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The Ultimate Guide

to YouTube
YOUTUBE

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The Ultimate Guide to

YouTube

Table of Contents
Introduction
 My YouTube Story
 The Power of YouTube
 The Fear of Getting Started
 Notion
1. Get Going
1. Discover Your YouTube Niche
2. Create Your YouTube Channel
 3. Beat Perfectionism
4. Script Your First Video
5. YouTube Video Technical Basics
6. Editing
The Next Step
2. Get Good
1. Quantity vs Quality
2. So, What Makes a Good Video?
:
 2. So, What Makes a Good Video?
Part I[ YouTuber Skills
Part II[ Technical YouTube Video Production
So How Do You Know If Your YouTube
Videos are Good?
The Next Step
3. Get Smart
1. Understand Your YouTube Niche
2. Competitor Analysis
3. YouTube Analytics
4. Optimise Your Systems
5. Repurposing YouTube Content
6. Monetise Your YouTube Channel
Wrapping Up
  1. Have a Positive Mindset
 2. Be Consistent
 3. Enjoy the Journey
 The Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Introduction

 My YouTube Story

Starting a YouTube channel is hands down the best

decision I’ve ever made in my life. It all started for me in
2017. When I was in my final year of medical school at
Cambridge University and training to be a doctor. Inspired
by my favorite YouTuber Peter McKinnon, I decided to pick
up a camera and document my journey.
:
 Like everyone else, I started from the ground up: with 0
subscribers and 0 views. And my videos were a little bit
cringe:

BMAT Section 1 - Everything you need to …

I started off by teaching medical school applicants how to

do well in entrance exams and interviews. But pretty soon I
started vlogging, making more general content about
study techniques, tech, and productivity. And over time, I
slowly improved. A few of my videos went viral. The
channel started to grow, and within a year and a half, I hit
100,000 subscribers. Which was mind-blowing. For
context, this is what that 100,000 people looks like:

Since then though, it’s truly been a wild ride. I started

working as a doctor in the UK’s National Health Service in
:
 working as a doctor in the UK’s National Health Service in
2018. During my first two years of working full-time, I was
churning out 1d3 YouTube videos each week. Along with a
weekly email newsletter and weekly podcast that I started
with my brother. In that time, the channel grew to over a
million subscribers. I expanded my team to include a full-
time editor and writer as well. To date my channel has 3.5
million+ subscribers, and I make over £100,000 g$130k)
each month. All from YouTube ads and sponsorships. I get
to interview some of my heroes (like author Brandon
Sanderson), collaborate with amazing creators like
Marques Brownlee and Matt D’Avella, and make frankly
whatever videos I like.

All while putting in about 8 hours of effort a week. Which in

all honesty is bloody ridiculous, and I didn’t think it’d ever
be possible.

How Much Money I Make as a YouTuber (…

I even started my own course teaching people how to be

YouTubers. It’s called the Part-Time YouTuber Academy,
which to date has had 2000l students. In my humble
opinion, it’s the best YouTube course in the world.
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  The Power of YouTube

So, in this guide I want to show you exactly how to start

your own YouTube channel, based on my years of trial and
error, and from coaching thousands of Part-Time YouTuber
Academy students through the process. Here’s how I’ve
structured the three stages of your YouTube journey:

mn Get Going o The most important part: how to

actually get started on YouTube.

pn Get Good o How to improve your video quality,

and grow an audience.

qn Get Smart o How to develop a strong YouTube

niche, and make money from your channel.

But it’s important to remember – there’s no magic bullet

that’ll net you millions of subscribers within a few weeks.
These stats show the average number of videos you need
to make to reach certain subscriber milestones:

If you approach YouTube strategically (eg by reading this

guide), you’ll improve a lot on those average numbers. But
starting and growing a YouTube channel still takes a lot of
:
 starting and growing a YouTube channel still takes a lot of
work. Especially if you want to take it seriously.

You won’t see much growth, or money, in 

the early stages.

You’ll have to get over the fear of

judgment from friends, family and strangers
on the internet.

You’ll have to work out what you’re going

to talk about + why anyone would care what
you’ve got to say.

You’ll need to learn about cameras,

microphones, lights, video editing and post-
production.

You’ll worry that you’re going to run out of

ideas.

But here’s one thing I can guarantee. If you publish about

once a week, for 1o2 years your life will change. Often in
ways you can’t imagine. By doing YouTube I[

  Unlocked the ability to live and work from

anywhere in the world

Made a lot of new friends and met my

heroes.

 Achieved financial freedom

  Learned to speak confidently to camera

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 Most importantly, making YouTube videos is a blast. You
learn so much from each video. You get to express yourself
creatively, and when you hit publish it’s like your little
creation is going out into the world. You’ll find yourself
improving over time. You start getting messages from
friends saying they saw your video and thought it was
cool. The likes and comments are wholesome and
supportive 99.9% of the time. It’s all rather fun.

 The Fear of Getting Started

After I tell people about the benefits of starting a YouTube

channel, they tend to say ‘amazing, I’ll give it a go’. But 90%
never do. And the main reason is usually “what will my
friends and family think?”. Before starting YouTube I was
worried about this as well. But very quickly, as I started
making videos, I realised three things:

1. No one really cares Everyone is too worried about their

own lives to care about what you’re doing for more than a
few seconds. Psychologists call this The Spotlight Effect:
we all go through life as if we have a spotlight trained on
us, with other people watching and judging. But in reality,
they’re all thinking the exact same thing. As Eleanor
Roosevelt famously said, “You wouldn’t worry so much
about what others think of you if you realised how seldom
they do.”
:
 2. No one is going to know Unless you actively tell people
or spread the word on social media, no one is going to
know that you started a YouTube channel. You could post
your book reviews/music videos/video essays for a very
long time before anyone you know IRL would ever find out.
By which time your videos would probably be pretty good,
and they’d say ‘why didn’t you mention your awesome
videos sooner?!’

3. The reaction is almost always positive 99% of people

who start a YouTube channel and tell people about it get a
positive reaction. This was definitely true for me: friends
were excited to appear in vlogs, professors asked me to
help film conferences, and my tiny audience was super-
supportive of even my poorly-made early videos. And this
makes sense. When did you last judge someone for doing
something new and exciting? Chances are, if your friend
tells you they’re starting a YouTube channel or blog, you’d
actually be excited for them and maybe a little inspired or
motivated to do something similar. So go for it, and don’t
look back

 Notion
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  Notion

By the way o I use the amazing (free) productivity app

Notion to produce all my YouTube videos. If you haven’t
used Notion before I recommend trying it out. Here’s a
quick introduction to my YouTube workflow using Notion.
But for a full introductory guide to Notion check out my
crash course Notion: Maximise Your Productivity and
Organisation.

I’ll include links to my various Notion templates

(scriptwriting, managing my filming schedule, competitor
analysis, etc) throughout this guide. Feel free to use or take
inspiration from them for your own system. But remember:
Notion is just a useful extra. You don’t need a fancy
production system to make YouTube videos. It’s totally
possible to manage everything from a single Google Doc.

1. Get Going

1. Discover Your YouTube Niche

:
 The most exciting, open-ended aspect of starting out on
YouTube is discovering your niche. What do you want to
make videos about?

For me, there are two main approaches you can take to
finding your niche. You can be an Architect or an
Archaeologist.

If you’re an Architect, you meticulously plan everything

before even thinking about laying the first brick (ie, filming
your first video). You won’t begin your YouTube journey
without a channel strategy, meticulous market research,
and a filming and editing workflow ready.

Archaeologists, on the other hand, approach their task

through a process of iteration and discovery, not really
knowing what they’ll find. They start off with some digging
(filming a few videos). Eventually, they see the beginnings
of something interesting, and a niche emerges.

I’d recommend the Archaeologist approach for 90% of

people. Unless they have experience already or have a
very specific idea of what to make videos about.

Start creating content and, over time, you’ll find what you
enjoy and your niche will emerge. Good questions to ask
:
 enjoy and your niche will emerge. Good questions to ask
yourself though, are:

mn What do I love to watch or listen to already on

YouTube?

pn What topics do I know a lot about?

qn What do I wish I had known three years ago,

five or ten years ago that I could help people
with now?

zn Can I imagine making 50 videos on this general

topic? Or would I get bored after 10?

Those questions will set you on the right path if you’re not
sure what to make videos about yet.

Remember, it’s easier to change direction if you’re already

moving. I started off doing videos about med school. Now I
do all sorts of stuff like tech reviews, productivity advice,
and book summaries.

For now, the main thing is just getting started. No excuses.

2. Create Your YouTube Channel

You can find a detailed technical walkthrough of how to set

up a YouTube channel in my YouTube for Beginners course.

But here are the basic steps, along with a few of my main
recommendations

1. Creating a New Account I suggest you create a new

:
 business account instead of a personal one for your
channel. This means you can later give more people
(editors, collaborators) easy access to your channel.

