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

by Sean Cannell

We’re not saying everyone is going to become wealthy on YouTube.

now is a great time to get started on YouTube. Don’t put it off any longer.

many of them are introverts in regular life, but they have a passion for the content they create. That’s the real secret of YouTube. If you’re passionate enough to help others and excited enough to keep their interest, you’re ready.

Through video, it’s much easier for an audience to get to know and trust you.

55 percent of people watch videos online every day. Small Business Trends8 revealed that by 2019, global consumer internet video traffic will account for 80 percent of all consumer internet traffic.

Our success didn’t come from being super-talented. It came from sharing basic principles that anybody can follow to build influence, income, and impact with online videos.

At one point, every single person now on YouTube was brand new, had never done it before, and had no subscribers. Every person on social media started at zero, but they summoned their courage and started posting and uploading content.

The fear never goes away completely, but it does diminish over time, especially as you get better.

Develop patience. Beyond that, surround yourself with individuals who support you and can sustain and motivate you through the ups and downs.

Define what you want to get out of YouTube and make that the foundation of your channel.

If you’re struggling to find an identity or purpose for your YouTube channel, we recommend building it at the intersection of your passion, your proficiency, and your profit.

“To discover what you’re passionate about,” he writes, “ask yourself what you would do for free.”

YouTube is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s hard work.

There does have to be a market for your chosen subject. If you have passion and proficiency, but there isn’t a market for it, all you have is a hobby.

Just share what you know, what you want other people to know, from your own authentic perspective, and grow from there.

We set our end goal at day zero and used reverse engineering to create the necessary steps to reach it. We used the three P’s—Passion, Proficiency, and Profit—did the hard work, built our audience, and the results followed. Finding your zone means knowing the destination you want to reach so you can create your own roadmap to get there.

Who is Your Target Audience?

It sounds counterintuitive, but success on YouTube comes from a narrow focus. In fact, the smaller your target audience in the beginning, the faster you’ll grow.

What Will You Offer Them?

If you had twenty seconds on an elevator to pitch your YouTube channel to a stranger, how would you pitch it? Tell them what they can expect, who the channel is for, why they should be interested, how it will add value to their life, and why it matters. Many YouTube channels never grow because their creators never take the time to define a target audience and come up with a clear purpose, value, or reason why people should care about their content.

Clarity is power, and a clear understanding of your end goal will help you reverse engineer the steps to get there.

think of your videos as the shows on your channel. Just like a TV channel, your YouTube channel should have some big idea that can be translated into a cohesive brand.

The clearer the purpose and passion of your channel, the more likely you are to get subscribers.

It’s a good idea to secure a website URL with your YouTube channel name, even if you don’t use it right away.

When someone lands on your channel page, you have, at most, five seconds to form their opinion of you. Your cover art must grab their attention and create the right impression. Make sure it communicates who the channel is for, what it’s about, and why it should matter to the viewer. As in life, you only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure your cover image is strong.

Spruce up your look so that, even if you have videos that are similar to other channels, your presentation is clear and stands out.

if content doesn’t add value to our lives, we abandon it.

Value should be your focus when creating any content, on YouTube or any other platform.

People go to YouTube with the expectation of receiving something. When you’re wondering what sort of video to create, think about the kind of value you want to provide people.

No matter what type of videos you create, you must provide your audience with a feeling of connection. Connecting to a community of people allows your viewers to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

It’s perfectly fine to recreate what other people are doing, or to improve upon somebody else’s content, but it’s more powerful to create something new. Whatever you choose, make sure your content resonates with your experience, with your skills and talents, and with your personality.

A popular term on YouTube is “edutainment,” and it refers to content that combines education and entertainment. Those who do it well are experiencing massive success. The best content creators inform, inspire, educate, entertain, and build community all at once.

CQC: Consistent Quality Content. A common element of YouTube success is posting quality content on a consistent basis.

If you plan on creating a platform and growing your brand on YouTube, we recommend posting at least one new video a week.

quality is more important than quantity. Every piece of content needs to have value for the viewer.

Like a TV show, weekly is the minimum.

When a TV show loses consistency, people forget about it and look for other content. The same is true on YouTube. To build true influence, income, and impact on YouTube, you must be consistent.

Content value matters more than production value.

the production value is still important, so if your content is interesting, we also encourage you to level up your production value.

Make a list of things you’d like to upgrade and improve when it comes to your content.

Let this be a guiding principle: always start with what you have and then work to improve it over time. That applies to both your content and your production quality.

If you’ve already built an audience, another tip for making your content stand out is to ask them for feedback. Viewers love to feel involved.

Ask people to provide feedback in the comments.

It’s not enough to simply publish content on YouTube. You need to build a community.

You have to create community to thrive and grow.

First, and most importantly, your community is composed of your YouTube subscribers.

The more subscribers you have, the more attention your videos get. That’s the primary way to get to the next level.

Power Tip: YouTube now allows people to turn on notifications for your channel, so encourage subscribers to become super subscribers by hitting that notification button. They will be informed every time you release a new video. The button looks like a bell, so if you can convince people to ring the bell, it’s like going from the first date to dating consistently to getting engaged. In a business sense, getting married is the final step and would be if somebody becomes a customer of yours or invests with you at a deeper level.

If people follow you on the social media platforms connected to your YouTube channel, that creates another level of community.

Always ask your audience to follow you on social media. If you can get them to do so, you are creating an audience that values the interaction, and that’s huge for channel growth.