Dr. K (aka HealthyGamerGG, Harvard psychiatrist, 2 million+ subs)
Jay Clouse (runs a YouTube channel where he interviewed all of the above people except Aprilynne)
I hope you enjoy it! I plan to refer back to this many times - I made it mostly for myself, but I hope you find it useful, too.
It also includes sources! When source is a video, I tried to link directly to the relevant timestamp. PS: I paraphrased some of what they said from transcripts. Any errors are my own!
The idea
What's the #1 most important thing when it comes to making YouTube videos?
What are some hallmarks of a great idea?
What are some questions to tease out great video ideas?
Which comes first: the thumbnail and title, or the idea and content?
How do you present a dry (but useful) idea as interesting?
How do you frame an idea to be as clickable possible?
Once I have a good idea, what's an example for how to package it (educational channels)?
The title
What are some best practices for making YouTube video titles?
How do I make a good title without going against my morals?
The thumbnail
What's the key to making a good thumbnail?
The intro
What's the key to making a good intro?
What's the difference between an intro and a hook?
The body
What's an example of a bad hook and how would I turn it into a good hook?
What's the #1 mistake people make when presenting the content of their videos?
What are 3 more mistakes people often make in their videos?
How do I apply "show, don't tell" to making YouTube videos?
How should creators structure their videos?
How do I create tension or stakes?
Everything in the video should be doing one of these 4 things
How do I make my educational videos interesting to beginners and experts at the same time?
The outro
Why is the end of the video ("the outro") super important?
How can one make a great outro for a video?
The process
How much time should I be spending on each part of the video making process?
Writing a script is overwhelming, what process should I follow?
How do youtube experts use AI in their workflow?
Other helpful assorted links
The idea
What's the #1 most important thing when it comes to making YouTube videos?
It starts with the idea. It doesn't matter how clever you are at word smithing good titles, if you have a bad idea then you're wasting your time.
I can't say it enough. I'll be blue the face saying this until the day I die: the idea is more important than everything else. The idea sets the standard of what this video could become. Is it going to be a 50k view video? 500k? 5 million?
I honestly believe this: it is no longer about making videos YouTube. It's about who can come up with the most interesting idea, thumbnail, and title. Then, how do you sandwich a video into that idea? If you think like that it changes the game.
Which comes first: the thumbnail and title, or the idea and content?
You can do it one of two ways.
You can take a good thumbnail and then work backwards and figure out the content. It just usually results in more lack luster content.
Or, you can think of 10 ideas that are phenomenal, that people would love to watch, and then ask: which one do we think we can make a good title and thumbnail for?
Let's take a look at this video’s thumbnail. It's about the bombing of Hiroshima during WWII.
Imagine you'd decided to make this video. You need to decide how to frame it.
Angle #1: Why was the Nuclear Bomb dropped on Hiroshima?
The problem: the answer can be simplified fairly easily. You can google it and get a satisfying answer in seconds.
A viewer is not likely to commit 10 minutes to something they think they could find out in 10 seconds.
Angle #2: What happened before, during, and after the bomb was dropped?
It's a decent enough idea, but the question feels vague. There aren't any specific curiosity gaps opened. The framing of the content is too surface-level and doesn't evoke an instant need to click the video.
Angle #3: Why isn't Hiroshima a nuclear wasteland?
This is much more effective than the previous options. Why?
It opens a plethora of curiosity gaps. Seeing this title I'm instantly asking questions like,
How did they rebuild an entire city so fast?
How can people still live there?
Isn’t there a problem with radiation?
If people can live in Hiroshima, why can’t they live in, say, Chernobyl?
In fact, the questions we briefly considered earlier could (and do) fold into this video too:
Why was the Nuclear Bomb dropped on Hiroshima?
What happened before, during and after the bomb was dropped?
Hence, "Why isn't Hiroshima a nuclear wasteland?" is a great option to be the Grand Payoff - the ultimate question/focus/topic the audience needs to find out before they leave.
And, trust me, it’s usually not your first idea.
So spend time identifying the grand payoff that’s gonna
satisfy their curiosity,
get them watching til the end, and
keep them thinking about your video after they close YouTube.
Use this 4-point checklist to identify your grand payoff.
I’m passionate about it.
My audience will care deeply about it.
It evokes emotion.
It opens multiple curiosity gaps (and can’t be answered with a Google search).
Here's an example title and thumbnail. On the right are 5 questions that someone could ask when they read it (see: How to frame an idea).
