Category: resources

Growing your YouTube channel (in 2024) involves a combination of sustainable strategies to attract and retain viewers.

Here are some insider tips, from a fellow creator, in order to help you and your YouTube channel get more views, likes, and subscribers!

Create Enjoyable, High-Quality Content

Produce content that is engaging, entertaining, unique, and provides value to not only humanity, but more importantly, your target audience, or niche. This means that your content can be weird, or out there. And remember to create content that both you and your audience enjoys.

This may sound daunting, but just try to improve upon the quality of your content. At first, your videos will suck, but over time, if you keep improving and growing as an artist, you will be creating some very special content in no time.

Optimize Video Titles and Descriptions

Craft compelling and descriptive titles that accurately encapsulate your video content. Also, write detailed and keyword-rich video descriptions in order to improve SEO (searchability).

Use Eye-Catching Thumbnails

Create visually appealing thumbnails that grab attention and accurately represent the video. In our experience, thumbnails with bright contrasting colors, and a humanoid face plastered on it, tend to attract the most viewers.

Engage Your Audience – Early On

Capture viewers’ attention within the first few moments of your video. Encourage likes, comments, and subscriptions in the initial part of the video as well (or in the description, at the very least).

Promote on Social Media

Share your videos across various social media platforms to increase visibility, and thus drive traffic to your channel. And be sure to utilize hashtags and relevant keywords when sharing on social media.

Collaborate with Other Artists

Befriend, support, and collaborate with other artists on YouTube (in your niche). This can expose your content to a wider audience, and cross-pollinate both channel’s audience base.

Implement SEO Techniques

Research and include relevant, and trending keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags to improve search engine optimization.

Create YouTube Playlists

Group related videos into playlists. This encourages viewers to watch more of your content and increases overall views.

Encourage Your Viewers to Subscribe

Ask viewers to subscribe to your channel. Subscribers are more likely to watch your videos in the future, and are an integral facet to your success as an artist. I know this will feel weird at first, but sometimes, you do just have to ask.

Note: Add a video watermark to your videos. When your mouse hovers over top of this watermark, a button pops up, prompting the viewer to subscribe.

Interact with Your Audience

Respond to comments on your videos. In fact, engaging with your audience helps build a community around your channel, and will cultivate future growth. However, I’d advise that you not respond to negative (or hate) comments, but also, don’t delete them. Be glad that they’re giving you a comment and an algorithmic boost!

Utilize End Screens and Cards

Use YouTube’s end screens and cards to promote other videos or playlists at the end of each video.

Honestly, this is the only thing I haven’t really implemented on my YouTube channel, as I feel it could hinder the artistic flow of the video. However, implementing end screens and cards, will encourage people to subscribe, and watch your other content.

Keep in mind that raking in as many subscribers as possible is not my primary goal. I make music, and put it out on YouTube, because I can’t stop making music. That’s all.

Optimize Upload Routine

Sustainable consistency is key. Upload videos regularly and stick to a schedule to keep your audience engaged. Humans love routine. In fact, they become addicted to it. Now feed this addiction, and rise to the level of a creator.

Utilize Trends and Seasonal Content

Create content pertaining to trending topics, people, or events in your niche. This can attract more viewers interested in current happenings – thus driving YouTube traffic to your channel!

Run YouTube Ads

Consider running paid promotions on YouTube to reach a broader audience. But please, for the love of Jesus Christ, do not pay for views, likes, or followers, as this will only destroy your channel’s organic growth in the long run (the algorithm will know).

Instead, pay for your content to be promoted on YouTube (or Spotify). All the big-time artists are doing it. Now, cut back on those mocha lattes, and set aside a few bucks each week to push a video on YouTube.

Analyze Analytics

Use YouTube Analytics to understand your audience’s behavior, and when to upload at the opportune time. And learn which videos perform well and try to replicate upon this success.

Create YouTube Shorts, Go Live, and Post to Your Community

YouTube Shorts is powered by a completely different algorithm than YouTube Videos, and just might expose you to a whole new audience. Shorts must be under 60 seconds, filmed vertically, and remember that including tags on your Shorts, and linking to one of your videos, is very important.

Post photos, polls, shoutouts, and news pertaining to your channel on your Community tab. This will help you connect with your audience.

And when the time is right, and you’ve amassed an adequate number of subscribers, go Live!

Closing Thoughts

Remember, building a sustainable and engaged audience takes time and consistent energy, so be patient and persistent in your effort. Don’t focus on the here and now, instead, focus on creating an expansive catalogue of value. And remember to have some fun with it!

