- Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake,
helping you create something awesome today.
So today, welcome to another YouTube tips video,
I typically do these on Fridays,
so if you're someone who's trying to grow
your YouTube channel, or you're trying to navigate
some of the more complex parts of YouTube,
you might want to subscribe, or hit notifications
because I cover these tips pretty in depth
and we've got over what, 200 videos out of 1000
on the channel talking about this.
So let's jump into today's video.
Today I wanna talk to you about how to get
your first 100 subscribers in 2018.
I've done a video covering this topic
of how to get your first 100 subscribers,
I've even covered how to get your first 1,000.
And 10,000 but those videos are a little bit old,
and while I don't really feel the fundamentals
of YouTube have changed, if you're a small YouTuber,
just starting out, when it comes to getting
those initial subs, a lot of people have asked
if I can give an update to this video, and more information.
And I definitely feel I can do that,
and even talk about some things you have not heard before.
Now before I get into how to get the first 100 subscribers,
I think we have to talk about the YouTube
partner program, and monetization.
In 2018, YouTube updated their rules and policy,
and you may not be aware of this.
But you used to be able to monetize as a small YouTuber,
back in 2013 and up, without having to
meet any special requirements.
It meant you could start making money on YouTube right away.
And while it's obvious you wouldn't make really
any money at all when you're just getting started,
and you don't have an audience, you're not getting views yet
it was an incentive that just make people
feel really good about starting a YouTube channel,
and like they could make it on YouTube.
That has since changed, the new requirement
is that you have to get 1000 subscribers
and you have to get 400,000 hours of watch time.
And while that may seem intimidating,
it's not something that's impossible for you
as a small creator, and there are plenty of videos
on this channel that can help you.
I'll link up to the playlist,
of YouTube channel tips right up here,
so you guys can check those videos out.
I wanna concentrate this video on tips
you haven't heard before.
So let's start with some things that maybe people
aren't being honest with you about.
Let's start with things you may not be doing
very well on your YouTube channel,
if you're a small YouTuber you've been doing
a few videos, and you haven't gotten to 100 subscribers yet,
or if you're a new YouTuber just starting out,
you haven't made any videos yet,
maybe this will help you avoid, some of these issues.
One of the most important things you can do
for your YouTube channel, is have a niche.
Have a clear, specific thing
that your YouTube channel focuses on,
and doesn't deviate from.
That is extremely important.
And just choosing a genre like gaming,
isn't necessary having a niche.
You need to get even more specific than that.
Is this FPS gaming?
Is this, horror video games, is this dating SIMS,
is this fighting games, what is it,
is it gaming news, what's your thing?
When it's not clear what your channel is about,
or your channel's all over the place, and it's not focused,
when you're doing 10 different random things at the start,
it's very hard to build momentum, and to gain a following,
because we only want what we want from you.
The days are long gone when you can just
start out as a personality on YouTube,
assuming you don't have a social media following elsewhere.
And it's especially difficult if you just
aren't used to being on camera, and you haven't figured out
your on camera presence, and charisma yet.
These are usually actually the most important things
that determine whether a channel is successful or not.
It's about the person, and about the personality,
but we need a clear focus, that we can wrap our head around.
And a lot of you don't provide that.
There's no consistency, there's no continuity,
there's no over arching theme, there's no storyline.
Can you imagine if you did that on television,
it wouldn't work at all.
You wouldn't get people to be able to come back
every single week if they didn't know what to expect,
and if those expectations weren't being met, right.
I would encourage more of you to think like a viewer,
think like a fan instead of thinking like someone
who's just trying to become a big YouTuber.
I think it goes a long way.
So aside from getting focused on what your niche is,
and figuring that out, which I've done a whole video about
finding your niche, if you haven't figured it out yet.
You need to have some really good consistent
visual branding, that's your YouTube thumbnails,
your YouTube channel artwork.
Your YouTube profile pic, anything visual about your channel
should be fairly consistent wherever it can be,
and then if you're doing videos that are,
three different videos that still make sense,
like let's say, you're a tech channel,
and you're doing mobile phone reviews,
you're doing laptop reviews, and then you're doing desktops,
then I feel like those should all maybe have,
some element to them that makes them stand out,
so that just doesn't feel too much the same,
and it doesn't get boring.
