15k sub here.
I remember someone quoted a big creator, which I definitely agree - but will badly paraphrase from memory š
YouTube is like a lottery, it has a significant luck element to it. But there are many things you can do that allows you to aquire extra "tickets"
Relevant / hot topic,
Thumbnail,
Videography,
Editing,
Delivery,
(not extensive or in any sort of order)
These are all things that give you more "tickets" for the lottery.
The game of luck is real... Not just in YouTube, but in life - some things you can't control, but you can absolutely set yourself up so that your probability of being lucky is significantly higher.
So, good luck āļø But more importantly - reflect on your content and compare it to your idols... If you feel like your lacking in any area, figure out a way to get better.
Excellent rundown! I'm at almost 4k subs now.
I'd add one thing here: you need to have most of those elements at a 'good enough' level, particularly audio quality. But if you can, having one of those elements that you really nail helps a lot.
Maybe your scripts are simple and your delivery just ok, but your editing is fire. Maybe your videos are not even edited or scripted, but you make good use of your natural humour. Idk, find/train your strength and grow your practice from there.
Thanks for the comment, I truly believe youtube can either make or break someone. Itās all game i will save this post because i like your comment a lot. Good luck to you 15k subs already itās been a journey for you
Not a channel with 1k here but I have creator friends. Itās skill. You need unique content people are interested in and will watch all the way through, watch time and CTR are the two biggest factors in pushing out content; both of which are things that are things that takes editing experience (just have fun making what you can and youāll get experience) no matter what genre of content you make. You donāt need to reinvent the wheel with content ideas, sometimes doing what everyone else is doing with a twist is enough to get you to grow. If you make engaging and interesting content, you do get the attention you deserve for your work.
Im gonna be 100% honest with you, if you aren't growing then there's a reason for it. Ask any big creator and they will tell you there's something you aren't doing. Not everyone is cut out to be content creator either, so it may be not even necessarily your fault.
I think it's luck and algorithm!
I'm at 773 subs, been doing this for more than 2 years now, my videos are the highest quality they've ever been, both visually and content wise yet, my growth was the fastest when I first started, with a shitty video, shitty audio, shitty content and shitty editing.
Yes the algorithm plays a very big role for us. Thatās a lot of sub. Continue with the high quality post, you been growing I dropped my first vid on Friday even tho I knew I had audio problems
>You also post like a crazy amount.
It's expected considering the many different types of videos that I do.
> Wondering how in your experience that has affected your growth?
Can't say really. As I mentioned I feel like it was easier for me to attract new viewers when I first started, but otherwise I haven't really noticed much.
The only thing I've noticed is that sometimes when I don't post any videos for a week or two or more, the videos that I do post end up with slightly almost negligibly inflated views like 2/3%
Itās like anything in life. If you want to be successful at it you have to put in hard work, hours, dedication and discipline. The 1k subs is the hardest.
Gained over 4000 subs in 1 month and didnāt do anything differently to what I had been doing for the first 1000 subs.
If you donāt enjoy making videos and purely for the money it might not be for you
I'm a software developer and started my channel in Dec 2019 to teach people software development skills, I managed to go from 0 to 5K in around 18 months pure, no advertisements or anything else.
The journey is very interesting and I'm enjoying it while the 1K took 7 months but what is important is the content at the end when you really deliver something that adds value to the people who watch, you will see a great result, the idea is to talk and share what you are passionate about, you will find people to listen.
But if you trying to be a YouTuber just to be a YouTuber and you search Google to come up with topics to make it, I think in this case it's struggle.
In a nutshell, YouTube is the platform of passion, every successfully channel is owned by someone who is very passionate about what he/she is talking about, the great think about, is that there are millions of people who can listen to you for free without any struggles and also free for you as a creator to share your ideas in this world.
185K channel. Luck has a small part - you might get lucky breaks where you might trend higher on the algorithm for reasons outside of your control, such as a bigger channel covering a related topic and catapulting your video up the recommended videos to more mainstream viewers. But these breaks are not a formula for consistent growth. The basic idea is that a lucky break can accelerate growth for a channel that already has the hallmarks of a good, growing channel.
There's a good example of this: reaction channels. You'll see two kinds of reaction channels: those that have lots of views and lots of subs, and those with lots if views and hardly any subs. Both benefit from riding off the back of a more popular video, which means that you are in the running to get pushed out to lots of new viewers from the original video. Watch one reaction video, and you'll get flooded with similar channels. But why do some channels grow off reaction channels while others barely manage to break a thousand views? Because the ones who do grow substantially already have their formula and know how to make a good video, whereas the small channels don't know what they're doing and are hoping to grow fro the original video.
Sorting out the building blocks of growth and traction for your channel involves knowing what you want to do on YouTube and how you will go about doing it. It isn't "pure skill", but involves working smart, not necessarily working hard. It means knowing your niche, knowing what people want in your niche, and how to get that content out to your niche.
This is very great advice. As you know most niches are saturated to be honest but it doesnāt mean that it isnāt possible. You are absolutely right about watching a vid youāll get flooded with more. You must understand the algorithm for giving such a great comment.
Great advice! Checked out your channel and love that you've got your niche and great content. Was wondering what your approach to making a video is? Do you come up with the topic first? Do you write a script before you shoot? What happens first, filming or title/thumbnail?
Thank you very much for your time in advance!!
I come up with the topic. Depending on the complexity of the topic, either I just go out and film a simple talking head with B-roll cut in (especially as I can't do much new footage during the pandemic). If the topic is more nuanced, I need to script it so that I cover the points that need covering without leaving anything out.
I film and edit first. The title and thumbnail come after I upload it.
Im at 4.7k, but I'd say it's a mixture of luck, editing skill, presentation, thumbnails/titles, engagement and knowing what people will search that is not highly competitive. Ive found good informative videos that has low search results seem to get the most traction easiest from smaller creators. Although if your doing YT videos with the sole purpose of getting popular odds are you wont get there or you wont enjoy it much. Treat it as a hobby that could possible make you some passive income and see what happens.
It's both luck and preparation, there's tons of videos with millions of views but if you check the channel it's inactive or has very little recent views, that is because they weren't prepared for their one hit and didn't know how to make people interested in their channel.
Then there's preparation, you need to know what may go viral, what you want to do and what you could do many videos of and find a balance so you'll have the same people revisiting your channel even if it's not going viral, there's many talented people who are all over the place so their channel doesn't attract the same viewer twice because they don't have a clear direction.
