The First Million

Starting & Growing on YouTube

This is a post about how to create steady, episodic growth on YouTube. This is not a post about overnight viral success. The following is what I’ve learnt, and what worked when building a channel and a community from scratch.

Disclaimer: My channel is scrappy and a work in progress. Frankly watching anything I made in the first 6 months makes me cringe with embarrassment! Having started the channel with zero previous experience of shooting/editing/producing, it is only in the previous 4–6 weeks that I’ve started producing videos that I’m somewhat proud of. This is a peek into my journey from zero to one million views.

Let’s start with numbers (as of 20th Sept 2015):

Channel: youtube.com/MattsApps

• Channel start date — January 2015
• Total views (fig. 1) — 1 Million
• Total minutes watched (fig. 1) — 1.9 Million
• Current monthly views for Aug — Sept 2015 (fig. 2)- 175k
• Subscribers — 16k

I make videos featuring the Top 5 New iPhone Apps and Games every Friday (2 videos per week). This is a side project. I work full time, meaning that I shoot, edit and release these videos over about 4–5 hours every Friday afternoon/evening.

The motivation for creating the channel came down to two frustrations and two apparent opportunities:

Frustrations:

1. The App Store’s poor curation.
2. The shallowness of the information on each app page.

Opportunities:

1. I believe the number of early adopters is growing fast, and that we are still at the beginning of that growth curve. (More on this in No.5)
2. I believe mobile gaming is also at the beginning of a huge growth curve.

Simply put, I wished these videos existed. So I made them.

Fig.1 (Left): Total Views & Minutes — Fig.2 (Right): Current Monthly Views

FAQ No.1 Equipment

The iPhone 6s can shoot 4k video. Multiple $100–$300 cameras shoot 1080p video. A decent entry level microphone? $70–100. A tripod? $40–50.

Video-making has been democratised. Software and hardware exist in the most recent iPhone/consumer-cameras that would embarrass many decades-old movie studios. Save up, buy according to your means, and make. Scale up equipment along with viewership. No excuses here.

FAQ No.2 Moolah

Do not expect to earn any decent money in your first Million views. If this is why you wanted to start making videos, stop now, you’ve already failed. Stable and sustainable earnings on YouTube come from regular uploads, an engaged viewership and a solid back-catalog of videos. The combination of these three over time leads to a steady and importantly cumulative influx of earnings. This revenue can scale nicely if you persevere and keep nurturing your content and community.

My Experience: I didn’t start my channel for the money. However I do have 3 ways (that I’m comfortable with) to monetize my content:

1. Adsense. Simply the money YouTube/Google pays you to run pre roll/banner ads on your videos.

2. Affiliate app download revenue. So far: >100,000 clicks on the featured apps and >65,000 downloads. A >65% conversion rate.

3. Coming soon ;)

Excuses out the way and reality check in place? Let’s start.

Level 1. Ideas for YouTube Channels

Based on the type and volume of questions I get asked about YouTube, I think this is the biggest hurdle facing those who want to make videos. Just like the ideation process of startups, or really anything creative, it’s very easy to sucker yourself in to believing an idea is a good one, when it is not. In his essay “How to Get Startup Ideas” Paul Graham puts it well when he states:

“Why do so many founders build things no one wants? Because they begin by trying to think of startup ideas. That m.o. is doubly dangerous: it doesn’t merely yield few good ideas; it yields bad ideas that sound plausible enough to fool you into working on them.”

And make no mistake, you should treat building a YouTube channel like building a startup (post coming soon on this).

So make something people want, right? Sounds simple, should be simple. But this can be very difficult. We, as humans, are rather good at deceiving ourselves when it comes to forming ideas that the rest of the world will use or see. It’s all too easy to start framing every idea you have in the context of whether others will like/use it. Don’t do this. You will always be able to rationalise why someone else would watch something. Don’t think of others. Be unrepentantly selfish when you’re at the ideation phase. The time for listening to feedback and considering the wants of your (potential) audience only comes when you’ve actually made something.

Stop guessing, start making. Make something you wish existed. Something you actually want. I repeat: Something you haven’t just persuaded yourself that you want. Unless you’re an alien or have the most bizarre taste in entertainment on earth, odds are that a portion of the population, however small, will share the desire to watch that same content. If not, I’m sure your friends will oblige. If not, get better friends.

You found an Idea! Move on to Level 2.

Level 2. Find Eyeballs

Now that E.T has left the building, let’s talk about viewers. You need to find that portion of the earths population that might be interested in what you’re making. These people do exist, and it’s never been easier to identify them. Once you find them, then what? Give. Starting from scratch when building an audience on YouTube is like trying to get out of a deep hole with smooth walls. You’ll need the help of others. The only way to get out is to take James Altucher’s advice:

“give back without asking, give as if you were the richest man in the world.”

• Engage with and promote discussion within small communities on: Reddit, Facebook, other YouTube channels, Twitter etc.
• Do not shamelessly self promote. Present your videos as a service or a contribution rather than an attention grab.
• If you are featuring/using products made by someone else (like a significant % of YouTube channels), start with smaller, less known products. These founders/creators/developers want attention, you want views. Provide value in exchange for value.

