Video production itself is a very competitive market to get into, whether you aspire to become a YouTube content creator, small business owner, or a freelance video producer. If you aspire to become anything in the realm of video producing for either yourself or others, it is crucial to have a business and competitive mindset. Without a doubt this could all boil down to the type of gear and equipment that you own and making sure that it’s the best of the best. However, I want to get personal and discuss the drive and mindset I had that propelled me to a successful YouTube career via marketing and competitive comparison.

Starting Out

The key to my successful YouTube journey boiled down to how I advertised and marketed myself to my demographic. This wasn’t the easiest or most fun way to start my journey, especially since I had no experience in marketing or advertising. At the time of starting out I had frequent collaborators with a very minimal subscriber count ranging from 1,000 to 3,000. For the genre of content we were creating, that was a very small number in comparison to the head honcho's in our field with a whopping 40,000 to 50,000 subscribers. 

Changing for Better Results

My constant fear was that I would never be as big as my competition. As much as we tried not to be, my fellow collaborators and I would always be envious of them and often felt stuck running in place. I personally would try many different things to try to put myself out there to be recognized. This included giveaways, longer and more video content, and something I was shy of doing at first - commentary. These all certainly gave me a foot in the door and projected me up from 500 subscribers to about 7,000 subscribers, but it didn’t bring me anywhere near the level of success that I aspired to reach.

Applying Pressure and Gaining Hunger

I failed to lose hope though and continued to discover more strategies, more specifically marketing strategies. Although I was growing day by day, I continued to fall victim to paying lots of attention to my competitors above me and continued to crave their daily statistics. To initiate, I did a lot of things that projected me into new heights. I started putting myself out more by first purchasing a new webcam, which then prompted me to quickly become comfortable with putting myself out there for everyone to see. In my field of work, producing videos with your face created a more personal connection and feel with your audience. This was something my competitors did not do and certainly gave me an advantage. Next, I realized that I was quite lazy with the rollout of my video appearances. I would recycle the same thumbnail on every video which never incentivized people to want to watch them because it gave off the impression that the content would be the same as my other videos despite them all being very different. And lastly, I took a hard look at my competition and decided to do everything that they weren't doing. This was important because I allowed their viewers to find different, original and unique content than the one they were used to watching from my competitor.

In the end, my journey, marketing strategies and tactics did propel me to achieving a comfortable amount of 24,000 subscribers with a healthy flow of income. No, I didn’t reach the level of my competitors, but had I chosen to continue with my journey, I surely would have made it there. But somewhere along the way I put it behind me. In addition, my journey can surely apply to those who aim to start up their own business, YouTube channel, or anything in video production. At times it may feel like you are running in place and you may even find yourself feeling discouraged due to the ones who have been in the business longer than you have. It is important to remember that the startup will be a slow one but that doesn’t mean that it can’t also be fun. While you work hard towards your goal, continue to think of new ideas and strategies that will make you stand out from the competition and bring you to new heights.