561: How To Create Long-Form Videos That Blow Up on YouTube

00:00
You’re listening to the My Wife, Quit or Job podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. And today, we’re going to continue with our four-part series on creating content to promote your business. We’ll be covering everything from video to blogging to email marketing and podcasting. And in this episode, we’re going to resume from where we left off last episode and talk about long form video for YouTube. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets are now on sale for Seller Summit 2025 over at sellersummit.com.

00:29
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01:22
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01:59
Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast. Today we are continuing on with our Back to the Basics series. And today we’re going to cover how to do long form video for YouTube. Yeah, we started this last week, but then we realized that short form and long form needed their own, they each needed their own podcast. So here we are. Correct. And just judging by experience in teaching long form is a little bit more intimidating and a little bit more involved than short form. Short form is like,

02:28
the gateway drug to long form, I would say. Well, and what I’ve noticed is we actually have a little bit of case studies, probably too strong of a word, but we did this challenge back in April with the course with profitable audience, basically challenging people to make 30 short form videos in 30 days and publish them on whatever platform they wanted this. Well, now we just finished September. So in September,

02:52
We challenged people to make one long form video a week and two short form video a week and we had much fewer participants in the long form challenge, which just shows us what we already knew, but basically that long form is just tougher.

03:08
It’s more intimidating. I wouldn’t say it’s tougher. I think it’s easier. It’s tougher for people to get the… Short form, you’re right. It’s like a quick drug. I don’t know what quick drugs are, but like that… I was relying on to… I don’t know exactly what that means. I feel like with short form, it’s like back… Okay, we’ve talked about this a long time ago. Remember StumbleUpon? Yes. When your post got stumbled and all of a sudden your site would crash because you would just be getting thousands of visitors an hour and all this stuff.

03:38
So I feel like short form has that same rush, right? Where it’s like you publish a video and a lot of times you know within like an hour two how that video, you’re seeing results, right? You’re getting like, and when you have a short form take off, it’s like this, ooh, I gotta make another, I gotta make another. And because it’s only 35 seconds, 40 seconds, you’re like, oh, I can make another really quickly. Whereas long form, I think for people, one, I think it takes longer to get that hit of a long form video.

04:06
So it’s not like you can have zero followers and have a short form video take off pretty, we’ve seen it happen a lot. We don’t see it as much with the long form. So I think it’s just, it’s harder for people to get over the mental hurdle for long form video. Not only that, it’s the mental hurdle of production. With short form, you just film it on your phone and you just release it you’re like, whatever, right? All the stuff out there is just people holding up their phones anyway. With long form, there’s this like psychological need to edit everything perfectly.

04:36
and make sure you don’t stumble on your words. It’s almost like the difference between Instagram and TikTok, right? Instagram, feel like you need to portray this image. At least that’s what the platforms are like. But it’s actually not true. Hopefully, we can get through some of the processes for you to get over those humps in long form today. We talked about something last week and I felt like we sort of brought it up at the end, so we didn’t give it enough.

05:05
recognition, but I think the number one key, especially with long form, is to have your setup set up all the time. I think the number one hurdle in creating video for anybody is just that, like whipping out your phone to make the 30 second video, but if you do want to use a little bit of a better camera, I would recommend a tripod for long form video, you know, having, you know, at least prop your phone up on some books or something, but you really want to have everything set up so that

05:34
you’re taking that initial technology hurdle out of the picture when you’re getting started. You know me, I actually wanted to start a YouTube channel for years before I actually did. And I tried and failed multiple times because it would take me 20 minutes just to set up the lights. Yeah. And this is mainly because my wife didn’t want me creating a little studio. And remember, I had that green screen backdrop too. And it was really ugly. And it ugly up the house.

