TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

What ACTUALLY Decides Your YouTube Growth

• vidIQ • Season 6 • Episode 48

Share episode

Send us a text

Auto-clip your long form into viral shorts- https://link.vidiq.com/podcast-to-shorts

Get the vidIQ plugin for FREE: https://vidiq.ink/boostplugin

Want a 1 on 1 coach? https://vidiq.ink/theboost1on1

Join our Discord! https://www.vidiq.com/discord

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/s4dQbeDH0Vs

We dig into YouTube’s AI push, the underrated power of the new collaboration tool, and why understanding human behavior beats chasing algorithm lore. Listener questions take us from reptile care positioning to audio-only let’s plays to the collector mindset that turns variety into a focused channel.

• AI-enabled creation vs policy enforcement tension
• Collaboration tool benefits and onboarding friction
• Entertainment vs education packaging for animal niches
• On-camera energy: the 130 percent rule
• Audio-only let’s plays limits and visual repackaging
• Titles that trigger curiosity through specificity
• Collector through lines that enable channel variety
• Search intent, answer-first structure, and personality layering
• RPM realities for shorts and likely AI feeds
• Hype feature timing and practical CTAs

If you’re listening and you want to send us an email, you can send it to theboost at vidik.com


SPEAKER_00:

Is it good? Ultimately, that's what dictates everything. If you identify your audience and you and you're specific about the exact type of person, now you do get to branch out more than you would think.

SPEAKER_01:

That is actually the winning formula on YouTube. If you can understand humans, you can win in everything. Welcome to the only podcast that will A B test hosts. I'm Travis, the always time host, and this is B. Uh Dan.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. What's going on, B? Wow. Um, I don't know. There's I don't know if there's a lot of pressure here that takes the pressure off.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that actually is based off of an email we got that uh we'll get to a little later on. But yeah, um, we're here to help you grow your YouTube channel, at least hopefully anyway, uh, by answering your questions. And sometimes we talk about different things going on on the YouTubery worlds. Um, and listen, if you're new here, welcome. We are gonna hear to give you some answers to things you may never have thought of, and we'll tell you how you can send us a message if you have a question uh later on in the show. Um, so Dan, lots of stuff over the last couple of weeks that we've talked about here on the channel. Um, we've had things from Sora coming up to views going down to uh things that uh YouTube is launching and all these things. It's been a very uh active uh 2025 for YouTube, and it seems like it's not gonna slow down because you know they did that uh that uh get together a couple months ago where they talk about all these things they're gonna release uh and they've already started releasing some things. And the thing we talked about in the last episode with I did with uh Rob, the collaboration tool, which I think is one of the best tools they've ever released because it actually works. Um if you look back on 2025, and I know the year isn't over yet, but we're only like 90 days away from the end of the year, which is mind-blowing. Um, if you had to think that through, what has been the biggest thing this year that's like the takeaway for you for 2025 on YouTube? Is there something that stood out, whether it be a controversy or a tool or whatever? What stood out to you this year?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so yeah, I thought you were about to ask me what my favorite thing was. Um, you do that too. Yeah. I mean, if it stood out. Because I was gonna say uh it would be the collaboration tool. I'm very impressed so far with the way it works and how it's set up. It I have a couple nitpicks about it. It could be a little bit easier to get people connected because I've tried it and you know, I had to explain it to everyone. Yeah, yeah. They didn't hit a save button, and so like, okay, I set it up, but it wasn't working. It's so silly. Anyway, yeah, um, collaboration tool is probably my favorite uh tool, and I know that's kind of a cop-out because they just released it. Um, but genuinely it is. The thing that stood out to me the most, though, uh, that I think everyone's kind of noticing and talking about here and there is the fact that YouTube is just doing this big AI push, as is everybody. It shouldn't be a big surprise, but the idea that you can generate content with the YouTube app is I mean, that's that's a big deal. And what's also interesting uh happening in the background of that is if you go on places like Reddit, you will find countless posts from people saying, I'm posting these clips, why did my channel get taken down? And people get invested, they start to investigate. They're like, Well, your channel is all AI clips, or your channel is just you taking clips from other people, and because they see someone else doing it get away with it, you know. So it's just interesting that YouTube is making doing that easier with their tools, but that the same time they are demonetizing channels or completely taking down channels that are doing things like that. And going into 2026, that is the thing I'm most interested in seeing shake out. Are are they going to let you use their tools to do the things they previously banned you for if you used, say, Sora to do it? And and I don't know. It's gonna be really interesting to see how they kind of balance everything.

SPEAKER_01:

And I don't want to say too much more because they're probably gonna get into it, but well, but what's interesting is that uh, you know, I think we did a video on the main channel earlier this year talking about the monetization rules for AI, and it happened before Sora, right? So, you know, people were still using AI for different things, but I think Sora like blew up the ability to make actual like more content than ever before. It's actually kind of watchable. Um and uh I think people forget that like as far as monetization goes, it's not a great path forward at the moment. I I think there's been some rumblings from I think some of the platforms know that they're gonna have to figure out something, right? Because that's how you're gonna keep people around. Otherwise, there's gonna be a flash in the pan. Um, and that might be a thing, like you know, some type of monetization scheme might come along at some point. We'll see. I think right now, if you're trying to like grow a channel just using all AI, right now it's like, what are you gonna get out of it? Not much. Um obviously you're not looking for personal fame if you're using it because no one will know who you are. And you so the other obvious thing would be money. Well, at this point, there's no money really to be made on it. So I feel like we're in a weird tipping point. Next year will be very interesting to see how this all moves forward.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh yeah, you know, like think of the RPMs for shorts, and they've gotten slightly better since shorts came out, but I'm talking slightly. We're we're becoming pennies here. And why is why are the RPMs so much lower for shorts? It's because it's easier to make and therefore there are more of them uploaded than longs. I assume I don't have data on it. It's part of it. I assume part of the reason. Yeah, so RPMs for yeah, a number of reasons are lower on shorts. I cannot imagine if they if they monetize the AI clips, even if they separated them a little bit and said this is shorts, this is the AI feed, how low are the RPMs gonna be on that when people can post a thousand a day? Not literally, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, probably nothing, but by the same token, it's hardly costing you anything to make them in the first place or maybe anytime anyway. So, like, who cares?

