How To Grow Your YouTube Channel in 2021

As of right now, I’ve had my YouTube channel up and running for 8 months. During these past few months, I can honestly say it’s been so much fun growing my channel and posting fresh new fashion videos each week. Despite my initial fears over creating a YouTube channel last year, I am undoubtedly happy that I finally chose to make it a reality.

With over 8 months of YouTube experience to look back on I can share some ups and downs to maintaining a successful channel on the platform.

Even though I am so close to hitting my first 1,000 subscribers, I can confidently explain how I got to where I am in such a short amount of time with you today.

How To Grow Your YouTube Channel in 2021

These are tips for growing your own YouTube channel in 2021. All of my tips come from my personal experience using the platform and creating weekly videos to share with my audience.

Within this post, I plan on sharing the many ways I’ve grown my YouTube channel this year. Hopefully, there are some major takeaways to help you with your own channel in 2021!

How To Grow Your YouTube Channel in 2021

1. Find A Niche and Stick To It

My YouTube channel solely focuses on fashion content. While planning out video ideas for my channel, I decided to niche down to covering fashion related content. When you choose your own niche you can brainstorm video ideas to bring your content to life for a select audience.

All of my subscribers will watch my video content and know that I’ll be sharing mostly fashion-related videos. Once you narrow down your niche your subscribers will know exactly the type of content to expect from you on a regular basis.

Whenever I post a new video to my channel, my subscribers are excited to see which retailers I’m shopping at. As soon as a new video goes live they are all ready to watch me share try-on hauls because that’s the type of content they know I will give them.

2. Be Consistent

Yes, it’s been quite a journey posting one video per week to my channel, but consistency is how you can easily grow your YouTube channel in 2021. For my channel I post a brand new video every week featuring “Shop With Me” videos or “Try-On Hauls” to adhere to my fashion-based niche.

Consistency will make your subscribers feel like you will deliver high-quality content on a regular basis. More people want to subscribe to an active account. I’m not saying you need to post a new video every day, but starting out with one per week is a good way to connect with your audience as a consistent YouTuber.

3. Record Your Video In Natural Light

In my first couple of YouTube videos, I was still new to filming and bought myself ring lights to create better lighting. However, after reviewing the footage and putting together the videos, I realized my studio lights weren’t improving my videos.

Instead of filming in my home office space, I moved out to the entryway of my home for better natural light. Now all of my videos appear crisp and bright because of this simple change of scenery! I suggest filming your videos somewhere with the best source of natural light. Bright videos will also perform better on YouTube so don’t miss out on video views because of poor lighting.

One of the best investments I made before recording my videos was to order a ring light, too. Sometimes I attach my phone into my ring light to capture close-up details or sit down style content.

4. Create Eye-Catching Thumbnails

The best YouTube videos always have intriguing thumbnails. Whatever niche you decide to choose, make sure to look at similar videos to get ideas for what type of thumbnail to create.

Of course, I don’t mean steal someone else’s thumbnail style, but rather take inspiration from your competition. For example, as a fashion YouTuber, I looked at similar accounts on the platform who create try-on hauls to gather inspiration for my own thumbnails.

PRO TIP: If at first your thumbnail doesn’t receive much traction, you can always change it! I’ve changed my video thumbnails a few times until a new one starts receiving more average views. Sometimes I go overboard with colors and pictures. In Canva, I need to remove some things to keep my thumbnail interesting without looking overwhelming to the eye.

Reasons Why This Thumbnail Works:

1. It shows my face
2. There are a few outfits from the video pictured in the thumbnail
3. The fonts are large and easy to read
4. I used the retailer’s logo
5. My video title is clearly written in the thumbnail
6. All of my selfies are edited with the same filter for consistency
7. The colors and text fit my branding

5. Ask Viewers to Subscribe To Your Channel

One of the most important things to do with your YouTube channel to grow sounds easy, right? Sometimes I watch YouTube videos and the person talking never asks me to subscribe to his or her channel which is a huge missed opportunity.

In all of my YouTube videos, I make sure to include a snippet asking a viewer to subscribe in the beginning and the end of my video. When I am asking someone to subscribe to my channel and I also include a bright red subscribe button on screen next to my profile photo. These are two ways to bring attention to your channel and increase your subscriber count.

YouTube Growth Checklist

6. Create Higher Ranking Videos with TubeBuddy

A secret weapon that I use to rank higher on YouTube? TubeBuddy! At first, I only had the free version of TubeBuddy to assist me with ranking my videos higher. Now I am using the premium version of TubeBuddy to increase views for all of my videos with ease.

TubeBuddy eliminates extra stress that comes with finding the right title, description, tags, and topic ideas for my channel. One of the best features to TubeBuddy is the keyword research tool that shows how well a certain keyword ranks on YouTube.

EXAMPLE: For example, if I am sharing a try on haul for Old Navy, I need to see how well the title “Old Navy Try On Haul” ranks on YouTube and how I can boost my rankings for it. TubeBuddy helps guide me in the right direction by letting me know how popular a video title is. For optimal success on YouTube, you want to find a sweet spot for your video title to be relevant to your content and show up in a search.

Although I’d want to title my video “Old Navy Try On Haul” this title already has a ton of competition. Changing the title to “Old Navy Try On Haul Spring 2021” would rank me higher because it’s more specific.

SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimzation not only brings traffic to a blog page, but it also comes to play on YouTube. It’s vital to pay attention to SEO practices to draw in more views on a new video. I’ll go over a couple of important SEO practices for you to keep in mind. TubeBuddy has helped me tremendously when I set up my video to abide by SEO practices, too.

Best SEO Practices for YouTube Videos

1. Include your video title/target keyword in the first 60 characters of your description.
2. Put your exact video title/target keyword as the first “tag”.
3. Upload a high-quality thumbnail. I use Canva to create mine.
4. Add your video to a “category” so viewers can find it. I choose “How To & Style” for my fashion videos.
5. Include at least 1 “card” to place in your video.
6. Add an “end screen” to your video.
7. Pin a comment.
8. Heart and reply to your comments.
9. Share your video to Facebook and Instagram.
10. Add more relevant tags to your video.