06:03
but once I had my setup. You some hiccups along the way. Now I just sit down and basically turn on the camera and hit record and that’s been a huge game changer for me mentally at least. I think you and I both have the luxury of having a home office, a separate room in our homes, but not everybody has a full room. I have seen creators who take a corner out of their den or

06:30
A lot of people don’t use their dining rooms anymore, right? It’s basically for show and everyone eats in the kitchen or around the island or whatever. So I think any space you can carve out in your house or your apartment that you have everything set up, you might have to bring in your laptop and plug it in or something like that, right? You might have to take that final step, but the more you can have set up and ready, the more likely you are to create the content. Yeah, absolutely. And then after that, I mean, since we’re on this topic,

06:59
We talked about the teleprompter. One of my biggest hurdles also was forgetting what I was going to say as soon as the camera turned on. I don’t know what it is. When I’m up on stage talking to real people, this does not happen. But for some reason, when I’m staring into the lens of a camera, all of sudden I forget everything that I want to say. So teleprompter doesn’t have to mean that you script everything out word for word.

07:24
Usually what I do is I have some sort of outline. Sometimes I have word-for-word if it’s like a complicated intro, but for the most part, it’s just bullet points. I think here’s my theory on why you and I both find it easier to talk live than scripted. It’s because I feel like we’ve accepted the fact that if we say the wrong thing live, like if we flub a word or misspeak while we’re alive, we just correct ourselves and move on, right? It’s no big deal. We know

07:53
that like this has to be edited. It’s like when you mess up in video, you have the opportunity to fix it. So then it’s like it becomes a sort of, know, OK, well, then I have to fix this. Oh, great. Now have to fix this. And it just, you you kind of it sort of spirals right after you make the first flub. And then it’s like, I’m talking too long. I’m too long. You know, all these things start happening. And I think that just causes more stress, honestly. Yeah. And then a lot of people have, I guess, writer’s block.

08:23
But these days, it’s actually so much easier. So I’ve been using Claude.ai, especially to write the intros. And Claude is, if you guys haven’t heard of Claude, it’s a company by, it’s run by this company called Anthropic. And it’s, in my opinion, better than ChatGPT for both coding and creative writing. So I’m actually considering canceling my ChatGPT membership and then just going straight with Claude because

08:50
Right now I have like four AI memberships. I don’t feel like I need all of them. No, you’re smarter than that. You don’t need that much. I don’t, but it’s like they keep leapfrogging each other, you know? Yes. Because Chat2BT came out with the O1 preview and we were just kind of talking about this earlier. It thinks and it generates prompts on its own, which is what I like about that. So that’s why I’ve been keeping on with both. But anyway, back on topic. If you’re having problems creating like a really good hook for your video,

09:20
just give Claude a try for whatever topic that you’re doing. It will give you amazing results, I promise you. I will say, so you used Claude a couple of weeks ago in a student video breakdown. So a lot of times in profitable audience, we will take a video of our students and give some critique and then almost always rewrite the intro. And so you use Claude to rewrite the intro. I’m usually not super impressed with AI.

09:50
writing and probably because I’m more of a writer, right? So I’m like, I can do better. But I will say, like, I was blown away by what you got from AI with that script. And I think it was the pet one, right? Yes, was a pet one. Yeah. Yeah. Very impressed. Like I am. Well, I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks with other projects, but like that’s on my list to like start using because I was so impressed with. Yeah. The intro. So.

10:19
We have the setup down. Teleprompter, all you need is one ring light, I think. You can use your phone as the camera. Content-wise, you can use AI. What other hurdles do we have to dispel here or overcome? If you’re Steve, you can film in your ratty v-neck t-shirt.

10:45
but a lot of people want to look their best on video and I support that because there was a time where I made a lot of videos in my pajamas and not for questionable sites because I know that will come up next, but for like, I would make a cooking video and because I was still in my pajamas, I would just make the cooking video in my pajamas and didn’t think anything of it. Looking But that video got 1.5 million views, didn’t Yes, those videos did well.

11:13
in my flannel pajamas. However, I would love to have been wearing pants in those videos and not been in my pajamas. So I think the biggest trick for me as someone who would like, okay, today’s a hair wash day. I’m gonna actually get out of my workout clothes, make a video, is I try to film everything on the same day. And I know you do batch filming as well.

