How I Accumulated 35,527+ Watch Time Hours Before Even Starting My YouTube Channel
Episode 932: Show Notes
Most people start a YouTube channel from scratch with zero videos, zero audience, and zero watch time, but before I even started my YouTube channel, I had accumulated over 35,000 watch hours! I wouldn’t consider myself a YouTuber, and I wasn’t posting regularly, but I had an entirely different motivation that gave me a huge leg up. I never set out to grow on YouTube. Instead, my growth was a byproduct of trying to make a difference and support the community I was building.
Today, I break down exactly what went into those watch hours, how I accumulated so many, and how my story might change your approach to launching a YouTube channel. There are so many different ways you can go about doing this, so I’m going to be fully transparent about what worked for me and give you some practical ideas you can try!
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The One Thing You Need to Focus on When Creating Content
Evergreen content isn’t just about trying to reach more people and go viral. It’s about trying to solve real problems for your ideal audience that you hope to monetize. Throughout my career, I have prioritized long-form content with a focus on bringing value to my community. To provide my audience with more valuable insights in my blog posts, I started inviting guest contributors. This allowed them to share free advice while also linking back to their businesses. My strategy was to drive leads to my website through this content and the strategy worked!
I was able to grow my email list to over 100,000 people and that was largely due to building a community that helped people and where they felt like they could contribute to the collective. My business grew rapidly when I was focused on giving freely!
Why Offering Free Content Benefits You in the Long Run
Years ago, I created a program called Trello for Business. One of the key reasons for its success was that I was educating my audience about a software company that wasn’t directly connected to me. I was helping small business owners at a time when Trello was primarily focused on larger businesses and wasn’t catering to their needs.
A huge part of what leads to success is how well you support the people who have already bought from you. Your focus on client experience is huge! I never could have imagined the long-term impact that program would have on my business. If you're considering creating content to support others in the long run, think about making some educational material freely available. Posting your content on YouTube and using it in other ways will benefit you over time. However, you'll only accumulate watch hours if you make your content public.
Leveraging Online Event Recordings on YouTube
The third prong of my (at the time) unintentional strategy was a focus on creating events that were impactful for small business owners. Aside from hosting a full-blown conference, I’ve run nearly every kind of online event out there. While most of my past events live inside my course content, you don’t always need to upload them to platforms like Teachable unless they're part of your paid offerings. Instead, you can put that content on YouTube, and each time someone watches it, you’ll accumulate watch hours!
If your goal is to help people, you shouldn’t hold back that information. I know some of you aren’t ready to fully invest in YouTube but still want to benefit from it, and this strategy can help you get started. If you plan to monetize that traffic in the future, what’s the harm in starting with a pre-launch phase where your channel simply exists? You can keep serving your current audience while building a foundation on YouTube. This gives you a head start so that when you're ready to go all in, you're not starting from scratch. It doesn’t have to be perfect; you just need to begin!
You improve through practice, not by waiting for the perfect strategy. If you want to have a YouTube channel, start it today! Even if you help just one person, it’s worth it. Be creative and focus on serving your audience. You've got this!
Quote This
You get better by practicing. You don’t get better by waiting to have the perfect strategy.
Highlights
The One Thing You Need to Focus on When Creating Content. [0:03:16]
Why Offering Free Content Benefits You in the Long Run. [0:08:16]
Leveraging Online Event Recordings on YouTube. [0:13:03]
Key Topics:
YouTube, Long-Form Content, Serving Your Audience, Online Events, Monetizing Content, Maximizing Watch Hours
