Thinking of starting a YouTube teaching channel?
Instead of traditional classrooms where you can teach only 20-40 students, YouTube opens up a wide audience that can potentially reach millions.
Along with that goes your income potential.
A Brazilian-Canadian study examined 11,177 videos from 150 different YouTube influencers to determine the characteristics that successful videos share.
First, let’s take a look at the study’s context.
- The analysis focused on videos from influencers in general interest topics such as beauty, food, gaming, kids, and more.
- Some of the channels analyzed are Markiplier (Gaming), The Planet D (Travel), Lilly Singh (Entertainment), and Christen Dominique (Beauty).
These are the main takeaways extracted by Ariyh to boost views, likes, and comments:
- Have an informal tone
- Avoid providing too much information at once
- Use a personal touch in your video
- Be moderately positive, but balance with negative emotions
- Make the video last longer than 10 minutes, but generally less than 20 minutes so viewers will be motivated to watch
- Publish outside of business hours, such as from Monday to Friday after 6 pm
According to the study, videos with these characteristics received more views, likes, and comments, as well as fewer dislikes.
Why does this work?
Because users turn to YouTube to do deeper research compared to Facebook or TikTok. But at the same time, people still want to be entertained, so they’ll stay away from videos that are too information-dense. Striking a middle ground is key.
Infotainment is the right word.
YouTube is also not the only platform where users crave a mix of information and entertainment. In some cases, this study essentially confirms what many content marketers already knew.
A note on ads, affiliate links, and other YouTube monetization techniques
Creators have a few main options for monetization:
- Ads (Google AdSense)
- Affiliate links
- Sponsors
- Selling their own product or service
AdSense is one of the biggest drivers of revenue for YouTube creators. You can monetize with AdSense once you have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of cumulative watch time.
If your video is at least 8 minutes long, you can place at least one midroll ad.
Consider one midroll ad every 6-8 minutes or so. More often is likely to annoy your viewers.
If your video is 20 minutes long, you can realistically place two, around the 6-minute and 12-minute mark.
Affiliate links are also an option if they are highly relevant to your audience. You can promote products or services within your video or passively within the description.
Sponsorships are another option that can be integrated within the video. All people viewing the video who watch up to that point are at least introduced to it.
Some creators don’t include ads, affiliate links, or sponsors at all, as they have their own business they’re trying to promote (or it simply doesn’t fit what advertisers are looking for).
Selling other people’s products would be less effective for them. It would be disruptive to their viewers or divert their attention.
And if companies are selling ads in your videos, you can be pretty sure they’re making money off it otherwise they wouldn’t continue.
