How to Audit Your OWN YouTube Niche (Step-by-Step Guide)
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Ever wanted to be able to review or audit your own UA-cam channel niche - here's how!
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RUNNING A CHANNEL ⚙️:
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PERSONALIZED HELP 📈:
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RECORDING 🎙️:
Microphone I use in videos (I rarely do any audio processing, and the room is only lightly sound-dampened): amzn.to/47PBzvz
Mic arm for the above: amzn.to/3GjdYYi
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Lighting really good for talking head videos: amzn.to/3uBbZw0
I also share more outside UA-cam 🧡:
Instagram (behind the scenes): / thatnateblack
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#growonyoutube #youtubestrategy
BE RADICAL
I got you vidIQ for $1: vidiq.com/nateblack/ - use that to get more automated!
"why is the whiteboard upside down?!" - because Pen & Gear haven't sponsored me yet, so if they want to THEN I'll turn the whiteboard right side up. haha! 😂
VidIQ is totally worth it.
🤣🤣🤣
This is clever this whiteboard strategy! Another awesome vid Nate 👏 Thankyou!
Seriously, I thought about the whiteboard being upside down and tilted my head to read its name. Then I figured, dang, I can just use any whiteboard to explain and explanation matters more than which whiteboard I use. You, Nate, clearly know your audience... haha! 🤣🤣
That is seriously the best comment ever! LOLOL!
Many UA-camrs are not successful because they do it for themselves, not for audience. This is the mother of all problems.
Thanks
Well said 😮👍
Great comment. As a new content creator, this stings and motivates at the same time!
Just wanted to say thanks Nate! Your tips have helped me grow my channel from 0 to over 19,000 subs in just over two months, couldn't have done it without you!
WAY TO GO!! Nice work!!
I have to say, Nate, I have been more excited about your content since you started this new channel. It feels a little more human and well-rounded. There's even more personality and storytelling coming through. Great job!
agreed!!
Wow thank you 🙏
"I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it." - Kylo Ren
“This is the first thing I want you to answer… What are you doing?”
Well Nate, I’m actually on the toilet right now
this is the kind of answer we were all hoping for lol
Hahahah I was actually wondering
Before, it was comic books for toilet pit stops , and now it is Nate !
There are not too many options, hehe.
Intentionally is an important aspect to growth. Asking why you want growth is also a worthwhile question.
When I began this journey - I just wanted to help people and share my passion for learning and technology.
I’ve found that the videos that “do best” for me are those that just match this intent. Personally, for myself, I’d rather have a comment saying I helped someone more than any other metric.
Oh - and thank you Nate - you’ve helped me many times over.
Solid points Frank! I’ve also seen similar. Glad it’s been helpful for you
How I feel about a channel doing better than me many times depends on the quality of the channel. If they are doing good, creative and entertaining content I'm usually happy for them. And that kind of a channel inspires me to do better. If they are poor quality and not entertaining the usual reaction is WTF?!?! But I have also learned that many times it's not about the production quality on UA-cam.
Your comment on looking at competition as collaboration is so spot on. Outside of UA-cam I have run a successful business for 20 years now. The one thing that grew my business more than anything else was when I started collaboration with my competitors.
Thanks for another great video Nate!
These are great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Hi
My niche is building the biggest Starship Enterprise ever built, as a physical model, it's been a passionate idea of mine since I was a kid. I genuinely love the ship and am genuinely fascinated by the idea of a crew of humans travelling into deep interstellar space on an advanced starship. I share my work and engage my audience/community. I don't get too hung up on analytics but I do give a LOT of attention to thumbnails and titles. I love it, and love showing and sharing my journey to build this ship with the Star Trek community!
Great! What other Starships have you built and what is your preferred scale? 350, 1000? 650?
I watch every video of yours Nate and your endings get me every single time! love your work man thank you
Love this. A 5 day boot camp crammed into 12 minutes. In awe of the amount of golden nuggets you give away in your pieces, material that your collaborators try to stretch out for watch time.
I analysed my videos so far (not many!) and I realised that - quoting another video of yours - my audience couldn't care less about me positioning as a teacher, nor as a performer...but as a hero! They want me to share our story, they don't want me to teach them how to live their story.
