How To Grow Your YouTube Channel In 2025
Discover proven strategies to skyrocket your YouTube channel growth in 2025. Learn tips & tricks to boost your views, subscribers, and engagement.
Are you ready to take your YouTube channel to the next level in 2025? In this video, we delve into the latest strategies and innovative tips that can help you attract more subscribers and increase engagement. From optimizing your content for search to leveraging new features, we cover everything you need to know. Don’t miss out on these essential insights—watch the video now to start growing your channel.
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The Show’s Main Transcript
[00:00:02.130] – Jonathan Denwood
Welcome back, folks, to the Membership Machine Show. This is episode 115. In this episode, we will discuss tips and tricks to grow your YouTube channel in 2025. If you’ve got a membership website, it’s a great way to promote your niche subject and get students. Growing a channel, I think if you’ve got any form of online business, is essential and growing in importance. I’ve got my great co-host with me, Nicole, and we will have some great thoughts to share on this fascinating subject. Nicole, would you like to introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers quickly?
[00:01:09.890] – Nicole Ouellette
Sure. Yeah. Hi, my name is Nicole. My last name is Wola. You don’t have to remember that. All you need to remember is I am technical support. I’ve had a marketing company for 17 years, and I love talking about this stuff. So, thanks for having me, Jonathan.
[00:01:24.380] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, it’s no problem. Like I say, we’ll be going into the main things that you’ve got to understand that will help you and enable you to grow your YouTube channel in 2025. But before we go into the meat and potatoes of this great subject, I’ve got a message from one of our major sponsors. We will be back in a few moments, folks. Three, two, one. We’re coming back, folks. But before we go into the main topic of this show, I also want to point out that we’ve got a great free resource. If you’re looking to build your membership website on WordPress, and I think you really should, it’s a list of the best WordPress resources and plug-in services to help you make your website quickly. You can get these free goodies by going over to WPTonic. Com/deals, wp-tonic. Com/deals. There are also some special offers from the sponsors. What more could you ask for, my beloved tribe? I don’t know, but there we go. So, let’s go straight into it. So, Nicole, how important is it for somebody trying to build any business online to have a growing YouTube channel, specifically if they’re into eLearning and trying to create a membership website?
[00:02:57.600] – Nicole Ouellette
It’s funny that you picked this this week because I had something happen over the weekend that directly- I just said it, Nicole.
[00:03:04.330] – Jonathan Denwood
I just said it.
[00:03:04.770] – Nicole Ouellette
I know. If you’re considering going to Vegas, I think this week is the time. So, I got an inquiry from a potential client through my booking. And I mean, she’s not friends with anyone I know. She lives in Hawaii. I know one person in Hawaii.
[00:03:27.040] – Jonathan Denwood
I’m not inverse, Nico.
[00:03:29.070] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah. So at the end of the… I was like, I have to ask, how did you even find me? And she said, well, it’s funny. I was using ChatGPT, and I was asking it some questions. It pulled some information and referenced one of your YouTube videos. So, I started watching your content and wanted to connect with you. So I just thought it was. We usually think of YouTube as the second largest search engine after Google. But it’s exciting to know that these tools are indexing YouTube videos, and it can become just another way for people to… I would have never guessed that that is how somebody would find me in a million years. So, yeah. YouTube has extra layers of influence that I never even thought of.
[00:04:31.710] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, I think that’s a great example. However, I get a lot of inquiries from my YouTube channel, which has been growing. I put a lot of work into it. It has over 1,500 videos, but it’s growing in influence, folks. And I think its size and influence is growing with AI as well because I think Nicole’s example shows the increasing power because these AI chat bolts index it, and it will grow. People who consume your content like it will consume much more of it. They will have a bit of a binge. And if they’re in the area or interested in the subject, they might be interested in some of the services or products you provide. So I think it’s a great way of promoting pre-launch, in the early days, or as you grow. A YouTube channel is all-important if you’re in the eLearning membership space. YouTube does offer membership, but it’s for people supporting your channel. I would never use a platform to sell subscriptions. I would always have them separate on my website for control reasons.
[00:06:23.980] – Jonathan Denwood
But I think if you’re listening to any of these other podcasts and what’s on both our YouTube channels, I think if you’re looking to build credibility to your target niche audience, building a channel and building that audience. It doesn’t have to be tens of thousands of people. It just needs the right people. Nicole, of what you’ve studied, what are some of the key things that you think people need to know in attempting to grow their channel?
