It is all making so much more sense. The more I read I'm like duh! lol thank you so much for taking time to break this down to me. But in regards to the ways to build traffic, I just don't really know how to go about asking for sub4sub or relationship4relationship (i'm not even sure what that means?). I don't want to annoy anyone, and I'm not sure how the sub4sub will increase my views if they are only subscribing for a sub, not cause they are interested in my content. Adwords, I'm still working on understanding this whole part, and on trend content over and over could get quite expensive due to having to jump on the train asap in order to keep up... Am I making any sense or am I just letting it all overwhelmingly consume me? Could you give me some tips please? I really appreciate all of this!
I definitely don't recommend s4s in the broad sense. However, in a limited sense where you know the positive/negative of the strategy, it may bootstrap some growth. R4R is the next level above s4s, where you make genuine relationships with like minded channels and watch each others' videos, share playlist, collaborate on topic ideas, etc. R4R has the benefit that if the relationships are genuine, it would increase watch time and associations between channels. So if you're in a group of 10 channels doing r4r, and one starts to grow, assuming they still keep to the relationship, you may get follow on traffic effects from playlists and continuing to collab on video ideas.
S4s's only real benefit, 2 perhaps, is it creates the psychological impression for "real" viewers that your channel has some decent numbers. I think people have an aversion to sub if a channel is under 1k, perhaps 2k. So if you show those numbers, viewers may be more inclined, as they see the channel is committed and has passed the initial hurdles. The other benefit, is you will get some views, but at very low retention. I would argue this does not really matter in the very early startup phase, as your retention is likely very low anyways (our was for sure, about 10-15% from memory). If s4s is adopted, I would only do it for the first 1k-2k subs. That level of s4s would give you about 200-300 views per video, as many s4s channels are curious to check out what you are doing, your quality, and leave a comment. Doing that gives you 10-20% retention before they click off.
I'm not advocating you do the s4s strategy, just laying out the strategy and how many channels do do it. If you can build some r4r relationships with like minded committed channels at the below 1k sub level, and work together. I think it's vital to hit 2k subs as soon as possible. I have always seen growth start to happen once you get to that minimum critical mass of subs. Generally, at 2k subs, at 10% views you get 200 views/video. That places you above the 50,000 other channels doing the same thing getting 10-50 views/video. This thing is a pure numbers game, the better your numbers, the higher your positions are (on suggested, in feeds, in search, channel authority, etc, etc).
Trend following does get expensive, especially toy trends. When we started I ended up purchasing about 10 Thomas sets, and countless accessories. It's expensive when you get 200 views a video and make $1 for a days work. That's why skits would be cheaper to some extent, but to execute the "really cool" skits, say Vlad Crazyshow style, would still need a sizeable investment in on camera and off camera resources. Of course someone like ToysToSee do many skits that don't require expensive props, so they are a good channel to model as well. You can also do the current hot trend - lava challenge, that doesn't require anything apart from petrol to drive around. Make it cool, stick the kids in somewhere no one has done before, could be good! It ain't easy nor cheap running a channel, actually it's quite expensive on some days!
. Getting back to your response though, thank you so much for taking the time out to give some constructive criticism, we've got no one leaving any comments so we are completely clueless to what people think. I truly do appreciate it and welcome any other tips and advice; I felt the thumbnails weren't doing any justice (even thought of re-doing them) and now I know exactly where to start 