Suggestions as to how to get subscribers without asking for them?

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Well I think asking for subs in a video is totally up to you. If you are ok with it then go for it. If it feels weird then don't do it. Personally when I watch videos I don't care if it asked for people to subscribe or not. It doesn't bother me either way. Also I looked at your channel and you actually have a decent amount of subs for how long you have been uploading game play. Gameplay channels kind of have a bit harder time growing since it is such a flooded area. Not that it's a bad thing you do gameplay. I love doing it myself. It just might take a little longer to get subs than you originally thought.
 
TubeNoobsTV said:
and start pleading for views during the videos
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You're looking at it the wrong way. People get into their own little Youtube zone jumping from video to video and they need to be guided to do simple things like subscribe and like your videos. It's just a suggestion. It's not as if they had intention of it and you are twisting their arm. They were ready to go on to another video, heard your suggested, said to themselves 'oh yeah, I did kinda like that video...let me go ahead and subscribe'.

whatever you do, make sure you don't ask until the end
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- almost everyone in the thread

The problem I have with waiting until the end is, how many of your viewers watch your videos through to the very end? For most people the answer is not a lot. Unless your viewers are all watching until the end, I believe it would be a poor strategy to wait until the end to talk about subscribing. I would consider (and actually, I should do this myself and I think I will) editing a subtle reminder text into the video itself. Something that appears a couple times throughout but is very subtle, like toward the bottom so that it won't detract from the video itself. Many people do not have the attention span to watch entire 15, 20, 25 minute videos. This doesn't mean they don't like the content and wouldn't subscribe if prompted. That's why I believe a hard-edited subtle text reminder during the video might be a good idea (and then still the end slate suggestion). What is the point in asking them at the end if most of them are gone by then?
 
WilliamRayWalters said:
You're looking at it the wrong way. People get into their own little Youtube zone jumping from video to video and they need to be guided to do simple things like subscribe and like your videos. It's just a suggestion. It's not as if they had intention of it and you are twisting their arm. They were ready to go on to another video, heard your suggested, said to themselves 'oh yeah, I did kinda like that video...let me go ahead and subscribe'.

- almost everyone in the thread

The problem I have with waiting until the end is, how many of your viewers watch your videos through to the very end? For most people the answer is not a lot. Unless your viewers are all watching until the end, I believe it would be a poor strategy to wait until the end to talk about subscribing. I would consider (and actually, I should do this myself and I think I will) editing a subtle reminder text into the video itself. Something that appears a couple times throughout but is very subtle, like toward the bottom so that it won't detract from the video itself. Many people do not have the attention span to watch entire 15, 20, 25 minute videos. This doesn't mean they don't like the content and wouldn't subscribe if prompted. That's why I believe a hard-edited subtle text reminder during the video might be a good idea (and then still the end slate suggestion). What is the point in asking them at the end if most of them are gone by then?
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For me personally, with my gaming channel's relaunch I am going to be working on building a few Lower Thirds to help accomplish the idea you outline here. As you point out, the longer the video the less likely the person is going to watch it completely (although I watch roughly 90% of the videos I play from start to finish). They are quick little 5 second reminders (the animation transition would make it longer than that) that flash on the screen and grab the person's attention. Easy to place in areas of the video that have dead space or not a lot of activity (depending on the content type) and that can provide ques to drive attention to important info.

Also, I don't think it's rude or out of place to ask people towards the beginning of a video to subscribe to the channel and to check out more videos on the channel after the on they're watching. Maybe that makes the person want to watch more of the current video. But that's what A/B Split Testing is for and why more people need to start use that to get more information on what their viewers are doing and how their content is doing.

This is a very information heavy based industry after all.
 
For a small youtube channel like mine I feel that having all these nice social media links and subscribe button in the outro doesn't really do much. Because basically nobody watches the video 100 %. Which is sad, and I sometimes get the urge to tell my viewers at the start to remember to like and 'WATCH THE WOHLE VIDEO, CANDY AT THE END OF VIDEO', but this don't seem to work either.

Well I hope the few people who actually bother watching to the end do eventually like the videos (my compilation videos and milestone videos do seem to get high number of likes and they watch the whole thing).

I once got a suggestion to shorten my intro, to just display the logo... I like this idea a lot, but I'm currently rolling with my slightly longer intro showcasing pieces of game videos I've played, it's still just a few seconds long either way.
 
Brinkbabe91 said:
Well I think asking for subs in a video is totally up to you. If you are ok with it then go for it. If it feels weird then don't do it. Personally when I watch videos I don't care if it asked for people to subscribe or not. It doesn't bother me either way. Also I looked at your channel and you actually have a decent amount of subs for how long you have been uploading game play. Gameplay channels kind of have a bit harder time growing since it is such a flooded area. Not that it's a bad thing you do gameplay. I love doing it myself. It just might take a little longer to get subs than you originally thought.
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Thanks for the comment :) Yeah i think we are gonna add a suggestion to subscribe after all our videos but in a comedic kind of not being too serious way! Also thank you! Lets plays are what we love, we play games together almost every day anyway, so its a perfect idea for us, we will however be aiming to adventure in to other things if it feels like a correct decision, whilst maintaining our lets play core! :)[DOUBLEPOST=1439145507,1439145111][/DOUBLEPOST]
WilliamRayWalters said:
The problem I have with waiting until the end is, how many of your viewers watch your videos through to the very end? For most people the answer is not a lot. Unless your viewers are all watching until the end I believe it would be a poor strategy to wait until the end to talk about subscribing.

I believe a hard-edited subtle text reminder during the video might be a good idea
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You do make a very valid point here, for most new channels especially, we just don't have the fan base yet for people wanting to stay all the way to the end. Also, your second suggestion is a good idea, i may go ahead and make some preset font appearances for our next videos as a small reminder during videos, its better than just your typical annotation!
 
I have always wondered about this. 95% of first time viewers probably don't make it to the end of a video. So then you are missing out on "encouraging" those 95% of viewers to subscribe. Of course, I am using 95% as a theoretical example. But it seems like some clickable text at the bottom of the video would be good in the beginning maybe? I hate to ask people to subscribe, but I feel like I am missing a lot of subscribers probably because of this. I don't know haha. Kinda confusing. One part of me wants to try this and another just wants to not try it.
 
ItsMeCorey said:
I have always wondered about this. 95% of first time viewers probably don't make it to the end of a video. So then you are missing out on "encouraging" those 95% of viewers to subscribe. Of course, I am using 95% as a theoretical example. But it seems like some clickable text at the bottom of the video would be good in the beginning maybe? I hate to ask people to subscribe, but I feel like I am missing a lot of subscribers probably because of this. I don't know haha. Kinda confusing. One part of me wants to try this and another just wants to not try it.
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haha, my thoughts exactly, so i decided to add a quick, small, annotation to all our videos, approx 1 minute in, as well as keeping our subscribe button at the end, we will see how it goes and check analytics :) - David
 
Ask them in a way that it shows how it benefits them and not you. For example you could say "if you like my videos subscribe to my channel and you'll be notified of future videos" or "Subscribe to my channel so you won't miss any new ones"
 
TubeNoobsTV said:
haha, my thoughts exactly, so i decided to add a quick, small, annotation to all our videos, approx 1 minute in, as well as keeping our subscribe button at the end, we will see how it goes and check analytics :) - David
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Leep us updated how that turns out for you :)
 
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