Every creator on YouTube has a story to tell about their journey. It’s fascinating to dive into a fellow YouTube creators journey, to see how they got to where they are now, the special moments along the way, and what really triggered the growth of their channel.

In this week’s episode of TubeTalk, the YouTuber podcast, we’re joined by one such creator who has a compelling story to tell on his journey to 

Joe Scott started his career as a screenwriter on multiple indie films, alongside his main job as a copywriter for The Dallas Morning News for 12 years. During that time he turned his attention to YouTube, creating ‘

’, which was picked to be a part of YouTube’s NextUp program, which honors promising channels and creators on the rise. Answers With Joe hit the important 100,000 subscriber milestone in February 2018 and currently has over 470,000 subscribers.

The Journey to 470,000 YouTube Subscribers

Your channel's about kind of answering questions. How did you kind of choose that genre or did it kind of all choose you maybe? Initially, he was broadcasting mainly to family and friends, answering their queries on a range of topics. His content at the beginning was 100% comedy based, inspired by video OG ZeFrank. He then noticed that real answers to questions generated more engagement, so he pivoted slightly to focus on answering one question per video rather than seven or eight. He essentially started doubling down on the content that he found was working for him.

Often, creators start on YouTube but get frustrated very quickly because of the lack of traction, which Joe totally understand because he experienced the same thing. But going all in, and committed to the creator process will pay off if you dedicate yourself to improving with every upload. YouTube is also the long-game for the vast majority of creators, and Joe confirms that you have to give your “permission” to do it so you become more invested. It's when he did that then things really took a turn for the better for his content and his channel.

Tune into the podcast to hear more tips on the YouTube creator journey from Joe Scott

. Huge thanks to Joe for his time and invaluable insights around YouTube video strategy. Learn more from Joe by following him on 

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast

TubeTalk has been informing video creators amd marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

How do you go from 0 to 470,000 subscribers on YouTube? Learn more about the journey of a YouTube creator in this week's TubeTalk podcast.

The Journey to 470,000 YouTube Subscribers: TubeTalk Episode 162

Many YouTubers have had that one successful video that has outperformed all others, and a deep-dive into your analytics can uncover the secrets to your most-viewed content. In this episode of TubeTalk, the YouTuber podcast, we show you what metrics to look out for, what you should be focusing on, and how you can replicate success across your channel.

, and he’s all about helping businesses get more value from their video marketing efforts. Dane is the founder of the TubeTalk podcast, and he's also been a vidIQ user since Day 1. He’s also a proud 

! Click on the link above or download the TubeTalk podcast from the following:

If you have followed all the best practices for creating a great video, like giving it a great title and a compelling thumbnail, it should perform as well as any other you have uploaded. But we all know that’s not the case - some videos underperform and it pays to understand exactly why. In this podcast we take a look at:

Optimizing Thumbnails for a good click through rate

Using the right language to end your video

Leveraging traffic sources for views & content ideas

Why buying YouTube views is a really, really terrible idea

Understanding Audience Retention for YouTube Success

Just one of the topics covered in this TubeTalk podcast is Audience Retention. Dane confirms that a good way to look at the audience retention metric is to ask “how fast do people want to leave this video?" because in many videos it's very fast! He divides audience retention into three parts:

 How well does your intro and hook correspond with what you're doing in the thumbnail and title? If there is a disconnect between what you’ve promised and what you actually deliver your audience retention can drop very fast. For instance, if your thumbnail and title promises a video about ice cream but you actually focus on pizza your audience is not going to stick around (or come back).

 This really is the bulk of the video where you should be engaging your viewers after the initial premise, keeping them interested and continuing to add value.

 Did you convince your viewers to stay to the very end? Getting them to click on your end screen can really improve not just the ranking of that video, but the channel overall. You want to keep them watching as long as possible, and convince them to convince them to click and watch another video. If you can get them to watch to the end and get them to watch your next video, that's a very powerful signal for 

Looking at each of these sections independently can really help you understand how your content appeals to your audience. A lot of creators focused on the intro and the hook, but should take into consideration all three parts.

If you're a marketer and want to out more about how to promote your business on YouTube using high value, low cost, helpful how-to videos, you can watch Dane and HEY.com 

. Also he interviews the top video marketing experts on the "

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

Want To Get More YouTube Views & Subscribers?

Want to better understanding YOUR YouTube analytics? Make sure to download vidIQ today. It will help you research YouTube, understand what's working and what isn't, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Understanding your YouTube analytics is the first to step to creating content that drives views and subscriber growth. In this episode of TubeTalk we discuss Audience Retention, how to end your video, and why buying views is a really, really terrible idea.

Recreating YouTube Success by Understanding Analytics: TubeTalk Episode 158

What is the secret to success on YouTube? On this episode of TubeTalk, the YouTuber podcast, we’ll discuss the five principles with our very special guest 

. Scott practices what he preaches and has used the five principles process to drive 300,000 subscribers, and 100 million organic views across his YouTube channels in just 18 months. If you want to know what these principles are and how you can apply this formula to your own channel 

As well as running a number of successful YouTube channels. Scott is also the owner of 

, a Texas based convention for video creators and marketers.

