21 Ways to Get More YouTube Subscribers Fast in 2024

YouTube states that about one billion videos are watched on YouTube daily which generates billions of views and comments. About ninety percent of people say that they discover new products and brands on YouTube.

Moreover, five hundred hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

If you are someone who has just started off with your YouTube channel and wants to grow your subscribers but these numbers scare you, we have come to your rescue.

All you need to have is a YouTube channel and an idea about the type of content that you want to produce.

You can then follow our detailed guide that will equip you with actionable steps to increase the number of subscribers you have and thereby grow your YouTube channel quickly.

Let’s dive in and start implementing right away.

1. Hook the Viewers in the First 10 Seconds

It is said that when you first meet someone, you form an impression about each other in the first few seconds. There are several studies to prove the same. The same principle applies to your YouTube videos.

Video abandonment increases if the first few seconds of a video do not catch the user's attention. For shorter videos, this duration is ten seconds and for longer ones, the limit is two minutes.

If you do not grab your viewer’s attention by then, they will move on to the next video and you will have lost a prospective subscriber.

Now, the question that arises, how can you make the intro of your video more interesting? The key is to create a hook that will make your audience want more and will keep them watching till the end.

Build curiosity

The idea is to build curiosity and give viewers a glimpse of the value proposition that your video offers, that is, what will your users get out of watching till the end.

Some ways in which you can make the beginnings more interesting is to start with

• A joke
• An interesting story
• A fact
• A quote
• A pain point

Even though we suggest starting with something interesting, make sure it's not off-topic. Also, make sure it does not act as clickbait or is misleading.

For example, suppose you want to teach your viewers how they can write interesting articles, do not begin your video by saying things like, “learn how you can earn thousands of dollars writing articles by following my tips”. That is just purely misleading.

Be relevant and to-the-point

Don’t beat around the bush. Viewers do not want to listen to a five minutes long introduction or what is called “build-up”.

Do not over-promise from the beginning

Do not lose the momentum once you have created an interesting hook. Keep going with the same energy, along the same line of thought, and build an interesting story around the hook.

If you promise your viewers an answer to something through your video, make sure you give them the answer. However, do not wait till the end to divulge the answer, instead start weaving it into the story right from the beginning.

The idea is to cut out the fluff and dive into the good bits.

Make your video visually appealing

Make sure the aesthetics of your video are pleasing. Viewers will get turned away if you have a simple white background or if the lighting is not good enough.

If you have a cluttered background, your viewers might end up paying attention to the background more than the content of your video.

2. Promote Related Videos in Your End Screen

By promoting related videos on your end screen you increase the chances of making your viewers take the action that you want instead of completely missing out on the chance. You can add a continuation to your video or other videos from your channel on the end screen.

You can even add a Subscribe button to the end screen.

YouTube lets creators add four elements to their end screens. You can promote other videos from your channel, call for subscription, link to your website, or direct to other authorized websites. These can be added to your video in the last 5-20 seconds.

Now, the question that arises is, what should you place on the end screen?

Our suggestion would be to place a related video from your channel, probably one that has a high conversion rate or one that is related to the topic of the current video.

Put yourself in the shoes of your viewer, and ask yourself, what information would I look for after watching this? If you have just shown your viewers a list of tools that you use, you would probably want to link to a video that tells them where they can purchase those tools.

It’s only logical that there is some sequence to the videos you link.

Since you are trying to increase the number of subscribers on your channel, make sure you include the Subscribe button on the end screen.

YouTube picks up your channel icon and uses it for the subscribe button so make sure your channel icon looks good too. We’ll talk about this more later.

While deciding on how many videos you should link to in your end-screen, include up to two videos with your subscribe button, or else your screen will look cluttered and when watching on mobile, not all of them will appear.

If you see Gauging Gadgets’ end screen, there are so many elements on the end screen that it makes the screen look cluttered.

Also, the more choice you give to your viewers, the more likely they aren’t going to choose anything.

Hell’s Kitchen does a good job with their end screen. They have two video recommendations and a subscribe button.

When you add videos to your end screen, make sure you also include CTAs that tell your viewers what to do next like “Watch Next” or “Coming up next”.

A good thing about placing elements on your end screen is that you can edit them anytime.

You can view how your end screens are performing from the End Screen report and if you notice that your viewers are not clicking on the videos that you have recommended, you can always experiment with something else.

3. Add a High-Converting Subscribe Button

Unless you remind your viewers to subscribe to your channel, they will likely forget to do so. Additionally, if you remind them so often that it becomes spammy, they might abandon your site completely.

So where do you find the balance?

There are different ways in which you can ask your viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Ask them to subscribe

You can ask viewers to subscribe to your channel somewhere during the video, preferably towards the end so that they do not get irritated when the flow breaks. Asking them once in each video is perfectly fine but if you do so multiple times in a single video it might feel spammy.

Add a CTA in the description

Add a reminder in the description of your video in the form of a CTA. Alternatively, you can also remind your viewers in the comments section and pin them.

Add a clickable subscribe button to your video

YouTube lets you add a subscribe button to your video. It is a watermark that shows up towards the end, throughout the video, or when you want it to show up. Adding this subscribe button is very easy.

All you have to do is download a subscribe icon from the internet, go to the branding option in the Creative Studio and upload the picture. It will then appear as a clickable watermark in the video at the time that you set it.

The setting then gets applied to all your videos. Most YouTubers prefer showing the subscribe button towards the last fifteen to twenty seconds of their videos.

Adding this subscribe button on the video has helped many YouTubers gain many subscribers quickly as it is right there. Your users do not have to minimize their screens or make any additional effort.

Add an option on the end screen

You can also add a subscribe icon to the end screen of your videos which is basically your channel icon. When your subscribers hover over it, it converts into a clickable subscribe button.

