How to Get Subscribers on YouTube

Welcome to part 6 of Video Riser

Moving on to how to get subscribers on YouTube. If you’re doing this course in order, I’m assuming you just watched “Audience Engagement Examples: Growing your audience”. This section is quite different than that with customizing the features of YouTube. This one is about the way to automatically get subscribers BEFORE the visitors even get to YouTube.

We’re going to talk about two different methods. I must tell you our friend and YouTube Superstar Derral Eves passed me this link and really got me thinking about the ways we could use it. The first is through your email and the second is on your site.

1. Get Subscribers on YouTube from your Email

Perhaps you’ve been shy to do so, but it’s time to think about emailing your list the next time you upload a video. Write a great video and give them a link to go see it. But perhaps this time we don’t give them a direct link to the video itself. What if you gave them a link to your Channel?

And what if the link could automatically subscribe them?

I know. That sounds spammy doesn’t it? But I thought about the pros and cons of both sides and came to this conclusion: The only thing that changes for a subscriber of yours is they are more likely to see your videos when they login to YouTube. That’s it.

And if they visited your website, and then opted into your list, and then opened your email and then clicked the link to YouTube. . . there’s a pretty good chance they are fans of what you teach.

Well, it just so happens that YouTube provides such a link, and we like it a lot. Go ahead and click it to try it out. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=tri4time

OR if you have fewer than 500 subscribers and you don’t have a custom link use this one:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZXuHKonP9utl5q2hFCkgA?sub_confirmation=1

Just replace the bold-faced string: UCsZXuHKonP9utl5q2hFCkgA with your ‘channel ID’.

In order to use it, you’ll need to take out the last word tri4time and replace it with your YouTube username. I’ll show you how to find that next.

Now head to your email and send your audience this link. Invite them to come to your channel to see your latest video and voila! you’ll get new subscribers on YouTube.

2. Get Subscribers on YouTube from your Website

Do you have links to your social media sites on your website, like these?

how-to-get-subscribers-on-youtube

If so do you include the YouTube icon? And if so, where does the YouTube link take your audience? To your channel? Your most popular video? The subscribe page?

How about we replace that code with the auto-subscribe code you saw above?
For those of you good with code, here’s the link language that we talked about in the email section above. Again, copy and replace the bold-faced string with your Channel Id or username:

http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=tri4time

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZXuHKonP9utl5q2hFCkgA?sub_confirmation=1

For those who find their strengths in things other than code, let me walk you through the steps.

STEP 1. Find your YouTube username or channel ID

(In the photo below it is the last word in the url tri4time)

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 11.00.09 AM

Or if you only have a channel id, it’s the long string of numbers and letters.

Screen Shot 2015-02-11 at 10.59.36 AM

STEP 2. Navigate to that part of your site where your social icons can be found.

In this example the icons are in the sidebar. So we navigate in the WordPress dashboard to the Appearance –> Widgets section.

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 2.11.29 PM

STEP 3. Open the widget that contains the code.

We’re going to modify that. Look for the part of the code that controls the YouTube button. (If you find out that you’ve got a plugin managing that go to step 3B.)

Screen Shot 2015-02-05 at 2.18.29 PM

STEP 3B. A-Ha. . .you have a plugin for your social buttons.

If the plugin doesn’t allow you to manipulate the link to your YouTube channel, then you have to decide if you want this functionality.

If you do want it, then you’ll have to delete the plugin and add a text box with the code shown in STEP 5.

STEP 4. All we want to do here is change the part of the code. . .

. . . that links to your YouTube account. You’ll see the code that creates all the buttons. Find the part that links to YouTube. Delete that and add the new autosubscribe code as shown below in the before and after.

BEFORE	AFTER

STEP 5. What if I don’t have code?

If you don’t have social icons in the sidebar, then we’ll help you make that happen. First you need to add a text box into your sidebar widget (if that’s where you’re planning on putting it). Then into that text box paste this code. REPLACE ALL THE CAPITALIZED WORDS WITH THE APPROPRIATE LINK.

If you need the actual social icon graphics, head over to the Graphics and Images Tab in BC Prime. There are many for your use there.

Here is the code you need:

When you’re done your links should look like this:

Screen Shot 2015-02-10 at 12.38.58 AM

STEP 6. More uses

There are so many places you can add an icon and link to your YouTube page using this autosubscribe code. Allow me to brainstorm a few with you, with hopes that you’ll leave your own ideas in the comments below:

Email Signature
Social Media Profiles on all accounts
YouTube link on Contact Us page
In your YouTube descriptions on your videos
Facebook and Twitter shoutouts
Let us know what others you can think of. . .

STEP 7. Continue Optimizing your YouTube Channel with the next step of Video Riser