Everything I've Learned About Making Videos on YouTube
I just hit 10K subscribers on YouTube, so here's what I've figured out about the platform.
On Monday, I reached 10,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, which is a milestone I’ve been working toward for sometime. I try not to think too much about numbers when it comes to making content, but I do get caught up in it sometimes, and I want to celebrate wins
While 10,000 might be a small number when put next to massive YouTube creators with hundreds of thousands, or even millions of subscribers, I’m really proud of this achievement.
I started a YouTube channel back in 2019, where I was mostly just uploading my podcast each week. I didn’t really start taking YouTube *seriously* until around April 2024, which is when I decided to finish up my podcast and change the way I produced my content. That’s when everything really started to shift for me.
I’ve learned heaps about making YouTube videos and I thought I’d give my two cents on what I think works and what I’ve learned when it comes to YouTube.
The golden rule (stolen from a friend) is to make content that people are looking for, not what people might happen to stumble across.
Back in 2020, when I was still early in the content game, I spoke to my friend Dave Lee about his thoughts on YouTube. Dave has a great channel with over 100K subscribers, and he gave me the above advice, almost word for word.
It never really left my mind. I feel as though a lot of people just want to make YouTube videos about whatever they want, which is fair, but YouTube is kinda a game. You have to play to what it wants and feed the algorithm.
Most of the content I make now centres around trending and current pop culture news. I respond to things happening as quickly as possible, and that has been instrumental to my growth.
To be honest, I don’t have a specific ‘niche’ other than pop culture. I actually think my channel could be bigger if I just honed in on one nerdy thing (Nintendo, Harry Potter, Pokémon, Marvel…) but I don’t want to do that.
When news breaks in the world — be it in my ‘niche’, or any other — people go to YouTube and search. You need to be one of the first people on the internet talking about that thing, which is sometimes hard to achieve.
Maybe when your channel grows a little bit, you can take more risks, and make content that is slightly less relevant or timely. Maybe do some more passion project kinda stuff. I try to sprinkle this in every once in a while to see how it tracks.
But if you want growth, and you want people to see your work, you need to make content they’re hungry for.
The title and thumbnail of your video is almost more important than the video itself.
This can be disheartening, and it took me a while to get over.
You want your work to speak for itself. You’ve made a video, and the video is good.
So people should click on it and watch it, right?
It doesn’t really work that way on YouTube. YouTube is (now) unique, in that it’s one of the only platforms where people decide what to watch.
Content on TikTok and Instagram is fed to viewers. They never actively select content to consume. It’s all-you-can-eat buffet style video on demand.
YouTube is different. There’s terabytes of content being uploaded there every single day. And the only way you can differentiate yourself and stand out, is to make an eye-catching thumbnail with a title that sparks curiosity.
I look back at thumbnails I was making in 2019, and they’re embarrassing.
Titles, too.
Titles and thumbnails work together to spark curiosity and offer an unanswered question that the viewer will want the answer to, inspiring them to click.
Consistency is the most important thing about YouTube — don’t let low view counts discourage you.
I know the feeling when you spend hours making a video you think is great, and you get 3 views.
It sucks. It’s demoralising and deflating.
All the work you put in, and you can’t even get people to watch it.
When I started actually trying to make videos in 2024, I was disheartened by view counts under 10 views. No one was watching my videos, and I actually felt embarrassed.
To be honest, I still feel this way sometimes. My videos don’t get heaps of views. But I feel like that’s where most people quit making content.
I see the same thing happen with people who start podcasts, too. When they realise that it’s hard to get people to listen to a podcast, they quit.
The thing is, you have to exist for months — maybe even years — in the ‘suck-zone’ before things change.
Mr. Beast, arguably the internet’s most popular and famous creator, says that you need to make 100 videos before you make a good one.
I kind of agree. Each time you make a video, you’ll get better. You’ll understand YouTube better. You’ll have a better understanding of how to edit, how to speak on camera, how to script, how to title and thumbnail.
