If growing your YouTube channel is slow and you’re not getting the YouTube views and subscribers you want, these successful creators share 29 ideas for how to spark growth, engagement, and interaction on your YouTube channel with an influx of new subscribers and views. They share a lot of great tips on how to grow your YouTube channel when you’re not getting the views and subscribers you really want.

Based on the comments a lot of you guys are leaving on other videos here on Video Creators, I know this is an issue a lot of you guys are dealing with. I want to jump in at the end and share with you my advice. But first, let me introduce you to some friends, and see what advice they have for you.

Tip #1

When I find that I’m not progressing and I’m not improving, I try different stuff. And I have to be willing to fail because a lot of times I make mistakes and things don’t work out. But in asking questions and talking to other people and being willing to try new stuff, that’s typically what leads to finding those things that lead to progression.

Tip #2

A tip I have if you’re feeling a little bit stagnant in your channel is to actually ask your subscribers what they want to see. When you ask them, they’re going to leave you a comment and tell you the things that interest them. And therefore you can develop a really great content plan surrounded all around that.

Tip #3

Collaborate with other users in the space. That’s huge. And here’s why that’s so huge, because they already have warm markets. They already have viewership. And if they like what you’re doing, and if their audience is similar to yours, you can partner with them, get exposure through their networks, and bring in a whole new suave– did I just say suave? I think suave is a word– a whole new influx of subscribers that are pre-qualified to like your content.

Tip #4

One tip I have is to really understand who your potential viewers are. What do they like? What are they into? And specifically, what are they searching for? So if you go to the YouTube search dialog box, you can actually start auto populating something around the topic that you want to talk about, and it’s going to auto populate. When it auto populates, it’s actually going to auto populate on the thing that’s most important. So if you’re talking about driving a car, and you say “drive a” and it starts populating, you can actually see what people are searching for.

Tip #5

Now that you understand what people are searching for, you need to optimize your videos around that. So your title tags need to be what the video is about and what people are searching for. The tags, the description, and the words you use all need to have those topics of what people are specifically searching for so that your video will start ranking. Another tip you need to do is make playlists. And instead of making one video about a topic, make 10 or 20 or 30 videos about that one topic so that the likelihood of you ranking for those type of terms is much greater.

Tip #6

One of the things that we’ve done– we’ve just barely started a family YouTube channel four months ago. And that was a challenge that we had. And one of the things I did that not a lot of creators and YouTube people are doing is leveraging YouTube ads, the ads you can skip after five seconds. Our family channel, our trailer channel, we ran as an ad on other people’s YouTube channel. And that was a way for us to attract an audience. We made sure that we put the video on relevant YouTube channels. And we said, hey, we’re the Larson family. This is what we do. This is who we are. Click here to subscribe. And the cool thing with paid ads is its immediate results. It’s guaranteed views, and you can get subscribers for it.

Tip #7

Hopefully you enjoy what you’re still creating. But maybe you can change it up a little bit. Don’t let yourself get bored when you’re watching your own videos. If you’re bored, your audience is probably not that happy with it, as much as they might have been before. How can you start to get ahead of what they already know you’re going to do? That’s what’s really special, when you make something that is super shareable because someone would share it no matter if you made it or not, and you kind of surprised them a little bit.

Tip #8

I would recommend looking at your audience retention metrics, because you can actually see when people are engaged, when they’re dropping off of your video. And I would say to look at mixing up the format of your video. And you can do that by maybe watching other people in your industry or watching other popular channels. See how they chunk out their video. How do they do their intro? How long are their segments? What did they do to close their video?

Tip #9

First thing I would consider is how great is my content? One thing we’ve got to know is if you create good, shareable content, your content will do a lot better. Your videos will do a lot better. You’ll be able to grow your audience if you engage them as well. And then of course, at the end of your videos, if you tell them to like and subscribe– we always say, tell people what you want them to do.

Tip #10

Make epic thumbnails. And titles are important. Why would I click on your video if it doesn’t move me or look interesting? And so I always think in search, if your video pops up, would I want to click on your video over the other 25 that are showing?

Tip #11

I would say pick the thing that has the most views, and that’s probably the same thing that you love the most. Usually it’s the most passionate thing that you really, really like that probably gets most views because you spend the most time on it. Sometimes that’s not the same. But whatever gets the most views, take that and run with it, because maybe that’s what people like to see you do.

Tip #12

My advice would be to find things to do that not only people would enjoy watching and learning from, but what would cause them or motivate them to share it with someone else. So if there’s a subject that you know is relevant to people, talk about that. And then continually seek feedback from your viewers, and give them things to think about and come back to you with. If you can find ways to do that and cause more human interaction with your community, it’ll naturally grow.

Tip #13

Best advice I was given was, no matter how big your following is, seek to bless them. And don’t worry about growing your numbers and just that, but I’m going to bless the people that are viewing right now my content, and they’ll naturally want to bring more people into it because it’s benefiting their life.

Tip #14

Take a step back. Re-evaluate, analyze what you’re doing, the why. And just take a step back. Sometimes when you’re working on something and it’s not working, even though you feel like it should be working, you’ve got to take a step back, look at it, and then see what it is that’s making it not work.

