Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
How to make videos SO addictive you can’t stop going viral | Learn By Leo | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: How to make videos SO addictive you can’t stop going viral
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
Imagine your next video's retention is
so high, your video is guaranteed to go
viral. I want that for you. So, I've
taken my eight years of experience on
YouTube writing scripts, editing videos,
and investigating what goes viral, and
I've boiled it down into six components.
The first component is to stop trimming
down your videos to just the parts your
audience actually wants to see.
Obviously, you need to be giving your
viewers value, but there's another often
even more important thing your videos
need to do. Here, let me show you an
example from this video. This paragraph
is the valuable lesson that my audience
wants. So, what am I talking about in
the first paragraph? Let's take a look.
I want you to look at this. There's a
problem here.
This is the timeline of a typically
edited YouTube video. A couple cuts have
removed the unnecessary bits. There was
a tangent here that wasn't really
relevant to the video's greater purpose.
These cuts removed pauses and these
removed bad takes. But in its current
form, this video is doomed to fall short
of its potential. The reason is this
video isn't using its visuals to
maximize attention. That first paragraph
is where I reveal a problem. And then in
the second paragraph, I give a lesson on
how to solve it. Now, imagine if I
didn't state the problem first and
instead got straight into teaching the
lesson. There wouldn't be any curiosity
or expectations, so whatever I say will
just be boring information rather than
being an answer to the viewer's
questions or problems. Are you doing
that? Do your videos just get straight
into talking about or doing random
stuff? Or do you first make sure the
viewer cares about what you're talking
about or doing? You see, it's obvious to
you or to me as the creator what makes
things valuable, but to the audience,
they don't actually know until you tell
them. So, here's my formula. I color
code my scripts to make sure the viewer
always cares so much about what I'm
saying that they can't possibly stop
watching. In these green sections, I
give the reason to watch. I explain the
problem, share a mystery, give a
question, or create an expectation.
Then, in these purple sections, I reveal
the answers. Now, this formula isn't
just used for my videos. It's used
everywhere. Here, look at this video
from Ryan Tran. The intro is of course
going to be a green section to get you
to care about what he's going to do in
the video. So, do you remember what the
green sections are? It's when you
introduce the problem, question or
mystery. Which one does Ryan do?
This is the loneliest house in the
world. Oh, it's so lonely. No, there are
tons of conspiracy theories around it.
Like, like some people think a
billionaire built this place in case of
a zombie apocalypse. Some people think
it's like a religious cult. But most
people just want to move here and get
away from their problems. To get the
viewers's attention, he says the facts
that create a mystery. The loneliest
house in the world has a ton of
conspiracy theories around it, such as a
billionaire's zombie apocalypse hideout
or a religious cult. So tell me, what
question does this create? It makes you
ask, what is the true purpose of the
world's loneliest house? And that
question gives the viewer a reason to
watch the video. Okay, cool. But that
was just one method to create curiosity.
There's actually four methods. So, get
your notes ready because you're going to
use these a lot from now on. First, you
can create a mystery like what Ryan did
in that video. Or it could be a problem,
question, or some obstacle that lacks an
answer. Second, you can say something
counterintuitive. For example, look at
this video. You wouldn't expect the
smaller asteroids to be the ones to
worry about. So, this is something
that's surprising and it makes you
curious. Third, you can reveal that
someone knows a secret. make it seem
like someone's hiding something that's
really important. And fourth, you can
suggest that there's a missing component
or something important that you haven't
yet considered. Now, this first one is
the secret to turning your boring videos
into highly captivating stories that get
millions of views. So, let's look at how
Ryan does it in this video. Now, first,
do you remember how I use that green
purple formula for my videos? I go
problem, solution, problem, solution.
For the videos I made on my previous
channel where I talked about my favorite
video game, Terraria, I did question
answer. Question answer. But the thing
is with Ryan's video, he's not giving
information. He is he's doing things in
the video. So how do we apply that green
purple formula to a video where you're
doing something? Well, that was actually
initially a a big weak point with Ryan's
video. You see, the reason to watch the
video is to see him explore the world's
loneliest house. So, what's the problem?
Here's the plot of the video. Try to
spot the weak point. Ryan gets ready for
the trip. Ready?
Ready?
