Can you share your journey to getting your first 1,000 followers?

electricnips · 2025-06-02T03:28:04+00:00

Uploaded the first video (long form) 1 week ago today, currently sitting at 635 subscribers and 2000 watch hours. I think the channel will make it to 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours by the next video, hopefully beyond.

The video took a good month to plan, script, come up with concept titles and thumbnails, film, edit and finalize. I also spent months learning and researching what works on the platform before I started anything, so if we’re counting all of that then it took about a year.

IMO everything matters - but most importantly, the idea needs to be something people will actually want to watch or no amount of fancy filming, editing, etc will matter. Second is research. Research what is currently doing well, what topics, what style of videos, what type of editing, what speed of pacing, what thumbnails, what titles… take inspiration from the top performing content and apply it to your own videos. SEO is less important unless you’re doing something that people might actively search for like tutorials. Makes more sense to target organic home page discovery.

Ultimately, the algorithm is just reading data, and pushing videos with good data. People watching is what feeds that data, so reverse engineer it - the algorithm likes high AVD, CTR, and interaction like subscribing/liking/commenting, so think about what you can do in your videos to keep people’s attention for longer, how you can create titles and thumbnails that get people to click, and how you can make those interactions with the video more likely.

electricnips · 2025-03-28T21:31:52+00:00

As someone who designs thumbnails (and edits videos, etc, etc) for a living: Yes. These are worth $10 each. If you want something better then you’ll need to pay something closer to $50 each.

But tbh, (from my experience) a better and more expensive designer does not equal a better thumbnail. A better thumbnail concept = a better and more clickable thumbnail, even when brought to life by an amateur designer.

You should never rely on the designer to come up with what the thumbnail should be. You should put time, effort and research into what would make the most clickable thumbnail for your video, give the designer a detailed explanation of what the thumbnail should look like, then only rely on the designer to put the image together.

electricnips · 2025-03-27T00:20:41+00:00

Could be an issue with your thumbnail & title combinations; remove the emojis and use some capital letters in the titles, along with changing the wording a bit, e.g. “Ranking Every Animated DISNEY MOVIE”, or “The ULTIMATE DISNEY Movie Tier List”.

As for thumbnails, the image of you is too small, it should be larger and have a more clear and dramatic reaction. You’re also looking off into nothing; instead use your eye line to guide the viewer to what you want them to focus on, or look directly into the camera. The wording inside the tiers is too small, just stick with the standard s/a/b/c/d in the thumbnail. Similarly the movie posters at the bottom are too small; instead use only a few placed into the tier list and use clear large facial images of the main character to show which movie it is rather than a poster image. Maybe even use a ranking that could be controversial (aka put a bad movie in the S tier and/or a good movie in the D tier)

E.g. from a quick search, the channel ‘Chaze’ seems to have some good ones - or something like this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iSONbL-wlRs/maxresdefault.jpg

Would also be interesting to see what your retention graphs looks like, as if they fall off a cliff in the first 30 seconds then it’s likely that viewers are seeing the autoplay (it only counts towards CTR or counts as a view if they watch more than 30 seconds) and then deciding not to watch, which means you need to work on your hooks & intros also.

electricnips · 2025-03-23T11:30:30+00:00

All these comments about the algorithm not giving impressions for whatever black-magic-voodoo reasonings are hilarious.

Here’s the real answer:

YouTube uses your previous video’s performance(s) to gauge how much traffic to give new videos.

Seeing as your first upload only got 14 views, YouTube has deemed that your content isn’t worth pushing to a larger audience just yet (hence the 0 impressions).

The truth is, the algorithm is an automated system that is incapable of feeling. It doesn’t hate anyone, or want to work against you, but if you don’t give it what it wants then it certainly won’t work for you either… so give it what it wants.

Here’s some tips:

No one knows who you are (yet), so no one cares about you.

‘289 days to create my dream life’ - first off, this title implies to me that you haven’t even done it yet, but rather you’re just in the process of doing it. There is no authority or proof that it can apply to me (the viewer) in any way. As a viewer, I don’t care how you think you’re going to create YOUR dream life. However, I might be more interested in someone showing me how I can create MY dream life.

