Create Your YouTube Channel with Jackson Wilkey

Introduction

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet — owned by Google — and it is the single most powerful platform for building your neighborhood expert reputation over time. Every video you post is a piece of content that lives on the internet forever, feeding your AEO (Artificial Intelligence Engine Optimization) signals and answering the questions your clients are searching for.

Set up your channel now even if you are not ready to post yet. Claiming your channel with your name handle is part of planting your flag.

— Go to youtube.com and sign in with your Gmail account.
— Click your profile icon in the top right and select "Create a Channel."
— Name your channel your full name — exactly as it appears everywhere else.
— Upload your headshot as your channel photo.
— Write your channel description — your name, your niche, your market area, your contact information.
— Add your website URL and your Calendly link to the channel links section.
— Add channel art — a banner image in Canva using your brand colors.

Your YouTube channel connects to everything. Videos you post here can be embedded on your website, shared on social media, included in your relocation guide, and linked from your Google Business Profile. One video feeds every platform. There is a dedicated lesson on how to create and edit video. Tool Creating Video= Video, Blog, Podcast Tool Video Editing with CapCut 

Step by Step Instruction Starting Your Real Estate YouTube Channel with Jackson Wilkey, Channel Junkies

Understanding the Three Phases of YouTube

Before you shoot a single video you need to understand where YouTube is right now and why most agents are failing on the platform.

Phase One — Search Heavy, Low AVD

This was the golden era. Agents shot videos with good SEO titles and dominated search quickly. It worked because there was no competition.

Most agents are still here. If search is your number one traffic source, you are stuck in Phase One.

Signs you are stuck in Phase One:

— You are shooting short videos
— You are focused on SEO titles and descriptions
— You are not getting recommended or suggested by YouTube
— Your average view duration is low

The problem is not effort. The problem is strategy. Phase One strategy no longer works in a crowded market.

Phase Two — Cleanup and the Return to Vlogging

Phase Two has two parts.

Part One — Cleanup

Go to your YouTube analytics and pull your CSV files. For every video check performance in the last 90 days — not lifetime views.

Signs a video needs to be unlisted:

— Low views in the last 90 days
— Average view duration under one minute on a long video
— Dropped significantly in your channel rankings

Steps:

— Download your analytics CSV files
— Cross reference every video — lifetime views against last 90 day performance
— Unlist every video that is not performing regardless of lifetime view count
— Let your good performing videos breathe without the dead weight dragging down your channel analytics

Part Two — Go Long and Go Vlog

— Stop shooting short studio videos
— Return to vlogging
— Target 30 minutes minimum per vlog video
— Work toward 50 to 75 minutes as your channel grows
— Longer videos generate higher average view duration and watch time
— High watch time moves your videos from search into browse and suggested

Phase Three — Search vs Browse and Suggested

This is the current strategy. Two videos per week with two different purposes.

Video One — Search

— Studio style
— 16 to 22 minutes
— Targets new viewers searching for information about your market
— Strong hook, structured content, multiple rehooks throughout to maintain watch time

Video Two — Browse and Suggested

— Vlog style
— 30 minutes minimum, work toward 50 to 75
— Five to seven scenes per video
— Structure: community first, home last

Vlog Scene Structure

— Intro — three to five scene previews back to back, Netflix style
— Shopping and amenities
— Rehook — tease the home
— Schools
— Rehook — tease the home again
— Map overview of the area
— New development or vacant land — tease what is coming
— The home

The viewer needs to want to live there before they care about the house. Lead with the community. The home is the payoff.

What Not To Do

— Do not shoot videos about viral mega projects or billion dollar developments — that is vacation content, not relocation content
— Do not reverse the formula — long search videos and short vlogs do not work
— Do not focus on subscriber count — leads and closings are the metric that matters
— Do not give up before six months — the channel needs time to collect data and understand your audience

Your First Step

Go to channeljunkies.com and run your existing YouTube channel through the Channel Grader tool. It is free, verified by Google, and tells you exactly what is working and what is not.

If you do not have a channel yet, start there anyway and bookmark it for when you do.  Link to Video Lesson