When I first creating my youtube channel, it felt like I was talking to a brick wall. I’d spend so much time planning, creating and promoting just for maybe 30 people to watch my videos. The growth was so slow at first and I felt like I would NEVER hit 1000 subscribers.
Was my content terrible? Was there even an audience for the things I wanted to talk about? Is it even possible to gain subscribers in 2020? These were all questions I asked myself.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but my channel has been rapidly growing the last 3 months and I feel like I’ve finally figured out a few things.
Even though I’m still a small Youtuber at this time (December 2019 I’m sitting at 1.4k subscribers), I think that benefits you because the information I have to share is NEW and current.
I didn’t hit 1000 subs 5 years ago with an entirely different algorithm, and my growth techniques aren’t based on the fact that I already have 100k subscribers who know and love me.
What you’ll learn from me in this post:
The Basics: The boring stuff that 1000 other people will tell you. I’m only including it because it IS important, and without these things you won’t grow. But that being said, these things alone are not enough.
- Video Quality
- Video Editing
- Youtube Thumbnails
- Keywords
The Good Stuff: The things that other people didn’t tell me, but I figured out over almost a year of making Youtube videos.
- The “secret” is that there is no secret
- How often to post
- Niche Down-Ish
Buckle up, because this is LONG. But I didn’t hold anything back and I truly think it will help you if your goal is to reach 1000 subscribers in 2020!
THE BASICS
Before we get started on the good stuff, I want to quickly cover the basics. If you already have an understanding of this stuff, keep scrolling to read my “Secret!” But this stuff is very important if you aren’t already doing it!
QUALITY
Good quality videos ARE important.
But that doesn’t mean you have to go out today and spend $1000 on gear. If you’re curious what gear I use, I have it linked here. But again, you do NOT NEED to go out and buy all of this before beginning.
I was into photography long before I started doing Youtube so I had the gear already. If I was starting today with money to invest into gear, this is the camera I would invest in.
If you have a newer iphone, or high quality camera you can start with that. The most important thing is to use natural light, which likely looks like sitting directly in front of a window so your face is evenly lit!
EDITING YOUR VIDEOS
You’ll need some way to edit your videos. When people watch youtube videos, they expect a semi-polished version. You don’t need a degree in film making, but just figure out how to edit out the “ums” and awkward moments that are inevitable during filming!
I taught myself iMovie way back in highschool. But if you’re brand new to video editing, Skillshare is an incredible tool for learning the basics for editing videos!
I always thought Skillshare was hyped up by influencers, but then I tried their free trial and was blown away by all the content they offer!
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, meaning that if you chose to purchase from them, I may make a small commission at no extra charge to you. I so appreciate you shopping my affiliate links and supporting my family!
THUMBNAILS
Your thumbnails are easily the most important thing you do after creating a video. Even if your video is profession quality with incredible content, NO ONE is going to see it if the thumbnail sucks.
It’s not rocket science and I think anyone can create a good quality thumbnail.
The key is that it needs to be clear and easy to read from both a laptop and a cellphone. I always take a separate high quality thumbnail image as opposed to taking a screenshot from my video!
I include my face in every thumbnail which is said to perform better, and that’s been my experience!
Canva is my favourite website/app to create my thumbnails.
Any text included on your Thumbnail needs to be clear and easy to read. Personally, I do use some script fonts and it seems to perform well for me. But many experts recommend staying away from script or cursive fonts!
KEYWORD RESEARCH
I’m not going to claim to be an expert on keywords or keyword research. There are a million youtube videos you can watch on this topic.
If you’re unfamiliar with what keywords are, they’re basically how your videos are going to be found. If you post a video of a soup recipe and title it “mmmm soup”, no one will find it. But if you title it “The best chicken noodle soup”, people will find it through search results!
Youtube picks up keywords in a number of different ways. The title of your video, in the description box, in the tagged keyword section and in the actual words spoken during your video!
