- Why are you even watching this video?
I've already told you the answer in the thumbnail.
And if you disagree with the number
well, it's your fault because it's your data.
How long does it take to get blank?
We get asked this all the of time
whether it be 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time,
100 subscribers, it is a YouTube equivalent
of asking someone how long a piece of string is.
A lot of people like to pin
a length of time onto a milestone.
So there you have it folks,
it takes 61 days to get 100 YouTube subscribers.
And if you wanna challenge me, go right ahead.
Let us know in the comments below
how long it took you to get to 100 subscribers
or if you haven't yet got there,
let us know how many days you've been working at
getting towards 100 subscribers.
More than 13,000 people in our community
have answered this question
and here are the anecdotal results.
What surprised me most from this survey
is just how many people haven't yet reached 100 subscribers.
But given the way the question is phrased
we have to discard these votes.
That's still leaves us with over 5,000 people
who have reached 100 subscribers
within a year of publishing their first video
and the recalculated percentages look like this.
Now, then for this next part of the equation
here comes a little bit of a disclaimer.
The following numbers are not official vidIQ data.
This is Rob Wilson
trying to work out a crazy number in his own head.
Got it?
Let's continue.
So I basically wanna find out
the halfway point of these votes,
which is somewhere around here
in between 50 and 100 days.
So I decided to divide these 24 percentage points
into 50 days,
which works out at 2.1 days per percentage point.
45% of people reached 100 subscribers
before they hit 50 days.
So we needed a five percentage points
to get to 50% of the votes
which is 11 days in total,
50 days plus 11 days equals 61 day.
And that right there my friends
it's just really bad math, ain't it?
It makes no sense whatsoever,
but in my defense it's a really bad question.
If someone else
with oodles more mathematical brain cells than me
wants to have a stab at this,
screenshot this and be my guest.
But since we are as anecdotal as they come right now
let's have a little play with this number.
61 days.
That works out at 1.6 subscribers per day,
which sounds manageable.
Let's now make some further assumptions.
Let's say you produce two YouTube videos a week.
Well, over the course of 61 days,
that would be a little under nine videos
which sounds a little on the low side
to get a 100 subscribers.
But it would mean that each video needs to generate
around about 11 and a half subscribers.
Now then, as you well know, I like to crowbar MrBeast
into as many of my videos as possible
in the vain hope that he gives us a mention.
So let's use him as a baseline for views per subscriber.
If you divide MrBeast's 8 1/2 billion views
with his 50 million subscribers
you get a nice round number of 170 views per subscriber.
So when we pump all of this
back into our anecdotal numbers sausage machine
you will require over 61 days, 17,000 views
or 278 views per day
to get those 100 subscribers
or 1,954 views per 8.7 videos that you're going to make
over those 61 days.
This is what some of you want.
How do I get more views?
How do I get more subscribers?
Let's just get some numbers and make nonsense like this.
Now having been a little playful with this idea
I don't think some of the numbers are too bad.
1.6 subscribers for a channel
when they first start out on YouTube,
I think is something that is attainable
in the first two months of their creator journey.
However, the other numbers that I plucked out of air
are a bit of a stretch.
I think that when people first start their YouTube channels
their making more than two videos a week
because they're just playing around
having fun and seeing what works.
But when you fall into a pattern
of a regular posting schedule
then you're probably down to about one or two videos a week.
As for 17,000 views to get 100 subscribers,
that does sound like a lot of views
but I did benchmark it against
one of the most popular YouTubers on the planet.
But what you'll find is that the balance
or distribution of these numbers is all over the shop.
You'll have some videos that get less than 10 views
and no subscribers,
whereas one video may get hundreds of views
and brings in 25 subscribers for your channel
when you're first starting out.
The bottom line as always is
it depends what you are doing as a creator
as to how quickly you reach a certain milestone.
Some of the fundamentals you wanna be working on
when you're trying to get your first 100 subscribers
is channel focus, paying attention to thumbnails
as they're far more important
than what you probably think right now,
and doubling down on any successful videos that you publish.
Now, this is where vidIQ can genuinely help you
with keyword research,
a tool that compares your thumbnails to others
before you even publish our content
and a channel audit tool that will literally tell you
which video is bringing the most subscribers
for your channel.
So you can either download vidIQ for free
and take actual steps from the data provided to you.
Or you can try and work out my weird numbers,
and if you get it wrong with my weird numbers
then hold me accountable for it.
For curiosity sake, I would love to know
if any of these numbers are close to reality.
So if you are in and around 100 subscribers right now
does any of this match your YouTube journey?
Let us know in the comments below.
Speaking of comments,
that survey did produce quite a lot of interesting ones.
Take a look at these.
It took DeFrancis four months to get to 100 subscribers,
which is twice as long as the figure I came up with
but at him now he's at 400 subscribers.
It took the Zeruel two days but that's because
they were able to push an existing community
onto a new channel.
Give credit here to Drago Breeder
who stuck it out over five years
before hitting the subscriber term.
I was almost right
with YourGuySmallFry's 50 day journey to 100 subscribers.
But I think KnowWhat sums this all up best.
Yes, everything on YouTube is harder than you think
before you start.
There's a very simple solution to that.
Stop worrying about the destination
and start paying attention to and most importantly,
enjoying the journey you are on today.