Sub4Sub - The Pros and Cons

Thank you Michael for this great resume. You just confirmed my thoughts about this sub4sub thing. I will never use that thing. Why have subscribers that dont watch your videos ?
 
Many are aware of what sub4sub is on YouTube but many dont fully understand its effects and the purpose of this article is to inform you of the pros and cons and the effects of participating in sub4sub.

Sub4Sub is where two YouTubers subscribe to each others channels as an exchange, the main issue with this is that they're not usually interested in your content and you are most likely not interested in theirs, you will not gain many views from doing this which is most peoples goals on YouTube.

To begin with I will outline the pros of using sub4sub although there are only a few good things about doing it.

The Pros

Builds a few starting subscribers which may not watch but serves as a statistic to entice others to subscribe too.

It can help others such as friends who dont have any subscribers.

Some but not many may watch now and then although they are not true subscribers.

It can help push you over a subscriber milestone.

And now the cons, this list is quite long as sub4sub has more cons than pros.

The Cons

The subscribers are not active subscribers and the vast majority will not watch your videos.

When doing sub for sub for too long it can make your statistics look bad, for example after 1 month you could have 1000 subscribers and only 1000 video views, this doesn't look right to anyone viewing your channel, the subscriber count should be much lower for the total 1000 video views, a more suitable number could be 50 subscribers.

Many frown upon sub4sub as the subscribers you are earning aren't really watching your videos and are just a statistic who do not care about the content you make.

You can feel bad about your channel when you realise none of these people are watching.

Your channel wont be as attractive as it could be to partner networks and YouTube if it is clear you have been sub4subbing a lot.

Depending on how you go about looking for sub4subbers you could come across as a spammer to others which tarnishes your reputation.

All in all, I personally dont believe you should participate in sub4sub after gaining your first ten subscribers, it may help you gain a small number which will hopefully entice others to subscribe to you too but all in all it is the video views and video content that matters, focus on that and other ways of promoting your videos to get views and the subscribers will follow suit. It is also clear that YouTube frowns upon doing sub4sub as they have censored all variations of it within video comments to prevent video spamming.

The best thing you can do is avoid sub4sub as much as possible and keep making the videos you love to make, improving as you go and networking with others.

Thank you for reading :)
I agree 100%, I hate sub4sub. I think it should be banned on youtube. Thanks for posting this! :D
 
Sub4Sub is for people who are too lazy or not creative enough to produce content that is pleasant to a certain demographic. I think the best way to describe it is as a "pre-pubescent orgy", since it's mostly done by pre-teens who are trying to get people to watch their crappy COD gameplays while being the little "Sub-*****" they are.

Even if times are tough and your videos aren't getting a lot of views, keep producing entertaining and (most importantly) original content. Find new ways to expand your audience. BE CREATIVE!

Thanks Micheal for making a clear list of the pros and cons on this subject, it looks very impartial and fair.

DON'T DO SUB4SUB. It kills the "YouTube Environment".
 
I just hate when people use sub4sub. You get no views and no growing audience. Plus you don't get that feeling when you see someone click that subscribe button on your channel, knowing they like your videos :)
 
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