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223. The Secret to Growing a YouTube Channel
Looking to obtain a massive YouTube following? Look no further than Primal Video! This YouTube channel combines fitness, food, and travel content in an engaging and entertaining way, which has helped them gain a subscriber base of 1.5 million people.
We'll take a look at how Primal Video built its 1.5 million subscriber YouTube community, from start to finish. We'll explore their unique style of content production, their strategies for engagement and amplification, and the tools and strategies they use to grow their channel. By the end of this video, you'll have everything you need to build a successful YouTube channel of your own!
This is an absolute masterclass on how Justin Brown and his brother Mike took Primal video from 0 subscribers to 1.5 million subscribers.
LINKS MENTIONED:
- www.productiveinsights.com/175
- www.productiveinsights.com/200
- www.productiveinsights.com/222
- www.productiveinsights.com/212
- www.primalvideo.com
- www.productiveinsights.com/primal
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
01:12 - The secret to growing a youtube channel from 0 to 1.5m subscribers
02:45 - YouTuber vs business owner who uses YouTube for growth
08:17 - Is it too late to start a YouTube channel today?
09:32 - YouTube rewards new content that's best for the viewer
10:49 - How Primal video built a following of 1.5m subscribers when other channels didn't achieve this
11:23 - The YouTube strategy for growth is so simple when you hear it
11:40 - The first thing you need to do is create content people want
12:02 - It's about talking about the problem and introducing the viewer to the solution
13:31 - The two things you need to do to get found on YouTube
13:45 - What drives a click on YouTube?
14:28 - The third thing YouTube cares about
15:53 - How to help YouTube understand your content
16:53 - YouTube follows Google's search principles
17:12 - YouTube is the second most visited site in the world
19:07 - What do I put in my course if I'm giving away everything for free
19:25 - Earning vs stealing attention
19:49 - Do you need to make ridiculous faces on thumbnails
24:28 - Justin Brown's favorite YouTube software
24:46 - Why JB uses Keywords Everywhere for Keyword research
26:08 - How I use Chat GPT and AI in content creation
31:10 - How frequently should you publish
31:32 - How frequent and how consistent should your uploads be
35:04 - Toipc selection
39:20 - YouTube analytics
39:47 - YouTube built-in video editor
40:02 - How to reoptimize old YouTube content
40:29 - Is it safe to delete published YouTube videos
43:38 - How important is adding a b-roll when editing
45:05 - Why do creators use b-roll and other alternatives to b-roll
47:47 - Outtakes and bloopers
49:41 - Short-form content vs long-form content
50:28 - YouTube shorts recommended strategy
53:16 - We're testing a new strategy in this very video
54:07 - Affiliate revenue model
54:36 - The three revenue streams at Primal Video
55:16 - Affiliate marketing is a win-win scenario
58:21 - The importance of integrity in affiliate marketing
59:33 - How an $8 purchase led to affiliate commission on $30,000 gym equipment
01:02:28 - The Primal Video community is amazing
Ash Roy and Justin Brown Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Transcript:
Ash Roy 00:00
Justin Brown and Mike Brown from Primal Video have built a seven figure video marketing company, grown a YouTube channel from zero to almost 1.5 million subscribers at the time of this recording on YouTube, and have developed recurring income models while still helping tons of other entrepreneurs do the same. In this conversation, we'll be digging into Justin and Mike's YouTube channel strategies with Justin and how they use those strategies to build a successful business. I'm delighted to welcome Justin Brown from Primalvideo.com and we would love to talk about how you, our listener or viewer, uh, can build your business and brand authority using YouTube. Welcome to the productive insights podcast and YouTube channel Justin.
Justin Brown 00:42
thank you very much for having me on.
Ash Roy 00:45
You're most welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to have you, Justin. I've been following your work for a long time and I really like the fact that you are somebody who comes from the heart. You're very genuine and I feel like your values resonate with me. We have a few common friends which we're chatting about in the preamble, so it's really great to have you here. So Justin, let's start with the most interesting bit, and that is, can you share with us the secret to growing your YouTube channel, Primal Video to almost 1.5 million subscribers from zero? How did you do it?
Justin Brown 01:24
Even that number seems a little crazy to me. Uh, look, I guess we started the YouTube channel eight years ago and uh, we started with no idea. Just make some videos and they will come and treated YouTube as a video hosting platform where throw some things up and you can go viral and get views and traffic have impact on it. But it really doesn't work that way. So we've gone through, we've made a lot of mistakes over our time. Uh, we definitely got to the point early on when it wasn't working that we nearly gave up and that it was a bad business decision for us at that point. So, I mean, while I make videos on YouTube and while we have nearly 1.5 million subscribers, I'm not a YouTuber. Uh, I make videos on YouTube which are, uh, able to show up and help and impact people with a specific pain or problem that they have. And the traffic and everything that we can generate from that. Adding value and helping people, uh, is also what grows and builds our business too. So it's an amazing business tool for us. But when it wasn't working, then it was a bad business decision for us to continue with what we were doing or we had to figure it out. The biggest mistake that we made and that a lot of people make, is not having a clear strategy, not having a clear plan in place, and the ability to try and test things and know what things to try and test, to be able to set yourself up for success.
Ash Roy 02:45
Okay, what really interested me in what you just said there is. You said I'm not a YouTuber. Can you tell us a bit more about that? What do you mean you're not a YouTuber? But yet you've used YouTube to build a very successful business. So what's the difference between you and your YouTuber?
Justin Brown 03:00
And there's nothing wrong with that term. I know a lot of people will say that's what I am for me, I'm a business owner. Uh, and we use YouTube for generating traffic and having an impact. So it works very well for both of those. But typically what you would find with a YouTuber is that they're relying on going viral on YouTube. They're relying on just YouTube itself to pay them. And yes, there's some great ways that you can make money from YouTube but it's also very limiting and there's requirements. Um, before YouTube will start paying you, you need to have 4000 hours of watch time on your channel and you need to have 1000 subscribers. So a lot of people think that that's the only way that they can uh, make money from this stuff. Um, but in fact, you can actually start from day one again if you're treating it more like a business and a business tool. Um, even if you want to call yourself a YouTuber or not, if you're treating it that way that you don't need to be doing all the things that YouTubers feel they need to do like creating content every day or being on every social media platform. We have a very small audience on other platforms. We chose to go all in on one and that's I guess what a more strategic business person would do. Like where are we best to allocate our time and money and what focus can we have? Let's go all in on one and yes, dabble and play with some of the others. But I guess it's more the approach around it than thinking that there's a lot of stuff that we can lead to from this. But there's a lot of people that feel like um, that they're overwhelmed. A lot of people feel like I'm in burnout from uploading to YouTube and feeling like they're employed by YouTube and if they stop or take a week off that it's going to kill their channel. But none of that is true if you're not a YouTuber. Right? It's a business tool. I can upload when I like. Yes, there are definitely benefits to uploading consistently. But having the strategy is what we'll keep coming back to as a clear direction, clear ways to test and measure so that you can be successful with.
