this is why the YouTube journey is frustrating isn't it getting your first 1,000 subscribers is hard let's not pretend it isn't on average it takes a channel 12 to 18 months to get their first 1,000 subscribers but I found five channels that have done it in less than 60 days it's all because they followed a simple launch strategy to FasTrack their Channel growth and if I was starting a brand new channel visaa tactics I would be adopting and the best part is all of these channels are still under 15,000 subscribers they are literally just a few steps ahead of you right now so the strategies they are following directly relate to you the first reason these channels are growing right out of V YouTube game it's because they're using a secret little trick to get views before they post their first video but in order to understand this secret little trick we need to go back 15 years in time to talk about one of my favorite YouTubers and an inspiration to a generation of content creators MKBHD fun little fact about MKBHD he is the one Creator on YouTube that no matter what his video is about I will watch it if you got a Creator you love just like that let us know in the comments below Marquez brownley made his first YouTube video in 2008 and like many creators his content was pretty random to begin with first it was a couple of golf videos and then hundreds and hundreds of random videos about all sorts of computer software but then he discovered something that completely transformed his channel and it wasn't anything to do with clickbait thumbnails because you could wouldn't make custom thumbnails back then nor was it to do with fancy editing or high production values because believe it or not MKBHD videos used to look like this what Marcus discovered is that when he started focusing on tech product reviews his views exploded and this was because at the time mobile tech was exploding in popularity we're talking about the beginning of a smartphone era Apple iphon stuff like that and review content in this Niche was in high demand and that's exactly why channels like policy are growing so fast by launching a channel in a high demand Niche it dramatically increases the chances of their first videos going viral as opposed to their hundredth videos for example take a look at this Google Trends graph what this shows is the search volume for Islands housing crisis and as you can see it's practically off the charts due to Islands immigration and housing issues now this is a controversial and sensitive subjects but it also presents an opportunity people are angry they're frustrated they're looking for answers so when policy creates videos like this that promise answers to those people who are angry and frustrated they're going to react to it and the video is going to explode so if I was starting a brand new channel or my channel just wasn't getting any views I'd invest some research time into finding those high potential niches to find that hungry audience ready to consume your videos where there isn't an oversaturation of Supply which leads naturally to the next obvious question how do you find these high potential niches well luckily for you I've got all of the steps outlined here the first easiest and most accessible step is to start using Google Trends Google Trends allows you to get access to billions of data points to know exactly what search topics are growing in demand for example let's say you wanted to start a YouTube channel around investing if we search for something like how to invest you can see that it's consistently growing in demand this is a great first sign that this Niche could be worth entering the next step is to check out that nich's view ceiling on YouTube and what we're looking at here is the highest views on the best performing videos in that topic so if we search for how to invest on YouTube we can see that the top videos are getting millions of views but there is a way to refine that search by filtering the videos posted in the last year and as you can see content is being recycled and the views continue to be very healthy so now that we know that the topic is popular today what about the opportunities within that topic that's where vid IQ comes into play once you download the browser extension it's going to add some useful additions to the YouTube layout for example when you do a search you can see videos that have higher views compared to the subscriber count this is a proof you're often looking for that small channels are being discovered within a topic another useful tool is this outlier number look for videos with a number higher than two as this represents a video that is performing well above average for that channel this is typically a great opportunity for you to create a video on the same topic but in your own voice and it has the potential to gain lots of views for your channel and if you want to go super deep into research then try out vid iq's keyword research tool with this you can identify specific niches and Search terms that are growing in demand or trending on YouTube and one of the things I love about the keyword research tool is that you can get a lot more granular than Google trends for example unlike Google you're going to get specific scores for each search term so you know how it's performing on YouTube compared to other similar terms it's also the fastest way to get a grasp of the turb terminology the overall language the questions being asked within the topic and you should be injecting all of that vocabulary and information back into your videos the good news is you can get free access to all of these tools using the link in the description or clicking right here about now but I'm sure you've already figured this out by now finding a niche with potential only really gets you to a starting grid the channels we're looking at did a lot more than this to hit that fabled 1,000 subscribers in such a short space of time and one of the biggest Reas reasons why they have succeeded where overs haven't is because they know how to charm the YouTube algorithm a lot of small creators Get Fooled into a way of thinking and that is to try and trick or hack the YouTube algorithm but that distracts the creators attention away from something that is far far more important the YouTube algorithm everything is so optimized that it just gives people what they want to give more views on a video you shouldn't study the