When you think of gaming influencers on YouTube, iHasCupquake is one of the first that comes to mind. Tiffany Michelle Herrera, better known as Cupquake on her YouTube channel iHasCupquake, has achieved spectacular feats throughout her career on YouTube.
Starting her channel back in 2010, she’s become one of the most successful and inspiring gaming creators on the platform. Currently, she has over 6.8 million subscribers subbed to her YouTube channel and holds the Guinness World Record for the most-watched female gaming creators on YouTube.
In total, she has over 2 billion views. There are a lot of aspiring YouTubers who can learn from Cupquake’s inspirational career. In this article, we will cover Herrera’s channel, iHasCupquake, its progression over the years, and how she was able to grow the channel to the heights it’s reached today.
What is iHasCupquake about?
Herrera began her YouTube career a decade ago uploading vlogs. In the vlogs, she would talk about her life in front of a whiteboard. It was a simple setup but gained a lot of confidence talking in front of a camera when vlogging. However, she soon decided to switch her focus towards gaming and let’s play on her channel. Gaming had always been something that she enjoyed throughout her life, so it was a natural fit for her channel to progress into let’s plays.
She started with League of Legends and World of Warcraft videos, but her channel really started to blow up when she started her Minecraft series. At that time, there wasn’t a huge abundance of Minecraft content on YouTube. Minecraft was still in Alta, so very few people were playing it. This gave Herrera the opportunity to make her series with little competition. It didn’t take long for her series to blow up, quickly propelling her to be one of the most watched creators on YouTube. She went on to create her Minecraft Oasis series, a modded series of Minecraft, further contributed to her growing popularity.
iHasCupquake nowadays has a wide variety of gaming content. There was a point in the channel’s life where Herrera shifted her focus on sticking to one gaming series to trying a wide variety of games and related content. While the most popular videos on her channel are from her Minecraft and Five Nights at Freddy’s series, her daily gaming videos still do great with views and engagement.
What can we learn from iHasCupquake?
Creating and maintaining a channel as successful as iHasCupquake isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work and skills. We can learn a lot from how Herrera has chosen to maintain and grow iHasCupquake. Here are some of the major takeaways.
Maintain a consistent uploading schedule
One of the ways that Herrera was able to stay relevant in the YouTube algorithm in the early days of her channel was to upload a ton of videos. At one point, she was uploading 5 videos per day. That’s an insane amount of content for just one person to make, but she maintained that schedule for some time. Now, you don’t necessarily have to upload 5 videos a day like Herrera. She even doesn’t recommend doing that. However, it just shows how important it is to have a consistent flow of content being uploaded to your channel. YouTube’s system loves an abundance of content, so the more you upload the higher you’ll end up on the algorithm.
Find a niche
A lot of you might laugh to think of Minecraft as a niche game, but at one point it was. Herrera struck gold when she started playing Minecraft. There was little content about the game, but there was a growing interest in it. Herrera was one of the very few that had content on the game. There was a demand for Minecraft content and she provided that. For gaming content creators to break out, one of the best ways to gain attraction is to find a new game that a lot of creators aren’t playing, but people are interested in. Herrera, and many other YouTubers, are a testament to that.
Do things you enjoy
Sometimes, it’s easy to forget with all the trends and audience demand for YouTubers to remember that they need to do what they enjoy. She was able to grow her channel because she was enjoying the content. She was able to put out great quality videos because she cared about it. Your audience can tell when you aren’t enjoying something, whether that be a game or the way you’re acting. Always be authentic to yourself. iHasCupquake is a successful channel because the person behind it enjoys what she’s doing.
Looking for the positivity despite setbacks
Herrera has dealt with a lot to get to where she is today. There is a lot for her to overcome, working against the algorithm, keeping up with her upload schedule and cutting out her space in a male-dominated space. Despite all these setbacks, she continues to persevere by looking to the positives. She continues to spread positivity on her channel by making her viewers laugh and by doing things that personally make her happy. She is an inspiration for many and will continue to be with smiles, laughs and ‘quake’.
Image courtesy iHasCupquake