CloudCJay

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Introduction:
Hello everyone on YT. My name is CJ and I go by Cloud CJay. Today I wanted to share some cold hard facts on growing a YouTube Channel. First, I'd like to get this out there before it's said or "discovered" to try to discredit the advice that I'm about to share. Clicking on my channel's url doesn't take away from the quality and knowledge of what I'm about to share. I'm currently on a new channel that will be my one and only channel until I start growing again. I've been on YouTube since 2007, first started making videos back in 2011-2013/14 but walked away from YouTube due to life responsibilities. I use to go by ApolloTheMarvel. I made comedy skits and music video parodies. Total views were over 1million views and about 1.6million total combined views for all of the channels that I was running at that time. Total combined subscribers were 11k+. I was able to accomplish 1million views and that amount of subscribers in about 1yr. May have been 1yr and a couple of months. I worked for a company named Touchstorm in 2014-2015 where I was a YouTube Audience Developer (YTAD) also in which I was YouTube certified for audience growth. Now that that's out of the way. On to the advice.

How to kill your Channel Early:
YouTube success is about planning and timing. You might ask, well how much time? It can be as quick as 3months to 6months or a little close to a year. What hurts me is when I see channels that have been making content for 4-5rs+ and haven't broken 1k subscribers yet. That's usually due to inconsistency, content not being searchable or not being unique enough with their niche to catch a buzz. What you never want to do is sub4sub. Yes, subbing to a channel you're going to actually watch and support doesn't fall under sub4sub. Sub4Sub is defined as subbing to a channel with intentions of having another channel sub back to you and you both don't plan to support and watch each other's content. If you're going to sub4sub at least do it with people who have the same drive and ambition to succeed on youtube as yourself. Usually it's good to sub to channels that make similar content and have similar channel sizes. So in the future if you decide to do a collaboration, it would make more sense for a gaming channel to collab with another gaming channel with similar content rather than a beauty channel. Sub4Sub will leave you with a good amount of subscribers that won't watch your videos when you upload them and your views to subscriber ratio will be really bad. Trying to trick people into thinking because you have a lot of subscribers, you're going to get more subscribers. It doesn't work that way unless you went viral or got a huge collaboration or shout out from someone else much larger than yourself.

Timing, Planning, and Just doing You:
A lot of people on YouTube want fast growth. I'm one of those people. However, because I've been on the platform for so long, I understand that it's not going to happen for most of us and if it does, it will happen when it suppose 2 happen or you can influence the odds of making it happen?? Oooo. How do you do that. By planning and timing your content. Basically knowing what type of content you want to upload, how and when you want to upload it. There are a lot of people on YouTube who also want to simply upload whatever they feel like uploading. The thing about that, that only works for certain people and won't work for most. Most of us on YouTube will have to find a niche and stick with that niche until we build a loyal subscriber base that will support whatever type of videos that we want to do.

I Post all the Time but Still No Growth!:
The problem with this is usually very simple. The quality and the relevancy of your content. If your content is already hard to find and you're not doing any type of promotion for it on top of it having bad quality, you kind of have to expect this to happen. But there are a lot of people on YouTube who have bad content and still get a lot of views? That is usually due 2 them going viral at some point or being relevant at some point and having loyal subscribers who will stick with them no matter what.

Well, how do I get noticed and seen?

Easier said than done. Start by researching other successful channels in your niche. Take a trip through their YouTube Journey/Career by going to videos on their channel and sorting by oldest. Watch to see when the views start shifting from small numbers to big numbers and also pay attention to how long they have been making content before big number jumps. A lot of the time, a channel with a plan focuses a set niche but will go after trending content in their niche when it comes out because a lot of people are searching for it on YouTube. By being one of the first people to cover something that everyone is looking for and talking about, will put you in front of that audience. If viewers like the content of what they have found, then they will subscribe.

A more simpler answer to getting noticed please?!

Depending on your niche. Research what the big talk is at the moment around your niche and/or research things that will be coming out in regards to your niche. Watch what's trending, and stay up to date to what everyone else is talking about and looking for and then take action.

For my Young YouTubers ares 7-teenage:
There are a lot of you guys on YouTube that want to grow but what's usually lacking is quality and presentation. Bad quality due to recording with a phone and presentation would be due to bad charisma and lack of confidence and knowledge. I don't say any of these things to pick on you guys, I speak from experience. I use to be a young person as well, some will be gifted with the ability of public speaking and having that confidence in their voice when they make videos and most wont, but that's ok, that changes with time. So be patient.