But my favourite way to figure out which keywords will perform well is with the Tube Buddy plugin! There’s a free version, but the paid version is 100% worth your money.
If you have under 1000 subscribers, (which I’m assuming to be true if you’re reading this) you can save 50% on your Tube Buddy subscription. That makes it only $4.50 a month, less than one Starbucks drink! 😉
If you’re going to invest in ANYTHING that I’ve recommended here, I’d suggest it be Tube Buddy!
Tube Buddy is how I pick the titles of my videos. The goal is to find a title that has enough searches, but not too much competition.
SO WHAT IS THE SECRET?
Are you ready?
The secret is that there is NO SECRET.
If you want to get to 1000 subscribers, or 10k subscribers or 1 MILLION subscribers. You need to be committed to this for the long term.
When it comes to building your own business – whether it’s a youtube channel, a clothing store or a custom wood working shop, the reality is that you’re going to have to put in a TON of work or invest a lot of money up front that you won’t get paid for.
But the thing is, when it comes to unconventional income streams like youtube, if you persevere, one day you can make money on work you did years ago and get paid while you sleep.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s possible. Even in 2020!
But you need to accept the tough fact that at the beginning your videos might suck, you’ll hardly get any views and it might feel like it will never happen for you.
NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF
So I already shared the basic things you need to do to grow your channel. And I shared that there is NO secret to overnight success.
Of course I have some REAL tips for you to help you grow faster!
CREATE SEARCHABLE CONTENT
This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but in 2020 it’s nearly impossible to grow a strictly vlogging channel.
People use youtube as a search engine to find an answer to a question they have.
You need to create content that people are LOOKING for if you want to grow to 1000 subscriptions or beyond!
If you want to create vlogs to capture your family memories and you aren’t interested in making money, that’s FINE! But if that’s the case, I’m not really sure why you’ve made it this far LOL!
I’m going to assume that you want to grow your channel with the purpose of making an income from it.
IT’S GOING TO TAKE TIME
Yes, there will always be the unicorns who seem to grow overnight. But in reality, you don’t know how many years of work went into their seemingly “overnight success”. Maybe it really was quick, but maybe there’s 5 years of background work that you don’t see. I know that’s the case for me!
Don’t be discouraged if your success doesn’t seem to match up with others.
I think there can be value in looking at other small channels in your niche, just to get a sense of what’s working for them, don’t compare your success to theirs!
Absolutely do market research, find other channels and see what types of videos they are posting, what is doing well, what their fans seem to love, etc. But just remember that you are not them, and you will grow at a different rate!
IT’S NOT LINEAR
Something I have experienced myself and witnessed from other people’s accounts is that youtube success is not linear or predictable.
I began posting weekly videos in March 2019. The growth was SO slow. At the end of September 2019 I had 300 subscribers. But then one of my videos was “picked up” by the Youtube algorithm.
The video was 2 months old, but all of a sudden started gaining traction! It currently has over 46k views and is just continuing to go up! This is a huge deal for someone with just over 1000 subscribers!
For months I was gaining maybe 20-30 subscribers per MONTH. I remember thinking “it’s going to take 10 years for me to hit 1000 subscriptions at this rate”.
But it isn’t linear. If you are creating high quality videos on a regaular basis, with good keywords and good thumbnails, one day it will all of a sudden gain momentum. JUST KEEP GOING.
NICHE DOWN-ISH
Everyone talks about niching down, but as a brand new creator that can be next to impossible if there isn’t one very specific topic you want to commit to. I think that’s ok. Niche down a reasonable amount.
I knew I wanted to create videos about healthy & intentional living. I am into non-toxic products, healthy eating, holistic alternatives, houseplants simple living, minimalism, etc.
So I created videos about all those things.
Would my channel have grown faster if I had committed to one of these at the very beginning? Most likely, yes. But that’s OK!
It’s all part of the learning process.
I just kept creating videos about the things I loved, watching to see if anything would gain traction.
