You know I love Instagram and it’s been vital in the growth of my business and authority in the online education niche. However, I’ve now started putting more time and energy into a different social platform… YouTube.

Why? Well – a few reasons:

1. It allows me to reach a new audience, further spreading the reach of my products
2. It helps grow my other channels, such as my Instagram following and email list
3. It’s opened up two additional revenue sources (adsense & sponsored videos)

On top of that, I’ve seen really significant growth, quickly. With just a few videos I’ve amassed over 20k+ subscribers and 1.7 million views and I started at 0.. just like everyone else.

So today I wanted to share 8 specific tips on how to increase your views on youtube, as well as your subscribers!

In my personal experience I find YouTube to be one of the easiest social platforms to grow on and I don’t believe your subscriber count has any real role in your ability to generate views. This makes it a unilateral platform – giving absolute beginners an equal chance to take off and grow quickly, which is exactly why you should consider it for your business (if you haven’t already!)

1. Create content based on demand

You 100%, no-exceptions need to research potential topics and create content based on what users are searching for, and NOT what you think will do well – at least in the beginning.

There’s no guarantee your videos will take off but by approaching your uploads strategically you can really help increase your chances of having your video go viral. If you post whatever you *think* is going to work, vs what is *actually* going to work – your result will vary greatly.

In the beginning of your YouTube career you need to determine what’s being searched for and contrast that with how much competition there is. Ultimately choosing a video topic that is searched regularly but doesn’t have much competition.

To determine these variables I use two tools. VidIQ and Keywords Everywhere.

VidIQ is a YouTube specific tool that you can integrate with your account so when you log into youtube you see all kids of interesting stats including video competition, suggested keywords, hourly view statistics and even tag rankings. 

Keywords Everywhere is a keyword specific tool that works pretty much everywhere – google, youtube, amazon, yahoo etc. If there’s a search bar, keywords everywhere can tell you exactly how many searches something is getting every single month.

To find topics worth creating content on, follow these steps:

1. Open youtube and search for a topic that you think you could confidently create a video on. For example, ‘GymShark Review’
2. With keywords everywhere installed you’ll see directly under your search term, it’s monthly volume. Aim for at least 1500.
3. On the right hand side, VidIQ will show you the competition for this search term. Pay attention to the colored chart –  ideally we want to pick a term that pushes both the search volume and competition into the green area.

The idea here is that you’ll generate more views if you create based on demand. Overtime as you grow and develop a loyal following you can start expanding into more topics and relying less on search volume. 

If you’d like to know my full keyword research strategy for not only youtube but all online content, check out this blog where I show how I generated over 1 million organic visits to my website! 

2. Use as many related tags as possible

When uploading a new video you’ll notice a spot to add “tags” to your video. These work similarly to hashtags on Instagram. They categorize your content and help the algorithm determine which search terms your video should rank for, greatly increasing your overall view count.

When viewing any video on YouTube, VidIQ shows you which tags a user has added to their video. What I’ve noticed is that this feature is greatly underused by many creators so by properly utilizing this feature you can score a significant amount of extra views.

So how do we pick the right tags? Well, it’s a similar process to tip #1. You’re going to use keywords everywhere to find terms that have more than 1,500 monthly searches and relate to your topic.

For example, if we’re creating content around the main keyword “how to make money online” you’re going to want to use that as a tag itself, and add additional relevant tags such as: how to start an online business from home and legitimate ways to make money online.

To find these tags:

1. Open Google and type out your main search term.
2. Look on the right hand side to see additional terms Keywords Everywhere has generated (these will often be similar to your inital search and show the search volume in descending order)
3. Make note of all potential tags
4. Search on YouTube for videos on the same topic and open a few
5. Scroll down and view the tags section on the right hand side generated by VidIQ. Cross reference these tags with keywords everywhere and if their search volume is abov 500 – consider using.

Depending on the length of the tags, you can usually fit anywhere from 10-15. Do your best to use as many as possible as every tag will increase your reach and ultimately your views.

3. Use strategic and attention-grabbing titles

After going through the last two tips, you should have decided what main term your content is going to try and rank for and some supporting tags. Now we have to use that information and embed it into our title. For example, if you decided “GymShark Review” was going to be your main term, that NEEDS to be in your title. 

Doing this will further tell the algorithm what your video is about and help it appropriately display your content within relevant search terms.

