OUTDATED YouTube Tips to STOP in 2024

UPDATE: the video is out now! https://youtu.be/eBuZ_erh5UU See you next week with that planning video! Feel free to share your radical creator moments below also 🎉

Nate, I know I don't know you personally but I've been working to grow my YouTube channel for over a year now but only recently discovered your content. I gotta say, of the DOZENS of accounts that "offer advice", yours has been the most helpful hands down. I like that you keep it real and give straightforward, practical insights. Thanks for the energy that you put into your work! It's so helpful!

Nate. I've been listening to you for over six months now and your advice has paid off... literally. I was growing well. The first week of November, I was at 2,250 subs and averaged about 200-500 views per video. I was feeling pretty good. I had 1,600(roughly) watch hours and thought hey, I could get fully monetized by Spring. Well, one video changed everything. I posted on November 11th and it has over 260K views and I gained almost 20k subs just in November. I was monetized in a week LOL. Now, I'm averaging 800-1000 subs per day because of the snowball effect. I'm keeping things simple and not planning too hard or doing unnecessary videos. Thank you. For everything.

To the person who is reading this, don't give up on your channel. Keep going, it's going to be better. 💯

My takeaway moment for this one was right at the end: facing fear, and saying no to avoidance. I hit a dark spot with my channel this year, where I honestly wasn’t sure how to keep making content. Glad to have your channel to cheer me on while I get my legs back under me.

Love this Nick, great tips!

Yes, As YouTube viewers adapt and mature, content creators must adapt and mature.

So glad that I have "permission" to stop the YouTube shorts. I just am not a shorts creator. I decided to stop when I released a really slick two part clinical diagnosis (part one being the set up and part two being the payoff) only to have someone tell me that "I could make a video longer than 30 seconds" and shouldn't have broken it into two parts. In reality, each short was maxxed out at 60 seconds.

You hit the nail on the head about fear. I started my channel simply because it was on my Bucket List. Making money or tons of viewers was not the main goal and yet there was hesitancy as I didn’t want to look stupid to the world. Regardless, I tossed the fear factor aside and just started enjoying the process.

"Not everyone should do YouTube shorts" resonates with me so much, I've made this mistake, and it took me a long time to train the algorithm to get the right audience.

Hi Nate, thank you so much for all the youtube advice! I've been watching your videos for over a year now and it has helped me so much on my youtube journey-I thought it was time to add my first comment. This video resonated with me since I recently did a huge overhaul of my channel and my content. I had one breakout video that was ranking in search, but bringing in the wrong audience. It was painful removing that video, but I knew it wasn't going to benefit my target audience or my journey overall. For anyone that's starting their youtube channel, I just started with videos that were 'easy' to make. I've learned so much over the last year, but most of it I'm trashing because they're so awful and not the direction I want to head, but I learned not only 'just start', but so many skills from just 'doing'. Looking into 2024, these points were so helpful! My focus for the year ahead is to build my video library without focusing so much on 'catching' subs. When the value is there, the community will come. And I also appreciate that you recommend either shorts or long form. Permission to not do everything has been granted! :)

As a small creator, I absolutely relate to that last point 😅 I've been going back and forth about whether I should stick to my current style (more editing, fully scripted) to one that's more authentic (less editing and scripting). I want my videos to connect with people and feel more “down to earth”, but I’m not sure if I’ll end up alienating my current audience or just having those videos fail completely. I might just be scared about getting outside of my comfort zone (especially when it comes to improv-ing since I’m not the most concise speaker), but I really want to try to move to this style in 2024—my goal is to make my videos feel more like “hangout sessions” rather than “just videos”. In the words of Think Media, I gotta punch fear in the face 👊

Growing on tiktok taught me so much about retention. Starting like the video is already half way done is the key over there so now I’m using my short form content learnings to make full length videos!

The quote at the end was awesome, I felt that. I agree 100% with your opinion on shorts, I've focus so much lately because it increases subs by a lot but those subs dont translate to long format videos. Great vid and thanks

Great video, Nate. In line with a lot of your points, I think there's a real trap in creators wanting to go viral and "blowing up". In my opinion, it's neither realistic to aim for this (too many unpredictable variables), nor is it sustainable. It's much better to go for consistent, steady growth by creating high-quality, focused content. That way, subscribers and viewers who eventually find you can enjoy the library of content you've already produced, instead of having to wade through your previous failed attempts at going viral. In addition, steady growth means you won't be overwhelmed by a sudden influx of (potentially temporary) fans who have too much sway over your decisions before ultimately leaving.

Hi Nate ! I have been following you since a while and you are definitely one of the best . Your way of explaining is simple and to the point . Cheers 😊

I spent a few years ahead of stepping forward with content creation fixing my issue of avoiding finishing things. From personal projects to hobbies, video games and even finishing tv shows - I realized I had a massive issue of stopping part-way. It was so many half-done things piled up over time, it felt like I had built up a bad karmic groove for always stopping partway. So, I focused several years on being better at doing and completing things while also getting fully clear on what I wanted to do with content creation. I knew this would ensure I built up a lot of reps of finishing small things, and also larger things, so I was in the groove of doing and completing before committing to starting content creation, and also that I was so clear and excited about my vision for it, that it would carry me through. I really like your last point, Nate! I think maybe my approach was a little extreme, but I wanted to be fully sure I would be in the right groove of being a doer and not just a dreamer, and one that was good at finishing tasks before committing completely. That last point, made a lot of sense to me and felt a bit along that line of radically committing to something and deciding to do all it takes, so it doesn't matter how long it takes to come to fruition. I know Pixar was 7 years of hard work before becoming an 'overnight success'. It can take a lot longer to get to our goals than folks realize! But, it is still worth doing, so you got to be rooted in something deeper.

Thank you so so much for these tips! Especially the one about "starting in the middle" was so valuable for me! I'm currently writing the script for my first video and I used a generic introduction but after your advice I've rewritten it and it sounds SO MUCH BETTER! I cannot thank you enough!

I'm.glad you are still doing content here, you have so much good knowledge to share and you do well at delivering it. Thank you 😊

Dude you are literally SAVING my channel with everything you say! i decided to make a new channel and i am implementing everything you say into it! Thank you so much!