Want to monetize your YouTube content? We show you how to get your first 1000 subscribers so you can hit that goal.
If you’re new to YouTube but want to monetize your content you’ll need to generate 4,000 hours of Watch Time, and you’ll also need 1,000 subscribers to qualify. Here are 10 tips to help you attract those first 1000 subscribers to your YouTube channel
#1 Apply Directly to Your Audience to Subscribe
There is a school of thought that suggests asking for subscribers, may sound a little desperate, even cheesy, but it's simply a part of the YouTube fabric. People ask you to smash that like button to improve the YouTube algorithm and engagement rates. I've never had a single comment on one of my videos complaining about asking for subscribers and if you never ask, you may never get.
#2 Use Resources to Encourage Subscriber Sign Ups
A way you could encourage your viewers and subscribe is to use animations on your videos to make the subscribe button pop. You can get all sorts of resources from all over the internet. Simply try what fits for you and you may see an upsurge in your subscribers.
#3 Take Advantage of Your Watermark Branding
Our next step is to take advantage of our watermark branding. When viewers click on this icon, it takes them to your channel where they could subscribe after watching more of your content. It's edited and created via the branding page on the Creator Studio. Make sure the word ‘Subscribe’ is included in your icon, and don’t introduce it right at the beginning or at the very end of your video. You want it to act as a visual distraction, maybe 30 to 45 seconds into the video.
#4 Add a Call to Subscribe on Your Endscreen
While you can’t add subscription links in YouTube Cards during your video, you can add a subscribe button to your Endscreen. Have a play around with graphics and animations for a really strong call to action (CTA).
#5 Use an Auto Subscribe URL
Next up is a neat little trick. Whenever you share your YouTube channel add a command to the end of your link, like this: www.youtube.com/vidiq?sub_confirmation=1. When users click on it they are prompted to automatically subscribed to your channel before actually visiting your YouTube channel page.
#6 Use a Pinned Comment to Ask for Subscribers
Another way to directly appeal to your audience for a subscription is to write a comment and then pin it to your videos. When you do this, that pinned comment appears at the top of the comments list. Now again, I feel as if honesty is the best policy. Be open and transparent. Tell your audience why you're pinning these comments, why you're asking for subscriptions. Maybe it's because you want to invest the money you earn back into the channel with new equipment or products.
#7 Add a Subscribe CTA to Your Video Description
You could also add a similar message to the video description of all of your videos.
#8 Be an Active Part of the YouTube Community
Another thing you can do is reach out to an entirely new audience by adding value to other channels. That might be watching their content and posting awesome comments that either get pinned or liked by the channel creator and create a conversation. When people get involved in those conversations, they might think, "this video creator perhaps has value on their own channel." So, try and attract a new audience who may really enjoy your content and subscribe.
As an example, we get all sorts of awesome comments from you on our videos. I'm sure many other video creators are reading those comments, agreeing or disagreeing, generating a conversation, perhaps visiting your channels and subscribing. In a recent example, we had a video creator who got an audit on one of our live streams, and that drew in a significant number of new subscribers to his channel. He increased his subscriber base by 5% just by contributing to our YouTube live stream.
#9 Post Content on a Regular and Consistent Basis
Our next tip may sound obvious, but it does need reinforcing. Post new content on a regular basis. For some viewers, it may only take one video to convince them to subscribe to your channel. But for others, they may watch a video, enjoy it, but they don't subscribe. Then in their YouTube homepage, they see a never new video from you, they watch it, enjoy it and say, "Yep, I've seen a couple of videos from this person now. I enjoy their content. I'm going to subscribe."
#10 Make Your YouTube Channel Homepage Welcoming
Following on the theme of encouraging viewers to become subscribers, make sure that your channel homepage is very welcoming. Use a channel trailer, give a good description about what your channel does including a good channel banner, and of course, plenty of playlists that tell the viewer exactly what your channel's about. In fact, when you're sharing videos, share the playlist video link. That means that when a viewer is watching your video, they're within your playlist environment. There may see it more videos that they like from your channel and eventually subscribe.
Want To Get More YouTube Views?
If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps click here to install now!
Carla Marshall is the Head of Content Marketing at vidIQ. She has 10+ years of experience in video marketing, social media management, content marketing, DRM, and SEO. She was previously Editor in Chief at ReelSEO.com, and as a journalist and video marketer, she's covered news stories, creator journeys, and digital-first publishing initiatives across all the major online video platforms. She is YouTube Certified and a judge for the Shorty Awards, as well as the UK, US, Canadian, Global, and EU Search Awards.