Adding these buttons to the videos acts as a quick reminder that, if you liked the video, hit subscribe. This is an important feature if you intend to publish videos to your site regularly and want your viewers to be notified every time you publish one.

4. Create and Manage YouTube Playlists

With so many videos being watched for so many hours, the number of videos on YouTube is also massive. How will your viewers find what they are looking for if you do not organize it for them?

Creating YouTube playlists is a very important step if you are serious about increasing the number of subscribers on your YouTube channel. It has several benefits from a value addition perspective as well as a search perspective.

Makes your videos searchable

If you are planning on making a sustainable business out of your YouTube channel, you will have to regularly upload videos to it, and eventually, there will be over a hundred videos on your channel.

When your users are unable to find what they are looking for or they get lost in the clutter, they will leave your channel sooner than they arrived.

Creating playlists helps you categorize your videos into related groups and name them accordingly. This makes it easy for your viewers to look at the names of the playlists and understand whether what they are looking for is in the list.

Improves the visibility on the results page

Organizing your videos in playlists on YouTube also improves the searchability of your videos and they start appearing on the results page. Not only does one video appear but the entire playlist!

Suppose your channel is about teaching different languages to your audience and one of the languages you teach is Spanish. A YouTube user looks for videos that will help him learn to pronounce a particular Spanish word.

Having all your Spanish tutorials organized into a playlist improves the chances that your entire playlist will show up in the search results. Furthermore, the viewer is very likely to click on the playlist and scroll through other videos as well, and even subscribe to your channel.

Improve the image of your YouTube brand

When your channel has several playlists, it gives visitors an idea that your channel is full of content, and the chances that they would subscribe to it are higher than if your channel has a few scatter videos all added together.

5. YouTube SEO

To increase the number of subscribers that you have on your YouTube channel, you must remember to create videos that people actually want to watch and just not something you feel you should put out there.

While creating quality content is crucial to the success of a YouTube channel, it is just the first step. To grow your subscribers, engagement, and ranking on the results page, you need to pay special attention to YouTube channel SEO.

Let us look at some SEO aspects that you should consider while building your YouTube channel.

Do keyword research

To create videos that people want to watch, you need to know what they are searching for. This can happen only through keyword research.

You can use Google Trends and set the search engine as YouTube, but you might not get detailed information about search volumes and other metrics but just get an overview of a term’s popularity.

To get complete information about search volume, keyword difficulty, and others, you will need to use additional tools. Some of these tools are free while others have paid monthly subscriptions.

One such tool is Semrush. Semrush has multiple keyword research tools among which the Keyword Magic Tool is the best. 

Along with keyword search volume, you can access other important data like competitive density, SERP features, keyword difficulty, top competitors, and click potential.

All you have to do is enter the seed keyword, choose the country and just in a few seconds you will get a long list of relevant keywords that you can add to the channel description, channel tags, video titles, and others.

There are two other ways you can do keyword research too along with using a tool.

• By using YouTube’s autocomplete feature, you can type in your seed keyword and you will see a list of suggestions dropdown. This gives an idea about different user search intents and common searches on the topic.
• Look for keywords in other popular videos by right-clicking next to a video and viewing the page source. You can then use the “Ctrl+F” command and look for the term “keywords”. This will show you a list of all the keywords used in the video.

Create searchable video titles

Once you have the keywords, it is important to place them dynamically in your video titles for maximum impact. While it should be catchy enough to catch a viewer’s attention, it might also be optimized for the search engine.

Otherwise, your video just won’t show up for relevant searches.

Here are some points to keep in mind when you are writing your video’s title.

• Keep the length of the title under seventy characters.
• Use your main keyword at the beginning of the title.
• Make it a conversational sentence instead of making it a string of keywords.
• Consider the target audience and address a pain point in your video.
• Do not make your title a clickbait title.
• Make sure that the title and the content of the video are related.

Add transcriptions to every video

Many YouTube creators miss out on this step which can result in a lot of engagement and subscribers.

By adding a transcription to your YouTube video you make it more accessible to people with hearing disabilities, thereby extending your audience.

It is also particularly helpful if you have a global target audience. If you have an accent or you speak too fast or there’s any background disturbance, your audience can use the transcription instead of skipping the video altogether.

Some things to keep in mind while adding a transcription to your video are

1. Avoid using YouTube’s auto transcribe feature

YouTube’s auto transcribe feature may seem convenient but it is not yet as developed as one would expect it to be. If you use it, chances are that a lot of the transcripted text will not make any sense.

Instead, you can use a transcription service or a better tool, transcribe your videos and upload the files separately.

2. Remember to add keywords in the transcript

Here is why transcription helps in improving the SEO of your channel. The transcripted text is the written content for your page and YouTube and Google crawl this text and index it. Using your target keywords and other relevant keywords makes your video searchable.

3. Target a multilingual audience

If your video is in a different language, and you cater to a global audience, make sure you add English transcriptions as English is the most commonly spoken language globally.

Similarly, if you want a specific geography to understand the contents of your video, adding transcriptions in that language can be useful.

Optimize video descriptions

The search engine also crawls your video descriptions, so it is an important part of YouTube SEO. Your video description is made of two parts, the first part is the portion above the “show more” option and the second is after you click on it.

Make sure that the “show more” portion describes your video well. Begin the description with your target keyword and make it conversational rather than stuffing it with keywords. This is the part that people will see before they click on the option to show more.

You can add additional information like website links, social media handles, what your channel is about, and other channel information in the second part of the description.

Add relevant meta tags

Meta tags or tags are keywords that describe your video and make them discoverable. When people type the tags related to your videos, it improves the chances of your video appearing for a particular video.

Some tips to create effective meta tags are

• Use your target keyword exactly as it is as the first tag.
• The best tag length is two to three words per tag.
• Use a few long-tail keywords.
• Don’t add a lot of tags to your videos.