algorithm you should just study what people want to watch now if you've been watching vid IQ for any length of time you be saying yeah yeah we've heard all of this before but there is a difference between hearing this advice all of the time and actually putting it into practice because if you did you'd notice that your channel is growing momentum over time and for many channels in terms of views and subscribers they just Flatline for weeks months sometimes even years so how do you create videos that your audience truly wants to watch well to explain how I've created a little game isn't this fun so what I want you to do is have a look at this Channel and try and figure out why these four videos performed so well now yet the thumbnails look good and the titles are intriguing but there's something very specific about the topic of these videos what this channel has discovered is that Their audience is obsessed with airplane engines and pretty much every single time the channel makes a video about that specific part of a topic the videos perform well above average so if you want to hit 1,000 subscribers fast this is exactly what you need to be doing choosing a specific topic within your Niche topic that your audience is obsessed with and we'll watch over and over and over again even if you think you're just repeating the same thing over and over and over again now I have a personal experience of this way back in the day when I was also a tech Channel I stumbled onto a topic of how to record your iPhone screen which I thought was good for a single video but it turns out over the course of a couple of years I made hundreds of videos on that single specific tutorial and people kept coming back to watch the content over and over and over again now I'm not saying for a second that you should stick to that single YouTube topic for the rest of your career but it is a fantastic way to establish your channel and learn how to build a community around a specific thing one of the best ways to discover these topics is to build what's called an audience Avatar profile this is a research document where you gather in-depth information about what your audience likes and doesn't like their goals their desires their obstacles their fears because once you know all of this you can create videos satisfy your audience way better than your competition and to make things easy for you I've actually created a templated worksheet that you can download under this video for free all you need to do is go through and answer each of the questions and you'll start to uncover unique topics that you can turn into videos that your audience just can't resist as an example for one of the questions you'll need to research channels that are similar to yours and note down the top performing videos but you can also take this question one step further and that is to identify any repeating topics they cover in several of their videos this alone is going to give you a really deep insight into what your audience loves to watch that's why you're on YouTube right to find an audience that shares your passion your values your beliefs and impact them in a positive way but that is just one of the questions on the document consider that your YouTube homework after you finish watching this video because now we found topics that are rising in demand and you're getting a better understanding of your audience but that doesn't necessarily make people click on your videos does it because now we need to address the first thing that will directly influence whether or not you win clicks the packaging the thumbnail the title and the truth is with so much choice on YouTube it's hard to grab the attention of a viewer who's constantly swiping or scrolling unless somebody's watching YouTube shorts at any given time a viewer has potentially half a dozen video choices in fact getting people to click your videos is a bit like trying to sell cereal you see cereal is a tough business you're competing with hundreds of other companies on the supermarket shelf and you can have the best tasting cereal in the world but if you don't know how to create packaging that grabs attention no one's going to buy it YouTube is the same way your packaging never has the sole attention of the viewer so it's really got to stand out also helps if it's really tasty so what you could probably do with is a helpful packaging formula right and it just so happens with got one and a small Channel that's pretty much mastered this formula is tell me expensive this video on their channel has over 300,000 views and currently the channel sits on around about 3,000 subscribers that's a pretty good return on investment isn't it one of the reasons the videos are performing so well is because they have really tasty packaging so let's break down what they've done the first thing is a thumbnail as striking as it is it's relatively basic with just three elements there's a stadium the city background and some text and because it's simple and clear you know exactly what the video is about and the reason that's so important is because you can expect the viewer to give your title and thumbnail probably two seconds of attention before they move on so typically if a thumbnail has too many elements you confuse and quickly lose your audience before they've even given you a chance now let's move on to that title that does two things it makes a big promise and it also teases information that the audience cares about it does this by promising to reveal what's inside Barcelona's 1.5 billion Stadium upgrade and here's the thing most football fans already know that prior to any upgrade Barcelona stadium is already one of the biggest in Europe so what on Earth are they going to do with that $1.5 billion and it's this tease that creates something called an information Gap to get an answer to the question the title has created the viewer obviously is going to have to click finally both the title and the thumbnail have a great deal of coherence what that means is that the title and a thumbnail complement each other so let's recap where we're at thanks to you identifying a niche of opportunity you've got your viewer to the starting grid and because of that wonderful packaging the race has started but it's a race to keep them interested because this's a big problem that many videos suffer from especially from small creators who don't appreciate this and as a result of