Meet The Man Who Solved YouTube (With Data)

0:00 that got 2 million views when he would average 35,000 views.

0:04 Angelia Moore, who did I Made a Clear Sandwich,

0:06 we saw that doing well and we pitched it to Mike and that became his most viewed

0:11 video of all time with 25 million views and that led to a 6 million views video.

0:15 And then he did one more recently that led to another 9 million views.

0:19 So that's an extra 15 million views.

0:21 That's Richard, the YouTube strategist.

0:24 He's the co-founder of a software tool called One of 10.

0:27 and his team has quietly been behind the scenes

0:29 of some of the biggest channels on the planet,

0:32 helping them rack up over 2 billion views.

0:35 And it's not luck.

0:36 Richard and his team obsess over the data.

0:39 We went through over 300,000 outliers to see like what makes a video go viral.

0:45 And in this video, he shares it all step by step.

0:49 Basically, there are four phases of ideation:

0:52 audience, research, remix, validation.

0:54 You'll even learn how you can get more views out of some of your old videos.

0:58 Callaway, that video that was stuck in like

1:00 10 20,000 views became a 150,000 views video.

1:05 So, it's never too late.

1:06 So, strap in, grab a notebook, it's time to learn.

1:10 Basically, me and my team, we we try to break down everything.

1:13 Why does a video get go viral?

1:16 And in the end like 80 85% of the reason why

1:20 a video glows up basically is because of the idea title

1:23 and thumbnail right basically there are four phases of ideation which

1:27 we call a arrv which is a audience research remix and validation.

1:33 So first things first is audience.

1:35 audience.

1:36 Basically, as a creator,

1:38 your goal is to understand exactly who uh who who is watching you, right?

1:44 Like what are their goals,

1:46 what are their pain points, basically why they're watching you.

1:50 And like that, you'll be able to maximize

1:52 your views for your audience without going too broad.

1:54 I'll give an example.

1:56 Let's say Film Booth, popular YouTube educator,

1:59 had hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views.

2:03 Well, the problem was he was going too broad.

2:05 He was reaching uh video editors and beg

2:08 beginners when as an educator his his offer was

2:12 more tailored to business people and people more

2:15 um more advanced in the in the YouTube space.

2:18 So what did he do?

2:19 he just completely stopped uploading on on that big

2:22 channel and went in a much smaller one

2:24 at the time which had 10,000 subscribers but only

2:27 focused on the avatar of his audience which were

2:30 business people or professionals uh people in the education

2:34 space and that led to him make going

2:36 from $100,000 per month to $400,000 per month and so

2:41 that shows really the importance of who's your audience.

2:45 This comes up in our community from time to time.

2:47 people will realize that, hey,

2:50 there's actually a segment of my audience that I want to serve

2:52 more or focus on, but they're only a segment of my current channel.

2:57 The hope is they can kind of pivot

2:59 that channel towards that audience over time because they're afraid

3:04 of doing this thing Ed did of losing hundreds

3:07 of thousands of subscribers that they've worked to build.

3:10 So, when does it make sense in your mind for somebody

3:12 to rip the band-aid and start a second or a new channel?

3:16 That's a really tough question because uh it depends.

3:20 But in the end, if you've been uploading for a while,

3:23 if you've been optimizing uh for weeks and months trying

3:27 to get that market share of audience that you want,

3:30 then yeah, maybe it's worth to just create a new

3:32 channel cuz I've seen a lot of channels where well,

3:34 some they've done paid ads, which which is really bad.

3:38 Some they they will have gotten one video that went mega

3:42 viral but brought in the the wrong audience and then they've tried

3:46 for months and even years to try to get out of it

3:49 and they didn't succeed when they could have started a new channel.

3:53 And so I would say to to rip the band-aid sooner

3:57 than later from my experience from what I've seen out there.

4:00 Can you expand on what happens when somebody has a video

4:02 that goes really viral but it's the wrong audience and why that's problematic?

4:07 Yeah.

4:07 So the thing is it'll go viral and let's say uh you're aiming I don't know

4:11 for 35 year old audience but then that video brought in a bunch of 15y olds.

4:17 The thing is your next videos that are tailored to the 35

4:20 year olds will be shown on the YouTube homepage of those 15year-olds

4:24 and those will not click and YouTube will see

4:27 that as a signal that hey it's uh it's actually a bad video.

4:31 It's not getting those click.

4:32 People are not watching until the end.

4:34 Uh the AVD is low.

4:36 CTR is low, everything's low.

4:38 So then why am I going to push this video?

4:40 But then if you do that repeatedly by showing

4:43 to those 15year-olds which YouTube thinks is your audience,

4:47 then it's it's it's a it's a loop uh downwards basically.

4:51 So this obviously worked for Ed.

4:52 He he pulled the the trigger,

4:54 started a second channel, literally quadrupled his income per month.

4:59 Yeah, exactly.

5:00 So focused all in on the on that second channel.

5:03 Uh but really as you can see with the the video titles,

5:07 it it's really just focused to to business people and uh and professionals.

5:12 It it made sense with his offer, a good product market fit.

5:16 And uh that's what's important for for your audience basically,

5:19 especially in the education space,

5:21 is to always remember who's your audience, who you're targeting,

5:24 what is the pain point you're trying to to find for them to to solve for them,

5:29 and then you just rinse repeat.

5:30 Okay.

5:31 So here is phase two, which is research.

5:33 So here your goal is to find outliers on YouTube and see which one

5:37 have a good format and good interest topics which I'm going to get to.

5:41 But first, what is exactly an outlier?

5:43 So if you think about a channel that normally

5:46 gets 100,000 views but one gets a million,

5:49 that's a 10x outlier.

