I've made $6,537 in 3 months from YouTube 💰 Almost everyth…

1) The most powerful lever to pull to achieve YouTube success is consistency

Make one video a week for a full year, and chances are, you'll get yourself monetized 💸

Unfortunately, the success curve looks like this, making the process very disheartening at first

2) It takes 6 main skills to be a successful YouTuber:

- Writing ✏️
- Filming 🎥
- Editing 💻
- Storytelling 🎙️
- Branding 🏷️
- Public Speaking 🗣️

3) 1% of the population thinks about creating

Of those who think about creating, 1% actually create

Of those who actually create, 1% keep going

4) Make a commitment to yourself

⛔️You're not going to see success after 1 video
⛔️You probably still won't see success after 20 videos
✅You don't need to commit forever, but do commit for a period of time (example: 1 year)

5) Don't worry if you don't have an audience

Almost everyone started out with nothing

6) KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) 💋

The more simple you make your videos, the more likely you are to keep making them (especially when you're just starting out)

7) Tips if you're camera-shy:

🪞Speak a video into a mirror first before saying it in front of the camera

🤖 Expect to sound like a monotonous robot for the first 10-20 videos (don't be surprised or put off by it - it happens to everyone!)

8) It's not all about work 🙅‍♀️

Success is determined by 3 factors:

Luck + Work + Unfair Advantages

Everyone has unfair advantages. It could be in your skills, your location, your looks

The key is making sure you're leveraging your unfair advantages properly ✅

9) To treat something as a business, not a hobby, you need to ask yourself:

How can I give my customers the results they want systematically rather than personally?

Put another way:

How can I create a business whose results are systems-dependent rather than people-dependent?

10) There are 4 main methods to monetize YouTube:

📈 Adsense & CPMs
🔗 Affiliate Links
💰 Sponsors
🛒 Personal Products

It's optimal to have a combination of 2 or more of these methods

It's also super easy to get started with Affiliate Links

11) There are 3 main factors that affect ad revenue:

- Niche 📌
- Watch Time / Video Length 📏
- Geography 🌎

A finance channel will have a higher CPM than a cooking channel

Longer videos make more $$

An audience based in the US will yield more $$ than one based in Mexico

12) Ideas for personal products:

- 🎓 Courses
- 📚 Books / eBooks
- 🌐 Digital Downloads
- 💰 Patreon
- 💳 Memberships
- ❓ Consulting
- 🔨 Physical Products

13) Does gear matter? 🎥

In general, the higher the production value, the better

But don't let gear hold you back. It's better to just get started without gear than to not film until you get gear

14) A blurry background is very cinematic and adds depth 🖼️

To achieve it:
- Don't sit directly in front of a wall
- Add a "hair light" to distance yourself from the background
- Add props/posters in the background to get blurred
- Use a camera that can focus on just you

15) To avoid sound echo 🔊:

Put pillows in the corners of the room and blankets on the floor

16) The general YouTube journey looks like this:

- Make 1 video
- Make 1 video per week
- Make 1 GOOD video per week
- Accelerated growth

Don't obsess over making 1 GOOD video per week if you're still struggling to make your first video

17) There are 4 main levers of production value:

- Audio 🎙️
- Video 🎥
- Lighting 💡
- Editing 🎬

18) Audio is more important than video

Most people will sit through a crappy visual if the audio is great

People will NOT sit through a visually beautiful video if the audio is crap

🚫🎥 + ✅🎙️ = ✅
✅🎥 + 🚫🎙️ = 🚫

19) Upgrading lighting is cheaper than upgrading your camera

With the assistance of proper lighting, you can achieve gorgeous visuals even with a smartphone camera

20) Which of these is the most important view source for millions of views on YouTube?

