How to Get 1000 Subscribers on YouTube Quickly? Step By Step

February 21, 2021

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With more and more people wanting to be famous and make money from YouTube videos, creating a unique channel that generates much traffic, views and subscribers can be challenging.

If you wonder how a small channel could quickly increase its reach and build its audience, you have to understand that gaining 1,000 subscribers from 0 requires a lot of patience and research. Gaining many views is one thing, but how can you get your viewers to subscribe?

This detailed article answers all your questions and shares best practices you can follow to get your 1000 subscriber quickly.

Before you begin your YouTube journey

Who is a YouTube subscriber?

A YouTube subscriber is a user who chooses to view your videos and click on subscribe button. This means he/she are willing to view more videos from your channel in the future.

Does subscriber count matter on YouTube?

Yes, of course. The more number of subscribers your channel has more views you get. Also, brands looking for promotion will contact you based on a number of subscribers you have.

YouTube subscribers and watch time

No of subscribers are the number of people who have subscribed to your channel. The total watch time is the number of minutes/hours of video views on your channel.

What are YouTube subscriber milestones?

When you are just starting with your channel look to get 1000 subscribers first, followed by 100,000 and then 1 Million.

First Milestone: From Zero to 1000 Subscribers on YouTube

What happens when you get 1,000 subscribers on YouTube?

Everyone YouTuber starts with zero views and zero subscribers. The challenge is to get to 1,000 subscribers as fast as you possibly can so that you can get closer to being eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. To start earning ad money from YouTube you will need to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of video watch time on your channel in last one year.

Getting to 1000 subscriber quickly requires patience and best practices. Let’s start with setting up your channel the right way.

Setting up your channel correctly

Channel Description

Channel description is an integral part of your channel. Many YouTubers don’t fully utilize their channel description. The importance of description lies in how it can help your video become algorithm-friendly. Keep in mind that YouTube is a search engine for videos. When people search queries, YouTube looks for keywords from your channel and videos and ranks them in the search results.

If you optimize your descriptions, your videos will likely appear in the search results, which compel viewers to click through. And if your videos are engaging, entertaining, and helpful, visitors will probably subscribe to your channel. All these activities contribute to the success of your channel.

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To create your channel description, go to:

Settings > Channel > Customize Channel >Basic Info > Edit

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Here are the things to do to optimize your channel description:

1.Emphasize the benefits of watching your YouTube videos.

When you describe the benefits of subscribing to your YouTube channel, be as brief and specific as possible. Try avoiding unclear statements.

Example:

NO: “Here are ideas about business and how to grow it.”

YES: My videos help small businesses learn how to grow their business.

It not only sounds so much better, but it’s also clear and concise. Viewers will immediately know your channel’s purpose and how they can benefit from it. Your channel will likely attract people that belong in your category.

2.Focus on the first 120 characters.

State the most crucial information in the first 120 characters. The first 120 characters are displayed in the search, so optimizing it is vital for your channel. Be concise and straight to the point. It’s good for the audience and good for the YouTube algorithm.

3.Include keywords that your viewers will search.

Keywords drive YouTube’s search results. Depending on your category, you must find the best keywords that truly represent your business or brand. If you want to get some ideas about what keywords to use for your niche, use the YouTube suggest feature. Type in a search keyword or phrase in the search field and review the results. YouTube will auto-complete the suggestion. It is a powerful feature because you can pre-empt what people are searching.

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4.Announce the types of videos you publish on your YouTube channel.

Another thing you can do to make sure that your YouTube channel description stands out is to mention the types of videos you publish. Let the potential subscribers know what types of videos you’re making: how-to videos, product reviews, educational guides, tech reviews, interviews, podcast, etc. Make sure to mention all that applies to your YouTube channel description.

5.Add your channel’s upload schedule.

Your upload schedule is among the most effective ways to keep your viewers coming back to your channel, along with the video types. You can add a short note that you’re uploading videos on a specific day and time to let your subscribers or viewers know when they should be expecting your new videos.

6.Don’t forget your call-to-action.

Your channel description will perform well if you tell your audience what to do next. The next action you recommend is whatever is most important to you.

For instance, ask them to like the video, leave a comment, share the video on social media, sign up for the email list or visit your website.

Example:

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Channel Art

Your YouTube channel should reflect your business or brand. You must create banner art that aligns with your brand. The banner art is the primary image across the top of your YouTube channel, and the first thing people see when they visit your channel.

Channel art dimensions are 2560 by 1440 pixels.

Your channel art will look different across devices. You can preview how your channel art would look like on desktop, mobile phones, tablets so you can make adjustments if necessary.

Include your channel name, logo, icon, social media links, and a call to action (subscribe).

Personal brands and vlogs include a “creator shot” or your image.

