KILLING IT ON YOUTUBE!

BY:

FREDDY LANSKY

WHY YOUTUBE?• Youtube Search, 2nd most trafficked search engine.

• Future is in Video

• Brand Recognition

• Awesome Passive income through Adsense ($$$$)

• Video more effective than text at converting

• Once you break-in, you have an asset for life.

• Virality is much easier than through Google or even Facebook (once your videos break 10k+ views they will keep racking in views forever)

• Traffic way more predictable than Google (not so many crazy updates, MUCH simpler SEO)

WHY MOST ENTREPRENEURS DON’T DO WELL ON YOUTUBE

• No one gives a shit about your commercials and promotional videos (yes, we all know about dollar shave club)

• Entrepreneurs think YouTube is a place to talk about their company. No one cares to watch videos about your company. (Includes Mission statements, “what we do,” company tours, “commercials,” “HR-esque” interviews, company testimonials etc)

• If the video doesn’t give some sort of value, no one is going to watch it. Think about what you would like to be watching on YouTube

BUT WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS DO I MAKE???• People come to YouTube for 2 reasons.

• 1. To be entertained: • Songs/Music Videos,Funny Comedy Videos or Skits,

Personal vLogs, Alternative News, Inspirational Talks (Ted, etc), Video Game Recordings (For some reason HUGE)

• 2. To Learn through Training Videos (BEST for a biz):• Screencast Videos: Photoshop, Programming, Chess,

Accounting, Math• Recorded Videos: Workout Videos, Makeup Tutorials,

Dating/Pickup Advice, Language Learning

• You should focus on training videos (screencast or recorded videos) because entertainment videos are HARDER to make and also HARDER to monetize and sell through them (though not impossible)

BUT WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS DO I MAKE?? PT2

• “But I sell B2B VOIP solutions to the Phoenix Arizona area, what on earth videos could I possibly make?”

• All businesses solve a problem/need. Most likely the problem can be explained through a video demonstration, screencast, or if you’re lucky maybe even a vlog.

• Let’s be honest, some businesses are a much better fit for YouTube than others, but almost everyone can benefit.

• Summarizing a complex concept by video instead of writing (blog article) can do very well on YouTube (accounting, programming etc)

• Anyone here stumped on how to integrate YouTube? Lets open for suggestions?

CONTENT - PT 1 RECORDINGS VS SCREENCASTSVIDEO RECORDINGS

• Lots of work to edit, requires expensive camera and audio gear. Editing process can’t always be streamlined.

• Good for training that requires you to see the person (makeup tutorials, home improvement/construction videos, workout)

• Harder to make so less competition and more viral potential if done correctly. More risk, more return.

• If possible consider if you can convey same content through vLog or screencast.

SCREENCASTS OR VLOGS

• Easier to put together with simple software.

• Provides massive value bomb if presenter knows what they’re talking about.

• Editing process can be easily streamlined.

• Generally provides best value if it fits your niche.

• Since low barrier to entry, expect heavy competition in all niches.

CONTENT ADVICE PT 1 – LENGTH, FREQUENCY TIMING

• Length: Best performing videos should generally be between 5-15 minutes (some niche can be 30 minutes or more such as workout videos, chess etc). Use YouTube’s analytics to figure out optimal length for your niche.

• Frequency: First 6 months post 2-3 times per week, after 6 months once per week is fine. In the beginning you MUST post a lot of videos to get momentum, even if nobody is watching at first (Trust me)

• Post on a predictable schedule (e.g. Every Monday at 4pm EST)

EDITING PROCESS – QUALITY VS WORKFLOW• VALUE BOMB: YouTubers are somewhat more forgiving

on video quality as long as the audio quality is good. If your audio is even slightly poor, you will get roasted.

• Necessary to find a way to streamline editing process as much as possible. Editor will charge far less if they don’t need to cut any content (i.e. done perfect all in one take).

• Don’t get too caught up on what camera and lighting setup you need (esp at first if you’re bootstrapping). The value of the content is most important.

• At first find balance b/w quantity vs quality. Later on post less and focus more on the little details and improve quality without messing up workflow.

CONTENT VS YOUTUBE SEO (70/30)• YouTube isn’t Google. If your content sucks, you may trick

someone to click, but you won’t get subscribers. Tricky thumbnail and title may be good for clickbait (which I encourage) but it won’t propel your channel.

• YouTube has metrics to see how engaged people are in your content, that will count for SEO (Content engagement IS part of SEO, OMG!)

• You should be focusing way more on creating engaging content than trying to game the system, YouTube can’t be gamed.

• YouTube blackhat tools no longer work very well and can get your channel banned and hurt your brand.

