Unlocking the Secrets of Rapid YouTube Growth in 5 Months
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Chapter 1: Understanding the Phenomenon
In my leisure time, I enjoy analyzing individuals who have achieved remarkable success. Why do I do this? Because I’m often surrounded by individuals who lament the difficulties of even the simplest tasks. These individuals have numerous advantages and opportunities at their disposal yet fail to understand what real challenges are.
I recall my first job, laboring under the scorching summer sun, lifting heavy stones for minimal pay. Now, working from my comfortable home office, creating YouTube content using AI tools feels far from challenging. Yet, constant exposure to negativity can lead to lowered expectations.
Your mindset can either be your greatest asset or your biggest hindrance. The existence of individuals excelling in their pursuits—especially those who seem ordinary and without major advantages—indicates that you, too, can achieve such success. It’s entirely feasible, and their accomplishments serve as proof. By studying their strategies, you can embark on a similar path.
The “Copycat” Strategy That Brought Me Over $1.4 Million as a Creator
We need to disregard opinions from those who made minimal efforts and failed, only to claim that “it doesn’t work.” Nonsense! Also, don’t be misled by “average” statistics. Sure, the typical person might take a year or more to reach 1,000 subscribers on a new YouTube channel. But do you want to be average?
In my view, average results stem from low effort or a lack of understanding of what it takes to excel. Often, people put in minimal effort because they doubt their ability to achieve their desired outcome. Your beliefs shape your reality, positively or negatively. Therefore, I always seek examples that push my aspirations towards “above average” or, ideally, “exceptional” achievements.
Meet Today’s “Remarkable” Subject
In the spirit of excellence, I want to draw attention to a YouTube channel I’ve been observing for a few months that has made significant strides in a short time. The channel, named 10x Income, was established on December 19, 2022. They recently released a video titled, “0 to 200,000 Subscribers With Only 20 Videos! (How?)”
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However, I found the content of this video to be quite generic. It mainly offered basic advice for starting a YouTube channel, such as:
- Select a niche that has demand or a topic with a high CPM rate.
- Analyze recent videos in your niche to ensure some have received at least 100k views.
- Set up your channel with an appealing name, logo, and banner.
- Produce videos that are as good as or better than your competition.
- Create eye-catching thumbnails to achieve a high click-through rate (CTR).
While all of this advice is valid, it’s also information I’ve encountered before. I wanted to understand why this particular channel managed to acquire over 260,000 subscribers within five months with just 20 videos.
So, I meticulously examined every video, title, and component of this channel in search of insights that could expedite the growth of my own faceless channels. Here are my main observations:
Trending Topics
The channel’s most successful videos share a common theme—ideas related to making money with “ChatGPT” or “AI.” These are trending subjects. According to Google Trends data from the past year, interest in ChatGPT began to surge around the channel’s launch.
Simultaneously, interest in “how to generate income through AI” continues to rise.
Thus, it seems that the channel’s focus on trending topics significantly contributed to its rapid growth in the past five months. If I were to launch a new channel today to capitalize on this “make money with AI” trend, I would utilize tools like VidIQ to identify low-competition keywords to target.
Titles & Thumbnails
Another crucial factor in the channel’s swift rise appears to be its video thumbnails and titles. The titles are clear and incorporate the targeted keyword phrases (e.g., “How to Make Passive Income with ChatGPT”). Simple and direct titles facilitate YouTube’s ability to rank videos in search results and recommend them to viewers interested in similar content.
However, I believe the thumbnails are doing the majority of the heavy lifting.
Here are some key observations:
- The thumbnail uses a dark background with bright text and colorful elements that stand out.
- Most thumbnails display NUMBERS, particularly dollar amounts.
- The thumbnail creates an air of MYSTERY, piquing the viewer's curiosity.
For instance, while it’s clear the video discusses how to earn money using ChatGPT, the specifics remain somewhat ambiguous, compelling viewers to click to discover how the earnings are generated.
Video Length
The average duration of videos on this channel is about 8 minutes. This length appears to be the sweet spot for “long-form” content on YouTube, allowing for mid-roll ads while maintaining viewer engagement.
Video Production
A distinctive aspect of the videos on this channel is that they don’t feature the creator’s face. Many individuals hesitate to start a YouTube channel due to reluctance to appear on camera. However, establishing a faceless YouTube channel is a perfectly legitimate way to earn income on the platform without feeling overly exposed.
The 10x Income channel employs a combination of screenshots, images, stock video clips, moving text, and animated graphics to craft its videos. They even utilize a “talking avatar” of a masked man as a substitute for the creator.
Commanding Attention
Throughout my viewing of 10x Income’s videos, one notable aspect was the constant change in visuals. No single visual element lingered for more than 4 to 7 seconds. This strategy is intentional, designed to capture the viewer's attention.
Shorts Didn’t Seem to Contribute Much
Interestingly, this channel hasn’t relied heavily on Shorts for its growth, having only posted four Shorts videos, which garnered views ranging from 8.6k to 18k—decent but insignificant compared to their long-form videos.
TL;DR
In my analysis of the “10x Income” YouTube channel, which amassed over 260,000 subscribers in its first 5 months with just 20 videos, here are the key takeaways:
- The channel focuses on trending topics like making money with “ChatGPT” or “AI.”
- Clear, keyword-rich titles combined with engaging thumbnails that spark curiosity have significantly fueled its growth.
- The average video length is around 8 minutes, optimizing both ad placement and viewer retention.
- This “faceless” channel employs talking avatars, screenshots, stock footage, and animated text and graphics to create compelling videos.
- Visual elements are changed every 4 to 7 seconds, a tactic used to maintain viewer engagement and improve video rankings.
- The channel did not rely heavily on YouTube Shorts for its growth; most success stemmed from long-form videos.
Hi, I’m Kristen — About Me
This article contains my referral links for VidIQ, HeyGen, and Jasper AI, which, along with Helium 10, are some of my favorite tools for content creators. If you choose to purchase a premium subscription to any of these tools, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.