[00:07:10.030] – Nicole Ouellette
Well, as somebody who… I think I’ve had my YouTube channel for 10 years and created content at different frequencies. When I was making a regular schedule, I saw very regular growth. So Because people… I think, and I’m not sure, this is a good question for you, Jonathan. I’ve had people tell me that it’s good to post content consistently. I had a weekly video release, which I would release at noon Eastern time on Friday, a Friday afternoon. And I wasn’t sure if those videos did well because I was regularly releasing them at that time or if it was because my audience knew that the content would go on then, and they would watch it. Part of what can boost your video is you getting a certain number of watches in the first period that you upload the video, or maybe it was a combination of both. Do you think that that has anything to do with SEO? Because I feel like back in the day, blogging-wise, they always said you should post your blog at a set interval so that it would be well indexed.
[00:08:30.070] – Nicole Ouellette
But I’m not sure if the same is true with YouTube videos. What’s your experience with that?
[00:08:34.640] – Jonathan Denwood
Well, looking at a load of tutorials and online information, I think a lot of people would say, When you publish, it’s just a regularity. It doesn’t really matter to some extent. If you’re publishing one or two, three, four times a week, once a week, once every couple of weeks, once a month, but do it in the same day, the same time, because I think what you touch upon, I think the people waiting for your content, I think that you’ve really got to post one every week for that to kick in. I think the other bit is more to do with the expectations and the way that you are treated by YouTube. So regularity is probably important to start off with more with YouTube than the audience. I think the other thing that I didn’t realize, but through watching and consuming and studying is too broad a niche subject is not a good idea. And it’s very related to what I said about people when it comes to choosing a specific target audience or a specific subject for your first launch of your course. I think going too broad too quickly is very detrimental to growing a YouTube channel.
[00:10:14.900] – Jonathan Denwood
And what I mean is finding a subject, a particular niche in a subject, a broad subject like health, technology, online marketing, it doesn’t really matter. And then really finding a special niche area in that broader subject and sticking to really thinking about, does that niche provide me enough subject matter to really continue publishing and not tempting to broaden it out into other subjects because it’s very sophisticated technology, but when it comes to the SEO and the search. It’s like going back with a time machine because you publish a subject, it can index them, you can be top or YouTube search straight away. If you’re in a niche, if you’re in a particular niche, people tend to go too broad, too early, too quickly, and they don’t really think about it and find a niche subject in a broader subject? What do you what do you reckon?
[00:11:35.360] – Nicole Ouellette
And what you’ll notice is even large YouTube people, if they have something else they want to do, they’ll start a second channel. So even if you do have a broad audience, it’s like these people have realized, okay, if I have comedy here, but I also want to do a lifestyle podcast or something, I’m going to set up the second channel. That’s what I see a a lot of large YouTubers doing. And I think that it shows that this niche thing is important, even if you do have a larger base to work from than the average small business owner that might be listening to this.
[00:12:14.860] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, it really confuses YouTube, and it really will harm your ability to grow the channel. So if you get anything from this podcast, and if you’re watching it on YouTube, It’s really because it’s I’ve learnt the hard way myself. Now, Keyri, it’s very similar to blogging. It’s very tempting just to think of a title, and you’re really interested in a particular subject, and off you go, you make a video. It’s very unlikely that it’s going to be found, and it’s very unlikely it’s going to build your channel. You really got to do some keyword research, and you don’t have to actually spend money. You can just type Start typing into YouTube search, and it will come down with a list.
[00:13:22.500] – Nicole Ouellette
Oh, that’s a good idea.
[00:13:24.080] – Jonathan Denwood
There’s a free tool, and it’s going to be in the show notes, which you find on the WP It’s a free tool from Backlinko, who are well known in the SEO area. He’s well known, but he’s really concentrated on now YouTube. He’s got a free service as well, and it’s called, now, YouTube. It’s called, like I say, you’ll find the link to that, but it’s called, Grow your YouTube channel. Well titled. Yeah, let’s do the point. And there’s some paid services. They’re not outrageous. The one I use is VidIQ, and another one I use is Tubuddy. One Tubuddy, I think if you get it on a special deal, you can get it for $40 a year, where I think VidIQ offers more services, but it’s about $20 a month, if you pay month to month. I think you can get it down to $16 a month if you pay yearly. And these paid services, they give a lot more through a Chrome or a Firefox add-on plugin, so they’re in your search bar. They can suggest keywords, and they are quite helpful. But doing research about the subject of what your video is going to be, the title, and what it’s going to be, is, I think, quite crucial.
[00:15:25.220] – Jonathan Denwood
What do you think, Nicole?
