YouTube Secrets: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Following and Making Money as a Video Influencer

by Sean Cannell

Events

These events can happen live and in-person, or you can host them online.

Brand Sponsorships

Licensed Content

Speaking Engagements

Beginner Mistakes

When it comes to monetization, the biggest mistake we see creators make is focusing on income first instead of influence. Influence must always come first, and it’s impossible to build influence without building trust, adding value, and creating a connection and relationship with people.

A second mistake we see creators make is letting the monetization opportunity overshadow what’s good for the audience.

Picking a Starting Point

Consistency: Hustle Your Way to Success

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

It’s easy to focus on your YouTube empire and overlook the daily work of creating and uploading videos.

The brick-laying system is more important than the whole. Remember, the key to building momentum on YouTube is posting consistent strategic-quality content over time.

Committing to Consistency

The key to consistency on YouTube is to just show up.

First, when you create consistent videos, it’s like hanging out with a friend. The more often you hang out, the closer you get to that friend.

Second, as you keep posting and observing the results, you learn more about the platform and the ever-changing YouTube algorithm, both of which are vital to channel growth. Consistency is more than getting content out there. It’s about learning the process that creates success.

Third, by showing up consistently, you get regular feedback from the audience that helps...

Fourth, you might feel overwhelmed with how many things you have to learn, but practice makes progress. The more videos you film, the better you get at camera work. The more...

Creating a schedule is imperative.

people know when to expect your videos.

YouTube rewards consistent channels by pushing them higher in the search ...

Therefore, when you create consistent quality content, you position yourself for YouTube to promote your videos to a wider audien...

the harder you work, the luck...

When you post consistently, you put more opportunities into the world, more hooks in the sea, for peo...

Consistency Best Practices

Our strategy is composed of two essential things:

Scheduling in advance

Producing in ...

Planning saves you a ton of energy, so we schedule a shoot days in advance.

With batch producing, we set everything up—lighting, cameras, sound, stage—and film multiple videos in one session.

keeping it simple is better than nothing at all.

create simple, valuable videos that don’t require a lot of extra production.

Too many creators get bogged down in production, and they get overwhelmed with the amount of footage they have or the scope of their idea.

Scale back the complexity.

Almost every YouTuber we know, ourselves included, started off with talking head videos, low production values, and few resources.

How Often?

If you can only manage one video a month, that’s better than nothing, so long as you’re consistent about it. Ideally, we recommend a minimum of at least once a week.

YouTube prefers creators who post two to three videos per week.

it’s the consistent creators who get rewarded by both the audience and the platform.

Our Shoot Day Checklist

Tactics

Social Media: Leverage Your Message and Brand

“Content is fire, and social media is gasoline.”

Increasing Your Influence through Social Media

If you develop the influence to send people from social media to YouTube, the algorithm will love you for it.

Understanding User Behavior

If you’re not involved regularly on social media platforms, you’re missing out, and so is your YouTube channel.

Choosing the Best Platform for Your Content

If your target audience is largely business and corporate professionals, then you should heavily focus on creating content for LinkedIn,