5:51 And the reason those outliers do well is because of ideas title thumbnails.

5:55 So here, for example, on your channel Jay,

5:58 uh this had 200,000 views uh 2 years ago.

6:02 Well, that's when at that time you were averaging uh 20 20,000.

6:07 So then that's a 10x outlier here.

6:09 And then here is a 4.5 million.

6:11 That's 150x versus the videos around it uh

6:14 versus the average of the videos around that video.

6:17 You need to inspire from those videos that have performed well in the past.

6:21 They are data backed and see why they did well.

6:25 And then after phase three where you're remixing into your own style.

6:29 So again with my team we're broken down into five

6:32 methods uh of research of of finding those outliers.

6:36 So you have inside your channel inside your niche adjacent niche outside

6:41 your niche and external which uh I'm going to explain one by one.

6:45 Now that you know what's an outlier for those who didn't know there are

6:49 two things when you're looking at those outliers

6:51 that are important to keep in mind.

6:53 One is the format.

6:54 So the format is what determines the structure

6:57 of the video and gives context to the topic.

6:59 And the interest topic is basically you could see

7:02 that as something that gets a lot of views inside a niche.

7:06 Let me give a a clear example.

7:08 Let's let's say here the format is I

7:11 tried every but then the interest topic so something

7:15 that gets a lot of views inside your niche

7:17 changes every time from airline to train to Airbnb.

7:22 And then you can see it the other way around

7:24 where interest topic here is water parks but then the format

7:28 is changed every time right from uh I tried five

7:31 levels of water park 24hour overnight water park and so on.

7:34 So you're saying when I'm looking at these different videos

7:38 I'm searching for outliers that I can model my future videos

7:42 after and each of these outliers have within them these two

7:47 aspects for me to kind of play with these levers.

7:49 You have the interest topic and the format.

7:51 And I need to understand that both of these things can be

7:53 a lever towards being an outlier and I can mess with either one.

7:58 Exactly.

7:58 Because there's a reason those those did well.

8:01 Like I tried five five levels of water park

8:03 in the entertainment niche will do well cuz uh there's progression.

8:07 There's natural progression.

8:09 You want to see from the the lowest to the biggest water parks how cool it is.

8:14 And uh and it's and water park does

8:16 well because it's so broadly appealing for example.

8:20 But those you might not have thought of with a blank sheet of paper.

8:23 But by researching around uh you get to to see what

8:27 has worked and then that inspires you into your own niche.

8:31 So this is in the entertainment niche, but it works in the educational niche.

8:35 Yeah.

8:36 As well.

8:37 So let's start with method one inside channel.

8:40 When I joined this uh uh this creator,

8:43 he he used to do all kinds of uh skills type videos.

8:49 Why I proposed I tested the world's five deadliest weapons which led to a 2x

8:54 outlier at 10 million views uh was because of uh of the phases I said.

8:59 So phase one you're uh is is trying to understand his audience.

9:04 So I asked him like who recognized him on the streets who uh who

9:08 were the people commenting and basically they were like teenage boys in the end.

9:12 That was phase one.

9:15 Then phase two is seeing what has worked in the past and see

9:19 if there's a ways to if there are ways to double down.

9:22 And so here I I would see the interest topics of carambit knife or nunchucks

9:28 or butterfly knife all weapon types videos right

9:32 and I also saw in on the channel

9:35 that uh he would try like I tested I don't know 126 skills this is

9:41 what I learn and uh and those would get millions of views as well.

9:45 So I just combined it both combined a few weapons inside one

9:49 video natural progression and that led to it that 10 million views video.

9:53 I see.

9:54 So the format is I tested and the interest topic

9:58 in his case was some sort of deadly or intense weapon.

10:04 [laughter] Yeah, exactly.

10:06 Cuz caramin knife, nunchucks, butterfly knife,

10:09 they all had like similar characteristics, right?

10:11 Like weapons types content.

10:13 So I was like, "Ah, this could be good if to combine it all with sword

10:17 and and other types of weapon in there."

10:20 And uh turned out it worked out quite well.

10:23 And then that led to doubling down even more inside the channel.

10:27 Uh turning weapons into ancient weapons and that led to a 6 million views video.

10:32 And then he did one more recently like years after that that first video.

10:36 Uh and again with ancient weapons and that led to another 9 million views.

10:40 So that's an extra 15 million views because we understood who is the audience,

10:45 what is the format that worked, and what's the interest topic to play with.

10:49 It's so interesting that he posted essentially

10:52 the same video with a slightly different title.

10:54 Like he didn't put a number on it.

10:55 It wasn't the five deadliest,

10:56 but it's literally everything else is the same different uh thumbnail,

11:01 but that video there had 50% more views than the previous version.

11:07 Yeah, exactly.

11:08 Because that that's maybe like two years apart.

11:09 those two um and so there's a new audience that came in, right?

11:14 But still in the same uh content strategy

11:17 where it would bring in the the right audience.

11:20 So then with those new uh viewers that kept that he kept building

11:23 o over time uh it made them interested in in this type of content.

11:29 So creators that end up to the next level don't only um uh double down,

11:34 they triple down, they quadruple down.

11:36 So like here for example with hang time he uh

11:40 he did I melted every gum that got 11 million views.

11:44 Uh but and so the I melted every is the format

11:48 that worked and then the interest topic changes every time.

11:51 Same for I cooked 100 years of school launch that gets 20 million views.

11:56 So you take the format of I cooked 100 uh

11:59 years of and then just change the interest topic every time.

12:04 So if you think about it, had these two not done the double down,

12:08 triple down, quadruple down,

12:09 they would have lost on literally tens of millions of views.

