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You’re probably making 1 or more of these BIG MISTAKES on your YouTube channel that is either slowing or stopping your channel growth. Here’s how to fix them!
Check out my YouTube system Project 24! https://channelmakers.com/go
This page has the lav mic I recommended in the video: https://channelmakers.com/tools/
This guide shows each step to build a successful channel: https://youtu.be/aBUcO_wAf08
Chapters:
0:00 The Big Problem
1:38 Entry Level A
2:13 Entry Level B
3:22 Next Level A
4:05 Next Level B
5:00 Next Level C
5:59 Next Level D
6:42 Next Level E
8:07 Top Level A
9:27 Top Level B
11:47 Top Level C
Got something to share with me (feedback or an interesting YouTube find)? Go here: https://airtable.com/shre0hEysXMEeEz9g
#growonyoutube
Legal Notice: Channel Makers is a product of Income School LLC. The “Channel Makers” name and O logo mark are trademarks of Income School LLC. Income School LLC is a limited liability company headquartered in Idaho, USA. Results mentioned not typical. No business is guaranteed to succeed, in fact, most new businesses will fail. It takes hard work, skill, and time for a new business to grow. The name “Project 24” is not a guarantee of success in 24 months, but refers to those who have a goal of creating an online business in 24 months. Some will succeed, others will not—just like any business.
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howdy howdy everyone nate here this is
going to be a fire hose of feedback or a
channel roast if you will you see
there’s three levels of direction i’m
going to be giving during this video and
i want you to compare it with your own
channel based on recent feedback i’ve
been getting a lot of you are feeling
like your channel is just not growing
the way that you want it to so i decided
to get down and look at a real channel
the channel we’re going to be looking at
today is called improve with jules and
give my best actionable feedback
especially if you’re in a similar
situation now obviously not all of the
advice i give during this video is going
to be directly applicable to you
watching this but more of it will be
applicable than you might think all
right so here is the channel this is
improved with jules now jules first
started publishing on this channel about
a year ago and the topics were generally
around community college testing out of
things clep exams and it’s evolved to
more of the recent topics being more
productivity how to get over your task
list what to do when you’re feeling
burnt out and testing some morning
routines and other solutions provided by
other productivity experts now as of
recording if i look at the most popular
video on the channel it’s gotten just
over 3 000 views 227 subscribers and the
average or the baseline of views on more
recent videos is about 25 views now when
i reached out to jules to see if i could
review her channel she was very open to
this so this is all done with permission
i am going to be roasting and being very
direct with my feedback but i wanted you
to see something when i look at this
channel when i say this channel is just
not growing it is literally in terms of
views it is just not growing i’m gonna
go back uh six months ago 30 views six
months ago 22 views the views have been
pretty much flatlined for months okay so
the first level this is the high level
the entry-level pointers i’m gonna give
to this channel for the thumbnails the
first thing that stands out to me is
there is an odd mixture of uh kind of
graphics that don’t quite make sense in
the case of this one stop falling off
okay there’s a ladder on a wagon i’m not
really sure what that means the other
thing that stands out to me about these
thumbnails is the lighting on jules’s
face
appears a bit random maybe just whatever
was in the video and because the
lighting is inconsistent it comes across
as amateur or unprofessional so we need
some sort of standardized filter applied
to each thumbnail image next thing i’m
going to suggest is that we get some
sort of banner image it could just be
joules studying something at the top the
main reason for that is it’s kind of the
baseline expectation in not every
channel it’s none of these things i’ve
mentioned thus far will make or break a
channel but it’s just something that’s
nice to have because it makes it feel
like yeah this person this creator cares
about the channel and the other high
level or entry level thing i’m gonna say
is i looked at the several of these more
recent videos and for some reason let’s
see if you can spot what i’m seeing the
image quality if i go down here even to
settings quality it’s auto 380p it’s
360p it’s because this video is
literally only 360p for some reason the
quality on the most recent videos has
been way down and it definitely shows
again not a total make or break but it
will be something that factors into
people’s perception of your
professionalism and if you’re doing a
channel that’s about productivity and
you know getting better at your life
it’s the small details that matter now i
do need to note here that not all of the
videos are like that in fact some of the
older ones are just fine at 1080p if
your videos are 1080p that is just fine
for most of youtube it’s just some of
these more recent ones for some reason
the quality has been way off all right
that’s first level let’s go next level
what i’m looking at here is on the
thumbnails i want to see ways for you to
demonstrate what you are showing in your
video what you’re talking about
visually now this is perhaps one of the
biggest challenges that i see skills
based channels having especially if
you’re not doing gaming or some sort of
outdoors or crafts or something where
your thumbnail is an image of what
