Full show notes for this episode can be found at https://jakehower.com/how-to-get-ten-million-plus-video-views-on-youtube-with-matthew-pearce/

Welcome to the Multimedia Marketing Show listeners.

I'm Jake Hower, your host, and this is episode number nine.

Okay, we are going back to web video in this episode.

Today's guest is someone that I come across on YouTube.

I think I come across one of his particular reviews for the iPad

mini, which is an awesome device.

And if you don't have one, go out and get one.

The guest today is Matthew Pierce, and he's got a channel on YouTube, Matt's

Macintosh, which as the name implies is a channel focused loosely around

Apple, but also around tech in general.

He puts together some cool reviews.

And some really eclectic, I guess you could call them retro tech videos.

And they're really cool.

He's got he's got a really big audience.

His personality shines through on his channel and in his videos.

And we discuss a whole range of things from shooting better

quality video right through to how he's gone about monetizing it.

And some of the reasons for choosing the strategy that he has.

I've got Matthew Pierce from Matt's Macintosh on the line.

Matt, how are you?

I'm doing great.

How are you today?

I'm fantastic.

Now, Matt this is, as you'd be well aware, we'd like to, to the

world of multimedia marketing and.

I've come across your YouTube channel.

I think maybe when I was looking at product reviews for something like

the iPad mini or something, and you've built an amazing filing on YouTube.

So I thought it'd be beneficial to get you on the call today and discuss a

little bit about this with our listeners.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sounds great.

All right.

Matt, how about for the listeners benefit, if you give us a little

bit of a rundown of your background leading up to where you are today.

Okay.

Sure.

After school, I was actually I was in the military for a long time.

So I served in the air force here in America did a lot

of different stuff in there.

And then just through almost on a whim one day I saw, I was

looking for reviews on YouTube.

A lot of people do.

I saw some of them out there and I thought, Oh, this might be fun to do.

So the next day I went and bought a camera and kind of, just to, cause I

was bored and made a couple of videos and yeah, a couple of years later, next

thing I know it's doing really well and getting thousands and thousands of views.

And it's my main job now.

So Matt's Macintosh explain to the listeners exactly what

that channel is and what it's about.

I, I when I tell people what it's about, I usually use the

phrase tech based entertainment.

Cause there's a lot of channels on YouTube that I think are a

really great review channels.

They get a lot of products in, they do a lot of reviews.

I do some of that, but that's not really my niche.

I do a lot of videos about, technology history or interesting aspects of the

design of a product, maybe, or just and then sometimes I just do videos

that are, almost just for aesthetic reasons and not even based on any

kind of like factual thing at all.

It's a mixed gambit of things I'm doing there which I think has really worked

for me cause it helps my stuff stand out from the usual just tech review crowd.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I'd certainly know from my perspective it is very entertaining and I guess

that's a result of of how you're putting together these videos, but it's, it

also shows a lot about your personality.

Some of the some of the things you got up there, a lot of retro

videos with with retro tech gear.

And I think that's that's really interesting and it's

obviously working for you.

Yeah, definitely.

And this, I think is super helpful when you're doing any kind of thing online.

You're trying to get into one of those more crowded marketplaces.

Starting with that kind of niche kind of thing.

For example, mine, like retro tech is really what made me take off initially.

And then I was able to find success in other types of videos as well.

Once I had that baseline of success with that one category.

Yeah, cool.

All right.

So give our listeners a little bit of perspective.

What sort of numbers are we talking here in terms of subscribers views?

Sure.

So my main channel Matt's Macintosh I'm over 60, 000 subscribers some,

somewhere in there below 70 over 60 a little over a 10 million total views for

my different content and monthly views across the board on my I got a couple

of YouTube channels, my Vimeo channel we're right under 500, 000 is what I

average with the vast majority of those coming from the Matt's Macintosh channel.

Yeah, great.

So those numbers, obviously nothing to really sneeze at.

They're

incredible numbers.

Yeah, definitely.

I'm definitely I've been fortunate that a lot of people have, enjoyed my stuff

and like the same kind of thing I do.

So it's caught on.

All right.

Let's go into a little bit right now.

How do you go about, is this your full time job or are you doing

this on the side or are you making

money from it?

I, yeah I'm definitely making money from it.

