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Hey Reader
Welcome to the Dent Makers newsletter. You are receiving this newsletter because you either signed up for one of my products or the newsletter.
Every Friday, I will send one out with my best advice and what I have learned over the past 10+ years as a creator.
On to today's letter.
10 Critical Lessons from Growing My YouTube Channel to 870k Subscribers
- Not all advice is good advice: find out what works for you. For example, most YouTube experts' thumbnail advice did nothing for my channel growth. I had to experiment and find out for myself. You are going to have a different success journey than someone else.
- Try something new daily! I set up a daily experiment for my channel—usually, a specific experiment with a desired outcome. For example, you are reading one right now. This post is an engagement experiment. Learn from experts, then apply your own experience.
- Applying your experience: Over time, your experience may go against conventional wisdom. Go with your gut and do what experience is telling you. There are a million examples on YouTube of people who go against conventional wisdom. Whenever there is an existing dogma, challenge it and see what happens. The rule for video length forever was about 16 minutes. Several YouTubers have 2-hour + average video lengths that destroy that belief.
- Keep track of what is working. Most people (including YouTubes) keep track of their successes. More importantly, why a success was successful in the first place. Become a data nerd, dig into the numbers, and determine why something was successful. Then, duplicate the win over and over.
- Keep evolving: YouTube is evolve or die. Your content must change over time to keep people coming back and to discover new viewers. Sometimes, a set change is enough. When it's not, improve an element of your video, such as your storytelling. When that stops working, add a twist to your content.
- Start Small, then branch out: If I were to do it all over again, I would establish myself as an expert in a small niche and then branch out over time. Start a cooking channel on tacos that turns into cooking everything over time. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say, "Niche down." I think niche down is not helpful advice. However, you can grow ten times faster today by being the crazy taco guy who becomes a Michelin-star YouTube boss.
- Hail Mary content: I believe but can't prove that YouTube shares content with people in a bucket. Your job as a YouTuber is to get your content into new buckets of people to attract new viewers. 99% of the time, post regular content; occasionally, toss in a piece of content with broad reach. If it hits, it might get you recommended to a large audience. If you have a channel all about squirrels, a Hail Mary content piece may be about the ten most dangerous animals in the world. This will help you break out of a niche or evolve your content.
- Repeat your winners: Don't be afraid to take your winning video from last year and recreate it. Many top channels do this, and it works! People need reminders. Look at the original video analytics to see what you can improve in round 2. Learn More About This with Core Influence.
- Steal like an artist: Create better versions of videos that others have done. I would go 1 step further and add your own experience. If someone did a successful video on 30 days without caffeine, recreate it and improve it. But more importantly, what was your experience? Most copy these videos and share the same experience as the original creator. How can you make it more enjoyable? "30 days no caffeine while raising a newborn and working full time on my startup" would be far more interesting—part 2 of Steal Like an artist. You should know why a mechanism is working. You can steal thumbnails and titles all day, but if you don't know what makes them work, you will only be half as successful as you could be. Read books on copywriting like "Cashvertising," "Marketing Warfare," and "How To Write A Good Advertisement".
- Put the guts on the table: Get raw viewers who want to see the real you. Share your experience's dirty details, and don't be afraid to embarrass yourself daily like I did here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XmvTHeega4E. When you own the cringe, people think it's funny. When you fight against the cringe, people will call you cringe. (Let's be honest. They are still going to call you cringe, but who cares?)
- Bonus The Shakeouts: every few years, there is a shakeout on YouTube (Adpocalypse,kidpocolypse, whatever is happening right now ). All the Youpocolpses shake out a lot of your YouTube competition. How can you take advantage of these moments? Keep creating content, and stay focused.
Thank you
Chris Reck
P.S. Here are more ways I can help you make your Dent!
#1: Become A Dent Maker: Dent Makers is a Coaching Group, weekly calls and a community designed to help you make your DENT on Social Media. Join Here
#2: Check out my YouTube Channel I share more tips and tricks for making your Dent. I Also have interviews with other Dent makers on the channel.
#3: Follow me on X And LinkedIn I share deep dives into the strategies I use to make my own dent as well as more tips and tricks!
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