How Peter McKinnon gained 1 million subscribers in under 1 year

hello guys what is going on and welcome to the first episode of YouTube master class on my channel in this series we take a look at successful youtubers and analyse what exactly they have done to get ahead of the game this episode is all about Peter McKinnon so without further ado let's get straight into the video so for the very small minority of you guys who haven't already seen his content all over the YouTube homepage Peter McKinnon is a toronto-based photographer and videographer with his video content obviously focusing around these two art forms but why

should we be paying close attention to his YouTube success what do I think qualifies him as a digital entrepreneur well first off let's take a look at some of the numbers peter has only been uploaded on a regular basis for nine months in that time however he has achieved exponential growth at the time of recording this video Peter's channel stands at a whopping 1.1 million subscribers along with 40 million views six and a half million of which have come in the last 28 days in terms of revenue generation using a pretty conservative CPM of two

US dollars Peter could easily be clearing 13,000 US dollars a month from ad revenue alone on top of that his videos are often sponsored by companies he sells his own preset packs and he has Amazon affiliate links in the description of all his videos so as you can see for yourself peter has built a very effective business model around his main passion in life it's pretty clear to me that while he definitely enjoys making videos he's also a very astute YouTube entrepreneur in a recent Q&A video he even cited being able to work for himself

as one of the main reasons he started YouTube in the first place great experience okay so each of you has 20 seconds to answer this question what inspired you to start making YouTube videos yeah I started because it was a way and it means to start working for myself but the burning question is how did he do it first off I think it's important to outline the three steps required to grow an engaged YouTube audience before explaining later on the methods and strategy used by Peter himself to maximize the effectiveness of each of these steps

step one is all about gaining that initial attention how are people finding you what methods are you using to drive traffic to your videos and Channel step 2 providing quality content are you providing these potential subscribers with content that would bring the benefit for example learning a new skill or simply entertainment value this step is what converts views into subscribers step 3 growing relationships with your audience how are you creating a personal connection with your audience how are you making sure in a sense that subscribers are buying into your channel and what you are all

about as a youtuber you could get a million views on a random video and gain 20,000 subscribers as a result of it but you need to establish a relationship with these viewers to make sure they stay active and are interested in your new content so let's get straight into it and analyze how Peter put these steps into action starting off of course with step 1 gaining the initial attention peter has excelled at this stage of the process and from spending the last few days researching his channel there are a number of tactics that jump out

as being responsible for this success the first tactic is related to his video type strategy I know that sounds like a name I just made up on the spot and that's because it is however don't let that distract you from the message I'm trying to put across when Peter first started his YouTube channel he upload a typical vlog format videos with titles such as super spicy food or I racked my shoulder while I'm not denying that these vlogs were very well made videos Peter didn't get the traction he was looking for he skipped step 1

and tried to build an audience relationship without firstly gaining that initial attention these videos received pretty poor views comparatively and Peters soft growth was steady but not as rapid as it soon would become this all changed when Peter changed up his video type strategy and started uploading what I call viral video attempts these videos are usually not in vlog format often instead preferring list format or tutorial format and usually have a higher ability factor aged camera hacks in 90 seconds and five tips to instantly up your photo game where his first two attempts at going

viral both are very shareable in comparison to his earlier videos also if a random viewer starts watching the video they are much more likely to stay engaged as it is providing them with new skills instead of just watching a random guy they have no connection with go about his day lo and behold they both went viral the former is still to this day his most viewed video with 2.7 million views these videos obviously brought a lot of attention and new subscribers to his channel which in turn meant he could return to the vlogging format with

much more people behind him another tactic that Peter deploys to help gain attention to his videos is his use of a static yet simple video thumbnails in the photography and videography YouTube niche presentation is obviously very important Peters thumbnails stand out in my opinion because they very rarely feature any text instead he opts for a high quality photo that alludes to the video content for example here on the left you can see one of his thumbnails and on the right you can see one that I've made for the same video I'm personally much more likely