I will now have to pivot completely from the many ideas I had for the channel, but at least I know what its purpose is now!
Thank you Nate!
BOOM. Your correction of the word competitor hit the nail on the head. Linking arms is a great way to build each other up and grow an audience especially in the homesteading Niche.
First comment I see on here is someone who within the last 12 hours linked arms with me and helped build me up! Hi Heather!! I agree entirely!
@@WhitepepperFarmshomestead hey Brandon! This is truly the best mindset to have!!
Yes guys, I would be happy to see you as my subscribers for music job
You’re in the homesteading niche?! Subscribing ☺️ I’m just now starting my homemaking/homesteader content journey ❤
@@Daisymaysvlogs hey there! Yes we are and the spring garden is just getting going! ❤️🎉
Feeling incredibly blessed by the overwhelming support I've received. May God's blessings and endless kindness be bestowed upon each one of you. Your love truly makes a difference. Thank you! 🙏💖
Watching this for the second time over the span on several months. Have started using the second channel tip and I have to admit it's helping a lot and creating some great ideas.
Used to make video's about streetphotography (gear), just like everyone else... Now I pivoted towards videos in which I talk to strangers, taking their portrait. Absolutely love creating this new content, it gives me so much meaning! However, UA-cam finds it hard to find a new audience. But I'll give it some time :) Thanks for all your helpful content Nate!
@NielsdeKemp Hey Niels, great content. I'm also in the camera gear niche, and I completely understand your desire to switch "gears". If I could offer some thoughts as I would consider myself a target audience for your series where you are photographing/interviewing strangers... With your titles and thumbnails, it's not clear that's what your content is, so maybe within your title adding something like, "Photographing Strangers: (and then your subtitle)". Also, maybe even add some hint of photography or a camera within the thumbnail--this maybe less necessary. Regardless, it's a great concept, and I wish you luck! Keep going!!
@@BrianCatalano Thanks for the great tips Brian, really appreciate that and give it a try! Will definitely keep going, and keep trying to get better! :)
I am extremely happy i found your channel! As someone starting out, this information is wonderful!
From P24 old school days, Nate you are a legend! I am in a difficult crossroads with my channel, I don't even know what focus I want to have, it will end today
Wow, this was just amazing. Thank you. I've been binging your videos all morning.
Hey Nate, this is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've watched this video, just gotta say I appreciate your perspective on competitors. That's the way I already feel about my peers in the CPA profession, but for some reason I lost sight of that when trying to build our YT channel.
I love your videos, so helpful and packed with content. I jump to you straight in my feed when I see you publish something new.
It's actually crazy, because i have an instagram account, where literally everyone besides me in my niche is growing insanely, why I'm at the same growth for over 2 months. Even though it's not youtube, it's still crazy how much this video spoke to me
This advice is great for the confident.
For those that worry about their channel growth, seeing their competition growing much faster, this can be debilitating. It can also cause you to emulate what they are doing, which could take away the one thing that makes their channel unique. There is so much anxiety related to social media that I think this could just add more anxiety.
But, as I said, the confident will gain much from this advice.
Reviewed this a while back and I have been working on finding what I perceived to be our competition. Very helpful exercise to understand why our initial episodes might be doing so well as compared to similar small channels, who do not do nearly as well. I believe one of the voids we found to fill his high polish production and good storytelling. We know we need to get a lot better.
This channel is a true delight... you hv got some good solid content with an easy doable list! Just yesterday I rewrote two scripts to make them for the audience and not me....its funny we wanna go on and on to get our point through.... in another video u had mentioned that if I am taking 'x' time to explain a point then i should make it 1/4x....that was something that i needed to work on...amongst many other things! So thank you!!
💯 % You nailed it. Especially on the competitor
I have taken a break from making any videos for the past month. I feel my number one barrier is knowing how to niche down. My channel is dedicated to horror, talking with authors, filmmakers and some review vids. A few vids take off, some flop, most somewhere in between. I fear if I niched to one focus, it would mean I would have much less content and would leave out content some viewers enjoy, and that I enjoy making. I would love a quick review, but I either come up short on live review shows and/or cannot afford a full session yet. Maybe I need multiple niched down channels? Colour me frustrated.
