[MILESTONE] Update 7. The Algorithm Answered My Prayers, Insanity Ensued…
“Wait.. what’s going on? Has it finally happened? Has the algorithm picked up one of my videos?
Those were the first thoughts I had that morning… just before sh*t hit the fan, and everything changed.
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An Early Update
My intentions were always to post updates on this thread after the release of a new video.
But with what’s been happening in the last few weeks – things have had to change.
On my last post I reported we were at
214 subscribers, and labelled this as “exponential growth”.
Now,
roughly a month after that post, the channel stands at 20,092 subscribers.
And for those of you just following this thread right now, I know what you’re thinking: “what the f*ck? How??” – at least, I know that’s what I was thinking.
I’ve had heart palpitations over the last few days because of the craziness that has just ensued, which meant I was up late in the evening unable to sleep, and lost my appetite for eating due to sheer adrenaline that has kept my body in a 24/7 alert state.
But today I woke up and things were better, I felt more focused, calmer, and ready to make this post as well as taking this YouTube channel to a whole new level.
This one is a long post, but I think it’s necessary.
Without further ado, here’s what happened since the last post, and my explanations as to why it happened:
The Algorithm Takes Notice
About maybe two weeks ago, I woke up and ran through my usual morning routine – and upon checking the channel stats, I noticed a sudden increase in views per hour to the channel.
Overnight, my average viewers to the channel (per hour) went from 1-6 to 20-40.
“Huh??” was the immediate thought. Initially I assumed that someone may have posted the video somewhere online, on a subreddit maybe, which must have brought some surplus traffic to the channel.
But then I checked the analytics and saw that the views were coming from “browse features” – meaning the video was being shown on the homepage/recommended tab for audiences.
Even then I was so shocked and surprise to see the influx of viewers… it blew my mind like nothing else.
But then things continued to snowball…
My First “Viral” Video
It continued to grow, hour by hour, day-by-day - more &more average views on the channel per hour, more comments (some very endearing ones too) started pouring in.
The “Fake Guru” video was, of course, the main powerhouse. The algorithm had picked it up and started pushing it out to a bunch of people… but gradually i.e I would have maybe an average of 100 views per hour on the fake guru video, and then after a day it would suddenly shoot up to 500 views per hour, then the next day it would suddenly shoot up to 1,000… etc etc. Currently the video averages about 1.5k views per hour (I’ll explain what this pattern is all about in just a moment).
To cut the long story short, at the time of writing this
the video stands at 208.4K views.
What’s even better is the fact that I have set the channel up in such a way that I wanted to create a “catalogue” of videos (as mentioned in my previous post), and so once they finish watching one video, my audience would be curious to watch another – which in this case, was my “toxic world of self-help” video (makes sense, considering the topics of self help and fake gurus can be closely related).
The Self-Help video is at
63.7k views right now, the Money video is currently at
36.4k. And the others are in the thousands – tens of thousands. Yeah… pretty insane…
So,
I want this to emphasise how powerful the “catalogue” concept is when building a YouTube channel. Everyone is told to pump out content like crazy, but someone who commented on my video made an amazing point:
if your favourite artist was releasing an album every three month, would they really be that special anymore?
The principles of abundance vs scarcity play a part here. When something is abundant it has seemingly less value because after all, there’s plenty of it. But when it’s scarce, it’s far more valuable (I think I already mentioned this on the last post). But when a channel that posts once a month, people are far more inclined to think “Oh! I know that they’re not going to post a video for a long while now, and I know what I’m about to get is high quality”, which not only urges them to click the video, but also entices them
to watch right through to the end.
Notice those two factors? “urges them to click the video”, and “entices them to watch right through to the end” – two factors that the YouTube algorithm heavily prioritises.
Not only that, but if all the content on your channel is on par with the same level of quality as that video, they’re more inclined to binge watch, meaning more views (that make up for the long gaps between uploads), and in my personal opinion a more loyal fan that trusts your work far more than the YouTuber that’s uploading 24/7. Pretty cool, right?
