YouTube Creation: 3 Tips to Level Up Your Videos

What up guys.

Recently I sat with Amy Landino from Amy TV. Have you seen her YouTube channel?

She is a YouTube guru. She very much knows her shit when it comes to the YouTube space.

I was just on her podcast Detail Therapy, so make sure you check it out. I have Amy on TSC today to discuss 3 tips that will up your YouTube game.

With that, here’s Amy.

I feel like there is no better way to kick off this post than to tell you where I am and what I’m drinking. That’s what Lauryn would do, right?

I’m currently posted up to my laptop in my home office drinking lemon water ( a whole lemon squeezed with 16 ounces of filtered water in a glass and, of course, with a straw. ) It’s 7:30 am and I’ve been awake since 5:30, both this morning and every other day this week.

Why so early? Well, something you’ll learn quickly about me is that I am a stickler for time. I don’t like to feel like it’s wasted and there is always something to do.

You’ll find that that theme carries over quite a bit in my advice for improving your YouTube channel. Time is of the essence for everyone and if you respect that and present your content accordingly, you will win.

How do I know? I’ve been a long time user and creator on YouTube. My first uploads were in 2007 and my current channel launched when I started my own business in early 2011. YouTube started as a creative outlet for me and then it became a marketing platform. So I’ve had a lot of experience with balancing both the importance of creative as well as tactics for increasing the bottom line.

This has all led to thousands of videos in my career and the most committed audience I could ever imagine.

If you’re working toward growing a presence on YouTube and want to know how to step up your game, keep reading because that’s what I want to share with you today.

But first, a few things you should know about creating on YouTube:

You better love it

YouTube life may sound like lots of fun and games but it’s hard work when you’re doing it well. If you don’t love the material and what it takes day after day to get the attention you want, you won’t make it. There’s no such thing as an overnight success, so why would it happen for you?

You’re doing it for them

Yes, you better love it and the level of passion you have will be a massive help in always moving forward. But if you don’t recognize that each video is for a very specific person outside of yourself, it’s not going to achieve the success you’re looking for. Knowing your perfect viewer and niche-ing down to deliver what they need is critical. My avatar’s name is Charlotte. She doesn’t really exist ( or does she? ) but I know everything about her. By knowing her like a best friend, I can create the perfect content for her every time, and in doing so, attract the right tribe.

If you let it, the algorithm will work for you

Everyone likes to get mad at social media algorithms because they are taking content out of chronological order and only promoting posts based on what they have learned about their user base. As a creator, you can complain about this ( and like Lauryn, I can’t stand complaining so we’ll stop you right there ) or you can work with it.

Recognize the fact that the algorithms work for a reason and the videos you create that are amazing are more likely to be seen at a larger scale because of how the algorithm works. And–quite frankly—the algorithms kill the crappy content you’ve created which needed to be done anyway, which is also why they work so well. It’s harsh but true. You can blame the algorithm but if your content sucks, it’s just doing its job.

Now it’s time to go keyboard-warrior on some video tips.

3 Tips to Improve your YouTube Channel

1) Choose your day(s) AND TIME to post your videos

Having trouble getting attention on your new videos when they’re first published? It could have to do with how you organized your posting schedule.

You want your videos to be published consistently. So consistent, in fact, that your audience can predict when to expect to watch something new.

Choosing your day or days of the week to post a video are crucial for this step. If you want your audience to be able to count on you and therefore show up to watch, announcing the days you post and actually doing it will go a long way.

Going hand-in-hand with that is choosing the time of day you will publish on your posting days. If you want to make it easy for the community to remember what days you’re posting you can announce the days. But you should also shoot to post on that day at a time that is going to be somewhat convenient for your audience so you can jump in as early as the new video is available.

If you know your avatar well and she lives on the West Coast and works a traditional 9-5pm job, do you think Monday morning at 10 am PT is going to be a good time to try to get her attention?

Maybe. Depends on how much work she actually does and whether or not she thinks you’re worth sneaking around for with her phone and the YouTube app behind her boss’ back.

Or. If Monday is the day, why not wait until people are winding down and post it mid-afternoon so there is something ready for her to watch when she checks out of work. Maybe even something to pop on while she’s making herself dinner that night.

When you publish your work for someone else, you need to consider their day and how you can best fit into it. The reason this is important is that a new piece of content on YouTube can sometimes be determined as a success or a failure as early as a few hours after clicking “Publish.” To be fair, you’re actually going to look more at what the view count is in the first 48 hours to see how the video is doing, but the trajectory at the very beginning is more critical than you think in helping your video succeed long term.

If after 48 hours your video is doing better than what your usual content does, YouTube sees that and wants to continue to lift it up in front of more people so you can get even more exposure. So, rethink that midnight upload and show up when your audience actually wants to see you.

