← YouTube Creators Hub
Loading summary
Transcript40 lines
- [00:00]
A
One thing they say, like in the corporate world is they say to, you know, make sure that, that you are thinking about your future when you go and you choose a career because the last thing that you want to do is climb the ladder up the, you know, the wrong building. So the same exact thing applies when it comes to YouTube. Like, you don't want to put in all this work on, you know, making videos and, you know, trying to grow your channel and all these things to later find out that either one that, you know, you don't.
- [00:24]
B
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the conversation on this week's Creators Hub podcast. I'm joined today by a familiar face and a good friend of mine, Mr. Nick Nimmin. If you don't know who or what Nick does, I will link everything in the show notes. But Nick is one of the top YouTube experts out there, runs one of the largest YouTube education channels and live streams on the Internet, and is creating tools and resources for creators on the daily. And so Nick is a good friend of mine. We've grown to have a great relationship over the years, and we do a State of YouTube episode here on this podcast at the end of every year. And then I try to spring when his time allows him on these individual episodes through the year because so many people love the conversations that we have. So, Nick, how are you doing today, Dusty?
- [01:14]
A
I am doing amazing right now. Happy to be on here. Always happy to have these conversations with you. They're always a blast. And yeah, man, I'm just pumped to share some value with your viewers today. Your listeners, I should say, and your viewers.
- [01:27]
B
Viewers and listeners now, which is great. Don't forget, guys, if you are listening to this, check out the show notes for all the resources and things that I provide to creators, like coaching our creator, community group and channel audits and more. So check that out if you haven't already. All right, Nick, so let's begin with this. I have a question. When I knew I was going to have you on the show, I wanted to open with this question. You've been teaching YouTube and creators a lot, sometimes longer than a lot of people have even been on the platform. What do creators get most wrong today that they also got wrong 10 years ago? So what commonalities are they now as far as mistakes that creators make that are just streamlined across the board?
- [02:13]
A
Well, that's a. That's an interesting question. So I would say the very first thing would just be expectations. You know, when it comes to YouTube, when you transition from a viewer to a creator right out of the gate. You have expectations to where, hey, all I have to do is make a video and publish it to YouTube and I'm probably going to get a lot of views on it. And unfortunately you find out the hard way that that doesn't work. But then the next thing that happens once you ingest all of that and you're like, okay, so this doesn't work the way that I thought, but let me keep going. Then the next thing that happens is you start seeing other people that make similar content to you and you start seeing them do well and you're like, okay, now, now what's going on here? You know, like, they're doing great and I'm not yet. And because of that, I feel that I should be doing better because I'm putting in all this work and, you know, all these things, you know, related to content and unfortunately, you know, the other creator, they, the skills that they have developed, you know, making content and the understanding they have of the platform and their audience and all those things, those are the reasons that they take off good video decisions, that kind of stuff, to where content creators will just have that built in expectation that because the other channel's doing well, they should too. But in reality, and this is something that I say at the end of all my live streams, YouTube is just like anything else that you do where, you know, if you get a new job, there's a bunch of stuff you have to learn in order to do it, you know, at a proficient level. If you start a new hobby, there's a lot of different things you have to learn to get good at that hobby. If, you know, start trying to, you know, play an instrument or something like that, then you have a bunch of stuff that you have to go through to even get to the most basic level of being able to play that instrument. But content creators come onto YouTube and instead of just saying, hey, this is the value I'm trying to provide, this is the type of content I'm going to be putting out. This is what I'm trying to accomplish and this is who I'm trying to serve with this content. Instead of doing all that, they just get caught up in this, these bad expectations of how they think things should go. Instead of just focusing on, you know, just let me build my skills, let me figure out how the platform works, let me really try to get an understanding of who it is that I'm actually trying to reach. Not the niche that I'm in, but the people that I'm trying to serve with my content. And what it is that they care about. Let me get a handle on that so I can actually start moving forward with what it is that I'm doing.
- [04:25]
B
Yeah, it's interesting. That expectation tends to be the cause of the majority of people quitting on YouTube is that they think that they should be at a certain threshold or a certain milestone by a certain time. And coaching creators now on a weekly basis for the past few years, I've seen that that is the most common thing that they come to me with, is I want to reach monetization or X, Y or Z channel is here. And I feel like my content. I hear this all the time. I feel like my content's way better and it should be. I have people tell me all the time, it should be I should have way more views than channel A, B or C. And they haven't put in the time or the work. Or maybe they have, but they haven't made the changes or they haven't pivoted in places or taken the advice that creator coaches like myself and you have given them in order to kind of get rid of that. I guess you would call it a facade. So when you work with creators in tuber school or whatever it may be, and they come with this expectation, what do you do to motivate and to encourage them to. To stay on the path and stay consistent and continuing to up their game and improve their skills?
