
In this week’s episode, we sit down with Dee and Nick Nimmin and have our annual “State of Youtube” podcast recording. We talk about the themes for 2024 and where we see YouTube going in the future in 2025 and beyond. Dee and Nick are both HUGE...
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Dusty Porter
Welcome to the YouTube Creators Hub podcast where we help you conquer the Internet one video at a time. We cover everything from how to start a YouTube channel to how to make a video go viral. And now, here's your host, the one and only Dusty Porter.
Dee Nimmin
Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's session of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast where each and every week I have you an interview with a wonderful creator where I talk about the ins and outs of growing on YouTube. Whether you're looking to start, grow or monetize on YouTube or as a creator, this is the show for you. We have over 400 interviews that you can go back and listen to, find value in. And this is a very special episode. We do this each and every year where I sit down for over an hour with Dee and Nick Nimmin and we talk about the state of YouTube and where we see it going and what's happened this year. And if you're a new creator or a creator in general, this is one of those episodes that I would always highlight to go back and listen to over and over again just for good measure because I believe there's so many value nuggets within these episodes. I went and listened back at the last two that we did and it's so revealing of things that we thought were going to happen that didn't and then vice versa. And so this is a really neat, introspective episode to listen to, so I hope you guys really enjoyed it. It took some time and effort to put together, but I'm really proud of the product that we eventually came to. Also, we're brought to you by the fine folks over at Tubebuddy. You can use our link in the show notes to check them out. I do offer one on one YouTube coaching. There's a few spots left right now for next week if you're into that. It's one of the things to where.
Dusty Porter
I really love doing.
Dee Nimmin
So if you're looking to work with someone that's affordable, it's a hundred bucks for thirty minutes. And most folks who kind of work with me, we normally work together multiple times and hopefully that's a. Sounds like a positive thing. And then we also have the fastest growing creator community over on our Discord server. Five bucks over on Patreon gets you access to that where you can rub shoulders with creators all throughout the day. As well as our monthly Mastermind calls. We're having one tomorrow actually, so go ahead and check that out if you haven't already. Alright, without any further ado, let's go Ahead and jump into this week's conversation.
Dusty Porter
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. It's one of my favorite times of year. Not just because I love the Christmas season and all the festivities and the kids, they're going crazy, but it's also fun to do the fun things. But I also know that every year towards the end of the year, I get to record an episode with two of my really good friends and peers in the YouTube space. If you are in the YouTube space at all, I'm sure you know who Nick and Dean are. They've been in the creator space forever. They run some of the most successful live streams over on YouTube regarding creators. And if there's anyone that is tuned into what's going on for creators, it's these two gentlemen. And so I'm super excited to have them again this year. We normally record about a 45 to hour long. I believe last year was like an hour and seven minutes of basically looking back at the year that was on YouTube and giving some advice and maybe tenant foil hat stuff of what's coming in the new year and beyond. So, Nick D, how you doing today?
Nick Nimmin
Fantastic. It's awesome to be here again. I think this is our, what, third or fourth year in a row?
Dusty Porter
This is year four.
Nick Nimmin
Nice. Fantastic. Absolutely. Love it. Yeah. Super excited to be here.
Dusty Porter
Yes.
Dee Nimmin
I remember to be here. This is a fast year. This one went by the fastest, I think, when I received the email and it's, are you ready to go again? I'm like, what?
Dusty Porter
We just did that, didn't we?
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, hold on, slow down now.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. I remember the first one very well. Covid obviously was impacting everyone's life. De was stranded and we still recorded. And I remember that our lives are way different now. My kids are four years older. Nick's getting married here in a couple of weeks. You guys have a bunch of different ventures going on, so we'll certainly talk about all of that. But we are here to talk about YouTube and the Creator space and where we are. So I'm going to open this episode up like I've done in a couple in the past couple of years. And I'm going to ask both of you guys, and we'll start with Nick and then go to D. What do you think has been the most impactful thing for creators on YouTube this past year?
Nick Nimmin
The most impactful thing I would say is. I would say YouTube shopping, because I know a lot of content creators are. I would actually say two things. One would be YouTube shopping, because a lot of creators are starting to lean into that and some people are getting more sales out of the YouTube shopping links than they are out of affiliate links in their video description, which I think is pretty interesting. But that particular thing is fantastic. And the additional or continued rise in TV viewership I think is also a pretty amazing thing for us as content creators that we can tap into. Because if somebody's watching from a tv, the expectations are a little bit different than a mobile user. And because of that, it gives us an opportunity to just be in front of people for longer periods of time, especially if the content that you're making is more, you know, TV appropriate. But these days I think that pretty much anything is TV appropriate. But when it comes to like vlogs, adventure stuff, entertainment, things like that, you can really make a splash on TV right now.
Dusty Porter
Yep.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, I have nothing to add with that shopping and the rise of TV viewership. I agree with Nick on that one.
Dusty Porter
Yeah, shopping's interesting. I tinkered around with it on my channel. I didn't really think it would fit in doing tutorials like I do, but I did a tutorial on something. I had this kind of parents guide for Roblox, which is a very popular video game for kids and teens and popped off, did really well. And so I went in there in YouTube shopping and I linked some Roblox gift cards from safe places to buy them from. And I ended up making decent amount of money from it. And I thought to myself, okay, this is the power of that. And then as far as TV viewing, I know my TV viewing for YouTube consumption has really increased. I'm a big fan of a channel right now called the Outdoor Boys. It's a guy who's a lawyer and he goes on these adventures, which is speaking on what Nick's talking about. And he goes to these outdoor places and he camps himself and he follows his journey in about a 30 minute video. And it's perfect for TV if you're folding the clothes or you're doing some stuff like that, pop on the TV, go to the YouTube app. And I think because the ease of use now there's every. Not everyone, but most people have a smart TV or they have app they can stream to the tv. So big deal. Nick, what do you think that we're going to see as far as more optimizations to the TV side of things and what can creators do to optimize that?
Nick Nimmin
YouTube announced, I believe it was back in September that they are going to be rolling out dedicated series to where basically we're going to be able to market in our creator studio where we're going to be able to market episodic content and series content for TVs. And I know some content creators, they're already experimenting with this, but I think that particular thing is going to encourage some content creators to be more TV minded. Because right now YouTube is trying to compete with Netflix and Hulu and Disney and everybody else, but they're using content creators to be able to have that actual competition. So because of that, I think that it's going to be just a really big opportunity for content creators that don't have the gigantic budgets and things like that that you would normally have to make something on Netflix to make something a little bit more personal and to make something that would also be very entertaining and fun to watch on tv.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, like the outdoor boys that you were talking about, Dusty. That's perfect for something like that. So you can have a Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. That's really exciting. That's one of the things I love about streaming networks is when you're finished with one episode, it will automatically go into the next episode or allow you to choose to go into the next episode versus where right now YouTube might recommend you something else based on what it believes you want to watch or what the creator put in there. But if you have something that's built in episodes, I mean, that's a huge win to just lead the viewer through all the different episodes and seasons. That's exciting stuff. If you're making that type of content.
Dusty Porter
It's basically what old school TV was a decade plus ago. Right now you just have the ability to open the app and watch it for free with ads or YouTube Premium or whatever you may have. And we'll certainly break that down. I love this. I love that we're seeing more kind of a transition to this in a world where we live in short form ADHD type content where it's just like you're swiping up every 10 seconds to watch the next short. Me personally, I love that we're also doubling down in this long form content because as a podcaster, Nick, you and I talked about this a few minutes ago. You were asking me about this show is now transitioning not to a solely video style format, but I'm giving people the option that if they want to watch this show in video format, it is on YouTube, it is on Spotify. And I just found out out this morning as I was getting ready that Spotify had its first. This is going to be crazy to you guys. Maybe it's not. I don't know. It was crazy to me. Spotify had its first positive revenue year ever since 2017. They actually made money and a lot of that is because the deals they've made with these video creators and podcasts. So I think we're going to see that. Yes, short form content is on the rise and it is the rage. But long form TV style, podcast style stuff is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Dee Nimmin
And you know, I cut how much they were paying musicians and artists from uploading their videos. So it could have something to do with that.
Dusty Porter
It could have something to do with that. You're right.
