re: Made a YouTube video for contractor guys — go ahead and make fun of the thumbnail

Can you pass a little pet peeve of mine on to the contractors and/or tradesmen? They have skills and abilities that I will never possess, and I acknowledge that. They should acknowledge that they have zero creativity in naming their businesses. All day long on trucks and other ads, I see:

H&M Carpentry
JJ’s Roofing
RJ&D General Contractors
LRE Electrical

Get the picture?

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Decent video. Similar to the body shop business. Most guys who own body shops are not business majors. They started sweeping floors, then estimating, and ending up as the owner.

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That's exactly it, and body shops are actually one of the cleaner comparisons — the whole trades world runs on that same path. Great with your hands, learn the trade, and then one day you're the owner with zero training on the accounting side of it. Nobody ever hands you a class on job costing or cash flow when you make that jump, you're just expected to figure it out while also still running jobs.

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This is because of child support and the boat note


As well as court costs, fines, fees, and restitution.

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Alcohol and golf, too

I'm not a contractor, but your video was worth the time. Good information and explained well.
Liked & subscribed.

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You move your head way too much.

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Thanks for the feedback. It’s somewhat intentional as I read that viewers don’t respond well to keeping your head still and just staring into the camera. But I’ll keep that in mind when I make the next video.

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I have some feedback as well. Drop the "OMG guys" thumbail expression. You arent trying to get 13 year old girls to watch your videos.

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I actually really don’t like it either. I did a ton of research before I made that thumbnail. Unfortunately, humans will just scroll past anything that doesn’t visually catch their eye.

YouTube has become more similar to facebook these days and people scroll through a feed looking for videos to watch on their phones. The weirder your face looks, the better. If you look at the most successful YouTube channels you will see this over and over.

Hopefully once I get more subscribers I can tone it down a bit, but for now it’s necessary…

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YouTube has become more similar to facebook these days and people scroll through a feed looking for videos to watch on their phones. The weirder your face looks, the better. If you look at the most successful YouTube channels you will see this over and over.

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I hear you in general, but I think you need to consider your target audience.

I personally skip any videos with a thumbnail like that because it generally means a video full of fluff. Doesnt youtube let you A/B test thumbails? I'd do that just to see if a more substantive thumbnail fares better.

I know it’s hard starting with zero subscribers. I’ll add you from both of my accounts.

Good luck.

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I know it’s hard starting with zero subscribers. I’ll add you from both of my accounts.

Good luck.

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Thanks! I really appreciate it. This is my first time ever posting a YouTube video and it's interesting to see that people are watching and subscribing. I know it's a long road, but with only one video I feel like I'm off to a good start and look forward to posting the next video. I know it can take months and even yaeas to get a true following. It's fine, because this is just something I'm doing on the side in my spare time.