Thread by @PaddyG96

I have studied YouTube every day for over 10 years.

I have worked across billions of views and helped generate $10s of millions in ad revenue.

Here are my 12 steps to grow a youtube channel from scratch in 12 months:

Establishment Phase (0 videos posted)

Step 1 - Find your niche using the triple venn diagram.

What is the intersect between what you're passionate about, what you're good at and what there is demand for (market) on youtube?

Let's focus on that niche.

Step 2 - Laser focus on the niche, don't be a sushi restaurant serving burgers

We need to be high conviction and focus on this niche. Too many beginners try to be a restaurant serving everything, let's make your name with one niche (Even sub-niche).

Step 3 - Study the craft of making videos

Before getting too caught up in strategy, retention and data... we just need to understand how to make f***ng videos!

Spend these first few months learning everything you can about video editing and photoshop, so you have the foundation.

Step 4 - Make 2 videos every week

They are gonna suck, they are probably not going to get many views. You need quantity to eventually get quality. Don't worry too much about ideation, just do what calls to you.

Follow these steps for 4 months before moving onto next phase.

Improvement phase (32 videos posted)

Step 5 - Start coming up with 100 ideas per week

For the first few months I just wanted you to make whatever you wanted within your niche, now we change.

Brainstorm ideas using my 100-10-1 framework. Brainstorm around outliers.

Outliers = ideas that over-performed (let's say 3x or 4x the average) for other channels.

If you start coming up with 100+ ideas and use real thought to filter them down to a handful of strong ones, you'll naturally start coming up with better ideas.

Step 6 - Start making at least 2 thumbnails per video. Just do it. Everyone has ABC testing now.

Step 7 - Begin studying the craft of YouTube strategy

People often do this too early, but if you're posting consistently and know the basics, get stuck in...

Learn how to read retention curves, follow strategists here on twitter and YouTube, start thinking more deeply about strategy.

I'm going to be sending out a guide on this to my 20,000 newsletter subscribers later this week (link in bio).

Step 8 - Switch to one video a week and start focusing on trying to improve quality

Too many try to achieve quality too early, now you've posted 32 videos, let's try focus in on more quality.

Let's do this for another 4 months.

Optimization phase - (48 videos posted)

Step 9 - Start honing in on the top 10% of videos

Now that we've posted almost 50 videos, let's start digging into our data. We can use my ''bangers and flops'' framework.

Find the top 5 viewed videos, and bottom 5 videos you've posted

Write down why you think the top 5 did well, try to brainstorm more ideas around them.

With the 5 that didn't do well, understand and eliminate.

Step 10 - Carve out 4 hours a week to study YouTube (trends, outliers, competitors) beyond just your niche. Schedule this.

Step 11 - Get your feedback loop set up.

Each time you post study two things 7 days after release:

The performance: Why did it do good/bad?

The retention curve: Where did we lose viewers? What can we do differently?

Then apply lessons to future videos.

Step 12 - Continue to post weekly, and make each video that little bit better

Using the insights you are gaining from the feedback loop, adopt the mentality that each video needs to be 1% better than the last.

So after 12 months you will have

- 60+ videos posted
- Foundational skills in producing content
- Foundational skills in YouTube strategy
- Improvement each video

This is the platform to build a full time 6-figure career on YouTube.

Hope this was helpful, do this instead of buying a course. ❤️

I'll pick a person who RTs & likes the first tweet and jump on a call to run through these steps and build your plan with you.

Last giveaway winners are being DMd today :)

Follow @PaddyG96 for youtube strategy content!