If you have decided to create a YouTube channel, you need to find the best ways to promote it. After all, if it is not being promoted, people aren’t going to know about it, and you will be simply wasting your time because you won’t be making any money.

Here are seven ways that you can promote your YouTube channel, and you can start right now.

1. Create Good Thumbnails

The first thing you should do is create great thumbnails that show what your channel is all about. If you are trying to promote a video about how to repair a broken lamp, you don’t want the thumbnail to show your cat.

Make sure the thumbnail is a hint of what to expect from the video. If the audience can’t figure out what the thumbnail is in reference to your video, they aren’t going to be as likely to click on it as they would if they saw the connection.

2. Optimize Your Channel

You need to create a profile that is clear and compelling, and one that offers a full description of what your channel is really about.

Your profile should be on-brand, and be similar to your other social channels, including colors, backgrounds, logos, social media icons for the other channels you use, custom banners and layout, etc. Basically, when people see your YouTube channel, they should automatically recognize your brand.

3. Use Videos in Email Newsletters

One great way to let people know about your YouTube channel is to tell them via email. If you send out regular email newsletters, incorporate some of your videos into these newsletters.

When you are promoting a certain video, make sure that you promote it during certain days of the newsletter mailings to get the best results and the most viewers.

4. Use the Right Promotional Tools

There are several online tools available for you to use that will help you to promote your YouTube channel. With many of these tools being absolutely free to use, there is nothing stopping you from promoting the heck out of your channel. Some of the best tools include:

• Ad Promotion
• YouTube Views
• YouTube Tools
• Video Promotion
• Reddit
• Digg

5. Hold Contests

Everyone loves to win stuff, and a great way for you to engage with and increase your audience is to hold contests. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on prizes. In fact, prizes can be as simple as offering free informational videos, e-books, etc.

Upload a call to action video that announces your contest that includes a description of the rules, and encourage your followers to share the contest with their friends along with entering themselves.

6. Create a Trailer

If you are looking for a fun and interesting way to introduce people to your YouTube channel, try creating an entertaining trailer. This is really easy to do, since all you have to do is create a montage of video clips of the best moments of videos that are already on your channel.

The better the clips, the more likely that people are going to be interested in tuning into your channel to check out everything that you have to offer.

7. Use Video SEO

It is important that you optimize your YouTube channel for SEO. After all, YouTube is the second-largest Internet search engine, and if you are using SEO, your videos are going to reach a greater audience through their searches.

Things that you need to consider when using SEO include title tag information, audience retention, keywords in description tag, tags, comments, likes and dislikes, number of subscribers who are still there after watching, etc.