Danie Jay spent her early 20s chasing her dreams as a digital nomad. Living in Vietnam and with no money to spare, she taught English online to make ends meet.
Whenever she had questions about work, she’d often turn to YouTube for answers. Danie would notice fellow teachers earning "an absolute killing” from their channels.
This always left her feeling like she was missing out. But instead of starting her own channel, Danie was overcome by fear...
For two long years.
“The belief that there wasn’t room for me in my niche held me back” she said.
But one day, she spotted an opportunity too good to ignore. Danie noticed there weren't many videos on YouTube about the new school that recently hired her.
Armed with nothing but a $5 panda puppet and her MacBook webcam, she took the plunge and made her first video.
"Fast forward a few years, and my channel retired me from teaching English as I mastered the in's and out's of YouTube," said Danie, who's built a small-but-mighty audience of 30,000 YouTube subscribers.
A Search-Centered Approach to YouTube
Danie doesn’t create content about teaching online these days. Instead, she films educational videos about building a YouTube channel.
"I love helping entrepreneurs use the power of YouTube to share passions and expertise with the world," she said.
For Danie, the road to creating a video starts and ends with her ideal viewer. She kicks off her creative process by asking three big questions:
What are my ideal viewers struggling with?
What are they searching for?
What are their deeper desires?
Next, Danie examines titles inside and outside of her niche. Trends outside her niche often lead to ideas she can apply to her category.
Data also plays a major role in Danie's creative process. YouTube studio is her "holy grail” of what works and doesn’t work on her channel.
The metrics she pays close attention to are:
View Count: Danie doubles down on topics that generated high views in previous videos.
Audience Retention: She strives for 70% retention or better in the first 30 seconds of her videos.
How Viewers Find Her Videos: Danie takes note of search terms that drive the most views to her channel.
Impressions Click-Through Rate: Her minimum is 5%. Anything less usually means her thumbnails need a "glow up.”
Leveling Up Her YouTube SEO With TubeBuddy
In spite of her success as a solo creator, Danie knew she couldn't keep growing by herself. It was pretty clear she'd need some help.
Enter TubeBuddy.
Danie discovered it while looking for ways to improve her YouTube SEO. With TubeBuddy, she learned how long-tail keywords can help build tiny but profitable channels.
"I realized I could hack the YouTube algorithm to work FOR ME," she said.
For example, Danie used TubeBuddy's Keyword Explorer to research the keyword "Bali digital nomad.” It predicted her videos would have a high-likelihood of ranking on YouTube for this topic.
An SEO-centric approach has ensured Danie a steady flow of viewers to her channel. It's also brought unexpected opportunities, like an interview with the BBC about her life on the road.
"I really (credit) this to using the Keyword Explorer tool," she said. "My ability to hone in on keywords...allowed me to show up in search for 'digital nomads.'"
Danie's Advice to Would-Be Creators
Start scared, embrace imperfection, and be consistent.
These are all things Danie wishes she did instead of sitting on the sidelines for two years. Today, they're also things she encourages aspiring creators to do themselves.
The path to success is often paved with lots of failure. Take it from Danie.
“The true way of getting good on YouTube is to be okay with starting imperfect or even bad,” she said. “(Know) that as you create more content, you will improve by leaps and bounds!”
This is sponsored content created in partnership with TubeBuddy.
Check out TubeBuddy and download the YouTube extension built for creators here.