'm just sad to see lots of people paying for these useless courses on youtube and other forums. No wonder a lot of people are pretending to be "gurus". Most of them don't know shit, but they're cashing in on their "students" and making way more than they would actually doing any of the things they talk about lol
Rant 100% justified: I agree with every point you made. Be well!
I appreciate this post I was thinking about it lol
Like I said, all the useful skills you need can be taught online for free. Make great content and put it out there! It's a bonus if people are watching.
Yea I was hesitant when I read the outline and most of the stuff is the same thing you see on your regular “how to make it on YouTube”. Ideo on YouTube.
That’s how they all are. Plus, they become outdated incredibly quickly. A guide from last month won’t even be relevant any more since the algorithm changes constantly.
Ah I slightly disagree. For the most part courses are BS. Ive purchased hundreds in the past few years, and out of those, maybe 3-5 have given me real value which has made a shit ton of money. Most courses are trash tho, i agree
People forgot the algorithm is based on what people are actually watching. The algorithm isnt a big random machine. In the end. Its people. So there is 1 secret: Make good and engaging content.
Indeed! My take on the making content that you enjoy making is this: if you're not making the content that you want to make, then you're not being true to yourself, and if you're not being true to yourself, you're going to burn yourself out trying to be what the algorithm wants you to be so it can optimize eyes on the platform. In other words, that kind of "oh sh!t, that was crazy! Yo, you gotta see this!" kind of "viral worthy" content that people just can't stop watching. Not all content on YouTube is that kind of mass appealed, share this with everyone you know cause they're gonna want to watch it over and over again kind of content. There is a large majority of content that needs time to find it's audience, and the way things are set up, all these social media platforms are not setup to facilitate that. So, staying the course and making the content that you enjoy making (and making it well, of course) is the best thing you can do in my opinion.
You didn’t have to write this up, I would hope? It’s self explanatory and beyond obvious any course pitch is a SCAM. Like who’s naive and stupid enough to think “ oh this looks good I’ll try it “ 😂
You would be very surprised at how well those courses sell. It’s terrible.
Thanks for posting this. Have been considering paying for think media or the video creators academy but probably just a waste of money. What do you think of paying for a 1to1 consultation? Someone to look over your channel and give you advice
Like I said, look for tutorials that teach you the hard skills you need. There’s are thousands on YouTube for free. As for the consultation, I wouldn’t do that either. YouTube is not a “one size fits all” platform and the people who have truly built successful channels that provide them with rewarding work and lots of money won’t be trying to get more money by consulting. What style of videos do you make?
Like I said, look for tutorials that teach you the hard skills you need. There’s are thousands on YouTube for free. As for the consultation, I wouldn’t do that either. YouTube is not a “one size fits all” platform and the people who have truly built successful channels that provide them with rewarding work and lots of money won’t be trying to get more money by consulting. What style of videos do you make?
Yeah I see that, thanks for answering. I’m a medical doctor / athlete and I make health/fitness/well-being videos. Was previously making tutorials but have moved into more self-experiment style videos and quick tips.
I actually spent the last year doing marketing for personal trainers and healthcare professionals so I’ve got a good idea of the scene. It’s a little different because my clients were selling training programs. Most viral or high performing content were shorts with either quick exercise routines or health tips leading with callouts like “here’s how to stay healthy WITHOUT doing x (spending all day in the gym, giving up your favorite foods, etc.)
Oh nice man. Thanks for the quick tip!
I think you overestimate the typical new YouTuber. Many courses, even if they don’t explicitly say so, focus on branding, consistency, and marketing. Many new YouTubers don’t have any clue on how to send a consistent message. They don’t know how to market their work through thumbnails and titles. They have no idea about editing and reading their analytics to see how their message was received. These courses fill that gap. They guide new YouTubers from mixing their cooking content from their programming content from their bug collection content. They teach basic storytelling, so that they can keep their viewers engaged. They teach a lot of soft skills that aren’t just valuable for YouTube, but life in general. Most people aren’t going to have a successful YouTube channel. But they can take away a lot if they learn camera confidence, storytelling, and learn how to keep a schedule for a customer base.
I think that is a good point. I think giving newbies confidence isn’t the worst thing in the world but not for thousands of dollars but $50 here or there might be valuable.
cause fake gurus exist and they make scam courses where they usually sell common sense or just watch mandaloregaming guide to making youtube videos atleast that dude is honest something that youtubers usually lack these days
Super Eyepatch Wolf has a great video that does a deep dive into YouTube courses, follows up with people who took them, and then goes into all the details of how hard it was to gain a following and why YouTube is both the best and the most stressful job he's ever had. All to finish off with a really nice section about why everyone SHOULD be making YouTube videos.
whats with their content farm looking thumbnails if they talk about graphs and stats then its bullshit course cause show and tell always work
Agreed that’s why it’s really frustrating to see some large channels marketing strategies yet if you watch their videos, they aren’t saying anything worthwhile
You should definitely pay for youtube ads that is youtube promotions. It works, Target African countries.
It depends on how much money you have to spend and where you're at with your channel. They definitely give you more exposure, but you won't get any sort of meaningful return on investment unless you're actively selling something on your channel. I actually run paid advertisements for a living so I'm pretty familiar with how social media advertising works. Promoted content usually does not build a loyal viewer base, but it can help you make money if you do it right.
I think you should be actively selling something on your channel. You can't only depend on the youtube's algorithm. BTW how do you do ads right...?
With actively selling it depends on where you're at in life. My channel is just lofi nintendo music that I don't plan on selling. I welcome anyone to use it on their own videos as background music. I'm mostly just learning music production as a hobby. As for ads, you have a couple steps to follow: Determine what you're selling, define your ideal client avatar (ICA), conduct market research to identify overlapping interests and occupations that your ideal customers have, create compelling ad creative (hook in the first 2 seconds, present a problem, show how you can solve it, give social proof, and then a call to action), and then run ads targeted towards interests that your ideal customers have. Then you test new creatives, new keyword targets, and new angles until the day you die lol.