Key Takeaways
- Tags were useless many years ago — and still are today, but AI tools continue to train on old data and perpetuate the myth. Stop wasting your time with tags.
- The algorithm is not working against anybody. The reason you didn’t get any views is because you haven’t developed the skills to create the kind of content that would draw the right viewer — not because there was something wrong with the algorithm.
- Short-form and long-form are entirely two different types of videos. Short-form is typically viewed passively (the viewer scrolls past), while long-form is designed to be viewed actively when a viewer chooses to take their time in a crowded grid of videos.
- The first thirty seconds of your video should tell the viewer if they are in the right place — not introduce yourself. Hooks precede credibility, every single time.
- The niche you choose will determine the amount of potential revenue you can earn as a creator from day one. For most solo creators, educational content has the largest number of available revenue streams.
Nick Nimmin has been on YouTube for eleven years. He has worked with dozens of creators in various niches. He’s seen creators burn out, leave YouTube, succeed, and fail. In short, he knows well enough why so many creators’ YouTube channels stall before they get any traction.
It’s not the algorithm. It’s not competition. It’s not even bad content.
Most creators start their journey with no clue what they’re attempting to achieve, and therefore compare themselves to others who’ve spent years honing their craft. People think they should be able to perform as well as someone who knows exactly what they’re doing when they don’t even know what they’re doing yet.
“I’ve been playing the guitar for about one and a half years and I’m horrible. Do you really think anyone is going to contact me for a world tour?”
YouTube is similar. At first, you have no idea what you’re doing; later, you develop skills — thumbnail development, video ideation, hook development, retention. There is no fast track to developing these skills. The creators who succeed are the ones who don’t give up while still in it.
Before asking creators how they’d like to increase traffic to their YouTube channel, Nimmin asks the creator what they want to do. Views and subscribers are not objectives; they’re side effects. The real issue is: are you creating content in order to earn money, establish authority, attract leads, or make an impact? Whatever you decide forms all future decisions made by you as a creator. Creators who never figure this out ultimately produce random content that appeals to no one in particular, dilute their channel’s focus, and lose steam.
Quit Focusing on the Algorithm Already
According to both YouTube’s own engineers and Nimmin himself, the algorithm is not something to be optimized for. The audience is.
The YouTube algorithm is a response-based system. It simply shows users content that they’ve clicked on, enjoyed, returned to, and so on. That’s it. Make content that people engage with, and the algorithm will follow your lead. If you spend all your time worrying about optimizing for the algorithm while ignoring whether or not your content truly serves your target audience, you’re essentially reversing cause and effect.
Nimmin explains how the recommendation loop works in simple language: a user clicks on your video; watches it through until completion; clicks the end screen into another video; and watches that video also. When this occurs, YouTube’s system recognizes a positive viewing experience and begins tracking the user around the platform — recommending additional videos created by you. As long as the user continues to show interest in your videos, the system will continue to serve them your content. If the user stops engaging with your videos, the system will move on to new content.
This leads us to channel cohesiveness. When you create a video that attracts general YouTube viewers, and then YouTube attempts to recommend your next video — which may be targeting video editors — those general viewers will not respond. YouTube wasn’t broken. You attracted the wrong crowd. Fixing this isn’t about finding ways to game the system. It’s about ensuring each video published targets the exact same specific viewer.
There’s One Piece of Advice About Tags Nimmin Wishes He Could Delete From the Internet
Nimmin believes that if he could delete one piece of bad advice from the internet, it would be the emphasis on tags.
Tags did once have value many years ago — but that was during the time when YouTube’s search functioned more like blog SEO. That era has passed. For at least a few years now, YouTube’s algorithms have diminished their value. Today, Nimmin encourages his students to fill out the tag field simply so he doesn’t see blank spaces on the page. However, he states clearly that there is little to no creative effort that should go toward choosing a tag.
