How to grow your YouTube channel? Everything starts from zero, and so does a YouTube Channel. At present, the competition on YouTube is very fierce. So it‘s really difficult to build a channel from zero.
But that’s nothing to be afraid of.
We’ve come up with some actionable ways to grow a YouTube channel from scratch. They allow you to quickly find the right direction in the early stages of your channel and accumulate the first batch of subscribers.
1. Grow your YouTube channel with outstanding channel name and settings
Coming up with a catchy and memorable channel name is the first thing to do.
Easy-to-remember names can help you get twice the result with half the effort in promoting the channel. This will involve what the channel is going to do, what the style is, and how it is presented.
Besides, the channel should set a unified image, so that users who enter the channel will shine in front of their eyes. The channel cover and logo are also important. A good channel cover and logo can highlight the personality of the channel, let people understand the theme of your channel, and attract them to subscribe.
2. Grow your YouTube channel with engaging content
To attract users to subscribe to your channel, you must first have content for everyone to watch, and it must be attractive. The first video when you start a channel should be high quality so that people will have the desire to subscribe.
So how to improve the quality of your video?
You can go to some online course learning platforms, QA communities, and professional forums to see what people are most concerned about this topic. What questions do they want others to answer? If your video can meet the needs of most people, the quality will not be poor.
For example, you can take a look at the topics under Reddit, or you can search Google for “keywords+forum” to find relevant communities.
In addition to the quality of the content, you should also make the topic of the channel more focused. Focused content can make the whole channel look more professional. It also can increase the authority and persuasion of the channel. When your channel has a certain influence, the next time viewers want to find videos with such topics, they may think of your channel first.
3. Grow your YouTube channel with regular updates
It is not easy to provide high-quality videos, and it is even more difficult to update high-quality videos regularly. But this is fundamental to keeping your YouTube channel competitive. Once you insist on regularly updating high-quality content, viewers will become dependent on your channel.
Some YouTube celebrities with professional teams may update YouTubers every day, but it’s a little difficult for fledgling YouTubers.
If you are going to run your YouTube channel seriously, it is generally recommended that you update it at least once a week.
Regular updates are also good for increasing channel authority. It will keep the channel active so that users will have an advantage in video sorting when searching. Because YouTube doesn’t want the platform to be full of stale content. Regular updates show that you’ve been providing new content for the YouTube platform.
4. Grow your YouTube channel with YouTube SEO
Many well-known YouTube channels place a premium on YouTube SEO, especially if you’re just starting.
Good SEO settings on YouTube will make it possible for more users to find your video, which will lead to more potential subscribers for the channel. You should pay attention to the titles, descriptions, tags, and do keyword research for each video.
If your video is a small niche, good SEO settings may bring a surprise in the first place.
In addition to these, the user’s video viewing time, session time, update cycle, comments, and so on will have an impact on the video ranking. So, you need to do it as a systems engineering.
This will take time for you to learn, and we’ll talk about YouTube SEO separately in the future.
5. Grow your YouTube channel with an easy-to-use YouTube video maker
As a YouTuber, you’re bound to make videos more often, and a good video editing software can help you make better videos and save you a lot of time.
There is a lot of video editing software out there, some of which are specifically designed for YouTube videos, such as YouTube Movie Maker.
The program is designed for YouTubers, which combines the ability to create, upload, manage, promote YouTube videos. It is built-in many powerful features. For example, YouTube Movie Maker makes it easy to edit 2D/3D videos with multiple texts, images, audio, video effects. It can also output videos in the best YouTube formats directly and can be uploaded to YouTube in bulk.
Detailed information about the YouTube Movie Maker is available here.
6. Grow your YouTube channel with longer watch time
Video watch time is one of the most important metrics in YouTube videos. Because it reflects the quality of your video. The longer you watch the video, the more people will watch the video in its entirety, which means the better the quality of your video.
Therefore, when preparing the video, you can make it longer. This strategy can increase the viewing time of the user.
However, after the video becomes longer, it is necessary to insert some interesting elements in the video, so that the audience can watch the whole video as far as possible. And won’t leave in the midway.
