5 Ways Small Creators Win YouTube's NEW Algorithm

YouTube has traditionally been very difficult for small creators to actually get traction, get their videos to take off and actually build their channel. Often times, small creators would take months or even years in many cases just to get a single video to take off. But recently and especially this year, that is completely changing. And I'm going to show you a bunch of different examples of why. And I'm going to tell you why it's happening in this video. and I'm going to be showing you how the new YouTube algorithm is actually favoring small creators in certain ways that you wouldn't believe and you can take advantage of. So, if you appreciate me doing this type of video, let me know by gently tapping that like button. And let's jump into it with number one on the list, which is create content that solves problems. So, creating content that solves problems is the first way that small creators are winning YouTube's new algorithm. Now, you might be saying, "Shane, I already knew that." Just wait. I'm going to give you a really good example, but before I get into the example, I just want to tell you that YouTube is different than any other social media platform because it really isn't a social media platform. It's a hybrid. It's half social media, half search engine. So, the way it acts and the way it behaves compared to the other social media platforms is simply different. Additionally, YouTube is literally the only social media platform where people expect to view long- form content, which means a lot of people come to YouTube wanting to actually get their problems solved. They're not necessarily just mindlessly browsing looking to be entertained. Although a lot of people do that on YouTube, many of them are actually going to YouTube in order to solve their problems in the form of watching videos. So, here's an example of a small creator that just recently blew up. Tang Sang just started posting about five months ago. At first, he wasn't getting very much traction, and he was talking about a lot of random stuff. Now, his channel is based on Chinese proverbs and sayings and the ancient wisdom behind them. And the problem with his older content is it just wasn't packaged well. It wasn't really using the right keywords or anything like that. But about 4 weeks ago, he uploaded a video called Why Being Useful Can Destroy Your Life. an ancient Chinese idea that feels uncomfortably true today. Now, very interesting video idea here. Not something you hear all the time. And this video absolutely blew up and got about 375,000 views. And before that, he had not even hit a video that got to a,000 views. And since then, his channel absolutely blew up. It's now making $2 to $7,000 a month. He's monetized and he's getting a ton of views and he's almost 10,000 subscribers. Plus, more of his videos are doing well now. Now, of course, he had a very contrarian take with this video, but at its core, it really is a useful video that's all about just helping you solve your problem. There's certain cultures where people feel too much of a need to be useful to other people. In reality, they should maybe focus on themselves a little bit more in order to be even more useful to other people, right? So, that's kind of why when you board airplanes, they always tell you to put your mask on first before you try to put other people's masks on because that's going to result in a better outcome for everyone. That's kind of the point he's making with this video. Of course, he says a lot more and he goes into the proverbs and stuff, but it's a very contrarian and interesting take and it's a different way of doing it. And a lot of people are interested in, you know, a lot of these old proverbs, not just from China, but from all over the world, a lot of this old wisdom that has been lost in many cases or isn't very wellnown. And so he found his niche of talking about ancient cultures, you know, midlife after failure, what ancient cultures understood, and basically just ancient wisdom, specifically with an emphasis on ancient Chinese wisdom. And now his videos are doing significantly better. So the whole point here, create content that solves problems. Before he was kind of creating content that's just like random proverbs that don't really help all that much, but now he's creating content that solve real problems for people, and that is why he's doing so well. Now, if you are having trouble picking your niche or you're very confused with your niche just like he was, right? He was making content on Proverbs but it wasn't really working for him or if you already have a niche but you're thinking about niching down or expanding or pivoting niches or just completely changing niches altogether. Or if you're confused about video ideas, or if you're confused about how to monetize your channel properly, then go ahead and attend my live training this Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. All right, guys. in the editing process right now. And I just wanted to mention that if you're struggling to grow on YouTube, you're having trouble getting views, subscribers, making money, or even picking a niche, I'm going to be hosting a free one-time live workshop that goes over exactly how to help with that. How to finally make money from YouTube.com in 2026. So, make sure to mark that down. And also make sure to click the link in the description and the pin comment below so you don't miss out. And if you attend live, you'll also have a chance to be the one person I pick for a realtime channel audit once we move into the interactive portion of the workshop. And if you feel unsure about what niche to choose or you're worried that your niche might be too broad or it's not profitable enough, then this workshop is for you because I'll be giving away the 60-second niche validator 2.4 completely free. This is the latest and most optimized version of my GPT powered niche validation tool, and it helps you instantly test and uncover profitable YouTube niches before you waste time creating content that doesn't bring in leads, sales, or money. It's smarter, faster, and trained on even more data from real profitable channels. And I'll be giving it away completely free, but only at this live workshop. And just a heads up, this might be one of the last times I give this tool away for free because I'm planning on making into a actual software. So, if you've been on the fence, this is definitely a good time to pick it up. Now, during the workshop, there's a full presentation on how to grow on YouTube, followed by Q&A where you can ask me questions directly on Zoom. And people do ask a lot of questions the majority of the time about niche. And many people walk away with niche clarity during the