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32 Comments

I hit 500 Youtube subscribers!

My no-code channel hit 500 Youtube subscribers in 9 months.
(For reference: https://www.youtube.com/c/MakeSomethingwithRomy)

This may sound like a small number to hit in a long time but is a mini-milestone for a couple of reasons:
a)I didn't have much of an audience on any other platform like Twitter so was entirely from scratch
b)I'm a mom to a 1 yr old, so this happened in my free time on the weekends and nights.

Here are some lessons I learned along the way:

  1. Don't compare your growth rate to other channels: This is a really big one and I would often wonder why some channels grow so quickly when they start. It comes down to two things a) Your initial audience and b)Topic the channel is about.
    For instance, if you have a 20k audience on Twitter, your first few hundred subs on YT may just come from a single tweet.  Also, say your channel is about ASMR, it may be a little easier with the initial subs.

  2. Decide your own pace: The most common advice I get is to post once a week. For the longest time, I could only manage posting once in two weeks. You decide your pace. It could be once a month as well and it's ok to take a break! Making videos isn't easy and I would rather be consistent with the pace I choose.

  3. Spend time on marketing: Similar to products, if you build things no one automatically comes, if you make a great video you simply cant' rely on people to find it. I make an effort with each video to figure out who this could potentially help and send it to them. 5-10% of my time is actually spent on video distribution compared to creation.

I actually think about distribution upfront now right after I decided on the idea for the video.

  1. Don't (only) vlog: So this is a controversial one. Here's my take: when you don't have an audience no one really cares what you are doing in your life! Unless it's super unique. And it's much harder to rank in Youtube for vlogs when you start. I've done vlogs and they haven't performed as well in terms of views. But my videos which were informative like selling something online get 80% of their traffic from YT search. In short, go after the informative content first so you can get the audience.

I would love to vlog more but I am going to do it only once I get a more sizeable audience.

5.Lastly YT takes a LOT of time: Starting a YT channel is relatively easy. Staying consistent is very hard. Not just producing a quality video and marketing but also at times I also have a lot of self-doubt, should I keep going? Do people care enough? You can "hide" behind a blog post but it's much harder to put yourself out there on video. One thing which keeps me motivated is I enjoy making them and also really want to get people to make more things who didn't think it was for them.

Drop me a note if you have any questions! Thanks to this community for all the support over the last few months.

  1. 2

    Go, Romy! Great post and great milestone :-)

    1. 1

      Thank you for all the support right from the beginning!

  2. 2

    Inspiring! Absolutely agree about consistency being one of the biggest challenges, along with the self doubt. But you're making things that directly help people, so that's the key validation. Keep up the great work!

  3. 2

    Thanks for sharing your journey. Great summary of "lessons learned".
    Congratulations for your success so far and all the best for the future.

  4. 2

    Love your energy! Great job. Kudos to you for doing that and all the best!

  5. 2

    Great progress! I hit my 1k sub goal late last year and it definitely feels great. Hope your growth goes well :)

    1. 1

      Congratulations to you too!

  6. 2

    Don't under-sell yourself here!

    Most YouTube creators NEVER get that number, let alone in under 10 months.

    Well done.

    I just pulled the numbers, and only 600 or so channels have pulled that off in the last 10 months (that have >10 videos).

    https://www.channelcrawler.com/eng/results/1450430

    Also keep in mind a good % of these newer creators have other channels to leech traffic/subscribers from.

    You're top 1% here. Keep going!

    1. 1

      Oh so cool, had no idea. Always felt it wasn't growing as quickly.

    2. 1

      *US channels only - there are more globally but wanted to give you a reference that was relevant

  7. 2

    congrats ! just subscribed :)

  8. 2

    Congrats! That is a huge milestone. And I noticed that once you pass 1k, the subs roll in on autopilot. I created a lot of content in 2019-(early)2020 and then stopped. On autopilot, I'm getting 5-10 new subs per week w/o any new content.

    Keep it up!

    1. 1

      That's what I hear too, can't wait to get to 1k :)

  9. 2

    Thanks for sharing this great story. Congratulations!

    1. 1

      Thanks for the support!

  10. 1

    Great job! I checked out your channel and watched one of your videos about hosting a webflow site for free. Great tip! Thanks!

    1. 1

      Of course, glad you liked it!

  11. 1

    Congrats!

    500 seems HUGE from my perspective (I only have 17 subscribers). 🤣 And a video with 4.1k views! Way to go!

    I don't even have a personalized link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQkG3VK4FGr8HXTUDRdxZA. 😢

    1. 1

      Just subscribed to your channel! Keep up the good work. I was in the same place a few months ago.. it will take time, keep at it :)

      1. 1

        LOL, thanks.

        I have a strategy question: if I asked all my friends to subscribe just long enough for me to get the 100 I need to customize my link, and then they all unsubscribe, would YT penalize me?

        1. 1

          Personally, I would not do that. At the end of the day you want people to subscribe who care about your content. What I did is I told 4 or 5 of my closest friends to subscribe but post that just took it to actual users who could potentially subscribe.

  12. 1

    I sooo feel you! I hit 500 not that long ago, end of 2020 and now just reached 1,000 a week ago. From my experience, the first 500 and 1,000 are the most difficult to built, after that it gets a bit easier 😊

    Congrats on your milestone!

    1. 2

      Thank you! Congrats to you as well :)

  13. 1

    Congratulations to you! Excellent feedback! I'm living the same I reached this milestone few weeks ago now heading to the first thousand and I agree 100% with what you say.

    What do you do for the marketing part? On my end I got most of my growth with Facebook groups and YouTube SEO. Tried Reddit but it's not a good fit as my videos are in French.
    For Instagram and Twitter I think they could help a lot but I'm a real newbie especially on Twitter (I need to learn and take action on those social medias)

    1. 2

      It's pretty similar. I have some groups I post in and I get decent traffic from Reddit too. It depends on your content as you said.

      One new thing I am trying is distribution partnerships with tools. For example, Stripe and some newer tools are coming on board that if I make content around them they will promote it. That's one area - I'll have to see how that works.

      Another thing I've planned in the next month is collabs with more prolific creators, so I can benefit from their audience.

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