Every aspiring YouTuber aims to attract more subscribers and viewers to their content - but is there any trick to increase subscribers on YouTube? And what makes a YouTube video go viral, anyway?

Today you’ll learn how to get more YouTube subscribers with proven strategies and actionable steps to boost YouTube engagement and build a quality channel.

Key Points:

• How To Train The YouTube Algorithm

• YouTube Content Creation Tips

• How To Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers On YouTube

• Frequently Asked Questions

How To Train The YouTube Algorithm

Before we get into some strategies to get more YouTube views, it’s important to tackle the basics of YouTube growth strategies.

Here are a few actionable ways to master YouTube channel growth that are simple, straightforward, and actually work.

Quantity Over Quality

Yes, you read that right.

Quantity is more important than quality on YouTube, at least when you’re first starting out.

Most YouTube channel growth gurus will tell you to focus on the reverse, but quality over quantity only decreases your chances of creating the one video that will set your entire channel apart.

Think about it this way: if you spend hours focused on creating the perfect video and only upload once per month, that means you’re giving your channel 12 chances a year to reach the right audience.

On the other hand, if you focus on creating as many videos as possible at the beginning (posting 1-2 times per week) you’re giving yourself 52-104 chances per year to reach the right audience.

That’s almost 9 times more than if you posted once a month.

Be flexible about the type of content you’re posting at the beginning, and once you determine what works then you can hone in on improving the quality of your output.

Actionable Steps:

• Post 1-2 longform videos per week

• Post 3 YouTube Shorts a week

Learn From Your Competition

YouTube channel growth doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Learning from your competition is an easy and effective way to figure out what works for your niche - all you have to do is copy the formula!

Actionable Steps:

• Search up 5 of your favorite channels in your target niche.

• Make a note of the following:

• How do they package their brand identity?

• How long are their videos?

• How many topics within their niche do they post about?

• Where else do they post, and how frequently?

• What do their video descriptions look like?

Find Your Unique Angle

20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every day, which means your top priority is to be seen by as many viewers as possible and stand out enough to be chosen.

Now that you’ve researched the competition, it’s time to set yourself apart. 

Actionable Steps:

• Answer these questions:

• What unique traits do you have?

• What do you want to bring to your channel?

• How can you combine these two things?

Master YouTube SEO

YouTube is the internet’s second largest search engine after Google, which means that to grow a YouTube channel you need to be found within the search results.

How do you do that? By mastering YouTube SEO.

SEO, or search engine optimization, includes all the little signals within your YouTube channel and video that indicate to the algorithm what your video is about so that it can recommend it to users and have it appear in the proper search results.

Actionable Steps:

• Check out our free guide to YouTube SEO.

YouTube Content Creation Tips

So now that you’ve figured out what your channel should be focused on and how to ensure that your videos are appearing in the YouTube search results, it’s time to create great content.

On YouTube, great content is content that retains viewers.

That means it needs to be interesting enough to grab viewer attention early on and retain it throughout the duration of the video. It should also stand the test of time, so that even viewers a few years down the road will be interested in watching.

What Makes A YouTube Video Interesting?

You can determine whether or not your video ideas are interesting by reflecting on the topic and the format.

Your topic determines what the video is about.

Your format is how you structure the video.

That means if you’re posting a video on how to bake chocolate chip cookies, the topic is “how to bake chocolate chip cookies” but the format is “baking tutorial”.

To increase interest in video ideas that might seem simple or vague, change up the format.

That could mean keeping the topic of “how to bake chocolate chip cookies”, but changing the format to a “30 day challenge” which could result in a video like Baking A Different Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Every Day For 30 Days. 

Already this is unique and more likely to capture viewer interest.

What makes a video uninteresting?

• The topic is not novel or unique (so it needs an interesting format)

• Bad timing on an update or trend (jump on trends early on)

• Low supply/demand (make sure it’s something people actually care about)

Actionable Steps:

• Set a timer for 5 minutes and create a list of 30 video ideas.

• For each idea, figure out a way to change the format and make it more unique and interesting.

• Narrow down your list to the top 10 ideas.

Package Your Content To Grab Attention

YouTube SEO tackles things like your video title and description, but grabbing attention is less about the algorithm and more about the viewer.

That means ensuring your channel has a consistent overall aesthetic that shines through on each video within the thumbnail, title, and content itself.

You should also be reflecting on your YouTube analytics to see where viewer attention drops off, so that you can eliminate friction points and improve overall retention.

Actionable Steps:

• Check out our free YouTube analytics guide.

• Look at the retention graph of your latest video.

• Where does retention drop off?

• Can you change something about this in your next video?

• Make note of the videos that are bringing in the most traffic.

• Can you make more videos on this topic?

• Make note of any evergreen content you can make in your niche.

Focus On Video Length

While YouTube Shorts are a great way to maximize your reach, you should also be creating quality longform content.

Videos that are at least 10 minutes long tend to perform better on YouTube, but depending on your topic the longer the video the better the results.

Actionable Steps:

• Make your next video at least 10 minutes long.

• Aim for these stats:

• 60% average view duration

• 6% click through rate

How To Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers On YouTube

Hopefully you’ve followed along with the actionable steps listed above and are now a master of YouTube SEO and content creation.

Now it’s time to focus on the ultimate goal - here are a few actionable ways to increase YouTube subscribers.

Create Playlists & End Cards

Engaged viewers turn into subscribers, so make sure that your videos keep viewers in a viewing loop within your own channel.

That means adding end cards or links to similar videos within your description, and creating playlists of similar content on your channel.

The more viewers keep watching your videos, the more likely they are to end up subscribing.

Actionable Steps:

• Add an end card and at least one similar video link to your latest video.

• Create a playlist of similar videos on your channel.

Build A Strong Community

One of the biggest converters of viewers to subscribers is having a sense of community on your channel.

This means acknowledging your subscribers within your video content, taking content suggestions, responding to comments, and posting regularly in the Community tab.

You can also host giveaways or create community interactions off-platform, like with a Patreon or Discord server.

Actionable Steps:

• Like or respond to as many comments on your latest YouTube video.

• Post once per week in the Community tab:

• Ask for video ideas

• Create a poll

• Thank your viewers

• Share behind the scenes updates

• Create a community off of YouTube (i.e Discord, Patreon, WhatsApp)

Promote Your YouTube Channel

YouTube may be the second largest search engine, but much of the traffic on YouTube comes from outside the platform.

Because of this, it’s important to get familiar with cross-platform posting early on.

That means sharing your latest YouTube video on your Instagram or Facebook page, repurposing longform content into short TikToks, and sharing videos with friends and family.

Actionable Steps:

• Check out our free guide to YouTube traffic sources.

• Post your latest video on your other social profiles.

• Turn one longform video into a short and post it on:

• YouTube Shorts

• Instagram Reels

• Facebook Reels

• TikTok

How To Reach The 1,000 Subscriber Milestone

Having 1,000 subscribers is a requirement for the YouTube Partner Program, which means you need at least 1,000 subs to start monetizing your content.

If you’ve followed all of the actionable YouTube subscriber tips outlined above in this guide, you’ll definitely start seeing an increase in subscribers. 

However, if you’re in a hurry and want to know how to get more YouTube subscribers fast, you can buy subscribers backed by real, active YouTube users from QQTube in less than five minutes. 

Frequently Asked Questions