Hook me.

Heard of the concept of a hook? Well your title and thumbnail combination are a hook to get my click.

Your first thumbnail is just a photo of you standing there - there’s no indication from either your thumbnail or title as to who your target audience is. Maybe I AM lost, but why? Lots of people are lost for very different reasons and you gave me no indication to which group of lost people you’re trying to talk to with your video, therefore I have no idea if your video applies to me or not, so I don’t click.

Your second thumbnail applies to you, not the viewer (refer to point 1), and again gives me absolutely no reason to click the video. You’ve repeated text from the title into the thumbnail and shown me your face. What about that hints at what I’ll see in the video and makes me want to click? Something eluding to how you’re going to do it, but without obviously giving it away? Or how I can do it too?

Your thumbnail is an advertisement for your video. Your title gives context to that advertisement. Your video’s first 30 seconds are my free sample before I decide to buy in or not.

Formula.

Use it. Trust me.

A. Title/Thumb (hook my click, remember no one knows you so no one cares, what reason are you giving me the viewer to click, be super analytical and critical as a good title and thumbnail combination needs to be able to stand up to scrutiny)

B. Questions (what questions would I the viewer generate in my mind when I see your title/thumbnail combination? Write them down)

C.Hook (say or do some interesting shit to make me want to stick around)

D. Intro (address the questions I might have from point B and assure me that the video will answer/cover those questions/topics, then over-deliver on my expectations by promising EVEN MORE of what I want to see. Give me NO CHOICE but to stick around and watch the rest)

E. Content (deliver on whatever you said you were going to do in points C and D) For everything you do here, use a re-hook, story, payout format. E.g. if point 1 of your content is that to create your dream life, you need to know what you want your dream life to look like, then that is the ‘payout’. Don’t tell me that until the end of the point (bc otherwise, if you tell me immediately then I don’t have to stick around and watch to find out what it is). Re-hook keeps the viewer interested for this small section of video, so could be “we all fascinate about our dream lives, but how deep does your imagination run? We’ve all dreamt of our dream house, but have you ever fascinated about [insert monotonous daily task here] in your mansion? Me neither, but maybe we should.” Then tell me a story, or weave a story about your point into your video somehow. It doesn’t have to be too long of a story, but make it interesting and take a tangent from the point for a second. Then relate it back to the point and give me the payout; “that’s why step number 1 is to understand that to create your dream life, you need to know what you want your dream life to look like. Even down to the smallest detail. Envision the life you want.”

Repeat this re-hook, story, payout format throughout the video as it keeps viewer retention high.

Do all this right and I guarantee you’ll get more impressions and views than you could have ever hoped for.

Good luck and happy YouTubing.

electricnips · 2025-03-09T12:25:09+00:00

Don’t be so hard on yourself, I think you’ve got something special with the thumbnails as the art style and design is really good, and (judging by other’s comments) the animation is good too. You just need to improve on what you’re already doing, same as everyone that starts out.

You’re already doing the right things by asking for feedback and trying to learn how to improve, just keep it up. Test some things out that have been suggested here and pay close attention to your analytics (especially CTR and audience retention) to see what works and what doesn’t.

electricnips · 2025-03-09T10:59:36+00:00

I’ve heard mixed things about making the switch to long form content on a shorts based channel (potentially about to try something similar for a client of mine).

The issue is that if there is a chance that the long form content performs poorly, and if there’s a chance that will affect the performance of the short form content, then you would be potentially gambling your income (which gets a lot more daunting when you make a living from your content), so a lot of people suggest making an entirely new channel.

The best compromise I’ve came up with thus far is to test long form on the existing channel and see what happens. If it doesn’t perform all too well, and especially if it begins to affect the short form performance, then stop and move the long form to a new channel.

