CartFuel’s Evergreen Content YouTube Strategy [EP 002]

In this episode of Behind the Upload, we chat with Jelani from CartFuel about creating evergreen content for YouTube that drives leads for your business.

Jelani shares a few strategies to get started on YouTube, even if you hate being in front of the camera, and how to figure out what type of content resonates with your audience.

Jelani is the founder of Cartfuel. Cartfuel helps HubSpot users accept payments with embeddable and customizable payment forms.

Cartfuel enables HubSpot users to make more money with one-time and recurring payments, Upsells and order bumps – all while sending contact purchase records to the HubSpot timeline.

Cartfuel’s Website

Cartfuel Twitter

Jelani Twitter

Jelani The Marketer YouTube

Show Notes

• CartFuel – https://www.cartfuel.io 
• Webflow – https://webflow.com 
• HubSpot – https://www.hubspot.com 
• Stripe – https://stripe.com/ 
• PayPal – https://www.paypal.com/ 
• OneClickUpsell – https://apps.shopify.com/zipify-oneclickupsell 
• ClickFunnels – https://www.clickfunnels.com 
• WordPress – https://wordpress.com 
• Saas – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service 
• Jelani The Marketer (YouTube Channel) – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDYASBY_QcSKGx2LZcPT70w 
• VidIQ – https://vidiq.com 
• TubeBuddy – https://www.tubebuddy.com 
• Ahrefs – https://ahrefs.com 
• Twitter – https://twitter.com 
• Facebook – https://facebook.com 
• Adobe Premiere – https://www.adobe.com/sea/products/premiere.html 
• Shure SM7B – https://geni.us/cskBfka
• Cloudlifter – https://geni.us/jggJOw
• OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) – https://obsproject.com 
• Panasonic Lumix G7 – https://geni.us/66morLd
• Aputure Amaran AL – https://geni.us/R09hr
• Aputure Lightstorm – https://www.aputure.com/families/light-storm/ 
• Dan Lok – https://www.youtube.com/c/DanLok/ 
• Riverside – https://riverside.fm 
• OddMoneyTV – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi-rOYSa-Tg2h0T1HSldhIg 
• Trends (newsletter by The Hustle) – https://trends.co 
• Pinterest – https://pinterest.com 
• Quora – https://www.quora.com 
• ActiveCampaign – https://www.activecampaign.com 
• Jelani’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/jelanisince94 

Transcript

[00:00:00.150] – Joey
So cool, so thanks so much for joining. I appreciate it.

[00:00:02.580] – Jelani
Yeah, of course. I love to chat about different things I’m interested in so.

[00:00:06.660] – Joey
And video, and YouTube is one of them?

[00:00:09.250] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love YouTube. It’s actually how I got, like, introduced into like the Internet marketing world. So whenever I have a chance to share any bit of knowledge, I know I- I just share it. But I’m not like the YouTube guy, I guess, on Twitter. I just. You- you saw the- the tweet, I guess. So I should tweet more about YouTube, it seems.

[00:00:30.900] – Joey
Well, I mean, I’ve been following you for a while and so I know about- ah, because you do a lot of kind of build in public and share about Cartfuel. So first off, do you want to explain what Cartfuel is?

[00:00:42.120] – Jelani
Yeah. Yeah. So Cartfuel is a payment form builder essentially. And what we started out as, we’re not going to be, in like, two weeks or so, but I’ll just give you the rundown of what it is because we’re actually pivoting.

[00:00:55.140] – Joey
Ok.

[00:00:55.800] – Jelani
We’re pivoting rather soon, but yeah. So Cartfuel started out as like a payment form builder for, initially, Webflow. And then we kind of made the decision to be for everything. And that actually, on reflection, that was actually a mistake because you became a program or software for everyone.

[00:01:14.070] – Jelani
And we didn’t really have a niche. We weren’t really specific. So like the marketing was hard to dial down because you don’t really know who you’re talking to. Yeah. So in the future, and in about like two weeks or so, we’re going to be pivoting to HubSpot users. So I’m excited about that. But yeah, that- that’s essentially what it is. It’s a way for people to accept payments online with Stripe or PayPal and then also be able to offer One Click Upsell.

[00:01:38.690] – Jelani
So pretty much unbundling ClickFunnels, if you’re familiar with that, and making it a standalone solution.

[00:01:46.380] – Joey
I feel like there are probably a lot of parallels we can draw from the experience you went through there and creating YouTube channels. But- but about your pivot, though-

[00:01:55.491] – Jelani
Yeah, totally.

[00:01:55.680] – Joey
Is it kind of the same concept just on HubSpot? Like, I guess what kind of checkout stuff is on HubSpot?

[00:02:02.850] – Jelani
Yeah, so exactly. There is none. So, HubSpot, like, in their core program, there’s not a way for you to accept payments. They do have a Stripe app, but that’s only for invoices. So like if you’re doing like e-commerce and you’re trying to sell like your digital products or digital courses or whatever, they don’t have a solution. So actually in their community forms, they’ll- like people will be like, ‘Hey, like, how can I set up a payment form?’, right?

