Hello and welcome back to the Part-Time Creator Academy. In this video, we're going to cover how to come up with an infinite number of viral video ideas, popular video formats that you can use in your videos, as well as the power of a good series. Let's get started.
So in the last video, I discussed what makes a good video idea. Now I'm going to give you the secret sauce for how to come up with an unlimited number of video ideas. What I'm going to show you is my method for coming up with video ideas that have even been proven to go viral without you even having to go out and create the video and test it for yourself.
And to do this, you need to do what I like to call steal like an artist. Have you ever heard that quote by Pablo Picasso that says, "good artists copy, but great artists steal?" Basically, it means that every great artist takes heavy inspiration from other artists, and it's no different on TikTok and Instagram when creating viral video content. Right now, there are millions of videos being posted to TikTok and Instagram every single day, and a ton of these videos are in your niche and are related to the content that you already create.
So rather than forcing yourself to sit down in front of a blank Word document, trying to come up with a viral video idea out of thin air, instead, use that to your advantage. Go onto TikTok or Instagram and watch videos in your niche that performed rather well and got a ton of views. Then pay attention to what hook they used, what their idea was, and everything for why you think the video did well. Then create that video for yourself. It's that simple.
Another great way to do this is to use the inspiration tab on your TikTok or Instagram analytics. To get to this on Instagram, go to your account, hit professional dashboard, and scroll down, and then you'll see something called inspiration. To do this on TikTok, all you have to do is go to your profile, hit the three lines in the top right corner, hit creator tools, and scroll down, and you'll see something called for your inspiration. This is such a powerful tool because the platform is literally telling you what videos to make in order to go viral.
Now, I'm not saying that you should plagiarize and recreate someone else's video exactly, shot for shot and word for word, but use their video ideas, add your own experiences, opinions, and flair, and just like that, you have yourself a proven video idea that'll go viral. If you think about it, this is exactly what a trend is. A trend is just a video idea where the idea itself has gone viral and everyone does it for themselves and adds their own perspective onto it.
Now, you can do this on a much smaller scale. I do this all the time with my content. If I want to go out and make a video that will hit 1 million views guaranteed, I will look at all of the other videos around my niche that got at least over a million views, and then I would use those ideas as inspiration for my video idea. Also, you don't have to even look at viral videos in your niche. You can also look at viral videos in other niches and take those ideas and apply them to your own niche. This is actually even better because you are then forced to change things about the video to make it apply to the niche that you're in. And because you're taking heavy inspiration from a video that already went viral, you get to remove the guesswork of if the video has the potential to go viral for you. It's already proven that it will, and you just need to apply it to yourself.
Now, that is how you steal like an artist when it comes to video ideas. Now, the next thing you need to decide is what video format you're going to use for your video. The idea is what your video is all about, and the format is how you present that information to the viewer. If you go onto TikTok or Instagram and you scroll through videos, you'll notice that most videos that get a ton of views all follow a handful of different formats.
So much like video ideas, when it comes to video formats, instead of trying to develop your own video format from scratch, take inspiration from video formats that people are already doing for their videos. This way, you can remove the guesswork again from the video format of if it will work or not and start creating content that is already using a format that is proven to work.
So really quickly, I'm going to list off some of the most popular video formats that you'll see on TikTok and Instagram, and I'll also be breaking down what makes them work and why they get views. Also, keep in mind, this is not an exhaustive list of all the formats that you're going to see. They're just some of the most popular ones:
- This is the style of video where you see people typically on the street asking strangers a series of questions in an interview-style format. This works well because the viewer simply wants to see what the person is going to answer to the question that they've been asked. That's it. There are an unlimited number of ways that they could answer the question, and the viewer just wants to know what it'll be. Also, the viewer wants to see what someone's reaction is going to be to the question, if maybe the question is a little bit weird or interesting.
- This relies strictly on teaching people something. The viewer feels like they got value from watching your video and found it useful in some way. The production value of these videos typically doesn't affect their performance as long as the information is valuable. Also, people who will watch these types of videos relate to the topicthat the video is about.