Tip # 15

Just do this honest self audit of your channel and your videos. Because you might find that you’ve over time just kind of become a little bit, I don’t want to say complacent, but maybe you’ve overlooked something that you were doing when you first got started. So really, have a truthful look at everything that’s going on with your channel. Just go from A to Z.

Tip #16

What I would try to do is steal, but still in a good way. Find a couple of channels that you really think work, that you’re like, I want to do something exactly like that person. And don’t just say I want to be a gamer or that type of thing. . Understand the format of how their videos work. Break it down. Steal everything first. Imitate.

Then as you do that, then you figure out what your way of doing things is. Don’t steal forever. Start with something that works, that you’ve seen work, and then become your own person. Find out what you like, and don’t worry about what you’re really doing. I tell people, till the 20th video, don’t be so self-conscious. Keep doing it regularly once or twice a week, regular release, and then do your own thing. Evolve. That’s it.

Tip #17

One of the first things I look at is, is the content what people are looking for? A lot of people will start creating content that they like but isn’t necessarily liked by other people. They’re not going to look at their videos. If their thumbnail ever came up, they’re not going to click through because it isn’t content that they are interested in.

Tip #18

So they’ve watched your video. Now tell them, hey, give me a thumbs up, or subscribe to my channel. All this stuff seems so common sense to me, but I think a lot of people that are new to YouTube or trying to grow an audience don’t necessarily know all of this stuff.

Tip #19

For the next video that you’re planning, before you’re uploading it and you’re still in the planning mode, think about taking a moment to say who is a relevant influencer? Somebody who if I gave them a heads up, this video is going to be uploaded in a couple of days, in fact, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to upload it and leave it unlisted or private, but I’m going to send you a link ahead of time. Let the influencer know what you’ve got coming. And let the influencer also help launch it.

Influencers love scoops. They love advance heads up. They love the fact that you’ve even recognized the fact that they’re an influencer and you’re giving them some kind of advanced attention. But that can help your launch move to another level. And does it cost any money? No, it doesn’t.

Tip # 20

So you probably have that one idea that’s been stewing in the back of your mind that you probably are a little bit scared to do. That’s what you have to do. Step out of your shell and just post something that you’re passionate about. But go and get it done. It might be silly. It might be crazy. That’s what you have to do next.

Tip #21

Ask yourself one question. Would you watch your video? And if you wouldn’t, then you need to start to kind of rip it apart and see what you would watch. Because honestly, if it’s something you wouldn’t watch, other people probably won’t want to watch it either, and that’s just the truth.

Tip #22

The second thing to look at is, is their thumbnail attractive? Is it going to capture them if the video gets put in the feed somehow? Is that going to attract people? And also, look at your title as well. Is that something that’s going to hook people into wanting to click through and watch the video? Is it something that they’re curious about?

Tip #23

This is where clickbait is a good thing, in that your thumbnail and your title is what the video is about. But does it capture people’s attention? And is the content what people are looking for?

Tip #24

And ask for some help as well. Just reach out and get people to give you their opinion. I find that usually works. And it’s always the honest feedback that makes all the difference to your videos or your channel.

Tip #25

You know what? Just watch a lot of YouTube videos, starting with Tim Schmoyer’s channel, and don’t forget to subscribe.

Tip #26

That was great advice. Let me share with you the first thing that comes to mind for me as I hear that question. I think all of your channels should have at least two different types of content on it. The first one is discoverable content, and these are the videos you’re making purely with the intention of them being discoverable. People finding them, whether through search, through related videos, suggested videos, sharing, something like that.

Tip #27

And then the second one that should be your community content. I find that most creators are really good at making community content, where they’re making videos that an active current subscriber base would really appreciate, because they’ve already grown to love and know that creator. But they haven’t really focused too much on the discoverable content. And that’s the content that you’re creating intentionally to get viewers and to build an audience.

So you’ve got to assume these people, you’re designing these videos for people who have never heard of you before. Never seen you before. They just saw your title and your thumbnail as a related video, and they clicked on it just out of curiosity, which means that you’re also designing those titles and thumbnails for that person who’s never heard of you before. Interacting in the first 15 seconds of the video to make it connect with the title and thumbnail that they clicked on.

Tip #28

So what I would do is research your video ideas before you get started. Search for your video idea on YouTube. Has this video been made before already? And if so, has it been successful? Are these videos getting a lot of views? Does there seem to be a lot of people watching this type of content?

And then if there’s just so much competition for it that you don’t think you’d ever break in there, just try to be a related video, a spin-off video to that, that when someone watching one of the big videos on that topic, if they see your title and thumbnail as a suggested video, would they be enticed to click over and start watching your video. So be very intentional about those two types of video, discoverable videos and those community videos.

I want to hear from you guys in the comments below what advice you would give to someone who’s in this situation. And maybe you’ve been there and you’ve worked through it, and you’ve figured a few things out of how to overcome this on your channel. Comment. Leave your advice down below.

Tip #29

And the rest of you guys who are working through this right now on your channel, read the ideas, the suggestions, the advice other people are leaving for you down in the comments below. You guys will learn a ton from each other. I love seeing the community here interact and support each other. It’s awesome. I love it. You guys are awesome.