at the time of recording this I've made over 500 YouTube videos and gained nearly 300,000 subscribers but the reality is growing on YouTube is a lot of hard work and looking back there are many things I wish I'd done differently that would have allowed me to grow much faster much easier so to help you guys grow your channel much quicker here are 17 brutal truths about YouTube that I wish I'd known sooner lesson one you need to view YouTube as a transactional relationship and what I mean by this is viewers pay creators with their time
and in return they expect value so for viewers to give you their time they're always after some sort of value now the three main types of value creators can give through their YouTube videos are education entertainment or information people have infinite choices of things to watch on YouTube so if at any point your viewers start to feel like their time isn't being well spent they will simply just click off your videos and seek value elsewhere so lesson number one is always make sure sure every video you ever make always provides the specific value your viewers
are looking for lesson two your titles and thumbnails are the most important part of your video hands down like most small YouTubers will think about the video first and then think about a title and thumbnail but that's completely wrong your title and thumbnail are your packaging like your concept and your video should always be designed around that concept not the other way around a strong tarle Sparks curiosity and a high quality thumbnail or always stops people from scrolling if you don't make them compelling enough it doesn't matter how good your content is nobody will see
it if nobody clicks so L's number two is always make sure you create your titles and thumbnails first lesson three the algorithm is just your audience now I don't know why but most small YouTubers I know obsess over the complexity of the algorithm like they find it so easy to blame the algorithm if a video flops or if a short goes viral like everything seems to be the algorithm's fault but one of the biggest turning points of my YouTube career was when I swapped the word algorithm with the word audience because it's not the algorithm
that sits behind a phone watching a video it's people it's not the algorithm that hits a like button and leaves a happy comment it's people so instead of trying to please the algorithm try your best to please people you should never design a video for the algorithm but you should always design a video for your audience so lesson number three is swap the word algorithm with the word audience Lesson Four you need to think of at least 10 different titles for each new video as I've already mentioned your titles and thumbnails are the most important
part of every video you'll ever post so when it comes to drafting your title you should be creating at least 10 different versions of the same title for that one video Never just think of one title and stick with it because if you do that I can guarantee that you're missing out with thousands and thousands of views as a result writing multiple title variations can be daunting but it allows you to find the most compelling one now I've personally always liked to get a long list and then ask ask my friends which is best or
just get chat gbt to pick the best one out for me lesson five your first 1,000 subscribers are the hardest without a doubt the hardest part of YouTube is getting views on a brand new channel but rest assured once you start gaining traction growth becomes so much easier over time your first 1,000 subscribers require the most effort and sometimes it might feel like it's impossible to get there but trust me there comes a point where things just start to click and then each new video you post will keep building momentum the trick here is just
surviving the hardship at the start of your journey because most people quit way before they ever hit that Tipping Point so lesson number five is the harder you work during the early stages the quicker you'll grow when your momentum kicks in lesson six valuable content always beats expensive equipment the saying goes you can't polish a tur well on YouTube an expensive camera can't save poor value content most people will happily watch lowquality videos that have high value content but they won't watch high quality videos with no value so focus on the value of your content
first and then worry about expensive equipment later there have been millions of viral videos shot on smartphones like take Sam suc for example he's the latest viral Creator and his videos are all filmed using really basic equipment nothing more than an iPhone and an average mic yet he gets millions of views because his content gives value so lesson number six is focus hard enough on the value aspect of your videos and youon won't have to break the bank on expensive equipment lesson seven don't quit your job too soon look I get it most of you
might hate your job and you're probably looking for the earliest opportunity to quit work and never see those dreaded colleagues again and that should be your ultimate goal but my advice keep your job until your YouTube income is at least stable too many people quit too early and end up struggling just be patient because the Financial Security of a job gives you the creative freedom and allows you to make mistakes on YouTube and learn along the way and without a steady paycheck supporting you you're going to feel a whole lot of pressure which can often
manifest itself negatively on your content so in my opinion you should only really quit your job when you're at a stage where YouTube pays you enough money constantly every single month lesson eight don't get disheartened if you see some randomer go viral now it's easy to focus on those lucky channels that seem to just go viral overnight and see instant success but those guys are the exception not the rule to put it into perspective there are over a 100 million active channels on YouTube and you are doing far better than the vast majority of them
so focus on your journey and not theirs you will get there sooner comparison is a thief of Joy lesson nine you should spend most of your time working on ideas as Mr Beast said YouTube is an ideas business great videos start with great ideas so I would suggest you spend multiple hours every week solely focusing on developing video ideas now it took me a while to realize that the best creators don't just wait for ideas to come to them they actively go out and find them they are constantly searching for Trends analyzing their competitors and
