how to create a killer youtube video (to blow up your channel)

Learn how to create killer YouTube videos that can blow up your channel with effective planning, titles, thumbnails, and content strategy.

Key Takeaways

Great video ideas are the foundation of viral and channel-growing content.
Titles and thumbnails should be designed first to guide the entire video creation process.
One killer video can outperform many average videos in views and subscriber growth.
Scripting and editing with the audience's interest in mind increases viewer retention.
Obsessing over ideas and viewer psychology is more effective than focusing on equipment or frequency.

What the video covers

One to three killer YouTube videos can dramatically change your channel's growth trajectory.
Successful creators focus on having great video ideas before filming or editing.
Planning your video idea is crucial because even high-quality videos fail without viewer interest.
Titles and thumbnails are more important than many creators realize and should be created first.
A killer title and thumbnail combination creates curiosity and drives clicks.
Spending time on scripting reduces filming and editing time and improves video quality.
The hook and intro are critical to retain viewer attention and should avoid generic greetings.
Editing should focus on keeping viewers engaged and eliminating boring moments.
Consistency is less important than creating fewer, higher quality videos with strong ideas.
Using tools like idea planners and comparing successful channels helps improve video concepts.

Chapters

What is the most important factor in creating a viral YouTube video?

The most important factor is having a killer video idea that appeals to a large audience, as even high-quality videos fail if the idea is uninteresting.

Should I create my video title and thumbnail before or after filming?

You should create your title and thumbnail first, as top creators like MrBeast and Mark Rober do, to guide filming and editing toward what will attract viewers.

How many videos do I need to blow up my YouTube channel?

Typically, one to three killer videos with great ideas and execution can dramatically grow your channel, outperforming many average videos combined.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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This is how to design and create a killer YouTube video to blow up your channel. Because one or two or three killer YouTube videos have the potential to dramatically change your channel forever. Look closely because many creators got their big break because

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they had just one great video go viral. But what makes a great video? What do these successful creators know that we don't? Is it the camera they're using? Is it the editing software? Do they have better equipment? Obviously, they know

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something we don't, and we need to figure it out because the fastest growing creators in the world know how to blow up their channel, which is three or four killer videos. Good news for us, it's actually quite simple and it doesn't

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require any fancy equipment or film school experience because the process great creators use to design and create killer YouTube videos follows a couple steps, and this video will walk you through all of them. Practice this regimen daily for three months and your

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YouTube channel and your life might change dramatically. If you're new to the channel, welcome because you're home. And to be honest, we need you. Subscribers to this channel are YouTube creators making the world a better place with their

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videos, and the world needs your positive influence as a creator. Before you ever touch a camera, you need to plan your video and figure out why people will click on your video in the first place because nothing feels worse than if you

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film, edit, you make the highest quality video in the world. It's funny, it's hilarious, it's beautiful, it's literally perfect, except no one wants to click it. This likely means your video was an uninteresting idea. Ooh, that sounded way harsher than I

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expected. For example, here is one of YouTube's featured rising creators. Take a look at these videos they've done and which one has way more potential to get over a million views and to blow this channel up. Is it the one about dog park

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friendly rules in Yosemite or is it the one about how they moved full time into an Airstream? One of these applies to like maybe a thousand people in the world, while the other one appeals to a much bigger audience. Or what about this

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yoga channel? Which video has more potential to get over a million views? Is it ankle mobility exercises or is it going to be yoga for men? One applies to a much smaller audience than the other. Or let's look like a filmmaker channel.

