Today we can offer a guest blog post by Johanna Lundström, a daytime communicator who sews and designs clothes in the evenings and on weekends to create stories about it on various channels.
In January 2017, I finally had 1000 subscribers to my English-language Youtube channel about sewing – The Last Stitch. An important milestone that took me a little over a year. I’ve tested a lot during my travels with varying results, and here are my top nine tips for growing your channel.
1. Regularity.
Pick a schedule and stick to it, both in terms of the day of the week and the estimated time. This is the advice the most experienced youtubers give to newbies. And in my case, I can say that this is true.
However, during the first nine months on Youtube, I published irregularly, on average 1-2 times a month, at different times and on different days.
Of course, my channel has grown every month, but slowly.
Only in October last year, the token fell. Partly because my husband suggested that I follow the schedule for the third time, partly because I saw in the statistics how the views of all my films increased when I posted a new video.
To support this increase, I decided to start posting once a week, on the same day (in my case, Sunday), and around the same time. Several weeks passed, after which I began to see a curve that slowly but surely climbed up.
2. Connect to topics
As with other social media platforms, video bloggers often launch topics that other members of the same genre can catch on to. As I continued to collaborate, my two biggest phases of growth occurred. Partly because people are looking for these topics and hashtags, and partly because my films show up as clues when people watch other people’s films on the same topic.
3. Encourage people to subscribe
It took a long time before I started with this. What I regret looking back! When I started inviting people, my followers did too. The bottom line is that I did this at the end, when a significant portion of the viewers had already stopped watching (if you have an average watch time of more than 50%, you should be grateful).
So now the goal is to always do it twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. But I often forget that! You can use online services for buying subs on youtube for instant growth of your channel.
4. Content defines obligations.
When I make personal and naughty vlogs about my sewing projects, I get significantly more likes, followers and comments, and also increase watch time compared to my more formal tutorials. On the other hand, my most popular films are tutorials, and they also generate the most ad revenue per run.
5. Create good content.
Sounds obvious, but how difficult!
One piece of advice is to try to find a gap in your niche where you see potential.
Another is not to neglect quality if you want to grow.
The third tip is to invest in what you are passionate about. Enthusiasm is important both for bonding with the audience and for motivating you to constantly get better.
6. Some thoughts about yourself in front of the camera.
“Be yourself” is a piece of advice given by many. But I think this is a bit of vague advice. We all have several keys in our personality, which, among other things, are governed by the context in which we find ourselves.
I would say it’s important to be naughty and loyal in front of the camera, not be afraid to show your weaknesses, and have an open, inviting tone of voice that makes you get to know you better and see more of your films.
7. Find the right mix of Youtube and other social networks.
Getting all of our channels to reinforce each other and create pleasing synergies is not an easy task, but it’s worth experimenting. Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a magic formula for this, but here are some tips that I think work.
Browse behind the scenes footage,
perfect for posting to Instastories and Snapchat. A great way to promote an upcoming video and generate interest in your Youtube channel.
Play your videos on all channels.
I always post a short trailer on Instagram and Facebook when I post a new video. Instagram is not ideal for marketing films on another platform, but I notice that more and more people are actually logging in and watching my films after watching my trailer. I insert a movie into a blog and write a corresponding blog post – this way I have a lot of viewers (get Youtube views).
Prioritize your films so they grow.
In order to attract more viewers, I deliberately decided to show / talk about some things in video format first. It is also planned to attract viewers who actually prefer to read the blog in order to continue my watch a movie. It works well, but not all of my readers watch my films.
Link to the blog in movies that
I do this a lot as I have a lot of blog posts that give details of what I talk about in my films. Usually they even bump into screen recordings when I flip through a post.
8. Engage your viewers.
Ask questions, ask them for their own advice, and encourage them to share their own experiences. All of this helps to increase adherence to your channel.
9. Be patient.
Even if you had to do it “right” from the beginning, it usually takes a while to surf Youtube. Some of them tormented for several years without reaching a wide audience. It took me a year before I started to see real growth. I am now growing at just over 300 subscribers per month and on average I have 400 views per day. I have no idea how long this will last, but either way it shows that patience pays off IF you combine it with good content and smart strategies to see.
Hopefully my tips can be helpful to those who are either considering creating a feed or having difficulty when it comes to development! It should also be said that this is a lot of work, so in order to make it manageable, you may need to redirect some resources from other channels to be able to properly invest in Youtube. But just try it and see what works!