Then he takes the boat to the island,
jumps from the boat onto the island,
climbs up to the house, and then
explores the area. Do you see the
problem here? The viewer only cares
about seeing Ryan explore the world's
loneliest house. But the first half of
the video is the journey to the house.
So, how's Ryan going to keep all the
viewers watching during the first half
of the video? Simple. He needs to make
the viewer care about the journey as
well. How? Well, Ryan's really a genius.
Take a look at the rest of that intro.
This trip is said to be extremely
dangerous. And locals say you'd have to
be stupid to try to go with no
experience, which really only leaves one
man for this job. Hello. Hello. Clearly,
I'm not prepared for a country named
Iceland. He says that the journey is
really dangerous and then throughout the
video makes himself out to be very unprepared.
unprepared.
Just gave me a bunch of clothes cuz I
wasn't prepared.
Therefore, his safety and success
becomes uncertain which makes the
journey to the world's loneliest house
become just as interesting as the house
itself. Write that down. Intrigue comes
from uncertainty. Okay, good. Now, I
need you to recognize this for yourself
in the next example. So, take a look at
when Ryan jumps from the boat onto the
island. That plot point of Ryan jumping
is a purple section. Now, I need you to
notice the green section before it. So,
this is the part of the video where I
can never really illustrate how scared I
am and like just how dangerous this is
for someone like me who has no
experience doing anything, but I have to
jump off of this boat over the icy,
deathly waters. I hope I don't fall.
Did you see that? He tells us that he's
scared, it's dangerous, he's
inexperienced, the water is freezing
cold, and then hints at the end that he
might fall. Imagine if he didn't say any
of that before jumping without knowing
the stakes and what could go wrong. It
wouldn't be entertaining. Well,
actually, he didn't say any of that in
the recording. That green section was
actually a voice over that he added
during the editing process. You see,
after recording the footage for a video,
Ryan follows a three-part limus test to
identify what to cut out and what
voiceovers to add. This is how he makes
the viewers care about each and every
second of his videos. One, the viewer
must always know what's happening. Two,
they must know why it's important. And
three, they must know what could go
wrong. The viewer just needs to be told
all three things, and then they will
watch whatever follows. Sometimes Ryan
says those things in the recording, like
when he tells us the things that he's
concerned about.
I I'm so scared right now. Can I just
say that?
And then other times he forgot, so he
just adds a voice over.
I'm meeting a man named like or
something. I don't know how to pronounce
his name.
Okay, I'm moving a little fast here, so
let me explain. Now, there's actually a
whole another side to this entire thing
for both narrative and informative
content. Whenever you're trying to get
the viewer to care about something that
you talk about or do in your video, if
you can't create curiosity or
expectations, then cut that part out.
For example, in Ryan's video, he was
able to make the boat ride interesting
because there was a chance that things
could go wrong. But other parts of the
story had no chance of failure, so there
wasn't room for any curiosity.
Therefore, even if he recorded a lot of
footage for that plot point, he would
just summarize those parts with a
sentence or two of voiceover. Okay, so
after all that, I got to give you a
takeaway. I don't really know what to
say, so I'm just going to wing it, but
basically, you need to figure out what
your audience is there to watch, what
they're going on YouTube, what like
experience they want, what type of
conversation topics they're interested
in, stuff like that. And then once
you've identified that, you want to make
sure that you're making it clear in your
video with those green sections. Make it
clear that you're giving it, make it
clear what their expectations should be.
Uh, set up some questions using those
those methods that I told you. and then
cut out anything that's not explicitly
what they want. And that's essentially
it. Obviously, it takes practice. So, I
want to to help you out with that with
what I'm offering, but it's basically
just just that. Ryan, for example, he
he's not making videos that are too
outlandish what he's doing in them. He
is he's able to there was even this
video he made where it was just him
spending like two days in a house with
all the lights off. and he was able to
turn that into a really captivating
story and a great video by just knowing
how to to frame things in the right way
to make them entertaining. So, you know,
you don't need to be doing crazy
YouTuber stuff. You just need to know
how to present stuff in a more
entertaining way using the methods that
I told you here. There there's no other
secret methods. It's really just about
trying to figure out how to do it
effectively. And then also with my
channel on Yur Steel, I was making
$1,000 a month when I was like 15 when I
I figured this stuff out. I would just
go on the uh game pedia, like the wiki
page for the game. I would read all the
information on a topic, turn that into a
video. All I had to do was make it
interesting, find a title and thumbnail
that made it interesting, an intro that
made people want to know it, just try
and get the whole niche interested in
that information, and then I was set.
