Ever wondered how the most successful YouTubers out there have reached the top? We look at these creators with millions of subscribers and millions more in views and think, “Well, they just have that magic touch, right?” Well, it’s much more complicated than that.
No one ever tells you that the path to YouTube success is paved with mediocrity at the start. If you find yourself thinking your content isn't hitting the mark, you're not alone. Even legends had to stumble through loads of bad videos before reaching that prime YouTube glory. So, buckle up because today, we’re diving into the strategies the YouTube gods don't always share and analyze those YouTube success stories deep!
Keep Going No Matter What
“The first thing you make is going to be bad,” said TheOdd1sOut, the iconic animator with millions of fans worldwide. “But you have to make a bad thing first so you know how to make things good.”
TheOdd1sOut had a rather ugly start, to which he admits quite a few times in his YouTube videos. But that’s the whole point. You cannot become a master without practicing, learning, failing, and trying again. That’s what makes you better. You don't start off with a masterpiece; you start off with a mess. But that mess is crucial—it’s how you learn what works and what doesn’t. If you can embrace the bad and keep going, you'll eventually make something people would be more inclined to watch.
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MrBeast, the YouTube sensation, also shares the same sentiment, but he puts it more bluntly: “Your videos suck. You think they’re good, but they suck. They just do. And the sooner you learn how to make good, great videos that people actually wanna watch, the sooner you’ll get views.”
MrBeast didn’t wake up one day and hit a billion views or the knowledge on how to make 1,000,000 subs—he had to experiment and fail countless times to figure out what people want. According to him, the algorithm isn’t this all-knowing force. Instead, “By studying the algorithm you’re more studying human psychology,” he says. “What do humans wanna watch? Anytime you want to say the word ‘algorithm’ just replace it with ‘audience,’ and it works perfectly.”
In other words, it's not about tricking the system; it's about understanding people.
The biggest mistake new creators make is thinking they’ll upload a few videos and—bam!—instant success. The harsh truth is, the first couple of videos (and sometimes not just a couple) are all about finding your style, your voice, and your audience. So the first lesson is this: Don’t let the fear of making bad videos stop you. Make them. Make them often. Learn from them and improve one little thing at a time each time. And if you don’t want to do all that by yourself, drop us a message, and we will gladly help nudge you in a needed direction for growth!
Scripting and Finding Video Ideas
Coming up with video ideas can feel like a battle. Your mind's blank, and the pressure is on. And there isn’t even an interesting story in your life that you could share, because, in your opinion, you are boring. But here's the truth: You don’t need to be living glamorous lifestyle to create a story worth watching.
In fact, as a successful YouTuber TheOdd1sOut himself has pointed out, “People often tell me that their life is boring and they wish to have an exciting life like mine, and I always respond that my most popular series is me talking about working at a minimum wage job.”
It’s not about climbing mountains or diving underwater for content (although, sure, if that’s your thing, go for it). It’s about turning the ordinary into something... well, not dull. “A script doesn’t have to be an edge-of-the-seat, high-stakes story,” TheOdd1sOut explains. “It needs to be an entertaining story. And I believe if told in a certain way any story can be an entertaining story.”
So, where do you even start? How do you even come up with the video idea to script in the first place? Well, let’s channel some more of James’ (TheOdd1sOut) wisdom: “How do I come up with these video ideas? Well, I start by thinking about what I can rant about for hours. Something that makes me go ‘Don’t get me started on…!’”
You don’t need to travel far and wide for inspiration—sometimes it’s sitting right in front of you, disguised as a mundane moment or a common annoyance.
And if you’re feeling creatively constipated? Sometimes the ideas don’t flow until you start doing. Here’s a little trick from James’ playbook: “I have a technique that helps you get new ideas, so write these steps down. What I do is I get a pen and notebook, put on some lo-fi, and just… write about nothing specific, just whatever my brain thinks is important.” Just let your thoughts spill onto the page until eventually a brilliant idea for a video pops up.
