Do you want to get more subscribers on Youtube? I’ll show you how.
I’m starting a new experiment where I’m growing a new channel from 0 subscribers to 1.000 subscribers in a short amount of time.
I’ve done it before. When I was younger, I created ‘ChannelOlli,’ which I grew to more than 1 million views in just a few years.
I’m sharing my strategies on how I’m growing my Youtube-channel in 2020.
Let’s go.
What to do after creating your Youtube-channel
After you have set up your account, you will want to create your first video.
I always like to start with a few experiments. I look at what’s ‘trending’ in the category I want to grow my channel.
My first few videos were in Dutch, as that is my native language.
I uploaded a podcast episode I did, talking about my business Kreatix. It was long (40 minutes) and featured a lot of valuable insights. Because YouTube is all about watch time, it seemed like a great idea to start that way.
If you’re just starting out, you might not have a long video ready to upload.
Think outside of the box for your first Youtube videos
Let’s say you want to grow a gaming channel. Instead of just uploading a Fortnite let’s play, why not find a topic that isn’t covered extensively yet?
When I was growing ChannelOlli, my gaming channel, I was always on the hunt for easter eggs. I knew I couldn’t compete with bigger, let’s play, channels, so I had to be creative.
By creating content that wasn’t yet available, it was easy to rank my videos on the top of the YouTube search queries.
A great example is a video I made on Black Ops 2. I was the first to figure out you could save a particular character called Alex Mason by shooting him in the leg. This triggered a different ending of the game. I made a video about my discovery, and it got more than 300.000 views in a short time.
Instead of uploading regular gameplay, I went searching for a hidden secret.
Another example is a video I did on Far Cry 3. Instead of uploading videos about the various missions, I noticed the performance of the game was abysmal. I went through every single graphic option and let people know which ones were eating a lot of frames. That video got me more than 100.000 views. It’s seven years old, but it’s still going strong.
In the digital marketing world, that’s called evergreen content. It’s the pieces you create that will last you for many years. For example, a lot of blogs write a guide like ‘How to grow your Youtube-channel in 2015,’ and they just change the year annually. Why? Because it works.
Youtube works the same way. If you create the best piece of content, it doesn’t matter how old it is. Youtube will push it to the top if there isn’t anything better.
That’s why I’m writing this series on how to grow your Youtube-channel. I know if I do a good job, it will be relevant for a lot of years.
Get 50 subscribers fast by activating your network
After I made my channel and uploaded my first few videos, I shared links on my social media.
You should always have some videos uploaded before you share your channel with your friends.
Imagine someone you know asking you to subscribe to their channel, but there is nothing uploaded yet. You don’t know what to expect, so you don’t do it.
If you have uploaded a few videos on your channel, people will know what to expect. Contrary to popular belief, people don’t want to be surprised. They want to know precisely what they are signing up for.
I’ve built a small community on LinkedIn, so I shared the podcast episode on my feed. The video now has more than 700 views, and I got about 40 subscribers from sharing it.
It’s essential to make a great post. Don’t just say ‘Pls subscribe’ but give some context and tell a story.
The post is in Dutch, I’m sorry about that, but the main gist is that I explained that I recorded a 40-minute conversation about entrepreneurship, that I started a Youtube-channel and that I would love for people to subscribe if they want to see more content about entrepreneurship and marketing for free.
I was humble and said it wasn’t professional yet and that they could follow me during my process. That always works. Don’t say you’re the best. Bring them along for your great adventure.
I then shared the video on my personal Facebook-profile with a similar but more casual message. It’s essential to know your audience.
I like to be casual on Facebook, more formal on LinkedIn, and I’m pretty outgoing in group chats. When I shared the channel with my friends, I practically begged them to subscribe. Anything for those sweet, sweet statistics.
Quick tips on growing your Youtube-channel
- Pick an audience
- Create the best content out there
- Make sure it’s high quality, but don’t be a perfectionist
- Structure your title in a way that people will click on it
- Provide a catchy thumbnail with your face and bright colors
- Share your content on your social channels
- Build a community by engaging with your fans
- Use Youtube Creator Studio to study your analytics
- Repeat what works
You were waiting on this list, weren’t you? Well, this is the way (queue The Mandalorian), to grow your Youtube-channel.
Have you ever heard of the 80/20-rule?
It says that 20% of your videos will generate 80% of your views, and 20% of your work will get you 80% of the results.
Why do I mention the 80/20 rule? Because I have caught myself over-editing videos and wasting a lot of time. As I mentioned above, don’t be a perfectionist. Sometimes good is good enough. I once spent over 3 hours figuring out how to add a drop shadow to a screenshot in Premiere Pro. It just wouldn’t work out. That’s when you decide to cancel the drop shadow and live to fight another day.
Get more Youtube-subscribers through your End Screen
So Youtube has this handy feature where you can add cards to the end of your video. One of the options is to add a button so people can subscribe.
As you can see in the screenshot above, I added a subscribe button in the top left part of the video. During the last 20 seconds, it will show, and viewers will have a chance to subscribe to your channel. This strategy has netted me about ten subscribers. Not a lot, but you have to start somewhere!
The results of applying these strategies of growing your Youtube channel
As of writing this blog, I have uploaded five videos on my channel, and I have 102 active subscribers. I applied all the strategies above to grow my channel. I recently made the switch from Dutch to English, so I expect my reach to skyrocket.
Another great benefit of reaching 100 subscribers on Youtube? You get a custom channel URL.
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I’m excited to share more content with you. If you want to stay in the loop, consider subscribing to my list below. I’ll give you a heads up when I upload something new. No spam, never.
I hope you enjoyed reading the first part of my guide on how to grow your Youtube-channel. If you want to know the reason why I started a new channel, feel free to read that story here.