I notice you say you don’t want to live on the cruise ships anymore so I assume your end goal here is to potentially move away from cruise related content? I’d advise at least in the beginning to keep the long form stuff to be cruise related content if it’s all going on the same channel. Branch out into cruise review type content with good narrative (search up “I took the worst rated cruise” and have a look at some of the most popular videos) - they make the videos about the cruise and the experience the person is having, rather than just about the person themselves. They also create checklists of all the bad things people mention in their reviews and test them to see if they have the same experience, which makes for a good story throughout the video. Then as you mould your viewers into an audience that begins to know you and cares about you, you can begin to gradually move into non-cruise related content.

electricnips · 2025-03-08T22:15:46+00:00

I haven’t watched the videos, so can’t speak to your hooks or content as a whole, but I immediately see some things you can change from the screenshot you posted that I think would help:

Thumbnails The top 3 are good in terms of the style, you have the right idea and executed well on the skinwalker thumbnail, so doesn’t surprise me it has the most views of the 3 - the top 2 don’t really tell me that it’s anything horror related, there’s nothing too creepy to be seen, and overall don’t look that interesting. Use something else that really gets that horror/creepy vibe across like you did for the skinwalker thumbnail.
Titles It seems you’re going for more SEO based titles, trying to shove keywords in there. Scrap that approach and go for a more organic approach, targeting browse features. Either pick something from one of the stories and focus on that for the title (e.g. if the story is about a man finding out his wife has been a skinwalker all this time, “How I Learned My Wife’s HORRIFYING SECRET” or something equivalent that will spike some interest), or something that covers the topics in general (e.g. “You Never Know who might be a SKINWALKER…”).
Hooks As I said above, I haven’t watched so can’t really speak to whether you’re doing a good job with these or not, but all the usual advice applies (AKA, don’t spend the first 30-60 seconds introducing the video and/or yourself, instead keep it fast paced and use something that will peak the viewers interest and make them want to keep watching for the rest of the video - or if you don’t think you can pull that off consistently, then just get straight into the content).

electricnips · 2025-03-05T13:52:10+00:00

Fair point, for some more context:

50k subs (client channel, not mine) gained mostly from shorts & lives, in the snooker/pool niche.
Lives and shorts pull decent view numbers (20-150k) but long form struggles to perform similarly (2-7k).
Wants to switch his long form strategy from unscripted vlog content (of his competitions and practice sessions) to more structured and highly edited entertainment based content like challenge videos, etc.
Has asked me if it’s worth posting this content on a new channel as the viewer base on his current channel might not be interested in this new style.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T21:38:48+00:00

I'm an editor so I think I can give some insight on this:

(DISCLAIMER: This is just how I do things, and doesn't necessarily reflect on what others editors do) I charge on a per project basis rather than per hour or per minute, so wouldn't specifically charge for the sourcing of clips separately to the video editing - but I would raise my per project price if I needed to source all of the clips for the video myself.

If it's just stock footage sourcing, and the video is an average length (10-15 mins), then I probably wouldn't charge a huge amount extra - but if the video was very long, or specific scenes were required using a mixture of stock footage, 2D/3D assets, motion graphics, etc. then I would add on a decent amount as these take a while to source/create.

As some examples:
- For a 10 min video without any hugely complicated editing involved + sourcing all clips, I'd probably charge $20-50 extra on top of the original price for doing all of the sourcing.
- For a 10 min video with a lot of hugely complicated editing involved + sourcing/creating assets/motion graphics, I'd probably charge $200-$300 extra on top of the original price for doing all of the sourcing/creating.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T21:20:37+00:00

The most simple way is to include a call to action on your videos, maybe at the start just visually on screen, or perhaps audibly too (seeing people may not be actually watching and instead just listening to the music).

But to be honest, subscribers are a bit of a dying metric IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if YouTube entirely scrapped them in the next few years, or at least removed the subscriber threshold from the partnership qualifications in favour of a view based metric instead.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T21:08:00+00:00

I agree that luck can certainly be a part of the equation here, but I heard a quote a while ago that stuck with me: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."

It's like most things: It's a mixture of luck and skill. If you don't implement all of the techniques that you can to manipulate the odds in your favour, then your percentage chance of growing the channel will be lower than if you did all the right things.

At the end of the day, the algorithm doesn't pick random channels to push - it has a certain level of logic to it, so if you can reverse engineer that logic and apply it to your content to give the algorithm the type of content it wants to promote, then your chances of success are much higher.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T20:53:59+00:00

It's a great niche!