session itself. And the same strategies I teach are the ones that help clients like Nicole, who went from 85 subscribers to $85,000 in a single month. Seth, who went from years to a viral video to immediately getting 300,000 views right after starting working with us, or Davis, who scaled from 100K a month and was able to remove himself from recording. And even people who aren't clients, like Isaiah, were able to make $20,000 only using the free content and live workshop strategies. So, make sure you show up, click the link in the description or the pin comment to register, and add it to your calendar so you don't miss the chance to grab the 60-second niche validator AI. And if you miss the date, that's okay. Check the link still to see when the next workshop is happening or to sign up to a list that will tell you when the next one does. So, see you Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Now, back to the video. All right, so the second thing is you need to discover your ideal niche. So, the algorithm loves creators who serve a specific audience. So, you need to stop chasing every trending topic out there. You need to find the niche your audience actually cares about. Now, I know this is easier said than done, and I know it's not as simple as just, you know, niche down. Again, we'll go over how to actually do that in the live training. But when you focus on one clear idea consistently, the algorithm notices and it rewards you for it, right? You're not trying to please everyone anymore. You're trying to please a very specific person or a very specific group of people. So, let's look at uh Abdi Hassan, the laptop business. Very interesting channel here. Pretty small channel as well, but basically all he talks about is buying and selling laptops. like he's just a laptop flipper and all he talks about is buying and selling laptops. Now, you might be looking at his numbers and thinking, Shane, why are you showing me this guy? I mean, he's getting 7,000 views the last 7 days. So, he's probably getting like 25 to 30,000 views a month. His most popular video was posted about 1 month ago. It's got about 57,000 views. Not that much, you know. So, you might be thinking, Shane, why are you showing me this guy? Well, it's because he is an absolute sniper. And I don't mean that literally. What I mean is he sells a very specific product. He already knows what he's selling and he is bringing that product to YouTube. So he's making content designed to sell the product. And his particular product is the laptop business.com. So he is selling some sort of coaching program here. You watch the video, then you book a call and I'm guessing it's going to be at least $3,000, probably upwards of, you know, $10,000. And he's going to teach you how to flip laptops essentially. And I love these super niche businesses. I flipped a lot of things when I was younger as well. And there's like super niche businesses out there where you can make a ton of money flipping stuff, especially if you really know what you're looking at and you really know the value of the different things that you're seeing. I've seen people make a ton of money flipping phones, flipping cars, all kinds of other stuff. And so, I really love seeing channels like this and I think it is a really good opportunity for the right person. Now, if you're sitting here thinking, "Well, Shane, how do you know he's making money? Maybe he's not making money." Well, it's because I've seen so many of these types of channels and I've worked with so many of them that I kind of just have a six sense to be able to tell. But if you want a little bit more proof, let's look at my main channel. My main channel is Shane Hummus. And one of the most viewed videos on this channel is the most useless degrees. This one got about 4 million views, over 4 million, and it made around $21,000 overall. Then we've got this video right here, which got around 11,000 views, and it's earned well over $40,000. This was me when I didn't know how to properly monetize my channel. Four million view video, made about $21,000, which hey, don't get me wrong, I'm super happy about that. And I probably made a little bit more from affiliate marketing and stuff like that, but you know, maybe double at the most. So, you know, about $40,000. And yet, this video right here that got 11,000 views made more money than this one that got 4 million. Now, which one of these do you think is more repeatable? This one at 11,000 views or this one at 4 million? Well, obviously this one, right? This one is way easier to repeat. Back to the main point, which is discovering your ideal niche. Don't necessarily think that you have to go for a niche that gets a lot of views. Sometimes you can go for a niche that doesn't get that many views and you can make a ton of money. For instance, my second channel, which when I started off, I called it Shane Hummus Unfiltered. Now it's called Shane Hummus, the content growth engine. That channel, the first month that I launched it, made about $30 to $40,000. That means I was making $1.7,000 per 1,000 views. Now it usually makes anywhere between three and $5,000 per 1,000 views. So we're making a ton of money from that channel even though I put almost zero effort into it. So consider the audience, consider your niche, but also consider the monetization opportunities when you're picking the right ideas. Okay, next is never delete underperforming videos. This is a mistake that I see people making all the time. Somebody will post a video, it doesn't perform better, and they kind of get, I don't know, like embarrassed or they just have some kind of like negative reaction to the video, and they decide to delete it. And I get it. It's super tempting to delete videos that flop initially, but this can absolutely hurt your long-term potential because I've had so many videos flop in the past and then a month later, 3 months later, 6 months later, even a year later, those same videos end up taking off. And I'm not the only one. Just look at this guy right here who posted on Reddit. My biggest video was around 1,000 views a year after I made it. It's an 8-minute video. Then for some unknown reason it took off to over 650,000 views. And this was that video right here. Cheapest countries to retire in with only social security. So yeah, there's not much more to say about this one. Just never pretty much under any circumstance delete your videos. And what goes along with that is if you ever think of like changing niches and something, this is another question I get all the time. People think like, "Oh, should I start a new channel?" No, don't start a new channel 99% of the time. Just keep posting on your original channel. All right. So, the next point if you want to win is you absolutely