I got to know two specific, small communities when looking to get the word out about my videos.

1. The r/iphone Subreddit. My videos started off as a service. To this end I encouraged the r/iphone community to shape those early posts. Based on the suggestions of the sub-reddit I included a TL;DR description, and a direct link to the apps featured in the Reddit comments. This was for those who didn’t want to watch the video but valued the curation. This potentially harmed my initial view count, as Redditors could bypass my video and just click straight through to the apps. However this time-saving service was vital in framing my videos as a value-add to that community, instead of self-serving spam. 8 months later, r/iphone has been fantastically supportive week in, week out. On most weekends the comments provide intelligent discussion about the weeks’ new apps, and I hope that the community realises they have significantly shaped the channel so far. (Shout out to r/iphone mod bmeckel for allowing my posts in the first place! 👊)

2. App Developers. Since the first video in January, I consistently Twitter-mention developers of the apps I feature: “Hey! Your app was No.1/2/3/4/5 in this weeks video. Congrats on building such an awesome product! 👍” + a Youtube link. Again, this was a service for them, free publicity, which resulted in retweets, mentions and general attention. Here I was trying to get people to watch my videos, and app developers ended up thanking me and sharing what I had made. Win win. I now get upwards of 50 emails per week from developers asking me to take a look at their app.

Becoming part of small communities works for any content type. LetsPlayer? Play a small indie game. Fashion Blogger? Review a new beauty startup’s products. Digital Short/Sketch producer? Find something small, but with a devoted following, and poke fun. The only requirement is that you like whatever you make/feature. Again: Only make something you’d want to watch.

Finally, another valuable bit of growth happens when you engage with small communities: SEO. Targeting these small interest-focused groups gives your videos a better chance at finding high-retention viewers (i.e viewers that won’t immediately click off your video). The more of these you can attract, the higher you rank on YouTube/Google’s ranking algorithm. YouTube essentially says: “You got some good views huh? Have some more!”.

TL;DR: Provide value in exchange for views/sharing. Engage with small communities. You need to understand why someone would post/share/mention/watch your video. Remember that these communities’ initial reach may be relatively small. But it can only take one evangelist to activate network effects.

You found eyeballs! Move on to Level 3.

Level 3. Make

Now you have a tiny audience in mind, a few small communities to share your videos with. These are the 10–1000 people who will watch your first video. Now the scary/fun part. Shoot something, and release it. Make sure to ask for feedback at the end of the video.

Done? Good.

A portion of your first viewers will likely take an instant dislike to one of the following: your face/voice/potato-quality camera, and click/tap away. Not important. Someone, somewhere just watched something you made. Someone used a tiny digital product you created. Once the silly combination of narcissism and excitement passes you can get down to the serious business of improving.

What next? I’d recommend making 5 videos based on your gut intuition. Consider those 5 videos your alpha release. That is, shut off all feedback, ignore all comments and don’t pay any attention to view counts/likes for this 5 video period. Make what you want to make, how you’d want to watch it. I recommend this initial blinkering because you should come out on the other side of 5 videos with a slightly more balanced bunch of feedback and improvements in mind, than had you just made 1 video. Also 5 videos shouldn’t take too much time to produce, so little time wasted, if any.

If you want to create longer form, high-production value videos as your alpha test, then scale 5 videos down to however many you can shoot and release in a 1 month period. Conversely if you are churning out low production videos daily (e.g Let’sPlays) scale this number up to however many you can release in a month (don’t sacrifice quality for quantity though).

Let me explain this strategy. If you make one video, maybe it gets 10–500 views and one or two comments. Let’s say one of these comments tells you to change something: maybe they dislike your style of presentation or humour. This feedback might be terrible advice, the random thoughts of some unrepresentative stranger online, dolling out advice because they can, not because they should. But it’s compelling to listen to what others have to say, especially at the beginning. It will feel like these first commenters are experts (likely false) and you are the novice (likely true). This is just insecurity that comes with the territory of creating something. However if, after releasing 5 videos, you are being told the same thing again and again, then feedback trends start to emerge. These are worth experimenting with. Now you can start iterating, optimizing to get better and better until you don’t suck.

My Experience: After my first 2 videos I listened to one commenter who suggested I QuickTime screen-capture all my footage from my iPhone and then just voiceover on top. I tried this in the next few videos and was instantly greeted with increased dislikes, fewer likes, lower retention and 25+ commenters stating that they preferred the top-down, hands-on shot of the phone. This apparently gave the viewer a better understanding of what the UI/controls were like in the app and overall felt more personal. I reverted to the top-down shot and retention and likes both increased substantially and comments were complimentary over a 5 video period. This was scrappy data, but the early days are scrappy. Work the data the YouTube gods give you :)

TL;DR: Do not feel the need to take on board all feedback at the earliest of stages. Seek out advice, look for trends, test out changes, measure, repeat. One exception would be if an individual takes the time to go into depth a reason why she likes/dislikes a particular feature of what you’re making. These types of more considered feedback can be invaluable and brilliantly blunt, test them.

