5 hacks to generate viral video ideas

I've been in your position.

Sitting at a desk with a blank document open, trying to think of a video idea.

You think that if you stare long enough, an idea will appear out of thin air.

But here's the truth: it won't.

You'll either come up with nothing, or you'll come up with a mediocre idea that won't get any views and you will have wasted your time.

Leading you to burn-out, hate YouTube, and give up on your dreams.

"Why can't I think of a good idea?"

Because you don't know what a good idea is.

You haven't done the research to find what makes viewers click.

But it doesn't have to be like is.

What if I told you there are strategies you can use to generate 30 viral video ideas in under 30 minutes?

That's 6 months of content right there.

Content that could change your life forever.

I can tell you're excited now.

So, let me show you how to find them.

1. The Absurd Strategy

I want you to have a look at top-performing videos in your niche on YouTube.

Then, I want you to grab a pen and paper and write down the most absurd video ideas you can think of (related to your niche).

Even if they seem impossible, write them down.

Let your mind go wild.

Once you have ∼20 ideas, assess what you have written down and mark the ones within the realm of possibility.

The most important part of this strategy is that you must deliver on the absurd claim in the video.

If you don't deliver, your viewers will get upset, click off the video, and kill its performance.

This is reason people hate clickbait.

But, if you can make a bold claim and deliver, you'll get more clicks, and viewers will instantly become loyal to your channel as they know you will deliver.

An example of someone who mastered this technique was MrBeast.

He said he'd giveaway absurd amounts of money, and delivered every single time.

The only challenge now is that he has to keep increasing the amount of money he gives away, or make the stakes more extreme, on each video.

However, seeing as he has over 335M subscribers, I'm sure this isn't an issue.

How to deliver on absurd claims

There are many ways you can make absurd claims and deliver.

A great trick is by adding a timeframe to your video.

Here are some ideas I can think of if you were in the crypto niche:

• "I Created My Own MemeCoin in 30 Minutes"

• "I Made a Crypto Game in 1 Week"

• "How Much I Made Trading Crypto in 24 hours"

Research YouTube to find how your ideas have performed on other people’s channels.

Here's a similar video to one I suggested, and it was a 9.8x outlier.

Straight away, that signals to me that this idea has potential.

2. The Social Jacker

This technique is where you create an idea that capitalises on familiarity and relevance.

For example:

• Nike partnering with Rafael Nadal to create his own clothing logo.

• Prime partnering with Speed to create his own drink flavour.

• Nike partnering with Michael Jordan to create Jordan shoes.

Examples on YouTube:

• Joe Rogan doing a podcast with Donald Trump a week before the US election (52M views, 32.5x outlier)

• Amelia Dimoldenberg publishing a video with Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman the day after the Deadpool & Wolverine movie was released (6M views, 2.9x outlier)

• Cleo Abraham doing a video on Olympic running shoes the day after the 2024 Olympics started (3.5M views 2.2x outlier)

An easy way to use this technique:

Analyse what videos are doing well in your niche and on channels similar to yours.

Then, take their idea and find a different approach.

Our goal isn't to copy the video itself; it's to copy why the video did well.

"Why not just copy the video? It clearly worked."

Here's why:

1. That's plagiarism

2. Your video won't out perform theirs

A copy of the Mona Lisa isn't worth as much as the original, is it?

But the Mona Lisa paved the way for new originals such as "Girl With a Pearl Earring."

Johannes Vermeer didn't copy the Mona Lisa, he copied why the Mona Lisa became famous:

Portraits of mysterious women captivate people.

(I know, it's a very basic description of why they are both famous, but you get the idea).

Don't copy the what, copy the why.

Example:

They did a video on the 5 best side hustles?

Do a video on the 55 best side hustles.

Or do a video on the 5 worst side hustles.

Be creative with it.

3. The Outlier Method

I want you to make a list of channels in the same niche as yours or in an adjacent niche.

"What's an adjacent niche?"

It's a niche that has a very similar audience to yours:

For example:

• Crypto → finance

• Surfing → snowboarding

• Minecraft → Roblox

• Business → self-improvement

If you're struggling to think of an adjacent niche, think of the channels that you watch.

How do they all link?

Once you have a list of channels, I want you to find outlier videos on their channel.

"What are outlier videos?"

These are videos that have performed extremely well compared to the other videos on their channel.

I use a free tool called 1of10 which easily identifies outliers.

I'd recommend all of you to download it.

Analyse these outliers and adapt them to fit your channel.

Let's take this Alex Hormozi video as an example:

"How To Actually Get Rich in Your 20s"

How could we adapt this title to fit the self-improvement niche?

• How To Actually Be Disciplined In Your 20s

• How To Actually Build Habits In Your 20s

• How To Stop Wasting Your Time In Your 20s

• How To Actually Quit Addiction In Your 20s

• How To Actually Stay Healthy In Your 20s

These are just a few ideas I've come up with in 5 minutes.

Each one of them could easily be turned into long-form videos.

The proof is already out there that these could perform extremely well.

4. Use a stalker account

I want you to create a completely new YouTube account.

Don't worry, we're not going to be posting videos on here, it's purely for researching ideas.

Then I want you to subscribe to channels in your niche and only watch videos from channels in this niche.

For any video that pops up in your recommended that isn't in your niche, click the 3 dots on the right and click "not interested."

Now, all the videos that appear in your recommended will be videos that have performed well.

We can confirm this by using the 1of10 tool I mentioned earlier to identify the outlier score.

This means your recommended page is now a list of video ideas.

All you need to do is take the idea and add your own twist.

Easy, right?

But remember:

Don't copy the what, copy the why.

5. The research tab

The final strategy is by far the easiest.

YouTube will literally give you ideas for videos in the YouTube Studio inspiration tab.

Here is where you can find it:

You can write in any ideas you have, and it will give you video ideas based on your channel.

Doesn't get much easier than that.

Thank you for reading.

Now get out there and start creating.

See you next Sunday,

Rory