[00:02:25.950] – Jelani
And then they will- they will direct them to apps on the HubSpot marketplace. So there’s only one app out there right now. It’s pretty expensive and they honestly don’t have as many features as we do. So I feel like there’s a- there’s a opportunity to come in to cater to people who are in the digital marketing space, who want to use sales funnels, have that sales data go into HubSpot so that their sales teams can speak to the people who purchase or who don’t purchase.

[00:02:54.060] – Jelani
So, yeah, that- that’s- that’s where we’re headed and that’s what we’re thinking about. And- for that decision.

[00:02:59.910] – Joey
That’s super cool. Yeah. And I feel like that definitely helps in being more specific as far as like what you’re for and who you’re for.

[00:03:07.290] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:03:07.950] – Joey
So with the YouTube content for Cartfuel, I know we could talk about it in the sense of like you’re making the content when you were the upsell platform for every platform. But do you wanna tell me a bit about the YouTube content that you had for Cartfuel when you launched that channel? And then we can talk about- I know you have some other channels as well, but we can talk about kind of the thought process with what you were doing with Cartfuel first.

[00:03:32.100] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah, sure. So I kind of fell into YouTube like- of- like, 2017. I just put like a random video out. And of course like when you start YouTube, like your videos, first videos suck, they were terrible. But I- I fell in love with, like, the idea that I can just be myself and be who I am and like teach people different things I’m interested in. And that’s how I kind of started my- my- one of my YouTube channels, like my main one.

[00:03:58.110] – Jelani
And then I realized, like, as I was teaching, I could plug affiliate links and like I can plug the different resources that people would actually click on. And like, YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google. So like, there’s there’s millions of people looking for solutions to their problems. And it’s just a great opportunity for you to be in front of the audience. So with Cartfuel, I have that same mindset going in, just making content that I know how to make, which is educating people on how to use different things.

[00:04:27.870] – Jelani
In this case is just Cartfuel, educating people how to use Cartfuel on Webflow or educating people how to use Cartfuel on WordPress, right. So I was just making different videos of different platforms and how Cartfuel can be used on those platforms. Then now with the pivot, we’ll probably have a different direction of, like, the content. But essentially it’s just my idea behind; it was just making content for the different platforms because I knew people were looking up specifically how to create a sales funnel on WordPress or how to do OneClickUpsells on Webflow.

[00:05:01.920] – Jelani
Or, you know, different things like that, so I was able to capitalize on that and because I made that content, even though I only have 83 subscribers on that channel, I still get, you know, people from all around the world signing up to- to Cartfuel. And I don’t have to do anything, right. It’s the best thing about YouTube. It’s like- it’s evergreen content. If you know how to- how to formulate your content in that way, you’ll be able to get people to sign up for things for years to come.

[00:05:29.730] – Jelani
And that’s what I focus on when I’m making contents, making sure that it’s evergreen so that I don’t have to. It’s like, you know, ‘build once, sell twice’ type of thing. It’s like, I make one video and that video is digital real estate, as I like to say. So, yeah.

[00:05:44.070] – Joey
Yeah. I meant to bring up- you brought up- you tweeted out: ‘If you’re building a SaaS product and don’t utilize YouTube, you’re doing yourself – and your future profits – a disservice.’

[00:05:53.040] – Jelani
Yeah. Yeah, you really are. I think that- I think the- the biggest caveat with people with YouTube is like, I don’t want to be on screen, but you don’t really have to. Like, I have YouTube channels and we’ll talk about it later. Like, I’m not. There’s no person involved. And I think it’s- honestly, a little better that way because with everything going on, with people getting banned from platforms and like, you know, people are just, I think, a little bit more sensitive.

[00:06:19.390] – Jelani
So, like, if you’re able to make content with no face, it’s kind of better, actually. So you don’t have to show your face, really, like. But yeah, I think that- I think- I think that’s the main thing is like people feel like they have to show their face or like they have to be really good on camera. But like all things, you’re going to suck at first. You just have to get the reps and you know.

[00:06:40.480] – Joey
And yeah, just to paint a picture of what the kind of content you’re putting out as. It’s pretty much just your same set up right now of you narrating. We see a little bit of you on camera. But for the vast majority of the video, it’s just a screen recording of whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re trying to teach people, right?

[00:06:57.930] – Jelani
Yeah, exactly. Yup. I realized that, like, I used to do intros, and like, they don’t care about that. Like, people just want to get to the content. Like, they just want to know what they want to know, right. So it just- I do a quick little intro, like 15, 30 seconds, maybe even less. And then I go right into what I’m going to show them, because that’s why they’re there in the first place. And that helps with watch time and people staying along. And then YouTube promotes it more. So, yeah.

[00:07:22.800] – Joey
And the interesting thing, too, is the content you’re putting out, it’s addressing a problem that people have and they’re searching for a solution, but they don’t know about Cartfuel, right? Is that a correct assumption? So like they’re looking for the solution, they find your video and then your video just includes your product as one of the solutions.

[00:07:43.440] – Jelani
Yeah, exactly. Like the way I look at it is like I’m an affiliate for my own product, right. So like, I’m making content like an affiliate would, which is showing them the back end. And I do it in a way where, like, I don’t want them to feel pressured that they have to sign up. I just say, you know, hey, like, this is what this can do. This can potentially solve your problem. And then you can sign up and make- based on the video content that you view, you know, you can make your own decision if you want to go check it out and sign it up.

