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9 Tips to Grow FASTER on Youtube _ Pro Tips Ep.04
3K views
Jan 14, 2024
This video, the fourth episode of "Pro Tips," offers nine valuable strategies to accelerate growth on YouTube. It likely provides insights and practical advice for content creators aiming to increase their visibility, audience engagement, and overall success on the platform. The video's goal is to share expert tips that can help users navigate the challenges of YouTube and foster faster and more sustainable growth for their channels.
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0:00
The biggest pop that I had on that channel was when I made a video about ChatGPT a few weeks after it became publicly available
0:06
And that video now has passed over a million views. And so a lot of the videos I was making didn't actually get traction until weeks and weeks after they were already out
0:15
But it was just kind of sitting there waiting for the timing to just be perfect
0:18
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Pro Tips. Today, we have a guest who likes to call himself the tour guide of AI
0:26
And I think this nickname suits him perfectly. Matt Wolff is an AI and technology enthusiast who runs a rapidly growing YouTube channel
0:36
Like, rapidly. As well as a newsletter and a website called Future Tools
0:40
On these platforms, he curates and reviews the best AI tools he discovers
0:45
Now, this episode offers a unique opportunity to hear practical content creation tips
0:52
from a guy who consistently collects tens, if not hundreds of thousands of views within days on YouTube
0:58
Matt has been pouring his heart into his channel since last November
1:02
and now he's enjoying the fruits of his labor. So without further ado, let's jump into this interview
1:08
discover how to create content faster and grow a YouTube channel at lightning speed
1:13
with the one and only Matt Wolff. Arooooos! Well, Matt, welcome to Pro Tips
1:19
Thank you for joining us on the show. I will just jump straight into my first question
1:23
which is, could you introduce yourself in the form of a tweet or a social media bio
1:29
Like, how would you describe yourself in a very limited number of characters
1:35
Sure. So my name is Matt Wolff, and I talk about cool AI and future technology stuff
1:41
I have a website where I curate it, and then I have a YouTube channel where I call myself the tour guide of AI and future tools
1:48
Let's talk about YouTube. Let's talk about this fast growth on YouTube
1:52
And you already kind of teased that. So your channel, you started 12 years ago
1:57
It's funny because I went all the way back to the first video. It was 12 years ago. And then there's nothing for about six years
2:02
And then you have five videos six years ago and then another gap. And then it's kind of like four months ago, around November of 2022
2:10
And there you really start talking about AI. It seems like you made a comeback to YouTube
2:15
And you really start getting serious and start publishing videos every single week at first
2:20
And then the cadence kind of like went faster and faster. Tell us like what happened in November 2022
2:26
I was making videos maybe a couple a month, but I unlisted most of them because they just weren't relevant
2:32
Right. I started to build an audience in AI and some of the future stuff that I'm talking about now
2:37
So I made a conscious decision, I'm going to go back and sort of unlist anything that I don't feel fits
2:42
And there was a phase there where I was, you know, trying to make money online. So I was putting up videos that promoted affiliate links that never got any traction
2:49
So I just wanted to pull a lot of the stuff down where I was just kind of experimenting over the years
2:52
But I did want to leave my earliest videos up. So some of the very first videos I ever published are still there because I wanted people to see like, this is kind of where the channel started
3:02
So I wanted that kind of history there. And then I did some really interesting interviews that I thought were cool interviews over the years
3:07
So I wanted to leave a few of those up there. And that's kind of what's in that middle ground that you were mentioning there is some of those interviews
3:13
And then in November, so I actually started making content about AI on a different YouTube channel
3:18
So I had a business partner, his name is Joe Fear, him and I had a podcast together
3:22
And we ran that podcast together for six years. And we were podcasting about AI
3:27
And we were posting a lot of content on our YouTube channel that was related to that podcast called Hustle and Flowchart
3:34
So I was making content around AI on the Hustle and Flowchart podcast and on the YouTube channel
3:40
But then around November was when I started just doing it as like a personal brand
3:45
I wanted to start making more video content about it. A lot of that was audio content
3:48
It was more audio focused. And so I decided I really want to start showing some of this stuff off
3:53