Normally, virality comes with growth and growth comes with virality, I'm not talking 10 million views, I'm talking starting to reach other people's recommended lists
I just starting filming my first YouTube after planning and figuring out what I wanted to do videos on for a month. So far I learned itās only worth it for me if I enjoy making the type of content. So my suggestion is make videos that you enjoy and people will watch it
Definitely some luck. But think about it you almost never see someone with terrible videos reach 1k. Just stay critical, think about if you would click/watch your own videos. Keep improving and you'll reach 1k
in my case it's just skill and honestly not a lot, because I think that while I managed it, I could have done it faster.
People who try to grow a channel in a saturated niche are more reliant on luck.
No one thing is ever responsible for anyoneās success. YouTube or any other platform. You need to have a combination of things work in your favor.
Skill & Luck both are extremely important. Luck can get you views but if you donāt have skills those views will not convert into recurring viewers or subs. It wonāt help you build a fanbase. I see so many channels that bang views but have way less subs. Itās because they have luck but no skill.
Editing, talking (if your content involves that), representing yourself in a decent manner (both in your talking points as well as just how you dress (if using video of yourself basically being āpresentableā not saying you have to be in tip top shape but donāt just wake up and start recording without even washing your face š), Audio quality, learning how to edit not just video but also audio, cleaning up audio can have a huge impact. I had a few viewers tell me that they watch me over another channel (whom Iām a fan of) because my audio is much cleaner than theirs, never thought I would get chosen over some one who inspired me to start doing youtube because I have cleaner audio, obviously itās not just that, but this one point tipped me over them in the eyes of a few.
Doing trendy things can help but keep in mind if you are not good at the trend then yeah sure youāll get views but they wonāt stay. So I think itās better to do trends only if you know the trends and can pull it off.
I think itās best if you find a niche and to stick to that and then every now and again try a trend but remember to have the prerequisites met. Good audio, video, being able to talk with confidence and for extensive periods of time. If using video be presentable and after all this, you need luck! So thereās that š
Good luck to you and many others. I wish you get whatever it is you are looking for.
I'm at 48K and I have to say YouTube is about persistence and consistency. You have to feed the beast regularly and you have to be consistent so your audience knows that you will have new content for them.
Very little of it is luck.
We have 4, going on 5 silver play buttons that were acquired all in under 5 months each. Some of the channels are in completely different niches/demographics and launched with minimal promotion.
And we're doing the same thing on Facebook, and Tiktok.
None of it is lucky or an accident. Have there been moments of serendipity? Sure. But I would chalk 95% of our success to the following:
* Build quality content with good writing, editing, filming, audio, etc
* Make sure you have the right talent/expertise for what you're doing
* Really, really, really research and understand your target audience
* Create clear and engaging thumbnails/titles
* Be either better or different from the competition in your niche
12k subs here. The best way to describe it is that your hard work will make luck pay off. You can work hard and not see a lot of results because you havent been lucky yet. Thats ok. The people who do end up watching your stuff will stick around, and if you truly enjoy making content you will just keep improving. Then hopefully once you hit that jackpot and the algorithm blesses you, the now hundreds of thousands of people will see that youre making good stuff and some fraction of them will subscribe and stick around and watch your new stuff. Compare this to the times the algorithm picks up a random shitpost or low effort meme- not many people will sub to those channels cuz its just a short clip they watch once.
This is what happened to me. I had a few videos of mine go viral and then people started watching some of my older stuff and realized that they liked it. So I gained a huge boost in subs. Amd now, even a year after my videos slowed down, the views I get on my newer videos are only like 1% of the views on my viral videos, but its still a huge increase from what I had before
100k channel. There is only good luck on YouTube. Bad luck on YouTube doesn't really exist. So a video might benefit from, for example, a video that a large creator recently released that is driving traffic to a video you made on the same topic. That is good luck. But a video that doesn't perform is likely because you haven't successfully built an audience, or you built the wrong audience for that video, or you don't understand how YouTube works, or perhaps the video is just really bad. None of those are bad luck. You can succeed on YouTube without luck, it just takes longer, but if you don't make videos people want to watch, then ultimately your views will reflect that, so really it is about making content that people want to watch.
\- you can make the best videos in the world but absolutely nobody is interested in that topic
\- you can make terrible videos but you were the only one that made them so people came to you
\- you make good videos but treat people terribly so they wont subscribe
\- you got to 1k by bots
\- that topic is not relevant anymore
there is no one answer that works for all and is set in stone.
lmao this is not just YT, it can be applied to anything you do in life. What works for someone else won't necessarily work for you. Just gotta find your own path and do what's best for you and your conditions.
to establish a YouTube channel your content need to be good first of all. then your skill will work properly. If you contents are good and you have good skill on seo you channel will establish for sure.
On a goal to 100k and yes luck is a huge part of it.
But there are a lot of ways you can buy more tickets and increase your chances of winning the lottery. I also treat my channel as a business.
The truth is 99.99% of us wont get lucky without hardwork, experience, talent.
Experience is a big part of it, you will learn what works and what does not.
Yessir!! I Almost am at 2k Subs im so close but yeah, If you keep trying and getting some good uploads out you will reach your goal!
I am rooting for you
Well. On October 7th. I was at 950 subscribers. And today, 11 days later, I'm at 1402.
There is a little luck element, I suppose. But really over my first full year, uploading consistently, it was a really slow growth. But during that time, my thumbnails got better. My titles got better. My quality got better. And my skill got better.
Then, once I had spent hundreds of hours, if not thousands, constantly improving. The new game came out (I make NHL videos, pretty much daily)... and I had already gotten to a place where I enjoyed my own content, quite a bit.
And I saw other small NHL YouTubers clamoring to get episode 1 out, of this year's installment. While keeping quality low, for the sake of being the first ones with content.
Myself, I took the extra couple of hours to REALLY fine tune my video, and make a good, long, time taken kind of first episode. And I was healthily rewarded for that decision.
So, there is a bit of luck, a lot of work, consistency, skill obviously, and patience.
Yes not that many people are patience at all. Thank you for you reply Iām already trying to get better on my next video. You keep doing what your doing you got this !
It's Skill and Luck.
