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How ‘The Nice Battle’ Co-creates Its Hit YouTube Present with the Assist of a 700,000+ Member Viewers
“Will probably be an awesome thought to start out a Youtube Channel masking simply World Battle I!”
Mentioned nobody ever.
That’s, up till Could of 2014, when Indy Neidell and Spartacus Olsson determined to launchThe Nice Battle on YouTube to try to make use of some archived warfare footage from the British Pathe.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of WWI, ‘The Nice Battle’ covers the occasions of WWI intimately week-by-week.
That’s proper, every week they launch a brand new video displaying what occurred 100 years in the past that very week. Sounds way more fascinating whenever you put it like that, doesn’t it?
From then till now, The Nice Battle has revealed a brand new video each Thursday—detailing precisely what occurred within the warfare the earlier week.
It’s change into identified for its consistency, its goal perspective, and for being, effectively…
“the one channel on YouTube the place the feedback don’t suck.”
As of penning this, over 700,000 individuals have subscribed to the channel.
So, how did the founders do it?
What did they do to construct such a big AND engaged viewers?
And what the heck does an uber-niche historical past YouTube channel have to show you? (Assuming you’re not additionally an uber-niche historical past YouTube creator)
Spoiler Alert: The bottom line is friendship. Indy, Florian and The Nice Battle workforce aren’t simply content material creators chucking movies at their viewers. You’ll discover out by the top that they’re way more than a speaking head to their followers. They’re pals.
The truth is, their friendship is SO robust that their followers are identified to:
- Actively analysis obscure WWI battles for the present
- Voluntarily construct customized software program for the channel
- AND present hundreds of feedback in supportive suggestions to the present
I don’t suppose there’s a single creator on the market that doesn’t need every thing listed above.
On this story, we share how the Nice Battle workforce completed all of this to construct their thriving YouTube channel and enterprise.
*Notice: Within the story beneath, we present how The Nice Battle earns over $17,000 per 30 days on Patreon. In case you’re additionally considering getting paid with your individual Patreon web page, you possibly can enroll right here or be taught extra on our homepage.*
Attracting the Preliminary Viewers
We had the prospect to interview Florian Wittig, the Inventive Producer and Social Media Supervisor of The Nice Battle.
He defined to us that T**he Nice Battle started with a really tight price range granted by Mediakraft Networks. No surprises right here, as most creators have the same begin. The truth is, virtually all the workforce’s preliminary price range went into the manufacturing of the present.
That meant there was little or no cash for something that resembled “promoting.”
However they knew they wanted viewers, so that they needed to search for different methods to draw their viewers.
Particularly, the workforce determined to optimize the present’s channel to be discovered organically and thru word-of-mouth referrals.
Free! However definitely removed from straightforward.
1. It began with a high quality product
The distinctive format of the present meant particular person episodes have been unlikely to blow up into viral sensations.
As a substitute, it was the channel itself that was more likely to be shared.
“We knew early on that we weren’t going to go viral with any of the person episodes,” Flo informed us. “It was the form of venture that was solely going to develop if we confirmed persistent high quality.”
The workforce additionally believed that new followers have been possible to return “to the start” to atone for previous episodes.
That meant the present’s high quality needed to be there proper from the beginning.
In any other case, individuals who had discovered the channel wouldn’t convert into followers—and subscribers.
2. They optimized for YouTube search
“It’s important to perceive that Youtube is not only a web site that shows channels,” Flo explains.
“Utmost and foremost it’s a search engine. It’s worthwhile to have a fundamental understanding of what YouTube is, the way it works, and what it likes and doesn’t like.”
Flo had no clue about the best way to optimize for YouTube, so he requested a colleague to offer him a crash course in YouTube channel administration.
He did this all earlier than the primary video as a result of he knew simply how vital it was for the discoverability of the channel.
Particularly, Flo discovered to ensure every video contained:
- A significant title
- A superb description
- Related search phrases for the title & description
- Closed captions
Sounds straightforward proper?
It may well get fairly tedious. Flo considers all the main points that get a consumer to click on on a thumbnail.
Given the truth that all WWI images are in black and white, nobody needs to click on on a boring photograph dug up out of your grandma’s archives. Flo painstakingly colorized grayscale photos to function eye-catching thumbnails for the movies.
