YouTube Channel Improvement Notes

I have been releasing more YouTube videos recently and trying to learn how to ‘improve’ my YouTube numbers.

There are two strands to this:

• core
• periphery

The core feature that will allow success on YouTube is clearly quality content. Clearly, having watched a lot of videos, quality is a very subjective attribute, but it clearly has to revolve around providing the viewer with value.

There are an enormous amount of periphery features which support success. Unfortunately, these are easier to target than the core so it might be tempting to only target these e.g. thumbnails, channel descriptions, video descriptions, etc.

I’m learning that I have to do both.

Core video quality takes time and requires me to continually improve and experiment so that each video becomes better than the last.

Periphery, because it is fast to act on, can be done immediately.

Some periphery changes I’ve made recently.

• First few lines of “About” description

First few lines of “About” description

When you hover over a ‘name’ in a comment you see a truncated version of the “About” Description.

Edit this so that it makes sense in that context and can be used as a teaser to drive traffic to your channel.

To do this:

• leave a comment on a video
• hover over your name
• edit the About description until you are happy

You can edit the About description by:

• Goto “My channel”
• click “About”
• click the “Description” to edit it

Channel Name

I want the Channel name to be more than a “Name” I also want it to have a subtitle that explains the subject of the channel so rather than “EvilTester Videos” I have “EvilTester - Software Testing”.

I don’t know if this also feeds into SEO, although I’m assuming it does.

Thumbnail Branding

I still need to improve this, but as a short term step I’m adding a logo on each thumbnail so that it is obviously from my channel when shown in a list.

Production

I’ve just started to experiment with ChromaKey and the first ChromaKey video received a lot of positive comments.

Next Steps

I have the following items on my periphery todo list:

• Channel Header - remove links to external sites, add image of me, make simpler
• Channel “For new visitors” - need to change the text here and a different channel trailer
• Consistent thumbnail branding
• Better “About” text
• Different Intro

For the core todo list:

• Videos covering ‘popular’ topics, not just topics I want to cover
• Ask for ‘subscriptions’ more
• More overlays - lower third etc.

Recommended channels to help you improve:

• Brian G Johnson TV
• Nick Nimmin
• Derral Eves

"How Brands Grow" By Byron Sharp

Most of "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp. was aimed at a slightly different type of company than mine but there was still a few nuggets. And the Seven Simple Rules For Marketing presented in Chapter 12 were worth the price of admission.

You can see them in the photo but basically:

1) Reach
2) Be Easy To Buy
3) Get Noticed
4) Refresh and Build Memory Structures
5) Create and Use Distinctive Brand Assets
6) Be Consistent, yet Fresh
7) Stay Competitive, don't give a reason not to buy

I will certainly be working through this list.

The 'rules' are expanded in the book with more detail and they build on information presented in earlier chapters. This list saved the book from being average with a few notes and being sent to the charity shop and is now in the marketing section in my bookcase and I will revisit and work through the book again.

I do not do all of the above.

In practical terms, my immediate interpretation is:

1. effective tagging on social media posts, syndication of content, SEO, create more content
2. online and in normal places e.g. make sure you are listed on Amazon
3. create content where your customers read, create enough content that it does not get lost in the noise
4. Create strategic content, create tactical content that refers to the strategic hooks
5. I need to use my brand assets better
6. Keep track of your core messages
7. Keep copy up to date to refer to the most up to date versions of tools and language versions. Treat pre-sales questions as failure demand and address them in the copy.

I do not yet do all of the above.

Do you?

A post shared by Software Testing Tips & Videos (@eviltester) on Apr 23, 2017 at 8:31am PDT

For social media you feed the buffer

For most of my work life I have learned to concentrate on:

• single piece flow
• release it when done

With social media I'm having to learn a new set of strategies.

• batch creation
• single piece flow editing
• buffered release cycles
• revisit to repurpose

Never repeat a public speaking talk - until you get busy

I have only once, repeated a conference talk:

• same slides
• same content

I was at a two day conference and a keynote speaker for the second day pulled out, so I stepped in and did a talk on the second day (as well as the first).

I didn’t have time to create a new talk so I refreshed my memory of the old talk and presented that in the morning.

I didn’t enjoy it and it didn’t feel right to me, but it went down OK.

But I’ve never repeated a talk since.

I realise now that I’ve had the luxury of preparation time when getting ready for conferences, so I was able to create new talks, from scratch, and then never repeat them.

But now, I find that I’m being asked to talk, with much less notice than I’d like, and I simply don’t have time to create completely new content.

So I’m repeating talks… kind of.