you’re doing right in many cases
skills-based channels have the biggest
struggle with this and i want to see
jules doing this ask yourself this
question how can i show this visually
that should be your answer all and this
happens when you’re ideating your video
before you even record the video what am
i going to put in the thumbnail and how
can i show what i’m doing visually to
create intrigue next thing i’m going to
suggest is i’m going to look at the most
popular videos on this channel and we
have a variety of more recent and some
older ones and i know jules has said
that she’s kind of evolved the channel
into more of general productivity and
testing out routines and that kind of
thing more recently so what we’re going
to look at is the more recent videos
that have more views than normal and
look into pursuing those threads further
because what that tells me is an
audience the algorithm somehow was able
to associate the audience with the
content on my channel and so if i’m
pursuing the videos that did get a bit
more views i have an advantage in those
videos future videos on a similar theme
doing better in terms of views and also
jules is part of my program project 24
and she let me know before recording
this that she has not yet even started
the new youtube system and so i’m going
to suggest that do the new youtube
system especially phase one because it’s
gonna make so much of the rest of these
processes make more sense next pointer
i’m going to give here is let me see if
you can spot it while watching a few
seconds of this video holiday known as
quitter’s day because it’s the most
likely day of the year for people to
give up on their new year’s resolutions
so happy not quitters day looking at the
lens now this comes from watching
several of the older videos on jules’s
channel improve rituals channel often i
would see her looking like this now a
slight looking back at you and then
looking at here to the side this will
often be because we’re recording on a
phone or something and we see ourselves
a reflection or a mirrored image of
ourselves while we’re recording and
we’re looking at that to see how we look
while we’re recording but as you can
tell and in fact it feels so weird to me
right now i am not looking directly at
you i’m looking to the side and it just
feels so bizarre it feels weird to you
who are watching this because youtube is
about eye contact it’s about connection
and so jules is has been getting better
at this so i’m super happy about that to
see that in this video but in the case
that you find yourself doing that in
your own videos it’s a small thing but
it makes a big difference i’m gonna play
a few more seconds of this clip and see
if you can pick up on this next thing
not in like an encouraging way it’s just
actually a week later the audio quality
could be improved a bit now i see we’ve
got a curtain behind us here this is
good i’ve done a significant amount of
work here in this recording space if i
could show you i’ve i have sound
dampening panels these images all behind
me have foam behind them i have curtains
there’s a whole bunch of things i’ve
done but the number one thing that i
recommend for everybody i’m going to
show you is you get one of these if you
don’t yet have one of these it’s a
little bit of an investment but this is
the tascam dr-10l if you go to
channelmakers.comtools i think i have
all my recommendations there but this
one device i kid you not has solved 80
or more percent of all the audio issues
that i’ve ever had all right next
pointer i’m going to give is on the
again on the thumbnails actually and
this is if i look at similar channels
now jules let me know that there were
other channels she was trying to model
her channel after so channels like
thomas frank
and ali abdal so what i would do if i
were in jules’s position as i would go
okay here’s thomas frank’s thumbnails
here’s my thumbnails
here’s ali abdoll’s thumbnails here’s my
thumbnails what am i going to tweak
based on what i am seeing next pointer
i’m going to give to this channel and
potentially to your channel this is not
going to apply to everybody it’s
consider publishing fewer videos more
quality now hold on i get that most of
the time i say look we got to get as
many videos out as possible but this
comes because of feedback that i got
from jules i asked her what was her
least favorite part about producing her
channel and she said my least favorite
part is feeling rushed i often want to
be a guinea pig for weird ideas or
challenges film more b-roll or learn
more about editing but i feel so rushed
to get my two videos out of week that
those more in-depth videos never happen
so in this case i’m going to give the
advice of fewer videos more quality
because i think that this channel will
benefit from it and if you are more
excited about a certain type of video
that is maybe going to take a bit more
time especially at the beginning it’d be
great if you could automate it and get
it in less time in the future but at the
beginning if it’s going to take a bit
more time i’m going to say yes go for it
again that’s not advice i would give
everyone but based on what i’m seeing
and jules’s feedback that’s what i’m
going to say okay we’ve made it thus far
we’ve got our first level now we’ve got
our next level now it’s time for next
next level but before i do that i’d love
if you’d boop the like button if this
video is being helpful to you thank you
that’s awesome it’s time for next next
level here is what i genuinely think is
going on i think that this channel is
not growing primarily because one jules
isn’t sure what the channel should be
and two the algorithm is reflecting that
so the big question on my mind right now
is what is jules going to be known for
first in fact i did a recent youtube
