How To Get More YouTube Subscribers: 12 Secrets Followed By Top YouTubers

Competing with 15 million active content creators on YouTube and building your subscriber base from scratch is daunting, no matter how good your content is. However, with the right planning and tactics, nothing is impossible. 

As a quick fix, you can buy YouTube subscribers with PayPal, but creating content that adds value to your viewer’s life is the ultimate way to get them hooked and subscribed to your channel. For that, your content needs to reach the right audience first. 

Today we will discuss actionable strategies that many big YouTubers use to attract viewers to their channels and convert them into supporting subscribers. 

Stay tuned till the end!

12 Actionable Steps To Get More YouTube Subscribers 

Simply asking your viewers to “like and subscribe to your channel” might not always work if you wish to grow thousands of subscribers. Hence, these tried-and-tested steps will help persuade your audience to subscribe to your channel. 

1.Set A Theme To Create An Identity 

Setting a theme for your channel is extremely important as it helps viewers identify what they can expect from you. Making a tutorial one day and a daily vlog the next can confuse your audience. This can lead to them losing interest altogether. 

For example, the page shown in the picture above has a very clear theme. They create ambient music and have over 900+ videos on this theme. 

When you stick to one theme and focus on making content around that, it helps you gain authority over that subject, and your name becomes synonymous with that genre. For example, Mr Beast (the biggest YouTuber in the world with 144M+ subscribers on his main channel only) also follows this rule and has created separate channels for the different genres he wants to target. 

Apart from his main channel (Mr Beast) for gaming, he has “MrBeast Gaming”, “Beast Philanthropy”, for philanthropy, “Beast Reacts” for reaction videos, and so forth. 

2. Optimize Your Channel

You need to appear on new people’s feeds to gain new subscribers. YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, and like with Google, there are some tricks you can follow to make your content well-optimized. 

There is more than one element in your channel that can help you become easily discoverable, such as the thumbnails, meta descriptions, meta tags, channel banners, etc. Let’s discuss how to optimize each one by one. 

• Video Titles:
  Before giving titles to your videos, conduct thorough research on the search phrases people might be using to view the content you have uploaded. If you successfully use those phrases, your videos are more likely to appear on their search list. 
  There are free tools like TubeBuddy to conduct research on trending topics. Take their help and select keywords that are relevant to your niche. 
• Thumbnails:
  Thumbnails play a crucial role in attracting new viewers and retaining them. They are a part of the user experience and should not be taken lightly. Instead of just stuffing the keywords on the thumbnail, you should design it in a way that gives a gist of the video. 
  For example, the thumbnail below is easy to understand, and without even seeing the title, one can guess its context. 
  
  On the other hand, below is an example of a poorly optimized thumbnail. Without seeing the title, you cannot guess that it is about “Top 10 thin & light Laptops.”
  
  Thumbnails greatly influence the first impression; therefore, avoid keeping them plain. Instead, use Canva to make them and use custom thumbnails to make them more optimized and user-friendly. 
• Meta Description:
  A meta description is a text that is highlighted in the image below. It helps the viewer to get an insight into the content you have covered in your video. However, you can also use it to optimize your content. 
  
  You can use keywords in this section so the YouTube algorithm can identify it as highly relevant to viewers’ searches. For example, I searched for “how to set custom thumbnails.” and this video was one of the results. 
  You can see that the creator used a similar keyword in their meta description, which helped it cut competition and make it to the top search results. 

3. Create Content That Adds Value To The Subscribers

It is impossible to convince a viewer to convert to a subscriber unless they see some value in your content. That value can be entertainment, education, news, or anything. 

People subscribe to your channel to get updates on your latest content; therefore, if they are not looking forward to your videos, they will not subscribe. 

If entertainment is not your genre, then try making content that solves the problem of your target audience. To increase retention, you can break a big topic into smaller sub-topics and make a playlist of those videos. 

And ensure that at the end of your video, you give a teaser to your next video; this way, your viewers will know what to expect and will be more likely to subscribe to your channel. 

4. Do Keyword Research To Find What’s Hot & What’s Not

Again, if your niche is something other than entertainment, you can conduct keyword research to find the latest queries and develop content ideas from there. 

Let’s say your niche is fitness; simply go to YouTube’s search bar and type the keyword exercise. You can see there are multiple relevant searches relevant to this keyword. This suggests that people are searching these topics around that keyword. 

You can also use long tail keywords to find more niche-down searches and make videos on those topics. If you are creating your channel from scratch, this is a great point to start. 

If you want more detailed information, such as search volume, trending keywords, etc., you can get help from plenty of keyword research tools. Ahrefs’ YT keyword tool is a popular choice among them. 