I don’t:

• use exactly the same slide deck
• use the same words
• have the same talk title
• etc.

Because all audiences are different, but I’m …

• creating new titles aimed at the audience
• re-using slides
• re-using themes
• extending parts of one talk when I add the theme into another
• contracting themes when the are relevant, but not as important
• learning from previous talks and adding new information into the ‘repeat’

It feels like ‘re-purposing’ rather than re-using, but if you came to all the talks you’d certainly see similarities.

I’m hoping that:

• it doesn’t feel like a repeat
• I’m still creating content for the audience
• the ‘same’ sections improve each time

I realise that I still have a luxury of some time, so I am able to re-purpose rather than ‘repeat’. But I’ve amended my ‘never repeat a talk’ motto to ‘never repeat a talk, unless I get really busy’.

I’m hoping that one day, I’ll be able to create unique talks, with minimal preparation that still:

• entertain
• educate
• motivate
• inspire questions

…and by minimal preparation I mean - a few minutes.

But I’m not there yet.

Marketing using Instagram videos with Captions

I have been creating daily instagram videos and I’ve started to be concerned that many people will not watch them because you have to have sound and often we don’t have then when looking at instagram.

A few recent Gary Vaynerchuck instagram videos had captions on them and I found myself watching the video and following along by reading the captions. I suspect the ‘view figures’ for the video did not increase as a result, but my engagement with his content did, and that is really what counts.

So how can someone without the resources of Gary V do a similar thing?

Here’s my initial experiment.

• I upload the video into Trint
• Tidy the automated transcription
• export as a srtfile
• upload my video from my phone to my computer
• create a camtasia project
• set the Project settings canvas size to 1080 by 1080
• amend the caption font size to about 80-90
• import the srt file as captions
• export video to mp4
• use buffer to share on instagram and facebook

And voila - a ‘watchable’ instagram video without having to have sound and without needing resources on the level of Gary V.

I will iterate forward from this to streamline my process.

Oh - I had one srt file that Camtasia refused to import, so I used smisrt.com/en to conver the file to smi which Camtasia did import. I don’t know if this was an issue with Trint or Camtasia - but this is the workaround I used.

All told this probably takes about 20 minutes for a 1 minute instgram video, but I think the engagement increase will go up and that will make this worthwhile. Also I have a transcript that I can repurpose later.

Content creation realisation "only you see everything you do"

Note to self: "The only person seeing everything that you are doing is you."

Therefore:

• you can re-use content and it will be new to most people
• you can re-purpose content, to keep it alive, if it is core to your message
• you can re-promote content because people will not have seen it

If you share and create good stuff then help people find it.

Stop:

• thinking that people will tire of what you create
• keep creating new stuff
• keep reminding people about the old good stuff
• thinking that if you include content from posts in your talks that people will 'already have seen it:
• most people don't read blogs
• most people don't follow you on instagram
• most people don't read linkedin
• most people don't follow you on twitter
• most people dont ... etc.
• And... more importantly
• when you talk, you add extra value with, in your face emotional and passionate presenting because you care about the content

Every channel offers additional value even if the content is 'the same' (but the content is not the same, it is channel specific).

Notes from a failed pitch - show the map, and the route from here to there

Just a quick write up of notes from a failed pitch.

A consultancy that I periodically work through brought me in on a pitch.

• I had the skills to lead the project
• they could provide the staff
• it was their lead
• they had the client contact and relationship

So we engaged in a joint pitch.

Re-posting and re-purposing as a content creation strategy

Efficient content marketing requires re-use and re-purposing of content.

Sometimes that means direct re-posting, but it also means - using previous content as a basis for creating new content (re-purposing).

e.g.

• I create a daily instagram video
• I try and summarise it into a ‘motivational quote’ image for instagram and pinterst
• I collate the instagram videos into a YouTube video with additional content
• I transcribe the youtube video
• I turn the transcription into a markdown file which I use to create slides for uploading to slideshare
• I transcribe the youtube video into a blog post and add links to the youtube video, instagrams and slides
• I review the blog post from a ‘management’ or ‘motivational’ perspective for one or two linkedin posts

Some of those steps are re-posting, some are re-purposing.

A quick review of content collation and curation tools for newsletter creation

One thing I’m not particularly good at, is sending out a newsletter.

I thought I’d have a quick look at some curation tools to see if they help (and yes, I know this could be considered procrastination).

