10 Ways To Grow Your YouTube Channel

Growing your YouTube channel can be challenging, especially if you’re starting out small. With so many videos and viewers to compete with, it can be tough to stand out in the crowd. Here are 10 simple ways to grow your YouTube channel and make the most of your efforts as an independent creator or business owner looking to advertise on YouTube.

1) Define your goals

When you begin a youtube channel, it’s important to define your goals. These can be both long-term and short-term and should change as your channel matures, so be sure to stay flexible with them. When you know where you want to go, it becomes easier to start planning how you will get there! Before we move on to tips for growing your youtube channel, let’s take a moment to talk about why we have started youtube in the first place.

2) Make Youtube Shorts

While you can focus on making longer videos, don’t overlook your YouTube channel’s short-form video capabilities. Recent research has shown that viewers are more likely to watch a short-form (1 minute) than a long one (4+ minutes). So, make use of these features—not only do they help to improve view counts but, according to Google, they also help your channel rank higher in search results.

As youtube is giving them high reach so it is the best way for you to grow your youtube channel by making shorts.

3) Provide Quality

One of my favorite axioms is, Quantity does not equal quality. (It’s from Popcorn, by Peter Bowerman.) What that means for you is that it’s possible to produce a large amount of content and yet have very little quality. If you want to grow your channel, focus on providing only quality content—videos that offer true value. This means examining your channel and asking yourself what it offers people in order to decide whether or not it's worth watching.

4) Do Keyword Research

The first thing you should do before you start growing your YouTube channel is keyword research. Do keyword research to find out what keywords and topics are related to your video, but aren’t too competitive. You want a keyword that has low competition and can help to rank your video for it. This ensures that you will be found by those who are interested in your content. Also, make sure that it aligns with your brand and is valuable for viewers as well! Don't Be Afraid of SEO: Keywords play an important role when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). It helps people discover your videos, so when uploading one, always include at least one keyword.

5) Use Eye-Catching Thumbnail

Use a very good thumbnail for your videos that attract the viewer to click your video. Make sure you use interesting thumbnails that stand out. I’ve noticed YouTube is pretty good at suggesting new thumbnails to viewers so make sure your thumbnail is related to what they’re watching or what they might want to see next.

6) Engage Your Audience

Whether you’re recording a comedy sketch, video game walkthrough, or cooking show, it can be tempting to forget that your YouTube channel has an audience. But just like any good relationship, building a community around your videos is key to seeing continued growth and success. So put yourself in front of your viewers and get them involved by encouraging them to subscribe and join in on the conversation. Create polls for viewers to weigh in on upcoming topics and share photos or clips from behind the scenes.

7) Be Consistent

One of the most important things you can do is to make sure you’re uploading regularly. You don’t have to upload every day, but putting out a video once a week or even once every two weeks will help keep people interested and coming back for more. This requires setting a schedule for yourself and holding yourself accountable to it; if you find that you have trouble with consistency, tools like Loom can be a huge help by making scheduling less painful.

8) Use Trending Topics

One of my favorite ways to grow a YouTube channel is to use trending topics. Some people just make videos on hot topics, but if you’re not particularly comfortable with that, or are really looking for guaranteed views, look at it in another way: use trending topics to find video ideas. The audience may be small at first, but once you start building an audience and providing quality content, they will follow along. This is a great way to get started with your YouTube channel.

9) Share on Social Media

YouTube is social by design. Share your videos with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Don’t forget to tag your videos so they show up in relevant searches too! For example: [title of video] [your channel name]. Also, join other niche communities on social media (Pinterest, Instagram) to engage with followers who might enjoy your content.

10) Make proper Playlists

When uploading a video to YouTube, you’re given a chance to include it in a few different playlists. If you have several videos on related topics or themes, it makes sense to include them all in one playlist—then users will get a variety of content from you with just one click.

Conclusion

If you want to grow your YouTube channel, there’s no better time than now to start. Are you already putting some of these strategies into place? Let us know what’s working for you and share any tips or suggestions in the comments section below!