MrBeast Shares His Best YouTube Advice

- If you knew what I knew, you could get 10 million subscribers within six months. Your first video is not gonna get views. Subscribers don't matter, views don't matter.

I mean, they do. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and months on end and just get to work and start uploading. Everything you.

. . (beeping) Want as a creator comes from making the best videos possible and thumbnails.

- [Narrator] Mreast shares his best YouTube advice all the way from title and thumbnail secrets to growing a channel on YouTube. - It's much easier to get five million views on one video than 50,000 views on 100 videos. - [Narrator] He also reveals how he's able to hook in viewers in his videos and what he would do if he started over from scratch.

- What advice would you give yourself when you were starting out? - Your videos suck. You think your videos are good, but they suck.

They just do. And the sooner you learn how to make good, great videos that people actually wanna watch, the sooner you'll get views I think it's the biggest takeaway 'cause like when I was 14, I thought my videos were the best in the world. They weren't, they were terrible.

Many people are making way better videos than me, but I didn't think that. And I think, you know, to be successful, you kind of have to have a little bit of that ego where you're like, you know, my content's great. You gotta believe in it, but also like if you have sub 1,000 subscribers, like there's a good probability your videos just suck.

They just do, and you need to make hundreds of videos or 100 videos, I don't know. It depends on the difficulty of videos. Improve something every time and just like get to the point where they don't.

When you make good content, you'll blow up. It's not the algorithm, it's not anything, it's just like most, me and most people who are in my position, you just make terrible videos and that's okay because you've gotta make a bunch of videos and improve over time to be great. Like you don't just pick up a baseball and become an MLB level athlete within a year.

It takes many, many, many years and YouTube's kind of the same way. A lot of people get analysis paralysis and they'll just sit there and they'll plan their first video for three months. Any of you listening, especially if you have zero videos on your channel, your first video is not gonna give views, period.

It's not, your first 10 are not gonna get views. I can very confidently say that. So stop sitting there and thinking for months and months on end and just get to work and start uploading.

Like all you need to do, and this applies to people who have not uploaded videos but have dreams of being a YouTuber, is make 100 videos and improve something every time. Do that, and then on your 101st video, we'll start talking, like maybe you can get some views, but, you know, your first 100 are gonna suck. There are very freak cases like (Mreast mumbling) or Emma Chamberlain who have really good personalities and it doesn't take them some, as many videos and it's just like people who are seven foot five and making in the NBA.

Like yes, there are freak cases you can find, but for the average person like us, you know, who don't have these exceptional personalities and you know, backgrounds in filmmaking, just make 100 videos. Improve something each time. And then talk to me on your 101st video.

- How do you improve something each time? - The second one just, I don't know, put more effort into the script. The third one, try to learn a new editing trick.

The fourth one, try to figure out a way that you can have better inflections in your voice. The fifth one, try to, you know, study a new thumbnail tip and implement it. The sixth one, try to figure out a new title.

There's infinite ways. That's the beauty of content creation online. There's literally infinite ways from the coloring, to the frame rate, to the editing, to the filming, to the production, to the jokes, to the pacing to, every little thing can be improved and they can never not be improved.

There's no, there's literally no such thing as a perfect video. What YouTube wants is they want people to click on a video and they wanna watch it. Like at its core that's what it is.

Now you can like draw little lines and go as deep as you want and to how to get people to click and how to get people to watch. I mean essentially by studying the algorithm you'll learn that you're more studying human psychology, right? What do humans wanna watch?

Anytime you say the word algorithm, just replace it with audience and it works perfectly. Like the algorithm didn't like that video? No, the audience didn't like that video.

Literally that's it. If people are clicking and watching then it gets promoted more. And that's literally all the algorithm does is reflect what the people want.

To a T. And if you deny that you just make terrible videos and are trying to find a scapegoat, - What makes for a good title? Short?