[00:15:27.620] – Nicole Ouellette
It’s something that, honestly, I need to start doing a little bit more, to be honest with you. And I’m glad for having this conversation because I’m going to go to those links after the show to make my YouTube titles a little bit better keyword-wise, because most of how people are finding me, broadly enough, when I look at my website stats, so what I do is I make a blog entry with every YouTube video. So I put the show notes and the YouTube embed on my blog, and then I also have it on YouTube. Most Most of the views that it’s getting are off of my website, where I feel like I’m adding a lot more context. So I need to do the same thing that I do there on my actual YouTube channel, I think.
[00:16:14.510] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, It’s something that I was quite resistant on, but I learned my lesson, and it did start to make… After a few months, you really did see the channel grow substantially. The other fact is, if you get past 5,000 subscribers, it will grow even more because the actual YouTube suggests your channel to a lot more new people. Oh, that’s cool. So it’s really important to grow over 5,000 subscribers. And also, I forgot, I think it’s a thousand subscribers, or it could be a bit higher.
[00:16:57.320] – Nicole Ouellette
You can then monetise your It’s a thousand subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in a calendar year. So just putting that out there.
[00:17:09.110] – Jonathan Denwood
And even if you don’t plan to monetize it, I would still… After you get a thousand or the hour, I would still, when they send you the link, I would still fill in and apply because I also think that is another way that YouTube judges your channel. Is it monetized Have you gone through the process?
[00:17:33.310] – Nicole Ouellette
So I definitely would do it. Right. And just in case someone’s listening who hasn’t done this, it gives you the option when you upload a YouTube video to turn on monetisation or not for each video. So you could go through the process, apply, get accepted. And if you don’t want ads in your videos, YouTube is going to put ads in your videos anyway. I’ll just say that. But if you didn’t want them for whatever reason, you can just, when you upload videos, just keep monetisation turned off. So it’s on for the channel, but it’s off for each individual video upload. So that is an option, in case someone’s listening and wondering about that.
[00:18:08.460] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, anything they offer you, I’ll suggest you take it up because they are What I’ve watched and read. It’s a combination of different factors, folks. Some of them are quite small. Now, I think during the SEO No research. No, finding a niche in a broader subject, not going too broad and keeping to that niche, really important. Doing keyword research And applying that research to your title of your video, really important. Third really important thing is the thumbnail and spending time on the thumbnails. I think it’s really… I think the title, the niche, and the thumbnails are some of the biggest things that will move your channel forward. Now, obviously, you got to provide information. It’s got to be entertaining or informative. But I think the thumbnail is like the third and also really important. What do you reckon?
[00:19:33.310] – Nicole Ouellette
I will say as somebody who also resisted this, I think it is important. And if you don’t think it is, and you want to check in with yourself about it, There’s a Reddit, a subreddit called Small YouTubers, and about half of the stuff people post in there is like, what do you guys think of this thumbnail? And I’ll tell you, if you don’t care about your own thumbnails, once When you see some stranger’s thumbnails and they say, do you like A or B better? You’re going to definitely see, Oh, yeah. No, B is definitely better. And reading the comments, people are talking about why it’s better and things like that. So if you’re one of those people who just is like, I don’t even know where to start, just sometimes watching people have those conversations on a form like that can be helpful because I didn’t think I cared about thumbnails, but once I saw some really bad ones, in my opinion, I thought, Oh, okay. I get what makes a good one now that I’ve seen some bad ones. It’s helpful. How did you learn how to make good thumbnails?
[00:20:38.780] – Jonathan Denwood
Well, I just watched a lot of advice and read it, but got some tips here for you, folks. Canva provides… It’s a great service, the free, but I would pay for Canva, the paid version. It’s about $120, I think, 110, something around there. I use it-For the year.
[00:21:00.200] – Nicole Ouellette
For the year. For the year.
[00:21:03.440] – Jonathan Denwood
I use it almost every day, every week. They provide a good library of thumbnail templates, which you can then adapt. Don’t keep the wording on the thumbnail down. You don’t have to have the full wording of the title. You just need the essence. I I have a portrait of myself. I always have a picture of myself in the thumbnails. What I did was I got some professional portraits of myself done, and then I used there’s some AI services. You can upload the one I did, and I will attempt to put it in the show notes. You had to upload a number of photographs of yourself up to their service. I used some of the pro photos, and then I took some photos of myself using my iPhone, but the You had to upload, I can’t remember how many, and you upload them to this service, which was about $50 to $70, and they produced 100 different images of yourself in different poses, and you can download them. It did take a morning because I had to upload more examples than I thought I would have to, but it But still, if you went to a photographer, they charge a considerable amount of money per photograph.
[00:22:53.870] – Jonathan Denwood
So I had three or four professional ones, and then I took some But it was the quality what the AI service produced. It was very impressive. I’ve got a hundred different headshots, body headshots in different poses, and it was all done by AI.
