What's a not annoying way to spread the word about my YouTube channel?

About a month ago I started a Lets Play channel, but haven't spent much time trying to gain audience (besides uploading daily) since I was neck deep in class assignments. Now that summer is approaching I'm very interested in gaining more of an audience, however, I do not want to be an annoying spammer begging and pestering users for views in comment sections and message boards.

I'm in no rush, but after 7 years of uni with 1.5 degrees this is the first time I've felt passionate and excited doing something. I really want to share that with people in a healthy way.

There just isn't a way. If you're some kind of insanely likeable person it may spread through word of mouth, but otherwise your options are "tell everybody about it and nobody will care and just think you're annoying" and/or "be monumentally lucky and somehow you channel gets featured by someone who is much more famous and popular than you".

Hell, a lot of the people who have popular Let's Play channels weren't even any good at it when they started, but it's easier to break into something when it's a much smaller medium. I often think of how big Rooster Teeth is right now as a company and their output, but literally nobody in this day and age would reach their level of success if, today, you just put out a pretty funny series of Halo machinima.

People talk about somebody being at the right place, and the right time, but "the right time" is almost universally "super fucking early, when there is way less competition so being even slightly above average is pretty good."

Make a Twitter-account. Follow likeminded people. Occasionally tweet out your latest video. Do not only tweet about your Youtube channel. Don't spam it. There are also several message boards where sharing this stuff is allowed and encouraged, though I'd bet the odds of getting actual viewers from those places is very low. Anything you do, your odds of any widespread audience spurting up are beyond low, and you should prepare for that. Do it for you, not for them or some vague hope of fame.

hmm probably start live streaming on twitch or something, then post those archives to youtube then you could double dip and try to build a bigger audience that way.

From my understanding it's very often an extremely slow process to get any kind of audience for a Lets Play channel, especially now when its so saturated. The LP channels I follow have all been doing it for at least 6-7 years and have slowly but steadily built a subscriber base. And I'm talking subs ranging from 10k to 50k.

I would guess start by being active on social media (facebook, twitter) and following and engaging with likeminded people/channels, and maybe hope that someone with a noticeable following checks out and likes your stuff? I honestly have no idea how it "works". But obviously avoid the blatant "Hey guys check out my channel pls" spam on other peoples videos.

@vierastalo said:

My post probably came off as pretty negative, because at the end I forgot to say something like this, but I really meant to.

In whatever your Let's Play format is, be yourself; don't be the version of yourself that you think will get more viewers. Just relax and enjoy yourself and if only 5 random internet people ever watch it, be OK with that. If you were already sitting at home and doing lengthy gaming sessions, and the only difference is you're just turning on a mic and/or camera to record yourself while doing it, then that's cool. Enjoy it as a hobby. Don't push yourself to play games you think will get you more views, because it's just complete chance whether your channel will ever gain any kind of following, so play the games you already wanted to play anyway. There isn't any surefire way to just gain a bunch of viewers, so just keep doing what you're doing and have fun with it.

I honestly don't think you can get anywhere without spamming it everywhere. If you want to make it anywhere big you need persistence. I feel very similar about the artwork I do. Whenever I make something new I simply post a link on Twitter and hope people find it organically - those pictures get barely any views. If I tag in some known people and get a bit more aggressive with the word of mouth I'll get a lot more people sharing it around. Lord willing someone like Vinny or Alex retweet it and I get hundreds of likes and retweets. It's a little depressing really that if someone with a huge following doesn't back you then no matter how good your work is it will very likely die in obscurity.

Well, im curious as to what your channel is, id say go ahead and let us know.

Edit. Maybe putting your channel in your steam profile or something would get yoy a small handful, people that play with you happen to check it out. You know what i mean?

2 views means 2 people decided to sit down and watch your content. That's not nothing. Never do things for views or popularity b/c it's not gonna end well. Even if your channel gains a surge of popularity, it doesn't mean people will stay and continue watching. So overall, you're setting yourself up for failure. Some of the best works of art are done by people who had small audiences to view them. Not saying you're doing it for the 'art' of it, my point is if your enjoyment of a hobby revolves around exposure, prepare to be disappointed. That may come off as mean spirited, but it's the truth.

I don't think you have to beg and pester people for views, but you do have to be willing to spam. I frequently see folks tweeting multiple times a day when they post a new video, and then retweeting other folks that mentioned it. It's just the way it's done, I'm afraid.

It's a slightly different situation, I suppose (and I don't mean this negatively at all), but Danny has been tweeting all week about a video that won't be available until June. You have to be willing to do a lot of self-promotion, and it will probably feel like you're spamming folks. I know that's how I'd feel.

