How I Got 10K Subscribers (with ONLY 7 Videos)!

Summary

This video script details a YouTuber's journey to amass 10,000 subscribers with just seven videos. The creator credits their success to four key strategies: Trend Jacking to capitalize on popular topics, creating captivating thumbnails to boost click-through rates, enhancing viewer retention with engaging editing and voiceover, and fostering binge-watch sessions through playlists and end screens. The script also hints at a backstory of previous channel experience and emphasizes the importance of avoiding common beginner mistakes for aspiring YouTubers.

Takeaways

• 😲 The channel 'DecodingYT' achieved over 10,000 subscribers with just 7 videos and its monetization was approved after only 4 videos.
• 📈 The creator emphasizes the importance of 'Trend Jacking', leveraging existing popular topics to attract viewers and convert them into a channel's audience.
• 🔍 A significant growth factor was creating a video about 'Algrow', a well-known creator, which capitalized on high-interest keywords and led to exponential view growth.
• 🎨 'Captivating Thumbnails' are crucial for high click-through rates (CTR) and are a major contributor to the channel's growth, with the creator's CTR initially above 11%.
• 🖌️ The creator provides thumbnail design rules: remove useless elements, use the right colors and fonts, and keep important things in focus to make thumbnails more clickable.
• 🎥 Good editing and voiceover are key to maintaining viewer interest and increasing the view to subscription ratio, which is an important metric for virality.
• 🎬 The use of appropriate visuals, sound effects, and clear voiceover contribute to higher audience retention, which YouTube considers when ranking videos.
• 📚 The creator suggests that creating 'Binge-Watch Sessions' is vital for channel growth, as it signals to YouTube that the channel is engaging and helps keep viewers on the platform longer.
• 📂 Utilizing playlists and end screens effectively can increase session watch time, which is beneficial for YouTube's algorithm and can lead to more video promotion.
• 🚫 The creator warns of common beginner mistakes that new YouTubers make, which should be avoided to benefit from the strategies discussed.
• 🔗 The video script ends with a call to action, directing viewers to other videos for more information on beginner mistakes and editing techniques.

Q & A

How many subscribers did the channel achieve with just 7 videos?

The channel achieved over 10,000 subscribers with just 7 videos.

What is the significance of the channel's monetization being approved with only 4 videos?

The channel's monetization being approved with only 4 videos indicates that it quickly met YouTube's criteria for monetization, demonstrating its early success and potential.

What are the four main strategies that contributed to the channel's growth?

The four main strategies for the channel's growth are Trend Jacking, Captivating Thumbnails, Editing & Voiceover, and Creating Binge-Watch Sessions.

What is Trend Jacking and how was it used by the channel?

Trend Jacking is the act of capitalizing on an existing trend or popular topic to boost views. The channel used it by making a video about Algrow, a well-known creator in the niche, to attract viewers interested in that topic.

How did the channel initially overcome the challenge of having no audience?

The channel overcame the initial challenge of having no audience by using Strategy No.1: Trend Jacking, which involved making a video on a topic that already had high interest.

What is the role of CTR (Click-through rate) in video ranking on YouTube?

CTR plays a significant role in video ranking on YouTube as it measures how well a video's thumbnail and title attract clicks, which is a key factor for a video to go viral.

What are some tips for creating captivating thumbnails?

Tips for creating captivating thumbnails include removing useless elements, using the right colors and fonts, and keeping important things in focus.

How does good editing contribute to a channel's growth?

Good editing contributes to a channel's growth by increasing audience retention, improving the view to sub ratio, and making videos more engaging, which are all factors that YouTube's algorithm favors.

What is the purpose of creating binge-watch sessions on YouTube?

Creating binge-watch sessions aims to keep viewers on the platform for longer periods, watching more videos, which aligns with YouTube's goal of increasing watch time and ad revenue.

How can playlists and end screens be used to increase session watch time?

Playlists can group similar videos together for easy binge-watching, while end screens provide a call to action that encourages viewers to watch another video, thus increasing session watch time.

Why is it important for a channel to have a clearly defined niche?

A clearly defined niche is important because it helps viewers recognize and trust the channel's content, making them more likely to binge-watch and engage with multiple videos.

What are some beginner mistakes that YouTubers should avoid when starting out?

