I spent 84 hours studying viral YouTube videos—here's what I found...
I've been trying to figure out how the heck do videos go viral on YouTube...
Creators obviously know what they're doing and I have a suspicion that it starts with their video titles.
Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking about YouTube marketing. Specifically what are the similarities between videos with 1-5 million views.
Despite the topic, format, and thumbnail, I found the titles have the most in common.
So here's a list of YouTube title templates that have gone viral and when to use them:
Category 1: Titles about money.
[$X product] vs. [$X product]: Which one is better?
I tried this [bizarre $X product]—was it worth it?
I spent [$X] on [random thing]—here's what I found...
Category 2: Titles about random topics.
I did [uncommon action] for [extended amount of time]
I tried doing [uncommon action] without [thing you normally need]
I spent [# of hours] with [thing]
Category 3: Information-based titles.
[#] things you didn’t know about [person, place, thing or topic]
How to get better at [an action] without doing [the mundane steps normally required]
[#] ways to get better at [an action] in [specific timeframe]
Category 4: Video essay-style titles.
The downfall of [popular person or topic]
Why [specific topic] sucks
How [a societal action] ruined [something you cared about]
Why you probably hate [popular person or topic]
Exposing [thing or person]’s dark secrets
There are countless popular YouTube channels that only use the title formats mentioned above to succeed.
Remember this: Sometimes the titles that you alone can come up with are the best. See if you can think of something entirely original.
What other types of videos do you see going viral on YouTube?
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