12:12 So it's super important for any creator listening that uh once you have a format

12:17 that works and that makes sense with your audience to really try to think,

12:21 okay, what are different interest topic uh that would

12:24 make sense for that format that work well?

12:27 Guilty.

12:27 I've definitely had successful videos and been like,

12:29 okay, well, I covered that and moved on.

12:31 Exactly.

12:32 All right, method two is inside your niche.

12:35 Simple.

12:36 You look inside your niche and you see what

12:38 format is working uh across your competitors or other uh

12:43 YouTubers in the space inside your niche and you see

12:47 if you can uh change the interest topic for you.

12:50 For example, here in the gardening niche,

12:53 you have this format of buried something and then this happened.

12:57 Uh so buried common kitchen scraps and then this happened.

13:02 But then you change the interest topic of kitchen scraps to uh

13:06 bananas or to forest in the ashes and then this happened.

13:11 Or you can see uh more educational uh uh 6 years of trading knowledge in 20

13:17 minutes uh can lead to 27 years

13:20 of trading knowledge like everyone has different ways

13:22 that they've they've grown as a trader and so or as a crypto trader even

13:27 and so that's how you're you're thinking

13:29 a format but then remixing into your own style.

13:33 Here is more in the gaming niche where we look

13:35 at the other way around where you have the interest topic

13:38 of let's say S brain rod or grow a garden

13:41 but then you change the format every time based on the game.

13:45 Method three is adjacent niche.

13:47 Your goal here is to find channels that are parallel to yours.

13:52 So like similar in characteristics.

13:55 Let me let me explain with a few examples.

13:58 For example, here uh again 30 years

14:00 of business knowledge is in 2 hours 26 minutes.

14:04 That got 15 million views which went insane and got replicated all around.

14:10 Why?

14:10 Because it it makes sense.

14:12 It it attracts uh the audience that uh he's looking for.

14:16 People are trying to learn.

14:18 They're trying to make money.

14:19 And so you in the make money niche uh you have uh investing knowledge,

14:24 you have sales knowledge.

14:25 That's totally transferable to take that format.

14:27 but then remix it into your own style.

14:31 Same in in the YouTube uh space, YouTube education space.

14:35 You could see that as parallel.

14:36 Why?

14:37 Well, one you're trying to grow money while here you're

14:40 trying to grow views and so it's it's very parallel

14:43 and uh maybe there are things in the the money-m

14:47 space that would make sense for the uh YouTube space.

14:52 Maybe a little less obvious.

14:54 You have video editing into into music production.

14:58 Again, at first you might not think uh

15:01 you could uh inspire from one or the other,

15:03 but when you think about it, it makes sense.

15:05 Both have similar characterist similar characteristics in the sense

15:10 that uh both you're working on the computer, working on the timeline,

15:15 basically trying to turn raw assets into a finished product.

15:19 So when you see five different editors on uh

15:22 so I hired five different editors on Fiverr and here's

15:25 the result that can become uh paid for mixers

15:29 to mix the same song and here's the result.

15:33 And so that's one way.

15:35 Another more concrete way uh basically that that's

15:38 one of our consulting clients in the trading niche.

15:41 Uh we again turned the YouTube into trading uh growing views, growing money.

15:47 So, this is boring, but you'll hit 1,000 subscribers fast on the left.

15:51 We took that format, brought it to this sculping strategy is boring,

15:55 but made me a profitable trader.

15:57 And that led him to getting 300,000 views and a 3x outlier.

16:02 And so, that's that's one way to those are ways

16:05 to to to transfer from one to the other using adjacent niches.

16:09 And then we have method four, which is a outside niche.

16:14 Basically, you at this point you're getting

16:17 inspired by literally any video out there.

16:20 You're trying to see if there's a format that will work for you.

16:23 Here's another example with a client of ours is I tried

16:27 every legal performance enhancer from Will Tennyson got 7 million views.

16:31 Well, that was actually inspired by the entertainment niche.

16:35 I tried every legal addiction which had gotten 9 million views.

16:41 And so by seeing that and funnily enough that also led to all

16:46 kinds of niches taking inspiration from those since they've seen it do well.

16:51 They just replicated it for them.

16:53 Uh it worked in the gaming niche.

16:55 I tried every legal Fortnite cheat or it worked in the beauty niche.

16:59 I tried every legal beauty enhancement and even in the criminal niche.

17:03 I tried every legal criminal activity.

17:06 What does that even mean?

17:07 Every legal criminal activity.

17:08 I guess I I guess that's why I click

17:11 but and turned out to get over a million views.

17:14 So I guess that's why we click.

17:15 It's a good it's a good uh open loop.

17:18 Exactly.

17:18 Or here's a another example with uh with a with a client of ours uh Dr.

17:23 Mike Diamond.

17:24 So the Japanese rule to staying lean got 500,000 views.

17:29 And that was actually inspired by two videos, two outliers.

17:32 So one, the Chinese secret to saving money revealed.

17:36 So we took that format,

17:37 the Chinese secret uh but uh transform it into the Japanese rule and then uh

17:44 at the bottom why is it so easy to be thin in Japan got 24 million views.

17:48 So the thin in Japan um uh being thin interest

17:53 topic combined both became the Japanese rule to staying lean.

17:57 So what I said earlier about understanding why

18:00 an outlier does well here if you think about

18:04 it most people most most of the viewers

18:09 uh would think that a Japanese person is thin.

18:12 So when a a person from his audience

18:15 in the fitness niche sees that title they're

18:18 like oh that there's already social proof

18:20 in in his head that Jes people are thin.

18:23 Maybe there's information that he doesn't know on how to be lean.

18:26 And so he clicks to to watch and that gets 500,000 views.

18:30 And to show how data back also works across all niches.