Beginner mistakes to avoid include not having a clear niche, inconsistent thumbnails, and not understanding or applying strategies like Trend Jacking, captivating thumbnails, and creating binge-watch sessions.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Rapid YouTube Growth Strategies

The speaker shares their experience of achieving over 10,000 subscribers with just seven videos on their YouTube channel, DecodingYT. They explain that their channel's monetization was also approved with only four videos. The speaker outlines four main strategies that contributed to their channel's growth: Trend Jacking, creating captivating thumbnails, editing and voiceover, and encouraging binge-watch sessions. They also provide a brief background on their YouTube journey, mentioning their previous channel and the lessons learned from it. The first strategy, Trend Jacking, involves making videos on trending topics to attract viewers who are already interested in those subjects.

05:01

🎨 Enhancing Viewer Engagement and Channel Growth

This paragraph delves into the importance of a high view to sub ratio, which measures viewer satisfaction and is a key factor for a video to go viral. The speaker emphasizes the role of good editing and audience retention in this process. They describe how they use visuals, sound effects, and voiceover to make their videos engaging. The speaker also discusses the significance of creating binge-watch sessions to increase session watch time, which is beneficial for YouTube's algorithm. They suggest using playlists and end screens to encourage viewers to watch multiple videos on the channel. The paragraph concludes with a teaser for additional content on beginner mistakes to avoid and editing techniques.

Keywords

💡Subscribers

Subscribers refer to individuals who have chosen to follow a YouTube channel to receive notifications and updates about new content. In the video's context, the creator emphasizes achieving rapid growth in subscribers as a key measure of success. The script mentions '10,000+ subscribers' and 'hundreds of subscribers come to this channel daily' to illustrate the channel's growth and popularity.

💡Monetization

Monetization on YouTube refers to the process of earning revenue from the content posted on the platform. This can be through various means such as ads, sponsorships, or merchandise sales. The video mentions that the channel's monetization was approved with just 4 videos, indicating a significant milestone in the channel's growth and financial viability.

💡Trend Jacking

Trend Jacking is a strategy where a content creator capitalizes on existing trends or popular topics to increase their own visibility and viewership. The script describes it as making a video on a topic that already interests people to convert those viewers into one's audience. An example given in the video is Dream, a Minecraft YouTuber, who gained an audience by making a video related to PewDiePie's Minecraft seed.

💡Captivating Thumbnails

Captivating Thumbnails are eye-catching images used to represent a video and entice viewers to click and watch. The script highlights the importance of thumbnails in increasing the Click-through Rate (CTR), which is a significant factor in YouTube's video ranking algorithm. The creator shares rules for making effective thumbnails, such as removing useless elements, using the right colors and fonts, and keeping important things in focus.

💡Click-through Rate (CTR)

Click-through Rate (CTR) is a metric used to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement or, in this case, a video thumbnail. It is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. The video mentions that a high CTR, especially above 11%, can contribute to a video's virality and the channel's growth.

💡Editing & Voiceover

Editing & Voiceover refer to the post-production process of creating a video, which includes assembling visual clips, adding sound effects, and recording voice narration. The script points out that good editing and voiceover can lead to higher viewer satisfaction and subscription rates. It also mentions that good editing can improve audience retention, which is a crucial factor for YouTube's algorithm in ranking videos.

💡View to Sub Ratio

View to Sub Ratio is the ratio of views a video gets to the number of new subscribers it gains. It is an indicator of how engaging and persuasive the content is in converting viewers into subscribers. The video creator notes that their high view to sub ratio could be attributed to the quality of editing, which is a significant metric for virality.

💡Binge-Watch Sessions

Binge-Watch Sessions describe a behavior where viewers watch multiple videos in a row on a channel. The script explains that this behavior is beneficial for YouTube's goal of keeping viewers on the platform for longer periods, which in turn can lead to more ad views. The creator suggests strategies like using playlists and end screens to encourage binge-watching.

💡Playlists

Playlists on YouTube are collections of videos that can be grouped together by a common theme or category. The video script suggests using playlists to increase session watch time by allowing viewers to easily binge-watch videos on a particular topic, which can signal to YouTube to promote the channel's content further.

💡End Screens

End Screens are a feature on YouTube that appears at the end of a video, offering viewers additional content to watch, subscribe to the channel, or visit the channel's website. The script highlights the importance of end screens in increasing session watch time by providing a reason for viewers to click and continue watching more videos from the channel.

💡Niche

A niche in the context of content creation refers to a specific topic or category that a channel focuses on. The script emphasizes the importance of defining a clear niche to ensure that viewers can easily find and watch multiple videos on similar topics. This consistency helps in building a loyal audience and increases the likelihood of YouTube recommending the channel's videos.

