Chapter 8
How to Guest Vlog on YouTube and Get More Channel Views
One way to grow your YouTube channel’s audience is to exchange guest vlogs with other vloggers in your niche. Although it’s a marketing strategy that bloggers have been successfully implementing to expand their presence for a while now, can YouTube vloggers also do the same?
Yes, definitely! We’re going to look at exactly why that is, and how you can use guest vlogging to grow your YouTube channel.
What Is Guest Vlogging on YouTube?
Guest vlogging is pretty much just like guest blogging. The basic idea is that you provide content for another YouTube channel, possibly in exchange for a guest vlog from your partner for your own channel. There are many ways to achieve this – you can collaborate on a single video idea together, make separate videos for each other to upload to your own channels, and more!
Growing Your YouTube Channel with Guest Vlogs
Much like YouTube collaborations, guest vlogging can potentially increase your channel’s reach if done correctly. The most obvious way that this occurs is by sharing each other’s audience. Ideally, you’ll find a partner whose audience is similar to your own.
Their viewers will follow the guest vlog back to your channel, earning you more viewers in the long run. In addition, the same process occurs when you host your partner’s guest vlog – their viewers will visit to your channel to watch one of their favorite creators, and some will likely stick around to see what else you can offer them
How Do You Guest Vlog on YouTube?
After determining what you want to get out of guest vlogging (solidifying your position as a niche authority? Growing your own audience? Getting more exposure for your website or product?), you can then begin finding the right collaborator, and reach out to them about guest vlogging.
The most straightforward method for guest vlogging is to create your own video, just as if
• Collaborating with the Right Partner
Your guest vlogging partner’s viewership should be similar to your own. Perhaps you don’t want to target your own niche, but you can find another YouTube vlogger who targets a related sub-niche. Additionally, it’s a good idea to work with a partner that has a style that goes well with your own.
Someone who creates relevant content with a similar format can be a great fit. Why? Well, because they’ll also be creating a video for your audience, and having an audience with similar interests will really help bring results!
• Understand Each Other’s Audience on YouTube
If your audiences are similar, but different, then you’ll need to do some basic research to learn who you’ll be speaking to on YouTube. A great way to do this is to watch their previous videos, putting yourself in the shoes of their audience. Take a look at their most popular YouTube videos and content that has the most interaction.
You don’t want to copy their format, but this should give you a good idea of what their audience is interested in. It will help you understand what to focus on in your video to best engage their viewers
• Create Content That is Relevant to Viewers
On that note, it’s important that your content is relevant to their viewers, specifically. Find a way to relate your channel to their interests, and decide on how it will connect to the typical focus of the host channel. Be sure you aren’t repeating a topic of conversation that your host channel has already covered before.
• Add Branding to Your Guest Vlog
It’s also important that your content makes it easy for new viewers to find your YouTube channel. In other words, be sure to add branding to your guest vlogs. Put your channel name and social media handle(s) in your video intro or as in-video graphic(s). End the guest vlog by mentioning where viewers can best keep up with your content and updates (keep it short and avoid too much self promotion).
A great strategy is to include a link in the video description that directs the host channel’s
• Make the Guest Vlog Engaging For YouTube Viewer
Of course, all videos that you create for YouTube should be engaging, and the guest vlog is no different. Not only do you want an engaged audience, so does your host. Your clicks and likes are theirs as well, in a sense. If you create engaging content that encourages conversation and interaction, there’s a good chance you’ll have more guest vlogging opportunities in the future.
• Just Be Yourself
Even though you’re guest vlogging on someone else’s channel, be sure to showcase your unique personality. It can sometimes be tempting to try out a new persona for a new channel, but this will probably only disappoint, for two reasons. The first is that viewers who enjoy your guest vlog will want to see more of the same on your own channel. The second is that the YouTube creator hosting you probably agreed to do so based on your channel; if you change your style now, they may feel blindsided.
However, it should be noted that, for the most part, you should focus first on targeting the host’s audience, and second on maintaining your own style. If your host always offers quick, bite-sized list videos, their viewers probably won’t want a 20-minute long unboxing video. Check out their usual format, and then insert your own style and personality into an appropriate vlog type. Be creative!
• Avoid a Sole Focus on Self-Promotion
As mentioned earlier, don’t just spend the video talking about your own channel and why people should subscribe to you on YouTube. Instead, focus on creating a high quality video that viewers will enjoy, and that will encourage them to visit your channel naturally to see more great content. The best way to do this is to film the vlog as if you were creating it for your own YouTube channel.
• Don’t Let Guest Vlogs Disrupt Your Schedule
Your YouTube viewers have come to expect and look forward to videos on your channel. When you’re hosting content from your guest vlogging partner, don’t sacrifice an upload of your own unless your uploading schedule is normally flexible.
Keep your own schedule consistent to keep your YouTube channel growing, but add in the
It also ensures that any new visitors from the guest vlogger’s channel will see brand new material when they visit your YouTube channel.
• Build Buzz with Your Viewers Beforehand
Finally, it’s important for both partners to let their audiences know about the guest vlog content beforehand, and to encourage them to support and share the guest vlogs they watch. You can explain why you’ve decided to guest vlog and what you enjoy most about your partner’s channel and content, and get excitement built up before the vlog is uploaded
It’s also a great strategy to help benefit your partner and their host channel, as it brings more viewers to their content. Your partner should be excited to do the same when guest vlogging on your YouTube channel.
