Starting my YouTube channel has been one of the smartest decisions I’ve made in my online business!
It didn’t feel that way at first. I had a lot to learn before my YouTube channel skyrocketed (and went from 1,700 subscribers to over 24,000!)
But now I have a proven framework I use to grow my email list consistently to create a community of buyers for my digital products!
And I will also be using this exact same framework to reach 100,000 subscribers over the next 12 months.
If you can nail this three-part YouTube strategy framework, then your channel is likely to explode too!
But before we dive in, if you want a FREE copy of my exact YouTube script template, enter your info below to get instant access:
My YouTube Growth History
2023 was a huge growth year for my YouTube channel.
In fact, I went from 1,700 subscribers at the beginning of 2023 and I ended with over 10,000 subscribers. That’s over 8,200 new YouTube subscribers, 271,000 views, 15,500 watch time hours, and over $2,100 in AdSense and counting.
Plus, I got monetized around the end of August 2023. And at the time of this post, make anywhere from around 750 to $1,200 a month with AdSense.
2023 really was the year where I started to see traction and the patterns of what was working to grow my YouTube channel.
According to Social Blade, a predictions and data site for YouTubers, I should be able to hit the 100,000 subscriber mark by the end of 2024!
And I’m confident I can reach 100k subscribers because I have a YouTube strategy that’s working!
I can easily see what’s working that we can double and triple down on, as well as the areas to improve.
And I’m really excited to break this strategy down for you in this post.
Two Keys to My YouTube Channel Growth
Whether you’re at zero subscribers or a thousand subscribers or you’re looking to go to 10,000 or 100,000…
This is the framework I’ve been using and will continue to use to reach that 100,000 subscriber goal.
2023 started out really slow for me. I was even wondering if it was worth my time starting my YouTube channel (can you relate?)
Until I uncovered two key things that exploded the growth of my channel.
YouTube Growth Strategy #1
The first major change that I made that really started to explode my channel is simple, yet insanely effective.
It’s a common thing YouTubers talk about, but not common for people to understand how to improve it.
The first YouTube growth strategy that exploded my channel is: Improving my Thumbnails.
Based on the effect improving my thumbnails had on my YouTube channel growth, I am convinced that thumbnails are likely the number one most important part of your YouTube channel, your YouTube videos, and your success on YouTube.
In fact, YouTube calls the title plus the thumbnail, your packaging.
A lot of people think that if they’re getting low views, their actual video is bad or the editing is not effective.
But the truth is, if your views are low, that means people aren’t even clicking to watch your video.
So they don’t even have the opportunity to know if your video content or editing is bad!
If you have low views, typically that means the title and thumbnail combination need to be improved.
Then if your average view duration or percentage of your video watched is low, you can assume the video content and editing need to be improved. (this data can be found right inside of YouTube’s studio).
How I Improved My YouTube Video Thumbnails
Here’s a quick rundown of how I improved my YouTube Video Thumbnails (and you can too!):
- Research your niche. Create a spreadsheet with all of your competitors. Compile their thumbnails. Track which of their videos have more views than they have subscribers on their YouTube channel (an indicator that they have a high click-through rate, i.e. their thumbnail is working well!)
- Notice the patterns in your specific niche. Look at the trends in thumbnail colors, layout, text, photos, and editing style.
- Follow the patterns. When you see a trend that seems like it works, test it out on your own YouTube thumbnails and track the improvements with your data!
- Consider hiring a YouTube thumbnail designer. Twitter is a great place to search for a YouTube thumbnail designer because a lot of them include a collage in their posts. Find a skilled designer and have them model the high-performing thumbnails you found in your research.
It may seem like a simple thing, but upleveling my thumbnail design took my YouTube video performance from about 4 to 5% CTR to about 8 to 11% CTR. Prior to that, my videos were averaging maybe 500 to 1,000 views. After, I was getting up to 8,500 views. And at the time of this post, my average view per video was around 10,000 views!
All because of my thumbnails!
If you want to see behind the scenes of exactly how I plan my videos, get my exact YouTube script 100% for free below:
YouTube Growth Strategy #2
The second thing that exploded my channel was posting content more frequently.
But… I don’t think that the frequency was what made the difference.
What that did was speed up my learning so that I can more quickly implement changes that improved my YouTube video performance.
Instead of posting 1 video a week (52 videos a year), I posted 2 videos a week (104 videos a year). I basically crammed two years of learning into one!!
The more data I got, the faster I learned, and the quicker I could make improvements that really made a difference.
My 3 Part YouTube Strategy to Hit 100k Subscribers in 2024
Now that you’ve learned the 2 key strategies that exploded my YouTube channel, let’s dive into the three-part framework that’s going to take me to 100k subscribers!
- Spend more time researching. Research really is everything. Just like I did with my thumbnails, I was able to follow the trends to explode my channel simply by researching. Now I will expand my research to intros, hooks, video content, pacing, and studio set up. Really everything my high-performing competitors are doing to grow their channels consistently.
- Double the output. When I increased the frequency of my YouTube videos, it helped the growth of my channel. I did get busier in my business and needed to pull back to one video per week. And I noticed the difference when my views declined. So the plan is to ramp back up to post more frequently.
- Improve team and operations. By improving my team’s performance and operational efficiency, we’ll create better YouTube videos with less effort, time, and money. We will dedicate time to improving our SOPs (standard operating procedures). And I will delegate more so that I can focus on the most important tasks of research, scripting, and recording.
If you’ve made it this far and you still haven’t downloaded that free YouTube script, go ahead and enter your info below to get it completely for free:
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how I’m going to hit 100,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, you might be wondering what YouTube paid me for the first two months I got monetized.
It’ll be super motivating for you. But how do you do that?
Well, it all starts with watching this video. Because when you pair what you just learned in this post with what’s in this video, it’s going to be more motivating and inspiring for you.
This post was all about the YouTube growth tips I’m using in 2024 to get to 100k subscribers.