[00:23:16.930] – Nicole Ouellette
Oh, interesting. I was smiling a second ago because there was a study that they did of different people’s expressions in different YouTube thumbnails. The One that was the most prevalent was surprise.
[00:23:36.370] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, it works though.
[00:23:38.820] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah. I don’t be… I don’t know, some of this stuff makes me print.
[00:23:44.980] – Jonathan Denwood
I can’t quite do stuff- Yeah, well, you got to make your mind up. Either you’re going to be a bit self-righteous about it, or you’re just going to get on with it. Sure. I take the middle… I don’t do many of the surprise. I was curious. I just make sure it’s a good portrait picture of me smiling or looking a bit grumpy, but it all matches I gone for that middle ground. Do you find it ? It has getting those photos done and then using one of these AI services. So I’ve got a whole library of different portrait pictures has made a difference.
[00:24:32.230] – Nicole Ouellette
That’s cool. Do you find that the grumpy ones get more views?
[00:24:37.050] – Jonathan Denwood
I haven’t. That’s the other thing we’re going to talk. I spend a lot of time in Google console, but I don’t spend enough time in my YouTube analytics.
[00:24:53.630] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah, me either.
[00:24:55.540] – Jonathan Denwood
Which you should do because the video There will be videos that are doing a lot better. If you can analyze in your own mind why they’re doing better, I suggest you should make more of those ones. Absolutely. But It’s something I’m probably going to… I’ve got it up to about, I think it’s slightly under 8,000 subscribers now. I want to get it in about six, seven months, up to 18, 1,000. So I need to spend more time on the analytics. But you find a lot of people that are growing, they do spend a lot of time in the analytics and looking at them. But I think using Canva and then getting a library of portraits and personalizing the thumbnails, you’re going to get considerable benefit in spending time on the thumbnails, on the titles, and finding the right niche in a broader category. I personally think these are three of the biggest fins that will enable you to get over 5,000, up to 10,000 subscribers and looking at the Those four fins, I think they’re the four biggest fins that can drive your channel so you break through that 5,000 to 10,000 barrier.
[00:26:42.670] – Nicole Ouellette
Well, I can’t speak to the five 10,000 barrier because I’m not there yet. But one thing that I would add to this list is collaborating with other people who have YouTube channels, whether that’s creating content with them, whether that’s sharing to each other’s communities. That’s what helped me actually get over because I was at the thousand subscriber mark, but I didn’t have enough watch hours. And some of my YouTube friends told their groups, hey, let’s help Nicole get there. And so people, like watched my videos and helped me get over that initial hump of a thousand subscribers.
[00:27:20.870] – Jonathan Denwood
I haven’t done it with my friends, Nicole.
[00:27:22.550] – Nicole Ouellette
You do. You’re friends with all the WordPress people and stuff that come on your podcast.
[00:27:27.540] – Jonathan Denwood
I’m not sure I’m that friendly with some of them. But you can’t be friends with everybody, can you, Nicole?
[00:27:33.580] – Nicole Ouellette
You can’t. But if you do have some some fellow people in your in your YouTube niche, don’t see them as… They’re not competition. They’re people. And again, if you don’t believe me, look at some of these larger creators. They’ll collaborate with each other. They’ll post stuff to social media together. They’ll do videos together. So just think how you want to work with the people who are also in your space. And if If you don’t, that’s fine. But at least you’ve thought through how and if you want to do it.
[00:28:05.030] – Jonathan Denwood
I think that’s great advice. I think we’ve delved through some really great stuff in this first off. We’re going for our mid-break We will be back in a few moments, folks. Three, two, one. We’re coming back. Before we go into the second half and then more tips and insights about growing your YouTube channel. I’m going to throw you over to Nicole, and she’s going to tell you something about her great service, Trend2Send. Over to you, Nicole.
[00:28:42.290] – Nicole Ouellette
Right. So if you’re trying to grow your YouTube channel and you think, wow, these are great tips, but I want even more, another tip before they even get to the second half of this show, consider posting trending video content. I have gotten multiple subscribers subscribers in the last month coming off of my YouTube Shorts. And I found that my trending videos that I post to YouTube Shorts get at least double the views of the short clips that I take from my longer form content. So Trend Descend, what I do is I track trends across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. I find one usable… Well, actually, you get two a week, but I send one at a time, so it’s not to overwhelm. You get a usable trend and links the trending audio on those three platforms, allowing you to create one video that gets a lot of traction. That is also very short. So check out trenddescend. Com if you’re interested in learning more.
[00:29:41.460] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s fantastic. Right, so let’s go into another where I, at the present moment, I’ve been, I wouldn’t say resistant, but I know I got up the game, but I really want to grow the channel before I go to this next step.