If you have any physical media related to Horror, maybe you could do a video on them. My Horror VHS Collection, or My Horror DVDs and Blue Rays.
@seanstravelsandvlogs6233 That's a good idea, and simple enough to do. I also do a weekly interview column with horror authors for an online publication. I co siderdd doing at least a monthly recap of their books.
Nate, you are always so helpful, clear and fun… that’s my favorite
Now I have homework. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Have a fantastic day. 👍
As always, great value thanks Nate!! Your 12 minute video ended up a 45 minute video with the back and forth between your screen and my VidIQ dashboard :D Please never stop making how-to videos on UA-cam. The small channels really need you to figure our shit out because we are all over the place here🙈
Awwhh!💕”Collaborators” instead of “Competition”! I love your heart, Nate! 💛I’m new and I’m glad I found you!😊
Just wanted to say thank you Nate! I binged your videos watching from Italy and you're helping me a lot grow my channel🌱
Ciaooo
Appreciate your content - Just deciding to focus on creating a UA-cam space and it's great to have guidance on what to do and how to do it. Thank you,
This video was an eye opener! I took a look at my audience and found a flatline with my returning viewers! However, I have a lot of peaks with new viewers!! I have some work to do in that area.
Great information, just as I expected.
In my niche (and probably many other niches) there is also another important factor: Be an active part of the community!
It's not only inside UA-cam. For Game Dev we have a lot of online communities and discord servers. Being an active member of them gives you a clear picture on what people need, and also makes you a famous person in your field.
So I would suggest not only do your research inside UA-cam, but also be active out of UA-cam, where your potential viewers are active too.
Some great gems in here Nate, thank you!
6:57 - hey that's my channel! Thanks for stalking me Nate! I love your channel!
the final mindset point was class, good work
Just amazing! I love your videos Nate. This is my second attempt at UA-cam and I need as much help as i can get.
I love how you brought out that we are all in this together & can work together to make UA-cam an awesome place to hang out.
I would love to hear your thoughts about my channel, I don’t really have a niche, but I have gathered a large following for what I do, how should I go about researching in my space of UA-cam?
aight bet. :)
your niche appears to be people who want diversion from their normal day-to-day life, which you offer in a great, mostly short-form way. While your niche is in the random entertainment playing field, with subtopics of animals (with a bit of nice forced perspective thrown in ;), riding a bike, etc, it's less about the topic, and more about the intent of the audience.
Next for you I'd be using a new, "anonymous" account to start watching your own channel, watch several shorts directly from your channel, then go to the Shorts feed and see what is served up. That's how you'll find similar channels to yours to pay attention to.
Let me know how that goes!
If you jumped from topic to topic all the time then you wouldn't have a niche. I see a pattern with the reptiles and bike riding being the majority of your content in the form of UA-cam shorts. Congratulations on 1M subscribers! That's not an easy feat to accomplish.
My channel videos are all about healing after abortion. There is no one doing what I’m doing. I’m struggling selecting good benchmarks. My channel has a Christian perspective of grace and forgiveness. I’m thinking my competitors are trauma focused channels and Christian women focused. Your thoughts? Are you still offering one-on-one coaching? If so, how do I connect? I learn so much from your channel. TY.
@@mymentorjane6705just check his site...I think it's in his about section. Or Google Nate Black Radical
I can't wait to watch this! It's like you read my mind. I'm definitely feeling left behind lately, but not giving up!!
Been doing similar things for 18 months. The conclusion? The youtube algorithm has no clue what it's doing... Yes, I do blame the algorithm! In my niche I see garbage content getting views and no likes or subs.... And I see good content getting no views, but getting likes and subs. Same for my channel. I get very, very little impressions on most videos. Even though people like the content and I managed to get 2k subs.... So, many people liked my content enough to sub, but the algorithm still hates it.