- Not just short, it's also if someone reads it, are they like, do they have to watch it? Is it just so intrinsically interesting that it's just gonna quit them? If they don't click on it, you know what I mean?

Ideally, it's a title also that you know, 'cause the titles don't live in a vacuum, right? So it has to lead into the content. So ideally the title represents content that you would wanna watch for 20 minutes.

So if it's a 20 minute video and the title is I stepped on a bug, the click-through rate is gonna be much lower. And then if it was like a five second video, like even nuances of the length of the video based against the title will affect whether people want to click it, 'cause sometimes they just don't add up. I mean it's that, yes, ideally you want it below 50 characters because above 50 characters on certain devices you run the chance of it going dot, dot, dot.

So like I took a light pole and I saw how many dollar bills I could stack on top and they would just go dot, dot, dot, 'cause it's too long and it can't finish it. And that's the worst thing because then people don't even know what they're clicking on. And so it's gonna do even worse.

Short, simple ideally and just so freaking interesting to have to click. And it is a good segue into the content and it represents the length of the content. The more extreme the opinion, typically the higher the click through rate.

If you can like pay it off in the content, then it just supercharges it, so like. . .

- Oh so, you have a kind of estimate of the extreme. - Yeah, like this just for water, right? You're like Fiji water sucks.

Yeah that'd do fine. But if you said Fiji water is the worst water I've ever drank in my life. - [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Way more extreme opinion, would do way better. - [Interviewer] But you have to deliver. - Yeah but then you have to deliver 'cause the more extreme you are, the more extreme you have to be in the video.

- I heard you guys talking about auto play on YouTube. - [Mreast] Yes. - And I've never considered it.

I've always thought about the thumbnail, but now on YouTube, videos automatically play. - Of course, so before you do, you film a video, what is the thumbnail, what is the video? And then what's the first five seconds and then what's the first 30 seconds?

You know, by the first five seconds it's like, goes with the thumbnail. - Because it's possible that people open YouTube and they don't. .

. - They don't see it, especially for us because like for so many people, I've watched hundreds of our videos when I upload I am first on your homepage. So like you just literally don't even see the thumbnail 'cause it auto play so quickly.

So like the thumbnail is irrelevant. I have to like visually convince you to click on the video. - Wow, that's so interesting.

- Yeah, that's why we go so hardcore. - Dude, that's so crazy. So do you consider also captions in those first five seconds?

'Cause of course people aren't. . .

- Of course yeah, everything. Everything. Yes.

100%. - Wow, so those first five seconds, that hook is now even more important than it ever used to be. - Oh of, 100%.

Yeah, before it was important because you had to convince people to watch. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - Now you have to convince people to click and watch at the same time.

- Whoa. - [Mreast] With the first five seconds. - That's driving CTR now too.

- It is, 100%. I roast a lot of people who like have boring first five seconds, it's brutal. Your title and thumbnail set expectations and at the very beginning of the video to minimize dropoff, you want to assure them that those expectations are being met.

If you click on a video where you know of his, where it's like Tether is a scam and then at the very beginning he starts talking about literally anything else, then you are like, oh this is bull, this isn't what I clicked on. But if at the very start of the video you go, Tether is a scam and I'm gonna teach you why, then it's like okay, you match the expectations. So at the very beginning match the expectations and then you wanna exceed them.

So you wanna assure people that what they clicked on is what they're getting and then blow their mind and be like, but you're also getting even more. That's how you lower drop off. Which a lot of people, sometimes it takes them like 20 seconds to really meet the expectations and so you lose, like that's where you're gonna lose everyone.

Everyone's video start like this and then it levels off. So you wanna reduce the amount of people that click off on the audience retention graph. I hope you're popping up graphs while I'm saying this.

So it's easier for people to visualize. We really should drill this home because like the number one thing is like retaining as many people as possible at the start. 'Cause like envision a chart where you lose 35% of your viewers in the first 30 seconds and then envision one where you only lose 20%, that's 15% more people that are watching you know, throughout the video than not.