I would say this is my primary job my primary income source.

I do.

Other stuff as well.

I'm a full time student right now going to film school, which another

thing I wouldn't have done that without the success I found on YouTube,

that's what sent me on that course.

And then I do a lot of freelance camera work cinematography stuff, or,

short films music videos, stuff like that, and then do assistant camera

work on some bigger productions.

So all somewhere in the video field but definitely from the online revenue

is where I'm getting most of my money.

Yeah, cool.

And is this sort of, this filming, obviously

what you enjoy?

Yeah, definitely.

This is it's amazing the system that's in place now that wasn't there 20 years ago.

Someone who enjoyed making videos I would have never have been where

I am now, living in Hollywood and doing this sort of stuff.

Without the ability that the internet and YouTube and these kinds of things have

given me and yeah, it's really great.

Yeah, cool.

All right.

Let's let's have a look a little bit.

Let's go behind the scenes a little bit on Matt's Macintosh.

How long ago did you start the channel?

It was

late 2009 is when I first started.

Making videos.

I would say I didn't really start committing to it a little with, a huge

amount of effort until sometime in 2010.

So that's when I got started.

So a few years now.

Yeah,

cool.

And was that, roughly 2010, roughly the time you just I guess the aha

moment where you realize that, yeah.

Hey, this is, this has got some legs, this thing.

And yeah, I think it's funny cause I can, I don't remember

when I got, 25, 000 subscribers, but I remember when I got a hundred

subscribers and I was like, wow, that's, I thought that was amazing.

I was like, wow, a hundred people want to see these videos that I'm doing

basically for my own enjoyment and as a kind of a hobby, cause I'm bored.

So those first milestones were definitely.

Memorable for me because I think, once you get say, a thousand subscribers and

you see it growing, you're like if I keep doing this, there's no reason I can't

get to 25, 000 subscribers or 50, 000, it's just a matter of time at that point.

All right let's

let's continue going through this.

So how many videos do you have on this channel?

I know it's over 200.

I'm probably around like 215 maybe, somewhere around there.

So definitely, and actually my output is a lot less than some of my peers

who are in the same kind of tech space.

Cause my thoughts have always been like, I never want to make

a video just to make a video.

Like I never want to be like, Oh, I haven't put up content in

four days, I should do something.

I usually do it around the idea and wait until I have a really, a good idea of

something I think is really going to stand out and people are going to enjoy

and then go ahead and make the video.

So

yeah that's that's a very good point.

And it's certainly there's really, there's two chains of thought.

One's consistent production and the other one is, as you say putting

out extraordinary content and so you've obviously gone down that path.

Okay.

Let's delve into a little bit about how you put together these

videos.

Sure.

My, I get video ideas all the time.

I have a little notebook that sometimes I'll jot stuff down in and some of

them pan out and some of 'em don't.

And then some of them are driven by other outside factors.

I'll, I, a lot my videos are actually in response to viewer questions.

I do a lot of tutorial videos and someone will send me a question, say, Hey, I'm a.

I'm a 15 year old filmmaker and I'm trying to do some kind

of special effect in iMovie.

How can I do that?

And I'll think, Oh you know what?

That's a pretty good idea.

Maybe I can do that some kind of way and help this guy out

and I'll make a video of that.

And those have actually become some of my more popular videos.

So there's that way and then there's my videos that I guess almost are unexpected

or come from left field But actually work really well one of my videos that

got picked up by a lot of blogs is on gizmodo the verge A lot of the bigger

tech blogs out there was I did a sketch of Iron Man on a 1984 Macintosh, like

in the old Mac paint and that really was just the Avengers movie had just

come out and I was just messing around with my old Macintosh and just videoed.

Me drawing on it and the next thing I knew that took off.

So it's a lot of different You never know where inspiration is going to

come and especially in the online world You never know what's going to

stick and what's going to get picked up and what's going to get traction So

yeah, cool.

That particular video listeners is is the featured video on the channel at

the moment So if you're looking at what we're talking about here head across

the channel and check that out Okay.

Now you've obviously got Those substantial amount of stats and everything on me

in terms of the video analytics do you pay close attention to this sort of

stuff?

Yes, I definitely look at my analytics.

And I think you're, I think everyone does, even people who aren't

interested in making a career of stuff.