In fact, I deliberately made a few rather bad (or mediocre) videos and shorts as an experiment, and they indeed performed better in regards to impressions and views! Though obviously it wasn't useful besides the experiment bc people didn't like it and AVD and clickrate were therefore very low. That puts me in a tough spot making it impossible to grow. Good quality content my audience likes won't be shown to many people by the algorithm, poor quality content my audience doesn't like will be shown but obviously not watched...
Therefore, despite having over 2k subs, my watch hours for the last year is just over 1,000 and not growing at all. So I'm stuck.
Nate, I'd love to see you do a deep dive into what's working with community posts. I feel there's a lot of untapped potential there. Thanks. Love your work!
I feel like I have hit a brick wall at this point...lol with little growth. I am concerned about it, but I have no plans to give up yet... I appreciate your videos, and they do motivate me to continue
But what if you have so little data that UA-cam tells you NONE of that? No offense but it doesnt seem to be helping at all when it displays nothing
Nate love all your work, from Channel Makers to the great, well researched and informative content you're creating now. Would love you to roast, critique, or just advise my channel the next time you do a video of that nature.
I really liked your channel reviews and ROASTS! Would love to see more!
noted - thank you!
I don’t look at other channels as competitors, instead they are motivators to help me improve my content at all times!
I actually cheer for the success of other great channels on UA-cam…there’s room for us all 👍
The issue with my channel is that I understand my market, but my channel is a niche of a niche. Not only is it a specific card game, but I tackle the historical and Japanese side of things whereas all the big creators create more modern content and thus more useful to a wider audience within that niche.
Hey Nate! It's your old roommate Brian! When I found you a while back on UA-cam, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Great stuff! Of all the UA-cam gurus, you're my go-to guy. Maybe I'm biased?
It's Brian!! so awesome to hear from you! I had no idea you watched this channel
Thanks for the recommendation Nate!
I have started a second channel, about "Dracula", because I want to publish the book Dracula myself as "The Dracula Papers", and when I did a bit of research in the book niche I was surprised to find that book review channels are really popular (not like mr Beast of course, but pretty popular) and they make very long form videos, one hour, two hour videos! Just talking head. I had no idea. This niche is never discussed on all the channels I follow.
I have a book channel! 🥰 Good luck!
I’m finally monetized 🎉 Thank you for your helpful tips! But what can I do to help videos that got 1-2k views the first week, but then died after that? Is there a good way to revive them?
I'm not looking to be better than the "competition", even though yes, I am human, and do feel a little jealous. I just want to get better. Right now I still feel like I really don't know what the right road is to get there. I'm sort of taking a left here and a right there. Hopefully that makes sense. Another great and informative video by the way! Don't know how you do it.
Not going to lie that ending was "chefs kiss". Nate style as usual
Another thought provoking video - Completely get what you’re saying about how to view competition. Have downloaded ClickUp and I’m trying to figure out the template. Will go back to see if you have a video about how to use it properly.😝 Thanks for offering tools!
Thank you for this video. I always just try to improve my own content and not worry about "competitors" in that sense.
Second time through on this video. Lots of notes this time. Yeah, I'll get vidiq. Thanks for the deal. EDIT: Third time through after watching later video on Analytics. Still binging on your videos.
As always, great job on this one, Nate! It's like you were reading my mind about what I was struggling with regarding my channel growth. And, like your other videos, I will definitely be watching this one again. The competitor to collaborator notion is great. This platform is big enough that there has to be room at the table for everyone.
Thanks for the insight. New channel...3 months and trying to figure out the best way to grow.
I've never been the first to comment, how exciting - not being left behind this time!
Welcome to the early crew! Glad you’re here!
Heyyyyy Cassandra..so good to see you here!! Hope you're doing well, lots of love ❤❤
I pray that people watching my niche (Law) aren't ONLY watching me. I hope people are watching lots of videos and getting as much education as they can.
My peers aren't my competition, even if i use them as a growth comparison metric. I literally just finished leaving a comment on a "competitors" video answering another viewers question.
Creators need to ask if they want to be a part of the UA-cam Community, or if they want to be on a UA-cam Island.
Nate, your channel deserves so many subs and success... all this gurus are talking and saying nothing to inform.. your videos are super analytical!
