How a College Student Gained 100k YouTube Subscribers in 6 Months

5 tips to succeed faster in 2021

YouTube is seen as one of the hardest social media platforms to build up a following on. According to TubeFilter, the average is 22 months just to reach 1000 subscribers.

But as content creation is becoming more mainstream, people are getting better at strategizing how to become successful. No need to shoot in the dark for years when you can possibly achieve the amazing results in months.

That’s exactly what college student Kaiti Yoo did with only 43 videos to date and starting her channel during quarantine — 50k of her following, gained in her first month.

Contrair to the common advice of uploading consistently and having nice looking thumbnails, Kaiti says these alone won’t guarantee you success.

Here are her tough love tips. Some of which may sting, but it’s what got her the impressive results she has today.

Do the ‘Scary Thing’ for Your Advantage

What many people fear when starting a YouTube channel is that their friends or people who know them will find out. Kaiti shares that this is a band-aid that you need to rip off. You need to self-plug on every platform you’re on. Fact is, if you want a successful YouTube channel, that means having viral content that reaches thousands if not millions of people. People around you knowing you do YouTube comes with that territory. Kaiti highlights that when you share your content with your personal circle, people will click because they’re curious. While terrifying, it will jumpstart your views which can signal the algorithm to spread your content.

Zero view videos flop, so take advantage of people’s curiosity in watching your first couple of videos.

Be Ready to Kill Your Darlings

Watch time determines how much YouTubers get paid, so the goal is to keep them on your video as long as possible.

This is a challenge as the common notion is that people have the attention span of gold fish (9 seconds). Kaiti argues that it’s even less. Especially with the rise of apps like TikTok, where people swipe away within seconds of watching a video.

Many new creators after putting in the massive upfront time and effort in recording a video, editing, and etc… can feel like all their hard work must be in the final product.

Kaiti advices to be ruthless with yourself when editing.

For her,

“When I’m editing, no matter how long a shot took to set up or how funny a story I was telling was, if it doesn’t come off amazing or eye catching on camera, I cut that shit off. ”

Pacing is Kaiti’s first priority when editing.

But how exactly will new creators know what to cut off?

Katie shares that constantly consuming videos with a critical eye is what helped her know. Rather than watching for pleasure, she learned to identify what elements make certain videos more successful than others.

You can do the same by taking note of:

• music used
• fonts used
• different shot angles
• how long certain parts of the video are: the intro, time lapses and etc…

Until now, she uses that information to constantly evolve and improve her content. See what works to inspire your own original style of video.

She also encourages taking inspiration from other forms of social media. Kaiti decided to incorporate the fast pace editing seen in TikTok videos in her content.

The Test To See if Your Videos Could Go Viral

As you build your YouTube channel it’s normal to want to seek feedback from those closest to you.

But the flaw in this, as Kaiti points, is that these people are too close to you. Naturally they will view your content with rose tinted glasses, praising you when potentially your work may not be that good.

Kaiti says if you really want to know if your content has the potential to go big, pay attention to what people like your acquaintances and co-workers say.

If you receive some positive feedback from those in your distant circle, then that’s an encouraging sign that your content could capture complete strangers too. But if you hear crickets, she says that you need to change something about your videos or that YouTube may not be for you.

Do You Have at Least 2 of The Top 3 Ingredients?

Kaiti believes that there are 3 main ingredients in creating a successful YouTube channel namely:

Kaiti believes she has both unique editing and a catchy personality.

Editing was less of a learning curve for her, since she had be interested in it ever since she was young. A catchy personality is something she says, “You either have it or you don’t.”

A catchy personality doesn’t necessarily mean being as energetic as Kaiti is. There are plenty of other successful YouTubers who are the opposite. Either way, a personality that entertains is a key factor.

Don’t Break YouTube’s Official Policy

A common “growth hack” of new YouTubers is to go on bigger creators videos to self-plug their own channel, or do sub for sub with other smaller creators.

Doing either could get you more followers, but Kaiti shares that this could hypothetically get you black listed off YouTube if reported. And no one wants their hard work to go down the drain.

More importantly, the quality of your subscribers won’t be high. They didn’t subscribe to you because they plan to watch your content. And if they don’t watch, you don’t get paid.

Kaiti suggests that a much better way is leaving authentic and meaningful comments on bigger YouTube channels. This is how she discovers smaller YouTube channels she ends up following. Best of all, YouTube’s comment section is designed to feature the most liked comments. If yours is on top, this can be a ‘flier’ or free advertising to fans of bigger YouTube channels to check out your content.

And if you provide enough value your comment may even get pinned, meaning it could potentially be seen by everyone who visits the comment section for months — if not longer.

It’s a win for everyone. Put out the good you’d like to receive back. Want people to value your content? Create value for theirs first.

Additional tips

• Use Tubebuddy: She uses the free version when adding tags. This tool can show you if the key words you’re using are highly searched and beneficial, or if they’re poor and aren’t being searched. With this information you can determine if there’s too much competition, which will make it hard to get featured in people’s recommendations.

• Consistency: While not a huge point, uploading at least once a week is part of her success. She stresses prioritizing your mental health by not going overboard.
• 2–3 niches: Choose a few niches that align with you and not just one. Kaiti says to be aware if your niche has an ‘expiration date’. If you only produce for example, fashion videos, engagement will drop once you stop making that content. But if you have other niches, even if those viewers leave, you’ll be less stressed because you other topics to fall on.
• On staying motivated when a video flops: Her advice, “Don’t check your analytics. Do not check creator studio. Just work on your next video. Every video is a new opportunity to blow up. Cut your losses and move on.”

Final Thoughts

One of the most inspiring things about Kaiti Yoo’s success is that this wasn’t her first time trying to create a large online following. In fact, she first tried on TikTok but failed with videos gaining only up to 5 views.

Little did she know that she would end up succeeding on a ‘more difficult’ platform. So if you’ve failed on other platforms, YouTube could be right for you too.

Kaiti Yoo’s success is a shining example of what’s possible if you treat YouTube like a business from day 1, work hard, and use strategy. Her advice isn’t for the faint of heart. But like she’s said, if you’re able to take it, then you have what it takes to succeed on YouTube.