People like to see what's popular and what's not in terms of their videos.

But I certainly look at my analytics and see.

What videos are getting traction, and then more importantly,

how they're getting traction.

I think when you talk about YouTube, every, the first thing

everyone asks is subscriber numbers.

How many people are following you, which is, it's good, it's a good metric.

But if you, the majority of my views anyway do not come from

subscribers, and I think that's probably true of most YouTubers.

Majority of views are coming through related videos in search.

And that's something that you can, you definitely wouldn't

know unless you really delve into your analytics and look at them.

Especially YouTube now with its new page, homepage format and everything.

It's all about SEO, search engine optimization type stuff.

And yeah, analytics are really key to understanding

that and understanding what's

working.

Okay, cool.

So let's, maybe let's get some really actionable tips for for our listeners.

Let's say, let's look at the top five things are really obvious things

that, that you found based on your own videos and your own analytics

as to what are musts when, Someone's shooting video and optimizing for views

on YouTube.

Sure.

And there's, a lot of people ask when they ask me this question, I usually

give them the kind of happy answer.

I'm like, Oh, just make videos that you're happy with.

And as long as you're having a good time.

But since you use the word actionable, I'll give some more concrete facts here.

Understanding how views are driven on YouTube is really key.

And what I just alluded to, it's not subscribers.

It's the discovery is the key on YouTube, right?

You shouldn't be looking for subscribers.

You should be looking for eyes on your videos.

And the way YouTube is built right now the.

How the analytics or how their whole algorithm is working is

based on one is total watch time.

So if your video is, if you make a great video or what you think is a great

video, but people are only watching the first 30 seconds of a five minute video

it's not going to get a lot of traction in the search engines and the results.

So it's making a video that people watch from start to finish.

And sometimes that means.

Cutting out the fluff from your videos, not making these

more in depth kind of things.

If you look at my videos, my, my most popular ones are under three minutes.

And which is maybe a little bit on the short side, but I think it's helpful

because people watch the full video and then it helps your total watch time

which helps you in the search results.

So that's one thing that's my first one.

The second is thinking about Not getting like when I put up a video

i'm not thinking This video is a success if it gets 10 000 views in

the first week I think this video is a success if when the first couple

months i'm at 100 000 views, right?

You want continued views on it?

And that's definitely the key to making money on youtube because the

videos that I make the most money from are ones that I put up over a year

ago, maybe even two years ago in some cases because they continually get

views and continue to get traction.

And because of that, YouTube sells the ad rates at higher rates and

I get a higher, cut of the money.

So I think that's key too, is looking at the long range viability

of the content you're putting up.

And my third thing, and this might be my last one here, and I would say...

Make every video your best video because you never know what's the first video

someone's going to see of your content.

So the key is for them seeing that one video that they happen to stumble across

through whatever method and they're so impressed with it that it drives

them to look at your other stuff and to look at your other videos and then

that turns that one view Into a viewer, someone who's going to come back for more

and want to see more of your content.

No, that's great.

They're really, they're brilliant tips.

They are.

And I think one thing that really stood out for me from that is you're

talking about, it's not necessarily about the subscribers and that's

something that's that's relatively new to me, but it makes a lot of sense.

And one thing I've noticed with the videos of yours that I've

watched is that you don't have.

Strong calls to action to subscribe.

Why is that?

Why don't you

include this?

This is actually completely against what YouTube calls the YouTube playbook.

And what if you go to these YouTube functions, they always say is

always end with a call to action, always do this kind of stuff.

And that's just, it's, and that's certainly a method that works for people.

I'm not gonna say that's a bad methodology.

It's just never been my kind of thing.

Same thing with the.

Produce the idea of producing consistent content, no matter what.

Obviously, that works for some people.

That's just not the route that I took.

And it's because I think because I have found success not through subscribers,

but through search engine results.

So I'm not, I think adding.

Calls to action on my end of the videos are just taken away from the video.

They're, people are cutting off before that anyway.

A lot of times that's another thing, great thing about YouTube analytics.

You actually can get a watch time per video and see when people are dropping

out of your video and when people are staying in and there's always a cliff

at the end, if you have a really long kind of call to action at the end.

So I just decided to avoid that in general.

And it's obviously worked for me.