Awesome video Nate! This seriously hit home for me and I use the VidIQ for comparison to other channels in my niche but I hadnt deep dived into really taking advantage of all the functions like you had. The uncommon mindset really was useful in changing my perspective that we are all collaborators and not competitors.
Thank you for the help Nate
Know. Thy. Audience.
That’s the key.
ok I've not noticed this on any other channel and maybe its a new feature but did anyone else notice when Nate promoted "like the video" that the BUTTON ITSELF lit up and changed colors??! When the hell did THAT start? That's cool! it wasn't in the video, I had to go back and rewatch it to see if I saw it twice.
It feels that way absolutely. Your video on content not landing within your audience circles has helped. Looking forward ro see what this is about
First, thank you for the videos Nate!! great, helpful, encouraging content!! I dare to say this kinda describes my channel. I wanted to start a walking-tour-niche channel because I always loved long walks (hence the name), i quickly discovered that I enjoy way more making videos biking instead of walking. So now I feel like I stuck in-between niches lol.. but its cool. I have goals that align with how I want to grow this channel, right now I'm in Toronto but I'm planning to explore other places by foot, on a bike, or whatever. I use my skills and experiences to put everything together with ease. I am already going for walks and bike rides.. Check! in fact making these videos made me go for way more rides this winter than I normally would, so thats good too. Do I do it better than my "competitors"? Not sure if Better it the best way to describe, I do it differently I guess. And yeah it does make me feel happy, making a video riding a bike is one of my favorite activities these days. anyway enough about me, Thanks again!!
I find the hardest thing about collaboration is finding someone to collaborate with. When looking for channels, UA-cam shows you the big fish. I’m a tiny channel with 1K subscribers. Even trying to find someone in the same niche and remotely close to my size is proving to be really difficult! I would attempt to reach out to a 10K subscriber channel if I could find it! How would you recommend going about that for us small channels?
Really trying to apply all the things you teach as I try and grow my travel niche channel. It can be so disheartening when you feel like you are not growing. I wish I knew if it was me, my content or something I’ve missed in auditing channel.
Thank you so much for your awesome Video and your kinde words 😇🙏. Iam new ON UA-cam and go bigger is realy hard for me. But your video helps to understand. Thank's and greetings 👋😎
When I am comparing other channels, I also look at how old the the channel is and when their first video was published compared to mine so I can get a sense of how channel growth is over a larger time frame. Of course I want faster growth and I usually end up feeling good about how I'm doing. But I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm never fully satisfied with my vids 🙄🙄
Another value-stuffed video, thanks Nate! I don't look at the top people in my niche as "competitors", but as bench marks. What do they do well that I want to emulate, and what can I improve on?
You’re literally the best UA-cam resource on the internet.
Imagine how successful Casey would have been if VidIQ was around in 2016
Thank you Johnathan this is really motivated me to do something. And by do something I signed up using your link and will do as you wisely advise. I am grateful for the help you provide. I respect you a lot. Russ
Thanks for the advice! Keep working on your passion everyone!
Starting to make sense now. It’s a journey and just trying our best.
I was a little turned off by the use of “competitor” at first but then you address it. I’ve always seen it as other creators, not competition. A rising tide raises all ships. If they do better than me, they’re still being more of our audience in to the pond we’re both fishing in.
OK, you got me. I came here from your other video.
Hi Nate..how does this help me if I am in the entertainment/comedy sketch niche or if the content is not really searchable content, and we'd like to land more on our audience's browse page?
Acting like your audience should do the trick. Start it with searches, but also you can look at other channels you already know of in your same playing field
I'm not nate but I imagine following trends would be helpful
@@ThatNateBlack Thanks a bunch for the reply Nate, the concept does make sense too! Thank you ❤Maybe for us it is being a bit difficult because there's no one in the same/similar playing field, but maybe that's not such a bad thing :D
I'm always amazed how you're able to so clearly explain something that seems so complex.
Thank you for another great video Nate!