- [05:32]
A
The very first thing is we do try to set expectations and just let people know that, you know, there's going to be a journey in front of them and that none of this stuff is easy. I think that a big myth when it comes to YouTube is, you see all these YouTube help channels that I'm not going to call them unethical, but, you know, we'll just say that they're not being as honest as they should be. You know, they will package everything up and make it seem like, hey, this is it. All you gotta do is just hit check this box right here, and everything's gonna go great on your channel. All you have to do is, you know, change this one thing on your YouTube channel and everything's going to, you know, suddenly get better for you, even if your videos still suck. And they start, you know, they have all these different, you know, promises that they put out there. So the very first thing that we do is we try to help them unlearn all of that stuff. And we are very upfront and we let people know that YouTube is challenging. And because of that, there's very specific things that you have to learn. When they do come into tuber school, one of the first things that we do is we work on clarity. So a lot of people have YouTube channels, but they don't know what they're trying to do. They're just publishing videos, and in their mind, they're just thinking, I need to get views and I need to get subscribers. But they don't really have a clear end goal on, like, why they're trying to get views and why they're trying to get subscribers. They're just like on the hamster wheel, but they're just running to nowhere. And then once we take them through that process, the next thing we get clarity on is who it is that they're trying to reach. So, you know, you have what you're trying to do, and then you have the people that you're going to do it with. So when you know who it is that you're trying to reach, that by itself. For anybody listening to this, getting clear on that can make a gigantic difference on how your channel performs. Because when you know who it is that you're trying to reach with your content, you start approaching everything it is that you're doing differently. Let me give you an example. So if you have, let's see here. Let's do like a finance channel. So when it comes to a finance channel, you can say, you know, hey, somebody asked you, what type of content do you make? Somebody will say, oh, I make finance content. Okay, well, that's great. Anybody can make finance content. So, so, like, who is it that you're actually serving? You know, I'm just, you know, anybody that wants to, you know, save money or anybody that wants to, you know, save money for their future, whatever. The thing is, that's a wildly different type of experience for a creator and the viewers. Then I make finance content for people under 30. Because when you break it down to people under 30, now you have a clear target. Now you know the very specific concerns that people under 30 have, and you start exploring that and trying to learn as much as you can about those people so that every video idea that you publish is a perfect fit for them. And the reason this type of nuance is important is because if you're just on general finance content and you publish something that, let's say a retiree could watch, they're gonna be in a different financial position and have different challenges in front of them compared to somebody that is under 30. So because of that, you publish a video for that, you know, 40 or 50 year old and in that case, they come in and they start watching your video and they're like, hey, this is great. They watch it all the way to the end. They subscribe, they like, they maybe even they leave a comment. And then YouTube system says, hey, this person enjoyed this content. So then the next video that you publish, because you're just a general finance channel, let's say that one is for people that are 20 to 30. Well, in that case, that the topic of that video by itself is going to be completely out of range for something that that older viewer would go for. So even though YouTube, their system says, hey, this older person, you know, that's interested in this finance content, they clicked on this video and they enjoyed this video. So let's show them more of this content, the content isn't right for that person, therefore they don't click on it. And when you take a few swings like that with your content and people don't respond to it, YouTube system is going to retract and it's going to say, okay, this person isn't responding to this content. Therefore, let's go ahead and show them videos that they are more likely to respond to. Because when we show them videos from this channel, they're just not responding to them. So when you get that clarity on who it is that you're trying to reach and you get into all of the details, I think our document for understanding who it is that you're trying to reach, I think that it might be like 18 pages long. So, like it's just going through and getting all the details of, you know, who it is, what they care about, what you're going to offer them, how, you know, how you can offer it to them consistently, how you speak to them, all of those types of things.