Ash Roy 04:57
This look that's really really interesting. And I was hoping you would say that because I wanted to try and draw that out for our audience. A YouTuber uh, is someone who identifies as such. But I have been watching your business for years now and I've been a member of your membership community, Primal Video which helps you to grow your authority on YouTube. And I understand that you see YouTube as a vehicle to build authority and attract your ideal clients. YouTube is not an end in itself for you, it is a means to an end. And I think that's an important, subtle, but important distinction. I spoke to James Clear in episode 175 about developing habits. Each time you perform, the habit is a vote towards the identity, is what he says. And that's an interesting point to me because when you create YouTube content if you create it with the intention of seeing yourself as a YouTuber, you're building that identity. But if you're creating it with the intention of delivering value to a small section of the world who you want to help, as Set Gordon said in episode 200, then you are more likely to succeed in using YouTube as a means to building your business rather than becoming a YouTuber. Would you agree?
Justin Brown 06:17
One hundred percent. I love that.
Justin Brown 06:19
So it really is again about getting clear on who are the people that you want to show up for and the people that think like, I just want to be famous, right? And again, there's nothing wrong with that. But for who is into what, it's harder because you're not classifying yourself necessarily into a specific niche. Whereas from a business perspective, there are ideal clients and students and people that you want to show up for. Now, that doesn't mean that you're going to rule yourself out of other audiences and niches as well. I mean, for us, helping people say on YouTube how to make videos and get views on them, we also have a lot of younger kids that are watching and trying to grow their gaming YouTube channel. So that's awesome. I love that we have the ability to show up and help whoever with our content. But when I'm creating it, I'm creating it with a Clear avatar, a clear person in mind from a business perspective of I understand their pains and problems and I've been through a lot of them. So uh, how do I share my thoughts and opinions on helping them get to that? And if it can help anyone else as well, then that's amazing.
Ash Roy 07:18
Man, I got to say I, by any stretch of the imagination, don't think I'm famous, but I've come to be known a little bit more over the years. I've been doing this for ten years and I've had the opportunity to meet some really famous people from what I can see, famous completely overrated and it's actually a burden in a lot of cases. I remember speaking to Seth Godin in episode 200 and he said maybe 7 million people have heard of him and he's one of the most, quote-unquote, um, famous people that I know personally. And you know what? I don't think it matters that much. What matters to him at least is serving people, serving his audience and he says, find the smallest audience. So if you're watching this and you want to figure out where to start, I would recommend going and having a look at that conversation. It's at Productiveinsize.com 200, by the way. Any episode number I mentioned, you just go to the episode number, takes you there. So James Clear's productiveins.com. 175. So okay, let me ask you this. Is it too late to start a YouTube channel today?
Justin Brown 08:21
I mean, part of me, as a joke, just wants to say, yes, you've missed it, we're down. It's too late I'm sorry. But look, it's actually a really common question, and it's also a really big myth that's out there. Uh, and I guess where it comes from is people are looking on Google, on YouTube. And I pair the two together because we get a lot of traffic from Google with people not necessarily expecting to click on a video. They search for something and videos show up because it's the same company. Right? So, uh, a lot of people are looking and they're seeing, all right, there are already people out there with millions of subscribers that already have the following or the audience, or they're already making the videos that I want to make. How do I compete with that? Um, so is it harder to start today than it was maybe ten years ago? Yeah, for sure there's more people on the platform, but at the same time, most people don't have a strategy. Most people are just hidden hope. Like, I'll create a video on this topic, throw it up there without a strategy, without a thought to what the viewers actually need, what YouTube needs, what's actually going to help people click on their video, and then what's going to help people actually stick around watching that video so that it's actually a benefit to them? A lot of people don't consider that stuff. So the biggest to answer your question, is no, it's not too late. And the biggest reason why, outside of most people not having a strategy, is that YouTube rewards new content. YouTube wants to always get the best video in front of the right person when they're looking for it. Right. So it's a good experience for the viewers. That's what YouTube is looking for. Now, if it's only serving videos from ten years ago, five years ago that have millions of views, what if something's changed? So there is a massive opportunity for anyone, even with a brand new channel, you don't need to be going viral on every video. You can strategically show up in these top spots, even with a brand new channel, if you've optimized it. Right. But also because YouTube is looking at new or recent content, it's got to be good content. It's got to add value. It's got to entertain or help people and keep them watching. But, um, that's the opportunity there. So, yes, it is not too late for YouTube because YouTube wants new stuff. Too.
Ash Roy 10:19
Okay, we're going to come back and talk about the new content in a little bit more detail and the frequency of content, and so on. I really like what you said about the YouTube strategy, and that being important. Now, I've been a member of Primal Video for a while now, primal Video Accelerator program. And I see how you teach that strategy and I understand exactly how that works. And I can see how you've done that to build your own business and your own YouTube channel. So can you give, uh, our viewers and our listeners a two-minute snapshot on, if possible, how you have used strategy to build this, following to 1.5 million subscribers? When other people I've seen haven't been able to do it, there are other people who have, by the way, not just you. Ali Abdal has gone from, I think I saw him at 200,000. Now he's at about three and a half million or something like closing on in 4 million. But he uploads content regularly, too. So I'll be quiet now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Justin Brown 11:20
Okay, look, I mean, there's definitely the strategy. The strategy is and it's so simple when you hear it and that's what makes them the best strategies. Look, really got to think of what does YouTube want and how does YouTube work? Uh, and this is something that I guess we didn't understand when we first started out, throwing content up and hoping that it would work. We didn't have this strategy in place. So this sounds very simple, but the first thing you need to do is focus on creating stuff that people want or that people are looking for. So even though you as the expert might be here saying, this is the stuff that people need, this is the solution, most people can't find that, uh, video or aren't looking for that because they don't know what to search for. They don't know how to find it. They don't know it yet. If they knew it, they wouldn't be looking for it. So it's about, uh, talking to the problem and creating videos around that and introducing them to the solution. The strategy for this is to do some keyword research, right? Just even go to YouTube itself and start typing in a few different words around your topic, around your niche. Those auto suggestions that pop up, they're not random. They're things that people have actually searched for and are actually looking for. So that's where we're going to refine our topics. It's not me coming up with a random idea and saying, hey, we should create this video. We're looking at keyword research. So even if I do come up with a random idea, which is pretty rare, we'll, uh, validate it. What would people search for to find this? What would I search for to find this? And taking that step back on your content as the first step is something that a lot of people don't look at what you're titling your video really matters for the algorithm and the viewer. And if you're calling it episode 363, um, blah blah blah a Day at the beach, what's the value in there for someone no one's looking for episode 363? And what about that day at the beach? What's going to make them click? Uh, how do they understand what that video is about? So the first thing is we want to do that research. We want to then put that information, that phrase, that search term, that topic, we want to use it in the title, we want to use it in the video itself if we can. We want to use it in the description, wherever we can add this information to help YouTube understand that this is what our content is about. So it can start to test it in those places on the platform, right? That's the first thing. How do we help YouTube understand our content and get it placed on the platform? Now, let's say we've done this. The next step, is our content is showing up places. We need to get it clicked on, right? It sounds so obvious. Of course, you need to get the video clicked. But what drives a click? And it is the thumbnail image, the little picture, right? You got to think of yourself on YouTube. There are so many little images, so many little videos for you to click on. What makes yours stand out from the others? How do people quickly work out what their video is about just by glancing at your thumbnail image? People do judge a book by its cover and your YouTube video is no different. So you want to grab people's attention. You want to try to help them work out if that video is for them or not before they click on it again. You don't want everyone on your video. You want the right people that are interested in that thing to click on your video so they're more likely to stick around. So it's a good experience for YouTube and for you with your content and for the viewer, right? So your thumbnail strategy number two is super important. The third thing, then you've shown up on the platform, you've got the click, they're on your video. If you don't keep them watching then YouTube is going to see that it's a bad experience or that video is not a fit or it's not very good. It's going to stop pushing it out. So it's not that there's one of these things you need to do. You need to level up on all three of these things. And no matter what level you're at, there's always a next level of things that you can be trying and testing to evolve, to get better with your titling, to get better with your thumbnails and how you're structuring and what you're saying or what you're doing in your videos to keep people engaged. And watching. That's really the strategy. That's what we're talking about here.
