Thanks for watching this week's video! Which outdated tip you're still doing today? PS: JOIN THE CONTENT CREATOR TO CEO MAILING LIST FOR EXCLUSIVE TIPS! www.vanessalau.co/ceo ⚡
Here is couple 1: leave sponsorship plugs for the end of the video. 2: stop gloating on how many subscribers you are close to getting because eventually it will turn people away Bonus: stop having products like G-Fuel front and center in your videos because that’s another turn off to avoid of being called an shill and wear non branded clothing without advertising printed.
Accurate captions may not make an impact on "cold hard stats", but they absolutely do help the Deaf community, people who are not native English speakers, and those with auditory processing difficulties. Auto captions really struggle when speakers have strong accents that veer away from "standard" British/American.
I think that specific advice is the only one I disagree with. I think if you have the resources, you should do what you can to make the content accessible. Agreed!!
Since it auto transcribes, there’s nothing stopping you from just editing whatever it got wrong and adding the caption back. You don’t need to pay someone to transcribe the video if most of the works already done and you just have to check it and edit it.
Agreed, I came into the comments because I found Vanessa's whole approach to captioning incredibly callous. Yes, YT does do auto captioning, but... have you ever read them? They're pretty mediocre, and always need cleaning up. But not only that, it was just the whole attitude towards "I paid for it so that I could get more views on my video, and it doesn't get me more views, so stop wasting your money on it" ....OK, but that's literally not at all why CC exist. They're not there so that you can game the system and get your video to rank higher. They help people to understand your content. Accessibilit-whaaaat?
I think with the chapters, even if it results in lower retention, that does cross a line for me by intentionally inconveniencing the viewer for my own benefit. Sometimes, you've gotta make a value judgement on how far you want to take certain optimisation strategies, which also includes what kind sponsors you're willing to accept & whether you use unskippable ads.
I've started doing this with my videos. Maybe it's not best for retention, but it feels good to offer viewers that kind of convenience. Plus, it's really fun to come up with names for the different sections of a video
I will more likely scroll and look specifically for channels with chapters. Especially if the topic is amongst others. If i like the presentation delivery of that chapter ill carry on watching and go to their channel to see what else there is, then I return to them. If a 15min chapter is min topic 2 adverts 3mins waffle 1 min topic. Then I wont return, I wil click don't recomend channel.
There are some great info in this vid, however I feel that all the real methods are being kept as secret. I understood that after reading an eBook. I was able to grow my cashcow accounts drastically. There are so many important (mostly Blackhat stuff), that are not being discussed anywhere. There are methods such as "Mom\Child Growth", how to rank listing, proper offsite SEO optimization etc. Unfortunately it is not possible to play according to the rules f you truly want to grow your personal account\business drastically and pass RU-vid algorithm.
Tip for everyone. Even though chapters are very useful you will mostly find people in the comments adding timestamps after you finish watching most of the video. And I find timestamps best for video highlights, steps (if the vid is a tutorial), etc. As a viewer, I honestly don't mind not seeing chapters and I find that I appreciate people the ppl who comment timestamps more than the actual creator themselves :D.
Hi! Captions are an accessibility feature for HoH, D/deaf and/or disabled folks with processing issues... and also for people watching on mute! While I totally get - and agree - that people shouldn't be paying for this to get done, making better captions than the auto-generated caps can be KEY in making inclusive, high-quality content that gets your point across to diverse audiences. (On non-scripted videos, I upload in the evening, wait for the captions to be auto-generated overnight, and use them as a baseline to make the better captions. Saves TONS of time.) Disability isn't a rare outlier, because anyone can become disabled at any time. Access measures aren't a luxury or a time-waster; they're a necessity for many disabled folks. 💖
I think chapters are a good tool if you upload a long video that was more ad lib, freely spoken or unplanned. Because if the video seems a little bit all over the place, then you can help put things into context for the viewer. Otherwise, I agree with you. If you have a well planned out video, let them enjoy the ride start to finish without the chapters.