Create longer videos

Longer videos perform better than shorter videos. According to Backlinko, the average length of videos that appear on the first page of YouTube search results is 14 minutes and 50 seconds. Longer videos are also important if you want to monetize your channel.

6. Focus on Quality Over Quantity

Even if you apply all of the best SEO practices, pair up with celebrities, promote your channel on all possible social media channels, if the quality of your video is not good, any amount of effort will not bring you the number of subscribers you want.

Therefore, the key to having a very successful YouTube channel is to create high-quality videos that your audience will enjoy watching and also derive value from.

Now, the next thing you might wonder is, how do you create good quality videos? Or what makes a video good?

Content

To create a good quality video, content comes first. You might have a good idea about what you want the video to be, but if you are unable to create interesting valuable content around it, the viewer might not complete watching your video.

Good quality content is not only interesting but addresses something of importance to the user like a problem, a question, a review, a guide, a tutorial, or a demo.

If your video does not add some value to the viewer, they may feel that you do not value their time.

Plan your video in advance and decide what you want the video to be about. Address some questions like

• What is the subject of the video?
• Who will accompany you in the video?
• Which pain point are you trying to address?
• What is the tone that you want the video to have?

It is also ideal that you plan what you and your team members will speak in the video well in advance because if you decide to speak on the spot, you might lose out on valuable seconds and valuable information too.

If you have never created a video before or do not have professional experience in creating scripts for your video, you can hire people to do that for you. You can hire highly skilled scriptwriters from websites like Upwork, Fiverr, Flexjobs and others. 

Once you have decided what you want the video to be about, the scriptwriter you hire can help you create a story around it.

Sound quality

Create videos with good sound quality that has no background disturbances, have good clarity, and can be heard well at an appropriate volume.

For good quality sound, you will have to invest in good quality equipment. For most videos a Lavalier mics, i.e., clip-on mics will help you record good quality sound. Some of the best Lavalier microphones are RODE smartLav+, Boya BY-M1, and Shure MVL.

You do not have to spend a fortune on your equipment. Most of these cost under $100. You can even use YouTube to watch some reviews about these mics and see if other YouTubers have had any luck using them.

Lighting

Lighting plays a major role in the visual appeal of your videos, so it is a good idea to educate yourself a bit about lighting for videos. The best choice of lighting is natural light but if you are shooting indoors, there are many options too.

If you are recording using your laptop or computer camera, you can simply place a few table lamps behind the screen to illuminate the area.

Beauty bloggers and makeup artists on YouTube often use ring lighting while recording their videos as it creates even lighting around their faces and allows them to place their phones correctly pointed towards them from the center.

Neewer’s 14 Inch LED Ring Light is a great option that can be used sitting or standing and offers different color temperatures.

You can also place a light in the background so that it blurs out the background and makes you more prominent in the frame.

Camera

There should be no doubt that you need to have a good quality camera if you would like to shoot a good quality video. Some factors to consider while choosing a camera for your YouTube channel are budget, portability, battery life, audio, and video quality.

Depending on your budget, our top picks of the best cameras in different price ranges for recording YouTube videos in 2021 are

• Logitech Stream Cam
• DJI OM 4
• GoPro Hero 9 Black
• Mevo Start
• Sony ZV-1

Editing

Video editing is a very important stage that helps you check if your video has been recorded properly and if the whole video looks good together. After you have recorded your video, it is good to run it through a background noise remover so that it is clear of any disturbances.

Instead of recording the entire video in one go, you can also record small clips by breaking down the script and then bringing all of them together. This technique is called Jump Cut editing.

This tip can be very helpful because you do not have to memorize long scripts, you do not have to redo the entire thing if one bit goes wrong and the video recording gets done in much less time.

7. Engage With Your Viewers and Reply to Every Comment

One of the key factors while increasing the number of subscribers on your YouTube channel is creating a relationship with your viewers. One of the ways this can be done is by responding to their comments on your videos.

Many creators on YouTube often reply to only the first few comments after publishing their video and ignore the rest. By replying to every comment on your channel, you automatically set yourself apart.

Since as a creator you might have many channels to manage, and many conversations happening everywhere, tools like Hootsuite for YouTube make it easier to manage all your YouTube conversations from one place rather than looking for comments on each video.

Now, if your videos have already started millions of views and there are thousands of comments on each, it might be difficult for you to single-handedly manage them since you have other things to do apart from your YouTube channel.

You can hire a social media manager who will help you in this task or if you have outsourced your channel management, you can ask for comment management on your channel as a service.

One of the reasons why you should reply to the comments on your videos is that, when you reply to a comment, the commenter gets notified about the video and it presents a chance of watching the video again.

Another reason why the comments section is so important is that it can be a great source of inspiration and content ideas. Many successful YouTube creators actively generate ideas from their comments section and it keeps them from running out of content ideas.

While we say that you must reply to all the comments on your YouTube channel, you must respond only to genuine comments and not negative comments called “trolls”.

Often, creators even delete genuine negative reviews from the comments section but this might create a backlash effect. It is important to reply to viewers who have something to say even if it is negative. It shows your channel that you are genuine and not just behind all the praises.

Replying to comments on your YouTube videos is also good for your channel's visibility. When people comment on your video, and you comment back, it is seen as a good sign by YouTube and Google’s algorithm and it has a positive effect on your channel’s ranking.

Now if your channel is not attracting enough comments, here is what you can do

Ask them in the video to leave comments

Asking your audience during the video to leave comments increases the chances that they will comment than not. Encourage them to ask questions if they have any.

Create a video in which users have to pick sides

You can pick a controversial topic, but since this might be risky for businesses, create a video around a topic where the audience has the choice to agree or disagree. You then have to pick a side and your audience will comment telling you that they agree or disagree with you.

This is a great way to generate comments on videos.

