How This Youtuber Is Growing His Channel So Fast (Genius Strategy)
Summary
TLDRYouTube sensation Mike Shake's rapid rise to fame is dissected in this video, revealing his secret to viral success: a three-part video structure. By capitalizing on trending topics, Mike taps into pre-existing demand, ensuring his content resonates with viewers. His mastery of thumbnails and titles that spark curiosity, along with strategies to boost viewer retention like 'payoff prompting' and 'conflict stacking', have made him a YouTube powerhouse. The video offers a deep dive into his strategies, providing actionable insights for aspiring YouTubers.
Takeaways
- đ Mike Shake's success on YouTube is attributed to his strategic approach to content creation, which involves studying successful videos and applying a three-part structure to his own.
- đ He emphasizes the importance of choosing video ideas that have proven virality and are in demand, leveraging the YouTube algorithm's preference for content that satisfies viewer interests.
- đ The 'Golden Vein' strategy involves identifying a successful format and repeatedly using it to maintain viewer interest and capitalize on the algorithm's promotion of familiar and liked content.
- đŻ Titles are crafted to create a 'Curiosity Gap', enticing viewers to click and watch by teasing information and promising to bridge a knowledge gap.
- đ Mike uses split testing for his video titles, monitoring real-time views to determine the most effective titles and increase the likelihood of virality.
- đŒ Thumbnails are designed with a minimalist approach, using no more than four elements to ensure clarity and focus, which is crucial for capturing attention.
- đ A unique ranking system for thumbnails is employed, evaluating them based on elements, attention-grabbing ability, action or movement, and the creation of a curiosity gap.
- đ 'Payoff prompting' is a technique used to remind viewers of the main event or payoff throughout the video, keeping them engaged and watching until the end.
- đ 'Conflict stacking' involves escalating challenges within a video to maintain viewer interest, creating a series of curiosity gaps that compel viewers to continue watching.
- đ Mike attributes 70% of his success to effective titles and thumbnails, highlighting their critical role in driving viewer engagement and algorithm promotion.
Q & A
How long did it take Mike Shake to go from failing at YouTube to having millions of subscribers?
-It took Mike Shake just over 3 years to go from failing at YouTube to hitting 3 and a half million subscribers.
What is the key to Mike Shake's success in creating viral videos?
-Mike Shake's success in creating viral videos lies in following a three-part structure that guarantees millions of views, choosing proven video ideas, and tapping into pre-existing demand.
What is the term used to describe a content idea that consistently goes viral?
-A content idea that consistently goes viral is referred to as a 'golden vein'.
What does the YouTube algorithm favor in terms of video content?
-The YouTube algorithm favors content that viewers have already been satisfied by, showing them more of what they like.
How does Mike Shake ensure his videos are engaging from the start to the end?
-Mike Shake ensures his videos are engaging by using strategies like 'payoff prompting' and 'conflict stacking' to maintain viewer interest throughout the video.
What is the 'Curiosity Gap' and how does Mike Shake use it in his video titles?
-The 'Curiosity Gap' is a technique where a video title teases just enough information to spark curiosity without giving away the full story, compelling viewers to click and watch to find out more.
How does Mike Shake approach creating thumbnails for his videos?
-Mike Shake creates thumbnails by following two strict rules: using a maximum of four elements per thumbnail and a minimalist background, ensuring they are clear, focused, and impossible to ignore.
What is Mike Shake's unique ranking system for thumbnails?
-Mike Shake's unique ranking system for thumbnails involves scoring them based on four criteria: the number of elements, attention-grabbing ability, conveyance of action or movement, and the creation of a curiosity gap.
What percentage of Mike Shake's success is attributed to his titles and thumbnails?
-Mike Shake attributes 70% of his success to his titles and thumbnails.
How does Mike Shake's strategy of 'payoff prompting' work in his videos?
-Mike Shake's strategy of 'payoff prompting' involves reminding viewers throughout the video about the big payoff or the main event they clicked on the video for, ensuring they stay engaged until the end.