Hi, I really enjoyed watching this video. I think I agreed with everything you said. Your presentation is so good. I'm a little jealous of that. Storytelling is really the most important aspect of any video, I'd say.
Almost all of the tips you give go completely against what other "gurus" give..... and I kinda love it! It's awesome to hear other opinions on the matter and someone talking realistically is awesome so thank you :)
The point on not needing to add chapters does relieve some guilt in me as I don't do that most of the time. But it also depends. For videos featuring works by other creators/vendors, I feel that chapters also helps to provide creative credit, eg when I am covering an art fair walk or group exhibition.🎉
So are you more concerned about other creators or your audience? You can cite/reference/bibliography their work in the description and include links. What actually should be best practice. That way you can focus in what you audiance want and not upsetting other creaters.
Thank you so much for all your advice, Vanessa! I'm still a microscopic channel and I find your advice so helpful. I sometimes transcribe my own videos, because I think if I were deaf, I'd super appreciate it, but I've never paid for it.
@@VanessaLau - I'm Deaf, and captions are absolutely NOT about SEO, views, or spending money. For the record - RU-vid's auto-captions SUCK! That's why I still do manual captions even though I'm a small channel. Please reconsider how you position why captions are needed (not hacked) and maybe show the Deaf community a bit more love? I love your channel, but that part of the video stung a bit. Auto-captions are NOT the solution here.
This channel is the ultimate resource for new You Tubers AND seasoned content providers. Things change constantly and it is very valuable to keep on top of the best practices in social media. Thanks for sharing these tips and for taking the time to film such GREAT content.
lol at not adding chapters. Goes in contrast to my request and previous video. I understand the challenge between working with the system versus adding value to viewers. However, in the long game putting the viewers first I feel will win out.
A key strategy I’ve been using is adding “hook worthy” PREVIEWS at the start of my videos. I started in January and have just reached 200 subscribers… growing slowly, but surely with my personal development videos for 20-somethings who want to learn how to LOVE THEIR LIVES… no matter what kind of ups & downs they’re experiencing! 🤗
congrats on the 200 subs Jenn. so what you do is basically what they often do with movie trailers. Showing the best pieces of the movie in the very beginning. Great tip.
@@thechrisverhoeven Thanks, Chris. Yes, that’s right. With personal development/education-based content, I find that that approach is quite impactful. I like to see other people do that too… it definitely draws me in. I’m sure that approach wouldn’t be as enticing with all genres of content though (eg. Perhaps for a video giving technical info or reviews, there might not be a clear “hook” you could use from the content to clearly draw people in in the same way. Who knows though… maybe it’s just a challenge of creativity).
Totally guilty of adding too many end screens. Giving less choices makes sense though, especially when prompting viewers to watch that video next. Thank you for the tips! 🖤
Honestly, im just making videos for fun and enjoying the process of recording and editing. Doing all this 'mid maxing' just makes me not enjoy the process. But I appreciate the content your making
Funny, I actually looked for chapters on this video, so that I can skip to the chapters I want, but as there are no chapters, I had to patiently watch the full video.lols
Vanessa, this was GOLD! I remember when you were "hoping" for your first viral video...remember the Instagram one! I too learned all of these outdated tips. Thank you for confirming that we have been told to do a lot of things that don't make a difference. THANK YOU!
I'm loving how much information you share with us. Thank you for the recommended tube buddy. I'm a new channel with poor quality but working on it. To all those creators out there you can do this!! See you guys next year when we're all doing better.
This is great to hear! So a lot of the things that take longer to do aren't actually needed. I never made a second channel for shorts as I can reach new people with shorts and I usually gain a lot more subscribers from shorts so I thought it would make sense for them to be on my main channel. I saw a lot of people creating a second channel so I was thinking maybe I should have but now I'm glad that I didn't. I love the way that you explain things, it's so simple and easy to understand and makes me feel like I can do this!
