YouTube Collabs: 6 Tips for an Awesome Video Project

YouTube collaborations are a brilliant way to grow your channel. Here are six tips to find the right video partners, choose ideas, and execute collabs flawlessly.

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Securing your first collab on YouTube is a welcome change after making videos by yourself. It’s not just the extra company that makes you feel happier and lighter. There’s an assurance that you'll never run out of good ideas. Someone will always be there to say, “What if we do this?” or “Let’s shoot the video like that.”

Overall, it’s nice to work with someone who loves filming, editing, and posting on YouTube too.

Have we inspired you to find collab partners, collect email addresses, and pitch a themed YouTube video?

Well…not so fast.

Before you send a flurry of emails, learn how to collab with other YouTubers first.

1. Find Creators On Your Level

Audience size is the first thing to consider when planning great collabs. Don't worry: You don’t need thousands of subscribers for a video project. You just need a collaborator whose channel size is close to your own.

Imagine reaching out to MrBeast for a video collab. His largest channel has more than 80 million subscribers, and even if you have 1 million, that’s not an equivalent partnership. You would gain millions of views and subscribers, but MrBeast wouldn’t get much from the deal. He’s already uber-famous.

So if you have 1,000 subscribers, for example, look for creators who have between 500 and 5,000. That levels the playing field so you both benefit from a collab.

How to Find Small YouTubers to Collab With

Are you an up-and-coming content creator? Despite what others may think, now is the time to collaborate with fellow YouTubers. All you need is a firm understanding of your YouTube niche and a consistent body of work.

Use Channel Crawler to find small YouTubers to collaborate with. This website lets you search channels by category, subscriber size, total videos, and more.

Our Talking YouTube room on Clubhouse is another option. Creators gather there to network and learn YouTube tips, so you’re bound to find YouTubers looking to collab.

2. Collaborate with Creators in Your YouTube Niche

Don’t forget about your channel’s theme when seeking collaborations. Even if a creator shares your channel size, that doesn’t mean they fit your YouTube niche. Find someone who covers the same topics as you, whether that's beauty, gaming, real estate, or something else.

You can’t afford to skip this step. If your channel is about personal finance, and you collaborate with a salsa dancer, that’s going to confuse your viewers; they might even unsubscribe from your channel.

3. Brainstorm Video Ideas Before You Send Collab Emails

Many YouTubers are looking for partners, but they don’t have unlimited time to search for one. People are busy filming, editing, and spending extra time on their YouTube thumbnails. The worst thing anyone could do is ask for a collab without sharing YouTube collab ideas.

Read More: 7 Tips to Craft Irresistible Video Ideas on YouTube

Before you email creators, come up with three to five video ideas. Explain how the partnership would benefit their channel, and overall, just make it easy for the person to say yes.

4. Pick a Video Collab Style

If someone does agree to collaborate with you, the next step is nailing a video style.

There are four ways to do a YouTube collab:

  1. Both creators meet in person and film two different videos. The first video will go on creator A’s channel, and the second video will go on creator B’s channel. However, both creators appear in each video.
  2. Both creators film their scenes separately and send clips back and forth to create a single video.
  3. Both creators do a video takeover on each other’s channels. So, for example, creator A makes a video that doesn’t include creator B, but the video gets published on creator B’s channel. Then they do the same thing for creator A. This is best for popular YouTube channels of 500,00 or more subscribers.
  4. Both creators do a hybrid video collab. For this idea, creator A appears in the first half of the video, and creator B appears in the second half. For example, in a video titled “6 Ways to Get Free Airline Tickets,” the creators each present three tips within the same video.

5. Set a Realistic Date to Publish Video Collabs

YouTube collaborations are fun, but they take time to plan and execute. That’s why you need realistic deadlines for everything: when to film collabs, when to edit them, and when to push them live.

The first two deadlines are up to you, but we have some advice on when to publish.

If you’re doing a collab where separate videos go on each partner’s channel, publish everything at the same time. That way, you can ask viewers to watch part one or part two at the end of whichever video they’re watching. It only works if both videos are available from the start.

6. Promote Your YouTube Collaboration

A YouTube collaboration isn't done when the content is published. The next step is promoting the video on social media to a wider audience.

That typically happens on:

Planning a collaboration with other YouTubers doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need three things to make it work:

  1. Concrete goals
  2. An understanding of your niche
  3. A like-minded partner who wants to grow on YouTube

Now that you’re an expert on video collabs, learn five tips to grow your channel faster.