Practical Tips for Making Crochet Tutorials on YouTube | Podcast Episode #120

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Do you want to share what you know about crochet and knitting through tutorials on YouTube?

Making the decision to put my first tutorial up on YouTube was quite literally life-changing, I just didn’t know it at the time. If this is something you’re interested in exploring yourself, you’re in the right place to get started.

Special Guest

In this episode of The BHooked Podcast you’ll hear from Sarah-Jayne, the creative yarn entrepreneur behind Bella Coco Crochet. She peels back the layers and shares everything you need to know before you upload your first tutorial, how to grow your channel, how the numbers really aren’t important, and some equipment tips to get you started.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Hello there and welcome to episode 120 of the BHooked podcast. I’m your host, Brittany, and as always, I cannot wait for you to hear this episode.

I have been so excited to talk to this guest because I know that so many of you are at the point where you want to start a YouTube channel. You want to share crochet tutorials. You want to share your story and what you know with other people in the community. It’s like one of the coolest and most rewarding things that you can do, and I brought on somebody who can really speak to YouTube—and I think you might be a little surprised by some of her advice. It goes against the norm just a little bit and I think that’s what makes it so perfect.

So today I’m joined by Sarah Jane and she has the YouTube channel—you’ve probably heard of it—Bella Coco Crochet. Now, it’s interesting to find out that she hasn’t had her YouTube channel all that long, about five years, actually. When we recorded it, she just had her five-year anniversary for her first video, and she shares a little bit about that. But if you look at her channel, it looks like she’s been doing it forever.

She’s got an amazing community, and if you are looking at that subscriber count, well, she’s got me beat completely out of the water, and I just absolutely love that. I think it is so wonderful to see somebody in our community who’s really trying to make somebody’s life better—who’s really trying to teach them something—and see them be so successful. That just warms my heart. It gives me hope for anyone who’s starting a YouTube channel. As long as you have your priorities in line, I know you’ll be successful.

So I don’t want to get into the details too much with you here because Sarah Jane explains it all so well. So here we go. Here’s Sarah Jane from Bella Coco Crochet.

Sarah Jane, welcome to the BHooked podcast. It’s such a joy to have you here today.

Sarah-Jayne: 3:04
Thank you so much for having me. It’s an absolute honor.

Brittany: 3:11
Well, I am over the moon about this topic. I really am. I totally geek out on video. It’s like… my passion right now. I love editing and you have done some amazing things in YouTube and with your channel and I just cannot wait to tap into a little bit of that knowledge.

Sarah-Jayne: 3:04
Well, hopefully I can share something of value because again, it’s something that I’m passionate about as well.

Brittany: 3:11
Yes, well, I think that shows through and I’m sure that’s why you found so much success. But before we get there, I do want to give my listener a chance to get to know you a little bit, just in case they haven’t seen your tutorials. I know a lot of my folks have, but tell me your story. Where did things start for you? How did you start to crochet and how did that develop into what you do today?

Sarah-Jayne: 3:32
So really it went back to 2010 is when I started to crochet. I had done a little bit of knitting when I was younger—and when I say done a little bit of knitting, literally I would start a scarf and never end it. I was very young.

So my grandma or my mom would start it off for me. And then when the world of Instagram came around and I was a little bit older, I started seeing people making these amazing crochet blankets and all different things and I thought, you know what, I’m going to give that a go. Because neither my mom or my grandma had ever done crochet—it was always knitting.

And so I gave it a go, and I quite literally got hooked. So I started doing different patterns and playing around with different yarn and different colors, and I just found it so therapeutic. I absolutely loved it.

Brittany: 4:29
Now I’m curious—did you end up teaching them how to crochet?

Sarah-Jayne: 4:32
No. I think it’s harder for somebody who knits to then go to crochet than it is the other way around. My mum is desperately trying at the moment, but she just… she’s having a bit of a hard time with it. And my grandma is a knitter through and through. I don’t think she would even touch a crochet hook, bless her.

Brittany: 4:54
Yeah, I agree. It’s so completely different, and it’s sort of difficult to just want to do something different. If you’re a seasoned knitter, it feels like you’re kind of in your zone, and that’s your jam—why try something different?

But that’s really cool. It’s sort of like the other way around a little bit. So you tried to teach your mom how to crochet and she’s working through that. I am also teaching my mom how to crochet and it’s really fun. Now, she sort of learned a little bit of crochet—and she did it a little bit before I was born. She made some things for my older sisters.

And about three or four years ago, I started teaching her how to crochet again. And she was just—I was surprised at how good she was and how even the stitches were. And she was just like a natural. It just completely blew my mind.

Oh, that’s so lovely. And now she doesn’t do it all the time, but she does like to make projects here and there. And she’s just recently picked it back up again. And it just makes my little heart so happy because we just share in that ecstatic joy of crochet.

Sarah-Jayne: 6:06
Yeah. Oh, that’s so lovely.

Brittany: 6:09
Yeah, it’s neat that you can share something with a family member like that.

Sarah-Jayne: 6:14
Definitely. It’s like a little bonding moment, isn’t it?

Brittany: 6:17
It really is. It is. I can’t describe it. Now, my mom actually lives a fair distance away from me—it’s about a five-hour drive. And that is really, really tough because I grew up just really close to my mom. And she was my rock and just everything—my whole world.

And it’s tough to have her that far away. So I remember when she said, “Brittany, I want to learn how to crochet again.” I was just so excited. I scheduled a four-day trip where I drove down there. We had scheduled a trip to Hobby Lobby and Joann’s to like get all of her supplies and we just crocheted the whole four days. It was like the best time of my life.