18:34 So we saw that doing well for one client

18:36 and then we transferred it into another channel uh

18:40 in the parenting niche and it led to the Japanese

18:45 rule to obedient children which got 700,000 views and 4x outlier.

18:50 And again, if you think about it,

18:52 most people would think that a a Japanese child is disciplined in in general.

18:57 And so when a parent sees that title, they're like, "Oh,

19:00 maybe there's a there's a way to to better raise

19:03 my child that I've never heard of, so I'm going

19:05 to click to to to to see what what can

19:08 I learn." But even the the idea of the Japanese role,

19:12 I could probably change that to really any c culture or country

19:16 that is not the predominant culture

19:19 or country that your videos are typically for.

19:20 Because if if my audience was Japanese viewers,

19:23 they'd probably be like, I already know this rule.

19:25 But an American audience is probably like, oh,

19:27 this is like some some secret of a different culture that I don't understand.

19:31 So this even this format could have dozens, hundreds of variants, I suppose.

19:37 No.

19:37 Yeah, exactly.

19:37 Actually, we saw that recently like check this out.

19:41 So, we did that and then we saw other like faces channels taking uh

19:47 why Japanese rule did well and they just did the Korean method to calm

19:52 tantrums in 60 seconds and that led to a 1.9 million views and then

19:56 they went with the French rule as well and that got to 360,000 views.

20:00 So it is quite interesting how once a format works it can can be like

20:06 you said you change the interest topic inside of why it did well and find

20:10 try to find interesting way and yeah I just want to make it clear

20:14 that uh in the outside niche you can

20:16 literally transform one one format into the other.

20:19 So like 30 years of business knowledge in 2 hours 26 minutes can become 9

20:25 years of photography knowledge or to music or even uh in the gaming niche 10

20:30 years of aiming knowledge at 500,000 views and uh and from tennis here to film

20:36 making and even as niche as 9 years of camera setting knowledge in 29 minutes.

20:42 And so that got 22 million views when he would average 35,000 views.

20:47 So, as you guys can see,

20:49 you can literally take any uh any niche and then just transfer it into yours.

20:54 Wow.

20:54 And then we have method five.

20:56 Yes, exactly.

20:57 External uh which is outside uh YouTube.

21:00 So, from movies, TV shows, books.

21:04 For example, here you've got America's Got Talent that became Discord's Got

21:07 Talent or a talk show becoming the hot ones or cooking shows

21:12 with the Babish world and even like the mobile app Tinder becoming

21:16 a popular format uh for Jubilee Sideman and and hundreds of channels out there.

21:21 That's something that I haven't thought about or heard

21:24 talked about very much at all is like can you

21:26 take formats from legacy media or even just other

21:32 forms of entertainment and bring them into a YouTube context.

21:35 I think that's really interesting.

21:37 Yeah, cuz the concept of data back works out there, right?

21:41 Those shows did well, got millions of views on on TV,

21:45 those mobile apps got uh their their hands on everywhere.

21:50 So you try to understand why outside of YouTube those things did

21:54 well and see if there's a way to repurpose into into yours.

21:57 Okay.

21:58 So we've looked at our audience.

21:59 We've found five ways of doing research.

22:03 What comes next in your process?

22:05 Yeah, it's a remixing.

22:06 So you have the format,

22:08 the interest topic and you you can also add a viral vector

22:11 which I'm going to explain which leads to your uh viral idea.

22:14 So the three ways of uh turning those ideas

22:18 uh those um those formats is one is escalation.

22:22 You can go from let's say a gym membership that's 30k per year

22:26 to to ones that's 10k per month that led to a 7 million

22:29 views video to a 10 million one or you have that Ryan series

22:32 going one week 30 days even 50 days with a different interest topic.

22:37 Or number two you can go the other way around.

22:39 You see a format that's work maybe these are way to inverse it.

22:43 Here you have the world's largest becomes the world's smallest Nerf gun.

22:47 48 million views becomes 74 million views eight years later.

22:51 And finally, you can replace interest topic for the format

22:55 that uh you see working which we've been talking here.

22:59 And so those three combined plus the viral vector.

23:02 So just a reminder, interest topic is something that gets a lot of views inside

23:07 your niche while viral vector is something

23:09 that gets a lot of views outside your niche.

23:12 And so for example, Lamborghini works across niches.

23:16 Squid Game at the time when when it was super popular,

23:19 it would work in gaming, food, literally any niche possible.

23:22 Squid Game would would uh would go viral.

23:25 Japanese across the board works well.

23:27 We saw with parenting, fitness, DIY, uh fast food, and even first class.

23:33 So I want to give a concrete example.

23:35 I interviewed Dantic and uh he told me how he got his um his most viewed video.

23:43 Basically, he saw the format of I tried every uh working well for Ryan here.

23:48 And then he took the viral vector of first class.

23:51 He knew that that worked across YouTube.

23:54 and then uh combined with the interest topic

23:57 of his channel around gaming combined it all together which

24:00 led to I tried gaming in every airplane seat

24:03 which became a 39 over 39 million views video

24:08 but here's another example with again Mike Shake that I'm

24:12 going to explain basically the viral format viral vector

24:15 here is invisible here you have this video this outlier

24:19 that got 23 million views making transparent wood we

24:22 have here Angelia Moore who did I made a clear

24:25 sandwich was a huge outlier for her at the time

24:28 because she saw making transparent wood on one

24:31 of 10.com and that became a huge outlier for her.

24:34 So we saw that doing well across YouTube,

24:37 the invisible part and we pitched it to Mike and that became I built

24:41 a transparent katana which became his most viewed

24:44 video of all time with 25 million views.

24:47 So that's like how we we think around for for the first three phases.