SPEAKER_00:

And keep in mind, every time something is generated, it always costs these companies money. And that's the thing. Those companies have to figure out how they're gonna profit before we get to profit as creators. Such a good point.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, people got to make money before we make our money. Uh, speaking of making money, we're gonna try to help you do that by growing your YouTube channel here. And we do that by talking about things in a very realistic way. Um, we will give you some of the advice that you maybe have heard before because, well, it works, but every once in a while we gotta tell you things you don't want to hear. But it's the truth, and it's always the best way, I think, to move forward. So uh if you're interested and you want to send us a message, there's a couple ways of doing it, and we'll show you how to do that here in a minute. Um there's two ways. So if you're listening to the audio-only podcast, then there is a link at the bottom of the uh, or sorry, in the show notes. So for people who don't know, don't listen to audio-only podcasts, there's not there's a description, but they're they're called show notes. Um and in there, there's a link that says text us. And if you do that, click that, you can send us a text message. And our first text message uh comes from uh guy named Lucas. So hey Travis and whoever else you have with you today, all right, that's whoever else, that's Dan. We're leaking these text messages, by the way. I know exactly literally. Uh my channel focuses on reptile education and care, but I'm trying to balance entertainment with value, with value and valuable information. How can I better position my content to stand out in the animal niche and build a loyal audience? Also, I do love both Cadbury eggs and candy corn, but cream eggs are definitely far better, but neither's as good as Reese's. Fast break bars. I've never heard of that before.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you heard of the fast break bars? I feel like I've had those before. Um really? I think if I'm remembering correctly, they they kind of they're still Reese's, but yeah, they have that more like energy bar kind of aesthetic to them. I I don't know. I don't want to miscategorize them, and I can also be misremembering. It's been so long since I've eaten candy in general.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm I don't like peanut butter, so I'm tempted to not try this, but I'm also tempted to try it as this as Lucas says, they're better, so I don't know. But uh Lucas's real question is you know, he's got a reptile education and care channel, wants to balance entertainment with valuable information, and how do you position his content to stand out in the animal niche and build that audience? What do you think about this? It's interesting uh because there are tons of great uh animal channels out there, so there's definitely a way to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we're not looking at the channel right now or anything, so you're not missing out any visuals here if you're listening to the podcast. But I am going to make an assumption based on what they said, which was I'm trying to mix entertainment and education. Now, what kind of education could a channel like this give us? And I have to imagine it is proper care of your terrarium. Is it a terrarium for reptiles? Um, you know, like how to with the types of food you feed them, things like that, I think. Um it could be different things, uh, but let's start there. If that's what they're doing, I feel like they need to understand that that's pretty niche because your audience becomes people who want to also own reptiles. So that's probably a much like lower ceiling than people who just want to see reptiles doing reptile things. So it really depends on what kind of education because it can also be: did you know stuff? Like I have these reptiles, and did you know that they sleep for this much time and they eat these things? That can be more general. Uh, that can have like a wider audience. So that's the other type of education they're provide providing. But in all aspects, I would say you as long as you know who your audience is that you're trying to attract to your channel, you should be okay. So if it's education for the sake of like owning reptiles, then you know you expect to get not too many views from you know too many people, right? But maybe you rank high in search because you have the best thumbnails, you have the best advice, you're always making videos, you're always coming up with new tips, uh, you're you're coming up with new hacks, you're doing like a bunch of stuff that people really appreciate. If you're just doing entertainment content, like watch my reptile push a little ball around with its nose, now we're talking about like way, way higher ceiling. I'd watch that. That sounds fun. I don't I don't have a desire to have reptiles in my home, but I would definitely watch cute animals do cute things. And so I guess that's where I'm coming from. Without looking at the channel, I can only speculate.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I think uh if you look back in history, there are people that have been really interesting that have dealt with like reptiles and stuff. Steve Irwin comes to mind. Uh, I mean, he was really interesting because of the way that he did his content uh and his personality himself. And to be honest, like that's the biggest thing. And that's what I like to talk to YouTubers uh when they're looking for ways to stand out. I like to tell them this is the thing like, what is your superpower? Is it explaining things? Is it your personality? Is your sense of humor? These are the things that make you different from every other channel, and this is actually where you can create that uh loyal audience because they can only come for you, right? You can only get you from you. So I think it's really important to lean into whatever it is that your superpower is. Now, if you don't know what it is, ask your friends. What are they like about you? What's the thing they're like? That's your superpower. More than likely, they know, even if you don't. Uh, lean into that. It might be just the like again, it might be the way you explain something, it might be the passion that you show, it might be jokes you tell, it might just be your personality. You have to make yourself differentiated by using the things that you have been given as a human being uh to differentiate yourself. And it is as easy as that sounds, it's actually very difficult to really understand how to bring it across in a video. So, one thing I we've talked about on the podcast before a long time ago, but I think it's worth repeating since we're getting a lot of new listeners, um, is your personality and your energy comes across at a different level than what you're putting it out at. So, for example, because I remember this when I when I was first starting out, I remember very distinctly I was in front of the camera and I did a take of like the intro. And I really thought I'd given it the gusto and everything. I went back and watched the video, and it seemed like I was barely excited about anything. Like the per the energy that came across the camera versus what I thought I was putting out was way off. Um, so ever since then, and I've naturally adjusted to this, I don't even realize I'm doing it anymore. I have to give like 130% to get that what I perceive to be 100% energy. Uh, and you might find that in yourself. Like if you critically watch your content back, you might see, oh, I I really felt more energetic or more excited about that moment, but didn't really sound like it. And I think it's important to be as expressive and as motive as you can about certain things, get people interested and exciting about the content you're doing as well, so they can feel your passion because you'd be surprised at how much how sticky content can be. People feel you the passion. Yeah, isn't that right, Dan? Do you give 130% or are you more of a 70% guy? What do you I just I don't know? I become a shouter.

