Transcription
Right now, this client's video is blowing up. And you can see it was an old video, almost a year old, 32527 days before it started taking off. What I wanted to show you in today's video is what we did right here to make this happen because this was a small channel under 500 subscribers when this started happening. And I'm seeing this work even for videos that aren't almost a year old.
Howdy, howdy everyone. Nate here. The technique that we used on this client's channel is what I'm calling a channel remaster. This is essentially where you are taking the content on your channel and making it as appealing as possible to the YouTube algorithm. So, here is what it looks like.
One, we're limiting the amount of content that the algorithm has available to pull from and show to our audience. Two, we're creating what I call content chains with the structure of our videos and how they're strung together such that it's easy for our audience and the algorithm to clearly see that this video belongs with this and this and this. It creates a binge factor. And three, with our previous old videos, like the one I just showed for my client's channel, and our new videos, we're intentionally weaving them together such that every new video I publish has a likelihood of doing a scoop into our old content and bringing new viewers into experiencing more of our channel. And four, there are a few key factors that you want to make sure you pay attention to because if we don't do this right, then it won't work.
So, let's talk about the what and why. And then next, we're going to get into each step and applying it. So, the behavior of an old video that I just showed you on that client's channel, that wasn't the only old video that started taking off recently. And chances are, if you've been doing YouTube for a while, you've also observed occasional old videos popping for seemingly no reason. Here is why a channel remaster works so effectively.
A quote unquote old video will take off on your channel because first, data was given to the algorithm. It's new data in terms of impressions and viewership. Something led to that old video. That might be an external site referencing your video. It might be another creator doing a shout out, or it might be one of your newer videos leading traffic to that older video. Regardless, fresh data given to that old video, that old video performs well with this new audience that is being shown to. And see, there is no C. That was just me having fun with this. It really is because this and then this occurs. And this is why doing this channel remaster is so effective because many times the algorithm will do this on its own. But what we're doing with a channel remaster is we are giving the algorithm a nudge to do this exact behavior. We're essentially putting our best foot forward and only providing quality videos and directing our audience in the way that we want them to be directed such that if the videos are good, the algorithm has to perform the way we want it to.
So, let's talk about step one. But first, a word from the sponsor of today's video, which is yours truly. Yes, it's me. I have some projects in the works, as well as some ongoing experimentations that I am doing firsthand with members of the Radical Creators Group. It is a free group. I'm going to recommend you join it because you will know firsthand of several of the tests that I'm conducting right now. So, yes, the sponsored moment here is join the group and get my free awesome advanced YouTube template, etc., as well as all of this. Yeah, the links in the pin comment. Moving on.
Step one, we limit the amount of data that is available for the algorithm to pull from. First, we're reducing the lower quality videos or the videos that don't fit our current brand by taking those videos and unlisting them from our channel. With the videos that remain, we're directing them to the other videos on our channel. And that is where, uh, step two comes in. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
So, as you're deciding which videos to unlist from your channel, first we're asking ourselves, is it brand aligned? And yes, I know I purposely misspelled aligned here. It's totally purposeful and not because I accidentally wrote it that way and it was a mistake and it seemed to work really well, um, to to cross it out because it's not brand aligned. We might cut that out. Now, when we say brand here, we're talking about how you are approaching content and the way you are directing your audience. Is the content current to the value you're providing and the entertainment you're looking to give to your audience? So, we're going through each of the videos on our channel. If the answer is no, then we're going to unlist it. Next question is, is there a new or better option of this video already existing on my channel and this old video is not getting viewership anymore? If the answer to that is yes, then we are going to unlist the old one.
As an example of this client's channel, they're in the history entertainment space. There were a few older videos that were kind of off from the main historical, uh, themes and branding we were going for with the channel. So what we did is we unlisted those old videos to redirect all the future traffic and the future success and explosions of videos to these very on-topic quality videos that the algorithm could pull from. Why this works so well is because it's enhancing the natural YouTube algorithm behavior. YouTube's algorithm already does this naturally. They say, "Hey, a bunch of new viewers came to this channel from a popular video. It's performing well with a broader audience. We're going to look at the metadata of this video as well as the metadata of this viewer." And they say, "Based on these two things, we think this next thing, this next piece of content is the right one to recommend next." So viewers will watch one video and then YouTube will recommend the next one. But what we're doing here, and part of why this is so effective for medium to small size channels, is we're giving the algorithm a nudge by saying, "By the way, these are the best videos."