And guess what? Eventually it did!
In terms of niching down, I would recommend choosing 3-4 topics that are related to each other, but a little bit different. Like I mentioned, for me it was cleaning videos, non-toxic living, decluttering and houseplants.
Eventually you will notice that one type of video is performing significantly better, so make more videos related to that! It doesn’t mean you are limiting yourself to that one specific topic forever, but while your account is really small it will be helpful to niche down.
Having said this, I do NOT recommend choosing a niche strictly because it will get you views because you’ll so quickly get bored, burnt out or uninspired! Choose something you genuinely love and want to talk about!
WHEN YOU SEE SUCCESS – DO MORE OF THAT
So there is kind of a secret. When you have a video that starts doing even a little bit better than other videos, start to create several other videos that are SUPER similar.
This is why I struggled when I got started. I felt like it was so repetitive to create basically the same video over and over again. But it’s NOT! When people come across one of your videos and like it, they want to see more of the same content!
Create videos that are very similar, but not exactly the same.
The honest truth is that people don’t become attached to your personality and subscribe right away. They watch one video and if they enjoyed it they might click your profile to see what else they might like.
If they came to your channel because of a cleaning video, but there are no more cleaning videos…they’ll probably just leave. But if there are dozens of other cleaning videos, they’ll likely click one of them and keep watching!
In my case it was 25 Things To Declutter in 2020 that started performing really well.
So what I did was started posting as many “decluttering” videos as possible. Those videos also started doing really well!
A few things are happening here:
First, when someone watches the video I linked above, Youtube is going to recommend any new “decluttering” video I post to that person on their sidebar. This automatically gives my new decluttering videos traction!
Second, once I had a few “decluttering” videos that were doing well, Youtube decided that I am an authority on that topic!
Youtube recognized that people like videos I post about decluttering, so they should promote them to more people! This is essentially what it means to be “picked up” by the algorithm.
So now any time someone types in declutter or decluttering into the Youtube search bar, I am right up at the top and any new video I post that has “declutter” or “decluttering” in the title gets ranked very high immediately.
These rankings are what allowed me to finally hit 1000 subscribers!
CONSISTENCY
Everyone talks about consistency as if when you start posting M-W-F you’ll magically gain 1000 subscribers in one day.
That wasn’t the case for me, and I don’t think it will be for you either (sorry!). I still encourage consistency, but it might not be for the reasons you think.
Months ago I read or heard something that has really stuck with me. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I heard this. But basically the person said something like,
“You have to create 100 videos. Don’t overthink it, don’t focus on making them perfect. Do the best you can but JUST CREATE THEM. After you’ve created 100 videos you can analyze them, pull them apart, figure out what’s working and what isn’t. But you can’t do that until you’ve created tons of content.”
I have stuck with this. I have created content at the best of my ability. But I haven’t dwelled on my mistakes, or spent a ton of time looking at my analytics.
I know that my videos aren’t the quality I want them to be, but analyzing them isn’t going to help that.
The only thing that’s going to make them better is PRACTICE.
And the only way to practice is to KEEP CREATING.
Sure, you could create 100 videos and never make them public. But that’s a waste of your time.
Where consistency comes in is the fact that the sooner you pump out 100 videos, the sooner you’ll figure out what is working or not, and the sooner you’ll reach 1000 subscribers.
And note that 100 is an arbitrary number. I was around 60 videos when I saw significant growth and also found a lot of clarity in my direction. The point is that it’s a LOT.
Consistency also comes into play because if someone lands on your channel but you haven’t posted anything for 2 months, they’re not going to waste their time subscribing.
But if they see that you have uploaded 10 times this month, and twice in the past week, they’ll be excited for your future content!
THAT’S IT!
That’s all of my thoughts on how to reach 1000 subscribers this year on Youtube. Just know that it absolutely IS still possible to grow your Youtube channel in 2020!
If you found this helpful, be sure to pin it to refer to later!