11:41
To me, that’s one of those other things that takes the hurdle away. Because if I thought to myself, I have to make a video every single day, like I have to film something every single day, there’s no way I’m gonna do it. Because it’s like, okay, well can’t film right now because this is when the garbage truck always comes. You know, it’s like there’s always like these little hurdles that happen that you can’t control and then there’s the hurdles you can control. And so I think if there’s a day of your week where you know you can get, you know,

12:10
maybe an hour or two of film time. So you get up, you put your film clothes on. And I know some people always wear like a black t-shirt or always wear the same thing. So then if they have to edit stuff out later, it’s really easy because they’re always wearing the same thing. I think that’s a great idea too. But I would say if you can bulk film and just be like, Tuesdays are my film day. And then you get up on Tuesday knowing like, okay, I’m gonna get up, I’m gonna do these three things, I’m gonna get ready, I’m gonna do my hair, whatever it is.

12:38
you do that and it makes it so much easier rather than like, I think I’m going to film today. Then you get up and you’re doing this and then you’re like, oh, I’ve got to run this errand and then, oh, I should do this. Oh, let me go take the dog for a walk. Then it’s like 4.30 and you’re like, well, I don’t want to get ready now. I don’t want to be film ready. I think if you just have in your head that you have a specific day, very helpful. I think the filming part for me is the easiest part. It’s not for most people though.

13:07
Is that true though? Once you have the teleprompter and you’re set up ready to go, the hard part really is what you’re going to say, which is the script. That’s what takes me the longest. It me about two takes you the longest, but think about this. Just think about the unique advantage that you and I have in creating video content. You have been teaching via video for 11 years, 12 years, right? How long have you been? It’s been 13.

13:37
13, yes. Okay. You have been every Wednesday giving a lesson, which is basically like what your YouTube videos are. They’re a lesson in something. They’re just shorter. You’re giving a mini presentation every Wednesday for the past 13 years of your life. Most people aren’t. Most people, the first time they were on video was in 2020 when they had to get on Zoom for a work call. I think for you, the reason why video is easy is because you’ve literally been doing it for so long. You don’t think about

14:06
that part of it, but for most people, hearing themselves and seeing themselves is actually a huge hurdle. And so that’s why I think the picking a day and things like that are- I agree with everything that you said, but I would say the biggest hurdle people have isn’t the actual, assuming that they’re just using a teleprompter. If they’re just going off the cuff, which is something that I can’t do, it’s something you can do, can, camera turns on, you can just talk forever.

14:35
I can’t ever. turns off. I’m still talking. I can’t do that. Yeah, I’m good for maybe like four minutes and then I’m done unless I have an agenda. Yeah. But I would say outside of the filming part, I know my biggest hurdle was the editing. Right. Yes. So not only do you have this video, you can’t just publish it as is. You actually have to make it good. And then that opens a whole new can of worms.

15:05
What software should I use? Man, this stuff is complicated and whatnot. How do I get it presentable? Yes, the software question to me is the one I find the most humorous because I don’t, and I’m probably naive in this, I don’t think there’s a superior software for regular users. I’m sure if you are a video editor by trade, there is a superior product, probably Final Cut Pro or something like that.

15:34
But like if you’re, you know, Bob Smith making videos in your basement, there’s the best video editing software is the one that’s easiest for you to use. Whatever, based on your price point and, you know, the machine that you use. Because we get this question every single week, right? Well, should I? Like last week, should we try CapCut? Well, I love CapCut. Like, I love it. But we have a lot of people on our course that love DaVinci. Was it DaVinci Resolve? Yes.

16:04
Yeah, they absolutely. Yeah. So it’s like, I don’t mind paying, you know, $60 a year for CapCut because it’s like for me, that software is intuitive. Like, and I like that you can have it on your desktop. It’s also you can also have the cloud version of it. know, so for me, it works. But like, I would never tell somebody you’ve got to use CapCut. It’s so great because if it’s if the interface isn’t what works for you, then you’ll struggle on it. Just like I would probably struggle on, you know, DaVinci, right? Because I now I’ve learned this other software. So, yeah, I think

16:34
But you have to pick one and then stick with it. Don’t jump around because it’s easy to get shiny object syndrome with tools.

