Jeff Bullas

Good onya for wanting to jump into YouTube! It can seem like a lot at first, but once you break it down, it’s pretty manageable. Here’s a straightforward guide to get you started:

Plan Your Attack (Ideas & Prep):

Niche & Audience: Figure out what your channel will be about and who you’re trying to reach.

Video Ideas: Brainstorm topics. See what people are searching for in your niche.

Outline/Script: Even just dot points will help you stay on track when filming. Keeps the “ums” and “ahs” down a bit.

Gear Up (Simple is Sweet to Start):

Camera: Your smartphone is a ripper for starting out. Don’t stress about fancy cameras yet.

Audio: This is super important, mate. Bad audio will make people click off quick smart. A cheap lavalier mic (clips onto your shirt) or a basic USB mic will be heaps better than your phone’s built-in mic if it’s too far away.

Lighting: Natural light is your best friend – film near a window if you can. If not, even a simple ring light can make a big difference.

Editing Software: Heaps of good free or low-cost options. DaVinci Resolve has a brilliant free version with pro features. CapCut is popular and easy to use. OpenShot is another free one, or Clipchamp (often on Windows) / iMovie (on Macs) are good starting points.

Lights, Camera, Action! (Filming):

Find a quiet spot to reduce background noise.

Keep your camera stable – a small tripod, or even a stack of books, works.

Do a quick test to check your sound and picture before you film the whole thing.

Try to be yourself and speak clearly. Don’t aim for perfection on your first go.

The Edit Suite (Putting it Together):

Cut out any mistakes, long pauses, or bits that drag on.

You can add text, simple graphics, or background music. YouTube has its own Audio Library with heaps of free music and sound effects.

Keep the pace up so it’s engaging.

Export your video in a common format like MP4. 1080p resolution is standard and looks good.

Upload to YouTube (Showtime!):

Title: Make it catchy and include keywords people would search for.

Description: Write a good summary. Use keywords here too. You can add links to your socials or other relevant stuff.

Thumbnail: This is your video’s “shop window.” Make it bright, clear, and eye-catching. Tools like Canva are great for this.

Tags/Keywords: Add relevant tags to help YouTube understand what your video is about.

Cards & End Screens: Use these to suggest other videos for viewers to watch.

Top Tips for Newbies:

Don’t get bogged down trying to make everything perfect straight away. Just start.

Consistency is gold. Try to upload regularly, whatever that looks like for you.

Watch tutorials – there’s a YouTube video for everything, including how to make YouTube videos!

Once you’ve got a few videos up, have a squiz at your YouTube Analytics to see what’s working.

The main thing is to get started and learn as you go. You’ll get better with each video you make.

Cheers,

Jeff

Good question. Short answer is: yes, you generally can watch TikToks without an account, but it’s a bit limited compared to the full experience.

Here’s the lowdown:

Using a Web Browser (Your Best Bet):

If you go to the TikTok website (tiktok.com) on your computer or phone browser, you can usually watch videos. If you have a direct link to a video, that’ll often work too. You can scroll through some feeds, like the main trending page, or view public user profiles if you search for their username.

Sometimes, if a link to a video tries to force you into the app store, try removing any extra bits in the URL after the main video identifier (like anything after a “?”). That can sometimes bypass the app push.

Using the Mobile App (More Restrictive):

The app itself is pretty keen on getting you to sign up. You might be able to watch a few videos, but it’ll likely keep prompting you to log in or create an account, and your viewing might get cut short.

What You Can’t Really Do Without an Account:

Interact: No liking, commenting, following creators, or saving videos to your favourites.

Personalised “For You Page” (FYP): The algorithm won’t tailor a feed to your interests. You’ll mostly see generally trending stuff.

Full Search: Searching for specific sounds or more niche content might be limited.

Create Content: Obviously, you can’t post your own videos.

Follow Feeds: You won’t have a curated feed of creators you follow.

So, for a quick squiz at a video or to get a general vibe of what’s on there, using the website without an account is usually fine. But if you want to properly engage, find content specific to your tastes, or follow particular creators, you’ll need to bite the bullet and create an account.