2. Naming Your Channel For 99% of people I suggest

using your own name. This is super flexible, helping you
build a personal brand. And makes people feel like they’re
connecting with a real person. You can always change your
channel name to something like ‘Binging with Babish’ or
‘Keep Productive’ later down the line.

3. Choosing a Profile PictureYour YouTube channel needs

two main visuals: your profile picture, and your channel
banner.

I think the best profile picture is a fairly clear picture of

yourself, like this. If your phone has a portrait mode, use
that to get shots in a few different locations. Keep going
until you find one you like.
:
 4. Choosing a YouTube Channel Banner

Next up you need a channel banner for your YouTube

homepage.

Canva is a good resource for this. Go to their YouTube

Channel Cover templates, and choose an option that fits
your vibe. Again, there’s zero reason to overthink this –
you’re just getting started, and you can change everything
further down the line.

 3. Beat Perfectionism

:
 Congratulations, you have your channel up and running!
Now you’re ready to make some videos.

At this point I’d like to challenge you to film a completely

unscripted video on your phone, and upload it to your
YouTube channel – with zero preparation.

Yes, that might sound scary. But the whole point of this
exercise is to beat your perfectionism. Don’t worry about
lighting, audio, or looking stupid. Just record something
quickly (preferably in the next 15 minutes) and post it to
YouTube.

The best option is probably to make a video introducing

yourself and your channel. Eg ‘Hi my name’s Ali, this is just
a quick video I’m making to introduce my channel. I’ll be
posting videos about cooking, which I’ve loved doing since
I was 13 years old. I love channels like Binging with Babish
and Ethan Cheblowski, so I thought I’d give it a shot […]’

That’s literally all you need.

mn Prop your phone up on a pile of books (or hold

it in your hand).

pn Press ‘record’ and talk to the camera.

qn Once you’re done, upload it quickly to YouTube

via the YT mobile app.

zn Title the video ‘Welcome to [channel name

here] o My First Video’, and write a short
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 description.

~n You can use a still frame from the video as a

thumbnail. Or just take a selfie horizontally on
your phone.

•n Now, publish the video.

Here’s an example of me doing this for the hypothetical

‘Ali’s Kitchen’ YouTube channel.

The point here isn’t to get views or anything. It’s to get over
your perfectionism and just post something. I can’t
emphasise enough how important it is to get your first few
video out there. Even if you haven’t decided on a niche, dip
your toe in the water.

If it makes you feel better, say ‘Ali Abdaal told me to do

this.’

4. Script Your First Video

:
 Once you’ve published that first first video, it’s time to look
at scripting in earnest.

Some people film vlogs and other video types completely

off the cuff, like Emma Chamberlain.

For most people, it helps to have a rough plan of what to

say on camera. This way you don’t ramble on for ages,
have a weak video structure, or get frustrated during
filming.

You really don’t want to overthink scripting at this point, so

here’s the process I’d recommend for now:

mn Decide on a few simple concepts that you can

easily talk about (eg your desk setup). Think of
a short intro. Something like ‘I work a lot from
home, and my desk is where I spend 80% of
my time. So I thought I’d run you through my
complete desk setup, which I’ve built up over
the last 2 years.’

pn Think about what you’d say to a friend about

one of those topics (your favourite type of
desk, type of chair, lighting, laptop choice, etc).

qn Write about 2d5 bullet points for each of those

main points. gWhy that desk in particular? Best
features? Flaws?Ä

zn Write a brief conclusion, touching on the most

important information in your video.
:
 This is how I scripted my first 20d30 videos, and it honestly
works really well when you’re just getting started.

5. YouTube Video Technical Basics

When starting a YouTube channel, it’s easy to think you

need a ton of fancy gear and a super expensive camera
before you start filming.

But, in reality, this isn’t necessary. If you’re on a budget or

just want to trial out YouTube for a bit, all you really need to
get started is the camera on your phone. This gives you
pretty decent video/audio quality and is more than enough
to build an audience. But there are still a few important
things you need to keep in mind if you’re looking to create
the best possible videos.

i. Video Quality

You don’t really get the best video quality with the default
camera app on your phone. It’s usually not possible to
control all the possible settings.

So, the app that you want to use and that most people
recommend to sort this out is called Filmic Pro. The great
thing about this app is that you can manually control a lot
of the camera settings. This really helps to boost the visual
appeal of your videos.

In particular, you need to change the following settings:

1. Frame rate – normally iPhones film in 30 frames per

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 1. Frame rate – normally iPhones film in 30 frames per
second gFPSÄ. This is just a little bit too smooth and isn’t
really the vibe you usually want to be going for (unless you
like it, in which case you do you). I normally shoot in a
frame rate of 25 FPS, which looks far more cinematic. And
hopefully looks quite reasonable when using your phone
too.

2. Resolution and Bitrate – this sounds complicated but

basically you want to film in 4K resolution, because you
might as well and most modern phones offer that. And
then you want to crank up the bitrate as high as possible
too. On iPhones this is called ‘FiLMiC Extreme’ and on
Android I think it may say something like ‘100 Mbps’. This
just means there’s more information encoded and takes up
a bigger file size, which generally means your videos are
going to be higher quality.
:
 3. White balance – you want to set your white balance so
it doesn’t vary massively.

4. Shutter speed – finally, there’s this kind of rule with

filmmaking that if your frame rate is 25 FPS you want your
shutter speed to be double that. So you want your shutter
speed to be 1/50 of a second. Essentially, that gives you
the best amount of cinematic motion blur, which should
make the video look natural when you’re moving your
hands as you talk. If you cranked up the shutter speed
really high (like 1/200Ä, it would look a lot more choppy.
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 This all sounds complicated. But once you’ve got the
settings sorted the first time, you can save them as a
preset on Filmic Pro and never have to touch them again.

This video from me explains how you can film YouTube

videos on your smartphone. But for now, don’t spend more
than about 30 minutes thinking about video quality.

ii. Audio Quality

If you’re just getting started with YouTube, the audio with

just your phone isn’t actually too bad. It definitely isn’t the
sort of quality where people would be like “oh god, that’s
garbage, I’m going to turn this off immediately”.

For your first few videos, this will be fine. I film plenty of
vlogs and Instagram posts using my iPhone’s built-in mic.
But if you want to invest a bit more, get a cheap lavalier
mic and plug it into your phone / camera.
:
 These are better than using your phone to record audio.
They get the microphone closer to the audio source (aka
your mouth), giving a clearer result. Search YouTube for
“Best lavalier mic 202X” or “best lavalier mic under $100”
and you’ll find something decent. Don’t sweat it.

A wireless lav mic (gold standard is the RØDE

Wireless Go II) is great for when you’re moving around
(eg: my apartment tour video), but costs a bit more
g$260Ä

For good audio at a beginner level, another super-

important thing is to create a clean canvas for your voice.
Get rid of as many irritating background noises as you can:

Turn off loud air conditioning, fans, or

humming fridges.

Avoid filming in crowded or windy spaces

Experiment with different spaces. A small

room with lots of hard surfaces for sound
waves to bounce around on (like a bathroom)
will have a lot of tinny echoing. A much
better option would be a medium-sized living
room with pillows, carpets, and furniture to
soak up those sound waves. This will give a
cosier vibe.
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 cosier vibe.

Tip: if you find the audio is too tinny, try spreading

some cushions on the floor, out of shot. This should
help.

iii. Lighting, Framing and Background

As a beginner, the natural light through your window is

usually enough to light your video. Try to record with the
window to your side so your face is lit up by soft natural
light.

“Framing the shot” means getting yourself and your

background positioned perfectly, so there’s a nice visual
feel to your videos. You want the top of the camera frame
to be a little bit above the top of your head, and for the
camera to be roughly eye-level (so you’re looking straight
ahead at it, not up or down).

Back when I recorded with my iPhone, I connected it to my

MacBook. I used QuickTime Player to share/mirror
whatever my phone was recording. That let me use the
normal camera on the back of my phone (as it has a higher
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 normal camera on the back of my phone (as it has a higher
quality than the selfie camera), helping me easily frame my
shot and see exactly what I’m recording.

As for your actual background, don’t overthink it – it’ll

evolve over time. But it’s good to get some basic principles
right:

Have some depth of field (aka space behind

you). This will make your videos feel more
alive and dynamic, instead of you filming with
your back to a wall.

Plants or interesting objects in the

background also add personality.

Light up objects in the background using

lamps or LED strips – these are your ‘accent
lights’. Just make sure they don’t shine
directly towards the camera/phone.

Looking at other creators’ backgrounds is always good for

inspiration:

Pick Up Limes: the plants and homey feel matches her

vibe, and the ‘green’ theme of her channel.
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 NPR Tiny Desk: The channel personalise the background
by having one item added to it by every guest artist. Yup
it’s messy, but also a signature vibe.

Casey Neistat: He uses his real workshop as a background.