Like this one:
“I put a number of time and vitality into optimizing the channel for search,” Flo informed us.
No kidding. With over 474 movies up to now, there’s not a black and white thumbnail in sight.
3. They labored their present networks
At first, the workforce adopted a traditional “influencer advertising” technique utilizing no matter connections that they had.
A day earlier than the present launched (June 27, 2014), the present obtained an enormous shout out from none aside from Indy himself—who was additionally internet hosting episodes for the British Pathe YouTube channel:
“That video obtained us our first 2,500 subscribers,” Flo stated.
There have been German and Polish variations of the present as effectively, and the workforce even obtained a plug from a preferred German YouTuber that resulted in 5,000 subscribers. (These two variations of the present are now not operating)
4. They pursued collaborations with different YouTube creators
As soon as The Nice Battle had established a following, it began getting observed by different YouTube creators.
That, in flip, led to collaboration alternatives.
Their first occurred with Additional Credit, a preferred channel that publishes content material on each sport design and historical past.
In June of 2015, Indy and The Nice Battle obtained a plug for his or her new South Africa episode within the opening moments of an Additional Credit video.
On the identical day, Dan and Additional Credit obtained a return plug throughout an episode of The Nice Battle—in cartoon type of course.
1000’s of latest subscribers discovered The Nice Battle because of this.
That have was eye-opening for the workforce. It led Flo—who leads the channel’s social media efforts—to work a lot tougher at connecting with different creators on YouTube.
“When you get a number of thousand subscribers, different creators can see that you’ve got one thing going,” Flo stated. “The collaborations have been fairly large for us.”
5. They went viral on Reddit (on a number of events)
By no means underestimate the ability of your followers.
If you begin with undeniably wonderful content material, then construct preliminary visibility and momentum, the joy out of your new followers can take you the remainder of the best way.
Take this for instance.
Just a few months after the present launched, a Redditor, eigenvectorseven**, posted a hyperlink to the present within the subreddit of r/historical past.
Folks’s response?
They liked it.
The put up shot as much as the entrance web page.
The feedback part was full of individuals expressing how grateful they have been to have discovered this channel. And for therefore many diversified causes.
In 5 days, 15,000 viewers subscribed to the channel, pushing it previous the 25,000 subscriber mark. That’s proper, they greater than DOUBLED their subscribership in lower than every week.
The perfect half is that they didn’t do any self-promotion on Reddit.
This occurred as a result of a fan needed to share this channel with the broader neighborhood of r/historical past.
Since then, the present has gained a number of consideration in a number of different Reddit subreddits as extra individuals have discovered their option to the channel.
Check out Indy and Flo’s Reddit historical past. Curiosity of their channel grew so massive that they now also have a subreddit for The Nice Battle with over 15okay subscribers.
The karma speaks for itself.
How’s that for no advert spend?
The 5 Components of Progress for ‘The Nice Battle’
To summarize, there have been 5 important components that mixed to drive the expansion of The Nice Battle and its subscriber base:
- Persistent high quality
- Search-optimized content material
- Influencers
- Collaborations
- Phrase of mouth
The fifth one being depending on whether or not your followers actually like your content material and whether or not they need to share it.
Progress, nonetheless, just isn’t the one story from The Nice Battle.
As soon as individuals discover your content material, in any case…
It’s your job to maintain them engaged, and the Nice Battle founders shared with us their particular and artistic ways for constructing such loopy engagement.
How ‘The Nice Battle’ Constructed a Loopy Engaged Viewers
“After we began, we determined that engagement would all the time be vital to us,” Flo informed us. “And we determined we’d do it regardless of how large we obtained.”
Within the early days, that meant Flo responded to each single YouTube remark and infrequently had prolonged discussions with members of the viewers.
“We obtained actually nice suggestions that means,” Flo informed us. “It was one of many issues our followers actually appreciated about the best way we did the present.”
Flo even answered the trolls early on, which might be why the dialogue within the feedback sections of the movies is so respectful and useful—even to today.
“We discovered that even when somebody was trolling simply to complain about how they thought we did one thing fallacious, we might have interaction with them,”
Flo stated. “We’d level them to a video that answered their query. Or we’d thank them for his or her remark and generally we’d even ask if that they had a supply for his or her data so we might use it in future episodes.”
