Generating 3,400,000 views on YouTube

Three years prior to selling Doggypedia.org I had quit my six-figure tech job to sell SEO for minimum wage at a local marketing agency.

I wanted to re-skill my career from sales to marketing, but didn’t have any marketing experience.

And I figured, if I wanted to learn marketing, selling marketing, for a marketing agency puts me in the best position to learn.

So I started selling SEO to learn SEO.

All of our clients were boring local businesses, so I took over the agency’s blog. 

And I grew it from 0 to 103,000 organics/month in 13 months. 

After two years of working at the agency, I knew it was time. 

Time to do my own thing.

But before I left, I started a side project called Doggypedia.org to continue to level up my marketing skills.

And maybe, turn it into a real business.

This is part of a 4-part series of guides on how I built and sold Doggypedia:

1. Growing SEO traffic to 100,000+ organics/month
2. Growing YouTube to 3,400,000 views (you’re here)
3. Growing Pinterest to 44,000,000 impressions
4. Selling Doggypedia for $30,000

📷 Background

If this is your first piece of ContentDistribution.com content, here’s what you gotta know.

We’ve taken 5 projects from 0 to 100,000+ organics/month without building backlinks.

And we’ve documented exactly how we did it: 

1. 0 to 103,000 organics/month (first big win, where I learned SEO)
2. 0 to 116,000 organics/month (Doggypedia)
3. 0 to 119,000 organics/month (subscription DTC adding $135k MRR)
4. 0 to 166,000 organics/month (B2C SaaS)
5. 0 to 1,500,000 organics/month (100k+ paid subscribers for A16Z startup)
6. Baby fat graphs (not quite big enough for their own case study)

I started Doggypedia for a few reasons: 

1. Continue to develop my understanding of SEO 
2. Turn Doggypedia into a standalone business
3. If that failed, use it as a case study to grow my SEO agency
4. Tell Tinder dates I was a puppy influencer

🔎 Approach

What I’ve learned from taking 5 projects from 0 to 100,000+ organics/month is that Google Search uses UX metrics to influence reach and rankings. 

I didn’t develop a theory and set out to prove it.

This is an observation I made from consistently winning in SEO without:

❌ Building backlinks.

❌ Doing technical BS.

❌ Doing hacks or shortcuts.

✅ Just great content.

Basically, our entire goal is to create more relevant, better quality content than any other page Google could show for the keywords we want to rank for.

If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Everybody knows every major platform uses UX metrics to influence reach:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. Instagram
4. TikTok
5. LinkedIn

And according to Mr Beast, this is how the YouTube algorithm works:

1. Click through rate (CTR)
2. Watch time
3. Comments
4. Likes

But in 2018/2019 Mr Beast wasn’t famous yet.

I didn’t have anybody to tell me what is well known.

I just knew that if I believed Google Search used UX metrics to influence reach.

Then I had to believe YouTube would also. 

🚀 Learn how I outrank websites without backlinks all day, every day. 

⚒️ Results

Doggypedia was a side project.

And YouTube was a side experiment while I built out the SEO.

Which made Doggypedia’s YouTube channel a side-side-project.

Meaning, my goal wasn’t to just create category winning content on YouTube.

I needed to create category winning content on YouTube 👉 with as little effort as possible.

That meant:

1. Super simple to make
2. Had huge amounts of views

And I took a few shots at goal.

Dogs barking…

…to make your dog react.

Who am I to argue with 100,000,000+ people?

My job isn’t to decide what people want.

My job is to give people what they want. 

First I watched all of the top performing videos (of dogs barking 🙁)

Next I built a list of the variables that I could both control and I believed would influence UX metrics.

Because if I could win on these variables, my content would have better UX metrics than the dog barking videos currently on YouTube, and I believed YouTube would promote my content instead. 

Here’s the list: 

1. The thumbnail to drive higher CTR
2. The length to keep users watching longer
3. The number of dogs referenced to be more relevant to more people
4. The in-video imagery that is more pleasant to look at

🚀 Warning: turn down your volume before playing. 

This video did pretty good.

Racked up a cool 3,000,000 views and 800+ comments.

Dog Names

Ahrefs indicates that more than 2,700,000 people each month search for help naming their dog.

If people search Google for dog names, would they also search YouTube?