7. Grow your YouTube channel with longer session time
Besides video viewing time, the user’s session time is also important. Session time is the amount of time the user spends on your channel. This means that after watching one video, viewers continue to watch other videos on your YouTube channel.
YouTube prefers creators to provide good videos to attract more users on the site. The longer time of a user’s stay indicates that your channel’s content is good and attractive. In return, YouTube will increase the ranking of your channels and videos.
8. Grow your YouTube channel with a better CTR
The CTR (click-through rate) refers to the rate at which a video is clicked divided by displayed on the search or channel page. The higher CTR shows that the title and thumbnail of the video are more attractive.
Increasing the CTR of your video will give your video more opportunities to be viewed, especially on the search results page. This means more views and subscribers.
9. Grow your YouTube channel with a higher “like ratio”
The “like ratio” refers to the percentage of YouTube users who like or dislike your video after watching it. Although not absolute, this indicator usually reflects whether a video is liked by the audience.
You can also view the data through a tool like VIDIQ, TubeBuddy. If the indicator of a video is not good, you need to pay attention to whether the video itself is not good enough, or for other reasons.
10. Grow your YouTube channel with social sharing
After the video is released, remember to share your video on other social networking sites. This has the opportunity to let more people find your video and attract interested people to subscribe to your channel.
In addition to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you can also share videos on Reddit, Quora, or topic-related professional forums to attract them to watch more videos on your channel. Because these people are interested in this topic, if your video is good enough, they will probably become your fans.
Be careful, though, not to spam, and share your videos when they do meet people’s needs, or your posts will most likely be deleted.
11. Grow your YouTube channel by replying to comments
Comments are an important part of the interaction on YouTube. Try to respond to each comment when the number of comments is small. Doing so not only improves the user experience but also makes them feel valued. And interacting with users will help improve the channel’s rating on YouTube.
Leaving comments below other people’s videos can also give more people a chance to find your channel. Also, leave meaningful and interesting comments instead of spamming.
12. Grow your YouTube channel with website promotion
If you have a blog or official website, don’t forget to put your YouTube channel link on it. Then, when people visit the site they can see your channel at any time and bring more visits to the channel.
Your site may already have a certain amount of traffic, but your users don’t know that you already have a YouTube channel. Placing channel links in a conspicuous location will make them notice your YouTube channel.
Next, You will get more off-site browsing and subscriptions.
When you update an article on your site, if you happen to be able to use your video, don’t forget to insert the video into the article. In this way, when users are watching your article, they can also see your video and are likely to browse your channel.
13. Grow your YouTube channel with award-winning activities
To improve the popularity of the channel, sometimes hold a prized activity is also a good way. You can set an event, such as an interactive challenge, the viewers who complete the challenge will receive a prize.
Such events can engage users and encourage them to share channels. This allows more people to know about your channel and has the potential to attract more subscribers.
14. Grow your YouTube channel with playlists
If you have a series of related videos, make a playlist of them. This allows people to watch one video and then automatically play the next one, increasing the viewing time for multiple videos.
When you share playlists elsewhere, a series of videos on a particular topic is more valuable, having the benefit of collecting and getting attention. Also, one share leads to multiple plays, and the benefits are clear.
15. Grow your YouTube channel with competitor research
Because you need to keep updating regularly, planning your future video content will make it easier for you to make a video.
If you don’t have a clear direction when planning your channel content, you can take a look at your competitor’s channel.
Rank their videos by popularity and see what the most popular videos look like. Combined with your actual situation, set a general direction for the future content direction of the channel.
Peers are always the best learning objects, in addition to the content, in the channel settings, thumbnails, video titles and other aspects can study how they do, there is nothing worth learning.
Final Thoughts
Although it is difficult to develop a channel from zero, with these actionable methods we provide, we believe it will make it easier for you to start.
At the beginning of your channel, try to pay attention to all aspects of the details, and strive to do their best. Just need to accumulate advantages a little bit, and stick to it, I believe you will get good results.