How to Grow Your YouTube Channel From 0 to 1000 Subscribers (PROVEN)
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How to Grow Your YouTube Channel From 0 to 1000 Subscribers (PROVEN)

Do you want to know how you can grow your YouTube channel from 0 subscribers to thousands of raving fans?

If you’re nodding your head and saying “yes”, then this post is made exactly for you.

Let’s be honest here: as a YouTuber, you didn’t start out your channel with the hopes of getting 10 or 50 subscribers only, right? Of course, you want to get thousands of subscribers who love watching your content.

In this post, we’ll show you the best ways to get more YouTube subscribers — easily and quickly!

Ready to boost your YouTube channel’s growth?

Here are 7 YouTube marketing hacks you can do today:

1. Promote Your Channel to Existing Fans

Do you already have an established website?

If your brand has an official website that gets consistent monthly traffic, then this means that there are tons of website visitors you can market your YouTube channel to.

That’s why adding your YouTube feed to your website is a great way to get more subscribers.

After all, your website visitors check out your website because they’re already interested in your brand, right? 

Since they’re familiar with your website content, they’re more likely to check out your video content in YouTube as well.

youtube feed to grow youtube channel from 0

How can you embed your YouTube feed to your website if you’re not tech-savvy, you ask?

We’ve got you. The perfect partner to help you is the YouTube Feed Pro plugin, the best YouTube feed plugin for WordPress.

It lets you create, customize and display beautiful YouTube feeds on your website — no coding needed!

This means that your website visitors can readily watch your YouTube videos and subscribe to your channel right on your website.

Plus, just by checking options, you can even customize your YouTube feed to match your website’s design. So your YouTube feeds look consistent with your brand’s identity, even if you don’t have any background in design.

youtube feed on website example

Concerned that YouTube Feed Pro will slow down your website?

You don’t need to be, since it’s designed to be lightning fast.

Unlike other YouTube plugins that do autoplay, YouTube Feed Pro will start playing your videos only when your visitors engage with your YouTube feed.

Meaning, your page speed won’t be negatively affected — your website will still load fast because of the plugin.

The best part?

You don’t need to manually add your YouTube videos to your website each time you upload a new one. Since the plugin automatically adds your YouTube videos to your feed, you save lots of time and effort in updating your feed.

Want to start adding YouTube feeds to your website to grow your YouTube channel?

Check out this helpful tutorial on how to add a YouTube channel to WordPress.

2. Optimize Your YouTube Channel Profile

The more optimized your YouTube channel is, the easier it is for your potential subscribers to find you. 

There are 3 things you need to pay attention to when it comes to channel optimization:

1. Channel cover art

“Why should your subscribers follow your videos?”

Include the short and sweet answer to this question in your cover art. Also, the channel art size should be 2560 x 1440 pixels.

2. Channel icon

You can add your business logo here. Or if you’re a personal brand, a clear picture of you works as well. Ideally, the channel icon should be 800 x 800 pixels in size.

wpbeginner youtube channel

3. Channel description

Inside your channel description, add relevant keywords that you want your YouTube channel to be associated with.

For example, in WPBeginner’s YouTube channel description, they added searchable keywords such as “WordPress beginners” and “WordPress video tutorials” so that their videos can be discovered when viewers search for these topics.

3. Create a YouTube Video Popup

Here’s another great way to grow your YouTube channel from 0 to 1000 subscribers: add a video popup to your website.

This way, your website visitors can also watch your YouTube videos when they visit your site. This is especially helpful when you want to promote a newly uploaded video.

Why?

That’s because YouTube’s algorithm tends to feature videos that are both new and popular, so you need to promote your videos in the first 48 hours after it goes live.

That’s why when you use OptinMonster to create a video popup featuring your new video, you can encourage your visitors to watch it.

optinmonster how to grow youtube channel from 0

The more views your video gets in the first 48 hours after it’s uploaded, the higher your chances are to be featured in YouTube’s homepage.

And when your video is featured in the homepage, you can get more views and more subscribers for your YouTube channel.

Itching to try video popups for your own website? Take a look at this nifty tutorial on how to create a video popup to boost engagement today.

4. Make Attention-Grabbing Thumbnails

According to YouTube themselves:

“Thumbnails are usually the first thing viewers see when they find one of your videos, and 90% of the best-performing videos on YouTube have custom thumbnails.”

That’s why it’s incredibly important that you use custom video thumbnails that are both engaging and eye-catching.

Instead of using a random screenshot as your thumbnail, you need to create a YouTube thumbnail that captures your audience’s attention.

Start by using colors that stand out in YouTube’s platform: blue, orange, green and yellow. Plus, make sure that the font sizes for your titles are readable, even on a small screen, since most YouTube videos are watched on mobile.

wpbeginner youtube thumbnail

In addition to being eye-catching, your thumbnail also needs to deliver your content’s promise. Otherwise, your viewers won’t watch your videos until the end.

For example, WPBeginner’s video on how to make a website is #1 in the YouTube search results because:

  • Lots of users click on their thumbnail; and,
  • Lots of users stay until the end to watch their video because it delivers on its promise
eye-catching youtube thumbnails

Wondering what tools you can use to create interesting thumbnails? Read this post on the best free visual content creation tools to get started.