Legit, cool, laidback vibes that match his “go for it”
attitude.
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 The main point is that you don’t actually need a lot to start
a YouTube channel and begin filming. If you’re on a budget
you can do everything on your phone and then upgrade
later when you decide to start taking things a bit more
seriously.

6. Editing

Once you’ve scripted and filmed your video, it’s time for the
edit. There’s an old saying from the film industry:

A movie is made three times: it’s made when it’s written,

it’s made in production, and it’s made again in post.

And this is really true. There’s a whole art to video editing,

and it massively affects your video’s whole look, feel, and
narrative.

As a beginner, the free editing software on your laptop

(such as iMovie) is enough to do some basic edits to your
videos and get them on to YouTube.

A written guide really isn’t the best place to describe how

to edit though, as it’s such a visual craft. To learn the
basics (and lots of advanced techniques), check out my
Final Cut Pro X course, where I cover everything from basic
footage and A-cuts to special effects and colour
correction.

But to give you a general idea, here’s my three-part

:
 workflow for editing videos:

mn A/Cut Assembly. Create your project, import

footage, and assemble your A-cut by choosing
the best takes. Trimming out any silence to
make a sharp, snappy edit.

pn B/Roll Shenanigans. Once your basic timeline

is created, you want to add in interesting B-roll.
These could be second camera clips, titles,
transitions, and lower thirds. Or even images,
screen recordings, and even handwritten
animations.

qn Coats of Polish. With all the footage added,

you want to add in background music to sound
more pro, sound effects to your titles and
transitions, add vocal effects to your audio
track (compression and EQÄ, and do some
colour grading to give your edit the right look
and feel (eg warm and cosy, or bright and
clinical).

The three edits that make the most difference are:

Tighter A-cuts – whenever we hear a pause

in a video it sounds weird. So you want to cut
those out in the edit so everything flows
smoothly.

Titles, lower thirds & transitions – these

make your video more engaging, easier to
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 make your video more engaging, easier to
follow, and are useful ways to include
branded elements.

Subtle sound effects o Sound effects can

massively elevate your production value
when used subtly. They make your videos
feel polished. I tend to use a sound effect
whenever something appears on the screen.

The Next Step

Having a YouTube channel is a bit like being in a

relationship.

And by this point in the journey, you’ve made a few videos,

and you probably know whether you like making videos
enough to keep ‘the relationship’ going or not.

If the answer is ‘no’, that’s great – you tried it out and

learned it’s not your jam. But if the answer is ‘yes’, the next
big question is ‘do you want to make this a serious
relationship?’ Do you want to move beyond casual dating?

If your answer is “Yes, I’m ready to commit to this

relationship”, then the next step is to Get Good at your
craft. And it might be the most fun part of being a
YouTuber.

2. Get Good
:
 1. Quantity vs Quality

So you’ve uploaded a few videos to your channel, you’re

enjoying YouTube, and you’ve decided to take the next
step – to Get Good.

You now have an important choice to make: quantity or

quality? In other words, will you improve most from trying
to make every video perfect? Or from cranking out several
decent videos in the same time, aiming for incremental, 1%
improvement (quantity)?

It’s an age-old question. And for 90% of people I’d say

quantity is the way to go – especially if you’re just starting
out. You’ll get so many new data points from publishing
videos regularly, about your choice of topic, your
presenting style, the type of editing that works best, and
loads more.

The classic Parable of the Pottery Class (adapted from the

book Art & Fear) illustrates this point:

There was once a pottery teacher called Brian. One

month, he decided to split his class into two groups.
Group A had to make a pot every day for 30 days (so 30
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 Group A had to make a pot every day for 30 days (so 30
pots in total). Group B had to work on a single pot for
the whole 30 days.

At the end of the month, Brian judged the quality of the

pots. Without exception, every one of the top 10 pots
came from Group A, the guys that made one pot per
day. None came from the group that focused on
perfecting their single pot.

So, in an ideal world, you’d be making a minimum of 1 video

per week to start with. That’s 52 videos per year. That
could be more or less, depending on how demanding
video production is for your niche. React-style gaming
videos are super-quick to film. But outdoorsy mini-
documentaries (eg Beau Miles) take ages to film + edit.

There are exceptions to this quantity>quality rule. Video

essayist James Jani hit 1.36M subscribers with just 18
videos, and DIY/science experiment channel Stuff Made
Here has 4.8M subscribers from just 29 videos (all with
1Ml views).

But these are outliers who put an insane amount of effort

into every video. James spends 100s of hours researching
each of his video essays, and didn’t publish for 9 months in
2022. Likewise, Stuff Made Here do insane engineering
challenges like building a moving basketball hoop that
won’t let you miss, which is beyond most people’s
expertise and also takes a lot of time and equipment.

In conclusion – to get good, focus on quantity, at least for

your first 50d100 videos.
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 The Parable of the Pottery Class #shorts

2. So, What Makes a Good Video?

This is the next logical question – what actually makes a

good YouTube video?

Well you just need to get people to click on it, and you
need to get people to watch it. That’s it! You can make
genius videos that get millions of views by screen-
recording yourself playing Minecraft, or cooking with a
GoPro strapped to your head.

But generally speaking, a lot of other technical elements go

into making a good video. Firstly, there are several
YouTube-specific skills to learn:

Topic choice

Titles

Thumbnails

Scripting

Camera Presence
:
 Then there’s the filmmaking component. The more you
hone these skills, the better your videos will look and
sound:

Videography

Audio

Music l Sound Design

Editing

You can spend years improving all of these things – there

are whole university degrees focused on editing and
scriptwriting, for example. But in this part of the guide I’ll
focus on the absolute essential things for a new YouTuber
to get right, if they want to make good videos.

Part IS YouTuber Skills

1. Generating Good Ideas

Success on YouTube relies on making good videos

:
 Success on YouTube relies on making good videos
consistently – around once per week.

So the main bottleneck most people come to is the

problem of ideas: ‘What if I run out of content? How can I
make sure I have enough ideas to make a good video
every week?’

I used to worry about this, but over time I’ve figured out a
system that I call the Idea Generation Machine. This means
I never have to worry about running out of video ideas.

There are two components to this machine o Capture and

Generate. And the aim is to create more video ideas than
you’ll ever even have time to film.

Capture

 Eureka Moments

The most important thing you can do is to have a system in

place for capturing ideas from your own mind. If you’re
going for a walk or sat on the toilet and an idea for a video
(even a tiny one) pops into your mind, have a quick solution
for capturing it.
:
 This could be an Apple Notes folder, a voice memo into
your smart watch, or a notebook you take everywhere. The
key thing is to capture that idea before you forget it. You’ll
gradually build a list that you can return to when you’re
thinking of what to film next.

I like to store specific ideas in my Notion Video Homebase:

The Infinite Content Engine

  Birdsong Technique

As a YouTuber, you should get into the habit of treating

other people’s content (books, podcasts, videos) as a
source of inspiration. A bit like birdwatchers no longer just
hear birdsong – they can identify all the individual bird
songs, including the one they’re keeping an ear out for.

If you come across an interesting tweet, podcast episode,

or newsletter, make a note of it. Include what you
specifically found interesting. You can set up an
automation on your phone to automatically forward
interesting ideas to your Notion if you’re using that system.

I’ve made so many videos purely based on a tweet I saw

(often from Naval Ravikant lol) that prompted some
interesting thoughts. So keep your ear to the ground.

 Coal Mines

As well as capturing specific ideas, you want to create an

inventory of potential websites, social media feeds,
YouTube channels, newsletters, and any other places on
the web for you to mine for content ideas that are relevant
:
 the web for you to mine for content ideas that are relevant
for your channel.

If you’re ever stuck for content ideas in the future, you can
return to this list. Use the simple Notion template below to
create your own list of Coal Mines.

My Coal Mines

Generate

Once you’ve set up a good system for capturing ideas,

you’ll also want a way of generating them without outside
input. My favourite method for doing this (which I learned
from my friend Sean McCabe) is called ‘5 Months of
Content in 5 Minutes’.

As the title suggests, it’ll help you create a massive amount

of ideas in a very short amount of time. Here’s how it
works:

mn List out the 5o10 topics your audience (or your

future audience) wants to learn.

pn Then create another list of 5o10 topics you

would want to teach. Don’t worry if there’s
:
 would want to teach. Don’t worry if there’s
overlap between the lists – just concentrate on
trying to populate each one with 10 ideas. Try
to come up with more if you can: as always,
quantity leads to quality. Here’s your list of
topics right now:

qn Now, it’s time to break up each of the 10d20

topics above into smaller points. For example,
let’s say I’ve identified a topic my audience
wants to learn as being writing newsletters. My
first sub-point might be “newsletters for
beginners”. Then, in step three, this could be
broken down into “should you start a
newsletter”, “best platform to host a
newsletter” and “how to start a newsletter in 3
easy steps”.
:
 zn Finally, repeat step 3 for each of those sub-
niches. You’ll find you have countless things to
discuss, so long as you get specific enough.
Sure, some might be too niche, but a lot of
them will be worthy of a whole video.