Example:

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Enhancing Discoverability

Businesses and brands understand the importance of getting their website and content to show up on the search results’ first page. Getting to the first page means the difference between moderate or massive success.

Google is the number one search engine, but very few people know the second largest search engine? Can you guess? 

Is it Bing? Is it Yahoo?

No, it’s YouTube. People forget that YouTube is essentially a search engine. This search capability presents a massive opportunity for you to get discovered.

When someone searches for something relevant to your channel on YouTube’s search bar, you want your video to show up in the first few results. If one of your videos shows up high on the list of recommended videos, then you can get views and subscribers whether you post new content or not.

Let’s take a few ways to enhance your videos, so they rank higher in search results. We’re talking about video SEO (search engine optimisation), which refers to optimising your videos to make them generate interest not only with your current subscribers but also with YouTube’s search engine. When you utilise SEO, you make it easier for the search engine to know if that video is relevant to viewers’ searches.

The three most important aspects of video SEO for YouTube are your title, description, and the tags you add to your video. Get this right, and your videos will start climbing the ranks.

 Video Title

Your title is your chance to make an excellent first impression. It is the first thing people see before deciding which videos to watch. They will determine if your video is worth their time based on the title. If they find that your title matches exactly what they are looking for, then your video will surely get a click.

There’s no magic formula that guarantees a click-worthy title, but there are ways to make your titles stand out.

Use ten words or less. Be to the point.
Include numbers if you are making a video listicle (e.g. 8 Tips to grow your business )
Include the specific benefit of your video.
Add the keyword or phrase in the title.

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Video Description

It would be best if you optimized your video description.

The YouTube algorithm will factor in the description in the ranking. If you write your description with search engine optimization in mind, your video will have a better chance of being discovered.

Follow these simple rules of thumb:
It should be at least 150 words.
Include the target keywords
Focus on the first two sentences. Only the first two sentences will appear below your video; the rest of the description will only appear when viewers click on “Show More”.
Include your call-to-action pitch if you ask people to sign up or join.

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Video Tags

Tags help in increasing your video’s discoverability and rankability. To figure out what tags to use, you must do keyword research. Without tags, YouTube will not be able to categorize your videos. Your video will most likely not appear in the search results if this happens.

YouTube sets the limit at 500 characters for tags, so choose them wisely. Make sure to include the following:
Specific Tags — These tags are keywords or terms that people type in the search box. While doing your keyword research, you must think about the topic (e.g. marketing ideas for small businesses )
Contextual Tags – These are keywords that describe your general category of interest (e.g. marketing, small business, sales ).
General Tags — These are general keywords that describe your video (Tips, ideas, list).

Thumbnails

Thumbnail is one of the first two things that people see on YouTube (the other being the title). They both represent your video’s content, so it must be accurate.

According to YouTube, 90% of the platform’s best-performing videos use custom thumbnails with vibrant colours, images, and text that draw attention.

Create thumbnails that are appropriate for the general audience to maximize your video’s potential reach. For monetization, create advertiser-friendly (family-friendly) thumbnails. It means no sexually suggestive, offensive, or repulsive images. Always consult the Community Guidelines to ensure you’re not violating thumbnail policies.

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Make Videos That People Want

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Discovery starts with figuring out what people are searching for. To enhance your video discoverability, ask yourself what the top ten to twenty questions, your target audience might be searching for on YouTube.

One effective way of doing this is by using the YouTube search bar itself. If you’ve been using YouTube for long, you may have noticed that when you start typing something into the YouTube search bar, it provides a list of pop-up predictions underneath your search.

To take advantage of this feature, figure out what your target audience is searching for by looking at the search bar predictions and create content that addresses those topics, questions, or inquiries in a relevant way.

Do not too many topics in a video. Rather than making a video about ten different breakfast recipes, make ten other videos, each one focused on one specific recipe.

Often, content creators go too broad. You’ll get far better results by creating narrowly focused videos to address specific questions that your audience is asking.

Your goal is to discover what those searchable video ideas are and create quality, strategic content around those terms.

Another way to improve discoverability is to look into suggested videos. When you invest the time in making sure your SEO details are accurate, specific, relevant, and honest, YouTube will reward you by sharing your content in their suggested list of videos.

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YouTube also provides viewers with a list of recommended videos that they believe the individual viewer will be interested in watching. They base this list on each viewer’s watch and search history. The videos listed here aren’t necessarily from channels they have subscribed to, making it another excellent opportunity to discover. Again, you optimise this opportunity by ensuring your description and tags address specific questions or terms that people are searching for. Use the right search term; get your SEO right, and the YouTube algorithm will regularly recommend your content to new viewers.

Optimise Content Before You Create

To incorporate discoverability into your overall video strategy, first research your video ideas to determine widespread interest. You can use the YouTube search Or Google Keyword Planner for this. This tool shows you how many people per month search for various topics and reveals common keywords and phrases for each specific niche.