So, What About the Sudden Increases In Average Views Per Hour Every Day?
As I mentioned: once the algorithm picked up my video, I would get a consistent number of views per hour, then after a day, that average number would suddenly shoot up (not gradually), it would quite literally just shoot up.
I wish I could find the video that explains this, but here’s why:
From what I’ve heard/seen with my own eyes, once the algorithm picks up your video it will begin to split test it against someone else’s video to an audience of let’s say 100.
So it’s: Video A VS Video B.
Based on whichever video does better during this split test (calculated by looking at the click through rate, watch time, engagement rate, etc) it will then progress the video on to the next split test to an audience of let’s say 1,000.
If Vid A won, then it becomes Vid A VD Vid C.
And the trend continues until your video eventually gets beaten, and from there on the views start to stagnate and return to normal (it doesn’t necessarily die out, it’s just that the algorithm stops pushing it out as much).
I wish I saved the screenshots of this taking place live, because seeing it in person is far more powerful than just writing about it.
This also explains why you will suddenly get recommended a video that seems a little irrelevant to your interests – because that video has beaten enough split tests to be spread to a completely new audience.
Other Consequences of a Viral Video, and an Exploding Channel.
A few many other incredible things happened once the algorithm picked up my video – stuff that seriously blows my F*cking mind:
- Last post I mentioned a Patreon account. That account now has 12 amazing Patrons, and I gross £47 a month from that at the moment.
- I also received donations on my one-time donation link which has totalled since the last post to £133
- My Instagram has blown the hell up. Before everything went crazy I had about 400 and something followers. Now I’m at 986 followers, I’ve got hundreds of message requests that I’m trying my best to get back to… although it is quite overwhelming, as someone that ghosted social media quite a lot (more on how this is all changing in a bit)
- I’ve had a few “companies” approach me via email requesting video editing services, and an opportunity to have a zoom call with them – which I’m going to get back to. But I am most likely going to decline all of them (depending on the offer) due to the fact that I have built a strong momentum with the channel, and the best long-term strategy here is to ride that momentum out as much as possible. But this has given me a great idea in the far future for expanding the channel out and creating a media company that takes on clients and creates incredible content for companies (i.e presentations, advertising material, etc, that are designed to engage and hook employees/potential customers). If the channel continues to put out amazing content, then the channel itself becomes marketing material.
- I even had the former CMO of Just Eat, Ash Ali, reach out to me via email congratulating me on my videos, and saying that it touches on many of the things discussed in his new book “The Unfair Advantage” – and that he would love to send me a free copy of it. To which I, of course, agreed to. What’s even more crazy is the fact that I attended a networking event (a few months back) days before making my first video that had Ash as the headline speaker!! (I don’t even think he knows this… crazy).
- I’ve had many people reach out offering to work with me for free – which I’ve explained to them that I am incredibly grateful for the offer, and as soon as I start to create a bit more of a process with how I want to run the channel, and the community of followers I will start looking at how I can bring in outside help (paid, of course).
- I’ve had several others reach out to me offering for me to go on their podcasts. I still need to respond to them, but I haven’t gotten round to it yet.
- Others who have reached out to me have given me amazing tips on growing my social media pages, on improving my video production (in terms of the lighting of the videos when my face is present). It’s so mesmerising to have all of this advice & support, and they all do it for free. Incredible…
You can imagine that since the last post, going from slow and steady growth to the F*cking insanity that has happened over the 2-3 weeks, this has been overwhelming.
So… now let’s talk about the future plans:
Main Priority
At the end of the day, one crucial thing has allowed all of this to happen: having good quality content.
Yes, I targeted a niche subject that was rising in popularity with the Fake Guru video, but many others have done a video on the same subject – and yet my video is perhaps one of the most viewed when it comes to this subject (with the exception of Coffeezilla’s – a YouTuber that exposes guru’s- videos).