Rather than being scattered and making content about

‘stress management’, then ‘building newsletters’, and then
‘study techniques’, you could niche down and make 10
separate videos about the different aspects of stress
management. And if you did that well, I’m pretty sure your
channel could blow up.

Here’s my Notion template for this exercise:

5 Months of Content in 5 Minutes

2. YouTube Thumbnails
:
 Getting your thumbnails right is absolutely crucial on
YouTube. No matter how good your content is, it just won’t
get seen if your thumbnail isn’t good.

The main job of your thumbnail is to stop the viewer

scrolling. You want to stop people in their tracks, and
make them think ‘huh, what’s that?’ They’ll then look at the
thumbnail properly, before reading the title and deciding
whether or not to click and watch the video.

Some elements that work well for catching the eye:

mn Expressive human faces. Our eyes are

attracted to human faces, particularly if they’re
making eye contact with us. That’s why top
YouTubers like MrBeast almost exclusively use
thumbnails with their face on them, often with
an extreme ‘reaction’ expression. Once the
viewer sees emotion on your face, they’re
automatically slightly invested in your
:
 automatically slightly invested in your
story/what’s happening in the video.

pn Hi-res photo. You want your photo to be high

resolution – poor photo quality tells people that
your video will also have low production
quality.

qn Flashes of colour. Our eyes are also drawn to

high-contrast images with colours that ‘pop’.
Try to keep things colourful, and avoid bland
thumbnails.

zn Tell a story. Lots of great thumbnails tell a

story using the image. A snapshot of what’ll
:
 happen in the video. This will create open
feedback loops in the viewer’s mind (they see
one part of the story, but not how it plays out),
which makes them want to click the video to
find out what actually happens.

The most important thing a good thumbnail does is plant a

question in the viewer’s mind. You need to awaken their
curiosity. You can add text to the thumbnail to literally ask
a question/make a statement, or you can let the title do the
heavy lifting.

Most of the titles+thumbnails on my channel are designed

to make viewers curious about how their lives could
change from watching my content.

This style of thumbnail has done pretty well for me, and it’s
one you can easily use yourself:
:
 What works:

Icons to show lots of options

$$$ figure on-screen creates interest

Happy human face and bright background

feels welcoming.

I recommend making your thumbnails on Canva. Often all

that’s needed is a good photo of you doing the thing you’re
talking about (maybe edited a bit in Lightroom to up the
contrast), and you can add text or extra images and emojis
directly in Canva.

3. YouTube Titles

Titles are the second half of your pitch to the viewer –

you’re saying “watch this video, not the other 20 on your
YouTube homepage”.

Here are my top pieces of advice for writing good titles:

mn Use language your viewers can understand at

a glance. “How My Business Made $1 Million
:
 a glance. “How My Business Made $1 Million
Dollars” is better than “How My Business Grew
to $1 Million ARR”.

pn Make it relevant to the here and now. This is

why titles like ‘How to Build a Business in 2022’
often do well – because people can see that it’s
very up to date and relevant to the current
situation.

qn Promise value. ‘How to’ titles are a great

example of promising value – they tell the
viewer that this video will give them all the
necessary information to be able to do a
specific thing. “How to Learn Basic Jazz Piano”,
“How to Start a YouTube Channel”, etc.

zn Be intriguing. Some great titles are a bit

mysterious, like Nathaniel Drew’s For People
Feeling Behind in Life. Make the viewer curious
enough to click and find out what you’re talking
about.
:
 ~n Create tension. A good way of doing this is to
introduce a timeframe/challenge. For example I
quit sugar for 30 days, or I Survived On $0.01
For 30 Days.

•n Avoid false clickbait. Don’t say something

untrue in your title that isn’t backed up by your
video (”How I became a Gymshark Athlete”).
Otherwise people will click away from your
videos quickly, or not return to your channel.

Ön Reveal secrets. This often works well to build

intrigue, but can easily become clickbait.
Talking about yourself can work, even if you’re
not famous. Eg ‘The Real Reason I Quit Law
School’.

Ün Be fairly extreme. People want to be surprised,

shocked, entertained. A video called ‘Day in
:
 the Life of an 88 Year-Old Man’ won’t do as
well as ‘Day in the Life of a 103 Year-Old
Cyclist’. Think about the most entertaining or
extreme element of your video, and see if you
can include that in the title.

án Use numbers. People always like specific

information. “How I Got Rich” is less interesting
than “How I Made $4.2 Million in 2022”.

màn Stay under the YouTube character limit. Go

beyond 54 characters, and your title won’t get
shown in its entirety on some mobile devices.

To write really effective titles, you need to brainstorm a lot.

Here’s a list of 20l titles my team and I brainstormed for a
’How to Get Your Dream Job’ video:

Over time you’ll figure out what types of thumbnail and title
work best for you, based on how many views you get.
:
 As an educational YouTuber, ‘How to ____’ titles have
worked particularly well for me. As you can see from my
top eight viewed videos of all time, seven use either a ‘How
I…’ or ‘How to…’ in the title:

If one combination does particularly well, try doing a similar

topic + thumbnail + title combination again, but mixing up a
few things. Elizabeth Filips did this for her ‘You’re Not
Stupid: How to Easily Learn Difficult Things’. That was one
of the most-viewed videos on her channel, so she
replicated that style twice over the next 4 months:

Taken together, your title and thumbnail make a promise to

the viewer: watch this, and you’ll get the thing I’ve just
promised you. It’s OK to be a bit clickbaity (otherwise you’ll
never get views).

But you have to honour that promise, and not disappoint

:
 the viewer.

4. Scripting

Titles and thumbnails are crucial to getting people to click

on your video. But to keep the viewer’s attention, your
video needs to have a great structure. This is a huge topic,
but the best way of deciding is to know what structures
other YouTubers use most often.

i. Classic Video Structures

Here are some of the best, most common structures that

you can use.

  Listicle

This is where you just go through the points you want to

make one by one. It requires minimal effort and can be
super successful. I’ve used this method in a few of
my videos. Listicles are an easy way to provide value and
structure a video: of you’re ever struggling for content, this
is how you whip up a video in 30 minutes or less.

Example: 9 Passive Income Ideas o How I Make $27k per

Week

  Essay Structure

This is what we used to do in English Literature. And there’s

a reason we used it – it makes sense and sounds good.
You take an intro that explains the issue. You have a body
divided into sections that ideally each make a single point.
:
 Then you weigh options. Compare pros and cons.
Summarise in the end. It’s essentially an oral essay.

Example: Why I Left Medicine… Forever

  Story Structure

This is the Gold Standard. This is what I wish I could be

doing with every video and what I’m aiming for. Humans
have evolved around stories, we love them. So if you can
turn what you say into a story that follows a hero’s journey,
everything will become endlessly more attractive to the
viewer. Make what you say personal and show how it
has transformed you, and more people will be compelled
to listen. A better example of what the hero’s journey
actually means is this  video . And if you want to get better
at storytelling, get  Storyworthy  by Matthew Dicks, it’ll
change how you think about stories and the world in
general.

Example: How Writing Online Made me a Millionaire

ii. The Four Script Stages

No matter what general structure you choose, you want

your video to go through 4 stages to work on YouTube
(definitely for educational content).

I call this the HIVES framework.

  Hook

You always want to start each video with a hook –

something that’ll grab your potential audience and keep
:
 something that’ll grab your potential audience and keep
them watching. This is the first 10o30 seconds of your
video.

I suggest you spend at least 10d20 minutes thinking about

ONLY the first 10 seconds of a video before you film it.
Consider how you’ll keep the audience intrigued enough to
keep watching more. This will pay massive dividends.

Try one of these techniques to create an effective hook:

Asking a question (”How often do you really

get a good night’s sleep?”)

Sharing a fact (”70% of Americans suffer

from bad sleep… which is really bad.”)

Offering a transformation (”I used to sleep

really badly, but in the last month I ran an
experiment that’s got me sleeping like a
baby. Here’s what I did.”)

Giving a tip right from the start (”Most people

don’t know this – but getting sunlight in the
morning in the most effective way to get a
good night’s sleep later on.”)

Showing enticing BdRoll to cause intrigue.

  Intro

Then you move on to the Intro. Once the viewer has

decided to watch your video beyond the hook, you need to
explain why they should keep watching, and what value
:
 you’re going to provide.

Make this short as well – just enough to set the scene and
get the viewer more invested in your video. With simpler
videos (like listicles) the hook and intro can be combined
into one package.

  Value

This is the most all-encompassing part of the video, and

what will keep people returning to your channel for more.
You want to pack your video with enough value for the
viewer that they’re blow away.

