Hey guys, looking around these forums I've noticed a few people asking about how to grow their channel from nothing and where to find their first few subscribers. I have a few minutes and in a good mood, so I've decided to create this post with a few things I did to grow my channel!
QUICK NOTE TO MODS - VIDEOS AND LINKS HERE ARE ALL IN CONTEXT TO ASSIST!
Technically I opened my channel in late 2014, but my first video went up on April 13th 2016. 0 viewers, 0 subscribers. I had no money and nothing to put behind my channel, leaving me with a webcam to use as a microphone for the first few months! Some (terrible) Rocket League gameplay and commentry from my old Dell Vostro 200, it was sub-standard but I needed to start somewhere, I shared the video on two forums and reddit, see what people said. It was from there, I gained some of the best tips I've had for a YouTuber, and it's in this thread I'll stick them all in!
First of all, people don't tend to watch YouTubers for the content, but for the creator's personality! Pewdiepie, JackSepticEye and others don't grow from how they play (generally not that well!
) but their actions and voices that come from it! I just became myself and recorded what I did. First video went up and within a week had 124 viewers. For gaming channels, make sure that the gameplay is at least bearable! Low FPS is not good either way, sacrifice graphic settings for it. Videos should go Commentry>FPS>graphics.
Another thing you need is the right equipment! Like I said, I started off using a webcam microphone to record my voice with and while it sounded terrible, it did the job! Just... A small investment in a microphone won't hurt you, and there are some FANTASTIC cheap ones out there! The Snowball family? STAY AWAY. They may sound decent, but for the price? No. I bought a Floureon BM-800 back in October for £10 ($15) and after that, my content has never sounded better! It's a proper studio microphone with great sounding audio, it's all I've ever needed for commentries and reviews, I'll get onto that later.
Set a channel theme! There are plenty out there, gaming (specific), vlogging, sports, anything like that. My channel focuses on SIMULATOR CONTENT (I know, boring!) as it's what I have a passion for, there is still a fair few viewers in and not too many people do it! While I'll never become the biggest of YouTubers from it as the viewership is not quite there, I've got a nice audience with me here on a weekly basis that do enjoy my content and they know what it's gonna be about! If I changed my mind and started doing Call of Duty instead? Most of my viewers would leave.
Linked to the theme is find a community to connect with! I've been active around the FSX Steam Community and flightsim.com as I know that this is where a lot of my target audience hang out! Now that doesn't mean spam the forums with your videos, you'll most likely turn people off and get banned yourself. Engage with the people, get known in the community, your channel is second-rate to them until you become a 'prominent' figure! It was after I released a video celebrating FSX's 10 year anniversary full of research and facts that really got things going, which leads onto my next point...
Find a sponsorship! Based on how much research I did in that video, the owner of flightsim.com came up to me personally and asked if I wanted to do an article for him with a similar style which would get posted onto their website! I was happy to agree with the sole requirement being that my video got attached to the article with it. To date, it is still my most read article with over 15,000+ views and with the video attached to it? You can guess what happened next... After the success of that, they came back to me the next day and asked if I wanted to stick around doing reviews for payware products for them - they pay, I provide. This was a good opportunity to both help out the community in showing off new products, as well as improving my own simulator for the future!
Have a weekly schedule, or at least something for your viewers to respond to! If your audience doesn't know when the hell you're gonna upload, why should they stick around and wait? I used to upload on a DAILY basis and while I've relaxed now, I've always let my viewers know what I was uploading and when. Here is a checklist of my videos - Green is current and Red has since finished.
Monday - Motorsport Manager, World of Subways Volume 3, Arma 3
Tuesday - Euro Truck Simulator, Tropico 5, 911 Operator
Wednesday - FSX FSPassengers, Flight Sim World
Thursday - OMSI 2
Friday - Fractured Space
Saturday - Livestreams, FSX Landing Videos
Sunday - Rocket League
Use social media to your advantage. One thing that Freedom! gives you access to is Epoxy.TV, and I have found it the MOST USEFUL tool ever in tracking comments across all social media and more! Their mobile app went down hill unfortunately, but what it gives you on desktop? Second to none coverage of all channels as well as some light analytics which I've used since day 1.
And finally, post relevant content! Is there something big going on in the community right now? A new game release that your audience is interested in? Cover it! The FSX 10 years video got me a sponsorship, the Flight Sim World release livestream got me the most viewers in a livestream, comparison videos went mental in views and I was the first to mod an aircraft in flight sim world - big news and now my most views! People love when you upload something that is current and new, do it whenever you can!
Otherwise, this is what essentially got me from 0 subscribers to now over 1,000 with 230,000+ views. I'm sure there are others out there that have more subs with much better advice, but this is my two pence worth and I hope that someone can at least learn from my experience.
