How I Went Viral On YouTube + How You Can Too
It all started with a plastic red cup.
When I was fourteen years old, I decided I wanted to start a YouTube channel. I decided to post videos of myself singing and playing the guitar. I happened to see the movie Pitch Perfect in theaters, and when I got home that day, I thought I would try my hand at figuring out “The Cup Song.” I filmed a pretty mediocre video of myself sitting on my bedroom floor, tapping out the song, and within a week the views were rolling in by the thousands.
My mom and I would stand over my computer, eyes growing wider each night, as the views skyrocketed. I posted another, slightly better cover, as well as a tutorial on how to learn the cup beat to the song. Views on my other videos started going up too, and by the time I packed up my camera and called it quits a year and a half later, I had 9 million total views and 25,000 subscribers. And I’ll be the first to admit — I think it was kind of a fluke.
I know for certain that the reason my videos did so well was because of TIMING. You can write a perfect description, tag your video to no end, have the most eye-catching thumbnail and title — none of which my videos had — but getting ahead of a trend is what is going to get you views. Why? Because I believe the key to my video gaining so much traction was because when one searched “the cup song,” my video was on the very first page. The more views it gets, the more likely it is to stay on the first page. It’s a complete cycle, and the key is to get ahead of it. Heck, my voice was even in a Shane Dawson video where he was trying to learn the Cup Song, and I’m sure he only clicked it because it was one of the first results.
Thus, the key to going viral on YouTube is kind of a gamble, but it’s a gamble without high stakes. If you post a video about something you think could become a sensation and it doesn’t, so what? You made a video people didn’t really click on, and that’s that. If you’re not a popular YouTuber, you have absolutely nothing to lose, and if you are a popular YouTuber, you have people watching your content anyway and you don’t need to worry about any of this. If you catch a trend on its way up, you could strike gold.
I should say that when I posted my videos, it was purely for fun, and I had no intention of trying to gain viewers or money. When I started focusing on that, I began to completely lose interest in making videos, because it seemed like a chore. Thus, as a former viral YouTube sensation (just kidding!!!), simply focus on creating content you’re passionate about. Make your videos professional, bring something new to the table, but if you see something cool on the horizon, don’t wait to see what other people do with it — hop on that train BEFORE it leaves the station!