If the video wasn’t edited good enough, researched well enough, and presented well enough, this wouldn’t have happened. People wouldn’t have wanted to click to see more videos and binge the channel, people wouldn’t have bothered leaving incredible comments about how much they’ve enjoyed the content.
And so, my main priority is and will always be to put out great quality content.
Oh, and if my audience has been enjoying the content from the last few videos…
they have no F*cking clue what is about to hit them with future videos.
I’ve learnt even more editing techniques, tried to make better scripts, etc. The game is going to be stepping up to a whole new level. And I have a “mastermind” plan for how to get this next video to be another banger and go viral (but more on this when the video gets finished).
But of course, as per the title of this thread, we’re trying to build a thriving personal brand. And so, I think it’s time that I tell you guys how we’re going to be changing our old ghosting on social media ways to creating some flourishing social media accounts
Social Media Presence.
So, the Instagram is popping off right now, I’m currently trying to reply to as many people as possible who message me – something that I’m doing that I think is incredibly effective is
I send voice messages in my responses.
It’s quicker than typing a message, and it adds a whole new level of interaction with my audience. I can only imagine what it would be like watching someone that I love on YouTube respond to me with a personalised voice message. I’d be very impressed. So, I think it’s a tactic that I should absolutely adopt.
And it’s been a fascinating experience!
Some of my audience have responded to my voice messages with their own voice messages, and it’s so amazing to hear what my “fans” sound like.
I’m also going to be expanding to Twitter, and eventually, TikTok. I think Twitter is great to post re-purposed content and potentially have it blow up – and I think TikTok is such an untapped market at the moment for my niche, relative to other platforms, and I think it can bring a younger audience to the channel ( we can have both a mature and younger audience combined together… why not?). Still need to study how TikTok works and what sort of content I can put on there that could possibly do well… I’ve had someone on Instagram reach out to me who’s had a viral video on TikTok before, and I think I’ll set up a zoom call with him to get to know more.
Also, I’m going to be working on my LinkedIn for the sake of building more professional relations with people that may be in the entertainment/film/video production industry (all a part of a greater vision I have for the channel and business that I will not share for now because I don’t want to get too ahead of myself… although I will be executing on this vision right from the get-go because my God, this goes far bigger than just a YouTube channel, and I’m slowly starting to realise this).
Feel free to add me on LinkedIn – “James Jani”.
What Type of Personal Brand I’m Trying to Build
Rightly said by a few people in this thread, and in my older “Quidemy” thread.
A personal brand is just who YOU are at the end of the day, it isn’t really “built” per say, it’s your reputation.
So here’s the sort of reputation I’m hoping to translate through to my socials:
Most important to me is being someone genuine and relatable to my audience. No flexing content or anything of the sort.
Much more down-to-earth advice, and a documentation of my journey. I’ve been getting quite a bit of advice from some of the people that have reached out to me regarding how to execute content that displays this in the best way possible.
I think Ben Francis (founder of Gym Shark) does a brilliant job of this on his YouTube channel – he’s a super inspirational businessman, and has built up an incredible company at only 27 years old, definitely someone I look up to.
And I do intend to start distributing content to all my social channels, with teasers of videos and other such videos in the aim of increasing my reach to new audiences drastically.
Gary V has quite an amazing guide on this that I have saved somewhere, but I’m definitely going to be digging it up as soon as possible and executing on it.
Now, Time To Talk Money…
Let me just say, I don’t even care that much about the money right now, I have an amazing vision for where this channel/business can go, and that is what is motivating me to get up in the morning and work non-stop at this.
I’m super F*cking pumped.
But with that being said, the numbers and the potential earnings of this channel are… incredible, to say the least.
And when I started doing the maths, my heart really started beating like crazy.
