How I got to 500 Subs, and how YOU can also do it. FULL GUIDE

Stupidity Online

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Hello Everyone,

I am not sure if this whole post goes here, so I apologize if I am indeed in the wrong place. This is a backstory upon a full blown guide that intertwinds. So if it does not I am totally sorry about posting in the wrong area.


Stats : I have been actively posting on Youtube now for 3 MAYBE at most 4 months and I have 533 subs currently to date.

***I suggest for any new youtuber to read this. I will give you tools to use, my backstory how I got to 500 quickly, and some tips, angles and insights maybe some of you might not know. I know this is going to be long but I highly suggest you read, it's kind of entertaining as well*****


So this is actually my first post on YTtalk. I am a huge lurker here, and have received some amazing tips, I've watched and grown to like some pretty cool channels from here, and just love the forum.



I will be giving a guide on how I got to 500 subs, what I did, what tools I used, and a backstory of how it started. The backstory may be similar to some, but it can be totally different. I will provide a full guide below.

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How I started and how it came about ( And my Niche I found )

I started streaming on TWITCH at first. My YOUTUBE channel IS NOT A GAMING CHANNEL. When I first started streaming on twitch I had 4 viewers basically for like a month. Sometimes even 1 viewer. Sometimes 0 views.

I said to myself ( And this is important ) that I believe I am indeed a pretty interesting and a funny guy, I am just not getting the exposure. I need to stand out. -----Many of you are interesting, funny, witty and super cool---- However that does not matter at all if no one can find you.

I decided then to think. I planned out an idea somehow to get people to come to my channel.. I decided to do giveaways. NOW WAIT. Before you go thinking giveaways might ruin things, or they aren't for you, or whatever your take is on them just hear me out. This was MY strategy, my post here is to help you think outside the box and really THINK

I decided to do giveaways with Counterstrike Skins. If you don't know what skins are they hold an actual dollar value to in game guns within the game itself.

Here's the thing, everyone on Twitch was doing giveaways. EVERYONE and they still do for skins. I would go to twitch streams and see a 5.00 skin being given away at 100 followers, or "when we hit 60 viewers a giveaway of like a 5.00 skin" etc.

I decided to take it to the next level. I focused on saving up a few bucks like 20.00 , as well as other things and trading to get a ton of CS skins. I learned the market for counterstrike, I studied it and traded up my items like crazy. At one point I had around 2,000.00 in skins. ( This can be applied to someone saving money, working odd jobs etc. I did it this way in THIS specific example for THIS angle I took).


I decided to take giveaways to the next level. I was giving out 5.00 in skins every 5 - 10 minutes. I made a catchy title, and then my viewers that day when I first did it went FROM 0 - 20 VIEWERS ON TWITCH

Within that next hour I had around 60 people viewing my twitch which was INSANE. I slowed down the giveaways and made them every 10-15 minutes while talking with people and gaming. I then did this the next day but decided to TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL AGAIN. I went back to the 5.00 in skins every 5 minutes and long story short in 4 days I had an average of 200 people watching me and I got 1700 Followers.

With this following I decided to slow things down now. MIND YOU this is only about 1 week into this. I did giveaways each day before I did the stream and at the end. I had a ton of people following and watching and I would game.

The problem started happening where I know people would only show up at the end of my streams and the beginning just for the giveaways. I started a twitter and started connecting with everyone that following week. I developed some really cool relationships super fast. After I noticed that 50% were just coming for giveaways not there to actually watch my play, I decided to stop them all together.

You would think now after stopping the giveaways I would lose people right? Well Yes and No. My viewers did drop around 50% but I had a solid 50-60 people who just loved my attitude, my energy and the fun they had making with friends of others inside my stream.

I did this for around a month of streaming every other day maybe every other 2 days. Because of my full time job, I was drained and just didn't have time to stream so much. I decided hey let me move to youtube.