24:51 I really like these ideas for remixing, escalation, inverting, replacing.

24:56 Specifically, escalation and inversion are things I haven't thought about,

24:59 which I think could be really, really interesting.

25:02 You know, we were showing that example of Simon Squid

25:04 Squib of X years of knowledge in this many minutes.

25:08 You try to inverse that and say like

25:11 30 years of business knowledge in 5 minutes,

25:14 [laughter] you know, like how do you make that really small?

25:17 Um, it's already kind of crazy to say 30 years in 46 minutes or whatever it was,

25:21 but going smaller, I think people would be like, "Okay, prove it." Yeah.

25:25 Or like 30 years of business mistakes instead of knowledge, for example.

25:30 So, you're like inverting.

25:31 Okay, that was the pros.

25:32 What were the cons of running 30 years of business knowledge of business?

25:36 So, yeah, it's like trying to see the opposite of it

25:38 and see if it makes sense for for your audience.

25:41 Finally, we have phase four of ideiation, which is the validation part.

25:45 So, we have a checklist that that we like to go through like is it feasible?

25:50 Uh how unique is the idea?

25:53 Is the packaging good for tyon thumbnail which we're going to get to?

25:57 Uh seasonality.

25:58 For example, you might want to do ideas around fitness.

26:02 If you're a vlogger or something more in at the beginning

26:05 of the year versus uh the end of the year,

26:08 you should try to always experiment one and four uploads.

26:11 What does that mean?

26:12 So basically three videos that you know are formats that work

26:16 well that have worked well in the past for you.

26:18 So inside your channel you just try to to keep doubling down

26:21 on the formats that have worked well

26:23 just changing the interest topics and then one

26:25 that is like a totally new experiment just to see what happens cuz

26:29 that new experiments then becomes a new format when when one of them breaks out.

26:36 So, it's always uh good to to continuously um experiment,

26:41 which I've seen a lot of YouTubers not do.

26:43 They'll just rinse and repeat what they know work,

26:46 and that that just leads to a channel going down over time.

26:50 So, you always need to to try to keep

26:51 fresh and try to basically find more unique angles.

26:55 And then we also have like when you have a bunch of ideas,

26:59 what is the content for it?

27:00 What is the video duration for it?

27:02 And so maybe I can talk a bit about a report we did.

27:06 Basically, uh, using our software,

27:09 we went through over 300,000 outliers on on one of 10.

27:15 That's worth over 60 billion views, uh,

27:18 50,000 channels to see like what makes a video become an outlier.

27:23 What makes a video go viral?

27:25 And as you guys can see, this is pretty interesting.

27:26 Okay.

27:27 At the beginning, if you do too short your videos,

27:31 they're competing with like shorts.

27:33 They're competing against other shorter videos, well,

27:37 that in in general as a median views.

27:41 It it'll lead to to lower views.

27:43 You can see maybe the sweet spot is between 20 25 minutes.

27:47 20 to 30 minutes.

27:48 That's basically the time it takes to finish lunch

27:51 or to to quickly over a break to to watch something.

27:55 And so the that in general will lead

27:58 to to higher median views across all niches.

28:00 But then what's interesting is when you go over 80 minutes,

28:04 so the 1 hour plus videos, it picks up.

28:07 It picks back up.

28:09 And that's because um TV is being pushed a lot

28:13 by YouTube because if you think about it, it makes sense.

28:16 In the end, they make more money

28:17 with longer videos because people are staying more.

28:21 Uh on TV, there's less distraction.

28:23 So when you're on on mobile, you get uh notifications from friends,

28:28 family, there's like a 100 apps that you can just switch to.

28:31 Whereas when you're watching on TV, well,

28:33 there's really just one thing that that you're doing.

28:35 So it's a win-win for everyone if it's being pushed to TV,

28:38 which is why one of the reasons why uh longer videos are

28:43 are getting more views in the end as you guys can see here.

28:46 So interesting.

28:47 And there's a lot about um podcasting right now.

28:50 lot a lot of podcasters are doing longer and longer interviews.

28:55 So I'm looking at the the middle of this curve

28:57 from a podcasters lens and saying okay from about two hours up until

29:03 almost 3 hours that's like the big hump 2 to 3

29:07 hours and then there's this far end which is gosh 4 hours.

29:15 Um wild.

29:16 Yeah, but I I will say the sample size goes down uh as as uh as it goes up here.

29:24 But also, you need to think that there's not that many

29:27 videos at those length that will be high quality, let's say.

29:32 So, if you're one of the ones inside your niche

29:34 that do a very long video that is high quality,

29:38 there's more chances that that gets pushed cuz uh

29:41 maybe it's less it's it's it's basically much less competitive.

29:44 And here you can see we looked into per per niches basically the video

29:49 duration per niche and we could see where it peaks on uh inside each niche.

29:55 Uh and it kind of makes sense when you think about it.

29:58 Like for tech for example, you have 28 minutes uh versus a vlog being 14.

30:04 28 you want them to be longer

30:07 because people are watching for those tech reviews.

30:09 They want the in-depth uh review of a of a phone that just came out.

30:13 Uh same for uh engineering and DIY at 26 minutes here versus

30:19 uh 14 where that's more of a casual entertainment uh that's bingeable.

30:24 Same for for gaming around 21 minutes.

30:27 And so so it's interesting to see and that doesn't

30:29 mean you have to do exactly 21 minute videos

30:33 but just means that maybe there's higher probability of success

30:37 if you go around that area instead of shorter.

30:39 In the end you you try to go for longer in the end.

30:42 Very interesting.

30:42 saying, "I love this data.

30:43 I love seeing some of these things from your study."

