Jeremiah Ajayi
Wode Maya is a well-known YouTube user whose YouTube channel is one of the most popular in Africa and it is expanding quickly.
You might be curious as to how a young man from the village of Ahekofi Krom, Ghana ended up being a well-known YouTuber who earns thousands of dollars each month. His success story is astonishing, also the rise of this obnoxious Ghanaian country boy’s channel and the lessons that may be drawn from it for you. Is he a genius or was it just pure luck?
His real name is Berthold Winkler; He was raised in the Western Ghanaian town of Ahekofi Krom, where he was born. Maya signed up for YouTube on January 10th, 2013. He already has over 820 videos as of April 2021! He is a machine of happiness.
When Maya was a student of aeronautical engineering in China, he established his YouTube account. He is a certified aeronautical engineer, but the only aviation-related work he performs these days is flying his drone. His early videos feature other YouTubers in quick comedic acts.
He has already demonstrated his commitment to producing quality content. He started shooting and posting to YouTube, taking advantage of his setting, but he had hardly any viewers. He performed these while still in school, and his skits were highly innovative. In reality, some of his earlier videos are actually not that bad.
Despite having a challenging schedule between school and YouTube, he constantly published numerous videos while studying in China. He attended classes throughout the week and produced and edited YouTube videos on the weekends. He could not have accomplished that milestone without a tremendous passion for making videos.
About three years after he launched his channel, on August 18, 2016, he reached 2000 subscribers and 700,000 views and organized a one-man party for himself.
The situation was beginning to improve. Though his persistence was now beginning to pay off, he was still not out of the shadows. He was probably making a respectable living off of YouTube at this point thanks to all of his work. Given the potential audience he may have had at the time, I say decent. African and Asian nations generate the lowest CPM revenues on Youtube, although YouTube pays higher CPM if the viewership is from a developed country. Sad but true because of where he is making the video. Wode had to adjust his approach if he was to realize his goal of becoming successful on YouTube.
On February 13, 2017, Maya reached 10K subscribers. A fivefold rise in just six months! He had already returned to Ghana at this point and was experimenting with a variety of content to see what would be successful and help him advance. He released more than 100 videos in a single year and just kept going.
His Success Strategy
• Maya was Entertaining
YouTube is primarily used for instructional or entertaining videos, as Maya quickly discovered with his funny skits. Due to his extroverted nature, you can tell he enjoys what he does. People prefer to watch others doing what they enjoy. His videos display an astounding amount of originality, which keeps his viewers clamoring for more. He uses creativity to entertain his viewers, and by being vulnerable in his videos, he builds their trust and helps them feel a connection to him. He is simply living his life and sharing his experiences; he is not acting. It is refreshing to see original stuff that is also enjoyable in a world where there is an abundance of content. Maya said; “Don’t just follow blindly if you’re working on your YouTube channel; add your own touch”. With his channel, Maya has accomplished that.
• Maya’s Video quality
The high quality of Maya’s films is evident not just in the clarity but also in the narrative scenes and camera angles that keep his viewers coming back for more. His drone images are amazing and give scenes that practically all Ghanaians are familiar with a fresh viewpoint. He also has crystal-clear audio, which makes it enjoyable to listen to. I had an issue with his sound when I initially watched some of his videos and wondered why he just used one microphone for interviews, but that issue is now in the past. It merely serves to demonstrate that you may begin with what you have. Although the video quality is vital, the content is more significant.
• Maya kept doing what is effective
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it, goes the adage. Maya settled into his area of expertise. He has extended his reach beyond the Ghanaian diaspora and is now focused on all Africans living abroad, which is an enormous undertaking. He is focused on growing that part of his channel since he is aware of what works for him. You can test out many different things at first, but as time goes on, the statistics will start to demonstrate what the audience likes, so you can choose to concentrate on that area, he says.
• Maya discussed Actual issues
Although Maya’s channel is categorized as a lifestyle channel, it contains more than simply super – soft content about his day, what he ate, who called him, what makeup he is wearing, etc. His lifestyle channel focuses on current events that Africans and people around them may relate to. Anyone with this kind of platform of this size should use it for the greater good. Maya discusses themes that are important to many people, including racism, breaking down stereotypes, poverty, and many other concerns. Although Maya will undoubtedly disagree with some individuals, this is what makes his program interesting.
• Maya’s Images and titles
It goes without saying that the video thumbnail plays a significant role in determining how often people will click on your videos. Wode Typically, Maya’s thumbnails are straightforward with little to no text. Most of his thumbnails are edited by Maya to draw attention. The pictures are of high quality and are meant to be dramatic and busy. You might want to click on this to see what happens in the video. This easy method improved his click-through rate, a crucial number if you want to expand your Youtube channel. His titles are very intriguing, and he uses SEO well to draw in the hundreds of visitors who conduct searches on Google and Youtube.
Maya has a strong liking for Africa and thinks the continent has immense potential. In order to highlight intriguing locations and people that are African and to make a difference in Africa, he established the Africa to the World Series. He began traveling over the continent of Africa while creating some of the most fascinating and educational documentaries about the business successes of Africans there.
Africans living abroad began to watch this new series, and there was a tremendous demand for searches relating to Africa in 2019 because it was Ghana’s year of return. Maya’s channel provided the solution to the Diasporans’ question of when it was appropriate to go back home. Most of Maya’s audience members currently are from the US and the UK. His channel found new audiences after Africans in the Diaspora were advised to watch it by the YouTube algorithm. Ten of Maya’s videos have reached the one million view mark, and many more will do so shortly. His CPM has increased because of the Diaspora audience, which translates to more money in the bank.
Maya is still producing videos, and his YouTube account has roughly 10,000 new subscribers every day.