[00:29:59.730] – Nicole Ouellette
Okay.
[00:29:59.910] – Jonathan Denwood
And that’s watch time. It’s under the subject of watch time. Before we go into the area which I plan to up my game, but not quite yet, and I want to explain my logic behind it. Some of the facts that the research I did for this show is that long-form videos seem to definitely do better. Long-form, so I think over 10 minutes or longer. I think also there seems to be like what Nicole’s service promotes. You got these short form videos for Instagram TikTok and YouTube, because YouTube has really promoted that. But I think if you’re not specifically making things for short form, I think you should probably look at longer form video. Because really, YouTube seems to be going in two directions at the same time. They really promoted their short form service, but they also promoted their podcasting, which is traditionally long form, How do you write this show. You can find this show on YouTube. I do a basic edit. I put in adverts from the sponsors, and I do a basic edit And having a decent intro, getting an intro, all my other videos do have intro placed in them. I went to Fiverr, I found a specialist that had a good portfolio, and he was excellent to work with.
[00:31:53.520] – Jonathan Denwood
So I got intro. It’s not going to be ridiculously expensive, but I definitely think you should invest in a professional intro. And I haven’t invested in the ending, but I think if you can invest in both, that’s a good idea. People are very impressed by it when you have one.
[00:32:13.800] – Nicole Ouellette
They’re like, Oh, at least in my experience.
[00:32:17.150] – Jonathan Denwood
But I think it’s well worth the money because it’s not going to cost you a fortune. But I think you need to look at the length of the videos. Now, where the thing is called pattern interrupts. Basically, I have been invested in professional editing I haven’t got the time, really, to do it myself. I have utilized professional editing software, Da Vinci, Premiere, and Final Cut, and I got up to reasonable standard on Final Cut. I wasn’t a pro or anything, but I knew more than the base. But I just haven’t got the incarnation or the time with. So I would have to hire a video editor. There’s Upwork, Fiverr. Actually, to start off with, there seems to be a better selection on Fiverr because I’ve been looking at hiring the editor, and I probably will do this in the next six months. I have an editor for my podcast. I have somebody that edits the audio for me and make sure the quality And they’ve all got professional intros, the audio podcast of these shows. But getting a professional editor and getting graphics, cutbacks, having two cameras, depending on what recording software you got. We’re using StreamYard for this, you can use multiple cameras.
[00:34:14.450] – Jonathan Denwood
And I have got a set up, and you can use a device called Stream Deck, and that provides buttons where you can move from one camera, and I have actually got one of their mini decks. I’ve I just not used it, but I plan. I do have a two cameras set up here with Stream Deck, but it’s only worth employing if I’m going to utilize a I either do more editing myself or get a professional editor, but they do reckon that it increases your viewing hours dramatically and cuts down drop out from your videos. I think it’s the next step up. If you get the first things that we talked about in the first half of this show, I think when you got those and you’re moving the channel in the right direction, then I think it might be the right time to look at either doing more editing yourself or hiring marinated to? What do you think, Nicole?
[00:35:33.600] – Nicole Ouellette
As an experiment, and granted, I would have to do this more, I did this for one of my videos, the slow zoom at parts, maybe the emoji popping up or the stock footage. There’s ways to do the pattern interruption, right? And I did one about approximately every 10 seconds for this video, and it’s about a 35 minutes. It took me hours longer to edit this video, and I didn’t get that many more views on it. And I was like, the idea of doing this again, I was a little bit discouraged about it. But like you said, if you’re at that point of hiring an editor, because it’s one thing, you’ve planned the video and you’ve recorded the video, and maybe you’ve done a rough edit of the video to get the content you want right. But adding all those things in is, I think it took me an extra 6 or seven hours to edit that video, conservatively.
[00:36:34.040] – Jonathan Denwood
You’re probably looking between $150 to $100 per video offshore to get a basic, somebody who has basic skill ability offshore, Filipinos, Bangladesh, India. I think then to get somebody more experience, even offshore, You’ll be looking between 200 and $500 a month, depending on how many videos. I’ve got a special rate for my audio editor But I pay three months in advance, and he’s been working for me. He’s been working for me for about six years. So we’ve got a good understanding, and we’ve got a good system, so he gives me a special rate. He’s a great guy. He’s been rock solid. Some of the things on the resources that I did for this particular, the research resources I did for this particular show, they listed a number of things connected to what they call pattern interrupts, and that’s on-screen graphics. Like I said, I do do intro, but they’re talking… There are people that utilize screen capture software, so they go to very… If they’re talking about services and products online. They go to these products and services website, and then they have a floating head of themselves. I’ve chosen not even to do that because I’m not sure.