The answer is yes.

So I made a video on dog names.

But before I did, I watched all of the top videos and built a list of the variables I wanted to do better:

1. A better thumbnail to drive higher CTR
2. Put a higher number of dog names in the title to drive a higher CTR
3. Shove more dog names into the video to drive longer watch time

Again, all of the activities tie back to driving better UX metrics than my competition. 

Here’s what I ended up with.

273,000 views.

Not as good as 3,000,000.

But not bad. 

Interestingly, this video had a much higher ratio of comments to views.

237,000 views with 570 comments.

Versus 3,000,000 views with 818 comments.

Maybe comments aren’t as important as the other user-engagement metrics?

Can Dogs Eat…?

One of the classic content series for a pet website is “can dogs eat X” articles.

It seems like every pet website is attempting to rank for keywords like this.

Because according to Ahrefs, there is an incredible 5,800,000 searches/month for “can dogs eat” one thing or another.

So, if people are searching for “can dogs eat X” on Google Search, would they also use YouTube?

Well, kinda.

It turns out the biggest videos in the “can dogs eat stuff” sub-category just aren’t that big.

I did approximately 5 videos on this type of content.

And they racked up less than 50,000 views.

It turns out the biggest videos in the “can dogs eat stuff” sub-category just aren’t that big.

🎥 How to Hire Video Editors

You can learn video editing.

Or you can do your actual job.

You can’t do both.

We hired an editor.

308 applicants –> 97 skills tests –> 15 interviews –> 1 hire. 

308 people –> 1 person.

The top .3% of all applicants.

Because we believe the #1 decision we’ll make as hiring managers is who we decide to hire.

And after that first decision, everything is either easy, hard or impossible.

The truth is though.

We automated the entire process.

It didn’t take much time at all.

We automated everything with Workello.

Basically Workello is skills assessment platform that allows us to filter through hundreds of job seekers to identify and hire the top 1%.

Think of Workello as an automated CRM for hiring video editors:

1. Use Workello’s pre-configured skills tests for video editors
2. Get applicants from job boards like LinkedIn, Facebook, and OnlineJobs
3. Move applicants through our hiring funnel with 1-click to test, reject, or interview

First, sign up for Workello.com.

It’s free and takes about 30 seconds.

Next, select the video editor hiring template.

It includes:

1. Pre-written job description
2. Pre-written skills tests.
3. Pre-written interview questions.
4. Pre-written candidate emails.
5. Hand selected job boards to find the best candidates

Your job description is pre-written, so you’ll just need to make a few adjustments to align it with your company.

After you’ve nailed the job description, it’s time to edit the skills tests and interview stages.

Creating a video editor skills test

The skills test is pre-configured for you, but you need to replace the example videos in the template with videos that align with the content you want your editor to produce. 

The unpaid skills test should be extremely short and take applicants less than 30 minutes to complete.

The longer your skills test take, the less likely candidates are to do it.

Especially the best applicants.

The video we ask applicants is 37 seconds, but feel free to go down to as little as 15 seconds for best results. 

Candidates that pass the free skills test will be invited to skills test #2.

In Skills Test #2 we ask candidates to edit three 60 second videos.

And it’s paid.

This allows us to vet the remaining candidates with a longer, more in-depth assignment.

Just like you did in the free skills test, replace the example videos in the template with videos that reflect the type of content you’re creating. 

Setting up your interview

Last section to customize. 

Drop your name, email, and Calendly URL.

(If you haven’t already, setup a new Calendly event for interviews).

And you’re done.

Hit “Publish Job”

The next screen you’ll see is the hiring portal.

This is where all of your candidates will appear once you post your job ad on external sourcing websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and OnlineJobs.ph. 

Now it’s time to get candidates.

Grab the Job Ad URL.

It’s going to look something like this: https://app.workello.com/a/content-distribution-video-editor-1

This is how candidates will apply for your job.

Posting your job

What?

Workello doesn’t get me candidates?

No — getting candidates is easy.

It takes 10 minutes to post a job ad and we’ll get 100+ applicants. 

Filtering through those applicants to identify and hire the top 1% is the hard part.

You need really purpose built workflows to handle that much applicant volume without wasting hours switching between apps and copy/pasting.

