The 3 Laws of YouTube (and when to break them)

Your weekly YouTube education in five minutes

Author

Johnathon Eva
December 30, 2024

What to Watch:

Lessons every creator must new w/ Colin and Samir - Futur

Want more of this?
Here’s another Podcast.

How to make a living as a creator - The Yes Theory Podcast

Normally Colin and Samir are the ones asking the questions, but the tables have turned in this awesome interview. They share tips, and strategies for growth on YouTube, and the whole video is worth the watch/listen - but if you’re strapped on time - 43:50 is when they start explaining the 3 rules of YouTube - which I’ve dubbed the laws.

Law One: If no one clicks, no one watches - This is the law of making the thumbnail and title first. Always. Boiled down to it’s purest form - it’s packaging. What will get a user to click?
Law Two: Respect the viewers time -
If someone clicked on the video expecting a podcast, but you are a stuntman, they’ll click off. Make sure the concept matches the packaging.
Law Three: Asking Do You Want More of This? - The idea is simple, make them want more! In practice though - you can accomplish this by understanding what it is your audience really wants.

Thumbnail Breakdown

So - on face value - it does’t look like a bad thumbnail right? It’s got a lot of the elements we talk about, few items, good juxtaposition, and contrast, simple. So what’s it missing? This is the bad type of contrast.
It might be easy to say the title, but block that out with your thumb for a second. The style of thumbnail is the issue. Stylistically this looks like art/vlog content, not a list - but then we get to the title, and it IS a list. (and also the title is really bulky and long, with what looks like keyword jamming).

Creator - Katarinathesecond

Try THIS

Creator - Katarinathesecond

Okay - do you see how the styles match now. Vlog/art type of title, vlog/art type of thumbnail. She’s honed in on her audience. She understands what they want.
This is also the difference between search vs browse - In the first video people might search self care, or tips for self care. It’s built for search (which only works if you really, REALLY optimize it) I doubt people are searching for “I failed for 2 years” or “life lessons” - This is the type of video that gets recommended, and this is the type of traction you can build when you do that.

If you have questions about the concepts above, just reply to the email - I’d love to connect!

Creator’s we love

Olly Staniland:
Even though the productivity niche is saturated with quality and quantity - Olly has managed to stand out by niching down, and following the laws.

Olly Staniland - 13.4k subs - 59 videos

Started in Sep 23’ - Check him out

171k views

41k views

245k views

Key Takeaways

A rule follower:
Law One: Those thumbnails are so well done, even though the text is a little small, it gets the idea across, and some of the detail is so small that it builds up that curiosity gap - like what’s on there? It’s the same effect when something is blurred out on screen. These are clearly made before the video is published
Law Two: If you watch even one of those videos you’ll see that he respects the viewers time. He doesn’t waste time with “Like and Subscribe” he gets right into what the video is about. Stop wasting people’s time.
Law Three: Do you want more of this? Because if so - then he’s made not one, but two more videos about it, sometimes three or four. It’s the reverse law of doubling down on popular content. You want to build up a catalog that your subscribers, and that new viewers can binge.

So with all this - when can you break the laws?
If they don’t click they don’t watch - Well - that’s always going to be true, and you don’t have to follow it, but this one can bite you. However, if you’re running a podcast or a live stream, then it’s okay to have your own version of branding, one needs to look no further than dream’s channel to see this - but it does require either A) Years of making videos or B) an already huge audience. So if you’re just starting out, this may not be the strategy to go with.
Respect the viewers time: Ideally you’d always respect someone else’s time, but if you have more of an art focus, and YouTube is your place to put and share your art, then you don’t need to be as concerned with the first three seconds. You may not grow as fast, but this really depends on your goals. (you still shouldn’t put a CTA in the first 10 seconds though)
Do you want more of this?: Maybe you don’t want to create the same content over and over again. Maybe you see yourself as a variety channel - after all doesn’t Emma chamberlain do whatever she wants? Yes and no. Her brand is her. and also she’s really famous already. If you already have a following you can maybe do this, but even then, you are the “more” as long as you post content on the platform, this is the one law you may not be able to escape from.

Creator News

Pictured below is a Forbes article detailing the creator economy

Check out the full article here - Creator - Forbes - Writer Kristen Dolan

Key Takeaway:
Becoming a creator is more viable a strategy than ever in how to succeed in the world. The article is full of useful stats to pull out at holiday dinner parties for people to much on, but basically there are more brand deals than ever, adsense is higher than ever, success online is higher than ever. The best time to start was yesterday, the second best time to start is now.

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