Cracking the YouTube Algorithm for a Successful YouTube Channel

Kasim: 00:00:11

I'm gonna teach you to crack the code on YouTube which, by the way,

2

: 00:00:14

I didn't learn to do myself, I learned

from others two people in particular

3

: 00:00:18

Uzair Karwala, SF Digital, out in the

UK, my buddy and YouTube mentor, the

4

: 00:00:22

reason this YouTube channel exists,

thank you so much, forever grateful

5

: 00:00:25

to you, And Evan Carmichael, and

I've got a funny story about Evan.

6

: 00:00:28

If I can weave it into this, I will.

7

: 00:00:30

But let's just dive in.

8

: 00:00:31

I think a YouTube channel is maybe

one of the most powerful tools you

9

: 00:00:34

can have from a marketing perspective.

10

: 00:00:36

I actually think it's more

powerful than podcast.

11

: 00:00:37

People spend more on YouTube than.

12

: 00:00:40

Any other website on the internet,

on average, isn't that amazing?

13

: 00:00:43

But it also makes a lot of sense, right?

14

: 00:00:44

Like YouTube is meant for long form

content, deep dives, retention,

15

: 00:00:48

subscription, and people get

really obsessive over YouTube.

16

: 00:00:50

It's a really powerful medium.

17

: 00:00:51

It's visual and audio, audible,

audio based, It's sticky, and

18

: 00:00:55

everybody uses it, dig into YouTube.

19

: 00:00:57

But it's also tedious to manage.

20

: 00:01:00

It's tedious.

21

: 00:01:01

And if you want to be successful,

the first tip is the hardest.

22

: 00:01:05

And it might be repellent

to you, by the way.

23

: 00:01:07

You have to post everyday.

24

: 00:01:08

You have to post every single day.

25

: 00:01:10

YouTube loves consistency.

26

: 00:01:12

As a matter of fact, you'll notice

that you're going to start posting

27

: 00:01:14

and you're not going to get any

views, likes, comments, subscribes, or

28

: 00:01:16

anything for 90 to 180 days, depending

on the niche that you've chosen, but.

29

: 00:01:20

If you can get past that timeline,

YouTube starts to say, you know what?

30

: 00:01:23

I think this person's serious.

31

: 00:01:24

Let me start prioritizing their

videos and actually referring them

32

: 00:01:26

out to other people organically.

33

: 00:01:28

And then you can start to see like,

duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck.

34

: 00:01:29

I it just starts to climb slowly.

35

: 00:01:31

Surely when we started, we had like

300 fake subscribers and we're at 26,

36

: 00:01:35

000 subscribers, which by the way is

not a lot in the world of YouTube,

37

: 00:01:38

but it's a lot given our niche.

38

: 00:01:40

Right?

39

: 00:01:40

Like we're not marketing, we're

not digital marketing, we're not

40

: 00:01:42

paid media, we're Google ads.

41

: 00:01:44

And I'm starting to expand a little bit

out of that, which is another strategy

42

: 00:01:47

that we can talk about a little bit.

43

: 00:01:48

You start super, super,

super, super, super niche.

44

: 00:01:50

So you can actually, A, provide value,

let people know who you are, and

45

: 00:01:52

then also capture people's attention.

46

: 00:01:54

And then you slowly zoom out as

you've established that niche.

47

: 00:01:57

And you look at the other

people who've done this.

48

: 00:01:59

Look at Gary V.

49

: 00:01:59

Gary V started talking about wine.

50

: 00:02:02

And that's it.

51

: 00:02:03

You want to talk about niche.

52

: 00:02:04

Like, Gary Vee is famous because

he was talking about wine, and then

53

: 00:02:07

people liked him and his personality,

and then he started to, expand.

54

: 00:02:10

So post every single day.

55

: 00:02:11

Now, that doesn't mean that you

need to record every single day.

56

: 00:02:13

I batch record.

57

: 00:02:14

I usually record five to ten videos

a week, generally in one sitting.

58

: 00:02:18

I just sit here, and I've got all my

slides open, and they're based off of

59

: 00:02:21

Twitter threads that I've written, I

power through them, which is, it's the

60

: 00:02:23

easy thing to do to get into a cadence,

and I'm, you know, kind of used to,

61

: 00:02:26

I've got my, podcast voice on, and the

camera's rolling, and it's just, it's

62

: 00:02:29

easier to carve out, you know, an hour

or two, and I can bang out a whole week's

63

: 00:02:33

plus worth of videos in about an hour.