Jay Abraham Interview on "I Love Marketing" podcast

http://ilovemarketing.com/jay-abraham-interview-on-marketing-and-copywriting/

•  "The other is, there could be such really quality deserving people that have such a superior product, service, concern, commitment, integrated value proposition, but they do now know how to differentiate. They do not know how to communicate. They do not know how to delineate. They do not know how to demonstrate..." 
•  "most people don’t even think about how do I create the trust that lets the prospect know that I have their best interest at heart"

Notes from speaking to experienced consultants

I was speaking to a far more successful consultant than myself a few weeks ago.

By successful I mean:

• charges more
• more shorter term gigs
• higher paid, higher profile gigs
• higher profile in the industry
• contacted by ‘budget holders’ and ‘management’ as well as ‘practitioners’

Now, he has worked for this and deserves the success.

• put himself ‘out there’ far more and far longer than myself
• built his brand
• experimented more

And there is a lot that I can reverse engineer from looking at his public profile but I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask for tips:

On pricing

• negotiate principle of least regret - price so that:
  • If they accept, I would regret taking at that price for it is too low
  • If they walk away, would I regret because I priced too high
• never drop your price after a quote
• discuss money early in the ‘can you work for us’ ‘can you come speak to us’

I think I do points one and two, so I’ve added point three into my repertoire.

I also asked about how he manages to make his travel schedule so profitable:

• put schedule online

I have now put my schedule online, and I’ve also put my current availability online on my website and on linkedin, in the hope that this leads to a sense of scarcity and as a prospecting filter to stop enquiries for “can you come work with us full time for 6 months on this low level role”.

I had thought about doing this before, but after speaking to him and seeing how much he credited gaining work from it, I added this a few days after our talk.

One thing that became clear when speaking though was that he has a much clearer idea of the benefit and value that he brings to the role. And that allows him to communicate it in a clearer and more succinct way than I do.

So I need to work on that.

Also he provided tips on creating talks and content that can attract more sales:

• talk titles based on ‘what do I think would be a good benefit’
• what 3 things would I want to talk about - simplify ‘what’ not the how - models are the how

I still have work to do on my personal marketing and branding. Hopefully this helps.

I previously asked other consultants and the advice was generally “charge more”. I think the advice above, when followed will help develop the positioning to allow charging more.

Jay Abraham on How to 10X Your Business with Lewis Howes - Massive Amounts of Free Sales And Marketing Training Material

I’ve taken value from Jay Abraham’s work in the past - particularly his book “Getting Everything You Can out of All You’ve Got” - and it is one of the books I’ve just started to re-read and revisit (again).
I was pleased to see that Lewis Howes interviewed Jay Abrahams for his “School of Greatness” Podcase.

• http://lewishowes.com/podcast/jay-abraham/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bi4X4KY1DQ&t=577s

Jay offers some really good advice on referals and repurposing and I’ll need to revisit the video again to crib some of the great sales copy ideas at the start.
And there was a really useful story about his work on Entrepreneur magazine:

• repurposed archives into ‘startup manuals’ with ‘boilerplate’ - how to recruit, how to do X
• you are the solution to someone else’s problem who doesn’t know it

At the end of the video I learned something I was completely unaware of - Jay Abraham has released most of his material for free now:

• An unbelievable amount of material in his 50 Shades of Jay section
  • http://www.abraham.com/50shades/
  • this will take a long time to work through
• Read Archives of his email newsletter
  • http://www.abraham.com/category/50-shades/
• You need to register for this… but you get access to an immense amount of training and recorded talks
  • http://www.abraham.com/radio-opportunity/
  • including the book “Getting Everything out of All You’ve Got” - which I have a paperback and CD version, and was just about to work through again.
  • and the book “The Sticking Point Solution”
  • … it just goes on

I suspect I’ll be studying this material for quite some time to come.

GMail Based CRM and GMail Linkedin Plugin

I’m still trying to figure out what I need from a CRM.

I needed to create a homegrown adhoc solution to see how I prefer to work rather than have my process dictated to me by software.

Homegrown Solution

I created a quick CRM in a Google sheet.
I have a front page which summarizes:

• contact
• when last contacted
• what to do next
• state of lead

And then each contact has a sheet with their details and a log of contacts - that seems OK but requires maintenance outside of Google.

Alternatives

Then I stumbled over this blog post from Neil Patel, "10 GMail plugins all marketing professionals should consider"

As A result, I’ve installed the Rapportive chrome extension, which augments any homegrown CMS.

And looking through the features of the other tools mentioned it seemed as though Streak provided a lot of power and seemed to offer much of the functionality of followup.cc and boomerang

I’ve installed Streak to try it out.

I still have to evaluate FullContact which I think could augment Streak as well.