Tell them that their questions from comments will be answered in the next video

Many YouTube influencers use this method to generate content for their next videos. Tell your audience that you will pick ten of the best questions from the comments and answer them in the next video.

This helps in three ways. You get content for your next video, you are generating excitement among users for the next video and you also get comments on your current video.

Give assurance that you will personally reply to every comment

“Ask your questions in the comments section and I will make sure I address each one of them personally” is a great way that your viewers will reach out to you because viewers want to be heard.

8. Write a Compelling YouTube Channel Description

Your YouTube channel description is the About Page where you tell visitors what your YouTube channel is about and what they can expect. It is the first thing that most people see when they visit your channel and it also shows up on the search results page.

When a viewer finds your channel on the search results page, they will read your channel’s description. If you write a compelling YouTube channel description, they will go ahead and click on it or even subscribe to the channel.

However, there are some things that you must remember while you write your channel’s description.

Make it compelling

YouTube only shows the first 100-150 characters of your channel’s description on the search results page. So do not waste it by beginning with words like, “Hi, my name is XYZ, and welcome to my YouTube Channel.”

Even though MrBeast has 63.8 million subscribers, their channel description is not ideal. It does not tell new visitors what the channel is about. 5-Minute Crafts, on the other hand, does a good job. When you read it, you know they are about DIY projects.

Give an introduction that tells visitors what your channel is all about.

Add keywords

Adding relevant keywords does not only tell visitors more about what to expect, but it is also useful for YouTube SEO. Make sure you add some of the most searched keywords in your channel description so that it starts showing up when people look for the terms.

For example, suppose your channel is about digital marketing tutorials, think of the terms that people would use to search for your channel and incorporate them into the description.

You can also start typing the terms “digital marketing” in the search bar of YouTube and get ideas about the most commonly searched terms related to digital marketing from the drop-down list. Incorporate the relevant ones into your description.

While you must add keywords to your channel’s description, make sure you are not overusing them. It will otherwise be seen as keyword stuffing by the search engine’s algorithm and your channel will be penalized.

Instead, write an actual description of your channel first and then add a couple of keywords in places.

Think from the viewer’s perspective

Instead of telling people what you want to tell them about your channel, like “I teach digital marketing tips and tricks that I have learned over the years”, switch it to a user-centric perspective.

Instead, tell users what they will derive by watching your videos and from your channel. A better example could be, “Learn practical digital marketing tips that actually bring results”. It tells them that the channel is made for them.

Keep it brief

Do not write a long channel description as people might not read it completely and if they lose interest while reading through it, chances are that they won’t subscribe.

So instead, keep your channel description brief, crisp and concise.

Add a call to action

Adding a call to action at the end of your channel description is a good reminder or a nudge to readers to subscribe to your channel.

9. Create a Channel Tagline

Your channel’s tagline does the same job that a tagline does for a brand. Therefore, make sure it is catchy, resonates with your brand, and can easily strike a recall. Your tagline should also give a clear picture of what your channel is about.

While creating your channel’s tagline, here are a few things to remember

1. Get as creative as you can.
2. It must represent what you do.
3. Think about what sets you apart.
4. Is timeless and will be relevant even after several years.
5. Talk to your target audience.
6. Fits well in the bigger picture and matches the tone and personality of your brand.

10. Design Click-Worthy Thumbnails

Your YouTube video thumbnails are one of those factors which contribute to the first impression that viewers have about your channel.

Thumbnails are snapshots that tell viewers what your video is about without them reading or watching the entire video. Therefore, it is important to make your thumbnails engaging and make sure they tell your viewers accurately what your video is about.

After you are done uploading your video, you can either choose from YouTube’s thumbnail suggestions or you can upload your own.

Here are some tricks that can help you grab your viewer’s attention with your thumbnails:

Be consistent with the design

Your thumbnails will contribute to your brand image, therefore be consistent with it. Follow a design and stick to it so that your viewers recognize just by the design and style of it that it is a video from your channel.

This YouTuber follows a distinct style with all his YouTube videos. So if you are a viewer of his channel, you’ll be able to recognize a video just by looking at the thumbnail because of his distinct style.

An attractive thumbnail can also pique a viewer's curiosity and make them click on your video.

Use a picture instead of a screenshot for the background

Many YouTubers take a screenshot of their video and use it as their thumbnail. This can affect the resolution and make your thumbnail look hazy when you crop it. It is therefore best that you use a separate image for your thumbnail’s background.

You can then use apps like Canva or PicMonkey or other editing tools to add fonts and images to your background image.

Keep the font consistent

One of the aspects of keeping your thumbnail design consistent is being consistent with the font. Choose a font that you’ll stick to for all your videos and choose one that is legible even when you see it in the thumbnail.

Follow thumbnail trends

Like every other trend, follow thumbnail trends too so your viewers get the idea that you are an up-to-date brand.

Use ideal thumbnail dimensions

The ideal thumbnail dimensions are 1280×720 pixels, so make sure you create your thumbnails by following these exact dimensions, or else they will look distorted or hazy.

Make use of pictures and emojis

Using just fonts on your thumbnail can make it boring and reduce the visual appeal. Feel free to use pictures and emojis in your thumbnails.

To give your brands a face, you can also use pictures of your own face with different expressions.

When you look at these videos, you automatically know who these videos belong to or what they are about. You can also use a picture of the product you will talk about in the video.

11. Promote Your YouTube Channel to Your Email List

Email marketing is the leading channel of marketing with the highest ROI but it can be often missed when it comes to being a source of subscribers for your YouTube channel. Contacts on your email list could in fact lead to the first few subscribers on your channel.

It can later help you gain extra views on your videos too.

Now if you have a long email list, it might not be a great idea to send an email blast from your personal email. Google might see it as spam and mark your account. Instead, you can use email marketing tools that will make the job easy.

