Has anybody promoted their channel through the YouTube Ads program? Does it actually work and bring more views/subscribers? I'm hesitant about spending unnecessary money on promoting through YouTube.....unless it works. I'm 78 videos in though with only 31 subscribers and getting a little burnt out of making content without growing my channel.
If you are getting burned out, I would take a short break and step back. Getting burned out helps no one including your channel. But I will give you credit for getting to 78 videos. You are close to the 100 videos recommended to do a look back.
Have you found any patterns of what people are interested in? Have you figured out what you truly enjoy? As many people suggest, focus on the views and watch times vs. the subscribers.
Views and watch time bring subscribers, not the other way around.
I wrote some observations of your channel on another thread but it has to be approved by a moderator before you can read it. Maybe you will get something out of what I wrote. You, like a few other younger members here, are somewhat different than more mature folks. Young people change, grow, evolve a lot during those early adult years. It allows for a lot of discovery, exploration, opportunity, and serendipity.
You are more likely to have an insightful breakthrough than someone like me who have to make extra efforts to be mentally nimble and being open-minded.
But to directly answer your question, I think every Youtuber needs to earn their stripes. You can certainly try ads (and many people do) but it doesn't solve the underlying problem that you ultimately want to learn how to tap into YT to recommend your videos to the right viewers. You want to EARN it, not buy it.
Believe it or not, one thing that attracted me to YT is that I know throwing money can only go so far. I know it comes to working hard, creativity, and putting in the time & energy to earn the rewards.