podcast episode all about building topic
authority and how it’s actually more
vitally important than most channel
makers realize and so building on the
advice i gave in the previous next level
i’m going to look at the videos that got
a bit more exposure even just slightly
more exposure i’m going to look at that
plus the types of videos that jules
wants to do more of or wants to be known
at those two i’m going to combine and
say we need more videos on fewer topics
because what i’m seeing when i look at
this channel is it’s it’s testing things
it’s testing productivity it’s doing
morning routine of a monk it’s doing a
lot of different things but i think it’s
so all over the place that it’s
literally the algorithm isn’t quite sure
how to classify this channel so we need
more videos about fewer topics and more
recurring themes and that is going to
help in a huge measure with this next
pointer i’m going to play a few seconds
of this video so you can kind of see
what it starts out like sup i’m jules
and i unfortunately procrastinate a lot
if you do too let’s try to improve that
so first i want you to think of a task
that you have been putting off for a
while or maybe once okay i’m gonna stop
there we’ve got the the casual
introduction this is great trying to you
know relate with the audience but what’s
the topic of this video the cure for
procrastination my main issue with that
intro was there was no real reason why i
should listen to jewels there are a lot
of experts in this space and many of
them have written books have been
featured on tv shows or interviewed all
the time why should i listen to jewels
over everyone else if you’re in a
position where your channel relies on a
certain amount of expertise for people
to trust you as an expert they’re
looking to you for some forms of advice
often you need a little bit of reasons
why they should listen to you and you
need that in almost every video until
your channel starts to gain a bit more
momentum and that starts to speak for
itself so i happen to know based on past
interactions with jules she’s done some
awesome things like testing out of
college in a quarter of the time and
saved a ton of money on college and aced
all sorts of productivity things and yet
i didn’t get any of this if this was the
first video that i watched of jules i
didn’t get any of that so what’s the
solution here you need some sort of
reason to listen to you and your advice
over everyone else’s advice it could be
as simple as look i’m not a total
professional at this i don’t do this
full-time but what i have done is this
this and this and my goal is to help you
do this this and this so here’s the best
that i found you see the point here is
not that you have to be an expert with
20 years of experience to be listened to
on youtube it’s you need to be
transparent with what you have done and
put in more work than other people or
just be slightly ahead of where your
audience is because here’s the next
thing what’s going to happen is the
algorithm will classify your channel
with the right audience then as the
channel grows we’ll be able to broaden
the niche a bit and in fact i’m
obviously biased on this but i know of
no better way to do that quickly and
efficiently than what is in phase one of
my youtube system because what you’re
doing during this process is you’re
picking an audience you’re picking an
associated audience and then you are
forcing the youtube algorithm to
associate the two audiences as one so
that this audience is also the same
audience that you are attracting and
you’re doing that quickly also there’s
one other thing that i’m gonna say for
this channel that is very applicable to
your own audience and that is people
often want more of you so i’m going to
play a few seconds of another video so
you can see what i’m talking about as
you can see i’m looking a bit rough this
evening because i went to the beach with
some friends this morning i had to leave
pretty early but before i left i did a
simple routine by arlen moore so i like
the direction that jules is going with
this like hey i was just at the beach
this morning i was with some friends i
think this channel needs more of that i
think it needs some more real person
behind all of the tests and all of the
productivity tips it needs the real
jewels and i know many times we have
fears of being our real self on youtube
but the thing is youtube is about
authenticity i was talking about that
that’s why we talk directly into the
lens all of those things it’s about
authenticity and i can think of very few
channels that wouldn’t be benefited
greatly from feeling that greater
connection with the audience between the
channel maker you and your audience and
of course i’m gonna say it if you’re
having trouble because the algorithm
doesn’t know who your audience is then
you can check out project 24 i have a
whole process step by step for how to do
that the links in the description and
the other thing is if you are unsure
about the topic of your channel i
created an entire video about my best
picks for your channel topic this year
it’s based off of everything that i have
been seeing and i go through and explain
why each of them might be a good pick
for your channel it’s a pretty darn good
video so i’m gonna put that here for you
to watch next and we’ll see you there
okay and actually one more thing if
you’re still watching the video at this
point congratulations this is the
feedback ask time i would love if you’d
put in the comments what are your
questions about your channel what are
the things that you wish you knew about
youtube because i’m gonna do my best to
read through those comments and create
future videos based on what i’m seeing
from you guys so thank you for doing
that and we’ll see in the comments
