How I went from being a NewTuber to a . . . Not-As-NewTuber (75k subs, 10 months)

Hi YouTubing people. I was inspired by u/vibrant801, who made quite a blunt post the other day full of good information that’s not commonly shared on this subreddit. I have some to share as well. The advice and instructions I’m giving are not the end-all-be-all way to grow a channel on YouTube, and honestly there are a lot of channels that have grown way past my channel growth (Joana Ceddia for example went from 1 subscriber to 1 million subscribers in three months, and Lt.Corbis went from 50 subs to 150k in a week), but I have in fact gone from 36 subscribers to 75k subscribers in 10 months or so. I’m going to make a lot of blanket statements because it’s easier to just make the statements than to follow them all up with “in my experience”, but obviously they’re just in my experience. What I’m describing worked for me personally, and ultimately everyone will have to find what works for them, which could very well be the opposite of what I’m saying. Nonetheless, I hope this helps someone. It’s a long read but I split it all into standalone topics so feel free jump around or just read the parts that apply to you if you want.

(If growing a channel is not part of your YouTube goals and you’re truly in it to only have fun, then don’t get offended at my advice, just realize you’re not the target audience. I’m not going to PM you my channel, just use context clues if you’re interested. If this post is too long then just don’t read it, I gave you a nice little TL;DR at the bottom. Talk to your doctor before starting YouTube. Subscribe to Pewdiepie. Etc.)

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON YOUR CONTENT:

FACTS: If you think it’s good, then it’s probably not as good as you think it is. YouTube IS a competition. Your videos are quite literally competing with everyone else’s videos on the homepage/recommended/suggested videos, so you’re in a competition with everyone on YouTube whether you want to be or not. Because of this, if your content quality isn’t better or up to par with everyone else’s, then you’re not going to make it.
GOALS: If your goal is to get more engagement, you’re going to have to make more engaging content in the first place. Sharing your videos on as many subreddits as possible isn’t going to do you any good if the videos themselves aren’t of a good quality. The goal is to be at (or above) the level of quality that the top channels in your niche have.
OBJECTIVE: Do some research on the channels in your niche. What do these channels have in common with their videos? How clear is their audio/video quality? How concise are the videos? How quickly do they get to the point? How professional is their shot set-up? How clear is the message they’re getting across? How clean is the editing? How good at they at whatever skill they’re using to make the video? Do that, or do better. It’s within your control. 

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON YOUR NICHE:

FACTS: If you don’t have a niche then your content won’t be successful. If you see channels that have all kinds of variety content that isn’t in a niche, then either they’re already a big channel, their sub-to-view ratio is bad, or they actually are in a niche and you might not have realized it. Having a niche doesn’t mean you can make whatever kind of content you want; you’re going to have to work to make it more and more specific.
GOALS: You want everyone in your niche to watch your videos (ideally), and you should have the best videos in your niche. It’s within your control.
OBJECTIVE: Identify your niche, and make sure it’s specific. Do you have videos on your channel that don’t fit into your niche? Remove them. You can always make a second channel for full creative expression or whatever you’re aiming for. On YouTube, people come back to watch the same things over and over, not just to see what you decided to do this time (unless you’re already a large channel, in which case why are you reading this and also please make a video about me, I could use the boost).

CHANGE YOUR PERPSECTIVE ON GOALS:

FACTS: Your goals should be as high as possible. If you get disappointed and discouraged because you don’t meet them, toughen up! If you have consistently low goals just to make yourself feel better when you meet them, then no wonder you have consistently low performance. You’re expecting it.
GOALS: Goals.
OBJECTIVE: I stole this method from a friend and slightly modified it. Make three tiers of goals. First is your Low Goals. These are the safe, boring, expected, reasonable goals you have for your channel. For me, a low goal would be getting from 75k subs to 100k subs this year. Bleh. Next, set yourself a high goal. This goal should be ideal. So what if you don’t make it? Who cares? Be proud of yourself for even trying. For me a high goal would 500k subs. It’s not completely unthinkable that I could get from 75k to 500k over the course of this year (people have done way more impressive YouTube feats). Lastly, set yourself a dream goal. Screw reality, this is YOUR goal sheet! You can write literally whatever you want. I would write 1 million subscribers. Am I going to get to 1 million by 2019? I’ll let you guys know if I do but statistically speaking that’s not really very likely. Who cares though? It’s fun to imagine. That’s the crazy thing about YouTube, your channel could blow up to insane heights . . . TOMORROW. 

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON NUMBERS:

FACTS: You don’t have to be consistent on YouTube to grow. You don’t have to upload regularly. You don’t have to upload often. Feel free to fight me on this, I will ABSOLUTELY FLOOD you with SocialBlade profiles (including mine) from people who post extremely irregularly. (I haven’t posted in over a month but I’m currently averaging 200 subs every day.)
GOALS: Focus on quality, not quantity. Don’t upload often, upload well.
OBJECTIVE: If you can somehow maintain a high-quality level and still post very often, do it. But if you can’t, just stop posting so often. Your video’s should be polished, not plentiful. Don’t take it from me though. Here are quotes from u/TheInternetHistorian (he has 1 million subscribers). “It’s far better to have a catalogue of 10 very high quality videos than 400 mid- or low-quality ones.” and my personal favorite, “If it takes a week to make a really good video. Take the week. If it takes you a day to make something mediocre but passable, then avoid that. Take the week. My channel has only uploaded a total of 32 videos in 2 years.” The man only uploaded THIRTY-TWO TIMES in 2 YEARS. He has a million subs. I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine. (For something more accessible, I went from 36 subscribers to my current count with just 22 videos). 

