Free food, free shopping vouchers, free life. Don’t we all enjoy free things? So when it comes to boosting traffic on your social media or YouTube page, why pay for it?
If you’re a content creator, there are ways in which you can garner subscribers for free on YouTube.
But before we get to explaining that, we’d like you to sign up for our power-packed course on ‘Grow your YouTube subscribers’, only on PowerPass. Here, you’ll get expert-led insights and learning material that educates you on optimising your channel, acing YouTube Shorts, gaining free subscribers, SEO tactics for YouTube, and so much more.
Getting more free YouTube subscribers is the best way to maximise your organic reach. If your goal is to make money on YouTube, hitting subscriber milestones is critical. What if you plan to use YouTube for branding and video marketing, rather than to make money directly? You still need subscribers. They bump up your play counts, watch time, and engagement—all of which are important signals for the YouTube algorithm to do its trick.
In this article, we have devised legitimate strategies for you to get people to click that Subscribe button on your channel so that you can get free and real YouTube subscribers.
Table of contents:
- 6 ways to get more YouTube subscribers (for free)
- How to see your YouTube subscribers
6 ways to get more YouTube subscribers (for free):
From the easiest to the most complicated, here are some of the best practices for converting viewers into subscribers:
1. Ask your viewers to subscribe
It doesn’t get much easier than this. Sometimes your audience just needs to be reminded. Does asking for the subscription seem too sales-y to you? It can be if you ask too soon or too often. But a quick reminder to subscribe at the end of your video is just making it easier for fans to keep up with the work you do.
Remember to demonstrate why your channel is worth subscribing to.
2. End your video by teasing what you’re working on next
Subscribing to a channel on YouTube is an act of anticipation. Viewers who’ve just seen what your brand is about are primed to want more if you’ve done your job right. Hyping your next video, and making it clear why it’s not to be missed, is the most organic way to encourage people to tap the Subscribe button.
3. Verify your Google account
By default, all YouTube users can upload videos up to 15 minutes long. If you want to create content longer than that, you’ll need to verify your account. Since longer videos give you more options for the kinds of content you can create, this is an important step for anyone who wants to build a professional channel.
To verify your account, go to www.youtube.com/verify on your computer (not a mobile device), and follow the instructions. Once you verify your account, you can upload videos up to 256GB or 12 hours long.
4. Build a community of friends
Interact with your audience and make friends on YouTube. If you form relationships with your viewers, they’re more likely to want to keep watching your work. Respond to comments. Follow their channels back. Form a community of peers and promote each other.
5. Run a contest
If you want a short-term bump in engagement, run a contest on your channel. Key steps include choosing a prize that matters to your audience and asking viewers to subscribe and turn on notifications to participate.
This makes your subscribers happy as one lucky winner receives a gift, and it makes you happy as well since you gain subscribers.
6. Release videos on a consistent schedule
Many experts confidently cite a rule of thumb as to how often creators should post videos to their channels. For instance: one video a week to start, increasing to 3-4 videos per week as your channel grows.
The theory for this is that more videos garner more watch time from viewers. But prioritizing quantity over quality has drawbacks. If your goal is to convert viewers to subscribers, you need to focus on quality first, and consistency next. Then, you can start worrying about quantity.)
If you upload videos consistently, then people know that there’s more good content coming their way, and they’re more likely to tap subscribe.
7. Collaborate with other creators
Use your connections to find other YouTube creators to collaborate with so you can leverage each other’s audiences. After all, your audience trusts your recommendations, and their audiences trust theirs.
Once you start to build an audience, you might find that your followers suggest potential collaborations. Until then, explore YouTube yourself to look for potential collaborators in your field. If you find someone who looks promising, reach out.
How to see your YouTube subscribers
You can check your list of YouTube subscribers from your channel’s dashboard. Here’s where to find a full subscriber list:
1. In YouTube Studio, go to your channel dashboard and scroll down to the Recent Subscribers card. Click SEE ALL.
2. In the top right corner of the pop-up window, choose Lifetime from the dropdown menu.
You can now click through your list of subscribers. You can choose to sort by subscriber count if you want to see the most subscribed YouTubers following you first.
If you only want to check on new subscribers, you can choose to see a list of people who have subscribed in the last 7, 28, 90, or 365 days.
Pro-tip: Note that the list only includes users who have made their subscriptions public.
That’s it. That’s how you get free subscribers. Keep these 7 tips handy if you’re looking to open a YouTube channel, or if you’re looking to revamp your YouTube strategy. The best things in life come for free, and so can your subscribers!