As you can imagine, this information is robust because it gives you real data about how popular your video idea is. Use this to help you develop new video ideas you might not have considered or tweak your existing ideas to better suit what people want to see.

A huge mistake is recording videos and optimising them afterwards. You should reverse that order. Strategically plan the optimisation of your video before you press record. That way, you’ll be able to create the most relevant content possible for that exact search term.

Google and YouTube want to serve their users the best possible content for their inquiries, so the more aligned your content becomes with those answers, the higher your content will rank.

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This focus on video SEO needs to happen from day one before you have a single subscriber. SEO should be a priority from the moment you begin planning your channel. If you build it into your channel’s foundation, you will generate more traffic long-term. A well-designed video with a focus on SEO will continue to get recommended long after you forgot about it.

Focus on the content: It’s a key to your success

Practice makes progress. As you begin to incorporate video SEO into your content, you’ll get better and better. However, the best video SEO in the world won’t do any good if your content isn’t good. Valuable and engaging content combined with SEO can’t be beaten.

If you want to succeed on YouTube, you’ve to focus on making great content.

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To YouTube’s credit, the platform gives creators a lot of great tools to make content creation much easier to manage. However, there are some fundamental things that you need to do as a content creator to succeed on YouTube.

Like every content creator on YouTube, you want to have more views and visibility for your YouTube videos. Understanding the algorithm and having great tactics and strategies will help.

Learn the ins and outs of YouTube. Be a student of YouTube and learn the best practices. Familiarize yourself with the guidelines to not get demonetized or penalized. Violations can lead to YouTube removing videos that you’ve worked so hard to create. Be aware of announcements and changes in the policies always to make adjustments.
Look for patterns. Study other creators’ videos and channels that are in the same category. Identify their top-performing videos and figure out what they’re doing right.
Analyze their titles, thumbnails, description, and tags. Study their videos and examine their approach to editing. Please take note of how they are engaging their viewers. Identify what works and apply them to your videos to improve your content.

Promote Your YouTube Channel

After creating your video and putting together a thumbnail and all the metadata required, you need to get people to come and watch your video. If you let YouTube promote you, your video could appear in your subscribers’ feed and notifications. Still, the system does not always work in your favour when your videos are not optimized to be algorithm-friendly.

With that said, you can’t rely solely on YouTube’s algorithm to get your videos in front of people or position those videos in the suggested list for non-subscribers to see.

Leaving it to chance is not the best strategy to get the maximum publicity and promotion for your videos.

It would help if you had a strategy for distributing and promoting your content. Follow these steps, and you’ll maximize the publicity for your YouTube content.

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Share your video content on social media platforms within the first 24 hours of publishing on YouTube.

It does not matter if you use Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram or Pinterest; time is of the essence. The first 24 hours is critical because the more views your video gets in that period, the better it will perform on YouTube’s search and subscription feed. Think of it as YouTube rewarding you to create new content and bring in massive traffic to the platform through social media promotion.

YouTube’s algorithm is very interested in how your video performs the moment it goes live. It considers the views per hour or video velocity while selecting videos to recommend. If your video gets some traction in the first 24 hours, it gets a boost from the algorithm.

Your video will perform better if you go all out on social media as soon as you upload the video. So do as much promotion as you can within that 24-hour window. You can potentially have evergreen video content if you get in the good graces of YouTube’s algorithm.

Plan out how you are going to share the content.

You must have a social media calendar that includes the day’s optimal time to post and promote your videos. If you’re promoting a single video, you might as well upgrade the playlist in which the video is included.

So if viewers watch one video and enjoy it, it’s going to auto-play to the next video in your playlist. You’re going to be piling up the session watch time, which benefits your channel.

When sharing your videos on different social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, you have to weigh the pros and cons of how you share your content. For example, if you post a YouTube link on Twitter, it gives the user the option to play the video natively within the Twitter platform. However, if you publish a link and include a thumbnail, it means the user has to click on the link to go to the YouTube page.

A thumbnail is a lot more visual, and it’s likely to get people’s attention more than just a YouTube link. If people are using the Twitter app on a mobile device, you can’t play the YouTube link within Twitter anyway. About 80 per cent of Twitter users are on mobile, so you would want to target your content mostly to mobile users.

Ask your subscribers and viewers to help share your content.

This is a crucial call-to-action that is easy for viewers to do, especially if they like your content and find it share-worthy. Loyal followers in your channel will likely share the YouTube link on their social media.

If you follow the above advice I am sure you will get to 1000 subscribers milestone quickly.

Second Milestone: From 1000 to 100,000 subscribers on YouTube [work in progress]

Before you go you may want to read our article about Facebook Ads: a complete Guide