YouTube Growth & SEO Strategist Needed – 30-Day Trial for Established Community Channel

We are looking for an experienced and creative YouTube Growth, SEO & Audience Development Specialist to work with Watchdog Group USA on an initial 30-day trial project. We are NOT simply looking for a video editor. We already have people handling video recording, editing, thumbnails, and social-media content. We are producing approximately 20 original raw videos per week. Our current challenge is developing the right strategy to turn that amount of original content into consistent YouTube growth. We need someone who understands how YouTube actually discovers, recommends, ranks, and distributes videos and who can help us build a clear identity for the channel. About Our Content Watchdog Group USA is focused on community-oriented content, including: Helping and informing people in the community Seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants and families Community problems and concerns Public services and transportation Consumer and everyday issues Interviews and conversations with members of the public Community events and organizations Educational and informational videos Advocacy and public-awareness topics We also operate Life in Chicago with Jerry, which focuses more broadly on everyday Chicago life, neighborhoods, events, people and activities. An important part of this project will be helping us properly separate the identity and content strategy of these channels instead of treating them as identical channels. This is an issue we have already identified internally. What We Need From You During the first 30 days, we want you to: Audit our existing Watchdog Group USA YouTube channel. Analyze our current videos and identify what is helping or hurting growth. Develop a clear 30-day YouTube growth strategy. Recommend which types of our raw videos should become: Full YouTube videos YouTube Shorts Combined/edited stories Content that should not be uploaded Improve titles, descriptions, keywords, hashtags and overall YouTube SEO. Help develop stronger titles and thumbnail concepts that increase click-through rate. Analyze audience retention, watch time, impressions, CTR, traffic sources and subscriber growth. Recommend an appropriate upload schedule. Organize content into appropriate playlists/topics. Identify subjects and formats with the greatest potential for growth. Work with our existing video editor rather than replacing him. Provide a short weekly performance report explaining what is working, what isn't, and what we should change. IMPORTANT — What We Are NOT Looking For We are not interested in: Fake subscribers Purchased views Bots or artificial engagement Spam Copyright violations Reused/stolen content Someone promising guaranteed viral videos Someone who only adds keywords and calls that “YouTube SEO” We want real organic growth from real viewers. Our videos are original and recorded by our own team. 30-Day Trial This position will begin as a 30-day paid trial. If you demonstrate measurable improvement and bring strong ideas to the channel, we are interested in developing a longer-term working relationship. We understand that nobody can honestly guarantee a specific number of views or subscribers. We will evaluate your work based on your strategy, execution and measurable changes in areas such as: Impressions • CTR • Audience Retention • Watch Time • Views • Returning Viewers • Subscribers • Search/Recommendation Traffic TO APPLY — PLEASE ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS Please do not send us a generic copy-and-paste proposal. Answer the following: 1. Show us 2–3 YouTube channels you personally helped grow. What exactly did you do? 2. What were the measurable results? 3. If a channel produces approximately 20 original raw videos every week, how would you decide what should become long-form videos versus Shorts? 4. What is more important for YouTube growth: keywords, thumbnail/title CTR, audience retention, or viewer satisfaction? Explain your answer. 5. What would you examine during your first week working with our channel? 6. How would you separate the content strategy between “Watchdog Group USA” and “Life in Chicago with Jerry”? 7. What would you expect to accomplish during a 30-day trial without making unrealistic promises? Please begin your application with the words: “WATCHDOG 30-DAY STRATEGY” That tells us you actually read the entire job description. Who We Want We're looking for someone who is creative, analytical, honest and proactive. We don't need someone who waits for us to tell them everything to do. We want someone who can look at our footage and analytics and tell us: “This is the content you should concentrate on. This is what I would stop doing. Here's why. And here's what we're going to test next.” If you have that kind of experience and thinking, we would like to hear from you. Initial engagement: 30-day paid trial Potential: Long-term collaboration based on performance Platform: YouTube – Watchdog Group USA Content: Original community, informational, advocacy and Chicago-area video content