The Five Principles of Success on YouTube

For anyone creating content on YouTube with the aim of increasing views and subscribers, there are a number of programming and audience development strategies they need to be aware of. YouTube expert Scott takes us through five of the most important:

#1 Find Your Focus Then Stay in Your Lane

Scott highly recommends focusing in on a topic or category that you are most familiar with, or are at a specialist at, and go all out on creating and promoting content about that theme on YouTube. At one time, creators could publish videos around a broad topic (for instance - family vlogging) and upload a wide variety of content from different angles. But as YouTube continues to refine its algorithm with the aim of surfacing relevant, quality content to viewers, creators need a single focus. In other words, you have to do one thing really, really well in order for the algorithm to like you.

Scott learned this lesson through experience last year when views tanked on his general ‘family’ content. While many other family-focused vlogging channels diversified and incorporated wider trends in their programming strategy, Scott made the decision to refine exactly what they wanted to offer their audience and double down, and triple down on content that has driven huge views and engagement. It’s a strategy that’s worked.

For any creator who is just starting out, Scott recommends that until you have established a base audience of people who are watching you, stick with one thing. Once you get into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of subscribers and your daily views are in the hundreds of thousands or millions, then you can start to branch a little bit and do more of a variety because you have a core community of people that's large enough that will follow you wherever you go, whatever you do. At the beginning, the safest thing to do is to carve out your little niche on YouTube and focus exclusively on that for a good long while.

#2 Diversify Your Income from Video - Now

There was a time when you could predict your income from YouTube based off what you made in the previous year. Those days are long gone. Now, income can fluctuate month to month so YouTubers need to diversify where your income is coming in from. For Scott, that means not being reliant on Adsense income but looking at many other monetization opportunities including brand deals, product sales, affiliate links, lead generation etc. He advises any other creator looking to earn a passive income (or a more substantial income) to do the same.

Think of a product that you can sell and sell it from the beginning. Try and talk to brands early. Most companies now understand the power of influence on marketing, and so they're willing to deal with micro influencers, whether it be with product sales or with affiliate type of program or with just product trade for video time. Most brands now realize that's the power of YouTube and social video.

If you sell a product or service obviously your YouTube Channel is a great vehicle for sales or lead generation. Or, if there is a way to create a physical product around your channel (like an ebook) then that’s an opportunity for you to monetize too. Alternatively, you can leverage your subscriber base via affiliate marketing - essentially making money from that by linking out to something like an Amazon website or the company site that sells a product or service you promote. Every time somebody clicks on that link and buys something, you'll get a small commission. Scott does this and generates passive income across his YouTube Channels. As long as the creator discloses that affiliate links are being used via their terms and conditions, and in their ‘About’ section, an affiliate is a good way for pretty much every single niche Scott can think of.

*(Note: If you love vidIQ then consider becoming an affiliate - check out the 

#3 Understand Your Audience Purchase Power

Even more important than understanding your audience purchase power is to develop your audience purchase power. Just because you have a certain number of YouTube subscribers, doesn’t mean they will follow your lead and click through on those affiliate links. But if you are successful at promoting a product or service you can track activity on those affiliate links, and establish your purchasing power and your authority. That’s the kind of data you can then use to entice a brand as part of a deal. You can confirm you have an average of so many clicks and so many purchases made of the products you have promoted on your channel, and how much you will charge a brand based off that.

The best way to build purchase power is by promoting things that you are 100% passionate about. If you just take every crazy brand deal that comes your way then your purchasing power is going to be minuscule because people don't want the junk that you're pushing on them. But if you're promoting XYZ camera that has been amazing and these are the 15 reasons that I love it, then you're going to have more people who are going to want to purchase that camera based off of your testimonial or your review. Understanding and developing purchase power is massive.

YouTube is a marathon, not a sprint. Creators have to be prepared to be in it for the long haul, if they want to be massively successful. You can’t just throw one video up and then ask "Why aren't people watching?" because the YouTube algorithm doesn't work that way. You have to put in the leg work and you've got to do all of the right optimization things on the backend, like creating an awesome custom thumbnail and optimizing your keywords. It may be a few weeks before you start to pick up any traffic from the algorithm.

Creating just a few videos thinking you are going to become YouTube famous is not the case any more (unless you're bringing a massive audience over from Instagram, or Snapchat or TikTok). You've got to put in the time. There's no instant success anymore. Those very, very, very, very few channels that will blow up massively, they either making amazing content that nobody's ever seen before or they've got access to something nobody else has.

#5 Become an Important Part of Your Online Community

The fifth principle is about the importance of actually being part of a community, something Scott didn’t appreciate at the beginning of his creator journey. But as soon as he started to take it seriously he started to meet others in the family blogging community and build relationships with them, including collabs. He started to pick up tips about content creation and other aspects of being a vlogger. When you surround yourself with people that are doing the exact same thing that you are doing, you cut learning curves down because you learn from everybody else's mistakes and everybody else's wisdom at the same time. You get this masterclass just by hanging out with people that you are in the same boat with. And that's why it's super important to be part of your community, and attend video marketing and other similar events.

Also, jump onto online communities, like the thousands of YouTube groups there are on Facebook. There are things that are happening all the time where you can kind of build a little communities, sub-communities of creators. There are so many different ways that you can put yourself out there at different levels and get back what you're looking for.

vidIQ would like to say a HUGE thanks to Scott Simson for his time and his invaluable wisdom. Please subscribe to his 

. This has been TubeTalk episode 156 - tune in next week for the next for more help and advice for all things YouTube.

Finding huge success on YouTube is absolutely possible. Follow these five principles to unlock new achievements and help monetize your content.

Posts tagged with "TubeTalk Podcast"