Sarah-Jayne: 6:59
Oh, that sounds like paradise.

Brittany: 7:01
It was. It was. But not to get too off track with that—so when did you start making videos? When did you get that idea in your head that you could share what you know with more than just your mom?

Sarah-Jayne: 7:13
So my brother actually started his own little YouTube channel and he would talk about planning. So it wasn’t any yarn-related subject. It was all about Filofaxes and planning. And I was like, oh, actually, this YouTube thing is pretty cool.

So I did a few videos with him. I put a few videos out of myself—again, completely crochet unrelated. And then somebody said to me one day, “You know what? You should do a crochet tutorial. Show people how to make a granny square or something.” So I did. And that was my first ever YouTube video. It’s literally the worst video I’ve ever done.

That was it. I’ve just had my five-year anniversary of that video, and that video’s had just over six million views, I think. That’s where it all started for me—just that one video that I actually nearly didn’t put out there. So yeah, it wasn’t planned. It was just something that I thought, “Oh, I’ll give this a go.” And it’s all gone from there, really.

Brittany: 8:22
Yeah. So did that video have traction right away? I mean, I feel like you had to have an incentive to make a second one.

Sarah-Jayne: 8:29
Yeah. So I kind of put it out there. I thought, nobody’s going to watch this. And then over a few weeks, I started to see the numbers going up and up and up and I was thinking, what’s going on here? And pretty soon they went past a thousand, and then a couple of thousand. I thought, right, okay, something’s going on here.

I’m going to follow up this tutorial with how to join these granny squares. And then after that video, I followed up with how to add a border. And then people were just commenting and saying how much they loved the video. And it just went from there. I started doing a tutorial every week, showing people different techniques. And here I am, five years later.

Brittany: 9:14
Wow. It’s so cool. There’s so much there. I want to unpack this a little bit. So I like the strategy of you taking it to the next step. I feel like that’s a lot of—and I’m kind of pointing to myself here—we don’t always do that with tutorials. And that just makes so much sense because you’re building a viewer. You’re acquiring a follower, somebody who’s interested in what you’re doing. So you’ve taught them one thing. It just makes so much sense to teach them the next thing.

Sarah-Jayne: 9:44
Yeah.

Brittany: 9:46
Was that intentional or did it just make sense to you so you put it out there?

Sarah-Jayne: 9:51
Yeah, I think it just made sense to me as I was doing it because my background is actually in teaching. I actually used to teach beauty therapy at college, and I guess that was kind of the teacher side of me. You know, you go through things in a process and you teach them in a certain order so that people can build on their skills.

So I guess for me that came naturally. It wasn’t something that I consciously thought of. It was just the natural next step for me to take in order to teach people how to create this blanket or whatever they wanted to make. Yeah, so yeah, that’s where it came from for me.

Brittany: 10:31
Okay, have you ever tried putting everything into one video? I know there’s sort of like two types of tutorials or crochet tutorials out there. One is, you know, the really short, focused, to-the-point—you’re learning this one thing. And then there are some that sort of show you the entire process. Have you tried both of those?

Sarah-Jayne: 10:50
I’ve tried both of them. I generally tend to find that splitting a project up into smaller sections tends to be a good way to go about it because people can do one step, feel like they’ve accomplished that, and then move on to the next step.

There are always going to be people out there who prefer it the other way, but I find the majority of people—especially on YouTube, because they tend to be people who are maybe starting out with crochet or have done it for a while—they just want to learn new skills. So it can be very new for them. So by breaking it down into chunks, I find people absorb the information better that way.

Brittany: 11:33
That makes a lot of sense. How do you—well, the thing that I run into is when you’re trying to learn about YouTube, they sort of break it into two categories. You’ve got the person who is trying to entertain somebody, and you have the person who’s trying to teach somebody something.

And I feel like we both fit into that category, but it’s so much more difficult, I think, to grow a channel and keep people’s interest when you’re teaching them something. Because they come to you for a specific reason, they get what they came for, and they’re done—and that’s sort of it.

But when you’re watching something for entertainment, you sort of just go to that person all the time. My husband and I—it’s so silly—we have a YouTube channel that we follow. My husband’s really into cars and that sort of thing, and we sit down probably twice a week when we’re eating dinner and we watch this gentleman’s YouTube videos.

And he’s got something of north of a million subscribers. So he’s kind of a big deal in the car world. But I really just love looking and sort of analyzing what he’s doing and trying to figure out how he’s so prolific and how we can sort of relate that to the how-to side of things.

What ways do you feel like you keep people’s interest and keep them coming back? I feel like having it sequential, like you’re saying, is definitely one of them. But for an individual video, how do you sort of keep their attention and let them know that what you’re about to watch is sort of worth watching—even though it might not have an entertainment value? It’s definitely going to be worth your time.

Sarah-Jayne: 13:16
Yeah, I think with anything that I do, my core value is that I’m offering something to someone where they can learn and grow and develop their skills. So I always have that at heart. I never sort of think about doing a video and think, “How many people are going to watch this?” I do the video because I think, “This is going to help people. This is going to help people to create their own work and create their own crochet story,” if that makes sense.

Brittany: 13:50
Yeah.

Sarah-Jayne: 13:51
So I think because that is my passion, that might come through to people, and that’s why people come back for more—because they know that they can come back to my channel and learn something when they need and want to learn it.

So I think you’re right when you say there’s those entertainers where people will go back to their channel two, three times a week. Because I also have a lifestyle channel where I talk about my family and home life and motherhood and things like that. And that audience is very different to the crochet audience.