Pro Tip: Do not neglect the keywords with low search volume. Remember that the higher the keyword search volume, the more competition it has. Besides, you will need video topics in the pipeline to be consistent. So to build authority around your niche, try to cover as many keywords as possible.  

5. Make Your Content Visually Appealing

With 5G and high-resolution screens, there is no room for content with mediocre picture quality. Even if your content is supreme, but your video quality is not upto the mark, you will fail at retaining your audience. 

Therefore, you need to improve your production quality over time. Even if you are start video blog and making daily vlogs, you must ensure that your video quality, lighting, sound, and editing are above par. 

However, apart from these technical aspects, the underlying aspects that can enhance the content quality are your communication skills. How well scripted your content is, how good the diction is, and how much energy you put in also matter. 

All these technical and non-technical aspects combined make the perfect piece of content that is valuable and, at the same time, appealing to the audience. 

6. Use A Content Calendar To Be Consistent 

You cannot expect to post a few videos and hope they will go viral and make you an overnight sensation. The best way to gain subscribers on YouTube is by staying consistent with your video uploads. 

Millions of active content creators upload good-quality content regularly. So, the only way to make a place in that crowd is by being consistent. 

You can start by posting once a week and eventually increase it depending on your production capabilities. However, maintaining a content calendar is the best way to stay consistent with your uploads. The more frequently you post, the more often your viewers see you, which puts them in a habit. 

Before you launch your channel, try to stock and schedule your videos. So when your channel goes live, it will have momentum, and you will have content you can analyze to understand your audience’s preferences. 

Q: How often should you post on YouTube?

You can post anywhere between once a month to thrice a week; just ensure your audience knows when to expect the next video. But posting multiple times a week is proven to bring positive results for new channels. 

7. Turn Your Long Videos Into Shorts For Better Reach

YouTube Shorts are 15 to 60-second-long videos similar to TikTok or IG reels. They are becoming increasingly popular and can be a great tool to bring traffic to your channel. 

Take out highlights from your long videos and make YT Shorts. The best part, you can monetize them as well. So not only will you be using them as a marketing tool, but you will also diversify your income.  

8. Create Content That Will Be Relevant For a Long Time 

Creating evergreen content is the key to gaining subscribers in the longer run. Making videos on current affairs can get you more views, but focus on creating videos that will be relevant even after five years. 

For example, “how to do sit-ups” is a topic that will be relevant for decades, whereas “top 10 smartphones in 2023” is a topic that might not interest people after a year. 

So study your niche and try to cover as many tutorial videos as possible since they will give you long-term relevancy without needing to update the content. 

9. Engage With Your Audience To Make Them Feel Valued

Engage with your audience as much as you can and try to build a connection with them. Numerous YouTubers have millions of followers just because they were able to build a community. 

If you do daily vlogging or have a gaming channel, it becomes easier. Still, you can build a community irrespective of what genre you follow. Here are some tips for building a rapport with your viewers. 

• Encourage them to put their questions/ opinions in the comments.
• Give prompt replies to their comments, whether they are positive or negative. 
• Host question and answer sessions. This is also a great way to promote your other social handles in one go. 
• Ask your viewers what they want to see next. 

 

10. Buy YouTube Subscribers To Add Authority 

While all these tips are proven to work for the majority, they are not guaranteed to work. Especially when you barely have any subscribers on your channel. Along with that, often, you will find people judge someone’s credibility based on the number of subscribers they have. 

Therefore, instead of starting from zero, you can buy youtube subscribers with Paypal and kickstart your channel. But ensure you only buy from trusted sellers like XXX. You can also buy YouTube short views, likes, and other metrics besides YouTube subscribers. 

11. Run Contest 

It is one of the oldest ways to increase any metric, be it subscribers, likes, or comments. Create contests and giveaways that encourage your viewers to subscribe to you. 

Add clauses like, “To be part of this contest, you have to be my subscriber,” or to boost visibility, you can ask them to tag their friends in the comment section. 

12. Collaborate With Fellow Creators 

If you have connections with well-established YouTubers, you can ask them for collaboration videos or shoutouts. This works great if you two have complementary content and a like-minded audience. 

You Are All Set to Be the Next Big Name On YouTube

If you’re starting by implementing just three tips out of the twelve, pick quality, optimization, and consistency. Create content that your viewers will look forward to and keep delivering that. 

Once you get a substantial number of subscribers, try running contests or collaborating with other creators. If you religiously follow these tips, nothing can come between you and that silver play button. So buckle up and start hustling!