TL;DR
There are no shortcuts to success, and everything can be achieved through planning. If you didn't plan on reading the whole thing, then you basically want to fail. Just keeping it real.

Questions?
I'm always willing to help, so if you want to ask me a question about your YouTube channel, I don't mind taking a look at it, but keep it mind, please be open to constructive criticism, I will tell you exactly why people more than likely aren't finding your channel or if they are, they aren't subscribing.

Conclusion:
I hope that this really starts turning on the light bulb for a lot of you guys when it comes to your approach to YouTube. Thank you for having me.

- Your Favorite Cloud Ninja CJay.
 

Dutchie Abroad

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Thank you for the elaborate advice! You make some very good points.

A lot of the time, a channel with a plan focuses a set niche but will go after trending content in their niche when it comes out because a lot of people are searching for it on YouTube. By being one of the first people to cover something that everyone is looking for and talking about, will put you in front of that audience.
I read this a lot, but to be honest I have no idea how to do this. I've always been a person that finds out about things after they happened (whether they are trends, concerts I would have liked to see or school announcements). So how DO you stay on top of things? How can you spot trends, especially when they aren't big yet but will be?

I'm always willing to help, so if you want to ask me a question about your YouTube channel, I don't mind taking a look at it, but keep it mind, please be open to constructive criticism, I will tell you exactly why people more than likely aren't finding your channel or if they are, they aren't subscribing.
I'd love me some of this! I've only just started out and too be honest, I feel like I'm done pretty good. I'm getting a steady 60+ views on videos with only 38 subscribers. But if you have any feedback on SEO, that be great. I feel like most of my traffic is coming from my personal circle (I post on my personal facebook to notify friends and family) and from this forum. I'd love to reach more people and I'm not really sure how findable my content is.
 

EVO

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I like your style sir. Nice write up.
 

Hirudov

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Thank you for the elaborate advice! You make some very good points.
I read this a lot, but to be honest I have no idea how to do this. I've always been a person that finds out about things after they happened (whether they are trends, concerts I would have liked to see or school announcements). So how DO you stay on top of things? How can you spot trends, especially when they aren't big yet but will be?
Sometimes its a pure luck and just coincidence. You just need the will to create content. One of my more popular videos is about e-cigarette and I don't smoke. A friend of mine was at home with the gadget, so I told him it would be cool if we make a review of it. So we did it and it turned out there was no other video of this exact vaping kit at the time, so my video got good amount of views. Another video that I still wonder why it is getting views even if YouTube broke it 2 years ago and it's totally unwatchable, is of me changing a water dispenser. It's getting suggested in one of the short clips of Friends, but there is something else. I've re-uploaded the video in watchable format but YouTube removed it from the search results, probably they found out it was duplicate and left the broken one on the top of the search results, even if people can't watch it.
 

Crown

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Nice guide! Moved to the tutorials section. :)
 

Realiti Virtualski

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These are some really helpful guidelines! It's been great to read your (and others) point of view and tips on how to improve, tweak and change things. And after being on this forum for only 2 days, I already have a better grasp on what needs to change or be better with my own channel.
 

CloudCJay

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Thank you for the elaborate advice! You make some very good points.


I read this a lot, but to be honest I have no idea how to do this. I've always been a person that finds out about things after they happened (whether they are trends, concerts I would have liked to see or school announcements). So how DO you stay on top of things? How can you spot trends, especially when they aren't big yet but will be?


I'd love me some of this! I've only just started out and too be honest, I feel like I'm done pretty good. I'm getting a steady 60+ views on videos with only 38 subscribers. But if you have any feedback on SEO, that be great. I feel like most of my traffic is coming from my personal circle (I post on my personal facebook to notify friends and family) and from this forum. I'd love to reach more people and I'm not really sure how findable my content is.
Sometimes you won't be able to be the first to hear about trends. But here is some of the ways that I use to keep up with that's trending. YouTube's trending page, videos that you keep seeing being shared around Facebook that you haven't seen yet, and if you have a twitter account, the hash tags on the left will let you know what people are talking about.