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, yeah. I think when it comes to the TV content, you're a vlogger or an entertainment channel listening to this right now, or even an educational channel. What we do, the opportunity that you have here in terms of being able to tap into people that are going to sit there and watch you for a long time. I'm sure Dusty can, can vouch for what I'm getting ready to say because he's been podcasting for a really long time. But one of the advantages of having a podcast is you get to spend a lot of dedicated time with people and because of that they just get really familiar with you and all the nuances of you and they get like really committed. You're listening to this right now. You might be one of the people that have been listening to this for years and it becomes part of your routine, things like that. One of the things that's great about TV is if you are making longer episodic content is that one, you can have cliffhangers where you try to get people to come back. You can have that longer experience with people in general. And it doesn't have to be two hour movies. You can upload a video that's 30 minutes and that's going to do just fine. I was actually listening to a podcast that they do on the Creator Insiders YouTube channel with Renee Richie and he was interviewing some content creators that are making content for tv. And with those particular content creators, they actually found a sweet spot for what it was that they were making. This isn't going to be the same for everyone to where their best content was right around the 18 minute mark. And it wasn't like 30 minutes like a lot of people would think that you have to do for tv. But the idea is that you just want to create something that is really good, that will keep people watching. For that longer period of time and just make it worth it essentially. To make them worth it or make it worth it for them. But when you are putting the content together, just think about it through the lens of okay, if somebody is watching this on a tv, how are they going to experience it? If somebody's watching it on a phone, how are they going to experience it? If somebody's watching on a computer, how are they going to experience it? To make sure that you are putting everything together in the right way to be able to take advantage of everything that you can right now on YouTube.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. Optimizing for all the available formatting and ways that YouTube's allowing us to present. And don't sell yourself short. Nick said. I'm an education channel myself and I can't tell you how many times I've had professors or high school teachers email me and they say, hey, I want to let you. I've been showing this tutorial in my class for some of them for years. And after I got over being angry that I missed all those individual views, I was like, you know what, that's pretty cool. That's a really neat thing that my voice is being presented on the projector in front of all these classes of we're going through the syllabi and I had one teacher tell me back in the day, hey, your zoom tutorials basically gets my students through. He sends it in his syllabus with the link to my video and everything. And it's really cool that that YouTube's allowing us to have all of these different opt new content. So I, I really do love that. I, I do want. I didn't want to spend much time on this next question because I feel like it's not very helpful on the technical side. But I feel like I wanted to say it just from my point of view and get your guys opinion on this. With everything going on right now in the world with, with famous people who it turns out they're pretty much crap people. They're awful human beings. We've seen a lot of this. We live in a culture where people are wanting to cancel. People left and right have your opinions, whatever. This is not going to get political. By the way, I want to know both of your let's do this opinions. Let's do it on how important is it as a creator that you're just a good person that you actually talked about this off air. I was thanking you guys because how gracious you are with your time. And I think one of the things that have made both of you successful is that you are just good humans. You're good people. And I think that briefly, I want to open the floor to you guys of we're seeing a lot of. I see all the streamers that are popular right now, and I think to myself, I would never let my kids watch that stuff. That's just garbage. How important is it that you just.
Dee Nimmin
Treat people the right way and that.
Dusty Porter
You'Re just a decent human? Let's just talk about that for a minute.
Dee Nimmin
It costs nothing to be a good person. It costs nothing to try to lift people up, to help people, to try to be positive with your message. It costs nothing. It's a choice that people are making. And I understand that we live in a world where a lot of these streamers. And I know exactly what you're talking about. Some of the streamers on some of the other platforms, platforms that allow crazy things to take place. I'm. I support free speech. I think people should be allowed to make the content that they want to make. Actually, Nick and I just talked about this during a live stream on Saturday. I believe people should be able to make the content that they want to make, even if I don't personally agree with it. But I also believe that there should be a place for that content. I don't want to see all types of content recommended to me on all platforms. I think one like, for example, take YouTube, for example. I don't want to open up YouTube and see tons of content that I don't think is positive. I don't think is a good message for children to watch, etc. Things that are going to do my head in just because of the type of content that it is. And I think there are other platforms that do that really well. I think Rumble is one of those platforms. And I know for live streamers, I think it's Kik. Kik might be one of the platforms where the streamers are going and they're doing just outlandish stuff over there. And I don't agree with it, but I support their right to do it. But in terms of being terrible people, as some people unfortunately are, I think it's unfortunate because it's a choice to be a bad person when you could be a good person and spread a positive message. But at the same time, that's how they are getting noticed. These terrible people are doing things. It could be part of their shtick. It could be their. The outrageousness that's bringing attention to them. And that's unfortunately, the world that we're Living in where attention is a currency. Everybody's fighting for attention however they can get it. And I think it's really bad that people are turning to that sort of content in order to get attention. And I think long term that's going to do your head in as well. If you're putting out that negative stuff repeatedly to the world, you got to be careful what you become. Because if that's all you're thinking, how can I become more outrageous? You'll become that.
Dusty Porter
And Nick, maybe I'm off base by even bringing this up this year, but I just feel like there has been a just a overly large amount of just stories about creators doing awful things and being awful people. And I think that sometimes we have to use our platform to just for a brief minute or two talk about, hey, we've been provided this platform. And you are right, Dee, I'm so thankful that we have the freedom to, of speech and things of that nature. But with that being said, it's really dangerous that our youth and our people are being brought up on these iPads and these phones consuming stuff that, like you said, Dee, the reason they're getting this attention is because of the outrage and the crazy obnoxiousness of it all. That's what's bringing the eyeballs to them. And so that's just going to keep happening. And I, the reason I brought this up is because we're going to transition into artificial intelligence and the kind of gray area there. But I want to give you an opportunity. Nick, just what are your thoughts on this?
Nick Nimmin
My thoughts since I got started with this, one of the things that I've always told people is that it's good to make family friendly content. And I know that for some people that's just not going to fit into what it is that they want to share with people. But I believe that it's advantageous to make family friendly content because when you're doing that, you're making content to where somebody can listen to it in any environment. They can watch it in any environment, they can be listening. Like for example, if somebody was listening to this right now and they happen to be in the car taking their kids to school or picking their kids up from school, or they're around an elderly parent or something like that, or just people where it wouldn't be appropriate and we just started saying a bunch of horrible things, then in that particular case they would need to turn it off and then that would actually make them look bad in front of their kids or in front of whoever it is that they're around and things like that. And I believe what Dee said in terms of it being free, it doesn't cost anything to just be mindful of the experiences that your viewers might be having from your content, not just from watching your videos, but in environments that they might be watching your videos in. Because of that, I'm a big advocate for family friendly content. But with that said, movies, some movies are more family friendly than others. And with that, when you walk into it, you usually know what's going on. When it comes to YouTube, it's a little bit different because you might just click on something on YouTube and you might be experiencing it, and then you just get surprised to where it's going along and you're like, hey, this is great. And then all of a sudden it just goes off the rails and they start talking about bad things or using really bad language or whatever. The thing is, I'm in alignment there with Dee in terms of it just being free to just be good and just to do the right things for the people that are watching your content. And another thing too is I think it also represents the content creator well, because all of these things, we're leaving like a digital trail of our personalities and who it is that we are. And when we start acting a certain way, and especially if you're young and listen to this, if you start acting a certain way online, like, this stuff can come back to haunt you. Five years, 10 years, 20 years down the road. Things that Kevin Hart has said that they traced back to him when Twitter started or when he first got on Twitter or whatever the things are when it comes to just the trail that you are leaving, it's like your legacy of sorts when it comes to. It's just a reflection of you. And you just got to think about how you want to represent yourself in the world that you're living in.
Dusty Porter
Yeah, awesome.
Dee Nimmin
Really quick. I want to add something to there. I think there's also. When you're making that type of content, let's just call it shock content or content that's not family friendly, you're limiting who you can work with. In terms of companies, brands, there's not a lot of brands. There's always going to be somebody out there who does. You are limiting who you can work with, who will want to collab with you, who will want to invite you onto a podcast, who's going to want you to come and speak at an event, who wants you to represent whatever it is that they've got going on. I think you just limit yourself. And I think as a creator, it's silly to be given these amazing opportunities, given these platforms so we can make anything we want. And then painting yourself into the corner because you want to make a particular type of content, it just seems like a waste. I'm an old man yelling at clouds.
Dusty Porter
Thank you guys for going with me there because I just, I've been getting discouraged lately just hearing a lot of times these celebrities have been people that a lot of folks are idolizing for years and years and then it comes out that they're just awful human beings. And I think that on YouTube we're going to see a lot more of that where. And it's not just little, little things that are happening, we're talking about real bad stuff. And I just think that just be careful of who you idolize. Be careful. And I think it goes a lot to the YouTube algorithm and what shows up on the browse feed and things like that. It's a very scary thing that anything can pop up there at any time. We'll certainly get into that now. I want to kind of transition away from that quickly and because I don't want folks to think that we're getting too kind of pie in the sky or political here. I just, I want to get back to the YouTube stuff, but I did want to say that it's been on my. It's been on my heart and my mind late. So I wanted to mention that. Let's talk about content trends. We've seen everything from Mr. Beast going over to Amazon and doing a hundred million dollar deal with them. Good for him by the way, to the viral short form stuff that's still popular this year that we talked about last year. What are we seeing? Nick, we'll start with you and D, you can chime in after that. What are we seeing as far as content trends and what's changing and what do you think's coming? We've already talked about TV viewing and stuff like that. But as far as actual content, what are we looking at here? Nick?
