This is probably you:

Hey guys! I made my first video last week, but I'm only getting 10 views! I shared my video on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all my friends and family, on twenty different subreddits, and I just made a second video to remind people to watch my first video, but no one watched that either. I worked really hard on my video! Does anyone have tips?

Also, since the rules don't let me link my channel, please post a comment and specifically request that I share a link with you so I can send you a DM.

Most NewTubers figure out that promotion is crucial to getting any sort of traction. The problem that becomes immediately obvious that your promotion doesn't seem to be working. Not even buying adspace is getting you any attention. It can be frustrating. You want people to see your hard work. So you continue to promote.

If you've been following my threads, you'll know what I'm going to say next: you're doing it wrong.

But how? Isn't promoting just sharing my video to every possible audience and hoping they will watch me? No, of course it's not that easy. You can waste a lot of time - and ruin your future chances - if you think this is the easy way to getting fame and attention. With patience and commitment, you can do a lot to promote your channel positively without the stigma of being a Hit-and-Run spammer.

Spam spam spam baked beans spam

I like spam. Fried, with a bit of soy sauce and white rice. But the spam that fills up newsfeeds? **** that.

Mistake #1 with NewTubers is thinking that sharing the link is the same as promoting, and this is why the numerous small YT subreddits and FB groups are such a bad trap for NewTubers. It's full of hit-and-run, fire-and-forget links, and is no better than sub4sub. How many of these link-dumped videos do you actually watch? Seriously?

It's also important to note that Reddit is generally a bad place to promote videos. The nature of Reddit means that it is a "digest", where people can read through short posts or upvote a picture. It's less enticing to open a new tab or browser (especially on a phone) to watch a 20 minute YouTube video.

This is often the first and only step that NewTubers take before they throw their hands in the air in frustration. You really don't need to do this to succeed.

You're spamming your video out to people who have no reason to watch your video. Even if forum rules don't ban it, we have a filter that recognises when something is a waste of time. How many spam emails do you actually read? How many new churches do you join because of volunteers handing out flyers?

If you're going to convert people to your church channel, you're going to have to go on a mission. There are actually many analogies between doing missionary work and promoting your channel, and you can apply a lot of real life concepts to appeal to potential viewers.

Identify your potential audience

While you might be working on your content in isolation, your audience is connected to a larger network that you need to tap into. Mistake #2, in this case, is thinking that people will magically come out of nowhere to watch your video as soon as you upload it. Who's supposed to be watching your content and how on earth are they meant to know that you exist? And how do you know if they want to watch your content?

Do some surveying. Where do your potential viewers hang out? If you're doing a channel on theme parks, where do people go to discuss theme parks? Is there a subreddit? If you're covering a movie franchise, is there a fan forum (or many)? Are there other forums that are broader but have a significant interest?

Special shout-out to the gaming channels: which forum is the main community based? Sometimes it's the official forums, but perhaps the official forums are less populated and strictly moderated. Maybe it's GameFAQs, or Steam, or a subreddit, or some other community forum that has more gravitas than the official forum.

Lurk

Now that you've found some community hotspots, time to look inconspicuous by donning a cap and shades and walk among the plebs.

Mistake #3 by over-excited NewTubers is to make an account, make a thread and shout to the community that they're making a new channel. Too soon, son. You might get a slow clap before your account is terminated.

Remember that the audience that you are lurking in is going to be your audience. You are going to dominate this audience and become a household name. Don't ruin it by telling them that like a Hollywood villain.

You've got to be stealthy. This is your chance to do on-the-ground research and find out what people in your community want. Look at trending topics, popular threads, complaints and whinges. Start noting these things down. Maybe look up if there are any corresponding videos that cover these topics. If not, there's something there for you.

Contribute

You've done the groundwork. Now to start building your reputation. You can take off the stupid hat and glasses (who thought this was a good idea?) No one knows who you are, so it doesn't matter anyway.