Treat this 5 video period as a defence against the inevitable variance of good and bad feedback.

What happens if, after 5 videos, you have non-existent views and therefore no feedback/growth? Give yourself more time, maybe 10–20 videos. Still no views/growth? Go back to Level 2 and work out “why someone would post/share/mention/watch your video. Then start Level 3 again. Still not working? Go back to Level 1.

You found an audience! Move on to Level 4.

Level 4: Community

This is the most important part of your channel. YouTube, at its best, is a beautiful bundle of broadcasting and community. The relationships that the very best and most engaging creators have with their viewers, are powerful like no other media platform before it. Without community there is no support, no comments, no likes, no feedback. No reassurance in a pretty harsh world of trolling and anonymous critique. A world where one supportive comment may make the difference between you persevering and you quitting. Therefore, build Twitter/Snapchat/Periscope/Meerkat/Twitch/YouTubeGaming followings (not all, but whichever work for your videos) in tandem with the growth of your channel. Link from your channel to these other platforms, carry the conversations from your videos on to them. Talk, be passionate about what you make, and people will talk back.

The easiest way to stand out when you’re starting out is to simply just care more about your subscribers and first viewers than their other subscriptions. Most successful creators get big and lose the ability to properly engage with their community. This is your one major advantage over every big YouTube channel! You’re minnow-esque status allows you to:

• Reply to every comment. If Taylor Swift finds the time to host sleepovers with her fans, you have the time for a few keystrokes.
• Take the time to talk to those who’ve watched your videos, use YT Comments/Twitter/Snapchat/Periscope etc.
• Ask for feedback. Ask what they liked, what they didn’t. Don’t say: “Would you like it if I did this?”. This will result in poor feedback and wasted time. You need to get good at reading between the lines of what your viewers want. Spot trends and think about the reasoning behind why your viewers like/dislike something.
• Be nice. The easiest competitive advantage you’ll ever have. The stakes are low when you’re small. Let offensive/negative people roll off your back.

My Experience: I challenge my viewers to show me how they use apps in certain ways or beat my hi-scores in the gaming apps I feature. This is fun and importantly transcends the conventional, one-way creator-viewer relationship. My subscribers “play along at home”, long after the show has finished.

It is this sense of community that builds an audience that keeps coming back. That gets those first few human-beings to root for you, to evangelise for you, to build your channel with you. Go the extra mile with your first few subscribers/viewers, and you should be able to develop a devoted, if initially small, following. These human-beings are special, they support you when very few others do. Treat them as such.

Bonus Level: Be Different*

*This is a non-essential Level. Only read this is if you are interested in predicting future digital video trends.

Back to Paul Graham again:

“It’s especially good if you’re different in a way people will increasingly be.”

The best manifestation of this principle, with regard to digital video, is the story of how Lets Plays became the most popular form of content on the internet. The very first creators of this kind, those who recorded/streamed their gameplay of various video games, started with a tiny audience and operated in small communities. But they were at the very lowest point of a wave which was building momentum, at the inflection point of a huge growth curve. Many of those first LetsPlayers now enjoy incredible audience sizes and legions of devoted, obsessed viewers. Why? They were different in a way that people increasingly were: YouTube just released YouTube Gaming, Twitch was bought for $1 Billion last year and E-Sports is on track to hit 335 Million viewers by 2017.

If you want to get into the strategy of hitting the start of the growth curve of various content types, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I making these videos because it feels like they should already be out there, and I want to watch them?
• Am I making, what is currently, niche content?
• In 1–3 years could millions be doing/consuming what I’m making? (This is by far the hardest question of the three to answer, and nearly always comes down to luck. But it can’t hurt to be aware of what’s changing and why in whatever content vertical you are creating in).

I’m currently obsessed with the impact VR/AR will have on the future of entertainment. As such I’m experimenting with and researching VR creation software.

Trying to predict what millions will be doing in a few years, that they aren’t doing now, can be nigh on impossible. Don’t dwell too much on this when coming up with ideas. However if you feel like what you’re making is right, and that it should already exist, then there is a chance you’re living in, and are building, that future. Now you’ve just got to wait for the rest of the world to catch up. Either they will and you ride the wave of changing behaviour, or you were wrong and you try something else. Both outcomes are valuable in attuning you to what the future may hold.

If this was helpful or you have any questions, hit me up on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsappsTV or email me: businessmattsapps@gmail.com

I also wrote about the future of mobile video and entertainment here: https://medium.com/@mattsappstv/the-next-billion-viewers-4d54089565de#.3rodljkk1

Which post would you like to see next? Tweet me with your choice:

• Startups and YouTube: Why You Should Treat Making Online Video Like a Startup.
• YouTube Data: What to Pay Attention To and Why.
• Identifying App Success Trends and Download Data.
• Predicting Digital Video Trends.