5. Optimize Your Title and Description

To get more YouTube subscribers, you need to focus on getting more visibility for your videos. This is where optimizing your title and description enters the picture.

You need to treat YouTube as a search engine — because it is.

In fact, Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world!

How do you get started in optimizing your video titles?

Even before shooting your video, you need to research target keywords for your video.

One easy way to do this is by using YouTube’s autosuggest feature. Simply enter your video’s topic and let YouTube suggest your own video titles for you:

youtube seo

Make sure to include your target keywords in your video title and description box, just like what WPBeginner did with their video below. It’s better if you include your target keyword in the first 1-2 sentences of your description.

youtube video description seo

To learn more about how you can optimize your title and description for YouTube, check out this post on how to do YouTube SEO for tips and tricks you can apply to your videos.

6. Run a Viral YouTube Giveaway

Another way to boost your YouTube subscriber count is by running a giveaway. After all, everyone loves winning things for free, right?

In addition to increasing your subscribers, running a YouTube giveaway also skyrockets your user engagement and helps you collect user-generated content that you can use to serve as social proof for your brand.

The key in running successful YouTube giveaways?

Make sure that your viewers know that they need to subscribe to your YouTube channel to enter your giveaway.

Think you need to do this manually?

Good news: you don’t need to. With the help of RafflePress, the best WordPress giveaway plugin, you can easily create viral YouTube giveaways in just a few minutes — no coding required!

youtube giveaway

With its drag-and-drop builder, RafflePress lets you create and publish engaging YouTube giveaway campaigns, even if you’re not tech-savvy.

And because the campaigns you make with RafflePress are 100% responsive, your giveaways look great on both desktop and mobile — automatically! This way, you don’t even need to hire a developer to help you.

For the best practices on how to use RafflePress to make successful YouTube giveaways, read this post on how to do a giveaway on YouTube so you can get started today.

7. Display Your YouTube Playlist on Your Site

Earlier, we mentioned that you can add your YouTube channel to your website so you can increase your channel visibility and subscribers.

But what if you want to show a more targeted type of YouTube content to your website?

For example, if your YouTube channel is all about WordPress…

youtube playlist on website

But you want to show videos specifically related to WordPress tutorials, can you do it?

Of course, you can! By using the best YouTube feed plugin for WordPress, YouTube Feed Pro, you can easily embed YouTube playlists on your website. This way, you can match your blog post topics by adding specific playlists related to them.

youtube playlist added to WordPress

As a result, you display relevant video content that your users will find valuable. And the more valuable your content is, the more likely they are to subscribe to you channel.

For more information on how you can add YouTube playlists to your site, you can read this next post on how to embed YouTube playlists on WordPress.

And so, there you have it! Now you’ve learned the best tips to help you grow your YouTube channel from 0 to 1000 subscribers.

What are you waiting for?

Get started with YouTube Feed Pro here.

Want more articles about YouTube marketing? You may want to read our next post on how to embed responsive YouTube videos on WordPress.

Finally, if you found this guide helpful, go ahead and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more useful YouTube marketing tips and tricks.

author avatar
Lianne Laroya Content Marketing Manager
Lianne serves as the Content Marketing Manager at Smash Balloon, drawing upon more than 12 years of experience in WordPress content, social media marketing, user-generated content (UGC) and search engine optimization (SEO).

Comments 16

  1. Susan Smith 3 years ago

    Great tips to grow my tube channel!

    Reply
  2. Teresa 3 years ago

    I used smashballoon for my website and it was so easy to set up, I’m thinking about dumping wordpress and just leaving an insta feed.

    Reply
  3. Devin Platt 3 years ago

    This seems like a really good way to get subscribers!

    Reply
  4. Angelica S. 3 years ago

    These are such awesome tools!!

    Reply
  5. Kim 3 years ago

    I’ve been using SmashBalloon for Instagram for a couple of months and it’s been working well!

    Reply
  6. Elizabeth Newsome 3 years ago

    Sounds like a lot of helpful resources!

    Reply
  7. Rachel Schroath 3 years ago

    These strategies are so smart. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  8. SHAWN 3 years ago

    I REALLY NEED THIS.

    Reply
  9. Don Gentry 3 years ago

    Interesting

    Reply
  10. Erica G 3 years ago

    Great info; thank you!

    Reply
  11. McKnight 3 years ago

    Great step by step process that makes it sound pretty easy to use.

    Reply
  12. Luka Lonec 3 years ago

    A really helpful text.

    Reply
  13. Thomas P 3 years ago

    That’s a lot of power and flexibility in one plug-in. Would make it much easier to keep people on YOUR site instead of losing them to social media sites.

    Reply
  14. NORIO ABE 3 years ago

    Thanks for the great plugin

    Reply
  15. Delores Harris 3 years ago

    I wish this was around when I was younger & had more energy.

    Reply
  16. Malik Pervaiz Jahi 12 months ago

    Great ideas 💡

    Reply

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