9 Response tips and my 2 most viewed videos:
YouTube Success tip 1 by Steve Rob, don't go by videos that "teach" you how to be successful:
Great advice Steve. If I were to rewrite your foremost tip, I'd say, "Don't do it "their" way. Do it your way." Steve said there is no magical formula for what works. Hey, I have a couple ultra successful videos. They get watched and watched and watched. I call it luck and a bit of skill. I realized people wanted those videos. Usually, the videos I think people "want" (because you can't really know) are videos that are harder to do, but then my water decarbonization video. I was nervous, it was my 3rd video, and it's still going viral relative to my channels size. It's something I knew a lot about and I felt it was a good video.
YouTube Success tip 2 by DE Nichols (aka myself/AutoBravado):
Thumbs up versus thumbs down. Hey. If people bother to watch enough to give you a thumbs down then it's still success. I've noticed that when videos first come out, that's when most of the thumbs up happens. The longer a video is popular the more haters come out. Don't take it personal. The people who most appreciate you are usually the first people to watch. Focus on them.
YouTube Success tip 3:
I sometimes think some of my channel ideas that are the most successful may not be what my subscriber base wants the most. I don't really know, but I put out serious videos and then reviews on things here and there. The reviews, especial about easy chemicals, which keeps the lights on so to speak while the other often less popular videos are the guts and the glory of why I got into YouTube.
YouTube Success tip 3a:
What I mean is, reviews on easy to use chemicals? Automatically popular. Car repair videos, why I'm here, less popular, but if developed deeply enough, I could get a paid channel one day. That's where the money is at assuming you can do something that professionals of the automotive world will pay for, or even serious DIY (do it yourself) automotive enthusiasts.
YouTube Success tip 4 based on my favorite advice that Steve Rob repeats:
I find that money isn't much of a motivation, not that YouTube pays much without TONS of views, so yes, absolutely, do what you enjoy most. If you enjoy many things which can't be related together in one niche, or truly related content, you'll need to let go of them as a channel needs one focus or ultimately future subscribers will be confused as to what they should be getting. When they're confused, they don't subscribe.
YouTube Success tip 5:
I find that when people are generous and they give to you, give back. I can't count how much I've mentioned Steve Rob on my videos. I mention other subscribers too. When they influence my thinking on making a video, I think they really appreciate hearing it in a later video.
YouTube Success tip 6:
Get involved in the community of videos that you're in to make videos for. There are other YouTube creators out there with similar content. You should reach out and support each other. Be genuine about this and you'll get support from each other, that you may not find anywhere else until your channel has grown more.
Some YouTube creators make the best comments because they're quicker to communicate like you. Steve Rob mentions that he doesn't review channels that aren't involved with their audience. A YouTube creator like that may not ever notice you exist.
YouTube Success tip 7 (Directly by Steve Rob):
Focus on views and likes instead of how many subscribers you have. Some channels have many subscribers but hardly any views in comparison. Take my DE Nichols channel for example. Most of my videos have a hundred views plus or minus given enough time, but I also have videos with tens of thousands of views because I made something the people really want, that they're looking for.
YouTube Success tip 8:
Have a website. I already did. It's a lot harder to make money off of adsense on a website then it is on a YouTube channel because you can ignore ads on a website, while on YouTube they have to watch some commercials. I think I'd be a lot less successful without websites pointing at my YouTube channel (DE Nichols), but it's hard to judge seeing as how I've written websites for years.
YouTube Success tip 9:
If you aren't aware of it and you're thinking about getting started int YouTube. YouTube has raised the bar a lot. Without 4,000 hours of watch time in the last year and 1,000 subscribers, you aren't getting into the YouTube Partner Program and you aren't getting paid. Lanny Ross from Ferinitosh Farms Photography has made multiple videos about how to get going with Rumble. Rumble is a new video platform. I'm not sure how successful they are as a platform, but as a service who copyrights your content and makes YouTube turn the ads on, they are a way to get paid sooner than those requirements set forth by YouTube. I don't know yet if long-term this was a good idea yet, but I've dived in and sold them rights to a lot of my top content. Feel free to explore Lanny's videos to learn about how Rumble works, but since I sent you to him, I'd appreciate if you use my referral link if you chose to sign up. Register with Rumble and get started.
My highest successes by views. Initially they were very liked but as time went more people showed up with their thumbs down. Take another look at tip 2 as to why I think that is.
My two viral videos relative to my current level of success:
I think they're popular because they're what people want. That said, in the Cataclean works video, I shared tons of other real repairs I did first and when all the conditions were right and the dumb PCM still thought the brand new catalytic converter was no good, it was time for a little help. Hardly a rave review, but very honest. Yes, you have to fix your car, and if it's not quite there, this can help.
Source: Port and Airflow Theory, PolyQuad cylinder chambers, Creating Swirl by DENichols
This Water Decarbonization video has been ultra successful because people are looking for a video like this all the time. It was only my third video and there were many months where it was half my traffic. Again, instead of just talking about how it works, I covered all things I've noticed that it causes problems with.
By AutoBravado - Happy New Year!