Case Study: How to Get Thousands of Views on YouTube

YouTube should be an extremely important part of your online business strategy, here’s three reasons why you can’t afford to miss out:

#1 – It’s HUGE.
YouTube.com is the 3rd highest ranked website in the world by traffic according to Alexa.com, trailing only Facebook at #2 and Google at #1.

Over 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month and “According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network” (source: https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html)

#2 – It’s Personal, Business.
Because of the individual interaction that’s built into YouTube there’s an engagement that’s not possible with traditional television.

The best example would be comparing print magazines to blogs.  Print magazines simply have no response to the interactivity that blogs offer so the migration to online-only versions continues.

The same follows with YouTube as today’s newest “celebrities” are being found not in a sit com or network production but on a popular YouTube channel.

#3 – It’s a Mirror
The most important reason why you need to be on YouTube is the fact that it gives you an immediate view of how you’re doing.

This is comparable to how a comedic actor like Martin Lawrence would get an immediate response from the audience when doing stand up versus waiting  for a movie or sit com to be released.

Simply put, you need a way to publicly measure your performance and YouTube provides this, it’s like the “proving ground” of internet marketing strategies.

Nordschleife by Paul D'Ambra - Australia
Nordschleife by Paul D’Ambra – Australia

With that said here is THE most effective technique to generate thousands of views on YouTube:

REVIEW HOT PRODUCTS

It took me a tremendous amount of time to figure this out after uploading over 130 videos to my YouTube channel FreedomMMC.

In that time I was extremely successful at determining what DOES’NT work, here’s what I found out the hard way:

Spend More Time Planning and Less Time Recording, Quality > Quantity.
I found out there are levels to the YouTube game.  You start off on the “tens” level where you’re happy if literally 10 people watch your video.  So you think that making more videos everyday will get you more plays?  Well, yes and NO, you’ll just have more videos with low plays.  In other words, why have 10 videos with 10 plays each when you could have one video with 200 plays?  

People Don’t Really Watch Embedded Videos.
Without going into boring details I found out if you create a blog post that corresponds to a video that people still won’t really watch it.  I was able to confirm this when I created a blog post for my most popular video which is about 10 minutes long, I knew that people weren’t really watching the video because the average time duration of the WordPress post was only 2 minutes and 13 seconds

YouTube-Traffic-story
Daily Views Report YouTube.com/FreedomMMC

Why This Strategy Works

I noticed when I spent more time researching titles instead of publishing random “rants” or “opinions” that my results improved immediately.

This told me that the driving force behind obtaining results on YouTube was scientific first then artistic.

In other words it’s the title and topic of the video that brings in the views while your style and presentation retains the audience.

How to Get Thousands of Views on YouTube with Reviews

In our consumer driven world, the bad news is people don’t really find YOU that interesting (unless you’re a badass at parkour stunts).

However, the good news is you can change this by covering important topics, here’s some tips:

#3 – Keep it Short and Sweet

You have to accept that in our smart phone social media instant gratification world that people have very short attention spans.

Making your video long and drawn out will only ensure that more of your video is skipped.

For best results get right to the action at the beginning of the video and avoid long winded speeches, shoot for a video that’s 5-6 minutes long if possible, not over 10 minutes like my most popular video.

Also, it’s a good idea to circle back around and edit out any dead space in your video as any pauses in the action will encourage your audience to check out something else that YouTube is recommending in the sidebar.

#2 – Focus on Unboxing/Deboxing
Whenever you visit your favorite retailer and pick up an item off the shelf the biggest question you have is, “How does the thing look that’s in the box?”  When you’re in the store if you’re like me you’re the type that covertly opens the box a little to take a sneak peek or if you’re prudish you probably ask a sales associate for help.

This is what millions of consumers around the web wish they could do to the item that they’re interested in buying online.

The problem is they can’t “see what’s in the box” because they’re on the internet so all they have is a product description with some features and benefits.

If you want to know how the thing looks and what comes “in the box” you have to go to YouTube and hope that someone has uploaded an Unboxing or Deboxing video.

This is your opportunity.

Find the most popular NEW products in your niche and create videos where you open the box and talk about the item LIVE.  This is more valuable than traditional reviews because it’s somewhat risky since you only get one chance to open a box for the first time.

#1 – Leverage Video Titles & Tags
Remember in order to get thousands of plays on YouTube you have to respect the science that’s involved and this starts with consumer demand.

Since we know that people will be searching for popular products by name make sure you include this information in the YouTube title and tags:

  • Product manufacture
  • Product model number
  • Any other identifying characteristics of the item such as nickname, color, etc.

This will help your video obtain thousands of views from search results which will ultimately be the largest source of views if you get a video to break through:

Traffic Sources YouTube.com/FreedomMMC
Traffic Sources YouTube.com/FreedomMMC

As you can see above the traffic source for the video that’s responsible for almost half of my channel’s views gets the majority of its traffic from YouTube search and YouTube suggested video.

This means that the video is not only considered relevant for YouTube searches but also it relates logically to some other video that a user is watching.  For example the popular video is about a Toshiba laptop, YouTube may suggest this video to someone watching another laptop video or maybe another Toshiba related product video.

In Closing

Just remember that you too can successful climb up the levels in YouTube if you’re willing to use an effective strategy and do the work:

LEVEL 1.  10 play range:
Congrats you created a YouTube account.  Upload videos talking almost about anything and send it to your social followers and you will “accidentally” get 7 or 8 people to watch you rant.

LEVEL 2.  100 play range
Spend some time thinking about what problem your audience is facing and discuss it in an open and candid way.  Create a presentation covering the most important aspects of your niche.  You will attract a few social shares and snag maybe a 100 views or so.

LEVEL 3.  1,000 play range
Invest the time, energy, and money to purchase a HOT new product and try to be one of the first to upload a very useful unboxing/deboxing video.  You can also extend the value of this video by adding on a full product demonstration.  This type of video ads the most value and therefore it’s also the most expensive and difficult to make.

LEVEL 4.  10,000 play range
I have another YouTube account that has a video with over 30,000 views.  In order to get to this level you have to spend more time than ever researching your niche and you have to feel certain that your content will stand out head and shoulders above the competition.  I believe this video attracts so many views because of the one of a kind story that no one could duplicate that connects with people in a meaningful way.  It also addresses an important need in the marketplace.

LEVEL 5 – 100,000 play range
I’m not there yet, I’ll see you at the top.

What's up I'm Darnell Jackson the founder of YourOnline.biz you can follow me at FreedomMMC on Twitter, SoundCloud, and YouTube.
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