- [09:46]
B
One of the conversations that I've had that really made that clear to me was an interview I did middle of last year where I had a creator on who is a pilot. And I asked him, I said, what was the moment you knew this thing might take off as far as his YouTube channel? And he said, when I realized that there were tons of pilot channels out there showing you how to get your pilot's license, but they were all, all over the place. And they were primarily younger guys, younger males, and this guy was in his 50s. And he said, when I started niching down and I opened every video with, hey, I'm so and so, I just got my pilot's license after the age of 50 and you can too. I realized then that how important it is that we do focus in on a specific niche. I think of one of my favorite creators, Ali Abdaal. He always opens every one of his videos, whether it be about productivity or about whatever he's doing. He always opens it with hey, I'm Ali, I am a ex doctor turned creator. You know, he really niches into. When I see that video on my home feed, I'm going to want to click on that to see because I know I fit that what he, who he's trying to reach. And so Talking about your 18 page document, it's people want to just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. But if there's no con and there's really nothing else in life that you would do that way, there's nothing else in life where you would have just random things and just try to swing and see which one hits the middle of the bat or the center of the club face for a goth analogy or whatever it may be. So I love that and I love that answer. So again, this, these are things that as creators, you guys need to be focusing on. Is there anything else before we leave this topic, Nick, that you think people get wrong when it comes to niching down or getting their target avatar or whatever you want to call it? Yes.
- [11:34]
A
So you can go to niche. You know, when it comes to the types of videos that you are going to be making or the audience that you're going to be trying to serve, you know, you do want to get very specific on who it is that you're trying to reach. You can get all of the, you know, nitty gritty details about, you know, that type of viewer. However, it's also important to make sure that you are trying to reach somebody or a group of people that that's a big enough market to where whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish on YouTube, you're going to be able to do it through that market. So what I mean by that is, you know, if you are, you know, trying to make videos for, we'll just do finance again. So if you're trying to make finance content for people under 30 that live in or that, that go to college in Minnesota, then all of a sudden, you know, you're shrinking the potential reach for the content because you're narrowing it down to a very, you know, like super specific group of people. So those types of things can work against you if you get too narrow. And keep in mind you don't, your audience doesn't have to be so broad or, you know, the market doesn't have to be so big that you have to get millions of views on each video or that you need billions of views of each video. You just have to think about what you're trying to do. So, you know, for example, you know, if you are trying to grow just a really big channel as fast as possible, then, yeah, you need to be making content that has a huge market that you can, you know, make content for. However, if you are trying to bring attention to your business, then in that case, you just need to get your content in front of the right people that are going to convert into a lead and then ultimately into a customer for you. So because of that, you know, you don't need that scale, so you can fine tune things, you know, quite a bit. So, for example, you know, there's a, there's a real estate channel that's in our group. And what he does is he targets Omaha, Nebraska. And with that, you know, his videos do great. He, you know, it's like a pipeline for his real estate business. And you know, his, his videos, you know, some will hit 6,000 views, some will hit 10,000 views, some a little bit more. But when it comes to his content, he doesn't need tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of views in order to turn that into a lead machine for him. Instead, he just has to make the right content for the people of Omaha that are interested in real estate so that they pick up a phone or send him an email in order to, you know, to work with him.
- [13:49]
B
Yeah, I work with a, an eye doctor. And that's kind of his specific audience as well. And it's very, the same exact thing that you're talking about with that real estate agent. I love that conversation and I appreciate your insight on that because I think that it's important that we start there because that's where the majority of people get it wrong. And oftentimes you're spinning your wheels as a creator. If that thing doesn't happen first, you can be making great videos, crappy video. It doesn't matter if you don't know who you're speaking to or you don't have a direction of the channel. It's going to be hard to take off. And that's going to kind of be where a lot of creators fail in the beginning.
- [14:22]
A
You know, Dusty, you know, one thing they say, like in the corporate world is they say to, you know, make sure that, that you are thinking about your future when you go and you choose a career. Because the last thing that you want to do is climb the ladder up the, you know, the wrong building. Right? So the same exact thing applies when it comes to YouTube. Like, you don't want to put in all this work on, you know, making videos and you know, trying to grow your channel and all these things to later find out that either one, that you know, you don't really like it, you were just on it because you were trying to chase views. Or two, whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish with your channel, and no judgment, everybody does YouTube for different reasons. But for whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish with your YouTube channel, that you grew this channel around, content that doesn't serve whatever that thing is that you're actually trying to do with your channel, because then that puts you in a position where, you know, you're calling up Dusty and you're like, hey man, I grew this channel and I'm just not converting people into anything like what, what's going on? And, and people end up in that situation a lot because they're not being intentional about, about what it is that they're doing.
- [15:23]
B
Absolutely. The next question I have set for you and these, these are really different than what I normally ask people because I felt like when I had you on, I'm holding you to a standard of knowing YouTube to a degree to where I'm giving you some, some heavy hitters. So what I'm nervous that you shouldn't be. This could be revealing for both of us, a few of these questions. So it's gonna be fun. What's changed about YouTube in the last few years that creators are underestimating?