to click on the more simplistic version provided the title already tells me what the video content is all about what do you guys think the final attention-grabbing tactic that I've picked up from studying Peter is in relation to the actual video intro take a look at how he typically begins his videos what's up everybody Peter McKinnon here and today we're talking about how you can take photos like this and turn them into this by creating your own fantasy composite photos in Photoshop and oh does it look badass almost hit myself in the face on that

so as you can see Peter introduces the video himself before even running his intro reel this lets the viewers know what to expect from the video straight from the get-go he wastes no time and engages the audience as soon as possible within 15 seconds he's introduced the video and shown what the before-and-after looks like I believe this to be of paramount importance when trying to increase your video retention rates so now that we've studied how peter draws attention to his youtube channel and videos let's quickly go over how he converts these viewers into fans by

looking at step two of the process providing quality content this that kind of speaks for itself if you want people to subscribe and engage with your videos you need to be releasing high-quality videos that bring viewers benefit in terms of production value his videos are shot in 1080p HD as a minimum with many maxing out in 4k resolution smaller things that viewers might not pick up on such as video lighting and audio quality are always top-notch to in terms of the actual video content peter is providing benefit mainly by teaching new skills in an easy-to-understand

format his tutorial videos are very detailed and viewers can follow along at their own pace even when he makes a more vlog orientated video there are tips sprinkled throughout providing all this free content psychologically makes users feel indebted to Peter and how do they repay him by subscribing to his channel and supporting his new content I realized this all sounds pretty obvious and it is but I often see you Uber's wonder why they aren't converting high views into actual subscribers as peter showcases you need to adopt the mentality that you were buying a viewers time

with benefit value and entertainment value if the viewer doesn't feel the trade-off was fair and doesn't subscribe or engage with the video chances are you need to up your game and finally let's take a look at how peter has managed to successfully bridge the gap and create a connection with his audience it's step number three i say bridge the gap as i feel a lot of people in the tutorial niche on youtube provide great content in terms of teaching but they don't make the effort to create relationships with their audience I'm not saying you need

to make this effort to be a success but if you ever want to go down the vlogging roof for example it is so important to have already built up that rapport so how has Peter built up these relationships with his audience by being personal it sounds easy and it is easy just watch this conversation he has with his audience before a Lightroom tutorial alright everybody welcome back to another peter mckinnon tutorials so great to see all your smiling faces which actually can't see any of them but I assume some of you are smiling and some

of you probably aren't smiling and let's just continue with the tutorial happy Father's Day for starters to all the dads and fathers out there all the father's to be all the fathers come and gone and all of that you know father myself I respect the job the title the yeah happy Father's Day hope you guys have a great day of your family and maybe grab your kids and watch this tutorial and smash the like button and that'll be my Father's Day gift in the short 30 seconds before he gets into the actual tutorial he 1

greets his audience in a friendly and positive manner 2 adds in some light humor 3 pays tribute to all the fathers watching and 4 reveals that he is in fact a father himself this might all seem a bit irrelevant but his willingness to get personal with his own audience is what has helped him build up this personal connection people watch him to benefit from his content of course but they are also invested into Peter as a human being there are thousands of Photoshop Lightroom and premiere pro tutorials on YouTube but people watch Peter McKinnon because

he is Peter McKinnon from a business point of view bridging this gap is so crucial Peters fans are more likely to purchase his products because they have that sense of trust they feel like they know him as a person just from watching his videos so in conclusion his understanding of all three of these steps is what has helped Peter propel himself into the YouTube spotlight in under a year of making videos he excels at getting that initial attention but is equally as savvy when it comes to converting these viewers into high-value subscribers through the quality

standard of his videos and his likable personality I hope you enjoyed this video and hopefully you picked up a few tips which you can apply to your own YouTube channel and strategy please subscribe and leave what youtuber you want to see next in this video series down below thanks very much for watching