[00:38:31.040] – Jonathan Denwood
I just literally, for most of my videos, I look straight into the camera and I just talk. I don’t totally script out the video. You can buy AutoQ equipment, so you can script the whole video out. Now, because I’ve forced myself and I’ve done so many videos now that it doesn’t feel odd to look straight at the camera, because when you’re starting, it feels very awkward. It doesn’t bother me anymore. But I look straight into the camera, but I do do research. And I do write out bullet points and topics, and I sectionize the video, and I work out in my brain what are going to be the three to four sections. So it’s not totally unplanned, and I do do the research before the video. So it is formulated a bit, but when I’m actually looking in the camera, I’m not using a auto cue, and I just go for it. Unless I make a major mistake, I normally just do it in one take now. I can do it in one take, and I can just literally waffle on. But I do try and keep to my pre-bullet point list because that stops me from truly waffling off.
[00:40:13.380] – Jonathan Denwood
So animation I think you got to get really serious, but obviously, there’s resources out there. There are animation resources, libraries that you can pay a subscription to have access to, news background or setting B-rolls, B-roll basically, different camera angles, I mentioned that. I have got a two camera, sound effects, bullet lists, And planning your videos in advance, which I do do. I think some of these things you can do, and they will make a difference to your videos without enormous costs. I think there’s a middle ground where I think if you’ve got a certain size of audience and you want to grow it to the next level, I think investing in an editor to do at a certain level is probably a good investment.
[00:41:12.240] – Nicole Ouellette
I agree.
[00:41:12.730] – Jonathan Denwood
I think I would have to be really persuaded to go, because I know the amount of time involved in video editing to do it at a quasar professional level. And also, I think there’s the other factor I want to discuss with you, Nicole. I think people… I think too sophisticated a video, especially on a platform like YouTube, can be a It’s a red sold because I think people are looking for credibility for… The word is escape me, not credibility.
[00:41:54.460] – Nicole Ouellette
Authenticity?
[00:41:55.480] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, that’s what they’re looking for, isn’t it? They’re looking for somebody that seems to know what they’re talking about, and you’re having that one-to-one conversation with people. It’s got a little bit of what radio and podcasting is about to me. What do you reckon, Nicole?
[00:42:17.750] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah, I think so. I think having a little raw realness is totally fine. I think it is nice So the last video I uploaded, which granted hasn’t been doing very well, I talked about different pathways to it, how to get a logo if you need one. And so I talked about different services. And I was talking about the services and the editing process. I showed the website and how to get to the parts where you could see the examples and things like that. I think that that was a good amount of editing that I could handle, to add some elements to it. But at the At the same time, you wouldn’t look at that video and say, oh, wow, this was very professionally produced. So I don’t know. As somebody who couldn’t even reach a level where somebody would feel bamboozled by my flashiness, I don’t think it’s a problem I’m going to have for a long time, if ever, personally. But yeah, I agree. I think people want to… They want to hear from other real people who know what they’re talking about and are.
[00:43:28.020] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, I wouldn’t say it was resistant, But I think getting these other factors and really showing that… Obviously, you got to have some knowledge in the area that you’re talking about, or you got to provide something to the audience that they value. I think doing all these fins, if there’s nothing at the core of what you’re providing, it won’t have the effect. But I think you can have really good content. And if you don’t do the things that we’ve talked about in this this podcast and this video, your growth isn’t going to occur, which would be a great shame. When it comes to the last thing with this, like I said, I placed it at the bottom. I think some of the biggest influencers on YouTube. They have almost professional quality studios. They have a team of editors, a sound editor. They have staff, basically. That is not at the same level as traditional television, but it’s a bit different than somebody… I invested about $1,500. I’ve got lighting all around me. I’ve got a professional camera in front of me. I’ve got reasonable audio. I decided not to use an audio external deck. I’ve still gone with a USB mic, but it’s a rodeo one, and it did cost me about $230.
[00:45:13.500] – Jonathan Denwood
The lens on the camera cost me about $400. No, $600. The camera cost me $600, and I’ve got lights all around me. It’s a reasonably sophisticated rig that I invested in, you can do, you can get started spending a couple of hundred. Funny enough, the main thing you got to be concerned about is the audio and the lighting. So I think there’s a middle road here. And I think if you really start getting traction, I think the next step is to have two cameras and hire a offshore editor, but don’t go gradually do it. How would you respond to what I’ve just said, Nicole?
