5 Frequent Mistakes New YouTubers Make In 2020 (And How to Correct Them)

Aditya Sharma
7 min readOct 18, 2020

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In this article, I will tell you the 5 most frequent mistakes YouTubers make in 2020 (and how you can correct them)

And fixing these mistakes actually works:

It can help your YouTube channel get off the ground really fast.

These tips have helped some of my clients get millions of views on their videos for highly competitive keywords.

So, whether you are new to YouTube, or a YouTube veteran, I hope you get a lot of value from my post.

Here are the 5 most frequent mistakes to follow that YouTube creators make:

  • Not Putting Attention On Your YouTube Channel Art
  • Not Having A Clear Focus
  • Not Doing Research For Your Videos
  • Neglecting YouTube Data Analytics
  • Disappearing From YouTube (Taking A Long Break)

After combing through hundreds of YouTube channels, I have noticed these 5 common mistakes that YouTube creators are still making.

So let’s jump straight in:

#Mistake1

Not Putting Attention On Your YouTube Channel Art

Channel Art is the first thing you’ll see when you visit any channel. So it’s an important part of making a strong first impression.

Also, you can use Channel Art to show your channel’s uploading schedule, tagline, social media accounts and much more.

Essentially, your Channel Art needs to visually convey 2 things:

  • Vision of the Channel: What is the channel about?
  • Value Proposition: Why should I subscribe?

However, In most of the channels, these things are brushed under the carpet.

As a result, It only gets worse for you:

  • Your audience doesn’t get any reason to watch your channel
  • And you lose your audience right at the beginning

Don’t make this mistake. This will hurt your channel’s growth opportunities both in the short and long run.

Surely, if you aren’t good with designing, creating a channel art on your own can be a daunting task.

So instead of racking your brain, you can hire a designer from services like fiverr.com and get your channel branding done.

Want to know the best part:

Not only will you create an awesome channel art image.

But you can replicate the same approach for your video thumbnails.

This will help you in building brand consistency for your channel.

#Mistake 2

Not Having A Clear Focus

Your content needs to be laser-focused.

If not, you will end up creating content that’s all over the place and leave your subscribers frustrated.

Now:

Your subscribers aren’t really getting the content they signed up for.

And if it persists, they will end up unsubscribing your channel.

I’ll give you my client’s example:

On my client’s technology channel, he was only creating technology videos.

Technology’s pretty niche, right?

Well, not really! Within the technology space, there are many verticals.

He was making videos on phones, gadgets, cars, apps, and almost everything in technology.

This frustrated his audience. Many eventually unsubscribed his channel.

He thought his content to be pretty niche.

But it turns out it wasn’t niche enough.

On my advice, he made a transition and focused on content that his audience had initially signed up for. Now his channel is getting good traction and is growing rapidly.

What’s the big takeaway here?

You’ve got to focus on your niche within your niche.

You might be wondering:

I don’t want to create the same content again and again

OR

I don’t want to be pigeonholed.

Well, this a great opportunity for you.

You are directly telling your audience that you are the best in the world in creating your type of content.

You are the best Maths tutor or the best Yoga instructor or the best online sports news presenter.

Here’s the kicker:

Whenever you have a problem, you would definitely want to go to the best in the world.

Or you would go to the best channel to get the solution.

YouTube will see you as an authentic channel in your specific niche or industry.

And your channel automatically comes up in search queries for that niche.

And boom- your videos will get more views and rank higher.

#Mistake 3

Not Doing Research For Your Videos

What I see you (YouTube creators) do is phenomenal.

You spend hours filming your videos, editing, spicing it up, thinking of a title, getting a screenshot to make a thumbnail, uploading it onto YouTube.

And after all the hard work you wonder why your video isn’t getting any views.

Three-word answer- Do Some Research:

  • Find out the target keyword your video should rank for.
  • What’s your competition like?
  • What is everybody talking about on the same content?
  • How are you going to be different?
  • How could you stand out and still capture the same audience?

Make it a habit:

Don’t pick up the camera until you have your title in hand.

My Mantra is simple:

Research, research and research.

It takes effort, it takes time but it also saves you from all the hours of creating a video that nobody cares about.

So go and do that research. It’s super important.

#Mistake 4

Neglecting YouTube Data Analytics

Now, you’ve done your research, you know what your title is, you’ve shot your video.

You’ve got the best thumbnail you can get, you got the best title you can get, and you’ve published your video.

But YouTube is still not recommending your videos. What’s wrong?

Here, YouTube analytics is your saviour.

YouTube analytics gives you a fair estimate of your video quality.

Let’s think from YouTube’s perspective:

If you have a video that’s got an amazing title and an awesome thumbnail, but viewers are watching 1% and then dropping off immediately.

It indicates YouTube that you’ve uploaded a clickbait video.

You’re not delivering what you promised on your title and therefore YouTube is not going to distribute your video to a new audience.

However, if your video has a higher retention rate (Say 60% to 70%):

And your audience is keenly watching the video. YouTube will distribute your video with a different set of audience.

It will distribute more, and more, and more.

The first thing you should do is look at the retention graph of your video.

Retention is divided into 3 categories:

  • Intro: The beginning part of the video.
  • Middle: The flesh of your video where the main video content is.
  • Outro: The ending part of the video.

You need to improve each section after looking at the retention graph in YouTube analytics.

At what point is the audience dropping off? What needs to be corrected there?

One thing to keep in mind:

Be laser-focused. Come straight to the topic early on.

People don’t care about stuff that deviates them from the topic.

What’s the bottom line?

Retention graph is a highly underrated and super powerful tool.

You need to pay much more attention to it. This will help your channel grow really fast.

#Mistake 5

Disappearing From YouTube(Taking A Long Break)

I have seen channels that have thousands of followers. And surprisingly, the most recent videos are getting barely a hundred views.

And when I scrolled through their video list I found out that they were getting thousands of views a few years ago.

YouTube algorithm is clear:

It hates procrastination.

YouTube will go and find similar content from another YouTube creator.

There has to be a balancing act for YouTubers and their channels.

You most definitely should take a break and do life stuff.

Taking a break for a week or a month is completely fine.

But doing a hard stop on your channel and then coming back after a few years will hit your channel’s views and traction.

How Many Mistakes Are You Making?

Now I turn it over to you:

Tell me, how many mistakes are you making?

You all want your channel to get the maximum traction and millions of video views.

But the question is:

Are you putting in the right effort to take your channel to the next level?

Lets Connect:

Tell me what you envision for your YouTube Channel.

Don’t you want your YouTube success to be seamless without having to rack your brains? I am ready to deliver that for you.

Build your YouTube dream list. Give me your perspective. Throw your aspirations at me. I thrive on aspirations. That is what keeps me awake and inspired!

Check out my other blog topics for your weekend munching:

5 Definite Reasons Why Your Business Should Be On YouTube(In 2020)

5 Tips To Optimize Your YouTube Playlists (In 2020)

5 Tips To Rank Your Video On YouTube (in 2020)

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Aditya Sharma

YouTube Expert I YouTube Consultant| |Ex Professional Cricketer Spiritualist|Nature Lover|