So once we've done that, it's time to move on to step two, creating content chains. All the artwork was done by yours truly, and yes, I drew this nice little avatar with series on the mind. Because what I want you to start thinking like here is rather than individual videos being independent islands of content, hey, I'm just seeing the next video on my channel. I'm just going to plan this next video and I can't see beyond it. Instead, I want you to take a step back as you're ideating and planning a video and saying, "Hey, how does this play into the ongoing series or the content chains that are available on my channel?"
So, in order to do that, first we're making these content chains extremely obvious to the algorithm and to our audience. And the number one way we're doing that from a structure perspective is creating playlists chaining like videos alike. With each playlist matching either a goal that your audience has or an overarching theme and sub-themes. For example, if you have a homesteading channel, let's say building the barn out is the main theme. You can have a playlist of the entire series, the content chain of building the barn. But then in addition to that, if there are unique moments along the way, let's say building the exterior of the barn, filling the barn with awesome animals, and then making the barn super smart, so all I have to do is clap my hands and everything turns on. Each of those things could be independent playlists that are mini content chains. Are you getting this? The value of this is so good because it matches audience's goals and we're making it extremely clear and obvious to the algorithm, hey, these five videos belong together. When someone watches one of them, naturally the next step is to watch the next one. This is so effective because of what I call the binge factor. This is essentially where we are signaling to the algorithm, hey, when someone watches one video on my channel, guess what? They also watch two and maybe three and four and five and on.
Now, for an example of what this looks like in action, you can visit the homepage of my channel. You can just click or tap on my name below this video, go to the homepage of my channel, and scroll down and see what it looks like. Because of a series of videos work really well as a content chain. Sometimes you can actually double dip on the user interface of YouTube. Case in point, I've done some workout videos from a creator, a fitness instructor called Caroline Gervin. When I watch through some of these videos and I go back to the homepage, sometimes I'll have the next video in the series show up as an independent video, but I will also have the series as a playlist show up on my homepage.
Now, we need to address the little asterisk here when we're making it obvious to the algorithm by putting videos together in these content chains. Uh, first of all, it needs to be working. Like, we need to see that one video clearly leads to another one because if we try to signal several times, hey, viewers of this video also might like this one, and then the algorithm sees, uh, they aren't liking this one over and over again, you're not getting a lot of playlist views or suggested viewership on that second video in the series, for example. Then maybe it's time to swap it out. But also be careful using numbers when we're doing a content chain. And let's say we have a gaming channel and we're doing a let's play playing through the entirety of a game, the whole story. If episode 1 in the title or thumbnail says number one or episode 1, and then episode 2 and episode 3, what happens if someone arrives at episode 39? Many times what will happen is YouTube will recommend this new one, and it's clear that, hey, this is episode 39. A new viewer will go, ah, that's episode 39. I'm not going to try to watch the entire thing. And in that way, it can be advantageous to just omit the number even if it's a series. It's a case by case. Okay? And this is the kind of thing I want to be testing as part of the group that I recommended that you joined earlier in the totally not sponsored segment because it's my group and it's free. Okay.
There's another factor here that makes these content chains so effective. You can intentionally lead people through different formats of videos. I have a method I created upon observing audience behavior. I call it the fire method with two eyes. And there's different video types. Tinder videos tend to spread quickly, but they burn out quickly. Kindling is kind of a staple for your audience. And then logs are often bigger videos that have a slow burn over time. When you're creating a content chain, you can actually build it out such that the first video is a Tinder, the second is a kindling, the third is a log, or some variation of those three things, which if you haven't watched the video about the fire method, I'm going to talk more about it here in a moment.
Next step, boop the like button if this video is being helpful or eye-opening to you thus far. And insert a thumbs up emoji here as you're booping the like button. There you go. So, thank you for doing that. But really, step three is this. Let's weave some videos together. What we're doing here, and I have rarely seen this talked about in this way, is we're essentially saying as we plan a new video, we're going to build into it that the natural next step is an older video. It's what I call content scooping. You'll see it happen when you have a newer video and it happens to recommend an older video. That older video will start to take off. And that is part of exactly what worked with this client's video. So, well, we had a newer video that was on the same theming as this old video, and voila, the old video with the similar historical theming. Boom, it's popping right now.