And when you, and if you look at my video numbers some, my more popular

iMovie tutorials, for example, they're, 300, 400, 000 views per video.

And that's despite the fact that I only have 60, 000 subscribers.

So once again, I really think.

It's not the subscribers it's the views that you're really searching

for.

Yep, and you're, as you say, from those tips you just gave us, optimizing, or

really creating extraordinary content.

What about little things like like titles and tagging tagging in the description?

Do you optimize these or do a lot of, put a lot of effort into

optimizing these, or?

Absolutely.

Tags are key.

Tags are, tags, they're, that's part of the algorithm that

YouTube is running to figure out.

What related views to stick next to the video and things like that.

So I always, I put thought into my tagging.

Like some people just have a standard list that they copy and paste.

But I think of, I try to think per video what's something unique I can put in here.

For example.

That Iron Man video, it was when Avengers, the movie was out.

So I put tags related to the Avengers movie with the video, like anything,

because you never know when that video is going to pop up in a related

video based on some kind of tag and when someone's going to bite on it.

So I definitely think tagging is important.

Titling is important because that, that's part of the system too.

And video descriptions, I think, are important, too.

All those are playing into the search system and helping you get views.

Yeah.

Can you

over optimize these things, particularly with the tags?

Can you add in too many

tags?

I I don't know the science behind it.

I don't know if it's, you're, actually, at some point, you hit an overall negative

because you put in too many general tags.

I personally, my personal method is to put very specific tags.

Like if I have a video and I've made it on my MacBook, I don't tag it with Mac

Pro or iPad 'cause it has nothing to do with that video, so it's targeting,

targeted tags have worked for me.

Some, someone else might tell you something different, but

that's certainly something that's worked for me is very precise.

Precise and on target a tagging.

Yeah, that's

great.

That's really good.

Okay.

Let's you mentioned through that about making money.

So how do you then go about making money from the site?

What's great now and different from when I

first started is that YouTube partnership is open to anyone now.

So if you make all original content and have no copyright, anything, if you

own all the rights to whatever you're producing, it's just a matter of clicking

a button in your YouTube settings and then filling out the AdSense form and

then you can monetize right off the bat.

Which is different.

When I first started doing it the partnership program with YouTube was

something you had to get accepted into and it was much more difficult to get into.

So that's what, that's the good thing.

The bad thing is that it's almost discouraging if you're first starting.

Because now you can start monetizing when you're only

getting a hundred views per video.

And, you are not going to make a lot of money right there.

So the AdSense thing is certainly a way to start, but just realize that's good,

that money is, it's going to be low.

It's low for everyone when they first start, and there's a lot

of other great programs out there that'll do it automatically without

you having to talk to people.

I'm also an Amazon associate so if I review or mention a product,

I'll have a link in the description to an Amazon ordering page that

people can buy that product.

And if they do order something, then I get a cut of that.

And that's actually been a really great way to modernize,

especially around the holidays.

I, I would say that it is, it was on par and even exceeded.

In some cases, the money I was making through AdSense.

So that's, I definitely recommend that to anyone who hasn't looked into that.

And then the third way, and this is I've only done this a couple

times and that is through some kind of ad deal with a company or

product placement kind of thing.

And the thing, I'm leery about those, like the thing with those, like I, I'm a

believer in kind of transparency and being really clear to your audience that this

is a sponsored kind of deal you're doing.

But the good thing about those that you cut out the middleman, you don't have to

give a cut to Google or Amazon or YouTube or whoever's taken part of the money.

So those are the three branches that I've pursued and that have worked well for me.

Yeah, cool.

Now, there's obviously, I think YouTube, I believe, have a couple of different

ways you can include ads in your videos.

From what I've seen, you include the video at the start, which is generally like a

like a traditional TV video, and then you have the overlaid ads, which is the text

in the lower third of your video do you get stats on what converts best for you in

terms of, you do you in the YouTube analytics tells you what's

working best for you, both in terms of what people are clicking and in terms

of what you're making the most money on.

And there's actually.

Three types of ads that, that you can put onto YouTube.

There is the pre roll ad, which is usually like a five to ten second

thing that just shows up no matter what and looks like a TV commercial.

There's what's called the true view ad, which is the longer one that you

can choose to skip or not or watch it.

And then there's the kind of just text based ad at the bottom, which

is usually partnered with some kind of banner or image over to the side.

