Journey to 100k YouTube Subscribers - How YOU can get there faster
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I'm sharing ALL the details in this video - how long it took me to hit 100k subscribers on YouTube, how much YouTube paid, how this fits in with my overall business strategy & more!
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Transcription
I just hit a hundred thousand YouTube subscribers. 🎉 In this video, I'm going to look back on the journey and share all the details with you: how long it took me, how much YouTube paid me, how this fits in with my overall business strategy and more. I'm going to share with you what I did right, and what I did wrong (there’s quite a lot) in the hopes that I can help you hit this milestone even faster. If you're new here. Hi, 👋 I'm Louise! Here on this channel, I talk all about building an online business. If that is something you are doing, definitely hit Subscribe!
Humble Beginnings
Firstly, 100,000 is a crazy amount of people! 🤯 If you are one of those YouTube subscribers, thank you so much. 🙏 I started this channel five years ago when I was just getting started as a virtual assistant. I had learned that creating high-value, free content online was a fantastic way for clients to discover you. That really appealed to me, because I did not want to be doing things like direct messaging people on Instagram, trying to get clients. The idea that clients would be able to find me was much more appealing.
Of course, there is a ton of different ways of doing this, but I'm really happy that I went with video, because it just establishes that connection so much faster. I knew that the people I connected with, and whose programs I joined were the same people that I saw on video. At this point, I was still learning so much about setting up and running an online business, so the videos that I posted to my channel were just a few random tech tutorials. It did work though, and I got clients! It turned out that putting out high-quality, free content proved to be one of the best decisions that I've made in my online business.
In 2016, I posted 12 videos and got 52,000 views.
I hit 134 YouTube subscribers and earned $0.
Taking the Leap
What I did wrong here, though, is that I didn't really take it seriously. I think partially because I didn't fully understand the potential of YouTube subscribers, and didn't really believe that it could happen for me. I hope this video helps show you what's possible, and also encourages you to really invest your energy in it from the beginning.
In 2017, I continued this pattern. I'm really proud of myself though, because I had just got started. I kept it simple and was sharing things that I knew and I wasn't waiting until I felt like an expert. It's funny because over time in doing this, I ended up becoming an expert, and that's actually how it works. You have to take that leap first! Take whatever it is that you know now and start sharing. Then you can just keep learning, turning around and posting it; and then continuing this process again and again.
In 2017, I posted 10 videos and got 108,000 views.
I hit 456 YouTube subscribers and earned $38.
Taking it More Seriously
In 2018, I really took it up a notch. Up until this point, I had been really focused on my online business. My online courses and students took priority. However, my YouTube subscribers really helped drive a ton of traffic to my programs, and really helped me build my business. That's why I decided to be more intentional at this point. What was good about this phase is that I did really well with just posting videos and trying to put out work that I felt was valuable. I didn't really put too much pressure on myself around numbers, like views and YouTube subscribers. That can really get a lot of creators down, so don't worry about that too much at the beginning. Especially when you are still working on honing your craft and developing your expertise.
Another common thing that comes up for creators is comparison. It took me five years to hit this milestone, whereas other people have done it so much faster. I could have really let that get me down and possibly even stop creating videos. I'm really glad that didn't happen. In regards to YouTube subscribers, we are all going at different paces. We're all coming into it with different skills and experiences, and there's so much that you need to learn. It's really important to just follow your own path, give yourself time to grow into who you want to be, and don't get too caught up in the numbers.
In 2018, I posted 83 videos and got 231,000 views.
I hit 3000 YouTube subscribers and earned $353.
In 2019, I posted 60 videos and got 650,000 views.
I hit 14,000 YouTube subscribers and earned $9,000.
The Fruits of my Labor
2020 is when it started to get exciting.
In 2020, I posted 69 videos and got 3,300,000 views.
I hit 79,000 YouTube subscribers and earned $58,000.
The income was all from YouTube ads, and this is just one of the income sources in my business. For anyone watching in the future:
It’s June, 2021 right now.
I’ve posted 16 videos and got 1,300,000 views.
I hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers and have earned $30,000 so far.
Looking Back on Opportunities
I've made a lot of mistakes, like being too scared to share some things in the fear that I would get lumped in with some other digital marketers. I've posted too many straight tech tutorials, when I should have let my personality shine through more. Sometimes I have also been torn over what style and what kind of videos I want to make. I’ll sometimes want something that is super crisp and professional, with all the transitions. Other times, I'll see someone just sit down and do a really real and authentic video, and I want to do that. I'm still uncovering my style, and I hope to put more creativity and heart into them going forward.
Tips for Starting
For those of you that are just getting started, this is what I would do: I would spend time developing my own style. I would not just post tech tutorials. I would share my personality and I would change my definition overall of “value”. Entertainment and inspiration are just as valuable as straight informative step-by-step videos.
Rather than worrying about reaching more people, I would focus on building a tight-knit community that comes back and watches every single one of your videos. I think this is a really smart and effective way to grow your YouTube subscribers, and is also really going to make a huge difference when it comes to your business. Create that community, and then cater your content for them. It's really like the 1,000 true fans concept. Lean into that more and more. Also, be more open to share both your successes and failures, and really bring your audience along with you.
100,000+
So, where am I at now? Even though I'm super proud of myself for hitting this milestone, I think that I still really need to up my game. I'm going to be really focused in on quality and trying to produce one really great video per week. Rather than trying to just post more and more content, I'm going to narrow in and try and create better content. This is quite the challenge though, especially when running a whole business.I just need to give myself grace and just try and slowly make some improvements. 🤞
Wrap Up
That's it for me, that is my update journey and how I got here. I would love to hear anything else that you would like to know on this topic. Just let me know in the comments below, and I'll get back to you there. Thank you so much for watching! 🙌 If you haven't yet subscribed, you can do so here. You can also click here to see a list of every tool that helped get me here, in addition to my YouTube subscribers. I will see you real soon with another video! 🥰
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