Have you heard about Outliers? The knowledge of outliers have been exploited by the biggest YouTubers to produce viral videos that is picked up by the YouTube algorithm. What are outliers? In this blog post we cover…

• What outliers are

• How big YouTubers use outliers to produce viral videos

• Why YouTube videos succeed and fail and how you can stand out among crowded competition

• How you can produce viral YouTube videos using outliers

What are outliers?

Outliers are viral videos that perform exceptionally well compared to a channel’s average results. For example, if a channel has 1000 subscribers and produces a video with 100 000 views it is a 100x Outlier.

The reason that identifying outliers can be valuable, comes from the fact that outliers works as a signal and shows what is wanted from viewers on YouTube. An outlier is a proven video concept that works; outliers signals true demand from viewers. Outliers show what the YouTube algorithm wants.

To illustrate this, let’s look at some examples from big YouTubers.

How big YouTubers use outliers with true demand to produce a viral video

The classic example of how outliers can be used, comes from how Mr. Beast was inspired by an outlier to create his own viral video. In 2021, BeamNG Nation had produced an incredible outlier that had over 150 million views; much more than their 4 million subscribers!

Mr. Beast found this Outlier, and 2 years later, Mr. Beast uploaded his own video using the same concept. He was able to reproduce the result with his unique mix, and even gained more views than the original Outlier.

Why did it work? It all comes down to supply, demand, crowded competition and spin-offs. Let’s explain it in much simpler terms and break it down.

Why videos succeed and fail

When a creator comes up with something fresh and unique, it grabs attention. However, over time, if the same concept is used repeatedly, it becomes less effective. What made it unique and exciting wears off, because people get used to it. This is called “pattern fatigue”. It's essentially competitors pursuing the same ideas with no unique edge.

Why does this happen? Well, if everyone is doing the same thing over and over again, it starts to feel predictable. The audience is no longer surprised or engaged by what they see. And unless you already have a loyal, large and established fanbase of subscribers, breaking through the competition is extremely difficult.

So, what’s the solution to stand out amongst the crowd? You should aim to attract the same audience that created the high demand for the topic, but instead of competing in the overcrowded competition, you do something different to stand out uniquely. But how can we do this?

How to stand out amongst crowded competition

The brilliant Wono identified the following strategies to successfully stand out in crowded competitive niches:

1. Change the video format and scope

Is everyone doing long 10-minute videos? Try something new! 1 hour long videos of covering the same topic for example. Is someone covering a battle? Why not make a whole video about a small moment during that battle! Or summarize the entire battle in one minute like shown in the example. This is called changing the scope.

2. Make the video 10x better

If you’re not the first to create a particular type of content, then aim to do it much better than everyone else. Whether it’s better video packaging, higher production quality, deeper research, or a more engaging presentation, going the extra mile can make your videos rise above the noise.

3. Find a unique angle

Finding a unique specific angle not already used by competition. Instead of following the broad, generic path, focus on a particular aspect that others might overlook.

What’s important to remember here is that video topics and ideas can become crowded competition, but there is always a potential opportunity by delivering unique format, scopes or angles.

This is exactly why you need to identify outliers and spin-off of them; you find the demand and serve them something new. This brings us to our final question →

How can you find outliers and make spin-offs?

To find outliers one typically browses YouTube for videos that has more views than the channels subscribers (and is max 6 months old). But this process is time-consuming, inefficient and boring.

That’s why you should use a software like Viral Dashboard, but what can you expect?

• Eliminate boring and tiring work. Get instant access to all outliers.

• Free up time. Reduce research time for identifying outliers by +90%

• Boost views. Increase success rate on your videos and reduce the risk of flops.

Viral Dashboard gives you a complete overview of the hottest viral videos and outliers on YouTube; it’s a collection of thousands of video topics that has a proven demand from viewers and the YouTube algorithm. It allows you to instantly access and browse for only outliers on a dashboard interface.