If you want even more views on YouTube you also need to make sure that your title is clickable!

This if often done by putting it in all caps, adding a question, or making a shocking statement. For example, this first video states: “Is gymshark worth the hype?” – this title is exactly what the person searching for a Gymshark review wants to know. 

They’re questioning whether it’s worth the purchase so this title pulls on that “pain point” and entices you to watch.

To get comfortable with this idea, see what your competition is doing. Search any video topic in youtube and see what the top ranking video titles are. Never copy, but do take inspiration! 

4. Get to the point right away

If your title has enticed someone to click but you spend the first 5 minutes talking about something totally irrelevant, the user is going to be disappointed and start skipping through your video, or stop watching entirely.

When this happens, the algorithm is notified that your video isn’t keeping the attention of it’s viewers and that tells them it must not be quality, or it must not actually relate to the search terms you were targeting. Because of this your video will move further and further down the rankings and it’ll be shared to less and less people.

Getting people to watch as much of your video as possible is called ‘retention’ and it’s one of the most important factors the youtube algorithm takes into account. 

So instead of dragging out a video to increase it’s length. Cut out all the fluff and unrelated content and get straight to the point. Your audience will love it and so will youtube.

5. Promote your youtube channel on other platforms

If you’re posting regularly to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you need to be linking to your youtube content and encouraging people’s subscription. If your audience doesn’t know you’ve published a new video, they can’t possibly watch it or subscribe, so don’t be shy and promote regularly even if it’s old content!

Another way to spin this is to give people something in exchange for their subscription.

I personally used this method and went from a few hundred subscribers to over 1000 in a week by hosting a simple giveaway with the only requirement being you had to subscribe to my channel.

Want to know how? Click here to learn my fool-proof giveaway strategy!

So utilize which ever platform you currently have the most pull on and encourage those users to subscribe to your channel. Remember – this idea works both ways, you can use your YouTube channel to encourage people to follow you on Instagram as well. Your audiences on each platform will always be slightly different so the cross promotion is worth it and it’s an easy way to increase subs.

6. Ask people to subscribe

There’s a reason why all big youtubers do this in the first few minutes of their videos. Asking truly does remind the viewer that they have the choice to subscribe and if they do, they’ll see more content like what they’re currently watching.

Now the key is to ask earlier in the video when you still have the viewers full attention, or at a strategic moment such as after sharing a valuable piece of information. Kinda like I’ve been doing throughout this blog… So here’s your reminder. If you like the content I publish here, you’re most likely going to love what I upload to youtube. Click here to subscribe! 

7. Collaborate with others

This is another thing you see big youtubers do often and it’s for good reason. When you collaborate with someone else by making videos together and sharing on your respective channels, each contributor will likely get a surge of traffic from the other persons audience. 

To make this work you’ll want to collab with someone who has a similar style and shares the same target market. If your channels are wildly different, you likely won’t see the growth you want, so pick wisely.

Now, this may not be feasible for everyone if you don’t have friends in the youtube world – I know I don’t have many! But if you do – this is a must try.

If you don’t have any close contacts you can try reaching out to youtubers with similar size audiences and style to you. If they’re local that’s ideal, however distance collabs can work by filming your own portion and sharing it with your partner and vice versa. You can then merge the content to create a collab that achieves a similar result, without having to travel!

8. Create quality videos

Unfortunately no one is going to subscribe to your channel if they didn’t like what they saw.. making it ultra important that you put as much effort as possible into your production and editing.

Now I’m not saying you have to go out and spend thousands on filming equipment, you just need to make sure you’ve got good audio, crisp video and you’re providing real value in the form of education or entertainment.

By putting all the effort you can into creating a video that looks good and provides value is exactly what will earn you a subscribe. 

Here’s a few things that I use for my videos that really help up the quality:

1. Blue yeti microphone
2. Canon 6D Mark ii Camera
3. Canon f/1.8 28mm lens
2. Soft box lights
4. Adobe Premiere Pro

Want to know what other products and services I use to run my business? Check out my tools page here!

So, don’t focus on length of video, but rather the quality. A 4 minute video that gets to the point, provides value and is well done is likely to earn way more subscribers than a mediocre 20 minute video that has the viewer skipping through to find something of value.

So that’s it! My 8 tips on how to increase your views and subscribers on YouTube! I hope this tutorial opened up your eyes to the ease-ability of YouTube and it’s potential to expand the reach of your business!