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I'm just a dude who likes to talk about nerd stuff and entrepreneurship.
Hello everyone welcome back to
the Oren Cohen podcast today.
I want to talk to you about
my beginning on YouTube.
We said we would do this
after I told you how.
Medium helped me launch my
nerd content creation journey.
In today's episode, which
will be a little shorter.
I just want to say three things that
I did wrong when starting YouTube.
So let's get right into it.
The first thing I did wrong when
starting YouTube is I didn't have a plan.
I was experimenting and it's good to
experiment, but if you're going to
be serious about starting a YouTube
channel, you need to plan ahead.
Beforehand.
And I just didn't have any plans.
I posted what I wanted.
I.
Did not plan video titles.
I did not plan thumbnails.
And I just.
Was very, very new to the whole.
Video content creation.
I didn't even know how to edit.
Which was something
that I had to learn and.
Because of this lack of planning
I spent the first year of
starting my YouTube channel.
Very confused about what to do
next and how to grow an audience.
It's only later when I started
posting interviews on the channel
that I actually saw growth and where
I should be focusing my energies.
Do I regret not having a plan.
Not really, because if I
knew everything I had to do.
Before starting.
Creating content more regularly.
I don't think I would be
the creator who I am today.
That exploration phase
was really important.
Still.
If you are going into this, not
with the intent of experimenting
with something new, but to actually
build a business out of YouTube.
Then you should have a
plan before you start.
The second mistake I did on
YouTube was not being consistent.
This is a really bad decision
that still haunts me to this day.
Being consistent with something
makes all the difference
between success and failure.
And I wasn't very consistent.
I would post something and
then weeks could go by and then
I would post something else.
And I needed to be more
consistent to see more growth.
And I think it's only
because of my inconsistency.
That I started my YouTube
channel in 2020, September, 2020,
but got monetized on YouTube.
Only in February of 2022, which means.
At least a whole year.
Went by before I got monetized.
Which is huge.
And people today who.
Start a YouTube channel
with intent and a plan.
Become monetized much faster.
Now, I don't want you to get the
impression that you need to post every
day to be successful with YouTube.
You don't, but.
If you can adhere to some kind of cadence.
Even.
Once a week or once every two weeks.
That's better.
Than not having any consistency at
all and publishing one video one
day and then a month could go by
and then you post another thing.
For some people, it works.
There are some examples
like Vsauce or ChubbyEmu.
These are YouTubers.
I follow ChubbyEmu
publishes one video a month.
But it's still a cadence
that his audience expects.
Each of his videos is well-researched
and is very high quality, lots of B roll.
Casting like he has actual
actors perform in his videos.
These are amazing things and that
kind of production takes time.
So the audience agrees that he shouldn't.
Publish every day.
Or every week, even.
If you are planning to publish something
on that scope, then please choose a
consistency that you can adhere to.
If you need a month, take a
month, but don't just do what you
want and confuse your viewers.
The third mistake I did early on
was not repurposing my videos.
When I started interviewing people
on the channel and created a podcast.
I did not.
Do anything other than publish the video?
And for a beginner, that's fine.
You don't really know what to do next, but
now in hindsight, which is always 2020.
I know that I had to
do more with my videos.
Imagine this, you publish
an hour long video.
And that's it.
It got about 5,000 views.
Let's say in the beginning.
And.
Even then, not always
would it get that amount.
I have today, some videos on that channel
that don't get past a hundred views.
People just don't invest a lot
of time in long form, unless they
are really, really raving fans of
yours or the person you interview.
If you don't repurpose your
videos, they will be forgotten.
Take your whole video.
Which is a long video and try to
segment it and cut it up to multiple
content pieces and publish those and
see how they work to get you more views.
YouTube encourages it
because now on shorts.
You can add a related video,
which means that you can take
a short out of your interview.
Publish it as a standalone video.
And then choose the whole video,
the interview or whatever it was
as the related video to that short.
And then when people watch it on the
Short's feed, they can click through and
watch the whole video, or at least even
put it in the watch later or something.
So these were.
The three mistakes I made
and I have a bonus for you.
If you listened this far, I have a
fourth mistake that I want to share.
And that mistake was not
creating search-worthy content.
And what that means is when you are.
Publishing things on the web one.
Good thing to do is create something
that people search for on Google.
So I created interviews with
people and those interviews are
showing up in search, if the person
searches for my interviewees name.
But they are not ranking
For specific queries.
What I started doing later was actually.
Seeing what people are
searching for on YouTube.
With a tool like AHREFs.
And then I could.
If I had the answer through one of
my interviews, I could cut that piece
of the video out as a standalone
horizontal video, not a short or
even a short, if the answer was short
enough, And then publish that as.
The video that answers that query.
I've seen this work multiple
times on my channel.
I have.
Segments from my interviews that got over
20,000 views or a hundred thousand views.
Those ways of finding searchable.
Content from your original
long form content.
It's something that would serve
you well, And if you interviewed,
for example, someone who is.
An expert about a topic and you
talked about the topic, then you
can actually craft answers to common
questions from your interview.
Using the interview footage and
maybe also you talking over it
or talking like reacting to it.
And answering a question and that is
new content that makes use of your
long form interview or long form video.
So consider making those adjustments.
When you start on YouTube
and avoid the mistakes.
And you'll see success much faster than
if you were exploring and then starting
to figure out how to do it yourself.
So that's all I have for you today.
If you have any questions, leave
them in the comments of this episode.
I also have a newsletter that you can sign
up for in the description of the episode.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you in the next one.
Bye.