YOUTUBE LIVE CHANNEL REVIEWS - Real Advice for Small Channels

And we are live. Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake. I'm going to create something awesome today. Welcome back. We're doing another set of YouTube channel reviews this Friday. We're also going to cover a few YouTube updates and news for all of you. So we try to do this when we can on either Fridays or Saturday evenings as long as I am not. dead tired and we will review up to five to 10 channels. I think tonight's probably closer to five. And what we'll do is we'll make sure we give each of these channels some feedback on what they are doing well, what they could be doing better, and the most immediate change that I would make if I was trying to make sure that this channel was successful. So we have some super chat rules around that. We have the mods on standby. I, of course, am right and raring to go even though I'm super tired. We're also multi-streaming across six different platforms right now. So we are currently on YouTube, twitch.com, facebook.com, linkedin.com, kick.com, and x.com right now. So we're trying to make sure that we do that. Also, we're gonna be taking questions if you have them in the chat. The mods are gonna make sure we also get those into the form. We've actually been keeping track. the questions and your super chats and the channels that we've been reviewing and Going back and I've been looking at that for like more updates More content that you guys could want me to make and then also We've been looking at that for potential edited videos that I can shoot and do in the future We're gonna be going back to edit content. I know most of 2025 Was literally me live streaming. I literally believe that I've only did 10 or 12 edited videos this entire year. That's the least edited videos I think I've made since taking YouTube seriously in 2013. But we'll be back to edited videos going into the new year. So really excited about that. Going to try to actually get closer to two to three of those per week. Some of those have already started being filmed. So really good stuff. I'm working on editing a video that I did at YouTube. headquarters in New York with a YouTube employee about a lot of the updates and changes and announcements you've heard coming to YouTube. So we have a lot of great stuff there lined up. Also want to shout out our sponsor, our good friends over at oneof10.com, the best YouTube strategy tool in the land, if you didn't know. So one of 10 is amazing and it actually helps you guys with finding outlier videos. for your video topics, helps you with generating title ideas. Thousands upon thousands of YouTubers are using this. And we also have a really good tool in there for you guys to check out with the thumbnail generator. A lot of people have actually been getting more views and clicks by taking advantage of this. I've demoed it on the channel a couple of times. So again, you can sign up with my link, get a free trial. So that is linked in the description for you. Like I said, we've demoed this a couple of times to just show you what it's all about. So really solid stuff there. Make sure you're checking out oneoften.com. Use discount code Roberto at checkout. They'll get you 20% off. We've got a link for you in the description. You can also get a free trial with them. Thanks again to our friends over at oneoften.com. Right. Let's see here. Oh, we've got a couple of familiar faces in the chat here. We've got David Matney. How's it going? We've actually reviewed David's channel before in terms of his real estate channel has been absolutely killing it on YouTube. Again, if we don't get a lot of channel reviews tonight, because again, I know I scheduled this last minute. Usually I schedule these about a week in advance and it's December. It's the holidays. People are out. So if we only get to a couple of channel reviews tonight. I'm not gonna mind too much because I'm super tired and we can cover the news instead. I'll just schedule one of these for next week, either for Friday or Saturday night and we'll do more of them. So we've got maybe two more of these before the end of the year. So I'm perfectly fine with that. Tarwell says, hey, Roberto, took advantage of a few of your Black Friday deals. Thank you for doing what you do. Appreciate you, man. Yeah, I think we still actually have a lot of those going on. If you use code, BF50 for checkout at awesomecreatoracademy.com. On a lot of the digital products, you can still get 50% off, including the YouTube starter kit, the brand deal starter kit, a lot of the other things like the AI creator prompts, and also the creator keynote collection. So make sure you're checking that out. Chad on the road. How's it going, friend? Roberto, I have an exploring channel. Do you recommend AI generated thumbnails or real photos of the location? I'm at for the thumbnail. For you especially, if you can just do better with the photography for the thumbnails, maybe take inspiration from Josh Explores or some other channels, then if you could, those would be better. It's not that I'm against AI-generated thumbnails, but a lot of people are. So it depends on your audience, especially if your audience is a little older, they might be put off by that. I would try my best to have real generated photos of the location. If you are taking photos with yourself in the location and you can enhance them with AI or make them a little better or more interesting, and there's some like middle ground, then I'm actually okay with that. I think that that could work out pretty well. So just something to think about. Interesting idea for a lot of you that you wouldn't think of is sometimes maybe what you can do is instead of doing the thumbnail with AI from the start, have AI help you with the idea from the thumbnail from the very beginning. Then take a real image of yourself and a real photo that matches close to what the AI comes up with for a good idea. And so you can stage your photo shoot. based on the location and have the real location and have something like maybe Google Gemini help you figure out what is gonna be the best photo you could do of that location and it can probably tell you exactly where to stage this photo and how it should look and then you could just copy what Google Gemini produces with your real life photo for the thumbnail. So it's something to think about. Yeah, you just want clarification. Yeah, look, it's not that there's as much a right or wrong way to do things, such as there is something that gets you more views and something that doesn't. So, you know, that's not the worst idea. And using AI to help with thumbnail image and text, you're spot on. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes for a lot of you, if you're feeling stuck or you don't know how to do something or you don't know how something should look. for it to be the best that it can be for a lot of you ai can be very useful for okay it should be like this so let me try to get it as close to that as possible using a non-ai method but for a lot of you ai is good for the initial um storyboarding the initial concept again i'm not one of these anti-ai people I have my own concerns about it. Most of my concerns about AI have everything to do with deepfakes. And I'm not that concerned about, well, art or the ethics or this or that. Most of YouTube was built off of, initially off of people uploading and pirating content. Even a lot of the biggest YouTubers today don't admit that they went back and they deleted or unlisted a lot of the fact that they were all using. Without like permission. I'm not even talking about editing the thing or doing anything different a lot of youtubers actually just started out uploading TV shows and movies and stuff like that and A lot of people forget that because they weren't around back in the first five years of YouTube when it was really the wild, wild west. Most of the people on YouTube today, both as viewers and creators, only showed up in the last 10 years out of the last 20. YouTube was the wild, wild west. YouTube was sued for $1.6 billion by Viacom. Google and YouTube were sued. And it's because most of the content on YouTube was pirated from the very beginning. It wasn't even edited for fair use. So, again, I'm not crazy anti-AI, but I think there are good ways to use it. I think some people are not really that thoughtful about how they use it. The main key is... Whatever you can do that actually creates value for your audience in my mind is probably a good thing And you need to be aware of your audience if your audience doesn't like something then you don't do that thing if your audience is ambivalent or doesn't care and something Gets them to participate more click more enjoy What something is more then I don't have some like big overarching problem with whatever works at that point the main thing is just understand what is the most useful or valuable thing you can do for the viewer to not waste their time. We got our first super chat for review, and so we'll get that here in the queue for a minute. Thanks to the mods for getting that into the form. The new routine says, hey Roberto, I'm a new YouTube channel on here, and I'm just starting out on YouTube. What do you prefer me to start out? YouTube with no that's up to you it's not about my preferences that'd be up to you and that'd be about what playing to your own strengths looks like so it's not for me to say what you my preference or anything up for you to do is it's about what fits your situation what fits your lifestyle what makes sense in terms of what would be reasonable for you to do and be consistent for example a lot of what I tell people is A lot of times I'll tell people that your YouTube channel and your YouTube journey needs to actually fit your lifestyle. You shouldn't be trying to fit YouTube into your, or rather you shouldn't try to fit your life and reorient your life around YouTube. YouTube should fit with your life and you need to make some negotiation or some adjustment so that it can be right size in your life where you're at right now. and not have it take over your life, but have it be something that adds value to your life and the life of other people. So what I would say with that is, you gotta look at your circumstances. You're probably working a nine to five job. How much YouTube content can you reasonably do in a week? How good could it possibly be? A lot of you want to do quality content right out the gate on YouTube. I understand the impulse, but a lot of you just can't. You don't have the time. You don't have the energy after you've done a long day at work. You don't have the money to invest in doing a higher level thing. You don't have the resources. You don't have the background. You don't have the time to learn some skills. Like how are you as a working class creator supposed to learn everything all at once that is required to make a high quality video? The odds are that you can't. And then you're still working a nine to five job, 40, 50 hours a week. Most people, they just have this weird expectation of themselves. And they think that 10, 20 hours on a video is somehow going to make it drastically better. For most beginners, that 10, 20 hours on a video isn't going to make it that much better. And in fact, what you do and you work hard on for 10, 20 hours, an experienced creator could probably do it in two hours. A creator with resources could probably do it in that or less or hire somebody. And on top of that, it'll still be better with a tenth of the time and energy because they have more experience, they have more resources. And by better, I'm not just talking about the fact it's going to get more views. I'm talking about it's objectively just going to be a better quality video a lot of times. And there's not a lot you can do about that. So for a lot of you. You're putting too much time and emphasis on editing your videos, but you should actually mostly worry about your titles, your thumbnails, good ideas, and then be as authentic and well-presented, well-performed as possible and showcase your real personality. And then your stuff would be better. If you go back, you watch my oldest videos. My oldest videos were bad. They were well-edited because I had some skill. The production value was okay. It was pretty good because I had decent camera equipment because I was a photographer. I was a freelance photographer. Oh yeah, Doug, I think we have three in the queue. I think we have three now because we have code with Robbie now. Let's see. Where was I? Oh yeah, my oldest videos. My oldest videos were well shot, well edited. The performance was okay, but the truth is My personality wasn't really on display. I was stiff. It was low energy. It was bad. Me tired today is better. Like if I'm tired right now, I could be dead tired. I could be rolled out of bed tired, and I would still perform a better YouTube video today than I did like 10, 12 years ago. And a lot of it was I was overthinking everything, and I was struggling with feeling judged, and I didn't have the confidence. The thing that will make your YouTube channel more successful is if you are confident, if you have clarity about what you're making and who you're making it for, and if you're consistent. And if you get those three things right, even as a beginner, you'll do better than most people. I'm not saying you're gonna get a bajillion views, but you'll be able to look back and those videos won't feel so terrible. My earliest content, if you go back and watch it, is really bad, largely because my on-camera performance was not good because I lacked confidence and it's very obvious that I lacked confidence. The thing that I got right was consistency and often at least some clarity when it came to direction. The only thing I ever had to overcome largely was the confidence and then once I increased the consistency after I increased the confidence I was able to go from 20,000 subscribers to 100,000 subscribers in about 14 months between 2015 and 2016. It made that big of a difference to be consistent. And my version of consistency was I was uploading every day and I was doing long form because this is like a decade ago. This is doing long form. So for me, that was my strongest. Today, I have more clarity than ever. I have more confidence than ever. And now my big deficit today is consistency. If I come back with consistency, I think people will not be surprised by this. But if Roberto uploaded every day next year, Roberto would grow by another 100,000 subscribers probably within a year. That's how powerful it can be. One of the other reasons I know this is because the creators that I've been coaching, that have been doing short splits where they've been uploading massively to YouTube shorts, have all been growing successfully and growing at a rapid rate because of their consistency. For a lot of them, if their clarity was refined, if their confidence was refined, even more. which will happen over time, they would be growing even more. So yeah, I think that it's really important to address that. In fact, one of the things I'm gonna be doing more consistently in 2026 is my newsletter. And what I decided is to try to do two to three newsletter updates a week going forward and reintroduce that inconsistency. And when I decided to do this, I actually thought about doing a Saturday. edition of the newsletter. I was like, well, what would I focus on for Saturday? And what I thought about was these three C's