A lot of creators decided to start their YouTube channels hoping they will become the next MrBeast, raking in millions of views with advertisers racing to sponsor their next video.
But once every YouTube creator starts producing content, they realize it's much harder than they thought it would be.
In today's guide, we will teach you the science of getting the first 1,000 YouTube subscribers, and help you achieve that in less than 30 days.
These are all legitimate methods that don't involve any risk to your YouTube channel.
Let's dive in!
What Happens When You Get 1000 Subscribers On YouTube?
The first hurdle for every creator out there is getting 1,000 YouTube subscribers, and 4,000 watch hours, in order to apply for YouTube's Partner Program.
We have witnessed that once every creator gets into YPP, their motivation to produce content rises.
They start getting an ROI on their efforts, and they feel people start recognizing the content they are producing.
It's also the beginning of the snowball effect. When you initially start creating content, it will often feel like you are screaming into the void.
But once views and subscribers start rolling in, they compound quickly and create a snowball effect.
This is especially true if you have other things nailed down, like your content quality, thumbnails, titles, SEO, etc.
So while nothing actually happens when you get the first 1,000 subscribers on YouTube, if you don't have the necessary watch hours, the mental aspect of this game becomes just a tad easier.
How Hard Is It To Get The First 1,000 Subscribers On YouTube?
It’s a lot harder than one would assume. When you have 100,000 subscribers, getting another 1,000 subscribers is a piece of cake.
But getting the first 1,000 subscribers is significantly harder and usually takes more time.
Why is that?
There are plenty of reasons why this is true, but we will outline a few of the more important ones.
Social Proof
This is part of human psychology.
People want to follow others and imitate what others are doing. Even though on a conscious level it may not always make sense, rarely anyone wants to be one of the few people following a specific YouTube channel.
Social proof is essential to the growth of a creator on any social media platform today.
Social proof helps you establish credibility, portrays you as an expert on the topic, and it builds instant trust with an audience.
And that brings us to our next point.
No Trust Yet
If you are a brand new creator, you have to accept the fact that people don't trust you yet. They don't know your face, or your voice, and are cautious to follow your advice.
And why would they? You are way more inclined to listen to advice from a friend you've known for the last 10 years, than a stranger from the street.
It's natural.
To overcome the lack of social proof and lack of trust, it's best to be honest and straightforward.
The reason why people don't trust you is that they don't know you.
But being vulnerable and honest will make your audience feel like they know you, even if they don't.
Instead of acting like you have everything figured out, while only having 536 subscribers, you should be upfront. Tell your audience you are new, but that every subscriber matters to you.
Don't say it like every other YouTuber does it, too. Viewers have been bored to death with the same "If you like this video, then you should consider subscribing"
They've heard that line a million times and now have zero reaction to it.
Instead, be sincere in your message and don't push anything. If you tell them how much it means to you, they will be more willing to help you.
Now, that you know why it's important to get those first 1,000 subscribers, let's show you everything you should implement to get that done in 30 days or less.
How To Get First 1,000 Subscribers - Hacks, Tricks & Expert Tips
While this list is not ordered, we want to start with the most important ones first.
Niching Down
By far the most important thing you can do for your YouTube channel is to define your target audience and create content that appeals solely to that group of people.
To do this effectively, you should spend a considerable amount of time studying other channels and content inside different niches.
By doing this, you will get a better understanding of the:
- Potential for views, and subscribers.
- Ad rates and brand sponsorship opportunities.
- What type of content works for a specific audience.
These 3 will define what niche you go into, how much money you can make, and what type of content you will need to create in order to achieve your goals.
Choosing a niche is not a job you should take lightly. When doing this, always look into niching down deeper, if it's possible.
The more niche down, the easier it will be to reach the authority stage .
Once you build a sizable audience, you can broaden your niche to different things your audience might like to see.
Channel Branding
Given that your authority and trust are at an all-time low when you are just starting out, you want to try and appear as professional as possible.
This involves getting your branding right from the start. Good channel branding will help you stand out and build recognition, which is critical for your growth on YouTube.
It's also the cornerstone of future growth. While rebranding is not the worst thing to do at times, it comes with negative consequences for your YouTube channel.
That's why a strong brand identity should include:
- A recognizable name that clearly states what your channel is about.
- Logo.
- Brand colors.
- Audio, music, and general channel vibes.