Of those true view ads are absolutely the best.

The ones that are skippable.

And this is, this is an opinion.

This is definitely from my analytics.

And I think true for probably every YouTuber out there is

that the amount of money you.

Most people choose to skip that ad.

Most people don't want to watch an advertisement but advertisers will

pay a lot more for the people who do sit through and watch that ad.

And you'd be surprised how many people actually watch those ads.

I'm usually averaging about 50, 000 impressions a month on

people watching a TrueView ad.

So somewhere out there, 50, 000 people have watched that full

ad and not chosen to skip it.

And The amount of money per thousand of you for that is significantly higher.

Like usually the CCP m on that is, somewhere 15 to

$20 or something like that.

So if you're making YouTube content, definitely TrueView ads are the way to go.

Yeah.

Cool.

And just one final thing on that is, for those TrueView ads, is there a

certain percentage where you kick in and you get paid or they have to watch

the entire ad?

They have to watch the entire thing.

So if they, even if they.

They leave the one second off at the end.

You don't get the money.

Yeah, so you're running a risk with that.

But I think it, but it works.

And I was certainly skeptical.

I remember I went to a YouTube gathering at the YouTube offices here in Santa

Monica and California when they were first launching this and they said we Yeah.

I think they were worried that no one was going to enable them because they thought

Oh, everyone's going to skip these ads.

It's not going to work.

But for whatever reason it works.

And I think it's, Google is really smart about targeting ads.

Like they're targeting ads toward people that are likely to watch them.

And it, yeah, it totally works.

Yeah,

definitely.

I don't know.

I generally skipped them, but I'm going to have to start watching the whole

things for all of your videos now.

I skipped in too.

I probably shouldn't say that, but most of the time I skipped it every once in

a while though the targeting works and I'm like, Oh, I want to watch this one.

And so

that's great.

All right.

One other thing we're on the topic of the behind the scenes and advertising.

One other thing I've noticed that you've done once or twice is almost like a

like a hangout or something like that.

Is it like a live stream?

What's the reasoning behind that?

Is that literally just to answer questions of your audience or are you trying to

build a, put a community around that or.

I would say engagement is the key word there.

And I think this is important when you're looking at building an audience and

turning that single view into a viewer and someone who's going to come back.

Engagement's important, even in, and it's worth spending the time

on, even when it's I guess you're not getting paid for your time.

So for the live streams, I'll do A two to three hour live stream and there's

I don't modernize that in any way.

That's just me doing it.

And I would say it's the equivalent of being, on Twitter or replying to comments

on YouTube, which is something else that's important that I think people do.

It, it puts a face and a personality behind the person making the

videos and it makes people interested in watching them and.

Engaging in your content.

So yeah, so and then it's I think it's fun to interact with the audience.

Like I personally have a lot of fun doing it.

So I think it's a two way street and I definitely get a lot out of it.

So

yeah, that's fantastic.

And do you have a property which you own outright that you try and push your

audience to or do you literally play on YouTube's platform and others platforms?

I'm I'm on YouTube's platform.

There's certainly there's a lot of people out there that they use

YouTube is just an almost another engagement tool like it was a Twitter

or something like that and to drive people to blogs and things like that.

I don't have anything like that.

I have a landing page.

Website that just links to my other stuff.

So I'm not trying to drive people anywhere.

And for me I have debated that in the past.

Especially when I was thinking about taking my YouTube channel more toward

the traditional tech review route.

Having some kind of website or blog that matches that to drive people to.

And for me it's the time commitment on that is, is not worth it.

I've, I look at YouTube as doing all the legwork for me, they're doing the

logistics right there, they're doing all the advertisement for me and, and handling

all the back end and page maintenance.

So I don't have to deal with that.

So for me, the video content is my prime focus.

Yeah, definitely.

That makes sense.

And as you say, the minute you start producing content on your own side,

it does, it adds, it's quite a lot of maintenance to that and cost as well.

So that's it's interesting.

But as you say, I think.

I play a little bit in the internet marketing space and one of the big things

with a lot of internet marketers is to get people off channels that you don't own

and the reason behind that is you can be shut down at any stage, but I'm assuming

with something like Matt's Macintosh is.

You're not at all playing in a dodgy space.

