 I want to talk about something slightly different from my usual content, which is ideally focused on decision making, lots of e-mental models, productivity, and why not rationality. And the thing I want to talk about is how I think I revived my channel after being absent for a few years. So here are my 50 plus tips and best practices I use to make this a content factory once again. And a quick disclaimer, this number is for visual purposes as well as we humans are naturally seeking even numbers. But let's jump in and start talking about the context. I joined YouTube in 2016, mid-March, and stopped producing content in mid-May. I know. And then I started again in February 2019, only to stop producing content once again in July 2019, although the quality of my old videos is debatable I resurrected the channel once again in 2020, trying to improve my video editing skills while working on my speech and delivery methods. All my videos are in English, although I'm not a native speaker. I wasn't paying too much attention to my analytics, but after jumping back on YouTube after my second 6 month plus break, I saw that I had around 1.7k subscribers, and this gave me joy and I started taking YouTube more seriously. And I started my attempt again trying to improve and adjust my delivery in terms of speech, audio, on-screen animations, culture references and much more. On getting back on track and catching up with YouTube as a platform, I first started by pumping up my motivation by collecting all the positive feedback I have received over the years. So I dumped everything in Evernote under a motivation tag, and this can act as a great support pillar for your future endeavors that will help you moving forward. You can go back to this document every time you feel demotivated. I reply to all the comments I have received over the years, including the negative ones, and I already outlined that my videos were hidden, as I thought they were not good enough. I listed those out once again and stopped thinking about their overall quality as they were still bringing views, and most people did not mind the things I thought were wrong or buggy. I do agree with some of the points people from the negative camp made as they told me that my videos are bad, and also that my delivery sucks. This blunt method of feedback delivery was actually a good thing, as I could swiftly work on the general things that people thought were wrong, such as the audio quality, delivery and loud background music. Then I started reading and catching up with how YouTube works, including looking and understanding how analytics work and how does it all fit together into a larger picture of the internet. And this is still a continuous journey. I also started following YouTube creators producing content somehow similar to mine, studying their delivery, learning about the software they use, the microphone, the cameras and whatnot, studying their speech and their script, reading through their comments section to see what people thought is wrong about their content, and this is actually an interesting exercise. But one should not get demotivated when someone is using a different software you cannot afford or a different microphone, one should simply start. Then I focused my attention on updating old content and rebuilding the skeleton of my channel. I updated my thumbnail design, focusing on font, clarity, simplicity and combining it with an eye candy type of image that can make people curious about what's behind. I also aligned my old video thumbnails with this new design. Updated the video titles aiming for clarity and overall simplicity once again. Updated the video descriptions for all my videos, the new ones and the old ones. And even though the title of the video might be quite generic, the description will let people know more details about the content of the video. I also updated my tags, I've done it by looking at the keywords other creators were using when delivering content similar to mine, and slightly adjusted the terminology of course. Updated my logo slash subscribe button, the one that is on the lower right corner and shows up during a YouTube video, and replaced it with a clean red white version that only says subscribe. You can put your logo there sure, but most people won't know or figure out that they can click on that tiny icon to subscribe to your channel. So having it as a red subscribe piece of text can actually improve. Click rate. I also updated my YouTube banner aiming to provide a summary of what my channel is about, all while using what I think is simple terminology and attractive image elements combinations. I'm also planning to add my schedule in there as well at some point. I created playlists and started sorting my content. Here I paid attention to the playlist titles as well. I researched the playlist that were already on YouTube with similar content and mirrored while adding a few enhancements of my own. I started asking my viewers questions about the content. I've done this to the comment section as well. I added my comment after each video post, pinned that comment on top. You sprinkle it with one like and one heart as the visual representation of the heart is to me at least an icon. And this might drop people into potentially read your comment and jump in with something of their own. The comment usually includes the question I asked the audience, a summary, a few links to what I call easy subscribe. In terms of creating new content, I have created a schedule. I'll possibly adjust this by looking at the overall picture of my analytics, but my overall goal in terms of schedule is consistency, as hitting that sweet spot will come later. In terms of writing my script, when I do it, I first generate my raw ideas. There is also a technical process that goes along with this as I use a computer in a specific way. So imagine I laid out a script. I take a paragraph out and throw it in the other side of the screen, breaking it into sentences. I then put spaces between all of them and then look and see if the sentences are organized properly, having in order which makes sense to me. Then I deconstruct each sentence and assemble it once again, aiming to write a better version of each sentence. After I'm done with this, I take the sentence and try to think of all the ways and that sentence is wrong and could be fixed. And then I take my old paragraph and compare it with my new paragraph and if I feel it's good, I will drop it in. And I'm not aiming for perfection here, of course, as this is not obtainable, but for a better version of myself overall. One should also learn how to stop and apply the what I call good enough mental model. In terms of my physical environment, I'm trying to keep myself distraction free whenever I'm writing. Music on, a beverage, headphones, and then I read everything out loud. I'm also still researching and learning on how to write a hook and make your audience pay attention to your video. But when creating videos, I first start by building what I call my raw content, the