And if Streak doesn’t work out then I’ll have a look at ActiveInboxHQ

Streak seems to have a lot of power and I’m slowly working through the functionality but the delayed send and boxing seem quite useful so far.

How to create Presentation slides using markdown

Simple solutions for using markdown to create presentations exist e.g. Marp, Deskset, DeckTape.

I use markdown all the time

I use markdown all the time for writing.

• blog posts, I draft in markdown, convert to HTML (e.g. dillinger.io) then paste HTML into blogging tool
• client reports - I write quickly in markdown then format in different styles using Pandoc

I write all my daily notes in markdown because it is easy to read, and if I need to, then it is easy for me to convert to a ‘presentable format’ using Pandoc or Dillinger.io

I create a ‘checklist’ and wanted to convert it into a presentation to upload to slideshare for marketing purposes. I didn’t fancy recreating the checklist into Powerpoint manually, so I started looking for a markdown based ‘slide’ solution.

Pandoc can do this as well, but it looked like a clunky approach.

A markdown based ‘slide’ solution

The first markdown based ‘slide’ tool I found was Marp:

• https://yhatt.github.io/marp/

The only changes I had to make to my checklist was the addition of --- to create slide breaks - when these are rendered in the checklist document they are horizontal lines, and don’t really detract from the on page checklist:

Within a few minutes:

• I had a slidedeck, in pdf format, that I could upload to slideshare.
• I could generate the slide deck from the same markdown document as the checklist document

Only one document to maintain going forward, but increased the marketing reach of the material.

Win.

And the next day I wanted Powerpoint or ODP

I started looking around for ways to convert the markdown into a ‘normal’ presentation format like powerpoint or ODP. I tried pasting the generated HTML presentation tools but that didn’t work as I wanted. I found odpdown, but haven’t tried it yet: (This might be useful for converting markdown to odp format)

• https://github.com/thorstenb/odpdown

Other Markdown Tools for HTML

As I searched the web I found a few other tools mentioned for markdown to HTML:

• https://github.com/jldec/pub-server
  • mentioned in https://www.parallella.org/2015/08/14/no-more-powerpoint/

There are also a bunch of tools that let you embed your markdown in an HTML document and render it that way:

• https://github.com/munen/p_slides/
• https://github.com/gnab/remark
• https://github.com/puppetlabs/showoff (doesn’t seem ‘simple’ enough for my needs)

More professional additions

DeckTape is an open source tool that offers a PDF and image exporting functionality

• https://github.com/astefanutti/decktape

Deskset is a commercial tool that supports more features, but only runs on Mac - cheap at only $29

• http://www.decksetapp.com

Summary

I haven’t had time to evaluate all the tools above. At the moment, the simple pdf that Marp generates is good enough for the type of material that I’m currently kicking out.

Since all the tools seem to use a similar approach, I’m going to continue to draft slides with Marp and when I want something ‘professional’ I’m going to evaluate Deskset.

I know that at some point I’m going to want to combine slides and longer form text and I think that DeckTape will help me do that.

References
These two ycombinator pages had useful links and information:

• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12079671
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11839560

What kind of LinkedIn posts to create?

I already blog, and I create quite a lot of content that way.

Where will I find the time to create new content for LinkedIn?

Well, I won't.

I'll re-purpose content.

My current LinkedIn post strategy is 'executive summary'.

• I write a bunch of posts on my normal blogs
• I summarise them and draw 'management conclusions' for LinkedIn

The LinkedIn audience that I'm trying to target is one that will invest in consultancy, that is a different audience than the practitioners I target on my blog.

My first post I forgot to tweet and promote!

Now, when I create a LinkedIn post:

- mention it as a Company update
- 'share' the company update through my linkedin profile
- tweet the linkedin post

The LinkedIn reciprocal Visit Strategy update.

Thousands. I've automatically visited thousands of profiles.

How many you ask?

2747, I reply

Wow, that must have massively increased your profile views, you say.

Eh, not really.

To make this 'scientific' I made sure this was the only strategy I employed for 2 weeks.

And, not really much of a boost,

When I didn't employ these strategies and did nothing I was getting about 30 - 40 views a week. Some weeks up to 70, some weeks as low as 20.

With this strategy I had a 40 week, and a 48 week. Which is well within 'normal tolerance'.

Looking at the people who did view my profile... none, were in the list of visited people.

I'm going to conclude that this strategy is 'LinkedIn Guru' hyperbole and let it lie.

So what to do instead?

Well, the one thing it was good for, was seeing what LinkedIn groups my target market was part of.

