How to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube (how other people did it)
In this post, you’re going to learn how to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube in 2021. You know, asides from the fact that you will be able to cash out massively from YouTube, one of the perks of hitting 1 million subscribers is that you get to be given YouTube’s gold play button.
My name is Ebenezer Anene and I’ll be showing you the strategies that other people used to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
So, without further ado, let’s get right into the business of the day.
YouTube gold play button
While subscribers are the backbone of every video creator on YouTube, the YouTube gold play button is one of the milestones on YouTube that video creators won’t mind having in their list of achievements.
How to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube
After you have created your YouTube Channel, the next thing on your list as a video creator is getting subscribers on your YouTube channel.
As a Youtube researcher as well as video creator, I’ve witnessed and tried out several popular strategies that allow YouTubers to flourish.
If you follow these strategies that I am about to share with you, then you’ll be well on your way towards those 1 million subscribers on YouTube, where the views and money will pour in.
Upload Quality Content
When video creators start out their YouTube channel, one advice that they are given over and over again is:
“To grow your YouTube channel, you need to upload videos regularly ” However, as it turns out, this is TERRIBLE advice anyone could give newbies video creators on YouTube.
It is important that you focus on the quality of your content and not the quantity. This shows that it is not really about the number of video uploads you make on your channel, but the quality of content you upload.
YouTube is the new kid on the block that is confident enough to compete with traditional media. So the more it keeps looking like network television, the more audience it will draw to itself — YouTube TV or Premium.
What this means for video creators on the app is that content with better production value, better characters, and a story will entice traditional audiences.
Now, this doesn’t entirely guarantee that this is what will attract viewers and subscribers, but one thing you can be assured of is the fact that you’ll increase your odds of getting noticed.
Engage your YouTube audience and build community
One way to reach out to people is through their emotions. If you could form relationships with your viewers, they will more likely want to keep watching your work because of the attachment.
So, to do this, ensure that you engage them, by:
- responding to comments.
- If fellow video creators subscribe to your channel, try to follow them back and check out their videos as well.
See that you think of your channel as a community, and make sure you’re an active member, not just someone dropping content from on high.
If you pay attention to the comments and engage your audience, who knows? Your audience might also be willing to provide you with plenty of free content ideas.
Honestly, staying on top of comments can seem like a huge task but if you can manage your YouTube online presence using Hootsuite, you find that it is quite easy.
You could add comment streams to your Hootsuite dashboard which makes it easy to review, reply to, and/or moderate comments on all your videos from one place.
Brand your channel effectively
If you’re interested in how to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube, the channel branding is one important detail you do not want to miss.
Channel branding is a significant way to inform your viewers about who you are and what they can expect from your channel.
Here are a few things you might want to look into when branding your channel.
BANNER ART
Having a YouTube banner art is important because this is what welcomes everyone who clicks into your channel.
It could be that they had just watched a video and are looking for more. Maybe they’re a potential subscriber.
Be sure to ensure that they know where they are and why they should stick around.
Your banner should be clean, on-brand, compelling, and creative. Importantly, your banner art should be optimized for all devices.
You don’t want important details covered up by your social media buttons, for instance.
CHANNEL ICON
Your YouTube channel icon is essentially your logo on YouTube. Just like your banner art, your channel icon should replicate what you represent.
To input a channel description on your channel, you ought to have had up to 1,000 characters, describing your channel and letting viewers know why they should subscribe.
CUSTOM URL
Every channel has a default channel URL. Fortunately, you can change it to start using a custom URL.
To change your channel’s URL, follow all these simple steps below:
Step 1: visit your YouTube Studio account
Step2: select Customization in the left menu
Step 3: click Basic Info and scroll down to Channel URL.
It is quite easy to change your channel’s URL, however, the catch here is that you need to have had at least 100 subscribers on your channel before you can claim a custom URL.
If you’re not there yet, you could place this at the top of your to-do list for when you hit that first subscriber milestone.
Make use of YouTube’s clickable subscription tools
YouTube offers help to its video creators in certain ways.
One of which is a couple of built-in clickable tools to help these creators convert video watchers to channel subscribers.