Your views will start to grow. But you have to suck and be in the cringe 3 view area for a while before that happens. Even now, not all of my videos pop. Some don’t do great. Others do amazing. It’s hard to predict 🤷♂️
The more consistent you are, the better you will get. It’s the same as everything. The name of this blog is Progress, Not Perfection, which is this exact concept.
[Further Reading: I taught myself guitar and learned that if you want to be good at anything, you have to suck at it for ages first.]
Your podcast is (probably) going to do better as YouTube videos.
I ran my podcast 20th CENTURY BOY for 6 years. It had a decent listenership, but it didn’t grow at all for years.
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get more people listening.
The thing is: podcasts don’t really have an algorithm or discovery tool working for you the same way YouTube does.
On my podcast, I would cover pop culture / nerd culture topics each week. Eventually, I decided to stop the podcast, and repurpose the content as 6-12 minute YouTube videos instead.
That’s when things really started to ramp up on YouTube.
If the content is good, YouTube will recommend it and push it out.
You will grow. People will discover you.
If you’re starting YouTube to make heaps of money… don’t do that.
Yes. I make money off YouTube.
No. I don’t make anywhere near a liveable wage from my content.
It took me years to even get my channel monetised.
While it is nice getting a cheeky monthly deposit of cash from Google into my bank account each month, I view my YouTube revenue more as extra cash than anything else.
The reality is, there is a huge slog of walking through broken glass and fire before you even get monetised. Once you’re monetised, you make literally 2 cents a day for years.
If you’re starting YouTube because you want to get rich, have brand deals, and make tons of money… just… don’t.
I highly doubt YouTube will ever be a full-time sustainable thing for me. But I LOVE doing it.
I love the process of making videos, coming up with ideas, filming, editing and brainstorming.
The fact that people view and comment is amazing. The fact that I make some cash from it is also amazing.
I probably have a few other thoughts to dump, but I’ll leave it at these 5 for the time being. Thanks for reading this week :)
Mike Liberale
If you liked reading this post, you might like these ones too:
1. I taught myself guitar and learned that if you want to be good at anything, you have to suck at it for ages first.
2. Why you don’t need to wait for permission to express yourself creatively.
3. I wrapped up my podcast after 6 years… Here’s why.
Resonance: A Weekly Snapshot of Stuff I Liked This Week
Here’s a bunch of recommendations for you!
🍿 MOVIE | The Fantastic Four: First Steps
I’ve covered this pretty extensively across my channels, but man, I’m excited about the next phase of the MCU after this. I really loved the emotional and human focus, but I’ll link my review here if you want to know more.
📰 ARTICLE | Did Podcasts Replace Late Night? from Amplifi Media
Interesting article discussion the power of podcasts off the back of Stephen Colbert’s announcement that his late night talk show is finishing up. I do think that podcasts are beginning to replace a lot of traditional media, especially when people like Conan O’Brien can host a podcast with A-list celebrity guests at a fraction of the price of a late night talk show.
📺 YOUTUBE VIDEO | South Korea Travel Vlog by Samantha Todd
We’ve been watching a ton of South Korea related content at home lately because we’re heading over there for a two week trip later in the year. We really like Samantha Todd’s content and her vlogs… there’s a lot of beauty content for my girlfriend, but she just has such great energy when she takes you around Seoul!
💬 COMIC BOOK | Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid
After watching James Gunn’s Superman, I wanted to check out some Superman comics, and this was highly recommend as a good starting point. It’s a great retelling of Superman’s origin story, and I've really liked it.
Congratz! Awesome to see how some make it far! But don't stop here :D
After 9y on youtube, this year started again to create and trying my best to make growth happen, targeting what I create better etc.
Good advices! I am surely the thumbnail one to heart, as I've received it from other places too xD
Keep it up!
Great advice thanks Mike