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Help me promote my YouTube channel

Marketing, social media, advertising

andrewthomas

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Jan 15, 2018
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Hello Guys,

Here's what I need your help with: a few months ago, I've started a YouTube channel. At the moment of writing, I have 16 videos and will try to publish two per week from now on.

My best video currently has 5,244 views, the second most popular one is at 3,849 and I have a few right around the 1,000 view mark. Not too shabby, especially for a channel that hasn't been promoted properly yet but I want to take things to the next level.

When I'm not actively promoting the channel, it averages one new subscriber per day.

The only meaningful promotion I've done so far has been submitting some of the videos to Reddit. One of them (the fractional reserve banking one) ended up on page 1 of the bitcoin subreddit, had some on page 1 of less popular subreddits. While none of them went amazingly viral, they did ok.

What can I do to promote the channel aside from the Reddit thingy?

1) Any decent Reddit alternatives you can recommend?

2) What else have you done to increase the traffic of your YouTube videos?

3) Are there any decent paid services you'd recommend?
 
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emse7en

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Apr 9, 2018
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Hello Guys,

Here's what I need your help with: a few months ago, I've started a YouTube channel. At the moment of writing, I have 16 videos and will try to publish two per week from now on.

My best video currently has 5,244 views, the second most popular one is at 3,849 and I have a few right around the 1,000 view mark. Not too shabby, especially for a channel that hasn't been promoted properly yet but I want to take things to the next level.

When I'm not actively promoting the channel, it averages one new subscriber per day.

The only meaningful promotion I've done so far has been submitting some of the videos to Reddit. One of them (the fractional reserve banking one) ended up on page 1 of the bitcoin subreddit, had some on page 1 of less popular subreddits. While none of them went amazingly viral, they did ok.

What can I do to promote the channel aside from the Reddit thingy?

1) Any decent Reddit alternatives you can recommend?

2) What else have you done to increase the traffic of your YouTube videos?

3) Are there any decent paid services you'd recommend?

Reddit can be good if done right. I certainly could be a lot better about that. I have content that has made it to the top of all of reddit and still sits on the top posts of all time. But it was a gif of my video and didn’t drive much of any traffic to my YouTube. Reddit is one of the few platforms that doesn’t frown on linking to outside websites. Other big social media companies will throttle your exposure if trying to link away from their platform.

2. The best way I’ve been able to increase traffic is to collaborate with other youtubers. Be creative on how you can add value to them.

3. I don’t have any recommendations on paid services. Maybe you pay a YouTuber to mention you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

EricFromCanada

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Jun 19, 2017
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Hello Guys,

Here's what I need your help with: a few months ago, I've started a YouTube channel. At the moment of writing, I have 16 videos and will try to publish two per week from now on.

My best video currently has 5,244 views, the second most popular one is at 3,849 and I have a few right around the 1,000 view mark. Not too shabby, especially for a channel that hasn't been promoted properly yet but I want to take things to the next level.

When I'm not actively promoting the channel, it averages one new subscriber per day.

The only meaningful promotion I've done so far has been submitting some of the videos to Reddit. One of them (the fractional reserve banking one) ended up on page 1 of the bitcoin subreddit, had some on page 1 of less popular subreddits. While none of them went amazingly viral, they did ok.

What can I do to promote the channel aside from the Reddit thingy?

1) Any decent Reddit alternatives you can recommend?

2) What else have you done to increase the traffic of your YouTube videos?

3) Are there any decent paid services you'd recommend?
I created a Youtube Channel that got to around 2,500 subscribers, and around 300k total views a while back as a summer project. Some of the growth was hit and miss with the videos. However I do believe that have a decent understanding on the subject of growing a channel.
1. Here's a video that I found quite useful on how to grow when I was creating my own channel that I recommend you watch.
2. Also recommend checking out this plugin, which I found useful in running my channel. It helps give you tips on ways to improve your video's SEO and helps to show what other channels are doing in your niche. Free version works just fine.
3. Last tip I can give is to comment on videos with similar content to your own. Don't comment asking for people to subscribe to your channel, but instead provide an insightful or valuable comment that people will like. When I used to do this, I got around 20 new subscribers a day if I commented good value on 10 related videos. The idea is that they read your comment, like it, and then they choose on their own to click your channel and check it out. Also one thing to note, don't comment too frequently or Youtube will flag your account as spam. That's why I stuck to about 10 videos a day.