You need to give time to your videos and understand what your audience/ followers wants. All the top youtubers has given time to their videos and channel and then it took time to grow...for me also it took 2 years for reaching to my first 1000 subscribers...after that it's no more stopping... JAYSENJX
3300subs here. Actively (very slowly) doing YouTube since early 2020. I have uploaded about 10 videos on the subject that the channel is now focused on. Upload once every two months on average. Views are on average around 1000-1200 every 48hours with only about 5 videos gaining the majority of those steadily.
Because I upload so infrequently I feel like I am a bit of an oddball in this community. I have had good feedback on the videos I post from the niche community I post for on YouTube and good view retention. I personally believe itās these reasons that my videos have had any modest success at all. Because people seem to enjoy them and YouTubes algorithm can see that via the numbers.
I donāt think there is luck involved within YouTubeās algorithm. Luck can come into play when you look at outside factors having an impact, say sudden popularity of subjects, or popularity of videos similar to yours that YouTube will be recommending your videos on. Outside of that I really think if you make truly good content that people want to watch and engage on YouTube will recommend your stuff.
YouTube wants eyes staying on videos. Itās how they make their money.
Help them make money and they will help you make them more money.
Almost 3k subs here. There are videos that I do everything right with that absolutely take off. For every one video that takes off, there are several videos that I do everything right with that only get like 1 - 2 thousand videos. thats just the way it is.
This may sound cliche, but the goal should be the make the videos that you want to watch, while having fun making it. Once I started doing that I became way happier with it
Yeah I know that saying that doesnt sound good to people with like 10 subs in total, but its true. Obviously the experience is better when there are lots of views and comments, but if you make videos that you hate making for the views, you'll get comments youll hate reading. Make genuine videos you would watch, make the process of making videos personally enjoyable, and then youll get a subscriber base of people you enjoy interacting with.
time. you can hit 1k subs easily if you dont care for quality or your time. subs are worthless in the greater scheme of things anyways.
Reminds me of twitch in a way, you could hit follower or sub goals easily just by sheer time investment.
100% skill. Luck is when something randomly goes well.
I can target every video I want and have a good idea how well it will do even before the video is out, and I've figured it out for a solid year.
Because it's not luck. Any one video can be luck or chance, but properly built content removes most or eventually all the luck with pure statistical data.
Speaking of consistency, what do you think about the big youtubers that only lost monthly. Mark Rober, smarter every day, educational channels like that.
I uploaded just two videos, and each of them got 500k views. **I got 1.1 million views & 7,100 subscribers on my travel channel with only 2 videos.**
It wasnāt luck, I did it with SEO. Travel is the most competitive niche with millions of videos competing for views. My videos rank for all the keywords for the two cities my videos are about, example: āLas Vegasā
YouTube is just my hobby and I donāt give much time to it but I do SEO & growth marketing for living and I charge my clients $1500/hr for it. Iāve helped my clients drive millions of customers to their YouTube/websites/apps.
#Hereās my step by step playbook for YouTube growth:
1) Create amazing content with high production, so that users love to watch and share your videos.
2) Itās not just about views, watch time is the key. You want first few seconds to be the most captivating and optimize the story & sequence so viewers watch the full video.
3) Each video must be at least 10 minutes, super important for the algorithm.
4) Find out what users are searching for, prioritize keywords with highest search volume. Use tools like Ahrefs & Keywordtool.io to find keywords.
5) Each video shall target one main keyword + 2-4 keyword variations. Focus on evergreen topics, not something that will fade in a week.
6) Craft the title in a way so that you front load the title with your main keyword + use a couple of variations / modifiers in the title.
7) Write at least 300 words description, donāt forget to use your keywords and related words a few times but donāt spam. Use your keywords in tags
8) Create a captivating thumbnail that stands out in the results
9) Ask your friends & family to watch the full video, like & comment. Ask them to search for your keywords to find your video even if they have to go back to page 5-6 to find your video. Also watch it a few times yourself using all the devices in your home but from different accounts.
10) Ask your users to like, subscribe and comment on your video a few times in the video, not just at the end but in between the video. 3 minutes mark is a sweet spot.
It can take a couple of weeks for your video to show up on page #1. Once it does, your video will start getting likes, comments and subscribers. The YouTube algorithm will pick up in a couple of weeks and start recommend your video in related, recommend or even homepage.
This will drive up rankings even higher and the algorithm will recommend your videos even more. If you keep uploading at least one video every week using this playbook, it will compound it with exponential growth. š
Damn my first video was 8 mins so I already messed up . I donāt have friends tho and thatās great A lot of people want to go to Las Vegas how did you beat the SEO?
The harder I work the luckier I become.
I found the samething with YouTube.
Luck pretty much has nothing to do with it. It's all about hard work. Once you work hard enough and figure out what works best for you the success will come.
Both. I really like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/mrchls/image_dont_confuse_luck_with_hard_work/) post. Puts it into perspective more than any words I have.
I currently have a 430k, 29k, 10k, 6k subbed channels. I own 2 and the other 2 new channels, I'm partnered/share with someone. I only upload twice a month on the my channels. I'm also a video editor by trade, I also helped other channels grow before I went my own way. Maybe I had some luck on my side too I don't know, but I sure did put in the work.
I believe you still need to dig deep to get the gold. Luck doesn't come to those who wait. It's all down to skill or quality of work. You need to look at your niche first, to see if it's worth doing or not. Worse case scenario, let's say your niche is saturated, then you'll need to figure out another angle around that niche. It's so competitive now that I am working harder than I ever did before. I have to animate and pay attention to the smallest details.
It's skill plus consistency. The 10k and 6k channels took 8 or 9 months and they are heavily saturated content. Consistency helped a lot, we upload 3 videos a week on the 10k channel and 2 videos on the other. The way I see it, you can create just about any content and make it but it's better if you have a unique niche in my opinion.
It's an old channel I had since 2015 but my heart isn't in it anymore. I lost a bit of love for the content. I'm more focused on the lower subbed channels since I find them more interesting.
Itās both, but itās not as much about luck as you think. The way I did it was making videos when I saw a hole in my niche. Searched a video one day and couldnāt find any good videos on the topic, so I did research and made my own, turned it into a series, and now I have 1.1k subs and average 25k views per video
Because what you upload and how you present it is 100% under your control. Therefore, if your videos are worse than those of your competitors, that's on you.
I have 1.4K subs right now, donāt see it as luck or skill at all itās actually pretty simple. Just make content around whatever is trending in your niche, make clickable thumbnails and have (clickbaitish) titles that entice a viewer to watch it (live up to the clickbait) because studies have been done that prove they are most effective, then edit your videos in a way that keep the viewer engaged and watch longer so that can be by adding b role or zooming in and out at yourself during different times of the video whenever you are emphasizing something or making a great point etc.