Some people use third-party viewer sites too, but it’s worth being a bit careful with those regarding privacy and security. Sticking to the official website for casual viewing is generally the safest option if you’re not logging in.

Cheers,

Jeff

Good question – LinkedIn’s “Connect” vs. “Follow” trips up a lot of people. Here’s the main difference:

Connection: This is a two-way, mutual relationship. You send or accept a connection request. Once connected, you are 1st-degree connections. You typically see each other’s posts and activity in your feeds, and you can send direct messages to each other. Think of it as a formal professional link.
Follower: This is a one-way relationship. You can follow someone to see their posts and articles in your feed without them having to approve it or follow you back. They won’t automatically see your content unless they also choose to follow you or connect with you.
Key Distinctions:

Reciprocity: Connections are mutual. Following can be one-sided.
Default Visibility: When you connect, you automatically follow each other and see each other’s updates. If you just follow someone, only you see their updates by default.
Messaging: You can directly message your 1st-degree connections. Messaging someone you only follow (and aren’t connected to) might be restricted unless they have an Open Profile (a Premium feature) or you use InMail.
Network Level: Connections directly build your 1st-degree network. Followers don’t, unless you also connect.
“Creator Mode”: If someone has “Creator Mode” enabled on their profile, their primary call-to-action button often defaults to “Follow” instead of “Connect.” You can still usually connect via a “More” menu option on their profile.
In simple terms:

Connect when you want a mutual professional relationship and direct messaging capability.
Follow when you primarily want to see someone’s content (like an influencer, thought leader, or company updates) without necessarily forming a direct, mutual link.

All your connections automatically become followers. However, not all followers are connections. Understanding this helps you use LinkedIn more effectively for networking and information gathering.

Cheers,

Jeff

It’s a common question why seeing all Facebook followers can be tricky. The main reason is it works differently for Personal Profiles versus Facebook Pages.

For Personal Facebook Profiles: First, check your settings. Go to ‘Settings & Privacy,’ then ‘Settings,’ and find ‘Followers and public content.’ Make sure ‘Who can follow me’ is set to ‘Public.’ If it’s ‘Friends,’ you won’t have separate public followers. To see the list, go to your profile, then the ‘Friends’ tab, and look for a ‘Followers’ sub-tab. On mobile, it’s often in your ‘About info.’ A key point: Facebook is pushing personal profiles to use ‘Professional Mode’ to have public followers. If you’re not in this mode, seeing public, non-friend followers might be limited or unavailable. If you have no public followers, the list won’t show.

For Facebook Pages: Page admins can usually find follower lists in the Page’s ‘Settings’ (look for ‘People and other Pages’) or sometimes under a ‘Community’ or ‘Followers’ tab directly on the Page. Meta Business Suite also provides audience data and follower information. For Pages with many followers, Facebook might show summaries or recent followers rather than one exhaustive list of every single name.

Common reasons for not seeing followers include incorrect privacy settings on a profile, Facebook changing its layout (which it does often), or looking in the wrong place based on whether it’s a profile or a Page.

If you can specify whether you’re checking a personal profile or a Facebook Page, that would help narrow down the advice.

Cheers,

Jeff

Consistency beats intensity—and that’s even more true in 2025.

There’s no one-size-fits-all posting schedule, but here’s what I’ve seen work best for creators who want sustainable growth that doesn’t burn them out.

Aim to post 3–5 times per week on your main feed. This could be a mix of Reels, carousels, and static images, depending on what your audience responds to. Reels still get the most reach, but carousels often drive more saves and profile visits—which help with long-term growth. So mix it up.

Stories? Use them daily if you can. Even a quick behind-the-scenes update or poll keeps your profile active and top-of-mind with your followers. You don’t need to overthink it. Just show up.

Now, if you’re launching something or in a growth sprint, you can increase your frequency—but for most creators, it’s better to stick to a rhythm you can actually maintain. Quality still matters, but relevance and consistency matter more.

Use AI to help you batch content ideas, repurpose past posts, or generate captions faster. That’s how you stay consistent without making Instagram your full-time job.

Growth isn’t just about how often you post—it’s about how consistently you deliver value to the right people. Nail that, and the followers will come.

– Jeff

It’s a great question—and one that trips up a lot of creators and small business owners.

