Before we begin talking about researching your platform, let's talk about content and vision.
Do you know what your channel will be about?
Do you know who your core viewers will be?
How old are they?
What do they do for a living?
What are their interests?
Don't you dare say your content is for everybody, because content marketed toward everybody, typically attracts next to nobody.
When I first began I was the silliest person in the world, so let me help you not make the same mistakes I did. First and foremost, no matter how funny you are, your jokes will not appeal to everyone. No matter how sexy you are, your looks will not entice everyone.
This one really threw me off. I have always been a very constant individual. I believe that if someone got to know me and my personality that no matter how they felt about life I would be able to win them over. This attitude flowed into my content creation. I was convinced that all people need to do is see the videos on my channel and instantly they will become fans.
As such, whenever I created something I would instantly flood every website that I could think of regardless of its purpose. This, of course, is called spamming. Back then I was a young whippersnapper. I had no clue what spamming was. If pressed on the subject I will thought it was some type of deviled and spiced meat.
I would get a large surge of views initially, but after that the views would stop coming in. I was so upset. I was discouraged. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. What I didn’t know and what you should remember is:
The BIGGEST mistake you can ever make is to create content without knowing the SPECIFIC group of people that will be attracted to said content. So let's start there.
What will your channel be about?
Is there a large market for that type of content?
If so, who is interested in that type of content?
Finally, how often do they seek said content?
To acquire this knowledge you will have to do some detective work. You will have to visit relevant websites and become a student of your type of content. You will also need to be able to answer the following questions:
How many people are producing this type of material?
What type of results are they getting?
What type of optimization or marketing are they doing?
Is the market over or under saturated?
What streaming media platform allows me the best opportunity to reach my chosen market, and what are the benefits and disadvantages of hosting my content there?
The answers to these questions will give you a more solid idea of what your strategy should be going forward and if a specific media streaming service is right or wrong for your content, and its channel.
To be continued in: