Embarking On Your YouTube Journey: A Rookie’s Guide to Getting Started and Essential Considerations for Success

Happy Saturday!

We are still discussing Traffic, and it is no surprise that this will be the topic for a few weeks because there is so much to cover.

Last week’s class was all about YouTube, and I promised I would share my journey this week as I completed all the available training on the Internet Profits Accelerator platform so I could take a deep dive into YouTube and decide if this is an avenue I want to commit to.


To be honest, I am a little on the fence about YouTube, as it is a big commitment, but after this week, with Facebook and Instagram going down for a few hours and receiving a notification that Congress is trying to ban TikTok, it seems important to delve into YourTube and Blogging, because these are more stable and sustainable platfroms.

This week, I watched and followed the tutorials, set up my YouTube channel, and added my banner, profile picture, and some extra goodies….

Here are some videos for you to follow along with if you would like to join me on this YouTube adventure!

Video #1: Click here to watch one of my mentors, Sophie, as she shows you how to set up a YouTube channel. 


Video # 2: Here are the next steps: how to customize your channel, getting set up part 2

Now, the hard part: the strategy. 

Sophie made it clear that to grow a channel quickly. You need to focus on one niche and one message.

Going into this, I thought I could just repurpose the videos I was making on social media. But my perspective has changed as I have gotten more information.

Sophie said that when she was starting out, she kind of covered a ton of topics, but this caused issues with the YouTube Algorithm. By having such a diversified channel, the algorithm couldn’t figure out what her channel was about and who to show her videos to.

This made me question what is my best strategy? Do I want to have multiple channels for different types of content? 

I brought this up to my Mastermind and also sent in the question to Sophie and the team or the Q&A. 

It really helps to have people to talk to about this and exchange ideas. I don’t want to jump in head first without having a strategy. Thankfully, I have not only a team of expert coaches with proven results at Internet Profit Accelerators but also a group of peers going through it with me.

After much discussion, I have decided to approach YouTube as me, Alison Blaire, on my journey using the Affiliate System Platform and documenting what I am learning. Within that, I can talk about the tools I am using to assist me in the journey. I have to be careful how I present the information so YouTube knows my target audience and whom to show my videos to.

So, I will be working on this upcoming week and starting to record because, as you know, I am all about beta—then better!

Sophie’s biggest advice is to give the people what they want.

On YouTube, you are making videos for YOU—not you literally, but the “You” in YouTube, which is basically the viewer, your target audience, AKA your avatar.

Now that got my wheels turning…


Who is my target audience? What colors do they like? What content will help them the most? What will they be searching for? What is the best way to structure my videos? What titles and thumbnails would resonate the most? What content would people consume to the end?

I feel people doing affiliate marketing are 40+ either working hard, realizing that no matter how much they work, they cannot afford the life they want and that trading time for money is not leading to their dream life, OR they are retired, realizing they don’t have enough money to live.

It is important to understand your target market aka your avatar, and to understand their pain points, so that you can help them solve them!


Solving pain points and helping answer their questions is how you build know, like and trust.

Starting by solving smaller pain points builds knowledge, likes, and trust. Then, when you solve the big stuff, they are more likely to be on board with purchasing a solution or done-for-you opportunity, and this is where the big ticket sales are. You not only get to help people but make a little money doing it! And that is what affiliate marketing is all about.


I will continue to share my YouTube journey. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a thing. I will be sure to email you as I post each post!

You can join by clicking here!

As I start on my YouTube video creation, I will take the lessons to heart and remember:

  1. People have to click on your videos, this is measuredby YouTube as your click-through rate. This metric is important. To get people to click, you need to have an awesome Thumbnail and Title. 
  2. In order for your channel to do well and for YouTube to show your videos, people need to consume the content, not just watch for a few seconds and click off. Retention is the next most important metric. This can be accomplished by making good videos. 

Making good videos that keep people engaged is a skill set that is learned and takes practice and some research. Look at competitors and see what people like, again this is about creating videos for the viewer.

And with that in mind…

  1. Hook them in right away 
  2. Keep your energy level high 
  3. Be clear in what you want to share, tell people what to expect, and deliver on it. What are they going to learn? Why stay on video? You are making a big bold promise and delivering on it while adding an element of storytelling and entertainment all the way through while giving value. 
  4. Always have a call to action, i.e., hit subscribe, like, comment, and share,  
  5. Make sure you follow all the rules of the platforms. You will need a disclaimer letting people know you have affiliate links.
  6. Consistency is key, so be consistent with how frequently you post. 
  7. Once you have a few videos up, you can organize your channel using playlists; this will make it look nicer and help people find your videos and the right videos. You can put a description on your playlist to help with SEO. Once I have a few videos up I’ll show you how to create a playlist.