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, so now with the introduction of long form shorts, whatever we want to call that, with the introduction of that, people are starting to upload those now. We don't really have a lot in terms of information on that at this moment in time because it's still relatively new. But with that particular feature, I think it's going to create a new opportunity for content creators and it's going to create a new experience for viewers as well. Hopefully it leads people in the right direction in terms of attention spans and whatnot, I think that's great. Another thing is the opportunity that we actually talked about before the show started today, which is Spotify now taking video. So if you are somebody that is podcasting onto YouTube or if you have something that would be appropriate to put over into Spotify, then that's a new opportunity for you as well. So I think those two things are going to be, you know, major coming into this year. And then of course, as always, because we always talk about live streaming, but live stream is also always on the rise. And then when it comes to regular video content, having longer content definitely creates a great experience for people. And like we touched on earlier, it also has people spend more time with you so they can get to know you more, get to connect with what it is that you do more, and hopefully come back more to your content. Dee?
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, I don't have too much to add. I think Nick nailed that. But one thing I have noticed in terms of a trend that's been building for a while is people are. A lot of people are turning away from the retention style editing. I'm seeing a lot more creators just sitting down, hitting record and recording a long form video. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, sometimes with no cuts, sometimes with very minimal cuts, just sitting down and having a conversation. And I love that. I absolutely love that. I feel it's a lot more intimate, it feels more authentic. And I like that trend. I like that.
Nick Nimmin
It's almost like it's going back to old school YouTube.
Dee Nimmin
It's going back to old school YouTube. Obviously that probably is not going to translate across every niche, but I, for the creators I'm seeing doing that, I enjoy it a lot and I appreciate it.
Dusty Porter
We've talked about that a lot on this show. I've had multiple guests bring that up. And why do you think that is? What do you think is fueling that? Either one of you can answer this, but a lot of the creators that have popped off this year are creators that just flip the camera on and they may film themselves in different rooms or in their car, but it's just them monologuing. And we'll transition into my next question about viewer behavior. But why do you guys think that is?
Dee Nimmin
I. Okay, I'm speculating on this one, but we went so far in the other direction. And no disrespect to people who make that style of content that's just. And every three seconds there's a cut.
Dusty Porter
Makes you sick. Yeah.
Dee Nimmin
Do what you need to do to keep your audience Watching, let me just say that. But we went so far in that direction. I think we just had a natural course correction where people are like, you know what, we just want to get back to having a conversation. Let's just go back to just people sitting around having a conversation. I just want to listen to this person speak. I want to see what they have to say. I don't need a million cuts and all these zooms and all these crazy effects and whistles and zooms and hits. I don't just, just turn on the camera. I just want to have a conversation with somebody. So I think it's. I think it's a natural course correction.
Nick Nimmin
I think it's in part conditioning also in terms of a lot of people being on TikTok. So I agree with the 100%. I think that, that people being on TikTok a lot and in some cases YouTube shorts. But it's not as. You don't see it as much in YouTube shorts as you do on TikTok. But, but if you hop on TikTok right now and you start scrolling through your feed, there's a really good change. You're going to run into somebody sitting in a car or you're going to run into somebody just sitting on their back porch and it's going to be framed weird and the audio is going to be okay. Right. You're still going to be able to hear everything, but it's not going to be like production quality stuff. Right? Sure. And I think that has gotten people used to or has introduced or reintroduced people to like, wow, I can actually sit here and enjoy just this person sitting in their car talking because they're sharing an interesting point of view. And I think when you take that and then you apply it to YouTube, people that found, like myself that find like, hey, you enjoy that on TikTok. When you do run into that in long form content, it's wow, yeah, I can just sit here and listen to this person too. And I think it's just like a good crossover there. And like I said before, in terms of everything that Dee mentioned of clicking on a video and everything's just snapping and banging and stuff moving all over the place and sound effects and somebody jumping at you and all of that. There's definitely a place for that. But on the other side, it is nice to just start a video and get into the content and somebody just sitting there talking to you about something and sharing their opinion on whatever something might be or sharing whatever story it is or something like that. I think it's fantastic.
Dee Nimmin
There's a fitness channel. Go ahead, Dusty.
Dusty Porter
I was just going to say probably the same thing you were about to say. I was going to give an example of one of these channels. I can't remember his first name, but it's Sulik. It's the fitness creator. I can't think of his. Sam Solic. The dudes expl his videos. If you were to just go do a video analysis of the quality of his video, Nick and I would have. There would be red ink everywhere. But the. He's just exploding. So I didn't mean to interrupt you, D. But go ahead and say what you're going to say.
Dee Nimmin
I was going to use an example of a channel called Dry Creek Wrangler School.
Dusty Porter
Okay.
Dee Nimmin
I don't know if you're familiar with that. The creator in that his name is Dwayne. He's. I don't know his age. I'm going to guess he's late 50s, early 60s. Sorry, Dwayne, if I didn't get your age there. He's a cowboy. He's on a farm. He has horses and he goes out and he turns on the camera and he just talks in a barn sometimes in front of horses or in front of the saddles. He's got a hat. Sometimes he smokes a cigar while he's doing it. And I'm always mindful when I come across these sorts of channels that are. And his videos are just ridiculous amounts of views on them. Upload a video and within minutes, tens of thousands of views within minutes. And I always go down and I read the comments and I see people say things like, yeah, I just. I feel like I'm just sitting there having a conversation with my buddy. And I think a lot of this, I think we're isolating ourselves. I think a lot of us have isolated ourselves. The more we can get online, the more we can do things on the Internet. We're isolating ourselves from the human interactions that we. A lot of us used to do in person. Some of us maybe not so much, but I think we just keep isolating ourselves more. And I think that type of content is probably very refreshing for those types of people. I don't interact with a lot of people in my personal life. I have my close circle and I don't go outside of that much. I don't go outside of it much. So when I come across those videos where somebody's just sitting there having a conversation, if they can communicate well, they lure me right in and I feel like I'M just right there having a. They're just talking to me. And I really appreciate that, but I think a lot of it's coming from isolation too.
Dusty Porter
I want to transition this into viewer behavior, and I think you're exactly right. I think you're, you're hitting on a lot of good points there. D Viewer behavior. How did viewer behavior habits shift this year and how do we see them changing or evolving over the next year or so? Nick, what are your thoughts on that?
Nick Nimmin
This is an interesting question because I think how they've shifted and what's getting ready to happen are two different things. Okay, so on the shift, I think that the conversation that we just had is a huge part of the shift in terms of people just trying to connect with other people more. And then in terms of the direction that it's going to go, it's actually supportive of this. In the direction that it's going to go. YouTube is leaning more into community features in terms of features that they're rolling out right now. If you're a creator at this moment in time and you've logged into your creator studio recently, you've seen that they've done an overhaul on the comment section, so now it's called Community. As a part of that, they're also going to be adding features to your creator studio and features for viewers where you actually get to have your own community of sorts around your YouTube channel. I think that particular thing by itself is going to be really amazing for just connecting viewers with content creators and content creators with viewers, because currently everything is usernames and all of that. But when people can share photos about something, like for example, in our type of content, if I said, hey, everybody, post a picture of your setup, right? Your studio setup or wherever it is that you record, then everybody can actually take that physical action to take out their phone or camera or whatever. Because people would be wanting to get the really nice looking shots, right, but to take out their phone or their camera and then they get a shot of their setup and then people can start sharing it in that particular community area.
Dusty Porter
Yes.
Nick Nimmin
And I think that it's going to create an even more engaged community like subreddits almost. Because when you go to Reddit, the same exact things happen to where there's an entire subreddit where people go and they share like their music setups or their video setups or whatever it is. So I think that it's going to create things like that you're a fashion channel, hey, share your outfit of the week or Whatever the thing is. And I think that the community side is going to really be leaned into and I think that is absolutely fantastic because it's what YouTube has founded on in terms of the culture of YouTube and I think this is going to deepen that. And as a part of that they also have some features coming in that they copied from TikTok in terms of different ways that people can pay content creators on the vertical content side. And when those types of things start to happen so you're live streaming in vertical, you're live streaming horizontal. You have this community thing going on. People can donate to you in all these different ways. Creators are going to be able to make more money from this, but it's also going to be something that's going to I believe intensify the parasocial relationships that happen on YouTube and in some cases cross it over into actual friends being made and things like that. Just through shared interest, through some of those things that are people are going to be able to express Something that.
Dusty Porter
I've done, I want to mention to you guys has been a game changer for me under my tutorials now. I've always really struggled with what do I put in the pinned comment. And as of the past six months I've done something and I, I'm curious to know your guys thoughts. I go to chat GPT and let's say wait a minute, we're going to get into AI and that's why I'm bringing this up. I, I feed the video after I'm done with it and I feed the AI the title and I say what are the most frequently asked questions about this video that I'm having? Maybe the video is how to live stream on YouTube. Then I want to know for years people have been in my comments of oh this tutorial was amazing. And then the next person will say this tutorial sucked because they ran into a technical problem that the other person didn't. So now I'm using AI to quickly curate the most frequently asked questions or problems that people run into with said video. I'm putting those in the pinned comments and now I'm having people comment more on that than the actual video. And so YouTube giving me a place to like you said Nick, post the pictures, post the screenshots of okay, here's where you may run into an issue. It's keeping people on platform longer, it's keeping people on video longer. And so I love that you mentioned that Nick, but I, it's it. You are right. I don't want to use AI. I always use AI for a supplement, never a replacement. So what are your thoughts on that?