In the upcoming months I hope to release a course on video editing - something that many people have been asking for in my comments and messages (the market is sending clear signals to me, that’s for sure). And so I hope to release a “beta”/MVP version of the video editing course soon,
At the start the course will be priced pretty cheaply (I’m thinking like £30), but over time I’m looking to get feedback from the customers about what they like, don’t like, what they find confusing, what they want to see more of, etc and continuing to develop the course until it hits the right sort of quality that is worth charging anywhere between £100 - £300 for (which is a fair price in comparison to other video editing courses on the market).
But what I want to do is create a course that is on the same level of quality as a “masterclass” course – if you haven’t seen how masterclass create their courses, I highly recommend looking at the trailers on YouTube… they’re incredible, to say the least.
I’m confident I can create perhaps one of the best video editing courses to exist in the market within 2 years time.
Also, the course encompasses EVERYHTNG, to take someone from a complete beginner to a pro (with that being said, I’m not a pro myself, and hence why the course will be in a constant state of development as I grow my skills as a video editor along the way) so when the MVP version is realeased it will go over the foundations, then down the line I will release another expansion that covers things like animations and what not, and then another expansion down the line that will introduce other elements, etc etc.
Now let’s look at the numbers, and why this is something insanely profitable:
Let’s assume that we get 1,000,000 views a month to the channel (so not necessarily on ONE video, on the channel as an entirety), a VERY plausible number considering the fact that I’ve received about 180k views in the last 48 hours, and that’s only been the last three months (imagine in 1 – 2 years time if I continue producing quality content, which I have every intention on doing!).
Let’s say we convert 1% of that audience.
That’s 10,000 customers.
If the course is £150, then that translates to £1.5 Million in revenue…
If we convert .5%, that’s still £750,000….
A month.
Yeah… easy to see why I was getting a bunch of heart palpitations when I started running the maths.
That doesn’t even include things like ad revenue (we’ll talk about that in just a second), other products (i.e I want to make a course on starting up a YouTube channel once the channel gets even bigger), sponsorships, donations, etc etc…
The opportunity here is beyond ridiculous…
As for ad revenue: I’ve started monetising my videos, and I’m just waiting to see what my CPM is (how much I get paid per thousand views), which is taking YouTube a little while to process the data for me to see.
I’ll probably expand on this in a later post, but your CPM on YouTube depends on many factors, but one of the biggest factors is your niche.
Gaming channels suffer low CPM due to the nature of their audiences likely being teens who don’t have money to spend on the ads that are presented to them. They’re likely going to have a CPM of £1 - £2.
But when it comes to the finance, business, entrepreneurship niche… things get a little more interesting.
Of course, I can’t confirm this for my own channel yet (and as soon as I do get confirmation, I will post about it), but some personal finance/entrepreneurship/business channels get reportedly a cpm that can range from £6 - £15.
So, if their channel gets 100,000 views every month, then they potentially earn between £600 - £1,500 a month). These aren’t crazy numbers, but then again, that’s only if they get 100,000 views a month.
If that number is 1Million, then the earnings are more like £6,000 - £15,000 in revenue.
Much better.
Again, without confirmation of CPM on my own videos, I’m not going to comment on it further – but it’s definitely worth noting that earnings potential could be huge when it comes to ad revenue as well.
***
Conclusion
A lot has happened in a very short period of time.
A lot. And I’m still trying to comprehend it.
But I wanted to say that I’m glad my videos have set people down a better path when it comes to business and entrepreneurship, I’ve put quite a few people on MJ’s works now, and I’ve got more of my audience thinking about solutions to problems, and not just blindly chasing money.
At this point, I have no idea what’s going to happen, who knows? Maybe the whole thing crashes and burns…?
But I don’t know about that…
I think I have something special in my hands right now, and you can bet everything that I’m going to work my a$$ off to make it into a reality, including that big vision I have that I will expand on in the future.
We’re only getting started.
Till the next update.