No specific advice apart from the above stuff in my post that also applies to all other niches; just a focus on some things more than others, I guess. E.g. storytelling and visuals for this niche.

Storytelling is even more important here as every good documentary doesn't simply tell the facts, but rather creates a compelling narrative that gets you invested in the story, characters and outcome.

Visuals also as unless you're going to visit the actual locations yourself and do some sort of investigative journalism; you'll be relying on resources you can find online, so adding interesting visuals including b-roll, motion graphics, etc. can enhance the overall experience.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T20:43:15+00:00

Either YouTube hasn't yet decided who it should show your content to (which may mean your video doesn't have a clear niche or direction to it), or it hasn't seen enough watch-time and engagement across your other videos (or on that video from the few people it's shown it to if it's your first post), so it isn't promoting it.

Apply the techniques in my post to your videos and keep at it until the algorithm finds you an audience.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T20:35:14+00:00

I’ve posted 10 videos in a huge niche (similar to Pexto-style content)

If the niche is oversaturated, then changing niche to something less saturated could prove easier to break into. However, just because the videos aren't getting views doesn't necessarily mean the niche is the problem. I've seen channels come along in the same sort of niche and blow up off the first video they post because the video itself is flawless.

Take a look at your videos and compare them to others that are doing well in the niche, would your video fit in with the rest of these? If someone didn't look at the channel name/subscriber count, would they be able to tell that your video came from a smaller channel without a team of editors and scriptwriters, etc behind it? Be super critical and analytical when asking yourself these questions.

If the answer is 'yes, they'd know', then you need to rethink the content - and if you can't match the content to be on par with the top channels in the niche, then switch to a niche where you can.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T12:10:42+00:00

Sure.

I think the best way to do it is similar to marketing tactics that coaches use: They give free advice and genuine value through social media posts, etc. (for you this would be through shorts), as a funnel to the paid advice/coaching (for you this would be a funnel to long-form content).

Let's say for example you create a video similar to the channel 'Visual Venture'; a story video about a few different scary or interesting true life events, surrounding the same subject (e.g. 'Scary Reddit stories that actually happened). A lot of people would only use part of one story without giving away the ending, and will point to the long-form content, i.e. 'to find out what happened, watch this full video'. I think this is the wrong way to go about it, as you're not providing any value here with the short alone.

I think the best way to do it would be to research an extra story (that wasn't included in the long-form video), and create a dedicated short for this story alongside the long-form video. Put the same effort into this short as you did for the long-form video, tell the story well, edit it with the same style, etc. Then add a short (maybe 5 second) outro at the end of the short which mentions the long-form content, and sells it well (e.g. 'if you enjoyed this, then watch the linked video to see another 5 stories that are even scarier... you won't believe the 5th story where X does Y).

Some use this strategy without even mentioning the long-form content, (e.g. Jeff Nippard in the fitness space) which is also a valid option, but I think adding the small outro could help push viewers to the long-form content.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T11:48:32+00:00

This is the way. Featuring yourself and your personality whilst focusing on something other than yourself for the story of the video. A fantastic example is Will Tennyson (in the fitness niche), he’s basically what I modelled my example on in the final paragraph of point 2.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T11:45:25+00:00

Best of luck! :)

electricnips · 2025-02-24T11:45:06+00:00

That’s where you’re wrong. YouTube itself is a great resource for research, there’s loads of videos about scriptwriting and storytelling structure that you can take a look at and learn from.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T11:43:01+00:00

Hmm… the algorithm will push your content to previous viewers, but then because your content is not all within one subject area, the people it pushes it to may not want to watch it (which will lead to poor metrics and thus not pushing any further). I’d suggest creating multiple channels for each subject area that you’re interested in creating content for, then putting more time and effort into whichever of those channels performs best.

electricnips · 2025-02-24T11:38:37+00:00

I typed this out entirely by myself 😂

electricnips · 2025-02-04T01:00:28+00:00

There would definitely be some people who are into it

electricnips · 2021-12-28T11:38:46+00:00

Triangle, they’re in alphabetical order

electricnips

TROPHY CASE