Dream booth was one of the first things I got really excited about where you can kind of train your face into the AI and then start generating images with your face
4:00
That was the thing that got me like really excited. And I went, I need to show other people this other people don't have to know how to do this
4:06
And so that was really the first video that started to really take off
4:09
And when I noticed people started to like that, I was like, what else can I show in this AI space
4:14
So I started finding other cool tools. I started talking about GPT-3 stuff and then ChatGPT when that became public
4:20
And then, you know, various other AI art tools like Mid Journey
4:24
And so I just kind of started going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole on that channel
4:28
And it just started to gain momentum. The biggest pop that I had on that channel was when I made a video about ChatGPT a few weeks after it became publicly available
4:36
And that video now has passed over a million views and I think is probably, you know, resulted in 50,000 of the subscribers that I have now
4:45
But yeah, it was just this, you know, I was kind of inconsistently making videos
4:49
And then in November, I was making, you know, one or two a month. And then up when the ChatGPT video really took off, I went, all right, this is working
4:58
I need to double down. And then I started to try to make a video every single day
5:02
And, you know, so I was making videos five or six days a week with only maybe one day off a week
5:07
And I've kind of kept that pace for the last almost two months now
5:11
Yep, I've seen that. And this is something I definitely want to talk about
5:15
But before we get there, how fast is your channel growing right now? So right now, it's growing between 1,000 and 2,000 subscribers a day
5:22
When I made that ChatGPT video, there was a week period where it was growing between 6,000 and 10,000 subscribers every single day
5:29
In the month of January, the channel gained 90,000 subscribers in a single month
5:33
So it kind of had this huge spike of new subscribers. And now it's kind of leveled off and it's anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 a day
5:39
What do you think explains this rapid growth? You know, a lot of it was timing
5:43
In fact, the video that I made about Dreambooth, that was my most popular video
5:47
And it had like 4,000 views for the first six weeks that it went live
5:51
And then after some of my other videos went popular because of ChatGPT, that video itself skyrocketed and now has, you know, 50,000 views or something like that on it
6:00
And so a lot of the videos I was making didn't actually get traction until weeks and weeks after they were already out
6:06
But it was just kind of sitting there waiting for the timing to just be perfect
6:09
So there is that, yes, maybe a little bit of good timing, right place, right time
6:15
But I think after watching, I would say a good 70% of your videos on your channel, there is more than that
6:22
There is also talent behind this. Like there is, for example, I'm going to say a few things, but I would love you to explain some of your strategies to our audience watching this
6:31
You said, for example, when you started to realize this was working, you really started to like extract that juice from these lemons that were given to you, right
6:43
So you have a ton of lemons there. Let's make more lemonade
6:46
So explain that to us. Like you said, you were making up to five videos a week
6:51
How does that work? Like I make a video a week and I'm already like, it's hard
6:55
So can you break it down for us? Like how do you produce so much content
6:59
So I'm just really, really immersed in the AI space now. So, you know, when it comes to video production, I'm not necessarily like a newbie to content creation, right
7:09
I've been doing podcasting since 2009. I was doing a lot of video content on YouTube and trying to figure out the YouTube game for years and years and years
7:17
I had multiple channels before I even really kind of came back and focused on the Matt Wolf channel
7:22
My last business partner that I worked with before I kind of went solo and started doing this, he was actually a producer
7:29
And director for companies like ESPN and Microsoft. So, you know, along the way, I had some good mentors that were sort of showing me the ropes on how to produce good content
7:38
how to kind of keep my pacing up with my talking, how to edit out all of the fluff and only get straight to the things that people want
7:45
So there is a lot of sort of learned elements that I've just kind of gained over the years from working with other people in this space
7:53
I've done public speaking. I've been on stages. I feel fairly confident in front of a camera
7:58
A lot of that is just sort of learned skills that I've kind of picked up over the last decade plus
8:02
But as far as your question about doubling down, I'm just super immersed in AI, right
8:07
I went and created a brand new Twitter account back in July of last year
8:10
I had a different Twitter account that was focused around WordPress and blogging and podcasting and all of the kind of spaces I was in before
