This is a summary of the book READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO BE YOUTUBE FAMOUS by WILL EAGLE
- Don’t overthink it – Matthew Santoro
- Pick up your phone and start recording your first video
- You don’t need fancy equipment as the current phones can record good 4K videos
- Talk about whatever you want to talk about
- Use apps like iMovie, CapCut, and InShot to edit videos and add transitions
- Pick what you love – Michael McCrudden
- Be true to yourself and do what you love doing.
- It’s a long journey so you shouldn’t feel sick about doing what you are doing.
- Find your passion, find your speciality, and uniqueness and stick to it.
- You don’t need a lot of subscribers, find a smaller group of subscribers who love what you produce – Sam Sutherland
- You don’t need millions of subscribers to make a living from YouTube.
- There are tons of people doing the same stuff – like makeup tutorials, unboxing videos.
- Think about why would someone want to watch your channel instead of the rest of the videos.
- Consistency is key – Amanda Each Lee
- Lots of people starting out get impatient as they don’t see results with their first few videos.
- The key is to keep going and keep publishing videos.
- Amanda took about four years to see success with her channel.
- If patience isn’t your cup of tea then YouTube isn’t for you.
- Make it sustainable – Hydraulic Press Channel
- If it takes a long time to make each video then it will eventually become unmanageable.
- Look for a sustainable way to make videos that’s repeatable and could be automated or outsourced to an extent.
- The power of vulnerability – Shalom Blac
- Be vulnerable of your faults, creed, caste, or race, and use it as your strength.
- Talking about specific challenges about your community might attract the right audience for you.
- Shalom is a burns surviver and she started her YouTube channel about how to effectively conceal her scars. That made her successful to the extent of more than 1.3m subscribers.
- Don’t post your first 15 videos – Molly Burke
- When you start recording first, it’ll be awkward.
- After a few videos, you get comfortable with your voice and yourself in front of the camera.
- Molly says that you’d thank her later if you don’t post your first 15 videos and post only your 16th. As that’ll be the best first video of yours.
- Get a dog – Drew Lynch
- Get a co-host – just to make it interesting – could be a dog or any other pet.
- Laugh at yourself – Adrianna and Sarah
- Try to find ways to laugh at yourself along with your friends and your community.
- Of course, don’t be mean!
- Test test test – Laurie Shannon
- Don’t assume – just test
- Don’t wait to publish – just publish with a test
- Test the following:
- Styles of content
- Thumbnails
- Titles
- Laurie says that testing is what grew her channel from 80k subscribers to 2.5m in a year and a half.
- Laurie runs a baking channel.
- She tested 10 or 15 thumbnails and found that the colour yellow and cakes with faces did better.
- She also tests different titles like ‘How to Make a Bunny Cake’ vs ‘The Cutest Bunny Cake that Hopped off the Table’
- Don’t pigeonhole yourself – Shan Boody
- Don’t restrict yourself to a certain category or topic. Be creative and find different ways to tell the same story.
- Be controversial – Mori
- Don’t be afraid to offend people. It could make you stand out.
- Tie in a bit of humour to make your opinions subtle.
- Mz’s Note: @JustDestiny has changed to @mori and he is a pretty controversial person making too much controversial content. It’s a risky approach if you aren’t able to handle the repercussions of doing such controversial content.
- Make it relatable – Christian LeBlanc
- What does your audience want?
- How can you both entertain and inspire?
- How can you include them in your journey?
- How can you inspire them to follow your path?
- Don’t speak – Buttered Side Down
- Make visual content so that there are no language barriers.
- Themes are magic – Rich Ferguson
- Don’t dilute too much. Make the videos in your channel relatable. Focus on a theme.
- Maximise evergreen videos – Jordan Page
- Don’t make seasonal content – make evergreen content that people can refer all year round.
- eg. “My Favourite Slow Cooker Recipes” vs “My Favourite Fall Recipes”
- Collect your cavalcade of characters – Brandon Rogers
- Find a crew that can be your family and work together to make it successful.
- Break it to remake it – Grant Thompson
- If your content starts to feel stale, then it’s OK to shake things up and change.
- Don’t be afraid of making a change.
- Changes bring growth to you.
- Detach yourself emotionally and say to yourself. “Here’s the right thing to do, and I’m gonna do it!”
- Don’t hold yourself back.
- Commit to the process – Casually Explained
- Just because someone dislikes your video, doesn’t mean that dislike you.
- Use every video as an opportunity to improve upon.
- Disconnect yourself from the dislikes and instead revise your methodology.
- Commit to the process. The focus should be about making the best content you possibly can.
- Say Yes – Yes Theory
- Say Yes to serendipity
- Say Yes to trying new things
- Even if you are hesitant to do a particular topic, Say Yes to it and just do it!!
- So nice you could do it twice – Planet Dolan
- Create a second channel if you have significantly different topics to talk about.
- eg. Gaming and Educational
- Make it visual – Daniela Andrade
- Have strong, appealing visual content. YouTube is a visual medium.
- Take advantage of the magic of ordinary moments and make it appealing.
- Collaborate – Onision
- Connect with other YouTubers and ask to work with them.
- Get creative with how you work across different channels.
- Better than the YouTube algorithm, making friends with famous YouTubers could help your channel to explode.
- Run it like a company – Gizzy Gazza
- Delegate the work. Don’t do everything yourself.
- Have an editor – it could save a lot of time.