After which they adopted by means of, typically together with concepts and knowledge sourced from individuals of their viewers.
“It was a option to get individuals on our aspect,” Flo stated. “And folks actually appreciated that. They realized we didn’t simply see them as a quantity on a subscriber chart.”
The reveals’ engagement has led to numerous collaborative efforts between the creators and the viewers.
Simply to call a number of…
1. You want higher maps!
One of many very first issues followers of the present recognized was that the workforce wanted higher maps.
“We had lots of people writing in that our maps have been fallacious,” Flo informed us. “It changed into a nightmare for us attempting to get it proper.”
The workforce tried (and principally failed) to enhance the maps on their very own. They wanted so as to add vital references like terrain and topography. However then, somebody from the viewers stepped in with a referral.
“Somebody from our neighborhood launched us to somebody who’s an knowledgeable in digital cartography,” Flo stated. “After that, it was clean crusing.”
By hiring the skilled cartographer to make maps just like the one beneath, the channel maps are way more correct and higher paint an image of the conditions confronted in WWI.
2. Fan-suggested specials
One of many best methods the workforce created engagement was by asking what subjects individuals needed to see for particular episodes.
Over and over, individuals requested for specials on two people:
Tolkien, should you’re curious, served in a reconnaissance unit, and didn’t anticipate to outlive the warfare.
Hitler, for his half, was on the German western entrance almost the complete warfare. He was wounded twice and partially blinded in a mustard fuel assault.
He described his expertise in WWI because the happiest time of his life.
Go determine.
The Nice Battle has now revealed dozens of specials like these.
A lot of the analysis for these particular episodes have been contributed by volunteers from the viewers.
3. Genuine letters from the warfare
Because the present has grown, Flo and the workforce have been contacted by increasingly more individuals with letters or different genuine artifacts from the warfare.
Indy writes the script for every episode and in addition compiles the analysis. On any given day, his research in Sweden might be seen stacked stuffed with historic textbooks.
As followers started to take an curiosity within the channel, letters and manuscripts from the warfare got here pouring in to the workforce.
They have been in a position to incorporate real letters from the warfare written by one fan’s grandfather.
They have been additionally in a position to enlist the assistance of followers to assist translate manuscripts from completely different languages.
Followers have been equally as passionate in regards to the creation of the present as watching the ultimate product.
4. Out Of The Trenches Q&A website
Simply this 12 months, a bunch of scholars learning software program improvement reached out to ask if they might volunteer to construct a particular query and reply website for the present.
“We get far more questions than we might ever reply now,” Flo stated.
“However with this new platform they constructed, we will at the very least have one place for individuals to go once they have a query.”
The workforce named the positioning “Out of the Trenches,” and it launched just some weeks in the past.
The device is a browser-based net app that works form of like a mini-Reddit for questions.
“It’s open supply,” Flo stated. “Anybody else who needs to make use of it for his or her initiatives can achieve this and it’s nice.”
In all of the examples, the engagement of Indy, Flo, and the remainder of the workforce has paid off many times within the type of viewers members volunteering to make the present higher.
The advantages of a extremely engaged viewers go effectively past volunteer contributions, nonetheless.
There’s additionally… the monetary assist.
$10,000/month from Patreon
On February 26, 2015, The Nice Battle launched a Patreon, promising to make use of any funds generated to improve sure options of the present—like, getting higher maps.
The channel had round 75,000 subscribers on the time, and so they anticipated a few hundred {dollars} on the most.
As a substitute, inside days, their viewers had pledged $1,000/month.
Inside a 12 months, that quantity grew to $10,000/month raised by means of Patreon.
And as of writing this text in October 2017, they’re at $17,518/month.
This income—freely donated by their viewers—permits the workforce to rent freelancers to create maps and different graphics for the present.
It has additionally financed 4 journeys the workforce has made to WWI websites throughout Europe.
“It’s been wonderful,” Flo informed us. “We get all these concepts and sources from our followers, and now we even have what we have to make large enhancements to what we’ve created.”
*Notice: If you wish to launch your individual Patreon and begin getting paid, you are able to do it, free, proper right here.*
Additionally, They Made Socks
you have got an engaged viewers once they begin making memes:
That might be Conrad von Hötzendorf, the significantly awful basic and head of the military of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire firstly of the warfare.
He comes up lots.
