Her Niche Changed Her Life: YouTube Advice From Blogger-turned-YouTube Creator Kelli Marissa: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 268
“Anything you’re interested in, there’s a good chance that tons of other people in the world are interested in it too.”
Be sure to check out my FREE eBook: How to Create Impactful Content During COVID-19 Pandemic! This 32 page guide will walk you through how to create content during a global crisis PLUS it includes over 75 YouTube video ideas that you can use TODAY to grow your channel!
Kelli Marissa’s hair has been every color of the rainbow, but she is well-known for her nail polish content on her YouTube channel, which has over 240,000 subscribers! Her viral video on glitter application has been featured on websites for Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Allure, and even Kylie Jenner’s app. Now Kelli is mostly known for her “swatch and reviews” where she reviews new seasonal nail polish collections.
Kelli started as a blogger, and started her YouTube channel to promote her blog around 2013, but it took her a few years to take it seriously. She didn’t have a schedule for uploading until 2019! At the time, she was obsessed with buying nail polish… so much so that her mom would get mad at her for spending so much money on it! In 2016, Kelli had a video go viral. It was only 3 minutes long, but now has over 8 million views. Shortly after she uploaded it, she saw her video on Yahoo and other news outlets, and she started rapidly gaining subscribers. It was this short and sweet viral hit that pushed her over the 100k milestone. Ironically, she didn’t actually make much money off it. At the time, she was a small channel, the video was only 3 minutes long, and people didn’t really watch her other videos.
“I didn’t realize that YouTube was something that could potentially be lucrative.”
Kelli was reluctant for a long time to give up her blog. Even when her channel had 50k subscribers, she was still thinking about how great each video would be for her blog and how she could push her blog with it. She finally gave in, and even though she has way more followers on instagram, she puts about 90% of her time and effort into her YouTube channel, because the connection with her YouTube subscribers is deeper and more meaningful. Kelli tries to respond to all of her YouTube comments and has now started to recognize many of her subscribers by name. Kelli’s channel is super niched, which has made it harder to grow (and tok longer), but her subscribers are super dedicated. The more specific your niche, the more dedicated and loyal your subscribers are. Kelli has found the people on YouTube who live and breathe nail polish like her. Despite focusing most of her time on YouTube, Kelli still has a presence on most social media platforms and tries to appeal to her followers on each one in a different way. By doing different things on each platform, she is able to keep people interested. She started a Patreon this year, which was less of a stream of income to her as it was to really foster the passion and interest for people who love the same things she does and want to be a part of a community.
You’re getting these people who are living and breathing the same thing as you. It’s so hard to find people who share very specific passions like that, and I think that’s why a lot of people go to YouTube.”
3 Key Interview Takeaways
Three Key Takeaways:
- Just start. Focus on your content rather than your production value. Don’t waste money on products you don’t know how to use. You don’t need a fancy camera or lighting to get started, but you should be focusing on your content and cultivating an audience of people who love the same things you do.
- Cross-platform audiences. Kelli’s advice is to spread yourself over many platforms and bring something different to each one. People who are on instagram are looking for something else, while people on TikTok are looking for something different, and even still, people who are on YouTube are looking for something that’s also different. Kelli spends most of her time and energy on YouTube because that’s where the relationships are built, but she brings something different to each platform to keep people engaged, since getting people to jump platforms is really difficult to do.
- Keep your viewers engaged. One thing Kelli does that helps her audience retention is that she puts a “fun fact” at the end of each video. It’s become a kind of signature for her, and as her subscribers become more and more familiar with her, they have learned to stick around to the end to see what fact she’ll drop this time. It’s a genius idea!
Mentioned in the Episode:
HOW TO APPLY GLITTER NAIL POLISH || KELLI MARISSA
Creating Nail Art Using ONLY Office Supplies || KELLI MARISSA
Connect with Kelli:
Resources
Add your name to the Zero to Influence YouTube Bootcamp waitlist so you are notified when space becomes available!
Watch my replay of my FREE Zero to 100k Subscribers Masterclass
FREE GUIDES:
Creating Content During Crisis: How to Create Impactful Content During COVID-19 Pandemic
Getting Started on YouTube: YouTube Niche Workbook
How to get onto PR lists and receive a TON of free product even if you have a small following: PR List
YOUTUBE OPTIMIZATION PLUG-IN I RECOMMEND
TubeBuddy [Use the code ErikasBuddy to get 20% off]
MY FAVORITE BUSINESS TOOLS
Course Creation: Looking to create a course? Kajabi is the BEST platform hands down. I use this for my course after extensive research on all the other platforms.
Live Calls and Interviews: I use Ecamm for my podcast interviews, both audio and for YouTube that you see here on YouTube. It makes it super easy to share my screen and create the split-screen with my guest. I’m not super techie and this software is really easy to use!
Webinars and Live calls: I use Zoom.us for my group coaching calls in my private membership group for female YouTube creators. It’s also the software I use to record my Road to 100k YouTube Subscribers Masterclass!
THE BEST YOUTUBE/PODCASTING EQUIPMENT
After interviewing HUNDREDS of successful YouTube creators, these are the pieces of equipment that hands down get mentioned time and time again. You can’t go wrong with anything on this list!
- 4k Camera: Great for starting out and vlogging
- Lens: This lens is recommended highly by many of my podcast guests, it gives the blurry “YouTuber” background look.
- Audio: If you want to upgrade your set-up, audio should be one of the first investments (after a good camera). This microphone is unanimously the favorite amongst my podcast guests.
- Podcast/Voiceover Microphone: If you are looking for a great microphone for a podcast or video voiceover, this is it! This is the one that you see in all of my videos and the one I’ve recorded my podcast on for years.
- Webcam: For my interviews, that you see in my videos, this is the webcam that I use. Super inexpensive and easy to set up!
- Inexpensive Lighting Kit: Need to pick up some lights but don’t want to spend a ton? This is a great set that will get you started and help improve the look of your videos.
- Ring light: Looking for that beauty look? Invest in a ring light! This is an inexpensive light that does that trick!
FACEBOOK GROUP
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
*Erika Vieira is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com.
**Disclaimers: all opinions are my own, sponsors are acknowledged. Links in the description are typically affiliate links that let you help support the podcast at no extra cost.