- [15:51]
A
Interesting. So I think creators underestimate shorts because everybody looks at it as throwaway content when really it's an opportunity. So for example, you know, even, you know, little things like with Opus Clip, where you know, if you have a long piece of content, live stream, long videos, things like that, you can clip it up and you can leverage YouTube shorts with the same exact content where you don't have to make anything extra either on your same channel or complete a completely different channel that you create just for the sake of that, you know, short form content. In addition to that, a lot of people think that you can't make money. I have a friend of mine that got a six figure brand deal sponsorship because of his YouTube shorts. So when it comes to the utility in shorts, it's great for bringing attention to things. It's great for growing your YouTube channel. Um, I don't remember the exact number, but it's Something like creator insider shared this on their YouTube channel. It's something along the lines of YouTube channels that use shorts, they grow 41% faster than channels that do not. Now, with that, I don't know what, what variables are involved in terms of maybe those people, they're just on the grind, and because of that, they're publishing everything and all that. I don't know what's behind that, but the fact that they shared that number is also staggering. But I think YouTube shorts is. Is one of those things. In addition to that, community posts, in terms of, you know, a YouTube feature is also something that people don't use as often as they should. It's just a really easy way to keep people engaged in your YouTube channel. You can re engage videos that way to where, you know, like a lot of us will assume that when somebody interacts with one of our videos that they've suddenly seen everything on our YouTube channel, but in reality they haven't. So because of that, if you have videos that people are proven to respond to on your channel, share them in your community feed from time to time and bring them to the attention of people that are recently engaged in your channel, because those are the people that YouTube is going to be showing those community posts to anyway. But using it for that, using it to better understand the people that are interacting with your content. You know, those types of things are also absolutely fantastic, but I think those are things that people are underestimating. And then also just the impact of AI, you know, right now because of what's going on in the world of AI, you know, we have this situation that we're in where there's tons of AI content flooding the platform at the moment, and YouTube only has a finite amount of impressions every single day. And some of those videos are taking the impressions away from creators that are not flooding the platform with AI content. And because of that, you know, it's going to have some type of impact on us. With that in mind, it's important to start thinking about, you know, what can you do to make sure that you are, you know, leveraging all the different branding principles to try to bring attention to you and get people connected to you and try to be authentic so that people, you know, can just clearly separate you from the AI content for the people that are going to seek that out. Those types of things are things that I think that creators are currently overlooking in terms of, you know, recent changes on YouTube.
- [18:40]
B
If you like this conversation that you're listening to right now, I just want to ask you one thing, can you go and subscribe to the show, whether it be on your podcast player over on YouTube, wherever it be subscribe, I would really appreciate it. Leave us a review. Also, let me know what you think of the show and don't forget to check out all of the resources and the things that we offer creators down below in the show notes. And lastly, if you know a creator or have contact with someone who you think would be a great fit for this podcast, let me know. Send me an email Dustyustyporter.com with that said, back to the conversation. Those are really good ones. I've always, as of, you know, four or five years ago, I've never, you know, I was always, never the biggest fan of short form content, but I have completely come around to it and understand there is a place for it. Just because I don't consume it doesn't mean that there's not a place for it, especially for creators who can monetize. And with my little experiment that I'm running with my family channel on TikTok and doing YouTube shorts, I found out really quickly when I was getting messages from companies that were offering me thousands of dollars and one of the larger baby manufacturers of baby gates and you know, what better way to advertise your baby gate than someone who has three babies, right? And so they, they messaged me and they said, hey, listen, if you talk about this on showcase it in one of your videos, you know, on YouTube and on, on TikTok and Instagram, you know, we'll give you four, $4,000, you know, plus the free product or whatever. And you know, my wife and I were just thinking, we were like, this is insane. And so there are deals to be made out there, there are a place for vertical content. Just knowing where it fits for your brand and your space and being able to repurpose is important. So I'm glad you brought those up. Especially the,
- [20:20]
A
you know, another thing with that too, because you mentioned monetization when it comes to shorts. If you are currently in the partner program and if your content type supports this, the YouTube shopping affiliate program literally puts a button of products right there on somebody's face, in somebody's face while they're watching your short. So, you know, if you are making shorts of some kind and you're not using that and your content is appropriate for it, you know, there's just one more way that you can add to the bottom, to the bottom line. So definitely make sure you're using that too.
- [20:47]
B
All right, so this Next one is gonna be fun. We're not gonna throw anybody under the bus, don't worry. What's a piece of common YouTube advice that you think is actually hurting creators?