I did ask some questions to the team and wanted to share the answers:

Q. How long should your videos be?

A. Enough to deliver your message. There is no average ideal length of videos for YouTube


Q. How do you get traffic to your videos?

A. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), adding keywords to the title and description will help your videos reach the right people. 

Sophie recommended two plugins for SEO: 

1. Tubebuddy
2.Vid IQ

 

Q. Should you promote your YouTube Post on your social media channels and email lists?

A. Yes and no. Share your YouTube videos only with people who you know will be interested. If people don’t watch to the end, this can affect your retention metric, and YouTube might stop sharing your videos. The goal is to get people to watch at least 50% of your content.

Q. Do you incentive people to watch to end by mentioning a free gift 

A. You can but typically your call to action to get them to subscribe to your page and recommend another video they should watch from your channel. 

What do you think? Is YouTube now on your radar? Feeling a little overwhelmed?

Comment below. I would love to hear what you think about YouTube and your traffic strategies!

And don’t forget to join my newsletter by clicking here to stay up to date on everything I am doing and get all the insider information.

Let’s ride from rookie to riches together and make 2024 our best year yet.


To Our Success,

Alison Blaire

 

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ALISON BLAIRE

35 Responses

  1. Hi, Alison!
    This is a great summary of your training.
    You mentioned being careful in presenting your YouTube material so that YouTube understands who your audience is.
    How do you do that? As a beginner affiliate marketer, I’m learning about a wide variety of topics. How would you present it so that it seems to YouTube that you have one audience?
    Thanks,
    Nakina
    Nakina Lawson recently posted…A Plan Plus Action Equals SuccessMy Profile

    1. Hi Nakina, great question. What I mean by presenting your material on YouTube so that YouTube understands who your audience is, is having a clear and consistence message.I have a publishing business and I am a pharmacist, and part of learning affiliate systems is me wanting to launch my own website: Own Your Mind and Body Health, and promote my books and courses educating people on how to make lifestyle changes to live there healthiest and best lives. If I was creating a YouTube Channel for this, all my posts would be focused on the “Blue Zone Blueprint,” and include tips and strategies to help people live into their 100s, avoiding diseases like diabetes and dementia, maintaining their cognitive function and thriving as they age. Does that make sense? By nicheing down and being consistent with my message YouTube will have an easier time knowing what my channel is about and putting my material in front of my target audience: people over 40 that want to take care of their aging body and keep their mobility and independence as they age. Hope that makes sense, let me know if you have any additional questions.

  2. In relation to answering the questions people are asking, the site answerthepublic.com can literally show you what questions people are asking about certain topics.

    I need to do a better job of making videos that actually do this, then I can add in a few more tips I think are helpful, but I’ve got to start with what people are asking

  3. Nice work on the value of Youtube. You explained to me something I had not realized, stay with a consistent theme. While i did reach the monetization stage, I have found it particularly hard to keep viewers hooked. You told me what I was missing.
    Scott recently posted…My Roadmap to Affiliate SuccessMy Profile

    1. Scott, I am so excited that I was able to help you, and congratulations on monetizing your YouTube channel, that is a #WIN worth celebrating!!!!!!!

  4. Hi Alison- apparently I am verified on You Tube. I’ve been off and on the platform for 15 years. Apparently I am linked to a Google ad account, as well.

    Not sure how to make playlists, but will study that. And the ads shown on your videos help to increase your channel’s revenue. I heard of someone who made a living simply on the ads displayed on his video’s while doing another internet business. Doing this correctly could cushion the money needed to live comfortable- another stream of income, as it were.

    1. Yes! YouTube can be a great way to monetize, and I look forward to getting to that point!

      Playlist can be a great way to organize your videos. To create playlists you can follow these steps:

      1. Sign in to your YouTube account and go to the YouTube homepage.
      2. Click on your profile icon at the top right corner and select “Your channel” from the dropdown menu.
      3. Go to the “Customize Channel” tab and click on the “Playlists” section on the left sidebar.
      4. Click on the “New playlist” button to create a new playlist or select an existing playlist where you want to add videos.
      5. To add a video to a playlist, go to the video you want to add, click on the “Save” button below the video player, and select the playlist where you want to add it.
      6. You can also add multiple videos to a playlist by clicking on the “Add to playlist” button below the video player and selecting the desired playlist.
      7. Once you have added all the videos you want to the playlist, you can view and edit the playlist by going to the “Playlists” section of your channel.

