YouTube is a platform full of opportunity, but some niches are also very competitive
Gaming channels are very competitive but it is very possible to break in!
There are 13 major tips for getting noticed on YouTube:
- Edit engaging videos
- Write eye-catching titles
- Figure out what you have to offer (Your value)
- Think about ‘how to’ videos/ targeting Google questions
- Watch your analytics to see what your audience wants
- Get social with others in your niche
- Create awesome thumbnails
- Link to other videos on your channel
- Create easy-to-understand playlists
- Use a call-to-action (CTA) on every video
- Try live streaming
- Create a content calendar to post regularly
- Create a description that is very helpful
Of course, there are always more tips to try, but these are foundational for your channel
Try to have these in place before searching for something else
There is no magic sauce
You just need to consistently do the work and learn from your mistakes
If you can do that, you can get your channel noticed on YouTube
Edit engaging videos
It is important to edit your videos to make them clean and engaging
That doesn’t mean editing every mistake out if that is part of your brand
It means keeping a nice pace throughout the video, adding visuals, cutting out parts of your stream that are engaging, and creating a hook in the beginning of the video
There are many ways to create engaging content
Start with what you have to offer
If you want to make a video about awesome moments, stick to that
If you want to make a funny video, stick to clips and text that are funny
People want to at least kinda know what to expect, even if that means expecting a surprise
If you offer something great and follow through, that is very engaging for your watchers
Write eye-catching titles
Titles are very important for SEO (search engine optimization) and CTA (Click through rate)
YouTube is a search engine just like Google and SEO is how you help them show your videos to the right people
CTA is how many people click on your video after they see it
Titles are very important because they are one of the major reasons people do or don’t find and click on your video
You want to write something that makes it clear what the video is about and gets people curious about the content
Figure out what you have to offer (Your value)
Everyone is good at some things and not good at other things
To succeed on YouTube, you need to know what you have to offer
I recommend choosing a specific game to focus on and deciding what value you want to offer
Value could be:
- Inspiration
- Tutorials
- Amazing skills
- Humor
- And more
Value is just the reason someone should watch your video
Think about ‘how to’ videos/ targeting Google questions
Another way to be found more is to create ‘how-to’ videos or answer questions that you find on Google
This helps your video rank for both YouTube and Google
Watch your analytics to see what your audience wants
It will take time to build up analytics that is reliable
But you can learn a lot from them
If the impressions on your videos are low, then you need to increase your SEO efforts
If you have great impressions, but few clicks, then you need to work on the title and thumbnail
Or you could have great impressions and clicks, but your videos don’t have great watch time
If that happens, you need to work on engaging and keeping your audience by changing the content
Get social with others in your niche
The best way to start gaining traction faster is by going to other videos that are similar to yours and just engaging with them
Be helpful and friendly
People are naturally curious if you appear a lot
The more you engage with the same creators, the more they will notice you
And so will their audience
Create awesome thumbnails
Most people look at the thumbnails first when deciding to watch a video
They will scroll until one catches their eye
Try to add a picture of you or something different than everyone else to your thumbnails
Make them about 50% the same for each video and 50% different
This helps people recognize your style, but they can see clearly that it is a video that they have not seen
Link to other videos on your channel
Interlinking is a great way to get more views from the same watchers
Link videos that are similar or helpful for the people watching
Mention those videos and tell people to go to the description to watch them
Create easy-to-understand playlists
I love playlists when I want to learn about something
I will find a video that I like, go to their channel, and check if they have a playlist about the topic
If they do, I will likely binge watch all the videos
If they don’t, I might end up moving on
Create playlists to organize your channel and make navigation easier for watchers
Use a call-to-action (CTA) on every video
A CTA is a statement at the beginning, middle, and/or end of a video asking watchers to do something
If you provide a ton of value for watchers, they will naturally be willing to help you
Try to choose one CTA if possible
CTAs could be:
- Likes
- Follows
- Click the link in the description
- Comment
- Watch through until the end
Choose what is important for that video and just ask your audience
Try live streaming
Live streaming is a good way to boost traffic on many platforms
If you are a Twitch affiliate, you cannot live stream on YouTube and Twitch at the same time
But you could live stream once a week separately if it helps your channel
Create a content calendar to post regularly
Posting regularly is vital for YouTube, and even better if you can post at the same time and day every week
YouTube needs to learn what you are about and know that they can trust you with their watchers
The only way to do that is to post great content regularly and to use good SEO
The more you post every week, the faster you will grow
Just make sure that you keep a sustainable schedule so you don’t quit from burnout
Create a description that is very helpful
The description helps a little with SEO, but the main goal is to be helpful
Create a description made to help your watcher
That could mean adding links to more videos that expand on topics, or it could be a table on contents with time stamps
Think about how to help help your watchers and do that