Did we answer your question?
In our recent podcast, we took some time to answer the top 9 questions we get over and over again from creators like you!
Here are those questions and answers.
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How do I know if my niche is too specific or too broad? Is it okay to have more than one niche? To me, this really comes down to “who should subscribe to your channel”? I think this is less of a general demographic thing (age, gender, country) and more of a story. What is that person’s problems, struggles, beliefs, goals, etc.? Your videos should be designed with that person in mind and should serve their story. We, typically, encourage creators to stay away from multiple “niches”, or what we’re referring to in this podcast as a target audience.
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What equipment should I invest in? This will vary depending on what your goals are for your channel and what type of content you’ll be creating. If you’re making a quick vlog, you’ll need different equipment than you would if you were doing interviews. When you’re just getting started, just start with what you have! Once you’re ready to spend a bit to invest in camera gear, you can see a list of our tools we use here at Video Creators and what we recommend to creators.
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How do I increase watch time, CTR, and comments? These metrics actually all work in tandem with each other. Think about it like a customer journey (we’ll call it the viewer journey). It starts with the title/thumbnail, moves to the viewer clicking on the video, they watch the video, and they take an action (whether it’s abandoning the video, making it to the end, clicking to watch on another video, etc.) All of these signals will tell YouTube about your content. Good thumbnails/titles, a strong hook, and good content will all help you increase these metrics. Want to learn how to increase the quality of these? We have a playlist for you to watch on this right here.
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How do I get people on other social platforms over to my YouTube videos? We typically find that followers on other social media platforms don’t convert well to YouTube. It’s a much more effective growth strategy to focus solely on gaining completely new, organic viewership. YouTube knows exactly how to put the right content in front of the right people and there are so many untapped viewers waiting for you on YouTube.
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How do I do that without coming across as greedy or spammy? I know promoting yourself can feel uncomfortable, but your videos could be the solution to someone’s problems. If you are pitching the value of your content upfront, it won’t come across that way. People will gladly subscribe when they feel like they are getting value from you!
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When can you repurpose your YouTube video on other platforms? Here are my two cents. Each social media platform has it’s own unwritten rules and expectations that govern each one. For example, people don’t want to watch a 10 minute video on Instagram, that’s what they go to YouTube for. Rather than simply republishing each video on another platform, try cutting the best 10-15 seconds from that and optimize it for that individual platform. I prefer creating original content for each platform, though.
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Should you re-optimize or delete old videos on your channel? Yes and no. If you feel like the content is solid and it’s not performing the way you’d like it to, I’d recommend re-optimizing the title and thumbnail to see how it performs then. If it’s performing well, don’t touch it! As far as deleting videos goes, do what you want! It’s not hurting you to keep old videos on your channel, but if you are embarassed of your videos (or want to delete them for whatever reason) you can do that too! It’s up to you.
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How do I start collaboration with other creators? Start thinking about other channels that have the same target audience as you! Once you do, think about ways you can connect with them or events you can go to! There are Facebook groups, conferences/events for just about every niche, start commenting on people’s videos, or you can just shoot someone an e-mail to start building a relationship with them.
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Should I use a giveaway to grow my channel? In my opinion, no. People will come to the giveaway and will quickly leave or become passive viewers. If you want people to be active viewers, you’d need to constantly do giveaways. However, you can do it to transfer viewers from one platform for another. We typically see good results when giveaways are used with that purpose in mind!
I spent an extra 20 minutes answering all of the live questions I got for this podcast if you want to listen to the rest of those above.
Thanks for reading!
Keep changing lives,
Tim
P.S. In the podcast, I mention sitting down for a 1-hour consultation with my team or myself to help you if you have any more questions you want to dive deeper. We can also review your channel and give you some next steps to get you moving in the right direction. Book that call with us here!