Here’s how we can define value for the 2 main category of

YouTube video:

Educational (eg Ali Abdaal): “Wow, Ali’s video

was jam-packed with actionable advice o I’ll
go away and apply to my own life right now.
It was also quite fun to watch.”

Entertainment (eg MrBeast): “Wow, that

video was ridiculously entertaining and
hilarious. I couldn’t help but watch the whole
thing.”

The point is to make your video stand out in terms of

quality compared to other videos in the same niche. You
want your audience to say “Wow, they really took time to
make this video special” – and then subscribe.

  End Screen Sales Pitch

:
   End Screen Sales Pitch

You want to finish every video with an end-screen sales

pitch, a call to action for the viewer to do something
specific.

YouTube best practice is to relate the last 10 seconds or so

of your video to another video you’ve made on a
correlating topic. Take a look at the last ten seconds of my
video The 5 Magical Apps That Changed My Life, for
example. I say “if you want to hear more about how I use
Notion to supercharge my productivity, click on the little
playlist over here for my top performing videos on how I
use Notion.’

Remember, this is the only time you’ll be able to pitch

viewers directly with an idea for what they should watch
next. And given that they’ve already watched one of your
videos until the end, chances are that they’ll like to watch
the next one if you make it seem relevant enough.

5. Camera Confidence
:
 Being comfortable on camera can be tough. It doesn’t
come naturally to most of us – but everyone improves with
time. Here are my main tips for improving as a presenter.

 1. Go Easy on Yourself

Assume the audience are interested in what you’re saying.

The sooner you can get comfortable with taking up space,
the sooner you’ll start looking/sounding natural in front of
camera.

I find it helps to treat the hypothetical audience like your

friends, who you’re talking to over coffee.

 2. Warm Up

Warm up for a few minutes before by continuously talking

about anything. When you do that, you’re voice and mind
loosen a bit and it feels a lot easier to speak on camera.

 3. Watch Your Speed

When we talk to a camera we often become conscious of

how fast we’re talking, and whether or not the audience
will be able to follow along.

The truth is that you can be engaging with a range of

speeds, you only have to think of Morgan Freeman to
understand that talking slowly can actually increase how
engaging you are. So do what feels natural, don’t overthink
it, and get someone neutral (and nice ) to watch the
recording back and tell if you’re going too fast or too slow.

  4. Make Good Eye Contact

:
   4. Make Good Eye Contact

The amount of eye contact in a video can either make

things look really natural or really awkward.

If you never looked at the camera it’d be weird. But if you

stared at the camera the whole time it’d also be weird.
There’s a sweet spot somewhere in the middle. The way I
like to think about it is to treat the camera like a friend, and
just make eye contact in the most normal way you can.

Again, try not to overthink it. As you become more

comfortable in front of the camera, it’ll become something
you don’t really have to worry about.

  5. Speak With a Smile

Always remember to smile. It helps a lot if you just look like

you’re having a nice time while you’re talking, and
subconsciously makes you more likeable to the audience.

Related to this, it just turns your personality up a touch

(whilst still being yourself). The camera always makes
people look a little less engaging than they actually are. So
you just have to work a bit harder to appear to have a
normal level of energy on camera than you do in real life.

  6. Finish strong.

Whatever you’re saying, it always sounds better if you

finish your point with some kind of momentum.

 7. Get the Reps In

:
 Ultimately though, the secret is simple: practice. The more
you put yourself in uncomfortable situations and stretch
your comfort zone, especially on camera, the more
confident you’ll be.

So, even if you’re the sort of person right now that gets
nervous, anxious, or experiences brain fog when stepping
in front of a camera, with time and practise this will go
away. If you’re still not convinced, go to your favourite
YouTuber’s first videos and enjoy the awkward mess that is
everyone’s first few attempts at filming. The sooner you
start, the sooner you get past this mandatory learning
curve.

If you want to deep dive on your presenting skills, and

make them an asset rather a weakness, I suggest trying
my full Camera Confidence course, where I cover a bunch
of principles, strategies and tools for being more
comfortable on camera. You’ll also see real life evidence of
these techniques in action, as I take various members of
my team through the exercises + give them feedback.

Part IIS Technical YouTube Video

Production

1. Camera

Modern phones have pretty great camera quality, and

most can now shoot in 4k.

But if you want to upgrade your video quality and unlock

more advances settings, you’ll need a proper video
:
 more advances settings, you’ll need a proper video
camera. My favourite brand for video cameras is Sony.
From their lineup there are three main options I’d
recommend:

Level 1W Sony A6400 Y$900\ ] the Sony A6400 gCrop

Frame) is solid choice. It’s a crop frame camera (otherwise
known as APSdCÄ with a smaller sensor, so it won’t look
quite as good as full frame cameras (check out this
excellent video by Becki and Chris explaining the
difference). But it will look a lot better than 99% of phone
cameras, and shoots in full 4k.

Level 2W Sony A7c Y$1700\ ] the Sony A7c gFull Frame) is

the camera I’d recommend if you’ve got $2000 to spare. As
a full frame camera there’s a big bump in quality compared
to the crop-frame A6400. It’s also very compact, so you
don’t need to worry about travelling or storage.

Level 3W Sony A7Siii Y$3800\ ] the Sony A7Siii gFull Frame)

is the camera I currently use. It’s an amazing camera, but if
unless you’ve got money to burn I suggest sticking to the
A7c. Check out this comparison video if you’re still not sure.

2. Lenses

The type of lens you use is massively important to your

:
 The type of lens you use is massively important to your
image quality. Luckily, most cameras come with a ‘kit lens’
included, which will be absolutely fine for most things. This
is a great video showing how good your video can look
with a relatively cheap camera gCanon M50Ä and its kit
lens.

If you want to step it up a bit with one of the above Sony

cameras, here are my recommendations:

Level 1W Sigma 16mm f1.4 Y$300\ – the Sigma 16mm

f1.4 gCrop Frame) is (in my opinion) the best lens you can
get for a crop-sensor camera if you’re making ‘sit down
and talk to camera’ style videos. I usually aim for a focal
length between 16d35mm. I like the 16mm lens because it
means I can be quite close to the camera, giving my videos
a more ‘intimate’ feel and I achieve that appealing blurred
background effect gAKA bokeh / depth of field). The lower
the f number (e.g. f1.4Ä also helps increase the background
blur.

Level 2W Sony 24mm f1.4 Y$1600\ ] Once you’ve made the

jump to full-frame cameras, you’re going to need full-frame
(read: super expensive) lenses too. The Sony 24mm
f1.4 gFull Frame) is a solid choice, and I’ve been using this
and the Sony 16d35mm f2.8 for some time.

Level 3W Sony 16_35mm f2.8 Y$2300\ – if I could only use

1 lens for the rest of my life it would be the Sony 16d35mm
f2.8 gFull Frame). It’s incredibly versatile because it can
zoom. 16mm is great for vlogging and chatting to the
camera and 35mm is great for B-roll.
:
  3. Lighting

Sitting next to a window will give you some pretty decent

lighting. But you can definitely upgrade the lighting for your
videos by bringing in artificial lights.

This’ll give your video a nice clear look. It’s especially good
if you want to film during the evening, or not rely on
daylight coming through a window. Here’s the difference
between sitting next to a good source of natural light, and
lighting myself more ‘professionally’ using my Aputure
120Dii light:

As you can see, my face is more evenly lit, with less

shadows and a ‘light-mode’ feel.

Cinematographers typically set up their main light a little bit

off to the side of the person they’re filming. Using a light
stand at a 45-degree angle to the camera. That’ll create
shadows on the other side of your face, adding a bit of
dimension / depth. You can decide whether you want a
high-key image (even, soft lighting, light-mode) or a low-
key one (high contrast and deep shadows, dark mode).

What you need to upgrade your lighting is a combination of

:
 What you need to upgrade your lighting is a combination of
these three things:

mn Main Light – this is the main engine of your

lighting setup, the light itself. This will
essentially be a really powerful lamp. Look for
one where you can adjust the brightness up or
down, so you can customise how brightly your
face/subject is lit. The Godox SL60W g$120Ä is
what I’d recommend to most people due to its
decent price and quality.

pn Soft box. By default, the light that comes out of

our LED light is very harsh, so a large soft box
will make the light look more natural and
flattering. The soft box will also make up the
bulk of your lighting setup (the lights
themselves are usually pretty small). If you
need to light a very tight space, a space light
soft-box might be best. But a directional light
dome is even better because it gives you more
control over atmospheric lighting – so your
main subject can be lit up while keeping the
background moody and relatively dark.
:
 qn Light Stand. This is the simple bit: you need a
stand that’ll hold up your main light and soft-
box. You can get these for about $20d$40
from Amazon – don’t sweat it, all your stand
needs to do is be sturdy enough to hold up
your lighting rig.

4. Audio

Some people say that audio quality is even more important

than video quality.

