Follow Along ThatHotPhysicsGuy YouTube channel (1)
Hey guys! I started a YouTube channel with my friend about 4 weeks ago. I'm going to be using this thread as a journal to document my efforts on this.
About the channel
The channel is called ThatHotPhysicsGuy. It's a talk show about astronomy and physics. We invite cute girls and (in the future) successful guys to explore topics they are particularly interested in. My friend, the host of the show, is an Ivy League PhD researcher of astrophysics at UNLV.
Goals
- build an online asset to contribute to the field of science for my friend and for internet marketing for me
- build up videography experience for myself
- increase social status to attract hot girls into my life and connect with more successful individuals
- monetize on ads from YouTube (less important)
Show theme
Our content is very light and humorous, but still provides good content on astronomy and physics. To achieve that we invite cute girls and keep the whole video in a form of a social, fun conversation.
Target audience
- popular science nerds
- people watching general entertainment on YouTube
Content so far
We publish one episode every Friday. Currently have 3 published, 4th episode is already produced and the 5th one we filmed last weekend - ready to go into video production. I have a line up of models eager to be on the show and a variety of leads on new locations.
Background information
Artur (me)
Last summer is when I held a video camera for the first time in my life. I was lucky to connect with very influential people in Las Vegas that run a nightlife and event promotions company VivaVegasTv. Over the course of those couple of months I filmed a couple of bikini competitions and conference events with them, mostly as a friend that wanted to learn something about filming. This was only filming, no actual video production experience as it wasn't interesting for me at a time.
Fast forward to five weeks ago, I finally started working on this project, about which me and my friend must have been "talking" for about six months. Instead of fucking around forever, I just asked a female friend of ours and another girl I recently met if they want to be on the show. I borrowed a camera from a friend and asked an owner of my favorite hookah lounge if we can film at their location. Couple of days later we filmed our first two episodes.
With zero video production experience, I got myself Adobe Premiere and started putting together the first episode. Two days later it was ready and published. You can see it here. First marketing efforts consisted of putting together a Facebook page and driving mostly traffic of our social circle.
Sergei - the show host
He has extensive background in astrophysics. Went to Cornell is currently doing research at UNLV. He prepares content and utilizes his amazing social skills to work with the models on camera and follow my creative vision.
Our production process
Content
Currently the main selection is based on what the guest is interested in the most, since we want to bring out as much genuine curiosity out of them as possible. We also require the guests to bring a book recommendation which you can see at the end of each episode.
If the guest doesn't have any specific subject, we pick one ourselves as well as the book recommendation. This is based on what Sergei finds the most interesting.
Moving forward, I'm pushing towards incorporating the latest astronomy news and research on Google Trends to find topics that people are searching for the most on the internet. Also, I'll be researching niche keywords with little competition to tap into organic traffic from Google.
The Girls / Guests
I come from heavy dating coaching background and meet cute girls ALL THE TIME so I utilize that to get people on the show. Guests so far are our friends and girls I meet in random situations. Additionally, I pay models about $100 per shoot which is pretty attractive pay for a couple of hours of filming. They are always super excited about being on the show. This model is working very well so far.
Going forward (once five episodes are published), I will be improving the quality of the guests. For that I will start hiring professional models which I know quite a bit in Vegas. Also, I will soon start approaching successful guys to be on the show as well.
Filming locations
I approach venues that I find particularly interesting to film at their location. This is mostly me asking for the general manager of the venue and talking things out with that person. It's a hit an miss, sometimes they say "cool, wanna come in today?", sometimes it's more problematic. However, so far our best content comes from filming outside in public locations due to better lighting.
Equipment
Currently I use a camcorder borrowed from a friend Canon Vixia HF R600 and a bluetooth microphone attached. It's not perfect but it does the job. New camera Canon EOS Rebel T3i is coming tomorrow for massive improvement in video quality. Next I will invest into better audio recording setup.
For video production, I'm using Adobe Premiere which I taught myself in about 4 days to do everything I need.
Marketing - the meat
YouTube channel
Facebook page
Current stats
YouTube subscribers: 16
Video views: 2,446
Facebook fans: 26
YouTube advertising
I buy YouTube advertising to promote our full videos in suggested videos. The goal is to ramp up the views and most of all convert those into subscribers.
Facebook advertising
The goal is to get people to engage with our posts so that our content displays on their news feeds organically more often. Additionally, driving click throughs to the channel and getting subscribers.
Channel Click Through Teasers is a new strategy I'm testing out. I produce a 1 minute teaser of the new episode and post it as a native video ad for Facebook. Clicking through to "Watch more" takes users to the full video on YouTube.
THPG#3 is a boosted post from our page with an episode description and a link to our full episode on YouTube.
THPG - Channel Clickthroughs is a an ad with a creative and text and a link to our channel with subscribe popup targeting only desktop, as mobile doesn't provide the popup. Currently disabled campaign.
THPG Page Promo is a suggested page ad with a creative, description and Like Page button. Currently disabled campaign.
THPG#2 was another boosted post from our page when we released episode 2 with a link to the episode on YouTube. Currently disabled campaign as it was replaced with the same for episode 3.
Marketing summary
So far I'm not making any deduction from Facebook stats. The campaigns have been running for less than 2 weeks and I don't think I have enough data yet to know what's working best.
YouTube advertising is driving a lot of views, but I'm not sure how they convert into subscribers.
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