[00:46:14.820] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah, no. I I mean, I think… When I started, I had no lights, and I had a small shore microphone that was about $100. And then when I moved I have studio lights right now, because if I didn’t, I’d be sitting in the dark. What I did when I first started was I would just only record during the day, so I had sunlight. But what the lights allowed me to do was extend my my recording times and options. So I slowly built up the setup that I have, which is a little bit less than what you have. The room I’m in is really small, so I can’t really do cool depth of field stuff like you have in your setup, in terms of having things lit behind me and all that. But I do have studio lights. I have a better microphone than I started with. Technically, I think I have a 4K camera. But that was my last purchase, and that was about a year ago.
[00:47:18.610] – Jonathan Denwood
They used to go on about 4K. I think it doesn’t matter if you’re hiring an editor because they- Yeah, because it gives them options.
[00:47:28.370] – Nicole Ouellette
They can do more.
[00:47:29.080] – Jonathan Denwood
But I think if If you’re not hiring an editor, I don’t really think it does, because I don’t think it matters that much. But all the YouTube influences around building a YouTube channel, they all go on about 4K, and I understand why they go on about it, because a lot of them come from a background of photography. And the larger the file quality and density of info, the more you can manipulate the photos. And it’s the same with video. But unless you’re going to do a lot of editing, it really doesn’t matter, in my opinion.
[00:48:13.690] – Nicole Ouellette
I will say So if you’re not a super technological person and you feel intimidated by this process. So the first thing I bought was the microphone, and it’s an Elgato microphone. When you go on their site, they have the Elgato key lights, they have the Elgato So they have the Elgato whatever stream deck. I’m not even sure if that’s how you pronounce the name of this company. So sometimes, if you feel a little intimidated, if you have something in a product line, typically they have other supporting products that will work together. What I will say I like about this camera, though, is it has separate software. So for example, if I wanted to go in and adjust the colors and all that before we recorded, I could have it in a way that I couldn’t with my my $100 pandemic special webcam. You know what I mean? I have a little bit more control over what the recording looks like, which obviously helps in the editing process because I have less color correction and stuff like that to do. But yeah, I ended up just getting the camera because it was just part of this product line that I felt comfortable with, and whose software was already on my computer.
[00:49:27.860] – Nicole Ouellette
So sometimes you can just make It’s just like that, too. But like Jonathan said, it doesn’t have to be all at once. You can do parts of it at a time.
[00:49:37.300] – Jonathan Denwood
Because a lot now, fundamentally, using your iPhone, any modern iPhone, it has a camera on it that is amazing quality. So basically, you can use your iPhone. It’s just the audio. People will not put up with really rubbish audio. But basically, you don’t need to go. The other thing is you can go and buy a Logitech 4K webcam. I’ve got one that I don’t use for this recording, but it’s a 4K. It costs about a hundred and fifty It’s going to be my second camera. I do use my stream deck and go for a two-camera setup. It’s amazing. But like I say, you can either use a webcam 4K or use your iPhone. I might use my iPhone for a third camera. You got a lot more choice now. My main camera is a Canon 50, but it Because I was going to look in the camera and I wanted depth, I had to buy a Stigma lens, Stimer-Stimmer lens, and that cost almost as much as the camera cost, and I really didn’t want to pay it, so I looked at some other options and they didn’t work out, and I had to buy the bit, the bullet, and it’s been well worth the investment, but it almost cost as much as or a little bit more than the camera cost.
[00:51:20.080] – Jonathan Denwood
But now, to finish off, how do you… Because I found you basically watching some of your fantastic reviews of other marketing news. But how do you… Do you have that on a separate channel to your company channel, or have you mixed it up?
[00:51:43.220] – Nicole Ouellette
It’s all together.
[00:51:44.590] – Jonathan Denwood
And are you thinking of separating or not? Because that comes around the niche, doesn’t it? It’s giving… This is the strange thing about YouTube, YouTube, highly sophisticated platform, gigabytes, trilabytes. I don’t know what they must have when it comes to actual data. They must have some of the biggest server centers It’s Google, but God knows how much YouTube in the infrastructure it costs, because like I say. But on the other hand, if you don’t give them what they want in the same thing, if it’s too diverse, you just don’t get the growth on your channel. So what are your thoughts about this, Nicole?
[00:52:44.680] – Nicole Ouellette
Well, My channel talks about marketing. So I review marketing gurus. I give marketing tutorials, and I will say my education content does not do very well. That said, whenever I have somebody who finds it and really appreciates it, they’re like, thank you for making this. I don’t know why no one has made a video like this before and stuff like that. So people, it’s like, I feel like I give them their spoon full of sugar with their medicine. So there’s some tutorial content, but it’s all about marketing. So to me, I wouldn’t post content about something that wasn’t that. So I think it all fits in terms of a niche. That That said, I do think YouTube has a hard time categorizing what I am. And most of my subscribers come from YouTube suggestions, and basically outside of my particular profile. So I know that new people are seeing it, which is good. And I know that my little shorts, It’s a little bit of bait in the water, and the fish bites on, and the longer form content is what is going to reel them in, right? So to me, it’s like a little tool in my tool belt, but it’s not the whole thing.
