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Nancy Guthrie
Why this
niche?
I’ve been watching this niche for a while because I thought it would only be temporary since it’s about the kidnapping of a well known TV presenter’s mother. But I’m still seeing new channels doing insanely well in this niche. And even if this niche eventually dies out, you can always pivot your channel to other crime stories. So overall, this feels like a really interesting niche to jump into, especially because the chances of success are pretty high thanks to the news hype.
Success chance
Saturation level
Experience level
Audience
analyses
- 1. United States
- 2. Canada
Competition
analysis
Competition ANALYSIS
These channels are showing potential for this niche.
I also found this channel that started 3 weeks ago and earned up to $2.5K+ with only 6 videos:
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CHANNEL RATING
CHANNEL RATING
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Topic analysis
Video rating
Video analysis
Do's
00:00
Good start
As you know, it is very important to deliver immediately on what the viewer clicked for. The title and thumbnail suggest that Tommaso Cioni might be connected to her disappearance, and by starting your video this way, you immediately build on that speculation.
00:22
Good script
What they are doing in the script here is great. As we have learned from the comments, this audience is actively trying to investigate what happened and this plays into that perfectly. I would move this part earlier though, because it currently only starts at 00:22. It would be much more effective to place this right after the hook at 00:00.
01:12
Using pictures
I cannot stress this enough, because a lot of people think you need to use only video footage to make a good video, but that is not true. Using photos here and there, like in this example, is actually very strong and makes the story feel more real. I would recommend using photos over stock footage whenever possible.
Don'ts
00:04
Bad voice over
You can clearly hear that this is an AI voice over, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are so many better ones out there, so this is an easy improvement you can make.
00:43
Voice-over change
Out of nowhere the voice-over changed to a even worse one. Again, easy improvement you can make.
00:50
Background music could be better
They chose a Hollywood style action movie background track, which is not necessarily bad, but it can be much better. A stronger choice would be music that maintains tension and keeps the viewer engaged, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly9H63SLJJo&list=PLyuakwzSUr6D7h_jiWkOI1KCDctEp1iA6. Only the first 30 seconds work well, after that it also starts to feel too cinematic and loses that subtle tension.
01:05
Stock footage
Please do not use stock footage for your videos, especially in this niche. It instantly makes your videos feel less real.
01:51
No matching footage with voice over
It feels like this video just put together with some random clips related to the case without really thinking about pacing or matching the footage to the voice over. This is something you can significantly improve.
Do's
Don'ts
TITLE RATING
Title analysis
Overall, this channel is not using any clear title formats, and it feels like they are just throwing spaghetti at the wall without a real strategy, which is something I would not recommend.
Good titles contain emotional trigger words that ensure that a viewer will click your video. Emotional trigger words can be divided into 3 categories:
Curiosity (Words like: Banned, Exposed, Hidden, Illegal etc.)
Urgency/Unique: (Things like: Numbers, Limited Timed, Days etc.)
Titles: (Things like: Job titles, Family relations, Famous names etc.)
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Used trigger words
- Sherrif
- Tommaso Cioni
- Dominic Evans
- FBI
- Lie
- Investigation
- Blew
THUMBNAIL RATING
Thumbnail analysis
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Used thumbnail 1
This thumbnail got 1.1M views
If I had to rate this thumbnail, I would give it somewhere between a 5.5 and a 6. This is what they did well:
Good thumbnail format ✅
What they did well is a solid thumbnail format, the structure is easy to scan, which is very important because people do not spend seconds analyzing a thumbnail. But there are definitely some areas for improvement, which I will get into next.
Eye catching text ✅
Another strong point is the eye catching text, using a red background with bold white text makes it stand out, although I do think the text could be shorter, around three to four words, to make it even easier to scan.
That said, there are also clear downsides, such as the thumbnail feeling cluttered with too many small focus points.
Cluttered thumbnail with too many small focus points ❌
Earlier I mentioned that the format of this thumbnail is easy to scan, and that is true, but the images they used along with the red circle in the center make it feel very chaotic. A face is a major focus point for viewers, and since there are already three faces in this thumbnail, that should be more than enough. Adding two more in the middle with a circle around them makes it feel like overkill. Less is always more, especially when it comes to thumbnails.
In the “let’s create your video” section, I will show you how to do this better.
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Used thumbnail 2
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Used thumbnail 3
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Used thumbnail 4
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Revenue analysis
These numbers are estimates and estimated by YouTube experts.