Ash Roy 15:04
Brilliant. I love how you've stated it in three specific steps. I'm going to take the opportunity to ask you another leading question. I know the answer, but I want to hear it from you. You said it's important to understand what YouTube wants. So what would you say are uh, YouTube's objectives, and how do we align ourselves with those objectives? You already told us that to some extent, but I want to dig into that a bit deeper.
Justin Brown 15:28
That's good. So if we look at what YouTube wants, its eyeballs its attention, it's time on the platform. But also it gets that from people having a good experience on there. If you were searching for something or you went to YouTube and nothing related, nothing relevant, nothing interesting showed up, it would be a bad experience. So this is where YouTube's goal is to get the right video in front of the right person when they're on there, right? To keep them engaged. So what you can do to help YouTube understand your content is by titling it in a way that is helping it understand the content. It's not just as I said, episode 363 or whatever, uh, a day at the beach. It's like how do we get very specific? Um, and this is where doing that keyword research or topic research is super important. So we're trying to help YouTube say, hey, when people are searching for this thing or looking for related or relevant content, this video is fit for that. But it's also looking inside your video itself. That is the biggest ranking thing that YouTube is looking at. Because you could gamify the title, right? You could gamify the tags. We've all seen those clickbaity videos where you click on it. You got me, this has wasted my time. This isn't actually what it is, uh, that you thought it was. So YouTube is analyzing your video, it's transcribing your video, it's looking inside the text and everything that's going on to again, hit that goal of the right video, the right person to give them a good experience. So time on the platform and YouTube session time are really what we want to help with now.
Ash Roy 16:53
Something that our uh, listeners and viewers may not know is that YouTube is owned by Google and their strategy is very similar to Google's strategy in that regard. I e. To deliver the best possible user experience, which is what Google tries to do with search as well. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world after uh, Google. Can you talk to us a little bit about that and what that means to our listeners and viewers in terms of business and brand growth?
Justin Brown 17:23
Yeah, I mean if you're showing up on the second most viewed website in the world, uh, what could that mean for your business? So this is where, uh, we like this strategy of being strategic on YouTube because it allows us to show up in both. Whether someone has a pain or problem, they're looking to solve something. People go to Google and YouTube to learn for free, right? To figure stuff out for themselves. Now this is before they want to go necessarily and buy if they're watching reviews or before they're ready to go and jump into a full-on course. They kind of want to dip their toe in the water a little bit and see if they can figure it out themselves first. Or you don't know what you don't know. Something could be really quick or you could spend 10,000 hours to truly master something. So most people are going to want to sit somewhere in the middle but they're going to YouTube and Google first to try it themselves or to m be further along in their journey. This is the perfect opportunity for you to show up when they hit those beginner-level steps. Um, you can build that know, like, and trust with them. Over time, they watch more of your content, and say, hey, this person, this company, they're really helping me here for nothing. Imagine what their paid services are. Or you know what, this person just saved me a bunch of time watching YouTube videos. I um, just need them to come and help me or do this thing for me. So then they'll come to you for your products or services. So it goes both ways. And it doesn't mean that you need to have everyone flowing from YouTube directly to your business. There are other ways I said that you can add value and monetize your content as well, just from YouTube itself, or getting them onto your email list where you can deepen that relationship with them. It doesn't need to be sold on YouTube, no one likes to be sold to at any time, but especially on places where it's free content. Um, just come from that place of how do I help you? Because there'll be other ways that you can monetize that. So don't hold back on your content. A lot of people are worried about what do I put in my course if I'm giving away stuff for free. There's other stuff you can give away for free, other value you could add, or dive deeper into the strategies and things and really help them have success with it inside your courses and programs or in your business. But don't hold back to your viewers because they'll know that and then it's not a good feeling for them.
Ash Roy 19:26
Something that comes to my mind is a conversation I recently had with Derek Sivers who's the founder of CD Baby and he said something to the effect of being generous. And I actually learned this from Seth first. He talked about earning attention as opposed to stealing attention. And a lot of us try and steal attention and steal the click over the long term, you need to earn attention. One of the challenges I've found is with thumbnails, they recommend you have these surprised expressions and all that stuff to get the click. And it just feels so scammy. How do we create thumbnails that aren't scammy, but yet earn attention? I know that creating great content over the long term is definitely one way to do it because they'll then see, okay, this is a video from Justin. He always creates good stuff. I'm going to click on it, but do you have to do those surprise expressions in the thumbnail?
Justin Brown 20:19
I actually love this question. Uh, look, the quick answer is, what works for one channel isn't necessarily what's going to work for the next. So the best answer here is to test. And there are tools out there, like TubeBuddy, which will actually let you AB split test your thumbnails. So we're not guessing, hey, this one might get clicked better, this one might not. Um, we're actually seeing over time the same as you would, a B split test, maybe an email subject line or something like that, or a landing page. You can AB split test your thumbnail images. And I got to tell you, most of the times we run them, I don't pick the winner. So it's not what we think is the nicer, uh, prettier, uh, looking thumbnail where it's not some silly face or expression, it's the other one that pains me so much. Now, I wish from our tests that the thumbnail images that we have didn't need to be on them. Uh, because I do feel like an idiot. Smiling, and pointing, which is the best editing. So, like, making silly expressions. But, hey, if I want to have the impact I want to have with the content, and I've just invested the time and money and effort to make those videos that I know are going to show up and help people and grow the business, then I want to make sure that that video gets clicked. So I'm going to do whatever it takes. And yes, it is pushing past that piece. I'd hope they don't feel slimy or a salesy or whatever, but I want to grab attention and I want to let people know that our video is for them. That's the goal of the thumbnail image. So if it means that I need to push my comfort zones to do it, then do it. But it means also that you need to be testing to see what works for you. I wish that, uh, they converted better without I mean, maybe we should just put someone else on instead of me and someone else can do that. That's fine. Um, but, um, it's about trying and testing for your niche, man.
Ash Roy 22:01
I think it's too late for you to try and not use you're the face of Primal video. Sorry, buddy. That boat is sailed. Neil Patel uses a lot of those surprise expressions on his thumbnails, too. He's a master of traffic. You should check out my conversation with him@productiveinsights.com. Two, one, two. He was also the very first guest. Episode number one.