So I think when it boils down to it, it’s just about staying true to your passion. And that’s going to get people to come back wanting more. I’m not so sure if that actually answers your question. I don’t particularly have a magic formula of things that I use week on week. I very much work from my instincts and listen to my audience—what they want, what they’re asking for—and then go from there.

Brittany: 15:02
Yeah, I think that is really the best way to answer that question. I think it’s really important for people to hear that that really should be the focus. It’s so easy to get caught up in doing it the “right” way—and I’m using air quotes here—because I feel like the right way for everybody, or for every audience, is going to be a little bit different.

And somebody is following you for you, and maybe because they like your teaching style—not necessarily because they find entertainment with it, or because you’ve used the right keywords or the right titles and that sort of thing. It’s just easy to get caught up in all that stuff.

Sarah-Jayne: 15:42
Yeah, I mean I think if you are wanting to start a channel, you’ve definitely got to start from that place of passion and why you are doing it. Because it is hard work—you have to put a lot of work into it. And then once you get a bit more familiar with what your style is and how you want to create your videos and how you want to put yourself out there, that’s when you can start thinking—like delving into the nitty-gritty of YouTube and algorithms and tags. And that’s one of the things that gets a little bit complicated.

Brittany: 16:15
Yes, you can definitely go down a rabbit trail with that one. I have once or twice myself. And I find that really the best—well, the videos that perform the best for me—are those that I just created because somebody asked me to or because it was a project or a technique that I was really excited about at the time. I do feel like that really does show through.

Sarah-Jayne: 16:39
Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany: 16:40
Now, I know you have a variety of videos as well. I think most of your tutorials are showing what you’re doing, showing your hands and that sort of thing—and that makes sense for a lot of people. But I know you have some videos where you’re showing yourself too.

What’s the strategy there? Are you sort of teaching crochet techniques, but maybe in the cases where it makes more sense to explain to somebody rather than show them? Or is that just another way to connect with the audience and chat with them and see what they want from you?

Sarah-Jayne: 17:16
Yeah, I think I do a lot of the tutorials now where it is literally just my hands because I’ve had so much feedback over the years of, “I like the way that you just get straight into it and you’re not talking for 10 minutes before you get into the tutorial.”

So when it comes to actually teaching projects, you literally just see my hands 99% of the time. But I also do like to do videos where I am sat in front of the camera. And I tend to do these once a month.

I used to call them my “monthly favorites” where I would talk about the yarns that I was loving that month, the colors that I was inspired by, creators—other creators that I’d seen on either YouTube or Instagram. And I just think that’s a really nice way to actually connect with the audience as well and let them know that there is a person behind this channel, and there is a person that cares behind this channel. Just another layer of connection with the audience, I think.

Brittany: 18:19
Yeah. Do you think when you started that you saw more of an increase in your channel? I mean, I hate to focus on the metrics, but that really is what people tend to see first thing. And you’ve had some really explosive growth just in the past few years as far as that goes.

Did you see some of that increase when you were doing these types of videos, when you were making more of a connection with them? Or did that happen sometime before then or even after then?

Sarah-Jayne: 18:52
I think when it comes to numbers and subscribers, when you get to a certain point, it kind of takes on a bit of a snowball effect. Because more people are seeing your videos, people are talking about your videos, and the audience is growing.

I don’t necessarily know if the sit-down videos where I am in them have affected the subscriber growth, but I do know that it has affected the community growth—the interaction. And I kind of think that’s more important. As you said, it’s not always about the subscriber count.

So I think the subscriber count is something that happens naturally. But for me, what I saw was that increase in the community, as I say.

Brittany: 19:46
What do you think happened as a result of that community? Did it help you in other areas as far as maybe your intention? So I know… for a lot of people, the intention is to share a video and bring somebody back to their website so they can buy a product or see the instructions for something or that sort of thing.

Did that rise in community help you achieve your goals as far as a creator goes?

Sarah-Jayne: 20:16
Yeah, I mean, as far as my goals, it’s really to help as many people as I can. I don’t have goals for myself where I want this video to drive so much traffic to my website. I probably should have goals like that, but again, it’s something that—that’s where my passion leads from. It’s sharing so that people can learn.

But yes, definitely, when you see that increase in the community, you do also see that increase happen naturally on other channels. So Facebook for me is always a good one. I know that there’s talk of different platforms and different types of communities on each platform—different age ranges, that kind of thing.

I find that Facebook is a really good one for me. And then I do find that if a video does well on my YouTube, that my traffic does increase. I hope I’m making sense here. Yeah. So I think it all has a knock-on effect, doesn’t it?

I don’t particularly say that I set myself traffic goals for my website or anything like that.

Brittany: 21:33
Yeah. I think that’s really important for people to hear because, like I said, it’s so easy when you’re desperately trying to grow your channel. I know there are people in the audience who have started YouTube channels and they’re just not seeing any growth and it feels like it’s taking forever. I think it’s a great thing for them to hear that you don’t really have to have a solid strategy in place. You just have to be you and you have to show up. And I feel like that’s what you do really, really well.

Sarah-Jayne: 22:05
Yeah, and I think it’s such a key message. People nowadays start channels and they say, “I want to start my YouTube channel because I want to be doing this full time in a year.” Well, I’m sorry to say you can’t guarantee that. You just can’t. When YouTube first started getting going, which is roughly around when I started doing it five years ago, I had no plans whatsoever to change, like to make this into a career. It was literally just a hobby for me.

And I did it because I loved doing it. And if you love doing something, you’re going to keep showing up for that. And people are going to see that you love it. And if you don’t have that passion and that desire to keep going, it’s just going to fizzle out for you. I don’t want people to think that they’re going to start a YouTube channel and within a year they’re going to have 100,000 subscribers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen like that or very rarely happens like that.

