Sunny Lenarduzzi: How do you get your first 100 YouTube subscribers?
I know it can feel like such a struggle to get there, so I'm going back in my head to
when I first started my channel and really started to see some growth.
This is Periscope, and this is Meerkat.
It's going to go like this.
Or, we don't have to go back to those actual videos.
We all start somewhere, and I know if you're just getting started right now, and you're
trying to hit that 100 subscriber mark ... I have now helped almost 2,000 people grow their
businesses, their brands, and their influence on YouTube, so I know what strategies work.
That's what I'm going to show you in this video today so that you can pass that mark,
because I know you can get there.
Let's dive in.
Welcome to The Sunny Show.
But before we do, make sure you hit that Subscribe button and click the bell to get notified
every time I post a new video each week.
All right.
Let's dive into tip number one, which is must.
It's a must do.
Every time you comment on my videos, and I see your comments where you're saying, "I'm
just not growing," I've done my research.
I actually go to your channels, and I will see that your channel doesn't tell me what
the heck you're talking about.
If you don't know what you're talking about, why would anyone else want to subscribe?
If you don't know right off the bat as soon as you click on someone's channel, and it
says, "This week I'm going to talk about ..." or, "Every week I'm going to talk about YouTube
tips, marketing, and social media," or, "Every week, I have to post new videos on real estate,"
or, "Every week, I post new videos on growing your business" ...
Whatever it might be, that has to be front and center.
You have to give people a reason to subscribe.
You got to niche down to blow up.
On your channel, first thing people need to see is what is your channel about on your
channel header.
What are you going to talk about?
What are people going to get out of it?
Why should they even subscribe?
What kind of content do you offer?
If you want help on this, I'm going to give you a checklist at the end of this video to
make sure that your channel is set up like a boss to attract more subscribers.
That's number one.
Tip number two is the growth formula.
This is a proven formula that I've been using from the beginning of my channel and I tell
all of my clients and all my students to use as well.
You have to make sure that you're paying attention to this formula in order to build authority
on YouTube.
If you don't have any authority, you're going to get lost in a sea of videos.
Comment below if you feel like you are getting lost, and no one's seeing your videos.
This is probably the reason why.
The formula looks like this.
It's search volume versus search pool versus views and velocity.
What the heck does that mean?
Means this.
When you're getting started, you want to look at search volume that matches the size of
your channel.
If you're a brand new channel, you don't want to pick a topic that has volume of 160,000
searches a month.
There's no way that you can compete with such a competitive keyword, so you want to look
at something that's a little bit lower, a little bit less competitive.
Search volume is between, say, 100 and 1,000 searches per month.
One of the tools I use for this is called Keywords Everywhere.
It's a great plug-in on Chrome that will help you find the search volume right off the bat.
You want to use that first and foremost, so search volume.
Then, you want to look at the search pool, which is a term I made up, so don't get mad
at me when you google it and nothing shows up.
It's a term I made up because it makes sense to me.
It basically means the amount of search results that you're competing against.
You want to make sure that pool is small as possible so that you have a better chance
of ranking number one, so less than 5,000 results in a search volume of 800 searches
per month is a great little formula.
Then, the final thing is looking at videos that are already ranking for a topic you want
to make a video around and seeing how many views they have in how much time.
That's views versus velocity.
How many views do they have over how many years?
You want to see a high number of views over a shorter duration of time, and you want to
see a high number of views in relation to the subscriber account.
If someone has 90 subscribers but two million views on a video ... That's intense, but it
could happen ... that means that that video's getting picked up in search and suggested,
and it's a popular topic that you could create a video around.
That's the formula, the growth formula you want to follow to actually start growing your
channel and attracting targeted, quality subscribers.
The next step is series for subs.
Now, this is something new in 2018 that you're probably noticing on a lot of people's channels.
What it is is basically making content that leads from one video to the next.
We no longer are in a place where you want to be making these individual videos and just
hoping that that one video blows up.
You kind of want to have each video lead into the next one.
You'll notice this is something that I'm definitely implementing on my channel as well.
Each of my Tuesday videos leads into one another so it creates this series.
It creates the binge-watch effect, the Netflix effect, to keep people on your channel to
increase that watch time, which is really, really important and we want for your channel.
Even if you're just starting out, think about how you can create series-based content.
Step number four is it's all about content on YouTube.
If you don't have good content, no one's going to subscribe, period, end of story.
For everyone out there saying, "Sub for sub," who has no content on your channel, why would
people subscribe?
Super confused by it.
You have to have good content.
In order to have good content, you got to figure out what people want.
You can just think of things in your head and hope it works.
That's a really hard way to go about YouTube.
What you want to do is survey your audience, or survey any audience that you might have
on any platform or any channel or any clients that you might have already.
What you want to do is basically ask them, "What are your biggest pain points when it
comes to YouTube?
What are your biggest pain points when it comes to your business?
What are your biggest pain points when it comes to sewing?"
I don't know.
It depends on what your channel's on.