Highlights

Achieved 10,000+ subscribers with just 7 videos

Channel monetization approved with only 4 videos

Daily growth of thousands of views and hundreds of subscribers

Divided growth strategies into 4 main parts for better understanding

Background of the creator's YouTube journey with over 180+ videos on previous channels

Learning from previous channel's limited potential audience

Opened a new channel focusing on YouTube growth

Strategy No.1: Trend Jacking to capitalize on existing trends

Example of Dream gaining audience through PewDiePie's Minecraft seed

First video on Algrow, a well-known creator, for initial growth

Importance of getting everything else right for views to come

Strategy No.2: Captivating Thumbnails for higher CTR

Rules for creating effective thumbnails with examples

Strategy No.3: Editing & Voiceover to increase view to sub ratio

Importance of good editing for audience retention and higher rankings

Strategy No.4: Creating Binge-Watch Sessions for increased session watch time

Methods to increase session watch time: Playlists and End Screens

The necessity of defining a clear niche for channel consistency

Avoiding common beginner mistakes for effective growth strategies

Transcripts

"10,000+ subscribers.

What if I tell you that I achieved so many subscribers with just 7 videos?

Yes, you're right!

In fact, this channel's monetization also got approved with just 4 videos.

Even now, thousands of views and hundreds of subscribers come to this channel daily!

But the question is how?

So I asked my audience:

To in this video, I will tell you how I got 10K subscribers with only 7 videos.

I have divided the reasons for my channel's growth into 4 main parts for your better understanding,

and by applying these strategies smartly, you too can easily grow your channel just

like me.

But before I start, here is a quick back history of my YouTube journey.

DecodingYT is not my first YouTube channel.

Before this, I have worked on other channels and made over 180+ videos.

By working on my previous channel, reading articles about YouTube, and analyzing big

YouTubers, I learned a lot about YouTube.

However, my previous channel had a very limited potential audience, so working on it was not

rewarding due to less growth...

And so I decided to try something new and opened a channel about YouTube growth.

Now, although I created this channel, I still faced a problem.

Since I was starting a new channel with 0 subscribers, making videos like 'how to get

more views' didn't make much sense initially because I didn't have an initial audience

to attract views, and most people would comment that I should increase my views first, etc.

And if we look at it, this problem is faced by every new Creator, that they have a lot

to share within their niche, but because of less following, they can't do it, and I was

in the same situation.

I had a lot to share about YouTube, video creation, thumbnails, editing, but the question

was who is going to watch them?

So I used STRATEGY NO.1: Trend Jacking Trend Jacking is the act of capitalizing on

an existing trend, e.g., a topic/youtuber, in order to boost your own views on YouTube.

Basically, it means that if you don't have your own audience, you should make a video

on a topic that already interests people, and then convert those viewers into your audience...

the topic could be a big YouTuber in your niche, a new product, trending news, or literally

anything popular in your niche.

If you look at big YouTubers, you'll see that even they have used Trend Jacking at some

point.

For example, Popular Minecraft YouTuber Dream gained an initial audience by making a video

related to PewDiePie's Minecraft seed, and it went viral even though Dream's channel

was almost dead...

And so I knew that if I made a different type of video, it would take weeks or months to

grow, so I went for the shortcut.

I decided that I would make my first video about Algrow, who is another well-known creator

in my niche.

The advantage of this was that Algrow already had 400K subscribers, which means the keyword

'algrow' is a topic of high interest.

So whoever watches Algrow's videos or videos related to him, the chances of my video reaching

them increased... which is exactly what happened!

Just 7 days after uploading, the views on that video started to increase exponentially...

Now of course, building an audience with one video is not enough, so I ended up posting

two more videos, and those too around... with time, these videos got views, and with their

help, I reached approximately 5K subs!!!

Now the question is, does Trend Jacking mean Free Views?

Because creating videos on trending topics or big creators is not a very hard task, many

people are doing it, but do they all get views?

Of course not!

Because until you get everything else right, the views will never come...

Which brings me to STRATEGY NO.2: Captivating Thumbnails

It's not wrong to say that a big reason for this channel's growth is its thumbnails.

When YouTube ranks a video, it mainly looks at 2 factors, one of which is CTR (Click-through

rate), which to a great extent depends on your thumbnail.

Now, there's no fixed number for CTR to make a video go viral... but on YouTube, the CTR

of most channels is between 2-10%, and I remember that the CTR of these three videos of mine

was initially very high, especially this video's CTR was above 11% for around 2 weeks...

So the question is, how to make a good thumbnail and get high CTR?

Well, first understand that to get a good CTR, your video's topic and title should also

be good.

The full video about Thumbnails will be coming soon, but for now, let me give you some important

rules to make your thumbnails better!

For example, take Manoj Dey's video.