So maybe you switch those up with colors schemes.
A lot of times you guys can tell when I'm doing
a YouTube related video, because I use a lot of red
in those thumbnails, and I usually wear a red Tshirt
on camera, these are subtle little tricks
that go a long way.
When you're first getting started on YouTube
far too many of you are relying on YouTube
to do all the work to promote and market your channel.
It's why so many of you say that YouTube hates
small YouTubers or YouTube doesn't do anything to
to help small YouTubers,
and I have a counter argument.
I fell that small YouTubers don't do enough
to help themselves have an advantage
or stand down the platform.
I've seen people rank on YouTube regardless
of their subscriber count right next to videos
that have a million views, or a million subs.
It happens all the time, if people take advantage
of the tools, and if they play the system.
So many of you are trying to compete with other YouTubers
when you would just be competing with yourself,
and you're not playing against other YouTubers,
you're playing against the system,
and that is the key to victory at the end of the day.
I ended up growing on YouTube because
I took advantage of the YouTube system,
I read literally the YouTube creator playbook,
and I sat there and I looked at every single menu,
in the YouTube dashboard, and tried to figure out,
what it meant.
And while I don't think you need to go that far, per se,
I think that a lot of you are jumping into YouTube
with no understanding of it.
Think of YouTube the same way you would think of
picking up a sport, or a musical instrument.
You would have no expectations, then the first five
or six months of effort in playing a sport,
that you're supposed to actually be good about it.
Compared to people who have been doing it
for five or six years.
There's really very few people have the raw talent
to compete in their first year, with people
who've been at it for five years or a decade.
So maybe you need to temper those expectations.
There are people who've been on YouTube a long time,
and never broke 5,000 subscribers.
And it's not always that they're making bad content,
it's that they're maybe not playing the game,
as well as they could, and it also could be
a matter of a certain threshold of talent.
There's a threshold of talent that might be able
to get you to 1,000.
There's another threshold of talent
that might get you to 10,000, 100,000, a million, 10 million
it's about growth, and it's also about
what your potential is.
And you might have to accept that the niche,
or genre or thing that you do, or your ability to do it,
might have some limitations to it.
And that's okay, your thumbnails and channel artwork
are an opportunity for people to understand
what your content is all about.
So really take advantage of this.
I build something I call the YouTube starter kit,
if you guys are interested, and you want to invest
in your YouTube channel.
I literally put together over 150 Photoshop downloads,
so that you could go ahead and hack your way
to better YouTube thumbnails that compete
with bigger channels, from day one.
And I also did the same thing with YouTube channel artwork
and things like YouTube end cards,
and all kinds of graphics and things like that.
So it's a big graphics pack, and you get over 150 downloads
for like 99 bucks, it's a steal.
But more importantly, I also put a few tips,
and a few helpful things in here, like 100 video ideas,
and also where you can get royalty free music.
You see, when you wanna make good YouTube videos,
the first thing you have to do is get somebody
to click on a video.
And what gets someone to click on a video?
Well a good title, that's emotionally compelling
and interesting or search friendly.
And then a thumbnail that delivers on the promise
of that title, the title and the thumbnail are a promise,
and then the video just has to deliver on that.
When I see a lot of small YouTubers
who say they can't make it, I go to their channel,
and guess what happens, I see, not great thumbnails,
I'll click on one just to see what the video is like,
and then I see a really good video,
that was packaged with a very crappy thumbnail,
that undermined the video, it threw the video
completely under the bus.
And sometimes the title has nothing to do
with what's in the actual video, it was someone
trying to be cute, or clever, instead of just
giving me context, giving me something that respects my time
and says, hey here's what you're gonna get
if you click on this video.
That would have respected my time,
and it would have been something that gave them
a much better shot, at getting my view
and getting my subscription.
Some final thoughts on getting your first 100 subscribers.
Don't try and cheat, do go out and buy subs,
don't do sub for sub, it doesn't help you.
You need a quality community,
because that first 100 subscribers might feel hard to get,
but that core initial loyal audience,
are gonna be you're ride or dies.
They're gonna support you when things get hard,
and when things are feeling discouraging,
and when you want to quit the platform.