clarity, consistency, and confidence. And what if I, every Saturday wrote a letter to my audience to try to encourage them? in one of those areas of how could I encourage them to get a clear focus for their vision and what they want for themselves, what they want for their channel, what they want YouTube to do for them, what they want YouTube to do for their audience? What if I could encourage people to just try to be consistent and to show up for their audience and to just look at it as a way of being accountable and to show up as they are? What if I could help people increase their confidence so they could be more authentic on camera when they're doing their content? What if I did that? So that's why I wanted to start focusing like Saturday editions of my newsletter post on. And that I think will make all the difference in the world for people. And then for like on Tuesdays, I kind of want to go more with like the strategy stuff of reach, reputation and revenue and really help people build that out a lot more thoroughly. Because I think that that, you know, would be really important. and then if we were gonna do Thursdays, we'd focus on strategy, structure, system, and support, because I think we're a lot of YouTubers, and again, we're gonna get into the reviews here. Thank you for everybody who super chatted. We're gonna display all the super chats, and we've got four in the queue, so we'll probably do five tonight, and we'll knock those out, but what I was thinking was most content creators really struggle with a lot of times their content strategy and making videos intentionally because it's hard to accept sometimes that what you want to make for fun is not what people would enjoy watching. That's a really hard one for especially small YouTubers who do this to vent or to express themselves after a hard day at work at their nine to five job. So I totally get that. And there's a balance where you could really, you know, This is so hard for people, but you got to put the audience first in one way or another. And you have to learn to enjoy putting the audience first. That's why I tell people to not niche down to a topic, but to niche down to a tribe. Like who's a tribe of people? Who's an audience that you would be happy to show up for and that you can be yourself with? What does that look like? So I try to tell people to niche down to a tribe, right? That's going to help with your strategy. It's going to inform every decision that you make because you're going to be able to cater to what these people like and what you would have in common. So that's really important. Then when it comes to systems, you need a system for how you do everything so that you can have quality control. A lot of people say quality over quantity, quality over quantity. It's not an either or. In traditional media and at traditional jobs, a lot of us, we've worked traditional jobs in the past. Many of you are working a traditional job now. You got quality control. You have to have systems. Creators take everything to be an art project where they can wing it every single time. No, you should have some systems in place so that you're doing your thumbnails a way that works. There's quality control there. Edit your videos the same way. There's quality control and consistency there. Shoot them with the same lighting and audio standards. Shoot them with this intentionality. Like, have a system for everything. Have a system for how you... find your topics, have a system for how you make your thumbnails, have a system for how you AB test titles, have a system for how you review your analytics, have a system for how you edit your formats, all these things. So you can have quality and quantity and consistency and you can just have control. So that's something that I think is really important. Because a lot of us in a nine to five job, what we have to do is we have to make sure that when we do something, we're doing the amount of it our job wants and that we have quality controls that everything we do, no matter how many times we do it, has a consistent level of quality in the outcome and output. And then people, instead of doing that and systematizing everything, they treat YouTube like an art project where they start everything from scratch every single time instead of just running it on a system. So that's really important. It's something I've been teaching in Awesome Creator Academy. I want to put that into the newsletter content. I want that to also be part of what we do with some of the live streams on the workshop stuff and what we do with some of the edited videos is I want people to really embrace this methodology to YouTube because when we go and we do our job, our nine to five job, you know how people keep trying to insist YouTube and success is all luck based? When we all go to work Monday through Friday for our jobs or have in the past, if you're me, like I work for myself, but very similar. When you go and you do your nine to five job, there's no luck to it. When you go in and you do your nine to five job, you're doing everything intentionally. You're working through a system. There's usually been a strategy presented to you for achieving the outcome that your employer wants. Your employer has a strategy. They're not worried about luck. Your employer has systems in place. They have structure. place and resources for you to do things a certain way and then they have support systems in many cases as well like you know the tech support that you have on the job there's no luck there's no winging it when you go into your job there's no luck or oh sorry boss it's just bad luck nope so why do we approach YouTube as if it's a game of luck when nothing in our life that we have to do on a regular basis Monday through Friday is left to luck and left to chance. Now, it's about systems, it's about structure, it's about strategy, it's about support, it's about intentionally pursuing something. I'm not saying that you can control every aspect of the outcome, but you can control a lot of what goes into that outcome and you should. And one of the best ways to do that is just to systematize it to consistency and then make sure there's some kind of structural basis around it. So what do I mean with like a lot of those things with structure? doing your stuff at the same time every day. Primary example of structure in your life as a content creator. Do you have a setup where, you know, you have a corner maybe of your room or your office where your lights, your cameras, and everything is set up so you don't have to reconfigure all of that, get it just right? Do you have your settings on your camera locked in manually so you're not leaving that to chance? Do you have your audio settings locked in? Do you know what that is? So like, what are you doing to systematize that? What are you doing in terms of structure? Are you set up to where you know what time you have the energy to make content in film. Do you have a structure for that? Do you have a structure for knowing you're not doing late night edits so that you don't make mistakes and your eyes aren't blurry that you know you're doing that? Do you have... A workflow structure for how you set up your computer, your laptop. Do you have a file structure? Do you have a system in place? It's so important. Then for support, do you have people that support you? Do you have other creators who can give you feedback? Do you have a place where you can ask questions and comments like coming to these live streams? Do you have any kind of support in place for what you're doing? We take luck out of the equation the more and more we do these things because when you treat something intentionally like all of us have had to do for our job or our schooling, you're not leaving it to chance. You're not leaving it to luck. You can make these outcomes the best they can and you can control a lot of the aspects of the quality that you're doing, the consistency in which you're doing it with. You have more control. than you could possibly imagine over things, if you focus on the things that are within your control, and a lot of that is just your habits and structure, your systems and what you duplicate, making sure you have good people around you to support you, and then making sure your strategy is clear and intentional and has some chance, some real chance of achieving your goal. You're doing things on purpose for a reason. That's the kind of thing that I want creators to embrace more. That's the kind of thing that I want to teach more of. And so hopefully that's resonating with you guys. And hopefully that makes some sense. So we're gonna read out the Super Chats here. We're gonna get these channels up on the screen in my other dashboard here. And then we're gonna share them. We're gonna walk through them. We've got four channels in the queue so far. Like I said, we're probably gonna do five tonight and call it a night. That's what we're going to do. So our first one is from Just Danielle. Thank you for the 25 super chat. I think you said it's a faith-based channel. We've got Dive Master Austin. Thank you. Appreciate you. Code with Robbie. Hey, Roberto. It's Rob from the Academy. Oh, hey, what's up? Been implementing the short split strategy as well as trying to figure out which direction I want to take my videos. Mainly want to educate but still try and see what kind. Okay, cool. We got Diesel Funk. I've gone all into my social branding and art. I do live streaming four to five days a week. An Afrofuturist comatic story. Not sure what that means entirely, but we'll see. Three to five days a week. Numerous image posts, multiple social media channels. Thinking of making 10 minute long form. Yeah, 10 minute long form could be good. But again, if you have something that you can consistently deliver on for those 10 minutes, absolutely. Yep, let's see. So I'm pulling up the channels now. I'm putting them in the dashboard. One thing a lot of you, by the way, Don't underestimate the value. You don't have to get super, super fancy with your camera gear, but don't underestimate the value of good production, at least in terms of the visual quality. The editing doesn't need to be anything wild, but if you can have good lights, good microphone, decent video, which again, it could be from your phone if you have a modern smartphone. Would highly recommend that. But if you can use a real camera, it just does add another level of polish to everything that you're making. And people could just see you a little differently based on that. So just something to think about. And then, of course, I'm always a big fan of just good design, good branding, good aesthetics. So I'm going to get to some of the super chats. We do have one more slot for a channel review for tonight. We're going to knock out. The four that we have will go to probably five max and then I'm gonna call it a night. So let's get the first one in the queue here. So we have Daniel Hadley, Wholeness, Faith, Motivation. This banner is actually really strong. This might be one of the stronger YouTube channel art banners that we've actually seen in a review before. So really solid work there. So compliments on that. Good profile pic as well. Then for your description, Okay, you're a therapist. Christian therapist, therapy, you help anyone, everyone into a place of healing and wholeness. Okay, so that's a good one-liner there. So solid for an intro. Let's see, you have shorts here, then the videos, then these posts. I would start with changing the default layout using the customizations in YouTube. This for you section. tries to guess what you would wanna watch from the algorithm. I don't recommend most of you use it, honestly. I think you should be intentional. And so for you, I would probably make a playlist of videos, move those up to the top, not lead with the shorts. I'd move the shorts down, and then I would maybe have the text post at the very bottom. Maybe if you do more collaborations, you can move them up, but until you do more of them, I'd probably take them out. Until you do more of them, Main thing we're probably gonna end up focusing on is how you could drastically improve the thumbnails because the quality of the banner and profile pic is high level and I give you credit for that. But the thumbnails are probably your biggest overall weakness. In many of them, too much text and too much text that's hard to read, inconsistent font choices. The font choices aren't terrible but they're inconsistent. And then there's too much text, too many words on too many lines. There's also a big contrast between your various thumbnails. So there's not kind of a cohesive brand here, but you do have a cohesive brand in the way that you're approaching the channel art and your profile pic. But the thumbnails are a little bit more over the place. So I would elevate those. And I would be very intentional and very thoughtful around those thumbnails as well. An example for you of a faith-based channel that executes good YouTube thumbnails is Myron Golden. Myron Golden does a very good job. Now, your overall video quality looks like it's really good and that's solid in terms of your office. It looks like you have a decent mic potentially as well. We don't do audio ever on these because, you know, potential copyright issues. So what I would say is check out Myron Golden for the thumbnails and then make sure you just do it with your aesthetic flourish there. I would say that what would probably stand out is, one, for your thumbnails, and you guys see me do this all the time, use different poses and facial expressions for your thumbnails number um number two aside from different facial expressions and uh poses for your thumbnails which you can make a bunch of them all at once by just doing a quick photo shoot have somebody hold your phone take a bunch of different pictures and poses for you um you could do that um and i would make sure that thumbnails are unique uh your channel is the kind of channel where maybe it might even be worth going back and updating some thumbnails um now in terms of it overall thumbnail appearance, one thing I'll tell you is that for text, please, please, please, please avoid putting too much text on a thumbnail. Usually you wanna only use two to three words, two to three lines a piece of text, use the same font almost every time if possible, and you wanna do that. and don't have any tiny text, and don't try to just throw a bunch of stuff into there, and don't try to repeat the title in the thumbnail. Make it work for the idea without that. So those are things you could do differently. From a content strategy standpoint, as a Christian therapist, I want you to build out five content pillars a little bit more intentionally. There are probably things you think you really want to say or express, but the thing is I think you need to meet people where they are. We're in a modern society. What are five of the biggest issues affecting people in a modern society that they could use help with both from a faith perspective and from a therapy perspective? I would say that people have a lot of issues with loneliness right now. And so I would make videos addressing the adult loneliness epidemic. I would say that people are struggling with relationships, finding healthy relationships, getting married, dating to marry. So you could do relationship discourse from a biblical perspective and people would want that. You talk about healing. Money is a topic that everyone and anyone cares