In February, my YouTube channel passed 20,000 subscribers!
Thank you so much to everyone who has watched the videos, left a like or a comment, and subscribed. It encourages me to keep making more videos, and I’m loving connecting with so many amazing writers.
YouTube is one of the best platforms for writers to share their ideas and reach an audience online. It feels a bit counterintuitive — it’s a video platform, not a writing platform.
But the truth is that you can take blog posts you’ve written, narrate the audio as a voice over, and add pictures and video for a visual presentation. Or if you enjoy being on camera, you can read your blog post from a teleprompter or ad lib from an outline.
(Another cool feature of YouTube: you can monetize your videos through their partner program if you have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours throughout the year.)
In today’s post, I’m sharing the five steps that helped me grow my channel from 0 to over 20,000 subscribers and craft one video that has been viewed over 500,000 times.
I think many of these lessons can apply no matter whether you’re making videos or writing blog posts.
Let’s dive in.
1. Experiment Until You Find the Format That Works For You
I started my channel way back in 2010. At the time I was tutoring elementary and middle school students in writing, and I made several videos to help them with various grammar rules (these were animated videos with a voice over). I didn’t overthink these videos because I was just focused on making resources for my students that I could show them in class.
So imagine my surprise when the videos began receiving hundreds of thousands of views and were being shown in schools around the country and the world. That’s the power of YouTube!
I stopped making those videos in 2014. But I love that my first experience with YouTube encouraged me to just put my videos out there and see what happened. I wasn’t worried about the number of views when I uploaded, and I wasn’t blocked by perfectionism.
In 2020, I decided to revive the YouTube channel. It had about 4,500 subscribers at this point. I wanted to make videos about writing that would accompany my articles here on the blog.
This time, I decided to experiment with making videos where I was talking directly to the camera (these are called “talking head” videos). This is the most popular format for YouTube creators.
I had experience with public speaking, but it took some time to figure out the lighting, setting up the shot, and all of that. The first few videos were a little rough around the edges, but I still uploaded them.
I experimented with this style for a few years, but I never felt completely happy with it. It was time consuming having to set up lights and audio equipment each time I wanted to film a video. If something went wrong with the audio or the camera or if I wanted to change something I’d said, I’d have to film all over again.
For these videos, I never tried speaking off a teleprompter. I wanted them to feel conversational since I was talking directly to the camera. But I realized I preferred crafting a script until every word was right and then narrating it with a voice over.
So one day I decided to try something different. I made a video that was documentary style with stock footage and a voice over. That video ended up performing better than any of my talking head videos ever had.
I tried making a few more talking head videos, but then eventually I switched over to the documentary style. Needless to say, the video that’s gotten over 500,000 views I made in that style.
This isn’t to say that documentary style videos perform better than talking head ones. I might even try talking head videos again in the future when I have more time and a space where I can leave up lights and audio equipment.
However, I currently feel best creatively making the documentary style videos. It’s a lot less stressful. My writerly side loves that I’m crafting scripts that I can read word for word. And I also love being able to dramatically narrate the script. I think this enjoyment comes through the videos.
Lesson Learned: Don’t worry about making the perfect video or blog post when you’re first starting out. Experiment until you find the format for your videos or blog posts that aligns with your creative style. This might mean copying the style of creators or writers you enjoy, but then personalizing that style for your own niche, topic, and personality.
2. Zero in on What Resonates with Your Audience
As I wrote in the previous section, I decided to go all in on documentary-style videos when I saw that they were getting more views than my talking head ones (and I enjoyed making them more). Clearly, these videos were resonating with my audience.
The documentary-style video that ended up taking off was a video about Ernest Hemingway’s favorite writing exercise. I decided to make it after uploading a short motivational video about Hemingway. The motivational video had gotten more views than my videos usually did (though it never received close to as many as the second Hemingway one).
However, it was clear that many in my audience were fans of Ernest Hemingway. So I zeroed in on that topic.
This is a fantastic way to choose what videos to create for your YouTube channel or essays to write for your blog. I’ve decided to adapt several of my blog posts to a video format (often, I expand the original blog post and add in a new section or two, like I did with this C. S. Lewis video).
When I choose which blog post to adapt, I look at which ones have gotten the most comments and views on my blog or on social media. This is a good indication that my YouTube audience will enjoy a video on the same topic too.
Additionally, if I have new ideas for topics, I can search on YouTube to see which topic is receiving the most views. If you search for Ernest Hemingway on YouTube, you’ll see that some videos have received over a million views. Obviously, there are a lot of Hemingway fans out there, and I’m tapping into that audience who might also be interested in writing.
Now, I don’t do this for every video or blog post I create. Sometimes I have a topic that I personally want to write about (like when I shared a writing lesson I learned from my orchid). But if you’re dedicating a lot of time and effort to writing articles or making videos, you’ll probably want to create a few pieces that are on topics people are searching for so that you can attract new people to your audience.
Lesson Learned: YouTube is a search engine just like Google. So you can use the same SEO principles and thinking you’d use on your blog when choosing what topics to make videos about.
Look at your blog analytics to see which blog posts and topics have resonated with readers in the past. Examine your social media analytics to see which content has gotten shares and comments and likes.
Or check out your favorite YouTube channels or blogs to see which content gets the most audience interaction or if there are any trending topics. Then put your own spin on that topic. Think about how you can introduce something new to the conversation.
3. Master the Art of Storytelling
I framed my video about Hemingway’s favorite writing exercise with a story:
In the spring of 1934, an aspiring writer named Arnold Samuelson hitchhiked from Minnesota to Florida to see if he could land a meeting with Hemingway. Samuelson showed up at Hemingway’s front door and begged the famous author for just a few minutes of conversation.
