I’ve been teaching a Creator Accelerator Program for a while now, and I’ve reviewed and given feedback to tons of videos.
And here are the top 3 most common mistakes beginners make when creating videos.
After writing 1 MILLION words on the internet I've come to ONE conclusion.
Storytelling is THE most important skill to master.
Here are 7 storytelling tricks to hook your reader (in 2 minutes):
A long time ago a massively successful YouTuber told me to not check YouTube analytics until about a week after you upload.
I never listened. I thought they were crazy... but Friday I uploaded my Succession video and forced myself to not look at anything until this afternoon. Not knowing how it was doing was a bit weird but I ended up just sort of forgetting/ignoring that I put a video up. I also had to stop watching YouTube to avoid any notifications or success indications. A positive side effect of the experiment.
Typically I would obsess and refresh analytics constantly... I always overthink titles and thumbnails. Even if a video was doing well I would wonder "could it be doing better!?" - and if a video was underperforming I'd spend way too much time trying to "fix it".
I just finally opened YouTube studio and the video is doing amazing, but more importantly my weekend was free and clear from thinking about it. You work hard on your video. You upload. It makes more sense to spend time working on the next video and getting better at creating, instead of obsessing over the video you already made.
Who knows maybe if the video was bombing right now I would be trying to still "fix it" - but a lot of this shit is so up in the air and left to variables that you can't fully control... so why cloud your brain with this crap? I do think there's merit to optimizing thumbnails and titles but don't let it consume your entire week after putting a video up. 98% of the time it's a futile endeavour.
My plan now is to upload and just immediately begin work on the next video, and I'm going to try and force myself to not check analytics until I have a new video to upload. I think this will be a good exercise. I'm not even worried about comments, I will respond when I feel like it. You don't owe your audience an immediate answer or response. Make your own hours.
I suggest at the very least deleting YouTube studio from your phone and scheduling time to dive into analytics. It's better for your mental health and motivation.
This shit can drive you mad.
Brainstorming & mind-mapping are two of my favorite things. 🧠⛈️
Coming up with ideas is a lot of fun with a good playlist, a big sheet of paper, and scratch n sniff markers.
More content coming your way 😏
Are YouTube subscribers still a sign of success or just an empty badge of honor? 🤔
Let's explore the value of subscriber counts in the age of YouTube shorts and whether they still matter. 🧵
My niches and why I picked them:
- College success: Applied to write for a college blog, got rejected, started my own.
- Productivity: Literally just college success minus the "college" branding
- @NotionHQ: Was having fun learning/building in Notion; had a good feeling about creating content around it
In all cases, I didn't have monetization plans going in. I was following my interest and I knew each of these niches were helpful to people and had growing audiences.
Looking back, I also realize that monetization is Level 3, and I had to get through the first levels:
Level 1: Get consistent and don't quit
Level 2: Build skill and audience
Level 3: Monetize