Business Casual: How a filmmaker cracked the code on YouTube success

It’s the million-view question that every aspiring video creator wants to know: how do you create content that actually gets seen?

In this episode of our YouTube series Business Casual, Heather Giannone explores the answer with Domenick Cucinotta: producer, director, editor, and YouTube whisperer who has helped create videos that have earned more than 200 million total views.

Like a lot of people, when Domenick Cucinotta first heard about YouTube, he wrote it off as a bunch of cat videos and kids in Star Wars helmets. But when he realized that people were building whole empires with nothing but video, he knew he needed to take a closer look.

After a proposal video he worked on went viral with more than one million views,Domenick realized: YouTube success isn’t purely random. There’s a system of laws that governs how YouTube behaves. If you can understand that system, you can make it work for you.

In the episode, Domenick shares some of his biggest learnings from years of reverse-engineering YouTube video virality. He’s got tips on video titles, thumbnail colors, and getting influencers to share your videos, but what it boils down to is this: Find what works. Do more of that.  

Also in the episode:

  • Why success on YouTube can’t be boiled down to the performance of a single video: it’s important to have a well of content for visitors to dive into
  • How to make YouTube’s status as the #2 search engine in the world work in your favor
  • Dom coaches a beginning fitness blogger on how to get started on YouTube — including how to repurpose her existing blog content for videos

Business Casual is our YouTube series featuring real entrepreneurs sharing how they built their online business from the ground up. New episodes every Friday.

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