Conclusion
As you can see, guest vlogging can be a really cool way to grow your YouTube channel. Just remember, the key to guest vlogging on YouTube successfully is for both partners to create great vlogs for each other, while hosting and promoting the guest vlogs published on your channels to your respective audiences. If done right, it can help both collaborating vloggers grow their YouTube channels
Chapter 9
Advanced Tactics for Promoting Your YouTube Channel and Increasing Subscribers
Here are 9 tactics that will give you the best chance to rise above the noise:
1. Create thumbnail images that draw viewers in
2. Give your videos irresistible titles
3. Use search keywords that show mostly video results from Google
4. Include calls to action.
5. Make sure you’re allowing people to embed your videos
6. Cross promote your YouTube channel like a pro
7. Make playlists
8. Consistency pays off big time
9. Engage with viewers through contests, response videos, and collaborations
300 hours of YouTube video are uploaded every minute—if you want to get noticed, you have to get serious about promoting your channel. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not going to happen on its own. Let’s take a deeper dive into 9 best practices and how they can help you grow your numbers.
1. Create Great Custom Thumbnails
You have a split second of a viewer’s attention as they are deciding which video to watch. Other than your video’s title, your thumbnail is critical for enticing that click. Don’t miss this opportunity to design an image that reinforces what your video is all about. VICE’s use of thumbnail optimization led to a promotion on YouTube’s homepage, and one of their most popular videos to date:
Keep a few rules in mind for the size of your custom thumbnail because it will also be used
• Have a resolution of 1280X720 (minimum width of 640 pixels).
• Be uploaded in image formats such as .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG.
• Remain under the 2MB limit.
• Try to use a 16:9 aspect ratio.
You can upload a custom thumbnail as soon as you upload a video by simply choosing the custom thumbnail option. To add one to an already-existing video, go to your Video Manager, click Edit for the video you want to work with and then click custom thumbnail.
2. Give Your Video a Killer Title
You want something descriptive enough to make someone want to watch, but not so long that it’s cut off when displayed. You need to make it sound exciting, but not so over-the-top that it looks spammy. Try to include keywords for search and irresistibly clickable adjectives.
3. Reverse Engineer Google’s SERPs
There are several different YouTube optimization techniques to improve your search rankings, but the SEO tactic that will have the most lasting effect is all about keyword research. One way to think about video keyword research is by reverse-engineering Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
The idea here is to focus on keyword searches in google that will almost always serve you video results. For example, if someone googles for “cool dance moves” it makes sense that google would serve a results page full of videos because nobody really wants to read an article about cool dance moves. Here’s a screenshot of that search:
If you find a lot of video results instead of just text listings on page one, that’s a great keyword to work with. You may want to try related queries such as “awesome dance moves” or “cool dance skills” to see where you may be getting results that are more related to the video you are producing, and potentially less competitive to rank for
4. Use Calls to Action to Engage Viewers
Having a viewer watch your video and then leave means you may not have given them a
1. Direct Host-Mentions. This is actually a style of video where you talk to the camera and tell people what to do. In this video example at the 4:30 minute mark, you can see that the author directly tells you to “let us know in the comments down below.”
2. End-cards. An end-card works similarly to a card except that they appear at the end of a video and take up the whole screen. For example, in the screenshot below you can see College Humor’s end-card featuring large subscribe button. This button is clickable so it makes it easy to take that next step
3. Video Descriptions. Video descriptions are important. Put a link to your website or your social accounts in your description and actually ask people to click! Below is an example of a very thorough description section from ThinkTank
5. Allow (and Encourage) People to Embed Your Videos
When uploading videos to your channel, you will have the option to either allow or not allow embedding. The embed feature allows people to take your video and then publish it on their website, blog, channel, etc., which will help you gain even more exposure. Just make sure you specify that you must get credit each time your video is re-published. You can turn on the embed feature by visiting the Video Manager, clicking Edit under the video you want to edit, then going to Advanced Settings and making sure the embed option is checked. Below is a screenshot of what you’ll see:
All someone needs to do in order to embed your video is copy and paste the link that will show up when she clicks share, so the more shares you get the better
6. Cross-Promote Your YouTube Channel Everywhere
This may not seem like an advanced tactic, but you’d be surprised how many people forget the power of their other owned properties for advertising their YouTube channel. Be consistent about how you incorporate videos into your email newsletter, blog, email signature, and other social media accounts. Find ways to make your videos relevant to all your other content and leverage those eyeballs.
Quick Case Study
Life Net Inc. found in their study that the highest YouTube views occurred during the active advertising of the video, but not surprisingly, this ongoing optimization was required to keep the momentum going. Simply optimizing a page and then moving on to the next video isn’t enough. You have to continue to promote, perform keyword research and make changes, and moderate and respond to comments in order to keep your numbers up. Below is a screenshot from the case study that shows how your numbers can change the minute you stop optimizing.
7. Behold the Power of Playlists
There are lots of reasons to group your videos into playlists. Playlists make your videos
8. Create a Weekly Video Serie
This is the perfect reason to subscribe to a YouTube channel. If you know what to expect, such as a video on a certain topic or with a certain person every Friday, you will be more likely to subscribe. Probably one of the best examples of this is Moz’s Whiteboard Friday videos. They keep internet marketers coming back for more, and on their page you can see that they are all located in one place on their channel page because they are so regular.
As you can see, Moz has a very organized channel thanks to the different categories they’ve created.
9. Engage With Your People
Engagement goes both ways: if you want people to engage with you, you’ve got to engage
with them. This can mean responding to comments, subscribing to other users’ channels,
creating response videos, running contests for viewers, collaborating with other brands,
and anything else you can dream up. YouTube is in many ways a social media community,
and as with any social media, your engagement needs to be real-time, relevant, and
genuine. Engaging directly with viewers through contests and responses will keep people
coming back and create loyal viewers. Engaging and collaborating with other brands will
expose your videos to a whole new audience. The more you understand YouTube to be a
Conclusion
Hopefully, these tips will give your video promotion a kickstart or the boost you need to keep your subscriber numbers climbing.