so I was speaking with someone close to me the other day and I asked how happy they were with their current profession and you know what their answer was three out of 10 so naturally I asked what would make that number way higher on that scale for you and you know what they said they said howdy howdy everyone Nate here I'm going to finish that story during this video because there's a very specific reason I shared it which you're about to get we need to know some stuff to make sure that you're doing the right
thing on YouTube first thing we need to know is this one of the main points of a discussion I have with people just like yourself is around this and it is from all of these discussions that I have come up with my definition of what this actually means for YouTube specifically number one it is a group of audience that already exist that you are making content for and number two there is no two just the one and one of the key factors of that definition is that that audience already exists before you ever did anything
for them next we need to figure out what this means what does it actually mean to Niche down versus niching up and I want you to listen closely here because you probably have not seen it this way before to Niche down with your audience simply means to get more specific with what you do for them and so it follows that the opposite of that to Niche up is just simply to get more broad or less specific with what you do for them it is really that simple but let me give you some examples of that
in action niching down has some really big advantages depending on what your goals are the two primary advantages of niching down and getting more specific with your audience is it's one easier to own that space if you are one of the few players in that very specific area that you're playing on YouTube you can become the preeminent or the number one player in that space much easier and two it tends to be easier to grow when you Niche down now here is why that is let's say I'm a consultant and I teach companies how to
do better presentations for their employees if I have a specific modality for doing that let's say I use whiteboards and I'm one of the only people that is doing whiteboard explainer videos for companies teaching them how to train their employees if the audience knows that they want that help they're going to search for that specific thing so what's going to show up well my videos because I niched down to that specific area those specific topics that I'm covering within my videos they're going to find mine and if it is a smaller overlooked area of YouTube
and no one else is doing it so to speak then naturally I'm going to be the one that shows up that is why this is the case here the two major Cons with niching down is one you tend to reach the cap or the terminal velocity the rate at which you can grow your channel is very clearly defined by how many people in the universe that are using YouTube actually want what you're giving them the second issue is if in the future you want to expand to more niches and you're only known for a very
specific group of things it can be more difficult to expand beyond that the two primary advantages of niching up or going more broad with what kind of audience you're targeting are these one when you Niche up you are more likely to have a larger amount of people that could be interested in what you're doing which literally means by the laws of numbers more spread or at least more potential spread for what you're doing two more interest in what you are doing potentially more people are more interested in what you're sharing with them continuing the example
of the person that's doing whiteboard explainer videos for business owners how would I Niche up with that channel well I could make videos like drawing the Whiteboard of how I imagine the HQ at Google looks like what their meetings are like and then having a bit of a parody with it I could be demonstrating this expertise of how good I am at doing these whiteboard explainer videos but maybe I make it about a real or a fictional company and play that up more so that the niching up here is even if I as an audience
member are not interested I'm not a business owner looking for better whiteboard explainer videos I might still be interested in watching that because I care about companies in general and how they run their business now there are absolutely some disadvantages of niching up with your channel and interestingly enough they're kind of the opposite of the advantages of niching down specifically if you're playing in a larger space that are already other large players in that space it could be much more difficult to carve out your place on YouTube and because of that growth can take longer
all right so what do we do about this niching up versus niching down thing you are somewhere on this scale of niching up versus niching down and I want you to think of this as a slider that can go up or down and you get to decide where you slide it so the action I want you to take here is decide where you are on this slider and if you want additional help on how to go about doing that I just published a couple of videos on this channel that you can watch after this and
now for my favorite YouTube Niche ideas based on what I'm seeing happen on YouTube this year the freelancer niche if you are a freelancer with a specialty in a certain skill set make a Channel about that skill set demonstrating your expertise and or showing projects you are working on what this will do for you is first serve as a portfolio potentially an evergreen portfolio of the expertise of your work it will also allow you you to increase your prices that you charge for your services as well as eliminate the number of conversations needed before you
acquire a new client why because they've already watched a bunch of your stuff and they already see that it's valuable and they already like you hopefully all right next businesses you can take what you are already doing for your business and treat your YouTube channel as a lead funnel that educates your audience on that thing whatever Niche you're in you probably have some ideal clients already the the main thing you're targeting with your business decide where that is on the scale with your content and then treat your channel like a super valuable resource that educates
that audience it's going to make it so that people like and trust you before they ever purchase because they've spent so much time with you watching your videos and seeing your expertise and liking your videos so that you're able to with a YouTube channel eliminate several warming up steps that the traditional business has to go through before they acquire a client and next Niche we're going to look at is called booping the like button on this video if it is being eye- opening and helpful to you thus far thank you for doing that all right
we're going to move on really the next Niche I see expl loading this year is the artist Niche what I see working on YouTube for artists this year is building a library of entertainment combined and this is important with personality you see I've been seeing this writing on the wall for a while now I've had conversations with a variety of different artist style channels musicians visual artists you name it and the one thing I keep seeing being true over and over again is that now in today's economy and on YouTube specifically it's not enough to
