Suggestions to drive traffic to channel

Gediphoto

Gediphoto

I've Got It
Hi all,

I have been playing the Instagram algorithms and gaining more and more followers. For each follow, I am using Instagram DM to welcome them to the account with a direct link to the YT account. I have successfully reached around 600 accounts directly and gained about 35 followers (about 6% conversion rate, which I'm happy with, I only upload one video per month - growing slowly).

However, I noticed this morning (I live in GMT+1 zone) that the bastards at Instagram have removed the possibility to use links in DM's and instead converting them to plain text. This means that a user needs to copy - paste the link into a browser window which will definitely nullify the conversion rate to basically zero.

Even writing something like "see link in bio" will significantly decrease my conversion rate since it introduces another step in the funnel, I estimate the conversion would then be around 0.5% (but we'll see..)

So now I'm turning to you guys for inspiration - how do you drive traffic to your channel? Any suggestions? I'm too small and upload content too rarely to depend on the YT algorithms to "promote" my channel.

All the best,
/G
 
One of the proven ways of growing one's channel is collaboration. Reach out to YouTube channels who are in your same category and roughly the same number of subscribers. Suggest a SPECIFIC collaboration idea to them. There are many videos on collaborations that a YouTube search will get you. Watch a lot of them and then reach out. HOWEVER, never pay to do a collaboration. Just find YouTubers who will value growing their channels as you do. There is a Collaboration & Meet-ups subforum here at YTtalk. Check out and reach out to them. Good luck!
 
I just use instagram to share/promote every video release with either a post, story or both, but not getting involved in it as much. Doing similar on twitter, facebook, tiktok, pinterest.
 
I've been thinking of that, but mostly - I don't have any impact capability to whomever choose to collab (40 subs and at most 30 views of a video). Finding a collab partner (and do what..? :D ) will probably only be annoying to the few subscribers I have and vice versa. Don't you think collab is better for 1000+ subs, like the "middle ground" betweeen "nothing" < 1000 subs and "something" > 10 000 subs? Say 1% actually converts - then you'll get 10 new subscribers (given a collab with 1000 subscribers channel). If the same would apply on a 40 subs channel, the total subscribers would be 0.4 - i.e zero :)

Or am I wrong?

Jack Decker said:
One of the proven ways of growing one's channel is collaboration. Reach out to YouTube channels who are in your same category and roughly the same number of subscribers. Suggest a SPECIFIC collaboration idea to them. There are many videos on collaborations that a YouTube search will get you. Watch a lot of them and then reach out. HOWEVER, never pay to do a collaboration. Just find YouTubers who will value growing their channels as you do. There is a Collaboration & Meet-ups subforum here at YTtalk. Check out and reach out to them. Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
I've actually started using reels on Instagram with my new found video editing skills (check out my first at instagram.com/gediphotoart if you're curios). This one was made in landscape mode, so I had to crop it for portrait to fit the Reel, but you get the point. I'm thinking I'll use it more in the future as a cool "mini trailer" for the next content on Youtube. The hypothesis is that it will drive additional traffic to the channel, but let's see :)

mirrorlessNY(youtuber) said:
I just use instagram to share/promote every video release with either a post, story or both, but not getting involved in it as much. Doing similar on twitter, facebook, tiktok, pinterest.
Click to expand...
 
Gediphoto said:
Or am I wrong?
Click to expand...

You're wrong. Glad to settle that for you. :smug:

:giggle:

Seriously, this is why you need to suggest a SPECIFIC collaboration idea. Many YouTubers are always on the outlook for something new to do. In fact, the longer they've been YouTUbers, the MORE they are looking for a new idea. So what if your channel is practically nothing. If you can suggest a new and exciting collaboration project, popular YouTubers will sit up and seriously consider it.

First, you should already know the archives of all YouTube photographers. If you don't, do that now. Now try to remember (or find if you haven't done the work) what collaboration videos they've done. Do NOT suggest the same idea BUT instead get INSPIRED by them to come up with your own UNIQUE collaboration idea. And photographers are famous for these sorts of things. "Day In The Life" collaborations have been around for decades.

Second, once you've come up with the idea and if the idea has you act independent of the other photographer, do YOUR part first and give it to them. They then really get to see what you're proposing. Not just that but that you will definitely hold up your end by already having done your end. All they have to do is copy and ... BAM! ... a collaboration video has been born.

Third, once you have one collaboration under your belt, getting more of them gets easier as you can point to the one you've done as proof you'll hold up your end of the deal. Success breeds success.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for taking your time to answer me Jack, appreciate it!

I'll look around and see if I can get a spark of inspiration somewhere and see what happens :)

Cheers!


Jack Decker said:
You're wrong. Glad to settle that for you. :smug:

:giggle:

Seriously, this is why you need to suggest a SPECIFIC collaboration idea. Many YouTubers are always on the outlook for something new to do. In fact, the longer they've been YouTUbers, the MORE they are looking for a new idea. So what if your channel is practically nothing. If you can suggest a new and exciting collaboration project, popular YouTubers will sit up and seriously consider it.

First, you should already know the archives of all YouTube photographers. If you don't, do that now. Now try to remember (or find if you haven't done the work) what collaboration videos they've done. Do NOT suggest the same idea BUT instead get INSPIRED by them to come up with your own UNIQUE collaboration idea. And photographers are famous for these sorts of things. "Day In The Life" collaborations have been around for decades.

Second, once you've come up with the idea and if the idea has you act independent of the other photographer, do YOUR part first and give it to them. They then really get to see what you're proposing. Not just that but that you will definitely hold up your end by already having done your end. All they have to do is copy and ... BAM! ... a collaboration video has been born.

Third, once you have one collaboration under your belt, getting more of them gets easier as you can point to the one you've done as proof you'll hold up your end of the deal. Success breeds success.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
You mentioned Instragram on your OP, so you understand the importance of being multi-platform. Does your channel have representation on FB? Twitter? I've been trying out some of the alt-tech sites even though most the content found there is political. Parler, Gab, and Minds.com are fertile ground for creative content now that political fatigue is so rampant. Pepper your posts with lots of hashtags so they get found. Also, alternative video hosting platforms like Tiktok and Odysee might not drive traffic to YT, but they can boost brand awareness.
 
I'm not there yet, just trying out Instagram and their TikTok clone "Reels". Maybe I'll try Twitter too though, it's just the same posts I can automate. And TikTok as well actually.. hmmm. "Många bäckar små" as we say in Sweden (roughly translated to, many small creeks (will eventually form a river)". Thanks dude!

ThriftyAV said:
You mentioned Instragram on your OP, so you understand the importance of being multi-platform. Does your channel have representation on FB? Twitter? I've been trying out some of the alt-tech sites even though most the content found there is political. Parler, Gab, and Minds.com are fertile ground for creative content now that political fatigue is so rampant. Pepper your posts with lots of hashtags so they get found. Also, alternative video hosting platforms like Tiktok and Odysee might not drive traffic to YT, but they can boost brand awareness.
Click to expand...
 
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