testing different concepts now a strong video idea is a foundation of everything so treat idea generation as an absolute priority not an afterthought lesson 10 ignore negative comments social media is full of insufferable Trolls but look at it this way you will only ever get hate from people who are doing less than you plus more often than not the L EST critics in the room are often the ones who are most unhappy or most underachieving themselves now responding to hate comments and engaging with negativity is a total waste of your time avoid it at all
costs just keep being yourself and focus on creating good content instead of giving the negative guides attention only ever concentrate on the viewers who actually appreciate your work the more successful you get the more hate you'll attract which is the unfortunate truth so learning how to ignore negativity early on is an absolute must now before we move on to lesson number 11 I just have one quick message from the sponsor of today's video now a quick message to all my fellow small YouTubers if you're not using this AI tool you're missing out on a lot
of views all of the biggest creators on Youtube upload Clips daily and here's the latest Trend behind it all Nexus Clips it's a viral AI tool that analyzes your videos picks the best segments and then creates up to five viral shorts from a single video it effortlessly repurposes horizontal videos into vertical videos that you can instantly upload as shorts it also has a facial recognition and it can even add animated subtitles automatically now the top creators tried to keep this AI toall a secret but now we all have access to it so hop on this
trend whilst it's still hot lesson 11 create more than you consume this is the single biggest factor that separates the most successful creators and the least successful creators if you want to become a successful Creator you have to create like that's literally the whole point if if you're wasting hours each day just scrolling consuming other people's content you're never going to grow like every hour you spend consuming other people's content is an hour you could have spent improving your own content so stop scrolling and start creating but when you do watch other people's content always
just analyze it study the pacing of the video the hooks and the audience engagement and then apply what you learn to your own videos Lesson 12 start building an email list as soon as possible because you don't own your YouTube audience YouTube does ask yourself if your Channel got deleted tomorrow would you have a way of reaching your followers well most people's answer is no and that should concern you but this is where an email list can act as your safety net so if anything ever happened to your channel you'll always have access to your
subscriber base plus having an email list allows you to deepen your connection with your audience sell your products or services or Drive traffic to other websites so start collecting emails as early as possible your future self will thank you for it I promise you lesson 13 missing an upload won't won't kill your channel posting consistently is King but missing one video won't make you a peasant if you miss an upload once in a while it's totally fine the world isn't going to end most people think that if you miss a video or two the algorithm
will penalize you for it or your audience will just unsubscribe and forget about you this is simply not true the algorithm will never penalize you for missing a posting day it's a total myth so if you ever do miss a day don't worry about it your viewers will care way more about good content than do about a strict upload schedule lesson 14 building trust is hard but losing it is easy your audience's trust is your most valuable asset and it will take you a really long time to develop it but one bad decision like a
totally misleading clickbait video or if you're fan promoting a scam their trust can just disappear like that so protect your reputation at all costs if your viewers ever feel like you're just chasing money or views they will stop watching so play the long game and always prioritize your audience interests first lesson 15 when people copy you take it as a compliment if you find that someone is copying your ideas that means you're obviously doing something right so as long as they're not literally directly just copying your entire video you should take it as a compliment
and proof that your ideas are working the best YouTubers don't worry about imitators because they're always innovating and getting ahead of the competition if you keep improving your own content the copycats will always be one step behind so it's not something you should worry about Lesson 16 views matter more than subscribers yeah sure seeing your subscriber count going up is always a good feeling however you can have a million subscribers but if nobody watches your content it doesn't mean anything views pay the bills not subscribers plus YouTube rewards engagement and a small engaged audience is
way more valuable than a big inactive one so focus on making content that keeps your current audience happy instead of just chasing new subscribers if your average views per video Stay High and keep steadily growing you YouTube will continue to organically push your content to more and more new people which ultimately leads to sustainable growth over the long run and lots of AD money of course lesson 17 investing in a YouTube growth course is the best investment you'll ever make every single one of the successful creators you see on YouTube will at some point have
bought an online course or paid for some sort of coaching the reality is learning from people who have already figured it out is the biggest cheat code to success on YouTube the people who refuse to invest in yourselves are usually the ones who struggle for the longest investing in a YouTube growth course will provide you with years worth of expert knowledge that can help you transform your YouTube Journey overnight now I've personally spent thousands of dollars on loads of different courses and that's what's allowed me to grow this channel in record time and make more
money on YouTube than I ever thought was possible if you want to take youu seriously I promise you that buying a course will be the best decision you'll ever make and it just so happens that on the 28th of March I'm releasing the YouTube wealth Academy now I've been building this course over the last 6 months and I've condensed every single thing I've ever learned about YouTube into one affordable course now it's going to be the hottest YouTube Academy of 2025 and it will give you everything now I'm taking the YouTube education space to the
next level if you've been enjoying the value from my videos so far trust me the academy is about to get a whole lot more serious so if you're interested in the course join up using the ytw academy Link in the description below and leave a comment down below too to let me know you're in thanks for much for watching guys I hope you enjoyed this one I guess I'll see you in the next one goodbye