30:46 That's the goal to help all of you guys

30:48 use that report and and try to grow on YouTube.

30:50 Finally, uh on on that checklist, we we have the tab,

30:54 the total addressable uh viewership because you can have a format that work,

30:59 but how do you know which interest topic to choose as your next upload?

31:04 So, that's where you try to think which ones the which

31:07 interest topic will maximize views while not going too broad.

31:12 So here for example in the entertainment niche uh I melted every gum is much

31:17 more unique much more remarkable than I mix

31:21 every fruit which sounds a bit more normal

31:23 or here for example I cooked 100 years of school lunch is much more relatable

31:28 to a broader um uh general uh audience than

31:34 uh well hopefully than gel food and hospital food.

31:37 Okay, very interesting.

31:38 I mean this it's always good to be reminded that so much

31:42 of what makes a video successful comes down to the idea and the packaging.

31:48 And so this covered everything around really kind of both idea and packaging.

31:54 The big question for me still is like how

31:57 do I make this process something I can easily

32:00 do in whatever time I'm able to allocate and obviously

32:04 one of 10 was built to make that easier.

32:06 So could you show us how to use one of 10 to do this research process?

32:13 Yeah, of course.

32:13 So you can just uh click random which uh which I quite like.

32:17 Is there a threshold on how many views

32:19 is being pulled in when I just hit random?

32:20 How does random pull videos in?

32:22 Random will will will take any video at all that that was an outlier.

32:26 But then what we do is uh you can use the the filters.

32:29 And one trick people can use actually

32:31 is look at let's say sub 50,000 subscribers.

32:36 So under 50k that got [clears throat] 100k views

32:41 and that will probably be at least a 2x outlier.

32:44 And you look at the last 3 months and then like that you're

32:47 able to see what format has worked well for a smaller channel.

32:51 And maybe that gives you ideas that you would not have thought of.

32:55 But it's also fresh because if a small channel was able to blow up,

33:00 then there's a reason that blew up and there maybe there's

33:02 a way for you to to to transform it for you.

33:06 For example, uh let's say I have a data analysis channel

33:10 and I see 10 brain boosting activities to make your baby a genius.

33:14 That's totally outside your niche, but let's see what comes up.

33:17 It can become 10 networking tips to propel your data analysis journey.

33:22 There you go.

33:23 as one way or 10 rumé hacks that will get you uh a data analysis job.

33:28 Basically, the goal of one of 10 is that you keep getting inspired by bouncing

33:33 around um and remixing those uh ideas that have done well for that niche.

33:39 That's cool.

33:39 So, I can find whenever I hit random or I

33:43 set my filters here and it pops up these ideas now,

33:45 besides just being able to save them and use them as my own inspiration,

33:48 you add a button there that basically remixes that based on my channel.

33:52 Yeah, exactly.

33:53 It's not always intuitive how to transform

33:55 a format from a totally different niche into yours.

33:58 So, we try to make it as easy as possible for creators to save time.

34:03 And uh basically you can I don't know generate here

34:05 Canada tax changes for 2026 what you must know before

34:09 the new year then becomes for a data analysis channel

34:13 that is inside your community and that becomes data trends for 2026.

34:18 you need to understand that's maybe a new idea that you would not

34:22 have thought of or what every data analyst must know about 2026 jobs.

34:26 Very cool.

34:27 And you guys have now title and thumbnail generators inside of one of 10 also.

34:32 So can you show us how those work?

34:33 But yeah, there's no point in uh having

34:36 a great idea if there's no good packaging.

34:40 So let's talk about titles and thumbnails.

34:42 So what I learned from Jake Thomas,

34:45 I've learned that there are three core drivers of human attention.

34:48 Fear, curiosity, and desire.

34:51 Like my team and I, we tried to see if there were like other ways,

34:54 but really we we we quite like this.

34:57 And basically your goal as a creator is to try to find the highest uh

35:02 find the title that will create the highest

35:04 level of intensity for any of these three.

35:06 So like for example, curiosity.

35:09 Your goal here is to create a curiosity curiosity gap.

35:12 make your viewer wonder to force them to click for the answer.

35:15 For example, how does Bluetooth even exist?

35:18 You read that everyone has Bluetooth on their phones, uh,

35:22 headphones, and you wonder, oh, how does it actually work?

35:26 And a more concrete example is, uh, the one,

35:29 uh, which I work with with Mike Shake.

35:31 How dangerous is a whip at 8 million views video.

35:35 As you guys can see on the right, how dangerous is a whip?

35:38 How powerful is a whip?

35:40 How deadly is a whip?

35:41 All of these could have been a title.

35:43 How dangerous is a whip is the title we win because it's the most

35:47 uh relatable and the one that leads to the highest intensity for curiosity.

35:53 Cuz when you think about it, everyone watching, you know what's a whip.

35:56 You've seen whips on TVs and movies, but 99% of people have never used a whip.

36:02 So when they see that title, they're they're intrigued right away.

36:06 Then we've got desire.

36:07 So here you want to sell the result

36:09 so that the viewer is interested in the process.

36:12 So for example, hire grew from 0 to 100k subscribers in 5 months.

36:17 Uh you see that title, you want that outcome, you want that result.

36:20 So you click to know the process to to get to it.

36:23 And then you have fear.

36:25 So here your target viewers are clicking because

36:28 they want to avoid threats or ease their concerns.

36:31 So like here on the right, my worst financial mistake.

36:34 Uh you see that from a financial expert.

36:36 So you click to avoid those financial mistakes.

36:40 So those are the three ways and your goal

36:42 is to get as high level of intensity as possible.

36:46 We have a bunch of best practices like ideas

36:49 uh like we try to aim for 50 characters.

