If you want to give a video the best chance possible to go viral.
There are some non-negotiables that you must abide by when scripting it.
Write these down.
Use them as a checklist to make sure that when you create your next video project, you consider implementing
each and every one of them.
Here they are in no particular order.
Nobody cares about you in the beginning, so make videos around topics that they actually do care about.
I know that's harsh, but it's the truth.
You can't create videos in the beginning like big YouTubers do simply because you don't have a massive
audience yet and nobody cares about your life.
Again, harsh but true.
You need to learn how to tell better stories and take the viewer on a journey with you.
It's so much easier to get watch time and maintain interest.
If you get good at storytelling, use that to your advantage.
I recommend that you script everything and never improvise.
In my opinion, this is a nonnegotiable for 99% of people probably watching this.
Don't get me wrong, some people are better at improvising and can keep the audience entertained, but
most people are not.
So take my advice and at least try scripting your video.
It'll cut out any unnecessary lulls and your audience will thank you for getting to the point which
most people do not do.
You need to get better at video ideas as well.
It all starts with a great idea.
You can make the best videos in the world, but if no one cares about the topic, they won't do very
well.
You also need better titles.
It's not simply enough anymore to try and rank video titles for keywords like you see most people recommending
that might work for evergreen long traffic when people are searching for specific things.
But one YouTube is more competitive than ever now, so good luck trying to rank your way to the top.
And two, that's not how YouTube works anymore.
YouTube is a suggestion machine you want to get suggested by the algorithm.
That's how you get views and do well.
Not trying to rank videos for keywords.
That's an outdated strategy.
When editing a video, ask yourself do you need it?
And if you don't cut it out.
I heard Hillyer Smith, who was Logan Paul's editor for a while, say this in an interview, and it
literally improved my subsequent videos at least ten X instead of keeping things that I would repeat
or filler parts, I started to hold a microscope to every single little thing.
I would say, Did I need it?
Did the audience need to hear that bit of info in order to understand the point that I was trying to
make?
And if the answer wasn't a clear yes, it got cut.
And now my videos are much shorter, but they get a longer percentage of watch time and a longer percentage
of audience retention.
You also need to get straight to the point.
This directly relates to my last point that I just made, but you want to give the viewers as much value
in as little time period as possible.
Hardly anyone else is doing that.
They're all trying to keep the viewer watching longer and bait the hook, so to speak.
And viewers are smart.
They notice and they don't like it.
So don't dangle the carrot and make them wait.
Give them the info, give them the value in as short a time period as possible and they'll love you
for it.
You also need better thumbnails to click.
The rate is the number one metric that YouTube uses to measure and judge how well your videos and channels
are doing and how much they should suggest you or not.
Plus, if nobody clicks on the video, you can't get any views.
It doesn't matter how good the video is.
You also want to make sure that you don't have any dead time or boring lulls in your video.
The people that succeed on YouTube keep it interesting all the time.
The average successful YouTube video has dozens to hundreds of jump cuts and camera movements of some
kind in the first few minutes alone.
It's not enough to just talk to the camera anymore because people's attention spans are shorter now
than ever and you need to keep their attention with fast paced video editing.
Otherwise you'll be hard pressed to compete.
Every part of your YouTube video is important, but the beginning is absolutely crucial.
You need to keep your audience retention as long as possible, and the longer you can keep someone watching,
the more YouTube will suggest your videos to the masses.
Use B-roll scene changes in multiple camera angles if you can, because this will directly contribute
to increased audience retention and make your videos more enjoyable to watch and definitely less boring.
So there you go.
Write these down and use them as a checklist to make sure that when you create your next video project,
you consider implementing each and every one.