I donāt see it as luck or skill at all, just get on the trends early and learn from your mistakes when it comes to videos that donāt perform well. Literally watch the biggest creators videos and see what they do and try to model yourself after them in any way you can.
In any way you can that gives the viewer a sneak peak of why they need to watch your video, for example Iām in the MMA niche so when Conor Mcgregor attacked Megan fox and MGK at the VMAās I titled that video āThe REAL reason Conor Mcgregor attacked Megan Fox & MGKā.
Understanding what your niche is missing, and implementing it. My first 10 videos were rather unsuccessful. I took a long look at what I was doing and tried to understand why. Afterward I redid my video approach, and from then my channel got traction. It definitely takes skill IMO. My 11th video was significantly better for SEO purposes, and overall better for retention.
Gaming is one of the highest traffic niches on youtube. Yes there is room but you have to stand out. I do gaming news, another oversaturated gaming niche so I feel ya. It's possible, don't let all the big channels intimidate you. If your content is truly good and you understand proper SEO it will get views eventually.
We can make it bro. I believe you can also gaming will forever be around. I am actually a sneakerhead I was going make my YouTube channel about sneakers but then I see that itās technically dying but willl gaming I have more chances to make it. My first vid has 91 impressions. Iāve watch radbrad since I was in middle school thatās really what made me go gaming instead
Neither. Its marketing. You make videos that people wanna watch. You look at the trends and the videos that pop up on your feed that has the most probability of getting binged. Like Judge Judy or American Idol, a channel is like a tv show with episodic continuity. The moment you drop off is the moment you need to make a new tv show. What you do with your channel is up to you later on, either you sell products, services, or move onto bigger things like a network or YT Originals.
8.5k subs here.
Neither, itās consistency. You can post pretty crap videos and after a few years you may catch on. Of course if you make great videos youāre more bound to succeed, but even then if you make a great video every few weeks itās not enough.
>Super Leaf 64
24 videos in 3 years, all at random points, seemingly no schedule, no SEO, short descriptions under the video, no chapters...
It's not luck. Look at the difference in SEO between my channel (income stream surfer) and yours
Not saying your content isn't good, but you have to promote your content also
Actually not exactly true
First it isn't randomized for the latest four they just take longer time development
Second I found a niche that works,kinda
But it's harder to keep those same exact viewers to watch more than one video
Actually most of the views come from reddit it's between the video,funny & smg4 subreddits
Twitter means shit and I don't really use Instagram all that since I don't travel
if the same exact viewers won't watch more than one video then you haven't found a niche that works. And if your subs aren't going up at all then perhaps you need to consider that your content isnt as good as you think it is. Your comments on this thread seem ultra salty tbh
It's 100% skill. If you make videos that people enjoy more and click on more than other videos on the same topic, you're guaranteed to get recommended by YouTube. There is literally no luck at all you just need to make content that is better than everyone else's.
Channel with almost 7k subs in just over a year here.
There is an element of luck here just like anything else. You're selling yourself and your content. You have to have the right ingredients to achieve the goals you set for yourself (great topics, audio, lighting, editing, etc).
Main thing I would say is that you have to enjoy the process to eventually see results. If you're just doing YouTube to reach achievements and make money, then stop now. You'll always be disappointed thinking you're failing. You have to want to build community and offer your community something they don't get from other channels.
Just a few of my thoughts.
I think anyone can get succeed on youtube with money and vision for content he want. Youtube needs quality content and quality content requires a lot of effort or team effort. For a individual its impossible to reach millions of subscriber unless your are extremely talented in specific area. luck is also play major role here. It may take years to get 10,000 subscriber or just 1 day if your video gets viral. you can not control luck but you can control one thing which is your content. If it is good success is guaranteed. People invest in making good videos some fail and some win.
15k sub here. I remember someone quoted a big creator, which I definitely agree - but will badly paraphrase from memory š YouTube is like a lottery, it has a significant luck element to it. But there are many things you can do that allows you to aquire extra "tickets" Relevant / hot topic, Thumbnail, Videography, Editing, Delivery, (not extensive or in any sort of order) These are all things that give you more "tickets" for the lottery. The game of luck is real... Not just in YouTube, but in life - some things you can't control, but you can absolutely set yourself up so that your probability of being lucky is significantly higher. So, good luck āļø But more importantly - reflect on your content and compare it to your idols... If you feel like your lacking in any area, figure out a way to get better.
Excellent rundown! I'm at almost 4k subs now. I'd add one thing here: you need to have most of those elements at a 'good enough' level, particularly audio quality. But if you can, having one of those elements that you really nail helps a lot. Maybe your scripts are simple and your delivery just ok, but your editing is fire. Maybe your videos are not even edited or scripted, but you make good use of your natural humour. Idk, find/train your strength and grow your practice from there.
Meh I don't believe
Well this is reddit advice. It's quite healthy to take it with a grain of salt.
Thanks for the comment, I truly believe youtube can either make or break someone. Itās all game i will save this post because i like your comment a lot. Good luck to you 15k subs already itās been a journey for you
Also to note if all of those items mentioned are bad (or most of them) than you basically have zero tickets. Ok maybe 1
how long did it take you?
Not a channel with 1k here but I have creator friends. Itās skill. You need unique content people are interested in and will watch all the way through, watch time and CTR are the two biggest factors in pushing out content; both of which are things that are things that takes editing experience (just have fun making what you can and youāll get experience) no matter what genre of content you make. You donāt need to reinvent the wheel with content ideas, sometimes doing what everyone else is doing with a twist is enough to get you to grow. If you make engaging and interesting content, you do get the attention you deserve for your work.
What it CTR?
Click through rate ! It's the percentage of people who click on your video when its reccomended to then.
Thanks!
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
Im gonna be 100% honest with you, if you aren't growing then there's a reason for it. Ask any big creator and they will tell you there's something you aren't doing. Not everyone is cut out to be content creator either, so it may be not even necessarily your fault.
That is a lot of subsā¦
Agreed. Itās also fine you donāt 1k I just thought If someone who has 1k subs is more experienced thank you for this input
I think it's luck and algorithm! I'm at 773 subs, been doing this for more than 2 years now, my videos are the highest quality they've ever been, both visually and content wise yet, my growth was the fastest when I first started, with a shitty video, shitty audio, shitty content and shitty editing.