64

: 00:02:35

You can do that same thing too, so

if you can dedicate an hour a week,

65

: 00:02:38

you can have a YouTube channel, but

you have to post every single day.

66

: 00:02:40

Every single day number two, you have

to make sure to niche down niche niche.

67

: 00:02:44

Who knows how it says nobody

knows There's no consensus.

68

: 00:02:47

I like niche But except when I rhyme

it with riches riches are in the niches

69

: 00:02:51

YouTube needs to know who you appeal

to Google is a matching mechanism.

70

: 00:02:55

It matches searchers with And

the more niche you are, the more

71

: 00:03:00

effective you're going to be.

72

: 00:03:01

Alrick Heck, who has been on

my channel a couple times,

73

: 00:03:03

been on my podcast a few times.

74

: 00:03:05

Really brilliant guy.

75

: 00:03:06

Alrick, at 12 years old, started

a YouTube channel teaching old

76

: 00:03:09

people to use their iPhones.

77

: 00:03:11

Great niche, right?

78

: 00:03:12

Like, a lot of foresight there.

79

: 00:03:15

Really brilliant guy.

80

: 00:03:16

He was a millionaire

before he was 18 years old.

81

: 00:03:18

Pick a niche.

82

: 00:03:18

and here's the thing.

83

: 00:03:19

You don't have to live

in that niche forever.

84

: 00:03:22

I have a concept that I call

the hourglass of niching.

85

: 00:03:25

And the hourglass of niching says that

you choose the niche and maybe it's a

86

: 00:03:30

little broad to start if you're not sure.

87

: 00:03:32

Where to go so like I owned a Google

Ads agency my niche as far as Google

88

: 00:03:35

Ads made all the sense in the world But

you might say like hey, I want to launch

89

: 00:03:38

YouTube channel I'm not entirely sure

exactly what my niche is, but I do know

90

: 00:03:41

that I want it to be in personal finance

Okay, so I'm inside of personal finance

91

: 00:03:44

I'm at the top of my hourglass and then

I start to shoot videos and I've got

92

: 00:03:47

videos on Budgeting and videos on side

hustles and videos on crypto, God forbid.

93

: 00:03:50

And then all of a sudden you're like, man,

my side hustle videos are like taken off.

94

: 00:03:55

I'm getting two, three, four times

the number of views I'm going to

95

: 00:03:58

start to narrow my niche and all of

a sudden I'm side hustles and you

96

: 00:04:01

know what so now you're, traveling

down the hourglass and it's not just.

97

: 00:04:04

side hustles.

98

: 00:04:05

I noticed that I'm getting a lot of stay

at home moms, like all my commenters, the

99

: 00:04:09

messages that I'm getting really feels

like there's like, you know what I mean?

100

: 00:04:11

I'm speaking to the

stay at home mom crowd.

101

: 00:04:13

And so I narrowed down

my niche even further.

102

: 00:04:15

And so now it's like, I've got a

YouTube channel about side hustles for

103

: 00:04:17

stay at home moms in North America.

104

: 00:04:19

Like that's a great, great, great niche.

105

: 00:04:20

So now \ you're at the center of the

hourglass where the hourglass tapers.

106

: 00:04:23

And if you try to taper it any further,

you realize like, Oh, that went too far.

107

: 00:04:27

This is good.

108

: 00:04:28

I'm narrow as I want to get.

109

: 00:04:29

That's where maximum efficiency is

found, from a niching down perspective.

110

: 00:04:33

However, the issue that you run into is,

you can't scale and maintain efficiency.

111

: 00:04:39

So when you find maximum efficiency,

you also notice that you actually kind

112

: 00:04:42

of run out of the ability to grow.

113

: 00:04:44

I'm there now with my YouTube

channel, our growth rate plateaued

114

: 00:04:47

at around 22, 000 subscribers.

115

: 00:04:49

And then our subscriber rate started

to slow because there's only so

116

: 00:04:52

many people that want like dedicated

Google ads content every single

117

: 00:04:54

day, which is why I'm zooming out

into broader business topics, right?

118

: 00:04:58

I'm, I'm, I'm now starting to branch out.

119

: 00:05:00

I would not have been able to do that

at the beginning and achieve the same

120

: 00:05:02

level of traction because there's so many

people in the broad business topic space.

121

: 00:05:06

But because I have my subscriber

base of 25, 26, 000 people, I get the

122

: 00:05:10

views and the clicks and the likes and

the comments to allow me to compete

123

: 00:05:13

with the other people that are in

the mildly broader business space.