So, when you do this, you're essentially quote unquote selling that old video in this new video. For an example of what this looks like, look no further than watching videos on my channel, cuz I tend to do it a lot. When you're thinking about an idea for a video, first you say, "Hey, this is what's going to be the value for the audience." Then you say, "All right, what's the title going to look like?" Then you say, "All right, what's the thumbnail going to look like?" And then you say, "Where am I going to direct them from this video?"
So, in practice, many times what this looks like is you have the new video, the orange here. I'm planning out this content. Planning out this content. Oh, and by the way, there's this older piece of content that you will probably enjoy as well. All right. Now, I'm delivering more. Delivering more. And oh, and the call to action at the end is, hey, there's this old video that's quite valuable. It's quite helpful. You probably want to watch that next. Or it pairs perfectly with this story. I built this barn. I've just finished with the interior. If you want to see what it looks like from the moment as we're preparing the land before we even built the frame, you better go watch that older video of mine. And that's what we're talking about with the call to action directing to another piece of content. Because when we do that, we're creating the behavior of content chains where we're signaling to the algorithm that we create binge factor with our audience. And YouTube loves nothing more than creators that create binge factor with their audiences. Why? Because watch time literally translates into revenue for them. It's ad revenue for the YouTube platform.
So, as far as where to place those things, uh, two best places, uh, besides the obvious end screen is the pinned comment. At this point, unfortunately, the user interface on YouTube, uh, they've been gradually de-prioritizing the video description. It's still good for to have a library of links and all that, but the pinned comment is much more visible on any device other than TV, but that's a whole different video. Because now we need to talk more key factors, a bit more of the make or break.
First, as you're going through and you're eliminating videos or you're unlisting videos from your channel, you want to leave enough data for the algorithm to do that content scooping behavior. It would be a shame if you had a new video blow up and there was nothing for the algorithm to say, "Hey, you like this video? Look, oh, there's nothing. I can't show them any older videos." Now, as far as what enough actually looks like, it's often a case-by-case basis. It really depends on how extreme you want to take this channel remaster. In most cases, I would not recommend unlisting more than 50% of the videos that you have on your channel. In fact, that's why I put B here. If it's ever a question, you go through the questions that we covered earlier on in this video and you're not sure whether to unlist a video or not, just the default. Think of it as I'm keeping it public. I'm not going to unlist that video.
In fact, before I move on to this, there's one more thing that you might want to consider as you're doing a remaster on your channel. Visual enhancements. This occurs after you do the other three steps. We're talking the channel banner and the thumbnails on the older videos. And this occurs after you've done the other three steps because hopefully at that point you have the highest quality videos already on your channel. Here's how to decide whether or not to change a thumbnail on an older video. If it continues to get a significant amount of viewership, do not touch it. Just leave it as is. Don't change the thumbnail or title or anything. If we're looking to bring new life into an older video and the old thumbnail style is significantly different than your new, hopefully successful thumbnail style, then it might be time to change it. Because what will happen is new viewers will come to your channel, they'll watch maybe a couple of videos with a new thumbnail style, and then YouTube will recommend an older style. And if it's too different, then the viewer might not even realize it's one of your videos.
Which leads us to this remaster test. First, does this old piece of content provide value to my audience still? If the answer is yes and it's enough and it's brand aligned, then we keep it. Two, is it worth a remake? Is the new thing that much better than the old one such like to the degree that it makes sense to just unlist the old one, then proceed. Three, if the answer to that is no, it's not worth a remake, do I still keep it and pad it? And padding it means directing to it from other content. Hence, I wrote this down here. Even if the video is 2 years old and it's still a really significant, relevant on-brand video, I might want to keep it and have a bunch of new videos point to that old video. So that as we're doing that, we're going through each of these steps, especially as we're planning new video types. We're picking, is this a Tinder video, a kindling, or a log based on the audience behavior that I want to occur for that video. And you know what I'm doing here? To decide which content type you want to do, yes, you're going to want to watch this video next because it is my fire method and I have an in-depth template for deciding which types of videos to publish at what point. So, go watch that next and we'll see you there.