Do you ever feel like you're pouring your heart and soul into your YouTube videos and getting nothing in return? It can be super frustrating when you turn your amazing idea into a video and spend days or even weeks on it, only to have it completely bomb and get next to no views. Well, even though it might feel like that, If you feel like you've either got bad luck, or the YouTube algorithm is against you, the truth is it's a bit more scientific than that, and there are in fact things you can do to turn this around.
So in this episode of Full Time YouTuber, I'm going to share a bunch of different ways that you can get more views on your videos as quickly as possible. Hey, my name is Ben, and I'm a full time YouTuber and entrepreneur, and I help new video creators start and grow their YouTube channels into a profitable business.
Can you hear that? It's the sound of internet crickets. You might have posted a video and you're getting low to no views on it. Well, this is embarrassing. Let me just refresh in case it's a mistake. Oh no, it's real. If you can relate to that experience, then welcome to the club. There aren't too many people out there on the whole of YouTube that haven't had that experience.
And I can say as a creator, who's been on YouTube for nearly 10 years. That I get this exact experience, even at the level I'm at now, where in my mind, when I post a video, I have a view count target that I expect the video will reach. And after either a day or even a week, it hasn't reached anywhere near that amount.
So getting low views really is a problem that. All YouTube creators can face, no matter how big your channel is. And the reason for it could be a number of different things, each of which could be partly or solely responsible for the low views. If you're in this situation, you need to put yourself in the shoes of a scientist, where you're doing tests and experiments to figure out specifically what it is that's leading to low engagement and views, and fixing that one or two or multiple things.
So I'm going to give you as many insights as I can on what the cause could be. So you have a starting point for what to change. And the first one is low topic demand. Some topics just aren't as popular as others. At any one point in time, there are trending topics and niches and news stories that get all the views.
And as a content creator, making content around these topics is the quickest way to grow your channel as quickly as possible. Of course, though, you'll need to balance that with whatever your key knowledge and passion revolves around. But in order to have a successful YouTube channel to begin with, you'll need to make sure that the general topic and industry is one where there is a lot of people.
If you start a channel based around vintage Postage stamps. And there's only a few hundred people in the whole world that are interested in vintage postage stamps. There is just no way you're ever going to grow your channel beyond a few hundred subscribers. And there really are a lot of topics with low demand across every industry, which is why it's really important to do your research in advance of choosing a channel topic.
So let's say you have an idea about what you're going to make a video about, but it's still a hypothetical in your head. And in reality, you're not sure if it's going to hit the mark or not. Well, what you want to do is jump onto YouTube and search the search terms that you think your video would eventually show up for and see, are there any other videos doing really well?
Videos that are getting hundreds of thousands of views, even up to a million views or more. Because even if there are only a few videos with these numbers, it's a sign that it can be done again. And it's very likely a topic that there is a demand for. Whereas if you search for your topic or video idea, and there's nothing.
Let's say there's a couple of videos, and they're getting hundreds or thousands of views maximum. Then again, that's exactly what you should expect if you were to make a video on the same topic. While there are exceptions to the rule, you could create the one anomaly that goes super viral. It's unlikely if there is low topic demand.
Demand there to begin with. So you do yourself a much better service researching what the higher demand topics are and making content around those. So using tools like YouTube and typing in different search terms. And also another one I use is Google trends. So if you go to trends. google. com, you can type in search terms and compare them against other search terms.
For example, I've done this in the past to help me figure out which the most popular video editor is. I typed in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and CapCut, and on Google Trends it displayed the search interest for all four topics over the past five years as a line graph. And seeing the visual of this makes it so, so obvious about what the high demand topics are.
Which in this case had Final Cut Pro right down the bottom. Barely skimming the surface. Then Premiere Pro was doing about three times as much search volume. DaVinci Resolve was doing ten times as much search volume as Premiere Pro. And CapCut was doing double the search volume as DaVinci Resolve. So for me, that served as a proof of concept that if I were to make videos around Cap cut that they would perform well.