Justin Brown 22:19
Wow. Having those expressions as humans, we connect with other humans through the eyes and through the face. And you're able to the body language, the expressions are going to tell the viewers something about that video and create that intrigue and help them get that click, uh, work out if it's for them so that they click or not as well. So there is a lot of psychology behind having a person in the thumbnail images and even the expressions and things that they're doing can help. Um, but also there are videos now, we've all seen them. They're faceless ones. They're AI-generated content. If you've got a picture of you in them and you're actually in the video, then people can guess or assume that you're going to be in the video. So I want to learn from a real person. I want to learn from Ash and I know what he looks like. I hear a voice, I can line it up to that face. And I build that again, that know, like, and trust with you. I build that connection with you. So you're starting that before they even click on the thumbnail image? Uh, before they even click on the video. Um, you're starting that you're setting the expectation for the video as well.
Ash Roy 23:21
Is it okay to create like a Canva screenshot of somebody else? But then I think you already answered the question because then you're not getting what is on the outside of the tin, as it were. And so people are going to feel a little bit like, yeah, there's no congruence between the thumbnail and the content.
Justin Brown 23:41
Look again, I hate saying it, but the answer is to test because, in some niches, it definitely is better. It doesn't matter who's on there. They're showing the outcome of the video, the outcome of the pain or problem that the viewer has. It didn't necessarily need to be you or me in that thumbnail image doing that. It's how people work out what the video is about and if it's for them. So if it's about, uh, overcoming fear, right? Does it need to be you on there? Or could you show a graphic or something of someone or something that represents someone overcoming fear? Um, like speaking in front of the stage or being up at a height or whatever it is for overcoming that fear. How do you portray that? Uh, in the thumbnail image? It could be anyone. It doesn't necessarily need to be you, but there's obviously some psychological stuff in there as well and benefit if it is you.
Ash Roy 24:27
Now you mentioned TubeBuddy. Which are your favorite software tools? There's TubeBuddy. There's vidIQ. I use morning fame for keyword research. Which ones do you recommend and why?
Justin Brown 24:38
Okay, so there is lots of options. I say there's no perfect tool and there are pros and cons of all of them. So there's a very generic statement. The ones that we use, we use keywords everywhere for our keyword research. Um, look, we've found that that is the most accurate and the most amount of information that we need without it trying to guess. So a lot of the other tools, TubeBuddy, vidIQ, Morning Fame, run their own algorithms and they kind of give you a competition score to say this search term is searched for at this many times per month. But based on your channel size, based on other content that's out there in the competition, we would advise you not to make this video or to make this video. Now, I have a problem with that piece because there are some videos still today that it's telling us not to make and that we have made, and they've been the biggest ones on our channel. So I'd much rather help people work out themselves. How many people are searching for this thing per month? How much traffic is there actually? And yes, still look at the competition, because that piece does play in, but it's more like, let's validate that this concept, this content idea is solid first before I'm told by another algorithm whether or not I should make this or not. So, for us, keywords Everywhere validating search traffic is our North Star. Other tools, yeah. A B testing on TubeBuddy. Love it. It is to me, their standout feature. Um, VidIQ, does have some cool stuff in there as well, but the main ones are, um, TubeBuddy and, uh, keywords everywhere for us.
Ash Roy 26:08
You mentioned artificial intelligence earlier, and there's a lot happening in that space. At the time of this recording, Feb 2023, chat GPT is transforming the way we search for content. A lot of people are using it to create content. But my experience of Chat GPT is it creates what I would describe as fairly bland content. But I use chat GPT to do research. It's the best free research assistant I've come across at the moment. It's free and I ask it questions. For example, what do seven-figure small business owners struggle with? And what keeps them up at night? And it'll give me an answer and then I iterate. So I riff with it and I use it as a brainstorming tool to dive deeper and deeper. And all it's really doing is helping me not to have to scroll through 100 different websites to come up with the information and just speed up my research. It's also great for idea discovery, and idea creation, as long as you are focused on your customer and a problem your customer is trying to solve, or your target audience, I would say it's garbage in, garbage out. So, uh, the quality of the questions you can ask Chat TPT determines the quality of help it can give you. Would you agree?
Justin Brown 27:21
100%. And this is where a lot of people right now, they'll put in a surface-level question. They'll get a surface-level answer and go, eh, it's not that good, it's not quite there yet. Uh, I mean, we've all heard that the people that can master those inputs, master the questions, are the ones that are really going to be ahead when these things become so much more popular. But there is also an element of training for these things, as you've probably found as well. Like if you're just asking a question without giving it much context or training or people getting it to try and write an article without it even learning their voice or without having context, then yeah, you're going to be hit and miss, I guess, with your results, because it doesn't have the data to pull from in terms of what you're actually after. Because there are so many different ways you could write an article, right? And you can actually pick a voice of different people and it will mimic that for you. But if you're not giving it that information or you're not giving it your voice, then it's going to be very hard to get something that you'll be absolutely pumped on as something that you could use without a lot of tweaking and adjustment. Ah, a lot of people aren't going to that level, and I think that's probably the biggest mistake. But it's also that this thing is still so new for a lot of us. Um, right.
Justin Brown 28:24
There's a bit of a few people that have been playing for a while, but this is the first time that a lot of us have had access to something like this. So I do think it's really powerful. But I love your approach. And this is kind of how we've been using it too. More like a sounding board. Like, if I am going to restructure, ah, a course, um, what could it look like? So let's just go back to absolute basics. Let's see what it says. Well, that's interesting. Yeah, maybe we've gone too advanced on this section in our current course or whatever it is. It's a great sounding board, but also that you can just keep diving deeper. So it's not these surface-level questions. As you said, it's like, cool, what's the next question? What if we looked at it this way? What else could be missing? And so the child's mind approach with it because they say to treat it like a child even though it's got all this information. But if you approach it as a kid, like, anything's possible. Let's assume the answer is in here, but the questions that I'm asking, it, uh, might not be the right ones yet. Or how else can I ask this or give it information or context? That's really where the power is.
Ash Roy 29:20
I saw this awesome video on Tubebuddy's channel. By the way, I'm an affiliate for TubeBuddy. You can learn more@productiveins.com. TubeBuddy. They took the top five performing videos. They went to their advanced analytics on their YouTube channel, took five or six performing top performing videos, put the titles of the videos into Chat DPT, and said, my channel has been doing well for these particular titles recently. Can you recommend more titles? I tried it on my own channel and it was amazing. It gives you some great quality suggestions that you might not have otherwise thought of. My point is, again, the quality of the information you put in there and the level of detail you put in there has a direct correlation with the quality of the output that you get and the specific city of the output that you get, which is what you need if you want to make an impact and you want to gain attention in a very attention deficit environment.
Justin Brown 30:18
Yeah, I agree 100%. And think of it as a conversation that you're having with someone that you've never met before. Right. They could ask you a question. You don't have enough context to give them a very detailed answer. So if you're going to give them any answer at all, uh, it could be a question to clarify. Like when you say this, what's your use case where you're at something advanced, beginner, whatever, or you're coming back with something super generic and say, cool, here's what I do. But it could take it or leave it from their side because there is more information that they haven't given you. It's like someone's asking, what's the best camera? My first question back to them is, what have you looked at so far? Uh, what have you narrowed it down to? Because there's that many options and they're not just asking out of the blue like, oh, I've got to get a camera. What should I get? They're probably given some thought or there are some requirements, and restrictions around budget, their use case, and the types of videos they're making their experience. So I would treat it the same way, is that there's extra context to your questions? How do we provide that to this thing? Because it's not going to know.