8:16
And I went, I'm going to start from scratch. I'm going to start with zero followers and just go all in on this space and build up a whole new community from the ground up
8:24
And so I started a brand new Twitter account, started following people in the AI space
8:28
Started building Twitter lists that were curated content around the AI space so that I would just kind of always know what's going on in the space all the time and just have my head in the loop all the time
8:38
I kind of did the same thing on YouTube. I kind of unsubscribed to all the channels I wasn't really watching very often anymore and just went all in on subscribing to all the channels that were talking about AI and futurism and tech stuff. Right
8:50
So that kind of kept my head in the loop. And because I was doing that, I had more ideas for content than I had time to produce content. Right
8:58
Every day I had, here's four videos I can make, which one's going to be the most valuable I can put out today
9:03
So I was kind of coming from that perspective of like, I have so much content I want to produce
9:08
How do I narrow down the content that I make? And that's kind of that perspective of how I was able to just kind of keep on pushing out content every day
9:17
And I'm still sort of in that headspace. You know, I'm still kind of, man, I have four ideas I want to make today
9:22
Which of the four is probably going to be the most valuable to my audience? How does it look like
9:27
And on the production side, like, do you do all the editing yourself
9:30
Do you have a team? How does it work? So I was doing all the editing myself since November up until about two weeks ago
9:37
So I've only had an editor helping me for the last two weeks worth of videos
9:40
So now my workflow is the first four hours of my day
9:44
I'm just immersed. I have a feedly account with all the various news articles popping up in the AI space
9:50
I'm on Twitter. I listen in on Twitter spaces. I watch YouTube videos
9:54
The first four hours of my day is completely dedicated to just immersion and figuring out what's going on
9:59
What's exciting? What's happening right now? After the first four hours of the day, right around noon or so my time, I then switch into content creation mode where I flip on my lights
10:09
I flip on my camera. I have OBS going. I turn on my colorful lights behind me
10:13
And now I'm ready to hit record at any time. If there's something that comes across my screen that I'm like, oh, I need to talk about this
10:18
I have a stream deck here. I press one button and I'm recording. And what I'm doing is I typically will outline what I want to talk about
10:26
I don't like to just kind of free flow and just ramble because I'll end up recording three hours worth of content and having to figure out how to bring it down
10:33
So I will have an outline of a handful of things that I want to talk about. And then I'll just hit record and just start kind of going through tabs or walking through a tutorial and just explaining what I want to do
10:43
And then once I'm done recording for the day, there's a tool that I use called Time Bolt, which speeds up the editing for me
10:49
It kind of takes out all of the gaps in audio. So anywhere where it's silent, it cuts those out
10:54
And it also kind of cuts out some of the uhs and ums. And when I say so, I say so a lot
10:59
It'll kind of find some of that and cut that out for me. So that really brings the editing down to, all right, here's just the audio
11:05
Here's just the content. And then I would pull it into DaVinci Resolve. And then when it's in DaVinci Resolve, I would sit there and just cut out anything else
11:12
I would do any sort of zooms, any sort of adding text to the screen, any sort of B-roll I want to add in
11:18
And that was my process all the way up until I got an editor about two weeks ago
11:21
And then I essentially taught my editor to follow that exact same process. And you got part of your life back in exchange of that editor
11:28
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, now it's really freeing because my editor, he's in the Philippines and I'm in the US
11:34
So I record and then right before I go to bed, I drop everything in a drop box
11:38
And then when I wake up in the morning, I have edited files inside of my drop box
11:42
So it's been really, really nice because I don't have to think about the editing
11:46
So there's times now where I'm still recording up until 11.30 at night
11:50
And before I'd be recording up until 11.30 at night going, dang it, now I need to edit till 1.30 in the morning to get this video out tomorrow. Yeah
11:58
But now I can be recording all the way up until it's bedtime and then just throw it in a drop box
12:02
And I know I'll have a polished video in the morning. And that's an amazing feeling when indeed, like we have two video editors and they are in Buenos Aires and we are in Barcelona
12:10
So it's also a little bit of a time difference, but it's so nice when you're done filming and just upload to Dropbox
12:16