16:44
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17:13
just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

17:24
It’s funny, I forced myself to learn Adobe Premiere because it was the most comprehensive and it’s what the professionals use. But you actually have to click a whole bunch of clicks to do something that Camtasia can do in just one click because of all the features. Camtasia doesn’t do very much, but for my purposes, it’s exactly what I need. So you just need to figure it out. Yeah, that’s the other thing for people is like, we have our

17:52
You guys know Kevin, we talk about him a lot, but he does crazy editing, right? But I feel like he enjoys the pain of editing. I would say for most people, another tip for them would be don’t get into crazy editing your first go-round, right? Just do the minimal editing that you need to publish the video. Add some B-roll, add some text, whatever you wanna do, but try to keep it on the more minimal side, especially when you first get started, because editing will kill you.

18:22
As far as time, mean, we know Kevin stays up till like two in the morning editing videos. I think for most people, that’s not a sustainable schedule to make video. That’s the understatement of the century. I remember the first video I edited, it probably took me like two hours just to do five minutes or something like that. I was like, hey, this isn’t sustainable. Again, I didn’t know what I was doing at the time.

18:52
And I was trying to make everything perfect. Yeah. So now like, love using, you know, our mutual friend Rob burgers as an example, the man gets hundreds of thousands of views per video and he just lops off the front and lops off the end and publishes it. Yeah. The content will prevail if it’s, if it’s good. And I think editing is, is overrated depending on the type of content that you’re putting out. If you’re putting out teaching narrative comment, think.

19:22
I think editing is overrated. Yeah, I think the bigger thing, especially if you’re teaching, is if you’re teaching something that is, let’s just say you’re teaching how to use Google Sheets, right? Like that’s what you’re teaching. Then the most important thing is that Google Sheets is front and center and maybe your head’s in like a small little bubble on the side, right? But for you, like you’re teaching, you’re usually teaching like higher level concepts. So your editing, from what I’ve seen, mainly consists of

19:52
I would call them like markers that trigger remembering things. If you say a word like overpriced, then overpriced or something that symbolizes overpriced would come on the screen. I’m not saying that it’s not good editing, it’s good editing, but it’s not difficult as far as some of the things that are out there that are clearly. Here’s the other thing, the people that you see that have heavily edited content are almost

20:22
Guaranteed to be having to edit it by someone else They’re not doing that editing themselves unless that’s their trade and they’re already a video editor and that’s and that’s the spin of the video Right is the editing There’s this Chinese guy. I watch he puts out content almost every other day The guy’s channels clear value tax. He what he does is he all he does is he gets on? He always has this like pissed off look on his face That that’s like his and then he just talks about the economy Yeah, just him reading

20:51
I doubt he edits a single thing. And he doesn’t even change the camera angles. There’s no annotations, no B-roll, nothing. It’s just a pissed off Chinese guy talking about the economy. But he gets hundreds of thousands of views per video also. Yeah, when I first started putting videos on YouTube, I think that was like 2009, the only editing I would do, so one I’m in my pajamas, I had terrible light. Like I did everything wrong.

21:17
And these videos all got traction. Part of it was early adopter, right? But other part of it was it was good recipes, right? It was good content for the people who needed it. But I would literally give it to my son who was probably like 11 at the time. And this is like before all 11 year olds knew how to do everything, right? Because technology wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. And he would go on iMovie and like…

21:40
lop off the beginning, give me a couple transitions where the page would swirl or slide over, this basic, and that was all that was in there. Maybe two transitions in the beginning and lopped out. People like the videos. The content is still the king, but I will say, don’t get so worked up about the editing process. Just do the bare minimum when you’re getting started. Right.

22:07
And let’s see, outside of that, I guess- here’s an editing tip. I wanted to this earlier. Here’s a trick. So if you are filming and you mess up, and I do not take my own advice enough. So if you say the wrong word or you flub something, you have to pause before you say it again.

22:29
I am so guilty of saying the wrong word and then I just keep talking just like this and I just keep going and I resay it but I haven’t made any pauses, to edit that is a nightmare. But if I said, and my partner, Steve Chow, right? And then I was like, whoops, I would wait a second and then I would say, my partner is Steve Chiu, right? Because giving that pause will make your editing a thousand times easier.

22:56
And it’s so easy to want to just keep going and like, you know, let me just get it out. But if you give yourself pauses and even when you talk, if you learn to pause more, it’s much easier to edit when you have a lot of pauses, because you can take all those pauses out using the Adobe. It’s free, right? The Adobe editing software. Yes. Yeah, it’s Adobe Podcast. Yeah. So can take all those pauses out of your of your videos. So give yourself some pauses if you make a mistake.