Ash Roy 31:18
Let's switch over to content frequency. That's something I've been wanting to ask you for a long time. I've seen different YouTube creators for a long time. Ali abdal Gillian Perkins yourself. They've grown at different rates. How frequently should we publish and upload content to YouTube and at what consistency? I know the two are different things. You're probably going to say be as consistent as you can comfortably manage, but what is a minimum frequency of upload to be competitive and for the algorithm to notice that you're around?
Justin Brown 31:51
Well, I think you're spot on with the answer that you thought I would say. But, uh, we can dive deeper into that because look, you want to look at it and say, it is again going to come down to the types of videos you're making. And for some niches, if you're constructing something, you're in an art and half niche, you're making something or you're working off sharing results from a project, uh, or from your client's success, you can't necessarily make those every week. They could be once every other week. It could be once a month. Now, on some of the biggest channels, they upload videos once a month. Some of the biggest channels on the platform upload a couple of times a year. But those videos are strategic. They are very well-optimized, and they are amazing videos. So without trying to put all your eggs into one or two videos a, uh, year and try to have that sort of success, it's not a game I'd want to play. We landed on one video a week. Now, back when we started, people were saying that you need to do it three times a week or you need to go daily for success. And, I mean, yeah, you could have success doing that, but it's not a game that I want to play. I love making videos, but I love not having to make them every single day or three times a week. So the answer really is, as you've said, um, to find what works for you. But the more consistent you are at uploading good optimized content, the faster you can see results. And good optimized content is the three things there. Don't just upload stuff because you're like, hey, it's been a week. I haven't put anything out. I'll quickly shoot a video. No, wastes your time. It's unlikely. I mean, it could take off, but come from that place if I really want to add value. And I'm strategic business owner, strategic marketer, uh, entrepreneur, uh, here. And I am respectful of my own time and other people's time that are going to click and watch this video. How could I make this video better and release it then when it's ready? So, for us, that works out as one a week, because I'm never on that hamster wheel, we're able to film them in batches. I'm filming a minimum of four at a time, which is four weeks' worth of content. Um, we've done as many as eight or ten at a time, which is eight or ten weeks' worth of content. Right. But it's going to come down to the individual videos. Some videos will take me longer to make than others, especially if I've got to learn how to use something or do all the research and everything for it. So you might find that there are some videos you can do quick, others long, and you'll get to know that the more that you do them. And that's my take on that.
Ash Roy 34:11
And just to your point, people like, say, Mr. Beast, I heard, I don't know if this is true, but I believe he spent something like a million dollars on producing some of his videos. A lot of money away. That's a big investment, and that's a lot of risk. And he's built up to that. That's the first thing. But he also has spent years researching the channel. Or you look at MKBHD, he's in a different niche. He's in the tech niche. But his videos are beautifully produced and he's got a massive team. That's not something that a small starting YouTuber can manage at this time. But if you go back and look at his earlier videos, he was just a little kid creating content about tech and he had a passion for it, and that's still there today. So I think what moves you and what you feel passionate about that should drive a lot of your decisions about what content to create and that will hopefully influence the quality, the frequency, and the consistency. Let me ask you something about topics. So, uh, one of the biggest challenges a lot of my members in my membership program say is, well, that's fine, Ash, you're telling me to create a YouTube channel, but what am I going to talk about? Where do I get the topics from? How does Primal Video find its topic ideas?
Justin Brown 35:23
So we find our topic ideas by knowing what are the pains or problems and things at a high level that we want to talk about. And this is where people say things like, the riches are in the niches. Um, I agree with that to the point. And it is easier if you're just starting out to go super niche on your audience because people can then know what you're interested in or what your niche is and know when to come back. Right. So they can look specifically, I want Justin's thoughts and opinions on this because I've seen other content, right? So you don't need to be restricted by that either. So with us, with our channel, we actually started before Primal Video. It was video editing coach and we were just doing video editing tutorials or videos that would help people level up their editing. Um, because M, the hole in the market I saw was that no one was really teaching editing for business owners. They're teaching film school students and for people to go and create their own documentaries and films and these high-level productions. But as business owners and entrepreneurs, we don't need that. We just need to get our message out there. So that was the kind of that's where we started and we went more broad with that. So now we don't just teach the editing piece, we teach the filming piece. Because if you're editing something that's not that good, you're only polishing that thing instead of, uh, uh, leveling up at the time that it matters, which is filming. So we teach video creation now that we're at the point where we have an audience. We're now teaching how to grow, uh, an audience on YouTube, how to get views on there right through then to the monetization off the back of it. But it's been growth there. Now you could definitely start a brand new channel where you are covering all of those topics. But it might be slower to grow because the audience doesn't know what they're tuning back in for. If one week it's about editing, say, and the next week it's about growing your affiliate marketing. Now it fits under an umbrella because we've been talking about these things for a while. But if people don't know you yet, there is value in staying more niche from that. We know that I want to fit into one of those three pillars. Now this is where we are going again, back to YouTube. We're doing some keyword research. We're going to that top search bar and I'm typing in around those pillars, around those niches, video editing, and seeing what comes up. Oh, that's interesting. That Cap Cut is searched for 90,000 times every month. So I'll do a Cap cut tutorial because it's adding value. It's something I'm interested in. I love talking about editing and showing people new cool apps. And it's also something that people actually want. So I'm not just saying, hey, I'm going to teach this program Cap Cut, in this example, to video editing app. Um, but I'm looking, is there a demand for it first? Is it worth me investing the time and energy in that? Or if I did come up from the other side and say, hey, there's this really awesome new app, Crisp, which removes the background audio or background noise from your video, I'd validate that and see what would people search for to find this. Is anyone actually looking for Crisp? Do people know what it is? Or what would people search for to find this? How to remove background noise in the video? Oh, well, that has 100,000 searches per month. Maybe we'll look at that. So I'm throwing some numbers out. I'm not saying you need to look at things that have 90,000, 100,000 searches per month. In some cases we make videos that have around 1000 as well, knowing that there are going to be fewer views on those videos because there are fewer people who want that. But it's still something that we want to show up for, for those topics. So things like email marketing are inherently much lower, uh, search, but it's a big piece of what we do. It's also something that we're very passionate about for our business and that we like helping people with as well. So we know that those videos won't have the traction as some of the bigger ones, but it doesn't need to. If we get a few people through, we help them with their buying decision of which email marketing platform to use. And some of those have affiliate programs. It can generate revenue for us, but also help people with their buying decision.
Ash Roy 39:00
And if the video is really useful and solves a problem, as Seth Godin said, maybe they'll tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends yes. So, uh, you don't need to capture the entire universe you just need to capture a small audience that you serve relentlessly, and at some point they will hopefully tell their friends that's it. Do you look at your YouTube video analytics to inform your topic ideas?
