I just finished attending VidCon 2018 and I wanted to share the top Youtube Secrets that were discussed this year. Since VidCon was started by Youtubers, much of the discussion is about how to get your videos to be found, clicked on, viewed, and viewed for longer. YouTube is the worlds 2nd biggest search engine, and you can be making the most amazing content, but if nobody can find it, then nobody will be watching it. YouTube says: “Our goal is to get people to watch more videos that they enjoy so that they come back to YouTube regularly.”
1. The best color for thumbnails is yellow
— Big Face with visible whites of the eyes, showing strong emotions
— 3 words or less.. 6 letters or less per word
— Draw attention — arrows and circles
— And needs to be visible really small
— The video needs to deliver on the thumbnail in the first 15 to 30 seconds
— One creator spends at least an hour creating her thumbnail. The slime channel spends 4 hours.
2. Video titles are important! Emotional, lists, numbers, YOU, create a need
— The end of the world is coming! Things YOU need to know before over!
— Use active voice (runs instead of ran)
— Use buzz words (secret, exclusive, limited)
— Use emotional words (passion, truth, scary)
— Use trending words (fortnite, slime, fidget spinner)
3. “How to” videos are some of the most watched and also rank on Google
4. Growth Hacking: The most important metric to YouTube is “Watch Time”
— Most important in the first 24 to 48 hours
— YouTube helps you out on search ranking for the first 7 days
— But poor videos can also affect the next videos negativity
— Tracked per video AND on the channel overall
— May and September are the lowest months for Youtube viewership
5. People like authenticity and entertainment — particularly complaints and rants
— Stories about yourself
— Like a conversation with a friend
6. On average it takes 3 to 5 video views to become a subscriber
7. The videos with the most watch time are between 7 and 16 minutes in length
— And uploaded at least once a week — 3 is the current sweet spot
— Best time to post is when the most of your subscribers are active (Look at your analytics curve)
— Younger audience most active Thursday to Sunday morning
— Older audience most active Sunday to Thursday (when they are at work)
— But not too often otherwise you’ll burn out your subscribers
–Daily vlogging is dead. Hey.. I setup a tripod so I could get the improptu shot of me getting out of my bed in the morning.
8. Only ask for one call to action at the end, and that’s to watch another video
— But don’t click on it.. SMASH it!
— But don’t use playlists, too much of a time commitment to watch 100 videos
9. Ads are sold on keywords and viewer demographics
— Particularly the viewers country
— This is why my Japan videos don’t make much
— But why my Las Vegas videos do
— Apparently I should ONLY make videos on Las Vegas
— And in December CPM is the highest, and January is the lowest.
— Too bad for Jesus in Taiwan
10. Pro Youtubers make most of their money not from ads
— but from merchandise, subscriptions, etc
11. To not get demonitized avoid words like “Death” and “Kill”
— also avoid fire in your thumbnails
12. This number has been intentionally left blank
— Creator vs Influencer rant — Casey really hates the term Influencer. We should be measured about the videos are create, not the fact that they have influence
— Social Media about connecting with your friends or about competing for likes
— Casey Neistat says he doesn’t have a social life that competes with his work life. He doesn’t like to be around people. “I’d rather my daughter tell me she’s going to be a stripper than be a vlogger”
— Casey attributes his success to luck. Right place and right time. Took Casey 15 years to achieve some level of success. The path to success is challenging, disparaging and brutal.
— To give up is an absolute path to never achieve success. Then luck ceases to exist.
— Patience is the most undervalued virtue to achieving success.
13. The best numbers to use are prime numbers
