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If you have less than 1,000 subscribers, NEVER do this — Transcript

by Dan the creator · 2,413 words · 355 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00If you have a channel with less than
0:011,000 subscribers, there are certain
0:03things you should never do because if
0:06you keep doing these things, you'll
0:07never grow. So, in this video, I'm going
0:09to share the five things you're probably
0:11doing right now that need to stop
0:13immediately. Let's get into it. All
0:15right. So, the very first thing on this
0:18list of what not to do is this. Never
0:21assume that viewers are watching your
0:23videos for you because they aren't. And
0:26this is why you should never start a
0:28video by talking about yourself or
0:31talking about your channel. And let me
0:32explain why. Because unless you're
0:34already someone who is well-known or
0:36well-respected or unless you're some
0:38sort of like super hot female model, I
0:41can guarantee that literally nobody is
0:43clicking on your videos because they
0:44want to see you specifically. Now, what
0:46you need to understand is that when
0:48someone opens up YouTube, they are
0:50usually looking to either be
0:52entertained, to be taught something, or
0:54because they want some sort of
0:55information. Like these are the three
0:57main types of value on YouTube.
1:00Entertainment, education, and
1:01information. So, this means when your
1:03video appears in their homepage or on
1:05their recommended tabs the very first
1:07time, they have absolutely no idea who
1:10you are. And more importantly, they have
1:11no reason to care about you yet either.
1:14Literally, the only thing that matters
1:16to those viewers in that exact moment is
1:19what they think they'll gain from
1:21watching your video if they decide to
1:23click on it. So, there has to be a value
1:26proposition in every video you make. And
1:28what I mean is you need to consider are
1:31you just entertaining them? Are you
1:33teaching them something specific like
1:34how to make good lighting? Or are you
1:37giving them information? This is why
1:38your title and thumbnail are so
1:41important because they're essentially
1:43making a promise about what value the
1:45viewer will get from your video if they
1:47click on it. And that promise of value
1:49is literally the only reason someone
1:52will click on your video. Trust me. So,
1:54every video you make from now on should
1:56answer one simple question.
1:58>> [snorts]
1:58>> What will my viewers gain from watching
2:00this video? And your answer to that
2:03question must be related to your title
2:06and thumbnail. And if your viewers ever
2:07like can't immediately see what value is
2:10in it for them, they will just leave
2:11your video. So, just bear that in mind.
2:13Now, the second thing you should never
2:16do is ask people to subscribe to your
2:18channel within the first 60 seconds or
2:20so of any video. Now, look, time and
2:23time again, I see people do their
2:25introduction and then straight away
2:27they're like, "Oh, be sure to hit that
2:28subscribe button and give the video a
2:29thumbs up." Like, before the video has
2:32even actually properly started. But
2:34look, this makes no sense whatsoever
2:36because why would someone subscribe to
2:38you before they know what the video is
2:40actually about, whether it's good
2:41enough, or who you even are in the first
2:43place. Now, look, I know you want as
2:46many of your viewers to subscribe to you
2:48as possible. But asking for a
2:50subscription before you actually deliver
2:52any value is basically like going to a
2:55restaurant and having the waitress ask
2:56you to leave a five-star review before
2:58they've even served you the food yet.
3:00Like, you wouldn't do it. And you'd
3:01probably think it was actually very
3:03cheeky of them to ask because you
3:04haven't even tasted the food yet. But
3:06the exact same thing applies to YouTube,
3:08too. Like, your viewers will probably
3:10think you're cheeky for asking, too,
3:11before you've even given them the like
3:13the value they came for. So, instead,
3:15you need to approach this in one of two
3:17ways. The first option is to only ask
3:20them to subscribe to you after you
3:23deliver the value they came for. When
3:25someone watched a large portion of your
3:27video and feels like they've gained
3:29something from your video, that is the
3:31perfect moment to ask for a
3:33subscription. But then the second option
3:35is simply just to not ask at all, and
3:37instead let your content do the work for
3:40you, which is the approach I usually
3:41prefer.