Best of luck, and let me know if there's anything else I can do to help!
 

Lex DeVille

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3. I don’t have any recommendations on paid services. Maybe you pay a YouTuber to mention you.

This is what I referred to in a thread earlier. The key for me was to do it on their live streams and not mention that it is for them to mention me.

When I sent several $100 donations to a YouTuber in the same niche, he was blown away that someone would send that much money. So blown away that it disrupted the entire live stream and brought it to a stand still.

After that not only did the YouTuber mention my name, but everyone in the live stream chat was mentioning it too. And since the live stream became a regular video after it was over, my name was plastered all over the channel for the tens of thousands of views that came afterwards.

Better still, people REMEMBERED my name and mentioned it in FUTURE live streams for MONTHS afterward, and if I didn't show up in a live stream, they mentioned that too.

All of this resulted in people either clicking on or searching my username and making their way back to my channel where they discovered similar videos to stuff they already watch, so it was an easy sell on the subscribe.
 

Scot

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This is what I referred to in a thread earlier. The key for me was to do it on their live streams and not mention that it is for them to mention me.

When I sent several $100 donations to a YouTuber in the same niche, he was blown away that someone would send that much money. So blown away that it disrupted the entire live stream and brought it to a stand still.

After that not only did the YouTuber mention my name, but everyone in the live stream chat was mentioning it too. And since the live stream became a regular video after it was over, my name was plastered all over the channel for the tens of thousands of views that came afterwards.

Better still, people REMEMBERED my name and mentioned it in FUTURE live streams for MONTHS afterward, and if I didn't show up in a live stream, they mentioned that too.

All of this resulted in people either clicking on or searching my username and making their way back to my channel where they discovered similar videos to stuff they already watch, so it was an easy sell on the subscribe.

Still love this. Probably the cheapest influencer campaign of all time.
 

BellaPippin

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This is what I referred to in a thread earlier. The key for me was to do it on their live streams and not mention that it is for them to mention me.

When I sent several $100 donations to a YouTuber in the same niche, he was blown away that someone would send that much money. So blown away that it disrupted the entire live stream and brought it to a stand still.

After that not only did the YouTuber mention my name, but everyone in the live stream chat was mentioning it too. And since the live stream became a regular video after it was over, my name was plastered all over the channel for the tens of thousands of views that came afterwards.

Better still, people REMEMBERED my name and mentioned it in FUTURE live streams for MONTHS afterward, and if I didn't show up in a live stream, they mentioned that too.

All of this resulted in people either clicking on or searching my username and making their way back to my channel where they discovered similar videos to stuff they already watch, so it was an easy sell on the subscribe.

You're my hero Lex! You make it sound so easy everytime :p
 
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Lex DeVille

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You're my hero Lex! You make it sound so easy everytime :p

It is easy.

Even if you didn't want to spend much you could still use this method.

Show up with $10 to each live stream and donate $0.50 at a time throughout the stream.

Usually streamers have popups on the screen that make noises to let people know someone donated.

So you donate small amounts throughout the stream and your name shows up numerous times in front of everyone.

Doesn't make as big of an impact in terms of shock value, but people get familiar with who the regular donors are pretty fast and it gives you more exposure over the length of the video.
 

ChrisV

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lowtek

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Drop helpful, insightful, witty comments in the comment section of YTers in the same niche. Do this as soon as they upload a video, and give it a few thumbs up from your alternate accounts. Don't bother doing this with old videos.

You'll need to upload more than 2X / week if you really want to grow. From what I've seen on my own channel, 3X a week is the sweet spot.

Focus on your thumbnails, CTR and average view duration (in minutes, not percentages). Maximizing these 3 quantities will give you the best ROI.