36:52 Uh try to see if the hook would uh be

36:56 a good hook for for the title you're you're thinking of about.

37:00 And why 50 characters?

37:02 Again, back to the one of 10 report.

37:06 As we've seen across over 300,000 outliers, if you put more words,

37:11 basically the median views go down across the board.

37:16 Wow.

37:16 Five words, six words will be much better than 10 to 15.

37:22 Wow.

37:21 And same for characters.

37:22 I always say 50 uh and the report really uh really um confirms it.

37:29 Like if you go from 30 word uh

37:31 30 characters to 70 characters that's 60% less views.

37:35 So obviously 30 characters is really low but if

37:38 you're but you you can see like from 50

37:40 and downwards uh it it really uh drastically

37:44 goes down in terms of median views per video.

37:48 Very cool.

37:48 Basically, in the title um phase,

37:51 you're trying to find as many angles as possible and try to figure

37:55 out which one uh will hit one of those core drivers of human attention.

38:00 And there are three ways to go about it.

38:02 You can go from question to a strong

38:03 statement or strong statement to a question.

38:05 Or number two, you can uh try to change the words

38:08 in a title that you have in mind from can

38:10 be I tested every to I tried every or like

38:14 $1 versus $1,000 can become level one to level 1,000.

38:18 And number three, you can also try to add a power word.

38:21 Like any of the four videos you see on the right would not have gotten

38:25 that many views had there not been

38:26 those like emotional triggers like extremely mind-blowing, subtle, brutal.

38:30 And one way that we made it easy to to get all those title angles

38:34 is actually with the one of 10 uh title generator which I can show here.

38:39 So this one is one of my favorite uh features on one of 10.

38:44 Basically what [clears throat] what we said one

38:45 is changing a strong statement into a questions.

38:49 So we can try the video we did earlier.

38:51 So uh top data trends for data analysts in 2020.

38:58 Let's say that's the idea.

39:00 So you can input either a title or you can

39:02 put in idea uh the idea the concept of the video.

39:05 We look at the channel style uh that you do your titles

39:10 and then we try to to remix it uh using the concept you put

39:14 in or we look at the top outliers on one of 10

39:17 and see if there's one that makes sense with the concept that you have.

39:20 So well this one's pretty good.

39:22 Five data trends that will define 2020.

39:24 What you can then do which is really

39:26 cool is the three methods of changing that title.

39:29 Then we can go with uh turn into a question.

39:33 So not all of these will be good but that's where you judge which

39:36 one you think will lead to the most click for the audience you're targeting.

39:40 So that's turning ament into a question and you can do it vice versa.

39:44 Number two is uh is just uh change changing the words.

39:47 So then number three is uh add emotional trigger power

39:54 word and make it capitalize so we all see it here.

39:59 Now it becomes five shocking data trends that will define six just right there.

40:04 This makes it a lot more appealing than just five data trends.

40:07 Now it's five shocking.

40:08 obviously doesn't need to be all capped but uh or five um or the the future

40:16 like the word future hits the word

40:18 powerful hits critical is pretty good as well.

40:21 So you're trying to find different ways of using those uh power words.

40:25 Very cool.

40:26 I didn't know we could add like

40:27 this second instruction in the the title generator here.

40:31 That's very useful.

40:32 And here's a proof of why changing titles is so important.

40:36 Basically, oh, and finding multiple variations of a title.

40:39 For example, this channel here uh created I did I

40:43 built a tool to predict how much money I'll make.

40:45 He turned it into I've created a monster

40:47 and that led to a video stuck at 10,000 views.

40:51 Uh you see the immediate change and is actually now at 88,000 views.

40:56 Or this one uh which is a creator we've worked from zero actually.

41:01 uh Callaway, we basically turned the the dopamine ladder trick that gets viewers

41:08 addicted to your videos turned it into how to become a storytelling genius.

41:13 And that video that was stuck in like 10 20,000 views only

41:17 a title that's just a title change became a 150,000 views video.

41:23 Always try to understand why things do well.

41:25 right here.

41:26 Basically, we changed the um the angle of towards dopamine,

41:30 which uh which is a ninja topic that that went viral a bit everywhere,

41:35 but we made we put the focus on on storytelling,

41:38 which we knew uh work well in the past, had 2 million views.

41:42 Uh one of them had 2 million views with the storytelling angle.

41:46 So, we transformed it here,

41:47 but we didn't keep the dopamine ladders uh in the title to keep the intrigue.

41:53 And so combining all that together led to an explosion in views.

41:58 Okay.

41:58 So now that we've covered research and titles,

42:02 the obvious next step is thumbnails.

42:04 So what are the most important aspects for us to understand about thumbnails?

42:08 Yes.

42:09 So when you're looking at thumbnails from videos that have performed well,

42:12 you're trying to understand why they did well.

42:14 And there are two things you're trying to understand.

42:16 One is what is the composi composition?

42:19 and two, what are the elements that are part of that composition?

42:23 Um, see why they did well and see if there's

42:26 a way to remix into your for your own channel.

42:29 All right.

42:30 So, so here you're trying to find a thumbnail, right?

42:33 So, for Mike with who we worked basically did this video,

42:37 can you stop a bullet with an arrow couple months prior,

42:40 but what we see in the composition is like Mike,

42:43 the weapon, and the object getting crushed.

42:46 And so that was transferred into how uh into the whip video,

42:50 mic, whip, and phone getting destroyed.

42:53 And fun fact, uh I still remember like uh

42:57 I was thinking of all all kinds of object.

43:00 It could have been a brick, a tree,

43:02 a car, a house uh that's getting uh destroyed.

43:06 But why I chose a phone was because everyone has a phone.

43:10 Everyone understands how uh how hard it is.

