Hundreds of hours of research and 73 pages of notes — this is how Aprilynne Alter grew her subscriber count 12 times in 30 days!
By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll also know how she did it. What’s more, you’ll have actionable steps to increase your subscribers and grow your channel on YouTube.
Competition on YouTube is fierce – is it worth it?
To understand this, let’s look at some facts. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. It is also a top streaming platform. Hundreds of millions of creators jump on the YouTube bandwagon every year, but only a handful succeed.
Is it worth investing the time to become a better YouTube creator?
Absolutely——The numbers also confirmed my thoughts. YouTube has 4.95 billion monthly active users, surpassing Netflix’s 40 million. According to SocialBlade, YouTube has more than 61 million creators. The platform has one of Best Creator Program It has a growing number of high-quality free resources around the world. If you put in the time and effort, I believe YouTube can bring incredible opportunities to you and your business.
As a YouTube creator, I always jump at the opportunity to learn from others in the field. We have gained wisdom in the past Smart Passive Income Podcast From more well-known YouTube creators like MKBHD and Sean Cannell. But this time, I wanted to talk to an up-and-coming YouTube creator. We love what Aprilynne is doing on her YouTube channel, so we invited her to be a part of the show.
Listen to Aprilynne on the Smart Passive Income Podcast:
YouTube subscribers grew 12x in four weeks
Aprilynne’s YouTube channel grew from 1,000 subscribers to over 12,000 subscribers in four weeks.
Yes – these are real numbers. As I write this, I see that her channel has over 52,047 subscribers. But that’s not why I’m sharing Apriline’s lessons with you. Here’s why I think her approach is worth investigating:
Like most internet-based platforms or social media, YouTube is growing rapidly. That’s why Aplin’s studies are so important—because everything you’re going to learn is based on her findings by doing in the past six months.
Adding tens of thousands of new subscribers to a brand new YouTube channel isn’t easy. Aplynn also has no background in media or video – in fact, she previously gave up a career in finance! Her first YouTube channel was also a challenging experience.
She’s achieved this without creating too many videos – as of this writing, her channel only has 24 videos. It’s clear that Aprilynne’s success comes from careful research – she’s been studying the best YouTube creators. Look closely and you’ll see the results of her research: 4 of the 24 videos have more than 200,000 views. Four of the videos have over 800,000 views!
So, what did Aprilynne do differently with her second YouTube channel?
When I talked to her on the podcast, it all started to come together. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Aprilynne’s four-step process for growing YouTube users. Implementing these four steps will definitely help you grow your YouTube channel quickly. So get ready to take notes because this is super doable!
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Aprilynne’s four-step process for growing YouTube subscribers
What you’re about to learn is easy to understand but can be difficult to implement if you miss the details, so pay close attention. Here are the four steps for Aplin:
- Start with packaging
- Focus on introduction
- Follow all viewers
- Plan ahead like a boss
These steps may seem self-explanatory, but let me walk you through each step.
1. Start with packaging
“If you think about what makes a video successful, about 50 percent of it is packaging,” Aprilynne said.
Packaging involves three key elements of a YouTube video:
- idea
- title
- Thumbnail
Aplin realized that 99% of her time was spent on film production and only 1% on packaging. I like the word packaging because it’s something we experience every time we buy a physical product in a store –Packaging is what you see forward You experience a product.
The same goes for movies, where people experience the above three elements before watching the actual movie. If they don’t click on your video, it probably doesn’t exist.
Start with an idea – what do you want to convey to your audience? How would you describe your film in one sentence?
Once you’ve decided on your packaging, it’s time to move on to step two.
2. Follow the introduction
Aplin talks about this on the show, but everything else I learned from this step This video on her channel. Aprilynne offers four specific suggestions:
2.1. Focus on the first five seconds
The first five seconds play a huge role in determining the success of a film. This is because YouTube looks for a match between your packaging and what you said in the first five seconds. For example, if your video is about “how to create killer thumbnails,” make it clear in the first five seconds.
Secondly, it can also help viewers decide whether to continue watching. Promising a “killer thumbnail” and spending the first five seconds discussing your new backyard vegetable garden is not a good idea.
2.2. Keep the introduction short
The intro is the time you spend at the beginning of the video, including the first five seconds. Keep your introduction between ten and forty-five seconds and no longer than one minute.
2.3. Improve settings
“Setting” refers to three basic elements: curiosity gap, context, and input bias. You’ll need to do the following to complete your settings:
- Create a curiosity gap: In short, give your audience enough room to want more. This topic deserves an entire article, but Here’s a great article from Descript.
- Establish context: Tell the audience what the context is. If your title contains “killer thumbnails,” tell them whether they are thumbnails for YouTube videos or podcasts in Apple Podcasts.
- Input offset: This is based on human behavioral psychology. It means that the more time, energy and money you spend on something, the more you value it. In this article, one way to do this is to tell your audience how much effort you put into researching what they are about to learn. If you want to learn more, read this great HubSpot article: How MrBeast uses input bias in his videos.
2.4. Loading stimuli ahead of time
Constantly changing visual effects quickly Within the first twenty seconds. According to Aprilynne, MrBeast changes the visuals at the beginning of the film every 1.4 seconds. Mark Robb executes every 1.6 seconds.
3. Pay attention to all viewers
This article is about increasing YouTube subscribers. Everything I share in this article is based on what Aprilynne uses to create what she calls “hot videos.”
These videos can help you attract new viewers without losing sight of your audience (both casual and core).
In other words, make your videos attractive to subscribers, but don’t ignore the unsubscribed. Design your videos to also appeal to casual YouTube viewers who don’t (yet) know who you are.
4. Plan ahead like a boss
Most people write the script first and then shoot it. There are two problems with this.
First, it puts a lot of stress on the editing process. You may realize while editing that you need a product shot or a second camera angle.
Second, the jump from script to shooting can sap your creativity. In other words, you may now stick to the script and ignore other perspectives.
That’s why Aprilynne annotated her videos back Scripting. She laid everything out before the cameras started rolling, mapping out every scene, every shot. Here’s how she breaks it down:
“I used to film everything and then edit it. Now, I write the script, go through it line by line, and annotate what I want on screen. So I divide it into head talking shots, B-shots that I shoot Rolls, screen sharing and the visual effects I did, so I planned all of that in advance because I knew where my head would be, what (lines) I needed to say to the camera. What to read – this is much easier.
Learn more about YouTube
If you want to start a YouTube channel, my YouTube course from scratch— which I created with my friend and photographer Caleb Wojcik — was the perfect place to start. My two YouTube channels have a combined total of over 200 million views and over 1 million subscribers – I’ve incorporated everything I’ve learned growing both channels into the course.
YouTube From Scratch and our entire course library are only available in the All-Access Pass and Pro communities. My team and I created them to help you find like-minded creators and build accountability in your entrepreneurial journey. This is the best way to grow as an online entrepreneur, so Check it out today!
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