about. What about talking about money trauma and healing from your money trauma and being able to have a faith-based lens through which you look at money, prosperity, money trauma, and not feeling guilty about pursuing a career, so on and so forth. So that'd be another content pillar that you could address that meets people exactly where they are. People have negative A lot of negative emotions. It could be a pillar by itself that focuses on the fear, the anxiety, the nihilism, or even anger that people, especially young people, feel in today's society. So that's a fourth content pillar where you can deal with the strong negative emotions that a lot of people are feeling, whether they're Gen Z adults, millennial adults. You know, there's a lot of people 40 and under from elder millennials all the way down to adult Gen Z that... feel very lost. They feel helpless. They feel angry. They feel anxious. They feel depressed. They feel hopeless. They don't think there's a future for them. They think that everything has been rigged against them. They don't see that God has anything for them. So guess what? You can make a content pillar that literally addresses all of those feelings and gives them hope and encouragement, excuse me, and ask them to look at what would their life look like if they healed themselves. So if I was gonna give a prescription for your channel and the direction for your channel, I would focus on like four of those as pillars. And then you can pick any fifth pillar you want. I mean, again, you can take any of this advice, leave any of this advice. But if it were me, even from a self-improvement channel, I would recommend these kinds of things in the sense that, okay, if you look at all of that, that's real. It meets people exactly where they are right now for the negative stuff. Then if you deal with the relationship stuff specifically, and that's a big one. And then adult loneliness, you would think that that'd be relationships, but it's not. It's actually loneliness, neuroticism, isolation, feelings of abandonment, and feelings of rejection and the ability to not even connect. Even at a non-romantic level, people are feeling that. So I think that that's very different than the relationship pillar. So you have that, you have the money pillar. And then I said, like I said, you have this negativity pillar in general. And then maybe a fifth pillar is in general, just addressing the feeling of brokenness or helplessness and what God says about that. So those would be from a topical standpoint, the direction you can go. And then the titles kind of write themselves from there. So everything for YouTube, even for getting views is topics, titles. thumbnail, and timing. So what I did was I gave you the content pillars to help you derive your topics. And then you can come up with individual titles to fill that out on a consistent schedule, however you'd like. Then I gave you some thumbnail advice in terms of here's how you put yourself into the thumbnails better. Use Myron Golden as an example. Here are, so that's the photography part. Fonts, you can go with whatever color scheme you like. The main thing is to make everything readable. how to do the text stacking. So there's that aspect of it. So those are the visuals for the thumbnail. As for timing, you can do timing a lot of different ways. I use the approach usually of trying to make evergreen content so that I don't have to worry about timing or reacting to news unless I have to. So for you, I'd recommend something similar. in the sense that if you make evergreen content around these timeless topics, but they're really relevant right now, you won't have to chase trends or chase anything. And so that would address that as well. So topic, title, thumbnail, and timing. And I think I gave you a way to address that. Again, great job on the banner, great job on the profile pic. I just think that those things themselves could be stronger and represented itself in the thumbnail strategy, and like I said, for the thumbnail strategy, reference also Myron Golden, and I gave you topics, and that could help you with the titles, and you could derive it from that. So overall, that is what I would do differently when it comes to your channel. So hopefully you found that helpful. I really tried to make sure I gave you as much detailed advice as I can. But what do you all think? Do you agree with me about Daniel Hadley's Like I said, I think she did a wonderful banner, but I think that the clarity needed to be there in terms of developing the content pillars, the content strategy. I think I was able to give good advice there. The thumbnails are really a big deciding factor as well after you get the topics right. And I think that those thumbnails, probably a one out of five in most cases, sometimes a two out of five. I think by using Myron Golden's strategy, it could take them to a three or a four out of five in terms of just something similar, but made for Danielle herself. And then I think a big part of this is also just being able to make that evergreen content that meets people where they are. emotionally given the direction of this channel. But those are my thoughts. What do you all think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Would you do anything differently? Let me know in the comment section if you're watching the replay. Let me know in the chat if you're watching live. There we go, one down, one down. So hopefully that was helpful. Yep, now a lot of compliments on your banner there. Someone is asking, will there be a replay of this live stream? Yeah, the replay will stay up on my YouTube channel. So if you go to YouTube.com slash at Roberto Blake, all the live streams, in fact, even our previous ones stay up. So we leave the replays up for you guys. And then Doug in the chat, Doug's one of our mods, Doug Hewson, usually goes in. He gives me the timestamps. And then we're able to get those for you as well to make it easier. So, yeah. So let's see. It's one down, four to go. Yeah, most people, almost everybody can improve on their packaging. Even I can sometimes, too. But I think she has the potential to do it. Her banner is top-notch, so the thumbnails could be top-notch as well. Oh, I agree with this 1,010%. If her titles and thumbnails were as clear as her channel banner, she'd be off to the races. I 1,000% agree. So we've got... How's it going, Angie? So yeah, so we've got DivemasterAustin up next. And he's saying he needs a channel banner. Okay, we'll see. So let's check out Austin's channel. Let me just make sure I have enough water here that I'm hydrate. All right. So we have DivemasterAustin. You don't have a channel banner. Let's see your description. Paddy, Divemaster, Miami, all links below. Okay. I would probably add more to that here. And again, I would get a channel banner. Looks like you have 12 videos so far. A couple of them are shorts. Again, I would customize the homepage here instead of the default for YouTube where it has the For You section, then the shorts, the videos, and then your popular videos and whatnot. Even though you don't have as many videos, I would just go to the customization feature in YouTube. I'd move videos to the top instead of shorts. Maybe I'd get rid of the For You section. And then that's probably how I'd approach that. Let's look at your actual videos here. So for long form videos, good job by the way, 12 videos, couple of shorts and you're ready off to 270 subscribers. That's actually really cool. So I already am very good with these authentic thumbnails. These are nice, very well done. I actually coached a free diving channel that did really well. We coached them to 100,000 subscribers. And I'm struggling to pronounce the name of the channel because I think he's originally from the Netherlands, so I can never pronounce the name. But yeah, he's a free diving channel. So let's see. These thumbnails are actually really solid and they benefit a lot from the location. So very good. I see you're experimenting with thumbnails that don't use text at all, but to some degree, I think it could go either way for your channel. I think it just depends on the context. You could do more than one thumbnail style here. So far, in general, your thumbnails are very good. I'm happy with the views no matter what. Obviously, when you did this two years ago, you had more views, but you're picking up again with consistency, and you still are getting more views than you have subscribers, so congratulations on that. I know that it can be difficult to be consistent on a channel that has this very intense physical component to it, the way that diving does. So your big thing here is you have high quality content. There's a physical laborious challenge in making it. The production looks like it's really solid. Your big issue, by the way, if I could give you a hint on something that you may have been struggling with. There are times in the video where you probably have a lot of issues with the lighting because sometimes the sun is directionally behind you. When the sun is directionally behind you, instead of being washed out and faded, even when you wanna get the blue sky and the blue water back there, what you wanna do is there's a technique called overpowering the sun. We learned this in photography. It does work for video as well. Is when you have... the sun directionally behind you, you need an external light source that is stronger, that can overpower the sun to help with white balancing, not turn you into a silhouette and all these things. So you need that possibly mounted on the camera or even off to the side. You need a powerful light that, as we say, overpowers the sun when the sun is directionally behind you instead. alternatively you could always face the sun and use the sun as your fill light but for the setting and environment that you're in a lot of times that won't be viable such as like here and then in this one where you're clearly like super dark there so but everything behind you is well lit so again i imagine that the issue is sun's in the other direction so what you want to do is you want an external light when you can't face the sun that can overpower the sun and then you'll instantly see the video quality drastically improve. Same thing for photography for a lot of you if you're wondering about that when you use your selfies, your phones or cameras or a photo shoot. So it's actually a big deal to do that. That's just a little thing that I noticed where I know I can help you out with something a little bit more technical. The quality here is excellent overall. If you're not already, highly would recommend for you a DJI Mic Mini or the DJI Mic 3. Very good microphone, very powerful, still also very portable. So if you're wondering what I'm talking about and what that would look like, the DJI Mic Mini looks like this. It's very tiny. But it's a very capable microphone, and it magnetically can clip onto you like so. So you can do that. Also, for some of you, if you have a very weird situation that requires it, you could do even something like that. Have it clip onto your head on the side there if you needed to in a situation. I've seen people do this with their motorcycle helmets or stuff like that. So again, very practical to use this mic. It's super tiny. If you want a relative size comparison, You can use it compared to my Apple Watch here or even to my Aura Ring, my smart ring here. Not married, still single, guys. And this is it compared to like a smartphone. So again, this is extremely tiny, very practical, and it's an extraordinarily high quality microphone, right? So just a little thought there in terms of that. And like I said, for lighting. You need something powerful enough as a portable light, sometimes like overpower the sun. You could use maybe even an Elgato Keylight Mini. So if I turn on this extra one I have, it gets super bright. In fact, it gets so bright that if I turn off these other two lights, it's almost reasonable to do this if I just wanted like a moody aesthetic. It's that powerful. And to give you a better indicator, here is what it is from this angle. So again, incredibly powerful, and you can kind of see that it also overpowers any of the background lighting. So again, if I wanted something more moody, it would be like this. I'm not saying for you to make moody looking videos. I'm making a point here to say that you need a powerful enough light sometimes to overpower the sun if you're gonna shoot outdoors for this kind of video. And so I wanted to use that as a videography lesson for everybody, just because I noticed that here. So again, with this channel, I wanted to get into that cinematography aspect because the videos are good, the videos are fine. Because you have to do a physically laborious thing, consistency is hard. But I do think you need to try to get out at least two videos a month consistently if you can't get out a video weekly. What I would say is on videos, what could help you is if you use footage and you shoot more B-roll, you could do some A-roll talking head videos. where you use B-roll from previous dives or use footage from previous dives and you talk over it a little bit more could help you with consistency. So that's something that I would look at. As for what should be in your banner, I think possibly a banner that has you with your scuba gear and has either, you could even generate a background like the, the port or the bay here with um ai but i think you with the scuba gear on in your banner and just telling people what the channel is about would be solid so i think that that would be really good for your channel banner and i don't think you need much more than that as for your shorts use um more of your existing footage with you talking and splitting up the stuff for doing voiceover, and you could get more shorts out of this. So what I would do is, since your thing is so intense, you probably have a lot of footage that doesn't make it into some of the edits of your videos, but it could be used with you talking over it and voiceover and still be a good video. So I would look at that to help with consistency for both the long form and the short form, and that could balance things out quite a bit for you. So that's what I would look at doing. But overall, I think you have a really good channel here. I think you have a lot of potential. Your ability, your issue is largely in, aside from a few minor cinematic tweaks that can just help you with audio and video in your situation, one of the best things that you can do is probably to help your consistency a little bit is to do more. narrative voiceover and with an unused audio footage that you have that could help you. Do you mind having an audio issue again? Give me a second. It's this, um... It's this, uh... Hang on, hang on. What about now? Is my audio working better now? Yes, no. Is the audio still coming in bad, or what's up? I should have it fixed. Here. Is the audio good? Same. Hang on. What about now? Mic check, mic check, one, two, one, two. Mic check, mic check, one, two, one, two. Mic check, mic check. No sound. Really? Mic check, mic check. Good? Okay, cool. Next week, the audio should be better. This came in today to fix this. The Rodecaster apparently is on its last legs because this is a Rodecaster. from before the pandemic so it'll have this glitch sometimes but we're going to be fixing that i just bought this this is the roadcaster duo which i got in studio white and this will not have the audio problems going forward of course i have to install that over the weekend um the irony of what i was telling um Austin, you know, about audio and video. That being said, Austin, with your channel, like I said, there's some minor things, but the big thing would be the consistency. And that can be addressed largely by using more of the dive footage that you have and talking over it and doing narrative. And that could help you a lot. So it's just something to think about. But I think the channel is off to a great start. And I think that you just have to at least try to get something out twice a month besides the YouTube shorts. And then I think you'll be okay. And I think there's a lot more you can do with the YouTube shorts in terms of some of that consistency. I don't need this extra light here. Yep. So, you know, that's what I would look at. But what are you guys' thoughts? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Let me know in the chat if you're still watching live. Let me know in the comments if you're watching the replay. Oh, I have to change my sound effects. There we go. I was looking for my air horn. All right. So we're back now. Like I said, once I get this installed, audio issues will be a thing of the past. So we have a question here. Usually for most people, one video blows up their channel it's an accident that's not normal also it's not what I think people should seek out from YouTube is to blow up overnight because if you blow up overnight it's hard to understand your success you also end up just keep chasing that viral moment so that can be an issue yep channels off to a great start I couldn't agree more yep also When I get the new hardware installed, we will be able to bring the soundboard over so we won't be losing the sound effects. So that's nice. Let's see here. Matt J.O. says, hey, Roto, I took your advice, uploading more shorts. My views, impressions, click rate all take a major hit. I've noticed every time I consistently post shorts, my long form goes down. Why is that? I don't think it's actually because of the shorts. I think you'd have to look at your channel. And again, I'd have to look at what you're doing, like Matty J specifically. And again, I don't have the ability to do it here and now, especially while we're already doing channel reviews. But I've actually never seen that actually be the case. There's usually something else going on when it comes to YouTube Shorts because... We've largely been able to dispel the myth that shorts hurt long form. Most of the time, it's the interpretation of the content creator. In your case, your long form videos in general were like, if I glance at it here, and the entire history of your channel with 1,000 videos on the channel, and I don't know how many of them is long form, and this isn't like to be hyper negative. You haven't had a video. ever hit over a thousand views. So I wouldn't say that your long form is tanking because of shorts. In general, your long form let's play videos just normally don't get views in general. And shorts wouldn't be the thing that impacts that because even before you ever implemented my short strategy, The videos were getting these kind of views with some exceptions, even up to a year ago, because I didn't have the short split strategy out a year ago, and I'm going back. And a year ago, you still had a lot of videos that would not hit quite 100 views, like 93, 77, 32, 155, 205, 72. 38, 158, 38, 37, 48, 29, 33, 39. So your views right now in general are closer to where they were two years ago in general. And a lot of these games are just older, outdated games like Kingdom Hearts and so on and so forth. I actually don't think it's the shorts. I think it actually, if anything, if I was going to argue anything, Besides just normally low views for that content and then barely cracking 20. You also started doing members-only content multiple times a day in some cases or in large bursts. There is a known issue with members-only content on YouTube right now. Linus Tech Tips actually brought that up. So I would argue I don't necessarily actually believe it's the shorts. Ironically. and i know you kind of want to be a long form creator but i'm going to read off your shorts views right now and this is crucial because again um with your channel look at the shorts views 1.2k 1.3k 2.6k 2.4k 716 7.6k 1.6k 1.1k 5.2k 945, 1.7K, 44, 14,000, 959, 14, 4.9K, 2.7K, 746, 2.6K. So I think that shorts, I know you want to be a long form creator. Shorts are for gaming content for most people, the way forward. combined with live streaming um shorts and streams are the way forward for a lot of let's play channels especially if you're going to uh play older games bordering on being retro games um there's just not an appetite for that the same way for long form if you're not an established content creator already who is a big name uh someone who's a big name can play games from 10 15 20 years ago and get views a new creator Probably can't do that in Let's Play in long form. You can have live streams and have a community of people who want to watch that, and you can win on it on short form where people aren't having to choose to click on that. But in general, if people have the choice between clicking on watching Kingdom Hearts 2 gameplay right now and watching Metroid Prime 4 gameplay or Expedition 33 gameplay or Clash Royale gameplay or... Battlefield 6 gameplay They're gonna click on those newer pieces of content for sure and it's not even close and it's not even close So I definitely don't think it's short form at all that's hurting you I think in general that long-form videos on Media properties in gaming that are 15 to 20 years old when gamers are eating right now for new games. They just announced a new Tomb Raider. They just announced a new Star Wars Old Republic game, Fate of the Old Republic. We just got Metroid Prime 4. We got Donkey Kong Bonanza. We've got all this stuff out that people, we've got... you know, Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity. We've got a lot of things that people want to watch that are current games right now. The appetite for people to click on a long form video from a game that's 15 or 20 years old is not really there. The Lucky says, hey, do you agree on this intro formula? Give immediate context on what the video is all about. Establish common take or believe. Create contrast by sharing contrarian view. Give proof, share plan. That might be overthinking things just a little bit. The framework I have for hooks in the beginning of video largely is contingent on really hooking them in the first 8 to 15 seconds. The way I break it down is the acronym HOOK. Help validate the title and thumbnail. Offer upfront and immediate value. Open a curiosity loop as quickly as possible. Keep them emotionally invested by offering stakes. That would be my formula for writing hooks. And you want to deliver that in eight seconds or less. That could work with the approach that you're taking. But you really would have to polish the delivery here and make it work. In terms of the intro for videos, I would say one of the best intros for videos in the world that I've ever seen is. Anything Cleo Abram does in her long form or short form is a really good opener for a video that makes you curious if you want to reverse engineer something. Yeah, in general, shorts are easier to watch than long form. Yes, especially in gaming. And again, I've like coached over 150 YouTube gamers. I just finished up a cohort with 10 creators. We have a lot of them running short splits. None of them are seeing their long form suffer. A bunch of folks over on the Twitter side, almost none of them are seeing their long form suffer. But the long form would already have to be something in demand. And the shorts are not going to hurt the long form. They're just not going to always help it. There is a strategy to make it work. But that also wouldn't apply to Matty J's situation or channel. Just because the strategy wouldn't work for that when you're playing a variety of games. If you focus on one game, it works, for example. That's the other issue is variety gaming does not. work for 99.9% of gamers in modern YouTube anymore. It does work for streamers though. It works for streamers and everything like that, very much in line with Twitch culture. The reason a lot of people think that they can or should do variety gaming on YouTube is because a lot of the, excuse me, gaming YouTubers people grew up watching did it successfully. it doesn't work anymore it works for people who are established and who are big once in a while it'll work for a unicorn creator who's just got the personality for it but a lot of those people um it was their personality or they uh they play a genre of games that and they play within that genre and i've coached a lot of people like that but just in general playing whatever video games you like doesn't necessarily work in the modern youtube meta It is good for a hobby. It's not good if you wanted to be a full-time content creator or wanted to make side money. It doesn't really work that way. Not anymore anyway. Yeah, everyone has their opinion on shorts. You just leave them alone. Look, I tell people all the time, if you have your heart dead set on being a long-form content creator, don't touch shorts. Don't touch live streams. If that's what you want, then just do that. But... When you see other people do it and grow or they make money or do that, don't complain. Or if YouTube pushes that more aggressively, don't get frustrated with it. There's a demand for it. There's a demand for it. Not all short form is bad. And people used to say you can't live stream and be successful on YouTube. Live streams are killing it on YouTube. In fact, the CEO of YouTube put out a letter and showed that 30% of daily logged in users watch live content on YouTube. You just have to figure out what it is your audience has an appetite with and show up for that. And the thing is a lot of times the thing we wish our audience had an appetite for is the thing they don't. Sometimes a lot of you, if you did do long forms, you would do better. Or if you did vertical live streams, you would do better. Or if you did shorts, you would do better. But a lot of you are trying to force the thing you wish would work on the audience when they're saying no. when there's something they will say yes to and you're refusing to do that so it just really is about going where the audience takes you and being willing to do that by the way um but not everyone needs to do that to succeed orlando is killing it he's got a hundred thousand subscribers um you say when i don't post shorts for a long time everything goes up in engagement okay cool then just go back to look all right i don't know what you want me to tell you matt That's the case abandoned shorts. Don't listen to me You're getting shorts that can get a thousand views a piece all the way up to 10,000 views a piece But if you just want to do long form because it upsets you that's this long form on gaming videos that are from video games from 15 and 20 years ago Are not getting and cracking more than a hundred views go back to only making long form on those videos and go back to those hundred uh 200 views on the long forms if that makes you more happy you do not have to look and by the way i don't mean any disrespect for on this at all it's my advice is only for people if they want to grow the youtube channel specifically for the purposes of making more money making side money Making a career of it doing that which is where a lot of times unless gamers come to me a lot of times I don't want to give advice on this because with gaming fun and doing what you like comes first for a lot of gamers totally get it totally respect it but I'm really trying to just help people make money Gaming has one of the lowest RPMs there is I've helped people make tens of thousands of dollars a month on gaming But they also have to be very strategic very ruthless about it and sometimes it's not fun And I get that. Turning gaming into a job, probably a bad idea for 99% of people. Turning YouTube into a job, probably a bad idea for 99% of people. My version of YouTube for a lot of people will not be fun. It just won't. So if anyone wants to have fun doing YouTube, do not listen to Roberto's advice at all. Just putting that out there. If fun is a top one of three priority for you, do not listen to my advice ever when it comes to YouTube. Make it a hobby and don't listen to me. If you want to make gaming content for fun, never, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, never listen to my advice because I will turn it into a job and you won't have fun anymore. So I think that there are people for whom YouTube should be a hobby and they should enjoy it. And I think those people should probably not listen to me or watch my streams because I will ruthlessly. turn it into a job just like i turned world of warcraft into a job for myself 20 years ago and was saying they're gold farming and made it not fun so you know that's my my take on it youtube shorts does work and it for you was even working to the point where you'd get a thousand views on short form to up to ten thousand views on short form but if it bothers you that for you it feels like that's the reason You're not cracking 100K on long form, which is kind of where you want to be, which is still largely was kind of a little rare for you. Then that's fine. You can just go back to exclusively long form. You can do old games. You can do new games and see if that helps some. And you can do that. What I know is that for a lot of gaming channels. Shorts is killing it right now. And they don't have to worry about their thumbnails hitting. They don't have to worry about their titles as much. And people are watching it and finding them and it's growing them. And that's working for like the overwhelming majority of gamers that I've worked with. That's the answer. But that may not be getting what you want because it seems you have your heart set on long form performing for you. If you want to be a long form creator, don't touch shorts then. Never touch shorts. Don't listen to Roberto on that and just make what you want. Oh yeah, shorts absolutely has a different audience than long form. I've never said otherwise. Shorts has a different audience than long form. There are ways if you focus on one type of content to make the shorts boost a long form video. They don't hurt it, but a lot of people don't interpret it as helping it because people also are stuck on view to sub ratio. But yeah, shorts, in my experience for current modern YouTube, with all the careers i work with is not really hurt their long form at all but and it's the caveat the gamers i've worked with on shorts don't do variety gaming they play one video game exclusively um when they want to do another game they make another channel so we've done this with roblox channels we've done this with clash royale channels class of clans channels brawl stars minecraft gta um battlefield So stuff like that. Fortnite, actually. Yeah. So it's people who stick to one game. Marvel Rivals also. So we know that this works. It's just a matter of it may not be in people's comfort zone to approach it that way. Livestreams tend to have a different audience than shorts as well. The reason I tell people to take a multi-format approach is every format of YouTube does one thing better than it does the others, and you can