Should You Buy YouTube Subscribers? 🧐 Here’s What Works Better 💡
It must be frustrating to see your YouTube subscriber count barely increasing, but does it mean you should give up and buy YouTube subscribers instead? Definitely not.
Why you shouldn’t buy YouTube subscribers
First of all, buying YouTube subscribers runs a massive risk of losing your entire channel, as it is not a legitimate way of gaining subscribers. Plus, if YouTube detects these fake subscribers, it removes them immediately.
Secondly, if word gets out that you bought your subscribers, it will tarnish your channel’s reputation forever, and people won’t take you seriously anymore.
Another thing to think about is YouTube’s algorithm. If you buy a bunch of bots or fake accounts to follow your channel, they’re naturally not going to engage with it. The lower your video’s engagement (view time and likes), the less likely it will perform on YouTube SEO-wise.
If you do get a thousand people to subscribe to your channel, these people didn’t subscribe to your channel because they liked your content but because you paid them to. There’s a good chance you’ve got a thousand bots subscribed to you instead of people.
So when you upload a new video, almost no one watches it as your subscribers are bots or people who don’t care about your channel. This severely impacts your engagement rate, and from YouTube’s perspective, your channel appears to be in worse shape than before.
You might believe that the solution is to buy more views, but that’s even worse! You’ll get stuck in a never-ending cycle of buying views and subscribers, which is a waste of money. You’re not gaining anything by doing this because no one is actually looking at your content at the end of the day.
And let’s not forget your YouTube channel could be either deleted or suspended if YouTube finds about these practices.
Here is what you should do instead
1. Quality over Quantity
Trying to churn out as many videos as you can per week will not guarantee you any subscribers. It might work for a short time, but it isn’t good for your YouTube channel in the long run. YouTuber Mark Rober only uploads one video per month, but notice the views each video gets.
Pouring your heart and soul into one video is better than making multiple low-quality videos. Because ultimately, it’s the high-quality videos that attract views, watch time, and comments! YouTube might even start suggesting it to new people or ranking it in search results if they perform well.
2. Master YouTube SEO (Search engine optimization)
YouTube SEO is the key to your success on YouTube. It’s the reason why videos show up in search results, browse features, and suggested videos. So, how do you optimize videos for YouTube SEO? The first step is to compile a list of the right keywords to target.
To do this, head on to https://keywordtool.io/youtube, a YouTube keyword research tool. Let’s suppose you want to create a video on social media marketing. Type this word in the search bar and let’s see what results we get.
With Keyword Tool Pro membership, you get over 675 keywords, 85 questions, 135 prepositions, and 3 hashtags just for this term. Keep in mind these are words that people are actually typing on YouTube specifically to look for answers.
To create the YouTube hashtag strategy for this video, go through the keywords and questions and pick out the ones that suit your video the best.
Now, where should you use these keywords? Optimize your video file name, title, description, and meta tags around your target keywords to get the most out of YouTube SEO. If you’re including closed captions in your video, make sure to have keywords in that too.
3. Engage with your audience
This tip is especially useful when your channel is new. Liking comments, replying to people, and doing polls on YouTube will not only help you gain more subscribers, but it will also reduce the chance of people unsubscribing from your channel.
Listening to your audience can give you a lot of information about what they expect from you. This information can later be used as ideas for new content and give you confidence that this is what your viewers want from you.
4. Promote your other videos in your last seconds.
You might have noticed YouTubers usually putting video cards at the end of their videos. If you do the same, you’re encouraging the viewer to match more of your content, increasing your watch time. YouTube sees this as a good sign as the user keeps consuming more of your content. This, in turn, gives your channel a nice boost.
5. Remind people to subscribe
Don’t underestimate the power of asking people to like, comment, and subscribe to your YouTube channel! This may seem like an overused tactic, but it works. A little reminder or soft nudge to subscribe won’t harm anyone in any way, so why not give it a try?
6. Take time to improve your channel page
Channel branding is a critical component of informing viewers about who you are and what they can expect from your channel. Your branding should be so on point that your viewers should know which channel it is without looking at the name. Following are the things you can work on:
- Your channel icon
- Channel description
- Channel banner
It’s not necessary that your branding can only be visual. It could be a catchphrase and your overall video aesthetic as well. Just make sure everything ties in together like a theme. You wouldn’t want to confuse a viewer with different branding at different places. For example, the colors or design of your logo and YouTube banner should match.
7. Have a memorable and catchy intro
The first few seconds of your video are integral to catching people’s attention. Try to make it lively and attention-grabbing, so your viewers are compelled to watch the whole video.
The intro sets the theme of your entire video, so if you can get a viewer hook to that, then chances are they will stay at least until the midpoint. How long they stay on the video entirely depends on how well you’re able to engage them.
If you’re able to hook your viewers to your video until the end, it will increase your watch hours, which is a vital metric for YouTube SEO! It’s an indicator that your video is high-quality and interesting, so YouTube increases its impressions by showing it in search results and suggested videos.
Plus, if you’re able to keep a viewer till the end of your video, you know they are interested in your content which increases the chances of them subscribing!
8. Add a trailer on your channel homepage
Adding to our previous point, a trailer shows everything your channel is about and sets the theme. It might be the first impression for many people, so make sure to make it strong so a user hangs around for a while and explore your content rather than clicking away.
9. Stick to a schedule
It’s critical to maintain a consistent content schedule that your audience can anticipate. Create a content calendar to plan out your ideas and space them properly.
If you are consistent with your upload schedule, your subscribers can expect when you’ll publish a video so they can make time for you in advance.
Verdict: Do Not Buy YouTube Subscribers
All the above-mentioned points are a part of the puzzle that you need to piece together to see the bigger picture, and that’s getting successful on YouTube.
It is highly recommended to grow your YouTube channel organically rather than buy YouTube subscribers as it could hurt your channel in the long run.