SPEAKER_00:

I just shout. Do you? I like it, it feels like I shout after I get done. My wife's like, Jesus. Are you okay then? Yeah, like it's I I think that's that's my version of doing it, but it uh when I watch the content back, it comes across kind of like it was meant to in my head. And yeah, definitely like when I watched my first videos, I thought I was talking at a pretty decent volume. I listened back, and it's like, hey, uh today we're gonna it's a whisper. It's it and because yeah, like I there was other I was living with my parents at the time, and I didn't want people like to be disturbed by me like doing my gaming videos or whatever. So yeah, it it it's something you can naturally kind of do where at first, like like you said, you you'll be like uh having to think about it. Eventually you become like trained not to, and so I don't think about it anymore, but but every so often maybe I should, I should look back because something I I've also noticed is that when I don't shout and I deliberately pull back and I try to talk to the camera like I would a person, I feel like I'm coming across even more like authentic, how I want to be portrayed. Because it sometimes I talk and I listen, even if I wasn't reading a script, it kind of sounds like I was reading, and that bothers me a lot. So that's something else I'm working on. I'm like, why does it sound like that? Oh, I have like my presenter voice on and I don't know how to turn it off.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that's a thing. Like, after a while you get used to it, and it's it's not something it's not like you're trying to put it on or be fake. That's that's not it at all. It there just is something lost between the expressive emotive part of what you're trying to present and what the camera seems to capture. It just feels like there's a percentage lost of some sort. So um try that out, see what you think. I actually worked with a creator a couple a couple of years ago, I remember this, and I was like, hey, look, because I he felt very bland and kind of one note in his videos. I said, do this same intro. I said five. Now normally I just say three, but I said five different ways. Give it 20 more, 50 more, 75 more, you know, 100% more, and 125 more, right? And we and we listened to all of them, and some of them were very definitively better. And he goes, it was weird at first, but then when he looked back on it, he was like, Yeah, like the 70 cent or 80 or whatever more, uh above and beyond what he thought he was doing, actually sounded right. And it sounded like he thought that he was talking about the entire time. So give it a shot if you're listening out there. Um, it you might be losing a little bit of uh uh your your personality just by not emoting more, and it will feel strange at first, 100%. I most things you do on YouTube at some point feel somewhat strange. Um, but I'll prom I'll promise you uh it makes a difference. All right. So that's the first email. By the way, uh that was the first text message. Um, we do emails as well. So if you're listening and you want to send us an email, you can send it to theboost at vidik.com. That's theboost at vidik.com. And this one comes from Benjamin. Benjamin, hello vid I crew. I started a podcast off of my YouTube channel called Dover and Domo Podcast. It's a descriptive gaming podcast with an AI co-host. That's interesting. It's like an audio-only let's play, but I also share my gameplay with Google Gemini AI, who sometimes provide helpful knowledge and commentary. This is really interesting. I've never heard of anyone doing that. I'm gonna continue to read this. This is actually kind of compelling to me. The problem is these audio-only let's play are very niche, I can imagine. So if you look for them, you'll only find a handful. I do provide videos on YouTube and Spotify in hopes that it'll act more like a regular let's play. But part of me feels like it'll never take off because it's not much sought after. The other part of me doesn't care and is having fun with it. It's also still early. I only have 20 episodes out and I keep improving on episodes. So do you think I should abandon the podcast apps uh aspect and just stick to let's play videos with an AI co-host? Is putting the videos in a podcast playlist harming my reach with the public? Thanks and love the show. Benjamin, I this is a really interesting scenario. I've never heard of an AI co-host, although I it totally makes sense when you think about it. Um, there are people who want to be able to do podcasts. I've done podcasting for at this point like a decade and a half or something. And um I've always I've never felt comfortable doing a podcast by myself. Like I could probably could do it at this point, but I've never really liked it. Um so an AI co-host is interesting. Um, because if you can't find someone else that can do it with you, this this might bridge the gap. So this might be a good use of of AI in a way, as long as you can keep its personality. But Benjamin brings up an interesting problem with his scenario, and I think there's gonna be a lot of ways to slice this onion. He says it's a very super niche because it's a let's play, but audio only. So when you think of this, Dan, how how do you it's a podcast? So we're we're not even gonna talk about the part where he says, you know, I put it on YouTube and stuff. We're just gonna talk about the audio only part. Is that interesting to you?