Later when you have grown your subscribers and also your YouTube email list, you can use the same tools to send regular updates to your subscribers.

One of the great tools for online content creators is ConvertKit. Not only can you use it to send emails to your existing email list, but it also lets you create custom landing pages. This can be helpful when you are trying to build your YouTube email list.

You can create a landing page that your viewers will visit and fill up a newsletter subscription form. You can also use these landing pages if you plan to sell anything that you show in your videos.

You can also use some other email marketing tools like Constant Contact and GetResponse.

12. Record a Convincing Channel Trailer

How often do you decide to watch a movie because the trailer was so awesome? Quite often right? Your channel trailer plays the same role as your YouTube channel. It tells your visitors what your channel is about and helps convert them into subscribers.

You want to use your channel trailer to quickly introduce yourself, your channel, and what your users can get out of it. The key is to get them hooked.

We have put together a few things that we have noticed works best for those who make the wise choice of creating a channel trailer.

Keep it short and crisp

Ideally, keep the length of your channel trailers between thirty and ninety seconds. Studies have shown that one-minute-long videos are the best to win your audience’s attention. Having such short videos makes it important that you make your videos crisp.

Introduce yourself and your channel

In your trailer, begin by giving a quick introduction of yourself so that your audience knows who you are. If you believe some specific details about your background like your master’s degree or something similar will add to the credibility of your videos, add them in quickly.

Do not forget to tell visitors what your channel is about. This gives them an idea of what to expect and whether your channel is relevant to them.

You can also give them a rough idea of the schedule you intend to follow so that they know when to tune in.

Give the value proposition

Visitors will only get converted into subscribers if they feel that your channel solves some problem or adds value to their lives in some way.

For example, if you are a fitness channel, you can tell your viewers that the videos on your channel will help them lose weight without following intense diets.

Call to action

Always add a call to action in your videos nudging your visitors to hit the subscribe button if they like your video. Depending upon the personality of your brand, tweak the message to match the tone.

Write a matching description

Your channel trailer will also have a description like all the other videos on your channel. However, do not add a headline that says something like “My Channel Trailer”. Instead, tell them more specifically what the video is about.

Plan your video

Thirty to sixty seconds is a short time and you might have a lot of information that you want to fit into it. When you record your video spontaneously, chances are that you will pause to think or lose a few seconds with the “uhs”,

Planning ahead about what points you want to include, and scripting it might be a good idea.

Update your channel trailer regularly

As months go by, you might want to add new themes to your video. Make sure your channel trailer is updated whenever you plan to introduce something new that might create an interest in new visitors.

13. Embed YouTube Videos in Blog Posts

If you do not have a blog yet, this could be a good reason to start. You can cross-promote your blog and YouTube channel on both these channels. In case you do not have prior experience blogging, our guide can help you learn how to launch a blog.

When you embed your YouTube videos in blog posts, you are tapping into the readership of the blog for viewers and subscribers. The same goes for guest blog posts. However, this does not have to be the sole reason you start a blog

Here is how you can embed a YouTube video in a blog post.

1. Click on the share button below each video
2. Select the embed option and copy the link given
3. Paste the link in the blog in the place where you want the video to appear.

However, to embed your YouTube videos into your blog posts, you need to make sure they are relevant. You can either create blog posts around existing videos or you can create a video specifically for a blog that you intend to write.

This way you also have content ideas and you can even recycle your videos if you run out of content for your blog.

Embedding YouTube videos in blog posts gives you credibility that you know a lot about the topic. Also, when given the choice between reading or watching a video, most people will choose to watch a video.

This way you give them the choice between both. Embedding videos in blog posts is a good way to direct your readers to your YouTube channel and convert them into subscribers.

If you have a website, you can also embed your blog post in the code of your website. A website can have multiple benefits, therefore, if you don’t have one already, it may be a good idea to consider getting it.

In case you have never built a website before, there are several great website builders online that can simplify the task for you. You can also use a beginner’s guide to building websites to learn how to do it on your own.

14. End Videos With a Strong Call-to-Action

Often many YouTube creators miss telling their audience what to do next after they have finished watching their video. If this happens, your viewer is simply going to move on to the next video without taking any action that could have helped your channel.

This is where a CTA comes in. Human beings need to be reminded often about what has to be done, and the same applies even to YouTube videos.

The most common and simplest CTA is to ask your viewers to subscribe, but if you just use this CTA on your channel, chances are that you may be losing out on a lot of opportunities to get your audience to act the way you want.

End each video with a strong call-to-action and compel your users to take the action that you want. If you need some help with the different types of CTAs that you can use, here are a few examples

Ask them to watch related videos

While you can use this CTA to direct your viewers to any of your other videos, it is especially effective if your video is a part of a series. You can direct your viewers to either watch the video before the current one or even the upcoming part.

Direct them to your social media channels

You can use your CTA to direct your viewers to your social media channels and ask them to follow you there. This way you cross-promote all your platforms.

Make sure you add links to your social media handles in the description of your video or your users will lose the link to follow.

Redirect them to your online store

If you sell merchandise or other products through your channel it is ideal to start your online store and redirect your viewers to your store so that they buy from you.

If you sell multiple things and you do not have an online store yet, you can build one so that your business has a more prominent presence. There are several online eCommerce store builders that can help you start your online store quickly.

Ask them to comment on your videos or like and share

Like asking your viewers to subscribe to your videos, you can also ask them to comment, like, and share your video.

This way you increase the engagement on your channel and viewers who really like your video will also remember that they can share it with their friends or someone else who might enjoy the video and it will, in turn, help you get many more subscribers.

Add a CTA based on your revenue model

Depending on your revenue model, what action do you want your viewers to take? Do you want them to download your ebook or enroll in your online course? Depending on what your revenue model is you can add compelling CTAs.

