The Sad truth about my first 1,000 Subscribers

TheKingCranee

TheKingCranee

Liking YTtalk
I haven't told a soul of this, which is not the best. I don't condone this or want you to do this. I did it for most of my subscriber growth which I am not happy about which is why I just recently stopped and my subscriber growth has halted.

This is also something I wasn't sure I was going to release to the public. It's better to be guilt free and happy then to hold back what you don't want to.

Hate or don't, I just am giving my advice and to whom is wondered.

My first 250 subscribers I spammed comments asking for channels to check me out. Stopped because I didn't think it was right to ask people to sub to me.

Up to 600 subscribers I then spammed more comments after thinking hard about whether I should comment or not which I ended up doing so but I didn't ask anyone to subscribe to me. I simply said things that would hint towards it as in " I just started a shoutout series!! Great video!! ", not exactly that but along those lines. Stopped because it still was promoting my self in a way.

Up to 1000 subscribers I spammed more comments once again thinking REALLY HARD about whether I should be doing this because it's not natural growth and that's ultimately what I want. My only growth was this spam crap. In these comments I said (along the lines of...) "awesome video , never quit keep it up" .

Ultimately I was trying to grow on YouTube so someone could watch my videos and I wasn't making and uploading videos for no one to even see. I have recently realized that YouTube is what I love and that's what it's going to stay. I will continue to make these videos because I love doing it, not because I want views, subscribers or more attention. The numbers and statistics was really killing me, almost like a drug.

I don't fully regret doing this because it helped me get at least someone watching my videos.

The lesson here is... Don't do something if you don't enjoy it, do what you love because you love it.




- The above is a copied message that I wrote to tell someone how I "grew" , I've contemplated on making this public for a while. I wanted to share my story at the same time be guilt free and get it off of my chest.
 
I've moved this to the strategy forum. ^^

Spamming for subscribers and views never works in the long-run -- I'm glad that you have learned this. It's better to have 100 engaged viewers than 1000 "subscribers" that don't really care. I also think that having a more-engaged audience helps YouTube determine what channels are more engaging and better to promote.
 
KatyAdelson said:
I've moved this to the strategy forum. ^^

Spamming for subscribers and views never works in the long-run -- I'm glad that you have learned this. It's better to have 100 engaged viewers than 1000 "subscribers" that don't really care. I also think that having a more-engaged audience helps YouTube determine what channels are more engaging and better to promote.
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Sorry I keep posting things in the wrong area. But yes I agree. I'm glad I have learned as well :) .
 
XXLRay said:
Well leaving comments on channels that are in your niche generally isn't a bad way to grow at least if you keep them relevant to the video.
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Exactly this, and keep engaging with them after you subscribed to them which will improve the quality of your views and subs. Just subbing around without revisiting them again will drive the classical S4S that so many people hate.
 
TheKingCranee said:
I haven't told a soul of this, which is not the best. I don't condone this or want you to do this. I did it for most of my subscriber growth which I am not happy about which is why I just recently stopped and my subscriber growth has halted.

This is also something I wasn't sure I was going to release to the public. It's better to be guilt free and happy then to hold back what you don't want to.

Hate or don't, I just am giving my advice and to whom is wondered.

My first 250 subscribers I spammed comments asking for channels to check me out. Stopped because I didn't think it was right to ask people to sub to me.

Up to 600 subscribers I then spammed more comments after thinking hard about whether I should comment or not which I ended up doing so but I didn't ask anyone to subscribe to me. I simply said things that would hint towards it as in " I just started a shoutout series!! Great video!! ", not exactly that but along those lines. Stopped because it still was promoting my self in a way.

Up to 1000 subscribers I spammed more comments once again thinking REALLY HARD about whether I should be doing this because it's not natural growth and that's ultimately what I want. My only growth was this spam crap. In these comments I said (along the lines of...) "awesome video , never quit keep it up" .

Ultimately I was trying to grow on YouTube so someone could watch my videos and I wasn't making and uploading videos for no one to even see. I have recently realized that YouTube is what I love and that's what it's going to stay. I will continue to make these videos because I love doing it, not because I want views, subscribers or more attention. The numbers and statistics was really killing me, almost like a drug.

I don't fully regret doing this because it helped me get at least someone watching my videos.

The lesson here is... Don't do something if you don't enjoy it, do what you love because you love it.




- The above is a copied message that I wrote to tell someone how I "grew" , I've contemplated on making this public for a while. I wanted to share my story at the same time be guilt free and get it off of my chest.
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To be honest, View is more then subs. here a lession dont rush to get 1k subs, work hard earn it. because if you work hard subs will come to you. :) aleast you are honest and you going to change right.
 
The cold hard reality of Youtube is that it is virtually impossible to grow (at a decent rate) to the first 1k-2k without engaging in some form of s4s. Just know the risk/rewards of the strategy, when to use it and when to not.

What I recommend is relationship4relationship building with like minded channels with comparable quality and types of videos in your genre. You support each other and grow together. This is nothing different to making study groups and associations at university (another analogy right at you @KidsCorner) or business relationships at work.

For example there's a Retail Traders Association for our local area here, and they close the street every 6 months for some community activities and all the traders and restaurants band together. Just relationship building, same as Youtube between channels.

s4s as you describe it is not against TOS. YT is social network after all, and they want you to sub and watch and comment, that's what those features are there for. You have nothing to be ashamed of. What's not permitted is external (off Yt) sub exchanges and purchasing subs. As long as you did not do that, it's all good.

