There’s a famous book called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. You’d be forgiven for thinking, because of the title, that Dale was all about manipulating people by sucking up to them, but you’d be wrong. I’ll save you the cost of the book and deliver the bottom line: you should make a sincere effort to honestly care about other people and establish relationships with them, because you’ll be a better person AND you’ll be more successful.
I believe it’s true. On my own, in my bedroom, I have achieved a little bit of success with my music. But to get on the radio and TV in Tampa, that stuff happened because I became friends with other people, which opened doors. I made those friends at open mic nights and get-togethers with other musicians.
Now I find I’m in a similar situation with my YouTube channel. I subscribe to a lot of channels and I’m a big fan of many of them. I like to leave comments. But there’s a game among YouTubers – watch most of the videos on how to succeed on YouTube and you’ll hear that you should leave comments, as early as possible, on channels like yours. Most YouTubers who have a small audience do this. I do it, too. But I’m taking Dale Carnegie’s advice. I’m only leaving truthful comments on channels I love and I’m being genuine about it. I think people can tell when someone honestly likes their content vs. when they’re just trying to get a like or subscription.
When you leave a positive comment, you are leaving a link back to your channel. But I think it’s a good idea to be real about it. To not leave “I love this” links on stuff I don’t love.