SPEAKER_00:

If it's audio only and there's no way to watch the gameplay being talked about, uh that is that is niche. When they were saying that, oh, this feels too niche, I don't know if this is being sought after. My first thought was like, no, that's not how you think about it. You were doing let's plays like everybody else, but you have a twist. You have this AI co-host. When I listened more and realized that, oh, we're talking about possibly an audio-only experience and there is no video to pair with this. Now I'm I am less excited about it as a listener because I'm like, well, gameplay like is inherently visual. I think you can have an audio-only podcast that talks about games, but it because they said it's a let's play, so I'm imagining them playing a video game and the AI gets to see what's going on, like at least that's probably how it sounds, and you get to see what's going on, but we don't. And so I don't think podcast playlists themselves are hurting necessarily. I think the idea that this is a podcast means it's ceiling for growth feels non-existent. But that that's like a harsh critique here. I should probably listen to it first to maybe make an even stronger personal judgment call on it, but I just don't know who would listen to that versus like what it could be on YouTube. Where I've when I've seen people use an AI to bounce off of, like as like a gimmick or something like that, it's it's usually an engaging video. Uh, we've seen people like Doug Doug do this for a long time where he'll have an AI come onto the screen and talk and banter with him, and it he he gives it like he has a PNG that like represents the AI, and so he like he adds extra visuals so that AI has even more of a face on the videos. And uh, you know, it's not necessarily a podcast, it's like the AI delivering it's heckling him or delivering gameplay challenges or things like that. So I felt like if you if you were to do this and like a traditional gameplay video, but you included this element to it, now you have something where you just like Travis was saying, you're really surprised with this. You haven't seen this anywhere. I've seen things like it, but I've never seen someone commit to it for a whole series. It's not that that hasn't happened, but I haven't seen it. So those are my thoughts. I I don't know. I don't want to crush any dreams, but that's what I think it's a good point.

SPEAKER_01:

Whenever someone does something new, there's two and they're like, no, there's you know, someone else out there doing it when I look for other competitors in the niche. That means one of two things. Number one, no one else is doing it because no one wants to watch it, or number two, no one's thought of it yet, and there's just no one's really kind of you know gone out there and and shown that there's an audience for it. I don't know which of those applies to this. My gut is that base. I mean, even what uh Dan said is so true. It's like gameplay is very visual, so it's kind of hard to think about an only descriptive audio podcast. Now, if it was tips, tricks, and what's going on in the industry, different story. You can totally get away with that. Yeah, and maybe that's the stronger way to go with this is to talk more about um you know aspects of the game, history of the game, uh, news, like if you're interested in that sort of thing. But this always comes back to the thing I've said on this podcast a billion times, and I will continue to say it until I'm not doing this podcast anymore, which is it all depends on what you're trying to get out of it. What are you trying to accomplish? If you're just having fun, you said sometimes I don't even care. I'm just having fun with it. Well, there you go. There's your answer. Um, because there are people that are very successful on YouTube that are not having fun with it. They're successful, but they're not having fun. So I feel like you have a unique situation where you can have fun doing something, and the people who want to hang out and love to listen to it, let them listen to it. If you want to do something else creative, you can build another channel. There's no, I mean there's no reason you can't. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. I don't know that the the ceiling for this is very high. Uh, you never know. Could be one day that just randomly it starts making sense. I mean, look at all the other silliness that have gone viral over the course of decades. I mean, it doesn't even make any sense half the time. But um, I mean, Tide Pod Town Challenge. What are we talking about here? Anyway, um, I feel like uh you should do it if you're having fun. If you're looking to grow something like this, then I would look for something that makes more sense to a larger audience, which would be like gaming commentary and and stuff like that, maybe gaming reviews or something. But uh I like I like the idea of having an AI coast, it kind of makes sense to me. Some people might have a problem with it, but I think it's ultimately as long as the content's good, most people don't care. You know what's funny? I can't remember where I was where I remember hearing directly from like a viewer or something. I was reading it. Um where you know, because creators have a lot of creators have a problem with AI in general, right? They have like, I want to be creative, this takes away to creativity. I would argue that it doesn't always take away to creativity, sometimes it can. But I I read like comments from like viewers and they're like, I don't care. Is it good? That's all I care about. And I feel like ultimately that's what dictates everything. Um, because creators can make as much as they want, but if no viewers watching it, they probably are going to look for the thing that viewers want to watch. And if viewers are like, just give me good content, I don't care if it's AI or not, you might want to get on board with that at least somewhat. Um, at least to up your game somewhat more, whatever that means for your genre. Again, not saying that you have to use AI for anything, but you should definitely be aware of it and see if there's anything in your work, uh, your workflow that actually could help you. Actually, we have a lot of AI tools here at VitIQ that are totally helpful. Script writer thing is amazing, especially even as a research tool. We have a thumbnail tool. There's a link in the description and the show notes if you want to check that out. You should definitely go check that out. Plus, we have like a discount down there if you want to get the paid version, all types of cool stuff down there. But I mean, again, AI is a tool. We've talked a lot about AI over the last couple of weeks. Um, there's a lot to say, and in 2026, I'm sure we'll say more. Ultimately, though, I think this creator's using it in a very neat and unusual way, having a co-host as AI. I should do that here. Wow. Okay. Podcast. It's just AI. Get Dan out of here. Well, I don't need Dan, I just have an AI co-host. I keep telling you. So you did the little hacker thing on the live stream where you had an AI uh uh claw, claw your Claudia. Yeah. But like there was a delay. I wonder now with like five and stuff, if it could be faster.

SPEAKER_00:

If I if I wasn't using, so I was using Doug Doug's system that I mentioned earlier because he released it for everybody. And if I wasn't using that and I was using Chat GPT, and like I kind of cobbled together using their like thing that you can talk back and forth with, it probably would have been a lot a much better delay. I don't use it anymore because I just kind of got tired of the bit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but yeah, I I think that's like that that is one of those things where even if you don't like AI, just like the viewers said in the comment that you were talking about, the comments you've seen where they're like, oh, as long as it's good, uh that's why I watch Doug Doug with his AI videos. They're not AI videos. They're he is doing a gaming challenge and he incorporates it as one element of many elements in this video, and it's entertaining. And you know, it putting the aside the controversial aspects of it, if you just look at it in a vacuum on its own, it's like, yeah, I can see why people would like this. This is it's funny to have this robot that doesn't really know what it's saying say all these things out loud, and uh that's that's why it's funny. So yeah, I can kind of like see and get behind that. I'm I feel like going off on a tangent.

