session one notes | Youtube strategy

How do I set up SEO for my YouTube videos to rank on Google? How do I use google analytics and create an effective keyword strategy? With zero subscribers, where do I start? Simple answer is leverage TubeBuddy, my favorite YouTube SEO tool. We’ll talk more about this in our 3rd session :) SEO will help your channel to get found by people who don’t know who you are.

1. How do you build a content calendar?  Pen and paper or software? Could you break down your video and content creation workflow? What are the editing and other software tools that you used designed to support your workflow? I’d like your tips/guidance on creating a content creation process. And I’d love to learn more about your systems/process for creating content. I use a combination of Notion & Asana. I’ll show you what that looks like on our 2nd call :) Here’s a great video on Notion from Katie Steckly https://youtu.be/bvSltGx252U

2. Where do you find background videos like your recent AI & Honeybook video?

   The stock video we used came from our Envato subscription.

3. How did you become a good storyteller?  Is it an art or can it be taught? Storytelling - What resources do you recommend for learning to be a great storyteller? Also, how do you also learn to incorporate strategies that are designed for conversion as part of your storytelling? I learned through theatre training but there are some practical tips you can follow. Here’s a great video from Think Media https://youtu.be/8s0i1LutAc4

4. How often should we be posting?

   I recommend having at least four videos already done before you launch your channel and then deciding what’s a pace you can keep up. Twice a month is great, weekly is better if you can. Another option is to alternate between a live video and pre-recorded video to give yourself a longer time to edit.

5. Does the length of our videos impact ranking? What should be the average length of the videos?

   Viewer retention impacts your ranking so I would go for 5-8 minutes and split your content into a series.

6. Is a talking head video a waste of time?  Do we need to spend time on post-production?  More presentation-like?

   A talking head is definitely not a waste of time. It’s a great way to get started and they are easier to edit. I would do some type of post-production with some type of animation in the beginning and an end card at the end at the very least.

7. Suggestion for just going the LIVE route - especially when you talking to no one but yourself?

   I would treat your lives like an event. Market them and show up at the same time so you’re more likely to have an audience. Engage with your audience regularly to keep yourself from losing steam and don’t feel like you have to livestream forever.

8. Can you grow a presence on YouTube with just LinkedIn?  Instagram steals my joy and always course-corrects in a negative way for me.

   You can definitely grow with just LinkedIn. I just recommend posting a photo or a clip from your video as the post and then link to your video in the comments or the caption. Just sharing the YouTube preview and link as a post hasn’t performed well for me.

9. Could you recommend a decent teleprompter that's budget-friendly?
   BIGVU is very budget-friendly. It’s what I use in the car and they have a desktop teleprompter as well.

10. How do you learn to be a SMART and strategic content creator, so I can work smarter and not harder? How do I make creating YT content simplified for me and my audience, so I can keep myself accountable and engaged and stay out of overwhelm? I think you have to be willing to keep it simple in the beginning and keep pushing yourself to add/try/improve one thing each time you post a video. My early videos don’t even show my face. It was just a screenrecording I did with a Yeti mic and I added music after the recording was done. 

11. I have a podcast that has been on hiatus for a couple of months. I want to relaunch with a new name and upload episodes to YouTube will that make it hard to do other content on there as well? You can definitely put a podcast on YouTube but I would only suggest doing that if it’s a video recording of the interview. If it’s just a photo with audio it’s not going to perform well. You can also make a podcast playlist so it doesn’t have to dominate your feed.

12. Would love to know the kind of equipment I need. I have a Sony RX100, webcam, and microphone wondering what else I need. The only other thing I would recommend is lighting. I have the equipment recommendation list on Amazon listed at the top of this page now.

13. I get so much intel/ideas from my discovery calls/client forms would it be ethical to use some of those scenarios as topics? You can definitely use them as topics but I wouldn’t disclose names for discovery call folks. If they are a paying client, you can ask for their permission and I would like to their business in the description.

14. Do I need Streamyard or Hoppin? I have really enjoyed the process of using StreamYard for livestreaming so that would be my recommendation.

15. How can I launch my channel with the minimal? (I don’t want to subscribe to a million programs, preferably… LOL) In my mind, a minimal launch would be website, email marketing software, ecommerce shop, and SEO tool for the videos. Post content, optimize it for search, email your current subscribers, use the videos to drive traffic to a freebie, sell the new subscribers on your low ticket offer. Rinse and repeat :)

16. I’d like guidance from someone with experience getting UGC clients to show me how to work towards that. The bonus session is the Brand Deals 101 workshop with Sean Scott. You should have a ticket for that already so that will be super helpful. He’s got great content on IG and he sends out a biweekly newsletter with creator tips.

17. I’d love to build an engaged community around Christian entrepreneurship. The biggest thing I would say about building a community is to determine your boundaries and bandwidth now. Once you decide how much time you have to invest in your community, find the platform or software that makes the most sense to facilitate that. My email list, membership, workshops and weekly livestreams are how I build community. You’re welcome to build a FB group. You could also use a platform like Mighty Networks or Circle but once you start going that route it’s going to take a lot of time to manage.

QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED IN THE SESSION:

Can StreamYard replace ZOOM for virtual meetings? Technically you could but Zoom allows you to have a meeting up to 40 minutes for free so I would endeavor to keep your meetings to 30 mins if you want to cut that expense.

 How did you choose between Buy Me a Coffee and Payhip for your membership? Why do you use both in your business? Simplicity. It’s understood that Buy Me a Coffee is for fan support and Payhip is more transactional. There will come a point where I have physical products in my Payhip shop so I wanted to eliminate confusion by keeping my membership on a different platform. When I launch my first course, I will probably use a third platform for that and I’m currently testing out multiple platforms to see which one is the best fit. Think of Buy Me a Coffee as Patreon alternative and Payhip as an ecommerce store.

Now that SS has a members area, would you use it? I will probably move my website away from Squarespace so I won’t be leveraging their members area feature.

What are your thoughts on Payhip’s course and membership option? They are pretty minimal but a great fit if you’re trying to run your entire business off a Payhip site. I’m in the scaling phase of business so I need more features but they are a great place to start so you have low overhead while you prove the business model but you will outgrow it.

SESSION three | AUGUST 21st AT 1 PM EDT