And here’s the hard truth: “Discipline comes before motivation,” he says. Waiting around for inspiration to strike is a big mistake. You’re not going to wake up every day brimming with motivation to create. More often than not, you’d have to drag yourself to the desk and force yourself to start writing, editing, or planning.
“If you have a project you want to start or a skill you wanna learn, you can’t wait around for motivation to hit. Sometimes it doesn’t come. Instead, you have to set a schedule where you say, ‘Okay, on this day from this time to this time, I’m going to put in the effort to achieve my goal.’”
That's lesson number two: find what makes you tick, turn that into a story, and don’t wait around for motivation because chances are that it might never hit you until you actually start.
Thumbnails and Optimization
Here’s the thing—just having the content isn’t enough, as YouTube’s successful creator PewDiePie reminds us: “You’re gonna have to get it out there for other people to see.” And no, you can’t just toss it onto YouTube like a note in a bottle and hope the internet gods deliver it to the right shores. You’ve got to package that content. The thumbnails and optimization—that’s what’s going to make people stop scrolling and actually click.
“Make your content presentable because that’s what’s gonna make people click on it,” PewDiePie continues. And he’s right. This is your first chance to grab someone's attention. But, how do you do it with just a thumbnail? According to MatPat, a retired leader of a successful Theorist brand on YouTube, it’s all about faces. He explains: “People are drawn to the faces of others and so thumbnails that have faces that are expressive and interesting are ultimately more clickable.”
It’s science! The human brain is wired to recognize and focus on faces. And if you can pair an expressive face with a bold title, you’re halfway to a winning combo. Bonus points if the face is looking toward something important in the thumbnail—our eyes naturally follow theirs.
“A face is better than no face, an expressive face is better than that, and then from that you get into coloring, and eye direction, and all this, which again, is based on a psychological principle,” MatPat explains. Basically, every little detail matters.
Let’s not forget about titles as well. MrBeast himself insists, “Ideally, the title represents the content that you’d wanna watch for 20 minutes.” A good title sets the stage for your content. But don’t just stop there, deliver on the promise that you set in the same title. “Your title and thumbnail set expectations and at the very beginning of the video, to minimize dropoff, you want to assure them [the audience] that those expectations are being met,” MrBeast continues. In other words, don’t keep your audience waiting. Give them exactly what they came for—immediately.
Now, programming, or optimization in other words. Programming is about understanding when to post and how to plan out your content so that it keeps rolling into the algorithm’s good graces. As MatPat wisely warns, “If you program poorly, your audience will no longer see your videos and you will just kind of like slowly die a death on the platform.” Grim, but accurate.
It’s a game of strategy—schedule your content thoughtfully, analyze your audience’s habits, and adapt. Throwing videos up whenever the mood strikes is never a good idea, if you want to make it big on YouTube.
“Optimizing your video […] as annoying as it is, it works,” PewDiePie reluctantly admits. Like it or not, tweaking your metadata, adding tags, making good descriptions, and staying on top of search engine trends actually pulls in the numbers. Having people find your video through searches? That brings in more eyes.
Calls to Action
Now, let’s talk about Calls to Action, or CTAs as the cool YouTube kids say. You know, those little nudges creators throw into their videos like “Hey, remember to smash that like button” or “Don’t forget to subscribe!”
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Take it from PewDiePie, the OG YouTube gaming king, who mentioned in one of his videos, “The first thing I’ve noticed [...] just mentioning people to subscribe to your channel at the end helps to bring in a lot more subscribers if that’s what you care about.” Yeah, even if you're PewDiePie, with millions of subscribers, you’ve still got to remind people to click that shiny red button.
MatPat, YouTube’s intellectual game master, has a slightly different, yet effective, approach. He suggests sneaking that CTA into the first third of your video, right when viewers are invested but haven’t yet gotten distracted by their cat or Instagram. “The ideal call to action is in the first third of your video, in the middle of content and you make it into a game,” he says.
