The Dark Side of YouTube Growth Advice
You are not being taught, you are being groomed.
I’ve been exactly where you are. 10 years ago I started making cooking and camping videos for YouTube with an old camcorder. It was fun and rewarding, there was no pressure or expectations, I was just making the content I wanted to make and sharing it with the world… even if that world was only a handful of people.
A couple years later I started paying attention to how my videos were performing. Some of them started gaining traction. I didn’t have YouTube Studio back then, I wasn’t even thinking about the metrics, but I started to see a couple of videos hit a hundred views, then a thousand.
Wow, people actually liked watching my videos, I wasn’t expecting that.
Around that time I was entering my 40s, disillusioned with my work life and exploring new ways to make a living, my second act. I had floated from one idea to another until I started seeing content creators that were making a living from YouTube. This hit me hard, getting paid to do what you love — the ultimate win in the game of life.
That spark lit the flame, I found my north star. I wanted to be a YouTuber.
What happened next was unexpected. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing back then, I just loved making videos and knew that’s what I wanted to do every day. I saw other creators crushing it on the platform and I knew I needed to level up and learn how to create videos like them.
I started watching videos to help me improve my skills and make better content. YouTube itself was a goldmine of information, a seemingly infinite supply of advice and educational content at my fingertips. This is how it started. I fell into the YouTube growth rabbit hole — and I fell deep!
One video led into the next, and the next. It wasn’t long before YouTube was showing me an endless stream of growth content in my feed. I became obsessed with watching them and the more I consumed the more I convinced myself that they were leading me closer to the promised land. But the only place I ended up was watching the next video.
It took me a while to realize that I was building my own prison. Watching YouTube gurus reveal their secrets on how to tap into endless potential became an addiction. But like any addiction, one hit was never enough. My dream was always in reach, but just far enough away that I needed to watch another growth video to edge closer to it. I was trapped in a perpetual lie.
The deeper I fell into this world the more I doubted my own content. I was so wrapped up in chasing the key to success that I lost myself in it. I went down a path of constant procrastination and overthinking that ultimately led to stagnation. I stopped creating.
During the lowest moments I nearly gave up completely on my dreams. It felt like my goals were always out of reach. I stepped back from it all for a while, disheartened and exhausted. This is where the story ends for many would-be creators. You fall into the YouTube guru machine, get chewed up and spat out as just the shell of the potential creator you once were.
Something happened to me during this time. I started thinking, really thinking, about what was going on. I started looking at the gurus I had been following and seeing their game plan. It was like the curtain was being lifted.
I started delving into the strategies behind the gurus I had so faithfully watched over the years and I saw the same patterns again and again.
I could see it clearly now — the YouTube growth industry is fucking toxic.
It took me a long time to see it. The system is designed to keep you hooked. You get just enough insight in a video to feel that you are improving, but in reality you are just being led blindly through a sales funnel to sign up to their course. You are not being taught, you are being groomed.
Here’s the ugly truth they don’t want you to know. There are a few fundamental concepts that are crucial to succeed on YouTube, but not as many as you think. The rest is fine tuning.
The problem for the gurus is that teaching you the basics is not enough, they need to keep you coming back for more. They release a constant churn of the same rehashed concepts slightly spun with some unique “strategy” to try and make it appear fresh. They need to keep you on the hamster wheel so you eventually sign up for their course where you can unlock all the secrets — don’t fall for the lie.
Let me be clear. There are things you need to learn to be successful on YouTube, and I’m not dumping on all YouTube growth creators, there are some fantastic resources out there that can really help you get started. But there is a darker side to the industry lurking in the shadows that is not aligned with your success.
The trick is finding a healthy feedback loop between doing and learning. Getting trapped in the YouTube growth rabbit hole cost me two years of my creator life and I want to help you avoid that. Find creators that inspire you, not trap you.
Next time you find yourself on a 6 hour educational video binge, remember that as creators we never stop learning, but we learn by doing, failing and improving. Failing is not a bad thing, it’s essential and it will teach you far more than any guru ever could.