How I make 100,000 view videos

Last year we hit over 1.4 million views on YouTube, which is pretty insane.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to become a YouTube course or coaching business.

I just want to share with you some totally unbiased advice and lessons I’ve learned making YouTube our primary traffic and sales generator.

Back in 2022 I knew that I wanted to move away from coaching and into affiliate sales.

I also knew that YouTube was going to be the core driver of new traffic and leads and sales.

At the time, I had done YouTube weekly for years but never really seen massive success.

It’s a bit like being terrible at running and then entering an olympic qualification event.

But, sure enough, over time I learned how to make YouTube work for us.

I’ve spent – this is not an exaggeration – close to $100,000 on coaches, courses, consultants, contractors and other c.words to help my YouTube channel grow.

If we’ve seen any growth, or success, I’d say it’s down to three things.

  1. Focusing on thumbnails and titles before the video (two coaches taught me this)
  2. Testing thumbnail ideas and titles with a few other YouTubers (I did this myself)
  3. Seeing what works on my own channel and others, copying it and still experimenting (two coaches taught me this)

Everything I thought mattered, didn’t.

The quality of the camera, the style of editing, the microphone, lighting, location, video style.

I can literally pinpoint the exact moment I knew a video would do well.

I knew it’d do well despite the thumbnail and title being mediocre and having no script and using a webcam.

Russell Brunson filed to sue HighLevel and I knew it was juicy.

It was divisive, emotional, controversial.

And that’s when it all clicked and I realised that people don’t watch videos, they click on topics.

So your topic has be wrapped up (packaging is the YouTube term) in a clear exciting thumbnail and a clear exciting title.

This was the first time I knew a video would do well.

The second time was when I rejected all the thumbnail design advice I’d been given.

My friend Marc asked me “what would you click on?”

I literally drew out a basic sketch model (like the triangles on whiteboards you guys have seen me do 100 times) and said “I’d click this”.

I also designed one that was basically a screenshot of the whiteboard.

It looked like it was taken from the video. You know, how YouTube screengrabs a random frame to use as the thumb?

Mine was designed to look like that, but actually be a carefully put together image.

Every coach, YouTuber, consultant and designer told me that this was a terrible idea.

In the end, for this particular video, me at the whiteboard won.

And it was our best performing video to date.

So we tried it again:

And again

And each time, the model – both complex and simple, worked.

My lesson was this:

“Don’t market to your peers, market to your audience.”

Even if people say, “I’d never click on that title or thumbnail”, they do. 

Mike Killen

Mike is the world's #1 sales coach for marketing funnel builders. He helps funnel builders sell marketing funnels to their customers. He is the author of From Single To Scale; How single-person, small and micro-businesses can scale their business to profit. You can find him on Twitter @mike_killen.