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, I think that's fantastic. Anything you can do to just increase that engagement and connection with the people that are watching I think is absolutely fantastic. We have the community feed for some of that stuff as well, but I think with the new community feature that they're going to be rolling out, it's going to be that, but massively more feature rich in terms of typically it's us broadcasting everything, right? We make the community posts we do in the past, we did stories, we do the live streams that are in one direction, we publish content that's in one direction. And the cool thing about the community side, once that gets fully fleshed out, is that viewers are going to be able to contribute as well. So then it's going to open up a two way conversation instead of it just being the content creator always broadcasting out. So I think that by itself is going to be going to be huge.
Dusty Porter
I can't tell you how many times I've wished for a feature like that under video where the the commenter who knows a little bit more or has run into an issue that I haven't can post a screenshot and then we can pin that kind of under another. There's so many things that turning YouTube into a social platform, social network, whatever, is powerful for not just the people viewing it gives them a better experience. But as a creator, it gives me a better ability as an educator on there to do the things that I've always wanted to do. So I really appreciate that. All right, guys, I know that this is inevitable that we have this conversation. It is important that we have the next conversation that we're about to have. We all know on this call and if you're listening, that artificial intelligence is at the top of everyone's tongue. It has gone from just the tech heads and nerds kind of geeking out a few years ago to now. Your mom and dad probably know a little bit about what ChatGPT is or what AI is. Like Bitcoin. Back in 2013 14, no one knew. The smart people who were in that tech space bought a few and now everyone knows what it is. It's just vernacular for everyone. So I'm going to try to guide this conversation in the most helpful way possible for creators. But I want to open it up and toss it over to you guys. As far as you as a creator speaking to the audience here, need to lean into this because it's not going away. Would you Agree.
Dee Nimmin
I'm not going to say that creators have to learn how to use AI, but I will say that the creators who learn how to leverage AI are going to run circles around you when it comes to the amount of content that they can produce in the same time that you can produce a single video. The tools that are available for writing scripts, honing your scripts, helping you with thumbnails, helping you with video editing, creating videos for you, creating B roll for you, Even people who are using drones to do aerial shots now I'm seeing AI clips that are, they look like real drone footage. And how long is it going to take you to go out and record that drone footage versus someone who's sitting inside and can make it in five minutes. So I think it's a matter of you don't need it, but if you want to work more efficiently and get more content out, possibly even create more channels, because you can move faster now and work more efficiently now, I highly recommend everyone learn as much or as many AI tools as you can. I don't think it's, I'm not going to say you can't succeed without it because you will be able to. There's always going to be somebody with a phone sitting in a room that's just going to clean house on all the platforms because they know how to communicate and connect with their audience. But in terms of just content creation, getting from A to Z efficiently, AI tools are a game changer for that, Absolute game changer. So if you want to speed everything up, I urge you to learn as many tools as you can and find the ones that help you speed up the process.
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, and as a part of that too, there's also opportunities there. For example, there's a company that I'm sponsored by called Opus Clip and one of the things that they do is they make it easy for content creators to be able to put your content all over the place. Previously, if we wanted to take our content and we wanted to have a TikTok presence or an Instagram presence, and we're like, man, I just don't have the time. Especially for the people that are doing YouTube as a part time thing, after work and after family time and all that stuff, they've got an hour to work on their YouTube channels. Tools like Opus Clip, they help you be able to just take your link from YouTube, drop it in there, it's going to spit out a bunch of clips. You can go and edit the ones that you need to, and then you've got 10 clips that you can start using over the course of the week. Or if you are a live streamer, you've got 20 or 50 clips that you use over the course of the next month or so. And that right there is happening at scale. They have tons of users and all of those people that are flooding YouTube with that content. I've got an entire channel dedicated to that type of content that we use from our live streams and every video that I publish into the YouTube shorts feed that I use that tool for. And the views that I get on that is a view that another video doesn't get on YouTube and it could be yours if you're listening to this. In addition to that, there's other tools like, and that's at Opus Pro, by the way, if you want to check that out. There's another tool from a friend of mine named Austin Armstrong. It's called Syllabi. I think there's another one that does something similar as well, called In Video. But basically these tools, you just put in a text prompt and what it does is it actually puts in the video content itself and it will put captions on it, all that stuff. And one of the things that's happening is these companies are creating entire communities and training people up on how to use their tools to where they are essentially flooding all of the social media platforms with their content. So the idea that I'm trying to express here is if you look at YouTube and all the platforms from an inventory perspective, if you have a certain number of viewers that are interacting with the platform every single day, and you have a certain number of videos that you can pull from, and out of those videos, you're pulling the ones that are new so you can see if they're going to perform well, and you're pulling the ones from the archive that have been proven to perform well. Every single video that comes into platform, which is. Which are into YouTube, which is already getting flooded with new content like crazy even before all of this stuff started happening, Every single piece of content that somebody uploads that performs well is going to get prioritized in the system for the type of people that it's showing that content to. So if you're not leaning into these types of tools and using these things to your advantage, then what's going to happen is that week or month or two weeks or day that you spent working on your video, somebody else is going to be spitting out, like Dee mentioned earlier, they're going to be spitting out 10 videos in the time that it took you to work on that one video and some of those videos, maybe not all of them, but some of those videos, maybe even one, is going to end up being competitive. And if people respond to that video better than they respond to yours, then they were able to accomplish with hardly any effort what you are trying to accomplish, spending all the time on your video. So because of that, what I recommend to content creators right now at this moment in time is to do what I'm doing to where you start another channel, maybe you start some new TikTok accounts or Instagram accounts or whatever and you start using some of these tools to also participate in that just on your own content. Now I'm not saying to go and make AI made it generated videos where it's, it just completely removes your creativity and you're just putting in text prompts. Some of you that are listening might be into that. But if you have content already, you can use the content that you're already making to create those social presences on other places. And in some cases people are using these tools to have a huge TikTok account where maybe their YouTube account is just trudging along and they just haven't broken through yet. So because of that, using those tools just for the video content so that you can get your brand out there more. 2 Using tools like you mentioned earlier, Dusty like ChatGPT, where you're using that to brainstorm. Okay, help me with a content strategy. I'm a content creator that does this part time. I can only upload one video per week. As a part of that I can do like maybe a 30 minute live stream sometime during the week. The goal for my YouTube channels. This is what I'm trying to do or this is what it is that I talk about on my YouTube channel. Help me come up with a content strategy for the next 90 days that will help me achieve this goal while adding value to my viewers. And then ChatGPT is going to spit out a plan for you and then you can follow that plan, revise it or look at it first and make sure that you agree you, you have those types of tools available to where previously you'd have to hire somebody and pay somebody hundreds or thousands of dollars to give you that same advice that you can get for $20 a month from Chat GPT. If you're not using those tools, you're going to be competing with people that are using those tools that are applying real strategy to what it is that they're doing. Same exact thing with your title, same exact thing with your video ideas. If you write a script, for example, drop it into one of these tools like ChatGPT, for example, and say, hey, is there anything that I can add to this, any better analogies, any type of storytelling elements or anything like that to make this a more impactful video? And it will rewrite it for you, rewrite parts of you or give you recommendations based on the questions that you ask. So if you're not using these things, like D mentioned, you're going to be competing with other people that are, and they're going to be performing better. So because of that, it's really advantageous. Now, previously in this conversation, we did talk about just the connection side of YouTube. That's still going to be there too. However, those videos are also going to be competing with all these people that are flooding the platform with all of these AI by leveraging all of these AI tools as well. So you definitely have to get on board. I'm building apps with this stuff. I'm using it for my content, I'm using it for titles. I'm using it to just help me write better hooks, all kinds of different things. And the only reason that I'm using it is because one, it makes my life easier. Two, because it's helping me with things that I might need help with and. Or that I absolutely need help with. And three, it's just another point of view because we all get kind of stuffed in these cans within our own minds of how we think everything should be. And based on my experience, this is what I should be doing and all of that. But it's amazing having that unbiased point of view that doesn't know anything about you besides you've told it. It doesn't have any bias on what good or what is good or what might not be good. And what it's doing is it's just giving you information back based on the raw information that you're giving it. And because of that, it's just that really strong second point of view that can really open up ideas that you might not have had or things that you might not have even thought of before. Let's do tool.
Dusty Porter
Go ahead, D. Really quick.
Dee Nimmin
I want to add and just explain how I'm using a particular AI tool and I'm not sponsored by them, but I just, I believe in the tool, so I'm going to mention it. It's a company called 11 Labs, and 11 Labs is a speech AI. You can put any text in there and it will read it back to you in endless amounts of voices and a Lot of them sound very real. But they can also clone your own voice so you can speak into it and you can give it. I think I gave it an hour's worth of audio files, and it will analyze your voice. It took a really long time, but now I have my voice inside of an AI. So if I don't want to speak or I can't speak, or there's a part in a video, and this is where I've used it the most. There's a part in a video that I messed up and I'm going through and I'm editing. Like, oh, I messed that up, and I don't want to record that again. I open that up and I type in what I want it to say. Within 30 seconds, it spits the audio clip out, and I drop it right in the file. You can't. It's undetectable by voice. If I didn't tell you that it wasn't me, you wouldn't be able to tell. So if you're listening to this and you're one of those people who maybe you want to make a faceless channel, Right. You don't want to be in front of the camera, but you don't like the sound of your own voice. Maybe you have a heavy accent, you think it's a problem. Maybe you have a speech impediment. There are AI tools out there that can get you over this hurdle, and you can sound amazing.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. Yeah.