Now if I were to make its thumbnail like this, it would probably have a high CTR because

it has a lot of mistakes.

So let's fix this.

Rule no.1: Remove any useless elements.

People's attention spans are already low, so you don't want to distract them.

So remove any elements in the thumbnail that don't add value...

This will make the thumbnail clearer and more visually appealing.

Rule no.2: Use the right colors & fonts.

First, choose the right font according to your video.

This thumbnail doesn't have any text, but if it did, I would use a bold Sans serif font

like this...

Talking about colors, in most cases, you'll have to use bright colors that pop on the

screen and grab attention on the homepage.

So don't use dull colors, use something bright.

& Rule no.3: Keep important things in focus.

The main focus of this thumbnail should be Manoj Dey, so I'll make this png bigger to

draw attention, and the other elements will be smaller in the right proportion.

And now this thumbnail has become much more clickable than before!

Again, making thumbnails is just the basic 10% because there's so much else you need

to do to make a great thumbnail.

So a separate video on this will be coming soon...

So I've managed to get clicks from people, now I had to keep them watching.

Which brings me to strategy no.3: Editing & Voiceover

From the start, most of the comments on my videos have been about the editing.

Many people subscribe to the channel just because they like the editing, which could

be a reason why the view to sub ratio of my videos is quite high.

View to sub ratio means the number of people who watch your video and then subscribe to

your channel.

And this is also an important metric for going viral because it directly measures your viewers'

satisfaction rate according to the algorithm.

Apart from that, another advantage of good editing is higher audience retention, which

is a very important factor for YouTube while ranking videos.

Because, of course, a simple 5-minute long facecam video in which a person is giving

YouTube tips on the screen will be much less engaging than a video with screen elements,

text, and sound effects.

So when I edit my videos, I pay attention to a few main things like:

I use appropriate visuals.

You'll see that whatever clips appear on the screen are related to what I'm saying.

Like, if I

say you can't start writing a script, the video will show a girl who's trying to write

something but can't come up with ideas...

Similarly, if I'm talking about thinking, a clip related to that will appear...

Using clips like this will help you a lot in visual storytelling.

Also, if I need to explain something, I use elements for that, which makes these videos

really engaging.

After that, I use appropriate sound effects with these elements and text, along with a

crisp & clear voiceover.

So if you want to learn this type of editing in detail, watch this video, I've explained

everything.

Strategy no.4: Creating Binge-Watch Sessions Okay, so another big reason for this channel's

growth is that people binge-watch its videos.

It means that when people come to the channel, they don't just watch one video but multiple

videos, which is a green flag for YouTube.

Understand it like this, YouTube's main purpose is to keep viewers on its platform so that

they watch more and more videos and hence see more ads.

So if a viewer watches not just one but multiple videos of my channel, even if they don't watch

each video completely, it's still a great signal for YouTube because my channel's videos

are helping YouTube achieve its goals... and the benefit of this?

YouTube will promote your videos even more...

So now you must understand that individual video watch time matters, but along with that,

session watch time (which is the overall watch time a viewer spends on your channel) also

matters a lot...

So now the question is, how to increase session watch time?

Well, there are two methods: No.1: Use Playlists.

You can put your similar videos in one playlist...

so if a viewer likes a particular category of your channel, they can binge-watch those

videos using playlists.

No.2: & my favorite: End Screens.

So if you're a regular viewer of this channel, you'll know how much I emphasize the importance

of end screens.

Like, this video has received around 4K views from end screens alone.

How?

I simply give viewers a reason to click on my end screen element.

Like, if the video is about 5 mistakes that YouTubers make, then I'll add an extra 6th

mistake as a bonus and tell them to click on the end screen to find out.

And I do this on almost all my videos, and I'll continue to do so... and the benefit

of this is that you're making the viewer binge-watch your content, which increases your overall

watch time.

But remember that there are some basic requirements for getting viewers to binge-watch your content,

like all your channel's videos should be in the same niche so that viewers can watch multiple

videos...

like if I have 2 videos about YouTube and the third one is a smartphone review, people

will get confused...

So clearly define your niche as much as possible...

Then try to make your thumbnails consistent as much as possible because when YouTube recommends

your video to viewers, like in suggested, homepage, etc., they should recognize it as

your video...right.

Don't forget that....

Okay, so if you've come this far, let me tell you about some beginner mistakes that every

YouTuber makes when starting out... and you'll have to avoid these mistakes if you want any

benefit from the 4-5 strategies I've talked about in this video.

If you want to know about these mistakes, click on the video on the left, and if you

want to learn editing like me, watch the video on the right.

I'll meet you there, bye!"