One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to connect with creators like you and watch them grow to reach more people and change their lives by doing creating content about something they’re so passionate about.
It’s been really cool to watch a good friend of mine, Jon Townsend, grow his channel to 1 million subscribers over the years. His channel is all about 18th century lifestyle — which is not what most would consider a “trendy” or popular niche.
But he did it and has a loyal audience of people who are passionate about the same things he is!
Here’s how he did it.
- Be persistent. Jon started his channel back in 2008. YouTube was not a career path back then and he just started it for fun. That means Jon has been at YouTube for 12 years! The more content you put out, the more that’s out there for your audience (and new viewers) to watch. And with each video, you learn to get better and better at your craft. Persistence is key on YouTube.
- Understand when something isn’t working. As YouTubers, we have to grow in what we do and how we’re producing videos. We can’t assume something is wrong with our audience or that if we could just get our videos in front of the right people, they’d take off. When we’re not getting the traction we’re looking for, 9x out of 10 it means WE are not doing the right thing. Instead of the blame game, try to learn to reflect and shift your videos to create content people actually want to see.
- Define your target audience. Part of figuring out how to create videos your audience wants to see is figuring out WHO your audience is (and your audience can’t be everyone!) You can use your own passion and insight to figure out who you want to be speaking to as well as the data in your analytics, your comment section, etc.
- Filter your feedback. Spending time in your comments section can be extremely enlightening to help you figure out what content your audience wants to see, if they have any follow up questions, and what they like/don’t like about your content. You have to learn to take everything with a grain of salt on the internet, but you can certainly take the feedback and reject the outright meanness of people who are not necessarily commenting out of the kindness of their heart.
- Get professional advice. Having a professional be able to take an outside look into your channel is huge in giving your channel momentum when you’re feeling stuck or like something isn’t working. It’s like going to a doctor when you can’t get well on your own or a personal trainer when you’re struggling to get stronger. We don’t have all the answers and that’s okay.
- Keep experimenting. It’s hard to draw conclusions from data when all of your videos are similar. Try different styles of titles/thumbnails, switch up your hook, or how you’re delivering your content. Notice what’s working and what’s not.
I hope these tips from a real life creator like you can help you on your journey to growing on YouTube!
Go check out Jon’s channel here to get to know him and learn from him. He’s a personal favorite channel my family and I enjoy watching.
Thanks for reading!
Keep changing lives,
Tim
P.S. Need professional advice? We’d love to help you get unstuck and grow faster on YouTube in a strategy call. You can book one with us here.