MrBeast
is currently one of the top channels on YouTube, with over 60 million subscribers as of April, 2021.
This will be the first of a series of articles with the goal of studying MrBeast’s channel to figure out what he did to get where he is today.
In this article we’ll reveal tips, tricks and secrets he used that YOU can apply to help grow YOUR channel.
In part one, we’ll give a summary of the tactics he used (either advertently or inadvertently) from his first 14 videos which were centered around the video game “Minecraft” from 2012 – 2013.
For your convenience, below is a playlist of these videos. To view all videos in this playlist, click the playlist icon that with the “1/14” underneath it.
Without further ado, below are 10 YouTube Secrets we learned from watching his first Minecraft Videos:
1) MrBeast Did Not Show His Face for the First Two Years
The first thing that should be noticed is he does not show his face in his early videos.
When did MrBeast first show his face, you ask?
From what I can tell, his first face reveal was on April 4, 2014 in a video titled “Should I join FaZe?????”
Let that soak in for a moment. He did not show his face for over two years after he started his channel!
You may be in the same boat and hesitant to show your face at first.
If you are camera shy, try to slowly and gradually build your confidence. You can start by making videos with background music or use text to speech software as your narration.
When you are ready, move to the next phase and make videos using your real voice but still without showing your face.
Gradually ease into showing your face by using a picture in picture format with yourself in one corner of your video.
Increase your camera confidence by using short clips of your face, and use b-roll or your main footage for the majority of your videos.
The more videos you make, the better you will get and eventually you may not care about showing your face.
2) You Don’t Need Expensive Equipment
Did you notice the low budget production value in MrBeast’s first videos? He is using a free version of Bandicam that still has a watermark. 🤣
A lot of new channels think they have to buy thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment, lighting, computers, etc.
If you have plenty of extra money laying around, then go for it, but don’t use the lack of expensive equipment as an excuse to procrastinate.
Start with whatever equipment you currently have – even if you only have a webcam or your current camera on your smartphone.
MrBeast used an iPhone 5 all the way up to 100,000 subscribers! Check out his tweet on Twitter where he talks about this:
Exactly. Never had any money and literally saved up the dollar a day I was earning at the time to buy equipment.
I got 100,000 subscribers with an iPhone 5 camera lol
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) July 29, 2019
In his second video, the Bandicam watermark is gone so he must have upgraded to the pro version. 🤣
3) Leverage Online Communities & Forums
In many of MrBeast’s early videos he links to Planet Minecraft. I have a hunch that this played a big role in building his initial core audience.
If you look in the description of his videos you will see links to various Minecraft forums, some of which he was active in.
In the forums he collaborated with other YouTubers that were also trying to build their channels.
Participating on forums is a great way to build the foundation of your subscription base.
Ask yourself… are there any communities that would be interested in my videos?
Would those communities consider subscribing to my channel? Would they be the type
to share/post your videos?
If you really want to go the extra mile, start your own community. Hmm… this is a rather good idea the more I think about it. 🤔
4) YouTube SEO
I found some old MrBeast6000 forum posts where he talks about a discovery on how to show up higher in YouTube search by using title, description, tags.
Many of the early YouTube SEO tricks don’t work anymore so don’t bother using them. But it’s important to note as it was likely helpful with his growth in the early days.
YouTube SEO advice you can still use today is to write accurate/simple titles, good descriptions and minimize your tags.
Look for things people are searching for and make a video of it to try to rank in YouTube and Google.
The main thing you need to know now is to not spam in your titles, description, tags, etc. Word on the street is tags play a minimal role with YouTube search, so use them sparingly. If a tag you use is not in the video or audio it may be seen as spammy.
Starting on his 8th video, MrBeast began putting important keywords in parenthesis at the end of the video title.
Not sure who started this trend but the practice is still used today… brackets, parenthesis, asterisks, etc for the important keywords in your title that you want to draw attention to.
In his intros he usually mentions most of the keywords that are in his video’s title. He has refined this over the years as it may serve two purposes. One, helping a video rank higher and two, tell viewers exactly what your video is about as soon as it starts.
5) Piggyback Off Popular Topics and Trends
Piggybacking is a big key to MrBeast’s success.
All of his first videos were piggy backing off of the hugely popular video game Minecraft. According to Google Trends, Minecraft peaked in popularity in July, 2013, a year after this video.
So, Jimmy got in early on the trend and by the time it peaked he was way ahead of the competition.
Before you begin building your channel, research to see if there is an existing audience that would enjoy your content.
Questions to ask yourself:
1 – Are there forums, communities, subreddits, blogs, email newsletters, traditional magazines, etc. on my topic? How many members do they have? How active are they?
2 – What popular products/trends (like Minecraft) could I piggyback off of?
3 – Where does my audience hang out? Do I even have an audience? Would they like or share my content?
4 – What kind of videos does my target audience currently enjoy?
5 – How big is your potential audience? In the hundreds? Thousands? Millions?
By his second video, MrBeast was leveraging a hugely popular video game that had an existing audience that could be reached/monitored. He reviewed a Harry Potter mod and as a result combined multiple popular trends – Minecraft & Harry Potter!
MrBeast’s Minecraft mod review videos let’s him piggyback off the popularity of mods as well as search traffic from people looking to download them.
In another video, he piggybacks off of the enormously popular musician “Psy” with a Psy Skin.
This is one of the fundamentals of success on YouTube – piggybacking off popular trending topics.
He uses the song “Jam On It” by Newcleus.
So he is taking advantage of the popularity of three things: Minecraft, Psy and the “Jam On It” song
Not sure but this could have been a meme going around at the time. Maybe MrBeast started it?
How can you piggyback off of what’s trending to help you go more viral?