[00:54:15.150] – Nicole Ouellette
I want to keep making content like I’m making. My personal issue is I don’t really have a space. For example, my boyfriend is currently staying at the office until I’m finished recording this, because there’s no room. And I did have some room in my co-working space, but I ended up renting out those offices. So now I don’t have an office there anymore. So I’m like, I got to figure out a literal space that I can record content on a regular basis without disrupting the lives of other people. So I think that’s the thing I really need to ultimately figure out. I do have ideas for videos and things that I want to do. It’s just difficult to find a time to be able to record them, unfortunately. And I do think I need to do more keyword stuff more thumbnail stuff. And I’m really glad we have this conversation because I feel like I learned a lot from having it. So I think I’m going to keep everything on the channel. I think I need to come up with a regular posting schedule and to optimize the content I’m already doing. What about you? What are your goals?
[00:55:15.560] – Jonathan Denwood
Well, I’m in a similar… Because I want to make it clear, I wasn’t having a go at you; I just wanted to point out that this is tricky, folks. After all, it’s not the same as Nicole’s, but I want to tell you that I started my YouTube channel because it was based on my… I just uploaded my podcast. Before I did the Membership Machine show, I did a podcast called the WP Tonic Show. It’s aimed at the WordPress freelancer developer, the WordPress pro-level amateur, or the professional. That’s who it’s aimed at. That’s its audience. It’s one of the major shows in that sector, which isn’t a huge sector, but it’s one that… And I’ve been doing it for almost eight years. But it has introduced me to many WordPress people, some of the most prominent in the WordPress space. I get a bit of sponsorship that covers some of the costs, and I make a little bit of money from it. But it is not aimed at my target audience that I make money from, which is people who look at SaaS or look at WordPress and decide for the right reasons, in my opinion, to build their membership community website on WordPress technology because that gives you the most ownership.
[00:57:02.650] – Jonathan Denwood
And I think ownership in 2025 is a pretty important subject because everybody wants a bit of you and wants you to build their platform, and they’re not there to help you develop your own business. However, the problem is that I put videos on my YouTube channel. I have some of these videos about WordPress, and you could say I build membership on WordPress. It does not sound too bad, but I think, like you, YouTube… I’ve done these other things, and it has started to grow, but I think on reflection, I needed two channels, one for membership and one for the WP Tonic. But WP Tonic is the name of my company, where we host members’ membership and community websites and help and consult people. So you would have thought it would work, but I think in some ways, YouTube’s pretty dumb. This is the strange thing about it. It’s high sophistication. But I think a lot… This is my advice to you, listeners, because I find it’s got to be a simple niche, and you have to stick with it. Because I think there are a lot of people like Nicole and myself for various reasons, and we don’t get the traction that we should because we’re not given precisely what YouTube wants.
[00:58:41.990] – Jonathan Denwood
Is this making sense, Nicole?
[00:58:43.860] – Nicole Ouellette
Yeah, and I think the other thing, and I think you brought it up, is that it’s a good way to start closing this out, but it’s not… Growing subscribers is a fine goal, but sometimes the reason to have a YouTube channel isn’t to increase subscribers. Maybe it’s to establish yourself as a WordPress expert. Perhaps it’s to meet certain kinds of people.
[00:59:07.310] – Jonathan Denwood
You’re so right, but you’re so wrong. You’re right and evil in the same breath because everybody’s. Oh, you’ve only got so many subscribers. It’s a bit like email lists. You talked to somebody about sponsorship. Well, I only have 1,500. We don’t even consider sponsoring unless you have 5,000 subscribed emails. And you wonder, those 1,500, almost 60 % open it every month. But it doesn’t matter, Nicole. The market is only looking for… But you are right. So it’s time for it because Nicole needs to go off. So, Nicole, what is the best place for people to find out more about you and what you’re up to?
[00:59:59.110] – Nicole Ouellette
They can find me on technicalsupport.com and as technical support on various social media channels.
[01:00:07.520] – Jonathan Denwood
The cat’s appeared. A till just poked up if you’re watching. You need to watch the video. If you want to support the show, leave, go to the WP Tonic YouTube channel, and watch it. If you have any questions, put them on the video, or join the Membership Machine Show Facebook group, which is free. We will be back next week with you soon, folks. Bye. Bye.
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