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Same question, which video has way more potential to blow this channel up and get it thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of new subscribers? Before you ever even think about touching a camera or an editing software, do you see how

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important it is to have a killer idea in the first place? But we usually skip the part about coming up with a great idea and just go straight to filming and editing, right? Don't be afraid to spend days or even weeks coming up with killer

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video ideas because literally anyone with a killer video idea and the skills to execute it will blow up for years. When I've worked with YouTube channels, they always are so concerned about, oh, how do I publish every week or even

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every day? What most of them never realized until we worked together is that one killer video will outperform 10 average ones. You can get way better results with way less effort. And just a month ago, MrBeast literally confirmed

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the exact same thing with Joe Rogan Livingston video with a million views and 30 million views. The video with 30 million views usually didn't put in 30 times the effort. Like they might have put in two or three times the effort and

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just had a way better idea. Does that make sense? Yes. And so the idea is so freaking important. Like you could theoretically, most YouTubers watching this, you could pull triple the views with half the work if you just have

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better ideas. Like no joke, it's that extreme. And so once you realize how important an idea is, you just obsess over, well, how do I get more ideas? How to get better ideas? For me, I sketch out ideas on an app I made called Planner

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Vid. That way I can take a step back and ask, are these killer video ideas? Does this feel like a 100k subscriber channel? Listen to that intuition and feel it. Compare your channel to other successful channels in your niche and note the

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differences. If you're like me when I started YouTube, you probably had an idea in your head, got your camera, filmed it, edited it, uploaded it to YouTube, and then you realized, oh yeah, I guess I need a title and a thumbnail. So you scrape

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something together pretty fast and slap it on YouTube because after all, you made a great video. So the title and thumbnail, they're not actually as important as the actual video, right? Here, that's a self-centered way of creating YouTube content. You're thinking like you,

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not like your audience. Look, your viewers don't see the great video behind the click. All they see is a title and thumbnail. That's all they have to go off of. If they are intrigued, no one will click and your video will get like 12

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views, all from you smashing the refresh button. Speaking of smashing buttons, now would be a good time to, well, you know the rest. Whereas most of us creators will create our title and thumbnail the very last part, the best creators in the

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world do it very first. Look, MrBeast and Mark Rober start with a title and thumbnail. They know that if they can make a killer TNT, they know their audience will want to click on that. It guides their filming, editing, everything.

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Start with the title and thumbnail instead of doing it last. So what makes a great title? Here are some common titles we often see YouTubers make: Life update, how to succeed in life. If you make a life update video, that only applies to a

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maximum the number of current followers you have. So if you've only got 800 subs, that life update video is only going to potentially be interesting to a maximum 800 people. For a killer video that can blow up your channel, we want a video

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that can interest and intrigue up to 8 million people. All right, so let's tweak this title just a little or a lot. Junior software engineer and YouTuber: a typical day in my life. Do you feel the difference here? Do you see how this can

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appeal to like at least a million people? Now sure, maybe it's still a life update in a lot of ways and stuff, but change that title and you can appeal to so many more people. Now this video, on the other

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hand, is way too general and broad and unspecific, and it doesn't intrigue me at all. Let's change it up: What to do when you fall short of your goal, motivational. Do you feel the difference in that video? These aren't just titles anymore. These

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are killer titles with the potential to blow up a channel. Now time for the other half: thumbnails. Because you're not creating just a title and you're not designing just a JPEG image, you're creating one whole title and thumbnail

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designed to create interest and intrigue for the viewer to want to click. I like to sketch thumbnails on a paper or an iPad alongside a title. That way, when it's time to pick up a camera or Photoshop, I already know exactly what I

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want to create, and I'm constantly keeping that holistic view of the video rather than just its individual parts. So take a look at these average thumbnails and then compare them with these super successful thumbnails. What's the big difference? How come people are clicking

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these thumbnails instead of these ones? It's not image quality or aesthetic. My guess would be to take a look at the title and the thumbnail as a whole. These two thumbnails are just restating what's already in the title. There's no like

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additional interest or intrigue to want to click. These two thumbnails, on the other hand, complement the titles. There's a simple title that interests me, and the thumbnail creates intrigue. Yeah, I'm interested in a million dollars, and I'm intrigued because did Noah just go up to

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random doors and ask? I'm interested in learning how to survive falling from a plane, and I'm intrigued because I thought the answer was to keep your legs straight. Keep your legs straight when you hit the water. I'll keep my legs st

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stating what i should not do the thumbnail is implying that it does know the answer so now i'm double intrigued i'm gonna click on both of these videos because i'm interested and intrigued here unfortunately i'm not interested in