So, yeah, obviously it's really hard to
actually uh figure out how to do this
effectively. So, I am I have an offer
for that, which I'll I'll tell you at
the end of the video. But, yeah, I just
want to let you know like this is
gamechanging for your channel. I'm
really excited for you to be able to
apply it. And yeah, that's it for for my
takeaway. I'll see you in the next
component. Um, this is actually I'd
recorded and and put together the rest
of this video earlier, so it's going to
look a little bit different. But anyway,
I'll I'll let my past self take it from
here and I'll see you at the end of this
video where I'll come back. I'll explain
what I'm offering.
Okay, I want you to watch this intro
over here and then I want you to tell me
what you think about it.
Hey, Vsauce, Michael here. This appears
blue. This appears yellow and this
appears green.
What? Do you want to keep watching that?
Why? He's just telling us the colors on
a Rubik's cube. And there's not even any
video editing in this either. Yeah, this
video sucks. Or does it? Because it is
the intro of a video with 30 million
views. And let's not lie, it was kind of
engaging. So, what's making this so
interesting? Well, it's that the creator
looks and sounds as if he's saying
something super important. So, think
about your videos. How do you talk in
them? Do you sound like you're genuinely
excited to share something? Do you speak
louder for excitement? Lower your voice
for suspense and pause to build
anticipation and emphasize key points?
Do you raise your eyebrows to show
something is interest? Squint slightly
to emphasize a key detail, or move your
head in sync with your words? Do you
shift your hands from one side to the
other to visually separate ideas? Do you
spread your arms wide to signal
something big or pinch the air to
indicate something precise? You don't.
Well, you got to change that because if
you speak in a monotone, then anything
you say will feel boring. Whatever
emotion you put into your voice is
contagious. The viewer will feel it too.
And yeah, that means that if you feel
uncomfortable talking on camera, then
the viewer watching you is going to feel
uncomfortable as well. But, you know,
that's what's so frustrating because you
can talk just fine to your friends,
right? But then as soon as you get on camera,
camera,
please, please like the video.
But don't worry, I've got a shortcut for
you to stop being camera shy and become
pretty engaging on camera. You see, when
you're saying something to a close
friend, 100% of your focus is on just
trying to get your point across. But
once you're talking to the camera, you
get distracted by thoughts like, "Am I
speaking fast enough? Am I pausing too
much? Am I saying that right?" You get
self-conscious. You're focused on
yourself rather than on sharing your
message. Because you're distracted, you
start to lose your train of thought as
you're speaking. So, what makes sense to
do here is to memorize the words that
you need to say so that you say it all
correctly. But this makes things worse.
Now, you're more focused on getting the
words right than on the real meaning
behind the words. And that's what causes
you to speak in a monotone. How do you
fix this? Well, you got to get
comfortable with making mistakes on
camera. Cuz think about this. What
sounds more engaging? You can say your
script flawlessly. Every word's perfect.
You don't say um you don't say ah.
However, the entire recording you're
speaking in a monotone. Or does it sound
more engaging if you make some mistakes
in your speech? You might pause a few
times. You say um you say ah, but it
sounds like you are really excited to
share something. You're you're just
giving off the impression that there's
something really important and exciting
to talk about. Obviously, that second
version sounds way more interesting
despite the mistakes which you can
actually just cut out later. So, what
matters here is not trying to look
perfect, but instead treat the camera
like it's your friend who's really
interested about what you're saying. And
that's really the big issue here. You
you get in front of the camera and you
start thinking that there's a big
audience watching you or there's like a
panel of critics judging you. The issue
is when you start to think that, oh, I'm
in front of the camera now. Now I have
to act different. I have to say things
right. But that's not what it's about.