[00:08:08.790] – Jelani
And I think that helps a lot because people don’t want to be sold to. You know, they just want to get the info that they need and then they can make their own decisions.

[00:08:18.090] – Joey
Yeah. And- and did you ever put any videos out that were more about just like tutorials and in the e-commerce space but didn’t mention Cartfuel? Or did every single video?

[00:08:29.250] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, my main- I have a Jelani The Marketer channel. It’s like the channel that I show my face the most on. And on that channel, that’s how I got started. Because I used to- how I got into the whole Internet marketing space is, I actually was a dropshipper. So like back in 2016, 2017, when it was like still profitable and not as saturated. That’s how I got into the game. And I was showing people how to do different things, how to find products and, you know, all that stuff.

[00:08:58.980] – Jelani
So that’s how I got into the world of e-commerce, I guess you can say. And then I did do a series. I like to do a series sometimes showing people like from start to- start to finish on, like, how to do different things. So I did do that one with Cartfuel involved and it seemed like people liked it. But again, like I’m still growing that channel. So it’s not- doesn’t have that many views, but I just want to show the possibilities of what Cartfuel can do in that instance.

[00:09:29.820] – Joey
You know, with the goal with the Cartfuel channel, it’s not- you’re not trying to be a YouTuber and monetize the channel itself. You’re trying to- you’re trying to drive sign ups, right? So, like-

[00:09:39.240] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:09:39.510] – Joey
What-

[00:09:39.670] – Jelani
Exactly.

[00:09:40.260] – Joey
Do you have any kind of numbers? Or just kind of rough, like, gauges of, like what? Like, what a video would convert or how many people would send over, like ballpark numbers?

[00:09:48.780] – Jelani
Yeah. So I actually did a count yesterday. It might be a little more now, but since I started the channel we had 83 sign ups. From YouTube specifically. So like, I had a little sign up, a little drop down. It was like, where do you- like, ‘How did you find us?’ Right. So, yeah, YouTube was like 83 and then Google was like below it. But I don’t have as many Google articles as I do YouTube videos.

[00:10:19.050] – Jelani
But yes. So I mean, every day it’s still, like, climbing up. Like, sign ups and again, like, I don’t do anything besides. It’s- it’s evergreen content. Like, I literally just watch it. I’m just like- like, yeah, cool like. But then it gives me data, right, like so like I can see, ok, this video is performing the best and I need to make more videos catering to this particular audience. So, yeah, I mean the whole point of YouTube initially, if you’re just starting out, if you are looking to start a YouTube for your SaaS or your business, is like, looking- uploading consistently, like, for 90 days at least. Like, try to upload one video per day for 90 days.

[00:10:57.450] – Jelani
I know that’s really hard to do for a lot of people because of different scenarios, but if you can do that, you’ll be able to get a lot of data really quickly and you can see, ‘Alright, this type of content. This video is going to drive the most results. Therefore, I should double down on this content.’ And I think that will help you to understand, like, who you’re catering to and the type of content that you need to create. Because YouTube will tell you, like, the drop off rate. Like, alright, this is where they stop- stop watching and then you can kind of modify the video, your future videos, to make sure you don’t make that same mistake, whatever the mistake was.

[00:11:32.340] – Jelani
So you just got to look at the data that YouTube gives you, honestly.

[00:11:36.990] – Joey
Did you do anything beforehand in figuring out what kind of videos or what kind of topics to talk about? In a sense, you know like, keyword researcher? Any of the other tools out there?

[00:11:47.400] – Jelani
Yes. So for Cartfuel specifically, I was using a combination of VidIQ, TubeBuddy and Ahrefs. I- Ahrefs is more like for the Google side, but even though like, even though it’s more Google related, I can still find out like what type of content people are looking for. Because if Google likes your video, it will include the video in the search results, which is a great way to get traffic. Actually, I have a video that’s doing really well. And that’s- it’s like just from Google, like because they thought it was a good video. But yes, so like, I would do a combination.

[00:12:28.830] – Jelani
But for YouTube, like, I like to use VidIQ and TubeBuddy because they give you these indicators, like, you can look at the the competition versus the- the- the search volume. So like, you can see, like, ‘Alright, this is high competition.’ The idea is you want to get low competition, high search volume. So you can kind of identify what terms those are based on VidIQ- obviously it’s an estimation. They can’t- they can’t give you exact numbers, but it’s a great start.

[00:12:57.200] – Joey
My favorite is when I like search a term and I have both plug ins running and then like one of them says, it’s like a great word to go after. And then another one says it’s a terrible word to go after.

[00:13:05.270] – Jelani
Right. Yeah, exactly. Right. You’re like, ‘Ok, now what do I do?’ Yeah, right.

[00:13:14.270] – Joey
You also posted about- you kind of did a mini series and you would push out the videos in your ‘onboarding’? Was that- do you want to talk about that strategy? Was that like an effective strategy? Kind of, how did that work? And can-

[00:13:25.460] – Jelani
Yeah. So yeah.

[00:13:27.080] – Joey
Merging them both?