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My first Posting and Experience moving to Youtube From that tiny experience on twitch

I love entertaining people. That is what I have always wanted to do, and LITERALLY LOVE DOING. I love making people laugh, because I believe laughter is indeed the best medicine for almost ANYTHING.

Going to youtube for the first week I announced it to my twitter and stream friends I made from this and got around 40 subs. These 40 people were the loyal ones out of EVERYONE who truly just enjoyed watching me no matter the case. I STILL TALK TO THEM TODAY and that is important for any new youtuber creating a community no matter how small. 1 person or 100, you create relationships and BUILD a following. SUB FOR SUB WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER WORK. I repeat. SUB FOR SUB WILL NEVER EVER WORK.


I started my channel doing pokemon go vlogs. And they sucked. As in they blew totally. I had just my little following of 40 people watch, the quiality was crap, but I put my heart and soul into them. They enjoyed it, but I was getting no views.

I said to myself. I am not really a vlogger. It wasn't my full passion. I enjoyed making vlogs but the passion wasn't there. And I am not a crazy big gamer either, even though I play video games all the time, it wasn't something I LOVED.

So once again I decided to think.... What do I LOVE. And what would I LOVE creating videos about, which will bleed the joy into people watching, and show I am passionate about a certain topic.

After long thinking and crossing off vlogs, gaming channel, sports, dating, all this stuff. I said to myself, I just like making people laugh. And that was it. It clicked.

Then I said to myself. I am an idiot for taking forever to realize the one true passion I enjoy when it has been there my whole life. That ALSO clicked.

And that's when I said. Forget this vlogging and gaming stuff. I want to make people laugh. And laugh at my own stupidity. But instead. We will laugh at everyone elses stupidity together. That is how stupidity online came about.

I make videos on peoples fail posts, dumb tweets, dumb videos, and stupidity posted across the web. And I give it my own twist, with my own humor etc.


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Creating the first Videos and the results and what I did

With my 60 subscribers at this point I made my first stupidity online episode. It was total Cringe. I had a bad camera, good audio, but I was in a zone I wasn't used to. My editing was bad, my backround was terrible and overall I cursed a ton.

WHAT I KNOW NOW FROM THAT FIRST VIDEO AFTER GETTING 10x BETTER
1. Have good lighting and a great backround if you are not gaming
2. Have great audio
3. Do not over curse to emphasize things. Cursing is fine, but do not over do it and remember who your audience is
4. Take a full day to just watch editing tutorials. LEARN

Now after my first video I said to myself this is what I want to do. I now have found something I can make a series on entertaining people. WHAT WAS IMPORTANT was this niche can now expand into other realms.

I can do stupid posts tweets videos and I named it stupidity online. But for future series to branch off, I can go into other things such as, the stupidity in the workplace, and make a series on that, or stupidity in the classroom etc etc.

Anyways my first 5 videos were cringe. I hit my 100 subs in the month, basically grinding it. It was A GRIND

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How I got the first 100 subs

The first 100 subs were the hardest, even with me getting 60 right off the bat from the following I created and explained. For this I used twitter

NOTES ON TWITTER AND HOW I DID IT AND WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW

CROWDFIRE

I had a decent amount of followers, probably around 200 people on twitter from that "Twitchscapade". But that doesnt matter...

I downloaded an APP called CROWDFIRE. You can get it at the app store or even use it on your desktop. It allows you to copy followers, see who unfollowed you, and also lets you write custom DMs that are automatic without you being there. THIS WAS KEY

Crowdfire allows you to copy followers. Ex: If you do gaming, you can copy and request all the most active followers of a big popular gamer.


At first I was just following random people I had no clue what they liked or who they were, and sending a stupid DM like this

THIS IS NOT WHAT U DO:

Hello! My youtube channel is Called Stupidity Online. I make funny videos . Can you go like and subscribe??!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE FOLLOW!!