Viewers can happily sit through a low quality video if the

audio is good. But nobody will watch if your voice is
muffled or unclear, or if they’re getting uncomfortable
audio spikes in their headphones.
:
 audio spikes in their headphones.

So, as a beginner YouTuber one of the best early upgrades

you can make to your filming setup is boosting your audio
quality. If you’re a YouTuber who sits down quite a lot (like
me lol), one of the biggest upgrades you can make is
getting a shotgun mic. This is a pointy-looking microphone
that you put on its own tripod and arrange so it’s as close
as possible to your mouth (the main source of audio), but
staying just out of frame.

For beginners, I highly recommend the Rode

VideoMicro (about $50Ä, which you can also mount on your
camera for vlogging or quick videos. Then you just connect
it to your phone or camera using a Rode adapter, which
costs about $10.

That’s a great level of audio for most people, but if you

already have the RØDE Go II lav mic, a cheap shotgun mic
probably won’t make much of a difference to audio quality.

The next step up involves getting an XLR microphone. All

the “pro” mics use XLR (a thick audio cable) rather than the
tiny thin microphone ones.

I’ve used the Rode NTG4l g$230Ä a lot, and it has a decent

:
 I’ve used the Rode NTG4l g$230Ä a lot, and it has a decent
price-to-quality ratio, definitely an upgrade on the
VideoMicro. The issue is that most non-cinema cameras
don’t have XLR audio input, so you’re going to have to
record audio separately. To get around this issue we have
the following setup, recording into an external audio
receiver with its own memory card (Zoom H5), before
syncing audio and video using Final Cut Pro X.

If you really want to splash out, you can get a pro

broadcast-quality shotgun microphone like the Sennheiser
MKH 416 gI got one in December 2020Ä. The audio isn’t
massively different, but I think my voice sounds clearer
with the Sennheiser. It might be worth it if you’re getting
really serious about YouTube. Here’s a video I made
comparing the Senheiser MKH 416 vs Rode NTG4l audio.

If you’ve upgraded to any of the above microphone setups,

then you really don’t need to worry about audio any more,
beyond experimenting with mic positioning and finding the
right recording space.

Check out this page for a full list of all my YouTube gear o I
:
 Check out this page for a full list of all my YouTube gear o I
try to keep it relatively up-to-date.

5. Music & Sound Design

So my above advice is about audio recording, especially

capturing your voice clearly.

But music and sound design is hugely important part of

upgrading your YouTube production quality. If you’re just
talking to the camera, having a bit of background music is
another brilliant way to up the production value. It makes
such a big difference to the vibe of your video as long as
you keep it fairly subtle.

I like to use relaxing or acoustic music, which I download

from Epidemic Sound – this is totally worth the
subscription to access a whole library of copyright-free
tracks. Just be careful that you keep the background
music at a level that doesn’t interfere with the main audio
because then it becomes distracting and detracts rather
than adds to the video itself.

Adding in sound effects like typing noises, transitions, and

so on massively also improves the viewing experience, by
giving the video a more ‘lifelike’ feel.

A few good rules of thumb:

mn BdRoll should include sound effects. If you’re

filming yourself making a coffee but didn’t
catch the sound of the coffee brewing – add
that in post. Likewise with doors slamming,
:
 that in post. Likewise with doors slamming,
cars driving, or the sound of the sea in the
distance. Make your videos feel alive.

pn Transitions between footage often benefit from

a subtle sound effect, like a slight ‘whoosh’,
‘click’, or ‘bam’. It gives the viewer a gentle
endorphin kick.

qn Any time text comes on screen, you should

have sound effects for typing, text messages
and so on, to draw the viewer in. A good
example of this is the texting sound effects
from Ryan Trahan’s I Invited 100 Celebrities To
My Birthday.

So How Do You Know If Your YouTube

Videos are Good?

So you might have followed all the above advice… but how
do you actually know if your videos are good? Well, I have
two tests for this, which I call the Cringe Test and the
Extrinsic Test.
:
 Extrinsic Test.

 The Cringe Test

This test is pretty simple. Imagine a friend, family member,

or a randomer on the street comes up to you and says “Oh
hey, I watched one of your videos the other day!”, or “wow,
I can’t believe you started a YouTube channel!”

How much would you cringe?

If you cringe hard at that, you haven’t passed the cringe

test: you don’t believe your videos are very good. And
there’s a good chance that you’re right.

But if you only cringe a little bit, or you think ‘that’s OK’,
then congratulations: you have passed the cringe test. In
your mind, your videos are good enough that the thought
of other people watching them causes dread and anxiety.

Of course, some big creators still cringe at their

videos – that’s OK, and obviously not a sign that their
content is terrible.

Most people who start YouTube never get to that point of

not cringing. If you’re still struggling with the cringe test,
the answer is usually to make more videos and focus on
quantity over quality.

 The Extrinsic Test

Another way of knowing if your videos are ‘good’ is if they

get decent traction on YouTube. These are the statistics to
:
 get decent traction on YouTube. These are the statistics to
look out for which are extrinsic measures of how ‘good’ a
video is:

Click-through Rate gCTRÄ o This is what

percentage of people who were shown your
title and thumbnail decided to click

Watch Time gWatch Time/Retention): This is

how long people decided to watch your
video once they clicked.

Positive engagement: good co

Subscribers: This is surprisingly not as

important these days, as lots of subs doesn’t
= lots of views.

I won’t give benchmark numbers, because they’ll differ for

every niche. But ideally you want these stats to improve
slowly over time – that’ll show your videos are getting
better from an audience point of view.

But don’t focus on external measures of success too much

at this point. You want to make videos YOU think are good
first, otherwise what’s the point. This approach can lead to
more original results as well. Also, you won’t have enough
data to go off of until you’ve put out 50 o 100 videos.

Have a peek at the numbers – but don’t get obsessed.

The Next Step

So you know how to make your videos ‘good’. But now it’s
:
 time for some real talk. Is YouTube a hobby for you? Or a
business?

Business can be a scary word. If you don’t want to think

about YouTube optimisation, monetising your audience, or
doing market analysis – stop here.

But if you do care about making money from increasing

your viewership (which will let you do more of what you’re
already doing), then business is the next step.

It’s time to Get Smart.

3. Get Smart

If YouTube is just your creative hobby, anything goes.

Maybe you want to make good videos, but ultimately, all
that matters is that you’re having fun.

But if you’ve decided to take the next step and run your
:
 But if you’ve decided to take the next step and run your
YouTube channel with the aim of getting lots of views and
making money, you need to be more methodical. You need
to understand your niche and brand, build a solid
production system, and get smart about monetising your
content.

That’s what this section of the guide is all about – running

your channel like a business.

Don’t forget that this can still be fun: a creative project is

often way more fulfilling if you have a solid direction and
tangible rewards.

1. Understand Your YouTube Niche

The first step here is to understand and narrow down your

niche. This will help you make successful videos that’ll
connect with your viewers.

i. Define Your Goals O Advantages

First, think about what you want from your channel, and
how you can best achieve that.
:
 Do you want a lifestyle business (eg you + one editor) like
Oliur? Or a big production team making crazy challenge
videos like MrBeast? Maybe you want to keep things small
and work solo, while holding down your main job.

All of this will affect the type of videos you’ll experiment

with making, the creators you take advice from, and how
much you decide to outsource (more on that later).

The second question to ask yourself is ‘what are my unfair

advantages?’ In other words, what things are you fortunate
(or unfortunate) enough to have that you can focus on?

For example, I was a medical student (‘hard’ to achieve), at

Cambridge University (mysterious, prestigious). I had good
camera gear and knew a thing or two about making things
look pretty. So my videos seemed well-designed and
stood out from other medics.

Your unfair advantage might be really obvious. Like having

the money to buy the best gear out there and having sick
production value from day one. Or it could be something
less obvious, like having a huge collection of marbles that
you can make videos about.

We all have unfair advantages, it’s just a matter of realising

what they are. gI talk about this a lot more here)

ii. Define Your Target Audience

Once you’ve figured out question you’re asking here is

:
 Once you’ve figured out question you’re asking here is
‘who’s my audience and what do they want?’

What kind of person would value your

content?

What would they want to hear?

What are they already watching?

But remember: it’s easy to try to appeal to everyone. Get

specific about exactly who would benefit most from your
specific content, and focus on those people. Eg when I
started out I gave tips on studying for medicine, rather
than studying in general. And that helped me build a
committed core audience.

I suggest using this Notion template to create an

imaginary ‘ideal’ audience member who you’ll create
videos for. That’ll help you triangulate exactly what
videos would help your audience most.

Template: My Target Audience

Figuring out your target audience’s current tastes and

needs is an ongoing process. But you’ll know you’ve hit
gold when your views start getting more views, and
especially when you get super-positive comments.
:
 Ideally, you want to find that sweet spot where you’re
making content that you enjoy, and that your audience also
responds to well.

iii. Define Your Value Proposition

The question here is “what value am I giving to my

audience?”

