Textual-based content dominated the internet for years, but the landscape has significantly changed in the recent past, with more consumers favoring videos. Video content offers a more immersive experience, especially considering its combination of appealing visuals, audio, and even text. Crafting memorable and compelling narratives that captivate users is easier with video content, which continues to propel its popularity.

The popularity of video content and YouTube as the #1 video platform

Video content popularity continues to skyrocket owing to the ever-evolving technology enhancing internet accessibility. Today, you don’t have to wait a second for top-quality videos to load and play as it was years back. The accessibility, combined with visual appeal and various platforms, including YouTube, Netflix, and TikTok, among other social channels, continues to power the video content.

YouTube has dominated the scenery and remains the #1 video platform. Check out the infographic below that proves it:

This is owing to the platform’s extensive content pool ranging from genres, including education, music, entertainment, and tutorials, to name a few, touching on virtually every consumer’s preference.

YouTube also offers a lot to content creators, including a user-friendly interface, social features, and innovative algorithms to target the right audience. This makes it easier to showcase their content and capture a global audience, become influencers, and earn while doing what they enjoy.

Amassing considerable YouTube viewers is a challenge, though. This brings us to the main question; how do you get more YouTube subscribers to hit the first 1000 milestones? Before we get there, let’s understand the basics driving the need to gain more YouTube subscribers.

Why Do YouTubers Bother About the First 1,000 YouTube Subscribers?

The most popular YouTubers have millions of fans on the platform, but when you're just starting out, the first 1,000 YouTube subscribers matters, too. Here are three main reasons why your channel should grow to this number by all means:

• Gain popularity and trust – Building credibility makes it easier to establish your authority in your niche and capture monetization opportunities. Authority means more users will keep seeking your content, allowing you to become an influencer and earn more from YouTube video content.
• Find like-minded people – Collaborations are at the heart of successful influencer campaigns. Working with other like-minded people allows you to tap into their network and gain more views and subscribers you wouldn’t access on your own. The more subscribers you amass, the easier it will be to find other content creators willing to collaborate with you, stay fresh and relevant, and spice up your YouTube videos.
• Boost YouTube Algorithm – YouTube algorithm determines how your videos rank on search results. The better you rank, the more exposure the videos get. Once you gain more followers, the algorithm favors you since it is among tells of how valuable your videos are to the audience. This means your videos will be easily found, allowing you to gain more viewers, monetize YouTube, and keep increasing your earning potential.

Gaining more YouTube subscribers is beneficial on many levels. But how do you get from your first few loyal subscribers to thousands to meet the minimum requirements needed to monetize the channel and scale your influence? Here is a proven formula to help you get the first 1,000 YouTube subscribers.

1. Choose a YouTube Niche of Your Expertise

Passion, authenticity, consistency, longevity, and growth are among the factors you must consider as you start your influencer journey. This mainly comes down to the niche you choose. Picking a niche that you are genuinely interested in and know about makes generating more captivating YouTube video ideas in the long run easier. You won’t quickly run out of ideas or become bored and burnt out.

Let's draw inspiration from Tiffy Cooks and her YouTube channel that specializes in food:

With a focus on the food industry, Tiffy has dedicated her channel to this topic and all of her content helps interested people find something around cooking and the food.

As an area of your expertise, you’ll show authority and build credibility with fresh and relevant video content. Specializing in a particular niche is essential since it allows you to carve out a given audience and stand out from the competitors as you establish authority. A niche of your expertise that you are passionate about allows you to balance enthusiasm and knowledge, a recipe that helps generate engaging content and remain motivated throughout your YouTube journey.

2. Design an Eye-Catching YouTube Channel

You may have the most valuable videos on YouTube, but if not well “packaged,” you’ll hardly gain more viewers, let alone win subscribers. You need to ensure that your channel is as inviting as possible. This way, you’ll capture more eyeballs and keep them engaged long enough to discover what your videos offer. Innovative YouTube banners allow you to add visual appeal to your channel, add a clear message, and include a call to action. The eye-catching impact brings in more traffic. The message tells them what they stand to gain, and a call to action directs their reaction after engaging with your YouTube video content.

Here's an example of an eye-catching YouTube channel:

It has the following elements:

• descriptive banner;
• well-organized video content;
• informative video covers.

3. Give Different Video Formats a Try

Viewers don’t have to worry about video formats since YouTube transcodes them once uploaded into different formats. Nonetheless, as a content creator looking to attract more subscribers, you need to try different formats to ensure you deliver the best video quality. Compatibility across different devices is no longer a big issue. Nonetheless, since each format is unique, you can try them to find the best fit following the diverse content you intend to craft for optimal engagements. MP4 is the most common video format owing to its compatibility across various devices and the balance between quality and size. Other formats you can try include WebM, MOV (QuickTime Movie), 3GP, FLV (Flash Video), and AVI (Audio Video Interleave).

4. Create A Video Plan and Stick to It

The content calendar can’t be emphasized enough. It allows you to follow a practical system, not simply uploading YouTube videos when you feel like it and leaving the channel unattended the rest of the time. A video plan detailing when and what to upload lets you remain consistent, keep users engaged and gain more subscribers. The program helps you avoid common pitfalls, such as starting with force and uploading numerous videos daily, only to run out of content within a month. You’ll spread out the videos, be prepared for what comes next, and follow a calendar aligned with the rest of your activities.

5. Optimize Your Videos for Search

How easily can users find your videos when they search on YouTube? Quality videos rank higher, especially as your channel’s popularity grows. Nonetheless, you must still optimize your videos for search to capture more users. Measures including keyword research, a catchy title and description, closed captions, subtitles, and optimized thumbnails and tags enhance the search results ranking of YouTube videos.

Check out an example of a video, optimized for search:

6. Collaborate with Other YouTubers

Collaboration allows you to tap into an extensive network, more so when you work with influencers in other niches. This allows you to expand your reach to a broader audience and improve credibility. However, you must ensure that you collaborate with reputable influencers. Collaboration can also help you gain a new perspective and freshen up your YouTube content.

This translates to more captivating content that’ll drive more traffic and subscribers to your channel.

When you work with YouTubers, it's also a good idea to consider using social listening as you need to monitor what other people say about your channel, its ideas, and content. The better you understand your target audience, the faster you can get your first 1,000 YouTube subscribers.

7. Tell Social Media Followers about Your YouTube Channel

Cross-promotion is an invaluable YouTube marketing strategy you can’t afford to ignore. The strategy helps you bring in more subscribers from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, where you may have already built a significant loyal following. The trick is to ensure you don’t spam the social media platforms since that can drive traffic away.

The best way to get more subscribers is to use other social media platforms and announce your new videos on YouTube, just like in the example below:

In Short

Video content’s popularity won’t dwindle in the foreseeable future. This is evident considering the fast-paced traction video platforms like TikTok continue to gain. Still, YouTube remains the top video platform where you can earn massive subscribers, collaborate with other content creators, and monetize your channel. As you strive to build a loyal following on YouTube, you must invest in more than top equipment and video quality.

Marketing is a significant part of your influencer journey, which entails focusing on strategies geared to deliver the best user experience. This includes optimizing your videos for search, working with other YouTubers, and being consistent. Don’t forget engagement either; responding or interacting with the comments and answering questions can help build a considerable following as the audience feels more like a part of your brand.