- Let's get into shameless self promotion
without being spammy.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake of RobertoBlake.com,
helping you create something awesome today.
So, welcome to another YouTube tips video.
I've actually been doing a lot of YouTube tips,
maybe over 100, 150 that walk you through exactly
what I learned in going from zero
to over 100,000 subscribers.
Just kinda keep in mind that everybody starts at zero
and I put together these videos to show you what I learned,
what I figured out and what I'm doing,
and what's been working for me
and some other people that I know.
In this video we're gonna walk through 10 tips
for promoting your YouTube videos,
again without being spammy,
and this is what's gonna let you get noticed in YouTube.
A lot of small YouTubers tell me that they're struggling
with getting noticed,
and they say YouTube is so hard.
And I believe anything worth doing is going to be hard.
What I like to do is take something that's hard
and give you practical advice and guidance
on how you can actually execute on that hard thing
and it gets easier over time the more work you put in.
So, let's jump right into it.
My first piece of advice for you
promoting your YouTube channel
is you have to identify who your target audience is
if you're gonna promote to people in the first place.
A lot of YouTubers don't know
and don't specifically identify who their audience is.
I know in my case my audience is creative professionals,
creative people who might be working in a creative career.
They might be creative students that are into art,
or design,
or filmmaking,
or photography.
They might be people who are freelancers,
or they might be small business owners or entrepreneurs
that have to dabble in these creative things
to help them grow their business.
Since I know that's my target audience,
I'm making content that appeals to them
and I'm able to figure out where and how
to market and promote my content to them.
If you don't know who you're talking to,
you won't know how to communicate to them properly,
where to go to promote them,
and what tactics and strategies
will work in the first place.
So before we even get into that tactical stuff,
you have to know who you're trying to reach
and what would matter to them.
Tip number two:
Once you know who you're targeting,
you can figure out where you need to be posting
in the first place
in order to reach them.
There might be communities in Reddit, for example,
that would be very valuable to you.
Just be very careful about over-promoting yourself
in the Reddit community.
A lot of people don't take kindly to that,
you can get a lot of backlash.
You have to know whether it's appropriate or not to do that.
You could also promote in Facebook groups,
online forums,
there are all kinds of communities
and micro-communities online
that will have people that want the kind of content
that you're delivering,
and so it's a great way to get noticed, get exposure,
and maybe those people will share it with others.
So, definitely look into that,
but again, understand your audience
and understand if that's the right thing to do
or the right place to do it in.
Tip number three: use YouTube hashtags.
I cannot stress enough how under-utilized
tip number three is.
The YouTube hashtags are something
that people are neglecting
because they don't see a lot of big YouTubers doing it,
but when you're a small YouTuber you can't always follow
the patterns and trends of big YouTubers
because they don't need to do the same things
you need to do to grow.
They already have thousands upon thousands of super fans
that are gonna promote their content
and they're gonna watch them no matter what.
You don't have that,
so you have to go ahead
and you have to put in all the extra work.
And maybe using things like YouTube hashtags will help you
for a couple of reasons.
One, they're another way to get searched
and discovered in YouTube,
but also if people are liking your videos
or are sharing your videos,
when they do it in Twitter and in Facebook,
it'll have the hashtag included from that title,
and that could actually help you get discovered
in a whole 'nother way.
So, I would just try and take advantage of that.
Putting your hashtag at the end of the title of a video
is probably the best tactic overall if you're gonna do that.
Tip number four: do not comment spam other people's videos
telling them to come to your channel,
watch your videos,
or do sub for sub,
or any of that nonsense.
This is gonna turn people off
and what I typically do is,
when that happens in my videos,
I ban and block those people from ever commenting again.
So it's not gonna help you.
Not to mention I'm gonna be putting out a tutorial
that's gonna teach people how to filter all of that
in the advanced settings of the YouTube channel
and they're gonna probably just start doing that,
your comments asking for that won't show up,
and those people will probably block you
or report you as a spammer.
So, I would just avoid doing that altogether.
If you're gonna comment in people's videos,
then the best thing you can do
is make an intelligent and thoughtful comment,
or compliment them.
That's gonna actually make the creator of the video
possibly pay attention to you
and start a relationship with you,
and that could lead to other things.
Or, if you make a very intelligent comment,
reply back to someone who is commenting,
maybe they end up by themselves deciding
to be interested in you
and take a look at what your channel's about.