23:26
Pause, if you have a big long pause, clap your hands, right? Because that’ll spike your audio and then you’ll be able to find it on editing. So there’s a few little tricks that you’ll learn as you go as well to help make that easier for you. Actually, since we’re on this topic, I always just turn the camera on and just let it roll. Me too. Back in the day, I used to go and I’d screw up and like, ah, and then I just turn off the camera and then restart it and just start over. And then that just leads to like hours and hours of frustration.

23:55
I don’t know why we did that. I don’t, because I did the same thing and I’ve been making all these Amazon videos this month. And at first I was doing them in clips. Like I was like, okay, put the camera here, unbox, turn the camera, turn the phone off, then move the, do this. And now I just, mean, they’re 30 second videos. So like the longest these videos are even with all the like waiting is two minutes and 30 seconds, right? That’s the absolute longest. So it’s like, I just turn the camera on, sit it there.

24:23
I do it and then I go change whatever I need to change or get the next thing, bring it back over. It’s made a world of difference. Because also then when you import it to edit it, you’re not importing 22 files, you’re importing one file. So anyway, it’s a good tip. Yeah, just like you said, whenever I screw up, usually I’ll start the whole paragraph again from the beginning. Yeah. Because otherwise it gets like really choppy if you’re trying to edit. Yeah. Just some little tips there.

24:53
I forgot what my train of thought is when you want to give your tip. But I think overall, that’s pretty much it. Really, the hard part for me is just sitting down and doing it in the first place. Yeah. And I think for that, there’s some tricks like tell the world maybe that you’re doing video or channel to kind of shame yourself into doing it or just

25:22
having an accountability group, this is why we run the challenges in our class, because people just have a lot of problems getting started. And if you see like a lot of your peers are doing the same thing, it just makes it that much easier to create content on a schedule. So here’s something that’s been motivating for me, is that I will go on YouTube, and this is not like a productivity hack, this is definitely a motivational hack. I will go on YouTube and I will search topics that I could make videos on.

25:52
right, in the home economic space. So productivity, organization, recipes. Recipes is his own bucket, but like outside of recipe content, because there’s some amazing and amazingly edited recipe content on YouTube. So like, let’s throw that one out. But I will watch three or four creators who have anywhere between 50 and 100K subscribers, because to me, that is a lot. Like you are successful on YouTube with 50 to 100K subscribers, like no argument there.

26:22
and I’ll watch their content and as I see what they’re doing, and they’re all proficient, but I’m like, they’re not that good. Like 50,000 people are interested in this. And they’re, in my opinion, a little above mediocre. So, but there are some phenomenal people out there for sure, but they have millions of followers. But I try to find people in that like 50 to 100K, because I think if I can just be as good as them,

26:51
right as far as delivery, editing, especially with the editing and the like, what are your camera angles? How are you positioning yourself? Like when are you focusing on you versus what you’re talking about? Like just those little nuances. I think if you go watch Creators in Your Space or the space you wanna be in, that actually really helps you because it sort of removes that issue of confidence when you see that other people are putting out content and having success.

27:19
without like a production crew in their dining room every day. So what I do now is if I find a creator that I like, I use this Chrome plugin. I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s like a YouTube AI plugin. And I just grab the transcript. Interesting. And then I just paste it in the chat GPT and I say, hey, just summarize this. And then I look very closely at the exact words they use in the intro. Because usually it’s catchy.

27:47
Then I just look at how they structure the body of the content also. For me, it’s much easier. Maybe it’s because we’re old. I prefer to read a transcript than watch the actual video. I think reading the transcript, especially for the outlining of the content, is very helpful. One of the goals of people watching long-form video is continuing to watch.

28:14
So it’s like you can have the best hook in the world, but if you can’t get people to stay past that 15, 30 seconds, it doesn’t really matter. So being able to see the whole transcript is really helpful. Here’s the other thing that’s meant a mental hurdle. When people create video, they always think that they need to be completely original and come up with everything from scratch by themselves. But what I do these days is I have my own opinions on a lot of things. And sometimes I’ll take current events and just give my opinion.