need to package your videos properly. So, I've said this a million times on my channel that the idea is the thing that matters most. Like, you can have mediocre editing, mediocre almost everything, as long as the idea is good, it's just a matter of time before one of your videos blows up. But if the idea is bad, you can have amazing everything else and the video is not going to blow up. But there's something missing from that, and that is you have to package that idea in the right way. because you could have the most amazing idea ever, but if you're not communicating the idea, then nobody's ever going to know about it. And that's why packaging your videos properly is so important. And when it comes to packaging, there's three things that matter. The thumbnail, the title, and the intro. And these things I like to call the holy trifecta. Now, one reason why I call them the holy trifecta is because they're very important. The other reason why I call them the holy trifecta is because they should be done together. And the third reason I call them the holy trifecta is because you must always think of them related to each other. Okay? It's almost like a vin diagram. They all must be congruent to each other. So the first thing the person's going to see is likely the thumbnail. Then they're going to make a decision from the thumbnail if they're going to look at the title. And then they're going to make a decision from the title if they're going to click on the video. And then once they click on the video, they're going to make a decision based on the intro or the hook whether they're actually going to watch the rest of the video or not. And by the way, it doesn't need to be as complicated as a lot of people make it out to be. A lot of the time, it can be dead simple. So, here's an example of someone doing this perfectly. Lazy Cabbie. This is a super small creator. I purposely chose a bunch of small creators. Some of these people may or may not be my clients. You know, I'm not going to reveal, but some of them are not my clients. They're just random creators we found. But Lazy Cabbie is a 40-year-old guy who started YouTube this year, and he documents his life as a taxi driver. And look how his packaging works together beautifully. His thumbnail matches exactly what his title says and it shows you where he is in that moment. And everything is congruent and makes perfect sense. If he's inside the taxi in the video, his thumbnail shows him inside the taxi, too. And the title reflects the same exact thing. And it usually captures the mood of whatever the video is about. And remember, these are not fancy thumbnails. They're literally just pictures of him probably taken with his phone or even still shots of his video. and he just paused the screen, took the shot, and then put a little bit of text on it, and that's it. And that's one thing is you don't necessarily have to make really good thumbnails, titles, and intros, but they do need to be congruent. And his thumbnails, titles, and intros are nothing special, but they're all congruent with each other, and that's the important thing, and that's one of the reasons why he's done so well with his videos. Now, is he making a ton of money with this channel? Not yet. Probably a few thousand bucks a month, but he is definitely growing his channel. And in the future, especially if he monetizes correctly, which I'm going to teach you guys how to do in the live training this Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Click the link in the description in the pin comment below. Do not miss out on it. Put in your calendar, then he's definitely going to be making some good money. All right, the next thing is consistency in posting. Now, a lot of you know about my brother, Zach. Basically, he has worked in the trades for 30 years. Uh, he's had his own business in the trades for 20 years, but it started to get really hard on his body. He came to me. He said, "Shane, how can I make money online or make money, you know, not working with my body?" And of course, I told him, "YouTube." And he was very surprised by that because he's like, "I'm not techsavvy. I'm 50 years old. I'm not very creative. You know, I haven't really ever made a video besides recording on my phone, and I don't really know that much about YouTube. So, why in the world do you think I should become a YouTuber?" And I was just like, "Trust me, bro." And my bro, Zach did trust me, bro. And his very first video popped off. It now has over 800,000 views. Blew up his channel. and he started crushing it right away. Within the first month, he was making $214 in a single day. And less than six months in, he was making over $500 in a single day. And by the way, there's a good chance he's actually going to show up to the live training. So, click that link in the description in the pin comment below if you want to see him. And if he doesn't, at the very least, we will give an update on where he's at. But the point is with my brother, his very first video blew up. Now, you might expect me to say like, "Yeah, of course I knew it was going to blow up." But the truth is, I didn't. And we got lucky. Yes, he did use my methods. Yes, he was a good student and he did exactly what I told him to do. But did I know 100% that his first video was going to blow up? Absolutely not. And typically my clients first videos don't blow up. A lot of the time it'll take them five videos, 10 videos, 15, 20, even 30 videos in some cases before they have that first one that really takes off. And that's why it's so important for you to post consistently. Now, if you do things the right way, you're much more likely to have a video that takes off. Like, significantly more likely. If you don't do things the right way, it'll take you somewhere between 100 and 300 videos before you have one that takes off. But if you do things the right way, often times it'll take you 30 videos or even way less than 30 videos before you have one take off. And that is why it's so important to post consistently because remember what I said before, the idea is the thing that matters the most. So by knowing that, if you think logically, you should just simply optimize for trying out as many ideas as possible. And that is exactly what my brother did. He spent less than 2 hours making this initial video, right? He didn't spend 30 or 40 or 50 hours or anything like that. It was less than 2 hours. And this video blew up and it completely changed his channel. And he's probably going to end up making more from his YouTube channel, at least in profit, than he did from his business after the first year. And also check out this video from one of our clients who was able to absolutely start crushing it in a very short period of time after learning our methods.