And ever since I started posting videos around cap cut and Da Vinci resolve, I've been consistently getting high views of my videos because I did the research to see that there was in fact demand for this topic. So again, I definitely encourage you to have a look. on trends. google. com and type in a few different ideas you have in terms of subject matter, search terms, and compare a few of them side by side to visually see which has the highest demand.
It's not to say you should always go for the one with the highest demand. Bar graph, because sometimes those are topics that you may have little expertise in or ones that you're just not really passionate about, but yeah, give it a go. Google trends. The next reason your videos may be getting low views is that you're making videos on lots of different topics and having no consistent theme to your body of work.
The most successful channels on YouTube generally are successful because they are the best, or one of the best, at their specific topic. Whether that's video editing, playing the piano, or cooking. But if you post videos on all three of those topics that are completely unrelated, And you're posting them to the same channel.
What it communicates to your audience is that you're a jack of all trades, master of none. And people don't want to follow jack of all trades. Because everyone's time is valuable, and when they watch a video on a topic, they want the absolute best opinion there is. And often that comes from someone who is a specialist at that one topic, who has made hundreds of videos, and who has proven themselves over time to know what they're talking about.
So the more you post on one specific niche or topic, the more people will come back to watch your next video because they've received value from you in a couple of videos already, and eventually they're going to become addicted and come back for more and more. But they're never going to become addicted if you keep posting random videos on random topics that are completely irrelevant to them.
So, if you're getting low views, I'd encourage you to post at least five to ten really good videos on your chosen topic. If you're still not getting views after that, Then revert back to the low topic demand theory and try changing it to something else and post 5 10 videos consistently on that new topic.
Unfortunately I've seen too many YouTubers grind it out for years and years posting hundreds of videos on the same topic but they're still getting low views and the reason And that's, that's really important. The second is there is low topic demand to begin with. So no matter how consistently you post on your niche topic, if there's low topic demand, then it doesn't matter how good you are at making videos or how consistent you are.
You're just not going to grow your channel an important distinction to make here. Is if you have been posting videos consistently for maybe a couple of months and you're starting to get in the thousands of views, but unable to break through that barrier, that's a very different situation to if you're getting in the hundreds or less.
Because if you are getting in the thousands, often that's a sign that you are getting an initial response. And all you need to do from that point is just be consistent. And just grind it out for a couple of months. Because if you got to thousands of views to begin with, then it's likely that you can get to tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands.
However, if you can't crack the thousand view mark on a video, That's usually a sign of low subject demand, and go back to the first step of finding a more popular niche. The next reason you may be getting low views on your videos is that your titles and thumbnails don't entice people to click because they're not curiosity invoking enough.
This is weird to say, but your title and thumbnail combination Is actually more important than your videos content because people are never ever going to watch your video if they don't click it to begin with and they're not going to click it unless you give them a reason to click it. I've had this happen so many times before where I have poured my heart and soul into a video.
I've taken weeks and just done the best job ever, only to hear the sound of those annoying internet crickets. Damn you internet crickets! But then upon reflection a few months later, I realised that the title and thumbnail actually wasn't that enticing, and that what I needed to do was update them, which you can do after you've posted a YouTube video.
You can go in and update the title and thumbnail at any point in time. So what I did was I brainstormed more click worthy titles and found one I was much happier with. And I also worked on a new thumbnail concept that was way easier to understand than the previous one that admittedly I'd way over complicated and it just.
Didn't have that immediate sense of getting what the video was about since people really do need to be able to process both the title and thumbnail within five seconds. If they can't do that, if there's too many layers of complexity in the image, or if the video title is too ambiguous, they're just going to lose interest and click on the next video that does a better job at enticing them.
