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Official Tips and Tricks for Collaborations

Stanley | Team TB

Amazingly Decent and Not-At-All Terrible Fishing
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Why should they collaborate with you: The single most important element of any collaboration; what value do you offer? Don't focus on sub counts... the number of subs you have is not the value in your collaboration. Your on screen persona, your skillset... these are things that are valuable. Can you be interviewed on camera discussing your niche? Are you an authority on a subject or is your learning process on that subject something that makes you interesting to talk to? These are things to consider. Remember that when you are collaborating with someone what you are doing is sharing that person with your audience and they are sharing you with theirs. If you want to get the most out of that experience than you have very little time to prove to that audience that you are valuable and someone worth their time to come over and subscribe to you. Be valuable.

Some Things to Consider: Obviously you want to be in a similar niche... if someone wants to collaborate with me they had better be prepared to discuss fishing!!! But other things to consider are your audience demographics.The majority of my audience is in the 35-50 demographic. If yours is 18-year-olds we may need to at least consider how we are going to handle this discrepency.

Collabs Can Be Simple: Often times a collaboration with me begins with you being a guest on my weekly livestream. That is a chance for us to get to know each other and it is a simple way for us to acclimate. But also I enjoy including fun little 'Easter Egg' type collaborative moments; I once recorded a 20 second video introduction and then acted like 'oh man, this isn't my channel! Let me get you back to so-and-so' and handed that off to a guy so that he could use it as the intro to one of his videos. It was fun, it mixed things up and it was a simply 10 second clip. Gathering a collection of short clips from a dozen creators to be combined into one video is another fun way to collaborate. Mind you; in order to get everyone involved you will need a solid concept to sell them on. Have a full idea present and ready to go before you start asking for people to take their time to help you out.

Ignore The Sub Count: I really can not stress this enough. Collaborations are not about sub counts. They are not about gaining subs. A good collaboration is an opportunity for you to increase your authority on a subject. When you collaborate with another creator you need to brag about that in your Community tab. You need to provide links, end screens, cards etc to your work on other channels because it shows that you are worth working with due to your authority on a subject. Being introduced to a new audience is nice... but should not be the sole reason for a collaboration. So many times I've seen people who want to collab and they require X amount of subscribers in order to work with them. That's sooo dumb. They are missing out on a truly unique experience. I suggest everyone collab with someone that has 90% less subs than you once. Be the authority in the collab. Make that persons day. When they hit 1,000 tell me they wont still be talking about that.

And consider for a second what happens if they blow up tomorrow... who are they going to remember to help them along the way? This happens far more often than you'd think. Be prepared. Make friends while they are small.
Link to Channel:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKJBHAUp2Bk
 
Last edited:

Theory Guitar

Guitarist and YouTube Enthusiast
TubeBuddy User
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Why should they collaborate with you: The single most important element of any collaboration; what value do you offer? Don't focus on sub counts... the number of subs you have is not the value in your collaboration. Your on screen persona, your skillset... these are things that are valuable. Can you be interviewed on camera discussing your niche? Are you an authority on a subject or is your learning process on that subject something that makes you interesting to talk to? These are things to consider. Remember that when you are collaborating with someone what you are doing is sharing that person with your audience and they are sharing you with theirs. If you want to get the most out of that experience than you have very little time to prove to that audience that you are valuable and someone worth their time to come over and subscribe to you. Be valuable.
Link to Channel:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKJBHAUp2Bk
Thanks for sharing very helpful!!
 

MattCommand1

On sabbatical
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This write-up is so good. I have done some of my best work in my career by collaborating, partnering, or joint venturing. There is so much synergy to gain. But it does take time to find the right person with the right mindset and expectations.

"And consider for a second what happens if they blow up tomorrow... who are they going to remember to help them along the way? This happens far more often than you'd think. Be prepared. Make friends while they are small."

You are so forward-thinking and insightful and it's also true. I know one guy who posted only 5 videos but two of them blew up. They just resonated with his type of people. Many people do remember who helped and support them along the way. I know who was around when I had less than 10 subscribers, 50 subscribers, 100 subscribers, etc.
 

Amanda Summers

Known Member
138
9
I have a channel about Nepal, a tiny country on top of India. I find it really difficult to do interviews. I'm 12 hours ahead of the US and Canada and 4-55 hours ahead of Europe. There doesn't seem to be a good time.
I'm looking to share end screens with other travel channels. I did this successfully with one channel. I was doing research and saw his video. I realized it would be of interest for my viewers who stayed to the end of one of my videos.
This isn't to just get more subs. The important thing is that it creates more authority. I remember back in the very early days of the internet they had 'Web Rings' where people would go from one website to the next. I miss that, so this is sorta bringing that concept back. Anyone in the travel niche interested?
 

