How This Youtuber Is Growing His Channel So Fast (Genius Strategy)

Summary

YouTube 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

• 🚀 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.
• 🔍 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.
• 🔑 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.
• 🎯 Titles are crafted to create a 'Curiosity Gap', enticing viewers to click and watch by teasing information and promising to bridge a knowledge gap.
• 📊 Mike uses split testing for his video titles, monitoring real-time views to determine the most effective titles and increase the likelihood of virality.
• 🖼 Thumbnails are designed with a minimalist approach, using no more than four elements to ensure clarity and focus, which is crucial for capturing attention.
• 📊 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.
• 📈 '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.
• 🆚 'Conflict stacking' involves escalating challenges within a video to maintain viewer interest, creating a series of curiosity gaps that compel viewers to continue watching.
• 📊 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

00:00

🚀 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' formats—content 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.

05:00

🔍 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.

10:00

🎨 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.

📈 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.

Keywords

💡YouTube Algorithm

The YouTube Algorithm refers to the system that YouTube uses to recommend videos to its users. It's designed to show viewers more of what they've already been satisfied by. In the context of the video, Mike Shake's success is attributed to his understanding and leveraging of the algorithm. He taps into pre-existing demand by choosing video ideas that are already popular and trending, which the algorithm then promotes to viewers who have shown interest in similar content.

💡Viral Videos

Viral videos are those that quickly spread across social media platforms, gaining massive views and shares in a short period. The video discusses how Mike Shake's videos follow a specific structure that practically guarantees millions of views, making them viral. Examples from the script include his challenge-style videos that have contributed to his rapid growth on the platform.

💡Thumbnails

Thumbnails are the small images that represent videos on YouTube and play a crucial role in attracting viewers to click on them. The video script describes Mike as a 'master of thumbnails,' highlighting his ability to create thumbnails that are simple, bright, and tell a story, which are key to getting viewers to engage with his content.

💡Curiosity Gap

The Curiosity Gap is a psychological principle where a piece of information is teased just enough to pique interest without revealing the full story. In the video, it's explained that Mike uses this technique in his titles to create a strong urge in viewers to click and watch his videos to find out more, as exemplified by titles that suggest an outcome or achievement without giving away details.

💡Golden Vein

A 'Golden Vein' in the context of the video refers to a particular content idea or format that consistently goes viral. Mike Shake is described as drilling deep into formats that work, turning them into his 'golden veins,' which he reuses to maintain viewer interest and satisfaction. This strategy is shown to be effective in keeping his audience engaged and his videos performing well.

💡Split Testing

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or other user experiences to see which performs better. In the video, Mike Shake is shown to use split testing for his video titles, testing different options to see which one garners more views, thus increasing the chances of his videos going viral.

💡Retention

Retention in the context of YouTube videos refers to the ability to keep viewers watching a video to the end. The video discusses two strategies Mike Shake uses to boost retention: payoff prompting and conflict stacking. These techniques are designed to keep viewers engaged and watching for longer periods, which is a positive signal to the YouTube algorithm.

💡Payoff Prompting

Payoff prompting is a technique where the creator reminds viewers throughout the video that the main event or 'payoff' they clicked on the video for is coming soon. This keeps viewers watching in anticipation. The video script uses the example of Mike reminding viewers multiple times about the outcome of a slingshot test against a ballistic dummy.

💡Conflict Stacking

Conflict stacking is a storytelling technique where the creator introduces increasingly difficult challenges or obstacles as the video progresses. This creates a series of new curiosity gaps, keeping viewers engaged and watching to see the outcome. The video gives an example of Mike starting with easy targets like apples and gradually moving to more impressive challenges.

💡Viewers' Expectations

Viewers' expectations refer to what the audience anticipates from a video based on its title, thumbnail, and creator's past content. The video emphasizes the importance of meeting and exceeding these expectations to build a loyal audience. Mike Shake's strategy of finding a predictable format that his audience is familiar with helps in cultivating trust and consistent viewership.

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