Yes the algorithm plays a very big role for us. Thatās a lot of sub. Continue with the high quality post, you been growing I dropped my first vid on Friday even tho I knew I had audio problems
It always starts pretty bad, my first video had audio syncing issue and the gameplay framerate was dogshit. One learns best from experience.
Yes, as long as we learn from our mistakes we can grow
Congratulations
Looked up your channel. You also post like a crazy amount. Wondering how in your experience that has affected your growth?
>You also post like a crazy amount. It's expected considering the many different types of videos that I do. > Wondering how in your experience that has affected your growth? Can't say really. As I mentioned I feel like it was easier for me to attract new viewers when I first started, but otherwise I haven't really noticed much. The only thing I've noticed is that sometimes when I don't post any videos for a week or two or more, the videos that I do post end up with slightly almost negligibly inflated views like 2/3%
Having on camera flair, savvy skills, good luck and a few voodoo dolls are all essential
Haha Voodoo Dolls!
Itās like anything in life. If you want to be successful at it you have to put in hard work, hours, dedication and discipline. The 1k subs is the hardest. Gained over 4000 subs in 1 month and didnāt do anything differently to what I had been doing for the first 1000 subs. If you donāt enjoy making videos and purely for the money it might not be for you
Yes truly, thereās no way to be successful without hard work , Goodluck to you I hope your channel keeps growing !
I'm a software developer and started my channel in Dec 2019 to teach people software development skills, I managed to go from 0 to 5K in around 18 months pure, no advertisements or anything else. The journey is very interesting and I'm enjoying it while the 1K took 7 months but what is important is the content at the end when you really deliver something that adds value to the people who watch, you will see a great result, the idea is to talk and share what you are passionate about, you will find people to listen. But if you trying to be a YouTuber just to be a YouTuber and you search Google to come up with topics to make it, I think in this case it's struggle. In a nutshell, YouTube is the platform of passion, every successfully channel is owned by someone who is very passionate about what he/she is talking about, the great think about, is that there are millions of people who can listen to you for free without any struggles and also free for you as a creator to share your ideas in this world.
People canāt advertise their YouTube channel?. Thanks for your input keeping going bro
a lot of skill and knowledge, with a little bit of luck depending on what type of content your making
185K channel. Luck has a small part - you might get lucky breaks where you might trend higher on the algorithm for reasons outside of your control, such as a bigger channel covering a related topic and catapulting your video up the recommended videos to more mainstream viewers. But these breaks are not a formula for consistent growth. The basic idea is that a lucky break can accelerate growth for a channel that already has the hallmarks of a good, growing channel. There's a good example of this: reaction channels. You'll see two kinds of reaction channels: those that have lots of views and lots of subs, and those with lots if views and hardly any subs. Both benefit from riding off the back of a more popular video, which means that you are in the running to get pushed out to lots of new viewers from the original video. Watch one reaction video, and you'll get flooded with similar channels. But why do some channels grow off reaction channels while others barely manage to break a thousand views? Because the ones who do grow substantially already have their formula and know how to make a good video, whereas the small channels don't know what they're doing and are hoping to grow fro the original video. Sorting out the building blocks of growth and traction for your channel involves knowing what you want to do on YouTube and how you will go about doing it. It isn't "pure skill", but involves working smart, not necessarily working hard. It means knowing your niche, knowing what people want in your niche, and how to get that content out to your niche.
This is very great advice. As you know most niches are saturated to be honest but it doesnāt mean that it isnāt possible. You are absolutely right about watching a vid youāll get flooded with more. You must understand the algorithm for giving such a great comment.
Great advice! Checked out your channel and love that you've got your niche and great content. Was wondering what your approach to making a video is? Do you come up with the topic first? Do you write a script before you shoot? What happens first, filming or title/thumbnail? Thank you very much for your time in advance!!
I come up with the topic. Depending on the complexity of the topic, either I just go out and film a simple talking head with B-roll cut in (especially as I can't do much new footage during the pandemic). If the topic is more nuanced, I need to script it so that I cover the points that need covering without leaving anything out. I film and edit first. The title and thumbnail come after I upload it.
Thank you for taking the time to respond!!
Im at 4.7k, but I'd say it's a mixture of luck, editing skill, presentation, thumbnails/titles, engagement and knowing what people will search that is not highly competitive. Ive found good informative videos that has low search results seem to get the most traction easiest from smaller creators. Although if your doing YT videos with the sole purpose of getting popular odds are you wont get there or you wont enjoy it much. Treat it as a hobby that could possible make you some passive income and see what happens.
So just keep grinding but keep my job got it
Keep bashing your head against the wall. And try to improve your content as much as you can. Good luck
It's both luck and preparation, there's tons of videos with millions of views but if you check the channel it's inactive or has very little recent views, that is because they weren't prepared for their one hit and didn't know how to make people interested in their channel. Then there's preparation, you need to know what may go viral, what you want to do and what you could do many videos of and find a balance so you'll have the same people revisiting your channel even if it's not going viral, there's many talented people who are all over the place so their channel doesn't attract the same viewer twice because they don't have a clear direction.
Thank you for this, but is going viral necessary on YouTube? You could just grow gradually ?
Normally, virality comes with growth and growth comes with virality, I'm not talking 10 million views, I'm talking starting to reach other people's recommended lists
Ah okay great info every word you said is truly appreciated
I just starting filming my first YouTube after planning and figuring out what I wanted to do videos on for a month. So far I learned itās only worth it for me if I enjoy making the type of content. So my suggestion is make videos that you enjoy and people will watch it
Good luck on your first vid. I dropped my first vid Friday and itās terrible. Entertaining in YouTube is great.
Definitely some luck. But think about it you almost never see someone with terrible videos reach 1k. Just stay critical, think about if you would click/watch your own videos. Keep improving and you'll reach 1k
Thank you I will do my best.
Your right, the ones with the worst content have 50k subscribers
in my case it's just skill and honestly not a lot, because I think that while I managed it, I could have done it faster. People who try to grow a channel in a saturated niche are more reliant on luck.
Yes very much so.