You're playing by YouTube's

rules.

And, but but there's certainly risk in that.

And that's something that I've talked about you know, in kind of private

conversations with fellow YouTubers and at these different YouTube gatherings.

And this is something that, that'll come out when if you ever go to the YouTube

corporate office that they'll, when people are being, having extra candor.

It's right.

It's certainly running a risk, right?

YouTube could at any day, Google could just decide, Oh, you know what?

This isn't making enough money for us.

We're shutting the whole thing down.

And then that would, collapse the majority of my revenue stream there.

So it's absolutely that's a risk.

But and not even and chances of the cataclysmic kind of collapse, isn't

likely, but even minor changes.

A lot of people were up in arms when they changed the search algorithm for

related videos when they made it based on total watch time and not clicks,

which what it used to be based on.

So that kind of you had to it forced creators to rethink

how they make their videos.

And so you're playing by someone else's rules and someone else's court.

And that's just something that you have to accept if that's

the route you're going to go.

Yeah, no,

definitely.

All right let's change, change gear a little bit here and let's go,

we'll fit right off the interview with with looking at how you put

together your particular videos.

Now do you follow a certain, standard operating procedure or

something along those lines when you're putting together videos?

Yes.

So a assuming I have the idea solidified when it actually comes to

the production aspect of the video.

I shoot video first with no real kind of script or anything.

And it depends on what it is.

If I'm doing a tutorial video, obviously it'd be a little bit different, but

let's say a standard kind of product video or one of my kind of history

kind of documentary style videos I'll shoot and I'll probably shoot.

For a standard two to three minute video, I'm probably shooting

about an hour's worth of footage.

So I'm getting, different angles getting coverage of the product or whatever it

is that the subject of the video is.

And then I bring that into the edit.

And then look at what I have and then I have a rough kind of outline in my

mind to be there what I want to say or if it's just a video which is music

to it how I want to flow and then I'll start doing an assembly edit then do

the voiceover work and then tighten up that edit to match the voiceover.

And then do the export and upload.

Okay

that's interesting and particularly with with anyone doing

reviews and that I know myself when I've tried to do reviews, I do the voiceover

at the time of recording and it can mean that the videos are not as engaging.

So that's that's interesting that you're just shooting footage and then

putting it together at the end.

And I think it's a better system.

I certainly know.

A lot of guys who do that, who record, they essentially do the review live

they, they record with the camera and then are talking and I'm, maybe I'm

just not eloquent enough to do that, but I, I flubbed the, what I wanted

to say a lot, and then I go ramble on tangents if I try to do that.

And then it just goes back to our earlier conversation.

It's making that tight video that people are going to watch from beginning to end.

I think it's better to just shoot the video first and then do that

edited voiceover to make it as just as tight and concise as possible.

Yeah.

All right.

Then on that, and this is probably relating personally to

me, so it's a selfish question.

I don't do a lot of the video edits.

In fact, I don't do any of the video editing myself.

Do you still think it would be possible to follow that sort of

concept of shooting a whole heap of footage and then at some stage

doing the voiceover?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Even if you're not doing your editing and you probably need to bring the voiceover

in a little earlier than you normally would if you were going to, if you were

doing the complete end to end product.

But if you if you look at, when they're producing documents for TV, it's not

like the editor or the voiceover guy is.

Working hand in hand to make everything.

They're bringing everything together and post separately, and I think

that's a good way of doing it.

So if I was if I had a separate editor, for example, I think I would tell my

editor, I'd give him kind of an outline of what I was going to do, have him build

a loose assembly at it, then come in with my voiceover, then have my editor tighten

it up and, turn into a finished product.

Okay, cool.

Cool.

All right.

So you're shooting all this footage.

Let's look at one particular video.

Let's look at the the why you chose the iPad mini.

Okay.

Are you shooting with essentially the one camera from the different angles?

Are you assembling multiple cameras at once?

I'm shooting single camera.

You could, if you really wanted to, you could do multi angle kind of stuff.

But I don't, for me, it's, I am, I'm very conscious of my

shot selection and camera setup.

So I'm trying to pick engaging angles.

I think video is a visual medium.

And I think that's lost on some people, especially in kind

of The more practical videos.

They're like the tech review space and things like that is that

you can be given the best audio information about the product.