What is 'conflict stacking' and how does it help in increasing video retention?
-'Conflict stacking' is a technique where bigger and more intense challenges or obstacles are introduced as the video progresses, creating new curiosity gaps and keeping viewers engaged and watching for longer.
Outlines
đ Viral Video Secrets: Mike's Packaging Formula
Mike Shake's journey from YouTube struggles to rapid growth with 3 million subscribers is attributed to his mastery of a three-part viral video structure. Initially, creators often create content without researching its potential for virality, leading to low views. Mike, however, identified that leveraging proven ideas is crucial. His first viral video, which followed a popular and trending idea, garnered 5 million views. This success led to the discovery of 'golden vein' formatsâcontent ideas that repeatedly go viral. Mike's strategy involves tapping into pre-existing demand, which the YouTube algorithm favors by showing more of what viewers have enjoyed. His approach to creating videos that viewers are already satisfied with has been a key to his success, as it builds a loyal audience familiar with his style and personality.
đ The Curiosity Gap: Crafting Clickable Titles
A significant aspect of Mike's strategy is crafting titles that generate curiosity, which is crucial for driving clicks. The 'Curiosity Gap' technique involves teasing a small piece of information without revealing the full story, creating an urge to find out more. This is achieved through three steps: establishing the audience's current situation, identifying where they want to be, and promising to bridge that gap in the video. Mike ensures his titles are tested and refined to maximize their effectiveness. His systematic approach to titles involves split testing and constant refinement, which increases the likelihood of his videos going viral. This method is not only effective but also easy to implement, requiring only the development of a creative muscle for writing titles with curiosity gaps.
đš Thumbnail Mastery: Mike's Winning Formula
Mike's expertise extends to thumbnail design, where he follows strict rules to create attention-grabbing visuals. His thumbnails are minimalist, using no more than four elements, ensuring a clear and focused message. This simplicity makes the subject of the thumbnail pop, capturing the viewer's attention quickly. Mike also uses a unique ranking system to test the effectiveness of thumbnails based on four criteria: element count, attention-grabbing ability, conveyance of action or movement, and the creation of a curiosity gap. This systematic approach allows him to create thumbnails that are almost guaranteed to get clicks. By combining these thumbnails with curiosity-driven titles, Mike's videos become highly clickable and engaging, contributing to his success on YouTube.
đ Retention Strategies: Keeping Viewers Hooked
To ensure viewers stay engaged after clicking, Mike employs two lesser-known retention strategies: payoff prompting and conflict stacking. Payoff prompting involves reminding viewers throughout the video of the big payoff they're waiting for, which keeps them watching. Conflict stacking, on the other hand, introduces increasingly challenging obstacles as the video progresses, creating new curiosity gaps and maintaining viewer interest. These techniques tap into our natural desire for closure and resolution, encouraging viewers to watch for longer periods. This not only satisfies the YouTube algorithm but also leads to more views and algorithmic promotion. Mike's success is attributed to 70% effective titles and thumbnails, with the remaining 30% due to these retention strategies.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄYouTube Algorithm
đĄViral Videos
đĄThumbnails
đĄCuriosity Gap
đĄGolden Vein
đĄSplit Testing
đĄRetention
đĄPayoff Prompting
đĄConflict Stacking
đĄViewers' Expectations
Highlights
Mike Shake's journey from failing at YouTube to amassing over 3 million subscribers in just over 3 years.
His challenge-style videos have made him one of the fastest-growing YouTubers on the platform.
Mike is known as the 'master of thumbnails' by some of YouTube's biggest creators.
He went from getting 500 views per video to achieving millions of views with his viral videos.
All of Mike's viral videos follow a three-part structure that guarantees millions of views.
His first video applying this strategy got over 5 million views.
Mike's strategy involves choosing video ideas that are already popular and trending.
He taps into pre-existing demand by selecting ideas that the YouTube algorithm favors.
Mike's content strategy is to find a 'golden vein' of content that consistently goes viral.