SPEAKER_01:

But now that I think about it, there was this was a couple months ago. It's so funny because AI moves so fast, I forgot about this. There was a website, uh, I don't remember what it is, and I gotta find the messages that I had it, where it you could talk to this thing conversationally and it would answer you fast. Like it would come back to you fast. I gotta find that website. It was almost like having a conversation with like another human because it would answer so fast. The biggest problem right now is that there's usually a delay and it kind of takes you out of the moment. This thing was like right back at you. I gotta find that. Maybe I'll play around with that on a future episode. We'll see. We'll see. All right. Next email again, theboost at vidIQ.com. If you're interested and want to send us a message, maybe you have a question about something. This one comes from Tim. Tim says, Hi, to the only podcast that is A B testing the host live on YouTube. Yes, I stole that from Tim. My main reason for contacting is why, why, why did my latest video do better suddenly? I think it's definitely a better video, and it and it, but it was also definitely shown to more people. I may have accidentally got my thumbnail title right, or is it possible that a bit of banter in the comments section encouraged YouTube to push it out a little bit more? 4,900 impressions in 24 hours. Previous video had 1600 in more than a week. If you look at the he's got a little screenshot here showing his uh first day, it's a one of ten, which is great. Congratulations on that. Um, so and it's the the thumbnail and title is Why Did I Stop Riding Bikes? I think there might be something there to that. I think the thing is, so I don't know what his channel overall is about. If it's about riding bikes and stuff, then why did you stop riding bikes would definitely be something I would be very curious about. Um, I think that there's a lot of human things going on here, but if you had to just kind of look at this on the surface, probably not gonna be able to come up with the answer. Uh, but what would you think, Dan, just looking at this right off the bat?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think I really wish they would have shown us the older videos, like the previous video, because I feel like I understand exactly why that video did well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, actually, you know what? They did, by the way, they also did the A and B testing with me and A and B. They had a screenshot of me and uh me and Rob in A and B. And they showed a screenshot, I couldn't fit it on here. Um, the last one was uh, do did old habits really die hard? And that one had like a lot less views. So I don't I think maybe this channel is not just about biking, but it's about other things as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so in in that context, this makes a lot of sense to me. So the title, why did I stop riding bikes? is specific. Uh, if if you are somebody who is riding bikes, maybe you stopped. If you're somebody who's thought about riding bikes more, uh, and maybe you're worried about things, like because it starts to dig into my brain in ways I didn't ask it to. Like, oh, is it because of like there's a lot of traffic in your area? There's no bike lanes, uh, did you get hurt? Like, there's all these questions it raises for me, making me want to, with every single question I have, I want to click more because I'm like kind of compelled to, even though I don't really see myself as like a biker or anything, uh bike rider, I'm kind of like, oh, uh okay, yeah, let's let me hear this person out. But the previous video, do old habits really die hard? I get that that's a saying, but like what habits? Like, what like it would have been a more compelling video if you specifically call out the habit that you recently kicked or are trying to kick, like something about maybe maybe it's smoking, and so it's like, you know, I I finally kicked my smoking habit or something like that. That would be a much more specific video, therefore more compelling, because I know exactly what it's about. This person who I may or may not have seen before is going to tell me about their experience kicking smoking, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

So so I I found their actually, you know, I found their channel. So this might be kind of helpful. Uh do you have do you do? So I mean, if you look down the videos, uh I'll share my screen just so it makes sense for the people watching on YouTube thing, they're like, What's uh, you know, what are we looking at? Uh I think it almost becomes even more obvious in some instances, right? So, like he has the is the DJI uh neo any good for cyclists? So it does have some bike cycling stuff. I mean, that's going to be an easy SEO play. So people who either want to purchase the DJI, which is a drone for people who don't know, um, might be looking, A, to use it for this specific purpose, or B, just to kind of understand if it was any good. Then there's another bike here. But it it is interesting that if you look at the videos that are kind of like they almost are just meandering, they get meandering views. Like maybe this should be a faceless channel. Okay, well, not a lot of views because I don't I don't know you. Okay, answer is yes, maybe it should be. Don't don't hate the bumbag. I don't even know what that means. So that kind of makes sense. And then when you're talking about I'm done with gravel bikes again, there's more views again. And I think it's because you can look at the bike, and if someone's into that type of bike, it's like, oh, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, what am I missing out on? And I'll be honest, the the bad thing about about humans is we like negative things. We love to see things about why I shouldn't do this or why you shouldn't do that. Why did you stop bike riding, car crashes, any of that stuff? Very interesting to the uh to the the the human uh in us. So I think it's really important to look at that aspect too. What what jumps out to you?

SPEAKER_00:

Like they have a video called The Not Very Fit Running Man. And I'm like, what does that mean? Yeah, like you are you talking about yourself? Like, did you meet somebody and you're heckling them for not being fit? Like, what's happening? So it that's I I think it's just a matter of like I when they say did I accidentally like get my title or thumbnail right? Like, in this instance, I guess, like if if you if you yourself are are coming to us with this question, I guess it was kind of accidental and hopefully a happy accident. I hope you can learn from it in a really positive way because I'm seeing other videos here, like the DJI one did well for you. Um, you know, done with gravel bikes did well. It what these videos that are about specific things based on your experiences as a person who has various hobbies, uh, they're doing better on your channel. So I want You need to share personal stories. It doesn't even always have to be about bike riding or anything like that. Um, but I need to know, as a new viewer, someone who's just never seen your content before, what you're trying to get at, or at least needs to be intriguing enough to get me asking myself questions. Why do I stop riding bikes? There's so many reasons. Someone who maybe loves riding bikes, because I'm kind of making that assumption based on the thumbnail. Someone who loves riding bikes might stop. And it's like, oh no, like why? Like, there's so much, I think, drama behind a title like that compared to, like you said, these meandering ones. New shoes equals new me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know what? Huh? Do uh uh sort their channel by popular, and you'll immediately see what like has been pushing this channel forward for years, and it's a lot of reviews of things, yeah. Um, which is always gonna work great, especially for SEO over the course of months and even years. A lot of these videos are probably still getting views years later, uh, because it's useful to a lot of people. And the thing is, it maybe uh this is from Tim. Maybe Tim is like, look, that was cool, but I want to talk more about me and my life. I get it, but if you want views on that type of stuff, you have to give first. So when you do things like the DJI Neo and stuff and the why did I stop riding bikes, you can interject your personality while giving value. And that's where you'll walk away with people that want to hang out and watch more of your videos that are about things that aren't necessarily about anything.

SPEAKER_00:

