How to Replicate the YouTube Success of Dai Ling Ping

In less than a year, YouTuber Dai Ling Ping has started a YouTube channel and gained over 25,000 subscribers strictly as a one-man operation. Now, he’s raking in advertizing revenue and is poised to grow his unique brand even further in 2012.

For the uninitiated individual, Dai Ling Ping specializes in humorous, albeit primarily juvenile viral videosthat are centered around video games and always laden with profanity. Dai Ling Ping is appealing directly to an internet counterculture marked by rebellious web destinations like FailBlog and 4chan.

Still, it takes a lot more than an immature sense of humor and a love of gaming to generate hundreds of thousands of views on a single YouTube channel. What are the secrets behind Dai Ling Ping’s success, and how can you apply them to your own video blogging efforts?

1. He’s a prolific video poster

   Even the most successful YouTube channels usually post no more than one or two videos per week. Dai Ling Ping breaks this trend by posting at least five videos every single week. Some of the videos only get a few thousands views (which is still excellent for relatively freshly-uploaded videos), while others receive hundreds of thousands. Ping ignores this disparity, and simply keeps uploading.

   Although it’s not really advisable to prioritize quantity over quality, and you may not have the resources necessary to adhere to such a constant posting schedule, there’s something to be said about simply generating a lot of content, keeping the quality at least reasonable, and hoping that some of it sticks.

2. He’s one component of a much larger scene

   Ping’s body of work is closely related to the Machinima scene, in which artists use the in-game engines of video games in combination with screen capture software to craft original stories and narratives, often with a tone and meaning that’s totally unrelated to the original material. Although Ping isn’t directly creating Machinima in most of his videos, he’s related to that movement, and his work appeals to much of the same audience.

   This type of cross-pollination increases Ping’s overall audience exposure, making him an important figure in multiple online communities. If you’re able to make your content appeal to multiple types of audiences, you could be in store for similar success.

3. His work is seriously original and unique

   “Dai Ling Ping” is not this person’s real given name, it’s simply a character he created specifically for maintaining his online presence, similar to how any CEO establishes a brand. By creating a character, Ping is able to do, say and create things he might be uncomfortable with if he was merely posting as himself. This results in a constant stream of video content that’s fresh, unique, and not tied down to the actual personality and interests of a “real” person.

   As an added bonus, inventing a character as part of your online brand can lead to merchandise sales if you experience enough initial success. Niklas Kari, one of the people behind the downloadable smash Angry Birds, said the strategy was always to “make a hit app, build the brand and capitalize on that success.”

   If you’re just getting into video with your blog, you may be tempted to try and replicate what others in your niche have already accomplished. If you want to stand out, you need to think as far outside of the box as possible while still tying into your subject matter. What angles haven’t been covered?

4. His videos are usually very timely

   Some of Ping’s videos obviously stem from whatever’s on his mind the day he creates them. In other cases, it’s more apparent that Ping is specifically riffing on current events directly related to his niche. Sometimes, he even “adapts” current events to make them fit with his niche, in ways that typically prove quite humorous.

   Creating timely content is obviously beneficial because it represents what people are searching for today as opposed to last week, last month or last year. Instead of chasing and attempting to revitalize old trends and memes, Ping focuses on what’s happening right now in order to create new ones.