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON GETTING VIEWS:

FACTS: If you don’t have a substantial audience, you’re not going to get views unless the video is about something that people are already looking for. They are not going to click into your video just because it’s you, because they don’t know who you are. In order to get views on YouTube, you have to make videos on things that people are actively looking for, and the easiest way to do that is by talking about other YouTubers, trending topics, and pop culture. “I ALMOST DIED!! SPIDERMAN PS4 PLAYTHROUGH PART 6” isn’t going to get any views, because nobody is looking for that, but a “Why Insomniac’s Spiderman Would Never Run on XBox One” would work, because this is something that people would actually want to know. (this is just an example, idk the specs of either console and i don’t care lmfao i’m not an epic gamer)
GOAL: Get views.
OBJECTIVE: Find a channel that makes content in your niche, and click into one of their recent videos that has done better than other ones have. Look through the reccomended section and see if other people are making videos about this too. If they are, it’s for a reason, so make one too (if you want to). This only works from week to week though for the most part, so make sure people are still interested in the topic you’re talking about, or that you can bring something new to it. If you have a cooking channel, see if a lot of cooking channels are doing some sort of challenge or using some sort of recipe. Don’t look at a giant cooking channel that can get views on everything they upload, look at a smaller channel that is pulling big numbers and see what topics they’re covering. Alternatively, you could just talk about other YouTubers. The algorithm will treat that video somewhat like a collab video between you and that YouTuber, so the numbers could be much higher. 

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THE ALGORITHM:

FACTS: “Manipulating the algorithm” is literally the only way to grow a YouTube channel. You’re manipulating it by even using tags, titles, and thumbnails in the first place. The YouTube algorithm is complicated but it is not difficult to use it to get more views. It is not out to prevent small YouTube channels from succeeding, in fact it is because of the algorithm that your channel has the ability to grow very large, rather quickly.
GOAL: Get the algorithm to promote you once, and then once it happens, try to keep the trend going upward or slow the downward trend as much as possible. Try the methods I’ve listed to get views, and then once you get them, take advantage of the algorithm’s promotion. Keep uploading similar content. In the first 8 months of my new channel, I gained 30,000 subscribers. Then in only two months, that number more than doubled. The reason I got so many so quickly is because I capitalized on my algorithmic bump. Instead of celebrating the temporary success like I did the first time I got views, I had to sit down and figure out how to make it more than temporary. The video that blew up was a commentary video about Shane Dawson. In the video, I focused moreso on the commentary than the artwork, and I used the artwork in the background. This was a big hit, and it was actually easier for me to make. So I followed up with another video about a different YouTuber and the same format, and that one got 300k+ views too. The next one I did about an art thread on 4chan, and that one got 100,000 views in five days, which was the quickest I’ve ever reached 100k on a video. At this point my viewcount is averaging higher than my actual sub count. The algorithm keeps promoting my videos more and more because I keep releasing similar content.
OBJECTIVE: If you ever notice even a slight upward trend, act on that. The algorithm is keeping track of both good and bad performances, so once you find a good one, recreate it for as long as feasible. You can do that without annoying your subscribers, since they subscribed for that content anyway. 

CHANGE YOUR OPINION ON YOUR AUDIENCE:

FACTS: Your audience is real, and they’re already on YouTube. They just haven’t seen your content yet. If your video was watched by every single person on YouTube tomorrow, then you would be at the top of your niche the next day, as long as your content is good.
GOAL: Learn who your audience is, and get your content in places where your future audience will see it.
OBJECTIVE: Research. The first step is pinpointing your target demographic. Are you in your target demographic already? If so then half of the work is done. You know what you would actually watch, so don’t make content that nobody would actually want to watch. That being said, just because it’s interesting to you doesn’t mean it’s interesting to your audience. As much love as they have for you, they’re not going to keep coming back if your videos are consistently failing to appeal to their demographic. (Think about the YouTubers you’ve stopped watching over time because you don’t really feel connected with their content. Don’t become those YouTubers).