But if the pictures aren't engaging as well, you're going to lose viewers.

So I shoot single camera.

I very put a lot of thought into the camera angle and what I'm depicting.

And then, choose a variety of angles based around what the topic is going to be.

Yeah, cool.

And do you a lot of our audience budding content marketers or multimedia marketers,

so they're not necessarily they don't necessarily have a video background.

Do you have a resource you can recommend where people can learn a little bit

more about putting together exciting camera angles and framing pictures

in it?

I got two sources.

One YouTube.

It's funny is that, I learned a lot of stuff from YouTube myself.

I am both a YouTube creator and a consumer of YouTube videos.

So all the time I like wonder how something is done and I Google

it and search it on YouTube and watch a video about it.

The second thing I'd say, is it look at content that you like I think one

of the best things you can do as a creator is learn to identify what

you like in other people's products so that basically you can steal it.

That's what people have done since the beginning of time, right?

Someone comes up with a great concept or a way to, shoot something or make something

and then everyone else jumps on that.

So I think if you personally or learn to identify.

You watch a video and say, Hey, that was good, but why was it good?

And go through and pick out those specific things and then emulate

it and then try to make it better.

And that's what I've tried to do is try to steal things and then

improve them upon them or put my own spin on them to make them unique.

Yeah, that's really cool.

I love that.

It's it's so simple, but it's hiding in broad daylight.

Okay.

Final question.

And this is something that I've certainly, I've included in my

videos and it's direct from yours is creating engaging thumbnails.

Yes.

I love the way you use simple text to create great thumbnails.

How much of a difference does that make?

Huge.

Huge.

I probably can't stress this enough.

And I hate to to say it like this.

Cause I know that if not all YouTube creators have the ability to make

custom thumbnails on YouTube because that was, it was part of the old

partner system and stuff like that.

So if you can't do that, it's a shame.

Supposedly YouTube is rolling that feature out to everyone, but thumbnails are.

So key and this is something that I've actually experimented with.

So this isn't just like a, an opinion.

That's something I've tested and looked at the analytics on is clear text

with an interesting image behind it is key and it's key for it to look good.

Not when it's blown up and you're looking at it in photoshop, but

when is that tiny, whatever it is, 50 by 50 pixels or whatever,

whatever it's going to look like.

Okay.

On the actual page before people click on it I think is really key.

I try to choose fonts that stand out colors that, so that you can read it.

And then the actual titling of it too, just the words themselves,

like something that's clickable and that'll drive people in.

Yeah,

that's really cool.

And I think one thing I need to probably introduce myself is that it

looks like you're not actually using a stills from the actual footage.

It looks like you're actually shooting separate stills just for the thumbnail.

Most of the time.

No there it's a still from the footage.

That I have then gone back and, in Photoshop touched up and added text to.

So I'm not completely cheating, I'm not like pulling a still image, but I am,

I'm modifying a frame from the video.

Okay, cool, cool.

That's good, that's handy because it's it's obviously an extra

step they have to add in, but

yeah, but it's certainly worth their time, absolutely.

Cool.

And just one thing on that, I'll just add for our listeners, I've

recently gone through the process of setting up a new channel and YouTube

enabled custom thumbnails for me after only about a hundred or 200 views

and two or three videos up there.

I think one thing they say is you do have to join the partner program, which

is still an opt in and you need to.

Enable at least one of your videos for monetization.

And so that's the, that's just my tips.

It happened after about a hundred views two videos up there, and it was just

simply going through your settings, enabling enabling monetization on at

least one of your videos and yeah.

It'll just pop up

after a little while.

So that's great.

Cause it's certainly a great tool.

So that's good.

Yeah, absolutely.

All right, Matt, you've shared some really awesome information.

I'm really pleased that I was able to get on the call with you today.

Where can our listeners find out a little

bit more about you?

Sure.

Obviously you can go to my main YouTube channel.

So youtube.

com slash Matt's Macintosh.

And from there I'm on Twitter Matt's Macintosh is my handle on Twitter as well.

Or just my, my main page is matthewpierce.

net.

And from that you can contact me if if anyone out there wants to work

with me on something or just see some of my work I've done in the past.

That's great.

Listeners, thanks very much for tuning in and Matt, thank

you very much for coming on.

No problem.