Justin Brown 39:26
Yes. So part of this strategy that always growing and evolving is m more. So we look at it for what can we do better next time. Uh, where are people dropping off in our videos? Why did this video only have a 20% completion rate? Um, where did I lose them? Uh, or ideally, like, what can we take out of that video? Because YouTube does have a built-in editor. If you've got older content that's on your channel now and there's a clear point where people drop off, could I take that sentence out? Could I remove that section altogether and just see what happens? This is an amazing opportunity with YouTube. Not just editing your older videos, but having the ability to go back and re-optimize older content. Um, if you got videos that aren't performing, you can go back, you can change the title, you can change the tag, put a new thumbnail on and we've gone on and got some videos now that are some of the biggest on our channel that totally tanked at first. They just disappeared into the YouTube abyss. So this is a massive opportunity with YouTube now.
Ash Roy 40:23
That's a great segue to ask another question. I was going to ask you later, but I'm going to ask you now.
Justin Brown 40:28
Okay.
Ash Roy 40:28
That is, is it safe to delete YouTube videos that are not performing and to go back and change the title of a video once you've already published it?
Justin Brown 40:37
So the only time I would recommend deleting a video is if it's no longer serving your audience. As in, it's something that is totally incorrect. It's going to do more harm than good if it was out. You have the ability to delete a video that you don't like either. Right? We're all on this growth journey. Part of me wants to go back and delete some of our early videos where I wasn't blinking, had no energy, and looked like deer in headlights kind of thing. But there's still value in those videos and obviously, it also helps us get people out of their comfort zone because this is a learned thing. Like, I'm not an on-camera person, but this is something that's been learned. So yes, you can definitely go back and reoptimize your content. You can remove it. But what we do is we put out a new version of those videos or a lot of videos every single year. So it's clearly dated that there's a 2022 version. There's a 2023 version. Some people might watch the 2022 version and then YouTube's going to recommend the other one after it. But uh, unless it is going to be detrimental to that person watching the older one, I would leave it there. We don't want to cannibalize growth and impact and traffic from that previous video, even if there's a newer version of it. So one example of a video that we have deleted was, um, a video around how to download videos from Facebook. The website that we recommended was no longer up or it got hacked or something, and it was serving ads and malware and viruses and stuff to people. We had to pull that down, right? So that's an example of a video I would take down. But outside of that, if there is a better way two years later or three years later, then I would still leave the old one. If it's still, you know if most of those things work there.
Ash Roy 42:11
Well, I've repurposed some old Facebook lives that have got like two, three, maybe five views. And I've got like 200 plus videos on my channel, a lot of which just feel like dead wood. Does YouTube frown on you deleting those videos?
Justin Brown 42:25
It doesn't frown on them at all, but it does take an overall look at your analytics and it does publish stuff like here's when the channel was created, here's how many videos it has, and here's where it's at in terms of views and subscribers. So as overall, it takes an overall look, but it doesn't mean that that's going to be detrimental or hold back your channel growth in any way. If you delete a video, you'll delete those views from your channel. So that's probably the biggest thing. But also that I feel that if you've got unlisted videos and this is a really common case in people in our sort of industry, is that they've maybe got a previous YouTube channel. They had some videos on there. That may not be fit for the new direction of where they're going, or it's got a bunch of unlisted videos that maybe they're using in a course or a program for their private clients. Then, in that case, I would either remove those videos or I'd start a new channel. In that case, if it's not relevant to the bulk of your new audience, your new direction, or where you want to go, there's no point really having unlisted videos on your YouTube channel. YouTube is going to count those and say, all right, these videos aren't getting many views in comparison. It's not going to hold back your growth, but it's not a great thing to have on there.
Ash Roy 43:30
Okay, but there's no harm in deleting a video that has had like two or three views, for example.
Justin Brown 43:35
No, not at all. No.
Ash Roy 43:37
Okay, a cool question about editing. I'm seeing more and more broll in videos because people are trying to find new ways to keep people's attention and entertain while informing. How important is broll? And can you go and add broll using the YouTube editor after you've already published a video?
Justin Brown 43:55
Yeah. So the YouTube video editor is subtractive, not something you can add something to. So if you've now got a new end screen you want to show. You can't change anything in the video itself except to remove pieces. So you could trim a bit off if you're doing a Q and A call. You could queue off some of the questions or take something out if you didn't like your answer to it. So it's subtractive. You can't add stuff back in. Broll is just one tool to help you have people have a better experience with your videos. It's one way to help with that viewer engagement, but it's not the only way. So it depends on the video you're making. It may or may not be important, but if it's a video like I make, where I'm just sitting here talking to the camera, I'm not moving the camera around. There are not a lot of interesting things happening. Nothing's changing behind me. If I'm not at a really nice shot at the beach then there's not a lot of interest for people. Once they've seen it, they're like, okay, this is the person that's speaking. That's the area they're in. Um, then what's the point in keeping coming back to my face? Or it'd be a very boring shot if it was just that. So we like to play a game with our editors and hide Justin's face. So I'm on for the key points, and if I'm summarizing something, I'm on for a little bit at the start. But why are they there? They're there to learn. They're there to discover something, to go and take action. I want to show those things as much as possible. And this is where Broll is a great way to do it. Now, another way that you could do it outside of Broll is to zoom in on your shot a little bit so that it feels a little bit different. Even though it's the same shot, it's going to feel like it was a little bit of, uh, uh, a zoom-in. It's like you're using a second camera. It's a pattern interrupt. It changes it up for your brain. When you're watching it, it feels a little bit different. You could also use animated graphics. Uh, for us, we have animated text that comes onto the screen. Doesn't just appear there's like a little glitch thing, it's just some movement to break it up. Or we'll do, uh, a slow zoom-in for some more, uh, key points of the video to grab people's attention, to feel like we're drawing them in. You really got to listen to this piece. So there are some different ways. Broll is just one way.
Ash Roy 45:58
So the key, though, is you've got to have something changing every three to 5 seconds on the video. Would you agree?
Justin Brown 46:04
Look, I mean, that's a good ballpark. As for whether that should stand for every type of video, I wouldn't want to put a blanket rule on it, but whenever you feel like you've been on screen for too long, we like to mix it up. Now, this is where, if you think of movies and TV shows and stuff, they run their pilot, right? And they're doing a screening. If you have the ability to have someone who is your ideal audience, not your friends and family, one of your clients, your students, watch one of your videos while you watch them. Just see if there's any point where they check their watch or they pull out their phone or anything. You've lost them. Right. So that's a great experiment. It's a big kick to the ego, but it's a great experiment to see, where are we losing people now outside of that. Because that's obviously not possible for a lot of people to do that. And obviously, for every video either, YouTube gives us this information, but they give you this information after the video is out, and that is your watch time. You can see how long people have stayed on the video. You can see where they've dropped off. And then again, we can't do anything with that except learn some lessons that we could then go and apply or things to test on our next videos. And this is where making new versions of the previous videos, uh, is really beneficial. Because for us, when we update, say, best editing software, 2023, I can look at how did 2022 go? How did 2021 go? Right. I can see there was a drop-off at the start. Maybe my intro was too long, maybe I gave too many options. But all of those sorts of insights, um, we can then apply to the newer video. So it does start to snowball over time because it's just learning. It's that 1% improvement over time. How do we keep leveling up? And YouTube gives you all of that information in your analytics.