Nick Nimmin
And with that said, this entire podcast so far, D is actually AI.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. He's not even here. No. Being. Being in voice acting for the past 12 years, I know very well. 11 labs I have. I've communicated with them. I've worked with them on a couple things, and so I know it's funny, and maybe we can talk about this. I'm also seeing a little bit of a reversal on the AI stuff in that I had a lot of clients who said, hey, listen, we can get a lot more voices for a lot less money. Now they're coming back to me because people consuming it. Although it's almost undetectable, there's still a hint of that just doesn't sound right. That doesn't sound a hundred percent human, depending on which voice you use. And I haven't tried the training it yet, so I certainly will do that. I will say that descript is another tool that I use, and it's an AI tool where you can basically feed it audio and video files. And I use it for a ton of things. I use it for help with Descriptions with titles. It's great for timestamping videos of giving it. I gave it a 30 minute tutorial the other day and it was timestamping it almost perfectly. And so I want to open this up to you guys. What are some tool recommendations that you would give to creators listening to this right now?
Nick Nimmin
Any tools or AI specific tools?
Dusty Porter
AI specific tools and how you use them specifically?
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, for me, definitely Opus Clip, definitely Chat GPT. Great for a bunch of things, but it's really good at coding. So if you want to make some really cool things for your community, Opus Clip is going to be the way to do it right now. Chat GPT just opened or they just dropped some new things, but even with that, Chocolate Claude is still better on the coding side right now. I would say those three right now would be the main ones for me personally that I recommend that like everybody should be checking out in one way, one way or another.
Dusty Porter
Yep.
Nick Nimmin
And I'm not even going to mention the video stuff in terms of like Runway and things like that because those are just additive things that you work with to do things with your content, but not things that can actually do things on your behalf, so to speak.
Dee Nimmin
I'm going to second GPT on that one. I have it on my phone, I have it on my computer. The browser is always open on the computer. I'm to the point now and I dare say I'm addicted to it, but I can't imagine moving forward without it. I use it so much just in my daily life and just brainstorming on ideas. I can sit down and I can say, hey, I'm trying to make a series of videos targeting people who are just getting started on YouTube. They have no experience whatsoever. They don't know how to work a camera, they don't know anything about mics, they don't know anything about lighting. And I want to make a 10 video series to guide them through their journey, A to Z. And I want it to be digestible videos. I'm going to come up with X amount of title ideas. Give me some description ideas, go. And it will just spit them out. And I can say, okay, I like those maybe a little bit shorter, maybe a little bit longer and it will hone those down and I can say, those are great. Give me some bullet points for each one of these, the things I need to address for each video. And you can do this in a matter of seconds. You can. I can sit down while drinking a coffee at a cafe and come up with 20 video ideas, have 20 titles or more. I could do 50 if you wanted to get the scripts together, have bullet points together, give me some ideas on what the thumbnail might look like with within seconds. So I absolutely, if I were to choose, I used to say YouTube Premium. Like if I were going to pay for one thing and one thing only, it would be YouTube Premium. But GPT would probably unseat YouTube Premium. I use it for everything. Just learning, taking a picture of my plants and say, why is this plant dying? Help me figure out how to keep this plant alive. And it does.
Dusty Porter
Yeah.
Nick Nimmin
There's another tool as well for. Because d mentioned scripts. If you are somebody that writes scripts, there's a tool that I work with called Tube Spanner and with that it's cool because for. If you've ever had ChatGPT write a script for you, basically how it works is it just spits out the whole script and then you have to just rewrite the entire thing if you want to make a change or you have to copy and paste bits and pieces of it out. With Tube Spanner it works differently. Basically it does a similar thing where it spits out that original version, but it does it in chunks. And in each individual chunk you can say, okay, make this part of it longer or just rewrite this part of it and then it isolates it just to that area and then you can drag and drop and move things around. So it's like a chat GPT on steroids when it comes to writing your scripts. Make sure that you check that out as well. That's a good one.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. Tube Spanner. I've used them as well. For me it would be Descript Opus. I've worked with them for a while. I second what Nick said about Opus. I use Canva a lot. I'm a big visual person. So using all those tools that. Canva is one of the coolest companies to me because they're always doing fun and unique things and just every day. Ten, 15 years ago, the thought of removing a background from an image was just a daunting task that people would go on to Reddit and they'd say, can you please do this now? You can literally go into Canva and they have an AI tool called the BG Remover and I was just using it, preparing this thumbnail for this podcast we're doing right now. And I have images of both of your guys headshots and it just, just every day I do that just not thinking about it. And just simple AI tools that can supplement your workflow to make your Creator life easier is the better. Now let's talk about the dark side of this thing.
Dee Nimmin
One second, Dusty. Previously. How long did it take? All of us?
Dusty Porter
Way too long.
Dee Nimmin
Cut out an image. Five minutes to cut.
Dusty Porter
To really cut out.
Nick Nimmin
Shout out to the Photoshop users. Remember the Photoshop users? The one that. Using the pin.
Dusty Porter
The pin tool. Yeah. You took the pin tool and the dots around the head and you had to go through with the hair. I have videos on my channel that are 12, 11 years old. Me showing them old dusty, young dusty then.
Dee Nimmin
But how many minutes dusty?
Dusty Porter
I don't know. Way too long, I don't. I don't even know.
Dee Nimmin
And now it's a single click.
Dusty Porter
It's a single click.
Dee Nimmin
Single click.
Dusty Porter
Those are the kind of things that are going to be the most impactful. As far as the dark side of this, I can already tell you that there are channels that have copied my model of doing tech tutorials and I do one a day. They're doing 50 a day. Do I mind? No. Because my motto and my structure of my channel is I want to do tutorial videos on tech that have no business being as good as they are. That's always been my model and it's been successful for me for years and I'm going to keep doing that. But I also have to know that I have to be able to evolve with the times and not get left behind. And so I am evolving and learning and pivoting as we've talked about. With that being said, what is the danger of all of this, Nick, as far as the ability to just vomit out content and to muddy the waters of an already super crowded space with content that is just not good. What are the dangers of this? How can YouTube prevent it and how do you see it going forward?
Nick Nimmin
I think that one disclaimer that we do have to make is that good is determined by the viewers. So we might not think the content is good. Viewers might be like, hey, yeah, it's fine. I want to see a three minute short that is 100% AI generated about the history of Ford Motor Company to where somebody just put in a text prompt and then it puts out the whole video for them. So I think that the negative side of that for content creators is it is going to be more content for us to compete with. Like you mentioned, Dusty, you have people in your space where tutorial based content, where they are pumping out 50 videos within the amount of time that you can do one or two. And when you start having that sort of thing happen, it makes it to where there might become, there might be a tipping point at some point in the future to where the option is. Okay, If I'm going to compete, then I have to start increasing my output as well. So because of that, what do I have to look into or what I have to make happen in order to be able to increase that output? But I think that the flooding of the platform and the pollution that it's going to cause is definitely going to make it more difficult for content creators. And here's the thing, man, is as all this gets better, you mentioned the thing about 11 labs earlier about how it's still just a little bit detectable. Give it a year, six months maybe, and it's not. And it's not going to be same exact thing when it comes to video content. Like right now you can hop on hey Gen and hey Gen, I think it's a dot com, I can't remember off the top of my head, but you can hop on a service called hey Gen, you can make a clone of yourself like Dee's already doing on the audio side with 11 labs and that clone can actually be you. So it's not just a tutorial. Yeah, it's a video clone. So it's not just a tutorial screen recording video that is a threat. It's also that you can make a video of you sitting in a bedroom and talking to the camera, or sitting in an office talking to the camera. And while, and some of this works for vlog type content as well, to where somebody's walking down the street and it looks like they're actually just taking a selfie with their phone, it's getting that good. And if people are going to be putting that content out of other people or just imaginary people that they've made up in mid journey or something like that, then content creators like us, we're going to probably end up having to do some of that stuff ourselves so that we can also increase our output. And on the bright side of that, if you are a content creator that has the budget for it and those sorts of things, you might be able to hire somebody to do some of that for you to where you can still focus on your personalized content and then you have that type of content being made on your behalf through using these particular tools so that you can hop on board with that increase in the amount of output. But I think the output is going to be the biggest threat because like everybody only has so much time and there are some people that can do daily vlogs and things like that. And they have the time to be able to do that, but most people don't. And because of that, for those people that don't, it's going to be harder to compete. Because right now, as we're having this conversation, there's somebody sitting in an office or a bedroom somewhere. They are making content that is going to be competing with our content. And they're making content.