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the confusing title nor am i intrigued by the thumbnail that i can't really tell what's going on and this video i'm interested in because i never thought jpeg was horrible and now i'm super intrigued because oh my gosh is that the

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image quality difference i have to click and learn what i've been doing wrong all these years interested intrigued when planning my title and thumbnail one exercise i like to do is i like to close my eyes and for several minutes i'll

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keep my eyes closed while envisioning myself going to click on a video to watch it what's making that video feels so intriguing to me that i'm going to click and watch it what is the title and thumbnail of that video i'm seeing and

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when the title comes to me i type it out and draw out the thumbnail i see and that works about 50 of the time if when i type out the title it just doesn't look right or doesn't feel right to me

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then i just go through the same process again once you're like 90 sure that your idea and your title and thumbnail are killer then you can get on to actually making the video scripting is what i spend the most time on and when done

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properly it will make filming and editing easier here's the template i use when scripting and there's a google doc below that you can make a copy of depending on the type of video you're making there's generally three questions

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that will guide your scriptwriting process when you answer these three questions effectively you can write a killer script if you're making an educational or tutorial video always ask this question first what do you want the viewer to do to get them the result

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they're looking for then what do they need to feel emotionally to take that action then finally what does the viewer need to know for example when making this video my goal was for you the viewer to make a killer youtube video to

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blow up your channel and to practice and then you need to feel inspired that you can make a killer video that you can turn your motivation into momentum to do and to feel those things you need to know the minimal process to plan script

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film edit and grow now i will constantly refer back to these answers that i wrote down because every single line of my script needs to somehow point back to these answers and if it doesn't it gets cut if i were making a gardening

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tutorial video man i'm really into gardening lately maybe my do feel and know would look like this or if i'm a gaming channel showing off the best speedrun tactics and legend of zelda my do feel and know would look like this if

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you're making an entertainment video then these are the questions you'll ask instead what's the big interesting idea of the video what does the viewer need to feel while watching then finally what does the video need to include to be

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entertaining for example if i was writing a script for davey 504 here's how i would answer the questions for him or if i'm isaiah photo here's how i'd answer these questions these answers will guide your entire script writing process every single line

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of your script should somehow point back to these answers the first and most critical section of the video is the hook and intro too many youtubers think an intro means a branded video sequence look there's a reason netflix lets you

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skip intros nowadays no one cares intros for the most part just satisfy the ego of the creator they want some fancy brand and intro that helps them feel legit the first seconds of your video need to create congruency between the

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title and the thumbnail in the intro look the viewer clicked on your video hoping for something so if you can give them exactly what they're expecting from your title and thumbnail odds are they will like and watch your entire video

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all of that is decided in your hook and intro see how mr b starts this video there's total congruency between the title and the thumbnail and the intro or how isaiah photo starts his video again total congruency between the title and

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the thumbnail and the intro in the first three seconds of your video you want the viewer to think this is exactly what i was expecting hi it's uh it's me john the editor and so i was sitting here editing this video

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about to publish it before i realized that for this hook and intro i forgot the most important crucial thing you should know about a hook and intro if you were to do this thing it would ruin your whole youtube career

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never ever start your hook and your intro to your video like this sup guys welcome back to the channel so glad you're here but first i would just love and appreciate it if you could hit that like button and that subscribe

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button just it just helps me so much basically just on here for people to help me and now i've wasted about 30 seconds of your time and i haven't helped you i've just asked for you to help me this whole time

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all right so hopefully that was obvious as to why you should never start your hook and intro like that because why don't instead you figure out what can i give to someone else instead of just trying to focus on you the whole time

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now i'm going to get back to editing this video so that way you guys can see it very very soon during or after script writing make notes to the site of each section of what visuals you want i typically

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categorize visuals like talking head close-up punch in on-screen text type animation or whatever makes sense for you realize you'll need multiple revisions and drafts your first draft of your script is not going to be so great but it's so much easier to come back and

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edit something that's already there rather than trying to get it perfect on your first try this is my biggest struggle but i'm seeing little improvements in myself as i let go of perfectionism and learn to just get out