28:44
Sometimes I’ll take the transcript of other people’s videos and then put my own spin on it. And that just makes the content creation process that much easier. You don’t have to come up with everything from complete scratch every week. Yeah, I was thinking about this because, I don’t know, did you watch the debate last night? I did not. No, it was very simple, I will say that. But then after the debate’s over, all the networks,

29:13
have their pundits commenting on the debate. And to me, that reminds me of the content on the internet. There’s not a lot of original content. All these people are commenting on the, we all saw the exact same thing. Everyone saw the debate, same camera angles, because I think it was CBS broadcasted, but they all had different opinions on it. all, some people thought one guy did better. It’s like everyone had their own spin.

29:38
So there’s like six networks doing the exact same thing just with their spin on it. So when you go to create content, realize that the chances of you having something 100 % original is very slim. So know that other people are also doing it, but that’s okay because there are people that like one channel over another channel because their spin or their people resonate better and you’re gonna resonate more with certain people and other creators are gonna resonate with a different type of person. Absolutely, actually,

30:08
I could take the exact same script that someone did and got hundreds of thousands of views and I would just give the same presentation and I might get only like a hundred views. Because people like, they follow you for you, your delivery, your style, your look, everything. And you’re right, nothing really is original, hardly. I mean, there are obviously original YouTubers out there, but I would say the majority of this stuff is not. Especially if you’re teaching content.

30:38
I was working on one of our students, Mike, has a low carb store. So I was actually, incorporating some of that into office hours today. So I was just doing some low carb searching. it’s like, low carb is low carb. You can only spin it so many different ways, right? But I mean, I was looking at low carb cookbooks this morning on Amazon and there’s a million of them, right?

31:05
But some people resonate with this person’s type of recipes or because these person’s recipes are also under six ingredients or they’re under 30 minutes to make. It’s like you have to have your angle. think for you, one of the angles that you’ve done a good job developing is that you’re, just like your book, The Family First, you’re not about the hustle entrepreneur life. Have you seen the comedian who makes fun of entrepreneurs on TikTok?

31:35
No. His name is like, I don’t know. It’s not his real name, I don’t think, but it’s like Chad Chatterson or something. And he’s like, rising grind, everybody, let’s go. And he’s like, today I’m going to open my mall kiosk because I need to be everywhere all the time. And he’s always like parodying, like, you know, but like there’s those types of creators right in the entrepreneur world that are just like, you know, you got to work seven days a week. It’s hustle all the time. You know, you don’t need to eat lunch, whatever. And those people resonate with a different group of people.

32:03
but you’re never gonna resonate with that group, right? And so that’s okay because there’s a whole lot of people out there wanting to consume content and there’s gonna be a subset of those people that like your content. Yeah. I’m trying to think what other the common hurdles are there for people to get over? I will say a thing that’s not a hurdle and do not let this be your hurdle is setting up your YouTube channel. Like we’ve had people that have

32:33
gotten a little bit into the weeds in this overthinking like what kind of header image do like just start the channel, connect your Google account, like done. Don’t agonize over that at all. Almost no one goes to your channel page anyway. No, no. Is what I found. Yeah, so don’t, and that’s the other thing is like don’t get caught up. I mean, YouTube’s got a lot of really cool features, right? Like you can categorize your videos, you can do a lot of different things.

33:02
And it’s like those things are all good to do, like if that gets you, because we know people that are like, well, that’s gonna be the next hurdle, right? How should I categorize this? Should I put this in the list form? Should I put this in the, it’s like don’t, don’t, don’t let all that get to you. Just get your videos up there because the reality is for most long form video, if you have two subscribers, that video is not gonna be seen by a ton of people initially.

33:28
Now, it probably over time will build up, right? Because as you get more subscribers, some of them go back and watch your content, depending on how it’s been categorized. But like initially, just get it out there. Don’t worry about all the other things when you’re just getting started. Yeah. And I guess we should just touch on some of the other things like the title and the thumbnail. mean, basically you want people to watch your video. And so usually what I do is I’ll just figure out what people are searching for. And there’s a number of tools that

33:56
that do this, vidIQ and TubeBuddy. And just find the keyword that people are typing in and then just kind of work it into your title. And that’ll get you some initial traffic because you’ll get some search traffic. But then over time, as people get to know you and just want to watch you for you, you can stop doing this. But I think in the beginning, it’s important. Yeah. I also think it was the financial tortoise.

