Are giveaways good for small channels?

[DigitalTom]

I am wondering. I recently got a couple of steam keys for translating small indie games (not 1$ games that you can get from indiegala for free but stuff ~15$ with very positive overall and recent user reviews)

Is it better to find someone that wants to buy them (which may take some time) and invest this money to make my channel better (equipment etc.) or maybe I should just give them away (which may attract people and give a little boost to my channel (this is risky if I won't be able to find a way to make them stay on my channel))

Also it's general "What do you think about giveaways" thread. Not dedicated to my problem.

 

[KatyAdelson]

I moved this to the strategy discussion forum. ^_^

 

[GucciCarry]

Not really, can bring a lot of inactive subscribers in my opinion. I mean you'll gain subscribers but being a small channel with not a lot of content is probably not a good idea.

 

[Kira.Yamaguchi]

I'd honestly just review the game and sell the keys.
A small channel can only benefit as much as a few apples in a small basket. The apples will rot too in time.
Giveaways are better if you have even a small fanbase already. Doing it with just 4-5 subs will only give you dead subs.

 

[RagingLeopardStudios]

Not really, can bring a lot of inactive subscribers in my opinion. I mean you'll gain subscribers but being a small channel with not a lot of content is probably not a good idea.

I wished I would have read this before doing my giveaway *facepalm*

 

[KiddieToysReview]

Bottom line: Waste of time. No one cares.
Focus your time on learning the back-end and improving videos, and updating tech if you need to.
For our channel, almost at 100k, I would not waste a minute with thinking of giveaways. No one cares.
Maybe at 500k or 750k can do a t-shirt giveaway, but even then I doubt it's worth it.

 

[Keyser Reveal]

I have to disagree that it is a waste of time. I am 30 day new to youtube and I have 360 subs and about 28,000 views. I know that's not a lot but considering how new my channel is I think it is. Although I put a lot of effort into production, I'm not naive to the fact that most of these guys subbed and left comments because that was part of the giveaway requirements. However you do run the risk of people unsubscribing if they don't win..unless your content is interesting enough to keep them. At this point I haven't seen any significant loss of subs and it appear to be working well.

Hope this helps
Good luck

 

[Gaijillionaire]

I don't think they work. It just pulls in people who want a freebie and take off after that. I'll never do one

 

[IntellectualYak]

As it has been said multiple times before, I think there are much higher ROI ways to gain subscribers. Just get better with your videos and put more effort into the videos as opposed to worrying about giveaways. Just my two cents.

 

[UserU]

Giveaways would work for large channels, but small ones would not see sustainable benefits.

Those subs would just do so for the sake of the giveaway and once it's over, unsub.