Have you ever experienced the frustration of your YouTube views suddenly plummeting, or your entire channel seemingly grinding to a halt? You’re not alone. It’s a common issue that has even affected seasoned creators like Marissa Romero and myself. In this episode, I’m diving deep into why this happens, what you can and can’t do about it, and the crucial lessons I’ve learned from producing over 60 different YouTube channels.
Marissa Romero’s Channel “Died”
Take Marissa R. Maro, for example. With a substantial 205,000 subscribers, her channel seemed successful. Yet, her last upload was three months ago, and her second-to-last video ironically titled “How to Kill a YouTube Channel.” Marissa and I have shared similar experiences – a channel that once thrived suddenly stalled. Her solution? To launch a brand new channel, “Subs to Sales,” indicating a fresh start and a refined strategy.
My Own Big Mistake on Nate Woodbury
The channel I’m specifically referring to isn’t the one you’re watching now (Nate the Producer, my new venture). It’s my older channel, Nate Woodbury, which currently has 68,000 subscribers. The reason I’ve launched this new channel boils down to a critical error I made on the original one: mixing strategies.
On Nate Woodbury, I inadvertently combined two distinct YouTube growth strategies that, while effective on their own, don’t work well together. A prime example of this mistake was a video titled “Why I Hire People in the Philippines.” While my existing audience enjoyed it, it resonated even more with a completely different demographic – people in the Philippines. This led to a surge of tens of thousands of new subscribers who weren’t interested in my core content about YouTube strategy.
The consequence? When I published videos about YouTube tips, these new subscribers didn’t watch, sending negative signals to the YouTube algorithm. The algorithm interpreted this as my audience disliking that type of content, hindering its reach. Despite removing the off-topic content, redirecting a channel with a confused audience is incredibly challenging.
The Untapped Potential and the Fresh Start
While the Nate Woodbury channel still generates some leads, I know its potential is limited due to the audience mismatch. Having built numerous successful channels from scratch, I understand the power of a focused strategy. That’s why, for Nate the Producer, I’m committed to a clear and consistent approach.
To illustrate the potential of focused channel building, consider these examples of channels I’ve produced:
- Kris Krohn: A channel I built from its inception (formerly RE Investor TV and Limitless TV), which Kris later bought from me.
- Noel Randall: A client whose channel grew from zero to over 855,000 subscribers and now generates multiple seven figures annually after a strategic overhaul.
- Stany the Annuity Man: A powerful example of how a tactical approach can yield eight-figure revenue with a relatively small subscriber base (under 15,000).
- Live on Purpose TV (Paul Jenkins): A positivity-focused channel with over 438,000 subscribers.
These examples highlight the impact of a clear niche and targeted content.
The Failure of Redirection on My Channel
Looking at the top-performing videos on the Nate Woodbury channel reveals the problem. Titles like “How to Make YouTube Safe for Kids,” “What Can You Do With a Business Degree?” and “Can You See Who Views Your YouTube Videos?” attracted viewers with tangential interests, not those specifically seeking YouTube growth strategies.
Despite creating hundreds of videos focused on YouTube SEO topics like “How to Boost SEO on YouTube” and “How to Find YouTube Keyword Competition,” I’ve struggled to get this content seen by the right audience on my existing channel. The search traffic I receive is for terms irrelevant to my current focus.
This experience has taught me the crucial lesson of maintaining a focused audience from the start.
The Power of Dominating a Branch
Interestingly, this experience has also refined my understanding of YouTube SEO in 2024. My “tree analogy” (where I categorize content into branches and leaves) has evolved. I’ve learned how to identify and dominate a specific branch within about four months.
For Noel Randall’s channel, we identified the “Real Estate Investor Become” branch. By focusing on questions containing these keywords, we saw a significant improvement in her ranking for those specific searches. My own scoring system, which tracks our ranking for these “leaf titles,” demonstrated a clear progression towards dominating that niche.
Key Lessons Learned
From this experience and the success of other channels, here are some critical takeaways:
- One Audience Only Per Channel: Protect the audience you’re building and avoid content that attracts irrelevant viewers.
- Don’t Allow Corruption: Stay true to your niche and avoid diluting your audience’s expectations.
- Focus on Dominating One Branch at a Time: Concentrate your efforts on a specific topic cluster for maximum impact.
- Huge Power in a Small Channel: A targeted audience can generate significant revenue, even with a modest subscriber count.
- Restarting is Possible and Can Be Successful: When a channel can’t be redirected, launching a new one with a clear strategy can be the most effective path forward.
The Plans for Nate the Producer
My plan for this new channel is to ramp up to daily uploads, focusing on teaching you how to succeed on YouTube. My goal is to help you turn those “NOs” (when your videos don’t rank for relevant searches) into “YESes,” positioning your content at the top.
If you’re ready to learn more about this specific strategy, I encourage you to watch my episode, “The YouTube SEO Secret Strategy,” where I teach my leaf strategy in detail.