124

: 00:05:15

And you'll notice that most of my

content still speaks specifically

125

: 00:05:19

to agencies, small business owners.

126

: 00:05:20

So it's still kind of the same avatar.

127

: 00:05:22

that says you taper down out

of the hourglass of niching.

128

: 00:05:25

So you start a little broad, you taper

down, you find maximum efficiency and

129

: 00:05:28

you maximize that efficiency, by the way,

you don't broaden out right out of the

130

: 00:05:31

gate, but you wait and decide like, okay.

131

: 00:05:32

I think I've run out of runway here.

132

: 00:05:34

gotten as much juice as I'm

going to get out of this audience

133

: 00:05:37

and I want to continue to grow.

134

: 00:05:38

So I'm going to broad now to get

that's the hourglass of niching.

135

: 00:05:41

I hope that's helpful.

136

: 00:05:41

I think I'm gonna make a

whole separate video on this.

137

: 00:05:43

I just actually wrote a note for myself.

138

: 00:05:45

Isn't that fun when it happens live?

139

: 00:05:47

Number three!

140

: 00:05:48

You want your videos to

be ten minutes or longer.

141

: 00:05:50

This comes directly from Evan Carmichael.

142

: 00:05:52

Who, by the way, is brilliant, brilliant.

143

: 00:05:53

If you don't know Evan,

you should go follow him.

144

: 00:05:55

Super, super sharp guy.

145

: 00:05:56

Tons of amazing interviews

on his YouTube channel.

146

: 00:05:58

the space of an hour, taught

me, like, more than I ever, ever

147

: 00:06:02

cared to know about YouTube.

148

: 00:06:03

YouTube likes long form content.

149

: 00:06:05

Which is interesting.

150

: 00:06:06

Now, there's a difference between YouTube

and YouTube Shorts, and you can use

151

: 00:06:09

YouTube Shorts in order to drive towards

your YouTube videos, but you want to

152

: 00:06:11

have your videos 10 minutes or longer.

153

: 00:06:12

Not all my videos end up being 10 minutes.

154

: 00:06:14

I don't like to force it.

155

: 00:06:15

I like to just shoot the video for

as long as it needs to be with the

156

: 00:06:17

understanding that maybe when I'm Ideating

the ideas should be 10 minute ideas.

157

: 00:06:21

So don't take a three minute

idea and make it 10 minutes.

158

: 00:06:24

Don't take a 45 minute idea

and make it 10 minutes either.

159

: 00:06:27

Right?

160

: 00:06:28

The idea will take as long as it

needs to get out onto the table.

161

: 00:06:31

And I've actually had some people recently

complained in the comments that I ramble.

162

: 00:06:34

And you know, the problem with that

is, is that's my comfort zone from

163

: 00:06:37

a content creation perspective.

164

: 00:06:39

If I'm too strict and rigid and

scripted, I don't have any fun.

165

: 00:06:42

I don't execute very well

and it just doesn't happen.

166

: 00:06:44

And so this is where I like to live.

167

: 00:06:45

And if you don't like the rambling.

168

: 00:06:46

not trying to push you away.

169

: 00:06:47

I love you.

170

: 00:06:48

I'm rooting for you.

171

: 00:06:49

Don't watch my channel, you know, and

go find somebody who just gets it out

172

: 00:06:52

the way that you want it to get out.

173

: 00:06:53

be comfortable in your delivery

of content in the way that you're

174

: 00:06:56

pushing it out and that will help you

reach some of these time thresholds.

175

: 00:06:59

And I actually think it's

okay to make it organic.

176

: 00:07:02

I prefer that.

177

: 00:07:03

I like listening to thought

leaders that hop in and they're,

178

: 00:07:07

thinking and learning as they go.

179

: 00:07:08

Jordan Peterson is like this for me.

180

: 00:07:10

when I listen to Jordan Peterson,

I can see him discovering the

181

: 00:07:14

topic as the discussion happens.

182

: 00:07:15

It makes me feel like a participant.

183

: 00:07:16

It makes me feel like I'm

actually, like, actively there.

184

: 00:07:19

I like to do that same thing.

185

: 00:07:19

Not that I'm anywhere near as

intelligent as him, but trying

186

: 00:07:21

to follow kind of those themes.

187

: 00:07:23

That'll help you get to 10 minutes.

188

: 00:07:24

Instead of just saying like,

here's the news, right?

