TDKPyrostasis
Active Member
Just a word of warning this is going to be long winded.
I thought about tossing this thread up on my networks forums and leaving it at that, but figured I'd throw it up here on the off chance that it would do a bit more good to the general public. I'm mainly posting this as a counter to the apparent common misconception that a network is going to make you the next big youtuber and that once your partnered with X group you've made it.
First off a bit about me, I started doing youtuber in 2011 in october, I started knowing nothing and have since grown 2 channels to 20,000 subscribers + and currently pull in about 1,000,000 - 1,200,000 views a month. I'm also a twitch partner, TGS partner, and have made my success with 0 shout outs, hardly any network promotion, and strictly with my own hard work busting my a**. I'm not stating this to brad, as Im still a very small channel in the grand scheme of things. I barely make a "liveable" income off my channel, but I post my stats so that folks realize Im not a 200 sub newbie to youtube.
I've been a youtube partner since April 2011 with RPM and recently transfered to TGS in May of 2012. I created my second channel in sept 2012 and its currently catching my main channel in subs and greatly surpasing it in views. I frequently am asked "How did you do it?" "What helped you get big" etc.
For me personally it wasn't a network, it wasn't a shout out, it wasn't some big guy giving me a like it was simply utlizing 2 things to get myself known Collaboration and Youtube Search / Google Search.
Lets start with the misconceptions most folks have
When I first joined RPM / Maker I like many folks was under the impression that the network is what made you. I assumed Machinima with their hub channels was where you wanted to be and a big shout out was how you'd "make it". I no longer believe thats true. I personally believe 95% - 99% of your channels growth is about you and hard work and has very little to do with a network or third party non-collaborative promotion.
A network tweeting you out will definitely get you some views / subs but its going to be marginal in the grand scheme of things. Most folks subscribed to your networks twitter accounts are other partners and while some of them may watch your content they are mainly trying to do exactly what you are. There may be a few exceptions, but a tweet wont make you.
A shout out isn't going to make you huge. Yes getting Nerd cubed or Whiteboy to like your video or talk about you is definitely going to bump your counts and get you a nice influx of their loyal subscribers but the folks subbing are THEIR loyal subs. They are subbing you cause they were more or less told to and while they may find your content interesting and you may definitely convert some of them to new subs, you aren't going to explode over night. Begging for shout outs is a massive waste of your time and effort you can use in methods that actually work and will consistently give you a influx. That shout out may make you a few thousand subs, but in a week your no longer earning off that focus on longer term consistent methods of gaining subs and you'll grow like crazy.
Hub channels are nice and definitely a solid way to get exposure. Some partners have managed to utilize these to some decent success. That being said if your lucky enough to be able to utilize said hub channels your competing with 5 - 10 other videos that day and anywhere from 50 - 100 other videos that week. Even if your video is good and someone likes it finding your channel can be a chore for someone who isn't as youtube savy and the hub channel may end up getting the sub instead of you. Don't get me wrong, hub channels are a resource and if you have the opportunity use it! Just dont expect to wake up to 20,000 subs the following day.
Now that I've covered what I PERSONALLY feel are missconseptions lets talk about what I also PERSONALLY think is the best way to grow. Collaboration. This is a method that can massively grow your channel consistently over months and years, drastically increase your reach, and just about anyone in a network can utilize that network to do so. TGN, Yeousch, and RPM all have network forums and most of them are filled to the brim with "look at this video" or "help me grow" completely missing the gold mine that is right there.
Last year when I created my new minecraft youtube channel I joined a collab group of 3 other youtubers. At the time all of us were between 5 - 10k subs and averaging 150,000 - 250,000 views. We worked together commenting on each others content, liking each others videos, making videos with each other, and doing series with different partners in the collab every week.