Dee Nimmin
Chicago, Chris in Chicago, sitting at the table, the lights are off, sitting in front of a laptop with a low.
Nick Nimmin
Battery, just, just spitting them out. And you are going to be competing with Chris. And Chris, it might take him a little bit to get started, might take him a little bit to get some momentum, but Chris is going to learn how to make content that's going to compete. And in addition to that, other things that we have to be aware of is we've already got tools like Tubebuddy that's analyzing everybody's YouTube channels for data. And there's going to be other services like that, like viewstats and 1 in 10 and all these companies that are basically just collecting all of this data from YouTube channels. Somebody is going to be feeding all of that into something that's going to look at audience retention reports and somebody is going to make something eventually that is going to look at all those audience retention reports and say, huh, for this type of content, this always works. This, these, when they say these types of things, when the videos are cut this way, when the content is structured in this way, or the story structured in this way, people always respond to it. And then they're going to start feeding that into these tools that can create content on their behalf. And then they're going to start taking serious market share. Once those types of tools start coming into play, in my opinion.
Dee Nimmin
My thought on that is, like Nick said, the audience is always going to determine what works. As creators, we make the content, we put it out to the world, and the world decides what's good and what's not, what they resonate with. As all of this content floods in and dusty, you said it perfectly. Just vomiting content onto social media platforms. The quality content is always going to rise. It might take a little bit of time to get noticed, but the quality is always going to rise. And the low quality content is always going to settle at the bottom. That's always going to be the case. And the algorithms are going to pick up on that because the algorithms are watching viewer behavior. What do they respond to, what they don't respond to? I'm not that worried about the vomit of content. Not yet. Anyway. We have this conversation. Next year I might change my tune. But right now. So if you're making quality content, that's what's going to succeed, even if you're using AI to do it. But to the dangers here, the danger that I see, because Dusty and Nick and myself and probably most of you listening, if you've been doing this for a while, you've been in the trenches, you've learned how to get people to respond to your titles, to your thumbnails, to your videos, how to keep people engaged, how to keep them watching, how to get them to click on a thumbnail. You've learned how to do that through trial and error over the years, and you've put in the reps, you've learned how to build a muscle group when you're just vomiting content out there. If you're just doing this and you're getting started, there's a lot of people saying that they're just getting started and they're using these tools. They don't know yet. And I'm not sure how they're going to find out for quite some time. What's quality? What's quality to them. How can you determine what's good if all you're doing is just vomiting content out there? If you're not in there actually learning how to do the things, learning how to get that audience to respond to you think there's like, the danger is the learning process. Are we going to have an entire generation or two generations of creators coming in who don't actually know how to do anything other than throw stuff into AI?
Nick Nimmin
They'll use AI to learn, I think.
Dusty Porter
Yeah, maybe.
Dee Nimmin
I don't know. That could be the danger. Are they going to learn through AI, or are they going to be in a position to where they're just able to bulk create so much that it doesn't even matter? I don't care. I can make 100 videos in three days and I just throw them up. And I don't care what connects because I know six of them will. Yeah, I don't know. I just think that's a weird place to be.
Dusty Porter
It's like my area on YouTube, which is technology tutorials, and I speak to it because I know it very well. Like, Nick, the YouTube education space, I know podcasting very well. So in that space, I've already had to change. I was doing about eight videos a month for a decade, and that worked for me because maybe there was or three of those that did really well. Because I knew what worked and I knew how to explain stuff in a way that would go to the top of YouTube. I had to change about a year or two ago to basically doing almost a video a day. That's to keep up in my niche. You really had to do that. And then these young guys came in and they started doing the 50. And the way that this works for our sake is this. They do 50 videos on a Monday, let's say only three of those take off. That's fine. That's the three they needed to get the sponsor of that company to make the ad revenue for that very popular video and to have success. Where for me, If I'm doing 30 in a month now, one a day, maybe two or three of mine take off and go to the top. And a lot of times with tutorials, you're not seeing traction on some of those videos for six to nine months. That's just how the algorithm works. And I'm doing so many different things in 2024 going into the next year, 2025, than I've ever done. I'm tinkering around with short form video with the three minute shorts. If I can ever get those to, I'm going to be utilizing those because I think we're going to see a great way to supplement there as well. And so being able to evolve. I want to ask you guys this question and Nick, we'll start with you. If you were starting on YouTube right now going into 2025, what would you do?
Nick Nimmin
So I would mix my regular. This is really going to be like channel and content dependent, of course, because in some cases, like what it is that you make, you need to keep making what it is that you're making because that's what people are responding to and that's what they'll continue to respond to. So you could lean in. So you should lean into that and keep going. However, I do think that adding personalized content to your channel is definitely going to be a way to help you connect with people. When it comes to content strategy, that's always been a play. Like if you're trying to grow like a strong community around what it is that you're doing, do where you share like personal opinions and things like that and you make dedicated pieces of content that are designed for the purpose of sharing just a little bit about yourself, sharing what you think about things and all of that, that so that you can align with other people and they're like, oh yeah, they think like I do. They have similar perspectives as me on these types of things and all of that. So I think that moving forward and this kind of trails back to what we discussed earlier about some of the more casual content being content that is starting to perform well because people are really starting to enjoy that thing. I think the casual content and having that coming out on your channel from time to time. I'm going to be doing this in 2025, but having the casual content come out on your channel as well as the regular content that you're doing, I think that's going to be one of the things that's going to be really hard to replicate and compete with when it comes to AI in terms of the volume, you might not be able to compete with that. However, that connection, you can still do that at a really high level when it comes to connecting with others. So I think when you are making content that is designed for the sake of, hey, I've got my tutorial content that I'm doing like in your case, dusty. But then maybe I'm going to make another video like showing people how I make the tutorials. And as I'm showing them how I make the tutorials, maybe I'm going to show them part of my setup and I'm going to be like, yeah, I'm using this and I'm going to make it more like vlog style and a little bit more casual, not a ton of editing. And through doing that's going to just make it something that AI would never be able to reproduce. Not going to say never, but that it won't be able to reproduce in the immediate future. And then other things to where you're like, hey, these are the types of tools that I don't think people should be using and why. And then you make that video and all it is, you just sitting there having a casual conversation with a friend or just you looking at the camera and you just sharing your opinion on different tools and why you think they're good. And you're like, hey, if you're new, for example, if you're a new content creator, maybe you don't want to use this or because you're focusing on kind of the wrong things. And because of that it might be better to focus on these other things first before you go and you try to start using this new shiny thing or whatever it is, but just sharing more opinion based things like that, maybe sharing a little bit more about your regular life through your community post or through the community feature that they're rolling out to, where it's not just, hey, it's me and my content, but it's also me, my content. Here's a little bit about what I'm doing this weekend. What are you doing this weekend? Those types of things to actually start creating a real social community around what it is that you're doing. I think that that is going to be the only real and immediate path to hedge against the AI stuff because that all of those scenarios are things that people can't really compete with. There's not an AI yet. Technically there are because people are doing it on Instagram where they're creating the AI influencers that are doing some of this stuff. But I think that personalized thing to where you could go live as an example and you can spend a little bit of time either in the vertical side of YouTube or the landscape side of YouTube live streaming and connecting with your audience that way. That's another great way to just supplement content and just create that connection with your viewers as well. But I think doing those types of personalized things are going to be a great way to hedge against all of the AI content that's coming out and make you a more connectable creator.
Dusty Porter
Yeah, I think we're going to experience the AI fatigue era at some point where people are just. I know for me I have just tools that I like to use on a regular basis and I get so tired of them trying to throw their AI features at my face if I don't. If I want to use them, I'll use them, but I'll use Notion for example. It's a tool that I use every single day and they're always trying to get me to use their AI stuff and I don't want to. I just want to use the tool for databases and to get my system the way I want it and everything of that nature. And I think we will experience a bit of AI fatigue and I think that, that it'll course correct in a way, but it's not going anywhere, it's here to stay and we have to be able to embrace it and look into how we can utilize it for our content.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, I think what Nick said, I'm on board with that. And your question was if you're starting out now, what would you do? That was a question, right?
Dusty Porter
Yes.