It's it's about connecting with each
individual viewer as if they were your
friend who's interested in what you're
saying. And that's what's going to make
the viewer feel like you have something
There's a problem with your videos and
if you don't fix it, your scripts are
boring. And this applies to any type of
video. And I've been making this mistake
the past few sentences. And I hope you
noticed because I keep saying and. And
the problem isn't just with the word
and. The problem is with using and to
connect points in your video. Here's
what I mean. The creators of South Park
discovered that when a story is
structured like this happened and then
this happened and then this happened and
then this happened, it quickly becomes
repetitive. But it also creates a bigger
issue. It isn't specified how one thing
leads to the next. This can be pretty
disorienting for the viewer. The video
jumps between topics or scenes without a
clear connection between them. Your
viewer, without a clear path through the
video, isn't kept immersed. There's all
these exit points where they're free to
disengage. So, here's the far better
structure that South Park found. We
tried this, but that got in the way.
Therefore, we had to do this, but it
didn't work. So, we tried this. Whether
it's the scenes in a story, the topics
in an explanation, or even the
individual sentences in a paragraph,
this structure makes a massive
difference. What this all comes down to
is creating a seamless flow throughout
each part of your video so that the
viewer stays fully immersed from the
start to the finish. But that South Park
structure isn't the only thing needed to
create a seamless journey through your
video. There's still one more thing you
got to do.
Before I got started with this video, I
was curious about something. I wanted to
know what is the most common mistake
people make in their videos for
retention. So, I went to my Discord
server at the time and there was a a
section for feedback requests. I went
through all the videos in there and
guess for yourself. What do you think
the biggest mistake was? Was it a lack
of storytelling? Was it really bad video
editing? Was it people speaking in a
monotone voice?
Or was it something else? Well, it was
actually the most basic intuitive thing
that you got to be doing with your
videos, yet no one was really doing it.
The biggest mistake was confusion. I was
confused what was happening. And now, if
you think that you would never make such
an obvious oversight, then you're
probably one of the creators doing this
here. Let me give you a quick insight
into my scripting process. I revisit
every part of my video genuinely around
a 100 times to find any possible way to
make it easier to understand. Because
here's the thing, you're biased. When
you look at your video, you look at it
from a place of having all of the
context. You are the expert. You did the
research, the filming, the editing. But
where is the viewer coming from? A place
of zero context. Everything is
completely new to them. Therefore, it's
way harder for the viewer to keep up
with and understand what's happening.
And you know, I got to be honest, this
is probably why you keep getting
disappointed by your view count. You can
tell when you upload a video that
there's a lot of value there. There's a
lot for people to get from it. Yet,
people are not enjoying it that much.
And therefore, the metrics that YouTube
gathers from your video end up being
lower, and you don't get the views that
your video really could be getting
because chances are you already have a
good video idea. You're already putting
a lot of effort into your videos, a lot
of value in there. But the issue is your
viewers just aren't able to absorb it.
They're not able to understand it that
well and therefore the video is lower
quality because they're not able to
access that value. And really this comes
down to communication. And we've already
talked about this quite a bit so far
with the storytelling lesson which in in
summary is just like make sure you're
telling the viewer what's going on at
all times and what the stakes are, what
could go wrong. So if they know all of
those details, then they're able to keep
up with the story and empathize with
you, get a lot more immersed into what's
happening. We had that communicating.
And that was a big part of
communication. But there's a lot more to
communication beyond that. I think there
is three more things to communication.
These are especially important if you
make videos like mine that are not a
story, but you're explaining something.
First, let's say you're explaining
something and you make it clear and
concise. Great. You're getting to the
point and just saying things simply how
they are. Well, that's still going to
leave the viewer down there. Why? Try to
remember the last time you were learning
to play a new game. People could tell
you a crystal clear and concise
explanation of how to play, but that
wasn't good enough. It was a lot to take
in, so you forgot some details, and it
it just took a few rounds before you
really understood the game. The key
thing here is that it isn't tangible
until you've seen it in action. And it's
also hard to wrap your head around if
it's totally new to you. So, how do you
get the viewer to understand things? You
can use an analogy like for example what
I did a moment ago when I related the
viewer's experience trying to understand
your video to your experience learning
to play a new game or you can give an
example like like what I just did. I
gave the example of using an analogy.
Those things turn an abstract idea into
something vivid for the viewer. The next
thing is to get someone else to watch
your video before you post it. I've been
doing this for years now, and every
single time I get someone pointing out
some moment in my video that was either
boring or it was confusing. Now, the
final thing is something I swear by
because it set me apart ever since my
previous channel. It's what I do with
the visuals. Check this out.