189

: 00:07:26

You're not a newscaster.

190

: 00:07:27

Don't use a teleprompter.

191

: 00:07:28

Talk about what's happening and then

what your ideas are behind that thing.

192

: 00:07:31

And again, YouTube

likes long form content.

193

: 00:07:33

And by the way, 10 minutes is

the minimum you could have.

194

: 00:07:35

We've got some of our highest

traffic videos are hour Or more.

195

: 00:07:40

As a matter of fact, one of our

highest performing ads was an hour.

196

: 00:07:42

Can you believe that?

197

: 00:07:43

It's unbelievable.

198

: 00:07:43

Number four, aim for a 70%

retention rate at the 62nd mark.

199

: 00:07:47

Also, from Evan, you want

people to click and to stay.

200

: 00:07:52

70% retention at the 62nd mark.

201

: 00:07:54

And by the way, this is hard.

202

: 00:07:55

I rarely achieve this.

203

: 00:07:57

As a matter of fact, I've got a Slack

channel where my marketing team.

204

: 00:08:01

Dumps in our YouTube analytics,

so I'm gonna read you my analytics

205

: 00:08:04

from last week Monday uncovering the

dark side of Google's price fixing

206

: 00:08:09

Retention rate at the one minute mark

71 percent That's great Tuesday, why

207

: 00:08:13

you should embrace imposter syndrome.

208

: 00:08:14

Retention at the one minute mark, 62%.

209

: 00:08:17

Wednesday, how I lied my way to

the number one spot on Amazon.

210

: 00:08:19

Retention rate, 59 percent

at the 60 second mark.

211

: 00:08:22

Thursday, why scaling and

maintaining efficiency don't mix.

212

: 00:08:25

59 percent retention at 60 seconds.

213

: 00:08:27

And Friday, Rest in peace, Google search.

214

: 00:08:29

Generative AI is here and it's awesome.

215

: 00:08:31

61 percent retention.

216

: 00:08:32

So out of five days, I hit the 70

percent retention mark one time.

217

: 00:08:38

Now, obviously I want to optimize

that, but just here to tell you, this

218

: 00:08:42

is a gold standard and it's hard.

219

: 00:08:44

However, what it means is you actually

don't want to clickbait videos.

220

: 00:08:48

You don't want clickbait titles,

or at least you want to be really

221

: 00:08:50

careful, like obviously you want

your titles to be compelling.

222

: 00:08:52

But you want to be so compelling that

the person who clicks and starts to

223

: 00:08:56

watch goes, You know what, this isn't

as interesting as the title was,

224

: 00:08:59

because then they're gonna leave.

225

: 00:09:00

And you're not going to get recommended.

226

: 00:09:01

And being recommended as a YouTube

video is, is, that's the mecca.

227

: 00:09:04

Like, that's where you

want to be, you want to go.

228

: 00:09:05

So aim for a 70 percent retention

rate at the 60 second mark.

229

: 00:09:08

One of the ways to do that is

to front load all of, like, the

230

: 00:09:12

amazing nuggets and sound bites.

231

: 00:09:13

And so I stole this from Evan.

232

: 00:09:16

We used it for a short period

where it said coming soon, and

233

: 00:09:18

then there was like all these quick

little snippets and quick hitters.

234

: 00:09:20

I ended up stopping that

for a couple of reasons.

235

: 00:09:24

I didn't like that it took the wind out of

the sails of the remainder of the videos.

236

: 00:09:29

And then, I also felt like, just because

I do a lot of shorter form content

237

: 00:09:33

than people like Evan do, you know,

I'm not doing a three hour interview.

238

: 00:09:36

And so, if you're doing a ten minute

video and you bring all the, highlights

239

: 00:09:39

forward, it's a little less effective.

240

: 00:09:41

But it can work for you if

you're doing longer form content.

241

: 00:09:43

Number five!

242

: 00:09:44

Your primary call to action

should not be to leave YouTube.

243

: 00:09:47

everybody's called action is like go

to my website and fill out my form

244

: 00:09:50

schedule an appointment go buy this thing

YouTube's number one goals retention

245

: 00:09:53

Then I think they're stated number one

goals retention and google very rarely

246

: 00:09:57

tells the truth about their goals so

that this will be a first google wants

247

: 00:09:59

the people to stay in app You have to

feed that by recommending other videos.

248

: 00:10:03

So instead of the recommendation

being to go do anything else, and

249

: 00:10:06

you can have those softly, right?