All of then people I find in my niche have like 300k-4mil subs how do I find people in my niche that are closer to my level? Like channels that have 5k to my 2.5k rather than trying to compete with monsters that have thousands of dollars for a budget, producers, editors etc.
My other channel deals with Model Building, mostly Star Trek. So I searched for Star Trek Model Building on UA-cam. I came across a few that only have a few tens of thousands of subscribers: Lou Dalmaso, Trekworks, Interstellar Modeler.
Hope that helps
This is a workshop, going to do all you mentioned and ready for growth.
Looking from the audience perspective = gold
ha! The like button is shining here: 7:29 . Saw it. Booped it.
🤔Booped or ... boopt? What it the right way to spell it in the past tense?
Hello Mr Nate Sir, I have to say the best bit of this video is that you correctly used the word subconsciously rather than the word unconsciously that is far too often used by many other people. this is one of my pet peeves so thank you very much for not triggering me.
Hey Nate,
I actually just started getting some growth in the last 3-4 months!
I am commenting to volunteer my channel to be roasted next time you do a roasting video.
Bring on the constructive criticism and keep up the great videos!
Noah
This video spoke to me as I don’t understand why some creators in my niche are doing better than others me.
I want to follow the steps you lay out. However, I don’t really understand how to answer what my viewers are looking for or questions they have; other than the comments they leave to my videos. Can you elaborate on this step? Thanks.
We are at 1000 steps so far !
Really great video, Nate! I see other creators in my art space and typically wish/hope I can get to their level one day. I find myself really happy most days that around 4K people enjoy what I do and am very grateful for them. I often forget though, that 4,000 people is still a lot of people and I'm proud to be where I am with that audience. Do I want further growth, of course! Am I still learning, of course! Do I have 'collab with more creators' on my 2024 goal board- I sure do!
All this to say I think a lot of us just want to give a good experience to others who watch us, and with that the growth and audience will come. :) Boop!
My views really fell off recently. I instinctively went to blame 'the algorithm' but that won't cut it this year. Need to take accountability and be more strategic with my content. This looks super helpful!
Your content is always fantastic, Nate. It's been a big help in growing my channel!
So glad to hear that 🎉
Tbh, it makes me sick to my stomach🤢 when I see someone way more successful than me, but putting in way less effort.
PS. I think the biggest reason my videos suck is my microphone quality. Every time I think I’ve got it where it sounds good… I end up not liking it a week later😐🤷🏼♂️
First off, your mic quality is perfectly fine. In fact, it sounds really good.
Second, your channel is new. Patience, grasshoppa. Patience. Plus, you’re in a pretty busy niche. You’ll find your groove and things will start picking up.
Speaking of film reviews… you watch FanBoyFlicks?
@@GoADHDGothanks man!
And I just looked FanBoyFlicks up… turns out I have seen his Star Wars sequels video, but that’s it🙃
This video is sooooo valuable!! Thank you thank you!
So, I actually have the problem of not having many direct competitors (not trying to sound cocky, my niche is just very... niche) and VID IQs competitor recommendations are all music channels rather than education channels like mine. There are a few people doing what I do, but none of them as consistently uploading or getting the same kind of current views, and when I added them to my competitors dashboard, I found that I'm seeing way more views and growth than them. But in wider YT perspective, I feel a little stagnant.
I'm trying to broaden my topics, do more challenges and vlog style stuff, but they only do as well as my one-take, low edit tutorials despite being WAY more effort to make.
Am I too niche to grow fast? What do you recommend?
DANG! (I edited that to be family friendly.) So, I watched this then hopped over to search. I'm permaculture gardening for spoonies type content and possibly moving into more homesteading content rather than strictly garden. The spoonie content is rough to make because it requires being super vulnerable. Guess who comes up in top channels under "gardening for spoonies". Yep. Looks like I need to lean into the hard stuff. Hahaha. Easy is boring anyway.
Wow. Nate you are so good at helping me boil things down and choose my next steps. Great job as always!
Thank you we are still learning and you really explain it very good, funny thing is that our Views and like are diapering every day , yesterday we had 5 likes and today only 2 and the same with our views, are we doing something wrong would you be able to give us a tip please ? and a again Thank you