These Cheat Codes Will Help You Get More Views on YouTube Faster

Let the game begin!

YouTube is similar to a game: you have a final boss in the form of YouTube that you need to overcome, there's a constant struggle with opponents, whether it's the algorithms that the evil boss throws at you, or competitors who are also trying to gain the main prize: viewers' attention.

In this game, as in any other, there are rules. They’re numerous, complex, and often it's easier to just hit start and figure things out as you go. Many of you probably did just that—jumped in to play, planning to understand the mechanics as you went along.

In any game, there are secret tactics that will help you complete it faster, avoid traps, and reach the end.

There are also hints scattered throughout the vast world of YouTube that will help you stay on the right path and easily overcome difficulties on your way to your viewers.

And most importantly, in the YouTube game, there are many completely different endings.

Which one you get depends on how strongly motivated you are to play to win and what goal you have when starting this game.

Maybe you specifically want to complete the main quest, someone else might be more interested in side quests, and someone else just came to wander around the YouTube universe aimlessly, steal a car, and possibly blow something up.

Let’s start with the first hint to make playing the YouTube game easier: don’t try to defeat the main boss—try to appease him.

What does every main villain want? He’s obsessed with world domination. Sounds intimidating, right? Any self-respecting hero would already be rushing to stop him. And many creators do just that, only to suffer a crushing defeat.

If we remember that YouTube is the largest video hosting platform in the world, it’s not hard to guess its main goal: to keep viewers on the platform as long as possible and encourage them to watch more content.

But who does YouTube rely on to achieve this goal? That’s right—us, the content creators.

So, what does this mean? Do vloggers and YouTube share the same goal—viewers and their attention? Are we and YouTube dependent on each other?

Absolutely.

Regardless of the strategy you choose to succeed on YouTube—whether you develop your own or follow a proven method—you and the main boss share the same objective.

Like any player, you should go through some training to understand how this world works, and you’ll need to overcome certain levels to progress. And at each level, there are cheat codes and hints that can help you along the way.

That’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

Create your character

Whether it’s FIFA, where you choose a footballer, or The Sims, where you create a person, you always start by selecting or creating a character. So, you’ve clicked the “start game” button, and now you need to decide who you’ll be on YouTube.

But if you simply say, “I want to do movie reviews and be like CinemaSins,” it won’t work out well for you. You can start doing reviews, try to be critical like the original content creator, and even cover the same topics, but you’ll never become the vlogger you look up to—because you are you. That approach won’t work in the YouTube game.

So what should you do? How do you correctly create a character? Here’s a cheat code:

It’s simple: there’s a specific set of questions that will help you create a unique avatar capable of competing with other players on the platform.

Who are you? On this platform, you are the one playing. Everything matters when developing your character: your interests, mannerisms, personality traits, and unique features. This foundation is where your character is built.

What unique stats do you have? Don’t say there’s nothing special about you. Unlike a computer game, where your character is limited by the game’s scenarios and can never truly be unique, YouTube is different. You are a real person with your own unique journey, experiences, and personality. Only you will possess certain qualities in a particular format.

What would you like to create content about? Most people who come to “play” on YouTube already know what they want to talk about and show. But if you’re unsure, start by digging into your interests. Look beyond hobbies and consider what channels you watch, books you read, movies you enjoy, and music you listen to. These will reveal your passions and help you understand what content you’d like to create and in what form.

For whom? We can’t forget the ultimate goal—capturing audience attention. From the beginning, it’s crucial to know who your audience will be. Whether you’re making an automotive channel or a cooking show, understand your viewers: Are they children or adults? Men or women? Amateurs or professionals?

What do you want to say on YouTube, and why will people want to listen? This is where many creators stumble and lose momentum as soon as they start. It’s great that you’ve decided on your channel’s theme—say, making videos about drawing. But what’s the goal? Do you want to teach? Share your creativity? Discuss art?

Let’s say you want to talk about how to start drawing. But there are already many creators doing that, right? It’s crucial to understand why people will choose to listen to and watch your tutorials. Is it because you present them humorously? Or maybe you’re an experienced artist who, like a wise elder, offers masterclasses on drawing techniques.

You won’t succeed if your character is just like most others because they’ll simply outnumber and overwhelm you. The only way to win is by standing out, having a clear mission, and understanding why people need what you have to offer.

• Who are the type of people that will listen to you?

This is the most challenging cheat code, and you won't be able to enter it correctly on the first try, but that's normal.

Here, we're no longer defining our own characteristics, but those of the people we're trying to entertain.

This can be compared to princesses locked in a tower: yes, we're knights who must defeat the dragon on the way to the princess.