And then, you know, it's going to come back as a tutorial or as a video. Exactly. So definitely the right decision there to have a video editor because it's very heavy
12:25
like this kind of cadence for video production, like producing five videos per week is an insane rhythm
12:32
And I don't know if you've been feeling kind of like any side effect about producing so much content yet
12:39
I was curious to talk about this point, like work-life balance between there is an opportunity and you're probably super passionate about it
12:46
You see it's successful, like an amazing amount of growth on the channel, which goes hand in hand with financial growth as well, I imagine
12:55
And therefore you are motivated to give your 200% to just like surf on that momentum and just squeeze the most out of it
13:03
But how do you manage that with your personal life and with just some downtime that you absolutely need to rest and also come back fresh with some fresh content for your audience
13:14
How does that work? Yeah, I mean, right now, being totally honest, I'm definitely working at a higher pace than I know is going to be sustainable forever
13:22
That's definitely the case. So I've got two kids. I've got an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old as well
13:27
So I'm usually working on doing all my sort of research in the morning
13:31
And then from about midday till about 5 p.m., I'm working on content
13:36
And then when my kid, when it's kind of dinner time around 5, 530, I usually check out for three hours or so, go hang out with the kids
13:45
We'll eat dinner, maybe watch a movie together or something like that. And then after I put the kids down to bed, I'm usually right back at my computer, either going down the rabbit hole trying to learn something or going back into recording mode or doing something like that
13:58
And then usually about 10 o'clock these days, I'm usually stopping at about 10 o'clock and then going and reading a book for about an hour before bed
14:06
And that's kind of my cadence right now. But I know it's not sustainable. You know, I'd like to be five o'clock
14:11
Everything's done for the day. I'll move away from the computer. But right now, I feel like the momentum is so high
14:17
The traction is so high. There's still so much buzz in this space that I'm all in at the moment
14:21
I'm capitalizing while the iron is hot and I'm just kind of going for it
14:25
And my sort of game plan is I'm going to back off on the pace of the videos
14:29
In fact, where I really want to get to with the videos is more of I'm sure you're familiar with like Corridor Crew
14:34
They've been a big talk lately with a lot of AI content. They do like really sort of big, grand kind of challenging videos
14:42
And I'd really like to do more of that kind of content where I think of something where I go
14:46
I don't even know how to produce this content yet. I want to go figure it out
14:50
And then I spend a week really, really polishing and producing something that I'm really, really proud of and really excited about
14:56
That's what I really want to be doing. But right now I'm kind of in this grind of let's grow the channel
15:01
Let's get the traction. Let's get my name recognition out there. Let's build, build, build
15:05
And then, you know, I don't know where that goal line is yet. I'm still figuring out
15:09
All right. Is it 200 thousand subscribers? Is it a million subscribers
15:12
I don't know yet, but eventually I'm going to go, OK, now I feel confident I can back off a little bit
15:16
But right now I'm just I'm all in on it. I'm really in that kind of hustle mode and I'm loving it at the moment
15:22
But I know it's not sustainable. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to interview you, because you are absolutely all in and like full steam on this
15:30
And I admire that. I think it's very smart. Like it gives me ideas
15:33
Since we started talking about AI on our channel, which usually talks about Canva, the channel almost doubled in terms of subscriber count per month
15:41
And revenue went way up as well. So that was like you were a great inspiration for us
15:47
Like the way you grinded kind of motivated me to try. I didn't push more videos than usual, but I really started to refocus the content on what was working and kind of forget about what was working average and replace it with what is absolutely breaking it
16:02
So, yeah, thanks for that. Wow, so much value packed into this interview
16:08
And that was only a tiny bit of it. Also, tell me if the unedited full length interview would be something you'd be interested in watching, because we've been considering adding this as a perk to our YouTube membership
16:22
So use the comment below. Share your opinion with me. I'm super interested about what you think of this format
16:28
And that's it for today. I'm going to leave you guys with our Pro Tips episode playlist right here
16:33
So you can watch other episodes just like this one and learn from other content creators
16:38
Thank you for watching. I will see you in the next video
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