How to Get Your First 1,000 YouTube Subscribers

The hardest thing for a new content creator is to gain their first 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Today, there is stiff competition on YouTube, so the battle for the first thousand subscribers is fierce. 

Every new YouTuber wonders whether it's realistic to earn their first thousand subscribers without spending any money.

The answer to the previous question is - yes, it is possible. Below, we have listed strategies to gain subscribers, and we will analyze each one in detail. Let's start with free promotion methods.

Commenting on Other People's Videos

It's a controversial but popular method. This approach does work, however, it's not entirely without issues. If you do use it, you should work on your wording so that the comment doesn't look like spam or begging.

People are influenced by an authoritative opinion, so we'll emphasize that. Choose a trendy video - it should be in your niche - lower the emotional tone of your message and leave room for expertise.

Write constructive criticism or some additional advice on the topic under a popular video. People will start liking your comment, and if it's really valuable, the comment will take off, and other people will gravitate towards your comment. If you really create great content and the topic is interesting, the audience will stay with you.

Content Consistency

The ability to organize yourself, structure your channel, remain consistent and persevere - these are some of the most important stages of promotion and gaining subscribers.

Why is this so important? Let's analyze with an example: you want to run a 30 kilometer marathon. Let's assume you  just go out and run right away. However,  if you do that, you'll run out of steam within the first 5 kilometers. This is because without regular training and minimal preparation, it's impossible to run that far without damaging your health.

However, if you start training a month before the marathon - running every day, gradually increasing the distance - after a month it will be much easier for you to run 30 kilometers, because you'll have built up stamina, prepared your body and mindset.

It's the same with YouTube. To achieve results, it will take time and building up your skills. No free promotion will work instantly. It's the result of consistent and coordinated work.

Upload videos on the same day, at the same time, preferably 2-3 days a week. Don't put out everything you have right away, prepare the channel for launch in advance so you can consistently release videos without rushed deadlines. Record 15-20 videos right away and calmly upload them at your chosen time and day. Then you'll quickly and easily gain your first thousand subscribers. And it will get easier after that.

SEO-optimization

Don't be intimidated by these words, because SEO means search engine optimization. Or a set of measures that we use to ensure our videos rank highly in YouTube's search results and recommended videos. The toughest competition today is for getting into the recommended videos section. Examples of SEO techniques  include using keywords in the title, description, and tags for the video.

YouTube is owned by Google, so the search algorithms used on YouTube are the same as Google's. This is important to consider when selecting keywords for your titles, descriptions, and tags.

When you upload a video to your channel, YouTube doesn't know what it's about, so it needs your help. You should properly title the video, write a quality description, and select relevant tags - all using strategic keywords. It's through these keywords that YouTube's algorithms understand who to show your videos to.

The algorithms also understand your speech audio and can analyze and use it for promotion purposes.

How to Optimize Your Videos with SEO?

• You enter the title of the video into the search bars of either YouTube or Google, and then see which queries most often interest the viewer. These words will be the keywords.
• You look at what the competitors are doing: we make a list of competitor channels, install the vidIQ or TubeBuddy extension in the browser.

Social Media

There's no need to spam your friends with your new YouTube channel. Also there’s no need to create group chats and invite everyone so they know you've released a new video. Similarly you should not spam comments under posts in random groups. These actions can get you banned by community admins.

There are much more appropriate ways to promote, for example:

• Write personally to those friends who may be interested in this topic. Don't use a template message - take the time and write a personal description of the channel and invitation to subscribe for each person. It's those who are genuinely interested who will become your first subscribers.
• Create a group on the topic of your channel.  It is better to create your own community and promote your content  in it. YouTube likes when its links are posted on third-party platforms. This way you bring new users to YouTube. If you start getting views from other sites, YouTube will automatically start promoting your videos on its own platform.
• Post your videos on your personal page wall. This is after you have written to all interested friends and created a group. Maybe you missed someone who would actually be interested in the topic of your channel? They may see the post in their news feed and can check out your video themselves.

Quality Content and Good Thumbnails

This one should be obvious! No advertising and audience growth will save a channel from collapse if you have poorly recorded audio and poor video quality.

In addition, even advertising won't help provoke a user to click on your video if there's no captivating  thumbnail that makes a new viewer want to click.

Nowadays, there are so many ways to create quality content without much effort, even if you only have a mobile phone available. That's enough to shoot, edit, and even make thumbnails for a great video.

Creating high-quality videos with good audio/visual production values and compelling thumbnails is crucial. No amount of marketing will make up for subpar content that doesn't entice people to watch. Put effort into making your videos look and sound professional, with eye-catching custom thumbnails. That's the foundation for growing an audience on YouTube.

Build Credibility, Not Personality

In the early stages of creating a channel you need to build your credibility with your audience. It’s important for you to create rapport, then you can shift the focus to your personality.

When starting a new YouTube channel without an established fanbase, it's advisable to initially position yourself as an authority and focus on providing high-quality, informative content in your niche. You can build credibility by demonstrating expertise and establishing yourself as a trustworthy source. As your audience grows and gains value from your videos, you can then gradually incorporate more personality and personal elements. But first prove your channel is worth subscribing to for knowledge, entertainment, wisdom and insights provided. Earn viewer loyalty through substance before style.

Video Length Over 10 Minutes

Longer videos are now ranked much better on YouTube, because the algorithm prioritizes watch time and audience retention over just view counts. This viewer engagement metric you can study in the analytics for each video or look at the overall channel stats.

Based on YouTube highly valuing long watch times per video, we can conclude: the longer the video, the greater the chance to accumulate more total watch time.

However, you should never forget about creating content quality. If you spend ten minutes rambling aimlessly, you will fail to earn strong audience retention and you will undermine viewer trust. They'll be less inclined to watch your next video if they do at all.

The first 30 seconds are crucial, so don't waste it on a long intro - immediately tell people the value they'll get from watching your full video. And right after the initial opening you should remind them to subscribe. Don't forget to justify why they should subscribe, like "Because every Wednesday we'll have new videos with tips and insights for YouTubers, and every Friday you'll get a recap of the week's most interesting news."

Live Streams

Live streaming is a great way to interact with your subscribers in real-time, get to know them better, and find out what kind of content they want from you.

But don't forget that a livestream requires a separate announcement and constant reminders, because it's a full-fledged event. People need to set aside time for it and not forget to attend. It doesn't matter that it's happening online. You can leave the recording up later, but the whole point of a livestream is that it's happening here and now, in real time.

Collaborations with Other creators

Many new channels are happy to cross-promote and exchange subscribers, especially if you create in the same niche and your audiences are open to discovering new YouTubers. Everyone wins.

However, if you approach more popular channels, you'll likely only get paid collaboration opportunities. For influencers, sponsored work follows a different system that requires good analytics and preparation.

Paid Promotion

This is definitely something that will work. Just a reminder that you can always launch your own channel promotion through our Prodvigate service.

We'll even give you a nice bonus - a 10% discount on your first promotion. Use the special promo code: BLOG10 now for immediate results.

That's it, guys! Hope you found this useful and interesting. We want to emphasize that you shouldn't choose just one promotion method and stick to it exclusively. The more strategies you use, the more effective your process of finding a new audience will be.

Wishing you success in your YouTube promotion!