How to Grow Your YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers

Starting a YouTube channel is exciting, especially knowing that you can monetize your channel once you’ve hit the minimum requirements. The first milestone is quite a feat, too—1,000 subscribers.

Getting to 1k subscribers on YouTube normally doesn’t happen overnight, but there are ways that you can help the process along. Below are several tips for how to get your first 1,000 subscribers on YouTube and be well on your way to monetization.

Choose a Niche

What exactly is a niche? A niche is a specified topic or theme that’s a part of a larger subject. In terms of being a YouTuber, it means that your channel’s subject is narrowed down. However, it’s vital that your niche be something that not only interests you but that you are knowledgeable in.

Many YouTubers have become successful due to having a niche. For example, instead of having a whole channel on motorcycles, the videos could be narrowed down by explaining the differences between specific sports bikes and teaching others safety tips on how to ride them.

Create High-Quality Videos

YouTube has grown to be a replacement for cable and streaming platforms in some households. Because of that, many viewers will skip a video if it’s low quality, so it’s important that you keep up with the production value that other YouTubers are putting out there.

That isn’t to say that you need to buy incredibly expensive equipment—many YouTube videos are filmed using nothing but a phone. Just make sure you change the video quality on your iPhone or Android before hitting the record button.

Use Attention-Grabbing Details

Producing a great video is essential—however, capturing your audience’s attention early on is what draws them to your channel. Creating attention-grabbing thumbnails and titles are a couple of ways to do just that.

When someone is scrolling through YouTube looking for videos to watch, they are more likely to click on an appealing thumbnail than one that doesn’t have much to it. Additionally, if the title complements the thumbnail and is enticing, you’ve increased your chances of not only receiving more views but also more subscribers.

Publish Regularly

Consistency is key when it comes to posting on YouTube—especially if you want to reach 1,000 subscribers. It lets your followers know that you are reliable, and it helps to form a relationship and community with them as well. If you post randomly, there’s a chance you may deter people.

To ensure you’re publishing regularly, you can always build yourself a content calendar. It will help you stay on track and give you guidance on when to record, edit, and publish content.

Create YouTube Shorts

Though YouTube Shorts won’t make you a lot of money when you get monetized, they are great for bringing in subscribers. Use these short-form videos to give people insight into what kind of channel you have, and they’ll hit that subscribe button before moving on to the next video.

There are several easy YouTube Short ideas that you can try to get people interested in what you have to offer. How-to tutorials and quick tips videos tend to do pretty well.

Add a Call-to-Action to Your Videos

Adding a call-to-action to your videos is particularly important because it reminds people to, well, take action. This can come in the form of verbally stating to subscribe to your channel, having an animated subscribe button pop up in your video, and placing a subscribe watermark through YouTube’s customization options.

Sometimes, a viewer will watch your video and completely forget to subscribe to your channel without realizing it. By adding a call-to-action, you’re doing them and yourself a favor, so they’ll never miss another video.

Engage With Your Audience

YouTube’s algorithm will push your videos out a bit more if it sees that viewers are actively engaging with your videos, such as leaving comments and likes. By joining in on the conversation with your audience within the comment section, you’re leaving a trail for the algorithm to pick up.

Additionally, you’ll be creating a community. Use that time to ask your viewers what kind of videos they want to see from you. Chances are, what they want other potential subscribers will want as well.

If you’re in the world of content creation, you’ve heard of SEO. Using the right keywords and hashtags in your titles and descriptions can only help viewers find your YouTube videos.

To see what kind of words you should be using, search for videos within your niche and see what the successful videos have in their descriptions. This isn’t to say that you need to copy them, but knowing what kind of keywords are attracting viewers can help you become a successful YouTuber.

Yes, you have a YouTube channel, but don’t stop there—use another social media platform to cross-sell your videos. Driving traffic from one platform to another is a popular and cost-efficient way to achieve organic social media growth and gain subscribers and views.

For example, if you have an Instagram or TikTok account, you can post a preview of your newly uploaded YouTube video and drive the viewers to YouTube with a call-to-action and a link. Not only will promoting your channel on other social media platforms help you grow on YouTube, but you’ll also grow on the other platforms.

Pay Attention to YouTube Analytics

YouTube Analytics is there for a reason—to help guide you to grow your channel. Within the analytics of each video, you can see your views, watch hours, and subscriber count. It also shows you the analytics of audience retention.

This is important because you can see how well a video is doing based on the percentage of viewers that stick around after 30 seconds or if you gained more subscribers than usual. If that’s the case, you’ll know to create more videos like that.

Collaborate With Other YouTubers

What better way to grow your channel than to connect with other YouTubers who are also doing the same thing as you? You should try and stay within your niche when you collaborate, but it’s not necessary. The main point is to reach new audiences, which can help all parties involved.

There are multiple ways you can collaborate with others. You can do a collaborative video, whether it be pre-recorded or even a live Q&A. You can also do guest appearances and cross-promotions.

Be Patient

Being patient with the process is probably the hardest part of reaching 1,000 subscribers. Unless you get really lucky and one of your videos goes viral, you’ll have to play the waiting game. On average, this can take anywhere from eight months to two years.

However, each new subscriber you gain shows that your channel has potential, so use that to push yourself to your first big milestone.

Use These Tips to Get 1,000 Subscribers on YouTube

It may seem like a lot of work to adhere to each tip, but the turnout is reaching your goal of 1,000 subscribers. Even the bigger YouTubers still follow many of these principles to continue growing their channels.

In the end, if you give your channel your time, energy, and patience, it will pay off.