Free YouTube Views
How can you make a viral YouTube video when you have ZERO subscribers? This article goes through a case study of my video went viral and teaches you the process to make your own viral videos and get free organic YouTube views.
You can watch the case study and viral video process tips below, or read the article for more detail:
How to Get More Views on Youtube
You can make a viral or semi viral video in really any niche, even boring ecommerce ones like I did.
Viral videos have a few things in common – the first being they inspire people to share the video. This is the #1 characteristic of viral videos, when a video gets shared it starts to go viral. People want to share videos that cause them to feel any emotion strongly, whether that is:
- laughter
- happiness
- sadness
- fear
- surprise
- or any strong emotion
If your video makes people feel something, they will naturally want to share it with others.
People also share videos that are super helpful, such as how to videos, and videos that helped them with a specific problem or solution, so even if your video doesn’t evoke strong emotion, you can still make it helpful enough to go viral.
Viral videos also have a unique angle that makes people want to watch that specific video even if there are other similar videos out there. Meaning you need to make your video different from any other similar topic video out there – you can do this by injecting your own case study or experience into it because no one else has had your exact experience with a situation.
You can also curate other people’s data or experience in a unique way that’s never been done. The key is to take a unique approach that makes people drawn to your video over any other video in your niche to increase the chances they choose to spend their precious time watching your video as opposed to any others.
People have a lot of things vying for their attention so if they don’t have a clear reason to watch your video over all the others, they simply won’t watch it so give them a reason to watch yours.
In addition to strong emotion, if you make them learn something about themselves or feel a strong bond they will also want to share and watch your video:
- Identity
- Bond
- Learn about yourself
- This is us
- Family
How to Increase YouTube Views
The way to make a boring niche viral video, like I did with my ecommerce store product demonstration video is to make it super relevant and exactly what the watcher is searching for, make it interesting, make it helpful, and optimize it specifically for youtube search.
If your niche is boring, you actually have an advantage because you can have fun while making your own video and make it interesting and fun.
When you make it fun and start incorporating your own experience and story into then people watching it start to have fun with you, and then suddenly your boring niche becomes more fun and people start to emotionally connect with it, making it even more likely to stand out from your competition and go viral. So don’t assume your boring niche is actually boring and make a boring video to represent that.
No, instead, have fun with your boring niche and make your video be helpful in a way that is a compelling story for your audience so they stay engaged and want to watch the whole thing.
A compelling story can be from your own personal experience or it can simply be a transformational before after visual story such as a makeup tutorial presents- people are always intensely interested in before after visual stories as you can see from any makeup or home improvement channel, as well as engaging personal experience stories which you can inject into any niche, not as a side note, but as a way to tell the entire video in a story arc to keep people engaged.
YouTube SEO
You can have a viral video that goes viral from just people sharing it, and you can have a video that goes viral from being correctly optimized for YouTube SEO.
Here is how to optimize a video to go viral through YouTube SEO, which is how my specific ecommerce video went viral:
- Keyword research
Keyword research is a huge part of viral YouTube SEO. Search for keywords in your niche on YouTube and choose a video topic, keyword and title that is not overcrowded.
This means choosing one where there are not too many videos uploaded for the keyword already, and especially not too many good or similar videos already uploaded on it. You need to know you can make the best video, with firsthand experience preferably so yours has a chance of living on the first page in a high-ranking position. It is important there isn’t already too much super good competition because otherwise you’ll never rank organically without an ad budget, and why add more noise to some thoroughly and well covered already if you don’t have anything unique to add.
If you can take a super interesting unique angle on a well covered topic, that is a good play to stand out as long as you make that super clear in your title however.
- Video Title
The video title is very important for ranking in YouTube.
For your keyword research in the title, the key is to have your most specific keyword at the front of the title because that will carry the most weigh tin search results, and this will increase your watch time which increases your video rank which I talk about more later on.