Have a Content Strategy Built Out
If you have decided on the niche and have your branding down, it's time to create a content strategy.
For us, a good content strategy is:
- Having the next 10-20 content ideas laid out.
- Having 2-3 videos ready in advance. This lets us take our foot off the gas when we feel we are nearing burnout.
- A well-laid-out content calendar that clearly shows due dates for specific parts of the production process.
Throughout your niche research, you likely picked up a ton of content ideas, but this is not where you stop.
For each content idea, you need to do a bit more research to find out:
- What is the competition and how many videos are there on the topic?
- What is your unique take on the topic? Rehearsing the same advice will not get you too far.
- Is there SEO potential, meaning, are people searching for this topic on YouTube?
- How long will it take you to produce the specific piece of content and what type of budget and tools do you need?
Once you have these things figured out, you can consider you have the majority of your content strategy built out, and you are ready to produce content.
Thumbnails & Titles Are The Key
Once you got your brand identity down, you will realize how it'll affect other things you are creating. That starts with YouTube thumbnails and titles, which will be the key to getting picked up by the YouTube algorithm.
And getting picked up by the YouTube algorithm is the fastest way of reaching the first 1,000 subscribers on your channel within 30 days.
Your thumbnails and titles should:
- Clearly define what your video is about.
- Be engaging, attractive, and intriguing.
- Be viewable and clear on mobile phones.
- Get you a good CTR (click-through rate).
Leverage Other Social Media Platforms
To grow your YouTube following and the necessary 1,000 subscribers for YPP, you do not need to rely on YouTube only.
Where is your audience hanging out? If you are starting a cooking channel, then repurposing your YouTube content for Instagram Reels and Tiktok might be a perfect way to get additional views and subscribers.
If you are reviewing financial or business tools, then creating a slideshow on LinkedIn with a link to your YouTube content is the way to go.
Do not be afraid to experiment.
Most of the time, leveraging other social media platforms is about repurposing the content you already created.
It's about leveraging all of the work you've done to find people who are interested in the type of content you are producing.
Leverage YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts is a short-form video format YouTube built to compete with Instagram and TikTok. And for you, it can be an incredible tool to get in front of a new audience more quickly.
YouTube Shorts are only meant to be up to 60 seconds long - meaning you likely do not need a ton of time invested in content production.
And given YouTube's latest policy going live on February 1st of 2023, you can enter YouTube's Partner Program by generating enough views on your YouTube Shorts.
You can substitute 4,000 watch hours on your long-form content, with 10 million Shorts views, and thus get into YPP sooner than you thought.
But that's not your main goal. Your main goal is getting those views and converting them to subscribers.
To make the best YouTube Shorts, make sure you follow our framework and in-depth guide.
Network With Other Creators
The best trick in the book is to leverage a platform and an audience someone else worked hard to build.
To do this effectively, you should:
- Join communities of other YouTube creators.
- Join communities of other creators within your niche. These don't have to be YouTube creators. Someone might've built a sizable following on Twitter or Instagram.
- Outreach to people with large audiences. Again, the goal is sincerity. You should lead with how you can help them, but if you don't have anything you can do for them, just asking them for help or thoughts about your content can go a long way.
With networking, you get as much as you put in. If you only focus on selfishly promoting your stuff to generate growth, you will find yourself an odd man out.
Instead, focus on what you can do for others first. Share other people's work, give them tips, templates, or anything that can help them.
It only takes one person with a large following to notice and share your work. Since they already have their audience's trust, this will immediately lead to subscriber growth on your channel.
Engage With People
When your audience is significantly lower, you can dedicate more time to each subscriber, viewer, and commentator.
That's not to say that as you grow you should forget that there are real people behind all of those views. But it's normal and within expectations that you can't engage with every person that watches your video.
To build an audience, people must feel like they are getting to know who you are.
Dedicate 30 minutes every day to go through comments and try to respond and let people know you are there.
This will improve your status in the YouTube algorithm (more engagement = more recommendations), and it will keep your existing audience returning to watch your content.
Hop On Trends
Tracking the latest trends can be a powerful thing. The latest trend is around AI and ChatGPT, which resulted in massive growth for many channels that hopped on that train.
When thinking about a specific trend, it's important to not compromise on your main niche. Just because something is popular and shiny doesn't mean you need to instantly jump on it. Think about your audience first.