Figure out how you make the most valuable possible

content for your audience, using your unfair advantages.
You want people to be thinking ‘OMG how am I getting this
much value/entertainment for free??’

A good way of defining your value proposition is to craft

two hypothetical intros for your channel:

Value Proposition YExplicit, ie what you’d actually say) –

“Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. If you’re new
here, my name is Ali, I’m a doctor working in the UK. On this
channel, we explore the strategies and tools that can help
us live happier, more productive lives”

Value Proposition YImplicit, ie this is what I wish/hope

people will think) – “This guy Ali looks like he’s super
productive, he’s a full-time doctor and does all these other
things on the side, and he’s always so positive and
analyses tech really intellectually, and his
:
 recommendations for books, podcasts, apps, life lessons
etc are really good. I think of him as a role-model who I can
learn from to be more productive specifically, and just live a
happier life generally”.

Once you’ve answered those questions, you should have a

clearer content strategy.

2. Competitor Analysis

A key part of understanding your YouTube niche is

analysing your ‘competitors’.

You need to be familiar with all the other major YouTubers

making content in your niche, including:

What videos do well for them

Their title and thumbnail combinations

Their presentation style

The video formats they use (listicles,

reviews, vlogs)
:
 How they monetise their channel
(merchandise, sponsorships)

Their presence on other social media

platforms gTikTok, Twitter, Instagram)

The point of doing all this is so you can emulate what’s

working in the market right now, avoid any pitfalls that
other creators have fallen into, and understand your
audience better. It’ll also help you spot gaps in the market
or improve on what other people are doing.

Here’s a Notion template I made for analysing your

competition, which you can add to gradually as you come
across more creators in your niche.

I say ‘competitors’ in quotation marks for a reason, by the

way. I actually like to think of other productivity/lifestyle
YouTubers like Matt D’Avella as my YouTube colleagues
instead.

If someone’s following one productivity YouTuber, it’s likely

:
 they’ll follow another one as well. We’re not really
competing, we’re just in the same ecosystem. And the
rising tide lifts all boats: there’s a good chance that lots of
viewers first came across my channel after watching
someone else’s productivity content first.

I even have a regular Zoom call with other YouTubers in my

niche (Matt D’Avella, Nathaniel Drew, Joey from Better
Ideas, Elizabeth Filips, etc).

Working with others in the same boat is game changing,

because you don’t feel alone in your journey. You get to
learn from other people’s mistakes, and get inspiration from
their successes. And you get constant support from others
who know exactly what you’re going through.

3. YouTube Analytics

Go to YouTube, click on your profile picture in the top-right,

then click ‘YouTube Studio’.

This will give you access to all of your channel’s analytics,

including views for different videos, retention graphs, how
your channel is doing overall, your revenue from ads, and
about a million other things.

All of this data is a goldmine for experienced YouTubers.

We can use it to perfect our videos, identify weaknesses,
and sometimes change strategy completely.

You don’t want to focus on analytics too much early days –

just get the first 50 videos out. Also, the data can be very
noisy if you’re below say 1000 views per video.
:
 noisy if you’re below say 1000 views per video.

That being said, here are 4 of the most useful metrics to

keep track of:

mn Impressions Click-Through Rate o Also known

as CTR, this is what percentage of people
decided to click on your video after it was
shown to them by YouTube (either while
browsing their homepage or in their
‘suggested’ sidebar). Monitor this closely – low
CTR compared to your other videos means
that your package of topic, title, and thumbnail
isn’t attractive to viewers.

pn Watch Time o You can find the watch time for

all your videos in the last 28 days, and the
watch time for each of your videos. This gives
you a good idea of how much your videos are
being watched in total. If a video has a high
:
 being watched in total. If a video has a high
CTR % but low watch time, it’s a sign people
didn’t stick around. This could be because they
were underwhelmed/disappointed by the
content. The same applies for you channel as a
whole – increasing overall watch time is a great
goal to set yourself.

qn Retention Graph o YouTube gives you a graph

for each of your videos. This shows how long
viewers watched your video before clicking
away. The steeper it goes down, the more
people left at that point in the video. The grey
streak shows your average retention – this
video has better-than-average retention.

You can use this to tell which parts of your

video were interesting to viewers, and which
made them click away. Try to spot patterns,
:
 made them click away. Try to spot patterns,
and adjust the content accordingly in your next
video.

zn New Vs Returning Viewers. This will show you

how well your videos are doing with your
current audience, and whether they’re
attracting new ones. Increasing your ‘returning
viewers’ number relative to your subscriber
count is a sign that you’re building a loyal
following of subscribers/returning viewers who
actually watch your videos. Having a low
number of returning viewers is a sign that
you’re not keeping people’s interest long-term.

Ultimately though, your data sample size is so small until

:
 you hit around 2k subs that it’s difficult to interpret
YouTube analytics in a meaningful way. If I was starting
YouTube again from scratch, I’d focus most of my energy
on the following (roughly in order of importance):

mn Making videos that I like (improving

incrementally)

pn Hitting consistent output (eg x1 video a week)

qn Getting genuine positive feedback from my

target audience

zn Correcting any obvious mistakes with

individual videos that I’d find through analytics
(big dips in retention, very low CTR or views).

There’s a ton more information to dig into with YouTube

Analytics. For a full breakdown of how YouTube Analytics
works, check out YouTube’s own written guide. It’s super-
clear, concise, and up-to-date.

4. Optimise Your Systems

The real “secret” to producing videos consistently (if there

is one at all), is that you need to build a system around
your content production.

A system means that you can efficiently create valuable

content that grows your audience and revenue, without it
taking up large amounts of your own time.

Instead of thinking of your YouTube channel as a personal

project, think about it like a machine. A machine that takes
:
 project, think about it like a machine. A machine that takes
inputs in the form of ideas and refines them into valuable
content that your audience loves.

To get that machine working smoothly, the first thing you

need to do is quantify your workflow. Make an
organisational chart like the one below, and write down all
the stages of your current production process, but
including the % of time that you’re spending on each stage.

This lets you to isolate where you’re spending the most

time (video setup, editing, scripting etc), and understand
where your workflow and operation is least effective /
efficient.

Now you can start to eliminate unnecessary steps and

remove friction.

Another word for this is ‘refactoring’: the process of

changing a system to improve its efficiency without
changing the quality of the output. The term comes from
computer programming – programmers will spend hours
rewriting a program that does exactly the same thing when
they’re finished, but running much faster and requiring
fewer resources to operate.
:
 So, ask yourself:

mn What friction can you find in your system?

pn What can you do to get rid of this friction and

make it more efficient?

qn What are the 20% of tasks within your system

that deliver 80% of the results? How can you
redesign your system to focus on those 20% of
tasks?

A good example is my YouTube filming setup at university..

When I was just starting out, I kept all of my camera gear in

a cupboard, or behind the bedroom door. But that added a
lot of extra friction, because every time I wanted to film I’d
have to set up my camera, lights, and microphones from
scratch. So I decided to remove that friction by having a
permanent setup at my desk.
:
 Sure, it made my living room a little less cosy, but it meant I
could eliminate that

If you don’t want a permanent setup, another way of

removing friction as a YouTuber is to batch your filming.
Pick a day, maybe once a week or fortnight. Maybe if
you’re super pro, once a month.

Sit down, and film yourself doing 2, 3, maybe 5 videos at a

time. It’s honestly game-changing. This way you don’t need
to keep setting things up again and again every time you
want to get 30 minutes of filming done. It’s so simple but
saves tons of time.

iii. Outsource

Outsourcing – hiring other people to do some of the work –

is the final piece of the refactoring puzzle.

My recommendation is to outsource your editing before

anything else. Not having to edit yourself will save you
countless hours in front of a screen every month. And it
:
 countless hours in front of a screen every month. And it
lets you produce x2l as many videos as before (or have
more downtime).

  The question you need to keep asking yourself is:

How can I give my customer the results he wants
systematically rather than personally? Put another way:
How can I create a business whose results are systems-
dependent rather than people-dependent?

Michael Gerber – The EdMyth Revisited

As soon as you can afford to, this should be your first

outsourcing move. It might take 4d6 hours for a decent
editor to edit a 10 minute video. $60d80 an hour is
reasonable for someone who’s not super experienced, so
you’re looking at about $240d400 per video.

When you’re starting out, the easiest way to find an editor

is through a gig-job website like People Per Hour, Fiverr, or
Upwork. You can also use a YouTube-specific site like YT
Jobs or Editorof. Just post an ad, wait for the applications
to come in, and get the most promising applicants to edit a
trial video for you (paid, of course).

It’ll cost a bit of money, but it’s a great investment to find a

decent editor. Here’s a useful template advert for finding an
editor, based on my first ad for one a few years ago:

Finding an Editor Template

When you do outsource, think of it as finding a collaborator

as opposed to getting someone to do your grunt work.
These people will be crucial to your channel and business’
:
 success.

