How Paddy Galloway Solved YouTube

Click here if you want to see this post broken down visually on a YouTube video.

Paddy is a YouTuber from rural Ireland who makes creator breakdown videos of other successful YouTubers.

What’s most interesting about Paddy, is that he’s an educational YouTuber, but he is pulling entertainment YouTuber views..

What I mean by this, is that on YouTube, there are generally two types of content that do really well: educational and entertainment content.

Entertainment content is usually where the large views are, with channels like MrBeast, Airrack, and Ryan Trahan pulling 100s of millions of views every single month..

Educational content on the other hand, is lucky to even get a fraction of that.

And the reason for this is really simply…the world prefers to be entertained, rather than educated.

Now this doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for educational YouTubers, because Paddy has shown us what is possible if you crack the code to YouTube..

And from my research, I’ve outlined 3 factors behind Paddy’s viral success on YouTube.

So let’s get into it. 

FACTOR #1:

The first first thing Paddy has done, is that he’s truly cracked the code to viral videos..

You see it’s common for most small YouTuber’s to spend weeks, if not years, chasing a viral video.

Most never get it.

But those that do, might spend all their time trying to replicate it, with little success.

Honestly, I’ve been there before myself, where I’ve had a video go viral and couldn’t replicate it, so I know just how much it sucks.

But what Paddy has figured out though is a genius formula to guarantee that every video he creates has the potential to go viral.

He’s done this by figuring out that most viral video’s on YouTube, generally follow 5 themes.

These themes are as follows:

• 1/ The content needs to be new or have some novelty factor to it (something people haven’t seen before). 

• 2/ It needs to be exclusive, meaning that it must be hard to find anywhere on the internet, let alone on another YouTuber’s channel.

• 3/ It needs to be valuable - this is either done through entertaining or alleviating pain by educating.

• 4/ The video has to have a timing factor to it, meaning it needs to be:

  • a video that people WANT to watch.

  • or a video that people didn’t know that they NEEDED (yet).

• 5/ Lastly, the video must have wide appeal and be easily understand by the majority of the population in terms of:

  • the video idea.

  • the title.

  • the thumbnail.

  • the language used (simple to understand).

The smart thing Paddy has done is that he has combined all 5 themes into every single one of his videos.

Let's look at his first viral video:

• This type of content had never been seen before on YouTube, and was not available anywhere else on the internet.

• It was extremely valuable, giving creators a blueprint that they could follow to somewhat replicate the success Peter was experiencing at the time.

• The video was timed perfectly by Paddy as back in 2017, Peter had just experienced exponential growth on YouTube (gaining over 1 Million subscribers in just 9 months and gaining over 40 million video views).

• Lastly, the video with it’s title, thumbnail, video idea, and language used inside the video was simple enough that it appealed to a large group of viewers.

These viewers, among many, were:

• Fans of Peter McKinnon.

• Small YouTubers looking to grow their channel.

• Large YouTubers looking to gain an extra edge and learn from the tactics of other successful YouTubers.

• Viewers who had no intention of starting a YouTube channel but just found the topic interesting.

• Viewers who were thinking about starting a YouTube channel but didn’t have one yet.

• And 9-5 workers looking to gain insights to grow corporate brands on YouTube.

FACTOR #2

Now, of course making a YouTube video that has the potential to go viral and actually going viral are two very different things..

Which brings up factor #2: Paddy mastered the YouTube algorithm.

The YouTube algorithm can be most easily understood if we understand YouTube's goal

which is to keep viewers on the platform for as long as possible and get them to return.

It’s a fact that no matter how competitive YouTube gets, the algorithm is built to help new creators get discovered. 

The issue is most small creators just don't know how to get picked up by the algorithm in the first place

Which is what Paddy was able to do so well on his channel.

He was able to gain attention and get into people's recommended feeds..

The way he did this was really simple, he took the focus away from himself.

This might sound counterintuitive, but in the beginning of starting a YouTube channel, it’s hard to get a viewer to care about your content.. 

You have to think about it like this:

What incentive is there for a new viewer to click one of your videos, over a video from one of their favourite creators?

The way Paddy got around this, is that he chose to focus on topics and people who already had attention.

This is called trend-jacking.

By trend-jacking, you get new viewers to care about your content.

This tactic can be seen throughout Paddy's channel - where each of video's is focused on a YouTuber during their rise on the platform. 

Obviously, it’s not going to be enough you to just make videos on trending topics to gain attention..

you have to get viewers to stick around once they’ve actually clicked on the video as well.

This is where Paddy did something genius...

He’s noted on multiple podcasts that he spends majority of his time focusing on the most important part of a video..

the part where you are most likely to lose viewers - the intro.

Now that you know this, if you watch one of Paddy's intro's, you will see that it is carefully planned and edited to beat the YouTube algorithm.

Take a look at this video right here to see his strategy in action and pay close attention to the opening 40 seconds because a few things happen to hook the viewer into Paddy's content:

YouTube video link:

• https://youtu.be/TTKsOYa214M?si=0VcduN6wK6k84enb 

What Paddy did there is called opening storylines and creating intrigue.. 

His goal with this is really simple:

• he wants to convince the viewer to stick around.

And he does this successfully by including unanswered questions in his intro:

• How did Dream go from zero subscribers to one of the fastest growing channels in YouTube history?

• What did he learn about beating the YouTube algorithm?

So by doing this, the viewer knows exactly what journey Paddy is trying to take them on..

they know the video isn't clickbait..

and they have multiple storylines they want answered.

As an exercise to make this work for your own channel..

think about the questions that viewers might ask based on seeing your title and thumbnail.

Now use these questions in your intro so that the viewer has to stick around and watch the video until the end to close the storylines you’ve opened…

FACTOR #3:

While gaining attention and keeping viewers interested throughout your videos is enough to ensure the algorithm pushes your video out..

none of that matters if you can’t get viewers to return to your channel and binge-watch your videos.

I mean really…what’s the point of gaining views for 1 week and then returning back to square one the next?

This brings us to factor #3: Paddy cracked the code to audience building.

Looking at Paddy’s channel, it’s very clear to me that he figured out the truth behind building an audience on YouTube early on.

What he would say, is that building an audience on YouTube simply comes down to making your content as predictable as possible.

This sounds backwards to what most small creators would expect, but think about it:

A loyal subscriber is nothing more than someone who came across your channel, enjoyed watching one of your videos, and subscribed to get more of the same.

So, now that you know that - how do you make your content as predictable as possible and give your audience more of the same without boring them?

Well Paddy did it by finding a winning video formula.

A winning video formula refers to what makes up a successful video for your channel.

The harsh truth, is that you’re going to have to experiment a lot to find it for your own channel.

Once you do though, you will be able to replicate it over and over again, and your audience will never get bored.

For example, if you look at Paddy's channel, it follows his winning video formula

with every single video being exactly the same.

The only thing that changes, is the video idea

Or in other words, the YouTuber he chooses to make the video about.

As such, he has made his content as predictable as possible and therefore ensuring that when new viewers find his channel, they're able to watch one video and go on to binge-watch the rest..

This keeps the cycle of getting new viewers through trend-jacking..

keeping their interest throughout with unaswered questions..

and getting them to return and binge-watch all of his content because it’s so predictable, valuable, and can’t be found anywhere else.

In the process, Paddy has given YouTube exactly what it wants by:

• keeping viewers on the platform for as long as possible.

• getting viewers to constantly return to his channel.

This is how Paddy forever broke the YouTube algorithm.