And we know she's beautiful. And probably smart. And likely young. Maybe she embroiders and sings beautifully. And for some, this princess would be perfect.

But for you, she might be a bit boring, and you'd prefer someone like Fiona from Shrek: stress-resistant, fierce, and quite a character.

Do you see where this is going?

You might have a channel about construction, and you understand that mostly men from 20 years old and up will watch you. But you're not a professional, you share your personal life hacks and don't claim to be an expert, so you wouldn't want professionals on your channel, as they might laugh at you.

This means you need to build a strategy to avoid attracting them to your content, but rather lure those who, like you, are gathering personal amateur experience and are ready to support others rather than criticize.

The more specific your main prize is, the faster you'll find the path to it.

So, we've created our character.

Let's enter the next cheat code: don't just choose a niche you want to work in, but look for a gap in it and fill it with your content.

We're not talking about choosing a narrow topic in a niche and then trying to expand from there. This cheat is no longer relevant today.

The essence of this cheat is to choose a topic in the niche that no one, or very few vloggers, are covering.

For example, we have the hobby niche. It's huge, covering literally everything from reading books to fishing.

If you start creating content on YouTube about the books you’ve read and why they’re great, you’ll find yourself competing not only with beginner vloggers doing the same thing but also with established creators who can easily draw away your audience, even if they’re covering the same topics.

They are on a higher level, they've already built their audience.

It turns out that winning in this space would be either impossible or extremely difficult. So, here’s where our cheat comes in: instead of competing directly, look for an unmet demand within the literature niche that no one else is addressing.

For example, you could focus on creating summer reading lists tailored for different grade levels. You might help motivate children to read independently by discussing books in an engaging way, or perhaps you could translate complex literary styles into more relatable, understandable slang for teenagers and younger readers.

This query, according to statistics, is not covered by many creators. Most vloggers in the book niche discuss their personal summer reading lists, but few focus on helping students understand their assigned reading.

At the same time, this approach will attract an audience that’s either already passionate about literature or one that you can inspire to become passionate through your channel. In the future, you won’t be limited to just discussing the school curriculum; you’ll be able to explore any topics that interest you. By then, your level will be significantly higher, thanks to a loyal and dedicated audience.

Start your first quest

Alright, what comes after character creation? Usually, in games, a tutorial is offered- but we’re going to skip that part.

All these rules, tutorials - who's even interested in that?! Let’s jump straight to the first mission. On YouTube, this means creating your very first video.

Right away, you’ll encounter your first obstacle: coming up with a topic for your video. At this stage, creators typically take one of two paths: they either write a script or start recording immediately. While it’s important to choose the method that suits you best, we have a cheat code for any player: think about the thumbnail, title, and ending of your video before you start recording.

If this sounds counterintuitive, let’s break down why it works.

You’ve got a topic in mind. It excites you, and you’re eager to share it with your YouTube audience. This is the perfect moment to translate that excitement into a compelling image and title. As you begin the routine work of creating the video, your initial enthusiasm might fade slightly—that’s natural. But by this point, you’ve already set the main hook to draw in your viewers.

Of course, turning feelings into an image and text is no easy task. But here’s another tip: study the thumbnails of other creators who have made videos on similar topics, and look for patterns.

Look at what connects them, what colors or objects are repeated. Then review how many views these videos have attained.

Let’s review a selection of thumbnails for videos on the topic "how to start learning English."

All the thumbnails have a calm background, there's an image in the center, large text, and they clarify that you can learn on your own or their self-study routine.

Sometimes creators use a bright accent to highlight something important in the text on the thumbnail, for example, a red background under the text.

In addition these thumbnails always target the viewer's pain point and promise to solve it: we'll teach you English, quickly and easily.

The thumbnail is clear: it's attracting the audience's attention. But then comes the video title.

The title further reveals the video's topic and also provides the first step towards creating curiosity in the viewer's mind.

If you come up with a title at the video preparation stage, you're helping yourself create clarity so that you do not ramble or lose track of core concepts.

The title should directly address your target viewers' desires. Once you've developed your character, this becomes easier to achieve.

However, there's a potential challenge: you might come up with dozens of great titles, but how do you choose the right one for this specific video

Let's return to the example of learning English.

If you look at the titles of these videos, you'll notice that they're all aimed at a very specific audience with a clear need. Viewers who are searching to learn the language independently with a clear and understandable plan, and preferably as quickly and easily as possible.

By cutting out all general words, unnecessary phrases, and focusing on the viewer's desires, you'll also find a perfect title for your video topic.

Here’s another cheat code: the thumbnail, title, and video introduction should work together as a single structure to capture the viewer's attention and motivate them to watch the entire video.