250

: 00:10:08

It's like, hey, if you ever want help

with Google Ads, you can go to my

251

: 00:10:10

website and request a free action plan.

252

: 00:10:11

And then that'll happen

every now and again.

253

: 00:10:13

But, your primary call to

action is to watch this video.

254

: 00:10:16

And this video is a video that's relevant

to the video that you're watching.

255

: 00:10:18

So right now you're watching a video on

cracking the code on YouTube algorithms.

256

: 00:10:21

So maybe the next video that I recommend

to you is like, content creation,

257

: 00:10:23

video production made easy, how do you

run YouTube ads, that type of thing.

258

: 00:10:26

Primary call to action should

not be to leave YouTube though.

259

: 00:10:28

You want to help YouTube

maintain retention.

260

: 00:10:30

Number six!

261

: 00:10:31

Thumbnails are key.

262

: 00:10:32

And I hated this part

to be honest with you.

263

: 00:10:34

I was like, if my video is

good, if my content's good,

264

: 00:10:36

why do my thumbnails matter?

265

: 00:10:37

Here's what's sad.

266

: 00:10:38

Your thumbnails matter more

than your video content.

267

: 00:10:43

Doesn't that hurt to hear?

268

: 00:10:44

It hurts to say.

269

: 00:10:45

You wanna overinvest in your thumbnails?

270

: 00:10:47

We have our designer, her name is Jack.

271

: 00:10:49

She's brilliant.

272

: 00:10:50

She's a, literal genius, and she comes

up with these amazing thumbnail ideas and

273

: 00:10:54

you know, one of the primary reasons that

our YouTube channel's been so successful.

274

: 00:10:57

and, technical details, you want your

text on the left, not on the right because

275

: 00:11:00

it'll get covered by the time code.

276

: 00:11:01

You want your image on the

right and you want your text

277

: 00:11:03

to be bold and easy to read.

278

: 00:11:04

We used to slam our.

279

: 00:11:05

Thumbnails with just lots of text

and nobody could get through it.

280

: 00:11:08

So make sure your thumbnails are good With

AI tools now that I'll actually get better

281

: 00:11:10

and better and better And then you also

want sure your title has to be clear and

282

: 00:11:13

compelling And don't oversell the video

because you're gonna hurt your retention.

283

: 00:11:16

So make sure that your title is

very Consistent maintain continuity

284

: 00:11:20

with what it is that you're offering

people that was number seven Number

285

: 00:11:23

eight use the video description to

offer additional resources, timecode

286

: 00:11:27

notes, and deeper calls to action.

287

: 00:11:29

Anytime I'm on a video that I love, I

notice that one of the first comments

288

: 00:11:33

that people like, above all other

comments, is anybody who's gone in

289

: 00:11:35

there and offered the timecoded notes.

290

: 00:11:37

So they like it, you know, one

minute, thirty seconds, they do this.

291

: 00:11:39

At four minutes, they talk about this.

292

: 00:11:40

At nine minutes, they talk about that.

293

: 00:11:42

Just do that for people!

294

: 00:11:43

Naturally.

295

: 00:11:43

It's not hard to do.

296

: 00:11:44

And then give them stuff.

297

: 00:11:46

Give people the ability to

like, comment, subscribe.

298

: 00:11:48

Obviously Instead of YouTube, but like

give people the ability to sign up and

299

: 00:11:52

for your newsletter or request something.

300

: 00:11:54

Let them know what you want to do.

301

: 00:11:55

What is it you're selling?

302

: 00:11:56

Because as people learn to know and trust

you they also want to buy from you and

303

: 00:11:59

you want to give them that opportunity.

304

: 00:12:00

And the description is

the best place to do that.

305

: 00:12:01

Number eight Is you have to ask

for the like and the subscribe.

306

: 00:12:04

You have to tell people

what it is that you want.

307

: 00:12:06

I'm, not very good at this.

308

: 00:12:07

I usually make it a dismissal.

309

: 00:12:08

But when people like, and comment, and

subscribe, those are indications to

310

: 00:12:12

YouTube that you're doing something right.

311

: 00:12:13

So, if you're watching this video, and

I've offered anything of value, like would

312

: 00:12:17

be great, a comment is better, and if you

actually want to hear from me every day,

313

: 00:12:22

because I shoot a video every day, then

go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

314

: 00:12:25

I appreciate everybody YouTube channel.

315

: 00:12:27

Truly grateful to you and for you.

316

: 00:12:29

and I'll see you tomorrow.