Would your food enthusiasts want to watch and hear your opinions on AI?
It's also important not to solely focus on the trends even if the applications of the trend exist in your niche. Most trends are fads and they fizzle out over time because people lose interest.
If you are basing a large percentage (more than 20%) of your content production on the trends, you will find yourself in no-man's land fairly quickly.
To learn about current trends, you can use a website called Exploding Topics.
There's even a Pro membership that helps you discover dozens of high-potential trends every week before everyone else learns about them. This will give you an edge and allow you to produce content with an audience that is hungry to consume it.
Controversy & Clickbait = Fast Growth
Another fantastic piece of advice we can give to everyone who is trying to get to 1,000 subscribers quickly is to use controversy & clickbait.
The stipulation here is to use this moderately and intelligently; people are smart and accustomed to cheap clickbait that doesn't deliver.
If you do that and combine it with a controversial opinion, you are going to ruin your reputation, and destroy the chances of your channel growth.
To give you an example of how to do this in a smart way is to, again, track trends. In the example we gave above, everyone is talking about how powerful and cool ChatGPT is lately.
While ChatGPT is quite impressive, it has its own faults. Creating a video that goes against the opinions of everybody who are stunned by what ChatGPT can do and making one where you:
- Outline all of the faults of ChatGPT.
- Outline why AI can't replace humans.
A video like this is going to provide a refreshing take that goes against what the majority of people believe now.
Combining that with a powerful headline formula that generates interest and curiosity can get you a lot of views, and obviously those 1,000 subscribers you are aiming for.
Build a Content Series
One thing that we wanted to make a separate point from the "Content Strategy" we talked about above is the power of building content series.
Why are they so powerful? Content series will:
- Help you break down your content production process.
- Help you break down longer videos into shorter videos. Instead of having one 90-minute-long tutorial, you can have a series of six 15-minute videos. Users are more likely to watch a 15-minute video, than they are to watch an hour-long one, especially from a new creator.
- Tease and get people engaged. If you put out the most interesting video first, then people will be on their toes waiting for an update.
These content series can be about anything that is related to your niche.
Optimize Your SEO
Last but not least comes YouTube SEO. There's a whole science around SEO for YouTube videos. The reason we are putting this one in the last position is the nature of this optimization.
In order to gain the most subscribers as quickly as possible, you need strategies that emphasize quick growth.
And YouTube SEO is not that, unfortunately. Unless you hop on a trend and discover an exciting keyword most of your competition is not using, then YouTube SEO will be a slow burn.
That doesn't mean it shouldn't be leveraged. Contrary, it is a necessary part of your YouTube growth strategy. To do quality YouTube SEO, you should focus on:
- Optimizing video file name.
- Optimizing titles and descriptions
- Optimizing tags.
- Optimizing closed captions, cards, and end screens.
There are different levels to these "optimizations". For titles and descriptions, your focus is going to be on incorporating your content's main keyword, in a manner that also boosts engagement and intrigue.
For cards and end screens, your focus is on prolonging the time YouTube users stay on the platform, by recommending additional content they should see from your channel.
What You Should Avoid Doing
This guide would not be complete without mentioning the obvious - what you need to absolutely avoid when trying to get to the first 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel.
Buying Subscribers & Views
This is a piece of advice that every creator out there and every website out there will tell you. While the option of getting 1,000 subscribers overnight for $20 is definitely attractive, it is the wrong way to go about it.
YouTube has developed a great algorithm that tracks a range of metrics - and this algorithm helps YouTube detect channels breaking their TOS.
That can result, in the worst-case scenario, in the removal of your channel from the platform.
In the best-case scenario, you are getting 1,000 bot accounts that have no interest in who you are. Even if you fly under the radar and don't get caught - you are setting yourself up for failure in the long run.
It's a Marathon, Not A Sprint
For the majority of this guide, we've focused on showing you all of the ways to get to 1,000 YouTube subscribers within 30 days or less.
It was the premise and idea behind this content.
But to end this guide we want to emphasize that growth as a creator on YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint.
Employing the framework we built out may get you 10,000 subscribers in a couple of weeks - but it may as well get you less than 100. There are many factors that don't allow us to guarantee you the most rapid growth possible.
That's why it's important to emphasize taking things slowly and focusing on quality content creation, above all.
Create content you would like to consume as a user while employing the framework we've laid out for you. Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.
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