Here’s the deal: boosting a post and running an ad both involve putting money behind your content, but they’re not created equal in terms of control, targeting, and performance.

Boosting a post is Facebook’s “easy button.” It’s designed for speed and simplicity. You hit the blue button, choose a basic audience, set a budget, and off it goes. This is fine if you’re trying to get more likes, comments, or reach on a specific post—especially something organic that’s already doing well. But your options are limited. You can’t customize your objectives deeply, your audience targeting is narrower, and your placements are restricted.

Running an ad through Ads Manager, on the other hand, gives you full control over your campaign. You can choose specific goals like conversions, traffic, or lead generation. You can split test different creatives, run ads in different formats, and target cold vs. warm audiences with precision. If you’re promoting a product, building a funnel, or trying to scale results, Ads Manager is the way to go.

Think of boosting as a quick visibility tool. Think of Ads Manager as your full marketing toolkit.

If you’re serious about turning content into conversions—not just engagement—go with a real ad. You’ll get better tracking, better targeting, and a much higher return.

– Jeff

Transcripts and captions absolutely play a role in YouTube SEO, especially when you’re trying to maximize every signal the algorithm uses to understand your content. When you include captions—particularly accurate, keyword-rich ones—you give YouTube more context about what your video is about. This helps the platform categorize your content correctly, which in turn increases your chances of showing up in both search results and suggested video feeds.

Relying on auto-captions alone is a bit risky. While YouTube’s AI has improved, it still misses names, technical terms, and nuance—especially if you speak quickly, use slang, or have background noise. Uploading your own edited captions ensures accuracy and lets you reinforce keywords naturally throughout the video. That means when someone searches for a phrase you mention in the video, YouTube is more likely to surface your content.

Beyond SEO, captions also improve user experience. A significant portion of viewers watch videos with the sound off—especially on mobile. Captions help retain those viewers longer, which boosts your watch time and engagement metrics. And as you know, higher engagement leads to more algorithmic love.

As for transcripts, they’re great for repurposing. You can turn a transcript into a blog post, newsletter, or social caption, all of which drive traffic back to the original video. That’s the kind of multi-channel strategy that helps creators scale efficiently.

In short, adding accurate captions and transcripts won’t make or break your channel, but if you’re serious about discoverability and growth, they give you an edge. Think of them as a low-effort, high-impact upgrade—especially when AI tools can help generate them quickly.

– Jeff

Great question—and yes, AI can absolutely help with both the strategy and writing of an entire email sequence.

Here’s how I’d break it down:

1. Start with AI as your strategist

You can prompt AI to map out your entire sequence based on:

Your goal (welcome, sales, re-engagement, etc.)
Your product or offer
The customer journey
Example prompt:

“Act as an email strategist. I sell [product] to [audience]. Map out a 6-part nurture sequence that builds trust and leads into a high-ticket offer.”
AI will often return a well-structured outline with each email’s purpose, suggested content, and timing.

2. Let AI draft each email, then refine

Once you have the sequence, you can generate individual emails based on the outline. Ask AI to include:

A hooky subject line
Conversational tone
Specific pain points and stories related to your niche
But here’s the key—don’t copy-paste blindly. Your voice, phrasing, and insights are what make the emails resonate. Use the drafts as a base, then layer on your personality and nuance.

3. Use frameworks + prompt stacks

AI responds well to structure. Instead of asking “write an email,” say:

“Write a nurture email that opens with a story, introduces a pain point, and ends with a CTA to watch a free video.”
There are also great prompt libraries (like those in Jeff’s Vault) designed specifically for sequences, welcome flows, launch emails, and more.

4. Know the limits

AI can help you:

Structure your funnel
Draft emails quickly
Rewrite for clarity or tone
But it won’t:

Understand your audience’s exact nuances like you do
Choose the perfect anecdote or detail from your personal experience
Know your real conversion data
Treat it like an intern who works fast but still needs direction and editing.

Bottom line: If you combine your voice and strategy with AI’s speed and structure, you can create a powerful email sequence in a fraction of the usual time.

Need help getting started with prompts or frameworks? I’m happy to share a few.

– Jeff