How To Get 1000 Subscribers on YouTube

Today I am going to share how to get 1000 subscribers on YouTube.  This is the first in a series of helpful posts for bloggers, or anyone wanting to start a YouTube channel and get YouTube subscribers.

When I started YouTube I had no plan and I didn’t know anything about YouTube subscribers.  If you are like I was, you will start to do a lot of research.  This research takes a lot of time and energy!

Hopefully, with this series, you can learn some tips and tricks that will help you grow fast without all the time researching.  You will need 1000 subscribers on youtube and 4000 watch hours in the past 12 months to be eligible for monetization on youtube (2022).

(This post contains affiliate links)

Get a Niche On YouTube

I know you have heard everyone say this and I bet if you are like I was you will be thinking what is a niche and I don’t have one.  When I first started making videos I made vlogs.  I had no idea how to make a vlog.  Just video your day and edit it together and bam, everyone will want to subscribe.  WRONG!

If you want to be a vlogger where you just share your life and what you do, I would try to find something niche about that to start.  Are you into something specific?  Maybe you have kids and you can give helpful tips to moms.

Are you into sewing? Maybe you are into cooking.  Focus your day-in-the-life videos around something that can be unique to you and your life.  Make sure that it is all under the same umbrella.  For instance, if you talk about cooking, you could do a day in life with what you eat.  Maybe you have a specific diet you can share.

Within this niche, you will want to make searchable videos.  If I could go back and start again I would make my first 10 or more videos searchable.  Searchable is something that someone is looking up.  No one is looking up, “wow I had candy for dinner.”  They are looking up “how to declutter kid’s toys?” or “How to make pie?”

Go to the YouTube search bar and start to type in the title you are thinking of, then see what youtube self populates.  Now use one of those titles.

A great way to get more done is with a work-from-home Planner! This is one of the main ways I stay on track with my videos and blog.

 

My YouTube Evolution

My YouTube evolution went like this; I started with day-in-the-life videos and I started to talk about how I was decluttering my home and becoming more minimalist.  In every video where I would declutter, or talk about my minimalist journey I would gain subscribers.

Then the next video would be about my day with the kids at their bike-a-thon and I would lose subscribers.

Finally, it dawned on me!  Every time I talk about minimalism and my journey I gain subs.  Now I talk about something random and off the wall I lose subs.  In my mind, I thought I could grow the two topics at the same time, but I was wrong.

If you want to grow really fast find a niche that isn’t super popular, but is something people are interested in.  I went with what I was doing at the time, which was minimalism and decluttering.  Had I made every video about these topics I think I would have grown really fast.

This is when you have to decide how you want your channel to end up, if you only make slime videos, for instance, it will be hard to ever break away from that theme.

I think of my channel as an umbrella and the theme is simple living.  Under that umbrella, I can talk about a lot of topics that relate to that theme.  I talk about minimalism, decluttering, capsule wardrobes, eco products, simple routines, and much more.

I always make sure any video I do fits under this umbrella.  You are not going to see a high-end fashion haul on my channel and not many product reviews.

 

My YouTube Subscriber Count Breakdown

On October 7, 2017, I started my channel uploading all kinds of random videos.  I had zero subscribers!  Six months later (April 2018) I realized the pattern and I made a channel update explaining how I was moving to only minimalist content.  At this point, I had 656 subscribers.  After switching to more of a niche channel it only took 3 more months (July 2018) to hit 1000 subscribers.

(this image shows how slow I was growing without a niche)

 

This is why I am sharing this information with you!  It shouldn’t take 9 months to get 1000 subscribers, especially if you are making good videos every week.  If I had more of a niche to start with I would have grown way faster.

Since July 2018 I have steadily grown my simple living community to 9710 subscribers (June 2019).  I am sharing this to help you grow your channel.  Obviously, there will be channels that just take off right from the start, but I know so many channels that are just like us.

Growing slowly and steadily!  You can do it, just stick with regular uploads and it will happen.

UPDATE: 2022 I NOW HAVE 50THOUSAND SUBSCRIBERS

(this shows you how I am growing with a niche)

 

Getting 4000 Hours of Watch Time

If you are consistently making videos you are bound to hit the 4000 hours of watch time.  I hit the 4000-hour watch time in 6 months by making 2 videos every week.  One tip I wish I had known when trying to hit this milestone is to make long videos.

