Nowadays I feel like it it tremendously hard to grow an audience on YouTube then it was ten years ago when the platform was starting to become mainstream. And about five and half years ago I got caught in the phenomenon of wanting to become a content creator on YouTube. I was infatuated with the careers and lifestyles of YouTubers I would watch on a daily basis, dreaming of becoming them. I immediately began creating videos, all of which are extremely cringeworthy and horrifying to watch now. Some so bad that they are privated on my channel so no one can ever watch them again. For around three years I was aimlessly creating videos, not really knowing what I was doing but just creating videos about topics and things I was passionate about. Around this time I was averaging around 20–60 views per video with only a few videos over the 1000 view milestone. I was so stuck and frustrated that I wasn’t gaining an audience but I later learned it was because I wasn’t doing much behind the scenes to make the video successful. After scouring the internet for tips and tricks to get more views, I stumbled upon a few tricks that truly worked and today I am going to share that with you all. These simple tricks grew my average views from 2,000–10,000 views, ultimately motivating me to create videos again.
At the time of feeling burnt out and frustrated, the theme or niche of my channel was technology, a largely broad topic. I loved doing unboxings and reviews of gadgets and products, but I ultimately found out that A) this niche was to broad for a small content creator like myself, and B) it is already highly saturated with thousands of tech content creators already. This led me to implementing my first tip which is, niching down.
Niching down is a major factor that led me to a spike in viewers on my channel. After realizing my tech videos were pretty much unsuccessful, I went back the drawing board to find a more specific topic and niche. I wanted to keep with the theme of technology but also choose a topic that didn’t already have many large channels saturating it. This led me to the topic of Tesla and electric vehicles. At the time and still to this day I am a fan of Tesla vehicles, and at first, I didn’t think that this would be a very good topic for me because, well, I didn’t even own a Tesla. But I decided to make a few test videos just to see if it would work. And to my surprise, it slightly did. The views on my first few Tesla videos gathered a couple hundred views each, which was rare for my previous tech videos. I then knew that this was the niche I wanted to stick with.
After deciding to stick with the Tesla niche, I started to look at other channels making similar content. I would figure out what I liked about their videos and what made them more successful, this helped me figure out A) what videos I want to create, and B) how I want to go about making these videos.
Almost all of these following tips and tricks will revolve around the optimization of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This essentially means that you are using effective keywords and phrases to get YouTube to promote your videos more.
Gathering the Right Tools
In order to better analyze and create effective SEO strategies, I decided to download the SEO analysis browser extension tool, TubeBuddy. This tool is essentially the main reason my channel ended up becoming more successful. This Google Chrome browser extension essentially will tell you how successful certain keywords are in YouTube. It simply gives you a score based on the keyword search volume and competition. I decided to make videos around keywords that had a score of at least 60%. For example, I noticed wanted to make a video comparing all of the Tesla models. It just so happened that the keyword score showed to be excellent. With that in mind, I made the video and it is now my most viewed video with over 51,000 views as of writing this.
Video Tags/Keywords
Before I even started the process of planning or writing an outline for a video I made myself compile a list of proven successful keywords (via TubeBuddy) for the intended topic of the video. The main reason why I did this step before hand, instead of after is because I wanted to make sure that I was valuing my time and creating a video that actually has the potential to gather many views. It would be very uninspiring to spend 12+ hours on a video and then not even see a successful outcome from it. YouTube gives you 500 characters in the tags section of the video, so figure out as many keywords as possible to use all of those characters. Make sure your keywords are no more than ten words long. Ideally, they should be short phrases that are commonly searched by prospective viewers.
Below is an example of my keywords from my most popular video where I compared all of Tesla’s models. The green numbers next to the keywords are how they are currently ranking in search. For example, the keyword “every Tesla compared” is currently showing up as the second video in the results…pretty good.
Video Title
Once you have your video tags all planned out, you should them work out a title using those tags. Take the tags with the highest rating and form a couple titles out of them. Remember, YouTube gives you 100 characters for the title, so try to use as many keywords as possible. Normally, I would have almost two titles formed into one. For example, one of my titles reads, “2008 VS 2021 TESLA ROADSTER | Here’s How Much the TESLA ROADSTER Has IMPROVED in 13 Years!” The first half conveys the crucial information and what the video is about (2008 vs 2021 Tesla Roadster). The second half conveys a little bit more information but also has more keywords about my video (Here’s How Much the Tesla Roadster Has Improved in 13 Years). Also, just from a visual standpoint, I like to caps lock certain important words so they will stand out to the viewer more when search for a video.
Video Description
Next up is your video description. This is also a largely important aspect of SEO on YouTube that many people forget about. The way that the YouTube algorithm works (at least from what I’ve gathered) is that it will search for similar and relevant keywords in three different areas; the title, tags, and descriptions. The videos that have a similar keyword in all three locations will be recognized by the YouTube algorithm as more reliable which will then push your videos out to more people. One simple trick that many people use is simply copying and pasting your YouTube title into your description. As well, take your keywords that you’ve already inputed, and write a paragraph or so about the video including some/most of those keywords. It doesn’t even have to clearly make sense, and you could even hide this paragraph at the bottom of your description. It will mostly be there for the YouTube algorithm to recognize.
Thumbnail
Finally, thumbnails. Thumbnails are an extremely important part to a successful YouTube video. Most people will often look at thumbnails rather than titles when they search for a YouTube video. This is why it’s important to have a clear and effective thumbnail. First, start off my looking at thumbnails that you like from other creators making similar content. Then, try to replicate it on a design program but add a little bit of a twist to set yourself apart. Also, keep your thumbnails as minimal as possible. They should be pleasing to the eye and should all be cohesive in style. If you are struggling a bit to find a style you like, I recommend using the graphic design website, Canva, and going through their thumbnail templates.
Below is an example of some of my successful thumbnails. They all use the same font and have a cohesiveness because of the use of the same font. They are also relatively simple, with eye-catching images and large text. Remember: your thumbnails will normally be pretty small once displayed on YouTube. Make sure your text is large enough to read once downsized.
All in all, that was how I was able to scale my YouTube video views up by on average 70 times! I hope you find these tips and tricks to be helpful and effective for you. If you have any questions, drop them in the comment section of this article and I will be happy to answer them to the best of my abilities.
Hello! My name is Spencer Olson and I have been making YouTube videos since 2016. I mostly make Tesla and tech related content. I also am a instrument rated pilot on my way to becoming either an airline or corporate pilot. So if you are interested, go check out my channel and give a couple videos a try! Also, considering following my Medium account and subscribe to my YouTube channel! Thanks!
YouTube- www.youtube.com/spencerolson