benefit from that. And also, interestingly, vertical live streams pair very good with the vertical shorts as well in terms of a shared audience to a high degree. So we found that out as well. um so there's just a lot of that and there's a lot of data and there's a lot of stuff out there on this and people in my community share publicly their screenshots of their dashboards all the time around this so um you know that's a thing but yeah i've seen this time and time again um there's a creator i'm coaching right now who's embracing um shorts um And we know that he can do extremely well with it. He's doing great on his long form. He posted 26 shorts and made $1,000 off of that. He wasn't even trying with that. He knows that he can actually do short splits, put out 10 times that much. So he knows he can make $10K off of the shorts. He's doing extremely well on the long form already. But for him, this is the fastest way to double his money. We also know he's going to embrace vertical live streaming. and then he's going to be able to double the money again because he's going to be able to get sponsors for the live streams because he's going to work with a gaming org called Tribe, right? So he's going to work with a gaming org, and they're going to hook him with sponsors for his live streams, and there's going to be like monthly recurring contracts. So we figured out the fastest way for him to double his money twice was to be multi-format because his long form was killing it. His short form is doing well already and he can 10x that so he can get to another 10k and then we can get another 10, 20k out of if his gaming org comes through on the sponsors because he's not a small channel either. He was when he started. He's been doing this a year and he's already at 200,000 subscribers. So at his channel level for the views he's getting, he's killing it. I think he got 10 million views last month, 14 million views last month. He's a gaming channel. For him, if he gets five sponsors, he could easily clear another 10, 20 grand. That's not going to be everybody's situation. It's just wild what is possible on YouTube these days. If you have the right set of circumstances and you position your career in a certain way, these things are possible. it's highly unlikely for people to find themselves in that situation. Even with coaching and mentoring, that doesn't guarantee that kind of outcome. But if you can put yourself in a position where you can benefit from the reach of short form, benefit from the loyalty of live streams and the ability to have sponsors monthly for your live streams, because you stream multiple times a week, so you can give them multiple shout outs, so you can sell a bundle of that to like three or five sponsors. across a two-hour live stream. And then you, on top of that, do very well with long-form content and do well in the ad revenue. When you combine those things, the possibilities and opportunities that open up are really good. The other thing with short form is my whole stance on short form is not just YouTube-centric. It's taking the short form and uploading it to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat. And then you do that, and then you make more money. Because why not put short form everywhere that will pay you? Live streaming too. Live stream everywhere that will pay you. Get the donations up, do all that, but also take the numbers. from your aggregate platforms and use your numbers from multiple platforms as a selling point to sponsors and get more and more brand deals for higher and higher dollar amounts over time because you can show multi-platform growth and you can pitch that instead of selling on your views you can position yourself as a rising commodity across multiple platforms and so now they have a shout out that exists on multiple platforms that's worth a little bit more money, especially as the numbers on all platforms compound and grow up. So it's a strategy play, right? Like we talked about earlier, it's a big strategy play and it just works a little differently than what most people would anticipate. The value in dollars for that is significantly different than if you just stuck to one platform. Sticking to one platform has been the age-old knowledge, but we have so many great tools now to make multi-platform easy, even if you work by yourself or if you just have an editor. It's so much easier now to be multi-platform than it's ever been, and it's worth so much more money than it's ever been that a lot of people are not taking advantage of that. So my strategy for the short splits and then for stream stacking and combining them is predicated on literally the fact that it can make you an absurd amount of money to do so. because of the positioning that lets you have when it comes to your numbers, your sponsorship, locking in long-term sponsorships, not one-time sponsorships. And so it's fine that this has a different audience. It's fine that you have different audiences, even on multiple platforms. The entire point is to operate like a media company. This is what I mean. I make YouTube not fun. I make YouTube not fun. But it's literally the goal is to operate like a media company. If your goal is just to be an old school YouTube gamer like Jack or Mark or something like that or Corey, then my advice is not really going to be for you because my advice positions someone to treat this like a company. So that's why I make it not fun because I made World of Warcraft not fun. I wrote macros and I gold farmed and I sold gold in PayPal. I made World of Warcraft not fun 20 years ago if you let me. uh probably do the same thing to youtube uh roberto i'm trying to get started with a music uh type youtube channel um are you doing original music are you doing covers uh i would need more context there and maybe chat can help you out um you have a certain sound your channel be uh known for in general if you just want to do that you can do that but strategically um If you want something to be successful, you have to prove there's demand in the market. Have you validated that people have a demand and this is a growing genre of music and that people want it? Or are you doing this as an artist that just wants a certain sound out there in hopes that people appreciate it? You have to decide whether or not the value of this is musicianship and expression, in which case the answer to doing it is different, in which case... Being successful on YouTube, it'd be nice to have. But there's certain situations where if you're doing something with a certain level of artistic integrity, you're not going to do a strategy that would work if it interferes with the way you want the art to be. So I may not have an answer that will satisfy you there. Sharkscrapper says, Roberto, I listen to you and I still have fun, but I started my channel specifically part of my business. I love my business. Yeah, some people, again, I love my business. I like what I do. I'm in love with photography, but I really have a very strong like for the other things that I do, but I love photography, right? And I might like writing more than I like videos, if I'm being honest. I think I like writing. Much more than I think I like making videos at least right now I do maybe that's just me getting older or maybe it's just me going back to one of my first loves which was writing for me so I very much like what I do. I love my business I like making content, but I love writing and I love photography, but They don't make as much money at least for me as the thing that I like doing so it's like I you know i learned to like what likes me back so to speak um so there's an aspect of that but again i think this is a problem where some people struggle i think the business it's a little easier to narrow down um and also on info content i think it's easier to be more ruthless about it and make it into a business um but i think when you're doing either music art gaming things that are much much more um emotionally and passionately driven and that you have to enjoy the process of a lot more versus the results. I think it's hard to be results oriented in those things in the way that lends itself to strong strategy and monetization. And I get it. And it's rough. But that's also why the people who succeed are celebrated so much for that and love so much for that. Because people like to see people who do those things make it because of how hard it is and because of how heartfelt it is. But I think it's easier to get into the creator middle class and make real money. around things when you have some emotional distance where you like the thing that you do but you're not so in love with it that you won't do what works if that makes sense oh yeah yeah for anything where you want to make money you have to treat it as a business and you have to put some emotional distance between like when money gets involved in things emotional distance is really important a lot of people do not realize that um emotional distance or rather being emotionally divested from anything involving money is what will protect you financially from making bad decisions or impulse driven decisions. Carol, solo cruising and more says, hey, Broto, I'm taking a solo cruise next month. I'd like to do some live feeds. What's the benefits of StreamYard? Great question. Especially in a situation like yours where I don't know how reliable the Wi-Fi will be. or anything like that, or what your hardware situation is. StreamYard is browser-based, so it's in your web browser. So less likelihood of a crash, for example, with something like that. But also because of that, you won't need as strong hardware for the live streaming in many cases. and the quality even with a spotty internet connection could also be better but also for any reason there's an eruption the stream doesn't just cut off and die you just have to log back in and the stream will still be up so there's a benefit to that the other benefit is multi-streaming if you want to be on multiple platforms at the same time so it works well when it comes to that however for anyone doing irl streaming there is a hardware component out there called a YOLO Box. You can get the YOLO Box Mini or the Pro model. And if you use a real camera, it'll work as an external monitor, but it'll also work as a live streaming device. You will need to get a secondary SIM card for it, but it also has like a modem and antenna in it. And so it'll be a stronger, more consistent signal. So it's possible to maybe use that for IRL content if any of you are doing IRL streaming or you're traveling, and that could help with connection and Wi-Fi can be much better than just going with your phone. So if you've ever wondered how people like Kai Sonat, iShowSpeed, or people do it, that's how they do it. Very similar to live broadcast for newscasters, and storm chasers use this as well. So just something to think about. One suggestion, Cinematic Hood Soul, for your music channel. is consider using something like Gyre Pro or OBS and doing a 24-7 radio stream to be able to get more viewers through live with that. And then on top of that, if you do separate replay streams of remixes but only for about 10 hours at a time a day and do that, that could help. So there's some things like that. Yeah, so yeah, that particular guy, yeah, over 200k subs in one year. Another gamer I worked with that did a Roblox channel, his Roblox channel, he's French, and he's doing it well in college, but he also has a second channel. Completely different game. He went from zero to 100,000 in 100 days, but with YouTube shorts and Roblox, so that worked out for him. So, yeah. a lot of people i mean i see people uh grow from zero subscribers on youtube to like a decent amount of subscribers every single year every single year people worry about where they can make it on youtube i see it all the time i work with people around this all the time anyway uh we've got more reviews to go yeah uh even with you saying that like uh shorts or lives um Like the lives do well whether it's shorts or long form live stream is a completely different audience It's completely different algorithm. It's the other reason I say that the shorts or lives won't necessarily affect the long form because again YouTube has come out and said that for the most part YouTube YouTube is You know come out and said that themselves, but it's also a different they've said that's different algorithm for each one And most of the audience doesn't overlap it feels like It hurts it, but it really doesn't The lucky says top mobile games that have no annoying monetization pop-ups as we think You know, no, I think it's fine I mean if you really wanted to take advantage of something with mobile gaming right now I would probably just honestly like if I was a YouTube gamer right now. I'd either be doing Roblox Minecraft Clash Royale or I would be doing Nintendo based games or I would be doing Battlefield 6 or weird twist YouTube has these mobile playable games now massive audience believe it or not of users because you can see how many people are playing it you'd be surprised there's an opportunity and a monopoly on that and they're made with vertical live streaming and YouTube Shorts in mine, and they're free to play on YouTube, and YouTube already has a massive user base. A lot of people not taking advantage of that. So if I was doing YouTube gaming, I'd probably go along those lines. Those would be options. Anyway, back to the reviews. So we've got Code with Robbie. Not a ton of long form yet. Very familiar with Robbie and his content. So he's doing a vibe coding and trying to help people understand artificial intelligence for coding specifically And so his the stuff is actually pretty advanced Here's what I would say Robbie is you're doing some stuff that for you may feel simple But for a lot of people is really advanced and you're doing this much higher level content. I think that for long form and getting people into this stuff, you need to introduce some very basic, very beginner concepts, like what is this explained like you're five years old? Or what is this explained to me like I'm five? And I think that that would go a lot further, because I think that you are so deep into this, that for you, These things feel simple. I will tell you that even for me, this is intermediate to advanced content, even for me, and that I would struggle with some of this and I would get overwhelmed. And I'm somebody who, not to brag, has an over 130 IQ, and this is a little intimidating for me. Okay? So this... could intimidate people to the point to where I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with your titles and thumbnails. I think that it's just subject matter that is so bloody intimidating that a lot of people could opt out of it just because they don't want to feel stupid. Not that you would make them feel that way, it's that they would immediately self-select out of that on the assumption that They just would feel not up to the task, if that makes sense. I actually think that these thumbnails are really good, if I'm being honest. And I think that the titles are very straightforward and they're fine. But I think that the way that it's framed just off of the topic selection is intimidating to most people, even people of high intelligence like myself. I do love your profile pic icon, by the way, if I haven't complimented you on that. I would love to see a similar banner. I'd love to see a banner maybe close to this thumbnail. And so I don't