YOUTUBE SEO – PT 1THUMBNAILS• Title more important for search, but thumbnail most

important factor in “Suggested Videos” (where most new people will find you)

• Youtube used to not allow custom (uploaded) thumbnails except for select partners. Now everyone gets the feature, USE IT!

• Most important part of YouTube SEO that people overlook.

• Will also be your thumbnail on social media channels, video embed etc. Also plugins (wordpress etc) available to make thumbnail in Wordpress article as well.

THUMBNAILS – WHAT WORKS?

1. FACES.

• Especially attractive faces and super-especially attractive female faces.

• Faces of famous people (either ‘generally famous’ e.g. Rihanna) or famous in your niche (in chess, this would be Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen)

• Bonus point if thumbnail is someone famous in your niche and attractive.

• Don’t use a face of someone that has nothing to do with your video.

2. Large Bold text

3. Loud Backgrounds: (Bright Gradients, “Sunrays”)

4. Thumbnails that make people laugh, are creative

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW- PT 2• If your video has good content but bad SEO. It will get no

views

THUMBNAILS - WHAT DOESN’T WORK• For advertising thumbnails people generally say “Girls in

Bikinis, Puppies and Cute Babies work the best” Doesn’t work so well for youtube thumbnails. Large text and faces convert better.

• Thumbnails can be slightly suggestive but nothing overly sexual (If Grandma doesn’t approve, then it’s a no-go)

• Shot of the video, screencast or vlog itself (usually doesn’t work unless vLogger is extremely attractive, even then you can usually do something that converts better)

• Remember thumbnails are very small so if you can’t tell whats going on when looking at the thumbnail from afar, its not a good thumbnail.

• If in doubt, checkout the top 100 channels thumbnails. Now we’ll review some of my graphic designer’s thumbnails.

YOUTUBE SEO – PT 2THE TITLE• In YouTube SEO the title is 75% of the equation and the first

3 words of the title are about 50% of the formula.

• The title has 2 conflicting purposes:

• 1. YouTube SEO in search (good keywords etc)• 2. Being Catchy or “Clickbaity” (most important)

• “Suggested videos” will always bring you more traffic than search and therefore a tempting title is higher priority than trying to jam the right keywords. If you can arrange the title in a way that has the right keywords in the beginning of the title but also is catchy that is key.

• If your awesome clickbaity title doesn’t have the keywords in the beginning or the title (or even at all), than don’t worry about it.

• As Mark Manson said in his talk “people are willing to forgive you for clickbaity titles as long as the content is good”

YOUTUBE SEO – THE DESCRIPTION

• About 20-30% of the YouTube formula equation (depending on who you ask).

• Write a good solid paragraph, more is not needed. 150 words is more than enough.

• First line should say “Subscribe” and link to subscribe in description.

• Try to include good keywords in the text but don’t try to game the system by just writing keywords at the bottom of the text.

• I include links on the top 3 lines (the automatically visible part of the description), but don’t do that at first.

YOUTUBE TAGS – YOUTUBE SEO

• Are 99% dead and don’t change search engine or suggested video behavior. Just include some default tags in your YouTube settings and then never touch it. Not worth your time. YouTube will probably remove tags altogether pretty soon.

YOUTUBE SEO – AUDIENCE RETENTION• YouTube measures audience retention compared to

average video of that length and will reward the video by placing it higher in search and suggested videos if it has high retention.

• Try to incentivize people to watch the whole video anyway you can. “Save the juiciest for the end”

YOUTUBE SEO VS GOOGLE SEO

• Google SEO frequently changes its formula. YouTube’s formula is much more static.

• Google punishes older content while in YouTube older content racks up more hits and continues to perform well (there is time-decay but it is usually compensated by views)

• Google’s algorithm is MUCH more complex, but also a bit more forgiving if not everything is perfect.

• In YouTube the formula is simple (Title, Description, Content, Thumbnail), but if any of the formula is messed up, you won’t do well.

• Easier to get started on Google with good SEO. On YouTube no secret trick except patience and posting lots of good content with good best practices.

• On Google – You can be established one day and wiped off the map the next. On YouTube – Once you’re in, you’re in for life.

FIRST 6-12 MONTHS• When you’re starting off nothing matters more than

subscribers.

• Subscribers are important because they will give your video the initial first few thousand views to “push” your video into search and ‘suggested videos’ creating potential for further virality. You won’t get this natural ‘push’ at first, so you’ll have forcibly create the views (sharing on Facebook, e-mail list, twitter, any way you can, but don’t spam)

• Don’t try to sell anything, don’t even try to get people on your e-mail list. The only “call to action” that should be on your videos is to subscribe.

FIRST 6-12 MONTHS –– PT 2• Should have annotation to subscribe or even a hardcoded

“Call to Action” to subscribe in top right or left corner throughout entire video. If you already uploaded videos then do it with an annotation.