- [21:01]
A
Focusing on like I'm 50, 50 on this one and I'll say what it is first and then I'll explain why I'm 50 50. So a lot of content creators put tons of effort into search and a lot of content creators think that YouTube search is the primary way that people find content. They think it's the only way that people can find their content. And I think that ends up working against a lot of people. So in reality, when it comes to YouTube search, a majority of the views on YouTube, a staggering majority is something like 70 something, 80 something percent of the views on YouTube, they come from their recommendation system, which is somebody's logging into a device somewhere, they're opening up YouTube. And did the audio go out on your end?
- [21:43]
B
It did. You're back though.
- [21:44]
A
Okay. Okay, there we go. Um, but it, but it. Should I, should I restart that?
- [21:49]
B
Just wherever you feel comfortable restarting it. I'll just cut it when I go into post.
- [21:53]
A
Okay, just for the spike there. When it comes to YouTube's recommendation system, it's like 70 something or 80 something. Percent of the views on YouTube come from YouTube recommending content to people. So because of that, the recommendation system is absolutely something that you should try to get good at. And what that means is making your video topics something that is recommendation friendly. And what I mean by that is when somebody is logging onto YouTube, wherever it is they're logging on and YouTube recommend your content to them, it's a, it's topically something that will make somebody say, oh, let me check this out, right, Let me, let me check this out and see what this is about. But when it comes to YouTube search, and this is why I'm 50, 50 on it, there's also still a lot of value when it comes to YouTube search and making search based content. But it's not for everybody and it's not for every channel. So for example, like in Dusty's case, because I know he makes tutorial content. So for tutorial content search is a gold mine because in, in, in that case, people are literally searching for it at scale and that can bring a lot of traffic. If you are solving problems, search is great for that. But the thing that I recommend that you do is what I call double dipping. And all that is, is just a funny way to say that when you are making content, if it's Search based or not, make sure that it is recommendation friendly as much as you possibly can. So basically you make it universally appealing. So like let's say for example, I was going to, let's say I was going to do a something on the iPhone, like a how to set up something on the iPhone. So I might put a keyword or a keyword phrase in the title about, you know, how to set up the iPhone. But then I would try to add something compelling to it in terms of, you know, this will increase your productivity by X percent or you know, something like that to where there's that additional thing to where if somebody searches for it it's going to come up. But then if somebody, or but if YouTube recommends it to somebody on a homepage or something like that, then that extra compelling thing that you added on there is going to make it to where I wasn't in the mood to watch a tutorial right now, but I would really like to increase my, you know, productivity by, you know, an extra 10 or 15% or whatever. The, you know, the promise is there. But doing that type of thing can make your content also appropriate for the recommendation system. So because of that, consider search only if your content is appropriate for search. And then outside of that, you know, just go do everything you possibly can to tap into YouTube's recommendation system because that's where speed happens. And if you get good at that, you can consistently do it, then you can. And by consistently do what I mean, you can get people to respond by clicking and enjoying the content at a level that's competitive for YouTube or on those platforms or on those pages that they're showing that content to people. And for the people that they're showing your content to. Right. It has to be competitive within those groups. And as long as you can do that, then you don't ever have to worry about, you know, how do I get views or anything like that.
- [24:44]
B
Yeah, the double dipping stuff is something I'm still learning. And you know, back in 15, 16 years ago when I started my tutorial channel, it was all search based and the short form content was not there. But the double dipping is important and for example of what people in my space are doing instead of doing like how to permanently disable ads on iPhone, you might do five settings to permanently disable all ads on iPhone. You find ways to really tweak the title. And I've been a b testing some things and doing some things on vertical video to link back to long tutorial stuff. And it's fun now because I get to see where all these search results are coming from. A lot of them are coming from OpenAI or from Anthropic, you know, so they're, they're coming when people are asking. So it's different than, you know, Google searches is still still a big one. But being able to double dip and knowing that search isn't the gold mine that people think is. Unless you're really specifically tailored your channel to that. Like what I've done. And even with my channel, I'm still trying to do what Nick just mentioned and double dipping. So that's really good. I'm really glad you mentioned and brought that up.