I think that I hit 100,000 subscribers after about three years. So it does take time and it does require effort on your part. But all I would say is if it’s something that you’re truly passionate about, just keep going and do it for yourself because you enjoy it, not because you’re expecting something from others, if that makes sense.

Brittany: 23:34
Absolutely. I agree 110%. It really does. It hurts a little bit when somebody approaches you and says, “Hey, I really want to do this full time or I need to do this full time. What can I do to get to where your channel is today?” And it’s like, man, there is no easy button for that.

I started—well, my first video upload was in 2013. I was really sporadic about it in that first year. And I got a little bit more consistent with it in 2014. Yeah. And it was 2017 when I was able to go full time with it. And it wasn’t because I was earning my income from YouTube. It was through other ways. So I think that’s also important to know. You don’t make a ton of money as a YouTube creator if that’s your only source of income.

Sarah-Jayne: 24:28
I think if you want to make a good source of income, you’re looking at getting probably around a million views or more a month to get a good amount of income to support you full time. So it’s a huge amount of views that you’ve got to build up every month.

Brittany: 24:47
Yes. And that takes more than anything. It takes time. You can promote it as much as you can. You can put it out on Pinterest and hope that your pin goes viral. But at the end of the day, it’s just time. It’s the ingredient that you have absolutely no control over, but it’s the one that I would say nine times out of ten is what brings a video to life.

There have been instances where I’ve uploaded a tutorial and I was really excited about the technique or the project or whatever. This has happened multiple times, actually, so I can’t pinpoint one. But I put something out there, was super excited about it. People were excited on Instagram—that’s kind of the community I like to hang out with.

And then after you publish that video, you sort of expect that more people will be excited about it and watch it. And it is a little bit deflating sometimes when you look at that number and it’s not something crazy or high. And maybe even over the course of several months, the views, the view count is pretty low on that video.

And then all of a sudden something will take hold. It’s usually YouTube’s algorithm that’s maybe sharing it out. But I would say just don’t lose hope on your videos because they almost never do well when you first put them out there.

Sarah-Jayne: 26:10
Yeah, absolutely. And like you say, when you create something, share it on your other channels. So share it on Instagram, on Instagram stories, on Facebook, on Pinterest. Just share it and put it out there.

But don’t look at the numbers too closely, okay? Just know that people are seeing it and they are getting enjoyment out of it and, most importantly, you’re getting enjoyment out of it. And once you do that a few times the numbers will grow—they just might not grow as quickly as what you expect in the beginning because you’ve got to find your flow and you’ve got to find your little pocket in the community.

There are more and more YouTube channels being put out there. And there is room enough for everybody. You’ve just got to find your own style and find a way of connecting to your audience.

Brittany: 27:11
Yeah. How long do you think it took you to find your place in the community? Or is it something maybe you’re still going through? Absolutely.

Sarah-Jayne: 27:18
Still. I… I never class myself as a—sometimes people say, “You’re a crochet expert.” I say, “No, I’m not an expert.” Or they say, “You’re a YouTube expert.” No, I’m not. I’m still learning. I learn every single day. I learn from doing research. I learn from my community. I learn from people giving me feedback.

So, you know, that’s one thing that I always stand by is that I’m always learning. And so yeah, don’t think that after a month of doing YouTube, you’re going to have everything figured out straight away because you won’t. It’s a learning process.

And as well as it being a learning process, your styles will change too. My style of video has changed from when I did my very first one, hopefully for the better. But we all have those phases of going through different types of projects that we like or different yarns that we like. It’s exactly the same when it comes to videos and your style of videos and your editing of videos and production.

So yeah, it’s always going to be a learning process. Don’t ever think that because you don’t know everything that you’re not going to succeed because that is absolutely not the case.

Brittany: 28:40
Yes, you learn by doing. And YouTube is really just… yeah. Yeah. Like caught up on doing everything right for the first video, I would say go back to Sarah-Jayne’s first video, go back to my first video which is horrendous. I am so embarrassed by it, but same for me, it shows the progression.

When I first started I had a really not-so-great camera. I think it was like an old Panasonic point-and-shoot, like it’s nothing special. I used the microphone on the camera because I didn’t really know, first of all, that you needed to use a microphone to make it sound a little bit better. And I had a black desk at the time.

So I just sort of had the camera propped up in front of me and I worked on this black desk, and it was hard to see and the camera didn’t autofocus like at all. So half the time my hands would drift off the frame and it was blurry. It didn’t take long though—I would say I filmed probably five videos or so like that before I started to say, “Okay, what’s the next thing I can do to make this a little bit better?”

And for me at the time, it was not using a black background. So yeah, I had a black desk, but go buy a poster board, yeah, that underneath so it’s white and that makes everything so much brighter. And then I think from there, the progression was getting the lighting right.

And gosh, it was a year or so before I bought my next camera. And again, it was a point-and-shoot. I’m not exactly sure which brand it was—I think it was a Canon. But it’s not about the camera. Would you agree? I’m sure you’ve probably progressed through different cameras too.

Did you put a lot of focus on the equipment and the how-to or did you just turn the camera on and start talking?

Sarah-Jayne: 31:09
Yeah, I literally did just that. And do you know what? I get so many people saying to me, “I really want to start making YouTube videos, but I don’t know where to start. I’ve not got a camera. I’ve not got this. I’ve not got that.”