I would also say with some degree of confidence, that the first 20-50 videos are not really made for people, but for the Yt algorithm to categorize and understand your channel and content strategy. Why? Because Yt will not give you "real" viewers for those few videos, almost all viewers are other channels. in our area, there's a huge difference in behavior between me watching a kids video and my kids watching other kids videos. I watch for research and trends, my kids watch for fun. Very different. Our first 30+ videos were almost all watched by the creators/parents of other kids channels, before gaining sufficient authority for Yt to place them in front of real kid viewers.
 
KiddieToysReview said:
The cold hard reality of Youtube is that it is virtually impossible to grow (at a decent rate) to the first 1k-2k without engaging in some form of s4s. Just know the risk/rewards of the strategy, when to use it and when to not.

What I recommend is relationship4relationship building with like minded channels with comparable quality and types of videos in your genre. You support each other and grow together. This is nothing different to making study groups and associations at university (another analogy right at you @KidsCorner) or business relationships at work.

For example there's a Retail Traders Association for our local area here, and they close the street every 6 months for some community activities and all the traders and restaurants band together. Just relationship building, same as Youtube between channels.

s4s as you describe it is not against TOS. YT is social network after all, and they want you to sub and watch and comment, that's what those features are there for. You have nothing to be ashamed of. What's not permitted is external (off Yt) sub exchanges and purchasing subs. As long as you did not do that, it's all good.

I would also say with some degree of confidence, that the first 20-50 videos are not really made for people, but for the Yt algorithm to categorize and understand your channel and content strategy. Why? Because Yt will not give you "real" viewers for those few videos, almost all viewers are other channels. in our area, there's a huge difference in behavior between me watching a kids video and my kids watching other kids videos. I watch for research and trends, my kids watch for fun. Very different. Our first 30+ videos were almost all watched by the creators/parents of other kids channels, before gaining sufficient authority for Yt to place them in front of real kid viewers.
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This is some awesome advice, thank you so much. I just studied the 2016 youtube algorithm supposedly and found some awesome things. There is SO much in the algorithm that you wouldn't ever think of... I am at 117 videos (17k views, 1,036 subs) . I just made a video the other day and now when i search a general term for it I am the first one that pops up. I pop up over a video that has 1.6m views. I am pretty stoked on that. That video is the first of its kind and I really studied tags, titles and a channel of a friends that had a video get a ton of exposure.

If you don't mind me asking what kind of research do you look for? Also where do you find your trends? I have searched a ton for information on trends and almost downloaded the YouTube API and created a system (I am a programmer) for myself so I could better figure out trend statistics and what is being searched because that would help me tremendously. Sadly the YouTube API doesn't offer what I was intending on using it for.

For my trends I have used Google Trends for the most part but I have lacked off and stopped using it.
 
TheKingCranee said:
This is some awesome advice, thank you so much. I just studied the 2016 youtube algorithm supposedly and found some awesome things. There is SO much in the algorithm that you wouldn't ever think of... I am at 117 videos (17k views, 1,036 subs) . I just made a video the other day and now when i search a general term for it I am the first one that pops up. I pop up over a video that has 1.6m views. I am pretty stoked on that. That video is the first of its kind and I really studied tags, titles and a channel of a friends that had a video get a ton of exposure.

If you don't mind me asking what kind of research do you look for? Also where do you find your trends? I have searched a ton for information on trends and almost downloaded the YouTube API and created a system (I am a programmer) for myself so I could better figure out trend statistics and what is being searched because that would help me tremendously. Sadly the YouTube API doesn't offer what I was intending on using it for.

For my trends I have used Google Trends for the most part but I have lacked off and stopped using it.
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The easiest way to find trends is to go straight to the source - channels that are setting trends. I actively follow 50+ leading kids/toys channels, and scan their "videos" page every 2-3 days. You can see trends developing right across those. usually what happens is someone comes up with something (let's say Elsa is pregnant and Spiderman is responsible, or spiderman starts farting and dropping Smarties out his poohole) within 2-3 days other channels will have copied and spun that idea. A week later the idea filters down and channels like us at the 20k - 200k sub level are doing spins on the same stuff. So you can catch the trend withing that same day or two, and if you have all the resources setup (costumes and props) you can get a copy video up matching t/t/d within 24-48 hours and get on trend.

You can use the subscription left sidebar to do it, or an easier way is I have the channels sorted into bookmark folders in Chrome, then right-click a folder and open all links in tabs (which will take you to the videos page sorted by 'recent'). Then tab across and you'll get a feeling for trends. You can also resort everything by the highest view, and see what's above the fold and recent, say the last month or two, that would be pretty viral content.

This is of course for kids channels, I can't comment on gaming I have no experience there.

I do very little off Yt, like trend websites, all that sort of stuff, it's all second derivatives. The pure data is right on Yt itself.

But, what happens with toy channels, is channels start making videos about upcoming movies and toys. A channel I follow went to 1M+ views on their video within 2 weeks on a steep exponential climb as they were one of the first to spin a Finding Dory idea. So you can position yourself before trends with common themed videos like "giant eggs" "play doh eggs" "family fun shopping trip" "surprise toy hunt" just add the toys from the next Disney/Pixar huge movie release.

I looked a the Yt API, but my coding skills are rudimentary, it would take months to get up to speed. There is a bunch of competitor information it would be useful for though....
 
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