Of course! People that use chapters in there videos allow too many people to get away with certain points of the video, not listen to the whole story and details. RU-vid is the best media platform and always be in my heart (always informative and entertaining at the same time). Thank you for sharing all these long form RU-vid tips as always!
appreciate the tip about creating shorts from long-form and them being directly linked together! Going to use it today. thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge
your opinion on timestamps makes sense, i’ll definitely try to experiment on that next time! i’ve always looked at the timestamp function as a viewer and not as a creator, so thanks for giving me a different perspective today :D
omg i watched other yt tips and they tend to recommend adding chapters but i always have my doubts about that. I am so glad you confirmed it for me using your data!
Thanks for these great tips, Vanessa. I recently watched an interview with Sean Cannell and Evan Carmichael, where Evan talked about a lot of these things. Also, don't share your videos on social media, because it will confuse the algorithm as to who to show your videos to. I recently uploaded my 9th video about Phuket Thailand which really went viral for my channel, where most videos got about 30-50 views and my Phuket video is now over 3K views, which feels awesome.
@@JayneNicoletti The youtube algorithm knows who watches what kinds of videos. When you share your videos on social media. A great example of this is with your friends and family. They want to support you, so they are probably going to like the video, but they're not going to watch all of your videos from start to finish. So now you're getting views from people who click off of the video eventually and now RU-vid doesn't understand who those specific people are. For example, I watch a lot of videos around Thailand, so RU-vid knows this and it will recommend more Thailand videos to me over time. Also from channels I don't know yet, simply because it knows I'm interested in that. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not an expert, and I've recently started my channel. But I've heard a couple of people talk about this and it does make sense to me. I hope this does clarify it a bit. I love this journey, even though I'm all new to it and still somewhat uncomfortable
@@JayneNicoletti btw, I just watched your youtube video about RU-vid punishing you for making money, but why do you think that? Or did you get comments about it? Because RU-vid doesn't care about you, using affiliate links at all, as far as I know.
I've always hated intros. Especially for channels I watch regularly. I click on a video to see the content mentioned in the title, not some generic flashy jump cutted to death 30 seconds or more of unrelated stuff. A RU-vid partner advisor even suggested I make an intro, but I refused.
This is by far the best video in this niche I have watched. Incredibly helpful to someone who has only truly started to lean into RU-vid over the past several weeks.
Great tips, not only did I learn something from the content but, this is a great example on how you don't need a ton of b-roll to get your point across. Your editing is excellent as well. Thank you!!!
These are amazing tips! The only thing I’d disagree with you on would be getting videos manually captioned. From a video performance perspective, you’re right. You don’t need to get videos manually captioned for meta data. However, as someone who likes to watch videos with captions, it is a MUCH better experience for the audience. There’s something to be said for making an effort to make your videos a good experience for users who require captions. Having sentences grouped properly and timed right instead of the firehouse of single words is really nice.
One thing I do in regards to Chapters is that I do not put them on in the first 24 hours. I put them on after the fact. I think that the first day is important and goes in line with what you discussed here. Then I add them later and the video gets a different boost. At least in my experience.
I just found your channel. First thing I noticed is you give great information and you explain why we should not do certain things and even based them on your own changed perceptions. You are right to the point and very easy to understand. I have a video ready to upload for tomorrow and I am going to change it to reflect your suggestions in this video. We will use it as a case study. We do have music and our intro near the beginning of every video and we always see the sharp drop off of viewers in the first few minutes. Thank you for the great information and we just subscribed 😀 👍
I honestly think we are overthinking all of this 😂 It is up to RU-vid and to people that want to watch and it is funny that you even go watching something and it isn’t something you want to watch longer or all the way ….
I love these tips, some of which I have tested myself. I just wanted to add that in the "chapters" section it really depends on what your goal is. If you are a business it may actually be better for you to have your videos rank in google search which is what chapters help allow for different search terms. Not applicable to everyone but I know for one of the businesses I work with it really helps them.
It's pretty cool that you made a updated list, it's really good to see what's working now Vs what use to work. And it's also good to see because I have been doing some of this and some I will start to do. Thank you I hope this video helps me to grow my channel.
