Why Most YouTube Advice Isn’t Working for You

There is more YouTube advice available right now than at any other point in my nearly 10 years working with creators. You can watch a YouTube video about thumbnails over breakfast, listen to a podcast about monetization in the car, ask ChatGPT for a content strategy that afternoon, and end the day convinced you also need to start a Substack.

The problem isn’t necessarily that any of that advice is bad. The problem is that it may not be right for you.

I see this constantly with the women I coach. They’re smart, ambitious, and willing to put in the work, but they’ve pieced together so many different strategies that their channels have essentially become a Frankenstein of YouTube advice. One person told them to make Shorts, another told them to simplify their editing, and someone else convinced them that a completely different thumbnail style is the secret to more views.

When none of it works, they assume they’re the problem. Usually, they’re not. They’re simply following strategies that weren’t designed for them.

You Don’t Need More YouTube Advice. You Need a Filter.

The solution isn’t consuming another 20 hours of YouTube growth advice. It’s developing enough clarity to recognize which advice is worth trying and which you can confidently ignore.

When I’m helping someone develop a YouTube strategy, I run ideas through three filters: you, your audience, and your niche. If a strategy doesn’t make sense across those three areas, I don’t care how many views the person recommending it has. It probably isn’t the right strategy for you.

Filter #1: Does It Play to Your Strengths?

The first thing I look at is the creator herself. What are you naturally good at? What parts of content creation do you genuinely enjoy? Most importantly, what can you realistically sustain without burning yourself out?

Take the recent trend toward “easy mode” YouTube content. The advice is to turn on your camera, sit in your car, talk, do minimal editing, and publish. For some creators, that’s fantastic advice.

But one of my Bootcampers, Kim, creates fashion and minimalism content, and she noticed that every time she followed this advice, her views dropped. She started wondering whether she simply wasn’t charismatic enough to carry a talking-head video. When I looked at her channel, I saw something completely different.

Her highly edited videos with B-roll were working because fashion and minimalism are visual niches. People want to see the clothing, the styling, the decluttering process, and the transformation. Better yet, Kim actually loves editing. The thing she thought was a weakness was one of her biggest competitive advantages.

Before following the latest YouTube trend, ask yourself whether it allows you to lean further into what you already do exceptionally well.

Filter #2: Is It What Your Audience Actually Wants?

Creators make a lot of assumptions about why people watch them, but your audience will often tell you exactly what they value if you’re willing to listen.

One of my Bootcampers, Tina, had a video reach 1.5 million views. Instead of immediately trying to recreate the topic, we analyzed the comments to understand why people connected with it. This is one place where I love using AI. You can take comments from a successful video, put them into a tool like ChatGPT, and ask it to identify recurring themes in what viewers are saying.

For Tina, the biggest pattern wasn’t that viewers simply liked her tips. They loved how relatable, grounded, and real she felt. They saw themselves in her. That insight is much more valuable than asking AI to spit out ten generic video ideas.

I want AI to help me uncover the why, and then I want the creator to use her own experience, intuition, creativity, and critical thinking to decide the what. YouTube begins with you. AI can organize the data, but it shouldn’t replace your brain.

Filter #3: Does It Make Sense for Your YouTube Niche?

This is where generic YouTube advice becomes especially dangerous. What works for a business coaching channel may be completely wrong for a fashion creator. What works for MrBeast isn’t automatically going to work for a woman teaching wellness to an audience over 50.

Different niches demand different things. Some audiences need visual proof and before-and-afters. Others want personality and commentary. Some need longer videos that establish authority and trust, while others may happily consume a valuable idea in 60 seconds. That’s why I want you to ask what your specific niche requires instead of automatically copying whatever format happens to be trending.

One of my Bootcampers, Tracy, is a great example. I’m generally not the biggest advocate for relying heavily on YouTube Shorts, but they made sense for her. Tracy has a fast-paced, punchy delivery style and a background on QVC. Her particular corner of the fashion niche also lends itself beautifully to quick, actionable styling advice. Once she began creating Shorts intentionally—not simply chopping up her long-form videos—she gained nearly 1,000 subscribers in less than 28 days, increased her views and watch time, and, most importantly, started generating sales.

Shorts weren’t magically the answer. They were the answer for Tracy because the format aligned with her strengths, her audience, and her niche.

Stop Building Someone Else’s YouTube Strategy

This is ultimately what I want more creators to understand about growing on YouTube.

You do not need to use every feature YouTube gives you. You don’t need Shorts, long-form videos, livestreams, and community posts simply because they’re available. You don’t need to adopt every AI tool, content trend, thumbnail hack, or monetization strategy someone tells you is working right now. You need a strategy that makes sense for your channel.

Before you follow the next piece of YouTube advice you hear, run it through these three questions:

Does this fit me? Does this fit my audience? Does this fit my niche?

When those three things align, a strategy is worth testing. When they don’t, you can give yourself permission to ignore it—even if everyone else seems to be doing it. Because the goal isn’t to collect more YouTube advice. It’s to finally understand your channel well enough to know which advice was meant for you.

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