This took my microscopic channel and put it daily in front of 15,000 people from the collab group while also putting my collab groups content in front of my audience. We called it cross pollination and it worked wonders. Over time we added folks to the group and now every one of us is over 15k subs and we're able to leverage our combined viewership / sub base to collab with people who are significantly higher than us now simply due to our combined size. People who previously wouldnt make a video with any of singularly look at our aggregate total and are impressed. Its opened doors for us and has been a huge asset.
So how do you do this?
Easy. Start a thread on your networks forums / here / social blades forums. Start looking at folks you previously thought of as competition and see if they have similar styles. Make sure the sizes are similar. a 200 sub channel is going to contribute 0 to a 10,000 sub channel, but a 400 sub channel could benefit.
Make sure your demographics and personalities mesh. A Minecraft thats 50 years old and a cod player thats 14 is a bad mix. The audiences are going to be different and not mesh well at all. However to teenage cod players could make an amazing series together.
Make series in parts. For instance, say you do a minecraft collabe map with a partner. Upload part 1 to your channel, part 2 to your partners, and part 3 to yours, the conclusion on his. This forces the audience to view both channels to see the entire series and can easily be accomplished with annotations and playlists.
Link the collab in your videos. This builds back links over time and as you all grow you all get better search rank. If someone gets lucky and explodes you all benefit. Dont be jealous, just make sure you then work with said person who is experiencing some luck, your turn will come!
Have weekly brainstorming sessions about ideas / series. You may know a lot about youtube but I guarantee you there are little tips and tricks that you dont know yet. I've been doing this for 2 years now and Im still learning things. Utilize your collective knowledge and implement smart tactics constantly!
Finally make sure you continue to add people to the group over time. Youtubers come and go, some folks get tired of it, change demographics, or simply stagnate, while new people are constantly showing up. Look for new talent and start adding them to your group.
For me personally what started as a small group of 4 collab partners with just 20,000 subs is now a massive group of almost 20 people will a giant reach that I could only hope to have solo. If folks would spend half the time they do complaining about their network that isnt promoting them, asking for shout outs from mega youtubers, or simply spamming forums for views on collaboration we'd have a lot more larger channels out there.
I thought about tossing this thread up on my networks forums and leaving it at that, but figured I'd throw it up here on the off chance that it would do a bit more good to the general public. I'm mainly posting this as a counter to the apparent common misconception that a network is going to make you the next big youtuber and that once your partnered with X group you've made it.
First off a bit about me, I started doing youtuber in 2011 in october, I started knowing nothing and have since grown 2 channels to 20,000 subscribers + and currently pull in about 1,000,000 - 1,200,000 views a month. I'm also a twitch partner, TGS partner, and have made my success with 0 shout outs, hardly any network promotion, and strictly with my own hard work busting my a**. I'm not stating this to brad, as Im still a very small channel in the grand scheme of things. I barely make a "liveable" income off my channel, but I post my stats so that folks realize Im not a 200 sub newbie to youtube.
I've been a youtube partner since April 2011 with RPM and recently transfered to TGS in May of 2012. I created my second channel in sept 2012 and its currently catching my main channel in subs and greatly surpasing it in views. I frequently am asked "How did you do it?" "What helped you get big" etc.
For me personally it wasn't a network, it wasn't a shout out, it wasn't some big guy giving me a like it was simply utlizing 2 things to get myself known Collaboration and Youtube Search / Google Search.
Lets start with the misconceptions most folks have
When I first joined RPM / Maker I like many folks was under the impression that the network is what made you. I assumed Machinima with their hub channels was where you wanted to be and a big shout out was how you'd "make it". I no longer believe thats true. I personally believe 95% - 99% of your channels growth is about you and hard work and has very little to do with a network or third party non-collaborative promotion.
A network tweeting you out will definitely get you some views / subs but its going to be marginal in the grand scheme of things. Most folks subscribed to your networks twitter accounts are other partners and while some of them may watch your content they are mainly trying to do exactly what you are. There may be a few exceptions, but a tweet wont make you.