Ash Roy 47:42
Okay. Yeah. And that's why it's very important to keep going back and looking at your analytics. Something that I found very entertaining for me was publishing the outtakes of my conversation with Amy Porterfield when I was talking to her about Digital Course Academy. And I think the audience often loves the Outtakes. Do you use those? And if so, how?
Justin Brown 48:01
Yeah, so we do it from time to time. We did experiment with every video, it would have the bloopers at the end. And look, I mean, there are pros and cons. Yes. People can see that it's real, that you're a human, that you make mistakes, and that you may not be perfect on camera just like most people are. Because in editing, we get to hide all of that stuff. Right. Editing is there to make you look good, but it doesn't mean that I'm doing this in one take. I'm not. Editing is there to save me, to help me look better. So, in terms of the Outtakes look, I think they're great as supplementary content. Like, it could be behind-the-scenes stuff that you're posting as stories or reels or those, or shorts. It can also, if it's. In your regular YouTube video. It makes it longer, right? So you got the value of the content and then you've given up this extra piece on the end. Now depending on how you do this, it could be a pro or a con because what if someone didn't click on your video when they saw it in search results or on the platform because it was too long, right? We don't know what that is. What's their viewer expectation if they saw this is the thing I want to learn? It's a video here from Ash but it's uh, 8 minutes but someone else has got a four-minute version right underneath it. I'm not saying you need to make a four-minute version, but what's the viewer, uh, intent at that point? Are they going to try the four-minute one? Or if ashes didn't have the 20 seconds, 30 seconds of bloopers at the end, would that have been enough for them to click on that video? So it's something to consider and again, it's got to come down to really a case-by-case basis. If it was a few seconds at the end of something funny that happened while filming, for sure add it in and experiment. But if it's something that is going to drag the video on, then it could be the difference between the number of people that are actually going to end up on that video.
Ash Roy 49:39
Great segue for the next question, short-form content versus long-form content. YouTube shorts are all the raise right now. How do you use YouTube shorts? I often try and repurpose my long-form videos into short snippets. Is that what you're doing? And if so, how so?
Justin Brown 49:56
Look, I mean there are so many different ways and it is still new on YouTube's terms like it's been out for a year now, which in like YouTube itself has been around for much, much longer. So most people that are still going to YouTube today are going for the regular videos. It's not to say that you can't have success with shorts on there. I mean, you open the YouTube mobile app now and it now actually starts to play a short straight away. This is a test that they're running, right? So they're investing a lot of time, energy, and effort into shorts. But for right now, most people are still consuming regular videos more. So the strategy that I would recommend now is to play with shorts if you've got the bandwidth. But that should be in addition to the one video a week, one video every other week. Whatever you commit to as the stuff that is proven to grow on YouTube, the stuff where you can get views we've got videos that are over eight years old that are still getting thousands of views a day. They're still getting people to click, they're still helping people, and they're still clicking affiliate links as well. We're growing our email list eight years on with no extra input or effort from us. That's what I'm talking about here. As a strategic business owner, entrepreneur, uh, we have that available to us now. Don't sleep in shorts either because there is some big opportunities there. But the people I see that go all in on just shorts, very few of them have long-term success. Now with shorts, even for us, playing with it. We'll get, uh, some views on some of them. It's really hit-and-miss and then they stop. We have a couple now that are doing well. Our top ones, totally tanked at first. And it wasn't until six or eight months later that's how old these things are now, that now they're starting to show up in YouTube search results. So that to me is interesting because that's something that we can have more control over instead of, again, uh, having something go viral. Um, so it's interesting and I would say play with it, but it's not there yet to be. That is your sole source in terms of the content. Repurposing is a good test, but then you got to look at what are the videos you like to watch on there and we see a lot of people that are doing these repurposed from long form. Cut down a short snippet. It teases the long form so it can work really, really well. I know some good friends that are having mixed results, like big, big channels. Um, some are having great success doing that and others aren't. Uh, but they're doing it because they're seeing that's what other people are doing. So maybe at some point, it'll hit. I would be trying different things as well. So I'm not saying don't do that, it's hit and miss. Like anything with shorts right now. I would try. What if you recorded your long-form podcast or live stream and then you just grabbed your phone raw, real press record and said, if you're looking for the top three ways to do this, here they are. And these are, uh, three tips from my long-form podcast where I sat down with Ash, and uh, he shared these. You can check it out, you can still link off and reference a long-form content, but it's something that's raw, that's real. It's not going to take much time for you to produce. You don't need to have someone go through and find those little nuggets of gold in your long-form content. Literally, it's you, it's building brand you. It's summarizing your content, and your thoughts. Even if those tips came from someone else that you interviewed on your podcast, it's your take on those. And I think if you are looking to build your own personal brand and business off the back of this, it's all well and good to bring in experts and interview them, but you've still got to build your brand off that too. So I would experiment with that and.
Ash Roy 53:13
I love what you said about thinking laterally, because right now, while we're recording this video, I'm trying something completely different. Normally, I just tend to interview from start through to the end. But yesterday I spent about three or 4 hours searching for specific topics that I wanted to hit on, and I've hit on almost all of them. But we've agreed before this call that we were going to try and keep them to sort of siloed pieces of content. And instead of publishing it as a 1-hour episode on YouTube, I'm going to try publishing this as multiple short forms, not shorts, but maybe five or ten-minute short videos. So I get multiple bytes at the YouTube algorithm, as it were, the cherry, the YouTube cherry. And who knows, maybe it'll have some more results, maybe it won't. But that's the key, right? It's testing. You need to be willing to test. Now, I'm going to ask you one last question. I'm going to let you go. Thank you for being so generous, as you always are with your time. Affiliate revenue Model primal Video Accelerator has had great success over the years using not only memberships, which we've talked a lot about in this podcast and this YouTube channel, but also affiliate revenue and affiliate products. Could you talk to us about the affiliate revenue model and how that's worked for you, and if you're comfortable sharing how big a portion of your total income affiliate revenue is.
Justin Brown 54:30
Yeah, so we now have a business that generates seven figures a year, or over seven figures a year. Um, and affiliate is one of our three revenue streams at Primal Video. So we have income from YouTube ads, which started very, very small. But obviously now, given the amount of content that we have out there, it's not a small amount that's dropping into our bank account now. So YouTube ads is one. The second is our digital product, our Primal Video Accelerator membership. It's a monthly subscription, 49 US a month. We currently have around 1000 members in there. So that's a second revenue stream that we have. The third one is affiliate revenue. And this is my favorite. I mean, I love our program, but this is my favorite in terms of it's almost passive income. I say almost because it's driven from our YouTube channel and we're still going to make the videos. Right. I love this because it is a win win win scenario. And I think if anything in business, when you're coming from that place of adding value, if you can generate something that is a win win win, and I'll explain what I mean by that, then it is a great place to come from because everybody wins. So a, uh, win win win affiliate marketing is a win for the viewer. You're helping them with a buying decision. So we're creating content that might be best camera for YouTube, right? And maybe I cover the top five cameras in my thoughts and opinions, but there's affiliate links for those. I'm helping someone solve that pain or problem of finding the best camera for them. Um, so it's a win for them. I'm then helping those companies. I'm not just sending them random spam links, I'm sending them then qualified leads from those viewers that are interested in those specific things. So they're much further along the buying journey. They still might not buy at that point, but that's up to them. Whatever. Again, it's not spamming links. Only the right people will click those. So it's good traffic for the company and it's a win for them. And that means it becomes a win for us. Because if someone does click, they do buy, and they have an affiliate program, then that's when we're able to receive a commission or a lump sum for sending that traffic over. That's why we love affiliate marketing. Now, this is something that can scale and does scale and grow as your audience grows. So, as I said earlier, we've got videos that are coming up on our YouTube channel that are eight years old, still have affiliate links being clicked for no extra time or effort or input from us, and they're still adding value. They're helping people with a specific outcome or with a purchasing decision that's at scale. So every year so every week, we've got one new video that's dropping out on our YouTube channel where it's a fit. We've got affiliate links in those. So affiliate revenue is one of the biggest for us. And in terms of your question as to what's the priority of them right now, it's almost 50-50. Uh, and it changes from month to month because it's variable as to the months that affiliate marketing is bigger than our digital product. Um, so the breakdown is almost those two seem to move up and down, um, because they're variables. Um, but the third piece of revenue is the YouTube ad revenue.