And it's not like you made the whole video like a bunch better. You just had a more strategic intro that hooked them. I'm showing to put this into words and like to really impose how important that is.

But like that 15% difference in viewership really does make the difference between hypothetically like 2 million views on a video and like 10 in my head, the thing people undervalue the most is literally the first 10 seconds of the video, like. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - I can almost, I think I can quote it, I tied up an FBI agent and I have 100 thousand dollars of this bag.

Here's a knife, good luck. And I just run away. - [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Like it gives you everything you need. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - No wasted words.

Short, concise, and then tension. You basically wanna remove every dull moment. You probably want to find the 10 most critical people you know, make them watch the video and just roast it.

You know, certain things like, if I just talk to a camera for 10 seconds without a cut, like a lot of people will just like get bored or they'll lose interest. So like having a B cam and a C cam and just, you can just talk for 10 seconds but three seconds in cutting to a B cam and then a C cam, like now it's more interesting even though it's essentially the same thing and not that crazy. But you wanna have good pacing, typically having a payoff at the end, keep some, right?

Last to leave the circle wins 10 grand. If there is a low moment halfway through you're gonna watch to the end 'cause you wanna see who wins the 10 grand. So having a good payoff at the end.

- [Interviewer] How do you keep viewers watching and you know, happy with the video? - I would say just give them why they clicked. Tell them why they should watch and then just stick on topic.

Like that right there isn't even super complex but I would already put you in the upper echelon of YouTube. Like it's hard for a lot of people, people for whatever reason, like they just drag it out. A lot of log channels do it.

It's like eating 100 dollars ice cream and they'll be like, I'm going to eat 100 dollars ice cream but first and then it's like earlier in the day and it's just stuff that has nothing to do with what you clicked on. It's like them birthday shopping for their mom and it's like that's not why I came here. - Now if you're looking to grow your YouTube channel, I gotta tell you about this before we get into the rest of Mreast's genius advice and that is that we at Think Media are doing a free YouTube challenge to help you grow your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube or make your first $1,000 on YouTube.

To sign up for free, all you have to do is go to Tube1KChallenge. com or check out the link down in our description during this free challenge, Sean Cannell, the founder of Think Media, is gonna be showing you guys how to grow your YouTube channels and make money online with YouTube. So click on the link to sign up today or to check out when our next challenge is gonna be.

Okay, let's get back into the video. - What's interesting is the longer people watch something, the more likely they are to keep watching. So you don't have to try as hard in the hypothetically back half of a video as you do it in the front.

Like even right now, we're so deep into this where a lot of people listening are probably just gonna keep listening relatively close to the end unless we just have a really boring part of this conversation. 'Cause they're just in it, they're immersed. And so a big like, to really boil it down to a simple level, you just want to get people where they're immersed in the content and then just kind of hold them there.

The thing is, it's all knowledge. It really is. And like every time I say this, people debate it to the end of time on Twitter, but I don't care.

Like I could start a new channel tomorrow with not using my face or my voice like without ever promoting it and in six months have 20 million subscribers. I just could, yeah, it's purely knowledge. Like if you knew what I knew, you could get 10 million views of video and you could get 10 million subscribers no matter where you are right now within six months.

It really is just knowledge. And I could already tell you 90% of the people watching, they don't, they don't agree with that. They don't.

And everyone has excuses and they're always like, nah, YouTube just doesn't work like that, Jimmy, you don't understand. But I mentor a lot of people. I see it even to this day, I still see it all the time.

It is possible. It is simply knowledge and the second you accept that it is knowledge and you start your, for me, 10,000 day journey of learning, for you, whatever it is, if you want to be less hardcore but, and like actually figuring out, you know, what makes a good video, what does my audience want, how can I elevate? And then you take that knowledge and you just, you just assume that I will never understand what the perfect video is and every single day I just need to be devoted to learning as much as possible and improving as much as possible.

And I gotta prove every video as much as I can. Then, there you go. There are tons of viral ideas that people can do that don't require money.