have an issue with the content itself, but I think that the subject matter needs to meet people closer to where they are. Your short form is performing admirably. Good job on the short form and figuring that out in fact your most popular short form Does really well getting over a thousand views and you have less than a hundred subscribers, so you're breaking through But again, I do think that In general Some of this might need to be retooled a little bit Not watered down, not dumbed down, but it needs to be made in a way that could be more accessible to people of even slightly above average intelligence. Because I, you know, me, I'm pretty good. And I'm no stranger to coding myself. I'm something of a coder myself, they might say. But even for me... This is a little intimidating. I think I could hang with this, but even for me, it's a little much, and I might have to break out a dictionary to understand some of it. And I think that that holds people back from engaging with the content as easily, but I think you're off to a great start, and like I said, I want to compliment the tiles and thumbnails. I think the issue is the topic subject matter. is very deep and i think you need something that can bridge the gap to this content in terms of an easier and more accessible starting point for the subject matter itself so what could um that look like when it comes to ai you could just start with explaining some of the terminology itself um and that would help a lot The other thing you can do is there are specific things that are out there in AI that people are already doing or trying to experiment with or play with or even AI tools. Explaining how they work, explaining how they work would be more accessible. A good example of this would be if you took all the major AI tools that people are familiar with, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude. Gemini and you explained how it works in under five minutes, and that was the title, if you explained how each of those things works in under five minutes, that's a more accessible starting point for most people. And then there are different pieces of terminology with regard to AI and machine learning, and even with coding, that if you explain in under five minutes, can feel much more accessible to viewers and alienate them less. Credentials can serve as social proof. I don't think that credentials alienate people as much as they're strong social proof, but they also can intimidate people rather than alienate them. I wouldn't say they alienate them. Sometimes some subsections of people are intimidated by either credentials or by let's say robust subject matter that feels out of their depth or over their head. But if you can make something beginner friendly and therefore much more accessible, then it has a better chance of reaching a broader audience and onboarding them to the subject matter, if that makes sense. So again, Great start overall, but I think that there are just some directional tweaks that can help here. There's nothing inherently wrong or bad about the content that you're making. It's that it is for a very narrow audience, and there's a way to broaden that audience and build a bridge to beginners. So those are my thoughts. That's what I have for Code with Robbie. I'd love you guys' feedback on this. When you see the channel, does what I say make a little sense in terms of, oh, that subject matter might feel a little intimidating or that there could be a way to kind of bridge, build a bridge for beginners? Or do you feel differently? Let me know in the chat if you're watching live. Let me know in the comments if you're watching the replay. So there we go. Yeah, no, I think that I think that does make sense Yeah Louis Houdini says yeah, that does feel a little intimidating. I agree with you Just Danielle says my daughter codes and I'm gonna send her that channel. Oh nice Robbie will love to have another subscriber Spot on remember most of my viewers would just move on. Yep makes sense Yeah, Tian Shenhan, I don't have any more info for you on trying to deal with the hacking thing from your channel. Again, you'll just have to deal with YouTube directly with that. Please don't spam the chat and my mentions with it because there's nothing else I can do. Louis Houdini, do you do Spanish channels and coaching and reviews? I've worked with a lot of channels in different languages, including French, Arabic, Spanish. I have a tool that helps me with the translations on other channels. I did speak Spanish more fluently before my grandmother passed, but since she's passed, I haven't spoken any of it. I'll get there one day. I'll get back there one day, but just a little rough right now to deal with that. But yeah, I can and can work with Spanish channels. I've done it before. So yeah, I do have that capability. Let's see. And like I said, I have varying tools to just help me so that I have the context on things. Let's see. Let's see. Roberto, your advice makes perfect sense, especially when you view it in the context of intelligence bell curve. Yeah, I would imagine so. What would they say? Variability is another aspect of an audience. Some audiences have a greater variability. in terms of the audience avatar than others. Some audiences are much more concentrated in their similarity versus their variety and variability in capabilities, personality type, affluence, a lot of these different dimensions. So multivariability within audiences would be a factor in some niches versus others. And something that we, it's a more advanced concept around strategy and audience development. I have thought about it quite a bit. I just don't have that many people I could really talk to about it because it gets into extraordinarily heady territory when you really think about that concept. And most people don't appreciate the concept of multivariability within not only subject matter, but within, for example, technical or creative disciplines. So now most people are not members of Mensa. I know I'm not haha Yeah, no, I mean but you're doing just fine. So yeah Yeah, I've worked with people in the trucking niche before actually have a familiarity with it Interestingly in that situation with the trucking niche also if you want to go live the Yolo box would also be good If you want to go live with a real camera and if you want to multi-stream in that given that signal can be weird in different places With that also having a Starlink mini could be good as well in that situation All right final stretch here on knocking out the last two channel reviews here Before my voice gives out Thank you for the $2 super chat. Thanks for your helpful videos. Appreciate you at nine six seven Andy. Thank you Let's see Alright, so our next channel is Diesel Funk. So we have Diesel Funk Studios here. First video is around what is Afrofuturism. That's three months ago. 500 subs, 255 views. A lot of that's probably videos. Probably gonna be subs. Visual Afrofuturist storytelling. Okay. I think for the banner... It might be good to have a Schedule if you are able to keep one or at least something that frames expectations I would customize the home page and I would scrap the For you section and I would probably if you have enough videos organize it by playlist Let's see the videos themselves So you're saying your thing is about Afrofuturism, but I think you need to develop a content strategy and content pillars. I think there needs to be kind of a goal overall for the channel because it's like it's Afrofuturism and it's art and storytelling. But like what does that mean for people? Like what is the expectation? What is it they would get out of this? So again, I get that. there's a lot you want to do it looks like you're trying to either do um original storytelling it looks like you do some live streaming and that you do live drawing here is you may not want to hear this but hear me out one of the reasons art channels struggle is art channels struggle because um it focuses primarily on expression and It isn't necessarily aligned to the demands of an audience think of it like the difference between the difference between art and graphic design is that art only has to Express itself and it only has to be for the audience and it's sorry for the artist and If the world doesn't appreciate the artist or understand them, it's fine Right graphic design for by contrast cannot do that and graphic design can't be about The art it has to be about the audience and it has to be in service of the audience content is much the same way art does not always Fit the lens of content or put it differently Art can be content, but not all content should be art So what do I mean by that? If we wanted this channel to grow while using your artistic skill, we would focus on the skill and we could still use the art form or art style as a message. And you could do Afrofuturistic style art, but you would need to focus on the lens of Afrofuturism in aligning that. to current and modern issues because most people, no, I'm not saying do a tutorial channel. In fact, actually I'm saying the opposite. Instead of doing a tutorial channel, the way I would go about this is for this one, I think I would just tell you what I would do if I were trying to get people to appreciate my artwork, but I at the same time needed to meet normal everyday people where they are at. and then still give them a message that I would believe in, what I would do is I would combine art with commentary. So what I would do is I would pick a relevant topic aligned to where I know I could give a good message, a positive message, or a moral of a story. I'd pick something that's currently happening in the world. world or the part of the world that i'm in and essentially i would do an art piece that in itself represents the um story of the week or story of the day or whatever and this is done with people who for example in the past did political cartoons so in the past people used to do things like political cartoons right so what i would do is i would do a speed drawing or speed painting and time lapse it. Probably a speed drawing. I'd do a speed drawing time lapse most likely of a current event instead of trying to tell an original story. I would catch people up and give them the TLDR or the long story short of a current event they're probably heard about and then give them my thoughts, perspective, and opinion on it and what I think about it. in the hopes of also expressing a moral that they can take away to better themselves or a lesson that they can learn but i would also then illustrate in that and capture the moment in a cool art piece so if you take a current event or a headline or something like that i'll give you an example that again that meets your audience with things they know about care about and where they are 50 Cent with his Diddy documentary. Hot topic. People really are super into it. I would do a speed drawing of 50 Cent, and I would add my artistic style and flourishes to it, and I would dramatize this moment in time of 50 Cent doing the documentary about Sean Combs, P. Diddy. 50 Cent's hyperbolic characterization is his pettiness. So I would do that in an art form because people will immediately recognize when they see a YouTube thumbnail, they would recognize 50 Cent, they would recognize P. Diddy. And so if they see a speed drawing of that, while I then voiceover and narrate my opinions on this social commentary around it. I would have a current relevant event that's probably going to be interesting even for years to come, but then also an interesting art style that people don't see very often. Then I get to express my points of view through the lens of that current event and then espouse whatever my lesson, morality, whatever my message is. So guess what they're getting now? They are seeing my artwork, which they would not see otherwise. They're hearing my opinions, which they would not see or care about otherwise. And they're getting my message of how to think about life or live life that they would not see or care about otherwise. Because the truth is more people are familiar with 50 Cent, Sean Combs, current events in general than they are with me. and they're more invested in those things at a glance than they are in whatever I have to say, but they will give me a chance to express those things if I meet them where they are around subject matter they care about. So that would matter. And that's just an example of that. And so what I would do is I would be doing those things as far as Drawing in my art style and I would again add some of these fantastical elements and Things into the art that I'm doing But I would tie it to people's current events and current interest and lives and things in culture So I would also possibly do something where I make I look at Even in your case, okay, well, what, like, there's a lot of talk about adult loneliness. Could I do a commentary, a social commentary on adult loneliness and make a drawing slash mural in an Afro-futuristic style that shows a dystopia of isolation and loneliness? So, again, if I was going to do art, I would do art that meets people where they are and... it would be really interesting, but maybe even it's sometimes dark. Sometimes it'd be dark, right? So I've thought about, like I myself am a artist, a traditional artist, a visual artist, but you guys rarely get to see that. The most I share is sometimes I share my photography, right? But one of the other reasons I don't share my drawing and painting. is my drawing and painting is extremely dark and cryptic and a bit on the morbid dystopian um side and it's my way of venting and it's my therapy for dealing with my own uh dark side my own frustrations my own trauma my own demons i express them through my visual art but it's very dark and morbid and it um is anxiety-inducing for some people. People have a very strong emotion to my drawing and painting when I go in that direction. Sometimes I can do things that are much more light and much more hopeful, but when I do what I consider a lot of my best work, it's more dark, right? Art is supposed to make people feel things. I don't put that out there because I... would to some degree almost feel it's irresponsible and it's nothing gory or anything like that it's just that it is very depressing it triggers that response it literally um is painful as an experience for people um and not in a cathartic way either it just opens wounds at a glance um like uh if you can imagine that i thought about what what what even that would look like cinematically and then i realized it was nightmare inducing if i ever took a vision that i had cinematically and expressed it like i described um a visual cinematic representation is the audio better now and is the audio back okay good yeah so like um I was explaining to my brother something about a visual representation of the beginnings of one of my illustrations and then what would it be like if I animated it or made it cinematic. And I described to him a visual representation and expression of anxiety, of extreme anxiety. And I basically storyboarded it. um and explained it to him of like this visual representation of um anxiety conveyed um through a visual short film and it had him shaking when i described it and it made him literally he's like anxious and he almost had a panic attack from me just describing the art direction of what that short uh film like of less than maybe two minutes would even look like and it was enough to almost give them a panic