Most of my videos were 3 to 5 minutes.  Not only will longer videos help with getting you more hours, but youtube likes to push longer videos.  I have found the 10-minute mark is really good to try to hit.  If you have nothing to talk about or show for 10 minutes then don’t push it.  If you can come up with 10 minutes of great entertaining content, then go for it!

My more popular videos are usually around 10 to 12 minutes long.

 

Tell people to subscribe!

You have nothing to lose by telling people to subscribe.  The worst thing that could happen is they don’t subscribe!  Well to be honest they probably wouldn’t have subscribed anyways.

Make sure you say this at the beginning of the video.  I like to mention it really quickly.  I usually start my structured sit-down videos by doing a quick introduction about the video topic (about 5 to 30 seconds max).  During that intro, I will usually say, “if you are new here make sure you hit the subscribe button to join my channel”.

Then again at the end of my videos, I will usually say a quick “hit the subscribe button to never miss a video.”  If someone likes your channel they will do what you said.

When I first started YouTube I had never really watched a lot of YouTube.  I know that seems weird, but I started making videos because I wanted to have some amazing videos of my family and something I could share on my blog.

I was one of those people that didn’t know about the subscribe button.  It wasn’t until someone said, in a video, “hit the subscribe button.”

So there you have it! It does pay to say subscribe.

 

Subscribers on YouTube Growth Tactics

Share your videos!  How will you get YouTube subscribers if no one sees your video?  After you post your video on YouTube, make sure you share it with everyone.

Right after I post a video I go to the video I just posted and I play the whole video.  By playing your video you just gained some watch time.  Now under that video, you will see a button called SHARE.  Click the share button and a whole bunch of options will pop up.  You will see Twitter, Facebook, mix, Reddit, and much more.  I suggest making an account with all of these social media outlets so you can share your videos there.

No one cares if no one follows you over on those social media places, but YouTube likes to see that your video is being shared.  This will give your video a little boost!  Plus you never know who might see your content and share it.

 

I also joined a YouTube Facebook group.  This is an excellent idea if you are trying to get people to see your videos.  Everyone shares their videos and likes and comments on each other’s videos.

This is a great way to give your channel a tiny boost.  I wouldn’t spend too much time on these groups, but just share your video each time you post one and it will help get the ball rolling.

 

Commenting On YouTube

Once you know your niche, go find channels that are also in the same niche or similar niche.  Start watching and commenting on their videos.  Leave nice comments that have questions and would make them want to look into who you are.

You are trying to build a community so you want to find people that are already watching similar content.  Plus if you are truly into this niche you are going to want to find friends.  These friends can lead to fun collaborations in the future.  This will also lead new YouTube subscribers to your channel.

What you should not do!  Do not spam people!  Spamming is when you go to someone’s channel and say ” hi I subscribed so come to my channel and subscribe.”  This is not going to work and it will probably get you blocked from their channel.  I also find it rude when people leave a comment that says hey check out my channel under the comments that are left on my channel.  Honestly I usually delete them, so that will be a waste of your time.

What you are trying to do is make real relationships and who knows you might even make some friends.

 

YouTube Video Collaborations

Once you have found some YouTube friends in your niche and you have established a relationship, reach out and see if they want to collaborate.  If you do a collaboration right, this is sure to bring you subscribers and watch time.

Every collaboration has been a positive experience so far.  Even if I didn’t get a lot of subscribers, it was a learning experience.

When doing a collaboration it is best to find channels that are similar in the niche but have a different audience.  For instance, I have a friend that has a great YouTube Channel and we have collaborated in the past with great success, but now we have co-mingled our audience.  So if we did another collaboration it would mostly be for fun because all our subscribers already know about both of us.

 

Collaboration Example That can Get you, Subscribers, on YouTube:

From my experience collaborations are a lot of work!  You have to coordinate the upload time and the content.  Even the most simple collaborations have been twice the amount of work it takes to make a normal video.  Just make sure you have this in mind before you accept every offer that comes your way.

A successful YouTube channel is all about the community!  I hope this post has helped you to start growing your community and meet some friends along the way.

Look forward to more posts similar to Subscribers on YouTube tips under the YOUTUBE tab at the top of my blog.

These are the lights I use to film on a dark day.  They really help when it is way too dark to use natural lighting.  I really like these because they are super easy to set up, they are affordable, and they can be adjusted to add more white or yellow light depending on what you are needing.

 

More Posts:

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Waking Up at 5Am is Changing my Life

How To Prep for 5Am Wake Up

How To Do YouTube Channels I LOVE

Video Creators

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