Dee Nimmin
In addition to everything that Nick said and this kind of, I think encompasses the entire conversation that we've had because we've skipped across this a couple of times is community. YouTube is focusing more on community tools and community features. I would really think about a long term plan, how Can I find my people on the Internet or how can my people find me on the Internet? People who are interested in the same things that I'm interested in or this one particular thing that I'm going to make videos about? And can I leverage all of these tools and features that I have at my disposal to share a part of my life, share behind the scenes, share things with them that the AI can't share with them yet people who are vomiting out the content, like Nick said, not yet. Anyway, they're not. They're pumping out content, but they're not human. There's, it's like you said, Dusty, with the people who are coming back to you to hire you for voiceover work, even though to the average person it's a lot of that stuff is undetectable, but there's still that, there's that element nuance, that's nuance of humanity in your voice. And I think for a lot of people, they pick up on that sort of things. If you're able to share yourself, put yourself out there as much as you can and share as much as you can. When Nick and I do our live streams, being we do them together or do them separately, we both, we talk about things, we tell stories, we talk about our interest. And it always goes into, even if we're answering YouTube questions, it always ends up into talking about a movie for a little bit or things that we agree with, we don't agree with. We get our opinions out there because when we're doing that, we're sharing a little bit of us. It's not just stone cold people giving YouTube advice or answering your questions, we're giving you a little bit of us and you can relate with us or you don't. Maybe you like us, maybe you don't like us, but this is who we are as people. And I think the more you can use these features to let the viewer know who you are as a person. That's your edge, that use the AI tools, do all the stuff, but that's your edge and put in your reps. Understand that you're starting at a place where we all started, which is zero. And you have to put in your reps, you have to learn the skills, you have to learn how to do the things and just have that long term goal. How can my people find me? How can I find my people and build a community around this thing that I'm super passionate about? Passionate enough that I want to make videos about it?
Dusty Porter
Yeah.
Nick Nimmin
Two books, Dusty.
Dee Nimmin
What's that?
Nick Nimmin
I was gonna Say two books, if you don't mind that I recommend really fast, go ahead on the community building side of things and just creating, turning yourself into more of a connectable creator. There's two books that we always recommend because Dean was talking about our live streams. It's what made me think about it. There's two books that we always recommend on our live streams for this and one of them is called Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon. The other one is called Super Fans by Pat Flynn. And Pat Flynn, he's a content creator, digital marketer, podcaster Pat, Patrick Hanlon, he just studied the companies but the message that they're sharing is pretty much the same. And both of those books are something you should read or listen to if you are going to lean into the community side of being a content creator and you are going to be trying to leverage some of the ideas that we're talking about. Both of those books will give you some actionable insights that you can start applying to what it is that you're doing if you decide to walk a similar path as you move into 2025.
Dee Nimmin
Building your tribe.
Dusty Porter
Yep, one of both those books. I've read Pat Flynn, I've been a huge fan since the Smart Passive Income podcast way back in the day and now follow him on Deep Pocket Monster because my oldest daughter's into Pokemon and so am I. So it's kind of a full circle moment. Yes, it did. And he's got some really good use cases of looking at what we're talking about right now as far as community and doing like actual in person events and things like that. It's a great kind of case study of what we're talking about today. Another theme on YouTube right now is niching down to get that community right, to really find those people. And one of the best things I've done for my business over the past couple of years is people can support me over on Patreon for not a bunch of money, but I now have over 120 people who pay me like 5 or 10 or 20 bucks a month to be a part of this, what I call creator community. And it's one of the best things that I've done because I can sit there and I learn so much from these people who are in this community and a lot of them end up hiring me to be their coach for YouTube. And it's a full circle moment. But I found the people who, like you said, Dee, who are into what I'm doing and what I'm talking about and I Use my email newsletter to tell them about, hey, my dog passed away half a year ago. My grandmother passed away last year as well. So there's a lot of kind of personal things going on and I would share that with them in the email newsletter. And they really resonated with that because it was trans I was being transparent of I'm running this YouTube business. I'm an entrepreneur, I'm doing what you're trying to do, I'm building my brand. But I'm also a human. I'm also a real person of dealing with things on the day to day and that really resonated with those people and I think that it would resonate with other people's audience as well. As we get close to the end of this episode, I want to end it it on a with some positive notes of, hey listen, this AI stuff is here. It's. People hear the term AI, they think like robots and they see what Elon's doing and this and that. I want to toss it to you, Nick, like, what are the positives for creators, the old heads, the people who are starting and trying to grow a channel. And listen, it's still going to be possible to grow a channel in 2025. Start one and grow one. People have done it this year, they're going to do it next year, they're going to do it the year after that. That. So I want to encourage you guys, that is happening. But Nick, what are the positives of all of this and what are you going to be telling people that are coming into the stream, into the new year of what you think they should be doing?
Nick Nimmin
YouTube isn't going anywhere. The opportunity is going to be there. You might need to learn some extra skills, you might need to leverage the right tools, things like that. But at the end of the day, good content always wins. So it doesn't matter if you, if there's a lot of competition. Dee actually touched on this earlier down at the, down at the bottom where people don't put in a lot of effort. Like it's super crowded down there. But as soon as you start saying, you know what, I am willing to go that extra mile. I am willing to spend that extra, you know, time on the video. I am willing to spend that extra time thinking about what it is that I'm doing and being intentional with what it is that I'm doing when I'm publishing my content and being intentional about the skills that I'm trying to develop around this YouTube thing or this content thing. If you take that approach and you are intentional about what it is that you're trying to do. The opportunity is going to be there for you. You're going to see tons of information this year, just like you have seen. They were saying the same exact thing when I started 10 years ago. People are like, oh, YouTube's over. YouTube's dead. So competitive. You can't do anything. The thing that people don't account for when those conversations are being had is that in addition to more creators being on the platform, there's more viewership on YouTube than there's ever been, ever. And it continues to rise, and it continues to rise in different formats that people can enjoy so that everything is being customized to the viewer in terms of what it is that they enjoy. Like you, you have an audience. You just have to learn to tap into it. And the opportunity is still there. You can still use you to get your message out, to make money, to create a community, to open all kinds of doors for you that you never even thought were possible. So if you are considering being a content creator or if You've been on YouTube for a while, the opportunity is still there. If you're. If you've been around for a while, all of us have, have. There might be changes that you need to make. Right? It's really easy for us to fall into the patterns that we've been using for a really long time, and we might need to make some changes going into the future, but embrace that we might need to do that and be willing to do it. That's one of those things that we're like, yeah, I am willing to go the extra mile. And then that's going to be the difference on if you're going to be able to continue walking down this road or not. So because of that, just lean into any changes that you need to make, any skills that you need to develop, any information that you need to pick up up in order to stand out from the crowd and to raise yourself up from that competitive area. That's all where most of that AI content that we were talking about earlier is going to be to help you rise above all of those things.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah, I agree with everything that he just said. So I want to address the people who have not started yet. I think Nick just handled that perfectly. For the people who are already involved and wondering how they can maneuver going forward, I want to address the people who are listening right now who, who are wondering if it's too late, if it's too saturated, is there still opportunity? I think the opportunity has never Been greater. It's not too late. It's not going to be Too late in 2025. It's not going to be too late. 2026. It's not going to be Too late in 2027. I think the opportunity for us as creators at any level, I think this is the best opportunity right now. And it's just going to keep getting better. And we probably say this every year, if we go back and listen to it. It's not too late, it's not too saturated. You do have to learn. You do have to learn some skills. But we've all started there. Dusty started there, Nick started there. I started there. Your favorite YouTuber started exactly where you are right now. And they put in the reps, they learned the things and you have to do that too. So it's not too late. It's not too saturated. You can still make money. You can still build a fan base. You can still make supplemental income. Whatever your goals are, are. You can still achieve them. It is not too late. Don't listen to anyone that tells you that it's too late or you missed it. It's not too late. You can start today, you can start tomorrow. Just get started.
Dusty Porter
It's last question.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah.
Dusty Porter
The last question I want to ask both of you is if you had a magic wand.
Dee Nimmin
Yeah.
Dusty Porter
And could have any feature on YouTube, any feature, there's no. No bars, no limits, what would be that feature?
Dee Nimmin
Oh, I got it. I want to be able to accept super chats and tips with cryptocurrency.
Dusty Porter
Oh, that's a good one.
Nick Nimmin
Love it. That's great. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah. For me, I mean, I didn't have.
Dee Nimmin
To think about that one.
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, that was great. When you mentioned the thing earlier, Dusty, about the more interactive comment section, I think that would be pretty cool where people can like post images, where you can say, you can ask a question in your video and they can post images and things like that directly in your YouTube comments underneath your video. Video. Yeah, I think that would be great. I remember the days when they had the reply girls on YouTube where they would go and they had make like video replies and things like that and they had to get rid of it because it was being abused. I would love it if they would bring something like that back to where there was some type of controls to where, you know, they wouldn't be able to abuse it. But. Or maybe you give access to accept those.
Dusty Porter
Yeah, you could accept certain things.
Nick Nimmin
Yeah, yeah.
Dee Nimmin
Like you can in a Facebook feed.
Nick Nimmin
Tick Tock. Like on Tick Tock, they can, like the creator can do video replies on YouTube.
Dee Nimmin
Okay.
Nick Nimmin
Viewers used to be able to do video replies, which is really cool. But because we're living in a video world now, I think that it would be appropriate to make it to where a content creator that was watching one of my videos or somebody that's trying to learn something dusty watching one, one of yours, they could make a video and say, hey, I'm having this problem. Here's my analytics, here's my channel, here's what's going on. Do you have any advice for me? And then I could watch that video and I could say, oh yeah, I'm looking at this right now and it seems like you need to do this. Or in your case, they're like, hey, here's my interface. I don't have that button that you were talking about. Where do I see that? You could go in and you could reply to the comment and say, oh, you have to go into your settings at the top and you just check this little box right here and then it's going to show up. Right. So I think that would just make everything a lot more interactive with YouTube and I think that a lot of value would be exchanged there in both directions.