First off everyone thinks their videos are funny. People knew It was an automated message. and I got maybe one sub doing it for a week straight non stop. You need to

1. Make it personable, this way it does not seem like an auto DM
2. Make it short. I get these DMS all the time that are NOVELS and I don't read it because Im like wtf is this crap....
3. Do not sound like an advertisement

THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ( this is a quick write up, USE YOUR OWN TOUCH and be PERSONABLE )

Hey hope your having a good day! Thank you so much for the follow. I see you follow _______ ( Insert a famous youtuber that is similar to your channel or whoever you are getting the followers from) and I make similar type videos, and was wondering your feedback, or if you enjoy this these type of videos? I appreciate the follow again and have an amazing day! My channel is __________ your channel

Simple, short, shows why you tried following them in the first place, and you don't come off to spammy. This also

1. Shows that you guys do indeed have something in common even though you don't even know each other
2. Are providing a video based on their likings and what they watch on youtube
3. Are super nice and a chill person

Doing this, I got to around 180 subs, and the people ACTUALLY WATCHED and commented.

Now don't expect to do this and then all of a sudden your done. It will take time grinding this, searching for the right people not just completely random spam follow active users of your favorite youtubers. I search for people who I see are active on twitter, have a small number of followers and following, and will watch.

1. Look for people who tweet alot to that particular youtuber
2. Make sure they do not have a huge following, people who have a small following and small follow base will be happy to check you out and engage with you.
3. Make sure YOU ALWAYS ANSWER AND STAY TOTALLY ACTIVE

Doing this does not mean hit buttons and watch the counter go up. Twitter is like a full time job. This brings me to my next section
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TWITTER IS LIKE A FULL TIME JOB FOR YOUR PROMOTION AND COMMUNITY AFTER THAT STEP

Now I did start to get subs but it took a GRIND to get it. However I was posting my videos basically and maybe tweeted once or twice.

All I did was post my video up, maybe throw a tweet like Wow this day blows.. hur hur hur and no one would engage. Maybe I would get 2 likes...

This was not working. And how I figured out the solution was by accident. I actually met a really cool couple using this method, and I loved their videos. They are a small youtuber like me ( 031 living ) is their channel

THEY ACTUALLY NOW MADE A VIDEO REACTION TO MY VIDEOS and I did not even ask....

Anyways because of them I started watching their videos, and engaging with others as well. These two basically showed me the light. And how they did it was because of friendship

YOU NEED TO ENGAGE PEOPLE. I started tweeting at other people and their replies. I started getting interested in other people tweets, when all I cared about was spamming my videos and kind of just throwing my content out there. IT DOESNT WORK. I now LOVE LOVE TWITTER.

I went from getting 1 like on most of my tweets for a month or 2. To now 20 - 30 likes even saying something stupid. WHY? Because I started developing a following and community.

I started listening to them, engaging with them, and loving and being apart what the twitter world had to offer. And in return people actually wanted to listen to me to! It then started to just snowball.

IF YOU ARE GENUINE AND REALLY WANT TO ENGAGE AND BE FRIENDLY IT WILL SHOW. THE RESULTS WILL SHOW. WHEN YOU AREN'T GENUINE AND DO THINGS JUST FOR YOUR OWN SELF AND BENEFIT IT WILL SHOW.. This goes to everything in life that I learned as well from all this

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SEO and the importance of THE SHOUT OUT

Now I know people say COLLAB! Do this do that! Ok yea. You do they are 100% right. BUT what about you guys who have not taken my advice yet and actually really started to engage with others and develop friendships? What about those who literally JUST STARTED.

Well first there is a place called the GRIN MARKETPLACE

It does cost money but for 5 bucks, 20 bucks etc. You can purchase a shoutout from youtubers. When I did this on my first videos, NO ONE SUBBED TO ME. WASTED MONEY..

HOWEVER!!!