And I have joined as many of those groups as would let me in.

I have also created more updates and started using the LinkedIn 'post an article' and this week I'm up to 55 views.

Now, I also have to try 'engaging in the groups'

Summary

I conclude that 'content' is a better strategy for 'profile views' than visiting.

But 'visiting' is the best (and only) strategy to find out what groups your target market visit.

Going forward I will:

• Create posts
• Post more regular updates
• Engage in group discussions where I can

And see how that goes

LinkedIn Ads Update

Two weeks ago I wrote that:

• One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00
• The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.
• I chose “Cost per Click” model.
• LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.
• I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens

So after 14 days, what has happened.

• The ad has been clicked 6 times, so that is 5 more clicks
• Average click through at $3.0
• The ad has 74,409 impressions

If I earned money from impressions that would be great.

It is possible that people are trained not to look at ads. I'm pretty sure I am.

I've decided to end my 'ad' experiment and I probably won't repeat it.

I think 'content' serves my business better than ads.

LinkedIn has limits on everything! - number of pending group requests

As part of my 'try to use linkedin' better strategy. I've been looking at the profiles for people in roles I probably want to connect with to get work.

And when I do that, I've been looking to see what groups they are members of.

Then I apply to join those groups that seem relevant.

Strategy:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• join potentially beneficial groups

And then LinkedIn says:

"You've already requested to join too many groups. Withdraw pending requests before joining this group."

I think I had about 6 requests pending.

As a result of this my strategy is now:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• make a list of potentially beneficial groups
• join groups in my list

Otherwise, I'll forget the good groups.

And since LinkedIn allows you to join about 100 groups I'm working through my list now.

PS:

Remember to edit your profile so that you only show groups in your profile that augment your sales message. 

LinkedIn Connection Oddness

I've often wondered how I received so many connection requests prior to posting my email address on my profile, and why no-one gives a reason why they want to connect.

But I've only just realised that on the "People you may know" view, under "My Network". I can click 'connect' on any of those people and I don't have to provide how I know them, nor do I have the opportunity to say why I would like to connect.

If I open their profile and try to connect, then I have to give a reason.

Strangely inconsistent methinks.

How to make blogger more responsive

This blog is hosted on Blogger.com - primarily for expediency.

• I don’t like the HTML it generates
• And I don’t like the templates (i.e. how it looks)

But other than that, it is fine.
For a while I’ve been wanting to make the blog more ‘responsive’.

• I don’t particularly like the fixed sizing
• and I don’t like the small screen formatting

I had a quick look around are responsive templates for blogger.
But:

• I didn’t really trust them
• I thought I would have to reconstruct my sidebar etc.
• It all seemed too much work

I tried using the Advanced editing on the template to add some CSS but:

• The custom CSS is added into the HTML before the Template CSS
• So the template CSS overrides your custom CSS

So, I bit the bullet:

• visit the site
• use dev tools to find the ‘key’ areas to influence
• hack around with the CSS

And I came up with this:

---

/* Minimal Hack to make blogger more responsive
     Added in the Template HTML Template Skin Section
     At the bottom
     20160902
*/

.content-outer{
     min-width:none;
     max-width:1400px;
     margin: auto;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     margin:auto;
}

/* push sidebar to the bottom - content break, not device break*/
@media only screen and (max-width: 900px){

.content-outer{
     min-width:0;
     max-width:auto;
     margin: auto;
}

.column-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .column-right-outer{
     width:100%;
     margin-right:0px;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-right-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .fauxcolumn-center-outer{
     width:100%;
}
.main-inner .columns{
     padding-right:0;
}

img#Header1_headerimg{
     max-width:100%;
     height:auto;  
}
body{
     min-width:0;
}
}

/* End of minimal hack to make blogger more responsive
    20160902
*/

---

It isn’t pretty.
But it basically says. If the screen is bigger than 900 pixels then allow it to resize.
If it is below 900 pixels then move the side bar to the bottom of the screen and make everything fit the width.
Oh, and resize the header image to fit the screen (if I add one to this blog).
Why 900? Because.
I chose a content break, rather than a device break. And on some of my other blogs, choosing 900 seemed like the right choice.
In blogger I have to:

• go to the blog dashboard
• choose ‘Template’
• Edit HTML
• Expand <b:template-skin> ...</b:template-skin> in the editor
• and right at the bottom of this section, above the ]]> I add my ‘hack’ CSS

Just in case anyone else is still on Blogger, and wants to make their blog a little more responsive.
Feel free to adjust the max-width in the media query for your own personal preferences.