- This is typically a comedy skit and is meant to make the viewer laugh. You can see this done in a bunch of different ways on TikTok and Instagram. Sometimes the skit is done with a group of friends all acting in the video, or you'll even see it where all the characters in the video are all played by the same person. The person is just dressed up in a bunch of different outfits. These videos work well because they are typically relatable, as well as they give the audience a reaction, which is laughing.
  
  This is the style of video where you see people watching someone else's video on TikTok or Instagram, and they are simply just reacting to it. That's it. These types of videos are typically done to make people laugh and give them a reaction. These videos also typically don't have the highest production value possible because they're literally just screen recording them watching a video. However, this is very competitive because a lot of people like to do these types of videos, and in order to be successful, you need to have a really good, genuine, and unique reaction.
  This is another relatively simple video format that is similar to giving value, but instead of giving value that you came up with on your own, instead, you aggregate resources from other areas in your niche and present it to the viewer. The value here comes from the fact that the viewer learns something, but they also didn't have to put the effort into going and finding it themselves. A good example of this is news accounts, where they just update the viewer on current events.
  This is a style of video where the creator is simply just talking to the camera and telling a story about something that happened to them. These typically go viral when the story is about something that was pretty crazy. This relates back to getting a reaction from your audience.
  This is a style of video where the creator films their day and shows what it's actually like. Anyone can do these types of videos, but they work really well when you have a life that other people are curious about. For example, if you're a medical student or some prestigious profession. This is because people are curious to see what it's actually like to have that life. Another angle that I've seen with the day in the life content is your geographic location. You can create a video about a day in the life of living in your certain country. Even if it's something as simple as living in America, this is because people who are not in America are curious as to what it's like to live in America.
  These are videos that showcase you or someone else doing an experiment or challenge in the video. These work well because people are curious to see what the end result of the experiment will be or who the winner of the challenge is going to be. A lot of challenges or experiments go viral and then become trends.
  This is a video that showcases someone who has an incredible talent or skill. These videos work well because people are always interested by people who are extremely talented at something and they want to see just how good that person is. So if you're already extremely talented at a skill, this might be something you could consider.
  Okay, so those are some of the most common types of video formats that you'll see on TikTok and Instagram. If you're just starting out, I recommend that you try as many of these video styles as you can. This way you can experiment with your style and find what works for you. You want to experiment with your style to find what works for you, what you're good at, but most importantly, what doesn't work for you. But once you've done a little bit of experimenting, I recommend that you try to pick one or two styles and try to stick to them. This is because for the most success, you want your videos to be recognizable to your audience and you want your videos to have a distinct style. If you switch up the format every single video, it becomes harder to develop your own style and make your videos recognizable to your audience.
  Okay, so that's how you steal like an artist when it comes to your video ideas as well as your video formats. This is the trick that almost all viral content creators do to make sure that their videos perform as well as they can.
  Now, there's one more thing that I wanted to touch on. This is how to turn one viral video idea into multiple viral videos. And that's through the power of a good series. Let me tell you a quick story. So when I'm not making videos teaching you guys how to become content creators, I actually have an Instagram account and a TikTok all about the craft of filmmaking and using your camera. Just over three months ago, the Instagram account had just around 30,000 followers and TikTok had just around 9,000 followers. And it took me five years to get them to this point. But one day I decided that I would start an Instagram and TikTok series where I make a video once a day for 100 days straight where I give daily filmmaking and camera tips and tricks. I called it the 100 Day Film School. And over the next 100 days, I grew my Instagram account to just over 200,000 followers and my TikTok account to over 130,000 followers. I know, it's crazy.
  Now to do that, I used all the tips and tricks that we talk about in this course, but also a huge amount of the success came from the fact that I created a series. The series worked well because it gave people a reason to hit the follow button and stick around to see my future videos. So my point here is to not underestimate the power of a good series. Turning your video ideas into a series allows you to make one video idea and repeat it multiple times. And it gives viewers a reason to follow along.
  An example of other good series that I've seen are:
	- How many blank can hold me?
	- European castles versus Canadian real estate?
	- Amazon finds you need or don't?
- So if you can generate an idea for a viral video series, this will help you create content that is all around a theme and can be a very effective way to build an audience. And that's it for this video. I hope you guys learned something and we'll see you guys.And that's it for this video. I hope you guys learned something, and we'll see you guys in the next one.