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON YOUR SUBSCRIBERS:

FACTS: Your subscribers don’t care about every video you upload. The amount of people who click “subscribe” with the intention of watching every video is much lower than your sub count. Instead, people subscribe with the hope of seeing similar content. Even if they like your personality, they’re not going to watch a video that’s about a different topic than the one they subscribed for. There are obviously YouTubers who make all kinds of off-topic videos that do well, but you’ll notice they either have a large following already (JennaMarbles) or a low-ish sub-to-view ratio (penguinz0).
GOAL: You want as big of a percentage of your subscribers clicking into each video of yours as you can manage. The more views you get early on, the more YouTube will promote your video in the future and the more views you will get in the long run.
OBJECTIVE: Keep active track of how many subscribers you’ve gotten from each video. Two of my videos have gotten me 10,000 subscribers each, so it is extremely imperative that I keep making content similar to those if I want to keep that large portion of my audience engaged. Go to Creator Studio, and look at the analytics of all your biggest videos. You can see how many subscribers you’ve gained (and lost) via each video. Write them down if you have to, and pay attention to what kind of content that video was. The majority of the people who subscribed because of that video are expecting to see the exact same thing from each future upload, so you’ll be able to have a much better sub-to-view ratio. On my old channel my sub-to-view ratio was 10-20%, my current one is 100%+.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON OTHER YOUTUBERS:

FACTS: Other YouTubers are your biggest resource. The YouTube algorithm is set up in a way that tries really hard to put YouTubers in a similar category (think of the “Related Channels” section on a YouTube channel). You can use this to your advantage to get YouTube to treat your videos the same way it treats videos from larger creators (more engagement, more push in the reccomended sections, more fun overall). In addition to this, your entire largest potential audience is probably already subscribed to ONE other YouTuber. What if they all saw your video today?
GOALS: Use other YouTubers to your advantage. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. Look at how many of your favorite creators collaborate with/talk about each other in videos, and look at the viewcount on those videos compared to their other videos.
OBJECTIVE: Look for ways to talk about other YouTubers and put them in your titles. That doesn’t automatically mean negative commentary, nor does it mean your entire channel has to become about that. You’re surely creative enough to still make the video very much your video, regardless of the subject matter. Putting big YouTube names in your tags isn’t a shortcut to that. 

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON CLICKBAIT:

FACTS: If you don’t clickbait, then nobody is going to click into your video. If you think “clickbait is bad” then you’re not thinking about it creatively enough. The only kind of bad clickbait is misleading clickbait. You can clickbait anything. YouTube viewers are very forgiving of (non-misleading) clickbait at this point, because all the YouTubers they actually watch (not you if your titles are boring) are doing it. The definition is literally “content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page.” Again, if you’re not using clickbait, then nobody is going to click (because you’re not attracting attention and encouraging them to click in).
GOAL: Get those clicks.
OBJECTIVE: Research. Look at the channels in your niche that consistently pull views. Go to a channel and look at it’s most popular videos. How did they use clickbait? It’s most likely not malicious at all. Check the comments, I doubt people are complaining about it. Now, do the same thing for your videos. You put so much work into your video, so why would you shortchange yourself last minute by not getting the maximum viewership for your efforts?

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON NEWTUBERS:

FACTS: If you’re a NewTuber, chances are your videos need a lot of work. Not every post on this subreddit is going to have the good info you need to help you with that work. If someone has 1000 subscribers then they really don’t understand how long-term growth works, so they’re ether only spreading misinformation, giving information that is way too general, repeating things they’ve heard from bigger channels, or giving information that only helps short-term for small growth. Or all four.
GOAL: Your goal should be to STOP BEING A NEWTUBER. This community isn’t a final resting spot, it’s just a launchpad on your way to becoming a larger channel.
OBJECTIVE: Pay attention to the people who are writing advice posts, they don’t always know what they’re talking about, nor are they always completely up front. (I have 75k subs, but what if I was only getting 300 views per video?) Learn to filter what works and what doesn’t. Take only the best information and put it into practice. I’m sure you care about your channel, so don’t do silly things with it just because someone said so in a reddit text post.

CHANGE YOUR PERPECTIVE ON “SELLING OUT”:

FACTS: If you just see using trending topics and popular people as “selling out”, then you are not being creative enough and you’re not giving yourself enough credit. Just because you’re using a popular topic doesn’t mean you’re forfeiting every bit of creativity you have. If you’re incapable of bringing anything new to the discussion about said popular topic, then try harder.
GOAL: Capitalize on trending/popular topics as much as you possibly can. That is how you will grow your channel.
OBJECTIVE: Pay attention to your niche. Weird things happen in it all the time. I know you have opinions on these things! It doesn’t have to be negative either, so don’t limit yourself in that regard. It’s not “selling out”, it’s being intelligent, no quotes. How else do you reasonably expect people to find your content if they didn’t already have an interest in what you were talking about. So you don’t want to be like the mindless drone of videos ranting about said topic? Then make your video better than all of theirs combined. And obviously it doesn’t have to be every single video on your channel. It’s within your control.

Anyway I hope you liked my book. Too bad I couldn’t put midroll ad breaks in the middle of you reading it. Again, this is all my experience. You’re free to disagree with any of my points. It worked for me, that doesn’t mean it will work for you. Have a nice day. If you happen to be one of my subscribers, have a VERY nice day. Okay bye.

TL;DR it took me way longer to write the whole thing than it will take you to read it, so read it ALL or I’m calling the police.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewTubers/comments/aemsq9/how_i_went_from_being_a_newtuber_to_a/