It is therefore not possible to derive any rights from these estimates and it is always recommended to do your own research
Topic analyses
Video rating
Video analyses
Do's
Don'ts
Do's
Don'ts
TITLE RATING
Title analyses
Good titles contain emotional trigger words that ensure that a viewer will click your video. Emotional trigger words can be divided into 3 categories:
Curiosity (Words like: Banned, Exposed, Hidden, Illegal etc.)
Urgency/Unique: (Things like: Numbers, Limited Timed, Days etc.)
Titles: (Things like: Job titles, Family relations, Famous names etc.)
Used trigger words
THUMBNAIL RATING
Thumbnail analyses
Used thumbnail 1
Used thumbnail 2
Used thumbnail 3
Used thumbnail 4
CRIME: Investigative Documentary Series
Revenue analyses
These numbers are estimates and estimated by YouTube experts.
It is therefore not possible to derive any rights from these estimates and it is always recommended to do your own research
Did you check the other competitor channel?
We just don’t want you to miss out on any valuable information.
Lets create
your video
Who is our target audience?
YOUR VIDEO
Topic example
How to find good topics?
When searching for topics you could do 2 things:
- Checkout the news
- Use existing outliers from other channels
1. Checkout the news
Because this niche is based on news, this becomes one of your main sources for finding topics. Think of things like:
- Google news
- Twitter/X
What is important here is that you look at what has already worked well for your competitors, so you pick the right news to base your videos on.
But even more important is that you should never just report the news, you should turn the news into new angles. For example, if the news is that the killer of Nancy Guthrie has been found, you should not make a video simply announcing that, because you will be too late and major news outlets will already have covered it. Instead, you create content around the questions people start asking after that news, for example:
- Who did it?
- How did he/she do it?
And so on, and then you build a triggering title around it so you have more time to still create a relevant video.
2. Use existing outliers from other channels
This niche is based on news, but that does not mean you always need to come up with completely new topics. You can also create variations of topics that have performed well recently and present them as if there is a new development. I will show you an example of a topic I would choose.
So what topic should I go with?
What is important for this choice is that you do not blindly copy this, because as I mentioned, this is a news based niche and depending on when you read this analysis and decide to go for it, this topic might no longer be relevant, so use this purely as an example.
For this example, I would create a variation of the best performing video from a competitor, because I believe you can do it much better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYMjUE1mGxo In that video, they show clips suggesting that Tommaso Cioni walks the same way as the kidnapper seen on security footage. I would use that angle and then build on it with more relevant and stronger theories.
Articles/video references
YOUR VIDEO
Title example
YOUR VIDEO
Thumbnail example
How to create your thumbnail
I started by searching for an image that creates the feeling that Tommaso Cioni has been caught, and a CCTV style image of the kidnapper fits that perfectly. I then cut it out into a 1:1 format so it could be placed on the left side of the thumbnail.
Sherrif picture
After that, I looked for someone who conveys authority to suggest that Tommaso has been caught, and there is probably no better choice than a police officer for that. Keep in mind, this is clickbait, because in the video it is actually the internet that concludes Tommaso is the person seen in the CCTV footage, not the police. So only do this at your own risk.
Brightness + sharpness
If you look at the police officer, you can see he already looks quite strong on camera, so I cut him out and added some extra lighting and sharpness to make him stand out more.
Microphone
In this shot, the officer is giving a speech, but that is not immediately clear from the image, so to make it feel more realistic, I cut out a microphone from another shot of the same speech and added it in.
News format + text
And finally, the finishing touch, the text. I think it is smart to present the text in a news style format, because this audience is older and therefore more likely to be used to consuming mainstream media on TV.
YOUR VIDEO
End result
Articles/video references
YOUR VIDEO
Creating the title
YOUR VIDEO
Thumbnail example
YOUR VIDEO
End result
Articles/video references
YOUR VIDEO
Creating the title
YOUR VIDEO
Thumbnail example
YOUR VIDEO
End result
Let’s talk
money
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
What does the audience like?
Guessing what happened
This audience is highly invested in figuring out what happened to Nancy Guthrie, and they constantly share their own theories. So it is very smart to tap into this by making bold statements or asking questions about what could have happened. In that way you trigger the audience to share their own opinions and theories in the comments, which significantly boosts engagement.
Sharing their opinions
This audience is not only guessing what has happened but they also really like to share their opinions about mistakes that has happened during the investigation. So it is very smart as well to tap into this by making bold statements or asking questions what they think about a current situation.
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
What does the audience not like?
Nothing that's interresting enough to mention
There wasn’t really anything they were complaining about in hte comments.