Everyone constantly talks about ranking in Google, but what about YouTube? It’s the number two search engine, so wouldn’t you want to take advantage and pull website traffic from this as well? What if I told you that not only could you rank your videos and get traffic form that, but also that you could build a large subscriber base that will watch every video that you post?

It’s something that many IMers ignore. They will try to rank videos but very few are actually trying to build a channel with a subscriber base. It’s a long term strategy, kind of like content marketing. A lot of people want to chase the quick money and I completely understand because I was the same way once. It’s only been recently that I’ve experienced what long term strategy and planning can do. It might take more than a year but when it finally hits the results are amazing.

There are a lot of tutorials and blog posts about ranking YouTube videos so I wanted to take this in a slightly different direction. I want to discuss smart and easy ways to help you attract more subscribers to your channel. You see, the more subscribers you can build up, the more instant traffic you have on tap.

I’m considering starting a SEO YouTube channel to discuss news and tips. Now, imagine if I built the channel up to 50,000 subscribers. Now, every time I post on my blog, I simply create a recap video that acts as a teaser and I include a link to the blog post in the video description. Not only can I then optimize the video to show up in the video SERPs, but all of those 50,000 subscribers are going to see my new video and a large percentage of them are going to click over. I could then take it up a notch and make video announcements when we launch a new service or have a special promo.

You can literally have traffic on tap if you build up a large subscriber base..

With that being said, here are some easy tips on how to get YouTube Subscribers.

 

Just like blogging, consistency is key.

When someone decides whether or not they are going to subscribe to your YouTube channel they are going to make their decision based on how good your video content is, but also how frequently you update with new videos. If they don’t see that you post frequent updates they aren’t going to have much incentive to hit the subscribe button. They might think you won’t post more, so just like with regular blog posts, make sure you do frequent updates to stay relevant.

 

Come up with a creative YouTube channel name.

You have to have a creative name for your channel in order to stand out. Don’t think of something too generic either. If I do a SEO and IM channel I wouldn’t want to name it “SEO and IM information” because that sounds dull and boring. People subscribe to YouTube channels that provide great info and do it in a fun way. Nobody will subscribe if the sense the videos you post will be boring. Spend some time thinking of a great channel name the same way you would think of a clever domain name for a website.

 

Make it look like you are worthy of subscribing to.

You have to make your channel look high quality, even if you don’t have a clue what you are doing in the beginning. A custom channel cover image is a must and you can get the done for as little as $5 on Fiverr. Something as simple as this will help you get those first subscribers, which is the hardest part. Once your audience grows it becomes much easier to get people to subscribe. Look at some of the large prank channels on YouTube and you will see they have millions of subscribers. Why? Because people see that and assume it must be good content so they subscribe.

 

Don’t shoot your videos in the same room every time.

Have you ever seen some of the SEO guru videos on YouTube? They are sitting in some crappy room in an apartment and filming in the same spot over and over. The background is a white wall and it’s almost depressing. They look like fools because anyone with a brain can tell they are faking it. They can rank any website but live in a roach infested apartment? Makes sense! 😀

If you want to create a specific spot to shoot, make it professional looking, with a nice desk, microphone and background. Then, shoot in some random places to change it up. You want to hold attention, not bore your viewers.

 

Have a custom intro with graphics and music.

Watch any successful YouTube channel and you will see they al have an intro with the title and a logo and they will sometimes plug their social media handles there as well. Nice music tops it off and makes it look very professional. You can get intros make on Fiverr for you guessed it…$5. Spend five whole dollars to look professional…I promise you it’s worth it.

 

Jam pack your description with ALL of your contact information.

Don’t think that your description is just for SEO. People actually read these, so take full advantage of this real estate space. Put links to your website, all of your social media profiles, newsletters, special offers, etc. The more information the better. When people start to follow all your social media profiles they will start sharing posts and you can attract new subscribers that way. This is a reason why it’s so important to cross promote and mention your YouTube channel everywhere.

 

Don’t be a Robot and don’t sounds like a Teacher.

You have to let your personality shine. Look at the biggest YouTube stars and tell me what they all have in common. It’s their crazy personalities. Nobody gets addicted to a YouTube channel based strictly on the content. The personality of the person behind it plays one of the largest roles in this, so don’t sound like an instructor. You need to let your personality show.

 

robot

Have a 30 second trailer made.

You should have a 30 second video that serves as a trailer for your channel. It needs to be fun, look amazing, and tell someone why they need to subscribe to your channel all in under 30 seconds. Some of the best ones I have seen didn’t have crazy special effects or graphics…they just showed the personality of the person and hit on all the strong selling points. What they will talk about, who they are, and what kind of value they bring.

 

Have a solid script and don’t wing it.