@Vanessa Lau ±¹²⁵⁶⁴¹⁵⁹⁴⁰³ WhatsApp I'm all ears. And thank you for responding. My channel is a personality channel where I do four live streams a week and allow the viewers to join. It's pretty interesting because we can table any topics and I put out daily videos as well me Vloging. But please feel free to share any tips with me. Thank you in advance.
I just started my channel on cinema and I love the no time stamps/chapters. I started 3 weeks ago and I already have 1k watch time and 150+ subscribers and YT says my retention is above average and I’ve legit used all of your tips! Love you
I don't know, Vanessa 😏 I do love chapters as a viewer and a creator. I want people to go exactly where they want and save themselves some time, especially if it's an educational video. I put chapters in my art vlogs which might not be necessary but I thought it would also help with SEO having the text in the description that matches the tags and titles. No?
I agree.I find chapters are super helpful for me if I want to review some of my own videos and as a viewer I’m more likely to watch at least most of a video if I have chapters to click on
I still have mixed feelings on shorts. One short hit 8 million, another 3 million. I've gained a lot of subs but my long form content views has remained the same. So even though I hit 20k subs, I'm not celebrating yet because my regular views haven't increased much. 😖
Hey Vanessa, I just discovered ya through this video today. I am glad that it did. I have been struggling on getting my watchtime and been on a break to re-construct my content I wanna do. These tips will definitely come in handy for my growth and can't wait to put them to the test when I comeback hard on content ideas I have for next year. Thanks for sharing them. Amazing Advice by the way! I also even wrote down these tips in my notebook to keep in handy for a testrun next year. Can't wait to put it all into action!!! :D
Thank you so MUCH for these tips! I have been struggling a lot with my channel, and I've tried everything, even though I took a long break from uploading. But this is exactly what I needed to hear since I started to upload again. So again, thank you!
That's a really good point about chapters! One thing I noticed on one of my videos was I put out a ~40min thing that was pretty well broken into six parts, so I put six chapters on it. I noticed I was getting a lot of views from searches for the topic I covered at about the halfway point, and there was a significant spike at that chapter and then dropoff at the next. It did make me wonder whether those viewers would have just left after the first minute if they didn't have the chapter to click on, or if they would have stuck around longer to wait for the info they wanted. Hard to say...
i think they would skip and skip up to the topic they wanted, if you do not have chapters. but it is also how well and relevant your other topics in a video that they would keep watching
I think chapters are really good because it helps people find your video on RU-vid if you draw out a feature or point no one has made yet. If the data suggests that is popular, you can do a quick popup to other videos you have made that may make them hit your other videos to get them more answers or feels they are looking for. Your happy. They’re happy. Win win with not much effort but a bit of thought-love.
This would be a great thing to test. For example, do some videos that all cover related topics, but divide only half of them up into chapters and see what happens. It does strike me that what you're describing offers a neat counter-argument to what Vanessa said. Your viewers were coming in just for that one chapter, so like she said, they weren't staying around... BUT that gives you valuable information about what people are looking for. That means you could use that to create more targeted content, with or without chapters.
@@infiniteglitterfall It's very effective. Think of a blog or website, providing a link to another one of your articles. You are showing to your audiences you have their topics covered. Working with other youtubers in branding, marketing, education and academy, no one wants to sit through an entire lecture or 'systematic approach to blablabla'. Chapters help them find what they want - then leave to your other classes, workshops, videos and so on to help feed their desired appetite on a certain subject or bunny trail. They are BUILDING your channel faster by doing this.
RU-vid now has an “auto-chapter” feature. It occurs to me, they may be using chapter titles to help determine video “relevance.” I’ve also noticed that on Google searches that return RU-vid video results, they often auto start in the middle of a video- appears to be using chapters.
Yep! Google searches will point directly to a part of your video that's most relevant to what's searched for. Google also does the same for blog articles, where it will skip down 3-4 paragraphs to where the answer to your question most likely is.
Really excellent points! I'm more of a viewer than a creater, but each point made was just about perfect. The only thing I rank really high is to stop telling viewers to "click like, subscribe and..." Especially near the very beginning. That almost always causes me to move away.