And I just say to them, “Look, just start.” That is honestly the hardest part because people start putting so many doubts in their mind and put so many obstacles in the way that if they carry on with that mindset, they are just not going to do it.

So, I mean… camera phones are so good these days. Smartphones—the cameras on there are just amazing. Use your phone. You can get a relatively cheap tripod off Amazon for your phone, just start there.

And once you do your first video you can look back, you can reflect on it, you can see what feedback you get, and then just build your skills from there.

But honestly, if there’s one tip I could give to people when starting YouTube it is just start. You mentioned my very first video there and I’ve said earlier on that it’s literally my worst video ever.

So when it comes up, it’s got a nice picture—some granny squares—and then along comes the title that literally says “title.” Something happened—I had changed it and then it had reverted back.

This video literally took eight hours to upload to YouTube the very first time that I did it. I had no idea why it took so long and I just thought to myself, “Do you know what? I’m just going to put it out there. Nobody’s going to see it anyway so I’m just going to leave it how it is.”

So yeah, this video which has now been viewed over six million times has had everybody watch it with “title” running across the front. But you know what? That doesn’t really matter because it’s not what people are focusing on—it’s the actual tutorial.

So, you know, go out there, you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to learn, you’re going to develop, but just start.

Brittany: 33:11
Yeah, now let’s outline just the general flow of things. I know when I first started to put my first video out there, I really had no clue how to do anything or what to use. And I just sort of figured it out as I went.

So to help somebody who’s in that situation who wants to start and they’re like, “Okay, I’m ready. I want to start, but like, I don’t know what to do,” what is the general flow of things from the time you’ve got your idea, you’re ready to film, to the point where you’re hitting publish on YouTube?

Sarah-Jayne: 33:47
Okay, so first of all comes your idea of what you want to do your tutorial for. So in a lot of instances for me, it’s stitch tutorials because I like to teach people a technique so they can go off and use it on their own.

So I will do the pattern, test it, make sure that I really understand it. Because my memory is terrible, I often actually look back on my old videos to remember how to do things.

So yeah, I just really make sure that I understand it. And I think in my head what questions people might ask as I’m doing the stitch, where people might go wrong, so that I can make a mental note of what to point out when I’m doing the video.

So once I have a clear idea in my head what I’m going to do, I set up my equipment. So I have a tripod and a Canon 750D. That’s what I film on. And I also have a ring light, which I hover over where I’m doing my tutorial just to make the lighting really clear so that people can see.

And then I just sit down, film my tutorial.

And then comes the longest process, which is all the things that you don’t really think about.

So you would then have to export all of that footage onto your computer. You then have to do your editing. So I actually use—I have a MacBook, so I use… I started off with iMovie, I now actually use Premiere Pro—and then you sit and go through the tutorial and edit it to your liking or the way that I prefer to edit my videos nowadays.

Then there’s the upload process to YouTube and then there’s a lot of things that people have no idea that you have to do. So you upload your video, you have to think about a title which is going to attract people’s attention and also YouTube’s algorithm, the good old algorithm.

So you want to be thinking keywords, what people would think to use for that particular tutorial. Then you have all of your tags in the video which people don’t normally see but again this is something that you can add to your video so that when people are searching for a certain thing your video will be pulled into the mix and there’s more chance of people actually seeing that video.

So tags are really, really important and people don’t necessarily think to use them but you need to be using them to the full extent.

You then need to be thinking about your description. And again, in your description, you need to be thinking about what words are good for that video. So what words can be searched for to again pull it into that algorithm.

I also like to add some extra information in that description box as well of where they can either go to my website to find the written instructions and to all my other social media because you really don’t want to be missing that opportunity to get people to your other work and whether it be Instagram, Facebook, your website—you’ve really got to decide where you want to be driving that traffic to and make sure all of that’s in the description box.

Then you also want to be thinking about your thumbnail. So thumbnails need to be, when people see them, they’re teeny tiny. So you want them to be nice and bright, nice and eye-catching, fairly simple and straight to the point.

I usually actually do my thumbnails on PicMonkey or Canva. I think they’re both really good platforms for doing thumbnails and again, well, they are actually free platforms to use. So you don’t have to necessarily spend money in order to make the most of those.

You can actually pay to use more advanced features, but you can get the free versions. Then once everything’s in place, you can then hit publish and put it out there to the world. So it is quite a lengthy process, which people don’t necessarily think about.

Brittany: 38:20
yeah and that is several hours sometimes even days after when you hit that that publish or that record button to start

Sarah-Jayne: 38:29
your work absolutely one of my latest tutorials that I did which was the crochet cocoon um tutorial that actually took 30 hours in total um including the making up of the of the project because obviously if you’re filming something you also have to to make it as well um so yeah that took 30 hours from start to finish from starting the project to actually editing and publishing it.

Brittany: 38:57
Yeah, that brings up another question too. Are you making the item as you’re filming or do you do step outs?

Sarah-Jayne: 39:06
So I usually tend to make as I’m filming for that particular project because it was a larger project. There was some of it some elements that I was able to do just in the evenings if I was watching television or something as you do. But I just generally had everything ready and prepared for that to sit down and film it all in one go. Yeah,

Brittany: 39:32
I do that too. When I first started, that just made sense to me because I didn’t have been known to not like to make the same thing twice so the thought of making the same project twice it’s that that’s just a little it’s just not me it’s just not my thing i know there are tons of people who can do it and who really enjoy making the same thing That is not what makes me tick. So I would sit down at the beginning of the project, film a couple minutes until I have a big repeat. And then that was usually it for the day because I would have to go back and work on the project and get it ready to start filming the next day, the next step.