It does not require money to go viral. Like at one point, one of my most few videos was like spending 24 hours in a desert, we just grabbed a tent, some stuff and we went in the desert and it got like 60, 70 million views. I have so many videos where we spent hardly any money, like the no food one or I'd have to pull up the channel and go through it that have gotten tens of millions of views and they would've gotten 10 plus million views even on a small channel.

So people who say, oh well, I could be Mreast if I had money. Well, A, I didn't start off with money, I was poor, I had no money and it took me like seven years just to buy a camera saving up from YouTube and B, some of our most reviews literally, like anyone can do. The best way to get views in my opinion, I think it's better to really, really focus on quality.

If you're a very small YouTuber and you can upload a video a day and like all the videos be average and like none of those videos will really stand out. None of it's like epic enough where like the algorithm's gonna go, oh this video, like this video is good. Like we need to spread it, feel like a lot of small YouTubers they just post like videos that aren't bad but they're not great and they just do that and none of them ever pop off so they never get an audience where it might be better to like, you know, upload half or a third or even like a fifth of the videos but make the videos you upload so freaking good that like the algorithm has to promote it and that, you know, it has to find audiences for it, 'cause it's such an interesting and good video, when you like set a consistent schedule and you're constantly having to upload videos that aren't as good as you'd like because you gotta hit, oh this Monday, I said I'd upload every Monday.

You know like that's a dangerous trap because then you know, the viewers notice that the quality isn't as good and it makes them less likely to watch. And I think it hurts your longevity. A lot of times people, oh boy, it's like they think their videos are better than they are, honestly and that.

. . - Tell them Jimmy, tell them.

- I mean they do and you have to like, you have to, that and they have horrible friend groups 'cause you really are like the type of YouTubers you hang around. And so like a lot of times I'm just like, what you're saying is wrong, who told you this? They're like, oh, this guy, this guy.

And it's like, well they're wrong. It's not true. You, there's no such thing as a perfect video.

Like someone should always call you and. . .

(beeping) It on your video 'cause it could be better. Like that's because imagine if someone does that every video and you upload 100s, if not 1,000 videos over the next 10 years and every single time someone's critiquing you and you're applying what they're critiquing. Like imagine the compound effect.

Over that time span. It's invaluable. People think it's like, oh well, it's all like CTR and stuff like that.

But a big thing that everyone. . .

(beeping) Underestimates is it's, what was your experience with your last video? If people loved your, the last video of yours that they watched, they're more likely to watch your next one. For the YouTubers watching this, when people watch your video they go, okay, that was good but like, that's enough of you for the day.

Like it was all right, right? Whereas what you want is them to go, holy crap, that was crazy. Oh my god, what's that?

Holy crap. That was crazy. Oh my god.

And they just, and they watched 10 videos. That's what you're going for. That data can't describe and like I don't, I've never heard anyone talk about that but that, that is it.

That's how you get these high view counts because people watch 10 videos, not one, you know? It's okay to draw inspiration for me but just don't do what I do to a T. - It's not like $1 versus blank.

- [Interviewer] Yeah. - I'm the first person to do it but I just, you know, saw that format and I was just like, how can I do that 100 times better? - Right.

- How can I put 100 times more creativity into it? How can I level up the editing by 100 times? How can I spend 100 blah, blah, blah.

- [Interviewer] Yeah. - And that's always my mindset. How can I, like if I get inspired by something, how can I do that but 100 times better and make it my own?

Whereas a lot of people are just like, oh Mreast did that, I'm just gonna do it. - [Interviewer] Yeah, how do I make a good thumbnail? How do I get people to click my video?

- [Mreast] You want it to be simple. You want them to be able to, like when they're scrolling through their suggested or homepage or whatever touch point, you want them to instantly be able to understand what you're conveying and you want them to feel some type of emotion. You know what I mean?