Edit:

Another trick I used to do is using other large (related) YT channels as keywords. It seemed to help, though I've ended up removing those over time as I no longer needed that tiny extra boost.

You can do a bulk edit from the dashboard when you upload a new video: just say "check out my new video at <link>". This helps get a little extra traction on your new videos, which helps them over time.

If you can find a larger channel to cross post content with, that would be ideal. I collect some of my best material and put it on Free Code Camp's channel, which results in a couple hundred extra subs every time I do that. I got the opportunity by dropping a positive comment in their comment section, and the main guy noticed me and reached out.

Make sure that your channel name clearly identifies what you do. Mine is "Machine Learning with Phil". Any time I drop a comment, people see that and know what I'm about.
 
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Last edited:

lowtek

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Talking with @ChrisV via Skype, here are some other things that I've found to work for me:

back in March I went down a rabbit hole of the channels that tell you how to grow faster on YT. That was the biggest takeaway (total watch time is the most important metric). They referenced some whitepapers by Google on the subject, and I think it's also buried somewhere in the creator academy documentation
well the biggest two things that moved the needle for me were:

1) Make longer videos. Some people will bounce almost right away, others will watch the whole thing. Having a much longer video means that those that watch the whole thing will compensate for the people that don't like my stupid face, or voice, or whatever.

2) Starting out each video with a "you" statement: "In this video you are going to learn how to do X". I saw some videos where they claimed to have data that videos that start out with a you proposition get something like 30% more views, and my own results seem to support it
 

lowtek

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Other gray hat stuff I do:

when I drop a new video, I watch it from an alternate account. I make sure to navigate to my channel page and click on the thumbnail, and then watch the whole thing. Over the long run it doesn't hurt the metrics, as it's only going to amount to a couple extra seconds of average view duration, but the early boost tends to help the videos get shown more quickly. How quickly people click on and watch your stuff in the first few hours is critical to the long term success of the video (barring it going viral later for factors outside your control).

If I get a lull in views during the day, I'll occasionally open up one of my own videos and mute it. Same principle as the above.

I've never been penalized for this. There's no real against watching your own content, and I assume that YT is smart enough to know that the traffic is coming from the same network.
 

ChrisV

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Starting out each video with a "you" statement: "In this video you are going to learn how to do X"
I noticed something similar. I think this falls under 'selling benefits'

Like usually when I start a post on here (or an article elsewhere, whatever,) I let people know what benefits they're going to receive by reading my dumb words.

It's psychology. A mouse isn't going to go through a maze unless it knows there's cheese at the other end. And no one is going to watch your thing unless they know what benefits they're going to gain from the costs (time.)

Wrote something similar in another thread:

You need the headline to grab your attention. Then you need the first paragraph to pull the person in more. If you get either of those wrong, nobody cares. No one is going to read your 8 minute article without knowing the benefits of spending that precious time. Similarly no one is going to listen to anything (long) you have to say unless they know it's of interest to people.

Give a little overview first. A one/two-sentence overview of whatever idea you want to convince them of. Everything is sales. You need to sell people on why they should vote for the book you proposed in the "Fastlane book discussion" thread. And you need to sell people on why they should even read your email, especially if they're busy.

Don't start with the most technical details. Start with a basic summary outlining the benefits of what you want them to hear. Then a slightly longer summary.

It's like a pyramid where the most concise information is up top.

And this goes for anything. I had to explain a new theory to a colleague and made the mistake of writing out the technical aspects first. After two days of not getting a reply I figured out the problem. So I wrote an email "sorry, that was long... here's a condensed version," got an email right away asking the details.

Or think of it like cutting with a knife. You'll never cut with a blunt, unsharpened knife; so why think your writing should be any different. Sharpen the tip (short summary outlining the benefits,) then the next layer is a little thicker, and it gradually gets more into detail.
 
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ChrisV

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I've never been penalized for this. There's no real against watching your own content, and I assume that YT is smart enough to know that the traffic is coming from the same network.
You might be able to get away with it by using another device, as long as the IP is different or spoofed. Or from a TOR browser.
 

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