But but but even videos about your life can be titled in ways that that relate to other people. Because if you were going through something, it would be probably in your best interest to look on YouTube for videos similar to that subject to see other people and how they describe it in their titles and thumbnails and stuff, so you can get an idea of the YouTube way to present the thing you want to talk about. And then you get to just have the conversation once you kind of know what is the best way to package this package this video so everyone gets what I'm trying to get at here. Because it seems like they're sharing a lot. I bet if I watch any of these, I will learn something about this individual, and that's that's cool. So it's let's see, POV, you're not fit and try running. Like they're obviously going through something like a fitness journey or something like that. So is there a more schnazzy way to kind of like pitch this video to me so at least I understand the journey that you're on? And hopefully it relates to me on a deeper level, and I click on it because I'm watching a lot of content right now about people who are trying to get fit, for example, or whatever. And it will never relate to everybody. So if it's not gonna relate to everybody, who do you imagine it relates to? If you have to be specific, then get specific because you on YouTube you do have to get specific to some degree.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Um, but I think you have a a lot of possibilities of success here. You know, looking at your channel, you've had some bangers. So think about how you can make those fit into your your current uh video uh library, and uh, I'm sure you'll have more success. All right. Another email, the boost at vidIQ.com. This is the last one for today. Uh, and this is gonna be interesting. Uh, this one's from Steven. First of all, thank you so much for your advice on my previous question about categories. And yes, I'm super lucky to have the wife I have. I believe this is the one where uh he had a YouTube channel and he found his wife. Um I believe, like while doing YouTube, if I'm remembering correctly. Oh, cool. I've been listening to this vodka since you all started here on YouTube, and I can't recall a time where you talked about human behavior. Okay, I'm gonna stop reading this email. Almost every single episode I talk about human behavior. I can't stop talking about human behavior, but let's let's finish reading this email. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. As you know, I have a gaming channel called Single Player Lounge, and I believe I'm starting to understand who my audience might be. Somewhere in their mid to four uh mid-twenties to forties, who plays games for relaxation and escapism, aspects of a stress-filled life through games that take you out of this world, even if only for a moment. Anyways, how can I not only learn more about human behavior, but even more how it relates to my YouTube viewers? Any advice, resources, or candy suggestions are appreciated. I can live and listen to a whole podcast on the subject. Well, I've been talking about this aspect of YouTuber life for years, uh whether it be in um one-on-one consultations with creators or even here on the podcast. There's times where I'm talking about it and I'm not overtly saying that I'm talking about it, but even what just Dan said is talking about it. I feel like the one thing that a lot of creators and even other like YouTube, well, I shouldn't say this, but let's just say content creators miss when they're looking for like the secrets of YouTube is literally this. Um, the reason why I was such a good YouTube coach is because, not because I knew a whole bunch of YouTuber y things, I did, but because I understood humans. That is actually the winning formula on YouTube. If you can understand humans, you can win at everything. And you don't even necessarily even need to know the latest algorithmic updates. Because if you're following humans, that's already what they're doing. YouTube is spending billions of dollars trying to figure out how to show content to humans that they're gonna like. And if you spend all your time figuring out how to make content humans like, you're going to win. You're gonna you're gonna benefit from the algorithm, you're gonna benefit from their research because they're just trying to help videos like yours. So, yes, I could talk about human behavior all the time. Now he talks about his audience, um, might be people in their mid-20s to 40s who play games for relaxation and escapism, right? That's I think that's most of us who play video games. I know it's certainly for me. I mean, when I played NBA 2K25 last night, it isn't because I'm a great basketball player anymore. I used to be pretty good. But because I'm trying to escape and trying to be Michael Jordan, hitting that shot and getting 40. Um, but um, you know, he said, anyway, how can I not only learn more about human behavior, but even how it relates to my YouTube viewers? I think we talk about this a lot when I talk about, I think I did a video about uh suggested views and stuff. Uh I can't remember if I did it on the main channel or here. I don't know. I've done so many videos. I don't remember. Dan, you ever have this happen where you're like, I know I've talked about this, but I can't remember what video I do. I can never tell people exactly what video I've talked about anything. Yeah, I mean, like, because how many videos you do a week? It's like I've been doing it for years. I don't know. But I can tell you that um for sure, every aspect of uh a YouTube traffic source is relates to a different uh human personality. So for example, we're just we'll just dive into search for now. And I've talked about browse and suggested before, but if people want a really deep dive into that, uh we can talk about it another time. Let's just talk about search specifically because I think search is something that most creators can benefit from. Uh and a lot of times we tell people um that, especially as a smaller creator, you want to uh aim for SEO friendly things because it's easier to get views through search than it is through browse if you don't have an audience. If you don't have an audience, browse almost doesn't work. Um so when someone is searching for something, and this is where the human human kind of aspect comes in, they're looking for an answer. They are not looking to A, subscribe to anybody, and B, a lot of times don't care anything about what you have to say about your life or what your channel's been doing the last three months or anything like that. They want the answer of whatever it is. Now, the answer could be something like how to bake a cake, it could be how to beat this level in a video game, it could be how to improve my life, could be all those things, right? Within that answer, you can give your personality and such to make people hooked that are people like, oh wow, this was actually a really cool channel. Let me see what else they have. They may have come for this thing where my toilet is overflowing. I need to unclog this thing right now. And uh, Tommy the Plumber, congratulations on your million views on this video, but I'm never subscribing to you because now I know how to unclog my toilet, right? Like I don't need Tommy the Plumber's channel anymore. So if you're if you're going after a search-based audience, SEO-based audience, you have to remember the mindset they're in. They're getting an answer. What are the five best weapons in Call of Duty? What are the five plants I can plant that gets me, you know, great crops for next year? You know, whatever it is, looking for an answer. When you're giving the answer, if you're able to show personality along with a really great answer and showing that they may want to stick around for other things that you have to give, that's where you can grow subscribers and that's where you can grow more views. Um, Dan, what are your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I figure, because I agree with everything you said. I figure I pulled up the channel. I think now let like I want to talk about this specific channel as a human. Uh I I want to give my human thoughts about what I see when I see their videos for the latest videos to the top of videos. So for the audio listeners, the latest videos are basically uh imagine a hand holding a game cartridge, not cartridge, uh like a game in their hand, so like a PS4 game. And the titles are all uh gameplay and unboxing, and then it's the name of like the game. Uh so let me see uh ultimate unboxing and gameplay, Earth Fall, Deluxe Edition, Xbox One Factory Sealed, I think it says. So when I think about videos like that, and they're there, we're talking about games that are all over the place, games from different consoles and games of different genres and things of that nature. When I think about who that content is for, as just an outsider looking in, I'm thinking, oh, this person knows exactly what they're doing. They're making search-driven content for people who are actually like me, who are rebuilding their retro game collection right now, which is what I'm doing. I've been rebuying things like PS2 games, games I had growing up that I once sold and I regret selling. And some games I'm buying that I once heard about and never got to play. For example, Jack and Daxter. I've never played Jack and Daxter. So I wanted to see a little bit about it. And I wanted to get it, but like nowadays you get that stuff on eBay. So finding a video like this where you are unboxing it would tell me, oh, is there a manual that comes with this game? When I look at my eBay listing, should I be like making sure the manual is included? Like that that could provide value to me, but it's so specific, right? Like you are hoping for people like me to come along. And so the more games you cover, the more wide you cast that net, um, the more you might pull people like me in every once in a while because you happen to be covering Bioshock, and maybe I'm about to pick up Bioshock for Xbox One, I think I saw on their channel. So great, cool. Like there is a value in that content, but it is so specific. That is to me, and I hope they know this when they made this content that is search-driven. Like, yeah, you're calling it gameplay and unboxing. That's the first words in the title, and it's the thing you are unboxing. So, and it's only like a minute long each one. They're yeah, they're also doing other stuff though. Uh, as of like 10 months ago, a year ago, they have some top videos uh for their channel, like almost 7,000 views on their top video, which is called Must Have Xbox 360 Third Person Shooters that'll never that I'll never sell. And something, something that got truncated. But that video is doing great, and the thumbnail is better than some of their other thumbnails, in my opinion. And what it tells me about this channel even deeper is that they are a collector themselves. And what they're doing is talking about the top RPGs you need in your collection, top four simulators you need you need in your collection. Like they are so your audience, from my perspective, are people who are building game collections, or even if they're not actively building a collection, like they don't internalize it that way, they are still interested in games they may not have heard of before or games they once heard of and never played, like me with this Jack and Daxter game. So that is that is like my critique of this channel, just kind of as I looked over it. And I think, hopefully, that they know that that's kind of where they're at right now. Like I'm talking to collectors specifically uh of games because you're you're covering so many different types of games. How do you get the license to do that? Well, you focus on a specific aspect of it that is a through line to all the content. This is what we call a through line. So uh gaming channels be like, oh, can I play first-person shooters uh and cozy games on one channel? It's like you can, but you'll be two different audiences you're building on one channel, right? Or you can speak directly to collectors. And so maybe I'm not like the biggest RPG player, but maybe I've played a couple. Maybe your list of the top RPGs includes the one I've played, or includes one I've heard of and thought about once, but I don't know. And a 42-minute video is kind of long. Uh obviously is gonna go into some pretty big detail about a bunch of stuff. Maybe I'll discover something cool. So you are targeting an audience that doesn't really have anything to play right now, maybe. Maybe they're trying to like find something for them to do. So I want to say just sum up by saying I'm glad they asked this question this way, because it means they are thinking about the actual people watching videos and not just trying to collect views to put a number on a board somewhere.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you put you brought up something I think is really interesting is that he's a collector. And I there is a collection of collectors out there that would love to watch the content if you if you put it in a way that makes it very obvious you're you're collecting. So, like the top five games you need to have for your collection is I think something that Dan said makes sense. The top five most popular games that are that are popping off in monetary value, because you know, games go up and down in price all the time. So you can look at the the must-have most valuable collectibles you must have. Um, you can do you can look at sales and say, like this old game, I went to like GameStop and I found this old treasure. Like, there's uh uh uh what uh Metal Jesus Rocks, I think, has been doing that for a decade or more. Uh made an entire channel that's mostly about that sort of thing. And like he's got over a million subscribers. So I think it's really important to understand that it's all about packaging at this point. You already have the niche, it's actually kind of cool. Um, take a look at some of these other channels that are rocking and see like how can you put your spin on it? What is your spin on collecting old video games or or even even some ones that are maybe newer, but like you know will have value in the future. There's this whole um thing about having physical copies of games and like that that's important and stuff. So it's really that's you definitely have a a lot of people that are interested in that subject. So there's all these different things you could dip into, dip in and out of, um, that are all related to the type of person that's watching some of the content you're making right now. I think you could be making even more compelling content if you think about that more deeply. Like, what is the person who watches two of your videos also interested in? It's not just those games, like Dan said, it's maybe the collection themselves. And and maybe they were looking, excuse me, for collecting advice and came across your video because it was related in some way, when you maybe could have captured them more as a subscriber if you did more collection type stuff, like a a game case to hold all your games. That you could literally review that. Like, as silly as that sounds, that's a thing. Like, and then listen, if you have affiliate sales, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_00:

Now you're making money. If they have bookshelf recommendations, I'm starting to accumulate stuff over here. So, like Blu-rays and games, and uh, you know, it yeah, uh, I'd be I'm personally it's not uh this is an interesting channel to have messaged because I'm personally going through like a journey of uh rebuilding physical media collections uh across my home uh to my own detriment. I remember you saying that, yeah. But I like I like a lot of you had an HBO Max subscription until yesterday when they raised the price out of nowhere, right? Oh, and we all can't. I didn't even know that. They yeah, they did. It's instant too. So like the your next billing cycle, it's going up a dollar fifty.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's my brother, so I'm not worried about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, perfect. So yeah, like this is happening everywhere. And so I'm like, well, I want I want a little more control over my media because stuff leaves streaming services that I want to watch sometimes. I like rewatching old shows. And and so, like, yeah, if you have like a bookshelf recommendation or something like that, that even that kind of content, weirdly enough, would work for your channel. You think it's a gaming channel, but it's not. Like at a certain point, if you if you identify your audience and you and you're specific about the exact type of person, now you do get to branch out more than you would think. And now suddenly you find yourself doing a furniture review on a channel that was about video games.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's funny because this is literally like the secret sauce in being like a creator that does more variety content because people look like he just does stuff about anything and he gets all the views. Well, not really. There's usually a through line. You just got to really look for it and then look how they've cultivated that particular relationship with their audience over the course of usually years. So um, yeah, all that to say that that's a great question, and I'll talk about this sort of thing all day, every day, because I always do talk about it. I always talk about that's what whenever I say like it depends on what you're trying to accomplish, I'm talking about that exact subject, like how humans are, how they think, how they feel. When I talk about um browse, uh I'm always talking about what compels people to click on a thumbnail and title. That's the human nature of like why did they click that? And why did they leave early? Why did the retention graph drop? Well, that's that's a human reaction to something. So, what is the thing? That is the ultimate root cause of something. It's not because the algorithm didn't push you or whatever. And while there are glitches, yeah, of course, sometimes YouTube is to blame. A lot of the times, as I've said many times here before, it it's a skill issue, as they say in streets. So um get good, as they also say in the streets. Uh anyway, I hope that was helpful. Uh, very good question. I'd love to say we have very smart people that watch this and listen to this podcast, Dan. They ask great questions.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and and by the way, on the subject of get good, I think they're doing a good job. Like, oh, they are absolutely it's it's a really like strong start, even though I would say your last handful of videos, probably a little specific. Uh, it's still there. I I see a strategy there, whether you intended there to be one or not. And uh yeah, I think if you've started to identify your audience and you're asking these types of questions, you're in the right place. You're asking the right questions.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. And I just feel like this channel has an opportunity uh to branch out even more into some really interesting things. And again, like there'll be something I'll be watching a review of something and I'll see something in the background a creator has. I'm like, I want that, like that little case or that little box, that little little fidget on the fidget spinner or whatever it is. And I'm like, I want that. Where is that? What is that? So you'd be surprised that something is as simple as like a holder for a controller or a holder for a game case or something like that. And if you start getting affiliate deals with like, you know, if you can get into Amazon or Walmart or Best Buy, you'd be surprised how that turns into money very fast. Very fast. Anyway, uh, we hope this is helpful for you. Of course, uh, if you're new here, feel free to hit that subscribe button, hit that like button. And if you have hypes, I guess you can use those on YouTube. I should probably ask for those at the beginning of the video. Um I actually have talking to um a channel that's uh a friend of mine who has a very large channel, and they had done a lot of research about the hype feature, and he said something, he was like, Oh yeah, we see it really doing well. And I was, you know, while he was telling me, I'm like, I think the reason that you're seeing it doing well is because the videos were doing well in advance, but he brought up a really good point because the hype feature itself isn't supposed to help uh videos algorithmically, although who knows, right? Who knows? Um, but he did make a really good point. So you only get three a week. So he said that he knew other large creators that were putting out videos on specific days and asking for hypes in those days because earlier in the week, people will have all three of their hypes. So they'll say, hey, you know, hype this video up. Versus if you put a video out at the end of the week, I don't know when people's, I don't know if it's universal if everyone cycles out the same day or not. But the idea would be they'd be out of hypes. They wouldn't be able to hype your video up because you put it out later in the week. And that actually does make sense. That's that literally makes sense. Hype hat. So if you if you if you have some hypes, hype it up. If you don't know what that is, I don't know what to tell you because I barely know what it is myself. But it's uh it's it's cool. If you have, if you're watching on mobile, I think you can hype it up. So anyway, thank you for watching. Uh again, if you're new here, feel free to hit subscribe if you're listening to the audio podcast. Uh, leave us a five star review on one of the audio podcast platforms you're listening to, and we'll see y'all in uh the next one.