Here’s a hook for the above title and thumbnail that promises to answer the first 3 questions:
So, in this video, I’m going to reveal what this simple step is, how any level of editor can easily transform their videos using it, and give you examples of YouTubers who are blowing up harnessing its epic power.
Titles and headlines are super important. All the time spend producing the video is wasted if people don't click it.
If you’re going to model other channels (which, you should), model channels with 5k-500k subscribers, not millions. Sometimes people are succeeding in spite of doing things, not because of them.
When you search for titles to model, do a broad search. Search your title and many variations of it across different niches. You're looking for a general trend.
If every successful video has a specific quality, then you probably also want to adopt that quality.
Otherwise, if there’s no clear winner, do what seems the most reasonable.
You don't have to be 100% original. Just model what works and add your own twist.
Some other tips:
write titles for humans - if you confuse them, you lose them. Don't keyword stuff.
no focus, no audience - the more ands and commas you include, the less of a punch it will pack. Don't dilute your title.
The 3 "clickworthy emotions" are curiosity, fear, and desire.
Give them a reason to listen to you.
If you can word their desires better than they can, they'll trust you.
Source: Jake Thomas (author of Creator Hooks newsletter)
How do I make a good title without going against my morals?
Sometimes the idea of making titles based on fear doesn't sit right. It feels slimy.
Jake Thomas's tip for this is to be honest and avoid being presumptuous.
For example, instead of writing "You will regret..." in your title (presumptuous), write, "I regretted..." (assuming it's true). Talk about your own experiences.
Source: Jake Thomas (author of Creator Hooks newsletter)
The thumbnail
What's the key to making a good thumbnail?
Thumbnails are 90% psychology and 10% design.
For example, this thumbnail is easy to make but psychologically enticing. It uses color theory, is clean, and is easy to understand if you shrink it.
Some other tips:
if you have text on your thumbnail, keep it to 5 words or less
text is helpful to open a curiosity loop, which is more helpful for education and "talking head" channels
generally, action in thumbnails is more relevant to entertainment channels
but, you can still use action in educational thumbnails. Here is an example of a video about note taking tools with an action-ey thumbnail.
What's the difference between an intro and a hook?
(My paraphrasing of Gwilym:) An intro is a hook for the whole video. It's the setup for the grand payoff of the video: the entire reason someone would watch it. There can be several hooks in a video, depending on how long it is.
There's no one-size-fits-all, but usually there's some kind of "beginning, middle, end" structure. And within that structure there are mini-"beginning, middle"end" structures.
Loops within loops.
George Blackman uses the vocabulary, "setup, tension, resolution".
My (Josh's) understanding is that you can't create them, you can only amplify what's already there.
If tension exists you can probably make it more dramatic with zooms, woosh sounds, etc.
If there isn't already tension, trying to add zooms and stuff is just polishing a turd.
That being said, I'm also a believer that there's a story anywhere if you look hard enough. There has to be, because problems are everywhere. Desires are everywhere. There is so much we don't know.
Anyway, here are some actual expert takes:
Sure, make your protagonist’s goal seem near-impossible. But the stakes need to be interesting too.
What happens if they fail?
What will they gain/lose? Time? Money? Status?
On a deeper, human level, why do we want them to succeed?
How do I make my educational videos interesting to beginners and experts at the same time?
In a nutshell: use metaphors and stories.
When you use metaphors to simplify complex information, beginners and experts tend to like it.
Beginners think, "sweet I understand that!"
Experts think, "I knew that but whoa that's a cool way of looking at it."
When you use stories, it helps get everyone on the same page. But even if they're an expert and they didn't learn anything, at least they were entertained.
Paddy Galloway also advocates for a similar split (see: The idea).
Writing a script is overwhelming, what process should I follow?
George Blackman likes to do 4 passes when he writes a script. He refers to 4 different hats he puts on: the artist, architect, writer, and wizard hats.
Artist - Free-flowing, get all your ideas out, don’t think about structure
Architect - Narrow down the idea, start to flesh out the structure
Writer - Start connecting the dots between your key points and your grand payoff. Make sure everything is either progressing, regressing, or changing.
Wizard - start thinking about retention. Highlight key moments in the script.
More details about the 4 hat method can be found here and here.
How do youtube experts use AI in their workflow?
When asked about how George Blackman uses AI in his workflow, he replied, "not much" except for with titles and packaging.
This is awesome, thank you for sharing your insights sir!