And the beauty of this one is, is it's not just something to keep in mind for future videos you make, but you can also go back to past videos that you might have posted weeks, months, or even years ago that you know are good videos, but they didn't reach the audience you were hoping for. Well, I'd be willing to bet there's a very decent chance that the title and thumbnail combination weren't enticing enough.
So all you need to do is come up with new, better alternatives and try those out. You've got nothing to lose because the video already bombed. So spend the 20, 30 minutes it would take to update those two things and see what happens. Personally, I've been able to revive videos this way and turn them into some of my best performers.
So learning how to make really good titles and thumbnails is one of the most valuable skills you can have as a YouTube creator. And if you need help with how to do that, I'd recommend starting with ChatGPT to help you brainstorm titles. And Canva, you don't even need to pay for it. To make the thumbnails.
Between those two you'll have everything you need to give your titles and thumbnails the best chance possible of performing well. The next reason you might not be getting views is, uh, how do I say this in a polite way? Your videos are boring. They don't hook. Your audience straight away. And really that is so, so important in today's day and age where we have micro attention spans, you can open up Tik TOK and see 50 different videos in 50 seconds.
And if your video. It doesn't live up to that or have some kind of hook. It kind of doesn't matter how good the rest of the video is, you failed to hook your audience from the beginning and therefore they're not going to watch your video. And unfortunately on YouTube, a two or three second view time won't count towards your video's overall view count.
So do your best to work on a great hook. This often comes from presenting the problem and the solution within the first 30 seconds. And getting straight into the video as quickly as possible with minimal time wasted. Forget about having logo introductions or long, slow introductions where it takes forever to actually get to the point of the video.
Instead, what you want to do is make the opening 30 seconds of your video the best 30 seconds of the whole video in terms of the effort you put into making it engaging. So, spend more time editing it, add more text and graphics and music. Maybe put some more b roll shots in there if you think it's suitable.
Give yourself every chance possible of retaining your audience past the 30 second mark. Because generally, if they get to 30 seconds, they're so much more likely to get halfway through your video. And maybe even to the end, if it's good enough, then throughout the rest of the video, I'd also encourage you to minimize the time wasted as well.
Just get straight to the point. No one really wants to come to YouTube to spend more time than they have to, to consume content on a given topic. So the more effort you can put into condensing your content down to a shorter amount of time. The more likely people are to watch your video to the end and want to come back for your next video and the one after that.
I think what I'm meaning to say here is don't ramble. I know we all have a tendency to ramble on and on about a topic and give way too much information. And if this is you, that's okay. But in the edit, you need to remove it. Anything that is superfluous information, meaning more than is needed, you need to make a habit of cutting that out, and editing your video like it's a bullet point version of your broader topic.
At least that's how I approach my videos, mine are more tutorial and instruction based. But there might be some topics where this wouldn't work, like psychology and videos where you really do need to go into a lot of detail to explain something very complex. But still, in that case, I would challenge you to see how you can condense all the information, let's say 60 minutes worth of information, down to as little time as possible.
If you can do it in 10, do it in 10. I can even sense in this podcast episode that I've had the tendency to want to over explain stuff, and I've either held myself back from doing it, or I've done it and then edited it out later. Since sometimes it can also be a nervous response, or just your way of trying to fill in the blanks, if you can't think of any other points to say, you might either repeat a previous point, or ramble on and on about one point far beyond the point that it's still interesting.
I'd really encourage you to treat your YouTube journey like you are a scientist, constantly doing experiments to see what works and what doesn't. No matter how big your channel gets, there are going to be certain strategies and topics that work way better than others, and you kind of owe it to yourself to find out what those are.
So, I'd strongly recommend trying new things, even if you are finding some success with your videos and getting things right. Basically 1000s of views. Sometimes all it takes is a slight experiment by pivoting to the right or left. And that can result in 10 times as many views and 10 times as much channel growth.
