Getting into this, YouTube is a large scale video sharing website that has become the biggest video sharing platform ever. Many people upload on YouTube and think they can become famous super quick, that is very wrong. In this tutorial, I will try and help you and give you the most advice I can on how to GROW your channel. This thread will constantly be updated with the best legit ways to grow your channel.

If you want to grow your channel, be sure to read all of these tips and take them into consideration when making videos.

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1. Find your Niche

If you have decided you want to make YouTube videos, make sure to find your niche, meaning what you want to record and upload. Me personally, as well as hundreds of others, is gaming. I love gaming, it is a very popular thing that in my opinion has grown YouTube to what it is. Once you find your niche, move onto the next step. But a niche can be anything, trading cards, working out and fitness tips, crypto advice. Literally anything you want!

2. Find your recording device.

If you are doing vlogs, make sure to have a high quality video recorder, if you are doing gaming, be sure to find the platform you want to game on, it could be PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, ANYTHING! As long as you can record your games at high quality you are set! If recording on PC, you could use screen captures such as OBS or SLOBS. If recording on console, you could use Elgato, or Roxio. Its is up to you! But HQ content is an absolute must. Nobody wants to watch content in 480p, let's be honest.

3. High Quality Microphone.

In today's age and time, videos without a commentary are stale and WILL NOT get that many views unless it is a short tutorial that has words on screen explaining what to do or things like that. Make sure to get a microphone that will make your voice sound good as well as won't emit terrible static noises. You can use any headset/microphone you want, But for best results I highly recommend looking into studio microphones.

4. Social Media.

Social Media can play a huge role on growing a YouTube channel. Almost everyone has a Twitter or Facebook. You need to branch onto other platforms to help further promote your content. Post good snips of your clip on Instagram and tiktok, talk to other creators on FB or Twitter. Just posting on YouTube expecting your channel to grow will not, and never will work.


Interaction

Interaction should be your first priority when trying to gain an audience, you have to put yourself in the shoes of potential followers, and think why should they follow you? With youtube, subscribing to people can go a long way, it can distinguish whether or not your audience will grow when starting out. Twitter and Youtube go hand in hand, so I suggest direct messaging people to start conversations with them, not just to plug your channel. When DM'ing, the more casual and upbeat you seem the higher you chances are to gain that person's support. Depending on what your channel is about, I suggest using hashtags in tweets and videos that accord with your channel style, it will bring in viewers and supporters who are interested in what you are doing, allowing for a multitude of new people supporting your channel.

Growth

Once you interact with someone, they will most likely reply to you through tweets, or a message on youtube, depending on what you interacted with them on. Reacting to these messages with positive vibes will attract more attention to your channel/twitter, in some cases the person you are talking to will "retweet" something you said, and it can lead to more subscribers, increasing the size of your audience. I wouldn't get too too casual with people, unless you know them on a personal level, because you have to remember professionalism and etiquette. I could go on about professionalism but I'm going to cut this reply here.

Partially Written by -Fitzy!

5. Spicing up your channel.

Once you have made social media platforms to advertise on, it is time to make your channel appealing to viewers. Make sure to have AVI that clearly says your name, as well as a YouTube banner. These things can be used to express your channel. Mine personally is currently my name with the background of games I record. Be creative!

6. THUMBNAILS!

Thumbnails are so important when trying to grow a YouTube channel because when someone searches something on YouTube the first thing they see is the title as well as the thumbnail. Thumbnails could have crazy things your video shows or a picture of the video as well as text over it saying the title. Make it something you would want to click on, pictures of half naked woman might get clicks but I can guarantee people will leave a dislike on your video. Make it based around your video, not misleading.

7. Titles.

Titles are a key thing when making videos because when someone searches it they read the title to determine whether it is what they are looking for. When making gaming videos, be sure to have the title of the game as well as something to grab the viewers interest like "Call of Duty Infinite Warfare: NEW GUNS ADDED" that is something that would instantly grab someones attention. Be sure to tie in your thumbnail to make both the title and thumbnail match, will make your video very appealing!

