100 subscribers on youtube

How long did it take us to get our first 100 subscribers on YouTube?

In this blog post I’ll try to answer that exact question.

However, you must understand that every YouTube channel is different, which means that all channels have different journeys to their first 100 subscribers.

One thing is for sure, whether it takes you 1 day or 100 days to get there, reaching 100 subscribers on YouTube is a milestone worth celebrating! It means that other people than your family and friends are actually starting to watch your creations! Congratulations if you’ve made it! …Or keep on working hard, and you’ll get there in time.

In this blog post I’ll share our YouTube journey with you. I will dive into the content we create, show you the exact numbers behind our 100 subscribers, and share what you can do to get your first 100 subscribers on YouTube.

So let’s get started!


About our YouTube channel

Before I share the numbers behind our first 100 subscribers on YouTube, I want to tell you a bit about our channel.

In July 2019, we started Worldwide Walkers.

Before we set out on our round-the-world-trip, we decided that we wanted to document our journey. It was a way for us to have something to do on the way, and we were always so inspired by other people who were travel vlogging on YouTube.

So we thought, why not try it?

After producing a few videos, our style is starting to take shape.

We are making 5-15 minutes long travel vlogs about the places we visit.

Our style is walk-and-talk travel vlogging supplemented by artistic b-rolls.

In the beginning we tried to make informative vlogs about the destinations we visited, but we decided it just wasn’t us. We are big jokers at heart… So, after a while we found that keeping silly jokes and funny occurrences in the vlogs was way funnier to watch and way more us.

If you want, you can also read more about our first month on YouTube.

Anyways, my point is that making a channel is a process and we now have more consistent content, which also helps us to build an audience.


The statistics behind our first 100 subscribers on YouTube

Now let’s get to the interesting part – Our channel numbers! So let’s do them one at a time.

How long does it take to get 100 subscribers on YouTube?

In about three months, between 09/07/2019 and 15/10/2019, we had our 100 subscribers after uploading a total of 17 videos. So far, these videos were about places in Thailand and Malaysia.

So that is our golden number – 3 months and a few days!

How many views do you need to get 100 subscribers?

It took us a grand total of 6.800 views to get our first 100 subscribers on YouTube.

How long watch time do you need to get 100 subscribers?

Within those 3 months and 6.800 views, we managed to get 26.400 watch minutes.

Watch time is our favorite YouTube measure because it tells us whether or not people actually watch our vlogs. We’d rather have 10 people who each watch 10 minutes of our video than 1000 people who each watch 1 second of our video.

Making travel vlogs is hard. So we really appreciate the people who watch them! And you also need the watch time to eventually get (and stay!) monetized – so it’s an important factor to look at.

Conclusion: Are our numbers good?

I honestly have no clue…

I don’t know if these numbers are slow or fast, or good or bad.

It depends on several factors like the content of the videos, how often you upload, and the many ways of YouTube’s algorithm… I also think it’s hard to start a new travel channel and get recognized quickly because there is already so much good content out there. YouTube has become a saturated place for travel vloggers for sure!

And when you’re a travel vlogger, your popularity also changes from country to country. We found that our channel really started to grow when we posted our videos about Malaysia, and we now have a big Malay audience compared to a small audience in Thailand.

Statistics that show how long it takes to get the first 100 subscribers on youtube
Here are the numbers behind our Journey to 100 Subscribers on YouTube

What happened 3 weeks later

Today, thursday 07/11-2019 as I am writing this, we now have 155 subscribers, which means we gained 55 subscribers in only three weeks!

And within these three weeks, we only posted two more videos… one of which gained a lot of popularity.

This was mainly because YouTube’s algorithm helped us out for some reason, and because people liked our thumbnail. In our case, it has only been easier to get subscribers since we reached the 100 subscribers milestone.

percentage bar showing that 100 subscribers is 64,5% out of our current 155 subscribers.
100 out of 155 Subscribers (3 months compared to the following 3 weeks!)

