I went viral, but I don't really care

How to YouTube #37

Last week I posted this video.

And I know you like YouTube Studio eye-candy, so here are the stats:

The video had 100k after 3 days. It’s picked up views faster than any video I’ve posted before, and I’ve gained over 5k subscribers in total since posting it.

It’s a nice early win for the year, and I’ll happily take the £500 in Adsense.

But in terms of propelling my business forward, it’s not done much.

I made the video on the 20th December, right after my last day of work for Ali’s business. When I sat down to record, I knew that I wanted to make this video to document my life.

It wasn’t to make money or go viral. I was leaving my dream job, and it felt like a cool life moment. I wanted to share my thoughts.

But my business doesn’t focus on helping people figure out their careers, or make big life decisions.

My business is helping YouTubers. And the majority of people who watched that video aren’t trying to grow a 6-figure YouTube business.

They’re mostly fans of Ali and people looking for some hot YouTube gossip, mixed with a small percentage of my pre-existing audience.

And I knew that.

That’s why I promoted my personal newsletter The Sunday Night Review, not this one for YouTubers, at the end of the video.

I didn’t want the wrong people on this email list.

I’ll have anyone from grandads to dogs on my personal newsletter. Because a) my business doesn’t rely on it and b) the average person could be interested in what I write about there.

I like sharing things I’ve learned in my life, and I write it purely for joy.

I’m very clear about what I do for fun and personal expression, versus what I do to grow my business.

Here, my focus is to help you in the best way I can.

I still love writing this email, but I want it to help you on your YouTube journey.

This is what it means to choose who you can help, how you can help them, and where you can reach them. Ignore everything else.

Those are the foundations of a $100k, and even a $1m business. You serve one avatar, and you do it as well as you can.

(Tip: if you don’t know who you can help yet or what videos to make, then you have to keep experimenting until you do).

So, more views isn’t the goal. More of the right views is the goal.

Have an epic week making videos!

Tintin 🧑‍💻

P.s.

I’m re-launching Thumbnail Masterclass on Thursday.

It’s a 1 day online course to take you from struggling beginner, to Thumbnail pro.

Bad thumbnails stop too many YouTubers from sharing their knowledge with the world. I struggled for ages too, but somehow ended up making thumbnails for Ali, so I wanted to put everything I’ve learned in one place.

I first launched it 3 months ago, and over 150 YouTubers enrolled and loved it. I’ve since made a bunch of improvements, and want to make it available again.

If you pick it up before midnight on Monday, you’ll also get free access to a live bonus workshop I’m running about building a $100k+ YouTube business.

Join over 260 people on the waitlist here.