His goal is to find a predictable format that his audience is extremely familiar with to build a loyal connection.
Mike's videos are structured to keep viewers watching to the end using two little-known retention strategies.
Creating titles that generate curiosity is a key part of Mike's strategy, using the 'Curiosity Gap' technique.
Mike's titles are crafted to establish the audience's current situation, desired outcome, and promise to bridge the gap.
He split-tests his titles to ensure they are optimized for clicks, increasing the chances of his videos going viral.
Mike's thumbnails follow strict rules: a maximum of four elements and a minimalist background.
He uses a unique ranking system for thumbnails, ensuring they grab attention and create a curiosity gap.
Mike's success is attributed 70% to his titles and thumbnails, with the remaining 30% due to other strategies.
Two retention tips used by Mike are 'payoff prompting' and 'conflict stacking' to keep viewers engaged.
Mike's approach to YouTube content creation is systematic, focusing on what works and optimizing for viewer retention.
Transcripts
this is Mike shake and put simply he's a
YouTube genius in just over 3 years he's
gone from failing at YouTube to hitting
3 and A2 million subscribers his now
legendary challenge Style videos have
made him one of the fastest growing
YouTubers on the platform and some of
the biggest and most respected creators
on YouTube are calling him the master of
thumbnails but how did this small town
Italian guy go from getting 500 views
per video to amazing results like this
and this and this this well as usual
there's only one way to find out for the
past week I've been studying the channel
and breaking down the structure of some
of his most successful videos and what
I've basically discovered is that all of
his viral videos follow the same
three-part structure and that
practically guarantees each of those
videos millions of views in fact the
first time Mike applied this strategy
that video got Nelly 5 million views so
if you are struggling to grow your small
Channel then grab a pen and notebook or
just use your phone because this video
could change everything and we'll start
at the very beginning Mike's viral
packaging formula what many small
creators still do today is create before
they think they will simply pick an idea
in an instant and go off and make it
without doing a research to figure out
whether this idea has any proven
verality to it and the net result of
that usually is a meager number of views
but Mike realized early on that it's
important not to try and reinvent the
wheel all of the time and as soon as he
starts making random videos and picked
proven ideas his videos exploded for
example if we search for his first viral
video idea on YouTube we can see that it
was already getting millions of views
and not only that the idea was
increasing in demand so this proved that
Mike's idea had a good chance of going
viral and that's well exactly what
happened and naturally because Mike had
success with this idea he tried it again
and again and guess what those videos
also went viral and through all of this
Mike learned a fundamental principle of
the YouTube algorithm put simply it's
designed to show viewers more of what
they've already been satisfied by when
Mike chooses a video idea that's already
popular and trending he's tapping into
pre-existing demand and so when the
algorithm tests Mike's videos with an
audience do they like it yes yes they do
now having said all of this Mike's
strategy doesn't involve hijacking
existing video ideas forever once he
finds a format that works he will drill
deep down into it and we call this the
go golden vain a particular content idea
that just keeps going viral video after
video as an example once this video had
gotten such great results Mike retested
the format again again and again and
over time this has become one of Mike's
golden vain formats and as you can see
he can repost this format again and
again and again and still get good
results in fact in a recent tweet or X
or Twix Mike spoke about his ultimate
goal and that is put simply to find one
predictable format that his audience is
extremely familiar with the reason for
that is when viewers know what to expect
from your videos you can build a really
deep and loyal connection with that
audience they become familiar with your
style and your personality and your
videos this cultivates trust and keeps
your viewers coming back time and time
again have you noticed I keep saying
time and time again well it's because
all of this is consistent it's reliable
it's sustainable there are many other
big creators like Ryan Tran and and
gadzi who use this strategy to blow up
their channels they tested a bunch of
video formats in the beginning but when
they found their golden vein they stuck
to it and their channels essentially
went viral however when you use this
strategy it does present a problem there
are loads of YouTubers who know of this
strategy and yet they don't have the
same success and yet Mike got nearly 5