I can say for sure, even at the level I'm at now, which is just over 190, 000 subscribers, I'm always experimenting with my content. I would say 1 in every 3 to 4 Four videos. I'll make a video on a topic that is new territory. It's not completely off topic, but it is a bit different to what people were expecting.
And then in the week after, I observe whether the experiment was successful or a complete failure. And while there are definitely a lot of. Failures, there are also some successes and those successes can be all you need to finally find your clear path on YouTube, to find your topic that people are responding to.
And if you were to keep making videos in the same style on the same topic, you could repeat that same success. So always be experimenting. I'd recommend at 10 videos where you experiment with a slightly different topic. But just make sure you go back to your original topic, the next video. So you don't completely polarize your audience by violating one of the other things I talked about in this episode, which was making videos on too many different topics.
I'd also add that as a YouTube scientist, you'll want to analyze your own channel data and use that to influence the decisions you make on future content. So if you go into your YouTube studio and to the analytics section, you can sort your videos by most popular. And the one I find most useful is most popular videos in the last 48 hours, because often that is an indication of what your long term videos are.
Even if you posted a video six, 12 months ago, if it's popping up in your top five videos for the last 48 hours, that's a sign that that's a high demand topic. And therefore there's a lot more views to be had by making similar videos because it can be very easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of YouTube, just focusing on your next video.
And then the next one, but you don't always connect the dots looking back. Whereas connecting the dots, looking back is really so insightful because it tells you what worked and what didn't in the entire history of your channel. And it usually sets you a clear path forward if you want to take it. There are so many metrics that can be found in the YouTube creator studio.
It's actually a bit overwhelming. So take it one step at a time, but definitely spend time in there because the more you understand what's working with your channel. The more you can repeat it with future videos. And if you haven't had any videos gain a lot of traction yet, this probably won't be as useful, since you'll be comparing underperforming videos, so maybe just wait a bit before you do this.
But what you could do instead is study other channels that are similar to the type of channel you want to make yours. Usually there's a handful of top creators in every niche, and a great way to study them is go directly to their channel, Go to the videos tab and sort by most popular. This should be very telling about what the most in demand topics are in your niche and what kind of videos are performing extremely well.
And while I'm not suggesting you copy these videos, I am suggesting that you draw inspiration about what works specifically about those top performing videos. Was it the title and thumbnail? Was it an engaging opening 30 seconds followed by a consistently good rest of the video? Or was it just really high topic demand?
Because you can take any of those elements and create your own version of that video and really that will be one of the fastest ways to grow your channel and view count quickly. So if you're struggling with low views on your channel, hang in there. Try a bunch of the things I talked about in the episode, and see what kind of results you get.
Because in order to find YouTube success, you really don't need to work harder on it, you just need to work smarter, by making better decisions on the type of content you make, and how you present it. If you'd like to work with me one on one as your coach to help you identify how to get more views on your YouTube channel and grow it to the next level, I now offer one on one coaching where I go through a very detailed channel analysis and plan out an entire blueprint for your channel to help you identify what all of your biggest challenges are and how to overcome them to achieve massive channel growth.
Because every channel is a bit different and while I can give you general advice in the podcast about what works and what doesn't, chances are your channel has its own very unique problems and unique solutions, which is where working with me more intimately can help you get straight to the solution and grow your channel a hundred times faster.
If you'd like to learn more about that, feel free to follow the link in the show notes. I will also be launching an exclusive community soon. For up and coming YouTubers who are keen to grow their channel to the next level with the guidance of me and other dedicated YouTube creators. If you'd like to sign up to be notified about this community launch, just go to benclaremont.
com slash YouTube or follow the link below and I'll keep you posted on when that's ready to go. Okay, well now it's over to you. To go and try some new things with your content. If you're not getting the views you want, it's really important that you try something different. Because the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
So if you're not getting the results you want, you've got to try something different. Start with some of the things from this podcast and see how you go. I wish you all the success in the world. And don't forget, you're just one video away.
