Getting the first play button is the hallmark of success for YouTube Creators. It actually makes you feel like a legit social media influencer and encourages you to reach greater milestones. The subscriber count plays a key role in claiming your first play button, which is why some YouTubers may be tempted to buy subscribers.
However, it’s essential to remember that your subscribers must be legitimately earned to claim your first silver play button. To be honest, you can gain free subscribers for YouTube channels with organic growth strategies, and meanwhile, you must remain patient.
In this article, we will talk about YouTube play buttons and how you can easily get your first play button. Keep reading to discover!
What Exactly is a YouTube Play Button?
YouTube play buttons, also known as YouTube Creator Awards and YouTube Plaques, were introduced in 2012 as a way to recognize and appreciate the hard work of content creators.
YouTube play buttons are awarded as the content creator hits a certain milestone. These are the buttons you receive with your subscriber count:
- Silver – 100,000 subscribers
- Gold – 1,000,000 subscribers
- Diamond – 10,000,000 subscribers
- Red Diamond – 100,000,000 subscribers
It’s essential to keep in mind that only hitting the subscriber milestone is not enough to earn play buttons. You must also comply with YouTube copyright and community guidelines. Once you reach a certain subscriber count, your channel will be reviewed, and you will receive a play button.
Tips on Earning Your First YouTube Play Button
Creating your YouTube creator account is simple. However, you need to implement some strategies to earn your first YouTube silver play button. Here are 8 effective tips to help you grow your channel and claim your play button.
1. Follow YouTube’s Guidelines
You must follow YouTube’s community guidelines when creating content for your YouTube channel. It would be better for you to stay updated with YouTube’s guidelines to ensure you don’t miss a chance of earning a play button regardless of hitting 100,000 subscribers.
Generally, you shouldn’t create content that is:
- Violent and dangerous
- Sexually explicit
- Sensitive
- Deceptive or misleading
2. Say No to Copyright Violations
In addition to subscriber count, what’s crucial is that you don’t violate copyrights. Otherwise, you may not be eligible to get your first YouTube creator award, regardless of your number of subscribers.
You will get a copyright strike if you publish videos using someone else’s content or use copyrighted music in your videos. The latter is the most common one for YouTubers.
You can’t merely give credits to the music creator to avoid copyright, and you need to directly get permission from copyright holders for that music/song. Therefore, it’s always better to use stock music.
3. Stay Consistent
Reaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube may feel like a long, tedious journey. However, you must remain consistent by uploading videos regularly. If you have more videos on your channel, you have a better possibility of going viral than just a few videos.
Sometimes you don’t want to post videos, or there’s just not enough creativity juice flowing. Other days, you have genuine reasons, such as holidays or sickness. But scheduling videos ahead of time will ensure you don’t have to deal with any of this.
You should jot down numerous video ideas in a notebook when you’re most creative and create those videos in advance. Just make the necessary edits whenever it’s time to upload, and you’ll be good to go.
4. Optimize Your Videos
Optimizing your videos allows them to rank on the top of the search result page and makes them easier to discover by users on the platform. You must add the most relevant title for your video and make sure to write an engaging description with relevant keywords to make the expectations of potential viewers clear.
Choosing the right video category is equally important for targeting a relevant audience. You should also pay attention to the thumbnails of your videos. For instance, adding an eye-catching thumbnail with text will be your best bet to get more clicks, views, and subscribers.
5. Don’t Compromise on the Quality
Even if you’re optimizing your videos and staying consistent, you should never compromise on the quality of your YouTube videos. Your videos should serve the primary purpose to the audience that you merely created them for. Otherwise, they won’t be interested in watching your videos till the end.
Moreover, you should ensure all the parts of the videos are edited nicely for a smooth flow and transition. If your video has inaudible parts, you must add subtitles to make it easier for viewers to understand. You can always hire professional editors from freelancing platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork if you aren’t pro enough to DIY.
6. Leverage YouTube Shorts
Launched not long ago, YouTube Shorts are a great way to give your audience exposure to your videos through this feature and get new subscribers. Use them as a way to turn your short-video viewers into your regular-content viewers.
Since YouTube Shorts are new to the platform, YouTube is helping creators with algorithms to reach a new audience.
7. Engage With Your Audience
If you want to show your audience that you value their opinions and care about them, you must engage with them. For example, you should reply to their comments or like their comments.
At the end of the video, you can ask your viewers to leave questions in the comment section, and you will address them. You can also get upcoming video recommendations from them. All of this will help you grow your channel significantly.
8. Monitor Your Analytics
Built-in YouTube analytics give you a comprehensive overview of your channels, such as views, watch time, viewer gender, viewer age, subscribers, and more. This will facilitate you in catering to the preferences and interests of your audience and creating relevant videos to grow your audience base.
As you keep uploading videos, you must regularly keep an eye on your analytics because they will allow you to tailor your content strategy accordingly and make your efforts and time worthwhile in the form of a silver play button.
