How To Get Real Subscribers On YouTube
If your goal is to make money on YouTube, hitting subscriber milestones is critical. For instance, you need at least 1,000 subscribers to become a YouTube Partner and start earning ad revenue. And the more subscribers you have, the higher you rise on YouTube’s “benefit level” ladder (think: awards, managers and production aid, starting when you hit 100,000 subscribers).
What if you plan to use YouTube for branding and video marketing, rather than to make money directly? You still need subscribers. They bump up your play counts, watch time, and engagement—all important signals to the YouTube algorithm.
Find out how to get people to click that Subscribe button and get free real YouTube subscribers using legitimate strategies to grow your channel.
You can also watch the video below to get our top 7 tips on how to grow your YouTube following Ways
Why you shouldn’t buy YouTube subscribers
How to get more YouTube subscribers (for free): 15 tips
How to see your YouTube subscribers
Why you shouldn’t buy YouTube subscribers
Look, we understand the urge to buy YouTube subscribers. We’re not going to shame you about it.
But we are going to burst your bubble: it ain’t gonna work. The truth is that the video creators behind the world’s best YouTube channels aren’t spending their time or money on shady growth schemes. They’re too busy making awesome videos.
First, let’s look at how “free” YouTube subscriber services work. (While keeping in mind that nothing is really free. As the saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.)
You earn your “free” subscribers by subscribing to and liking other channels, as instructed by the service. Most ask you to subscribe to 20 channels and like a certain number of YouTube videos. In return, 10 channels will subscribe to yours.
Essentially, you’re hiring yourself out as a one-person clickfarm. It’s similar to the time we tried Instagram engagement pods.
The service hopes that you get bored of all this endless clicking after a few days and decide to pay for YouTube subscribers instead. Either way, the service wins: they either get your time or your money. Whether you get them through a free scheme or you pay for them, what do you get?
Bot subscribers that don’t engage
A bad look for your real audience, who are probably quite keen on authenticity
The risk of running afoul of YouTube’s fake engagement policy (tl;dr: you could get banned)
Potential stink-eye from any brands that might eventually want to partner with you
At the end of the day, it’s just not worth it.
There are a lot of clickbait videos out there that claim to tell you how to get 1,000 YouTube subscribers for free. Or even a million! Of course, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Clickbait videos rack up tons of views from people looking for some quick and easy secret to boosting their number of subscribers. But they’re just clickbait. They’re not real. Don’t waste your time, unless you just want a laugh.
The fact is, there is no workaround. You’ve got to put in the work. But there are some simple, real-world tactics you can use to start growing a legitimate YouTube following right away. Let’s dive in.
How to get more YouTube subscribers (for free): 15 tips
If you’re just starting out, take a look at our guide to creating a YouTube channel. You should have the basics of your channel in place before you dive into the tips below.
Here, in order from easiest to most complicated, are our best practices for converting viewers into subscribers. Don’t tackle them all at once. Try out one of these tips for each new video you post, or implement one or two a week.
1. Ask your viewers to subscribe
It doesn’t get much easier than this.
Sometimes your audience just needs to be reminded.
Does asking for the subscribe seem too salesy to you? It can be, if you ask too soon or too often. But a quick reminder to subscribe at the end of your video is just making it easier for fans to keep up with the work you do.
Remember to demonstrate why your channel is worth subscribing to. Make sure you ask for the subscription only after you’ve provided new and useful information, or you’ve made viewers laugh.
2. End your video by teasing what you’re working on next
Subscribing to a channel on YouTube is an act of anticipation. Viewers who’ve just seen what your brand is about are primed to want more if you’ve done your job right.
Hyping your next video, and making it clear why it’s not to be missed, is the most organic way to encourage people to tap subscribe.
Of course, this requires having a good handle on your YouTube content schedule, and knowing what’s coming next. (More on that soon.)
3. Verify your Google account
By default, all YouTube users can upload videos up to 15 minutes long. If you want to create content longer than that, you’ll need to verify your account.
Since longer videos give you more options for the kinds of content you can create, this is an important step for anyone who wants to build a professional channel.
To verify your account, go to www.youtube.com/verify on your computer (not a mobile device), and follow the instructions.
Once you verify your account, you can upload videos up to 256GB or 12 hours long.
4. Interact with your audience and make friends (a.k.a. build community)
If you form relationships with your viewers, they’re more likely to want to keep watching your work. Respond to comments. Follow their channels back.
Yes, it’s exciting if a famous YouTuber comments on your video, but who knows who’ll be famous next year. Form a community of peers and promote each other. (Yes, I’m talking about shine theory.)
Also, once you’re plugged in, your audience will provide you with plenty of free content ideas for your next video. Don’t worry, you don’t have to take all of them.
Manage your YouTube presence using Hootsuite and not only can you upload and schedule videos, you can also add comment streams to your dashboard. That makes it easy to review, reply, and/or moderate comments on all your videos from one place.
5. Create effective channel branding
Channel branding is an important way to let viewers know who you are and what they can expect from your channel.
Banner art
Your YouTube banner welcomes everyone who clicks into your channel. Maybe they just watched a video and are looking for more. Maybe they’re a potential subscriber.
Make sure they know where they are and why they should stick around.
Your banner needs to be clean, on-brand, compelling, and—this is the fussy part—optimized for all devices. You don’t want important details covered up by your social media buttons, for instance.
We have a handy guide for creating your own YouTube channel art, along with free templates with the most up-to-date dimensions.
Channel icon
Your channel icon is essentially your logo on YouTube. It appears on your channel page and anywhere you comment on YouTube. Make sure it clearly represents you and your brand, and that it’s easy to recognize even at a small size.
Channel description
This text appears on the About page of your channel on YouTube. You have up to 1,000 characters to describe your channel and let viewers know why they should subscribe. We’ve got a full blog post on how to write effective YouTube descriptions to get you started.
Custom URL
Your default channel URL will look something like this: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmt12UKW571UWtJAgWkWqgyk.
This is… not ideal. Fortunately, you can change it using a custom URL. In YouTube Studio, choose Customization in the left menu, then click Basic Info and scroll down to Channel URL. You can change your URL to something like this: https://www.youtube.com/c/HootsuiteLabs.
The catch is you need to get at least 100 subscribers before you can claim a custom URL. If you’re not there yet, put this on the top of your to-do list for when you hit that first subscriber milestone.
6. Add a custom channel trailer
YouTube’s customization settings allow you to make the most of the featured video space at the top of your channel page. You can choose to show one video to existing subscribers and something else to non-subscribed viewers.
YouTube channel layout video spotlight
For non-subscribers, create a channel trailer that lets people know what they can expect from your channel and why they should subscribe. Here’s a great example from Bhavna’s Kitchen & Living:
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