The small stay small, the big get bigger.

[Lalay Cartoons]

Great info! Forum posting is next on my list.

 

[TheSwedishTraveler]

Great info! Forum posting is next on my list.

Well, you are on your way on starting writing on forums! (If I have to be technical!)

 

[Megamindez]

Awesome and useful guideline! Thanskf ro sharing!

 

[YourKingSkeletor]

Introduction.
Quickly before you get into this thread I wanna explain what it is, first of all I've had success on Youtube, and I've tried to analyze the way to getting a larger Youtube channel. I will in this guide try to focus on every step of the way, and give you my 2 cents on how to do Youtube.

The small stay small.
The first topic I wanna round up is the fact, that a lot of smaller channels stay small, even though they have great content, and they put a lot of work into their channels.
From my experience, there are 3 ways of growing your channel, and 3 stages of growth.
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The three methods of growing.
The first method of growing: Gateway video(s).
Now this method isn't something you can just "aim" for and get, since it requires you to get a semi-viral video, which appeals to a large consumer base. However I thought I'd mention it since it has helped me grow.

The second method of growing: Sharing.
This one you know all too well, showing your videos to friends or sharing it on great forus like yttalk. You CANNOT grow a smaller channel without one or both of the first 2 methods.

The third method of growing: Natural growth.
This is the kind of growth you want your channel to have, the one you can't get when you're a small channel. The point where your channel grows on it's own, and you get hundreds of new subscribers each day. Don't be mistaken though, noone got to this, without going through at least one of the above.
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The three stages of your channel.
The very beginning:
Here we're talking about a channel that has little to no viewers, they can only utilize 2 out of the 3 growth methods. Usually only the second, since none of his/her videos get to be semi-viral, seeing as they get little to no views. Even sites such as Reddit will cast your videos aside, seeing as they're not already sprouting at least a little bit.


Middle stage:
I like to recognize this tier as the point where you don't need to ***** yourself out everywhere, however your growth is still very slow. You may have a few hundred subscribers, and you gain a few here and there, however your growth is very slow. This is the point where you wanna aim for gateway videos.

Think about it like this, someone who sees a channel they've never seen before, which doesn't get alot of views, usually don't watch a 20 minute vlog. However a 30 second funny video of sorts, that's more like it! Keep gateway videos between 20 seconds and 2-3 minutes.

The selfsustainable stage: As I talked about previously, this is the point where your channel will grow on it's own, this is the stage you ideally wanna get to. The rest of this guide will be on how to optimize your channel from this point on, so if your channel isn't this big, try focusing on my previous points.

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Going from a medium channel, to a large channel:
Content expansion:
This is where you're gonna wanna look at what you're doing, and expand on that without ruining what you have going. If you have any popular series that your audience likes, keep doing that, however don't restrict yourself.

As a gamer I can give an example, I'm lying around 8500 subscribers (I have almost 10x that number now, I think that is proof enough that this works), however I decided a long time ago that I wanted at least 10.000 before moving on to doing Let's plays. This is because when your channel reaches this size, you will have more freedom, since many are subscribed for your content, not a single type of your videos.

If you're a vlogger you might also start doing other stuff at this point, but the reason I advice people to wait for this, is because you could put so much effort into something, but if your channel isn't big enough, the videos simply won't get the attention they deserve. Taking example in myself again, if I recorded 100 Let's play episode *20 minutes, and I didn't have an engaged audience, I would have spent 33+ hours (that's just recording, not even editing) with little to no reward.

Collaborations:
This sounds simple, and it also sounds stupid to first get collaborations in at this point. However collaborating with other Youtubers who also have big channels, gives both parts a much higher reward than 2 smaller channels working together. Share your audiences, and learn from each other.

Finalizing:
This is gonna be my final point, but I wanna point out all the little things that you need to have optimized at this point of a channels growth.

Thumbnails and channel art:
Whether you're with the One Channel layout or not, we can all agree that some thumbnails lead people into clicking way more then others. Putting your text sideways allows for larger and longer texts, try Impact with black outline.

As for your channel art, make it something that really makes people look at it, it should make your page look sleek and well-polished.

Video and audio quality:
At this point in time you're gonna wanna have both a good microphone, and good video regardless of whether you record real-life videos, or a machine created cinema (and that is the origin of the word "Machinima", it's meaning has been misconstruded over the years though)

Audience interaction:
At this point (and actually at any point) you wanna reply to as many comments as possible, of course it won't show all comments anymore, but look through your notifications several times a day. If you're a vlogger try bringing your audience into your videos, whether that be by live interaction or comments being highlighted. If you're a gamer play with them, and upload it, if they're your fan they would love it.

I'm not saying you should reply to every comment, or play with every subscribers. However the general gist is to give something back.

Social media:
You want either a Facebook, or a Twitter, if not both at this point. If you have time time and money, you can also try experimenting with a website, this will help organise your content, and may bring awareness to your followers. I'm currently testing this out myself, and I will update this guide when I have used the website for a couple of months.

Edit: I currently have a designer making my website for me, will elaborate once everything is in place.
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Final words:If you're still with me, it means you read my entire guide, I will be answering questions as much as I can on this thread. If you disagree feel free to let me know, I hoped this helped you in some way, and as always: have a nice day!

Amazing tips. I for one use the best tags, amazing (at least Twitter followers think so) thumbnails, a good description and decent title and still rank 10th page. YouTube treats you like crap until 100 subs because then they know youre serious about this. At that point you rank high with little effort like sky and them (but not as high).

 

[Fudoobeer]

where can i find collab?

 

[SethSpeight]

Thanks for posting this, really helps me understand that the self-promotion stage, which in my opinion seems like the biggest obstacle, is something everyone has to go through.

 

[AntonBro]

god, i hope my channel will get the first 100 subs at least till the end of the year

 

[SethSpeight]

god, i hope my channel will get the first 100 subs at least till the end of the year

That's my goal as well, 100 subs by the end of 2016 and if I get that I'm going to upgrade my equipment as a reward to myself. You're off to a good start, only 90 more to go.

 

[DuncanT]

Thank you for posting this, I think this is going to help a lot! It also motivates me that you have over a million subscribers now, so getting advice from someone that big really motivates me!

That's my goal as well, 100 subs by the end of 2016 and if I get that I'm going to upgrade my equipment as a reward to myself. You're off to a good start, only 90 more to go.

That's my goal too! Pretty cool how we all have the same goals, now let's see if we all can reach them!

 

[Failproductions]

Good read, thank you for taking the time to share your experience!