  5. Your Are Top Notch! Amazing video you did. You are really not a rookie! You look pro to me.
    GREAT info you shared. I going to gain from all you points.

    Thanks Alison

  6. Hi Alison,
    Thanks for such complete information about YouTube. Of course it could be tempting for me to go dig on this platform, however if I do so now, I think I’m going to be overwhelmed. Actually I try to debunk TikTok and the realm of short videos and this takes all my time. Once my skills will get better at doing a complete video of 1min without cutting more than 5 times, than I will be ready for YouTube. 😅 Good post.
    Martin
    Martin Lefebvre recently posted…Get Your Next TikTok Video Viral!My Profile

    1. Martin, you bring up a very good point. It is important to learn and focus on one strategy at a time to prevent being overwhelmed and distracted. Although I am posting on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, I am carving out a little time each day to learn YouTube and devise a strategy. I am definitely not jumping in and creating and posting content yet; I am just getting my feet wet!

  7. Hey Alison,

    Congrats on completing your training at Internet Profits, this alone is a great achievement. You are a natural on video 🙂 Keep it up!
    I love your 7 pointers 🙂
    I do have a YouTube channel, however, I never really use it. Maybe in the future, who knows?

    Great blog, keep up with the great work! 🙂

    Chigs
    Chigs recently posted…The Potential of Two Hours A DayMy Profile

    1. Thanks, Chigs, for your kind words; they are very appreciated! What are you using as your primary traffic strategy?

  8. Alison, another epic blog. You always add so much to each blog with advice and videos and all sorts of stuff so thank you. I just like to make a point around YouTube. I’ve used it recently for my content and I’ve found that you don’t get many views. So I think i’ve decided that I will use it like a Vlog version of my blog. So each of my blogs, I will talk to the audience in a long form video, but not sure whether I’ll do it word for word or a summary. As we learned in the training, YouTube is a long game. I love how you incorporated Sophie’s is training as a link into your blog very nicely done. All the best to keep up the great work as usual. You always overdeliver. Thank you so much, Atif
    Atif Perwiz recently posted…The benefits of successful behaviours in Affiliate MarketingMy Profile

    1. Thanks, Atif, I am so glad you found value in my posts. I think using YouTube as a VLOG is a great strategy. I am excited to dive into YouTube and I have a strategy to test out; starting to record my first videos this week; I will keep you posted on the entire thing once it solidified!! Look forward to this journey as we ride from rookie to riches together!!!!!!!!

  9. Hi Alison,

    Thank you for this post as I am going there. I have always wanted to so now I am!

    I just need to do research so thanks for Sophie’s YouTube.

    I subscribed to your newsletter and see I have a video tutorial waiting for me. So awesome!

    Your TikTok videos are fantastic so looking forward to your successful YouTube Channel.
    Eleanor Hope recently posted…Setting Goals is Key To HappinessMy Profile

    1. Thank you, Eleanor; it means the world to me that you have subscribed to my Newsletter! I promise I will only be sharing things to help you excel in affiliate marketing success, the videos from Dean that I give away as free gits to my subscribers have helped me so much, and I am glad they have made their way to your inbox!!!

  10. This was just what I needed and I will be spending the rest of the day setting up my you-tube channel. THANK YOU! Really great blog and content.

    1. Yayy!!! I am so excited for you, Kae; setting up a channel is a big step, and I am glad I could help you in your journey. Please keep me posted and let me know when it’s up and running. I would love to check it out. And don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions along your way, I am here to help!

  11. Hey Alison, Great post. I recently watched Sophie’s weekly training on YouTube videos in our AS back office and enjoyed it. I am going to watch her training in the Internet Profits System, too, to gather all the necessary steps for creating my channel and ensuing videos. I’m leaning towards YouTube over TikTok for a few reasons. It’s taking me more time to research at this point, and once I have determined how to approach this, I think I will have a good grasp of the concept. Thank you for your insightful information. It is always a pleasure reading your blog.