- [25:46]
A
Yeah. Other things you can do too is, you know, like when it comes to, you know, something that you're trying to bring attention to. Like an example that I like to give people is like, let's say you have this, this mouse right here. This is a Logitech MX Master 3. I have no relationship to them, by the way, but this is a logitech. We live in a world, right? We got to say those things. But basically, if you're trying to bring attention to, you know, this mouse in some way, you could make a video on, you know, and this is where the topic matters. But it could be, you know, Logic MX3 master, you know, review. And with that, you know, if somebody knows what the MX Master 3 is and they're searching for a review on it, then in that case, you know, they're probably considering a purchase. But they might run across your video and then click on it that way. But a Logitech MX Master 3 review being recommended to people, it'll get views, some people will click on it, but it's just not the most recommendation friendly approach. However, if you had it to where the entire video was framed around and this starts at the topic level, right? So you got to think about this before you, before you commit to the actual topic itself. But if you were to reframe that same mouse and let's say the thumbnail was just a, you know, cool photo of the mouse, or you and the mouse or whatever the thing is, and then for the recommendation system instead, it would be this mouse changed and then fill in the benefit that, you know, the thing that it changed. So if it was my case or Dusty's case, we might say, you know, this mouse will help you edit 10 times faster or 2 times faster. It'll cut your editing time in half, you know, something like that. And then that way now, even though we don't have it, optimized for search. It's a lot more recommendation friendly because we're packaging that way and we're making the video more appropriate for that packaging. So, you know, those type of approaches too, they're both on the same job of bringing attention to the mouse and bringing in viewers, but one is just more recommendation friendly than the other.
- [27:32]
B
Love that. That's really good, tangible, applicable advice. This is why I love having Nick on, because we can really, he and I can get into the weeds. And I think this is the type of conversation that will help creators of all sizes. So let's get more practical with this next question. What do you think is the single biggest lever for a creator stuck between the 1 and 10,000 subscriber mark or a smallish type creator? What do you think is the single biggest lever or where should they be spending their time?
- [28:02]
A
So, one, you should be analyzing everything that you're doing. So if you've gotten to a thousand subscribers and you're probably hitting a reasonable view count to where you can start, you know, looking at data and start getting some, like, real information from it, if you're getting, you know, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 views a video, then you absolutely have that. But the, the place where a lot of people will hang up is they will keep doing the same things that got them to a thousand or, you know, got them to 5,000, and they'll keep just trying to do the same thing to get to 10. And technically you can do that because it worked. But if you want to accelerate things, then you need to really start digging in. And I know a lot of content creators hate this part because especially as creatives, you know, we hate getting into, okay, let me look at my audience retention reports. Let me get all nerdy on this, right? But if you go in and you start looking for things, then fixing those things can really make a big difference. So, for example, a lot of people just completely blow it when it comes to the first 30 seconds of their videos. And instead of saying, okay, let me do a bunch of experiments and see if I can first let me look at my audience retention reports and see exactly how people are responding to that 30 seconds. Then go through any of my content that's performed well, see how people responded to those, and then see if there's any patterns that I can notice that cause people to respond better. And then let me start running a bunch of experiments based on that information on my future videos so that I can start to understand what will hold people's attention for a little bit longer in that first 30 seconds, those are the types of things. In addition to that, YouTube has an amazing feature called the grouping feature inside of your advanced mode Analytics. What this feature does is let's say you have one content bucket that is like, let's say in Dusty's case, let's say he has one content bucket that is Photoshop tutorials. Let's say he has another bucket that is iPhone tutorials, and another bucket that is, you know, live streaming equipment tutorials, right? Then in that case, what he can do is he can create groups for each one of those things inside of his advanced mode analytics, inside of the back end of his YouTube channel, and then he can load all of the iPhone videos into that group, he can load all of the Photoshop tutorials into another group, and he can load all of the live streaming videos into another group, and then he can compare them against each other and he can figure out which ones do people at as a whole, right? As a whole set of content. Which ones do people typically watch longer? Which ones do people typically subscribe to more? Which ones do people typically generate or which ones do I usually get more ad revenue from? Which ones generate more? Super. Thanks. Which ones do people usually like more? Which ones have more returning viewers coming back? Those types of things. But when you start doing that, then it can help you start noticing things and then it can help you manage your own expectations. So, for example, you can say, okay, I just realized by, you know, going through and comparing these groups against each other, I just realized that my Photoshop tutorials, they seem to, you know, I get like three times the subscribers from my Photoshop tutorials and my live streaming stuff. It gets views, but people don't, you know, just the response isn't there compared to my Photoshop tutorials and my iPhone tutorials. So with that information, if I'm trying to accelerate things from, let's say 1 or 5,000 to get to 10, then in that case I'm going to lean more, more into the things that are generating more subscribers, more views in general that the ones that keep people coming back, all those things. So then in that case, as the content creator, you would make the decision, okay, let me just go ahead and completely kill the live streaming stuff. Let me lean more into the Photoshop and iPhone content. And then while I'm doing those, let me also run an experimental bucket to where I'm, you know, trying to come up with something else that might outperform those two. And then you rinse and repeat that process along the way. But by digging in like that, you start to understand how people are responding to your content, what it is that people want from you. Because as creators, as creatives, we have what we think people want, we have what we want to give people, but it doesn't always align with what people actually want from us or what they respond to. So because of that, these types of things can really give you a lot of insights and help you be intentional about everything it is that you're doing on your channel.
