How Airrack got 1M subscribers in a year
How Airrack hacked YouTube's algorithm
I’m currently writing this from the airport after a 4 day leadership retreat.
The weekend was life-changing from running a relay race to literally bricking my phone (it doesn’t charge & is currently dead) to lifelong memories, I’m just now returning to my normal life. I currently have no working phone and have now gone 48 hours without one, all I have is my iPad, Ed Sheeran Style, which I’m writing this on.
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Today’s creator is Airrack who currently has over 2.6M subscribers on YouTube and just hosted the largest ping pong YouTube challenge. But he’s more than ping pong.
Humble Beginnings
Eric Decker was born in 1997 and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. At nine years old, he picked up his first camera and started having ideas for creating content. But a YouTube channel would come much much later along with a new name, “airrack”.
Introducing Airrack
In 2015, he developed the idea and made the YouTube account. As you probably guessed, the name Airrack is just based on his first name as it sounds like Eric. Brilliant, yes. Simple, yes. Does it differentiate from Eric Decker, the wide receiver for the Denver Broncos? Yes.
A humble start & mission
Eric grew up in Atlanta and at 9 years old, he picked up a camera and made home videos. He didn’t have his eyes set on 1M subscribers or even becoming a YouTuber at that age (YouTube wasn’t made till 2005). He did however have an innate knack for making home videos that were of all types of content, some family vlog style and some montage videos.
Years later in 2015 is when he started developing the idea of Airrack and that is also the year he made his YouTube channel. But the uploading wasn’t consistent, it didn’t have a mission behind it, it was just a place to post content for awhile.
At the beginning of 2020 in January was when he doubled down and set out with an outlandish goal. Get 1M subscribers in 2020. He accomplished that by getting 1.2M subscribers by Jan 2021. And he’s taken 2021 by storm as well, surpassing 2M subscribers and almost halfway to 3M.
Astronomical 2021 Growth
Just look at the graph above, he reached 1M subscribers on YT in almost a year and hit the next 1M in just 9 months. His consistency & content are unmatched.
Now this was in January, before the COVID-19 pandemic and before everyone was forced to start quarantining and staying at home. Many YouTubers were sidelined because of the pandemic since their content relied on large gatherings of people. One example is notably David Dobrik ended (or as per rumors, paused) his vlog and switching to much much shorter content over on TikTok.
One of his first videos to get many views was using a “trick” David Dobrik did, using a ladder to get into movie theaters. It worked a few times. And this was the start of Eric coming up with outlandish ideas and executing them.
But the pandemic did not deter Eric from his goal of 1M subscribers. His motivation was the same as it was in January. To show people you can still make it as a creator in 2020 if you have the motivation, consistency and hard work. He fully adopted a “do what it takes” mentality for his goal and has gained massive traction from when he started getting collabs with some very big YouTubers like the Paul brothers, David Dobrik himself & Mr. Beast.
If you’re wondering how crazy his ideas were, just take a look at some of the video titles from about a year ago when he was just starting out on his mission in January 2020. None of these are clickbait titles and the videos are incredibly engaging.
From sneaking into Justin Bieber’s wedding to dropping a couch out of a plane to buying Logan Paul’s couches, Airrack consistently not only comes up with great ideas but executes them.
Making Thumbnails That Work
His content style is definitely on the borderline crazy mixed with an insane work ethic and the “do what it takes” mindset. Just a quick look at thumbnails, you can get what the video is about just from the thumbnail.
His thumbnails are unique for three reasons:
Tell the story visually
Draw attention to a subject
Use highlights, arrows, text that stands out
The secret to Airrack’s YT growth isn’t complicated. It’s a combination of consistency, meticulousness, and sheer dedication to the craft. Airrack went on the Colin & Samir show to talk about how he got to where he is today. He shares many anecdotes including taking on a significant amount of debt ($17,000) to make videos.
Take a listen to the video and learn more about how Airrack started and how he got to 1.6M subscribers at the time. But there’s more. Airrack is not only a prolific video creator, but he’s done brand deals with many leading companies such as Current & Honey and more.
He also started calling his audience members, a simple name: the mafia. He quickly realized that he was nothing without his fans, the mafia and would often involve them in his videos. Sometimes even bringing them in as a part of the video as characters or extras. Once he had a dedicated audience, he started to make other initiatives that would help him grow subscribers but more importantly build a community around creating.
Doubling Down on the Mafia w/ Creator Now
Airrack created a company called Creator Now, a close-knit community of 300+ creators worldwide. I could tell you what it is but here’s what it is from Airrack himself.
The idea is simple. Join Creator Now if you’re serious about becoming a creator….now. The community is tight-knit, routinely does thumbnail and strategy sessions and gets sessions from the best creators putting out content like Colin & Samir, Airrack himself and many more.
The program runs for a little over a month and many attendees have started from 0 subscribers to well over 20K in lightning fast time periods. They are now in their season 4 cohort that runs 6 weeks from November to December.
Some people that have gone thru the program become staples in Airrack’s content that gets pushed out to 2.6M subscribers. An example is Tyler who started as a student in the Creator Now program and is now a staple in Airrack’s content.
How Airrack Makes Money
Airrack’s income streams are diversified and it’s on purpose. From brand deals with Current, Honey, NordVPN and many more, that is the highest earner for Airrack in terms of income. After that’s it’s AdSense, Creator Now, Merchandise and misc.
What’s different for Airrack than other creators is that he makes about 25% of his income from Ad Sense. That is different from most creators who make about 90% of their income from brand deals. This means two things 1) Airrack is pushed by YouTube into many sub boxes and he is making good money from it and 2) He doesn’t have to rely on pushing any brands, he has more creative control because he can live on ad sense money.
It also means that the other parts of Airrack’s business are operation heavy. Creator Now is run by Zack Honavar, Kate Ward and others, thus leaving time for Airrack to focus on making great content and creative.
Takeaways
Content is king. Make highly engaged content and community will come.
Focus on good ideas and execution.
Diversify your income & be brand friendly.
Airrack’s rise to 2.6M subscribers in <2 years is a story of someone who dedicated his life to the craft and built out ideas from scratch and did everything he possibly could to get to his own audacious goal.
His 0-1M subscribers in 2020, a COVID pandemic year is a reminder that anyone can be a creator if they are willing to put the work in.
That’s it - thanks for reading!
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Thanks so much for reading & I’ll see you on Wednesday!