Everyone wants to grow their influence on YouTube. There may be different reasons as to why they’d like to increase their reach, but we’re still looking to do so. At any rate, I’ve compiled a list of 20 tips to grow your following on YouTube and I hope you’ll take them to heart! Check them out!
If you haven’t checked out the other posts in the YouTube Tips and Tricks Series, check them out here:
Setting Up Your YouTube Channel – A Step By Step Guide
Growing A Following On YouTube
How To Create Videos That Get Shared
- 1. Keep your channel name and the domain name easy to read and as short as possible. You can use initial caps to keep words separated such as “www.MySiteServices.com” or my site http://RossomeMarketing.com. This is easier to read and makes thе words stand out better. Try to have a URL that is short so people remember it. You don’t want something long and complex that people can’t type or spell
- 2. If the topic is complex make a chapter or a part. Break it down into small easy to digest components that your viewers will be able to absorb with ease. Make sure your series has consistency and some cohesion. You want to begin each one of your episodes the same way. Talk about the different topics but have the same beginning.
- 3. Make sure you share your playlists, along with individual videos. Copy the URL and share it on your social network like Facebook or Twitter.
- 4. Record Google+ Hangouts. Share these on YouTube just ask the participants first if it’s ok with them.
- 5. Display the “Featured” Channels. If you know someone that makes videos that has more visibility than you should display these as one of your featured channels. You will get a small percentage of their audience in return plus it adds more content to your video section, just make sure the videos are like your content to add value for the user.
- 6. You want credits or music to be short. Make this about 5 seconds or less as this is recommended by YouTube. Large intros may help your brand and consistency but they don’t hook viewers on your content.
- 7. Use some “call to action” images in videos. Use speech balloons or annotate them with spotlights. Get people to subscribe to your channel.
Remember: Images pack a better punch than words and are easier to understand!
- 8. Make sure your topic is very clear. Make sure you viewers know what is going on. Don’t leave them confused as to what your video is about.
- 9. Be sure to edit your videos. I love ScreenFlow on a mac, but even with only windows movie maker, you can:
• Cut out the rambling talk
• Condense essentials of your storyline
• Use special effects (don’t use to many)
• Add hot spots or links
• Insert a soundtrack if you feel this is essential to your video
• Add credits or short music intros.
Be sure to watch your videos several times. Make sure you stop it at various intervals and look at is again. Make sure all the shots in the video get your point across in the right way.
You need to check for distractions in your videos and remove these. It might mean that you need to re-shoot the video or cut the clip to match your preferences. Anything that annoys you just might annoy your audience so make the best videos that you can and look at everything in the video.
Make the video entertaining, dynamic and clear. You don’t need top of the line equipment or professional editors to do this with.
- 10. Lighting is important. There’s no need for a full Hollywood setup here such as Solar spot Fresnel luminaries or HMI globes but you need to look for things like:
• The level of your lighting
• Where direct light or the shadow falls
• That your video is bright enough for people to see the video and understand it
Remember: If the lighting is poor then the video looks amateurish and blurry and you’ll lose the interest of the viewer.
- 11. Each video should have a call to action to ask viewers to subscribe to your channel. You need this no matter what. (Go here to subscribe to mine!)
Make sure you give people a reason why they should subscribe. Your helpful or entertaining video must fulfill some sort of purpose for the viewer. This can be:
• A promise of “additional ways to…”
• Further parts in a series – make them want to view because they might miss something
• An episode that continues
• Your personality (this can work for some!)
• Your call to action connects emotionally with viewers
• The repeating of a message in the description and at other points in your video
• Displaying additional videos in a series or similar ones that they’ll want to click and view them
- 12. Don’t try to bribe your viewers at any time. Don’t say things like “the first 10 will get x” and so on. This doesn’t work and it’s a major no-no with YouTube. In fact, if you put up incentives like this you’re violating the terms of service and your channel and account could get shut down quickly. Yikes!
- 13. Use a specific strategy to promote your videos as well as the channel. Make this a part of your overall business plan to get views and a following.
- 14. Promote and include videos from fellow experts in a niche. This keeps your channel active with good content. Create a playlist and promote this.
Make offerings come in on a consistent basis. You want to keep people interest in your video links but don’t create so many that you overwhelm people with them. You want people interested in your links but not offended by them. Keep a good pace with your videos and you’ll harness the power of the site.
- 15. Make powerful titles. This need not be clever you just want to make the viewer:.
• Excited about your content
• Curious about what you offer
• Wanting to see more of your content
• Pick yours over many other similar videos
Elements such as Title are important, when it comes to having an influence over people viewing your videos.
Your powerful title…
• Should be less than 66 characters long
• Has keyword optimization
• Has the word “video.” People type the word “video” along with whatever they are looking for such as Justin Bieber video” or “how to bake video” and so on.
Show people what type of video they are viewing. Use keywords such as:
• How to
• Tutorial
• Introduction to
• Review
• Training
• B2B or business to business
- 16. Spend time looking at the titles of other YouTube videos. Study titles and thin k about which ones you like. See if there’s anything that stand out in them and seems common to you. Note the viewer count. A figure in low thousands should be your first interest. What is a common for these Titles? Look at the ugly titles as well. Which ones only have a few viewers? Look for things that are common in the titles.
- 17. Make use YouTube’s search algorithms. You want people to see your videos first in searches. Videos are shown in the search based upon some factors such as:
• The keywords
• The related videos the more you have the better this will be so create a series
• The potential for ads for YouTube
• If you have monetized your video or not
• The promotion that is actively going on with your video
• The keywords again, this is important.
- 18. Monetizing your video. An Adwords campaign can help you get a strong launch with YouTube. This is true if you’re new to the niche you are in and a nobody. If you monetize make sure::
• There’s no resistance to ads in your niche
• You have a video that’s worth promoting
• You’ve got the traffic coming to your video to actually make more than a few pennies a month!
- 19. Those that search YouTube learn visually. . Show in your videos and don’t tell. Show in the first screen of the video what the person is going to learn or get from the video.
- 20. It’s about the viewer – it’s not about you at all. Provide entertainment, information, solve a problem, fill a gap, and so on with your videos. Make sure you put the viewer first all the time.
Make videos that your viewers are going to want. Use these tips and you’ll increase your overall YouTube video rank and get more subscribers. It really is that simple.
Got any tips to share with the readers?