If you excel in only one area, it’s like having mismatched gear—your sword is one type, your armor another, and you forgot to wear your helmet. But when you assemble the full legendary set, your skill increases, and your impact on opponents triples.

Now, why should you think about the ending in advance?

If you know how your video will end, you can craft the right intrigue for the thumbnail, title, and introduction. 

That’s the trick.

Upgrade your level

You've already released your first video, taking a small step for mankind, but a giant leap for yourself.

Now you are ready to level up your character. It’s time to start creating content consistently.

YouTube’s unique structure allows a creator’s video to function in two ways simultaneously: as an independent unit competing for viewers' attention among other videos, and as part of a cohesive whole on the channel, aimed at converting a random viewer into a regular one.

This complex system exists because the algorithm is designed not for creators, but for viewers. As mentioned earlier, many vloggers see the algorithm as their enemy and attack it from all angles.

But this is the wrong approach. You’ll only waste time and effort. Instead, you need to understand how the algorithm works for the main platform and learn to work in harmony with it.

So it's time for another hint.

Imagine that viewers are customers in a store called YouTube, and you, as a creator, supply milk to this store.

Now a customer comes in and asks for meat. You'd agree it would be strange if YouTube gave them milk instead of meat.

That's why YouTube gives the viewer what they want, and if your content doesn't match this viewer's interests, the platform will wait for an audience that will be interested in your video.

It turns out that YouTube's algorithms will select videos based on viewers' interests, not search for an audience for your specific video.

Your videos will always be in the YouTube store, waiting for their moment in the spotlight, and now that you understand this game mechanic, it's much easier to understand how to interact with it. That's why it is important to determine who exactly your videos are for at the character creation stage.

For diligent creators, YouTube has points that it awards for each completed task.

• You have correctly formatted everything — you will get a hundred views from YouTube.
• You have increased retention — you will get two hundred additional views.
• You have kept the viewer on the platform longer than your competitors — here are a thousand views because you are doing great, and you are leveling up your character. 

The more points you accumulate, the more YouTube will give you each time.

It’s important to understand that  optimizing your video content for its target audience will boost your retention.

Retention is the main mission throughout your entire game on YouTube, and for completing this task well in each new video, you get the most points.

Storytelling in videos always follows a basic dramatic principle: every video should have a beginning, middle, and end. You can structure your video into parts using this three-act format—beginning, middle, and end.

When expanding on this structure within a video, start by creating intrigue at the beginning, reveal more in the middle, and present the main secret or the most important answer at the end.

For each part of the video, add an interesting twist at the end by revealing the main intrigue of that section, while immediately setting up a new one to be uncovered in the next part.

This approach creates a continuous cycle of viewer curiosity.

With these steps, you will increase retention in your videos, and YouTube will shower you with view points.

Additionally, with each new video on your channel, you will level up, improving your creator level, thereby upgrading your character from a newbie to a pro.

You will acquire new skills, gather more armor, unlock more secret tactics, leaving behind those who fail missions and don't try to level up their character.

Be professional

There is no endgame on YouTube.  You can continue earning points for as long as you wish or take breaks whenever you like.

If we compare YouTube to a specific game, it’s more like Minecraft or The Sims, where the focus isn’t on a main plot but on the process of playing. 

The algorithms favor creators who consistently publish content. However, many YouTubers misinterpret this, believing they need to churn out videos as often as possible, sacrificing quality for quantity.

This approach ultimately leads to failure. It happens because vloggers often don’t get proper training at the start of their "game" or they overlook the concept of viewer fatigue.

The audience gets tired of monotony, the same topics, and formats, especially if the videos aren’t high-quality. Creators who initially rely on quantity quickly fade if they neglect to make quality content.

The cheat code at this stage is to find a balance between quality and quantity.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice that experienced creators today often prioritize the quality and professionalism of each video over the frequency of releases.

Creating quality content is hard, so don't beat yourself up if you can't do it all the time. It's better to do it well than to do it a lot.

Notice that quality wasn't as important in the earlier levels. Because it was more important to gain experience, cool gear, and weapons, but now it's time to think about more complex things.

In the YouTube game, everyone has their own pace and chooses their level of difficulty. Some are experts with a team and money, others are mid-level players with a lot of experience but working alone, and then there are newbies with no experience, no team, and no money.  For them, expecting to become an expert overnight is impossible.

To always stay in the game at a PRO level, you need to continue releasing content regularly, improving its quality, and further developing your character by learning new skills.

And the final cheat code for today: improving your scripting skills is crucial on YouTube because it helps you retain viewers throughout the video—one of the most important metrics YouTube rewards.

Play by the rules, hone your skills, stay curious, and explore the world of YouTube. With this approach, you'll maximize both your success and enjoyment in the 'game.'