Is this the beginning of the end for YouTube? (yes I'm serious) Where is content creation heading with AI?

Level 1: You won't be replaced by AI, but by someone using AI
Level 2: Competitive advantages are collapsing

Most people stop at level 2, so here's level 3:

For a decade, I thought Airbnb would protect us if something went wrong.

That was until the life of my son was in play and they sided with the host.

If you trust @Airbnb, don't learn the hard way like I did.

Here's my story: I hope my experience helps some of you save your sanity, a lot of money and your children's lives.

On the 8th of July, we're on a flight to Spain for a summer family vacation.

We were a universe away from realizing how close we'd come to losing our son.

The Perception Economy.

(thread) These two videos are about the same Airbnb.

But one of them has almost 3M more views than the other (after 3 months).

Why?

YouTube f*cked up big time: A/B test feature is completely broken.

(mega thread) Let’s play a game:

1) Check the picture below
2) Read the title
3) Pick the thumbnail you think fits it best.

We built a cheat code for YouTube.

Think it’s yet another clickbait?

Read this & press the like button to prove to others it’s not. The video you see above flatlined for 6 months and blew up after switching to a better thumbnail & title.

(Screenshot from @viewstats)

Not knowing if a video will succeed or flop is the bigger nightmare for content creators.

For the past few months, we’ve been working on solving it.

And it seems we cracked the code.

This is the thread you'll wish you didn’t ignore in 6 months from now. When you come up with a video idea, you might have a gut feeling about how well it will do.

We simulated a micro YouTube algorithm.

Here are the important elements you should know about yourself. If you break down the YouTube into binary, i
t is pretty simple:

1) Users either click on a video or they don't
2) Users either watch a video or they don't

The Attention Game.

Thinking YouTube is your friend is the best way to go bankrupt overnight as a content creator (in the most literal way).

This is the mega thread you'll wish you had read when it will happen to you.

My "Mrs Watanabe" video which was uploaded on a channel with 0 subscribers has now crossed 2M views.

It's time to share with you an idea framework used here (that I have held secret so far). I thought long and hard before sharing this with you or leaving it exclusively for my discord community, but it's been a while since I made a post here so it's your lucky day 😌.

I call it: The Black & White idea framework.

I've been contacted by people working at YouTube for feedback on the analytics. (cc @hitsman & @BaerJustus)

So here is how some metrics in the analytics push creators to make huge mistakes: Before I start, it's important to explain 2 notions I'll be using:

Signal: Important/meaningful information (what we're looking for)

Noise: Random/misleading information that hides the signal. (What we want to avoid)

Let's talk about a rampant issue in analytics: the average.

I made this video using AI.

It crossed 1M views & 20k subs in 3 weeks:

- with only one video
- on a brand new YouTube channel
- 100% organically (0 external promotion)

Making this channel the first in history to achieve this.

Here's how. First of all, this video was NOT "made by AI" but "made with AI".

I didn't find a magic prompt and *poof*, the whole video was made.

I used AI as a tool, just like you'd use a shovel to dig.

Many people romanticize AI but it's far from being as easy as they think.

YouTubers, you're probably not reading data in your analytics correctly.

Here are 7 biases you're blind to: I have been contacted by people working at YouTube to provide my feedback on the analytics, but before I do detailed feedback (soon), let's start with a quick overview of how reading your analytics can fool you.

Here is probably my best thread of all time.

If there is one place on the internet that breaks down the YouTube algorithm for real without sensationalism, it's this one.

12 years of YouTube experience concentrated in one Twitter thread, let's go. I will try to keep this thread as beginner-friendly as possible with visuals so all creators of any level can understand.

This will hopefully help you understand the game you're playing on YouTube better and unfuck your brain so you can focus on the right things.

No risk, no story. Average is boring.

https://twitter.com/wono_strategy/status/1633074015584567298

⚠️

This thread is a condensed version of the full strategy (too long for Twitter).

You can find the lite version in my private (but free) newsletter :
🔗 2500 words

The full version in my premium discord community:
🔗 4500 wordsforms.gle/nbvfnecbHXGxiS…
wonoccino.com/community

Are YouTube gurus all charlatans?

If you still struggle to dissociate legit people from charlatans, here's a mental model that will not only help you answer this question in less than 30s, but will also save you a lot of money in your life.

(Thread) "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is."

Yogi Berra

Have you heard of YouTube automation?

(mega thread) You've probably seen these kinds of analytics screens pop up left and right, especially here on Twitter.

I'll try to make this thread as comprehensive as possible so that you can have the intellectual weapons to understand youtube automation deeply.

Let's go.

Why YouTube gurus are dangerous for content creators.

(thread) Our brains are not wired to fathom the complexity of this world because it is mostly random.

To make sense of such a chaotic world, we have mental shortcuts and biases.

This helps us make decisions faster without constantly thinking about what to do next.

If you're a content creator on YouTube, you probably heard this:

Higher retention = More views

Well you've been lied to, this is 100% wrong ❌

Here's why and what will truly get you views:

(thread) I've done many things in my life.

Besides being a content creator, I also have a good experience in market trading (a lot of football trading & a bit of crypto).

This is why my vision of YouTube is "market-oriented" and why I came up with the concept of "Attention Markets".

A few days ago, I crossed 1k followers on Twitter.

After 4 months on this platform, I am sharing what I learned with you. I've been using Twitter since 2012 as a "viewer", but I've never been an actual content creator on this platform.

(Besides my @elwono_ account that I use to interact with my youtube community.)

Chasing virality on YouTube will eventually kill your channel.

I made this mistake and learned it the hard way.

I've been a full-time creator for 8 years (and counting) thanks to audience building.

I share in this thread how I did it so you can avoid depression.

👇 Forget views, forget subs, forget engagement.

Building an audience is all about catching attention and managing it.

It's about building a system that allows you to manage the attention of your viewers so you can leverage it to reach your goals.

If you're a creator on YouTube not getting the views you want, it's not because:

- Your retention is bad
- Your thumbnail is bad

But because you do not understand "attention markets".

It took me 12 years to figure it out, but I'll explain it to you in 5 minutes 👇 1. Attention Basics

Attention is a limited resource. I like to define it like this:

Attention = interest + time

Take you as an example, you clicked "show more" on this thread, meaning I already have your interest, but now I'm also getting your time.