Your journey begins as you scour the
surface for the wooden boomerang, your
first weapon. You find a fallen star and
use it to upgrade to the enchanted
boomerang. The game is only getting
started. Did you catch it? In my videos,
I always make certain that every single
thing I talk about has a visual to show
that thing because you obviously want to
pace your video pretty quickly. But the
issue is if you pace your video really
quickly, then it's really easy for the
viewer to miss some details. The
solution, take full advantage of visual
communication. That way, your video can
communicate maximum value at maximum
efficiency. But just showing a visual
for each thing isn't all there is to it.
There's often multiple things in a scene
that the viewer might look at, so you
need to clarify where their focus should
be. I zoom in and pan the camera to
exactly what the viewer should be
looking at at any given moment. But that
brings up this really common
misconception that people have with
editing. There's this big narrative that
the more cool things you put into your
video, whether it's visuals or sound
effects, that's going to lead to more
views. And I'm sure you've seen a lot of
big creators having a ton of variety in
their videos, too. But variety is much
more delicate than that. And having
variety just for the sake of having it
really has the potential to screw up
your video. Let me explain.
Variety is like seasonings in a dish.
The purpose is to bring out the flavor
of the food. But too many seasonings
ruins the dish. So, for example, with
the mood of your video, keeping a
constant tone throughout the whole video
is like only using one seasoning. It's
boring. But if the mood fluctuates from
excitement over something to worry about
some problem or threat to joy about a
solution to unease over some impending
obstacle and so on, your video becomes
much more engaging and vivid. The viewer
is kept alert by the shifting tone and
the contrast between moods enhances the
strength of each mood. So a healthy
amount of variety is great there, but
adding too much variety can be harmful,
just like adding too many seasonings to
a dish. For example, with your visuals,
if you take things too far with variety,
it becomes difficult to keep up. The
viewer isn't given enough time to
process each thing that's happening on
screen, which means they can't absorb
anything valuable from the visuals. So,
the point I'm making with variety and
with your video editing in general is
that rather than taking all the spices
and tossing in as much as you can, you
got to think about the effect each thing
you do has and how much of it's needed
to create the perfect experience for
your audience.
So, what can you do to make the
algorithm always choose your videos to
be the ones that blow up? Here, I'll go
ahead and tell you. The algorithm is
designed to make the viewers experience
of going on YouTube be as enjoyable as
possible. So, if your video is predicted
to be one of the most enjoyable videos
for someone, the algorithm will
recommend your video to them. Now, if
your video is predicted to be a highly
enjoyable video for millions of people,
then the algorithm will recommend your
video to millions of people. Here's how
to do that. Take an audience that you
understand. You know what they're
interested in, and you know what they're
seeking for, the experience they want
when they go on YouTube. What you need
to do is figure out exactly what they
want and how to give it better than the
competition. For example, with my
Terraria channel that I was running when
I was 15, I looked at all of my
competition. I looked at what videos
were getting the most views in my niche,
and then I compared those videos to my
videos. And I kept noticing and then
improving the things that they were
doing better than I was until eventually
I was getting the same or even sometimes
even more views than them. So, that's
what this final component is. It's to
study what has gotten the most views in
your niche. And you look at those videos
and you're going to find out from that
what your audience values. What is it
that they value? Then you're going to
study those videos to figure out how to
provide that value better than anyone
else can. And that's been my secret to
going viral, blowing up with each and
every video. Now, if you want to do that
studying process alone, then I'll walk
you through step by step the whole thing
in in the next video. uh it'll show up
on screen in a minute. But if the
problem with doing it alone though is
that without an expert to guide you
through it, you're never going to know
if you're identifying the correct things
and if you're making the correct
changes. So it is going to rely on just
trial and error, which for me it took
six years of just every single upload I
was getting disappointed by it until
finally I was able to get 100,000 views
and then yeah when I was 15 like that
channel finally took off. But
uh yeah, if you're familiar with that
cycle though and you're sick of it, then
click the first link in the description.
I'll we can see what we can do. But uh
basically, I want to work closely with a
couple people. I can only accept a
couple people a month cuz I want to be
able to work closely with them. So check
that out. And then if that doesn't make
sense for you, you're not at that stage
right now, then I will walk you through
like the just by yourself studying
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
Chrome Extension