- Are you looking for the best strategies
for growing on YouTube?
Or would you like simple tips
for building a following on YouTube?
Then you'll want to hear about the secret
to growing my YouTube channel to 5,000 subscribers.
Stay tuned!
(energetic percussion music)
Welcome to Self-Publishing with Dale.
If you're new here and want to publish your book
and build your brand,
then subscribe and turn your notifications on
to get all of the latest content.
It's official and we've finally made it here
on Self-Publishing with Dale
to the 5,000-subscriber benchmark.
- Yay. - But it came
with its fair share of headaches,
hassle and horse (buzzer beeps).
That's why I thought I'd let you in on the secret
to how I grew my YouTube channel to 5,000 subscribers.
(coughing)
Well, it's not so much a secret
as it is a number of best practices and strategies
for growing on YouTube handed down
by other big names who came before me.
In fact, you may know of a few YouTubers
sharing strategies for growing on YouTube,
and I'd love to know who you prefer.
Drop your favorite YouTuber in the comments
and I'll share mine at the end of this video.
Here are five of my tips
for building a following on YouTube,
and stick around till the end
for the ultimate secret to my success
on YouTube and elsewhere.
Let's go!
One, dial in your message.
I get it.
You want to share all things within your world,
from gaming to self-help to needlework to vlogging.
The problem is if you don't get clear
on what your channel delivers,
then your audience won't clearly know it either.
Until you dial in exactly what you're going to share
through your channel and get good at it,
not many people are going to care.
And the truth is when you try to please everyone,
you'll please no one in the process.
So pick a direction for your channel,
push forward, and adjust your message
according to what resonates most with your growing audience.
Two, brand the channel.
Your channel branding includes the visual elements
in your profile pic, the channel art and your thumbnails.
If you don't have the visual aspect
of your brand locked down,
then people are less apt to want to tune in
or check you out, for that matter.
When I started out,
I had no clue on how my channel should look
or be recognized.
In the meantime,
I made a lot of crude thumbnails with bad font choices
and pixelated pictures.
Heck, if I was feeling extra lazy,
I'd just use YouTube's automated thumbnail
from a screen capture.
I found it funny when a thumbnail
had a picture of me looking like I was sneezing.
Sadly, that doesn't win over any casual viewer,
and they aren't enticed to click the thumbnail
to watch more of your content.
The other thing was I had channel art
that my mother would be proud of,
but it was nowhere near professional enough
to explain what my channel was about
and what viewers could expect.
After trucking away for over a year
and just barely over 1,000 subscribers,
I finally hired a professional to brand my channel.
The investment was well worth it,
because within a few months of the new branding,
I'd gained 500 subscribers.
Visual branding matters,
so don't take it lightly.
Three, keyword optimization.
You'd think that coming from a man
who teaches people about self-publishing books
I'd know a little something about keywords
and how to leverage the right keywords to grow an audience.
A keyword is a string of one or more words
describing the content a viewer can expect.
And where and how you use keywords
can be critical to your discoverability.
Keywords can be used in your title,
worked organically in your video description,
and used in up to 500 characters in your tags.
Bonus tip.
Work your keywords within your dialogue on video
and most importantly in the intro
so you hook the casual viewers
to stick around for the rest of the video.
Keywords can make or break the success of your videos
and your channel altogether.
If you aren't saying precisely
what your audience is looking for,
then how can they ever find you?
Four, pay attention to your audience.
This seems like a given,
but far too many aspiring YouTube video content creators
miss this by a mile.
And I'm not just talking about acknowledging their comments
or giving them a shout-out in your live video stream.
You have to pay closest attention to the YouTube analytics
and be mindful of how your viewers react to your videos.
How long are they staying on your videos?
How often are they watching?
Are they liking or disliking the content?
Have they commented?
If so, what did they say?
Are they subscribing or unsubscribing because of a video?
If so, then why?
What did you communicate in your video
to merit either response?
And here's where it gets challenging yet fun.
Determine what they enjoy most and try to duplicate it
while keeping your content fresh
and drawing in a new fresh set of eyes.
Five, community interaction and networking.
YouTube is a social platform
intended to connect viewers with their interests.
But no amount of high-quality content,
branding, optimized keywording,
killer content or analytical studying
can trump this last item,
being sociable!
I know, it seems kind of crazy
and maybe a little far-fetched,
but hear me out for a minute.
Though I uploaded my first video on March 2016,
I treaded water for over four months
before becoming completely frustrated and burned out.
Out of that frustration,
I created an irreverent series of videos
garnering the attention of Tim Knox,
another YouTuber in a similar niche as mine.
He reached out and introduced me
to a network of other people just like us
in Brian G. Johnson's Facebook group,
Tube Ritual Video Marketing.
I met a treasure trove of other video content creators
and discovered many of my favorites in Nick Nimmin,
Brian G. Johnson TV,
Dan Brock, the Deadbeat Affiliate,
Derral Eves, Owen Video, Gord Isman,
Dan Currier of Creator Fundamentals,
and the list just goes on.
All thanks to taking the time to chat it up with Tim Knox.
I owe a ton of gratitude for where I'm at today to him.
Remember, you're always one relationship away
from building a larger community
and gaining deeper insights
on how to grow your YouTube channel.
When you're feeling like your channel is stagnating,
then do yourself a favor, socialize!
It works, believe me.
So dial in your message,
brand your channel,
keyword optimize your content,
pay attention to your audience,
and socialize with others in your creative space.
If you hung around until the end and enjoyed the content,
then share it with somebody else who'd appreciate it too.
Also, I left a list of resources
in the YouTube video description
so you can see who and what has helped me
in my journey to 5,000 subscribers.
Big thanks to all of you
who made this important milestone possible,
and I look forward to seeing you guys at 10,000 soon.
Till later, this has been Self-Publishing with Dale,
and I'll catch ya soon.