Last Updated on September 13, 2024
While celebrities are known for their movie projects and endorsements, there are YouTube stars who have their own universe of loyal subscribers. While these social media celebs may not be household names, their fan base is still rather large. In fact, many of them sell their own merchandise as part of their monetization scheme.
With fame, money, and the chance to do something you love at stake, it’s no wonder that more and more people want to be vloggers on YouTube. But what does it really take to be one? And how can you trump your competition? Is it possible to be in the same league as Shane Dawson and PewDiePie?
Issues with Subscriber Bots
One of the biggest issues that YouTube had to deal with since its early years is subscriber bots or sub bots for short. These are basically bots that target one’s view count by increasing it over a short period of time.
There are a few easy tricks that will tell you that a YouTuber’s view count was done by sub bots. One of them is by looking at the actual number of views against the number of Likes or Dislikes. The other is by looking at the number of subscribers against view count. If these numbers seem disproportionate (e.g. the channel only has 20 subscribers but it has 2 million views, or it has 100k views but only 10 Likes and 2k Dislikes), then odds are, the channel has been using sub bots.
One of the biggest reasons YouTubers opt for using subscriber bots is because it can be highly difficult nowadays to gain traction on the popular video platform. With more than 1.9 billion logged on users every month, that’s millions of hours of content every day.
And with all that noise, it can be frustrating for your content not to be found by your target audiences. Let’s face it: people prefer to watch videos with a large view count compared to one with less. Not to mention that you have better chances to be on YouTube’s home page with bigger views.
What Really Matters on YouTube Today
When experts say ‘content is king’, they weren’t kidding. Quality content, whether you aim to entertain or to educate, is still crucial to getting subscribers.
Again, with all that noise, folks who come to YouTube usually want just two things: to be entertained or to learn something new. Pick one and use that to make something worth watching.
Second, ensure that what you deliver is family or kid-friendly. This is especially important if you want to monetize your videos through ads. This means no cussing, vulgar, violent, or explicit content.
That’s because businesses are aware that the bulk of viewers are mostly families or young adults. And of course, no business generally wants to be linked with creators who use foul or vulgar content.
Last but not least, don’t forget the technical and basic stuff. This means a little of YouTube SEO, as well as promoting your stuff on other social media platforms. Even something as small as using the right tags can help boost your video’s performance on YouTube’s algorithm.
YouTube Stats to Base Content On
Are you a budding YouTuber? Or maybe you’ve already started but now you’re stumped for good content? Here are a couple of ideas based on YouTube’s most important stats:
Most YouTube viewers are between 18 to 24 years old
In essence, the bulk of them are Gen Z. So what can you take from this? As many of these viewers are still studying, it would be a good idea to make informative videos, such as those concerning math or science.
You can also make funny or craft or videos, as teens, generally use YouTube to de-stress after work or school.
YouTube works in over 91 countries and can support 80 languages
Take advantage of your local YouTube network if you have one in your country! It can be pretty difficult to break into the international level; but once you make it big in your own hometown, it can be a giant leap moving forward. Also, you can provide captions in different languages to serve many types of viewers from different countries.
70 percent of views are on mobile
Keep in mind that a large percentage ?f people watch YouTube on their smartphones. With this, you can gather that they would want content that is 1) short, 2) to the point, and 3) entertaining or informative.
If you cater to lengthier types of content, make sure that you don’t miss anything vital. Covering main points is a good way to keep viewers coming back, as they would see you as a credible source of information.
Conclusion
It may be tempting to buy into sub bots for the promise of free YouTube subscribers and views in a matter of days. But depending on the risk you’re willing to take, it may not work out well in the long run. Regular viewers may not have noticed, but YouTube has been on a silent crackdown for spam accounts and channels using sub bots.
While big-name YouTube stars may see a decrease in their subscriber count, the ones who will truly be affected are small creators as they don’t have millions of subscribers, to begin with. If you’re a beginner, it’s best to abide by the rules and gain organic stats.
Let time and quality content tell whether you’ll make it or not.