Some mistakes to avoid:

mn Not trusting others with the creative process.

You may have a unique editing style, and think
that no one will be able to match it. But you’d
be surprised by how quickly someone else can
emulate your style and create or edit content
for you near-perfectly.

pn Being a control freak and wanting to

micromanage everything. This will waste
dozens of hours a month, and frustrate your
editor. Lean into the discomfort of giving up
control, and you’ll be grateful that you did.

qn Spending too much time spent giving

feedback. For the first few weeks, it can be
easy to be frustrated with the time it takes to
give feedback to others. I find that using Loom
is useful, as I can record myself making
corrections and explaining my thought
processes, rather than back-and-forth over
email. Here’s an example of some concise
feedback I gave to an editor:
:
 If you’re interested in diving deeper into the business of
being a creator, check out my self-paced course The Part-
Time Creatorpreneur. It’s 6f hours of content spread
across 40f lessons, where you’ll learn everything there is
to know about transforming your creative side-hustle into a
sustainable operation that’s highly profitable, hugely
scalable, and ridiculously fun. Here’s a sample lesson
introduction from the course.

For something more bitesize, you can subscribe to my

Creatorpreneur Crash Course, a free 5-day email
course where I’ll teach you the basics of entrepreneurship
for creators.

5. Repurposing YouTube Content

In the modern internet age with so many social media

sites, it doesn’t make sense to build 100% of your business
on a single platform.

Having brainstormed and created dozens of videos for

your YouTube channel, it doesn’t take much to repost that
content across different platforms to get more eyes on it,
improve your visibility, and grow your channel / personal
brand.

Some options you have for repurposing:

mn Short-Form Video LTik Tok, YouTube Shorts,

:
 mn Short-Form Video LTik Tok, YouTube Shorts,
Instagram)

It doesn’t take much to cut up your long-form videos into

bitesize, 60-second-or-less videos to post on TikTok,
YouTube Shorts, or Instagram. These can get millions of
views, and drive a lot of traffic to your main channel. You
can also film dedicated short-form videos, ideally batch-
filming several of them every week or two.

mn Text-Based Platforms LFacebook, LinkedIn,

Twitter)

Any video that you’ve scripted can be repurposed as a

LinkedIn/Facebook post, or as a Tweet thread. Try to
compress your main points into as short a space as you
can, and pay attention to what works for other creators in
your niche on those platforms.

The important thing with short form video is that it’s

snappy, has great music, and makes people want to re-
watch several times. Having a physical object in your
Shorts is often a good way of grabbing attention, as in
including loops

To start with, I suggest picking one or two platforms to

repurpose on, and expand once you get the hang of those.
:
 Personally, I regret not repurposing my content from the
start. Since I’ve made more of a concerted effort to
repurpose content, I’ve more than tripled my Instagram
following, quadrupled my following on Twitter, grown an
audience on TikTok and even started a second channel on
YouTube for repurposed shorts.

Repurposing is also important in relation to building up an

audience that’s not restricted to an open platform like
YouTube. Relying purely on a single platform, if it
disappeared, you’d be left high and dry without anyone
watching your content. Ideally, you want to build an
audience on an open platform (like YouTube). Then bring
them onto an owned platform (like a blog and/or email
newsletter). This way you’re not solely reliant on the open
site.

Remember that repurposing does require more work. So

identify where you can make changes in your current
workflow to make repurposing easier. If you have the
resources, you can hire third party services to do this for
you. For example, some big YouTubers have dedicated
Shorts/TikTok editors.

6. Monetise Your YouTube Channel

:
 There are the four main ways you can monetise your
channel.

1. AdSense

This is the most obvious form of earning money from your

YouTube channel – through paid ads. These are
automatically displayed on your videos. These are the ads
you can’t skip on YouTube. However, to qualify for
YouTube’s Partner Program and get monetised. You need
to have over 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch
time in the past 12 months.

Pro tip: get YouTube Premium. If you spend a lot of

time on YouTube (which you should, as a YouTuber) it’s
absolutely worth the $10 or so to not have to watch ads
all the time. Do the free trial for a month and you’ll never
look back.

Don’t worry too much about getting monetised to begin

with. The money is just peanuts until you get several tens
of thousands of subscribers. Some context: it took me
about 7 months to switch on monetisation. Which made
me about $10 each day (which I was thrilled about – free
:
 me about $10 each day (which I was thrilled about – free
takeaway every day). Then after one of my videos went
viral a few months later, I started making around $50 a day.
This was serious money at last g$1500 every month).

And when 2020 lockdowns hit, that rocketed up to $200d

$400 a day (at one point hitting $800Ä. Which felt truly
insane.

2. Affiliate Links

This is perhaps the most effective way of gaining revenue

from your content as a beginner. By becoming part of
programs such as Amazon Associates, you can share
affiliate links to products. If people use your link to
purchase an item you receive a kickback from that. A
significant amount of my income comes from affiliates with
sites like Amazon, Skillshare, and products like Paperlike
and iQuinix.

3. Sponsors

Once your channel starts growing, it’s likely that you’ll start
to receive offers from companies or brands who want to
pay you a fee in return for you putting a short segment in
your video where you promote their product for 30 o 60
seconds. These deals can be very lucrative, especially if
you build an ongoing relationship with a big brand.

It can be a delicate balancing act though between, making

money from your channel, providing value to your viewers
without spamming them, and finding sponsors who fit your
brand. It makes sense for me to be sponsored by a brand
like Readwise or Notion. I genuinely love their products and
:
 like Readwise or Notion. I genuinely love their products and
talk about them in my videos already. But it’d be sketchy if I
was promoting something I know nothing about, and has
no connection to my personal brand.

Once you get big enough, you can sign with a creator
sponsorship agency like Sixteenth. They’ll negotiate these
deals for you in return for a % cut, which makes life much
easier.

4. Personal Products : Services

After cultivating an audience, one very broad area you can

look at is creating your own personal products. These can
include courses (like PTYAÄ, books (like this from Thomas
Frank), digital downloads, memberships (like Patreon),
consulting services, and, of course, physical products.

I also partnered with Dbrand to produce a series of skins

for Apple products like iPhone, AirPod Pro, and MacBooks.

With an audience who like, know and trust you, a % of

them will usually be excited to buy some merch in some
:
 them will usually be excited to buy some merch in some
shape or form, to show that they’re a part of your
community.

Wrapping Up
I’ll leave you with three key pieces of advice on starting
and running a YouTube channel. Which I’ve gathered from
5l years of experience.

  1. Have a Positive Mindset

Here’s the great thing about starting a YouTube channel:

you’re making what’s known as a ‘positive asymmetrical
bet’.
:
 The potential reward is huge. If your channel does even
moderately well it can get you new friends, contacts, jobs,
skills, and even a full-time income. With a little luck and
dedication, it could even make you millions.

And as we’ve already discussed, there’s very little real

downside. It takes a big time investment. But even if you
never make it big, you’ll still learn all about editing, camera
confidence, and building an audience. Practically no one
ever regrets starting a YouTube channel.

So if you’re remotely interested – just do it.

 2. Be Consistent

The most important thing to remember with YouTube is

that you have to be patient and consistent.

This is perhaps the single biggest, most non-negotiable,

determinant of your success on YouTube. And it’s not
glamorous.

It took me 6 months and posting 53 videos to hit 1,000

subscribers. That’s months of idea generating, editing, and
churning out videos with little to no audience.

And before I hit 2 million subscribers, I was uploading 2d3

videos every week without fail, while working full-time.
Things have changed a little now. I’ve got an established
audience and have started to expand the business. But I
attribute a huge amount of my early growth to my
consistency.
:
 This was my growth + revenue chart for 2017o2020. There
was a long stretch with zero money and few subscribers,
until things finally took off.

The difference between those who make it and those who

don’t is giving up during that painful period of no
views/income.

So if you do start: don’t give up. Just focus on making 1%

improvements.

 3. Enjoy the Journey

Finally, remember to have fun and enjoy the journey.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about productivity and

success, it’s that these things don’t happen by trying to do
more, and pushing ourselves to breaking point.

Instead, it’s about doing more of what matters to us, and

choosing to have fun along the way.
:
  The Part-Time YouTuber Academy

If you’ve arrived at the end of this guide, that can only

mean one thing. You’re into YouTube, and you want to take
it seriously. If that’s the case, I suggest you check out my
course The Part-Time YouTuber Academy.

In the course I’ll help you implement everything I know

about growing your YouTube channel into a sustainable
machine that churns out valuable content and
generates healthy passive income. If you’re committed to
growing your online brand and putting yourself in the best
position to succeed on YouTube… PTYA might be perfect
for you.

And if you don’t feel you got value from the course once
you’ve finished, we have a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Money-Back Promise.

Check the course out here: https://academy.aliabdaal.com

:
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