How to go Viral on YouTube

Tips from a 900,000 subscriber YouTube channel

Virality on YouTube is a fickle beast. Most start their channels with the aspiration of becoming the next big thing, they have an idea that they think will take over the platform but very few actually do. Why is that? Well, most of the ideas or implementations people put into action are usually taken from 2nd and 3rd hand sources. They read something on the internet and assume that’s the way to do it, usually with very little proof of it working. Most of the ‘gurus’ you find on the internet or even this website have no idea what their talking about and have never actually put their own advice into motion. They usually read about things that work and assume they do, they then spread this misinformation and hope for the best. Just the other day I read an article here on Medium about someone making over $1,000 with 15 minutes of work on YouTube, and how you can too! Yea, ok.

To be honest, you will more than likely not have a video make you $1,000. For every Mr.Beast there is millions of others that don’t make more than a handful of dollars on their channel. That’s the cold hard fact that most who are aspiring YouTubers need to realize. As someone who had multiple ‘viral’ videos on the platform and a YouTube channel with over 900,000 subscribers, I can count on two hands how many videos made me that kind of money by themselves. So what’s the point? The point is, people make money on YouTube from an accumulation of content that adds together. So video 1 makes $120 and video 2 makes $98 = $218. Don’t get me wrong, you can make videos that make thousands of dollars but it doesn’t happen often and if you don’t have a big subscriber base it is more than likely due to a perfect storm of luck.

So how do I go viral? The million dollar question that surprisingly does have an answer. You ready? Lets get into it;

Timing

Have you heard of the saying, right place, right time? It’s a saying that holds a lot of water on YouTube. Say for instance there is a new movie coming out soon and you want to take advantage of the hype. You start to create videos for the movie two weeks before release. Your videos start to see an uptick in views and you start to gain some subscribers because of it. Safe to say, you picked the right time to start making videos. This can be applied to all things, new released movie? Newly released game? Newly released pair of shoes?

If you can capture the hype of the moment you can capitalize on YouTube. The reason this works is this, low competition. It’s much easier to get subscribers on a newly released project than an already established one due to the newness of it. This happened with my channel and it could most definitely happen with yours.

Knowing YouTubes algorithm

While not 100% known, YouTubes algorithm does have some nuances you should be aware of when creating content.

Minutes watched are by far the most valuable of these. Creating lengthy content (usually in the 10 minute range) will result in your content being favored by YouTubes algorithm. If 10 people watch 9 minutes of a 10 minute long video we would have 90 minutes of watch time, pretty big. Now lets say, 10 people watch 3 minutes of a 4 minute long video, that would be 30 minutes of watch time. See how this works? Focus on those lengthy videos and try to work out a template for your video editing, it will make creating these videos easier in the long run.

Other things YouTube favors with their algorithm; Demographics (different locations = different pay), viewer retention, comments, likes/dislikes, consistency, and shares. These are a handful of things the YouTube algorithm takes into account when curating content. For more information on this and how to grow on YouTube check out my other article.

Trends

Finding something popular to make content about is a thing of the now. People will make content for trendy topics that they know will get attention. Things such as pop culture, music, reality tv shows that are buzzworthy, or sports. If something is happening in the now, people want to see content on it. More recently we’ve had the war in Ukraine, something like that would provide a plethora of content if someone were to focus on it and again it’s topical.

Untapped Niches

If something you’re making content about doesn’t have very many people making content for it, naturally YouTube will push your content towards the top as it’s really the only option. Finding a spot to fill also allows you a big of leeway when it comes to quality (though I suggest you don’t half-ass it). Find an untapped niche and mine it until you strike gold.

Provide something new

Of course, this is easier said than done but believe it or not, there is content out there that doesn’t exist. The best way to go about finding something like this is to brainstorm some ideas, research competitors, and do your homework. It may take you some time to come up with some valid options but if you do enough research you should be able to find a hole to fill.

Another idea is to check out people making content for something you’re not and borrow if inspiration strikes. Don’t blatantly copy them but if you see them making a type of content that doesn’t quite exist in your niche, there is no harm is borrowing some inspiration. It won’t affect them as you’re not in the same niche and they’re not competition.

Conclusion

Don’t focus on going viral, if your only goal is to make a viral video, you will be quickly disappointed. Focus on creating an experience for your viewers and the views/subscribers will soon follow. I understand the frustrating aspect of YouTube as I climbed the ranks myself, try not to get disheartened. You will have days of zero growth, that's inevitable.

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