This is how we use Viral Dashboard to identify outliers and make a spin-off for your channel

Let’s pretend you are a legendary YouTuber creating Minecraft videos (many of you probably are lol). By scrolling on the Viral Dashboard, you can identify several topics that can be used as inspiration for your next Minecraft video. Let’s favorite the topics we like, and save them for later.

Important: It's best to choose topics that you think will fit well with the existing content on your channel. Your channel should have a theme that's easy to spot across your videos. That makes your videos predictable, and will boost your results with the YouTube algorithm through the recommended tabs. If you make a video inspired by an outlier that is not in touch with your channel, you are sacrificing your long-term success.

If you didn't find any outliers you like, try the filter function or look in different categories to find topics better suited for your videos.

“The Biggest Tree On Earth Is Much Bigger Than You Imagination” outlier can be inspired to create “The Biggest Tree In Minecraft Is Much Bigger Than Your Imagination”.

However, this relies on the following:

• The outlier fits well with your existing content

If the outlier doesn't fit well with your already existing content you can make different angles on the topic. For example, if you create "Minecraft battle videos", you could create a video covering "Battling On The Biggest Tree In Minecraft, A War Much Bigger Than Your Imagination".

• There isn’t already overcrowded competition on the topic

Remember to always double-check the competition on YouTube, which can be done by searching for the topic on YouTube homepage.

1. Search for the topic you intend to make on YouTube. I am using an outlier I found with Viral Dashboard as an example.

2. Find the videos most similar to the one you will make. This includes the videos that comes up first when searching for the topic, but you also the most recent videos this past month (use filter mechanism)

3. Now, look at views-to-subscribers ratio for the different videos, to see if video views is higher than the channel’s subscribers.

The first video is 10 months old, but is an impressive outlier. It has 6 600 000 views while the channel has 860 000 subs, giving a 7,67x views-to-subscribers ratio (very impressive).

The next video (that appears in both searches) has 857 000 views and 456 000 subs, meaning it is a 1,87x views-to-subscribers ratio.

The last video has 617 000 views and 14 300 subs, giving it a very impressive 43,14x ratio.

All the ratios showing more views than subscribers suggest there's currently a high demand for the topic. It's crucial to highlight that newer videos provide more accurate insight into the current supply and demand, as they offer a fresher signal. YouTube viewers’ preferences change constantly, so the more recent the video, the better the indicator. In our example, one video was just 7 days old, which is a very strong positive sign!

On the other hand, if you encounter several negative ratios, it might suggest weaker demand. However, don't take this metric too literally, as there can be exceptions. For instance, you might come across mostly negative ratios but also find a new video with a strong positive ratio, which could indicate that the search is currently gaining momentum. Every search will differ, but you should aim to find some videos with a positive views-to-subscribers ratio.

4. We also need to check how it looks for our new search term: “The Biggest Tree In Minecraft Is Much Bigger Than Your Imagination”.

There are really not a lot of alternatives here, we can actually go ahead with our topic idea. In this case, we can hopefully convert some attention from the audience watching “The Biggest Tree On Earth Is Much Bigger Than You Imagination”.

However, if there had been a lot of competition, we would want to make sure that our video stands out among the competition. Therefore we must ask ChatGPT for different scopes/angles.

After we have generated different variants, we simply choose the best ones. This can take some tweaking. We also have to monitor that the topic we choose isn’t already overcrowded with competition, so remember to continually monitor these by searching on YouTube.

Eventually you will land upon some variants that has the potential to become a viral video, and voilá! You have created your unique video topic based on proven concepts with demand, and your chance of success has increased significantly.

If you made it through this whole blog post, well done!

This whole strategy is reliant on the use of outliers. Viral Dashboard give you instant access to outliers for just $9.99, a fraction of the market price.

As a thanks for reading this entire blog post, I am giving you a special coupon code: EARLYBIRD2024. That gives you 30% off for a year’s subscription of Viral Dashboard (that’s not even $6 month).

Subscribe today, and increase your chance of creating viral videos!