Those 100 people will always be there.
And also, I've done public speaking,
I can tell you that being in a room full of 20 people,
50 people, 100 people is a lot of people.
And it can be intimidating, so never cry yourself to sleep
at night over the number of views that you're getting,
because every single one of those is a person,
and those people deserve good content too,
and if you're the person giving it to them, then great.
Keep engaging with those initial supporters,
ask them to leave comments, and specifically,
go ahead and tell them that you would love for them
to subscribe, and tell them what they can expect
if they subscribe to you, give them a reason.
I've told you guys, that hey, maybe once a week,
I put out a video that helps YouTubers specifically,
so if you want to subscribe, you should grab that.
You know that's what can help you from this channel.
But I have so much other things that I can offer you
on this channel, but if I get you in the door,
with the YouTube content, maybe I keep you around,
and maybe you watch other videos.
Maybe you don't, but this channel is here to support you,
in whatever your creative journey is,
and in you're entrepreneur journey,
so that you can make money off your art,
and the things that you love, I want you
to be able to create something awesome
put it out into the world,
and maybe make a living at it one day.
And so that's what this channel offers.
If you like that, then maybe you should subscribe.
You see what I did there?
I actually literally told you how to do it,
I showed you how to do it, instead of just telling you.
I gave you guys a real example of how you can
have a compelling message that makes people subscribe to you
So take that for what it's worth,
I really feel that a lot of you small YouTubers
you can make good content, you can build a real community,
but I don't think that many of you are giving
yourself the chance, and I think you have to
stop relying on the YouTube platform
to do everything for you.
You need to go out there, and you need to be hitting up
Twitter, you maybe need to grow a following on Instagram too
and that can seem like a lot, but again,
if you really wanna do YouTube, it's gonna be more work
than you've ever imagined probably in your life.
It's probably gonna require more effort of you,
and be more demanding than any other challenge
you've faced up until now, if you've never played
in the digital arena before.
If you're a hustler, that just lit a fire under you,
and if you're not, and you're a glass half empty person,
then I apologize because that was probably
wildly discouraging, and makes you not wanna do this.
Because I believe so much in tactical and practical advice,
I'm gonna give you one last tip,
and this one's about content strategy,
and then we're gonna close up this video,
because it's longer than I wanted it to be.
My last tip for you is to start your channel,
and do not upload 10 videos at once in the same day,
in fact, never in your life, if you're a small YouTuber,
upload more than one video in the same day.
A lot of people think they can do that
and it's a good idea.
It's a horrible idea, so first of all that's a warning.
What I'm gonna recommend you do, is that you maybe
make 10 videos the first month in your channel, maybe 15.
You make them in advance, and you release them
a little bit of time apart, maybe a day or two apart.
And you launch your channel like that in the first 30 days.
And then you promote and market it,
without being spammy in social media.
And the reason I'm gonna say do this,
is maybe you break it up into, like a video series,
that has a part one, part two, part three.
And then you do that again, and again,
until you have 10 episodes of content.
And the reason this is a good idea,
is because it actually builds something in,
for your audience, to come back for.
Instead of random videos, or videos that
they're not interested in.
This I think could really help you.
I'm also gonna link to a bunch of tools
and resources in the description for you,
that I've used to grow this YouTube channel,
to almost 300,000 subscribers, since I started
going hard core, in July 2013.
Like everybody else I started a YouTube channel
sooner than that, but I didn't do anything with it.
You can see for yourself.
But I started doing weekly content, for real,
and being a real YouTuber in 2013,
because I was consistent, so I think if you put out
consistent content, that people want,
and I think if you make it something
that makes sense to subscribe to,
because you're getting more of what you want,
then you guys have a better shot,
at growing your YouTube channel, and I think you can get
those first 100 subscribers pretty quickly,
if you follow this advice.
Question of the day,
what's your favorite thing about the YouTube community,
and what is you're least favorite thing
about the YouTube community, I would love to know,
in the comments, I wanna hear from you.
Like this video if you like it,
don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff on the channel,
also make sure you're checking out the YouTube starter kit.
As always you guys, thanks so much for watching,
and don't forget,
go out there and create something awesome today.
Take care.
(upbeat music)