[00:13:27.970] – Jelani
Yeah, no worries. So I- those videos. So, some of the videos that I, I- I made, I included in the onboarding. So like, people watch them. I include them on the- the landing page so people watch them. The idea again is just to get people to watch as much as possible of the video so that YouTube promotes it. I haven’t found, based on the data, I haven’t had a video that’s like exploding, although I do have some videos of like hundreds of views, which is a good indicator that in the future you can just continue to climb.

[00:14:03.970] – Jelani
But I like the strategy, instead of like, the onboarding, I like using the list that I’ve built. So, signed up – the users who actually signed up to Cartfuel. I emailed them when I have a new video out and I say, ‘Hey, like, you know, this video will teach you X, Y, Z, you know, go watch it.’ Right. And that gives me a good starting point, because if I have 100 people in the first, you know, 24 hours watching this video and YouTube is like, ‘Ok, this might be a video we want to give a bit more attention to.’

[00:14:30.550] – Jelani
Obviously, a hundred views is not that many. But So, Twitter, email, Facebook. If you have a- you know, even your personal Facebook, that’s what I do as well. I post those videos on my personal Facebook that people- for people who follow me there just to get those clicks and those views to help me out.

[00:15:09.550] – Joey
Yeah, I think I that’s a good takeaway, especially if you’re like starting from scratch, of like what other audiences you already have built up on other platforms that- you can post that, promote out your- your video. I know email is obviously probably the best way. I know, with the other platforms, they get kind of weird when you start posting links to other sites, and like, they don’t do the best in like promoting your posts there, right.

[00:15:30.790] – Jelani
Right, right.

[00:15:30.970] – Joey
That take you off the platform, but, yeah, still better than nothing.

[00:15:35.770] – Jelani
One thing I learned on Facebook specifically is like, write your- write your description of the video. Like, give a little story, like, a little background. So it looks like a natural post. Do not include the link on the actual, like, post itself. Include the link to the video, like, at the end of the post, like, ‘Hey, the link to the video is in the in the bo- in the comments section and then put the link to the video on the comment. I felt like- I feel like that has helped me because it’s like it’s not a direct link.

[00:16:03.550] – Jelani
So Facebook’s algorithm still kind of pushes it to the- to my friends. But yeah, that’s something you could test out.

[00:16:11.470] – Joey
Yes. Have you been putting it in? I’ve seen that on LinkedIn. Have you been putting that on Facebook, too, of like putting the actual link to your video or article, whatever you’re trying to promote, in the comment?

[00:16:20.380] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:16:21.070] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:16:21.400] – Jelani
Yeah, exactly. And I just say, you know, go check it out and ‘link in the comments’-

[00:16:25.510] – Joey
Do you upload like your thumbnail as an image. So like it- people kind of have that attention-grabbing image.

[00:16:31.810] – Jelani
I just put the link. I think…

[00:16:34.450] – Joey
I mean, when you make your post, when you make your post, or you like…

[00:16:37.150] – Jelani
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No I don’t do that.

[00:16:38.890] – Joey
You’re just doing text?

[00:16:40.210] – Jelani
Yeah, I just do straight up text and then I just put the link and then. Yeah.

[00:16:44.230] – Joey
Got it. Let’s talk about, kind of, your workflow. I want to talk about your other channels. But let’s talk about kind of your general workflow first. So like you want to walk me through? Yeah. Let’s start with like, research, scripting. I know these are tutorials, but are you like, doing outline? Or you doing a script? Do you do- or kind of- how do you map out what the video is going to be?

[00:17:00.460] – Jelani
Yeah. So I have a running sheet of videos. So, I think the hardest part about YouTube is like, you don’t know what content to make and then you just give up because you feel like you don’t have anything to talk about. So I have a running list of ideas that I just keep. So, like whenever I’m ready to make a YouTube video, I can just pull from that sheet. And I kind of- I kind of just give the title, make sure that the titles’ attention grabbing. A general idea of like what I’m going to be promoting and then I just go for it.

[00:17:24.700] – Jelani
I don’t script anything. For my other channel, I do have a script, but for, like, my main channel, like Cartfuel, I don’t really script anything because I know what I’m going to say pretty much. And then I can- if I mess up, I can just like edit it out. Right. So I don’t script. And I feel like I- when I have tried to do a script, I’m just- I don’t know, it just doesn’t come across as natural and like, I’m not authentic.

[00:17:50.530] – Jelani
So like, I rather just talk like I’m talking to a friend and that has worked really well for me.

[00:17:55.780] – Joey
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s a good tip, yeah. I feel like sometimes scripts work, sometimes it comes off unnatural and then it just feels robotic.

[00:18:03.580] – Jelani
Yeah. I think it’s also the type of channel, too. And like, the audience that you’ve generated, like what they expect. Like, if they expected you to just be talking off the cuff and then I don’t know where to start scripting, and it just seems- it just seems weird.

[00:18:20.700] – Joey
Yeah, and then so once you’re recording what kind of- you know, we see your mic, like what’s the sort of hardware you’re using, what are you screen recording with?