43:13 Everyone has dropped a phone.

43:15 So you know how solid it is.

43:16 And so seeing it destroyed like that uh entices you to to click more.

43:22 And so seeing that composition but then just changing the elements

43:26 in it then became uh a big stable on on on the channel.

43:31 And that actually led to other channels taking that composition

43:35 and then transforming into their own style for their own niches.

43:40 And you have also uh the next level is what I call which is external.

43:46 Basically here's an example of a of a scene in an anime called

43:51 Naruto where I remember the intensity of it and that I wanted to transfer

43:55 it for for a thumbnail for a client and that led to this uh

44:00 character getting executed or this um guy going through a hard workout.

44:06 Basically, you're able to transfer literally

44:08 from anything just like ideas from uh any

44:12 anywhere and see if you can replicate it to create the same level of intensity.

44:16 And uh you can see it here as well.

44:18 Uh this movie poster became a 9 million views video uh

44:23 once remixed or this one became a 3.7 million views for Dotford.

44:28 that that's how you're you're taking inspiration from literally anything

44:32 and then taking that data and transforming for for your own thumbnail.

44:36 And just like ideas and titles, we have a bunch of best practices for thumbnails

44:41 like we we try to aim for three main elements.

44:44 We like to have it as uh as fresh and new as possible as well while taking

44:50 inspiration of different compositions all around.

44:53 uh the squint test uh bottom right,

44:56 you try to not have any text there since there's the time stamp.

44:59 Little things like that adds uh more probability

45:02 that a person will click on that video.

45:05 Just like titles, you always want to try to find different thumbnails,

45:10 test them, and see what works.

45:12 For example, uh here is a video of of me interviewing Will Tennyson.

45:20 It was stuck at literally 3,000 views for the longest time,

45:24 but then we we kept changing titles, thumbnails,

45:28 and then uh I was so bullish on on the video,

45:31 and then that led to to over half a million views video.

45:34 Or here you have the worst enemy of Tesla

45:38 becoming why Apple and Tesla are scared of this genius.

45:40 You see the title thumbnail change, super simple.

45:43 And that's literally the only change we

45:45 did on that channel 180 days after upload.

45:48 So after 6 months, so it's never too late.

45:50 So doing so led to an extra 2 million views video.

45:55 And so you're really missing out if you're not trying

45:57 to find like as as as many thumbnail concepts as possible.

46:02 And that's also why we built the uh thumbnail generator,

46:06 which uh I can show now.

46:08 While you're loading that up, is it really never too late to make these changes?

46:11 Like we've had some videos in the back

46:12 catalog that I just look at and it's like,

46:15 "Wow, the the click-through rate on this is so far below what is typical.

46:18 I worry that it will even get impressions to test new packaging

46:22 changes." Are there ever times where you think it's just too far gone?

46:26 No.

46:26 Yeah, it's true.

46:27 So, first there's we look at if the video had like a good retention, right?

46:32 If it didn't have a good retention, then there's no point.

46:34 What I mean by good retention is not again the number,

46:38 but it's more like was it a flat line?

46:40 Was it like was it really lower than

46:42 than most other videos of the same time length?

46:45 Now, if after at some point you've tried a lot,

46:48 then it's time to move on onto new videos for sure.

46:51 All right, let's see how this thumbnail generator works.

46:54 Basically, we uh we built this thumbnail generator

46:56 where again you can put in your channel.

46:58 You can either put your a title or a thumbnail

47:03 concepts or a video idea and you put it in and then uh you you'll get uh

47:10 your thumbnail generated in literally 1 to 2 minutes maximum.

47:14 And it works in literally any niche

47:15 and it'll take the context of your back catalog,

47:18 understand the visual style and then transform it into uh your next thumbnail.

47:24 like uh we we generated this for for some in in your community.

47:29 Uh you can put it as much uh uh information as possible and it'll

47:33 lead to to create to to creating the the thumbnail you have in mind.

47:37 What's really cool is that you can also add in um

47:41 your your face to be sure it creates uh it takes your face,

47:44 but if not normally it'll will take from your back catalog.

47:48 But another thing is uh you can add objects or assets that you normally

47:52 use inside your your channel and you add it in and it'll it'll understand that.

47:57 But also what's cool is you can do like the most random sketch on a piece

48:01 of paper and it'll create a thumbnail from what it understands on on the sketch.

48:07 So, what I like about this is from a workflow perspective,

48:10 what you can do is be on the homepage,

48:12 click random, find an outlier that you think is interesting,

48:17 remix that outlier from your channel on that, take

48:21 that idea over to the title generator,

48:23 and play around and find a title that you like the most,

48:25 and then drop that title into the thumbnail generator here,

48:28 and you have the whole package.

48:31 Exactly.

48:31 Richard, thanks for sharing so much with us here and showing us

48:34 how one of 10 can make this research process a lot easier.

48:37 If folks watching this want to try one of 10, where should they go?

48:41 If you want to try it out, we actually have a promo on one of 10.com where it's

48:46 $1 for the first month for you to try it out.

48:49 Uh you can try the title generator,

48:51 thumbnail generator, outlier search, everything.

48:54 Uh and you'll see that you'll be saving uh money and time.

48:58 And if you want more help on a one-on-one basis consulting,

49:02 we currently have a 30% off where people can uh again go

49:07 in in the link below to to book a call with us.

49:10 We'll see if we're match to to work with you.

49:12 Cool.

49:13 I'll make sure we have those links at the top of the description.

49:16 Richard, thanks for stopping by.

49:17 If you want to learn how to make great thumbnails,

49:19 watch this video with David Altizer.

49:21 He'll show you how to make clickworthy thumbnails,

49:23 even if you're not a designer yourself.