million views on his fourth upload so
what makes him different well another
thing he mastered was getting viewers to
not only start the videos but watch them
to the end he uses two little known
strategies that I'll show you towards
the end of this video that he uses to
boost retention they're simple and
relatively easy to implement in your
videos which should see a significant
increase in your watch time but first
let's talk about what I think is the
most important part of Mike's genius
strategy and that's making titles that
generate curiosity one of the reasons a
video like this gets so many clicks is
because it Sparks curiosity in the a
audience's mind what do you think to
yourself when you read a title like this
I learn to type fast 95 words a minute
you're immediately thinking how did he
learn to type so fast or I want to learn
how to do this as well this creates a
strong urge to find out the answers to
those questions fear of missing out so
you're compelled to clip now you might
think this is all coincidence but it
couldn't be further from the truth Mike
understands that curiosity is the magic
thing that makes people click on his
videos and he uses an ex exact and
repeatable formula with every title he
makes to tie this all together it's
called The Curiosity Gap this is where
you tease just a tiny piece of
information or an outcome the audience
cares about without giving away the full
story and that's what creates fomo the
urge to find out more Mike creates the
perfect conditions for a curiosity Gap
with three steps the first step is to
establish where the audience currently
is and we'll take this learning
butterfly knife tricks with no
experience video as an example Mike
knows that probably most people
interesting in learning these tricks are
complete beginners so the audience's
situation is they have no experience and
then the next step is to find out where
the audience wants to be now again it's
pretty obvious to surmise that the
audience of a video want to learn how to
do these cool butterfly knife tricks but
we already know they have little to no
experience doing this and this creates a
knowledge gap of where the audience
currently is to where they want to be
and this is where the Third critical
step comes into play promising to bridge
that Gap in the title Mike is going to
close this Gap himself by learning how
to do these butterfly knife tricks as a
complete beginner himself the curiosity
is sparked in the viewer's mind because
the promise is made from novice to
expert now this formula is simple but it
doesn't work if your audience isn't
interested in the topic before Mike made
this video there were loads of other
similar videos going viral on the topic
but if he' picked an idea such as how to
clean a cook spatula with no experience
probably wouldn't have got 11 million
views would it now this is only the
first part of Mike's genius titling
strategy he does do one more thing to
guarantee that his titles get clicks you
see the one thing I've noticed about
Mike's Channel after studying his videos
is that he doesn't leave anything to
chance he ensures that every part of his
video can be boiled down to science and
one of the ways Mike does this is by
split testing his titles in a recent
post on Twix X Twitter Mike actually
shared his exact testing strategy for
example in this video Mike tested the
following titles he tested each one
individually keeping a close eye on the
realtime views after one day and after
all the tests this was a clear winner by
constantly testing and refining his
titles Mike is increasing the chances of
his videos going viral and the best part
is this is the easiest thing to
implement on your videos you don't need
any expensive software to write YouTube
titles all you need to do is train this
creative muscle to write titles with
curiosity gaps however in order to spark
an audience's curiosity first youve got
to grab their attention and it's part
two of Mike's strategy that makes his
videos irresistible as we mentioned
earlier when it comes to YouTube
thumbnails Mike is pretty much a Jedi
master now you've likely heard us talk
before about how thumbnails should be
simple but bright and tell a story and
these are definitely the foundations of
a good thumbnail but Mike takes all of
this to a whole new level all Mike's
thumbnails follow two strict rules that
make them impossible to ignore and rule
number one is that he always uses a
maximum of four elements per thumbnail
in this thumbnail there is mic a
Blackboard and a circle that's it by
only having three elements Mike is able
to create a clear and focused message in
that thumbnail there is no clutter no
distractions no confusion and rule
number two is that mike always uses a
minimalist background this creates a
clear separation between what you should
and shouldn't be looking at and as a
result these subjects of a thumbnail
literally pop out of a screen in this
example mic the wine glass and the text
are crystal clear and that only requires
2 seconds of communication between the