[00:18:28.920] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah, I actually wrote stuff down because I didn’t want to forget. So for editing, I use Adobe Premiere. My mic is a Shure SM7B with a Cloudlifter. I use OBS for just recording my screen and then for my camera I have two Panasonics Lumix G7s and then for the lighting I have two Aputure ALs which are like these little one for the back. I don’t know if you can see these. And then I have, I have like this up here.

[00:19:05.590] – Jelani
Lightstorm, yeah, that’s pretty much it. It’s pretty simple, actually. One of my cameras just broke, so I only have one.

[00:19:13.520] – Joey
Panasonic.

[00:19:15.010] – Jelani
Panasonic G7. But yeah, that’s- it’s pretty much it. That’s- that’s- that’s all I have.

[00:19:21.160] – Joey
Yeah. I mean, it’s a pretty simple setup. Most of the stuff that you’re in, you’re just doing screen recordings.

[00:19:26.620] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:19:26.890] – Joey
Anyways.

[00:19:27.350] – Jelani
Exactly.

[00:19:27.970] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:19:28.330] – Jelani
Yeah. So like, I don’t need anything too crazy. Yeah. I think my computer is the main- like the biggest investment I made because I- like, when I started getting serious on YouTube, I- like, my computer couldn’t handle, I just couldn’t handle everything that I was trying to do. So I invested a nice sum of money into a nice computer and that’s pretty like the biggest investment that I’ve made for my studio, if you want to call it that. Your setup is pretty nice. Your background and everything is nice.

[00:19:59.350] – Joey
Thanks. Yeah. I mean, I’ve repurposed a bunch of stuff. Yeah. I didn’t get this all from YouTube. This was from- I do video production so I had the stuff lying around and now it’s like… My- my goal here is to keep everything on wheels because I always keep reshuffling it. So that’s been like, my- my- my mission lately is like, by- like, I put wheels on tripods and stuff so I could just try to shift it around in like, pop up studios real quick.

[00:20:25.540] – Jelani
Yeah. Nice. Cool.

[00:20:27.280] – Joey
And so what’s your- once you got the edit done, you have any thoughts behind thumbnails, titles, descriptions, anything there that you found like works better?

[00:20:38.320] – Jelani
Yeah. So I have a little template that I use for every uploaded video. I can shoot it to you if you want to give it to your audience or something.

[00:20:48.650] – Joey
Yeah, I can put it in the show notes. Yeah.

[00:20:50.380] – Jelani
Yeah. I use a template that’s basically like, the first two sentences because that’s how it shows up. Like, on the description, you want to have like a good ‘call to action’ on the first two. And then after that I do a three sentence explanation of the video and then I do a kind of bio of who I am, some hash tags.

[00:21:11.770] – Jelani
And then at the bottom of the video, I do two links of the video link. So like, the video link that I’m uploading, I put those two links at the bottom of the description. I learned this strategy from- when I was- so I used to work with I don’t know if you’re familiar with Dan Lok, but I used to be on- on that team. Before, like, he like imploded, basically. But basically, I was on that team I learned a lot about because he grew his YouTube to a million subs in like less than a year.

[00:21:43.890] – Jelani
And I learned a lot about like how they- their workflow, like how they do things. So I kind of adopted some of the things that they were doing. As far as like titles I like to keep things under- so let me just check…

[00:21:57.540] – Joey
Can I go back to that? So you’re saying that actual URL of the video, you are putting that in the description as well?

[00:22:03.940] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:22:04.170] – Joey
What’s the thought behind.

[00:22:04.960] – Jelani
Yeah, um, honestly, I never asked them. I just did it. I just copied it. But ever since I did it, I was like, it’s probably working. I think the idea is- because sometimes I also include links to other people’s videos. The idea there is like to have comparative videos so YouTube’s like, ok, this video is kind of along in the same realm of- of the other video, I think including the own- like our own link in the description helps along- helps along that- that line of thinking. But-

[00:22:39.060] – Joey
Is there a call to action to it like, ‘Hey, share this video with this link’ or is it just the link?

[00:22:45.060] – Jelani
Um, let me show you. I don’t know if I can share my screen.

[00:22:49.650] – Joey
I think you could screen share.

[00:22:51.310] – Jelani
Ok.

[00:22:51.780] – Joey
It’s also- so we can test out Riverside and see how that works.

[00:22:55.200] – Jelani
Yeah. Close-

[00:22:55.830] – Joey
Push it to the limit.

[00:22:57.390] – Jelani
Yeah. Let’s do it. Hopefully our mics won’t- um, but yeah, no I just literally just like took this idea from them…

[00:23:07.530] – Joey
Ah, yeah, I’m curi- I’m curious to try this out. And when you say you put links to other videos, other videos on your channel? Or like, totally other videos from other people’s channels?

[00:23:14.970] – Jelani
Totally other peo- ah, it could be either or, but like sometimes I do other people’s. So like, for example, if I’m like making a video on something that I’ve never made a video on before, kind of like a new video content idea, that may include someone else’s video that already has a lot of views so that I can get a bit of clout, if you will, from them. Alright, let me see if this will work. Can you see my screen?

[00:23:45.420] – Joey
Yep, there you go.