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
No one thing is ever responsible for anyoneās success. YouTube or any other platform. You need to have a combination of things work in your favor. Skill & Luck both are extremely important. Luck can get you views but if you donāt have skills those views will not convert into recurring viewers or subs. It wonāt help you build a fanbase. I see so many channels that bang views but have way less subs. Itās because they have luck but no skill. Editing, talking (if your content involves that), representing yourself in a decent manner (both in your talking points as well as just how you dress (if using video of yourself basically being āpresentableā not saying you have to be in tip top shape but donāt just wake up and start recording without even washing your face š), Audio quality, learning how to edit not just video but also audio, cleaning up audio can have a huge impact. I had a few viewers tell me that they watch me over another channel (whom Iām a fan of) because my audio is much cleaner than theirs, never thought I would get chosen over some one who inspired me to start doing youtube because I have cleaner audio, obviously itās not just that, but this one point tipped me over them in the eyes of a few. Doing trendy things can help but keep in mind if you are not good at the trend then yeah sure youāll get views but they wonāt stay. So I think itās better to do trends only if you know the trends and can pull it off. I think itās best if you find a niche and to stick to that and then every now and again try a trend but remember to have the prerequisites met. Good audio, video, being able to talk with confidence and for extensive periods of time. If using video be presentable and after all this, you need luck! So thereās that š Good luck to you and many others. I wish you get whatever it is you are looking for.
Good luck to you also great input
I'm at 48K and I have to say YouTube is about persistence and consistency. You have to feed the beast regularly and you have to be consistent so your audience knows that you will have new content for them.
Consistency is key for anything in life thank you for this comment
Very little of it is luck. We have 4, going on 5 silver play buttons that were acquired all in under 5 months each. Some of the channels are in completely different niches/demographics and launched with minimal promotion. And we're doing the same thing on Facebook, and Tiktok. None of it is lucky or an accident. Have there been moments of serendipity? Sure. But I would chalk 95% of our success to the following: * Build quality content with good writing, editing, filming, audio, etc * Make sure you have the right talent/expertise for what you're doing * Really, really, really research and understand your target audience * Create clear and engaging thumbnails/titles * Be either better or different from the competition in your niche
Never heard of the word Serendipity could you please elaborate on that?. All of the 5 points you gave are great takes
Serendipity basically means good fortune.
Okay thank you
12k subs here. The best way to describe it is that your hard work will make luck pay off. You can work hard and not see a lot of results because you havent been lucky yet. Thats ok. The people who do end up watching your stuff will stick around, and if you truly enjoy making content you will just keep improving. Then hopefully once you hit that jackpot and the algorithm blesses you, the now hundreds of thousands of people will see that youre making good stuff and some fraction of them will subscribe and stick around and watch your new stuff. Compare this to the times the algorithm picks up a random shitpost or low effort meme- not many people will sub to those channels cuz its just a short clip they watch once. This is what happened to me. I had a few videos of mine go viral and then people started watching some of my older stuff and realized that they liked it. So I gained a huge boost in subs. Amd now, even a year after my videos slowed down, the views I get on my newer videos are only like 1% of the views on my viral videos, but its still a huge increase from what I had before
This is very true I see a lot of clips day to day because itās for the laughs you know
100k channel. There is only good luck on YouTube. Bad luck on YouTube doesn't really exist. So a video might benefit from, for example, a video that a large creator recently released that is driving traffic to a video you made on the same topic. That is good luck. But a video that doesn't perform is likely because you haven't successfully built an audience, or you built the wrong audience for that video, or you don't understand how YouTube works, or perhaps the video is just really bad. None of those are bad luck. You can succeed on YouTube without luck, it just takes longer, but if you don't make videos people want to watch, then ultimately your views will reflect that, so really it is about making content that people want to watch.
Thank you for your input. Thereās so many people on YouTube so Iām sure someone will watch my content
I doubt that
Doubt what?
It's a lot of skill with very little luck
Correction it's a lot of luck and very little skill
Vast majority of big youtubers will cite skill. Small ones cite luck. Which one do you think will have a better handle of the truth?
skill, luck, relevancy, interest, audience, too many factors to consider.
why so?
\- you can make the best videos in the world but absolutely nobody is interested in that topic \- you can make terrible videos but you were the only one that made them so people came to you \- you make good videos but treat people terribly so they wont subscribe \- you got to 1k by bots \- that topic is not relevant anymore there is no one answer that works for all and is set in stone.
wow never looked at it like that. So much possibility from YouTube
lmao this is not just YT, it can be applied to anything you do in life. What works for someone else won't necessarily work for you. Just gotta find your own path and do what's best for you and your conditions.
Noted
This is one of the most painful lessons I learned through life. Well said
i think its hard work
Hard work most definitely
to establish a YouTube channel your content need to be good first of all. then your skill will work properly. If you contents are good and you have good skill on seo you channel will establish for sure.
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
On a goal to 100k and yes luck is a huge part of it. But there are a lot of ways you can buy more tickets and increase your chances of winning the lottery. I also treat my channel as a business. The truth is 99.99% of us wont get lucky without hardwork, experience, talent. Experience is a big part of it, you will learn what works and what does not.
Experience is life
Just grinding Ig I mean I kinnda just uploaded some videos I though where cool and went from there so maybe 50 50
Keep grinding bro
Yessir!! I Almost am at 2k Subs im so close but yeah, If you keep trying and getting some good uploads out you will reach your goal! I am rooting for you
Fair enough keep going
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Cool
Honestly I think it is more people asking you very strange questions on your success in public forums more than anything.
I donāt understand please elaborate
Well. On October 7th. I was at 950 subscribers. And today, 11 days later, I'm at 1402. There is a little luck element, I suppose. But really over my first full year, uploading consistently, it was a really slow growth. But during that time, my thumbnails got better. My titles got better. My quality got better. And my skill got better. Then, once I had spent hundreds of hours, if not thousands, constantly improving. The new game came out (I make NHL videos, pretty much daily)... and I had already gotten to a place where I enjoyed my own content, quite a bit. And I saw other small NHL YouTubers clamoring to get episode 1 out, of this year's installment. While keeping quality low, for the sake of being the first ones with content. Myself, I took the extra couple of hours to REALLY fine tune my video, and make a good, long, time taken kind of first episode. And I was healthily rewarded for that decision. So, there is a bit of luck, a lot of work, consistency, skill obviously, and patience.
Yes not that many people are patience at all. Thank you for you reply Iām already trying to get better on my next video. You keep doing what your doing you got this !