And this is where Workello shines.

Your first destination is OnlineJobs.ph.

Follow this guide to post your Workello job ad URL on OnlineJobs.

This took all of 10 minutes, and should get you 100+ video editing applicants.

OnlineJobs.ph is great for general VAs. 

There’s gonna be some talent. 

But it isn’t where the BEST video editors are hanging out.

If we want to fill our recruiting pipeline with the best of the best…

We hire from Facebook Groups.

Why Facebook?

Because Facebook is where interest based communities live.

And people who participate in interest based communities, are on-average, more passionate and talented than folks who aren’t. 

This is true from backyard BBQ and baseball to video editors. 

Here are some keywords you can use:

1. Video editors
2. TikTok creators
3. YouTube creators

Join all of the groups.

And post your job ad.

Say something like…

Hiring a video editor for X type of content.

Make your company sound cool.

Describe what you’re looking for. 

Ask candidates that are interested to drop a comment and you’ll DM them a link.

If you’re feeling ambitious, attach an eye grabbing image to drive more engagement. 

And do not post the job ad URL.

Facebook reduces the reach of posts with external links.

I repeat.

Don’t drop the job ad URL.

Ask candidates to drop a comment.

Repeat this process in each group.

After 2-3 days Facebook will have given you most of the reach your post will get.

And you can start dropping links to interested candidates. 

Candidates apply via the external application URL and appear in your Workello hiring portal.

Click to open up a candidate. 

Check out their cover letter and portfolio.

Then click ‘Reject’ to send the candidate a polite rejection email.

Or “Test” to send the candidate your unpaid skills test.

Candidates will receive an email inviting them to submit the unpaid video editing test you configured above. 

The rest of the process is straightforward.

And the exact process we used to filter 300 video editing applicants down to the absolute best person. 

Because we believe the #1 decision you’ll make as a manager is who you hire.

And after that first decision, everything is either easy, hard or impossible.

And if we want to create great video content.

We should hire the best video editor we can afford. 

Join hundreds of startups and agencies using Workello to identify and hire the top 1% of their applicants. 

🙏 The Acquisition 

Despite my ability to learn distribution on Pinterest, YouTube and SEO.

I failed at the most important part. 

Monetization. 

I just didn’t have the experience yet.

🚀 Learn how we drove almost 100,000 paid subscribers for an A16Z-backed startup. 

So I did what all good mediocre marketers do.

I posted a humble flex on social. 

And used my (lack of) success to nurture an audience that I could maybe eventually sell SEO to. 

The Facebook Gods blessed me with reach that day.

And apparently I am Facebook Friends with Sam Parr from My First Million.

A couple of months later, Ramon wired me $30,000.

Want to learn how the acquisition went down?

Read the final installment of the Doggypedia acquisition. 

1. The 3,400,000+ views YouTube account (you’re here)
2. The 44,00,000 impression Pinterest account
3. The 100,000+ organics/month website 
4. How I sold Doggypedia for $30,000

🥇 Copy Our Results

By working with us

We’re motivated by scale and impact, and we love working with hyper-growth startups with the ambition and budget to become category leaders. 

We don’t have dozens and dozens of mediocre clients. We work with less than two handfuls of the most ambitious companies on the internet.

And we consistently generate 5x – 20x+  ROAS.

If this sounds like you, read our other case studies, then book a call.

1. 0 to 103,000 organics/month (my first big W)
2. 0 to 119,000 organics/month  (Subscription DTC)
3. 0 to 166,000 organics/month  (B2C SaaS)
4. 0 to 1,500,000 organics/month (A16z startup)
5. Baby fat graphs (not quite big enough for their own case study)

Use the Content Ops Framework

Or if you want to do it yourself, the Content Ops Framework contains everything you need to hit 100,000+ organics/month:

1. SOPs and templates our team uses internally
2. We’ll source 200+ writers for you to choose from
3. Workello to test, identify and hire the top 1%
4. 50,000 ClusterAi credits to automate your keyword research

Since we’ve started we’ve helped four brands hit the 100,000+ organics/month club.

👉 Interested? Join the 100,000+ organic/month club.

Use our Software

Automate years of keyword research with ClusterAi..

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👉 Start hiring the 1%. Signup for free in 30 seconds.

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