How to Start a YouTube Channel and Get Views

Starting a YouTube channel is a difficult enough process on its own, but trying to start a channel and get views? Well, this is a more difficult task. Luckily enough for you, in this post, I'll be going over how to start a YouTube channel and get views so you can hit the ground running on your YouTube journey.

Starting a YouTube channel and getting views is as simple as taking action. By simply uploading videos, you will gain views. To increase the number of views you get, however, you should consider putting some work into promoting your channel and videos on various websites and platforms.

In my 10+ years of experience with YouTube marketing, I've learned a lot. One of the biggest things I've learned is that mindset is incredibly important. You can follow all the best practices possible, but if your mindset isn't sorted, you will fail. So, just remember, even though something I suggest might not seem important, it's probably very important.

How Quickly Can You Grow a YouTube Channel

If you've done any research into growing a YouTube channel, a question like: "How quickly can you grow a YouTube channel?" has probably popped into your head. This question is difficult to get an answer to, as a lot of people will either tell you it's easy so you'll buy their course, or they'll tell you it takes forever and you're better off not trying.

Here's the true answer to this question: It depends. Like with anything, the work you put in will determine how fast you progress. If you upload 1 video each month, it will take you a long time to grow your channel. If you upload 1 video a week, your channel will grow quicker. If you combine this with promoting your videos, your channel will grow even quicker.

At the risk of setting you up for failure, however, I will say this: Do not expect to go "viral" overnight. If you want to achieve success on YouTube, be prepared to put a lot of time and effort into the process of creating, editing, and optimizing videos. For some people, it takes 1 year to hit the 10,000 subscriber mark. For other people, it takes 10 years.

Take a look at this screenshot below and take note of how slowly the graph curves upwards:

This is how your channel will grow as well. You can spend 12 hours each day creating, editing, and optimizing videos, but growth at the start will still be slow. So, do not set yourself up for failure by expecting to reach 10,000 subscribers in 3 months. Temper your expectations and focus on the process.

Where to Promote a New YouTube Channel

Now that you know that starting and growing a YouTube channel will take time, what can you do to speed up the process? A great option is to do some off-site promotion. Meaning, promote your channel and videos on different websites and platforms. Here's where to promote a new YouTube channel:

Reddit

Reddit is a great platform for promoting a YouTube channel if used correctly. Promoting videos on Reddit needs to be done in a specific manner to avoid conflict and poor results. So, before you go ahead and start sharing your channel and video links everywhere, make sure you learn how to promote your videos on Reddit properly.

Twitter

Twitter is a very busy platform. Users tend to follow hundreds if not thousands of users so they can receive a steady flow of new content on their timeline every minute. While this might scare a lot of people away, it's a sign that Twitter might be worth pursuing for your promotional efforts.

If people have been proven to be engaging, this should tell you that they will be likely to engage with your content if you give them a reason to. How do you get people to engage with your content? The easiest thing to do in my experience is to engage with them first by replying to their tweets, liking their tweets, etc.

While there are other social media platforms available, Twitter is the only platform that doesn't have a complex algorithm that decreases or increases post exposure. Algorithms are difficult to deal with, especially on Instagram. So, it might be a good idea to save yourself the headache and just pursue Twitter for your social media promotion efforts.

Forums

Forums are quite similar to Reddit in the sense that they contain a group of people interested in a particular topic. Knowing this, if you create content that the members of the forum have been proven to be interested in, you can promote your videos in the forum and get views on your videos.

Before you start sharing your links on forums, however, make sure to research their policy on sharing links. Also, build some rapport with the members of the forum by providing value through your posts and comments before trying to share anything. This way, the forum members will be more responsive to your post and less likely to fuss about you sharing a link.

YouTube Hates Small Channels

If you've done any research into growing a new channel on YouTube, you might have come across some articles or videos talking about how YouTube hates small channels. Yes, it's quite an eye-catching statement to make, isn't it? But is it true? Does YouTube hate small channels, or are people just angry that they aren't achieving success?

Here's the deal: YouTube does not hate small channels. However, the algorithm is difficult to deal with for small channels due to the way it is designed. This is why earlier I talked about how it will take a while for you to see any growth, regardless of how many hours you spend creating, editing, and optimizing videos.

Like with most things, the people who failed tend to be the loudest. Many of the people claiming that YouTube hates small channels are people who tried to achieve success on YouTube but failed. In almost every single case, the reason for their failure rests on their shoulders- YouTube had nothing to do with it.

So, moving forward, recognize the fact that many people have tried and failed to start a YouTube channel, and get views on their videos. Attention-grabbing statements attract views, and many people make statements for the attention they will provide. Do not fall for sensational claims from people who have had a bad experience on YouTube and don't even take the time to use YouTube tags on their videos.

Conclusion

If you've read my articles on multiple occasions, chances are you're starting to realize that there's more to achieving success on YouTube than you initially thought. This mustn't discourage you. You now know how to start a YouTube channel and get views. So, don't let yourself become overwhelmed. Just focus on what needs to be focused on.