For example, if you create online courses, you can add a CTA that encourages your viewers to sign up for a course and share a coupon code with them for a discount.

If you want to create online courses, there are many great online course platforms like Thinkific and Teachable are some great ones that can help you create some great online courses. 

Similarly, if you have a Shopify or Etsy online store or a similar eCommerce business, you can direct your channel’s traffic to your online store and even offer discount codes to viewers towards the end. 

Ask viewers to subscribe

Last but not the least, do remember to ask your viewers to subscribe. Try to grab every opportunity you get to remind your audience that they need to subscribe to your video if they do not want to miss out on your content.

Instead of simply asking them to subscribe, think about how you can present the same idea in a catchy way. Some of the leading YouTubers make it a point to ask viewers once in the beginning and once towards the end.

15. Hold Regular YouTube Live Streams

You can keep creating the most awesome videos but if you are not regularly hosting live streams on your channel, you are missing out on a big opportunity. The algorithm prefers live videos over pre-recorded ones.

Hence, if you regularly host live YouTube streams you are improving the searchability and visibility of your channel on YouTube. It also helps your channel show up in Google search results when people make relevant searches.

Another reason why you should host live streams is that people prefer watching them over pre-recorded videos.

According to YouTube Culture and Trends, over 53% of viewers prefer watching YouTube live streams over normal videos because it helps them feel connected to the content creator.

When you host live streams on your YouTube channel, your viewers can see you in real-time, and they know that what they are watching is coming straight to them in the original form without any editing.

YouTube creator academy says that the average watch time of YouTube live streams is three times more than normal videos. Channels that hold live streams every week have seen about a 40% increase in their subscribers.

If you haven’t hosted live streams yet, here are few ideas on the different types of formats that you can follow for maximum engagement.

Ask me anything or AMA

This type of live stream gains maximum traction as viewers are directly able to ask you what is on their minds.

You can also prepare for an AMA session even before you go live by asking your audience to drop questions they want to ask you and then you pick the top ten and answer them in your next live stream.

Product demonstrations

For YouTubers trying to increase their number of subscribers, this is one of the best ways to do so. According to WordStream, 96% of people watch explainer videos to get informed about products and services.

So you can do a live unboxing of a product that is in high demand, like iPhones when they are just released. If you have been mentioning a particular product in your normal videos, you can also go live to show a demo or to give a review.

If you have found some hacks on doing things differently, such live streams also receive high viewership.

Webinars or training

Have you been contemplating starting an online course? If you are still figuring out how to start a profitable online course but would like to gain some traction in the meanwhile, YouTube live streams are a great place to begin.

People are constantly watching YouTube videos to learn different things or to look for quick solutions to problems. Through your live streams, you can conduct webinars, training sessions, workshops, DIY sessions, and tutorials.

Live interviews

Get together with other YouTubers or personalities who have a good follower base. This way not only will you have insightful content for your viewers, but you will also be able to tap into your interviewee’s follower base for subscribers.

Event streaming

Another way of gaining some subscribers is streaming popular live events on your channel.

Behind the scenes

Viewers like to see what goes on behind the scenes, so if you are running short of ideas on what the theme of your next live stream could be, give your audience a tour of your workspace, show them how you operate, for example, your studio, your gym, etc.

Make sure all your live streams are fun, interactive, and candid.

16. Partner With Other YouTube Channels

Partnering with other YouTube channels can make your channel much more visible and give you good exposure. When you collaborate with another YouTuber, you get introduced to their subscribers and can gain a large number of subscribers from their network.

Here are some steps for a successful YouTube collaboration

Set up your channel

The first step when it comes to collaborating with other YouTube channels is to remember to set up your channel properly. You might be collaborating with a friend or a YouTuber you met online.

In the case of the latter, you will probably need to make a pitch and the first thing they will see is how your channel looks. It will give them an idea of how serious you are about your YouTube channel.

When you collaborate with other YouTubers, it is important to remember that you will be sharing the brand image of your collaborator and vice versa. Set up your account’s description, channel icon, playlists, channel trailer, and everything else before you make a pitch.

Post content regularly

Be regular with your content so that your collaborator and your viewers both know that you are an active channel. People are more likely to subscribe to an active channel than one that posts once in a month.

Develop a considerable following

We know that the purpose of collaborating with other YouTube channels is to generate more followers, but before that, you need to have at least a small number of subscribers who know who you are.

It gives you credibility when you approach another creator for collaboration and it also tells you and the collaborator about the kind of users who follow your account. This helps determine whether you share a relevant audience.

Look for creators in the same niche

You can partner with your friends who are YouTubers or those you met on online forums, but it is important that you only collaborate with creators in the same niche.

Suppose you specialize in skincare and you partner with someone from the gaming industry, you might end up doing a great collab but it will not result in any subscribers because their target audience might not be interested in your videos and vice versa.

Cross-promote

To make the most out of each collaboration, make two videos and publish them on each other's channels. This way you get introduced to their subscribers and they get introduced to yours.

Make sure you include each other’s channel links in the descriptions and even include a verbal call to action.

While you might want to collaborate with YouTube channels, one problem that might arise is that you might not know who to collaborate with and none of your contacts might be YouTubers. There is a solution for this.

There are plenty of online forums where YouTubers like you are looking for partners to collaborate with. Visit these forums, identify potential collaborators from the same niche, evaluate their profile and start the conversation.

Ensure that you choose a collaborator who has a larger following than you.

17. Interview Celebrities in Your YouTube Videos

Interviewing celebrities in your YouTube videos can be a great way of tapping into the celebrity’s popularity and getting introduced to new audiences. But often, Youtubers might find it intimidating to reach out to celebrities due to fear of being rejected.

We’ve put together a few tips that can help you get more celebrities on your channel.