Why This Myth Continues to Exist (Thanks to AI)
AI tools such as ChatGPT were trained by looking at data from previous years. There is a vast amount of content online today stating why tags are so important. Therefore, whenever a creator asks an AI tool such as ChatGPT for guidance about YouTube, it provides outdated advice. ChatGPT and other LLMs do not understand that YouTube has eliminated the importance of tags — they simply report that there are a lot of pieces of writing on the internet talking about tags being important.
Nimmin is equally firm regarding the issue of using hashtags: while technically you are allowed up to sixty hashtags, after that number all of the hashtags become worthless. However, again, this is largely moot. The time used on deciding how to choose the best hashtag is time that could be better spent focusing on creating thumbnails, determining video topics, and creating hooks — these three factors are the only items that will ultimately determine whether people watch your video.
“Your focus should always be on the video topic, the thumbnail, and how you package the video topic along with the overall quality of your video. Ultimately everything else is unimportant”
Where Do Most Videos Fail?
YouTube tracks viewership through audience retention analytics. When tracking viewership, YouTube uses a specific mark at thirty seconds — and this is not an accident. Thirty seconds is considered the area where you have earned your viewer’s attention. If you can keep a viewer beyond the thirty-second mark, most will continue watching until the end of your video, unless you mess up somewhere down the road. Losing a viewer prior to the thirty-second mark means that regardless of what happens next in your video, it will never matter.
What Is the Most Common Mistake in Those First 30 Seconds?
Introducing yourself.
Nimmin is blunt about this: when someone watches your video, they do not care who you are at this moment. What they are concerned about is confirming that they clicked on the correct video. They need to confirm that the video will provide them with what they saw in the title and thumbnail. Starting off with “Hi, my name is Nick” and stating you’ve been on YouTube for eleven years wastes your most valuable space on providing information that they didn’t request.
The alternative to introducing yourself is to create a hook within the first 30 seconds of your video — directly answer their problem, deliver on the promise, or satisfy the curiosity gap based on why they clicked. Once you have provided a confirmation message to let them know they’re in the right location, then you may perform any type of brief introduction you feel is necessary. The viewer must be engaged before they will care who you are.
He also identifies another major failure: flooding the viewer in those first 30 seconds with too much information. The objective of those initial 30 seconds is not to deliver a deluge of data. It is merely to send a simple and straightforward message: yes, this video is exactly what you came here for.
Will Collaborations Help Grow a Small Channel?
Collaboration is another popular recommendation given to new creators as a “growth hack.” However, Nimmin views collaborations as less than perfect recommendations for growing small channels.
Collaborations can help grow a small channel if you can partner with a large channel that has an extremely high engagement rate from their viewers and an audience that matches very closely with your target audience. The conditions are critical. Outside of those two parameters, collaborating tends to produce more relationships and networking opportunities among peers — rather than promoting channel growth. Collaborating allows creators to meet other creators, reduce feelings of isolation associated with what is truly an isolating pursuit, and develop a peer group to support them throughout their pursuit of success.
Those benefits are worthwhile. However, do not rely solely on collaborations to replace the foundational elements of building success.
Shorts vs. Long-Form Content — Two Different Animals
A common confusion that Nimmin observes: creators who get a lot of views on their Shorts but struggle to get those same views on their longer-form content. They conclude that their Shorts audience simply doesn’t want to watch longer-form content. This is incorrect.
Technical Note First: View Counts for YouTube Shorts Do Not Equal Views of Longer-Form Videos
YouTube counts views for Shorts differently than for longer-form videos. Essentially, views for Shorts are more akin to impressions, and the “engaged views” (what YouTube actually tracks) are a subcategory of analytics. While the headline view count may look good, it is generally inaccurate.
In addition to how view counts are tracked technically, there’s also a much deeper issue: Shorts exist in a vacuum. Someone scrolls through their feed, a Short pops up; they don’t have to choose to engage with it. On the other hand, longer-form exists in a world where someone must visually see the thumbnail in a crowded grid, choose to click over other options, and then decide to watch content that could potentially be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes long. These are two very different asks.
If you’re getting views on your Shorts but having trouble getting views on longer-form content, it doesn’t necessarily mean your audience was wrong. More likely, you’ve simply not developed enough at creating longer-form content for your content to compete.