- External Links
- Recommended
- Search
- All of the Above

The answer?
Recommended ✅

21) Fame jacking is an effective way to get more views

Instead of:
The BEST Jump Rope Workout 🚫

Try:
How to Get a Body Like Brad Pitt ✅

22) Titles & thumbnails should be planned before even filming content

The big difference between Pro and Amateur YouTubers is the amount of time spent on topic, title, and thumbnail

23) Three effective title structures:

- How to ____ Without ____
- How to Turn ____ Into _____
- _____ Common Phrases That ______

24) Five rules for titles:

- Sell the result ✅
- Create intrigue ❓
- Don't describe 🗣️
- Optimize for humans 👫
- A/B test everything 💯

25) Common thumbnail mistakes:

⛔️ Repeats the title
⛔️ Doesn't grab attention
⛔️ Doesn't match the title
⛔️ Doesn't create mystery or tell a story

25) Thumbnail tips:

- 5 words max (none is okay, too)
- Use a drop shadow & stroke for text
- Gradients add polish
- Create a consistent vibe
- Emotion is good, if it fits the vibe

26) YouTube's goal is to bring the right video in front of the right person in order to increase time spent on the platform

Niching down as a creator helps YouTube's algorithm achieve this goal

The riches are in the niches 💰

27) There are 2 approaches to determining your niche:

Architect 📐
- Know what your niche is from the very beginning & create videos that fit that niche

Archeologist ⛏️
- Keep creating different videos over time to see what works and what doesn't

28) Three questions you need to answer about your niche:

- Who am I and what do I want?
- Who's my audience and what do they want?
- What value am I giving to my audience?

29) Questions to ask yourself about your audience:

- Who are they?
- What do they want?
- Why can't they get what they want?
- What are the stakes if they don't get what they want?
- What do they fear?
- What are their top frustrations?
- What do they believe about the world?

30) Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them

When inspiration strikes, jot down your ideas in <5 minutes or they'll be lost forever 💡🖊️

31) Consume content intentionally

Set aside time to consume content on Twitter, blogs, podcasts, etc. with the intent of finding inspiration for content of your own

Look for headlines and hooks that you may be able to turn into your own content

Jot them down

32) Don't worry about not being original

Nothing is original 🙅‍♀️

If people call something "original", 9 out of 10 times they just don't know the reference

"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again"

33) To keep viewers engaged, use the HIVES framework

Hook 🎣
Intro 👋
Value 🤑
End Screen 🎬
Sales Pitch 👉

34) Six suggestions for your hook:

- Ask a question ❓
- Share a fact ✅
- Offer a transformation "from this to that" ✨
- Provide a tip 👉
- Show enticing B-roll 🖼️
- Preview a clip from later in the video 🎥

35) For your first draft, think FBR

Fast
Bad
wRong

Perfectionism is slow

Separate "drafting" mode from "editing" mode

36) Four structures for effective videos:

- Listicle (8 habits that made me a millionaire)
- Triplet (Break into 3 main points, break each point into 3 sub-points)
- Quartet (Why, What, How, What If)
- Story (Hero's journey)

37) Repurposing content is key 🔑

Think of content like a reversed pyramid

One piece of "pillar content" (a full video) can be turned into:
- Twitter threads
- Instagram reels
- YouTube shorts
- TikToks
- Blog posts
- Newsletter segments

38) The YouTube process looks like this:

- Ideate 💡
- Write 🗒️
- Film 🎥
- Edit ✏️
- Publish ✅
- Repurpose ♻️
- Analyze 📊

Determine which activities you don't enjoy doing, but which take you a while, and outsource them

39) Hire an editor

Just do it

Folks often spend way too much time before hiring an editor

Learn how to edit videos enough to be able to tell an editor what you want

After that, outsource ✅

40) Expand your empire

Creator Stack:
- YouTube
- Website
- Newsletter
- Instagram
- Podcast
- Twitter
- Courses
- TikTok
- LinkedIn
- Facebook
- Book/eBook

And as long as this thread is, it represents a mere fraction of what I learned at #PTYA

If you're interested in pursuing your own YouTube journey, PTYA has opened registration for a new cohort!

Check it out here: https://t.co/oEadh6Vifg