600k views on the first video on a NEW YouTube channel
1 year ago, I pitched a video idea to Live Action, a pro-life media organization I work regularly with. I wanted to help them bring online attention to the horrific incidents of late-term abortionists in America.
True crime content has become extremely popular since the beginning of covid, but since no one in the pro-life movement was making content in that genre, I saw that I would have no competition if I decided to create content in that style.
I created a short video about a late-term abortionist who was found to have 2000+ aborted babies in his garage. As a test, I uploaded it to a new YouTube channel under my name. For the video, I copied the styles of the YouTubers Rotten Mango, Ray William Johnson, and Johnny Harris.
In the first month, it reached 600k views. The “Stayed to Watch” metric was 81%, and the average retention was 98%. This was really satisfying, considering it was posted to a new channel with no previous content track record.
Since then, I’ve created 11 more videos (roughly 1 per month) in this style for Live Action. The videos have totaled over 12 million views, predominantly on Instagram. One of the videos especially outperformed the rest, gaining somewhere around 5m views. It’s hard to track its progress since it has been reposted by other accounts many times.
I have more in the hopper that will be posted even more frequently. If there’s one thing I can encourage as a takeaway, it’s this: If a video performs well and you can repeat it… REPEAT IT UNTIL IT RUNS DRY.
Competition is quick, and they will try to copy your success. Try to stick with the format as long as possible. As you continue in it, the better you will become, and the more loyal your audience will become to you. Your followers do NOT like constant switch-ups in your content. Then, you’re no longer giving them the product (your video) that you promised (when they followed you).
These videos now take me around 7 hours to produce, including research, filming, and editing. I will only become more efficient, and with great help from Live Action’s research team on the stories (HUGE shoutout to Carole Noveilli, Nancy Flanders, Kelli Kopetz, Isabella Childs, and everyone else at Live Action News), I don’t see any signs of it running dry soon.