Build Your Custom YouTube Growth Strategy That Actually Works

The days when you could rely on luck and blame everything on a shadowban are long gone. Too many creators today are building their channels based on their own strategies — strategies that take into account the specifics of their content, the needs of their target audience, the rules of the game in their niche, the creator’s long-term goals, and what sets them apart from other YouTubers.

Without all of this — moving forward blindly — it becomes much harder to grow and make progress on the platform, and especially now, to confidently compete with other creators in your niche.

That’s why today, we’re going to create your personal promotion strategy — clearly, step by step, with no unnecessary fluff. Grab a pen and notebook, open your notes app, or simply copy this guide for yourself. Let’s get started!

Cornerstone of Youtube

Step 1: Define Your Niche and Channel Topic

Start by writing a list of your interests:

For example: Fishing, cars, language learning

Please answer the following mandatory questions:

1. What topics can I talk about for hours, years, even decades?
2. Which niche do I consume content from the most?
3. In which area do I have the most experience and knowledge?

Auxiliary questions:

• What unique skills, knowledge and experience do I have?

For example: I can repair cars myself, I know a lot about their them and worked as a car mechanic...

• What topic do I always have a lot of unique and interesting ideas about?

For example: I constantly come up with funny sketches in the garage on the topic of typical car breakdowns or mistakes made by mechanics during repairs...

• What do I want to give and share with my future audience?

For example: I want to share my knowledge about cars so that people can learn to repair them on their own

• What do I want and expect from my audience?

For example: I want my viewers to have a good time with me and become a community of like-minded people

Step 2: Research the Potential of Your Niche/Topic

1. Find a few of the biggest channels in your chosen niche/topic.
2. Look for 5–10 viral videos on the topic that got the most views.
3. What’s the average number of views on videos in your niche/topic?

These points will help you understand whether there’s a "ceiling" in your niche, how high it is, and whether you might hit it too quickly.

Step 3: Clearly Define Your Goals

Good goal: within a year, reach such YouTube earnings that will allow me to quit my main job
Bad goal: get a lot of subscribers/get a million views/become cooler than that guy  
Vague and abstract goals will hinder you from building a clear plan and working through specific steps toward your goals.

Audience, Competitors, and Content Strategy

Step 4: Create a profile of your target audience (TA)

• Demographic data: gender, age

For example: predominantly men aged 30 to 55 years old

• Interests, hobbies

For example: my target audience, like me, is interested in cars, but doesn't necessarily understand them.

• Values

For example: my viewers prioritize honesty and the usefulness of content over entertainment and a perfect picture.

• Audience issues

For example: they often face fraud in car repair shops during vehicle maintenance, and it is important for them to get information that helps them avoid being deceived

Step 5: Research your competitors, choose topics and choose a video format

Select 3 to 5 competitor channels (you can choose more, but this will increase the time spent on this stage of work) that are closest in topic to your channel or are the best example of a successful channel in the niche (these don't necessarily have to be the biggest channels in it).

Here will be your list of competitors:

1. Competitor 1
2. Competitor 2
3. ….

Answer the following questions:

• What topics get the most views and reactions from the audience?

Make a list of 10-15 most-viewed and most frequently encountered topics in the niche. This is necessary to select topics for your future videos that will help solve different tasks.

1. Viral content (most popular videos, trends): created to attract new audience to the channel.
2. Main content (evergreen videos that are in demand for years): videos that will keep the audience on your channel and make up the main part of all content.
3. Content for loyal audience (answers to questions, highly specialized topics, videos based on your target audience's requests): these videos usually don't get many views, but help strengthen the connection with your fan base.

These topics need to be replenished and updated monthly.

• What content formats work best for your competitors?

For example: some authors make videos in a talking head format, and they get a lot of views, while others film lifestyle content, and they also get good views, but lectures and masterclasses are not in demand by the audience…

• What are your competitors missing?

For example: viewers lack live interaction and the ability to ask questions, as well as a more accessible presentation of material…

Tip: use comments under other authors' videos for more detailed analysis.

Based on the results, try to formulate your unique content format.

For example: I will make useful videos in the format of instructions and checklists for checking or repairing various car breakdowns + I will dilute dry information with lifestyle content and humor…

It's not always about topics or formats, these questions can also help you:

• What design is typical for your niche/topic?
• What video formats are typical for your niche/topic?
• What topics are typical for your niche/topic?

You can try an already established design style and content format that are most commonly found in your niche, or you can go the opposite way and do something completely different.

Content Plan and Video Creation

Step 6: Create a content publishing schedul

Before you start running your channel fully, try creating a test video from start to finish to find out how much time it takes you to:

1. Developing the topic and writing the script/shooting plan
2. Preparation and filming of the video
3. Editing one video
4. Upload and formatting

And only after that, start creating a content plan.

Answer the questions:

1. How much time per week are you willing to dedicate to your channel?
2. How often can you publish videos without compromising work, personal life, and rest?
3. Are you ready to sacrifice free time in favor of your channel?

Based on all this, create a publication calendar specifying which days which videos are released, and plan videos for the next 30-90 days.
Also create a video production schedule: how many hours, for which tasks, and on which days you plan to spend.
Plan the next week/month.

Tip: include time for analyzing results in your schedule (no more than once a month), as well as for responding to comments and creating additional content (for example, posts in the "Community" tab, live streams, or Shorts).

Step 7: Set short-term goals and keep track of your schedule

Remember that YouTube is a long-term endeavor, so don't set sky-high goals (for example, gaining 1000 subscribers in a week).

Example of good motivating and rational goals (you should analyze results no earlier than 3 months after releasing your first video on the channel):

1. Publish 4 videos per month/12 videos in 3 months
2. Establish a work and publication schedule
3. Gain the first 100 subscribers in 3 months
4. Accumulate the first 400 hours of watch time in 3 months

If your growth is slower than planned — this is no reason to despair. Try going through your checklist once more and see where mistakes might have been made, or what could be improved. We believe in you!