[00:23:46.950] – Jelani
Alright, perfect. So this video did really well. And this is another strategy that I did. Like, I trafficked the video. So I sent the traffic from this video to another video, which is from my other channel. We could talk about that. But basically that video had 80,000 views. And I was like, OK, let’s make a part two. And then I just said, ‘Hey, part two to this video’s on this channel. Go watch it.’

[00:24:08.100] – Jelani
And now this video has 90,000. So, like, you can do stuff like that as well, which is like basically take traffic from your- your older videos and then send traffic to like an updated version. But anyway, so this description, like, if you can see, like, I was like, Ok, the first line, I want them to see that. And then I just said a three sentence, subscribe to me. Then I have some playlists that they can go to, and then down here is like where they can connect with me, blah blah, some hash tags.

[00:24:39.180] – Jelani
And then down here I’m talking about this video. It’s a one liner, one sentence and then no call to action, it’s just-

[00:24:46.070] – Joey
The link twice.

[00:24:47.580] – Jelani
Link, yeah, the link twice. So- yeah, I don’t know. Yeah it’s- it works. So is-

[00:24:53.970] – Joey
Yeah, is it like a glitch in the Matrix or something?

[00:24:56.310] – Jelani
Yeah. No. But, yeah. So like if you go to this- I don’t want to give him some clout because he has a bad rap. But I’ll just give you an idea for educational purposes.

[00:25:08.940] – Joey
I wasn’t like really with him.

[00:25:10.720] – Jelani
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well if you check out like his old videos, for like, the most popular, so like you’ll see it’s the same exact formatting. So he does the same thing. But I’ve noticed a lot of YouTubers actually do something similar. So yeah, I just follow what other people bigger than me do.

[00:25:36.240] – Joey
And I think that’s a good hack. I mean, yeah. If it’s working for them then… We- I don’t- I don’t think it’s going to hurt you to put the- unless it gets too spammy or something.

[00:25:47.430] – Jelani
Right, no. Not at all. And it’s YouTube. It’s not like a link that- it’s not like an external link, it’s a YouTube link. So-

[00:25:53.250] – Joey
Right, right.

[00:25:53.250] – Jelani
They’re not going to penalize you for that.

[00:25:55.650] – Joey
Right. And so, yeah, do you want to talk about the- your other two channels? You have Jelani The Marketer and OddMoneyTV.

[00:26:04.860] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah. So Jelani The Marketer was my first, was my first channel that I started and I don’t know, that channel has been on and off like I’ll, I’ll get in spurts like I want to make content then I don’t. Like, I know what I’m constantly making is evergreen so like I still get dividends, like, for the affiliate promotions that I’m promoting on there and stuff like. So I know it’s, it’s still doing me well. It’s just. I have like this thing where, like, I get.

[00:26:35.750] – Jelani
Like, I don’t know the direction that I want to go in, but now that I’m doing Cartfuel, like I’m really confident in Cartfuel. So like YouTube kind of took a- a burner, if you will. But yeah, YouTube’s- Jelani The Marketer is my first YouTube channel, and that’s where I did a lot of testing, trying to see a lot of different ideas, what works, what doesn’t work. And you know, if I was more consistent, I would have way more followers.

[00:26:57.020] – Jelani
But I’m just like, I’d rather put my energy right now into Cartfuel.

[00:27:00.970] – Joey
Well, how would you describe the content on that channel? It’s more kind of ever- like, marketing evergreen content.

[00:27:07.460] – Jelani
Yeah, it’s- it’s more marketing-focused. And I think, because my focus right now is on Cartfuel, I’m not really building other marketing projects. Because, like, that channel, it was all about testing. So like, I would test how to make money doing this unique thing, right. Or like, how do you make money dropshipping, how to make money by renting your YouTube channel, like just doing different things. But because of my focus is on Cartfuel, I feel like I’m not doing projects like that. Which kind of sucks and that’s why I kind of want to, you know, make content again.

[00:27:46.280] – Jelani
Like for me I’m like, oh I want to just make content all the time. And then I get like sucked into like the context of the content wormhole and I just want to go down it forever because it’s so fun. But yeah, I’m super focused on Cartfuel. But yeah Jelani The Marketer is my first channel and I do have content on there regarding Cartfuel, but also, I don’t want people to like think that I’m selling them out with Cartfuel. Like I don’t want my audience on there to think that, like, I’m just trying to sell them Cartfuel so I don’t upload that much content on there.

[00:28:20.180] – Jelani
It’s probably like once a month or every once every two months or something while I’m focusing on Cartfuel. And OddMoneyTV was like, I built that channel because I was bored and I want to try again testing some ideas out. So yeah, I built this channel during Covid last year and I got a really good response of the combination of the time. It was like less-than-ten-minute videos. So it was about five or six minute videos and then the quality of the content I taught myself how to edit really well because I was bored and people started to like the content.

[00:28:56.250] – Jelani
So like now I have this channel where, like, people are like literally asking, can you please make content again? But then I’m like so focused on Cartfuel that- I know the effort and the energy it takes to make the quality- the type of quality content I would like to make. So that’s why I made that tweet like, yeah, I made this channel. I could probably make it into a mini empire. And I know I could, like, I just- I just have to make sure I’m staying focused and like, seeing the bigger picture of where I want to go. But-

[00:29:27.510] – Joey
It could totally suck you in. Now, OddMoneyTV, that format is faceless. So, right, it’s just narration and a bunch of people.

