Jaybabywolf
I've Got It
So I hit 1000 subscribers last week (I'm pretty chuffed!) and thought I'd at least compile the advice I've learned over the past year and hope it helps you guys!
- Make content that I'd want to subscribe to if I found it, and I'll be honest, I don't subscribe to a lot.
- Post regularly. Shows not just returning subscribers but new visitors that you're the real deal and worth subscribing to.
- Reply to comments, make people feel welcome! You want people to like you and your videos so much that they'll wanna share your videos with others!
- Also comment on other videos similar to you! If people see your comment (one that contributes to discussion, not advertising your channel) and see a nice looking name and avatar, they can discover you that way. For example my Youtube name is 'Seasoned Reviews' with the avatar I have as my YT Talk avatar. It's eye grabbing and with the name having 'reviews' in the title, it makes people realise I might be a Youtuber and then they'll be more likely to click!
- Post anywhere you can that's appropriate! Reddit, Google+, Twitter are my main ones. Reddit is a ballache but you can get lucky if your videos are up to scruff and posted to one of the smaller, relevant subreddits. Read the subreddit's rules first and have a look at what type of content is currently doing well on reddit to get familiar.
- Look professional. Clean looking channel art, production, everything you can clean up, do it. I've had a lot of comments tell me how surprised they were that I didn't have 100k+! Not saying that to sound douchey, but you want to look the best you can! Maybe if you can't do it yourself, get someone good at graphic design to sort it for you?
- Be topical. For example, I do reviews, and while reviewing old shows is alright, my most successful videos are the ones that are timely. I posted my Mr Robot review the day after the season finished and it's not only my best video, but at the top of the Youtube search, so still rakes me in views and subscribers.
- Reasonable SEO. Strong keywords in the title, repeat them in the description, the first tags you use are the strongest so make sure if your video is titled 'Doctor Who Review' or whatever, you'll want 'doctor who' 'review', or even 'doctor who review' as your FIRST tag. Beyond that I don't research best keywords, just put in a few that I think I'd personally would search for if I was cruising around on Youtube, that's relevant to the video.
EDIT: This might not work for everyone! I am not an expert on SEO! If you do have the time, proper research would probably benefit you better!
- Have a strong focus for your channel. The channels I see that do the worst are the ones that aren't quite sure of what they want to do. You want to be able to easily explain your channel to someone in one sentence. I.E. I make TV reviews on a season by season basis, accompanied by cute animations! DONE. A strong focus also means that subscribers know EXACTLY what they're getting when they sign up to following your channel.
- Thumbnails! Custom ones that are pretty and not too busy! Also update old ones, just because a video is old, doesn't mean people will stop discovering you through it!
- Never stop improving. If you look at my first videos compared to my latest videos, you can see how the quality's changed, in little ways. I shortened my intro, improved my narration, my animation is still quite minimal and similar but in a lot of areas looks cleaner. It uses better font, I've improved the strength and presence of my own personality, and I still think I can improve on many things! Never stop evolving, it shows effort, and it'll make you a better Youtuber.
- Ask for advice! Get other Youtubers, friends, whoever, to give you feedback and criticism! And never stop doing that! There'll always be that one guy who manages to point out a problem that no one else caught, and it can make a WORLD of difference.
- Look at big Youtubers! How can you emulate what they're doing? What works for them? Watch their old videos! How bad was their original content? How have they improved? Can you do something similar?
- Learn good audio editing! I still use audacity, but if you know the basics of noise reduction, compression, equalization, and recording in a well treated environment that's not echo-y, it'll improve your quality ten-fold.
- For vloggers, sort out your lighting! I'd recommend RocketJump's Film Academy channel for some pretty fantastic, lighthearted, but professional tutorials. I don't use video too often, but even basics tips from that channel helped me out a lot in experimenting in it.
- Don't be that guy who advertises himself shamelessly everywhere. You look needy and desperate and extremely unprofessional. And don't sub4sub. Both of those actually hurts you more than helps, you don't want 10,000 subs with an average of 10 views per video.
- Do it because you love it, not because you want money! (we all want money though, but that's beside the point!)
This is in no way a comprehensive, definitive guide to Youtube. Plenty of this advice is taken straight out of other guides here on YT Talk. But this is what I've gathered from all the research, reading, and one to one advice I've gained from other Youtubers. Hope it helps!