3:43So, here in this option, what you really
3:45want to focus on is getting the viewer
3:47into what I call a hypnotic state, where
3:50they basically become like fully
3:51absorbed by the video and they're
3:53focused entirely on the content you're
3:55giving them. Now, when someone reaches
3:58that state, the state you're probably in
4:00right now, the most important thing here
4:02is to avoid interrupting that state by
4:05asking them to like subscribe to you
4:08because it ruins the flow. If your
4:10content is truly good enough, they're
4:12going to subscribe to you without even
4:13thinking about it. And this is what most
4:16of the best performing creators do
4:18because they understand that the
4:19strongest driver of subscribers is
4:22simply delivering the best possible
4:24content. And then another thing you
4:26should never do is worry that your
4:28channel may be too niche. Now, I know
4:31that at the start of your journey, it
4:32might feel like the niche your channel
4:34is in might be too specific and because
4:37of that, you might assume that the
4:39reason you're not getting many views is
4:41simply because there aren't enough
4:43people interested in what your specific
4:45niche is. But look, in 99% of cases,
4:48that is actually not the problem. Now,
4:51the truth is, yes, super niche channels
4:53do usually take a little bit longer to
4:55grow in the beginning. Now, this isn't
4:57because the audience isn't there though,
4:59it's actually just because the algorithm
5:00has to work a little bit harder to
5:02figure out who exactly the right viewers
5:04are for your channel. Now, think of it
5:06like this. When you first start
5:08uploading, YouTube doesn't yet know
5:10which viewers are the right match for
5:12your channel. So, it needs time to test
5:15your videos with different groups of
5:17people and find the right people most
5:19likely to enjoy them. So, if your
5:22channel is in a super niche space, it
5:24will just naturally take the algorithm a
5:26little bit longer to find those people
5:28and that's fine because once the
5:30algorithm does begin to understand who
5:32your content is for, after a while,
5:35things will start moving much faster for
5:37you because those super niche viewers
5:40all actually share the same traits and
5:42the algorithm will then have a really
5:44good data profile to work from and it
5:46will make finding the rest of those
5:48super niche viewers much, much easier.
5:50Plus, anyway, look, having channels in a
5:52really big and popular niche means
5:54you're competing with thousands and
5:56thousands of other experienced creators.
5:58And trying to compete with those
6:00experienced creators, if you have a new
6:02or a small channel, is incredibly
6:04difficult. But instead, if you actually
6:06focus on a much smaller and much, more
6:08specific niche, it becomes much easier
6:10to stand out and actually eventually
6:12become one of the main voices in that
6:14space. So, look, being in a super small
6:16niche is actually quite a good thing,
6:18not a bad one. So, don't worry about it.
6:20Now, the next thing you should never do
6:22is publicly share your channel's main
6:25email. Now, I've seen so many people
6:28make the silly mistake of using their
6:30YouTube account email on their public
6:32profile and like channel description
6:34page. Or you'll share it with brands
6:37hoping that they're going to reach out
6:38to you and collaborate with you. And the
6:39reason you do not want to do this is
6:41because your channel's email should
6:43always be super private. Like nobody
6:46ever should have access to it. Because
6:48if someone can get their hands on your
6:50channel's email address, they can
6:52potentially misuse it to cause you
6:54problems with your YouTube account. And
6:56it also makes it so much easier for
6:58someone to try and gain access to your
6:59channel if they're determined enough.
7:01And there's a lot of people out there
7:03who will be. So, the solution here is
7:05very simple. You need to create a
7:07completely separate email account just
7:09for public use. And this one will be the
7:11email you put on your about page and in
7:13your channel descriptions. That way
7:15brands and potential sponsors can still
7:17contact you, but your actual YouTube
7:20email account stays private and secure.
7:22Because it would probably surprise you
7:24just how much of your personal
7:26information is out there floating around
7:28right now. And I'm not just talking
7:30about your name or your email. I'm even
7:32talking about phone numbers, location
7:34data, the websites you visit, and even
7:37how long you spend on each website. Now,
7:39the scary part about all of this is you
7:41probably never gave permission for most
7:43of this to be out there, but it's
7:45possible because there are hundreds of
7:46companies out there called online data
7:48brokers. And their entire business model
7:51is collecting your personal private data
7:53and selling it to advertisers, scammers,
7:56and pretty much anyone who's willing to
7:58pay for it. But that's exactly where
8:00Incogni comes in. Now, Incogni is an
8:02online data privacy tool that I've
8:04personally been using for over about a
8:06year now. And what they do is contact
8:08those shady data broker companies on
8:11your behalf and force them to delete all
8:14of your personal information from their
8:15databases. And those companies have to
8:17actually oblige by it. Now, think of it
8:19like having a digital bodyguard that
8:21constantly works in the background for
8:23you removing all of your sensitive
8:25personal information from all of those
8:27weird databases across the internet.
