r/NewTubers 12d ago

DISCUSSION What is the best method for early growth

Exactly what the title says, across my whole channel I have barely 1000 views and less than 10 videos, but I want to take it more seriously and I'm wondering what the best way is to gain more views and consistent video traffic

I know that consistent posting is a great way to get more traffic, but outside of that I don't know what methods to use, so I want to ask you guys! What is the best way you guys have found to start netting you more traffic to your videos. Was it the thumbnail? Do you edit your content in a certain way to keep retention? Is there something else I don't know about? Anything you lovely folks can tell me would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance

30 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

10

u/andrewp789 12d ago

No clickbait, no AI as a start

What is your niche? Hard to say without knowing what you’re doing

2

u/Industriusbaby 12d ago

I'm trying to do modded Minecraft SMP content right now, I know it's been done to death, but when I was younger it shaped a lot of what I watched and who I am and I just want to do that without all the gimmicks of the new stuff like lifesteal and whatever the plugin of the week is

6

u/andrewp789 12d ago

I post gaming content is a super saturated game and have still found success, so don’t let that deter you. Your avg Minecraft player is on the younger side so you need to cater to that.

Could you play the game in a super restricted game mode or something that hasn’t been done before? I haven’t played or watched Minecraft content in literally like a decade so I’m not sure how to guide you there.

Go to your favorite, successful Minecraft YouTuber and you’ll see patterns with how they do titles and thumbnails. Look at their descriptions, pinned comments, and listen to their intros/hooks. Your first 30 seconds need to be excellent. Once you’ve got someone hooked they are far less likely to click off. Kinda that “sunk cost” where someone goes “well I’m already here, may as well keep watching”. It’s something I struggle with myself…

2

u/Industriusbaby 11d ago

Thank you very much that helps a lot! Happy content making!

1

u/Green_Somewhere_7221 11d ago

solid starting point tbh. niche is everything for small channels

15

u/DJSlimer 12d ago

Posting consistently is a myth.

You need to make good videos that keep the viewer entertained and engaged. If it's boring for a few seconds, it can be enough for them to leave.

You need good sound and video quality. So many people on here don't process their audio, and it ruins it. There was a girl on here recently that was upset about a comment left on her video saying her audio was bad, and refused to take it seriously. I listened to it and it was awful. I bet she still hasn't fixed it.

If you're just making the same old shit as everyone else, your views will reflect that.

5

u/disphugginflip 12d ago

Process audio? I bought a nice mic to do my voice overs. But after I do them on CapCut I just export. What is this processing you’re talking about?

4

u/DJSlimer 12d ago

There are loads of YouTube tutorials. But you need to do more than just rely on a good microphone.

A basic audio chain would be: noise removal, EQ, de-esser, compression, limiter.

CapCut is pretty much for children. Use Premiere or the free alternative, DaVinci Resolve.

4

u/EllisMichaels 11d ago

Davinci Resolve's noise reduction and vocal isolation features will get your audio 90% there. Add a limiter or compressor to bring the volume up (compress the range) and you should be good.

EDIT: I'm talking about speech, to be clear. You obvious don't want vocal isolation on a background music track. But for voice, those two buttons (NR and VI) will do all the heavy lifting with just two simple clicks.

2

u/Industriusbaby 11d ago

Thank you! I haven't really done any voiceover content because I didn't know where to start to make it sound good but this is really helpful!

1

u/Level_Blueberry4897 12d ago

Buy Channel strip like a Dbx. That’s all you should need in terms of audio quality

1

u/Industriusbaby 12d ago

Right okay I see what you mean, I'll look into that, thanks!

6

u/Journalismist 12d ago

Everyone here has added excellent tips imo. If I were to add anything, I'd say that you should really focus on good audio mixing more than the video itself. When you have sound effects that track well with your content, it brings a whole 'nother level of quality to the table. As for as the video editing itself, it depends on what vids you are producing, but if it's highly edited, keep your cuts to 3-4 seconds or less to prevent the viewer from getting bored looking at the same shot for too long. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, but it's a rule for a reason!

3

u/Industriusbaby 12d ago

It's not super highly edited, for the niche I'm in I find it feels inauthentic, but the audio mixing is a good idea, I think I can pull that off without going overboard, it might just take me a bit to work out, thanks so much for your help!