On Shorts, Nimmin recommends treating them as a brand awareness play. Create a series of short-form videos using long-form footage (e.g., Opus Clip makes this easy), but create some additional, custom-made shorter-form videos every now and again to boost visibility. After all, when a Short performs well, it will attract a new audience which can then be targeted with your repackaged longer-form content. Use Shorts as part of a larger channel strategy, rather than replacing your overall long-form strategy.
Niche Selection Matters Most Early On
When it comes to selecting a niche, it’s most important in the initial stages. For many creators that wish to monetize and transition to going full time, the niche they select either opens or closes pathways to generating revenue. As an example, a gaming channel requires tremendous amounts of view volume to produce reasonable income; affiliate programs and sponsorship opportunities are limited, and competition for attention is extreme.
Content focused on education has inherent monetization potential. Educational content can include affiliate programs, digital products, courses, services, and consulting. Nimmin provides an example: he mentions a friend who created a sobriety-related channel and generated over $1 million in profits prior to reaching 30,000 subscribers. He made his money via a high-ticket program. That’s what developing a niche with real monetization leverage looks like.
Before creating your first piece of content, ask yourself: Can I create content around this topic for the next 5 to 10 years? Does the niche you’re considering support the business outcomes you desire?
What Metrics Indicate Whether Your Efforts Are Landing?
Views and subscriber count are lagging indicators. Here are the metrics that indicate whether the efforts you put into improving your content are effective:
- Click-through rate (CTR): If you’re changing out thumbnails and video topics, your CTR should improve. If you’re changing these elements and your CTR isn’t moving, it indicates that your packaging isn’t effective yet.
- Audience retention at 30 seconds: This indicates your ability to hook your audience early on. If you’re sharpening your hooks and intros, you’ll see improvement in this area.
- Returning viewers: Found in the audience tab. If people are returning to view your content, you’re building something real. If you’re only attracting new viewers and not retaining returning ones, you have a loyalty problem.
One counterintuitive item to remember from Nimmin: sometimes enhancing the quality of your production will negatively impact channels built on amateur, relatable content. The polish associated with enhanced production quality detracts from the rawness that initially attracted people to the creator’s content. Enhancements will only positively benefit channels if the intended target audience responds favorably to such enhancements. Always check the stats — don’t assume that “better” by your own definition equals better results.
Why Now Is Still a Great Time to Get Going — and What That Really Means
Nimmin has heard “is now a good time to get started?” for 11 years. He has answered yes every single year. And he has watched many people wait too long and lose years of compounding returns.
He gives two very tangible reasons why now is an excellent time. First, YouTube is presently providing approximately two new channel spots per page load. This provides new channels with increased visibility (and therefore more impressions) to allow the algorithm to better understand their audiences. There is a legitimate structural advantage for those starting from scratch.
Secondly, the infrastructure has changed dramatically. In the beginning, when Nimmin started, there may have been around three or four other YouTube strategy-focused channels, and most of these were intentionally vague because they did not want to give away all their secrets so as to preserve their coaching businesses. Today, there are full-fledged content ecosystems devoted to teaching every conceivable skill a creator will need (thumbnail design, scriptwriting, presentations, copywriting for titles, video editing). Additionally, there are AI tools that can assist a creator in developing frameworks such as creating an audience avatar.
Nimmin is very clear on one point: while AI tools can certainly provide helpful assistance and support, they are also a conduit for confidence-boosting outdated information. Be sure you know enough to verify everything you hear. And remember, just having knowledge does not mean anything — the application of that knowledge is what matters. The work comes from putting effort into action.
Nimmin’s practical suggestion for consistently producing content is to create your own “appointment” by scheduling content production work. Set specific content blocks on your calendar and commit to keeping them as you would a scheduled work commitment. It is beneficial to separate blocks for learning and blocks for executing. Those who achieve momentum with their content are those who treat the process as a job before it generates income.
“The only thing that stops you is if you decide to stop. That’s it.”