Much to Samuelson’s delight, Hemingway agreed to talk with him and read some of his work. Unfortunately, Hemingway had planned to leave Florida soon on his boat Pilar, but he invited Samuelson to join the crew. While at sea, Samuelson had the rare opportunity to pick Hemingway’s brains about writing.
I think this story was one of the reasons this video performed so well. Stories stimulate a person’s brain far more powerfully than data and abstract language can. When you start telling a story, a person’s brain snaps to attention and they give you their full attention.
Stories also make our pieces unique and memorable. This is especially important today when people are using AI generators to churn out so much content online. A story helps your video or blog post stand out and connect on a human level.
Lesson Learned: Look for ways to incorporate more stories in your work. This is something I’m trying to do with this post — share more about my personal experience with YouTube rather than just abstract lessons without any context.
In this post about my 12 favorite books about writing, I share several books that will help you level up your storytelling skills. And I will also continue to share storytelling resources here on my blog and on YouTube.
4. Craft Irresistible Thumbnails and Titles
This is one step that I’m sometimes tempted to rush through, but the truth is that the title and thumbnail for a video or a blog post are two of the most important ingredients for determining the success of your piece.
Imagine you’re browsing through the newly released books at a bookstore. You don’t have enough time to stop to look at every single book. Most likely, you’ll only pick up a book if it has an intriguing title and cover design.
The same is true of our creative work online. People’s social media feeds are flooded with a constant stream of articles and videos. In order to make yours stand out, you have to have an eye-catching photo and an attention-grabbing title: something that offers value to the reader in exchange for their time.
It’s disappointing to put hours into creating a piece of writing or a video and then just hear crickets because the photo and title didn’t grab your audience’s attention.
Legendary copywriter David Ogilvy said this about the importance of photos in marketing:
The best photographs are those which arouse the reader’s curiosity. He thinks, ‘What goes on here?’ Then he reads your copy to find out.
Here’s the thumbnail for my Hemingway video.
I wrote “Hemingway” in all caps at the top of the thumbnail and included a large photo so any Hemingway fan would be sure to see it and click. I didn’t put too many words on the thumbnail (it says “Hemingway’s 3-Step Writing Exercise”). The title of the video is “Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Writing Exercise” to further pique the curiosity of viewers.
Lesson Learned: I put a little extra time and effort into crafting the title and thumbnail for this video, and it definitely paid off.
Don’t save the photo and title for the last step of your creative process. Look back at videos that have caught your interest and see what their thumbnails and titles were and why they made you click to watch. I wrote this article about how to write captivating headlines (this article applies to both videos and blog posts). Headlines should include three ingredients: specificity, curiosity, and power words.
5. Consistency is Key
A lot of YouTube and blogging experts advise that to grow your audience you have to focus on quantity over quality. Try to upload as many videos as you can. However, I recommend finding a healthy balance between the two.
It is true that I had to make a lot of videos and write a lot of blog posts in order to find a style that I loved. It took four years of uploading videos to my channel before I made one that really took off.
But whenever I’ve tried to follow the advice to publish new blog posts or videos at least once a week, this rhythm never worked for me. I prefer to make more in-depth pieces that require much more time (and my time is limited because I’m also working as a copywriter and production manager in a marketing agency). Case in point, this blog post, which I had originally intended to only run about 1,000 words, is now nearly 3,000, haha.
However, it is important to be consistent about publishing on a regular schedule so you can grow an audience who looks forward to what you create. My advice is to see how long it takes for you to craft a video or a blog post you’re proud of and then create a schedule for yourself around that time frame.
For instance, it takes me about one to two months to complete a new documentary-style video that’s about 16 to 20 minutes long. So, I could challenge myself to make 5 – 6 new videos each year.
Additionally, you don’t have to do everything alone. My brother Peter helps me edit my YouTube videos. He’s an amazing editor and knows much more about Final Cut (our video editing software) than I do so that speeds up the video making process (and also gives me more time to spend on other writing projects). It’s also more fun to be able to bounce ideas off another person and get his feedback on what effects we can add to the video.
If you have a creative business, then you might be able to hire a virtual assistant or an editor or a graphic designer, for example, who can help you with the tasks that aren’t your forte.
Lesson Learned: Discover the creative process that works for you and then develop a schedule and rhythm that will help you consistently create new pieces for your audience. For myself, I’ve put together a list of topics for videos and blog posts so I always know what I’m going to create next and don’t run out of ideas. Figure out how you can simplify your creative process.
The Takeaway
Ultimately, growing an audience online and creating engaging articles or videos takes patience and dedication, especially if you want to turn it into a creative business and not just approach it as a hobby.
You need to put in the time to develop your skills and create work that may not get many views when you’re first starting out. Additionally, you need to research algorithms and search engines to have a better understanding of how to get your work in front of the most people. And you need to package your work so it attracts attention, encouraging people to click to watch or read.
But, above all, you need to have fun and truly enjoy what you’re creating. It’s important to craft work where your passion shines through. In his book Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury talks about having joy during the writing process, and I think this applies to any type of creative work. He writes,
Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto…Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind. They all knew the joy of creating in large or small forms, on unlimited or restricted canvasses…They knew fun in their work… So why not enjoy the first draft, in the hope that your joy will seek and find others in the world who, reading your story, will catch fire, too?
It’s that emotion that connects with an online audience and will help you create a video or a blog post or a story that will truly touch their hearts.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to share it on social media or with a fellow writer who you think would enjoy it too. And if you’d like to support the blog, you can buy me a virtual coffee.
Thank you! Wishing you much success with your writing projects! God bless.
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