Episode 5: Ingredients To a Successful YouTube Channel
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Sonia teaches video podcast, where we talk about launching YouTube channels, that you can start generating more sales in your business without working more hours. Welcome to the show.
When I first started my channel in 2018, I had no idea what I was doing. I was an online tutor that. Posts a whiteboard tutorial for other tutors who might be trying to figure out the same thing. I wasn't trying to become YouTube famous. I just wanted to be of service and I didn't have any sort of strategy in this episode, I'm going to share some YouTube gold.
In other words, the ingredients to a successful channel. I want to take out some of the guesswork for you so you can launch your channel with. Okay. So let's just dive right in and talk about some of the ingredients for a successful channel. The first thing that you want to think about is creating videos that solve a problem for your ideal customer, by the way, you might want to be taking notes for this episode.
And if you are doing something like driving or you're going for a walk or doing anything like that, please make sure that it's, it's safe for you to take notes. So if you're driving, please don't use your phone or anything like that. Um, yeah. Come back to this episode later when it's safe for you to do so.
And you're, you know, sitting on the couch and you can take notes later. So come back to this later in case. Not able to do so now. Okay. So anyways, you want to create videos that solve a problem for your ideal customer. This is so important. So the reason that my videos from 2018, 2019 2020 still get traction today is because they're solving.
Significant problem that people have. So in, for example, in my channel, I have all these, this whole library of videos for people that want to start an online tutoring business. And at the peak of the pandemic, people were, were, were quitting, their teaching jobs and, you know, teaching online from home. And it was such new territory for so many teachers.
So the videos were super relevant to them. They were solving a problem. They, that was huge for them. And it still continues to be relevant. Now, even as, you know, it's may 2022, even as things you know, are improving, hopefully. People are still interested in online tutoring. It's become a more popular topic for people.
So they're still seeking out my videos and they're still purchasing my products as a result. So that's really important. You're not just creating videos that are just random. You really want to create videos that solve a problem for the people that you want to serve. So not only are they solving a problem, step two is creating videos that directly relate to your paid offers and services.
So this is really important. If I am targeting people that I'm I'm just going to use the teaching examples, just because that's my background. So maybe there is a tutorial, maybe there, I do some research on YouTube and I figure out that a lot of people are searching for a specific type of software. I think there's something called like Flipgrid or something.
Some maybe you're familiar with it. I'm not, I've just heard about it. Um, maybe that's a trending topic or Outschool. Outschool is a platform that allows you to. Offer online classes to students all over the United States. And if that was a trending topic on YouTube, if I had determined that that was a trending thing, then I don't actually know anything about Outschool.
Like I am not an expert at outschool. That's not something I ever did. Um, I had my son take a couple of classes, but as a teacher, from a teacher's perspective, I haven't ever taught classes on outschool. So. If I were to create a video about it and maybe it went viral, it wouldn't be relevant to the people I want to reach because if those people reach out to me and say, Hey, can you help me with my outschool interview or outschool application?
Can you help me? Get a position or whatever. I don't know the correct wording. I wouldn't have that service. I wouldn't have a directly related offer. So even though it's within my niche, sort of, of online teaching yes. Outschool is an online teaching platform, it's not directly related to the offers that I have.
So I want to consider that when I'm generating videos is like, Hey, is this going to solve a problem? As well as drive people to. Offers like, is it going to be related to my offers? So step three is consistency. And we've talked about this before in the podcast. When I talk about consistency, I'm not saying that you have to post one to two times a week.
We're busy people. I get that. That's not realistic for you. And I don't want that to be a barrier for you to start a channel. So instead of trying to post one to two times a week, I recommend one to two times per month find a frequency that works for you. So if you're posting once the first Friday of every month or every first and third, Friday of every month, try to find some sort of schedule.
Viewers know what to expect. I admit that even though I aim to post one to two times a month, I'm not consistent about the day of the week or anything like that. So it's always kind of like sporadic and, um, I haven't like created a routine for my, my viewers. And I'm just admitting that as someone that's been on the platform for four and a half years, I still haven't gotten it figured out how to be.
Really consistent. Although I do try to put a video out every month. I don't have a specific day or time for that. Um, but if you can, if you can be consistent about a day of the week, you know, that could be helpful for your audience to know what to expect. And then finally, and I could be using this word wrong, but I'm just going to throw it out there.
You need. Tenacity, you need to be willing to persist even when you're not seeing the results that you desire. And that is such a big part of YouTube, is that it's not going to happen for you right away. Like, well, like I said, the videos that I created in 2019, 2020 are getting traction. They got traction in like 2021, 2022.