audio version of my script and the bulk images and videos added on the timeline. This provides an initial boost as it gives me the impression that a huge chunk of work is already done. All I have to do now is start adding some personal touch to the video, meaning clean transitions, visual and sound effects, music, voice inflections. I also updated my end of the video subscribe call to action, simplifying it, pointing people towards the subscribe functionality of YouTube and screen with a big arrow. I believe I worked out my background music as my viewers were complaining about it being too loud. In terms of software, I installed YouTube Studio, Social Blade, vidIQ, TubeBuddy for tracking purposes, of course. I also emailed other YouTube creators. The purpose was not to directly promote my channel but to start a conversation with them. Thank them for the influence they had on me over my lurking years, collect various bits of actionable advice. I also emailed people who had blogs, as writing and reading is an important part of the video creation process. Maybe once a week I review my titles based on the video performance. Then I ask myself how can I make this better as I'm trying to do the same for my tags and descriptions. I'm also working on my delivery in terms of query humor, width, acting and voice modulation as I'm naturally excited about what I'm presenting. In terms of distribution channels, I created a Twitter account and started posting my videos there as well along with some of quotes I have collected over the years and I'm using software to automate this. I also cleaned up my Facebook page I had for the channel eliminating redundancies and focusing on the content. I also created a Discord group where you can find the description down below and this is another great way to interact with the community. I usually like to write and this is why in 2019 I created a Medium blog where I was posting my ideas. I then merged that Medium outlet with my website for consistency and uniformity. And this might be a good tactic to use if you want to convert your script into a blog post as well. I also updated my website and this was easy for me as I already had it going. The whole idea was to unify what was happening on the site with what content I had on YouTube. I also created a weekly newsletter but same as for the website I already had a weekly newsletter and the overall goal was to merge the YouTube, the website and newsletter on the new single entity with various notifications i.e. writing, video links, idea generation peer to peer interaction and this is a great way to promote your video as well. Then I'm linking all of the above resources in each video description as well, old and new. One other tactic I use when I'm in a lightweight mode is to add a useful comment to a new video featured by a big channel with similar content. You can do that by tracking that creator's posting schedule and opting to receive a notification. If you are quick, you watch the video managed to be among the first people who posted a comment that's a combination something clever, funny, new, fresh, exciting and also bring value to their viewers that might end up receiving hundreds of likes and showing up on top. You might also spark people's interest to check your channel to see who is the guy who posted that clever value bringing comment. This is also a way to refine your writing skills and interact with people. I also created various scripts that will help me reply to comments if those are great video type of comments for viewers. I usually try to write an entertaining comment which provides a little bit of value. Possibly provides a path to more other videos. I'm also trying to provide constructed feedback to fellow YouTubers being part of the same group as I am. Join the vidIQ weekly channel review series. You can submit your channel there via form and you have a chance to have your channel reviewed by the guys from the vidIQ. And every day I'm trying to promote my videos on Reddit, on Facebook groups, my Twitter feed, my Facebook page and other Discord channels. And the conversion rate here is not huge but I've managed to get into some interesting conversations with people who saw the content there, baby steps and patience. Now I wanna talk about my continuous tweaking, writing, keeping myself motivated and macro. I'm constantly learning and trying to understand that we people are by default curious and really want to know and learn. I also understood that unfortunately we are also by default lazy. We don't want to find things out for ourselves. What people really wonder for is a channel that provides information while also keeping them entertained. I'm suppose I'm staying fresh and I'm trying to make my topics fun and digestible even though some might be intimidating, doing leaps from one interesting question to another. I am keeping myself open to criticism and being fundamentally wrong. This is a great way to start from scratch and work to improve your whole idea and I do not seek perfection. What I seek is that I cannot do it any better in that particular moment in time. I also ask myself questions such as why write or why make an argument? If you are writing to figure out what you think you are going to use that particular set of thoughts to guide your future actions. And I suppose that the consequences of that are going to be how your life turns out. And this is why I'm not trying to underestimate the power of the whole idea to script to video creation process has in my mind. And try not to communicate in a fundamental false manner because you will twist the structure that guides your actions and at some point you will pay for that. And of course don't get greedy, cocky or delusional. Stop checking analytics all the time and make a schedule on when to do that. And remember that people do not necessarily watch your videos to learn more about a specific field or topic but because they want to see it delivered in a different format without doing the work of digging the information out. Try not to limit yourself to the how but also tackle the why. Also try not to repeat yourself. And of course if you're in a rut get out of the house, start walking and moving around. And there's one more thing I want to align which is the sex cash theory. And it's about a creative person who has two kinds of jobs. One is the sexy creative kind and second is the kind that pays the bills. And sometimes the work covers both bases but not that often. So let's say Clio DiCaprio. Clio did Titanic, made a bunch of cash and then he does some indie film because it's sexy. And translation, you have to do the videos that bring on the audience and you also have to do the experimental stuff which brings fewer viewers and possibly targets a specific niche. And this is all I've got for now and you'll be able to find this in the description down below. And if I'll find a way to provide a better structure to experimentation and feedback, I'll sure update this post. Thank you for watching and we'll see you again very soon.