- Mz’s Note: Make processes that anyone can follow and outsource if needed.
- Perfect the prank – Kate Martineau
- If you are doing prank videos, then make sure the person in the prank video is OK with it afterwards.
- If they don’t like it, don’t post it, just ditch it.
- Sometimes pranks go sour, and that can be a shock. Sit down, talk, and decide how to take it forward.
- Choreograph the shot – Lily Hevesh
- Plan your shots ahead – think like a scriptwriter and write down every shot in detail. Run through it a couple of times before going for the shoot. It helps.
- Do your research – Preston
- Pick 50 YouTube channels at a time and research them – Often the simplest answer is the right one.
- Why are they getting views?
- What are they doing?
- How are they separating themselves from the pack?
- What’s their secret sauce?
- Don’t copy them, but make them your own.
- Just digest as much YouTube content as you can so you really live and breathe it.
- Time spent researching is time well spent.
- Pick 50 YouTube channels at a time and research them – Often the simplest answer is the right one.
- Find your format – Doug DeMuro
- Keep an ear out for audience feedback.
- You have to find a format that works for your videos. You eventually will find a template that works for you.
- Don’t burn out – Amie
- Some of them feel they let everyone down if they take a break from making videos, but there is no shame in that.
- It’s a full-time job, and when you vote everything to your channel and keeping your audience happy, it’s easy to get exhausted.
- Take a break when necessary. It’s ok!
- Some of your best ideas come when you take a break.
- Attract attention immediately – HOWTOCAKEIT
- In the first five seconds, you’ve got to attract the viewer’s attention.
- HowToCakeIt shows close-ups of their cakes to grab people right out of the gate.
- eg. You wanna see a cake that looks like a human heart? Sure you do! – with a strong visual
- Promote a product, but make it entertaining – VAT19
- Make everything interesting even a gummy worm.
- People like to watch VAT19 commercials as it’s fun to watch
- Try Instagram first – Jessica Vill
- It’s easier to get discovered because of the Explore page
- It helps to increase your fanbase first before jumping to YouTube
- It’s easier to experiment on Instagram
- Listen to your gut – Lauren Toyota
- Ask yourself, ‘Am I creating for me or am I creating for you?’
- You need both, in balance.
- If you record something and it feels wrong or weird in your gut when you watch it, don’t post it.
- Search and you will find – JumpRopeDudes
- Use YouTube search bar to find new topics and inspiration from existing videos.
- eg. how to jump rope …
- … like a boxer
- … for weight loss
- … for beginners
- Shoot overhead – Amy Tangerine
- Overhead videos are great to showcase your creative ideas and projects.
- You don’t even have to show your face or put on makeup.
- Just make sure you have a decent manicure and that your hands are clean.
- You need the right setup though.
- Desk Tripods (Arkon Mounts)
- A ring light
- A softbox
- Drop a season – King Vader
- You can drop a bunch of videos in one go, instead of busting out a video every day.
- Make it like an album or a season of a TV Series.
- That way you can take your time, which helps you make high-quality content instead of getting caught in the trap of quantity.
- Deliver 5 quality videos than 30 average ones.
- Reward your core audience – Matt Granite
- Don’t do giveaways on YouTube. You’ll just get a bunch of teenagers looking for free stuff in your audience.
- People just skip to the part of the giveaway and you get a junk audience.
- Rather reward your buyers. Eventhough they might be small, they are worth your effort. They are your core audience.
- Challenge yourself – Nicolette Gray
- People love watching challenge videos
- Examples
- shoot a video with really long nails
- live on $10 a day
- do a 24-hour shopping challenge
- Keep it clean – Nick Drossos
- Using the F word, and B word makes you look lame, aggressive, trashy, and unprofessional.
- If you want to be taken seriously. You should clean up your act.
- You don’t need to swear and scream to get your message across.
- Have a positive attitude, positive image, and you’ll appeal to more people.
- Please yourself first – Bad Lip Reading
- You can’t appeal to everyone.
- Focus on making content that you yourself respond to.
- Trust that like minded people will find it.
- Even if people don’t watch your video, you should be proud of your creations.
- It keeps you motivated to make more videos.
- Keep going, no matter what – Aileen Xu
- YouTube is a long game.
- Have patience and persevere.
- Nothing is guaranteed.
- Most people don’t make it because they don’t see the results within the time they set for themselves.
- Failure is when you give up.
- You have to be willing to work for years without reward.
- Keep creating, eventually it’ll happen.
- Dip the broccoli in chocolate — Davey Wavey
- Your message is the broccoli.
- If you just convey the broccoli without the seasoning, nobody’s gonna like it.
- Season it. Yet, coat it with chocolate so your message is embedded in something interesting.
- Make a channel trailer – Diana Madison
- Summarise your channel in less than three minutes
- Tell them the upload schedule.
- Give them a reason to stay and watch more and, to subscribe.
- You have to give people the feeling that they are part of your world.
- Summarise your channel in less than three minutes
- Illustrate to explain – Greg and Mitch – ASAPSCIENCE
- ASAPScience makes illustrated explainer videos.
- One of the reasons they are successful is because there is no face and that makes it easier for them to keep the audience’s attention.
- Illustrations make complex subjects easy to understand with simple visuals and keep your audience.
- You’ll have fans because they love your content rather than loving you as a personality.
- Search out trends – Haley Pham
- Ride on the trends.
- Steal like an artist!
- But don’t blatantly copy.
- Save being original for when you have an audience.