So it takes time for YouTube to recognize. Who to show your videos to, for the algorithm, to just like, understand your niche, your topic, who, who it's relevant for, because if you're creating enough videos and you're following my tips, then the algorithm is going to work in your favor in a sense that it's going to show your videos to the people that need to see it.
Yeah.
But that's not necessarily going to happen right away. You need to have a library of videos created in order for YouTube, the YouTube algorithm to have enough information, to know who to show your videos to. And I know I'm like talking about the YouTube algorithm. Like it's a person. But hopefully you understand what I'm saying?
And if you need more clarity, you know, feel free to DM me on Instagram at sonia_teach. And I can talk more about it in another episode now that I'm the expert on algorithms because I'm not, but I think that's just like a basic. Beginner way of explaining how it works is like, you really want to be able to show up on YouTube as a recommended video.
And the way that that happens is creating content that is like relevant to a specific type of person, a specific audience. So then if you're wondering, okay, so how do I determine who this audience is? How do I figure out who my ideal customer is on YouTube? Well, I want you to think about the same ideal customer that you have been targeting on other platforms, but what is the age of that person?
Are they married? Do they have kids? What is their occupation? You know, are you targeting business owners? Are you talking, targeting consumers? Um, those are all things that you want to think about. And I assume if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have some of those answer questions already answered.
Um, you just kind of have to translate it to YouTube and, you know, consider your favorite client that you've ever worked with. Have that have a vision of that client in your mind and take note of like, what kind of questions is that client have when you worked with them? Like, what kind of things were they asking you?
What were they worried about? What were they stressed about? And then do some research on YouTube itself. To figure out how their problems and their questions are directly related to what people are looking for on YouTube. So I actually have a video all about how to get started with keyword research on YouTube.
I'm going to link it in the show notes so that you can refer to it later. In that video, we get a little bit more in depth of how to figure out how to translate what your clients are asking and how to translate that into YouTube language, to figure out what kind of verbiage people are using on YouTube to solve that problem.
And if you'd like me to create an episode more about keyword research and things like that, um, definitely let me know, send me a DM, let me know. Okay. So now you might be wondering. I know that I have to create videos that directly relate to my offers. I know that I have to figure out who my ideal client is, but how often do I actually promote my offers?
So what's worked for me personally, is to mention my offers where it's relevant during my videos. So for example, I had a video about mistakes that teachers make when managing their money. I don't, I don't know. I don't remember the exact title. And then in the video I referenced my tutor pricing calculator.
Now somebody actually mentioned to me that I screen share my tutor pricing calculator. So if someone really wanted to, they could just like make their own version and not buy mine. But. I mean, hopefully there'll be some people that see it and think, oh, I need that. And then end up purchasing it. Um, that's actually not one of my most popular products though, but a lot of people watch my videos and they hear me talk about marketing and ideal clients and things like that.
And then they're like, okay, I need a straightforward, clear strategy of how to find tutoring clients. And I have a masterclass that's called how to find tutoring clients online. So. I'll say in my videos, if you want to learn more about this topic, then check out my masterclass. The link is in their description.
You want to make sure your paid offers are listed in the default description of every video. So if you go into YouTube studio and you go into your settings, there's something called default description and you can, and what will happen is when you put that information in your default description, it will auto-populate into every video that you upload so that people can purchase your products really easily.
And then also, sometimes you do have is not necessarily great for like time-sensitive offers because you know, you might be talking about something that's launching next week. Whereas, your video might be watched like a couple of years later and it's not relevant anymore. You can still promote them, but you might, it's, it's kind of better for things that are available all the time.
And so you can reference them during your video. At the end of your video, you can mention it. You don't want to end every video with promoting an offer because YouTube will kind of catch onto that. They have all these ways of collecting data based on like what you say in your videos. Um, So the end of the video, most of the time, you kind of want to direct them to watch it another video, but you can also mention a paid offer if you want.
And then I want to quickly cover equipment and software. Um, I've talked about this before, but I'm just going to reiterate, I'd recommend starting with either your phone or a webcam, just be aware that your phone has a limited amount of storage so that it may become an issue. Since video files are so large.
For editing we use and love Wondershare Filmora, it's great for beginners and has everything you need to get started. Plus they have helpful tutorials on YouTube. So after listening to this episode, what other questions do you have about starting and growing a YouTube channel? Feel free to send me a DM at Sonia_teach and let me know.
So I can adjust, address those questions in a future episode. Thanks for listening. And I'll talk to you soon.
I hope you enjoy the show. And if you did remember to subscribe and to stay updated, head over to my Instagram at sonia_teach I'm Sonia, and I'll see you next time.