First, the viewers began making memes (just like the one above).
Then, in November of 2016, the workforce responded with a particular one-week sale of…
…Hötzensocks.
They anticipated to make a number of gross sales of the socks.
As a substitute, they offered 633 pairs.
The socks have been so profitable, they ran the sale once more in February of 2017—and offered an extra 694 pairs.
“Oh my God Indy. Are these the unique Conrad Von Hötzensocks that have been solely obtainable on the market in November of 2016?”
We conclude our story right here, with Hötzensocks.
Why?
As a result of, inside jokes are the mark of a creator that has gone far past the standard creator/viewers relationship that exists for many productions.
Hötzensocks show past a shadow of a doubt that Indy, Flo and the workforce have change into pals with their viewers members.
When you possibly can print an obscure photograph of a useless WWI basic on a pair of teal inexperienced socks and promote virtually 1,400 pairs in two weeks?
That’s when you recognize you’ve made it.
A Timeline of ‘The Nice Battle’
For much more data on the channel’s historical past, together with subscriber counts and Patreon month-to-month assist figures, take a look at this detailed timeline of all of the occasions talked about in our article and extra!
April, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 0
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
Two months earlier than the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of World Battle I, Indy Neidell and Mediakraft CEO Spartacus Olsson have the thought to make use of an present trove of images and video from WWI in a brand new present that paperwork WWI, week by week, 100 years after it occurs.
Mid-July, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: <3k
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
Florian “Flo” Wittig (Social Media/Manufacturing) and Tony Steller (Digital camera, Sound, Enhancing) are employed as producers of the present.
A flurry of exercise begins to organize the primary video for the WWI centennial on July 28.
June 27, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: <4k
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
Indy narrates a video on the YouTube Channel British Pathé” introducing “The Nice Battle” as a brand new venture.
June 28, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: <5k
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
“The Nice Battle” launches its first video, narrated by Indy.
September 26, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 6,770
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
Reddit consumer Dre_J posts the present on r/documentaries subreddit. Submit goes viral and makes the entrance web page of Reddit.
Feedback are virtually totally constructive. The present picks up hundreds of latest subscribers.
November 12, 2014
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 34,575
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
The Nice Battle reaches 25,000 subscribers on YouTube:
February 26, 2015
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 68,885
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: N/A
Patreon launched for The Nice Battle. Inside weeks, followers have dedicated to $1,000/mo in assist.
June 29, 2015
The channel reached 100,000 subscribers!
Patreon Month-to-month Help: $3532/month
Summer season 2015
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 126,417
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $4,899/month
Markus Linke (Analysis, Truth Checking, Photos) and Julian Zahn (Enhancing) be a part of the workforce.
December, 2015
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 202,510
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $6,877/month
Merchandise retailer launched.
Right here’s Indy modeling one of many shirts on set:
March 27, 2016
The channel reached 250,000 subscribers!
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $9,904/month
August, 2016
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 374,530
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $14,047/month
Funded by Patreon donations, the workforce makes its first street journey to Poland, the place they movie a number of particular episodes.
November, 2016
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 449,620
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $16,127/month
Particular Conrad Von Hötzensocks issued in a particular one-week sale.
633 pairs offered.
January, 2017
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 516,190
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $16,127/month
Reissue of Hötzensocks for extra one-week sale.
694 extra pairs offered.
The channel reached 500,000 subscribers!
February, 2017
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 540,490
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $16,877/month
Journey to Verdun, France, to movie episodes from the western entrance of a lot of the warfare.
April 26, 2017
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 611,220
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $19,495/month
Flo movies a particular episode within the midst of the YouTube “Adpocalypse,” when many YouTube creators have been seeing dramatic reductions within the revenue they acquired from the platform.
Flo reassures the viewers that The Nice Battle will proceed with out interruption, largely as a result of assist of the viewers on Patreon.
July, 2017
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 666,830
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $19,975/month
Journey to England to the Stow Maries Nice Battle Aerodrome in Chelmsford and The Tank Museum in Bovington, the place the workforce stood on a tank.
September, 2017
- YouTube Subscriber Rely: 705,060
- Patreon Month-to-month Help: $20,933/month
Journey to Austria, Slovenia, and Italy, together with a cease in Salzburg at Conrad von Hötzendorf Road.
