Meet Jake Thomas, the Florida-based entrepreneur who’s cracked the code on YouTube titles. 

His brainchild, Creator Hooks, is a weekly newsletter and platform that’s become the secret weapon for content creators looking to boost their video performance. 

By dissecting viral content across diverse niches, Jake provides actionable insights on crafting titles that grab attention and drive engagement.

In addition to being a neat marketing tool, Creator Hooks is also a deep dive into the psychology of what makes viewers click. Jake combines data analysis with creative frameworks, helping creators adapt successful strategies from unexpected sources. 

Recalling his time working at a fishing company, Jake reveals he “was sitting on the couch watching fishing videos all day and putting them on YouTube.”

In the process, he realized the importance of compelling titles in driving video performance.

Jake went from struggling to craft original content to studying and adapting successful formulas from other channels. This method led to significant growth for the fishing company’s YouTube presence, with Jake noting, “We ended up tripling our subscribers and quadrupling our revenue while I was there.”

Recognizing a gap in the market for in-depth guidance on title creation, Jake launched Creator Hooks. Every Monday morning, the newsletter provides subscribers with five video ideas based on viral content across various niches.

The newsletter’s timing is strategic, mirroring Jake’s experience at the fishing company, where they had content meetings with the fishing coaches at the start of every week. Creator Hooks aims to replicate this brainstorming process for its subscribers.

The YouTube strategist describes Creator Hooks’ value proposition as having a “video idea person” on the team telling others what performed well, why, and how they can adapt it to their channel.

Jake reveals the challenges he faced while building the platform, the collaborations that shaped his perspective, and his vision for the future of content creation on YouTube.

Crafting Success in the YouTube Title Game

Jake has spent the last few years focusing on the psychology behind successful YouTube titles. He dives deeper than surface-level title modeling, exploring the underlying reasons for a title’s effectiveness. 

His thought process aims to uncover why a title works tactically, what elements make people click on it, and how creators and brands can leverage these elements in their titles to create infinite ideas.

He credits this approach for making Creator Hooks stand out. However, building the platform had challenges, particularly in growing the newsletter’s audience. 

Despite his experience, Jake “had no audience” and “was not quite an expert on YouTube.”

To overcome this, he adopted an aggressive content strategy on X (formerly Twitter). Posting a thread every day eventually paid off, leading to collaborations with established platforms like vidIQ and Think Media. 

“Twitter has changed my life,” Jake highlights the platform’s role in his success.

The development of Creator Hooks included launching a pro version, which Jake created in response to user feedback. The pro version now contains an AI-powered title generator, helping users brainstorm from multiple angles.

For Jake, the most rewarding aspect of building Creator Hooks has been the community and relationships formed. 

“I have real friends I’ve met on Twitter,” he says. These connections have grown into professional relationships, with many creators’ careers progressing alongside Creator Hooks.

Jake finds particular satisfaction in the tangible impact of his work. 

“My favorite thing is when people email or comment… ‘Jake, I got this idea from your newsletter. It got a million views,’” he shares. “It’s just so cool that a free newsletter makes a difference in people’s lives and their channel.”

The Art of Clickable Content

Creator Hooks maintains a consistent format, analyzing five viral videos each week. Jake reveals that many people have told him his newsletter is skimmable and easy to read.

The newsletter caters to a diverse audience across approximately 35 to 40 niches, including finance, marketing, business, outdoors, beauty, and legal. Jake strategically cycles through these, ensuring that “most niches get a specific video in their channel about once a month or so.”

However, Creator Hooks’ core philosophy is to draw inspiration from outside one’s niche. “The whole point of the newsletter is to get inspiration outside your niche,” Jake explains, reiterating that many creators report getting results by tapping into completely different niches.

Jake develops video title frameworks by analyzing and breaking successful titles into replicable structures. 

He cites an example: “How to start a YouTube channel for beginners,” stating that this framework can be adapted across various niches, from LinkedIn to woodworking.

Jake says the key to a clickable title is evoking what he calls the “three click-worthy emotions” – curiosity, fear, and desire.

The fishing enthusiast singles out curiosity as the most crucial element. “If you build curiosity in your audience’s mind, they must scratch that itch. They got to watch that video right now,” he explains.

Jake cites two successful titles from different niches using the same framework: “Do this and you will never hit a fat iron shot” (golf) and “Do this to get them hooked in the early stages of dating” (relationships). 

He says both videos were major outliers for their respective channels, demonstrating the effectiveness of his approach.

Collaboration and Continuous Learning

Jake has a multi-faceted approach to staying ahead of platform changes and ensuring his advice remains relevant. 

“I’m forced to get in the space every week,” Jake explains, referring to his weekly newsletter routine. He also maintains his own YouTube channel as a case study, engages in consulting, and regularly communicates with successful creators.

Jake stresses the importance of continuous testing and learning. “I do a lot of A/B tests [comparing click triggers],” he says.

Collaborations have played a vital role in Jake’s journey. He particularly credits his significant appearances on Jay Clouse’s “Creator Science” podcast. 

“I feel like the majority of my best customers come from that podcast,” Jake notes. 

These partnerships have expanded his reach and reinforced his positive view of the creator community. “I’m always blown away by just how nice people are,” he reflects.

Jake has observed common misconceptions among creators about YouTube growth through Creator Hooks. One key misunderstanding is the level of effort required. 

“You don’t just hire a company to repurpose your content and slap it on YouTube,” he cautions. Jake reveals that success on YouTube demands a diverse skill set, including content creation, title and thumbnail optimization, and on-camera presence.

Despite the challenges, Jake remains optimistic about the platform’s potential. “YouTube’s distribution is insane, and they’re good at finding the right audience for your channel,” he says. 

His advice to creators? Focus on “one channel, one offer, one audience,” with YouTube often an ideal platform for this approach.

From Title Generator to Growth Engine

Jake’s current focus is to refine and expand his platform’s core offering: its title generator. 

“We might already be the best title generator, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to make it easier to use and even better,” Jake admits. 

Future improvements include extensions and new features like a title grader, which Jake describes as a tool “to help you decide on titles.”

Creator Hooks is also broadening its reach across different creator segments. While aiming to serve larger creators with more advanced tools, the platform maintains its commitment to smaller creators through a free Chrome extension and newsletter. 

As Jake explains, the extension “remixes titles automatically for you,” embodying the platform’s philosophy of learning from successful content across niches.

For new creators looking to grow on YouTube, Jake advocates an experimental approach. 

“Treat it like an experiment where you’re trying to see what works,” he advises. This mindset, he believes, allows creators to focus on incremental improvements rather than getting overwhelmed by subscriber goals.

Jake encourages these newcomers to hypothesize and test different aspects of their content, from titles to intros to overall content quality, to “get a little bit better at one aspect.”

Ultimately, Jake views YouTube as a uniquely rewarding platform for creators. He appreciates the platform’s merit-based nature and the alignment between creator and platform incentives. 

“If you keep people watching your videos, then YouTube will send more people because you keep people on the platform. YouTube is the best,” Jake concludes.