Grow Your YouTube Channel 101

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Do you want to grow your YouTube channel? You’re not alone! More than a billion people are on YouTube and there are countless content creators, known as YouTubers, already making a name for themselves on the platform. Certain YouTubers, such as PewDiePie who has 46 million subscribers, even rake in multi-million dollar salaries!

Understanding YouTube Channels 101

When you sign up for YouTube, you’re automatically assigned a channel. This channel is your profile on YouTube and will display a short description about you and feature thumbnails with the videos that you upload. Your favorite videos will also be visible here among other features. Subscribers to your channel will be notified to watch your videos every time you upload a new one.
You can visit other channels by clicking on their user names. These personal channels are what makes YouTube a video-based social media network rather than just an online video-sharing platform.

How to grow your YouTube channel

To reach PewDiePie-like fame, you are going to need a lot of luck and talent on your side. Though the chances that you’ll reach the top 1% of YouTube channels are slim, there’s always the opportunity for you to become a big fish in your niche.
Let’s go through some methods you can use to grow your YouTube channel.

Learn from the best

If you want to be one of the biggest and best channels on YouTube, you’ll need to learn from the best. Whatever your niche is, find out what the top YouTubers in that niche are doing, and take note. Don’t steal their ideas or anything, but look at subtle production elements and incorporate what you like about it. For example, pranksters and vloggers can look to RomanAtwood (below) for ideas, while gamers can look to YouTube superstar PewDiePie.

roman-atwood

You can also look at how they operate on social media to help boost their YouTube popularity. See what they’re tweeting about when they link back to a certain video, or how they interact with fans. One thing to always remember is to still be yourself. The last thing you want is a bunch of internet trolls calling you a copycat and disliking all your videos.

Build social proof

Getting your first thousand subscribers or your first video with 100k views helps build social proof. Social proof draws in new viewers, because it suggests that the content is popular and authoritative. Popular content has a better chance of being good content, so the viewer clicks on the video. Luckily, social proof can be generated without having any real viewers.
Of course you’ll want to build all the real social proof you can by getting an endorsement of popular YouTube channels. However, for someone starting off, this isn’t always an option. What you can do to give yourself a boost right away may sound risky but if done correctly it can actually work: buy subscribers and views.
Buying subscribers, views, and likes from high-quality, reputable vendors is how many successful YouTube channels built their social proof early on. The most important thing to remember when buying social engagements is that quality matters. It’s not worth it to buy cheap subscribers from a shady, low-quality vendor. They’ll end up getting deleted right away by YouTube’s algorithm and your fans might notice. It’s always best to stay away from buying “cheap subscribers.”

Market your channel everywhere

After you’ve done your homework and learned what it takes to be a popular YouTube star, and after you’ve built the social proof to support you – start marketing yourself! Post on forums, share your videos on Reddit, and link to your website. Organic views will come few and far between in the early stages unless you put some serious effort into your marketing campaign.

pewdiepie-book

If you have social proof, getting views through advertisement is not difficult. People love to watch viral content, so if you can appear viral, there’s no struggle to get more views. Videos placed in front of the right audience at the right time is the key to successful online marketing.

Collaborate with your YouTube peers

After you’ve identified your peers on YouTube, reach out to them. While many of them may ignore you, it’s worth it given the rewards of working with someone more popular than you are. Working together you essentially share your audiences. Plus by putting your heads together you’ll likely come up with something new and more creative than you generally would have on your own.
Show subscribers some love
The best thing to do early on is take it one subscriber at a time. Treat each new follower with respect, and realize these are your core fans. All the viewers who subscribe to you early on are going to be some of the most important pieces to your YouTube puzzle.
For instance, you can respond to their comments. Or make videos based on their suggestions. Subscribing to their channels can make them feel warm and fuzzy inside. Whatever you do, make sure to engage with them and make them feel at home on your channel.

Date: February 18, 2016 / Categories: Tips, YouTube, / Author: Rich Drees

February
18
2016

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