Want to take this content with you on the go? Check out The Fighting Entrepreneur podcast episode with Dan Lok here, and don’t forget to subscribe!
Anik recently sat down with one of the hottest entrepreneurs out there right now, Dan Lok.
If you're into entrepreneurship or digital marketing, you've probably come across him on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram because he's everywhere. While it may seem like he came out of nowhere, he's actually been in the game for over 15 years, and he's had several successful ventures before the projects that he's working on.
However, YouTube is his primary focus right now.
He's over 1,000,000 million subscribers now, and he's putting out content like crazy.
If you want to get free views on YouTube, Dan Lok is the person to model your efforts effort. He was kind enough to sit down with us, and he had a lot of great things to say.
These are the 40 that stood out.
1.) Entrepreneurs Need To Be On Social Media. Period.
When social media first started exploding, people thought it was going to be a fad that would pass. Here we are, years later, and it’s still here and more powerful than ever. There’s no question that every entrepreneur, regardless of industry or niche, needs to be on social media.
2.) Be Prepared For A Long Journey
Dan started making videos on YouTube back in 2014 or 2015. It took him almost 18 months to pick up his first 1,000 subscribers. It took another eight months to go from 1,000 to 10,000 subscribers.
It wasn’t until about two years in that he started gaining real momentum. In 2017, he went from 10,000 to 100,000 subscribers. In 2018, he went from 100,000 subscribers to 1,000,000 subscribers.
Growth isn’t going to happen overnight.
3.) Be Patient
So many people completely give up on their channel after their first 10 videos don’t get 100,000 views. It just doesn’t work that way. It takes time and consistent effort to build a successful YouTube channel, and only those are patient will win.
4.) You Can’t Just Be Creative. You Also Need To Be Data-Driven
While creativity is 100% a huge part of becoming successful on YouTube, it isn’t the only thing that matters. Data analysis is just as, if not more, important than creativity. Paying attention to the data is what’s going to tell you what’s working and what isn’t.
5.) Easiest Way To Get Feedback Is To Read The Comments
We’ll get to analytics tools later, but the easiest way to see what’s working and what isn’t on your channel is to just read the comments.
Pay attention to what people are saying, and use that feedback to help drive what you create for people.
6.) Another Easy Way To Get Feedback Is Thumbs Up And Thumbs Down
Another easy way to track feedback is to just look at how many thumbs up and thumbs down you’re getting on your videos.
If you’re getting a lot of positive feedback, keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re getting a lot of negative feedback, you need to look into what needs to be changed.
7.) See Yourself As A Performer
YouTube content is visual. Visual content needs to be entertaining. Therefore, you need to be entertaining. Even if you aren’t a super outgoing person in your daily life, you need to channel your inner performer on YouTube to make your videos interesting and engaging.
8.) Find Ways To Repurpose Your Content
Too many people see their YouTube content as only being useful for YouTube. However, repurposing content on other social channels is a great way to kill a couple birds with one stone. You can chop up videos clips or share unused footage on other social channels to keep people engaged and get the most out of your efforts.
9.) Find Inspiration In Other YouTubers
Part of the reason Dan even got into YouTube is that he was a big fan of a YouTuber named Lilly Singh. He went to one of her live shows and was so impressed by the energy there that he decided he should start his own channel. Find interesting people on YouTube and think about what makes their channel so engaging.
10.) Accept That Your Videos Won’t Be Good At First
Unless you’re a professional videographer, your videos aren’t going to be good at first. Seriously. They’re going to be hot garbage. But you have to start somewhere, and you can’t concern yourself too much about the quality of your videos in the beginning. Just get started and continuously improve as you go.
11.) You Can Train Yourself To Be Good On Camera
Look, nobody is good on camera when they first start out. Even the best actors had to learn how to get comfortable with a camera in their face. The good news is that anyone can learn how to be comfortable on camera with some practice. Just give yourself some time.
12.) Embrace YouTube And Its High Barrier Of Entry
Making good videos is tough, and that’s precisely why Dan Lok loves it. Because it takes a lot of effort, time, and skill to create a strong channel, most people either don’t bother starting or they quit after a couple of months. Those who are willing to put in the effort will be rewarded in the end.
13.) Start Looking At YouTube From YouTube’s Perspective
If you want to succeed on YouTube, you need to help YouTube succeed. What YouTube wants, more than anything else, is to keep people on their platform. Anything you can do to help keep people on YouTube will be rewarded by YouTube.
14.) Help Keep People On YouTube
Like I said, you want to make keeping people on YouTube a primary focus. Forget about getting people off of YouTube and onto your site for now. For now, focus on creating content that keeps people clicking to your next video or to someone else’s video.
15.) Pay Attention To Your Watch Time
One of the most important elements of YouTube’s algorithm is how long people are watching your videos. If people are spending a lot of time on your videos, that shows YouTube that your content is probably pretty good. Do everything you can to increase that watch time.
16.) Longer Form Content Is Good Because It Keeps People There
Speaking of increasing watch time, longer form content is a good way to get people to watch longer.
However, go too long and you risk losing people’s attention. If you stick to keeping your videos around 10 minutes, you should be good.
17.) Focus On The Power Of 100
Dan calls it the Power of 100, and he believes it’s the most important step to succeeding on YouTube. The Power of 100 is:
- Getting your first 100 videos on YouTube
- Getting your first 100 subscribers
In his opinion, these are the two hardest things to do and the two most important things to do to start gaining momentum on the channel.
18.) Pay Attention To The Details - They All Matter
Too many people just shoot their video, throw it up on YouTube, let it sit for a few days and repeat. Unfortunately, that isn’t how to accelerate growth. The way you accelerate growth is by paying attention to the smallest details and then looking at the analytics to determine what details matter and what details don’t.