this by the time your video reaches the first corner of this retention race viewers have already left and so to study watch time I'm going to take a look at another channel that hit 1,000 subscribers very quickly the videos here use an important technique that's at the core of audience retention and it's also used by the biggest creators on YouTube to increase their watch time and it's called the three act structure as you can see this is where your video is broken up into three main parts that are structured in a way that grabs and holds people's attention so let's take a look at this Channel's most popular video to see how it works there has to be an inciting incident and this happens in the hook it sets up the rest of a video and gives the viewer a reason to carry on watching throughout it's time for the main character and they get energy projectiles cool in this video it's where he builds up to the points that all heroes in anime shows have zero powers and what this does is create a sense of intrigue and tension and the viewer needs to find out more time and time again I've seen this exact same Trope or pattern pop up within anime and manga increasingly complex worlds and Powers with main characters with extremely basic or one no abilities the second middle Act is the rising action this is designed to build more and more tension as the video progresses and this is where the video delves deeper into the topic it provides specific examples that these characters have no powers Yugi tadori the main character of the series holds the curse technique of nothing he's a pure hand-to hand Fighter by showing clear examples the audience's anticipation is rising because they're really starting to wonder why this is always the case in anime shows Ichigo is a soul Reaper and a hollow and a Quincy I know yeah he was a fullbringer for a while despite having every single important Gene in the verse his power set remains incredibly basic it's a critical step in holding the viewers attention until we can reach the answer to that big question and that is achieved through the climax of the video this is where the ultimate question to why all of these anime characters have no powers is revealed it relieves the audience of their tension and if Done Right leaves them satisfied finally it might also serve as a reflection of the character Shen stories are usually meant to be uplifting even ones with darker tones usually end on relatively uplifting themes and messages by giving the main character such a basic ability you establish the underdog giving the social message that regardless of what we might start off with with enough hard work effort and support from our friends and family we might be able to achieve and Conquer what we thought was impossible such is the beauty of Simplicity the Triumph of human spirit and I'm kind of sorry I had to spoil this video in order to demonstrate the big thing here is that the climax was held all the way until the end so the audience had to watch the entire video This is why if you can build an arc and develop it throughout the entire duration of a video it's going to Skyrocket your watch time following all of these techniques should definitely get more people to click on your video videos and then watch them for longer but there is one last thing all of these channels are doing to help them get to 1,000 subscribers so quickly for you to do the same thing doesn't require learning a new skill or working even harder than you already are on your YouTube channel what it requires is focus discipline and patience it's almost like a Jedi master type of thing for YouTube to explain what this concept is and how it works let's take a look at this channel if we look at the oldest videos posted on the channel we can see that the second video they published got over 200,000 views now what most creators do at this point when they have their viral moment and say wow this is really cool let's just go make another video they don't necessarily put any for or time into why the video was successful they just assume that the YouTube algorithm has been turned on for their Channel and a new video is bound to get tons of views and when you have a attitude you potentially thrown away thousands of views and hundreds of subscribers what successful creators do and I know this sounds really simple but they often double down on videos that are proven to be successful on their Channel now this is similar to finding viral topics that we talked about earlier in this video but now we're not just looking at the video topic we're looking at the Channel's golden Vin format this is a topic and style of video that when you publish always outperforms everything else on the channel and as you can see that's exactly what happened to this channel they continue to post very similar videos to the one that went viral and this format just continues to perform they have almost identical titles and thumbnails and the video cont content format is almost the same in fact if we take a look at this channel we can see they use the exact same strategy they found that videos about stadiums continually perform so they repeated a very similar video format and it continued to go viral so what is the big lesson here well it's kind of like this one of your goals as a small channel should be to find your golden Vin format as fast as possible and so to begin with you do have a certain amount of creative freedom a license to test and experiment all sorts of different types of videos on different topics and formats but as soon as you do find videos that are outperforming your channel average double down on that format now this doesn't mean that every single video going forward is on that one topic and that one style of video but it should be considered an essential video that you add into your calendar say every third video or every other video when videos perform well on your channel your audience is basically saying to you the Creator I would like more of this and if you want to grow your channel and build a community you should be in service to that audience and speaking of that audience it does heavily impact how the algorithm functions on YouTube and as the watching habits of the audience change so does the algorithm and it's become pretty sophisticated in 2024 so if you want a better understanding of how the YouTube algorithm works these days and this is the next video for you