Start small

While you are just starting off, it is a good idea to start with smaller celebrities rather than aiming directly for the most popular ones. Keep growing up the ladder eventually. This helps you establish the credibility that you have grown all the way up.

Each time you want to interview a celebrity, look for one slightly more popular than the previous one. You can also look for celebrities who might be trending at the time due to something they might have launched.

Reach out through their social media channels

Now the question that arises is, how do you get in touch with them? The first step would be to dig into your connections to see if someone could connect you to a celebrity they know or a celebrity of your choice.

The next step would be to look on social media because these days everyone is active on different social media channels especially celebrities. Celebrities are also very responsive on different social media channels and often reply.

You could try Twitter because most celebrities are actively tweeting there or Instagram as it is the most popular social media platform now.

Find their agents

You could also look for agents representing the celebrities but this can be a difficult task. For this, you will have to dig deep to find out who represents them, their contacts, and finally get in touch with them and get them to reply.

Be knowledgeable about your guest

When you approach a celebrity for an interview, it only makes sense that you know something about your guest. It is always good to open with a compliment about something they’ve done recently.

You can also refer to something they’ve done that caught your attention and make it the reason why you are approaching them for an interview. If you do not know much about your celebrity, make sure you do some homework.

Be clear about dates and the subject of the interview

Better than asking open-ended questions like, “would you like to do an interview with me sometime” or “I would like to interview you someday”, be specific about the request and give them a date.

If you leave it open-ended, chances are they will forget after a week or something else more important might come up.

It is also a good practice to let them know what you want to interview them about. Once they confirm, you can share the agenda of the interview with them. You can also share with them the questions you plan to ask so that they can be better prepared.

Include links to past interviews

Celebrities prefer working with people who have prior experience of working with other celebrities. So if you have interviewed celebrities in the past, do not forget to show it off in your proposal.

Make sure you include links to your best work that shows the quality of equipment you use, your preparedness, your style of interviewing, and others.

A good idea is to have a personal website or an online portfolio in general or before you approach someone for a collaboration. Look at some of the best online portfolio examples before you start creating one.

Follow up

Not always will you receive a reply the first time you mail a celebrity? Your proposal might have got buried under the many other emails that they receive or it might have just slipped from their mind. A follow-up can act as a good reminder and shows your persistence.

Often a follow-up can help you get a positive reply from your prospect you might have not heard anything from.

18. Incentive People to Subscribe to Your YouTube Channel

If you want people to take the desired action, it is a good idea to incentivize them. It improves the chances that they will do what you have asked to get the incentive. The same principle works for subscribers on your YouTube channel.

Let your viewers know that for every new subscriber that you get, you will be giving away an incentive. Make sure you also tell the current follower count or else you will not be able to justify yourself later.

While mentioning the current number of your followers, you can also mention that you will award incentives until you reach a certain number. This will help you see a quicker rise in the number of your subscribers.

Now you might be wondering, what is that I can offer to my subscribers. Here are some tips:

Freebies

The best and easiest way to reward your subscribers is to give them freebies. Think of the things that your target audience might be interested in and add them to your freebie list.

Some good ideas of what your freebies can be are journals, holders, phone covers, paperweights, books, or DIY kits. Offering freebies will only be effective if what you are offering genuinely interests your viewers.

Discounts on your online courses

If you have online courses as one of your offerings, this could be a great way to get new subscribers to your channel as well as get people to enroll in your online course.

Worksheets and online planners

Many YouTubers have their own worksheets or productivity tools that they use. If you have something like that, you can offer a free link to your worksheets and tools to those who subscribe.

Free ebooks

This is similar to offering discounts on online courses but instead of offering a discount, you give your ebook away for free.

For all of this to be successful, you will need to create a landing page where you direct your new subscribers. This is where they provide you with necessary information like their address, email address, and others and expect you to send them their incentives when they subscribe.

You can also pick a lucky winner and give them something special like the hundredth subscriber gets to interview you personally or gets two free tickets to a popular event.

19. Upload a Stunning Channel Icon

Your YouTube channel icon is something that appears in more places on Youtube than any other element of your channel so make sure it is stunning. It is a small picture that represents your channel and is something that new visitors will see.

If they want to check how many subscribers you have, the number appears below your channel icon. When you reply to comments, your channel icon tells your viewers that it's you. Your channel icon acts as your identity as it tells viewers it is your video.

So make sure it is unique, attractive, and easily identifiable.

If you are thinking of recreating your existing channel icon or creating a new one, here are some ideas for creating great channel icons.

Logo

Logos are the most common type of channel icon and they work well when you talk about different things on your channel or have different people associated with them. It helps you represent your channel as a brand.

But the channel icon appears quite small so make sure that the elements of your logo are visible. If you already have a logo, check to see if it suits the channel icon dimensions. If not, create a variant of your logo.

You can use tools like Canva, PicMonkey, and Desygner to design your logos.

Use your own picture

If yours is a personal brand and you want to associate yourself with your channel, make sure you use a smart headshot. This way your face resonates with your channel and acts as your channel’s identity.

Similarly, if yours is a family vlog, or you have a partner, it is a good idea to have a channel icon with a picture of you together.

It all depends on what you want your brand identity on YouTube to be.

Visuals or icons

This may be tricky because you need to choose a visual that is unique to your brand, original, and also depicts what your brand is all about.

Do some research on some of the best channel icons and see what they have in common. Make it crisp and clear instead of loading it with dozens of elements like a lot of emojis, text, or many pictures.

Also, make sure your channel icon is unique and is not a copy of someone else’s logo or channel as it might not only affect your identity but can also lead to copyright infringement.

To be on the safer side, you can do a reverse Google search to see if your icon is already being used.

20. Post Often and Consistently

Like everything else in life, the key to having a successful YouTube channel is being consistent with your efforts. You have to be regular and show up so that your subscribers are not turned away.