On SEO: I use YouTube's Search box and I also use Google Keyword Planner. Whatever my video is going to be about, I will make sure to add all the keywords and phrases that are relevant to my video. For example. If I typed in League of Legends on YouTube search, it will give me suggested searches to go along with it. I can then go for League of Legends Beginners Guide and then when it's time to make tags, tag them "league of legends" league of legends beginners guide", "league of legends guide" "league of legends beginners." so on and so on. SEO is about having a combination of searchable keywords to help you be discovered. Ranking for tags is where you will show up on YouTube if someone searches for that keyword or phrase. Facebook is a good place to start with sharing videos, because depending on what kind of videos that you have and what type of content your friends like, they can/could be the first steps to getting a viral video if it gets circulated around Facebook enough.[DOUBLEPOST=1504666181,1504666132][/DOUBLEPOST]
I like your style sir. Nice write up.
Aw, thank you sir, I appreciate your reply greatly. :)[DOUBLEPOST=1504666295][/DOUBLEPOST]
Nice guide! Moved to the tutorials section. :)
Thank you. :) I'm happy to add usefulness to YTtalk.[DOUBLEPOST=1504666346][/DOUBLEPOST]
These are some really helpful guidelines! It's been great to read your (and others) point of view and tips on how to improve, tweak and change things. And after being on this forum for only 2 days, I already have a better grasp on what needs to change or be better with my own channel.
Happy to read this and that's why I joined YTtalk, to add value to the site. :)
 

Idec Sdawkminn

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I'm always excited to read posts like this. Nice informational post.

Now, as is my wont, I'll relate to what was said by saying how I go about doing some of the things you talked about. My chosen niche (which wasn't planned, just something I happened to fancy at the time, which worked out) has a fortunate property in that viewers, after seeing one of my videos, often immediately start imagining other videos I could have, such as a viewer of a movie review channel wondering how specific movies they know of might be reviewed. Because of this, a large portion of my comments are suggestions for future videos. I maintain a list of all the videos my viewers have suggested, and they are ordered by first the number of people who suggested the same thing, then in the order I received the suggestions. I rarely do any videos that I think of anymore. They are almost all viewer suggestions. This also helps me put out videos about things that want to be seen without having to do research. If there is high demand for something and it is something that would work with my channel, then it's very likely that it has been suggested more than once and is near or at the top of the list. A nice recent example is a suggestion I got from 4 different people within a week of the first one. I thought it was maybe dupe accounts or at least friends of the original person, but looking it up revealed that it was a cartoon that had just premiered last month. And because of my list ordering, the suggestion jumped ahead of all the others, and I ended up doing a video involving a new show that recently came out that I had never heard of, but that a lot of my audience will probably be searching for.

Also, Cloud shinobi are pretty cool.
 

CloudCJay

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I'm always excited to read posts like this. Nice informational post.

Now, as is my wont, I'll relate to what was said by saying how I go about doing some of the things you talked about. My chosen niche (which wasn't planned, just something I happened to fancy at the time, which worked out) has a fortunate property in that viewers, after seeing one of my videos, often immediately start imagining other videos I could have, such as a viewer of a movie review channel wondering how specific movies they know of might be reviewed. Because of this, a large portion of my comments are suggestions for future videos. I maintain a list of all the videos my viewers have suggested, and they are ordered by first the number of people who suggested the same thing, then in the order I received the suggestions. I rarely do any videos that I think of anymore. They are almost all viewer suggestions. This also helps me put out videos about things that want to be seen without having to do research. If there is high demand for something and it is something that would work with my channel, then it's very likely that it has been suggested more than once and is near or at the top of the list. A nice recent example is a suggestion I got from 4 different people within a week of the first one. I thought it was maybe dupe accounts or at least friends of the original person, but looking it up revealed that it was a cartoon that had just premiered last month. And because of my list ordering, the suggestion jumped ahead of all the others, and I ended up doing a video involving a new show that recently came out that I had never heard of, but that a lot of my audience will probably be searching for.

Also, Cloud shinobi are pretty cool.
HAha, thanks man, Cloud Shinobi are powerful.. on the low though :D Naruto gets all the Glory. :-p. But yeah, I can't wait til I've grown enough to the point where folks request and suggest content that they want to see. It makes coming up with videos a breeze.
 

Devin

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IWhat hurts me is when I see channels that have been making content for 4-5rs+ and haven't broken 1k subscribers yet.
This is me I've been making content for about 4 years but I wasn't consistent due to personal issues, and I mostly do retro games so that probably kills my searchability.