- June 24, 2012
- Posted by: Topher Morrison
- Category: Speaker Tips, Video Blog
Hi! Welcome to my speaker’s blog! Today I’ve decided to write about how to increase your YouTube subscriptions. The most important concept to understand is that if you want your prospects or customers to behave in a certain way, tell them how to behave.
I’m serious! If you simply tell them to subscribe to your channel, you would be surprised at how many people actually do it. I’ve tested this assertion countless times. When I post links that tell people to go to my YouTube channel, watch the video, and make sure to subscribe afterwards, the subscription rate is at least ten times higher. There is a vital difference between actually telling people to subscribe versus merely telling them to watch the video.
So, tip number 1: tell your audience to watch the video AND tell them to subscribe to the channel in the link description. Here’s another key action: at the end of every single video, you should be reminding them to subscribe to your channel and provide a link.
Putting a link right above or beside the video that says, “SUBSCRIBE,” is not enough. Nobody ever looks around the page and most people forget by the end and click on to a similar video on the side. There are a lot of distractions you are competing with, so you have to put it in their face.
Allow me to share with you the polite and pleasant way to “put it in their face.” You can follow along on my YouTube channel or your own throughout these next couple paragraphs to enhance your understanding.
Go to my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/tophermorrisoninc and pull up the video called, “Public Speaking Tip No. 24 – How to Look Great on Video.” This is one of my more popular videos where I humiliate myself by dressing up like Natalie Portman from The Black Swan. Next, you need to access your video manager, choose whatever video you want, and click the edit button.
Once you click the edit button, you are given four options:
Info/Settings
Enhancements
Annotations
Captions
Click on Annotations!
Once you click on annotations, the video automatically starts playing and a timeline is displayed. You can use the timeline to insert your annotations at specific times.
Now, there are two important things to be aware of here: one is that you can tell people to start subscribing right away. The catch with that is once they click the annotation they are taken away from your video. My preference is to wait until the video gets to the end to put a subscribe annotation.
Pause the video; drag the tiny marker toward the end, and BAM! Leave it. Obviously, I want to be sending my audience to bulletproofspeaking.com, which is what the commercial is advertising, but I also want to get them to subscribe. So, what you’re going to do is go to the top of the page and click, “Add Annotation.” When the highlighted thing pops up, double-click on it and it allows you to type text inside of it. I usually type in all caps, “CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL SO YOU CAN SEE ALL MY FUNNY ADS.” (or whatever instructions would be appropriate for you)
Important! I have found that you cannot merely say, “Subscribe,” without giving them an incentive to do so. In this particular situation, since it is one of my funny commercials, I want them to see as many of my commercials as possible to drive home bulletproofspeaking.com into their heads.
On the other hand, some people may be viewing my instructional videos and not necessarily looking for laughs. In this case, I would say, “SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL TO GET MORE SPEAKING TIPS,” to appeal to what they may be interested in.
Think about your audience, try to imagine what types of people are watching your videos, and appeal to them with the incentives you hand out.
Back to the annotation, it will only play for five seconds. It starts at 1 minute and 48 seconds and ends at 1 minute 53 seconds. If you drag the annotation across the whole timeline, it will stay up the entire video. So, if you hit play, the annotation will stay so they can either enter bulletproofspeaking.com into their browser or they can just click to subscribe.
To set up these changes, go to the bottom of the page and click the link button. It will give you the option to link to another video, playlist, channel, or subscribe. Choose subscribe, so when people click on the message they can easily subscribe to your channel. Once you are finished, go up to the top and click, “save.” You can preview the link to make sure it works if you wish. Click, “Publish,” at the top and then you are done!
Now you can go watch your live video, wait until the end, see you message pop up, click on it, and BAM! You are subscribed to your channel! It’s that simple!
If you do this simple thing for every single one of your videos, you will have a lot more success.
Another thing you want to do is have end bumper for your videos. When you are editing your videos, try to make sure there is at least a two to three second pause at the end. You do not want to be spouting content up until the very last second and it just cut-off. Allow for a pause at the end. If you haven’t checked it out for yourself yet, watch one of my videos as an example.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tophermorrisoninc
There you have it! I hope you go to your YouTube channel, subscribe to mine 😉 and then proceed to implement these changes into your videos. Subscription links and bumpers make a huge difference. Try it out!
Until next time, take care, dare to dream and make each day an epic adventure!
PS – WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH A BONUS VIDEO? 3 THINGS YOU CAN DO IMMEDIATELY TO MAKE YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS TONS BETTER: http://a.pgtb.me/c6NL (The Video is Less Than 3 Minutes)
This is seriously important info for anyone who wants to grow their online business!!!!!
I’m still working on my small blog and having plenty of mistakes with this topic you have mentioned. One big secret I learned is that you need to distinguish the finishing goal of your content inspiring people to make a change and be able to move in the best direction. For me, it took time to realize exactly what my ambitions were. When I overcame that, it was a breeze for me to teach and also help others in this area.
Hey, your post truly helps, now i encounter the same troubles, and i have no idea on how to solve the issue. Thank god I search Bing and discovered your post; it helps me get rid of my trouble. Thanks once again one thing, can i paste your entry on my site? i will add the source and credit to your site. regards!