[00:29:38.670] – Jelani
Basically. Yeah. That’s you know, that’s kind of the-

[00:29:40.860] – Joey
Stock footage?

[00:29:41.430] – Jelani
Yeah. That’s, that’s the channel I was talking about. Like, I’d make a script for that one. Because- my husband’s actually, like, that’s his voice that is narrating. So he has a pretty good voice for narration. And I was it’s just like OK, cool. Like I can make the script, you narrate, and then I edit. But the editing takes so long. I know it’s like B roll and like, but then you have to find the right B roll that’s in context with what you’re talking about. So you’re sourcing all these different, you know, images and videos and then editing it in a way so that it doesn’t get boring. So it, it’s time consuming for the type of content and the quality that I would like to have, takes a lot of time. So I would love to find someone to do it. But I haven’t really took a- took a step in that direction yet, but yeah.

[00:30:31.140] – Joey
Yeah. Editing is always the secret time suck that- you don’t realize how much time it takes.

[00:30:36.350] – Jelani
Yeah, I had no idea because like, Jelani The Marketer was just like I’m talking to the camera, I just edit, put the audio in sync and then it’s pretty much done. And then OddMoney, there’s no face. So, you have to keep the audience engaged. And then when you’re doing B roll and like, static images like, how do you do that?

[00:30:54.780] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:30:54.780] – Jelani
You do a lot of jump cuts, but then that gets boring as well. So, yeah, it’s like a balancing act.

[00:31:00.690] – Joey
Yeah. I mean, also to give some context, it’s- it’s just a channel about odd ways to make money, right. So your popular videos are ‘How to make a 24/7 YouTube channel’, ‘Cashing in with worm farms’. Is this also just stuff that you kind of researched and like, discovered …

[00:31:17.400] – Jelani
Well, a hack for this? It was like, I saw- I don’t know if you’re familiar with Trends.

[00:31:22.230] – Joey
Yeah.

[00:31:22.560] – Jelani
It’s like- it’s like a newsletter that talks about new ideas and stuff.

[00:31:29.230] – Joey
Right, from The Hustle-

[00:31:29.230] – Jelani
Yup, yeah. From The Hustle, Sam Parr. So like they already did the research for me. So-

[00:31:34.190] – Joey
So was this was adapting stuff from Trends? That- some of their research-

[00:31:36.930] – Jelani
Yeah. Exactly. Yup, yup. So like, when I- before Cartfuel started to be a thing, I was telling Sam, like I was messaging him on Facebook and I’m like, ‘Hey, like this is a video that I did. Like, we should do this for The Hustle.’ And I don’t think he understood at the time, like how YouTube could benefit him. And then now his YouTube channel, like, they’re putting so much focus on YouTube because it’s just like, it’s amazing.

[00:32:01.590] – Joey
Yeah, it’s evergreen. I mean, it’s like, it’s so good for driving traffic, you know, especially stuff that picks up once. And-

[00:32:08.940] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:32:09.300] – Joey
I have videos from years ago and they’re still like, the top videos because they just like, the algorithm just keeps pushing it out there and people keep discovering it. Yeah.

[00:32:18.180] – Jelani
Yeah, I’d like that.

[00:32:19.350] – Joey
I did want to ask you also because you mentioned something else about Pinterest being like another evergreen platform, and I really kind of ignored Pinterest.

[00:32:28.230] – Joey
But do you want to talk about how- Yeah. What have you been- what have you put on Pinterest that worked for you? Because in my mind, Pinterest is like mostly, like, craft and you know, pretty photos and stuff like that. So what- what kind of stuff have- have you used it?

[00:32:43.110] – Jelani
Yeah. So I was using it heavily about like two years ago now. I hired someone to do it for me actually. She was just like I would tell her, ‘Alright, this is the video, I need you to make an image and then post it.’ And she was doing it, like she- she had some experience in Pinterest growth. But Pinterest is also, because it’s also evergreen where, like, you can post that image of it, the pin, and people will search it for, I don’t know, however long it lasts. It lasts a very long time, like the- the time that someone could find something to last, like YouTube for- for a while.

[00:33:19.490] – Jelani
So, yeah, it was driving- it was driving quite a bit of traffic to my YouTube channel at the time when I was doing it. So like, I would just put a picture of the- the thumbnail, essentially, but in a vertical form like Pinterest-style form and then just have the- the YouTube link in the- in the image and then people will click through and then go to my YouTube. Yeah, I think Pinterest has a misconception that’s like only for moms and like, you know, arts and crafts.

[00:33:48.530] – Jelani
But like there’s a lot of business Pinterest posts out there. I think you just have to know how to utilize it.

[00:33:56.930] – Joey
Were these for Jelani The Marketer, these- these- the videos? And when you did the vertical format, did it have, kind of like a keyword or text or like a call- like a, enticing-

[00:34:09.320] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:34:10.070] – Joey
Title?