And it is a really lengthy process, but I feel like it does save you a little bit of time in the long run because I did step outs for a Craftsy or now Blueprint course that I taught a couple years ago. And for one project, I worked, I think, four step outs. So I made it, I made the project over and over to the beginning of the next segment, if that makes sense.

So the very first part of it, it was a cow teaching somebody how to crochet a cow. And I would work through the stitch pattern. And that was sort of like no step out. But then there was a color change. And so there needed to be a step out at that point. So I started over. I crocheted up to that point where the color change needed to happen so we could film that right away.

And then there was another step where we changed colors again and they wanted another step out for that. So I made another scarf up to that third point. And then there was the final instruction, which was binding off. It was actually Tunisian crochet. So it was the bind off and sewing it together. So I made another full scarf to that point so that we could jump in and film that right away and then I had to finish scarf so I crocheted a lot of hours just on that one project so even after experiencing that I for me it still just works to film as I go.

Sarah-Jayne: 41:37
yeah definitely

Brittany: 41:38
so the other thing that I’m I’m curious about sort of the backend of things. And I’m glad you shared some of the stuff about the tags and that sort of thing that you don’t really, you don’t have to think about right away, but it is good to know that that exists and that it might be something you want to look into in the future. Yeah.

Is there one metric, like, gosh, if you go into YouTube analytics, they tell you just about everything and it gets a little overwhelming. Is there one metric that you tend to look at and focus on?

Sarah-Jayne: 42:11
When you say metric, what are you referring to?

Brittany: 42:14
So just like one of the analytic points, like retention, audience retention is one thing. And that’s basically, for a listener who hasn’t heard that term before, audience retention to YouTube is just how long somebody stays on your video. So when they click play, if they… click out of that right away, you’ve lost that viewer. And so it gives you a graph that shows you how long somebody is watching your video. And that is really important to YouTube because if somebody clicks start or clicks play and they watch it all the way through to the end, that tells YouTube that, hey, this is good stuff and people like to watch the whole thing. So I’m going to share it with more people.

So like that’s one of them. Gosh, the Click-through rate for the thumbnails is another thing. Watch time. There’s so many different things. Is there one that you tend to look at?

Sarah-Jayne: 43:10
I generally tend to look at what videos are getting the most views for that particular month. So which videos have been the most popular that month. Because the thing about crochet tutorials is they are relatively evergreen. Obviously, you’ve got… things like Christmas crochet and things like that. But my Granny Square video still is my most viewed video on my channel. And that was five years ago.

So I don’t look at, I try not to look at each one individually. When it comes to audience retention, I think with the type of videos that I do, you’re always going to get a lower drop-off rate. In comparison to somebody who you do go you know how you were talking about before you go to them for entertainment people are more likely to watch the whole of that video whereas with a crochet tutorial they might watch it okay I get the gist of this and then they go off on their own and do their own thing so I don’t pay too much attention to audience retention and that kind of goes against everything that my YouTube partner taught me just because I know my audience and I know how their minds work and I know how they are using my tutorials tutorials so what I tend to look for is um is which videos are doing well at particular maybe times of the year so that I can make sure that I’m thinking ahead as much as possible to plan different bits of content um and then obviously you know I know a general figure of what a of what a tutorial is going to get, like a stitch tutorial, for example. But if one of those stitch tutorials has five times the amount of views the other ones do, I kind of think, well, what could I do with that stitch? How could I make it into something else? How could I make that into a project so that people can actually make a project from that stitch?

Brittany: 45:20
Yeah, I love that. I think that’s a great strategy.

Sarah-Jayne: 45:22
Yeah, I don’t tend to follow the rules. I love that though. Yeah, I think I really do honestly work from my gut instinct. And I think if something feels right for you, then it generally is. And, you know, like you said before, it’s so easy to get bogged down in all the statistics and what you should and shouldn’t be doing. But if something feels good to you, then just stick with that. because nine times out of 10, it’s going to be right.

Of course, there is different strategies that you could take on board, like we’ve talked about the tags and things. But as a general rule, just go with your guts and just keep an eye on how your audience is responding to things because it’s your audience that are the most precious thing to your channel. Without them, you wouldn’t have a successful channel.

Brittany: 46:20
Yeah, that is so well said. So you read a lot into the comments then it sounds like.

Sarah-Jayne: 46:26
Yes, absolutely. So if I get the same comment over and over of, oh, you didn’t show me this or you didn’t show how to do that or you hadn’t said this, I then take that on board for my next video so that I can make sure that I am doing what people are wanting and what people are asking for. So yeah, it’s the comments for me.

Brittany: 46:49
Yeah. Now on the topic of comments, I have heard this a lot. I’ve experienced it myself too. I feel like it’s just part of putting videos out on a platform where there are people. How do you handle those maybe not so nice comments?

Sarah-Jayne: 47:09
I think when it comes to negative comments… Those comments really do say more about that person that’s saying them than it does about you. So I think you really have to kind of build a harder shell and just brush them off as much as possible. I know it can be really hard. But if somebody says something, oh, you’re so stupid, this is so rubbish, it might be because they’re not picking it up as fast as they want to and they’re getting frustrated by it, which, again, says more about them than it does about you.

So you’ve got to try and sometimes come from a place of compassion and love. you know, say to them, well, maybe my style of teaching isn’t the best for you. There are plenty more channels out there, which, which might be good. I wish you well on your crochet journey. So I do try and take that standpoint.

There are some completely vile ones, which are not even worth responding to. So they just get deleted and, and off you go on, you know, you just focus on what you’re doing, but it, There are going to be the odd ones that do hurt you and you’ve just got to try and brush them off as quickly as possible.