Make it fun, make it seamless, and most importantly, make it early enough so people actually do it before they peace out. Forget trying to just rack up likes and comments; the real gold is in keeping viewers hooked, watching video after video like they’re eating potato chips.
Find Something That Makes You Unique
“There’s no shame in doing what everyone else is doing, but I think if you care about growing an audience and making it bigger on YouTube, you’re gonna have to eventually carve out your own style, your own thing, what makes you different, what makes you unique,” PewDiePie says. His story of YouTube success is legendary at this point. From playing what everyone else was playing at the time right to receiving the first ever YouTube red diamond button.
MrBeast echoes a similar sentiment. “It’s okay to draw inspiration from me, just don’t do what I do to a T.” Sure, he’s got the whole epic challenge videos on lock, but just being a MrBeast copycat isn’t going to get you very far. You need your own flavor, your own identity as a YouTube creator.
It’s okay to have certain successful YouTubers as an inspiration, but as Jaiden Animations reminds us: “It’s not healthy for anyone to view someone as more than just a human.” Basically, don’t put creators on a pedestal and try to mimic their every move. Remember that they’re human, just like you. What worked for them might not work for you, and that’s perfectly fine. Your path to YouTube glory is your own.
But here’s the tricky part: it’s trying new things while you're still figuring out your unique niche. PewDiePie explains that when he was pumping out horror game videos, his audience loved it, but it didn’t grow his channel much. Then, he started making compilation videos of the funniest moments, and that’s when things took off. “Change up your content,” he says, “You’re only gonna get as far doing the same thing.”
The moral of the story? Experiment early. “Try out different things, no matter if you’re a small or big channel, and I think it’s better to do this earlier than later because it’s easy to get comfortable on YouTube,” PewDiePie says. The more comfortable you get, the harder it is to step out of that content bubble you've built.
Dealing With Hate
Whether you’re the next big thing or just starting out, the YouTube comment section is a gift that keeps on giving. You’ll get love, sure, but oh, the hate… it’ll find you. Jaiden Animations puts it best: “YouTube is… unique and I can’t really think of many other careers that are like this. You’re flat out exposed to the huge spectrum of different types of people all at once and they all have the freedom to say anything they want to you while hiding behind a computer screen with almost no repercussions.”
Basically, you’re facing an army of anonymous critics, each with their own spicy takes, and trust us, it can be brutal. You get everything from the “Hey, great video!” to the “Wow, you’re the worst thing that’s happened to YouTube.” It’s an emotional rollercoaster, for sure.
But here’s the thing: hate is part of the package deal when you sign up for YouTube stardom. It’s not personal—it’s just the internet being the internet. As Jaiden Animations points out, even if you’re someone who’s self-conscious or has low self-esteem, like she does, “You can get desensitized to meaningless hate comments and ignorance.” She even respects how the platform has toughened her up over time. “It can be harsh, but you can learn to take it,” she adds.
Not every negative comment is worth your emotional energy. Laugh it off, ignore it, or, if you’re feeling particularly zen, use it as fuel for improvement. Because in the end, you’re putting yourself out there, and that takes guts—far more guts than those keyboard warriors hiding behind their screens will ever have.
So, there you have it—secrets to becoming popular on YouTube from the greats themselves. If there’s one thing to take away from all this, it’s that YouTube isn’t an overnight success story (despite how easy some creators make it look). It’s a bumpy ride. But that’s the beauty of it. You grow, you adapt, you fail, and you fail better next time. The key? Just keep creating.
Remember: everyone started somewhere, even the legends.We know that, because we helped countless legends of YouTube grow. Whether you aim to get your first silver, gold, diamond, or red diamond button, we’re here for you. Give us a message and become a part of an ultimate space for creators, offering over 30 tools and services to help you grow, protect your content, and get support whenever you might need it. Go out there, keep making your videos, and one day, you’ll be the one dishing out the advice. And hey, maybe your bad videos will be someone else’s inspiration. That’s the full circle of YouTube life, after all.