19.) Don’t Be Afraid To Test New Ideas
Speaking of details, test new ones regularly. You can’t be afraid to try new ideas on YouTube, and you can’t stick yourself into a box. You need to regularly experiment and watch the analytics to see how those experiments are playing out.
20.) Post A Minimum Of Twice Per Week
YouTube is definitely paying attention to how often you’re uploading videos, and they aren’t going to reward people who aren’t consistent with their efforts.
You can think of it like proving to YouTube how serious you are about content creation. Dan puts out videos every day, and he thinks even beginners should aim to put out at least two videos per week.
21.) Retention Matters
Retention is the percentage of your video that people are watching. For example, if someone watched 25 seconds of your one-minute videos, that’s a 25% retention rate. The higher that number is, the more you’ll be rewarded in YouTube’s algorithm.
22.) Ads To Get Subscribers Don’t Work Well - Put In The Time And Effort
Just about every marketer wants the shortcut to success. They want the easy route. They want to turn on ads and watch money come in. Unfortunately, success on YouTube doesn’t work that way. You aren’t going to grow a massive channel through ads. It takes consistent time, effort and quality.
23.) Consistency Is Key
There’s nothing more important than your level of consistency when it comes to YouTube. Determine how often you’re going to post each week and stick to that for two to three years. If you aren’t succeeding after three years, then you might want to consider adjusting or moving to a new platform. But two months or six months? That’s nothing.
24.) Start Looking At Social Channels As Different Lists
Everyone knows they need to have an email list, right? Well, it’s difficult to get people from YouTube to that list, so start looking at your YouTube subscribers as their own list. Facebook followers are their own list. Instagram followers are another list. When you start looking at it that way, you’ll start approaching things different.
25.) Block Out Specific Times In Your Week To Film
Although Dan posts a video every day, he only films on two days during the week. He doesn’t do anything else that day other than film. The rest of the days are when he works on other aspects of his business.
26.) Build A Team Around You
You aren’t going to need a team right from the beginning, but you definitely will once you start picking up momentum. Nobody can do it all by themselves. Dan has about five or six people on his AV team and about 22 people on his social team overall.
27.) Document, Don’t Create
This is a Gary Vaynerchuk tip that Dan uses as well. Instead of thinking about content as something you need to create, think about documenting your life in a way that’s interesting for other people to watch.
28.) Collaborate As Much As You Can
YouTube is an inherently collaborative social channel. If you want to grow your channel, you need to work with other people in so many different capacities. You need to show up on other channels and have other people show up on your channels.
29.) Use Google Trends To Come Up With Topic Ideas
One way Dan likes to come up with topics is to look at Google Trends and see what topics relevant to his audience are trending.
He then makes videos around those topics to capitalize on what’s trending.
30.) Do More Of What’s Worked Well For You
Have some videos that went over really well with your audience in the past? That tells you those videos are popular with your audience. Find a way to shoot videos similar to those since people obviously like them.
31.) How-To Style Content Works Well On YouTube
As a video platform, YouTube lends itself really well to instructional material.
If you have something to teach people, how-to style videos work well.
32.) Keep Your Thumbnail Style Consistent For Branding Purposes
Your thumbnail doesn’t have to be perfect every time, but it should be done consistently in a style that people recognize so that they can become familiar with your brand.
If you look at Dan’s channel, you’ll notice that all his thumbnail have a similar style.
33.) Jump Cuts Keep People’s Attention
Jump cuts are a type of video editing that jumps from one camera to another. They work well on YouTube because people typically have fairly low attention spans, and long shots lead to them becoming bored.
34.) Put Your Social Handle On Your Videos If You Want To Cross-Promote
Dan puts his Instagram handle on the bottom left of all his videos because he wants to cross-promote his channels.
If you want to promote your other social channels, that’s a good way to do it.
35.) Don’t Over-Promote Your Website Or Other Social Accounts
Remember what YouTube wants more than anything? It’s for you to keep people on YouTube. If you’re consistently trying to take people off of YouTube, you’re not helping them achieve their goal. You can promote your website and other social accounts, but make sure to limit it.
36.) Recommend Other Videos At The End Of Your Video
One of the easiest ways to keep people on YouTube is to have recommended videos at the end of your video.
If people like what they saw, it’s easy for them to click over into another one of your videos.
37.) Think Of Your Content As Deposits In A Bank
Think of your content like money that you put into a bank. You're depositing value into your audience, and you can only withdraw when there’s something there. If you aren’t making any deposits (providing value), there won’t ever be anything to withdraw. And you definitely don’t want to overdraft.
38.) Pay Attention To Your Analytics
This one can’t be stressed enough. The number one thing you need to do is learn to understand the analytics software and how to use it to gain business insights. It’s the single most effective way to grow your channel
39.) Follow YouTubers Outside Of Your Niche For Ideas
Don’t just look at other YouTubers in your niche. Look outside of your niche because you’ll see people doing things differently, which will give you ideas and inspiration in your own channel that you won’t get from people in your niche.
40.) Embrace Your Personal Brand
Your personal brand is what YouTube is all about. It’s the only brand that’s guaranteed to stick with you for life, so embrace it.
Want To Get Free YouTube Views?
We just gave you 40 actionable tips to get yourself started on YouTube, so there’s no reason why you can’t go out and get started.
Remember, it’s all about consistency over time.
There’s no shortcut.
If you keep that in mind and stick to it, you’re going to succeed.
(Note: Want to take this content with you on the go? Check out The Fighting Entrepreneur podcast episode with Dan Lok here, and don’t forget to subscribe!)