That's going to be a goldmine of potential content topics for you because those are the
things that people are looking for.
Those are the solutions they need and the answers they need, and you just have to show
up and provide them with your expert status in that area.
Another way to do this if you're first starting out, you don't have an audience, and you're
trying to figure out what to make content on, is creeping.
Not in a bad way; in a good way.
So, creeping on other channels that have a very similar audience view or that are goals
for you.
You go to their channel, and you see what are their most popular videos?
What's resonating the most with their audience?
Where are they getting a ton of views?
Use that as a clue for how you want to build out your content, of course in your own unique,
individual way.
Step number five is get involved in the community.
The best thing that I did when I was first starting my channel is I was commenting on
related channels.
So, anyone who had a similar audience to me, I was in the comments section of their videos,
building relationships with people on YouTube.
Your community, your tribe, is your trust fund.
You need to build a tribe on YouTube in order to grow.
Those first people who subscribe to your channel, those will be your lifers.
I still have people on my channel who were here from day one.
Thank you.
Love you very much.
So, make sure that you are paying attention to those people from day one.
A really great way to grow your channel by getting involved in the community ... I'm
talking about yes, on YouTube, but you also want to get involved in the community of these
like-minded channels or even Facebook groups that have a like-minded audience, the one
you're trying to attract.
What you can do is if you're making videos based on step number four and the questions
that your audience has for you or popular video topics, you can use your YouTube videos
to provide value in different groups or forums, and you can use your YouTube videos to answer
those questions so you get more views and you drive more people to your channel.
Secret little hack there that I used to use that worked real well for me, especially getting
to that 100 mark.
The next thing I would do is if you're below 100 subscribers is use your YouTube content
on every other platform.
What you do is basically create a bank of content from your YouTube videos.
What you can do is create transcriptions from your videos and turn them into little captions
on Instagram.
Or, you can turn them into Tweets or Facebook posts, but always link back to that full-length
video.
That's a great way to leverage your content, repurpose your content, in a native way for
each platform.
You can create even mini clips for Instagram or for Facebook, which you see me do a lot.
What I do with those is in the comments section, I'll always say, "The link is either in my
bio," or, "The link is in my comments on Facebook."
So again, you're using your really good content you're posting on YouTube as content in other
places and always driving back to YouTube to grow your channel and your subscriber base.
That's a huge tip that will work really, really well for you.
I feel like that was like a Donald Trump moment.
Step number seven is launch your channel.
It's exciting.
It's important that you tell people you're actually doing this.
If you're just publishing videos and hoping people find you and subscribe, you got to
be more proactive than that.
When I first started my channel and I got serious about it, I was telling everyone and
their dog that I had a YouTube channel and I was sharing my videos with everyone.
Make sure that you're sharing them on your Facebook page and everywhere else when you're
first publishing videos and telling people that you have the channel.
Another little pro hack tip here is, in your emails, each week change the link in your
signature to your newest YouTube video.
That will get people to click on it and to subscribe to the channel as well.
Tip number eight, ask.
Pretty simple.
You've got to ask people to subscribe.
They don't natively know to do this, so you have to ask them.
While we're on that topic, make sure you subscribe below.
Tip number nine is test, test, test.
Don't be afraid to fail.
You're going to make videos that are flops.
That's okay.
You're also going to make videos that are amazing, but you have to test different kinds
of content with your audience to see what's going to help you grow fastest.
In the beginning, feel free to make a ton of videos and just see what works and what
doesn't and go a little faster with your content creation to test it out.
I know my friend, Pat Flynn, actually did this on his channel, and it worked really
well for him to figure out what was working, what wasn't.
If you don't have the data, you're just kind of guessing.
So, test it out.
See what works.
See what doesn't, and do more of what works and attracts more viewers and subscribers.
On that note, I have a lot of people ask me, "If I'm starting my YouTube channel, do I
need to have a bank of content on the channel already?"
I don't think that you do, to be honest.
I think you can do a soft launch by telling people about your channel when you're first
getting started, and then post new videos every week, and then do sort of an official
launch when you feel like you have enough videos up there.
But you don't want to be posting videos on your channel without telling anyone about
them because it's kind of a waste of your energy and effort.
YouTube pays attention to those first 24 to 48 hours when you publish video of how much
engagement you're getting, so that's why you really want to leverage other platforms to
drive as much engagement as possible.
Those are my best tips, you guys, for getting your first 100 subscribers, and I know you're
going to get there.
Here's the really great thing.
I also have a video on how to get your first 1,000 subscribers.
There's even more tips in there that I didn't include in this video, so if you really want
to grow, you really want to gain momentum, make sure you check out that video next.
I know it's in and around this area right now, so go check it out.
If you liked this video, give me a like below, put boss, and let me know you're going to
use these tips on your own channel.
Also, come back and let me know when you cross that 100 subscriber mark, because I know you
will if you use these steps.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
Subscribe, like, share with your fellow bosses, and I will see you in the next video.