There are other ones which will just have you laughing because they’re just utterly ridiculous. Unfortunately, it is part and parcel of putting yourself online. And if you feel that you’re not in a… good place mentally to deal with that then maybe it’s just not quite the right time for you to put yourself out there yet um you you’ve got to you’ve got to expect a small amount of it yeah I feel I feel like I’ve had it pretty lucky to be to be honest and it’s very rare that I will get a negative comment um on on my crochet channel you do get more them more so on like lifestyle things so I get them more on my other channel

Brittany: 49:14
yeah that’s what I’ve realized too it’s I feel like we have just such an amazing community that you don’t have to deal with it too much like really that much at all so when it does happen it’s like oh really takes you back like wow that hurts a little bit but what I like to do is take a step back yeah detach myself emotionally from it and read it as if they’re not talking about me so that I can see what truth is there. Because the problem with commenting online is that person may not have meant it in a rude or a mean way, but because there’s no tone to it, it could come off that way.

So I really try to look at it and say, okay, what can I take away from this? What constructive criticism can I get from this comment? Can I make my next video better? Can I do something differently? Like I kind of just have to put myself in the place where it’s a reality check. Is there a truth to it? And if so, is it something I should change? And if I can’t really find anything constructive in it and there’s no truth to it, like you said, just brush it off. It’s no fun, but it’s just part of the game.

Sarah-Jayne: 50:32
Definitely. It’s not a very nice part, but… you are going to get it um I actually remember the first time that I got a thumbs down on my video on one of my videos and um I actually said to my family I was like yes I’ve made it because it was like well somebody cares enough to actually go onto my video and thumbs it down I actually have people subscribe to my channel and I know that they’re subscribed to my channel because it happens instantly they’re subscribed to my channel and they instantly thumbs it down as soon as it goes up And I just think, well, you know, that person can just live their life however they want to live their life. It’s not affecting me. A thumbs down is not the end of the world. There are plenty more thumbs up in comparison. And they’re the people that you’re doing it for. And they’re the only ones that matter really at the end of the day.

Brittany: 51:29
Exactly. That’s a whole nother metric that you tend to watch there. And I know we all experience this, that the one person negative comment outweighs a thousand good ones.

Sarah-Jayne: 51:42
I don’t

Brittany: 51:42
know what the reason is for that, but we tend to say, oh, like four people didn’t like this video. And like you said, they took the time to show me, I don’t like this. And it’s hard because you have so much invested in that. It’s a piece of you and your work and you’re proud of it. I mean, you wouldn’t put it online if you weren’t proud of it or think that it would really help somebody. So to hear that it’s Not what they wanted or what they expected. It does. It stings a little bit. But like you said, you just have to brush it off and and keep going. Do it for the people who really are enjoying what you do.

Sarah-Jayne: 52:20
Yeah, because there’s always going to be people out there who just do things like that, thumbs down a video just for fun, out of spite. And what you’ve got to remember is, and I actually had a conversation with somebody at YouTube recently about this, that thumbs down on a video has no impact on your video whatsoever.

Oh, interesting. It doesn’t alter any algorithms whatsoever. it literally just doesn’t have a purpose um so I don’t even know why it’s there to be honest um we I sort of said to them maybe if you made it not anonymous people would wouldn’t do it yeah but yeah I think I think there is talks of them actually getting rid of that um I couldn’t be 100% sure but it doesn’t actually serve a purpose in terms of algorithm

Brittany: 53:13
Well, that’s good. So don’t even look at that number.

Sarah-Jayne: 53:16
Exactly. Just don’t look.

Brittany: 53:18
Yeah. Or if you do, see it as a sign of success. Right, right. You’ll think of Sarah Jane when you get that first thumbs down and you’ll laugh and say, I made it I made it yeah I love that.

So one other thing I want to talk about I know it’s something that you’re really excited about and you’re using YouTube to sort of share this with your community now that you’ve built online is your new subscription box so tell me a little bit about that and how the YouTube community is receiving that and that sort of thing.

Sarah-Jayne: 53:51
yeah it’s um it’s super exciting for me because I’ve wanted to do something like this for such a long time I think when you have built an audience and your audience are always asking for more from you um I wanted to create something so that it really felt like we were doing something together.

So every month you can get this subscription box to your door. You’ve got some gorgeous yarn in there. You have a bespoke crochet hook for that particular box. And then you have projects in there, which have been designed by some of my favorite designers. You also get a little booklet in there with, um, some information all about what’s in the box and the information about the designs as well as some extra like crochet goodies.

So each month it’s a surprise it will land at your doorstep you can either wait for my unboxing video so that we can look at it together but it’s really an extension of my channel. I really wanted to create something which people could have as their their you time really invest in themselves because I think crochet goes hand in hand with mental health people actually do it for those benefits.

So to really get that time every month to sit down and treat themselves but also feeling part of a community that we’re all doing it together at the same time I just think there’s something so special about that and I’m super excited to be able to offer that to to my audience.

Brittany: 55:31
yeah so did you find that those videos sort of are taking place of the once a month that you would do where you talk about your favorite things and what yarn you’re excited about?

Sarah-Jayne: 55:41
No, my channel is going to stay exactly the same as what it has always done. I spoke about in my last video, my chit-chat video, which I’m now calling it. It’s now gone from monthly favourites to chit-chat video because I want to be able to talk about more.

I spoke about my mental health and my physical health that I’ve experienced over the last six months or so and how it’s been a little bit tricky for me. and I spoke about the fact that you know things might change slightly on my channel so that I can really focus on delivering quality content and not just feel like I’m churning out videos every week because it can feel like a lot of pressure.

