Are you someone who has finally decided to start your own YouTube channel? Do you want to find your name among the highly-coveted YouTube millionaires like Casey Neistat, Shay Cark, Pewdiepie and Michelle Phan? Have you finally decided to launch a career around your passion using Youtube?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, but don’t know where to start, read on and we will show you 7 tips any beginner youtuber, like you, can take advantage of to experience massive growth in subscriber count.
Regardless of what their channel is about, there are several common hacks that every superstar youtuber uses to drive high subscriber growth, and gain massive traction to their channels.
Ready to learn? Let’s begin!
1. Let your authenticity shine
Your channel is your stage, and anything you say, goes! Literally. You are the actor, director, editor, storyteller…. everything, and one of the perks of wearing so many hats is that you get the power to show to the world your true self, and magnetize them with your authenticity.
YouTube is a platform where showing off your personality matters. Don’t brush away those quirks that you consider flaws, because those might just be the reason your audience stays and connects with you. Share your story. You might become an inspiration to someone, and if you inspire one, you will inspire many more. That’s how the snowball rolls, and your subscriber count grows.
2. Give old a new spin
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
Messages are recycled constantly. Just think how many of the same tag videos, haul videos, coming out videos, anti-bullying videos you have seen? How many foundation routines have you seen using the same products? How many vloggers do you watch pretty much going about their day doing the same thing as everyone else? Messages are recycled constantly but it’s all in the delivery and production. Finding a new angle to present an old content is a trick most famous YouTubers use.
While creating content, especially in cases where the crux of the message has already been done before, find a new style to deliver it. By showing the same message, but in a fresh, visually gripping angle, your channel with grow because your message successfully resonated with people like never before.
Get out your notebook, conceptualize, draw a story board, create a shot and prop list and don’t slack off on the editing stage. Pre-production and post-production tasks as just as important as the actual shoot itself.
3. Always be Brand focused
Whether you want to make a career out of YouTube, or are just here to stay for 10 videos- it doesn’t matter. Treat your channel as a brand from Day 1. You never know who is watching, and one of those viewers might just be your golden ticket to stardom!
Focus on developing a common theme, tone and style. You want to have “your thing”, whether it be how you greet your viewers or start your videos. You want a catchphrase that sets your brand apart. Your own version of Dope fresh nation, or The Nerd Fighters.
You want your videos to have a common factor. This factor will help your audience recognize that it’s your brand regardless of where you put the content out. Having your own unique brand is also important to attract relevant sponsorships and collaboration opportunities down the line.
4. Consistency trumps content
Great content is important, but being consistent in putting value out there is even more important in growing a successful channel with engaging subscribers. This doesn’t mean you need to put out 5 videos days a week (although, if you told your viewers you are gonna give them 5 videos/week, then you have to keep your promise).
Make a realistic goal for how many you can do per week and stick to it like lint on denim.
Be consistent with your upload schedule. Consistent interaction, and value delivery to your audience is imperative to keeping your subscriber count moving up throughout the year.
5. Leverage the power of social networks
Understand that a new YouTube channel is isolated, undiscovered, and unexplored. Just like you add content to your channel to grow your audience, you have to be present in every other social platform where your target demographic hangs out, so that you can deliver value to them there too, and eventually direct their attention back to your channel. Twitter, Snap Chat, Instagram, and Facebook are fantastic mediums to have a conversation with your viewers, and help them meet the person behind all that awesome content. It’s conversations like these that converts a viewer into a lifelong fan who clicks your video in an instant when it pops up in their subscriber feed, hits the like button even before watching it, and share it with their friends, mom, and even grandma.
Don’t be afraid to say hi to your followers on social media. This will show that you are personable and not stuck up…. although if you are stuck up, that’s cool too. Just keep doing you.
6. Collaborate and cast a wider net
You can choose to grow your channel on your own, but to make the journey to a million subscriber, or whatever your goal is, shorter, it is more effective if you partner up with someone that has more subscriber count than you. But make sure that you’re not spamming them with your offer, and keep the collaboration video concept interesting and creative.
You don’t want to be that annoying commenter who spams their channel below every Youtube video. That’s the best way how to NOT get subscribers
Find someone who is not only in the same genre as you, but whose personality complements yours effortlessly. If your chemistry entertains the viewers, then they will sure want more of you. Be careful of how you approach a collaborator. Don’t make them feel like you will be blatantly using them for a share of their audience. Instead, turn your focus to forming a genuine relationship with them.
7. Tiles and thumbnails
Provocative titles and sleazy thumbnails are the easiest way to get views, but YouTube viewers are finally losing their patience with these clickbait techniques. That is not to say that they don’t work, because they do. But, make sure that the loud and emotionally stirring titles and thumbnails are at least slightly relevant to the main subject matter of the video itself, otherwise your dislike meter will be going through the roof. Another more cleaner way to format your title is to make sure that its keyword (words that your viewer might type into the search box to find your video) rich. This will help it to rank higher in the YouTube search results.
There is no magic formula to a successful channel. But by implementing all these tips, you will find your subscriber count consistently growing, and with a viral video, you might be surprised with some non-expectant heavy flooding of followers too. Always a nice surprise!
So, go ahead and use these tricks to make your channel more popular, and if you want more personable tips specifically relevant to YOUR channel, check out our Nerdic App. It’s built to dissect all the important data related to your channel, so you can learn more about your viewers and what they want to see from you. It is the easiest way to get powerful insider knowledge about your demographic, including actionable tips from our experts that you can implement right now to grow your channel.