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a rough draft without being critical the first draft takes the longest for me but then the second and third drafts take a fraction of the time the more time you spend scripting the less time you'll spend filming and editing there are a

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thousand greek tutorials on youtube showing you how to film with a phone or a dslr or a gopro or whatever so i'll focus on principles filming should go really fast because now you have a shot list or you're about to i take all the

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visuals from the script copy and paste them into a spreadsheet then group shots by location i keep this spreadsheet with me when filming then everything goes fast and efficient show don't tell whenever possible use visuals instead of your words for example too many amateurs

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film a vlog like this good morning so i woke up and then i got a shower and then i brushed my teeth and then i made breakfast i am here about to start my day i'm so glad you

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guys are here and make sure to hit the like and subscribe button because really it just it just helps me out so much and whatever you could do to help me i would just love that so much you're just

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chronologically telling us what's happening watch this great example of show don't tell from sam kolder now midway through the shoot i had the idea to add in a match cut sequence focused on the lens of one of the phones

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so i had built a little custom wooden rig to hold the phones together and captured footage of the phone in a bunch of different locations i ended up loving the final look of it and i'm stoked that i ended up following

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through with that idea see how sam didn't have to explain where he was going instead of telling us he showed it andre jake makes videos about finance nothing is more boring than numbers and facts and statistics unless you're a nerd like me which is why every

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single statistic is reparated visually by andrei and broken up occasionally with funny camera stuff think of every possible creative way to show your story start paying attention to other youtubers and what angles and methods they use and just have fun with it

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hopefully if you did your script right beforehand this filming part went super fast for you editing is one of the most vital parts to any video and along with coming up with the killer idea and a killer title and thumbnail pacing is

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absolutely critical to a killer youtube video to blow up your channel because when you click on a video what's the only reason you'll stop watching only if it was boring in other words the pacing is off the viewer lost interest and now

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the viewer is clicking the back button pacing is even more important for youtube than it is for like big screen movies in the theaters because if you pay money to watch a movie you'll sit through it even if it starts to suck but

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for youtube if i'm bored or uninterested for even like five seconds i'm bouncing and watching something else re-watch your edit over and over and over and over again and pay attention to where you get bored or lose focus those

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are usually the parts that need to be re-edited or cut completely every single second of your video needs to somehow add value to the viewer lengthy 10-second branded intro cut it out unnecessary dead space cut it out to write is human but to edit

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is divine why take 20 minutes to get your point across when you can effectively do it in five every story is collapsible to some degree if you can't cut out 10 percent you're not trying very hard i know there's bits of the

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video you so badly want to have in there but if it doesn't contribute to the point of the video cut it out look even for me there's bits of every video that i make that i think is the greatest

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thing in the world but here's the thing these videos aren't about me these videos are about you so every single line i say and every shot i show is designed to help you believe in yourself you can make great videos if you want it

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and you want it badly your youtube success it doesn't depend on where you're from it doesn't depend on how much money you have it just depends on can you get someone to click on your video and to watch

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or enjoy your whole video i know this may seem like a lot when you first attempt it and it may feel hard so if there's anything you should take away for how to design and create a killer youtube video to blow up your channel

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it's killer idea killer title and thumbnail and perfect pacing take your time to get these things right and get better results with less effort no long-term goal is sustainable unless you enjoy it the only reason i consistently go to the gym go

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for long runs eat a healthy diet say prayers and read scripture every morning and keep making youtube videos is because i enjoy the process if planning and creating a youtube video is miserable for you you're not gonna stick with it and if

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you enjoy the journey and process of designing and creating killer youtube videos you're already a success you don't gotta wait for some future arbitrary subscriber account you're already a success right now the subscriber count yeah that'll come later so to help

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design and create killer youtube videos i made this web app called plannervid i'm using it for my own channel too and i've got lots of videos planned but what do you guys think of these upcoming videos and the last video got 1700 likes

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which is nuts so do you guys think we can match that again

Topics:YouTube growthvideo ideasYouTube titlesYouTube thumbnailsvideo scriptingcontent strategyYouTube editingviral videoschannel growthJon Dorman

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