Proof of Concept that the Book Works

“YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts” authors Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean are doing a five-day blog post series on “How to create and promote more effectively on YouTube.” Here’s part one of five:

I’ve read tons of blog posts, ebooks, published books and more that all claim they can teach you this or that. The hard truth is, though, most of these publications are all fluff and no substance. They ramble off a cliché or a top five list and that’s it. In short, they don’t deliver. There’s an old saying, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

I didn’t want people to assume the same way about my book. “…Those who can’t, teach” is the rule, but there are exceptions. I’ve had one or two teachers in my life who shattered that rule. A music teacher I had in high school comes to mind. She was a great teacher, and also an amazing musician.

In science, when a bold theory comes along, the inventor is often asked to provide a “Proof of Concept.”

If you’ve ever watched “Myth Busters”, they use this a lot. They’ll do things like create a tiny cannon in the lab to see if it can be powered by hay and gummy bears (or whatever, they’ve never actually had a hay-and-gummy-bear cannon, but you get my drift.) They’ll make sure the tiny cannon works before they spend the time and resources to make the full-sized one capable of taking the door off a castle.

So, a month ago, I chose a channel with only 100 subscribers and using only the tips found in my book, turned it into a channel with over 1,000 subscribers in under thirty days.

The channel I chose was ZeldaPhan. ZeldaPhan is a channel run by Hilary. At the time I first contacted Hilary about this project she had been a YouTube member for over a year and had obtained just over 100 subscribers. In fact, a few weeks before I contacted her she had made a video celebrating her 100th subscriber after a year on the ‘tube.

Some people have pointed out that many of the “rock stars” on YouTube got in at the ground floor, that it’s hard to build subscribers now. I disagree.

I sent Hilary an advanced copy of the book and guided her to the chapters that would help the most at her current position on YouTube. Three weeks later she hit 1,000 total subscribers, using only the real-world advice, tips and techniques found in the book. I didn’t pull any strings, she wasn’t promoted or featured by YouTube, we didn’t “game the system” with auto-refreshers or sock puppet accounts. I  just trusted in what I already knew worked.

Hilary told me two weeks into the project that she was happy to see the views going up on all of her videos, past and present, not just her most recent video like she had expected. I have no doubt that as Hilary continues to build on her success of the past thirty days, that she’ll make more friends, enjoy her time on YouTube more, and will be a Partner with the potential to earn real money from her videos in no time.

I’m happy to have been able to provide this as “proof of concept” that everything in YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts works.

If you enjoyed part one, please subscribe to read part two tomorrow, Tuesday December 9th. And tell two friends!

Post written by Alan Lastufka with additions by YouTube: An Insider’s Guide co-author, Michael W. Dean.

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