Do check out my channel if you are interested in anything I've said, but other than that I hope you find success in YouTube.
QUICK NOTE TO MODS - VIDEOS AND LINKS HERE ARE ALL IN CONTEXT TO ASSIST!
Technically I opened my channel in late 2014, but my first video went up on April 13th 2016. 0 viewers, 0 subscribers. I had no money and nothing to put behind my channel, leaving me with a webcam to use as a microphone for the first few months! Some (terrible) Rocket League gameplay and commentry from my old Dell Vostro 200, it was sub-standard but I needed to start somewhere, I shared the video on two forums and reddit, see what people said. It was from there, I gained some of the best tips I've had for a YouTuber, and it's in this thread I'll stick them all in!
First of all, people don't tend to watch YouTubers for the content, but for the creator's personality! Pewdiepie, JackSepticEye and others don't grow from how they play (generally not that well!
) but their actions and voices that come from it! I just became myself and recorded what I did. First video went up and within a week had 124 viewers. For gaming channels, make sure that the gameplay is at least bearable! Low FPS is not good either way, sacrifice graphic settings for it. Videos should go Commentry>FPS>graphics.Another thing you need is the right equipment! Like I said, I started off using a webcam microphone to record my voice with and while it sounded terrible, it did the job! Just... A small investment in a microphone won't hurt you, and there are some FANTASTIC cheap ones out there! The Snowball family? STAY AWAY. They may sound decent, but for the price? No. I bought a Floureon BM-800 back in October for £10 ($15) and after that, my content has never sounded better! It's a proper studio microphone with great sounding audio, it's all I've ever needed for commentries and reviews, I'll get onto that later.
Set a channel theme! There are plenty out there, gaming (specific), vlogging, sports, anything like that. My channel focuses on SIMULATOR CONTENT (I know, boring!) as it's what I have a passion for, there is still a fair few viewers in and not too many people do it! While I'll never become the biggest of YouTubers from it as the viewership is not quite there, I've got a nice audience with me here on a weekly basis that do enjoy my content and they know what it's gonna be about! If I changed my mind and started doing Call of Duty instead? Most of my viewers would leave.
Linked to the theme is find a community to connect with! I've been active around the FSX Steam Community and flightsim.com as I know that this is where a lot of my target audience hang out! Now that doesn't mean spam the forums with your videos, you'll most likely turn people off and get banned yourself. Engage with the people, get known in the community, your channel is second-rate to them until you become a 'prominent' figure! It was after I released a video celebrating FSX's 10 year anniversary full of research and facts that really got things going, which leads onto my next point...
Find a sponsorship! Based on how much research I did in that video, the owner of flightsim.com came up to me personally and asked if I wanted to do an article for him with a similar style which would get posted onto their website! I was happy to agree with the sole requirement being that my video got attached to the article with it. To date, it is still my most read article with over 15,000+ views and with the video attached to it? You can guess what happened next... After the success of that, they came back to me the next day and asked if I wanted to stick around doing reviews for payware products for them - they pay, I provide. This was a good opportunity to both help out the community in showing off new products, as well as improving my own simulator for the future!
Have a weekly schedule, or at least something for your viewers to respond to! If your audience doesn't know when the hell you're gonna upload, why should they stick around and wait? I used to upload on a DAILY basis and while I've relaxed now, I've always let my viewers know what I was uploading and when. Here is a checklist of my videos - Green is current and Red has since finished.
Monday - Motorsport Manager, World of Subways Volume 3, Arma 3
Tuesday - Euro Truck Simulator, Tropico 5, 911 Operator
Wednesday - FSX FSPassengers, Flight Sim World
Thursday - OMSI 2
Friday - Fractured Space
Saturday - Livestreams, FSX Landing Videos
Sunday - Rocket League
Use social media to your advantage. One thing that Freedom! gives you access to is Epoxy.TV, and I have found it the MOST USEFUL tool ever in tracking comments across all social media and more! Their mobile app went down hill unfortunately, but what it gives you on desktop? Second to none coverage of all channels as well as some light analytics which I've used since day 1.
And finally, post relevant content! Is there something big going on in the community right now? A new game release that your audience is interested in? Cover it! The FSX 10 years video got me a sponsorship, the Flight Sim World release livestream got me the most viewers in a livestream, comparison videos went mental in views and I was the first to mod an aircraft in flight sim world - big news and now my most views! People love when you upload something that is current and new, do it whenever you can!
Otherwise, this is what essentially got me from 0 subscribers to now over 1,000 with 230,000+ views. I'm sure there are others out there that have more subs with much better advice, but this is my two pence worth and I hope that someone can at least learn from my experience.
Do check out my channel if you are interested in anything I've said, but other than that I hope you find success in YouTube.