just be good at your art it's not enough to just make a video of you playing the piano and just publishing that video what people on YouTube want is they want to see the behind the scenes they want to see the person the Creator behind the scenes while you are creating that content because what you're doing when you do that is you're taking people from an audience that doesn't know you and could care less to people who actually care and next Niche mental health now we want to tread carefully here because this deals in the
medical space and we don't want to just go out there and pretend like we're an expert when we really aren't an expert what I want you to do is Target a specific type of person with your mental health help for example single moms recently divorced people business owners pick an area that you have expertise in and go really into that space really help that type of person just be authentic and share your real story and why you're qualified to share that with them and you are going to do huge things and next Niche wow that
went right back next Niche Automation and simplification again for a specific area that you are really good at I could use this one right now so for example if you were targeting me it would look like understanding the ins and outs of all the pieces required to run a successful small online marketing business and demonstrating how to automate each of those pieces to make the business owner's life much easier which by the way if that's you or you know someone that is really good at that hit me up I want to talk to you now
this simplification and automation wouldn't just have to Target business owners it could Target teachers making their job easier it could Target doctors there's a lot that could be done in this space and next Niche Journeys specifically Journeys happening in your life already for example I've had multiple conversations recently with people in the homesteading space the homesteading space is a perfect example to demonstrate what I mean here when you're a homesteading you're doing something on an ongoing basis and it tends to be cyclical so for example in the springtime you might be raising baby goats and
in the winter time you're putting away food for the winter so your Niche here isn't about raising baby goats or canning because that's cyclical it's it's seasonal instead your Niche here is the journey you are going on and bringing people along for that Journey if you're a professional or a professional hobbyist and you're doing something already I would definitely look into this and next we need to talk about what factors are most likely to predict your success in the niche that you choose you ready let's do this what I want you to do here is
measure yourself and the niche you've chosen for YouTube against this I have spoken now with hundreds of YouTube creators one-on-one and for many of them in the capacity of a consultant giving advice based on their Channel analytics how it's performing what's working what's not working and the space that they are playing in on YouTube the niche that they're in on YouTube and I've seen five things that are most likely to predict the future success of that YouTube Creator's chosen Niche number one Let's Pretend This is you here if that Creator makes sure that the niche
they've chosen matches their longterm goals like if they continue this trajectory that they're on right now will it actually accomplish what they want it to do longterm second if what that Creator is doing matches the skills or experience they already have acquired previously in their life and they're just bringing it to YouTube that's another indicator next if what that Creator chooses to do as a niche is something that they are already doing in their life like actively that they already do if it's a hobby they're already working on that hobby if it's a profession they're
doing it in their day-to-day life if it's something they are already doing that's another factor and next if what that Creator is doing or if what you are doing is something that you look at what is already existing on YouTube you you watch the videos you see the other content that's out there and you think dang I could do that better or if you're dissatisfied with what's already out there or it's incorrect that is another good indicator and next if that Creator decides to play in a space on YouTube that just makes them happy they
just like what they are doing now I've seen this time and time again where a Creator will go to YouTube and they'll say well I have the skills and experience maybe that's what I'll make my Niche or they'll say well I'm already doing it maybe I'll try to make some money with my hob or they'll say I'm just really interested in this and we'll say all right I'm just going to do this because it makes me happy or they might think man YouTube is a really good opportunity I can make a lot of money with
it I'm just going to make a Channel about whatever or they're so fed up with all the terrible content on YouTube and they say you know what I'm just going to go here and I'm just going to set the record straight for everyone all right at this point you're probably wondering why there's this Center Circle here and you're probably thinking I'm going to say well if you can do something that combines all five of these things together then you're in an ideal situation well you got me I am kind of going to say that if
you can actually find something that combines all five of these factors you do have the highest likelihood of success however I will not go so far as to say that you have to have all five of these things to be successful on YouTube because it all comes down to get this your definition of success if for example you really want to share something and leave a legacy behind by just publishing videos because you want to publish them then maybe all that takes is that it makes you happy and it accomplishes your goals and if it
does those two things for you then that is Success this Center space is the best indicator of the longevity of the channel because it's happy and it's accomplishing your goals but also the income potential and the likelihood of it growing more quickly if you have the skills or experience or it's something you're already doing so it requires less skill sets to actually get started now for the story that I started this video with when I ask them what would increase their happiness quotient dramatically they said if I were to pretty much drop everything get a
van and travel around the country and and review the local theaters like the musical theaters in each of these local towns to find the Obscure theaters as well as the large Broadway theaters so what do you think I did during that conversation I sat them down right there and said what would it actually take to do that sooner than you think let's talk about what would it actually cost to get a van what kinds of videos would you do how would you get sponsors would you get a dog for your Journeys which is of course
you would and what would you name that dog these are important questions so my question to you is why are you doing a niche that you don't want or doing a that you do want but you're doing it in a way that you don't want to do that was a lot of Dos if you're doing something you want to do but you're not doing it in a way that fits you why the heck are you doing that and the next question is what would it take for you to do what you do like a lot
sooner or right [Applause] now