Building my Audience on YouTube

Building my Audience on YouTube

A little more than a year ago, I made the conscious decision to start creating How-To videos on YouTube. I never could have anticipated what would happen to the Digital Shoebox channel.

 

My goal was to be helpful to my clients, offering them guidance for editing and filming videos, sharing my video marketing expertise and showing them how to maximize their YouTube channels. Some of the videos were scripted and I filmed them with my proper gear and lighting. For others, especially the videos that were demonstrating a skill, I simply used screen recording software. Sometimes I would add my face into the lower left hand corner of the video, but usually it was just my logo.

I never really worried about boosting my subscribers. Don’t get me wrong, it would be nice to have thousands, but my goal was to break 100 so I could take advantage of some the features YouTube offers when you reach that milestone. When I first launched my YouTube channel in 2013, I was admitted as a YouTube partner almost immediately. I had access to beta tests, special features, and monetization. Then, as YouTube grew and influencers took over, YouTube changed the rules and I lost everything that made me feel special. Still, I continued to create content.

Slowly, very slowly, my view counts started to rise. I was averaging 8-10 new subscribers every month. While these are not staggering numbers, it is still remarkable growth for a small channel like Digital Shoebox. I created a video about how to edit audio on YouTube and nothing much happened. But that video, posted in 2018, is my top performing video and the content within is not even applicable anymore. But people were looking for that information, so I created an update to that video. This is now my second best performing video.

I can’t say what changed in the algorithm that made my video suddenly start showing up for people searching for a solution on YouTube. It could have been the bump in subscribers or the steady stream of content I was uploading. I’ll never know for sure. What I do know for sure is that my How-To content is serving an audience. My numbers are shocking for a small player like me. The image below is a snapshot of 90 days, from July 8, 2020 to October 6, 2020. Mind blown.

Along with the exciting view counts, my subscribers are continuing to grow. I am getting more comments and engagements from viewers on YouTube than on any other social media channel. I answer every comment and spend roughly 30 minutes every day doing so. Why do I do that? Because I like the conversation and viewers frequently ask other questions in their comments that gives me material for the next how-to video.

Here’s my challenge to you: What can you share – or teach – that has value? Do you know how to see what your target market is searching for on Google and watching on YouTube? I can help you figure all this out. Let’s start the conversation with a free, 30 minute consult.

It’s time to start sharing what you know so your business can grow!