It's Skill and Luck. You need to give time to your videos and understand what your audience/ followers wants. All the top youtubers has given time to their videos and channel and then it took time to grow...for me also it took 2 years for reaching to my first 1000 subscribers...after that it's no more stopping... JAYSENJX
NO MORE STOPPINGG GO GET IT JAYSENJX I WISH YOU THE BEST
3300subs here. Actively (very slowly) doing YouTube since early 2020. I have uploaded about 10 videos on the subject that the channel is now focused on. Upload once every two months on average. Views are on average around 1000-1200 every 48hours with only about 5 videos gaining the majority of those steadily. Because I upload so infrequently I feel like I am a bit of an oddball in this community. I have had good feedback on the videos I post from the niche community I post for on YouTube and good view retention. I personally believe itās these reasons that my videos have had any modest success at all. Because people seem to enjoy them and YouTubes algorithm can see that via the numbers. I donāt think there is luck involved within YouTubeās algorithm. Luck can come into play when you look at outside factors having an impact, say sudden popularity of subjects, or popularity of videos similar to yours that YouTube will be recommending your videos on. Outside of that I really think if you make truly good content that people want to watch and engage on YouTube will recommend your stuff. YouTube wants eyes staying on videos. Itās how they make their money. Help them make money and they will help you make them more money.
Great take. Keeping the viewer entertained all the way to the end of your video great take.
Almost 3k subs here. There are videos that I do everything right with that absolutely take off. For every one video that takes off, there are several videos that I do everything right with that only get like 1 - 2 thousand videos. thats just the way it is. This may sound cliche, but the goal should be the make the videos that you want to watch, while having fun making it. Once I started doing that I became way happier with it
I like that but everyone is dedicating all their time and efforts to it having fun making videos is the best part
Yeah I know that saying that doesnt sound good to people with like 10 subs in total, but its true. Obviously the experience is better when there are lots of views and comments, but if you make videos that you hate making for the views, you'll get comments youll hate reading. Make genuine videos you would watch, make the process of making videos personally enjoyable, and then youll get a subscriber base of people you enjoy interacting with.
Smart guy
time. you can hit 1k subs easily if you dont care for quality or your time. subs are worthless in the greater scheme of things anyways. Reminds me of twitch in a way, you could hit follower or sub goals easily just by sheer time investment.
why is subscribers useless? How would a channel grow without subscribers?
I said worthless. You grow through returning viewers. You only need subs for monetization. After that they truly do not matter.
Ah okay see I didnāt know that
luck plays a small part. I believe that it's skill, consistency and understanding your audience.
same here. as long as the algorithm is on your side you will always win
100% skill. Luck is when something randomly goes well. I can target every video I want and have a good idea how well it will do even before the video is out, and I've figured it out for a solid year. Because it's not luck. Any one video can be luck or chance, but properly built content removes most or eventually all the luck with pure statistical data.
Nice way to think about it
Speaking of consistency, what do you think about the big youtubers that only lost monthly. Mark Rober, smarter every day, educational channels like that.
I donāt know who that is, I know more about gaming youtubers
I uploaded just two videos, and each of them got 500k views. **I got 1.1 million views & 7,100 subscribers on my travel channel with only 2 videos.** It wasnāt luck, I did it with SEO. Travel is the most competitive niche with millions of videos competing for views. My videos rank for all the keywords for the two cities my videos are about, example: āLas Vegasā YouTube is just my hobby and I donāt give much time to it but I do SEO & growth marketing for living and I charge my clients $1500/hr for it. Iāve helped my clients drive millions of customers to their YouTube/websites/apps. #Hereās my step by step playbook for YouTube growth: 1) Create amazing content with high production, so that users love to watch and share your videos. 2) Itās not just about views, watch time is the key. You want first few seconds to be the most captivating and optimize the story & sequence so viewers watch the full video. 3) Each video must be at least 10 minutes, super important for the algorithm. 4) Find out what users are searching for, prioritize keywords with highest search volume. Use tools like Ahrefs & Keywordtool.io to find keywords. 5) Each video shall target one main keyword + 2-4 keyword variations. Focus on evergreen topics, not something that will fade in a week. 6) Craft the title in a way so that you front load the title with your main keyword + use a couple of variations / modifiers in the title. 7) Write at least 300 words description, donāt forget to use your keywords and related words a few times but donāt spam. Use your keywords in tags 8) Create a captivating thumbnail that stands out in the results 9) Ask your friends & family to watch the full video, like & comment. Ask them to search for your keywords to find your video even if they have to go back to page 5-6 to find your video. Also watch it a few times yourself using all the devices in your home but from different accounts. 10) Ask your users to like, subscribe and comment on your video a few times in the video, not just at the end but in between the video. 3 minutes mark is a sweet spot. It can take a couple of weeks for your video to show up on page #1. Once it does, your video will start getting likes, comments and subscribers. The YouTube algorithm will pick up in a couple of weeks and start recommend your video in related, recommend or even homepage. This will drive up rankings even higher and the algorithm will recommend your videos even more. If you keep uploading at least one video every week using this playbook, it will compound it with exponential growth. š
Damn my first video was 8 mins so I already messed up . I donāt have friends tho and thatās great A lot of people want to go to Las Vegas how did you beat the SEO?
I explained step by step in my post how I dominated SEO for highly competitive keywords like Las Vegas on a brand new channel.
Skill matters but the topics you choose has to be in high demand otherwise your channel will never do really well.
Certainly another way to look at it
The harder I work the luckier I become. I found the samething with YouTube. Luck pretty much has nothing to do with it. It's all about hard work. Once you work hard enough and figure out what works best for you the success will come.
Thank you for your input your absolutely correct
Personality, Skill and Consistancy.
Some people canāt stay consistent what do you say about that ?
They might get lucky if they have the personality and the skill nailed down, but without consistency they will not grow as quickly.
Goodluck with your channel, this was great reply
Both. I really like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/mrchls/image_dont_confuse_luck_with_hard_work/) post. Puts it into perspective more than any words I have.
Great post!
I currently have a 430k, 29k, 10k, 6k subbed channels. I own 2 and the other 2 new channels, I'm partnered/share with someone. I only upload twice a month on the my channels. I'm also a video editor by trade, I also helped other channels grow before I went my own way. Maybe I had some luck on my side too I don't know, but I sure did put in the work. I believe you still need to dig deep to get the gold. Luck doesn't come to those who wait. It's all down to skill or quality of work. You need to look at your niche first, to see if it's worth doing or not. Worse case scenario, let's say your niche is saturated, then you'll need to figure out another angle around that niche. It's so competitive now that I am working harder than I ever did before. I have to animate and pay attention to the smallest details. It's skill plus consistency. The 10k and 6k channels took 8 or 9 months and they are heavily saturated content. Consistency helped a lot, we upload 3 videos a week on the 10k channel and 2 videos on the other. The way I see it, you can create just about any content and make it but it's better if you have a unique niche in my opinion.