8. Proper tags.

Now tags are very important because these are what rank your video in the YouTube search. Make sure to ALWAYS have proper tags. You can have the game title as well as thing within the game. You can post your name in there, just be sure to post things relating to the video and only to the video. No misleading tags, don't post "FAZE RAIN" in your tags and expect views, it will not work. Another notable tip to add to tags is to use a third party program, such as VIDiq or Tube Buddy to see what tags are trending in correlation to your video. Proper, well ranked tags are essential to boosting your video into the algorithm.

9. Description.

Description is very important. This is where you can explain your video, share links to social media to connect with people. This is where you can give the synopsis of the game, share all of your social media links like your twitter profile and such. The major thing is the first few sentences as it will be shown under your video, make it something good to make people click on it and expand to see it the rest of your description. Do not be short, you have 5,000 characters to use, try and use them all. Do not spam into it, make it relative to your video.

10. Encourage activity!

When recording try and talk to your viewers, ask them about their day, tell them you want to hear about it in the comments, try and get people to chat with you, it will make your video more popular and will help your video be ranked higher! Make contests within your video, like if someone wins they could get a channel spotlight or a shoutout. Do something that will increase the likelyhood of people commenting on your video.

11. Be Unique.

Make your own saying, popular Call of Duty star "Nadeshot" intros every video with "How the fudge you doing YouTube, Nadeshot here" try to make something that will express your personality. Make it catchy, even something you use within real life would work. Just try not to be vulgar as it could age restrict your video.

12. Schedule.

Many people are within School or work full time, this is where having a Schedule comes into play, try and set a day every week where you can record, could be an hour at night then an hour the next day to edit and render. Be sure to set a specific day to upload on, if you do this it will make your channel look consistent as well as make your channel look good with a specific upload schedule, it gives people a day to check your channel. If you can't upload every day or every week, try every other week. I know big channels that upload once a week or once every other week. It gives them the chance to make their videos superb.

13. YouTube Partnership.

Becoming a YouTube Partner is something that is very key in growing your channel, but also to begin making money. To become a YT Partner you must have 1000 subscribers, have 2fa enabled, no copyright strikes or restrictions and lastly, 4000 total watch hours within the last year. Being a youtube partner means earning ad revenue based off how well your video performs and what ads are played on your channel. It'll help boost your channel into algorithm because your channel will be marked as safe since you hold that sweet sweet title if partner.

14. MCN.

Outdated section but still very useful information.

Now I will not dive deep within this because another member, JRT, has an amazing thread discussing everything about MCN's and their benefits. You can find his thread here. I will just briefly explain why MCNs can be very important for channel growth. Some MCN have feature where they allow you to make your video the spotlight video of the week which could help with views, gaining subscribers and other things. Some even help advertise your video which could mean the gaining of tons of views. To see more about MCN view JRT's post here!


15. MUSIC!

Alright, music and YouTuber never mix that well because of copyright strikes. But sometimes you can find non-copyrighted music that you can use, YouTube has its own selection of music you can choose from. If you do not have a mic or are too shy to talk within your videos, music is a great alternative! Music adds an amazing background noise so the video is never silent. Silence will bring boredom which will lose viewers interest. Try to avoid silence at all times and be sure to add so background, copyright free music to your videos!

16. Endscenes

Endscenes is a new feature on YouTube, instead of having to make an outro and use annotations, endscenes allows you to promote other videos and your channel at the end of each video. It is a very simple thing to use and I highly recommend, ever since I start using my videos get 10+ more views each video. It promotes other videos you've uploaded, Playlists, and even your channel.

17. Clickbait.

Many may tell you that clickbaiting is actually a good way to go, as it might create views, however it will not produce high quality subscribers like we all desire. Clickbaiting only leads to hate and dislikes which none of us like, stay away from clickbaiting. No half naked woman in your thumbnails, no misleading titles like "I GOT GTA 6 EARLY" it will get you a lot of hate, and does not actually promote your content well enough to matter or make a difference. Keep it relative to you, and your content.


Thanks for reading, best of luck with growing your channels!