Ash Roy 57:20
I got to say, man, affiliate revenue is, as you very accurately said, the closest you can get to passive income. I don't believe there's anything such as 100% passive income. But the one thing I would like to add to that is I only tend to offer affiliate products that I have used and that I feel are, um, good value for the customer. I'm an affiliate with Primal Video, which is why we are talking today. And by the way, if you're interested in learning more about Primal video accelerator program, you can go to productiveinsize.com Primal and that will take you to the landing page. I'm also an affiliate with Kajabi because I use Kajabi and a whole lot of other affiliates have been reaching out to me over the years. And I tend to form partnerships where I've used the product. So I highly recommend, if you're going to form an affiliate relationship, use the product, see if it works for you. It may not work for everybody else that signs up with you. But if you feel it's a good product and you're coming from a genuine place where you feel like this is going to deliver value, then you should become an affiliate.
Justin Brown 58:21
So I agree with that wholeheartedly. I think integrity is the thing here. It's like you wouldn't want to recommend to your best friend, to your family members something that isn't good just to get a commission. And this is where a lot of people give affiliate marketing a bad name. And it's got a bit of a slimy salesy kind of connotation because people are picking, all right, this product has a really high commission. I'm going to promote that to my audience. They've never used it. It's likely not good. But imagine if you bought something and someone had recommended it and you bought it, it wasn't good. It wasted your time, your money. You're not going to take a recommendation ever again from that person. You've kind of burnt that bridge. You want to take this approach where you're coming from integrity, coming from a place of, look, this thing genuinely is amazing. This is how I use it. So we're very similar. We only recommend products that we use that we think are great. Even if it's something that we use that is not going to be of value to our audience, then it's like, well, we could mention it, but how do we give them stuff that is going to help them on their journey with a specific pain or problem? And again, it's just my thoughts and opinions based on stuff that we've used. So this is, again, there's opportunity for so many of you out there. What are the books that you recommend? That's a great one to get into amazon, uh, affiliate. If someone clicks and buys a book, or in our case, we had someone buy a $8 microphone, they then went on and spent $30,000 on gym equipment because we sent them there, and because it was in the one checkout, we received the commission for the entire amount. So you're essentially marketing for these companies. But it's coming from the place of how do I help? Again, it's been a common theme throughout all of this, is how do I help? How do I add value? How do I help people not have to go and watch 100 different YouTube videos for them to decide which is the best thing for them? How do we just share our thoughts and, uh, opinions based on our experiences, um, and the research and knowledge that we have? And for some people, they will resonate with that. And it can be a very good affiliate revenue, uh, stream.
Ash Roy 1:00:16
And there are great affiliate programs out there. I'm a HubSpot Solutions partner. Yes, you have to do some training to become a solutions partner. But I love HubSpot and I recommend it to people very often. I love this app called Sunsama that helps me do planning and that's a brilliant tool. So there's a whole lot of little affiliate things out there. You don't have to go and form relationships with these massive software companies and stuff. But as you grow, you will find that people start to reach out to you and you get more and more affiliate pitches. But I'm very careful about who I accept a pitch with because my reputation matters a lot to me. As Warren Buffett says, it takes years to build a reputation, but can destroy it in minutes. So that's a really important thing. Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Justin. It was just, uh, a real pleasure to have you and I hope maybe we can do this again sometime.
Justin Brown 1:01:06
Definitely pumped. Um, thank you very much for, uh, inviting me on. It was awesome.
Ash Roy 1:01:10
How do people find out more about you and about Primal Video Accelerator?
Justin Brown 1:01:15
Okay, so, I mean, Primalvideo.com is our website. You can obviously find everything on there. All of our content across filming, across editing, across, then getting views on that and then through to the monetization. But, uh, Primal Video accelerator is my baby. Uh, that is our, uh, monthly membership. And look, I don't want you to think of it as a course. Obviously, you're in there as well. It is an online resource and amazing community. We've all been in courses and I am a recovering course buying addict. Right? I love buying courses, but in every course we go through, there's normally those one or two nuggets of gold where you're like, you know what, that one thing, that one lesson, that one little piece that was buried in there somewhere just changed the game for me. Our goal with Accelerator is to help you find those things really, really quick. It's about helping you take action with your audience growth, with your video creation and monetization, to help you build your business and brand online. That's what we're there to help you do. So, yes, there's training, there's resources. It's a choose your own adventure style program. So you don't need to sit there at module one. Work your way through it's. Where am I? Stuck. So, Justin, you mentioned on the podcast here, um, a B split testing thumbnails. I'm really interested in that.Cool
Justin Brown 1:02:22
You could jump straight into the AB split testing stuff, figure that out, and then what's next? You can backfill around the content, but the community is amazing and this is where you go on this journey with like minded individuals. It's not just what Justin says you need to do. You're hearing from other people that are in the trenches as well. And you hear the successes and the struggles and things that they have and how we're overcoming them together. And there's also two group coaching calls every month as well. So that's my baby. You can see I get passionate about that. And, uh, sorry for speaking so long about it, but this is what I love, right? This is what we do. We get to show up. And same for you and your business, we get to show up, we get to help people. But if we love what we do, um, and love seeing the results that we can generate, then that's what it's all about.
Ash Roy 1:03:04
Absolutely. And that's what I love about Primal video about you. The generosity and the kindness. This is something Set told me about generosity and kindness. We don't see that a lot in business, but I think we need a lot more of it. So kudos to you for doing that. By the way, while I still remember, there's another Justin Welsh who's created an amazing course called LinkedIn OS. And I'll link to that in show, uh, notes of this video. It is an excellent, simple short course on how to build a following on LinkedIn, which he's done very successfully, and he's built, I think, a $5 million business with a 96% profit margin just by writing content. So I just wanted to recommend that and give him a shout out. He doesn't know I'm doing this. A great content creator out there. So, anyway, thank you so much for being on the show, Justin, and I hope we can meet in person sometime soon.
Justin Brown 1:03:55
Yeah, sounds good. I'm looking forward to it. And we're not that far away, so we can definitely make this happen.
Ash Roy 1:04:00
Exactly. All right, man. Thank you so much.
Justin Brown 1:04:03
Thank you.
