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Q&A: "How to grow a YouTube channel with 121,000 subscribers?"
We've been talking about ideas and crafting an initial Roadmap to Launch, but I'm aware that we also have a significant group of listeners who are already well ahead.
Beginning in the second half of year one of the show, we began to see that an increasing percentage of stories we featured came from listeners who had joined in early on. This is one of my favorite things about making Side Hustle School—because I know it works!
This Australian listener already has a very popular home cooking YouTube channel with more than 100,000 subscribers. He's now looking to expand his reach further. What comes next?
My side hustle is my home cooking YouTube channel where I create and share videos of myself preparing my favorite meals in a relaxed way. I have recently passed one hundred thousand subscribers and also landed a partnership with a brand name.
I'm now looking to further expand my reach. My question is how do I expand this type of business without losing my channel's identity? I've read about SEO and have studied the data from my analytics, but the data is telling me that in order to grow quickly I need to be making the same popular dishes that are also being featured by larger channels. This could mean venturing into already saturated spaces, which in my opinion kind of increases the risk for each video I invest time and resources into producing. I don't want to sell out too much and lose my core viewers, but I would also like to grow my numbers. What direction do you think it's best to take the project?
First of all… congratulations! This is a tremendous accomplishment. Food for the Gabs is the embodiment of what many of our listeners want to create. We can learn from you.
Second… alright, let's talk about growth! The question that comes to my mind is "Why are these people giving you their most valuable resource… their attention?" It's obviously because you're doing something right.
So whatever you do, I don't think you should stop doing that. If anything, the answer could just be: "Do more of that!"
It looks like you're making about one video a week. Can you double it to two? Can you make different kinds of episodes?
As for this point about making the same popular dishes you see on larger channels—I understand that could be important for discoverability. Even though kimchi fries sound interesting and creative, I bet a lot more people search for kimchi fried rice, for example. Could you make that in a way that leads to more people stumbling upon your content without feeling like you're overselling?
Next, are you trying to cross-populate your strong YouTube subscriber base on other platforms? The cooking space is very visual, so what are your goals for Instagram and Snapchat, for example?
One final note: even though Gabe has five million views on this channel so far, the About section is completely blank. Your subscribers want to know more about you… don't be afraid to tell them.
