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Creator Hooks

Hey there!

Welcome to Creator Hooks — a weekly breakdown of 5 videos that are crushing it right now, why they work, and how you can use the same strategies to grow your channel.

The BIG Mistake

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(be sure to download images to see the thumbnails)

Title: The BIG Mistake People Make When Teaching A Dog To Drop Something

Formula: The BIG Mistake People Make When (Trying To Achieve Goal)

Hook score*: +304

Why this works:

Negativity - The big mistake brings a little fear to the audience and makes them want to watch.

Curiosity - This title mentions that there is a big mistake, but opens a loop by not saying what that mistake is.

How you can use this hook: This is a simple hook — just tee up the big mistake that your audience makes when trying to reach their goals.

Examples of this hook in action:

  • The BIG Mistake People Make When Flipping Houses

  • The BIG Mistake People Make When Starting A YouTube Channel

Spare Change

Title: How I Changed My Body A Lot In 6 Months (what I did differently)

Formula: How I [Achieved Goal] In 6 Months (what I did differently)

Hook score: +393

Why this works:

Deep Desire - This title speaks to the audience’s deepest desire: if you’re trying to get fit, you want to “change your body a lot”.

Time Frame - The time frame of “In 6 Months” gives the audience hope that they can change quickly and catches their attention.

Curiosity - The little teaser at the end — “what I did differently” — makes you wonder what it was that she did.

How you can use this hook: What’s your audience’s big goal? Show them how they can achieve it, put a time frame on it, and drop a little curiosity-generating teaser at the end.

Examples of this hook in action:

  • How I Grew My YouTube Channel A Lot In 6 Months (what I did differently)

  • How To Double Your Savings Account In 12 Months (Do This One Thing)

P.S. If you want to A/B test different titles, sign up for TubeBuddy’s Legend package.

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Move Over Doge

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Title: The Freaky Truth Of 1¢ Shiba Inu

Formula: The Freaky Truth Of (Hot Topic)

Hook score: +443

Why this works:

Curiosity - Revealing the truth about something to your audience implies that they currently don’t know the truth. Plus, “freaky” throws you off here and builds even more curiosity.

Timely - Shiba Inu is surging right now, so this title enters the conversation already going on in the minds of the audience.

Number - People love clicking on numbers and this title sneaks in a number by throwing in “1¢”.

How you can use this hook: This hook is all about revealing the truth of a hot topic, so what’s the hot topic in your industry right now? It’s best if it’s a crazy event, like Shiba Inu surging, but you could also talk about a current event, like the Olympics or Black Friday.

Examples of this hook in action:

  • The Freaky Truth Of Spirit Halloween’s $1 Billion Secret

  • The Freaky Truth Of Today’s Job Market

Tis The Season

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Title: Why THIS Was One Of The Most Terrifying Scenes In Film History

Formula: Why THIS Was One Of The Most Terrifying (Objects or Events) In (Industry) History

Hook score: +636

Why this works:

Curiosity - This title opens a loop by not specifying which scene was the most terrifying in film history.

Negativity - Nobody wants to hear about the happiest scene in film history, but the most terrifying? The audience will eat it up.

How you can use this hook: What are the most terrifying objects or events in your industry? Use your title to tease what it is and watch the views come piling in.

Examples of this hook in action:

  • Why THIS Was One Of The Most Terrifying Days In Stock Market History

  • Why THIS Was The Most Terrifying Day Of My Life As A Mom

Tiny House Big Money

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Title: This is how much my tiny houses made on airbnb in one year

Formula: This is how much my (Investment) made on (Platform) in one year

Hook score: +770

Why this works:

Curiosity - This title opens a loop by not specifying how much he made on Airbnb, but promising to tell you in the video.

Money - People looove to know how much money other people make. “How Much YouTube Paid Me” videos went bonkers not too long ago, and this video follows a similar pattern.

Time Frame - The fact that this creator specifies “in one year” adds a little extra to make you want to click.

How you can use this hook: This is a simple hook: just promise to reveal how much money you made on a certain investment or project in a certain time frame.

Examples of this hook in action:

  • This is how much I made in the stock market in 2021

  • This is how much my dog blog made in one year

Flop of the Week

Title: THIS Episode Of The Sopranos Should Have Been The Pilot

Hook score: -86

Why this flopped: I’m not a movie buff, but does it really matter that an episode of The Sopranos should’ve been the pilot?

In addition to the lack of a real wow factor, there’s no negativity or fear (like the most terrifying film scene title above), which makes the curiosity a little weaker.

Alright, that wraps up this week’s Creator Hooks!

Have any questions about the hooks in this edition?

Reply to this email and let me know!

And if you know a fellow creator who needs help with writing better titles, please forward this email to them and send them to creatorhooks.com.

Here’s to the war on boring content.

- Jake

*The hook score is a calculation of how many views the video got more than the average for that channel. The higher the score, the better the video did.