You should be regular with your YouTube videos not only for your subscribers but because YouTube’s algorithm also rewards consistency. The more regular you are, the more viewers, likes, and subscribers your channel will get.

We know that you may have a lot going on in your life and your YouTube channel may just be a small part of it, but if you are serious about increasing your followers, you have to be consistent. There is no other way out.

Luckily, we have some tips that can help you stay consistent on your YouTube channel.

Create a posting schedule

If you decide to record a video or post the day motivation strikes, chances are that you will end up not posting anything on most days. Creating a schedule helps you keep track of the days you need to post content.

You can also share your schedule in advance with your viewers so that it helps you stay accountable.

Produce videos in batches

Make it a point to shoot your videos well in advance. You cannot shoot on the same day that you want to publish. We would also advise that you shoot your videos in batches when you have the camera, equipment, lighting, and the motivation set to shoot a video.

Carry different outfits that you wear for each video so that it does not look like you shot everything in one go and did not put in any effort.

Create a plan about the different videos you plan to shoot in one day. Come up with the themes, the script, the dialogues, and everything necessary so that you do not spend valuable time thinking about what to shoot.

If you want to get a lot of work done, you have to be prepared well in advance.

Be flexible with the length of videos

It’s okay to experiment with different video lengths. You do not have to make all your videos long or all of them short. Lean towards video lengths that your audience responds to best but if a topic needs you to make a short video, or a longer one, do not overthink.

In case you are having an extremely busy month and shooting longer videos is coming in the way of you being regular, it's okay to make good quality short videos rather than disappearing completely.

Try different types of formats

Just like the length of videos, experiment with content formats. Often, YouTubers fail to stay consistent because they run out of content ideas.

Experiment with different content types, get ideas from comments, interview celebrities, bring in guests, do product reviews, and “ask me anything” sessions.

On days when you have absolutely nothing, or for some reason you were unable to publish a video on time, you can do a live stream and make up for it.

Make sure you always have a few ideas up your sleeve for such impromptu live streams so that you are prepared for such situations.

Be realistic

Sit with yourself, evaluate all your commitments, and determine how much time you will have to spare for your YouTube channel. Depending on that, decide how often you will be able to post. If you think you will be able to post once a month, let it be so.

Just make sure you post once every month. Post as often as you can. Ideally, you should be posting at least once a week.

Be realistic with yourself and do not become over-ambitious and then fail to deliver.

A fun way of achieving your goals in creating a vision board. Create one separately for what you want to achieve through your YouTube channel and how you plan to do it. You can take the help of online vision board makers for the same.

21. Invest in YouTube Advertising to Grow Your Audience

After doing everything you can to grow your YouTube channel organically, it is time to use YouTube’s advertising to grow your subscribers. You can run advertising campaigns on YouTube through Google Ads and promote your channel.

All you have to do is create the ad, select a format, set your budget, and choose the audience you want to target. Accordingly, your ad starts showing alongside videos, at the beginning of videos, and during videos.

Here are some points that can help you create effective ads

Choose a relevant target audience

To make sure that your ad campaigns are successful, make sure you select the right audience, or else your ad might appear to people who are not interested in your channel.

Some questions that you will need to answer to target the right audience are

• Whom do you want to target?
• What topics are your audience interested in?
• Where does your audience reside?
• How often do you want your ads to show?
• Which devices do your audience commonly use?

These questions make it possible to target your audience precisely rather than just broadly targeting a particular age group and gender.

Select an ad format

There are few types of ad formats and not all of them might work well for all types of videos. Depending on the type of video, and what you want to achieve you can choose from these formats.

• If you want your ad to appear before, after, or during YouTube videos, use Skippable in-stream ads.
• Choose non-skippable ads if you don’t want to give your audience a chance to skip. They have no choice but to watch the ad.
• Use discovery ads if you want your ad to show up when the searcher is discovering content to watch. These ads appear on the YouTube search results page, the mobile home page, and next to videos.
• Bumper ads are good when you want to reach large audiences with short, crisp, and memorable messages.
• Outstream ads can be used when you want to expand your reach to mobile.

Finalize on the goal of your campaign

Here the goal of your campaign is to gain more subscribers so choose the campaign goal as remarketing through Google Ads. This way, your ad appears to those viewers who have not subscribed to your channel but have previously engaged with your videos.

Analyze the results from your campaign

You will not know whether your ad campaign was successful if you do not analyze the results once your campaign is over. YouTube analytics lets you measure the success of your ad campaigns.

Once your ads are complete, in the YouTube analytics dashboard, you can check the number of subscribers you gained through the ad under the subscriber’s tab.

Some other tips that can help you create some very successful campaigns are

• Catch the viewer’s attention in the first five seconds so that they do not skip the ad.
• Create multiple ads and test which one is bringing the highest conversions.
• Use your most popular videos in your ads because they have proven value.
• Always include a CTA in every ad.
• Do not hurry with the CTA. Make sure it stays on the screen for 5-10 seconds so that the viewer can act.
• Use interactive elements in your ads like clickable buttons, cards, and others.

YouTube Subscribers FAQ

Ready to Grow Your Channel and Earn More Money on YouTube This Year?

That’s quite a list of actionable tips that you can use to grow your YouTube channel quickly in 2021 and monetize it. However, it is important to remember that not every channel grows at the same pace and not all audiences respond in the same manner.

But, if you follow the most common best practices like producing good quality content regularly, using good equipment to record your videos, engaging with your audience, optimizing your YouTube channel for the search engine and others, you will soon see your subscribers grow.

Make sure you experiment with different types of content and different formats. Study your audience and see what kind of content works best with them.

You can also study some popular YouTube channels and channels that are doing really well to see what is working for them.

Wherever you may be currently in your journey on YouTube, do not be afraid of experimenting and soon you will be able to reach the numbers that you are aiming for.

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