    1. Thank you so much Ezequiel for your kind words, they mean so much to me! It feels like a warm and fuzzy knowing I am on the right track with my content creation!

  12. afternoon Alison,
    Great read and fantastic information. Definitely worth a read – I’m on the fence as well as to which Social Media I’ll be using to promote my blog. I’m like several here, I don’t fancy the camera too much – even if I do a lot of voice-over work, that doesn’t necessarily translate to the camera! LOL!
    Wishing you all the best and going to go read part 2 right away!
    Small note though: I’d reduce the size of your videos within your blog; being that size takes a lot more time to download and see.

    1. Marc, I have learned from watching other people’s social media and even YouTube channels that you don’t have to be on camera to find success. There are many faceless strategies out there. Do what is best for you. However, if it’s just a fear thing, I encourage you to embrace it and just hit record. There is nothing more empowering than doing something out of your comfort zone. Affiliate Marketing is all about overcoming being uncomfortable. Regardless of the strategy you choose, may 2024 bring you much success! Thank you for the recommendation to reduce the size. I did compress the videos, but I didn’t realize you can reduce the size to make it quicker to load, I appreciate the tip!

  13. Alison, you have some of the best content in your blogs that I have read yet! I really enjoy the fact that you have such great content in your blog, but you also include videos and tutorials as well. I almost feel like I need to sit down with a pad and pencil when I read your posts… as I’m going to want to take notes! I really resonate with you how you’re choosing to tackle your YouTube strategy. Like you, I wasn’t going to use YT as a primary source; however after this past week when FB and IG went down, it made me a little uneasy to consider those as my primary strategies. I’m looking forward to your next post!

    1. Thank you so much, Lauren; you bring the biggest smile to my face as I read your comment. My goal and mission is to consistently deliver everything I am learning so that others can follow along, and we can all go from rookie to riches together. If you are taking notes, that is the best compliment that I can receive.

  14. Hi Alison,
    I am torn with deciding what social media I should go with because of everything going on with them now. TikTok was my first go to, but that’s all crazy now in congress. YouTube does have a lot more that is involved, but it’s a good one to start with too. Everyone goes to YouTube today… I wish you the best of luck with your adventure! I’m sure you will do fine. This was an extremely helpful post today and it gave tons of valuable information. Excellent job!
    Meredith
    Meredith Moore recently posted…Facing Adversity With Financial Setbacks, And How To Conquer & Succeed Through ItMy Profile

    1. Meredith, it is tough choosing a stragey. One thing that I can recommend is to start with a platform you actually use, one that is familiar. If none are, start using one as a viewer; once you get the feel for what it is all about, it will make it easier to pick which one resonates more, and then all you have to do is get started!

    1. Denny, YouTube is a big beast; that is why I am approaching it slowly, dipping my toes in before I take the plunge, learning everything I can, and writing down a strategy to follow. I will keep you posted along the journey. If you like my TikTok videos, check out my blog posts: From Concept To Screen Crafting Compelling Videos Part 1 and 2. They are tutorials on how I make my videos!

  15. Thank you so much for linking Sophie and showing your own video. You speak so well…. This is something I need to get better at. I say too many ‘I’m’ and ‘like’
    The blog had added so much value to my research. A YouTube video is next on the list. I’ve dipped my toe in the water on TikTok but YouTube is something I need to do going further.
    I’m so grateful for your blog and I will be returning to it again.
    Thank you

    1. Sarah, sounds like you and I are on the same path with TikTok and YouTube! Keep following along, and I promise I will share everything I learn. I am doing a ton of research on both platforms, and will be sharing it all. I am currently testing out a keyword strategy on TikTok, I shared a post I saw that was really fascinating that I want to experiment with. You can check it out on my TikTok by going to RookieToRichesRide.com/links. Excited to go on this journey from rookie to riches with you!

  16. Alison,

    You are correct, Whether it’t Facebook or YouTube you must know who your avatar is and where they hangout on the platform if one wants to be successful.

    The great thing about YouTube is that it is allow you to use evergreen strategies. The downside it’s a long game that takes 12 to 24 months to really get traction. At least that is what all my research is showing. In the meantime there is a need to fill the void while building your channel and exposer.

    What is your interim strategy? What would you suggest? I am toying with different options. However, YouTube is defiantly a platform I’ll be dedicating time to each week and growing it over the next 24 months.

    CJ

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