So, if you're gonna use the comment section,
then use it smart.
Use it smartly by having a real conversation with people.
Don't try to spam and self promote.
Tip number five: create a website, blog, or online magazine
that speaks to your target audience.
This isn't necessarily just
to be able to put your own videos out,
but it's also to create awareness around the brand
that you're building.
More than building a YouTube channel,
you should think about building a brand
and using that as a vehicle to attract people
that are interested in the same things as you are.
Let's say, for example, that you were a YouTube gamer.
Starting an online magazine or a forum
could actually be really helpful to you
because it will attract the type of people
that you want in your audience.
Doing a podcast could also be another avenue for that,
and I would build a website for your podcast.
So, these are opportunities to build an audience
even beyond YouTube,
and then bring those people over to your YouTube channel
or bring them somewhere else,
or possibly sell to them in the future.
If you're not a gamer,
let's say you were a musician,
still having a website and having a website
where maybe you're giving away a few free music tracks
and you display those or showcase those
on your YouTube channel,
you tie the things together,
those kind of things can help you.
So, this is something that's obvious if you're a business,
but I wanted to make it practical and relatable
for some of the other people watching,
especially if you're young,
that a website can help you.
If you wanna build a website,
I recommend Bluehost.com
and I recommend HostGator,
I have links for those in the description.
If you use them they do help out the channel.
Tip number six: engage with like-minded audiences
in social media.
This could be platforms like Twitter or Instagram.
If you have a link in your bio section back
to your YouTube channel,
then obviously you can siphon views and attention from that,
but more than anything this is again
part of building a brand
and identifying people who you can relate to,
possibly other creators.
So engaging in social media
and doing it beyond just posting links to your videos,
beyond just writing hashtags,
there are real relationships to be had in social media,
this is where you might find people to collaborate
with in the future,
which is a tip I'll bring up in a minute,
but again, this is how you might find new hot topic items
to talk about that could get you some more attention.
So, really just engage with people in social media.
This might be Facebook,
if you're a professional it might be LinkedIn,
there might be other online communities
that you wanna take a look at.
I really am a big fan of Twitter, personally.
But hey, some of you might actually be able to leverage
Instagram or Snapchat really effectively,
so just play to your own strengths there.
Number seven: collaborate with other YouTubers
in your niche.
These can be big or small.
I would target small YouTubers.
It's really hard sometimes to collaborate with people
who are much bigger,
not because they care about your subscriber count,
but because a lot of times these people are really busy
and they already have a lot of friends
or people that they're already
lining up collaborations with.
It doesn't hurt to ask as long as you do it in a polite way,
but when you're asking to collaborate with someone,
one: it shouldn't be the first conversation
you've ever had with them.
That's number one.
If you're gonna try to promote yourself
and market yourself to somebody,
and you wanna collaborate with them,
you can't just ask them out of the blue
without some other prior conversation.
So, I would say genuinely be interested in them
and also think about collabbing down.
If you have 1,000 subscribers,
maybe you collaborate with someone who has 200 or 500.
They might have less subscribers than you,
but the people who are watching their channel,
they might actually be a lot more interested
in what you're doing,
or you might bring a higher level of production value
or skill to the table than somebody who's a little newer
than you to the game,
and so that means that the audience is more likely
to filter up to you.
If you collaborate with someone much bigger than you,
and your quality of content or your production values
are way lower than theirs,
there's less of a chance that their audience will,
you know, go over to you,
just because they have something that they're used to,
the bar has been set in a certain place,
and that might matter to them.
Tip number eight: participate in YouTube tag videos
and community-based topics.
When something big happens in the YouTube community,
maybe making a video about it,
commentating or reacting to it,
could be something that gets you attention
from a new audience.
As long as you're not just pandering for views
and you actually have something of substance
to add to the conversation,
then I think that's a valid way to do it.
Also, tag videos can be fun,
you get to tag your friends,
you get to actually do something interesting
that the YouTube community is a part of,
so tag videos could be really interesting.
Maybe you start one,
maybe you participate in one that's going on.
Challenge videos could be interesting.
A lot of people got in on the mannequin challenge.
That was a lot of fun and cool stuff
and there were a lot of people who got some new attention
based on that,
and took it to a different direction creatively.
So, when you find opportunities like that,
just take advantage of them.
Number nine: consider buying advertising
in YouTube and Facebook.