Hey Vanessa. I love what you have done reivigorating your channel and I bought all the things. :) Notion is SOO cool. I finally feel like I have a grip on the process. Great tips as always!
Omg thank you so much bestie! This video is super helpful! I’ve been going to town on tags 🏷 I feel like the intro is different for vlog channels! The only way to give a glimpse of what’s happening is through I short preview! I’ve noticed that most people watch it on my videos :) keep up the great work !!
Hi Vanessa and team. I often watch your videos, often consider them useful. But, this video is perhaps the most useful of all. Great content, seriously.
The intro part is so damn true. If I see an over-the-top intro animation going on for longer than 3 seconds, I sometimes don't want to watch any further. The best thing to do is to make your own signature intro by immediately starting the video and start talking.
12:20 the problem is that far too many times those auto-captions are full of typos, misspellings of words, wrong capitalization, and giving the wrong words. If there's a way to download the auto-captions and then clean them up and then upload them back to RU-vid that would be ideal. 90% of the work would have been already.
You have THE BEST ADVICE!!! Thank you!!! Question: do you use a teleprompter or just talking points? I love your delivery so much and use your channel as my inspiration on my channel ❤
I just use my laptop with a script - usually just bullet points. You can check out my RU-vid Scripting for Success where you can learn how to script your videos vanessalau.samcart.com/products/youtube-script/
So if we fill the tags section all the way to 500/500 characters, it could hurt the video? I feel all It could possibly do is give the video a little bit more of a chance on RU-vid! Once I started filling my tags full I grew from 750 subs to 15.6k; although it may have been me just taking the platform more seriously and filling everything out lol great video btw, so many great points!!
It’s so hard to grow on here as it’s such an over saturated place but if I can connect genuinely to one person who reaches out and tells me this then it brings and smile to my face as this is hard! ❤
Edit: Please use manual captions. It isn't all about views, the auto generated captions still suck for a lot of content. Some people may be able to get away with not having manual captions if they speak clearly, only have one person in a video and don't use words or names that can be misinterpretted but a lot of people can't get away with it. If you can afford manual captions, use them, think of your deaf or hard of hearing audience members, don't be selfish. Correctly caption your work. You can save some time by waiting for the auto captions and manually editing them if you like. OG Comment: I'm an artist and the little intro animation lets me use my art in my videos so even if it kills some people's interest, I'm gonna still have an intro. It's part of who I am. I'll show the audience something funny or intriguing from the greater video to hook them, play the intro to satisfy my craving for animation, then get into the video after. But I make gaming content so no one's going to my video for information, I think it's a little more forgiving when it's entertainment. But who knows, I haven't uploaded yet lol (content isn't going on this channel btw).
Not all videos have CC! So, your tip about not paying to include CC because youtube automatically transcribes, may be inaccurate info. My sister is hard of hearing and depends on Closed Captioning, so please double check the accuracy of what you said about youtube automatically transcribes all videos. Thx🙂
Finally someone got it right, this channel spot on,she even got the return from ad time right,(tip..ads need to correlate to video), that a pro move on regular tv,(mostly). Chapters, I knew this was outdated from start, but keep in mind, one hour of your viewers time is valuable, 30 mins or less. Thanks for the tips
What makes your videos so enjoyable to watch and perhaps why I watched the whole 17:22 mins. The advice is always so different than everyone else and so accurate..
Some people worry too much about equipment. I use just the one camera. Content is most important. I started my channel to share my love for my hobby. Thanks for your insights.
you know I've watched quite a few youtube how to youtube videos but this the first one I have seen in a while that has given me advice that correlates with reality. longer form content seemed to do well for some reason. and it's more about respecting your audience than clickbaiting as hard as possible. great upload
Thank you Vanessa for all of these tips! Huge knowledge bomb dropped! Definitely going to try some of these new ways to grow. Appreciate all the hard work you put in.
I have been trying to trank in search (4:53) whoops! Could you make a longer video on the best ways to rank in suggested? This one was super informative, but would love a deeper dive!