The way I like to phrase it is, you wanna make it so interesting or spike their curiosity or whatever emotion so much that like if they don't click it, they'll wonder, you know, when they're, before they go to bed, like what happened? You know what I mean? Like, an example would be like if you uploaded a video, I rode a skateboard with 1000 other people on it and like people are falling off the side or whatever and I'm envisioning like a giant skateboard and people are like hanging on the side of it.

Maybe it's like about to go off a big ramp. If you don't click that, you're gonna like be so curious, it's gonna be on your mind, you know? Later in the day when you're daydreaming, you're gonna think like, huh, what happened?

What happened to those thousand people on that skateboard? That's kind of a mindset I think you should have when making thumbnails. - How often do you change a thumbnail on a video?

Is that something, do you usually just stick with one or you try different one? - Well, so I think we, we get better at making thumbnails every year. So it's more, when I upload a thumbnail I usually think it's good and I don't change it most of the time, but what happens is like three years later I look back and I'm like, oh that's a horrible thumbnail.

And so it's usually like every two years we just go back and update a lot of our older thumbnails just 'cause they're terrible. Just with like the new knowledge we have and what we've learned. And funny enough, that actually usually does help quite a bit when we update the thumbnails on old videos that they usually do see a little bit of an uptake 'cause they're just, you know, if we take an old thumbnail where it's like seeing if whatever, like 1,000, 100,000 mattresses can stop a car and it just looks terrible.

And then with the new stuff I know we zoom in a little bit so it's a little more visible and make things look better. Then magically it starts doing a little bit better. 'Cause now people actually understand what it is.

'cause I'm not as much of an idiot anymore. In 10 years, YouTube's gonna be bigger than television ever was for culture in America, at least in my opinion. And so I think a lot of people underestimate that and people, I don't think people really understand just how like, to be a, one of the top creators on the biggest social media platform and that and that will also be the biggest in 10 years during that whole time.

Like the amount of value and how crazy that is. Like you don't need a network, you don't need, you know, to go through people. You just are, you can and you can do whatever you want and you can influence people how you want.

It's just wild. It's mind blowing. And you can leverage that to build businesses or you know, like do things like Beast Philanthropy or whatever.

I think like people don't realize just how much influence the top YouTube channels have. No one's ever gonna do what I do better than me. Like it's just not, it's not even humanly possible.

Like I reinvest every penny I make. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - I work every hour I'm awake, I devote every atom in my brain to solving this.

I hire the best people on the planet. I've been doing this for 14 years and I think in decades, not years. So I'm gonna be doing this for another 20, 30 years, not two or three.

So no, the next me isn't gonna be me because no one's gonna do what I do better than me. It's not possible. If I thought someone was doing better than me, I'd just start sleeping less so I could work even more.

Like I'd figure it out, I don't get. . .

- The barrier to entry to be you is extremely high. - Yeah. - Right?

Especially where you're at now. - Well it's 'cause I'm all in. I'm crazy.

Like people shouldn't be me. I don't have a life, I don't have work life balance. I, my personality, my soul, my being is making the best videos possible, entertaining my fans as best as I can.

Like that is why I exist on this planet. And I don't recommend it. You know, mean like, you should have work-life balance.

You should not devote your entire life to this one thing. Like go have fun. Like, you know, I'm miserable a lot of times I have a mental breakdown every other week 'cause I push myself so hard.

Like I don't recommend it, you know? - What do you think gets us to a million subscribers? - Well, subscribers is an arbitrary, so a million that doesn't matter.

- A million views of videos. - You should ask me what helps us make the best videos possible. That's the only question you should ask me.

Subscribers don't matter. Views don't matter. I mean they do.

- [Interviewer] Yeah. - But all that comes, everything you. .

. (beeping) Want as a creator comes from making the best videos possible and thumbnails. But it's easier to, you know, make thumbnails, the video part's the hard part.

And that's the thing that you're known for. Ask how can I make my videos better? Do that every single day for years.

And then you'll probably get views.