Nobody puts pressure on me apart from myself and I completely understand that and that really came through from the comments in that video that I spoke about this so my channel is going to stay the same I’m still going to be offering free to to everybody that wants them. This is just an added layer. So you’ll just get a little bit extra.

So yeah, that was really important to me that people didn’t feel like I was stopping these free tutorials and if you want any more from me, then you’ve got to buy this box. That’s absolutely not the case. It’s an added layer for those people who really want to get involved. And I’ve been absolutely blown away with the response that it’s had. It’s absolutely amazing.

Brittany: 57:12
Yeah, that’s really exciting. So for somebody listening, it’s so easy to say, yeah, I’m going to prioritize myself. I’m going to put personal care first. I know that I get a lot of benefits from crochet. I’m going to make time for it, but it’s just kind of hard unless you have something sort of invested into that.

I know when I exchange money for something, I’m more likely to do or use that thing because I’ve given my hard-earned money for that. And I know that’s probably in play. So keep that in your mind. It’s not like, oh, you’re buying something. You’re holding yourself accountable so that you’ll use that box, use what’s in there, but then also prioritize yourself.

Sarah-Jayne: 57:57
Yeah, absolutely. That’s a lovely way of putting it.

Brittany: 58:01
So if they want to give that a try, where can they go to see the box and the subscription and maybe even sign up for it?

Sarah-Jayne: 58:09
yeah so they can head across to crochetsociety.co.uk and all of the information will be there there is all the information for subscriptions so different subscriptions options available um and it’s all listed by country so it’s available worldwide.

All of the pricing structure is there and all of the prices include postage and packaging so there’s no hidden fees or anything like that what you see is what you get. But it’s just a really lovely opportunity as say to give yourself that you time and again as with everything my focus is on helping people to grow their skills and also introducing people to different things as well.

So as I mentioned the crochet designers are some of my favourite designers it’s just a really nice opportunity to shine a light on those people and introduce my audience to those people as well those people who have inspired me and my journey and continue to inspire me.

Brittany: 59:09
Yeah. Yeah. I would definitely love to have a link

Sarah-Jayne: 59:21
to put that in the show notes. There are a few. As of the moment, as we’re talking, nobody knows what’s in the box. So it’s a complete surprise every month. And subscriptions for the first one have just closed. But I think as you’re listening to this, subscriptions for the second one should still be available.

So definitely go and check it out. And you can see what was in the first one and see what kind of thing you can… expect but it’s going to be different every month and it’s just something that has really lit a fire underneath me and I’m so excited for it and I’m so excited to see the buzz in the crochet community as well.

Brittany: 1:00:03
yeah so I can definitely tell you’re very excited about that so I will have a link to the the website that you gave us and to those videos too if you’re not sure if you’re on the fence about trying it go watch those videos and and then maybe check it out.

In addition to that I would I love for people to have a chance to connect with you after they’ve heard the show. You have been incredible talking about a topic that, you know, to be honest, we haven’t really covered here on the show before.

And I know it only reaches maybe a certain… group of people in the audience, but it’s a really important message, I think, for somebody to hear who wants to start a YouTube channel, who’s trying to be full time or be part time or whatever it may be. I am just really grateful that you shared so honestly about your journey.

But for the person who now wants to go watch some of your videos and connect with you on social, where’s the best place for them to go?

Sarah-Jayne: 1:01:01
So they can see all of my tutorials. If they type in Bella Coco on YouTube, my channel will come up for them. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. It’s at Bella Coco Crochet.

So feel free to drop me a message. I’m happy to talk to you about anything that you have any questions about. But it’s been an absolute honor talking about it today.

Brittany: 1:01:27
Well, thank you so much. I mean, the pleasure is all mine, really. I was just so very excited about this and you did not let me down. I can’t wait for the audience to hear it. So thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. So that was Sarah Jane from Bella Coco Crochet. She had some really great advice, right? And if you’re into YouTube and if you sort of listen to some of the typical YouTube advice and She goes completely against the grain there and it has worked really well for her. So just think about that.

Think about what is important to you, what you’re really passionate about, and just do that thing. Don’t worry about everything else. Don’t worry about those numbers. Don’t worry about the technical side of things. All of that will come with time. And that’s the key word there. It has to come with time.

So just go into it knowing that you’re doing it for fun. When you do something for fun, you’ll be more likely to do it over and over and you don’t have to worry about getting into that grind. You’ll just consistently show up week after week because it’s something you love to do. I know that’s something both Sarah Jane and I can relate to. We both did it for fun. That’s why we were able to show up for every single video. And now we continue to do it for fun.

Now, if you would like to hear more details about her subscription box, I would encourage you to check out those videos where she shares the information about it. You can really see her excitement and how much she believes in this through those videos. So check that out. I’ll have it linked in the show notes page.

By the way, for this episode, you’ll visit bhooked.com/120 for the show notes. There were a couple of resources we talked about. I will include that there as well. But of course, I’ll have a link to Sarah Jane’s website, her YouTube channel, and the subscription box.

Now, one last thing before you go, I would love for you to subscribe to the show if you haven’t done so already. I know it doesn’t really seem like it’s a big, huge deal. I know I just like to go to podcasts that I listen to, and sometimes I don’t even realize that I’m not subscribed.

Thank you so much. just that extra little motivation from you. And so I’m really grateful if you could do that. Just pull your podcast player out right now, hit the subscribe button, and I’ll be ready for you next week with another great episode.

I can’t wait for that one. And I hope until then, you’ll have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you there. Bye-bye.