When I logged into one of my YouTube accounts yesterday, I was so shocked to see that a video that I had created in January 2013, has had almost 557k views. This video was created in a incredibly targeted niche, and still has the number 1 spot for it's search phrase on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/SOk58uN-K8c

YouTube is an incredibly powerful platform, your content is available 24/7, it also helps that Google owns YouTube 😃 It is crazy to think that a piece of content that I made on social media in January 2013, is still relevant, generating traction and driving leads and sales into the future. YouTube is not like Facebook, Instagram, (or even Steemit) where your content disappears off someone's timeline within an hour, having been drowned out by everyone else's latest post. As long as you are relevant, serving evergreen material, YouTube rewards you.

I am going to share with you 7 tips on how I did this, and lastly the mistake that I made regarding Monetization.

1.The Power of the Niche: Create a video about one specific idea. In my case 'How to tie a bow on a chair'. This serves to position yourself as an authority. There are 4 different variations on the topic, I made a video specific to each variation, showing people exactly what to do to result in a different outcome.

2.Title is incredibly important: You have to put yourself into the minds of those that are searching for this piece of content. What will people by typing into Google? What phrase is common - this is what you will call your video.

3.Audience Retention: This is found in your analytics, it is incredibly important. YouTube will compare your videos to other videos of the same length. Bit like a popularity contest - YouTube rewards those videos that people watch, not what they click on. YouTube wants content that is engaging and powerful. If you get an 'Above Average' on the Relative Audience Retention statistic, YouTube is more likely to list your video in the suggested videos play list.

4.Solve a problem: What knowledge do you have that can solve a problem for someone else? Have you recently solved a problem, and had trouble finding a video on YouTube that was easy to understand and comprehend? This video has been shared 2352 times.

5.Get on the Suggested Videos list: One of the analytics YouTube uses to determine which video appear on this list, is how well the video is tracking in the Relative Audience Retention statistic. If your video is engaging and people are watching your video, YouTube will deem it successful and will list it in the suggested videos list. Google will promote your video for you, we have done hardly any promoting of this video.

6.Use relevant tags: Have a think about the broad range of words that people will be entering into google, when they are looking for answers to their questions, or looking for your content.

7.Make is short - under 5 minutes if possible. We have the attention spans of moths it would appear.

Lastly - the mistake I made about Monetization. I had a very short 5 sec intro trailer created, apparently YouTube deemed that I did not have the copyright to the music in this intro trailer, so I was unable to Monetize this video.

See you all next time!