videos to film that people already search for

the short version

promote now has videos to film: youtube videos you could make this week that the right people are already searching for, as many as are worth it and never padded.

each one comes with the phrase people type, who types it, what is ranking for it now, why you could beat it, and how to film it: a few ways to open, said in your own words, and what to cover, in order.

it lives on promote, the shop window beside the diary. it never touches your episodes.

why youtube, and why search

a diary episode is for the people who watched yesterday's. it is serial: they come back for the story. that is what underway is built around, and it is why your episodes are never cut for a hook.

but a stranger does not start at episode 47. they start with a question typed into a search box: how do i get my first customers, how do i set this up, what is it actually like to do this. youtube is the second biggest search engine there is, and a video that answers one of those questions well keeps being found for years.

so videos to film is the other way in. somebody finds your answer, then your page, then eighty episodes of the real thing.

how they are found

• underway reads who you are and who you talk to: your series, your episode zero and the background you gave it.
• it writes the phrases your audience might type, in three kinds: answers to their own problems, how-tos of what you make or do, and the story you are living, for the people searching for it.
• it checks each one against youtube's own search suggestions, the list that drops down as you type. if youtube suggests it, people type it.
• with youtube connected, it reads page one for each phrase: the top videos, their views, how old they are and how big the channel is.
• then it keeps every one worth filming, in two lists: the ones you could rank for now, where page one is old, from small channels, thin on views, or answering a different question from the one typed, and the ones worth it but up against bigger channels, each saying what it is up against. it never pads the list.

nothing is guessed. a phrase only gets through if youtube says people type it, and a video only gets suggested if the evidence says there is room.

what each one shows

• the title to use, with the searched words first
• the phrase people type, and whether youtube suggests it
• who types it and what they want
• why you could rank, with the evidence from page one
• the top three on page one now: views, age and channel size
• how to film it: two or three ways to open, as directions, and what to cover

copy the notes puts the whole thing on your clipboard, to keep beside you while you film.

talk or show

not every video is an interview. each one says how it is filmed. questions asked means it is answered to camera, the way your episodes are. show your screen means it is a how-to: you walk through it while you talk, with the notes as your guide.

your words, not a script

the ways to open are directions, not lines: open on how many customers you had at month three, open by showing the finished thing first. you say it the way you would say it. nothing in the notes invents a number or a story you did not give it.

what it never does

• it never reaches your daily interview. the questions you are asked in an episode come from your day and your season, never from what people search for.
• it never numbers anything or counts towards your streak.
• it never posts on its own.

what it costs

nothing extra. it uses youtube's own suggestions and your own connected youtube account. checking page one uses youtube's daily allowance, which every account shares, so on a busy day the read uses the suggestions alone and says so.

start a series and film episode zero for free. start free.