- [32:11]
B
I really love this point because it's something that I've done recently and for those of you who don't know, I'm just going to explain it out to you really quickly. You can go into your channel analytics by going to your analytics in your studio. And then you can go over to advanced mode which is a button towards the top. And then under the advanced mode you can go to Add Comparison, which is a button towards the upper left hand side. And then you can change the select what you want to compare from metrics down to content. And then under content you just select one of those dropdown menus and then you go to groups and then just go to click the button that says Create Group. I give you that instruction to tell you that I've done that recently. I found that there was a subset of people who are recently searching. In the past six months I did a tutorial on an app called Prize Picks, which is a gambling or I don't know what you would call it. It's where you can, it's not full fledged gambling. It's for people who are in states like I am, like Georgia, who do not have not legalized gambling and it allows you. I'm sure you've seen it advertised. Anyways, I did a very simple tutorial on that and I found that the revenue on that was through the roof. I mean I was making crazy, you know, amounts of money per 1,000 views and so I doubled down. I did two or three or four more videos on that app and I do that all the time. I see what apps are trending in that group and in that category I go to my line charts, I see which, where I see my spikes and I go to my Google document or my notion and I categorize them and I say, okay, this quarter we're focusing on this and I know this is kind of in the weed stuff, but this is what matters. You have to figure out with AI, with everything happening, what is going to set you apart from the other people. And if we're talking about you Being stuck in a specific gap of growth on your channel, things like this are what's going to help you. So I absolutely love that Nick mentioned that.
- [34:05]
A
All right. And Dusty, one thing that you mentioned also is this quarter we're going to focus on this. And I, I don't want that to, you know, to, to just be something that we kind of pass by because that statement is extremely important. So with what we were just talking about, with the grouping feature. Right. And this applies to everything it is that you're doing on YouTube. You do want to pick things like that. You want to say, you know, for, you know, for this quarter, we're going to focus on this. It could be getting more subscribers, increasing your ad revenue, you know, selling more stuff as an affiliate, bring more attention to products, whatever the thing is. But you know, a primary goal and then from there, you know, you can have a secondary, you know, if you want. But basically when you are in there and you're using the grouping feature or you're figuring out, you know, which affiliate products bring you the most money or whatever the thing is, then in that case, going in and intentionally looking for those things like Dusty has and saying, okay, if I'm trying to increase the bottom line, I'm trying to increase revenue coming in from my channel via ads, then in that case I can prove right here with this app that if I make more videos in this category, there's a really good chance that over the next 90 days I'm going to increase the amount of ad revenue that I'm getting from my YouTube channel if I make that piece of content a staple somewhere, you know, within my content strategy over the next 90 days. So those types of things and that intentionality can make a really big difference when it comes to, you know, how you move on your channel, you know, from, from quarter to quarter, and how you can accelerate or shorten the amount of time between right now and when you, you know, attain whatever, you know, goals, either long term or short term for your YouTube channel.
- [35:36]
B
Yeah, I just, I think that people, we talked about underestimating and underutilizing things earlier. The analytics and data, you and I both are data heads, we love looking at this stuff and we have to do it for other creators channels. But I remember it was, I don't know, it was maybe September of last year and I was looking at this of what I wanted to focus on, knowing that the babies were going to be here, knowing that I needed some passive income. I was like, okay, what stuff can I do to pump that Up a bit where normally I would be focusing on more of the other metrics, but I saw these spikes on that video that I did. I think I got like a free hundred dollars credit on the app. And so I'm not a gambler myself. So I went on there and I was like, I'll do some videos on this. And I did one, a very simple one. And there was a day in September where I made like $38 just on that video alone. And I was like, okay, there's something there. And there was a trend there. Looking at trends, figuring out what's working and what's not is important. All right, so we are getting towards the end of the interview and so now I want to do some rapid fire fun stuff. What is a one of your favorite or go to channels now on YouTube that has nothing to do with YouTube education that you'd like to mention that you've been consuming lately.