Dysphasia PV

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I think that I need to build up my channel before I think about collaborating with anyone. But I did think that this post was very informational and will keep it in mind, so thank you, @Stanley | Team TB
 
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Stanley | Team TB

Stanley | Team TB

Amazingly Decent and Not-At-All Terrible Fishing
Administrator
TubeBuddy Staff
2,644
25
Subscriber Goal
250000
I think that I need to build up my channel before I think about collaborating with anyone. But I did think that this post was very informational and will keep it in mind, so thank you, @Stanley | Team TB
I don't think so at all! You are worth your weight in knowledge, experience and charisma... not sub count. Don't be afraid of collaborating. Maybe it's not your thing... but don't ever think that you need a bigger channel to validate your skills.
 

Dysphasia PV

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I don't think so at all! You are worth your weight in knowledge, experience and charisma... not sub count. Don't be afraid of collaborating. Maybe it's not your thing... but don't ever think that you need a bigger channel to validate your skills.

I didn't know that. I thought that building up your channel came first, and once you got a good number of subscribers, then you do collaboration.
 
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Stanley | Team TB

Stanley | Team TB

Amazingly Decent and Not-At-All Terrible Fishing
Administrator
TubeBuddy Staff
2,644
25
Subscriber Goal
250000
I didn't know that. I thought that building up your channel came first, and once you got a good number of subscribers, then you do collaboration.
Sadly, a collaboration has little to do with subscriber growth. You just aren't going to gain many subs from a collab (I'm speaking form experience; I once did one with a 2.5 million sub channel). But the good news is that you don't have to worry about sub growth. A collaboration is an opportunity for you to introduce each other to your individual audiences. The real value is in the networking (there is a LOT of value in having friends in your vertical). It's in the authority that you gain by being considered a valuable member of that space. These might not sound like valuable things... but they are the things that people subscribe for. They may watch because you ranked in Search for something they wanted to see and your thumbnail grabbed them. But they subscribe for your personality and your authority. Being a known member of your community cements you as someone worth subscribing to, regardless of how many people already have.
 

Dysphasia PV

Familiar Member
TubeBuddy Pro
Trusted User
52
10
Subscriber Goal
10000
Sadly, a collaboration has little to do with subscriber growth. You just aren't going to gain many subs from a collab (I'm speaking from experience; I once did one with a 2.5 million sub-channel). But the good news is that you don't have to worry about sub growth. Collaboration is an opportunity for you to introduce each other to your individual audiences. The real value is in networking (there is a LOT of value in having friends in your vertical). It's in the authority that you gain by being considered a valuable member of that space. These might not sound like valuable things... but they are what people subscribe for. They may watch because you ranked in Search for something they wanted to see and your thumbnail grabbed them. But they subscribe for your personality and your authority. Being a known member of your community cements you as someone worth subscribing to, regardless of how many people already have.

Officially, I've had my channel now for two years (approximately) and have been working on it for the past year (approximately). I have learned more in these past few months than I have in a long time! I was expecting it to be a learning curve, but with every corner that I take, something else pops up and surprises me. Tbh that's what I love about learning; you never know what you will get.
 
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3oaksmusic

New Member
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Sadly, a collaboration has little to do with subscriber growth. You just aren't going to gain many subs from a collab (I'm speaking form experience; I once did one with a 2.5 million sub channel). But the good news is that you don't have to worry about sub growth. A collaboration is an opportunity for you to introduce each other to your individual audiences. The real value is in the networking (there is a LOT of value in having friends in your vertical). It's in the authority that you gain by being considered a valuable member of that space. These might not sound like valuable things... but they are the things that people subscribe for. They may watch because you ranked in Search for something they wanted to see and your thumbnail grabbed them. But they subscribe for your personality and your authority. Being a known member of your community cements you as someone worth subscribing to, regardless of how many people already have.
Fair and pertinent !
 
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Reactions: Stanley | Team TB

Amanda Summers

Known Member
138
9
I love to collaborate with other channels. I recently came across an informative post that made the next video a bit easier. I gave her a shoutout and offered to give her a plug for the use of her suggestions plus I gave her an end screen. She only has a few hundred subs, but it doesn't matter. When I sent her the link with her video on the end screen she wrote back that she'd put one of mine on the back of one of hers. This was the second end-screen exchange and I'd love to find another one. Unfortunately, most of the videos in my niche (travel to Nepal) just don't have as much value as I like. So many of them start off, 'This is me getting dressed for my trip,' 'This is me on the airplane and here I am eating my first meal here.' But then I look at the views and it's crazy views.

It feels good to create a bit of a circle of influence. It also builds authority, so the good comes back pretty fast. Just keep it in your own niche.
 

Swisha G

New Member
TubeBuddy User
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i've began to reach out to others for collabs but have yet to get the ball rolling. this gives a good perspective as i move forward.