Creating a fun place for people to learn about creative YouTube creators and best practices

Uncovering the Problem

One of my many roles during my career at YouTube was to research strategies that creators were using to stand out, in order to help other creators be successful as well. I had a lot of fun with this, as it basically involved searching through YouTube for the most creative and original content and then writing about it.

My team shared what we found by presenting the information to creators directly via in-person workshops, and later through an online educational hub (now the YouTube Creator Academy). These methods were largely effective in getting the information to creators, but sometimes I couldn’t help but feel that the information we were sharing became watered down and boring after being filtered through many rounds of corporate review processes.

COMING UP WITH A SOLUTION

After I left YouTube, I saw the chance to share some of the personal knowledge that I had amassed about unique creators and strategies that I never had the opportunity to share and give my own personal take on some of my favorites.

I started the publication “The Creative Landscape of YouTube” using Medium, and set out to define what kind of blog it was going to be. One thing that I knew for sure was that I wanted to showcase content and creators based on their creativity and originality, and not their popularity like most other sites. With this approach, I could feature up and coming creators, talk about some lesser known creators that had been around for a while, or highlight strange and weird niche communities. I enlisted some friends to help me get started and published a couple articles to see what kind of interest there was.

BUILDING A PUBLISHING TEAm

I was able to attract the interest of a company called XRM Media, which was interested in funding the project in return for helping the company appear knowledgeable about YouTube content and creators. They asked me to join the company and focus on continuing to operate and grow the publication, which I accepted.

One of my first steps was to bring on an editor, and together we created a plan to expand the blog. We defined several article categories, each with writing guidelines that helped to standardize the format and style of each article. We then recruited a number of freelance writers with backgrounds in digital media (some were even YouTube creators themselves) and distributed writing assignments based on their interests and levels of expertise.

The first of the formats we specified was the simple “Listicle” format where we had writers focus on a single content niche and highlight unique creators or shows within the category in a short article. Second was a longer, more detailed-oriented “Strategies” format where we explained a creative concept in the form of examples provided by multiple creators. Lastly was the “Feature” format, in which we took a deep comprehensive look at the popularity and cultural impact of a creator or creator community.

It was also very important to set up an editorial review and publishing process so that articles could be planned and published on a regular schedule. Our process was to assign writers a deadline to submit a first draft to my editor Devin, who would provide notes and send it back for the writer to make revisions by a second deadline. The second draft would then be passed to me for proofreading, formatting, design, publishing, and distribution. I would share the completed articles on social media via relevant hashtags and communities.

Results

The publication and articles were met with positive feedback from creators, those in the digital video industry, and regular readers who stumbled across the blog. Creators featured in our articles were happy to share them with their audiences, and one of our featured articles was selected by the Medium editorial team to be recorded in an audio format. We were able to acquire over 221k views and 500 followers across platforms through organic reach alone, and the next step for the team was to create a targeted advertisement campaign to expand the audience even further.

Unfortunately at this time, XRM Media chose to pivot away from digital media creators. I retained the publication that I created, but it largely stayed dormant as I moved on to subsequent projects. Overall, I found the experience of building and running a publication of my own to be invaluable, and I was able to expand my editorial, branding, and writing skills to a higher degree.