Everyone steals ideas.
That shot you saw in the movie, that idea you heard somewhere, that product that solves a problem, even this newsletter.
Most creators draw inspiration from which they create something new.
There is no shame in that.
So, here are some Viral YouTube titles, thumbnails, and Instagram reels that you can take inspiration from.
Title framework: I [difficult activit] in [smaller timeframe]
Why this works:
- extreme — the idea of the video is a bit more extreme than the normal videos in the niche.
Extreme ideas work well on all platforms and that is why creators like MrBeast are so successful.
- curious — the title builds curiosity in the viewer’s mind, how can the creator achieve such a hard task in just 31 hours?
Examples of titles:
- I Learned Tamil in 7 Days
- I Ran a Marathon in 24 Hours
- I Decorated My Entire House in a Weekend
- I Monetized a YouTube Channel in 24 Hours.
Title framework: It’s actually pretty easy to get ahead of 99% of [group/people]
Why this works:
- desire — everyone has that inner desire to outperform others and get ahead in life, and this video caters to that desire in people.
- thumbnail — the thumbnail is clean with a simple black background and clear contrast between the texts and graphics in it. Thumbnails with single-color backgrounds and with little text and an illustration to show the point of the video work on YouTube well.
Examples of titles:
- It’s actually pretty easy to get ahead of 99% of writers
- It’s actually pretty easy to get ahead of 99% of gymgoers
- It’s actually pretty easy to get ahead of 99% of developers
- It’s actually pretty easy to get ahead of 99% of your competition
Keep your views hooked to your videos with this strategy
Here is an analysis of an IG reel that got my attention some days back.
- bait hook — this reel uses a crazy bait hook to get your attention, if you don’t know what that is it is showing some crazy clips of something not relevant to your videos which is usually shocking or satisfying to get people’s attention.
- extended hook — after the hook he tries to make his content blend in with the hook that he showed before revealing the actual content.
- tension — that stack of cards can fall off at any moment if he places one card wrongly, this creates tension and viewers watch to see if anything happens at the end.
- action — one of the best ways to hook people to your videos is to do something in your videos that creates a sort of tension as he did, that can be just opening a mystery box, solving a Rubix cube, or even multitasking in your videos like doing an exercise or coding in your computer.
That is it for this week, this week’s letter was a little late because I was ill for a long time. If you found this helpful, here is the previous letter.
-Sayar