thumbnail and the audience it grabs your
attention and then when you look at the
title yes a repeatable format it creates
curiosity but we're not done yet because
Mike uses a very systematic solution to
create the best for nails on YouTube in
another recent
twixer post he revealed his unique
ranking system for thumbnails this
allows him to test the verality of each
thumbnail before spending hours making
the final version first he makes three
different thumbnail sketches for the
video then he ranks each thumbnail to
four specific criteria how many elements
does it have does it grab attention does
it convey action or movement does it
create a curiosity Gap he gives each of
these a ranking score between minus one
and plus one and then the thumbnail at
the again with the highest ranking
naturally wins so let's go into a bit
more detail with this now here's three
thumbnail ideas he had for this video
Mike gave this a thumbnail score of
minus one because it had two main
elements but it doesn't draw attention
it has no movement and it doesn't create
a curiosity Gap so then Mike created
this thumbnail idea this did a little
better but still only scored a two it
had three main elements it draws
attention it has movement but it doesn't
create a curiosity Gap the reason is
it's pretty obvious in said a whip would
break an Apple so he decided to create
one more thumbnail and it was the winner
it scored a three because it meets all
of Mike's criterias and most importantly
it creates a curiosity Gap 99% of people
would have no idea whether or not a whip
could break an iPhone this generated so
much curiosity that the video hit over 7
million views by following this unique
ranking system Mike is able to create
thumbnails that are virtually guaranteed
to get clicks and it works because the
system makes sure that each thumbnail
hits key fundamentals and when it
combines these thumbnails with curiosity
driven titles it is clear to see why
Mike is winning the game of YouTube in
fact Mike has even Quantified this he
says that 70% of his success comes from
those titles and those thumbnails and
I'm really curious to know what he does
with YouTube's new test and compare
feature ABC thumbnail testing in the
future but what about that other 30% how
is Mike Keeping viewers entertained and
satisfied after they click well as
promised it's back to those two
retention tips I mentioned a lot earlier
in the video traditionally when we talk
about increasing retention we're usually
thinking along the lines of tighter
editing or better storytelling but these
two things are less well known and
spoken about and the best part is they
should only take you a few extra minutes
to do when you're creating your videos
and for the first one we're going to
coin a new phrase payoff prompting this
is where Mike constantly reminds you
throughout the video the big payoff the
reason you clicked on the video is
coming soon let's take a look at this
packaging as a perfect example the title
and the thumbnail make you want to click
because there's a clear curiosity Gap
here isn't there you want to know how
much damage that metal slingshot is
going to do to a human head and Mike
knows you are waiting for this moment
because he reminds you eight times in
the video if the gelatin was accurate it
wasn't looking great for the ballistic
dummy before picking one to use against
the ballistic dummy and now I could move
on to the final test against the
ballistic dummy before trying the kill
test I tested the speed of the first
slingshot once again he's basically
reminding you throughout the video this
isn't clickbait right up until a point
it happens and the first shot went at
eye level and it went right into the
gelatin genius really and now for the
second technique and a second phrase
conflict stacking this is where you
introduce bigger and more intense
challenges and obstacles as the video
progresses by doing this you're
constantly creating new and bigger
curiosity Gap and it keeps the viewer
engaged because they have to see what's
going to happen next in Mike's videos he
often starts with a relatively simple or
low stake Challenge and then gradually
he ramps up the difficulty and the
consequences as the video continues for
example in his video I built the world's
most powerful whip Mike Begins by
whipping easy targets such as apples and
Coke cans but as the video continues he
moves on to harder more impressive
objects this technique works because it
Taps into our natural desire for closure
resolution as the conflicts get bigger
and the stakes get higher we become more
invested which means we watch for longer
therefore the algorithm is happy and it
will serve the video up to more people
but all of these methods aren't the only
way to tap into the YouTube algorithm to
make it love your videos and recently we
spoke to a YouTube employee who's been
working on the algorithm for the last 10
years and shared five five tips on how
small channels can take advantage of it
and you can watch it all over here
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