Find your niche. Pretty much every breakthrough YT channel or streamer got where they got because at one point they were one of the only ones doing what they were doing. If you go check their history you can literally pick out very specific events that changed everything. If you're just doing "guy playing CoD part 1-24" videos there's just too much competition, but if you play games that aren't very popular, or do stuff like speedruns or challenges or guides or whatever you have a chance at actually being discovered. Hell, at one point there was even channels that took of on YT because they didn't have commentary on their LPs. As far as I can remember every new "internet gamer" I've discovered in the last five (or more) years was because they were doing something off the beaten path.

@lackluster: You screwed up by not linking your channel in this thread.

@dudeglove: @bisonhero: I'm first and foremost doing this for me that's for sure and what you've quoted from Total Biscuit is my general thought process. I'm 100 percent playing games I want to play, I'll only be taking on new releases if they're ones that I'm dying to play as well.

@travisrex: That's a good idea. Thanks! My channel is Mild Gameplay, definitely don't feel obligated to watch or sub, but I appreciate the interest regardless

@shivermetimbers: Let me clarify, I'm doing this because I'm fully enjoying it and feel passionate about it. I'm not looking to be greedy or quickly grow a massive audience, I simply like the idea of being able to share my videos and if I'm lucky interact with a small community. This is why I'm wondering if there's a decent way to spread the word about my channel. If I don't get any more viewers or subs beyond my few friends and girlfriend that isn't going to stop me from releasing videos everyday. I definitely do not want to be misunderstood.

I feel like you need a video to go semi-viral to start building momentum on your channel. It's probably hard to build a large following 1-by-1 unless you have that unexpected hit to bring in viewers. Don't try to force a video to go viral but if you find something original that no one else is doing you will almost certainly find an audience eventually.

@lackluster: i definitely wouldnt mind having yoyr stuff playing in a corner of my screen. Youre pretty good at talking alone. I cracked a smile a few times while watching your first video.

Good luck to you on getting subs.

Mods have locked and / or deleted threads in the past, when they promoted a forum members you tube channel without permission.

@spaceinsomniac: If no one knows your channel exists, no one is going to watch it. As long as you're not spamming it repeatedly, it's probably worth risking them deleting a thread once if you want people to know you exist.

I've been doing it for a couple years now, off and on, and really ramped up the last couple months doing weekly videos in tandem with my podcast. We've had some success with the podcast but my videos haven't really gone far. And like some others have said - I'm not too worried about it? I like putting stuff out there for the few people that do watch everything. It's just fun to sit down with a buddy and shoot the shit while playing something cool.

I don't have much advice other than be consistent, interact with those that interact with you and get on social media (though even that is tough to start from scratch). My best performing videos were ultra timely - my Darkest Dungeon review did much better than I expected because I launched it the day it released on PS4, since I had had time with it on PC. It was the perfect storm of a game I really liked and a release window I could capitalize on without having a 'review copy'. Pay attention for opportunities like that, too.

Stick with it.

Most people who got huge were creating for a sub-50,000 audience before suddenly reaching millions. I remember when Wheezy Waiter was about 10,000. I check up on him recently and he's at nearly 600,000. LGR hit his stride within the last year. Prepare to produce quality content for several years. Be OK with having twenty people watch your videos for four years without getting discouraged. Every US president was at one time just another lawyer.

Find an audience and something that people are interested in; as far as just being an LPer that's most likely impossible to get to work; but simply playing new games and having good thumbnails (Hint: Women) is sufficient to gradually grow a channel over time. You're not going to miraculously become gigantic without help, but you can still make money off of it. Personally I started 2 years ago with the goal to pay for my own games and did that successfully more or less from the getgo of when I started trying (Brother gave me his PS4 randomly so didn't have to worry about initial investment). Last year after SFV came out it occurred to me that me playing SFV, no matter how good I got (which I could feasibly be a top 10 player of a specific character in the US) I would never have much of an audience, but hosting other already famous players would probably work, and lo the channel was 3-4 times as profitable as previously.

I haven't bought a good PC to stream with as of yet because I doubt I would be able to make it profitable, even as a top 100 Hearthstone and Shadowverse Arena player, and one of the best players at various smaller games. Skill doesn't matter (in most situations) just whether people are searching for your shit or not, or getting lucky/knowing someone. Just PS4 + Youtube Video Editor combo was sufficient for me.

Smaller/midsize reddits are very receptive to personal youtube links; just stay away from the big ones. GB has probably generated like 10k-20k views in total for me as well, which isn't totally negligible (~3 million lifetime views at this point). Channel has almost 2500 subs at this point but has the traffic of a 7k-10k channel. I have never put "like comment subscribe" in the description or said it in a video.