P.S. I need to do more collaborations! I didn't mention it in the guide because I've hardly done any, but again, that's something I can improve on!
- Make content that I'd want to subscribe to if I found it, and I'll be honest, I don't subscribe to a lot.
- Post regularly. Shows not just returning subscribers but new visitors that you're the real deal and worth subscribing to.
- Reply to comments, make people feel welcome! You want people to like you and your videos so much that they'll wanna share your videos with others!
- Also comment on other videos similar to you! If people see your comment (one that contributes to discussion, not advertising your channel) and see a nice looking name and avatar, they can discover you that way. For example my Youtube name is 'Seasoned Reviews' with the avatar I have as my YT Talk avatar. It's eye grabbing and with the name having 'reviews' in the title, it makes people realise I might be a Youtuber and then they'll be more likely to click!
- Post anywhere you can that's appropriate! Reddit, Google+, Twitter are my main ones. Reddit is a ballache but you can get lucky if your videos are up to scruff and posted to one of the smaller, relevant subreddits. Read the subreddit's rules first and have a look at what type of content is currently doing well on reddit to get familiar.
- Look professional. Clean looking channel art, production, everything you can clean up, do it. I've had a lot of comments tell me how surprised they were that I didn't have 100k+! Not saying that to sound douchey, but you want to look the best you can! Maybe if you can't do it yourself, get someone good at graphic design to sort it for you?
- Be topical. For example, I do reviews, and while reviewing old shows is alright, my most successful videos are the ones that are timely. I posted my Mr Robot review the day after the season finished and it's not only my best video, but at the top of the Youtube search, so still rakes me in views and subscribers.
- Reasonable SEO. Strong keywords in the title, repeat them in the description, the first tags you use are the strongest so make sure if your video is titled 'Doctor Who Review' or whatever, you'll want 'doctor who' 'review', or even 'doctor who review' as your FIRST tag. Beyond that I don't research best keywords, just put in a few that I think I'd personally would search for if I was cruising around on Youtube, that's relevant to the video.
EDIT: This might not work for everyone! I am not an expert on SEO! If you do have the time, proper research would probably benefit you better!
- Have a strong focus for your channel. The channels I see that do the worst are the ones that aren't quite sure of what they want to do. You want to be able to easily explain your channel to someone in one sentence. I.E. I make TV reviews on a season by season basis, accompanied by cute animations! DONE. A strong focus also means that subscribers know EXACTLY what they're getting when they sign up to following your channel.
- Thumbnails! Custom ones that are pretty and not too busy! Also update old ones, just because a video is old, doesn't mean people will stop discovering you through it!
- Never stop improving. If you look at my first videos compared to my latest videos, you can see how the quality's changed, in little ways. I shortened my intro, improved my narration, my animation is still quite minimal and similar but in a lot of areas looks cleaner. It uses better font, I've improved the strength and presence of my own personality, and I still think I can improve on many things! Never stop evolving, it shows effort, and it'll make you a better Youtuber.
- Ask for advice! Get other Youtubers, friends, whoever, to give you feedback and criticism! And never stop doing that! There'll always be that one guy who manages to point out a problem that no one else caught, and it can make a WORLD of difference.
- Look at big Youtubers! How can you emulate what they're doing? What works for them? Watch their old videos! How bad was their original content? How have they improved? Can you do something similar?
- Learn good audio editing! I still use audacity, but if you know the basics of noise reduction, compression, equalization, and recording in a well treated environment that's not echo-y, it'll improve your quality ten-fold.
- For vloggers, sort out your lighting! I'd recommend RocketJump's Film Academy channel for some pretty fantastic, lighthearted, but professional tutorials. I don't use video too often, but even basics tips from that channel helped me out a lot in experimenting in it.
- Don't be that guy who advertises himself shamelessly everywhere. You look needy and desperate and extremely unprofessional. And don't sub4sub. Both of those actually hurts you more than helps, you don't want 10,000 subs with an average of 10 views per video.
- Do it because you love it, not because you want money! (we all want money though, but that's beside the point!)
This is in no way a comprehensive, definitive guide to Youtube. Plenty of this advice is taken straight out of other guides here on YT Talk. But this is what I've gathered from all the research, reading, and one to one advice I've gained from other Youtubers. Hope it helps!
P.S. I need to do more collaborations! I didn't mention it in the guide because I've hardly done any, but again, that's something I can improve on!
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