Pay attention to what I just said.
Buying advertising.
Not buying views,
not buying subscribers,
not buying fake traffic,
buying advertising.
Typically, I'm against buying advertising
unless you're selling something
or unless you have a service,
or unless you've built your brand
to a place where that makes sense.
A primary example would be the fact
that I'm going to be buying advertising
for more of my speaking engagement stuff.
I'm also probably going to be doing that
for a few other things that I have going on,
maybe to possibly grow my email list,
but that's okay because those are methods of things
that allow me to sell and to make money.
I might do some of that around my coaching and consulting.
That's how I'm going to use it practically.
In your case, you might decide to use it that way
if you really feel like it would help you,
then by all means.
A smart strategy for that is making a specific video,
not just paying money to advertise an existing video,
but making a new existing video
that's kind of almost like an add for your channel
that could go to a playlist of yours,
and that could really help you out.
So I would just consider something like that.
Again, it's a strategy that I'm thinking of,
but I might do it for things that are more related
to other things that make me money.
I kinda believe that advertising is about making money
off of the advertising in some way, shape, or form,
not necessarily growing an audience or getting more views.
That's just my personal feeling on it,
but if you really feel like throwing a few bucks
that it would grow your audience,
maybe it's worth it.
Tip number 10, and by the way,
hang on 'cause I'm gonna have a bonus tip number 11,
so you'll wanna stay tuned for that.
But tip number 10 is to create a YouTube channel trailer.
A lot of you aren't using the YouTube channel trailers,
and the YouTube channel trailer can actually help you
grow an audience and get new subscribership
and views and get noticed,
because it's a free ad that YouTube is using
and distributing and promoting your channel for you.
So I would make a good channel trailer.
Usually the best ones are around a minute.
You can go up to two minutes,
but not any more than that.
And so, I would definitely look at doing something like that
for your YouTube channel.
I would also consider making that channel trailer
available and uploading it directly to Facebook
and try and distribute it that way.
If it's short enough,
upload to Instagram and Twitter as well,
and link people back over to your YouTube channel.
These are some tactics that I think will definitely help you
in promoting your YouTube channel and getting noticed.
And don't forget,
we've got a bonus tip number 11.
Now, one of the things I want to invite you to do
is to take a look at the other, you know,
how to grow a YouTube channel videos
that I have here.
There are probably about 100 to 150 different videos
that I've done on how to grow your YouTube channel,
and it's covering all the things I did to grow from zero.
So, I invite you guys to subscribe to the channel,
check out that playlist if growing a YouTube channel
is something that matters to you.
I also have a bunch of videos around camera gear,
and that could help you up your production values
and make your YouTube channel videos better.
I have video tutorials around editing,
and also some Photoshop stuff,
that might have you do better thumbnails.
So, there are a ton of reasons for you guys to subscribe
to this channel besides just
the How to Grow a YouTube Channel stuff.
If you wanna build a brand or build a business,
or if you even do want to improve your YouTube channel,
tons of reasons to subscribe.
Let's jump into tip number 11.
Tip number 11 is using a browser plugin called TubeBuddy.
No they are not sponsoring this video,
but they are a friend of the channel,
they've sponsored in the past,
and I do use them for updating and doing the SEO
to all of my videos.
The reason that I recommend TubeBuddy
to help you promote your YouTube channel
is because one: there's a one-click button
for actually publishing your YouTube videos
directly to Facebook.
This can actually help you get more awareness.
Sure, you're kind of competing with yourself,
but there are people in Facebook
who have never heard of you,
so getting them to understand
that you have a YouTube channel might be important.
So I would take advantage of that.
There's also bulk editing features for annotations,
there's bulk linking features,
profile descriptions,
all kinds of great stuff in there.
Data on the best time to upload your videos
and release them to YouTube.
So again, this is a tool that I use all the time
that helps me market and promote my channel
and optimize my videos for search.
So, go to TubeBuddy.com/Awesome,
go ahead and buy that,
links are in the description below.
That is an affiliate link that helps out the channel
but it's also gonna help you crush it in YouTube.
So, that's it for my tips on how
to promote your YouTube channel and get noticed.
I hope this helps you guys out.
If you have questions,
definitely leave those in the comments section.
Remember, I usually do YouTube tip videos on Fridays,
and I've got a playlist with a ton of them.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always you guys,
thanks so very much for watching,
and don't forget,
create something awesome today.