You're Not Dreaming: These Tips Will Help You Increase Your YouTube Channel Subscribers
With the overwhelming amount of channels on YouTube, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd and gain new subscribers to your channel. I’ve put together a list of the tips that have helped me build my own YouTube channel over the years. While this won’t make you an overnight sensation, following these simple steps will help you get more traffic, attract more viewers, and increase your subscriber base on YouTube!
Get A Real Domain (and Host It Yourself)
If you’re on something like YT Domains, you might be getting a few thousand views per day. But if that’s all your getting, you’re not going to make much money off of it. Set up a real domain and host it yourself (it’s not hard) and now you have something professional-looking and easy to remember. Which will lead to...
Create Custom Thumbnails for Every Video
Making a custom thumbnail for every video is essential to having your videos stand out. Once you make a thumbnail, it should represent what’s unique about your video. Just like how an eye-catching book cover will get people to pick up your book, so too will an eye-catching thumbnail will get viewers to click on your video. So focus on making thumbnails that are interesting and show off what makes your content unique and special. More views means more subscribers!
Write Great Titles
One of my favorite ways to grow my channel and drive new subscribers is by creating great titles. Great titles grab your audience’s attention and get them interested in what you have to say. The best way to create an amazing title is to write down three or four ideas, then choose your favorite one. This method not only allows you to be more creative, but it also ensures that you’re choosing a topic that people are looking for—and will click on!
Upload Longer Videos
In order to keep people watching your video for a long period of time, make sure your videos are long enough. That said, you don’t want them to be too long either, because you don’t want to lose viewers before they get hooked on your channel. So shoot for a middle ground; plan ahead and have an idea of how long you want each video on your channel to be.
Include Calls to Action in the Description Section
This is an easy and effective way to increase your channel subscribers. Many people watch videos and automatically press Like or Dislike, but they don’t always subscribe. Instead of asking for a like, ask viewers to subscribe by saying something like Please subscribe to my channel on Youtube! or Click here to join my list! By adding calls to action in your description section, you have one more chance at getting subscribers without having to ask directly.
Use More Tags in the Description Section
Use more than five tags in your video’s description section. Tags appear in search results, so if your videos aren’t showing up on a list of similar videos and you’re getting lots of views and subscribers, it could be because your description section doesn’t include enough tags. Google recommends using at least three to four words for each tag. Tags are separated by commas or dashes depending on whether you prefer them to stand alone or grouped together.
Add Annotations Throughout The Video
The only problem with annotations is that they don’t show up in search results, so you may not want to use them on every video. However, adding them to at least a few of your videos can do wonders for your YouTube channel. Annotating videos allows you to link viewers directly to any sites or channels of your choosing—which means they’re even more likely to subscribe and watch your videos in the future.
Create Captions For Your Videos
Captions are not only an accessibility feature for those who can’t hear your videos, but also a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. If someone watches your video with captions enabled and then finds it helpful, that person is more likely to view more of your videos. And it doesn’t hurt that enabling captions also helps people understand your content—no matter what language they speak! The point is to enable them, both on or off.
Have a Good Thumbnail/Channel Banner/Channel Art
While it’s not nearly as important as content and SEO, having a good thumbnail, channel banner, and/or channel art will make your channel more appealing to viewers. Keep your graphics relevant to your niche. If you are making how-to videos for cooking or DIY projects, don’t put pictures of beautiful women eating sushi in your thumbnails—the less people click on your video because they think it is irrelevant to their interests, the less chance you have of getting those precious views.
Engage in Other Channels in the Comments Section
People may be drawn to your videos, but they will not stay unless they know you are actively engaged with other people. Make sure that you’re posting in other relevant channels and encouraging those who comment on your videos to post in your channel as well. Engaging others is important because not only does it engage others and make them want to subscribe, but it also makes them more likely to want to share or recommend your channel.