If you haven't already made an account in the forum, do so. It does help if you have the same name as your YouTube channel. If you don't, use a signature if the forum allows for one, but don't go crazy on spamming the channel yet. We're here to prove our worth.

Start posting in threads that you can contribute to, especially in topics that people need help with. Be honest, be helpful, and be thorough. You're sweetening your future viewer one at a time. Every positive interaction is going to be witnessed by many. Again, don't get up on a soapbox and announce yourself. Just weave yourself into the regular crowd seamlessly. Just be the reliable good guy who's just hanging out, helping people, contributing thoughtful content and not being an attention whore. And really be active in trawling through the forums. This can be tougher in smaller, low traffic forums, but it also gives you more room to become noticed.

The benefit of sinking a lot of time into doing this is not only to improve your standing in the community, but also getting experience in handling these topics and discussions, and becoming familiar with community reception before you announce your first video.

Make Content...But Don't Share It.

I'm not going to say that you should spend years writing a thesis in your community forum before making a video. If you haven't already, this is the point where the videos should be coming out. But we're going to have some fun with this: you're going to live a double life, and hide in plain sight.

You're going to let people start discovering you by themselves. Remember that people hate self-promotion. But also remember that the people you're hanging out with are also searching for content on YouTube. While you've been hanging out with the forumites and listening to their questions and posting meaningful contributions, you've also been busy making videos on the same topics on the side.

Sooner or later, someone's going to stumble across one of these videos and think "Wow, it's like this guy is one of us". You're not popular enough for the viewers to put two and two together. The YT audience isn't overlapping enough with the other communities for widespread recognition.

While your videos are beginning to be viewed by a curious and growing audience, refrain from sharing video links. Even if you have a video that directly addresses a relevant topic, keep on manually responding as if the video didn't exist. This is repetitive work, but you're still being the "good guy" who isn't self-promoting.

Start Sharing...but not openly.

At some point, you might to drop a subtle link. Don't make a thread to announce the video. Wait until someone else wants to find out. If we're on the topic of making YouTube videos and someone makes a thread asking what it's like to have 10,000 subscribers, write a proper response to engage them, and then insert the link as part of your explanation.

Stick with what you know and only share if you think that your content is good enough to cover the response. Again, it's repetitive work to respond to so many threads, but you're starting to gain more than a personal interest in what you do, and you're starting to drop your name and your link out there without drawing negative attention. If you do get negative feedback, learn from that but don't kick up a fuss about it in the community. We're not here to pick fights. Lesser channels with worse reputations will do that. In fact, if there is another YTer that often gets criticised in that community, learn from their mistakes.

By this point, you might have gained the attention of more than a few people, who look forward to your posts and might be looking forward to your videos. The big win is when someone else recommends your video - maybe it's a community member who just found your channel and wants to share it.

The Prestige

"Hang on, isn't so and so a regular here?" they ask. They look around, expecting you to appear in the thread. But you're wearing your cap and glasses again, and you're just lurking, waiting for the reaction. Maybe someone in the back of the crowd recognises you. You press your finger against your lips. Shhh.

Then the time comes: one of your videos gets picked up by the algorithm. You've covered a trending topic that people are hungrily searching for, and your videos are being suggested because of some other channel. Links begin appear on the forums, on Facebook, and on /r/videos. The buzz is huge. People by the hundreds are commenting on your videos, but also on all these other forums. The reception is overwhelmingly positive. It's time to make your grand appearance.

You look for an innocent fan's comment. "Wow, this was a professional video! I learned a lot!"

Your open the reply box. "Thanks."

Moment of silence. The thread seems to stall. Then, as readers sort through the comments, they spot your name.

"Wait, are you the same..."