A shout out isn't going to make you huge. Yes getting Nerd cubed or Whiteboy to like your video or talk about you is definitely going to bump your counts and get you a nice influx of their loyal subscribers but the folks subbing are THEIR loyal subs. They are subbing you cause they were more or less told to and while they may find your content interesting and you may definitely convert some of them to new subs, you aren't going to explode over night. Begging for shout outs is a massive waste of your time and effort you can use in methods that actually work and will consistently give you a influx. That shout out may make you a few thousand subs, but in a week your no longer earning off that focus on longer term consistent methods of gaining subs and you'll grow like crazy.
Hub channels are nice and definitely a solid way to get exposure. Some partners have managed to utilize these to some decent success. That being said if your lucky enough to be able to utilize said hub channels your competing with 5 - 10 other videos that day and anywhere from 50 - 100 other videos that week. Even if your video is good and someone likes it finding your channel can be a chore for someone who isn't as youtube savy and the hub channel may end up getting the sub instead of you. Don't get me wrong, hub channels are a resource and if you have the opportunity use it! Just dont expect to wake up to 20,000 subs the following day.
Now that I've covered what I PERSONALLY feel are missconseptions lets talk about what I also PERSONALLY think is the best way to grow. Collaboration. This is a method that can massively grow your channel consistently over months and years, drastically increase your reach, and just about anyone in a network can utilize that network to do so. TGN, Yeousch, and RPM all have network forums and most of them are filled to the brim with "look at this video" or "help me grow" completely missing the gold mine that is right there.
Last year when I created my new minecraft youtube channel I joined a collab group of 3 other youtubers. At the time all of us were between 5 - 10k subs and averaging 150,000 - 250,000 views. We worked together commenting on each others content, liking each others videos, making videos with each other, and doing series with different partners in the collab every week.
This took my microscopic channel and put it daily in front of 15,000 people from the collab group while also putting my collab groups content in front of my audience. We called it cross pollination and it worked wonders. Over time we added folks to the group and now every one of us is over 15k subs and we're able to leverage our combined viewership / sub base to collab with people who are significantly higher than us now simply due to our combined size. People who previously wouldnt make a video with any of singularly look at our aggregate total and are impressed. Its opened doors for us and has been a huge asset.
So how do you do this?
Easy. Start a thread on your networks forums / here / social blades forums. Start looking at folks you previously thought of as competition and see if they have similar styles. Make sure the sizes are similar. a 200 sub channel is going to contribute 0 to a 10,000 sub channel, but a 400 sub channel could benefit.
Make sure your demographics and personalities mesh. A Minecraft thats 50 years old and a cod player thats 14 is a bad mix. The audiences are going to be different and not mesh well at all. However to teenage cod players could make an amazing series together.
Make series in parts. For instance, say you do a minecraft collabe map with a partner. Upload part 1 to your channel, part 2 to your partners, and part 3 to yours, the conclusion on his. This forces the audience to view both channels to see the entire series and can easily be accomplished with annotations and playlists.
Link the collab in your videos. This builds back links over time and as you all grow you all get better search rank. If someone gets lucky and explodes you all benefit. Dont be jealous, just make sure you then work with said person who is experiencing some luck, your turn will come!
Have weekly brainstorming sessions about ideas / series. You may know a lot about youtube but I guarantee you there are little tips and tricks that you dont know yet. I've been doing this for 2 years now and Im still learning things. Utilize your collective knowledge and implement smart tactics constantly!
Finally make sure you continue to add people to the group over time. Youtubers come and go, some folks get tired of it, change demographics, or simply stagnate, while new people are constantly showing up. Look for new talent and start adding them to your group.
For me personally what started as a small group of 4 collab partners with just 20,000 subs is now a massive group of almost 20 people will a giant reach that I could only hope to have solo. If folks would spend half the time they do complaining about their network that isnt promoting them, asking for shout outs from mega youtubers, or simply spamming forums for views on collaboration we'd have a lot more larger channels out there.