How to get your first 100 subscribers on YouTube

I think it’s obvious that the more content you put out there, the more people have a chance to see one of your videos and decide whether to follow your channel or not.

Therefore, uploading fresh content is the best way to move forward. We only upload once a week. Ideally we would like to upload twice a week but it’s just not possible for us right now.

Here are some tips on how to get your first 100 subscribers on YouTube:

  • Spend time on customizing your thumbnails: The first thing your viewers will see is your thumbnail. Here they will decide whether or not to click on your video in the first place.
  • Make a good title: Same as the above, your title is the first thing they see. Make it catchy and not too long.
  • Put end screens on your videos: Before you upload a video you can add cards or end screens. Do yourself af favor and add a video and a subscribe button in the end. It really does make a difference in getting more subscribers and views.
  • Use tags: Remember to tag your videos with relevant keywords. It will give you a better chance for people to find your videos in Youtube Search.
  • Put location and timestamp on your videos: This also makes your videos easier to find.
  • Add a subscribe button in your video: Make a subscribe button pop up during your video. This reminds people to subscribe while they’re watching.
  • Answer comments: People took their time to comment, so you should take your time to answer. Also, I just love having the chance to chit-chat with the people who watch our videos. So why not spend some extra time on this? Another noticeable thing is that comments, likes and dislikes are seen as interaction on your video – the more you have, the more YouTube is likely to recommend your video.
  • Make your channel page look good: We often have views from our channel page, which means that people either go from one of our videos to our channel page or they go straight to our channel page from YouTube Search and then choose a video. Here they see our picture and our header. So please make a nice channel page! It really makes a big difference to whether someone takes your channel serious or not.
  • Make playlists: We make a playlist for each individual country because it makes sense on our channel. Make playlists that makes sense on your channel, it’ll get you more views and potential subscribers.
  • Get on social media: It can be a drag to always have to juggle between posting videos on Facebook and trying to promote them on Instagram, but it can make a big difference for your channel. So just take some time out of your day and do it.

I’m sure there are more tips and tricks to feed the YouTube algorithm in your favor. However, we are still new to the game and we don’t know all the rules – but so far, we found that the above tricks have helped us grow our subscriber count.

Thank you so much for reading along, and if you are one of our subscribers: Thank you! We love you! It means a lot to us that you are following our channel and watching our travel vlogs.

Remember that subscribers aren’t just a number, they’re actual people who take an interest in you and your creations. So make sure to appreciate these good people!


I hope you enjoyed this little blog post about how long it takes to get your first 100 subscribers on YouTube. It’s obviously not an easy and quick game (at least not for us!), but it can be very rewarding!

If you’re curious about how long it took us to reach other subscriber milestones on YouTube, you can go read the following blog posts:

Thanks for reading!

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2 Comments

  1. Interesting to read about how your channel grew through 100 to 1000 subscribers. I have been posting travel videos for a few years now, but still to hit 100 subscribers. With only travelling occasionally I can’t post very regularly and I think that hurts the channel with YouTube’s algorithm. Travel is so competitive on YouTube, if you can’t compete with the top channels it’s difficult to pick up subscribers. Still I enjoy making videos anyhow. My other channel picks up subscribers more easily but is a far less competitive niche and the videos are much quicker to make. Well done on getting to 1000 subscribers, always enjoy a laugh watching your videos.

    1. Hi Martin, you’re so right! Travel videos on YouTube are very saturated, and it’s hard to get noticed nowadays. Our vlog from Shinkansen in Japan has more than 100K views, yet it’s one of our most insignificant videos…I will never understand YouTube’s algorithm. Sometimes you just have to be lucky, I guess. And you’re right – posting regularly is important.
      I actually never realized you had a travel channel, but I think I just subscribed (if you’re the Martin who I think you are) Haha.
      Best wishes, Cecilie.

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