Don't play Dark Souls, too many people play it. Bloodborne and Nioh do quite well though.

Indie devs are often willing to cross promote or help you if you reach out to them, though personally I would loathe asking for anything beyond like thumbnails or what have you; but if you don't care it seems like annoying people is one of the best ways to get them to do something for you.

Youtube is a very fun/creative thing to do but it requires a very large time investment, if you have time to spare and nothing to do with it (i.e. college graduates post 2008/2009) then it's something vaguely useful to do in the interrim.

People in real life will never show any interest in anyone other than themselves your youtube channel most likely, don't bother unless you think it's relevant or it comes up in conversation.

@mlarrabee: @nickhead: I'm definitely going to keep making content no matter the sub/view count. :)

@fredchuckdave: Thanks for the post! I think regardless I'm just going to play whatever games I like because no matter what I'm doing this purely because I enjoy it. I'd like to let people know I'm out there for sure, but I want to do it without feeling like I'm starting a business, I think in avoiding that I'm willing to put loads of time into the channel. I'm thinking now that I have even more time that I'll start putting more work into thumbnails to keep up variety (plus it's fun to mess with that stuff), but I don't think I'll do too much clickbaiting.

@travisrex: Appreciate it! I feel like I'm consistently improving/getting more comfortable as well.

Well the whole point was to ask about a way to do it without being annoying which I feel like would be counter productive if I just instantly plugged it.

Whatever you do, do not post on your favourite video game forum in a vein attempt to get views while disguising your post as a legitimate attempt for help.

Nevermind that. 7 years of uni? That's commitment.

I find all streamers absolutely abhorrent, giantbomb is my one and only source. many of us will feel the same way. Don't get into this nonsense honestly.

Honestly? Find a way to work this theme into your videos; the last ten seconds or so could be your outro. Embrace the Cage!

@shindig: Yup... I'm finishing up a second degree and there is major burnout right now.

@n00bs7ay3r: hmm well I didn't name or link my channel except in response to one person who asked for it, so I'm sure you're referring to someone else.

Another random thought: Charisma doesn't matter if your channel isn't already large, charisma is what maintains very large channels and continues/expands their success but just getting started it's almost entirely irrelevant. Visual Quality of videos matters only to a very small percentage of most audiences, as long as the video looks halfway decent it's more than good enough. The amount of effort you put into your videos doesn't necessarily mean they'll be successful relative to videos you put up that required almost no effort, that kind of thing is solely for self improvement; it's probably not going to matter to your audience; but it could certainly matter to you on a personal level.

Youtube channels are successful because they have a constant stream of content, the upper limit of potential volume is very high and should be rightfully exploited as much as possible while you're still small. When a channel becomes enormous then the user doesn't have to put in nearly as much effort (though some still do) and can just shit out a couple of videos vaguely related to their main game or whatever and they'll probably get several hundred thousand views; though at that point you probably have other things going on that take up your time like talking to developers or figuring out a convention schedule and all that garbage. A Streamer that streams for the same 5-10 hours 7 days a week has a very difficult life schedule that is most likely unhealthy for a variety of reasons, but as a youtuber you can do things at your own pace whenever you feel like it and just sort of enjoy the work you do. Of course when people become successful it does tend to become a matter of routine and "joblike" as it were, but I think even large channels if they really try can probably make their work enjoyable.

Streaming and talking can be fun just do it sparingly and don't destroy your voice/pretend to be happy the entire time or whatever; and try not to follow a super strict or rigorous schedule.

It wouldn't surprise me if <Insert Streamer/Youtuber X> was hopped up on amphetamines constantly or something.

I'm probably going to play Cosmic Star Heroine at launch tomorrow; if you pay attention to how I approach the process of streaming (without talking) the game and putting up a variety of videos related to it then you can sort of see how to start growing a channel from nothing. Though the game doesn't have much buzz so I wouldn't expect particularly strong success in that regard; but not every game has to do well, sometimes you just play a game for fun without the pretense of productivity. (Note: I may not follow the usual bevy of videos strategy due to other business (busy-ness), but you can just look at this playlist for a general idea)

This video is me pressing the share button after waiting for 3 minutes on the home screen, it has 25,000 views:

This video is me playing Let it Die extensively for something like 70 odd hours, killing a very difficult mob like 240 times and then editing a bunch of clips for 5+ hours, it has 2200 views though before the game was released in Japan it had like 150-200 or so (both games have videos with 20k+ views):

So ~12-15 seconds of work for 25,000 views Vs 100 hours of work for 2200 views. "Work"

In this case both videos are actually good, but that doesn't matter; I have a video with like 18000 views just because of the title and another video with like 3 likes/85 dislikes that keeps getting views just because of the title (the video isn't insidious or anything, Lower Loran Chalice Layer Three Part Two or something like that, don't ask me why that's a good title); and will probably continue to do so almost forever.