Dusty Porter
Yeah. The power of that I've thought of would be exactly what you're talking about, Nick. Of there's always that nerd in the comments who knows a little bit more about the topic than maybe even I do.
Nick Nimmin
Yeah.
Dusty Porter
And they could go and respond to the common question that I'm getting with a little short video underneath that. And I could approve that. And that would only add value to, I think of videos. Roberto said this, Roberto Blake, on my podcast years ago. He said, I think of my videos as each one of them are individual business cards. And I think of my videos as just individual kind of pieces of content that can continue to help people for years to come. And that only adds more value to that page of that video. And I would love that kind of ever evolving type thing of, hey, they changed a feature here. They changed the interface slightly here. Here I can go and tweak that and say, hey, do you have this old interface? Go here. You have the new and branching type of thing. So I, that's. That would be mine. I, I really do love that. And that would be for community building.
Nick Nimmin
It was. Think about that from like a travel vlogger perspective too. So if you're a travel vlogger, Right. Or you're a food channel. So like a travel Vlogger. Let's say you make a video, it's a year old, and somebody goes and watches that video. As a viewer, they could hit the comment section and see other people's videos of maybe that same location where they're like, oh, hey, it's changed a little bit now they don't have this anymore. So maybe you shouldn't go here if you were actually coming here for that. So then it would just give people more context and just general information all the way around. Yeah, I think it'd be great. I love that idea. Dusty.
Dusty Porter
Could not agree more. YouTube, you can pay me later. These two guys, Nick and D N are with me every single year and I'm so thankful that they are. You can find them on their socials. Again, it's DD Nimmin and then Nick Nimmin. And you can Google and you'll find them. They'll come top of the list. There a couple things that they've been up to. Nick's been working on a couple of apps. He's talked about using AI to help them with those. Right now he's got the creator keyboard over@creatorkeyboard.com go check that out. If you're a creator. Allows you to answer repetitive comments quicker. It gives you the ability to set up kind of hot comments that you can go back to over and over again. Really cool. Awesome opportunity there. And then both of them are working on Creator Mix. We talked about this last year, Creator Mix. Com. It's a free background music that you can use for your YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn podcast, things like that, that no DMCA copyright strikes or anything ever if you use their stuff over there. So all that will be linked down below. Nick, D. Thank you guys as always for your time and we'll talk to you next time.
Dee Nimmin
Hello everyone and thank you for listening.
Dusty Porter
To this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. I really do appreciate it. Don't forget you can subscribe to the show for absolutely free and your podcast player of choice. Also, there are ways you can connect with us. You can support us by supporting our sponsor, TubeBuddy, as well as supporting us over on Patreon to get access to our creator Discord community. And I also offer YouTube coaching and consultation, YouTube channel reviews, and just overall business coaching if that's something that you.
Dee Nimmin
Are wanting to look into.
Dusty Porter
So make sure you check us out there and we'll see you next week.
YouTube Creators Hub Podcast Summary
Episode: The State Of YouTube In 2025 With Dee and Nick Nimmin - The Year Of AI
Release Date: December 13, 2024
Host: Dusty Porter
Guests: Dee Nimmin and Nick Nimmin
In this special annual episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast, host Dusty Porter engages in an insightful conversation with esteemed YouTube experts Dee and Nick Nimmin. The trio delves into the evolving landscape of YouTube, exploring significant trends, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), and strategies for creators aiming to thrive in 2025 and beyond.
YouTube Shopping and TV Viewership
Nick Nimmin highlights YouTube Shopping as a transformative feature, noting its growing significance for creators. He states, “a lot of creators are starting to lean into [YouTube Shopping], and some people are getting more sales out of the YouTube shopping links than they are out of affiliate links in their video description” (05:05). Additionally, the rise in TV viewership offers creators new avenues to engage audiences in different viewing environments. Nick remarks, “if somebody's watching from a TV, the expectations are a little bit different than a mobile user” (06:23).
Dee Nimmin concurs, emphasizing the dual impact of shopping and TV viewership, and adds, “if you have something that's built in episodes, that’s a huge win to just lead the viewer through all the different episodes and seasons” (07:52).
Shift Towards Long-Form and Authentic Content
A notable trend discussed is the return to long-form, conversational content. Dee observes, “a lot of creators just sitting down, hitting record and recording a long form video... it feels more intimate, it feels more authentic” (22:22). This contrasts with the previously dominant, highly edited content, suggesting a natural course correction as audiences seek more genuine connections.
Nick adds that exposure to platforms like TikTok has conditioned viewers to appreciate simpler, less polished content. He states, “I think that people being on TikTok a lot... has reintroduced people to like, wow, I can actually sit here and enjoy just this person sitting in their car talking” (23:04).
Examples in Practice
Dusty cites the success of channels like Dry Creek Wrangler School, where the creator engages viewers with straightforward, relatable content. Dee complements this by sharing positive feedback from viewers who feel a personal connection, saying, “I just feel like I'm just sitting there having a conversation with my buddy” (25:49).
Enhanced Community Features
The conversation shifts to viewer behavior shifts, with Nick highlighting YouTube's enhanced community features. He mentions updates to the comment section, now termed "Community," which allows for more interactive and engaging exchanges. “If you're a fashion channel, hey, share your outfit of the week...” he explains (28:59).
Leveraging AI for Engagement
Dusty shares his strategy of using AI tools like ChatGPT to curate frequently asked questions for pinned comments, enhancing viewer interaction. He notes, “Now I’m using AI to quickly curate the most frequently asked questions... and now I'm having people comment more on that than the actual video” (31:39).
Nick supports this approach, emphasizing the potential for two-way conversations through these new community features. “Creators are going to be able to make more money from this, but it’s also going to intensify the parasocial relationships” (30:06).
AI as a Game Changer
AI's integration into content creation is a central theme. Dee Nimmin stresses the importance of leveraging AI tools to enhance productivity: “the creators who learn how to leverage AI are going to run circles around you when it comes to the amount of content that they can produce” (35:35). She highlights tools like 11 Labs for voice cloning and Tube Spanner for scriptwriting as essential aids for creators.
Nick Nimmin echoes this sentiment, recommending tools such as Opus Clip for content distribution and ChatGPT for brainstorming and strategy development. He states, “If you’re not using these tools, you’re going to be competing with people that are” (42:03).
Benefits of AI Integration
The trio discusses how AI can streamline various aspects of content creation, from scripting and video editing to thumbnail design. Dusty shares his experience using AI to manage comments and enhance viewer engagement, illustrating the practical benefits of AI integration.
Content Saturation and Quality Concerns
Despite AI's advantages, the discussion acknowledges potential pitfalls. Nick warns about the flooding of the platform with AI-generated content, which could lead to increased competition and lower content quality. He notes, “the flooding of the platform and the pollution that it's going to cause is definitely going to make it more difficult for content creators” (50:23).
Dusty raises concerns about creators potentially compromising quality in the race to produce volume, stating, “somebody else is going to be spitting out 10 videos in the time that it took you to work on that one” (52:09).
Authenticity and AI-Generated Content
The conversation touches on the ethical implications of AI-generated content, including voice and video cloning. Nick mentions services like Hey Gen, which can create video clones of individuals, posing challenges for authenticity and originality. “You can make a video of you sitting in a bedroom and talking to the camera... it's getting that good” (53:21).
Embracing AI While Maintaining Authenticity
Looking ahead, the hosts emphasize the importance of balancing AI utilization with personal authenticity. Nick advises incorporating personal, engaging content to distinguish oneself from AI-generated content: “creating content that is designed for the sake of, hey, I have my tutorial content... but then maybe I'm going to make another video like showing people how I make the tutorials” (58:32).
Dee reinforces the significance of community building and personal connection, suggesting creators focus on sharing aspects of their lives that AI cannot replicate. “When you use these features to let the viewer know who you are as a person, that’s your edge” (65:21).
Positive Outlook Despite Challenges
Nick concludes on an optimistic note, asserting that YouTube remains a viable platform for creators who adapt and maintain quality. “Good content always wins... You can still use YouTube to get your message out, make money, create a community” (68:32). Dee concurs, encouraging both new and existing creators to leverage AI tools while fostering genuine connections with their audience.
The episode wraps up with a discussion on desired YouTube features, such as enhanced community interaction and the ability to accept cryptocurrency tips. The hosts reiterate the enduring opportunities on YouTube, urging creators to embrace AI responsibly, focus on quality, and build strong communities.
Key Takeaways:
Notable Quotes:
Conclusion
This episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast provides a comprehensive overview of the current state and future direction of YouTube. With AI playing an increasingly prominent role, creators are encouraged to harness its potential while maintaining authenticity and fostering strong community connections. Dee and Nick Nimmin offer valuable insights and practical strategies, ensuring that both new and seasoned creators can navigate the evolving landscape successfully.
Prepared by Dusty Porter, YouTube Creators Hub Podcast