Top Tips For Using YouTube To Make Money & Build A Fanbase

[Updated] Alex Curtis of the Creators' Freedom Project recently wrote about the business aspects of Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers' viral video cover of Hall & Oates I Can't Go For That. Michele Augis added additional details from her dual role as Topspin employee and Nicki Bluhm team member. The resulting post is full of great information for musicians who want to "turn a YouTube hit into Dollars and Fans" and the lessons learned are useful for anyone posting music videos on YouTube - covers or originals.

I was previously introduced to the Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers video by a friend via Facebook. It's one of a whole series the band has recorded while driving in their van. Since I'd already written about the use of cover songs on YouTube by Pomplamoose, Karmin and 2CELLOS and Walk Off The Earth, I felt I'd pretty much covered what I had to say. So I'm happy to see folks digging in and sharing insider info on this topic.

Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers Cover I Can't Go For That

The initial post about Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers was written by Alex Curtis of the Creators' Freedom Project which is focused on ways to "understand the needs of artists, highlight and experiment with replicate-able models that help independent artists make a living from their creativity." Michele Augis excerpted the majority of the post for her expanded version from which I gathered the following top tips.

1) Be prepared for success. Have a call to action with your video whether that's visiting your website or trading an email for a free download. Be sure to prepare your site for new visitors.

2) Assume that 1% of the people who view your video will respond to that call to action. You may have a higher or lower response but understanding the 1% rule will help keep your expectations in line with the reality observed by others.

3) Keep your older videos available. They become part of your back catalog that can continue to generate revenue and marketing response.

4) Join the YouTube Partner Program and become familiar with all the options available to Creators and such resources as the Creators Playbook. Things keep changing and you now simply opt-in your channel.

5) Be sure to use trackable links from a free service such as bitly so you have stats to monitor responses.

6) Unless you want to focus your career on cover songs, don't forget to feature your original music in relationship to the cover song via links and calls to action.

Apparently Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers have been able to build on all this attention and consider the use of cover songs on YouTube a big success beyond ad revenues and mailing list additions. But even if you're not doing cover songs, the above tips are almost all worth considering to maximize your use of YouTube.

Check the post on Topspin for further context and a variety of relevant graphics.

More:

Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith blogs about business at Flux Research: Business & Revenue Models and about dance at All World Dance: News. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.