Bobby Lee once said that he treats YouTube like a video game. In order to beat it, one must practice, improve over time, and learn the ins and outs of the platform, or game. And of course, this all takes time.

I’ve employed most of these tactics on my own YouTube channel, and have gained over 100 subscribers in my first month of uploading.

You can follow my YouTube journey, here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfDCu4yYhPwoB0uBJWdlQ4w

If you’d like more content like this in the future, then please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Give the playlist a follow, and then pitch your music via this link!

BE ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Post regularly on Instagram, TikTok, X (fka Twitter), and Facebook. Also, relate to your fanbase in an authentic and personal way.

SPOTIFY CODE STICKERS: Make some interesting personalized stickers with your Spotify code and social media handle. Apply stickers around town.

CREATE A SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: Compile a Spotify playlist that includes your essential music. And then promote this playlist on your social media platforms.

CREATE MUSIC VIDEOS FOR YOUTUBE: Make a music video for each and every track in your catalog, and then upload it to YouTube. Then, promote your music video on social media.

LINK TO SPOTIFY: Remember to link everything to your Spotify profile. Linktree is an effective tool to utilize in streamlining the cross-linking process.

PROMOTE YOUTUBE VIDEOS: Spend a little money promoting your music videos on YouTube, and remember to always embed a link in your video’s description that directs listeners to your Spotify catalog.

RELEASE NEW MUSIC CONSISTENTLY: Whether you drop a new track every month, a fresh album every quarter, or both, just be sure to always be releasing quality music on a consistent basis. Momentum is of the essence and the key to your longterm success.

COLLABORATE WITH FELLOW ARTISTS: Cross-pollinate with other artists’s fanbases by featuring other artists on your tracks, and co-releasing projects together.

PLAY LIVE SHOWS — SELL MERCH: Tour on a regular basis, and push merchandise at your show. The most popular band merchandise includes shirts, hoodies, socks, hats, vinyl albums, and cassette tapes.

PITCH YOUR MUSIC TO SPOTIFY PLAYLISTERS: Email and DM your music to Spotify playlist curators. You never know who might be intrigued by your music. Just try not to come off as a spam artist. Better yet, interact with playlisters on social media, and attempt to befriend them before you make your pitch.

Follow our Spotify playlist, and pitch your music.

BONUS TIP: Never give up, remember to rest along the way, and enjoy the journey! It’s a long process, and a long hard grind if you want to rock and roll! You must be patient, try to get out of your own way, and just let your art unfold in a natural, and organic way. Only the quitters fail to succeed.

For nearly seven years I’ve poured my heart into Santa Rosa Records.

She rose from a puddle of blood, sweat, and tears in the streets of San Marcos, Texas.

And in that time she’s grown from a mere fever dream I had in the heart of South America, into an admirable boutique record label, and independent curator of underground music from around the world and across all genres.

But like all good things, the end, or death, is inevitable.

All good things must eventually come to an end my friend. This is the cyclical nature of life. Our collective fate as a living and breathing organism walking upon planet earth.

However, Santa Rosa Records will not die, she’ll merely shed her skin and evolve into a living thing of greater beauty.

Like Jesus Christ of Bethlehem, she’ll descend into hell, and then spread her wings and ascend to the heavens – born anew, like the rising Phoenix.

In plain earthling speak, in the coming weeks, Santa Rosa Records will be transitioning into a 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization, and will be reimagined as Blackwater Collective.

In essence, Blackwater Collective will be a self-sustaining nonprofit record label, book publisher, and charitable creative collective dedicated to empowering the less fortunate.

Everything (label-wise) will essentially be staying the same, but we’ll be expanding the scope of the organization in order to manifest a more physical, and charitable presence in the world.

We’ll do this by adopting New Mexico highways, offering employment, training, and education in horticulture and the arts, and developing distressed areas throughout New Mexico.

And in an effort to support environmental conservation, we’ve chosen to donate to The National Audubon Society — an organization who’s in alignment with our own values in preserving natural habitats for wildlife.

Unfortunately, in order to accomplish all of this, we’ll have to mitigate the music blog facet of our organization, in order to stay focused on the bigger picture.

We’ll still post up underground artists we stumble upon, but this function will no longer be the focus of our scope.

We must adapt to the ever evolving landscape if we’re to survive.

This is merely the beginning my friend. Unfortunately, the end will have to wait for now.

follow our journey on instagram

And to conclude this chapter, here are some cryptic words of wisdom from the now deceased Daniel Johnston: “Ain’t no woman gonna make a George Jones out of me.”