The first three segments of this book review examined in brief the first two thirds of Derral Eves’ amazing compilation of insights about using YouTube and the groundbreaking opportunity it offers anyone to build a profitable online business. After graduating college with a degree in marketing, Eves eeked out a living doing graphic design for business cards. He parlayed that into building websites for his clients until he discovered the power of YouTube to grow businesses online.

Eves is now one of the leading experts on using video to market businesses online, exponentially broaden their reach and make piles of money. Having just finished reading The YouTube Formula I can honestly say that Eves’ claims are not hyperbola. He walks the reader through his process, step by step. If you’re willing to dig in and do the work, you too can carve out a niche that will more than support you.

It’s easy to think having a successful channel is all about numbers of viewers and subscriptions but this is far from true., according to Eves. YouTube rewards creators for average view duration by putting your content in suggested viewing, which is a fast track to success. Quality content and audience retention are the brass ring. Numbers of viewers is a by-product.

A couple of days ago I wrote some extended comments on Eves’ book to elaborate on YouTube’s revenue sharing model. The YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) has been phenomenally successful in growing YouTube as a global company. The gaming industry has since adopted a form of revenue sharing by rewarding viewers with cash or gaming credits to keep them engaged with their platforms. Ultimately it’s the advertisers cutting the checks. Revenue sharing may well extend into other businesses, including the entertainment industry.

The second half of the book (which is where I left off in part three of this extended review) gets into how to read and leverage YouTube’s real time analytics in their online Creator Studio. There are four basic areas to study and track to optimize your video content in this suite of tools.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Average View Duration (AVD)

Average View Percentage (AVP)

Average Views Per Viewer (AVPV)

Eves go into considerable detail about these metrics and how to use them to tweak your content and play nice with YouTube’ s Google powered A.I. This process requires diligence and a long term strategy that includes a willingness to study what isn’t working as much as what does. Once you get a grasp of these concepts Eves applies the “formula” – which, in essence, boils down to this:

By the same token, Eves advocates for the human presence in the videos themselves and leveraging your uniqueness. There is in-depth discussion about the relative importance of titles and the thumbnail picture with a longline style overview to increase CTR. Titles are best with trending keywords and critical for the algorithms but a Netflix Study (The Power of the Picture) the picture is 80 percent of what the human eye, or visual cortex, uses to decide on what’s relevant to their YouTube search at any given time.

Try, Fail, Analyze and Adjust with Data-Driven Decisions

Derral Eves

Why a person hops on YouTube is in a constant state of flux and they most often access it from their cell phones. Screen size should be taken into consideration in set design too. Anyway, there are 4 basic categories for what brings people to the platform: to answer a question; to learn how-to do something; to find entertainment and to relieve stress or anxiety. These categories are good to keep in mind when brainstorming content. You want to be able to fill those needs with varied types of content and delivery styles.

And there’s continuing talk about quality content that delivers on its promise. After those elements are in hand (and it’s really a never ending process) it’s all about audience retention. Content strategy helps out there as does Community Building. By getting to know your Avatar extremely well (as discussed in the first half of the book), you can hone your message or entertainment to brand status.

The book can induce narcolepsy in spots (it’s dry, dry, dry) but all in all it’s a remarkable and generous gift to anyone wanting to learn about marketing in today’s digital environment. There are mentions of downloadable tools as well. These are free to use. Tube Buddy, VidIQ Boost, Kickass Headline Generator and Eves own companion workbook, ytformula.com

He coaches clients globally these days and is Executive Producer for the most successful crowd-funded TV series in history, The Chosen. I recently wrote about The Chosen as well as their production partner Angel Studios. If all that wasn’t enough, a few years back Eves also founded VidSummit – an annual networking and collaborative conference for creators and marketing gurus and co-hosts the podcast Creative Disruption with Branded Entertainment Network (BEN) CEO, Ricky Ray Butler.

Look for my year-end post with my Top 5 Movies for 2021. Thanks for stopping by. Like, subscribe, comment and come again soon. Bye for now.