[00:34:10.850] – Jelani
Yeah, yeah. It would have a title that was, you know, obviously in the same context of the video and then she would include hashtags as well. But yeah. So I’m not a Pinterest expert by any means, but I do know a bit about it and I think people don’t give it enough interest, I think. I think it could definitely be used within like the- the organic marketing realm. If you use YouTube as the center and then have these like, other like, aspire to, like have these other legs of platforms that you can promote that video to, to give yourself an edge.

[00:34:47.330] – Jelani
Because, again, like if you’re able to post a video, for example, on Quora, is another evergreen content place where like you can post a video there and people will find that video for years, therefore allowing your YouTube video to be boosted for years. So it’s about how do you- how you get that fire started on YouTube. You use other platforms, even if it’s a small amount of people clicking through, it’s still people clicking through. That- it shows YouTube, Ok, people are still looking at this video, like, it can still be boosted. It can still be shown to people because people are interested in it.

[00:35:23.300] – Joey
And, well, with Quora, is that like, do you find someone is asking a question for, like on upselling and you’re able to post your video as a response, is that the concept?

[00:35:33.930] – Jelani
Yes. Yep. So the idea is- because Quora got a little bit more, like, strict when it comes to posting links and stuff, but the idea is like to post one- so for every one question that you answer, like, three should be no links. So like three questions, no links, and then you put one and then it’s like, it can- it can include- include a link. Yeah, you just post- you post the video to the link and Quora has a good thing where it actually embeds the video in the answer.

[00:36:03.310] – Jelani
So you don’t actually have to click to YouTube. You can watch the video in the answer. So, yeah, it’s- it’s also a good platform, I think, that doesn’t get utilized enough.

[00:36:16.150] – Joey
Yeah, I think that’s a good takeaway. Did you have any other kind of insights or things we didn’t talk about you think would be useful? I know you kind- you also have like a wide expanse of YouTube use cases. So, yeah, I know we talked about kind of different, you know, YouTube for SaaS, YouTube, as a YouTube creator, YouTube as a faceless YouTube creator.

[00:36:35.800] – Jelani
Yeah.

[00:36:36.430] – Joey
We kind of covered the gamut. So-

[00:36:38.530] – Jelani
I think the most powerful thing, like aside from SaaS, like I think, obviously you should, but like, if someone just wants to get started with YouTube, like just talk about things that you’re interested in and then you can start plugging things like I think it’s an evergreen machine where if you have an affiliate program that you want to promote, like my favorite right now. And- and that’s actually why I wanted to start OddMoney again, because I wanted to figure out how I can- how I can utilize ActiveCampaign, because email marketing is like such a sticky product where, like, you can talk about it.

[00:37:12.860] – Jelani
This is a great tip. Like, this is a channel that someone should make. It’s just all about email marketing and get people to sign up to those different programs, because once they’re on the program, it’s really hard for them to get off. Like, I love program promote- promoting programs like that, where it’s like, it takes them. It’s very- it’s a lot of stress to get off the platform because, for example, like email marketing, you would have to find a new solution, then import all your contacts.

[00:37:39.760] – Jelani
If you have automations, you have to recreate the automation. So it’s like- it’s such a hassle for email. But anyway, if someone wants to start a YouTube channel, you should start that one because you’ll make a lot of money.

[00:37:48.730] – Joey
On how to make email marketing or how do…

[00:37:53.680] – Jelani
Just write-

[00:37:54.220] – Joey
Ok, what’s your- what’s your pain point, I’m trying to understand it.

[00:37:56.110] – Jelani
So, for example, I have a channel- I have a video on my Jelani The Marketer, that I made like three years ago. And every month I get new people signing up to ActiveCampaign. And the video was talking about how to make automations inside of active campaign. Just one video, just talking about that, that was like 12 minutes long. And literally, I have every month, I get people signing up and then every month I get paid like sometimes a thousand dollars a month, just like from this one video.

[00:38:22.450] – Joey
From an ActiveCampaign referral link?

[00:38:24.970] – Jelani
Yeah, just from that referral link. Because how email marketing works is like, as people increase their contact lists, they pay more money. So then I get more money from that particular user because they’re paying more money. So like I think the ActiveCampaign starts out at like 500 contacts. And then as soon as you go up to like a thousand, it’s more money and then you go more. So like if you’re able to get those businesses or people who have really large lists, you’ll make a killing.

[00:38:52.900] – Jelani
See, that’s how I was like, OK, like, OddMoney, I could definitely incorporate ActiveCampaign, create a course. Like, I was just thinking I was just having like a stream of consciousness that night because I was like, I can make so much money with this. But like, I also want to stay focus on Cartfuel because I’m having fun and like so that can be- that can be something I do like later down the line. But there’s a free idea right there for your audience.

[00:39:17.290] – Joey
There you go. Free YouTube idea. Alright. Well, thanks so much. Where can people find out more about you, links and stuff?

[00:39:24.850] – Jelani
Yeah, I’m pretty active on Twitter. I think that’s like the number one place you can find me. And my Twitter is @jelanisince94. Like, since 94. Yeah, you can find me on there and, yeah.

[00:39:39.970] – Joey
Alright. I’ll add links for that in the show notes. Well, yeah. Thanks so much, Jelani. Really appreciate it.

[00:39:45.250] – Jelani
Thank you so much for having me.