The last thing you want to do it turn on your camera, press the record button and just ramble on without a plan. It’s hard to write a blog post without an outline and the same applies to making a video. Create an outline of the points you want to discuss and then create a little script to follow. When you know the direction you want to go before you start filming you will end up with a much better video in the end that’s free of awkward pauses and silence. It will just flow much better.

 

Ask for subscribers, comments and thumbs ups.

The YouTube crowd is very responsive when asked to do something, and that is why you will see almost every successful channel end each video with something like “Don’t forget to subscribe, leave  comment below and hit the thumbs up!” Think if just 50% of people watching only did one of those things? That would translate into huge channel growth for you, so there is nothing wrong with asking.

 

Make your video thumbnails outrageous.

Because YouTube is the second largest search engine, your videos are going to be seen by a lot of people, so make sure you make them stand out. Create a wild thumbnail for every video that is designed to make people click to watch. You want to keep it wild, but almost make sure it relates to your video. If it has nothing to do with the video you will disappoint the viewer and they are going to have no interest in subscribing to your channel.

 

Place call to actions throughout your videos.

When someone is watching your video you have their full attention. Their face is glued to the screen, so this is a great time to put offers in front of them or if you are talking about something in the video that you think they might be interested in, make a link pop up at that time. Don’t wait until the end, because not everyone is going to watch through until the end. Place call to actions in real time.

 

Watermark all of your videos to create better branding.

YouTube allows you to have a custom watermark on all of your videos that shows up in the bottom corner of your videos. I would suggest doing a fairly transparent version of your channel logo and making sure it’s included on all of your videos. Good branding makes you look more legit and people will trust a channel that they feel is producing quality stuff. Little things like this instill trust, which leads to more subscribers.

 

Keep your videos short and to the point.

Not many people have 20 minutes to sit there and listen to you ramble. Even if they do, their attention spam won’t last so focus on creating videos that are 3 to 5 minutes to start. Not every channel will have the same needs and different audiences will react differently, so test different video lengths. Short and the point to start is the smart approach. If they want more you can easily make them longer, but if you start making 20 minute videos you might push the audience away before they even know if your channel is of any interest to them.

 

Have milestone giveaways.

Have regular giveaways when you reach subscriber milestones. 1,000 or 10,000 it doesn’t matter. The trick is to get your subscribers to help promote your channel in exchange for an entry into the giveaway drawing. Make them comment the video and you could also require them to share the video on Facebook and tag your Facebook page in the post. There are lots of ways…just get creative.

 

Share your videos on Facebook (and promote them if you have the money).

Facebook is a great social network to cross promote on because people love to share videos. Share them with your friends and ask them to share as well. You can get some nice traction this way, but if you have some extra money promote the post and get the video in front of a targeted audience with Facebook ads. You can see subscriber number go up fast this way.

 

share video to facebook

Enable comments and reply to them.

Don’t be a little bitch and disable comments on your channel. Some people do this because they can’t take criticism. If you are putting yourself out there on YouTube you have to accept the fact that not everyone will like you. There will be trolls and there will be haters. Reply to them, because your loyal followers will respect you more. Also, responding to all comments show that you value your subscribers and it will lead to many more deciding to subscribe also.

 

Record some videos with other successful channel owners and cross promote.

Find other similar channels and do a collaboration video that you can both share. This is a good way to get new subscribers. Even if you have to pay or bribe another channel, getting in front of their audience can really help to boost your own subscriber numbers.

 

Put a subscribe button in your blog sidebar.

This is so simple it pains me to see when people don’t do it. YouTube has a simple tool that allows you to create a button in seconds. If you already have a large blog following, slap one of the buttons in your blog sidebar and watch your subscriber count rise. You can access the developer tool to create one here:

https://developers.google.com/youtube/youtube_subscribe_button

Make a nice heading for it too, helping to draw attention to it. You could also create a popup that puts the button directly in front of every visitor if you want to really get aggressive.

If you have a YouTube channel currently feel free to post in below, because I’d love to check out what some of my readers are doing with their own channels. If you have any additional subscriber growth tips I’d be interested in hearing those as well.

What do you think? Should I start a SEO and IM YouTube channel? Would you subscribe and be interested in regularly updated video content from me? If there is enough interest I just might consider it!

Make sure you also check out the other social media blog posts that I recently shared. There is one about increasing your Facebook likes, getting more Twitter followers, using Linkedin to generate leads, and increasing your Instagram followers. Read them, share them, and let me know what you think.


Tommy McDonald

Tommy is an SEO professional with years of experience running highly successful SEO companies, founded SerpLogic after noticing there was a major void when it came to options for SEO agencies needing a reliable and professional one-stop outsource solution.You can read all about me in the “About” page here on our blog!


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