This guide focuses on how to increase video views on your YouTube videos. I use all of these methods frequently, so I hope you can utilize them as well. Some of this may seem obvious, but ideally a few methods will be new to you.
Remember, not every method will work for EVERY type of channel. Focus on what content you produce and what type of audience you have before going all out with these methods.
I mainly use these methods for videos I REALLY want to be ever-lasting. I don't use them for every video because some of my videos only have a shelf life of a few months before they are irrelevant.
- Articles are a great way to increase exposure. Not every searcher goes to YouTube for answers. Thousands of views on my channel come from Google results. Yet, it can be hard (at times) to get videos to show up in Google results. This is where articles come in. Even if it's just an article on YTTalk, or another forum, the text content (along with a helpful hyperlink inside of it) can bring searchers from Google, to your video. The text article should directly relate to your video, or even answer what your video answers if it's a guide. It doesn't have to be a solid domain either. I use a free Wordpress with a subdomain for this.
- Link Your Articles! If you write an article about a video's content, put the link in the description and in the comments. I usually accompany the comment with "***LIKE THIS COMMENT SO PEOPLE SEE IT***". This assures me that people will in fact see the comment and it totally tricks people into liking the comment which is an indicator to YouTube that people are engaged & interested in your content. 2 birds with 1 stone. You should also say (if you are posting from your own blog) "Make sure you bookmark my blog so you see new content BEFORE it's uploaded to YouTube" < This is great if you make guides or anything news related. Vlog channels can't utilize this method as much.
- Social Networking is an obvious tool. If you have followers on Twitter or Facebook, let them know when you upload a sweet video. Don't spam them every time you upload something new. Only notify them every few videos, or whenever you release a video that you KNOW (come on, everyone gets that feeling) is going to be getting views for years to come.
- Reddit is a great place. Make sure you find a relateable "subreddit". Don't post ALL of your videos as people will start to ignore you, or you may get banned. Post videos that appeal to the mass public. I use /r/wow which is the subreddit for World of Warcraft.
- Hacker News is the second and only mass link distribution site that I use. (news.ycombinator.com) It's basically an RSS Feed that thousands of people are subscribed to. I submit most, if not all links, there as they are all automatically approved. Most of them never stay on the front page for too long as it's more of a tech feed than a gaming feed. They really like mind boggling and thought provoking content, so anything of that sort is PERFECT there. Even the ones that shoot off from the first page quickly get about 100+ views no matter what the link is...just make the title something interesting. So instead of "People RAGING at World of Warcraft" I would call it "Human-Videogame Relationship Study of Emotions". That's what I call a white-lie title.
- Asking for Like/Subscribe is a great method for MANY channels and I highly recommend it. A lot of people may say "it's annoying when people ask for likes/subs", but it's worth it in most cases. The issue with the liking and subscribing system is that most people honestly forget about the two features. They like a video, but instead of Liking it or Subscribing, they get distracted by the videos in the related videos or the ones at the end of the video. Here's how I do it. "Thanks for watching, if you hate my video please dislike it & tell me how terrible I am in the comments. If you DID like it, give it a like and subscribe to see more _______ in the future."
- Finding "dead channels" to subscriber hijack. This one is controversial, but very good for getting subscribers and viewers. What you do is find YouTube channels that are no longer active, but have videos still getting thousands of views each month. These channels MUST be directly related to the type of content you post. Don't go on a music channel and post "hey check out my minecraft channel." An example of a successful "dead channel hijack" from personal experience goes as follows. A famous YouTuber (for making WoW guides) called TarouWoW quit the game & YouTube to go rescue his family from a foreign country because his wife illegally took them from America. While I do feel bad for his real life troubles, the opportunity was there. I left some comments on a few of his videos that still get thousands of views each week/month basically saying "Hey guys, TarouWoW has had some very unfortunate real life troubles and no longers plays the game. If you'd like to see WoW guides that focus on current and future content, check out my channel. I have X subscribers." You WILL get a lot of hate on those comments from people calling you out for taking advantage of a YouTuber who has left the scene - BUT you'll also get tons of new subscribers and viewers.
I know a couple of these are mainstream methods, but I hope most of them are not. If you liked this article, please let us know in a reply how it's working for you! If you have any suggestions, let me know below so I can update the guide or revise my own personal methods. Thanks