attack when we were talking about it um and i realized that oh i maybe could it like i don't know if it'd be a good thing because i know i could make those kind of things go viral and people would talk about it but i think it would actually potentially um cause people pain or give them nightmares. And it's not even anything gory. It's not even anything gory. It's just that it is a visceral expression of one of the most painful experiences in your life made manifest to where if you struggled to give it words, oh, this does it. If you struggled to give it form, this does it. It has taken an abstract existential horror and manifesting it into physical form. And that's probably a bad thing. I did another one where we were going over, well, this is my visual representation of what depression would be. Oh, that one was rough. I say all this to say that the interesting thing about art and even art content is the entire point, I think, is to make people feel things. They can't feel things if they don't ever see the art, right? So for your stuff, I think if you encapsulate and meet people where they are with things they feel, your stuff doesn't have to be as visceral or dark as my stuff is and it probably isn't. But if you did artwork that also added social commentary and visually represented the social commentary. of things that are important to people right now, things people struggle with right now, figures that are prominent right now, moments that are prominent right now. I think it meets people where they are, and then they pay attention to what you have to say, and then they also are seeing the vision. And I think you could illustrate that. And I think there are elements where you can bring, again, the Afrofuturism and not just your art style, but the message around that visually by talking about something of where we are now and where we could be heading. But it has to be things people already care about and where they have emotional investment. So hopefully that makes sense in terms of an overall direction. Because the content itself is there. The content is your talent. But I think if you combine your talent with the, if you combine your talent with the ability to convey a strong message that meets people where they are right now. I think that that could be incredibly compelling. I think that could be powerful. And I think you could reach a wider audience. And I don't think it's even close. So again, that's my belief. And that's my thought for you. And even for other art channels, I think there's ways to make art channels work. But I think that they have to really find a bridge to the audience that they want to reach. So that's my thought. Yep. But I'd also love to hear from the audience. I'd love to know what you all think. Do you agree with me about what Diesel Funk can do? I think Diesel Funk's a great artist. I think that he's incredibly talented. But I also think it's hard to get people to care about original concepts if you don't meet them where they are and what's a priority for them right now. And I think that there's an incredibly powerful and compelling message that can be addressed if you combine art. with social commentary. And I think it fits your vibe completely. But what do you all think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Would you do anything differently? Let me know in the comment section if you're watching the replay. Let me know in the chat if you're watching live. There we go. Hopefully that helps you out, my friend. I know that that got very into the weeds there. But again, I think for art channels that it's rough because you want to express yourself. You have something to say. But getting people to hear it and see it, very challenging. But I think the hack to it is to combine it with relevant and timely social commentary. I really believe that deep down, that that can work, especially for you. Oh, yeah, Meat Canyon is killing it. Yep, absolutely. Yeah, no, big fan of Palpatine out here. The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be unnatural. So yeah big fan of Palpatine in this house actually I have a small mini bust Palpatine in my library I'm not joking. I bought it from Disney World the last time I was in Florida last time I was in Florida I was hanging out with my friend D. She was nice enough to treat me to I think it was a late lunch or an early dinner at the Rainforest Cafe that they've got there in Disney World. So she's like, no, she's always really cool whenever I visit Florida, even if I'm just in and out. And so we went that. But then I also, again, huge Star Wars fan, huge nerd. So I had to go to Galaxy's Edge and they were having a sale and I couldn't help myself. So I came out with these three really nice, Star Wars like heavy weighted paperweight bust. I got Palpatine. I got Vader and Yoda. It's never able to look at Palpatine the same way after seeing Empire. Oh, oh No Let's see Yeah, I don't know if Galaxy's Edge still has it, but you could check on the website, you know, on the Disney website. Like, but yeah, paperweight bust of Palpatine. I wish they had a full-size bust. If they had a full-size bust, I would have had to have that shipped to my house and hope nothing happened. Because if they had a full-size bust of the Emperor, that's a, I don't care how much money within reason, as long as it's under $500. I would have paid it, as long as it was under $500. If they had a full-size bust of Emperor Palpatine, I would have bought it sight unseen, like right there, just done. But it's a nice, good-sized paperweight. It's a good size. Very heavy, very robust. Like I said, though, if they had a full-size, oh, though, I would have bought that. It's over. Yep. But, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, my answer to everything for like stuff with art channels is not necessarily do a tutorial channel. In this case, again, ironically was the opposite. Yeah, one minute videos can work. I mean, YouTube Shorts is killing it right now. But anyway, what was I going to say? Oh, yeah, but... A lot of people like oh Roberto like you know you talk about your your drawings and your painting shows I can only if I do it It would only ever be the more positive light stuff, which is not in my mind It's my best work the the dark stuff is like I literally would feel irresponsible Showing it not because again, there's nothing wrong with it in itself is the problem is It's impossible for people to not have a strong reaction to it and it is very painful for some reason. I found some weird vibe where it taps into people's raw emotions and if they have unhealed wounds, it reopens them. So it's just something that I'm not crazy comfortable with in terms of showing that art. Because again, for me, it's my own therapy. So there's a vulnerability to it, but people who've come and visited me and I've shown them that stuff or that have known me over the years, there's an intense reaction to it. Some of it's abstract, but not that abstract, but it works. And some of it is, I've done like even visual, sorry, not visual, digital. art stuff in that style before. Some of my personal work there, it's nowhere on the internet for people. And it, when people see it, aside from initially just like, it's stopping them cold to where they can't look away. It's like, without it being as morbid or macabre, it's like watching a train wreck where you can't look away. but it's nothing gory either it's just that it's visceral in the sense that it there's this raw connection to pain that people um feel expressed in it and it's hard to look away but it's also something that immediately resurrects um their own trauma whereas it was me expressing my own um So that's why I don't necessarily share my drawings or paintings is I feel like it would have this weird ripple effect of people feeling worse when I did it to make myself feel better. Like so for me, I can just make this stuff and I feel better venting on the canvas, as they would say. Right. But other people who encounter it. It doesn't make them feel better the way it made me feel better. It makes them feel worse. So like, you know, that's a thing. But moving on, we do have one last channel review for the evening. And while this one's last, it's certainly not least. And there's a lot of good stuff with this channel here. We have Michael Steyer. Hope I'm pronouncing that right. So we have Michael Steyer, photographer. Man after my own heart. Photographer, traveler, currently documenting all 50 states at 60. Well done, my friend. Sharing stories, images, and adventures. I love this. And I love the banner. Normally, I wouldn't want a banner to work exactly like this in terms of I would want it to say something it's about and maybe have the schedule. I can let it go with this just because the banner as a photograph is so strong and so compelling That it works for this so well done as for the channel layout Great to have the featured video be your 50 state journey at 60 makes total sense Now something I do take issue with is I see where you're going with um the season five stuff here and what you're doing but i would a b test all of this even as a series with um versions of this that have less text and more of the beautiful landscapes um so there's that 50 at 60.com love that um slideshows of my work that's a little older uh definitely don't necessarily recommend slideshows um for this sort of thing for youtube however um what could have worked or not making them um not presenting them as slideshows per se uh might have worked um it'd be interesting to see if there's another way to present that um I don't hate it. It's just that it is harder to just get attention for it. So there's a lot going on with this channel and it's a very good portfolio of your overall work. So interesting. Oh, channels of the month. Interesting. Oh, and I know a bunch of these people. Okay, cool. But yeah, these thumbnails are not bad and they do have a charm to them that could work, but I would A-B test with another version of them that just shows more of the... environment itself, especially with this being so photo driven. Again, having you in the thumbnails is fine. I just would want A-B tested because I can see the hints of how beautiful the photographs are behind you. And yet, I almost want to see a beautiful Almost like even with you in the thumbnails, I almost want to see a beautiful collage of the photos that you're getting on this journey Because as a photographer that appeals to me and inspires me So again, it's not that these thumbnails are bad and for like TV viewers. This could actually be good It's just that I would much much more want to see the beautiful landscapes because it's so hinted at and I can just Almost tasted and it's almost out of my grasp with these thumbnails um Let's see in terms of your most popular stuff ever Most popular stuff a lot of that was also evergreen Tutorial stuff not really worried about that. I like the direction of these cinematic vlogs that you're doing now and I think You would agree and I think all of us, but by the way, I think you're gonna get a couple of fans from this live stream to be honest with you and from the replay because i do think that this is oh yeah i forgot that i'm logged into another account that's why um so like with this i do feel that this is really great content i think it's very strong and evergreen i think you're gonna get a lot of fans even off of this live stream people wanting to watch this and watch your journey uh this is really exciting for me um I want to do this when I like what when I'm 50 I'll probably do this. I'll probably do 50 50 for 50 I love that you're doing 50 for 60 and so I think you'll have a lot of fans off of this Stream, I think it's a cool channel. I think it's dope, but I also think that Just to get people to click it and understand more of what's going on. I do think you should a B test the thumbnails I think you should A-B test the thumbnails with showing a version of it that uses less of this text and more of the photograph with you in it and we can get to see that because I really feel like there's these gorgeous shots here and I feel like at a glance I'm missing out on them and I kind of just want that in the thumbnail because it could entice someone who's not me, to click it at a glance instantly, I think, because your photography is so good, it's so strong. So the way that you're doing your current thumbnails, it doesn't lead with your strength. It doesn't lead with your strength. But like I said, I think you're gonna literally get another 50 or 100 subscribers just off of this channel review, potentially, because I think you're gonna get some extra fans here. But no, this is awesome. For your live streams, I would title them very differently, but I would still communicate what they are, but I would title them a little bit differently. Let's see what's going on with shorts here. These shorts are probably fine the way they are, but what I would do is while you're doing the long form, I would do the short form and make sure you're starting with a hook for the short form and not just cutting it from the long form. I would start with a hook for it and I would talk about what you're doing. Especially with the travel component of this. If you want a good example of someone who's really good at short form and hooks. who travels. Check out my friend Cassie Aran. Cassie Aran, and that's A-R-A-N, kind of like Samus Aran from Metroid. So Cassie Aran, she is a travel adventurer, and she's doing a series where she converted a school bus into the luxury camper of her dreams. and is planning to do a 50 state kind of tour herself across the country with her dog. And she has really good short form hooks. I would check her out for you for the YouTube shorts in terms of way to do short form storytelling more effectively. She's very good. I also think you should be posting these shorts on TikTok and Facebook and Instagram if you're not already. And they could perform differently there. For your live streams, definitely consider multi-streaming. But again, I would just position the topics of the live streams maybe a little different in the titling of them. But I still think you should be embracing that. I love that you're multi-format already. No, this is great. This is excellent work. The quality is there. Storytelling is there. I just think the packaging could be a little bit better and you could be a little bit more intentional about some of it. And I would do more than just repurpose clips from the original stuff. I would make intentional and original shorts. while you're on location. Because again, the locations are so beautiful, everything is so good that I think you might as well make intentional short form while you're there, even if it's just on your phone or if you wanna just flip the camera vertically and start filming some stuff in the moment and just talk to us while showing us what's going on. I think you can, I think you should. And so I think that that kind of short form storytelling while on this adventure could be, um extremely well done but uh your content feels very made for tv for me and i think that's great um i think again with the right packaging it can definitely reach a broader audience but this is also very evergreen content um again i'm already a fan so i'm going to subscribe to this from my main account um i could definitely see this being the kind of thing i would share with my other friends who are into travel and photography But