Other examples of times MrBeast piggybacked to grow his channel:
Video 7: MrBeast discovers the “sponge” block in Minecraft. He says he has been playing for two years and didn’t know it existed. It’s possible the popularity of Spongebob may have helped give this episode a boost.
Video 10: Review of a Minecraft mod that had a lot of activity on a forum. In one video he is piggybacking off of people that are interested in the mod and leveraging viewers from the forum where it could be downloaded from.
Video 14: This episode demonstrates the Note Block feature in Minecraft with a video of the song “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters. Videos like this have gone viral with the help of sites like Reddit. So this is piggybacking off three things at once. Minecraft, the note block feature, and the foo fighters.
6) Make Similar Content to Your Most Popular Videos
MrBeast still employs this strategy to this day. Some of his videos are in a series such as Minecraft commentary. In his newer videos you will see categories on his channel such as “Last to Leave Circle…”, “I Survived 24 Hours…”, “Last to Take Hand Off Wins…”, etc.
If you have videos that perform well, make similar videos that are closely related to that topic. For example, if you made a tutorial video on “How to Change a Tire on a Car”, you might make another video such as “How to Repair a Flat Tire”.
In his 6th video, he showcased a scary Minecraft pig skin. That one may have brought in a lot of views, as his previous video was also about a skin
7) What Are People Searching for on Google & YouTube?
A lot of gamers probably used Google quite a bit to find specific Minecraft skins, mods, maps, etc.
If a video is made that answers a question from a Google search, sometimes the video thumbnail is displayed in the result, which will get a lot of clicks.
When it comes to Minecraft it can be time consuming when installing mods, so MrBeast provided a great service by making a video so people could see what it looked like before downloading and installing. They could watch the video first and then decide from there.
Use Google’s autocomplete to see what search suggestions show up around your niche. If you find a topic with poor or old results, make a video about it.
8) The Power of Asking
One of MrBeast’s trademarks is being relentless about asking people to subscribe to his channel.
Even in his first 14 videos he slowly but surely asks people to subscribe to his channel.
How many subscribers would MrBeast have today if he didn’t ask people to subscribe?
Probably not nearly as many. Because of the simple act of asking, he probably would be in a completely different place right now. Who knows, maybe he would have given up years ago?
Just remember this when making your videos. Remember the power of asking and take a moment to ask your viewers to subscribe.
Best selling author Robert J. Ringer recommends asking in “10 Never-Fail Rules for Success“.
Ask again and again and again.
And on that note, will you take a moment and subscribe to @VidBoost on YouTube.com?
9) Add Your Unique Personality to Your Videos
It’s a little bit subtle, but you may notice MrBeast’s sense of humor even in these first videos. He also foreshadows his future in pranking in one episode.
Don’t be a copycat – be authentic and be yourself when building your channel. Don’t copy the big YouTubers, be inspired by them instead.
10) Intros and Outros
In his first video, his commentary is pretty average and lacking the trademark energy you may be familiar with.
As he uploads more videos, his greetings, intros and outros improve and become more confident.
In one of his episodes, within 10 seconds he greeted viewers, identified his channel and said exactly what the video was about.
Telling viewers exactly what your video is about as soon as your video starts is a key element to success.
Hopefully your viewers will watch your videos to the end and see your outro. If so, it’s a good place to ask people to like and subscribe.
Conclusion:
All of the above tips & tricks all came from MrBeast’s first 14 videos in his first year on YouTube.
Much of this advice is still important and valid today when you grow your channel.
Here’s a quick summary of all the tactics we explored above:
1 – You don’t have to show your face when starting out. Technically you never have to show your face if you don’t want to. You can start with only video with background music and gradually add your own voice, then little by little increase the amount of face time you are seen in your videos.
2 – You don’t need expensive equipment. Start on a low budget and upgrade after you have figured out the basics of YouTube. Remember, sometimes lower quality video is actually better – as it makes everything look real and not over polished.
3 – Leverage Online Communities. MrBeast participated in at least a couple of Minecraft forums, and there are threads where you can see him trying to promote his channel and beg for subs.
You can test out your content on forums, collaborate with other creators, answer questions and more – all which will help your channel grow.
4 – YouTube SEO – Make catchy titles that aren’t too long, write a high quality description (just don’t spam) . Don’t use too many tags, etc.
5 – Piggyback Off Popular Topics and Trends – When coming up with video ideas think of ways you can piggyback off of whatever is popular or trending. Whether MrBeast was aware of it or not he did exactly that his first videos.
6 – Make similar videos around your popular videos. If you make a video that performs well, then make a similar follow up video around closely related topics.
7 – What are people searching for on Google and YouTube? – Keep an eye on it and make videos based around what questions people are asking.
8 – Ask. MrBeast is famous for asking for subscribers. If he never took the simple action of asking, he might not be where he is today. What is it you want that you could get simply by asking?
9 – Personality – Be sure to add a unique personality to your videos and overall channel. YouTubers can become successful based off of personality alone, so try to figure out what you would like your channel’s vibe to be like.
10 – Intros and Outros – Don’t forget the basics with your intros and outros. Tell people exactly what your video is about. Ask for likes and subscribers, etc.
One more tip before closing. Keep in mind that MrBeast was in his teenage years when he began so he did have an advantage of having a lot of extra free time and energy compared to someone married with kids. So don’t get discouraged if you are not grinding as hard as he could when he started out.
Also, the timing of when he started makes a difference. He began when YouTube itself was on the upward slope of popularity. Time will tell as, whether YouTube has peaked or not.
With YouTube it’s best to take the tortoise and the hare approach. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
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We’re a brand new channel but will soon be adding every tip imaginable on how you can grow your channel.