2) Introduce your video like you’re meeting a friend for happy hour

Look, I get it. When you tap the “record” button on your camera and are just getting started talking, it can be tough to come up with the best way to kick things off.

So naturally, a lot of people resort to their bio. Unfortunately, this usually results in a ridiculously long elevator pitch at the start of a video. One that might take somewhere between 30-90 seconds, which is a LIFETIME in video.

Meanwhile, let’s say your viewer has been to your channel before. A few times. So they already know all this stuff about you but are sitting through the pitch yet again because they really really really just want to know what you have to say about the topic of the video that they clicked on. Annoying.

Think about it like happy hour. If you’ve been meeting up with your best girlfriend for years every week for a martini, you wouldn’t walk in and reintroduce yourself to homegirl. You would just JUMP INTO IT with the drama of the week, right? ( Isn’t that why we all go to happy hour? )

This is what I call loyalty treatment. It’s tough at first to envision this but I challenge you to try: what if you thought of every viewer of your video like someone who has been watching you for years? Like the two of you have been going to happy hour every week forevs?

You’re not only impressively diving into the topic of the day, but you’re making new people feel as welcome as anyone else in your community. Not to mention making the veterans feel like you’ve always valued their time and aren’t just about the new blood. There’s nothing better than that! Except maybe a glass of prosecco on a patio.

Note: I’m not saying you can’t introduce yourself at the start of a video. Everyone has their “thing.” If you watch my YouTube content, you’ll notice I don’t introduce myself at all because the name of the show pretty much explains it. If you watch The Skinny Confidential on YouTube, you’ll notice that Lauryn does introduce herself, but she does it quickly and succinctly that makes it more like a brand shtick and less like a bumbling mess.

A couple of bonus tips for kicking off your video strong:

• Tease what you’re going to talk about first so that your audience knows you’re not messing around. That way if you take a moment to introduce yourself, it’s a welcome blend of content and intro.
• Consider the 8-second rule: on average it takes 8 seconds for your YouTube viewer to decide that they are going to stay or leave a video that they’ve started watching. So think about what’s happening at the 8-second mark of your video to give confidence to your viewer that they’re in for a treat and you’re making good on the promise of the name you gave the content.

3) Be clear at the end of your videos

If you wish you had more subscribers, ask for them. If you wish you had more website traffic, ask for it. If you wish you had more Instagram followers, ask for them.

The trap people get into in not seeing results with any of their content is that they are very unclear about what they want their audience to do.

The steps you want your viewers to take may seem obvious to you, but it’s not to them. They were simply planning to enjoy a nice video and go about their day. Tell them what to do before they go.

After you’ve done an amazing job of delivering valuable content and you still have their attention, this is your moment! You’re the influencer/thought leader/expert of this video so now that you’ve shared your tips, allow the last one to be something they can do for you as a next step.

The CTA (or ‘call to action’) should be relevant to the content that you just shared. Something that would be the perfect next thing to do if they enjoyed this experience. So if you just did your monthly book review and you want more followers on Instagram, let them know that they should follow you on Instagram if they want to know what the book of next month will be. Or if you just shared a recipe for how to create the perfect morning smoothie and you want more email subscribers, ask your audience to download a PDF of the recipe that you just shared in the description which links to your email list. Relevancy and context is everything.

You can’t just put a link in the description and hope people click it. You must SAY it on camera. Maybe even throw another graphic on screen to back up what you’re asking them to do. And don’t ask for too many things. Too many steps to take means too much confusion, and therefore no conversions. Clarity is key.

Time to step your game up and Vlog Like a Boss! Start executing these tips and you’ll elevate your YouTube channel to a new level.

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Make sure you guys subscribe to AMY TV and check out all her videos. She provides so much value on her channel and her podcast. I was just on and I discuss my morning routine, Instagram strategies and tons more. Check it out here.

I would love to know any tips you guys have for YouTube.

Make sure you subscribe to TSC channel. You can expect something new every Wednesday night. Everything from beauty and wellness to business tips.

Happy Halloween! I hope you’re all getting spooky tonight. You can catch my costume on Instagram.

x, lauryn

+ check out our podcast with Sean Cannel for more YouTube tips.

+ follow Amy on Instagram.

Amy Landino is the award-winning host of AmyTV, a YouTube series dedicated to helping women go after the life they want. With more than 13 million views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers, she is a leading authority on getting digital attention. Amy is a professional speaker, traveling the world to teach businesses how they can get the attention they deserve online and she shares her insights on this in her best-selling book Vlog Like a Boss: How to Kill It Online with Video Blogging.

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