this is really well done, and this is inspiring. You've definitely won some fans over during this channel review in the chat, it seems. So, again, Michael, well done. Those are kind of my thoughts for you. Yeah, the content itself is great. I love the framing of everything. I love that it feels like an intentionally made-for-TV type series. So, again, no complaints from me there. But I do feel the packaging. Doesn't work on well as YouTube as it could and I don't feel like you're leading with your strengths if it were me I'd be leading with my strength I'd still have my face in it for personal branding reasons But I'd be leaving with the strength of your beautiful and brilliant photography and these gorgeous locations in the thumbnail And I think your current thumbnail design style, which I don't think you have to ditch I think it is worth a B testing it I think the current thumbnail design style Obscures and just takes away from your greatest strength which is the beautiful photography and beautiful locations So it's something to play around with but those are my thoughts But what do you think if you're in the chat? Do you agree with me if you're watching the replay would you do anything different? Let me know in the comments Yeah, those are my thoughts Michael great way to close out the reviews here again Again, I think your quality is excellent looking at through the video seeing your photography was amazing super inspiring for me So yeah, I think you get great shots man, and I think this is very cool I'm gonna probably end up watching a lot of your stuff over the weekend because I found it dope I found it really inspiring honestly as a you know something of a photographer myself a lot of people forget how much of a photographer I actually am like And my favorite camera for my own photography is actually my Sony A9 Mark II. So my Sony A9 Mark II is really great, especially for outdoors, wildlife, animals. I'm trying to do some more sports. I just have to figure out the arena rules down here. But this is my A. 9 mark 2 with a 70 to 200 millimeter G master lens in the back there I think I have my 200 to 600 I like that for my birding or when I go to zoo Atlanta So that in my bag over there. I've got my 100 to 400 millimeter G master So, you know, I'm big on that as you can see here. I even have my variable ND filter On this so really set for outdoors with it. I've got a 2x teleconverter back there That I use sometimes Again, not everybody appreciates a teleconverter Jared Poland hates them But yeah, so yeah Gym membership not included with the camera. I have my dual battery grip on there. I've got my Small rig Universal Mount on here and my black rapid strap this also this mount has a built-in Air tag in it for tracking so very good thing to have there Love the deep grip on this thing on the side and everything like that. Yeah, this thing weighs a ton. This is a beast But yeah, no, I love photography. I love photography YouTube channels Like yours Michael so again you got a big fan you've got a fan in me Yeah, you've got a fan in me So yeah, so really dig your stuff Definitely rooting for you glad we're able to do a review for you tonight Definitely the right channel to end the reviews with tonight, so Hopefully you found the the tips and the advice on it helpful. I'm gonna just go put this back on the shelf But yeah, that thing is my favorite camera. Interestingly, I'm going to a Sony event next Thursday. Probably going to get to play with, might even make a video about it for rebooting my camera channel, separate channel, around the Sony A7 Mark V, which I think is going to be a really great camera for me. I think it's going to end up becoming one of my favorite cameras, especially for photography. So it'll be my second. uh shooter camera um going forward um usually i have i have two a7 mark 4s i have the two a7 s3s and i have the fx3 uh for uh the cinema rig uh but for photography exclusively it's going to be the a92 paired with the a7 mark 5. so i'm probably gonna end up Doing the pre-order on the mark 5 and it's probably going to reboot my creator gear guide channel where I finally follow through on that and do Camera stuff and do a bunch of that me and my brother probably work on that together So I think that's gonna be interesting But yeah, I love Sony cameras. All these cameras are Sony cameras This is the ZV-E10 here. This is the a6600. Great hybrid shooter camera. Couldn't recommend it enough. If I wasn't a full frame snob, I would absolutely be on like an a6700. If I could live with myself primarily using APS-C instead of full frame, I've become a full frame snob. So that's me. I had an A7C. I sold it and bought a second A7 Mark IV back in the day. But I did love that camera a lot. The A7C. There is an A7C Mark II. I find myself struggling to justify ever having an A7C Mark II again. Like, I really do. Because for like a little bit more cash you can get another camera like you could get a used a 7 R 5 For just a little bit more money or you could get the a 7 5 for a little bit more money very hard to justify having a 7 You know see mark 2 But it just is such a cool camera and it's so compact and it's just so nice in terms of the form factor. But for the price, it's just hard to justify it when for a little bit more scratch, you get a lot more camera. So, you know, that sort of thing. The ZV-10 is the perfect camera for most YouTubers. Most of you never will need full frame, especially if you have controlled lighting. If you have controlled lighting, a lot of you will never need full frame. A lot of you that do outdoor stuff, you'll never need full frame. I'm just a full-frame snob can't help myself and You know, it's just my thing right I do speaking engagements and interviews so I can kind of justify it so That sort of thing, but also I love photography. So that's the other reason I'm a full-frame snob for video I don't have to be a full-frame snob if I'm being honest for video Technically if I'm being honest the image out of the a7s3 and fx3 are the same however the fx3 is netflix approved so if you ever want to do docu stuff at a production level it makes sense so it's like ah so like you know there's that part of me that internally always struggles with the idea that what if i just sold my a7s3s paid Five six hundred more bucks and upgrade all of them to FX threes But again like am I really gonna try to shoot Netflix levels like yeah? It's this internal struggle again first world problems But it's like I'm a camera guy the other guys. They're gonna go buy a sports car I buy cameras and books I bought you know built myself an art studio in the basement built a library in the basement other people They would have bought the sports car not me I hate driving anyway. But that's enough yapping for me. Michael says, should I just keep my name for my channel or think about renaming it to MDS Images? No, I think that just keeping it your name gives you a lot of flexibility. And I think that you actually have a storytelling channel and it has a vlog-like style to it. So I would keep it. I would just keep it your name. Yep, Sony's the best. I love Sony I've shot almost every camera system every major camera system. Anyway, I've shot Canon but only a little bit and only just to be able to say that I did and Sometimes when I had no choice when it was all that was around I Used to be a big Panasonic Lumix guy. I had two G two or three gh fives. I still have a gh7 So still very much a fan of what they're doing Sony was just superior for me Early on in my YouTube channel was shooting on Nikon Thought I was gonna really be a ride-or-die Nikon guy Really loved Nikon Sony knocked it out of the park for me very early on I was like, oh, I'm a Sony guy, so I've shot Nikon I've shot Canon I've sought Panasonic I owned a Fuji and I loved that And I sold that camera too And so I think I ended up selling the TX-30 to get the a7C, ironically enough. So I loved Fuji. I just couldn't justify having another set of camera lenses to buy instead of just having one camera system and one set of lenses. Just was not going to make sense at the time. Especially since I was like I could finish my Sony lens collection. I could finish my G Master collection if I don't do this so Yeah, I'm not gonna really go into another camera system until I've gotten all the Sony glass that I want and then I probably will just buy two or three native lenses for that other if I get another camera system and Then just get a converter and just use all my expensive Sony lenses anyway Even though converters are not really our adapters are not really the best That's probably just the way I would go. I'm too invested in the Sony ecosystem. Sony's just too good, right? So I've used all the big five camera systems, but for me, and because for those reasons, Sony wins. Because again, I've used Fuji. I've used Panasonic. I've used Canon. I've used Nikon. I was big on Nikon, big on Panasonic. And in the end, Sony won, hands down. I've used everything and Sony won. Fun and formative live tonight, Roberto. Thank you learn a lot as always. Yeah, no, absolutely It's getting super late over here. I think it's bordering on midnight So we're gonna go ahead and call it a night. Thank everybody for coming Normally, we would have an Opus clip stream tomorrow, but we're taking a break over on the Opus clip stream that me and Andrew can do on the weekend. But I might be going live tomorrow. I'll let you guys know. I might be going live tomorrow after Nick Nimmin stream because I've gotten you guys used to a Saturday stream. If we do, I don't know what the agenda will be, but we'll think of something. Um, maybe we'll just do a Saturday stream to try to get you guys geared up for 2026 on growing your channels. So we'll see, but anyway, I've had a great time. Thank you for all of the channels that submitted reviews. Thank you for all the super chats. Thank you for listening to me. Yep. Here about cameras and my obsession with them. Um, and about art and all the things, but, um, we will catch you next time. Again, shout out to our Live stream sponsor and partner our friends over at 1of10.com Like I said, they are the best overall YouTube tool that you can use in modern YouTube right now I've used everything 1of10 is the best tool in the business You sign up now with my link and get 20% off or you can try a free get a free trial try before you buy So that is linked in the description mods will be able to put that in the chat as well I want to thank our mod team especially Doug Hewson for Hank Holding it down today. Make sure you guys show him some love He also covers a lot of the new YouTube updates over on his channel and he goes live Saturdays right before our good friend Nick Nimmin So again shout out to our friend Doug Hewson really appreciate you man. Yep, absolutely So yeah, I appreciate it last thing last housekeeping At the end of the stream, you're going to see some info from me if you ever want to work with me over at AwesomeCreatorAcademy.com. We offer a group membership. Our members have been crushing it, especially this year. We've done some case studies around that. I also do one-on-one coaching if you're interested. So you'll find all that info at AwesomeCreatorAcademy.com. We also have our free Creator Foundations course. It is a free course, but you can also pay what you want, whether that's $0 or if you want to just give a $5 donation. foundations course has almost like, I think 10 or more hours of content at this point with more to come. I think it's the best free YouTube course that exists right now. Better than some $500 courses is what I've heard from people. So you don't have to take my word for it. You can see for yourself, check out awesomecreditoracademy.com and everything we're doing over there. And I will see you guys next time. Hopefully tomorrow we see you. And again, that free career foundations course also includes a 90 minute masterclass that I gave at an in-person event that no longer exists anymore. And so that is something that you get with access to it as well. Anyway, guys, stay awesome and I will catch you in the next video. Take care. Becoming a content creator can be a very lonely process and adventure, but it doesn't have to be. When I first got started going from zero to 100,000 subscribers, I had to do it all by myself. I didn't have a community of like-minded and like-hearted creators to talk to or to ask for advice, and I certainly didn't have a mentor to guide me along the way. I built the Awesome Creator Academy Pro Group because when I was getting started, what would have meant the world to me is not to have to struggle alone when it comes to being a full-time content creator. If I had had a community of creators that I could talk to and share information with, I would have avoided a lot of mistakes in my early career. And there would have been opportunities with brand deals where I would have gotten a better understanding of how to negotiate. And I wouldn't have undersold myself. I wouldn't have been taken advantage of in those early situations. so in the awesome creator academy pro group myself and our co-instructor andy rivera we meet twice a week for office hours with our creators and we share information we talk about how we're building our creator businesses and we offer constructive criticism and critique on the things that we're working on for our projects to be part of a community of usually around a hundred like-minded creators who are taking this seriously just like you are you also have all access as a pro group member to all of our past, present, and future courses, training, templates, digital downloads, and swipe files. You have full access to our creator blueprints where you'll see our systems and the frameworks that we use to execute. You know, you always fall or rise to the standard of your systems. A lot of people really underestimate how important that is. We have digital download templates that can help you so you don't have to start with a blank canvas. These done for you, files are actually incredibly helpful especially for things like your thumbnails your media kits and anything you need for your branding as a content creator to look professional we have email swipe files that help you with reaching out to brands we have great information in helping you price yourself and build your packages appropriately and remember as part of the pro group you have the opportunity to ask questions from myself and all the other creators participating and so this means that if you need to Ask questions about negotiation or a brand deal. There's something you're not sure about. You're trying to find a better monetization opportunity with merch or affiliates. You have people who have done it before who are already making money that you can reach out to for advice. As I said, when I was starting out and I was flying solo, this is the thing that I wish I'd had the opportunity to be a part of and it would have made all the difference in the world in helping me be an even more successful content creator. If you have questions, you can always reach out via support. We're happy to help you figure out if the pro group is right for you. Also, we do have the opportunity to become a VIP member if you also would like quarterly one-on-one coaching with me directly. Now go out there and create something awesome today and hopefully we'll see you in the pro group. Take care.

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