This is why content is king. After working so hard each week trying to improve my video quality, I purchased a shoutout by my 7th video ( I have 15 now ). On my third video when I purchased a shoutout I got like 1 sub...

1 SUB...............

After really boosting my content, my video quality and really studying and putting my heart and soul into the next bunch of videos, I tried it again. I got a shoutout from a youtuber and it got me

80 SUBS!

These werent just people subbing. These were people who commented and wrote, hey I saw _____ shouted you out. I love your videos I subscribed! Your hilarious!!

This to me was amazing. It now showed that my hard work is finally getting results, and now I have the test of people coming to my channel WHO ARE NOT EVEN IN THE SAME CATEGORY as the videos I provide as that shoutout I ordered, but Loved my content!

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VID IQ and TUBEBUDDY for SEO

These two are gold to me. I knew very little about SEO, and why tagging, and optimization is so important. With the help of my brain and studying, and using these two tools it is starting to work.

You can read this novel I am giving you all start to finish and it wont matter IF YOU DO NOT PUT IN THE STUDY TIME.

Keyword research, finding your nich, seo optimization, and the social media grind, will get you to that 500 subs.

Both VIDIQ and Tubebuddy are indeed free, but I pay for both. I use every single inch of them. And I would highly recommend anyone who is super serious do the same. I will not go into a crazy amount of detail how to use them, but I will say that you need to utilize. I will drop some key points why below

VIDIQ = While It is free, if you pay monthly you get a ton of extra stuff. IMO you do not need to purchase it. Download the google chrome extension and use it to gain knowledge of how your video is doing. With this you will see other peoples tags, YOUR OWN SEO SCORE, you can see how many videos are linked back to you through creator suggested and more. I LOVE IT

Tubebuddy = Is basically VidIQ with other features. Use the both to your advantage. I pay for both monthly but both are indeed free and can be utilized AMAZINGLY without paying. I just like to continue to knowledge myself and have grown to now fall in love with youtube and SEO

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AdWords

If you don't know what AdWords is, its an advertising tool provided by google. These are where you see those advertisements in youtube videos, or the ads on the side of videos on your bar. These are paid by people and they are charged either when someone clicks it, or when someone watches over 30 seconds of that add on your youtube video you are about to watch.


Now If you want views and want to spend a little money you can use AdWords. NOW BEFORE U GO DIVING IN and say screw it .5 cents a view IM IN! PEOPLE WILL LOVE ME STOP

Do your research. Learn how to use it. There are some amazing tutorials out there. You can target similar youtube channels for your video adds, or in display ads to appear, hone in on certain keywords etc.

KNOWLEDGE YOURSELF and set a tiny budget. Take a week to learn it and study and really get to know the ins and outs of it. By the end of this when you become knowledgeable I have seen myself, as well as read from others if fully optimized you can get around .05 cents a view and subscribers at 1.00.

Like I said that doesn't mean set it up dump some money and watch the sub count grow. Just like with your channel, your social media outlets, you need to grow and learn with it. All of this takes time. And if you don't have the time, then make the time if you are fully passionate.

I work 9-5 every mon - friday. I come home exhausted and I dedicate the rest to knowledge about youtube, SEO, and other things. On the weekend I relax, but still somewhat dedicate my time to trying to improve and always thinking what can I do next. If you have the passion, you can too.

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Summary

I learned promotion is key. But it can be useless with a ME mentality
I learned thinking way outside the box works. DUH. But how I got to think outside the box was the real reward
Quality over quantity.
I looked at what everyone else is doing. And I did it the same yet totally different. You can too

Relationships are important. Develop them. Grow with people. Listen to others. Not only for your youtube channel but for life. You may think what you have to say is important and you want the world to hear it. But they will listen when they know you listen to them. Same goes for you and myself.

Get out there and make friends. Focus on learning about others, and what they do. Once I did that and stopped focusing on my self promotion and the promotion of my videos, the promotion just came in itself. I didn't need to focus on promoting, it happened. I now focus on listening and enjoying everyone else. And because of that, 500 people now enjoy me.


