I watch a lot of vloggers on YouTube. Among all of them are two vloggers that have really caught my attention: Peter McKinnon and Ryan Connolly (Film Riot). McKinnon is a Toronto based photographer and videographer whose vlog topic is solely about operating the camera and showing off new camera gear. Connolly, an American filmmaker, takes his vlog in a different direction by teaching aspiring Indie filmmakers how to make a movie on the cheap.
Both are quite knowledgeable in their craft but that isn’t the reason I want to bring them to your attention. These two men have become hugely successful digital entrepreneurs, with vlogging as a major part of the money maker in their businesses..
In this three-part article (this issue being part 1), I will reveal the steps to their success.
Crunching numbers:
With his vlog just 2 years old, Peter McKinnon has gained over 1.2 million subscribers. Along with 51 million views and over 7 million of those views in just the last 2 months.
What do these numbers mean in terms of revenue generation? Well, it means McKinnon could easily be clearing over $10,000 USD/month from YouTube ad revenue alone.
Ryan Connolly’s vlog is a few years older but he, too, is experiencing the same volume of subscribers with over 140 million views during the 8 year life of his vlog. This means Connolly’s vlog is earning him an average of $5-6,000 USD/month from YouTube ad revenue alone.
On top of that, McKinnon and Connolly have corporate sponsors advertising their products on each of their vlog episodes.
How did McKinnon and Connolly manage to achieve such solid numbers? How is it that they are able to generate such a high revenue from an online video blog?
3 required steps to growing a YouTube audience:
There are three primary steps necessary to growing an engaged YouTube audience that we need to review before we start analyzing how Peter McKinnon and Ryan Connolly gained such large audiences.
Step 1 – get noticed
How are people finding you? What methods are you using to drive traffic to your videos; such as Social Media, word of mouth, online advertising – to name a few options? How are you reaching the right target audience for your content? It’s very important to ensure that the right people are watching your content. Otherwise, there won’t be that needed interest in subscribing to your vlog.
Step 2 – provide quality content
Are you engaging your viewers with content that will benefit them? How are you presenting your content? Are you making it clear from the start of your video what it is for? How are you motivating your audience to watch through to the end of the video? You want the video to convert viewers to subscribers who come back again and again.
Step 3 – build a relationship with your audience
This is the most important step of all and one that often gets missed by most vloggers. How are you creating a personal connection with your audience? How are you turning your viewers into your fans? You need to establish a relationship with your viewers in order to make them want to stay and watch more. Remember, there are many other vloggers all talking about the same topic you want to talk about. There is a lot of competition out there. How will you make your vlog different? How will you draw your audience to want to watch more from you over your competitors? What makes you different and worth coming back to for more?
Choosing to create an online vlog or video series, as some call it, isn’t an easy gig to take on. But if you get it right, the rewards are big! Take your time. Think things through and be willing to tweak your series on a regular basis.