END SCREEN
Your channel’s end screen is a still image at the end of your video which you can use to remind viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel or insert another call to action, before YouTube’s algorithm moves them on to the next video.
You can add an end screen to any of your YouTube Videos during the upload process, as long as the video is longer than 25 seconds.
You could also go back to your existing videos to add an end screen. This is a great way to start converting subscribers right away from your existing content.
To add an end screen to an existing video, follow these simple steps below:
Step 1: Click Content in the left menu of Creator Studio
Step 2: Select the video to which you want to add an end screen.
Step 3: Click the End screen box on the right side of the screen and add a Subscribe element to your video.
BRAND WATERMARK
This is an extra subscribe button that should hover in the bottom right corner of your YouTube video.
When uploading your video, you can choose where your branded watermark appears on the video.
Adding branded watermarks to your video is quite easy. To add the watermark, follow these simple steps below:
Step 1: Visit your YouTube Studio account
Step 2: click Customization in the left menu of YouTube Studio.
Step 3: select Branding. The watermark will now appear on all your videos.
Make keyword research for titles, descriptions, and hashtags
When it comes to gaining new subscribers or getting better watch hours on your YouTube, making some keyword researches will do you a wealth of good.
Understanding what keywords are related to your subject matter, and what people are already searching for on YouTube will help you title your new video and choose better hashtags.
However, the keyword search might also lend to inspiration for your next video topic.
SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you identify the words and phrases people are using to find the information you’re providing.
This could help you implement this into your video titles which could, in turn, help your videos come up in searches.
That way, you don’t get to waste your time making videos that no one is interested in watching.
Your goal is to find topics in the sweetest spot: lower competition scores, but higher search volume.
Upload videos Consistently
YouTube and Google have a way of rewarding consistency, and this is quite critical for video creators and content creators who would want to reach one million subscribers and beyond.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to upload one-two videos daily, but you should at least give viewers one video per week on the same day/time.
This means that if you usually upload videos every Monday at noon, you might have to keep it that for the longest time possible.
When it comes to lengthy, high-production video content, 1 video a month could suffice.
Whatever the case, if you want to make a living from YouTube, then you may have to think of your YouTube channel as your job.
To do this effectively, you have to keep these three things in mind:
- Plan an upload schedule
- Produce weekly or monthly videos
- Don’t veer from your upload dates
You have to keep up with whatever routine that you have placed. Be it once a week or bi-weekly.
Sporadic upload is not recommended because the YouTube algorithm will penalize you for it in the long run.
If they know you’re inconsistent, then your stuff won’t be recommended to new viewers or appear on their trending page.
Attract audience from other social media channels
Getting to attract audiences from other social media channels, such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook — wherever you have an existing community of fans established is an effective way to attract subscribers.
This can be as simple as encouraging people to check out your YouTube channel in your Instagram or Twitter bio.
Or, posting a teaser of your latest video on your social media. This is another great way to draw people to your YouTube channel from other social accounts.
You could post the teaser on your Instagram Stories because your Instagram stories are ideally suited for trailers or teasers which will in turn point viewers to the video by a simple Swipe uplink.
If you could tease videos on a regular schedule, people will start to anticipate your content.
Once viewers start anticipating your work, be sure that they will be subscribed to your channel in no time.
How to see your YouTube subscribers
Doing all the right things to ensure that you garner the much desired one million subscribers on YouTube is one thing, following up your subscriber count is another thing.
You can check your list of YouTube subscribers for your channel dashboard.
Here’s where to find a full subscriber in the simplest steps possible below:
Step 1: from your YouTube Studio, select your dashboard and scroll down to the Recent Subscribers card. Click see all.
Step 2: at the top right corner of the pop-up window, choose Lifetime from the dropdown menu.
Step 3: start clicking through your list of subscribers. You can choose to sort by subscriber count if you want to see the most subscribed YouTubers following you first.
Conclusion
So I hope that this article has helped you in your quest to know how to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
So now, we would like to hear from you. Which strategy from today’s article are you excited to try first?
Or maybe you have a question about something you read. Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.