Fair enough, but to answer the question presented, there really is no other way to promote your channel without being annoying unless you perfect your craft/niche. Meaning that you should be modest above all else, perfect your speech, get good audio equipment, get good at editing, etc. etc. There is no magic pill here sadly and I don't have anything to add than what others have mentioned. I wish you good luck.

I would also tend to agree with this modesty>>>>>charisma. I used to watch one person (I won't name it here) who didn't tolerate anyone's bullshit, but he was really modest and that's kinda what grew me to his channel. He was almost the complete opposite of charismatic, but he played it to his advantage. He still has a great following today, btw. I just don't have time anymore.

The only way is to be persistent and to be pushing your stuff on anyone and anything. The phrase "just create good content and people will find it" is simply not true, especially in this day and age of absolute saturation. If you have a bit of cash on hand, what I would suggest is to ask other channels/blogs/whatever if they are ready to feature you, for a little pay. Money opens a lot of doors. Good luck.

HEY! Message me on twitter and check out my channel. I'm legit into this and can help you. @Mako_Titan DM me.

@shivermetimbers: Sounds like a cool and chill guy to watch. May I ask for their channel name?

@lackluster : I don't know how to advertise YT channels. However, I have picked up a little experience from doing videos myself. What I learned is rather basic, but people do forget it and are quick to adapt a "character" for themselves. I learned to simply be yourself. If you ever ask for advice only say"looking for thoughts on audio and visual quality." I used to ask for advice all the time on Reddit on how to better my content because I truly do enjoy making vids, and don't want to produce rubbish. I used to get comments like "be more energetic. Speak more. Be funnier". I tried very hard to base myself on what other people thought made good content. It wasn't very fun. Only recently did I drop it, and started being more of myself. Now I'm really enjoying making vids :)

I know it's not what you asked for but I thought it might come in handy. I will check out your channel, and wish you the very best !

If your goal is sheer expansion, you need to be thinking about three things: production rate (volume vs consistency), networking, and SEO systems.

1. You're going to want to put out as many videos as you can with as much consistency as possible. It can be Let's Plays, lists, funny highlights, reviews, trailer reaction videos. It can be whatever, but you need to make a lot of it and you need to release it regularly. Going long, unpredictable periods without pushing content will stunt your channel's growth and alienate the audience you do manage to build.
2. Try to build genuine, organic relationships with other content creators. This is never easy, it's never straightforward, and it never works if you're only transparently building such a relationship for the sake of self-promotion. You have to give often more than you get. Try to visit a forum like r/LetsPlay, a safe space where you're interacting with fresh upstarts like yourself who have similar interests, backgrounds, and goals. There, you can share advice, get advice on your own product, or even find a creator whose work you like sincerely. Let yourself be a fan of someone (or many someones) just starting out. They'll notice. And they'll generally reciprocate the interest so long as you're having real interaction with them. DO NOT simply spam your channel link or your videos. The longer you can go without straight up asking for cross-promotion, the deeper and more valuable a relationship like that becomes.
3. SEO, SEO, SEO. Don't know what it is? Educate yourself. Learn about the different parts of your video information, and try to understand how important those different parts are in the nebulous and ever-evolving algorithms powering Youtube (and Google) beneath the surface. Take some time to look into tagging--specifically, how to tag for niche audiences or specialized searches. Tagging has been and will remain a feast-or-famine strategy. Largely, organic traffic comes to you by way of your subscribers in addition to the stray eyes you might pick up from sharing the video on social media. Tags require a lot of thought, a lot of work, a lot of effort, and return very little for your investment. Especially with more popular games, you'll be buried under dozens of pages of new and pre-existing content. BUT, given the right lightning strike--a specific enough video and the properly worded tag--your video can get in front of thousands with alarming immediacy. This can lead to a domino effect of traffic throughout the rest of your video library (which, returning to bullet No. 1, is why it is so very important to have lots of videos). Video titles and descriptions are important, too, so don't skimp on those either.

There are other things to talk about, obviously. The technical quality of your video/audio, the format and execution of your content, how you're maximizing social media alongside your output. There's also the simple value proposition all new content creators have to reckon with now: What is in it for the viewer they can't get in greater supply elsewhere?

Those are all larger conversations. At this point, busy yourself with making the videos you want to make and working outward from there. Hopefully the above bullets give you a little guidance.