"OMG HE'S HERE"

"DUDE LUV YOUR VIDEOS BRO"

"DUUUUUUUUUUUDE"

You do a spin and throw away the cloak, the hat and the glasses. You are wearing a red sequined jacket. You strike a pose as the pyrotechnics pop off jets of fire beside you. The lights go on. The crowd goes wild. They throw fluffy YouTube play buttons at you and salute you with a thumbs up. They reach out, wanting to touch a real YouTube star. You are gracious. Every comment you deflect. Every question, you answer. Every hater gets pulled away by the voracious crowd. This is your moment.

As the excitement dies down, you turn and walk away. Someone notices and calls out "Wait, isn't there more?"

You smile. You point to your fan. "Every week. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell icon."

Was It All A Dream?

Fame is fleeting. The subreddit threads are off the front page, the forum threads are archived, and you become a myth. Your channel has grown, and your regular content is getting quite a few views now, though not explosive as you had before. But you're fine with this. You've made the impact, and now you can reap the steady reward. Hubris doesn't fit you. Now that you're a celebrity, you have to be a bit more reserved, post less, and respond to fewer comments on your channel. Your viewers know you're busy, and feel special when you take the time to respond. Every now and then you look at the trending threads, and you smile each time someone links your video and ten others agree that you're the best. You say nothing.

Maybe one day you might make a comeback show. But for now, you're busy working on your channel, doing your own thing. You've planted the seeds. You've successfully brainwashed promoted your church channel and gained a lot of minions followers.

Based on a true story

In short, this is basically what I did for my archery videos and how it came to be recommended viewing for high schools, clubs and organisations. A couple of small breakout videos were shared on Reddit, and only then did I make an account. I did find that sharing my own videos had some initial response, but largely it was other people sharing my material that kept the buzz going. The content was very deeply based on my experiences as an instructor as well as the collective trends in the archery forums, so the video content consistently hit the mark, covering the common questions and issues that frequently came up.

There's an ironic twist to this:

When my video went viral and hit 2M views in a month, it was widely shared on /r/videos. I found the thread via TubeBuddy and read through it. There is another Redditor, NuArcher, who makes infrequent appearances on the archery subreddit who was innocently responding to some of the common questions. The subreddit thought he was the star and threw their adulation at him, along with hundreds of karma. He was inundated with comments, and only realised his faux pas when he saw that I was also posting in the same threads answering direct questions, but no one was looking. He later sent me an apology for stealing my thunder. This is pretty much the equivalent to Charlie Chaplin losing a Chaplin lookalike contest.

This is also something I'm trying to prove and validate again. I've been thinking of diversifying my channel content to cover cultural identity, and I just happen to have joined the "Subtle Asian Traits" meme group on FB, which has generated a LOT of interesting new ideas. I've posted a couple of things that have gone viral in that group, and I've established that I'm probably the only active YTer in that group. There's already brand recognition (to the shock of hundreds who had already come across me on YT). If I ever get around to starting my new series, that could be 1M new viewers to tap into.

Remember that you don't have to build a community from scratch. You can use an existing community and grow with it.

General Tips on Promotion

• The more attention you draw to yourself, the more people will ignore you.
• Think big, work small. Don't try to spam thousands of people who will ignore you. Spend more time with individuals who will watch you.
• This is essentially how missionary work is done: they go out, volunteer in the community, sit down with individuals and engage in dialogue. This makes the missionary and the religion look good, just as how you can present your channel in less demanding and more welcoming way.
• Don't be a dick. Fame gets to everyone's heads. As your sub count grows, the temptation to call yourself king is powerful. You inherently begin to feel superior, that your subs and your fame will carry you to the top, and that the plebs you once walked among are too far below your station to criticise you. You can sink your channel as fast as you grew it if you betray the community who supported you.
• No king rules forever. Every breakout video and trending topic will only last for 24-48 hours. You don't get much of a chance to set impressions.
• Always think of the next thing you can do. Remember your channel plans. Your work doesn't end just because you went viral.
• Respect and reputation are often bigger gains than subs.
• Patience. We always say this. You have to invest time into growing your reputation and your channel. The less effort you put into promotion, the less the reward. Remember too that you should be working smarter, not harder.

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