• “Default non subscribed” video explaining what your channel is about and the value you’ll give them explaining why they should subscribe

• YouTube’s “featured programming” video should also be the “default non subscribed video.

• After every video there should an outro, that is about 30-60 seconds long similar to default non subscribed video, explaining to them why they should subscribe.

GETTING – SUBSCRIBERS – PT 1• Other ways to get more subscribers

• Leverage current traffic sources to inform and push people to subscribe to your YouTube (e-mail list, blog, facebook, twitter)

• YouTube Ads (Expensive just for subscribers, but if you have deep pockets consider it)

• Have a contest / giveaway, where people have to subscribe to qualify.

• Do a cross-promo video with a much larger channel Hard to convince but this can be huge game changer). Even consider paying them, but be aware most successful channels on YouTube are not in it for money. Best to do this before its obvious your end goal is “going commercial”

GETTING – SUBSCRIBERS – PT 2• EVEN MORE ways to get more subscribers:

• Do guest blog posts that embeds your video and puts a link at the end of article to subscribe.

• Put YouTube subscribe widget on your sidebar and below every article on your website.

• Pay authority blogs in your niche to feature one of your best videos.

• Any other whitehat advertising for your videos

YEAR 2 – TAKING IT EASY

• Once you have 5-10k subscribers and at least a few of your videos have gone decently viral (25k+ views) you can change your focus to building the e-mail list.

• Best not to go “too commercial” and start pushing products hard until you are REALLY big (1 million+ views and 15k+ subscribers)

• Be aware once you “go commercial” and start pushing products, your growth will level out. (Why Facebook waited so long to monetize)

• When you start selling products and pushing your e-mail list, a lot of people will start writing nasty stuff and you’ll receive some blowback. Fuck them.

YEAR 2 – TAKING IT EASY PT 2• Once you’re more established 1 video per week is fine, but try to

keep at least that up.

• If you have lots of extra content, consider opening up a second channel (provides tremendous SEO benefit)

• Shift all “subscribe” annotations to a landing page to get them to signup for your e-mail list (e-mails more valuable and subscribers will grow anyways).

• At this point its ok to make promo videos announcing sales and things like this but make sure its less than 5% of your total videos.

• Focus more on quality over quantity making sure the videos content is really good. At this point one good viral video per week is better than 7 “OK” performing videos per week.

• Fix up your graphics and intro/outro video. As you grow people will have more expectations of a polished image that you might have been able to get away with at first.

THE “FACE” OF YOUR COMPANY• You want to have a team of a few people to be your

presenters but have one “face” that becomes a trusted authority in your niche.

• This tactic can become very powerful overtime as people become emotionally attached to the person and feel as if they are his “friend”

• Eventually can exploit this to sell lots of products, because whatever the face recommends the people will buy (evil laugh)

• This person becomes very important, make sure they have an incentive to stick around for a long long time.

DON’T MAKE YOURSELF THE FACE OF YOUR COMPANY!!!

• If you make you or your partner the face of your company, then when you grow big enough making the videos is going to become a huge burden.

• Best to hire somebody to be the face and then bring on 2-3 other people to be part of the “team” so if one person leaves it won’t be a disaster.

• Always best to have one specific “person” as the “face” People want to subscribe to people NOT to brands.

• If you are really passionate about your niche and WANT to be the face despite the burden, than go ahead but be aware as your company grows you’ll have more responsibilities and it will be hard to juggle.

AVOID BEING A “BRAND” CHANNEL • If you’re starting a YouTube channel, don’t make it

obvious its for a specific commercial for-profit brand at first.

• People don’t like subscribing to brands or for-profit YouTube channels, don’t make it obvious you plan to monetize them, especially in the beginning.

• Perfectly OK to not even mention your brand in the first year. This is very smart and sneaky and will help your growth by appearing to be an impartial fan just trying to help.

• YouTuber’s don’t like brands. Key takeaway

OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW• Adsense is a great way to make some money on YouTube.

It will never be a huge amount but it goes straight to your bottom line. It also isn’t as distracting or hurt conversions as much as having AdSense banner ads on your site. However, you may want to consider leaving them disabled during year 1 as it can slightly blunt your views/growth).

• DON’T EVER EVER EVER use shady blackhat tools like “Tube Toolbox” they don’t work well and will screw up your channel and delegitimize your name.

• Don’t EVER EVER EVER pay for fake views. Its 100% obvious and makes you look stupid. And it can get your channel banned.

• If you suck at graphics, have a good designer who specializes in thumbnails to make them for you.

THE END• QUESTIONS?

• Now we’ll go over your channels and I’ll give you guys advice on how to improve.

• If we have time we’ll go over my channel to and you guys can give me advice, because I don’t know everything!

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