8:30Now, I can't guarantee that some of you
8:32have a ton of your information being
8:34sold between companies right at this
8:36moment, but you don't know who it is or
8:39where it is. And that's not good. So,
8:41instead of having to hunt down all of
8:43these dozens of companies yourself and
8:45sends like request removals, Incogni
8:48actually handles all of this
8:49automatically. And they've actually also
8:51released a new feature called custom
8:53removals, where if you find a website
8:55that's exposing your personal
8:57information, you can simply send Incogni
8:59the link and their privacy experts will
9:02try to get that data removed for you.
9:04Now, it literally takes a couple of
9:06minutes to set up and honestly gives me
9:08so much peace of mind knowing that
9:10someone is actively working to keep my
9:12personal information off the internet.
9:14So, if you want to protect your online
9:16presence as a YouTuber, I highly
9:18recommend checking them out. So, take
9:20your personal data back now with
9:22Incogni. Use [email protected]/creator
9:26link below, and you'll get 60% off an
9:28annual plan. I promise you, it's worth
9:30it. All right, so the fifth thing you
9:33should never do on a channel with less
9:35than 1,000 subscribers is copy what the
9:38big channels are doing. Instead, what
9:40you actually need to do is look at what
9:42the other small channels are doing. And
9:44let me explain why. Now, there are way
9:46too many YouTube growth gurus out there
9:48telling you guys to look at the big
9:50channels and basically just copy their
9:52best performing videos. Now, at first,
9:54this might seem like a smart strategy,
9:56but the problem here is this. What works
9:58for a channel with, let's say, 2 million
10:00subscribers will rarely ever, if not
10:03possibly never, work for a channel with
10:05only 200 subscribers. So, instead, what
10:08I suggest to all of my students is this.
10:10The much smarter approach is to study
10:13all of the smaller channels in your
10:14niche and look at what works and
10:16performs well for those guys. Ignore the
10:18big guys for now. For example, if you're
10:20in the travel niche, only ever look at
10:23travel accounts in your space with less
10:25than like 10,000 subscribers, or even
10:27less than 5,000 subscribers. And just
10:29pay attention to all of their best
10:31performing content instead of the big
10:33boys. And this is because if those
10:35videos worked for other small channels
10:37in your niche, it's pretty much
10:39guaranteed to work for you, too. Now,
10:41for me, when I had like one or 2,000
10:43subscribers, I actually studied channels
10:46like this guy, a guy called Jevin. I
10:48looked at his best performing video
10:49ideas and I used those ideas in my own
10:52content strategy because he also only
10:55had a couple of thousand subscribers at
10:56the time. So, I knew that the video
10:58topics that worked for him had a really
11:00high chance of working for me, too. I
11:02didn't even bother looking at the big
11:03channels like Ali Abdal or VidIQ at the
11:06time because I knew that the videos that
11:07worked for them aren't going to work for
11:08me. So, what I would suggest is go out
11:11there, find a ton of channels with less
11:13than 10,000 subscribers, and really,
11:15really study them. Then, last but not
11:17least, you should never expect the
11:20algorithm to just push your videos out
11:22for you. Unfortunately, as you probably
11:25already know by now, it's not as simple
11:27as uploading a video and then waiting
11:29for the algorithm to pick that video up
11:31and recommend it to everyone,
11:32everywhere. Instead, YouTube actually
11:35rigorously tests your videos with small
11:38groups of viewers first. And based on
11:39how those small groups of viewers
11:41respond, it will then decide whether or
11:43not your video deserves to be shown to
11:45more people or not. And the most
11:47important place where these tests happen
11:50is a YouTube home feed. Getting your
11:52videos pushed to the YouTube home feed
11:54is the best way to grow your channel and
11:56get more views, hands down, like the
11:58best way. So, if you want the algorithm
12:00to start pushing your videos, what you
12:02really need to understand is how to get
12:04your content onto the home feed in the
12:06first place. And in the next video that
12:08pops up around here, I'm going to show
12:10you exactly how you can do this in five
12:12easy steps, even if you're a small
12:14channel. So, if you want to massively
12:17increase your chances of having the
12:19algorithm recommend your videos, click
12:21on this video here and give it a watch.

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