- [36:45]
A
So there's a musician. So I have a handpan. So a hand pan, if you're not familiar with that, it's an instrument. No idea the history of it, but it sounds amazing. But basically it's this big like metal. Like it looks like you took two gigantic bowls and then welded them together and then you put all these like divots in it. And I ended up getting one because of this guy. But basically his name is Malte Moulton I think is how you say his, how you say his name. But he uploads like hour long hand pan videos of him and like all of these, you know, just nature settings and it's just gorgeous and, and the music just sounds great. So I listen to his stuff. I'm not going to say constantly, but quite a bit. So he's definitely a go to. And then of course, you know, I enjoy Theo Vaughan a lot and Ryan George. Ryan George also is fantastic.
- [37:34]
B
I know Ryan George. Theo's funny. His long form interviews are some things that I take note of when I'm. I'm trying to become a better interviewer and question asker. You would think, oh, he's just a funny, stupid person. But he's not. He's very intentional with his questions and you can tell. And if you're really good at picking up on that stuff, that's really good. All right. If you had one tool or resource that you couldn't create without right now in 2026, what would that tool or resource be?
- [38:02]
A
My camera, I guess. But yeah, like a tool or resource that I couldn't create without.
- [38:09]
B
Like something you've Catch. You've caught yourself using a lot as of late.
- [38:13]
A
You know, I mean, like I, you know, like I, I use Adobe Premiere to edit and you know, I've always, I haven't always used Premiere, but you know, since I've switched to them several years ago, you know, I'll use them to edit when I edit. Yeah, man. Like, you know, for the most part, like when it comes to actually creating content, because of course I would say, you know, like opus clip for clipping stuff, but when it comes to creating like original content. Yeah, man, like for the tools, for the most part, like I'm, I'm still using most of the same stuff. Like, I'm not reliant when it comes to creating content. I'm not reliant too much on AI stuff.
- [38:49]
B
Yeah.
- [38:50]
A
And that's just because, you know, everybody else is. So I'm like, okay, well if everybody else is going to be making Chat GPT scripts, I'm going to be take. I'm going to be making me scripts instead. So then that way, you know, as they start losing credibility as people start noticing, because I'm starting to see it as people start noticing, like, oh yeah, that was totally made by Chat GPT, you know, because of the way they said this, you know, for those, you know, as those things start to happen, then, you know, once people run across me, you know, I feel fresh, you know, in that case. So, so, yeah, so, so, yeah, not even, yeah, not even doing that much. I, I will use it as like a brainstorming partner though, in terms of like, you know, what do you think of this title? You know, I have my own like GPT that I made to where, you know, I'll run it through that to just kind of stress test, you know, the, the stuff that I put together. But yeah, yeah, love that.
- [39:35]
B
Yes, good stuff.
- [39:36]
A
Yeah. So really, man, that was a horrible answer and really drawn out as well.
- [39:40]
B
But, you know, no, I like it, I like it. That's good stuff. I tell you what, Nick, every time I have you on, I learned something. My audience loves it when you come on the podcast. Don't forget to subscribe. If you haven't, I'll link down below all the places you can get in touch with Nick. Also, don't forget that if you are a creator, I have a ton of services for you. The creator. So look at those in the, in the links and the show notes. As far as if you want one on one coaching a creator, community group, Mastermind group. We have our mastermind call for this month coming up tomorrow. And so go ahead and get in on that very inexpensive, one of the biggest bangs for your buck. So, Nick, thanks again for everything that you do for creators, for having the time to set aside to come on this podcast. And we'll talk to you later.
- [40:21]
A
Take care. Thank you.
- [40:23]
B
And that's a wrap on this week's episode of the Creators Hub podcast. Wow, what an episode. Every time Nick comes on the 45 minutes or whatever we are on the show just goes by like that. And so I hope you enjoyed that conversation. I know I enjoyed being part of it. Don't forget to check out all of our resources down below. We have our mastermind coming up for February, and we've already had the one scheduled for March. So if you're looking for a place to convene with creators, 5, 10 bucks get you in, you get access to our Creator Discord forum, you get access to ask questions to our guests, you get exclusive podcast episodes and so much more. Also would like to give a shout out to my newest podcast that I just launched called Basically AI, where I'm talking about the AI news stories and conversations of the week. Go check that out if you haven't already. And if you're looking for a place to connect with me on a more personal level, my email newsletter is the perfect place for that. It's called the Entrepreneur's Minute. And so check that out in the links below. And with that said, we'll talk to you next week.