Good luck to you all!
 

KingUsher

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This is perfect! i don`t know why it has no reply's but thanks man read everything and am going to try what i just picked up tomorrow!
 

ZactheRipper

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Great read. Also thank you changing colors it was easier in the eyes. A lot of good info I will be referring to. Thanks a bunch.
 
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Its a very useful guide and also a great story,thank you for sharing :)
 

Nebojsa032

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Great, i am very happy for you and i hope you will gain even more subscribers! :D
 

HalieCakes

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Thanks for sharing! I found this extremely useful! I do have a question though! As someone who has never really been on Twitter, do you think it's absolutely a must to have one? I have one and I just post my videos on it...I've never been big about telling people my life in vivid detail. I understand using Twitter to make connections with people but the format on Twitter is just too confusing for me and all over the place.
 

LeSkittle

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Very nice post, I've read the whole way through and you definitely have some amazing points! Thanks for taking the time to make this and share it.
 

Stupidity Online

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Thank you guys so much I am glad you enjoyed. It is now actually a month and a half after I posted this, and I have hit the 1,000 sub mark. Its pretty surreal I must say, but it is more amazing the people you encounter along the journey. As I stated how important it is to be active in the community, and actually LISTEN to people it naturally just starts to grow.

When I first made videos I would have 3-4 comments. I would sit down the day after with my cup of coffee and write a detailed response to each. And I enjoyed it.

it then grew to 10 comments maybe each video, and I still did the same exact thing. I get my coffee the next day or the day after, and dedicate the time to sit and read each one, and write a personalized response back to each person.

This not only helped me learn who is who, it helped them realize this guy is genuine, and puts the extra to make sure we ( the viewers ) are heard.



Fast forward today, and I still do the same thing. Except now the comments have grown to a point where it doesn't take me 5-10 minutes on one cup of coffee. It takes me around 20-40 minutes and a couple cups. For this reason I don't just say thank you for watching! I actually read and then write and give a personalized thank you, and note each and every person that took the time out of their busy day to watch my video as well as comment. If they can do that for me, I dam sure can make sure to break up time in my day to respond back.

It's amazing what you learn as you continue making videos, and interacting with people is so important. So I wanted to stress that in the guide, as well as make it a statement here once again. LISTEN TO PEOPLE. And I genuinely mean LISTEN. Not just read or hear what they say. Actually listen

In return they will listen to you.

Thanks for sharing! I found this extremely useful! I do have a question though! As someone who has never really been on Twitter, do you think it's absolutely a must to have one? I have one and I just post my videos on it...I've never been big about telling people my life in vivid detail. I understand using Twitter to make connections with people but the format on Twitter is just too confusing for me and all over the place.
I actually think it is a must have. Twitter was a big part of my growth. Like I stated in the guide when I first got it I just posted my videos on it. NO ONE WATCHED. No one cared. I was following people some followed back but no one cared. It wasn't until I actually started to read peoples tweets, enage with them, learn about them, and take interest in the community. While taking interest in their lives, and their sharings, they took interest in me. And now I am more than happy to say I have met some pretty amazing people on it, and it has been a huge piece on this journey. So I highly suggest you get one. It's a powerful tool and seems nerve wracking at first ( it seems so confusing ) but I am telling you. After a few days of learning it, its so so so simple.


Again thank you guys for the replies and I hope it helps. I am on this forum every day always reading, I just didnt realize people were responding in the threat because the first few days no one wrote anything lol. If you have any questions at all I would be happy to help!
 

Yoursharkfriend

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This is such a mind opening post and I love it! I find it incredibly hard for me to talk to people even online so I'll have to work on that. And I also have a problem with finding collabs and other people just as passionate. Usually it's always the people who only care about themselves and their subs. But I will definitely be reading this and studying it like a bible. Thank you! :)