Reaching 1,000 subscribers on YouTube is a massive milestone for every channel. Not only do you start making money with ads, but evidence shows a boost in views. In addition, the motivation alone from reaching a thousand subs helps many YouTubers grow their channel. I am about to cover the average time it took YouTubers to get to 1,000 subscribers, and how you can get there faster.
But it can be so frustrating trying to get there!
I’ve talked to YouTubers who have been working on their channels for years and are still not there. They’ve seen newer channels zoom past them to reach 1,000 subs within months. It’s discouraging and many give up without ever reaching the goal.
How long does it take, on average, to reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers? What things can you do to add subscribers faster, and do you even need a thousand subs to make money?
Do You Need 1,000 Subscribers on YouTube to Make Money?
When we talk about getting to a thousand subscribers on YouTube, we’re talking about getting views and making money. That’s really what most people are concerned with, not the subscriber count.
But your number of subscribers is the most visible factor that leads to how many views you get and how much money you make, so people fixate on that.
So the question is, do you need 1,000 subscribers on YouTube to make money and get views?
Yes…No…OK, that isn’t very clear.
Yes, you need thousands of subs and 4,000 watch hours to join the YouTube partner program and make money from ads on your videos. However, your subscriber count is also going to influence how many views you get because you’ll have more people watching your videos quickly after posting.
But YouTube ads are only part of the income I make on my videos. I average just under $7,000 a month from videos with just half of that from ads. The rest is from affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and book sales.
The point is you can make money on YouTube without ads and without 1,000 subscribers. We’ll look into the facts on getting to a thousand subs, but if you’re relying on ads to make money, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
Leveraging those other ways to make money and grow your channel is something I talk about in my free YouTube Mastery webinar. I share three strategies that helped me reach 75,000 subscribers in less than 18 months and every income source I use. The webinar is free but is limited by my webinar host, so you need to reserve a spot.
Click to Reserve Your Spot Now for this FREE YouTube Mastery Webinar!
What is the Average Time to 1,000 YouTube Subscribers?
It takes an average of 22 months for a channel to reach 1,000 subscribers on YouTube. According to data from TubeFilter. That’s if the channel is uploading videos consistently and using some best practices.
The problem is massive variation in the data, and looking at that ‘average’ can be misleading.
In my free YouTube Mastery webinar, I ask how many channel subscribers they have and how long they’ve been on YouTube. You can see from the chart that while you could draw a line from zero to 1,000 subscribers in the middle of the points, it wouldn’t be a very good fit.
For example, one attendee was at 820 subscribers and had only been working on her channel for 14 months. Another was stuck at 460 subs with more than 27 months of posting videos.
Only four-in-ten channels ever reach that 1,000 subscriber milestone, and those that make it seem a very different path.
If it were just about getting to a thousand subs and getting monetized for the YouTube Partner Program, I would say it’s no big deal. After all, we’ve already seen that you can make money before you hit the milestone.
But there are a couple more reasons why this 1,000-subscriber mark is so critical to the success of your channel.
In a study by Fullscreen of one million channels, YouTubers with less than 1,000 subscribers were 90% of those studied but got just 7% of the views. Channels with over 10,000 subscribers made up only two in ten of the one million studied but got 28% of the views!
Think about that fact. Small channels under a thousand subs contribute 90% of the content on YouTube but are getting less than 10% of the total views. Most of the views on YouTube go to channels with more than 1,000 subscribers. It’s just how the YouTube algorithm works in search and suggested results.
You NEED to get at least 1,000 subscribers on YouTube to be successful!
Click to reserve your spot at the FREE YouTube Quick-start Webinar! I’m sharing three strategies that helped me grow my YouTube channel and double my business income. I guarantee they WILL work for you. Seats are limited for the webinar, so make sure you reserve yours.
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How Fast Can I Get to 1,000 Subscribers on YouTube?
While most channels struggle to reach that 1,000 sub milestone, you can get there much faster.
I started focusing on YouTube in December 2017. I started the channel in 2015 but never did anything with it. The stagnation was because I posted just seven videos in two years and had only 22 subscribers.
Then I committed to building my channel and reaching 1,000 subscribers within a year. I started uploading once a week and learning everything I could about YouTube.
I ended up beating that thousand-subscriber goal just four months later in April. Then I crushed my next goal of 10,000 subs by July.
One of the students in my Crushing YouTube Course, Robert, started posting videos in May this year and is already over 900 subscribers in four months.
Another friend of mine, Amon, of the channel Our Rich Journey, started in May 2018 and built to 50,000 subscribers in 14 months.
Reaching that thousand-subscriber milestone faster means understanding what works on YouTube. It means finding the tips and hacks that will grow your channel beyond the average and build a community.
3 Tips to Reach 1,000 YouTube Subscribers as Fast as Possible
I’m not going to lie. It takes a lot to grow a YouTube business and reach 100,000 subscribers.
But there are little tricks you can use within that larger strategy to grow a channel fast. Of course, you’ll still need to upload videos consistently and treat your channel like a business, putting in the time every week. Still, these three tips will help jumpstart your success.
First is, always emphasize that your channel is a community, a group of people around common beliefs and values. Have a name for your group and do things to show that you appreciate every individual, like responding to comments and highlighting subscribers in your videos.
This emphasis on community helps to build those superfans that watch every video you publish. That goes a long way to building momentum for new videos and getting the views to reach non-subscribers fast.
Second tip, don’t just make a video on any topic. Instead, look for the topics and video ideas that are instantly popular in your niche. These popular video ideas will get you views fast and take your channel viral in months.
- Look at similar channels and sort their videos by ‘Most Popular
- Keep up with hot trends by checking to see what videos those similar channels are posting each week
- Find the most popular posts on blogs that cover topics in your niche
Finally, here is to learn from experience. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with YouTube. You don’t have to start from scratch to know what works for growing subscribers.
I share everything I’ve learned about growing a YouTube business in my Crushing YouTube Course and hold a free webinar to reveal the top three tips to getting started. Just a few ideas can save you months of frustration trying to get to 1,000 subscribers and can have you making money fast.
Sign up and reserve your spot for the free webinar here
Getting 1,000 subscribers on YouTube doesn’t have to take years, and you can make money before you hit the milestone. Learn how others have grown their channel and commit to increasing your YouTube business. Don’t let that frustration and disappointment that hits so many channels destroy your dream.