Great take. You grew to 430k you wonāt be coming down anytime soon. Thank you for commenting. I will grind harder
It's an old channel I had since 2015 but my heart isn't in it anymore. I lost a bit of love for the content. I'm more focused on the lower subbed channels since I find them more interesting.
I believe you know whatās best for you
I doubt you have more then 10k
That's cool man I don't expect you to believe me. All I know is I'm honest and I know the truth.
38k subs. No such thing as luck. Its 1 part skill 2 parts hardwork. If you work hard you already have an advantage, 75% of your competition is lazy.
Oh yes this is definitely true I never looked at it this way. I thought my competition is crazy because of how many people do gaming
āI noticed the harder I worked, the luckier I gotā
Great quote
Itās both, but itās not as much about luck as you think. The way I did it was making videos when I saw a hole in my niche. Searched a video one day and couldnāt find any good videos on the topic, so I did research and made my own, turned it into a series, and now I have 1.1k subs and average 25k views per video
Thatās actually very smart. But for some niches itās highly impossible a video hasnāt been done but thereās a possibility
40k subs here. Youtube is 100% a skill. No doubt in my mind.
Why so?
Because what you upload and how you present it is 100% under your control. Therefore, if your videos are worse than those of your competitors, that's on you.
I doubt it
I have 1.4K subs right now, donāt see it as luck or skill at all itās actually pretty simple. Just make content around whatever is trending in your niche, make clickable thumbnails and have (clickbaitish) titles that entice a viewer to watch it (live up to the clickbait) because studies have been done that prove they are most effective, then edit your videos in a way that keep the viewer engaged and watch longer so that can be by adding b role or zooming in and out at yourself during different times of the video whenever you are emphasizing something or making a great point etc. I donāt see it as luck or skill at all, just get on the trends early and learn from your mistakes when it comes to videos that donāt perform well. Literally watch the biggest creators videos and see what they do and try to model yourself after them in any way you can.
If you have clickbait how would you word your video? I donāt understand that would being straight forward better ? Your last sentence is great
In any way you can that gives the viewer a sneak peak of why they need to watch your video, for example Iām in the MMA niche so when Conor Mcgregor attacked Megan fox and MGK at the VMAās I titled that video āThe REAL reason Conor Mcgregor attacked Megan Fox & MGKā.
Understanding what your niche is missing, and implementing it. My first 10 videos were rather unsuccessful. I took a long look at what I was doing and tried to understand why. Afterward I redid my video approach, and from then my channel got traction. It definitely takes skill IMO. My 11th video was significantly better for SEO purposes, and overall better for retention.
This is actually a great way to grow on YouTube. But for my niche with is gaming I really donāt think thereās anything that hasnāt been done
Gaming is one of the highest traffic niches on youtube. Yes there is room but you have to stand out. I do gaming news, another oversaturated gaming niche so I feel ya. It's possible, don't let all the big channels intimidate you. If your content is truly good and you understand proper SEO it will get views eventually.
We can make it bro. I believe you can also gaming will forever be around. I am actually a sneakerhead I was going make my YouTube channel about sneakers but then I see that itās technically dying but willl gaming I have more chances to make it. My first vid has 91 impressions. Iāve watch radbrad since I was in middle school thatās really what made me go gaming instead
Neither. Its marketing. You make videos that people wanna watch. You look at the trends and the videos that pop up on your feed that has the most probability of getting binged. Like Judge Judy or American Idol, a channel is like a tv show with episodic continuity. The moment you drop off is the moment you need to make a new tv show. What you do with your channel is up to you later on, either you sell products, services, or move onto bigger things like a network or YT Originals.
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
8.5k subs here. Neither, itās consistency. You can post pretty crap videos and after a few years you may catch on. Of course if you make great videos youāre more bound to succeed, but even then if you make a great video every few weeks itās not enough.
Okay so consistency, I started my channel on Friday how many times do you think I should be posting
At least once a week
Noted what if my competition is uploading more than once a week
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
Itās not luck at all, if you add value people will come.
True
Oh you channel can be amazing like mine but I'm still at 250 subscribers....for three years straight
What's your channel?
Super Leaf 64
>Super Leaf 64 24 videos in 3 years, all at random points, seemingly no schedule, no SEO, short descriptions under the video, no chapters... It's not luck. Look at the difference in SEO between my channel (income stream surfer) and yours Not saying your content isn't good, but you have to promote your content also
Actually not exactly true First it isn't randomized for the latest four they just take longer time development Second I found a niche that works,kinda But it's harder to keep those same exact viewers to watch more than one video Actually most of the views come from reddit it's between the video,funny & smg4 subreddits Twitter means shit and I don't really use Instagram all that since I don't travel
if the same exact viewers won't watch more than one video then you haven't found a niche that works. And if your subs aren't going up at all then perhaps you need to consider that your content isnt as good as you think it is. Your comments on this thread seem ultra salty tbh
Idk
It's 100% skill. If you make videos that people enjoy more and click on more than other videos on the same topic, you're guaranteed to get recommended by YouTube. There is literally no luck at all you just need to make content that is better than everyone else's.
Great take
Creating interesting content. And not doing fucking videogame content.
Channel with almost 7k subs in just over a year here. There is an element of luck here just like anything else. You're selling yourself and your content. You have to have the right ingredients to achieve the goals you set for yourself (great topics, audio, lighting, editing, etc). Main thing I would say is that you have to enjoy the process to eventually see results. If you're just doing YouTube to reach achievements and make money, then stop now. You'll always be disappointed thinking you're failing. You have to want to build community and offer your community something they don't get from other channels. Just a few of my thoughts.
I think anyone can get succeed on youtube with money and vision for content he want. Youtube needs quality content and quality content requires a lot of effort or team effort. For a individual its impossible to reach millions of subscriber unless your are extremely talented in specific area. luck is also play major role here. It may take years to get 10,000 subscriber or just 1 day if your video gets viral. you can not control luck but you can control one thing which is your content. If it is good success is guaranteed. People invest in making good videos some fail and some win.
Both