After the specific keyword you want to rank #1 one on then put an interesting short phrase that highlights your unique experience and results try to include an interesting question or number or something that makes people want to click, then you can insert one or two more broad, more general keywords in the title so later on once people start liking and watching your video, youtube will start to rank you for your broader keywords in addition to your general keywords. This is a great way to structure your title for maximum views so you get people’s attention so they want to watch and click, and you get the super specific high quality views plus set yourself up with the opportunity to rake in broader keyword rankings and views as well.
The title has to be relevant to the high traffic keywords with as low comp as possible so your video will show. Try putting a specific number or result in your title when possible so people see you as credible and with experience. People like watching those who have direct experience in the area so they know the advice will actually work and it makes watching the videos more interesting, make the title something they want to click.
I create a standout title by looking at the currently ranking page of YouTube videos where I want my video to show up based on the keyword I’m targeting. I then picture my title on that page near the middle and ask myself, “would I click that title to watch it? Would I click that thumbnail? What would make me want to click and watch that’s NOT clickbait?”
Not having a clickbait title, but actually being able to follow through on your title in the video is key because visitors have to click and watch and then be hooked and want to watch more and trust you, not feel duped into thinking they clicked and then go to a horrible video that is boring and not relevant.
- Video Thumbnail
The video thumbnail is super important for YouTube SEO because without a good one, even if your title thumbnail and keywords are spot on, you’ll never rank long term.
It’s important to look at the videos already ranking on the page you want yours to rank and then see how you can make your thumbnail stand out.
Choose a different color, choose a captivating statistic or word you can add to your own thumbnail. The key is to make your thumbnail stand out and be the best on the page, the one you’d want to click if shown the search result page.
This will increase your video CTR which will increase its ranking long term as long as people actually watch your video and it’s not clickbait.
- Captivating Content
Having insanely interesting content that draws the viewer in for the majority of the video is the #1 ranking factor and without it your video has no chance of ranking even if you ace every other single ranking factor.
You have to make your video interesting with no pauses or ums or boring filler pieces. People will stop watching if you even have a second or two of filler or confusion.
Let me say that again. Every second of your video has to have a purpose. Every second has to capture attention, add value and be interesting. The second you start rambling or didn’t know what you were going to say, or didn’t edit a pause or put in excess filler info, the viewer will stop watching.
Youtube videos are different from podcasts in that people want an answer or help and they want it now, they don’t want to listen to you ramble for an hour and then get a few key takeaways like people do on podcasts or longer form content.
You probably know from your own experience, if you’re watching a youtube video for a specific reason and the person starts talking about something else or is super boring you simply stop watching and find a different video. The youtube algorithm takes this into account in a huge way because of the enormous volume of content that is uploaded each day and the fierce competition for each keyword.
Youtube wants to give viewers the best possible content and they do this by measuring metrics including click through rate on title and thumbnail and even more so by measuring view time and video engagement including likes and comments.
Youtube will drive more traffic to your video when people watch most of it or the whole thing because this is a huge signal to them that your video was good because someone took the time to watch the whole thing. If your viewers are all clicking out because you clickbaited them, or because you’re boring or pause a lot then you’re not giving your video even a chance to start ranking.
Another huge bonus When people love and watch your whole video, youtube starts expanding the keywords it shows for so you can start gaining more views than you even originally tried to target
- High Production Value: Lighting & Sound
Probably the least important ranking factor, but it will help, and it will add to how long people watch your video which will help boost it in results.
Lighting is key because if people have trouble seeing you or think you look strange they’ll likely click out and find another video with good lighting to watch. My first viral video had insanely good lighting even though it was my first youtube video because I bought lightbulb lamps at Home Depot and a white tarp for my background so it looked professional and clean and super well-lit which was even more important for a beauty product video, but is also important if you want any type of viral video.
Sound isn’t as important and my first viral video had OK sound from my computer, but if you’re producing more than one video you might as well invest in a lavalier mic to increase your production value.
Let me know if which viral video ranking factor you think is most important in the comments!