34:24
who said this at the last FinCon, but for his thumbnails, he literally just sets up a camera and takes like 50 pictures of himself with making like crazy faces and like pointing and doing all these things. And it’s like, then he has his whole database of thumbnail pictures. And if you use a tool like Canva, I mean, they have a YouTube template, a thumbnail template, you can create the basic template and all you need to do is add the graphic.

34:53
and the text. You can basically start out by doing that. Thumbnails are important and I don’t want to say that don’t worry about your thumbnail at all, but I think just once again getting started, just get a thumbnail out there. Don’t agonize over the colors and this and that. Because here’s the other thing, without people watching it, you’re not going to really be able to tell if the thumbnail is performing. The more content you get out, the more people that are going to watch, you can tweak it. No one’s going to look back and go,

35:21
Steve used to have a different type of thumbnail. Nobody cares. You’ll be able to iterate on a lot of this as you get going. What’s funny about this is our mutual friend Rob, he never did any thumbnails for his videos and they were still getting tens of thousands of views. We literally got in an argument. I was like, if you just take the time to just put a little caption on it, that way people know what it’s about at least when they glance over it.

35:51
Yeah. And I just had him do one where he literally just took his existing thumbnail and put some words on it and his click through rate went up. Right. So it’s just stupid things like that. Like he still makes no effort on his thumbnail. He literally just takes a frame of the video and he just puts some words on what the topic is about. And that’s it. Yeah. And he still gets acceptable. Absolutely. I think if you want to sort of.

36:18
Automated a little bit just create a couple templates and then just drop in the stuff. It makes it I mean canva makes it so simple I know most people have a canva account. It’s not hard to just get that going I mean, I think all these things are progressions like gradual progressions You start out just putting out video and then over time you just kind of refine your craft, you know, maybe you’ll do better thumbnails or I Don’t know. Maybe you’ll do a little bit more editing

36:45
a little bit of B-roll and whatnot. None of these things are necessary, but it just kind of goes in a logical progression. Over time, as you make more videos, you’ll become better at what you do and your content will just gradually become better because you’re going to want to constantly be improving it. Yes, and I think that leads us to probably the last and probably most important thing, and that’s consistency. You need to be putting out content on a regularly scheduled basis.

37:15
So whether you’re like, I can do two videos a week, I can do one video a week, you can’t do one video, go four weeks, put out another video, go three weeks, put out two videos, six weeks. It is a numbers game in that the more videos you put out, the better. But they do in long form, it’s not about the short form where it’s like, just put out as much as you can, quality’s not super important. The quality is important, but having consistent content, I mean, you started at one a week.

37:43
I think you’ve upped it to two right now. one a week for the most one a week? Okay. You talked about going to two. I do. This is what I do now. If one of my videos is a dud, then I do two for that week. If it’s good, then I like to ride that good feeling for the entire week. You have to be in a place where you are committing to doing that because just putting up one video and then not doing anything for a while will hurt you.

38:11
I would definitely just know, would have some in the, I would start your channel, put up a couple of videos at once just so you have some content there and then have some stuff backlogged, at least already filmed so that you can continue with the schedule of at least one a week. For me, I have scripts backlogged, not the actual filming part because that’s what takes me forever. That’s the most intimidating part for me.

38:38
Whatever your hurdle part is, make sure you’ve got a little bit of backlog of that. Then don’t be afraid to rely on AI. Actually, I started my channel before AI was even a thing. I don’t even know how I got to that. so much better. It’s gotten so much better now that computers are writing your- Exactly. It’s much better now that I have that help. It makes it so much smoother.

39:06
Hope you enjoy that episode. Now, right now, I think YouTube is the best opportunity in the content creation space, and I make six figures per year on advertising alone. You need to be on video. For more information and resources, go over to mywifequaterjob.com slash episode 561. And once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2025 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs, and learn a ton, then come to my event.

39:35
go to SellersSummit.com. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to MyWifeQuarterJob.com and sign up for my free six-day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.