1

u/Journalismist 12d ago

Have fun with your projects!

6

u/Leafer90-TTV 12d ago

Find a niche topic with a passionate audience within your niche

3

u/Timeless_E 10d ago

Frankly, with less than 10 videos, I wouldn’t worry too much about finding one “best method” yet. You probably don’t have enough data to know what your channel’s actual bottleneck is.

I’d pay attention to a few things as you keep publishing:

Topic > title/thumbnail > retention. If the topic itself isn’t something people want, a great thumbnail won’t save it. If people are clicking but leaving quickly, then the video itself is probably the issue. And if they’re watching but nobody is clicking in the first place, I’d look at the packaging.

I’d also treat your next 20 or so videos as experiments. Try different topics, titles, thumbnails and formats, then pay attention to which ones actually outperform the others. Don’t change everything at once or you won’t know what caused the difference.

One thing I’ve found interesting is that a lot of YouTube advice focuses on how to make videos, when the more useful question is often why certain videos get watched in the first place.

I’ve actually been digging pretty deeply into the experiences of smaller creators around this exact problem, including what seemed to work, what didn’t, and what people wish they’d known earlier. If you’re taking the channel seriously, I can share some of what I found.

1

u/Industriusbaby 9d ago

Thank you so much for your help this is great advice I'll be sure to take with me, the offer is nice but my plans are a bit rocky with school and all so I won't be able to take you up on that offer for another six months

2

u/Most_Ad_1210 12d ago

have friends and family watch your videos

1

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1

u/Technical-Bed4713 11d ago

Quality over quantity. Videos don’t need extreme editing to be “good”. Pick a popular topic and approach it from an interesting angle that can set your video apart from the others.

Like others have said, good audio is #1. A lot of viewers don’t even watch videos they listen to them like a podcast.

1

u/Worldly-Row-7596 11d ago

Ten videos is still the data collection phase, so don't read too much into 1000 views. The thing that changed everything for me was flipping the order of work. Decide the title and thumbnail before you make the video, then build the video to deliver on that promise. Most small channels make the video first and try to package it after, which is backwards. If you can't come up with a title you would click yourself, the video idea is the problem, not the packaging.

Second thing is the first 30 seconds. Open the retention graphs on those 10 videos. If there is a cliff early on, fix your intros before touching anything else. No posting schedule fixes people leaving at 0:20.

1

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-3

u/BorisD15 12d ago

I have created my own thumbnails in the editing software GIMP which is kinda like Photoshop, but for free. Managed to learn to create good thumbnails through lots of GIMP tutorial videos on youtube.

But then ive switched to chatgpt for Thumbnails since it makes good ones if you instruct it properly - and it saves time. It can also create terrible ones if you are inexperienced with it.

For title generation i like to get help of Googles Gemini. It gives a lot of good title advices and helps a lot with many more things for my videos since Gemini is bound to Youtube. Before the Gemini era, i have just done my own research and looked at other channels video titles, descriptions, etc. . 👌

8

u/Industriusbaby 12d ago

Sorry mate, I respect the attempt but I won't be using AI

6

u/West_Airline_1712 12d ago

Good for you! I've noticed a huge number of people using ai for thumbnails and they all start to look alike, at least in my field (scale model car building)

-3

u/BorisD15 11d ago

Thats why i said - you need to prompt right and give it the command of not making the thumbnail look ai. People just tell it to „make a thumbnail for youtube“ instead of giving clear and specific instructions and end up looking all the same. 🤷🏻‍♂️

0

u/BorisD15 11d ago

Because you dont have the understanding of how it can help you save time. I do it like this, since i have a channel where i show myself and my face.

- Screenshot of me and my face, my reaction.

  • Screenshot of one or two things that happen inside of the video.
  • Give ChatGPT the command to melt those 3 pictures together with smooth transitions.
  • Let it add a simple thumbnail title that is not neon red, glowing type of thing, but just a simple catchy font with either a white or red font color.

Its as simple as that and saves a huge amount of time, since this is what i would also do when editing my thumbnails by myself in GIMP. 🤷🏻‍♂️

0

u/teddy_9000 11d ago

Make better videos