Collaboration is the hottest trends on YouTube today— and for good reasons. YouTube collaboration can be very effective. It works to give you more exposure and, as a result, more YouTube subscribers, increased views and longer watch times. In a social media world where subscribers and engagement numbers can translate to a bigger impact to your brand, it’s definitely worth giving a try.

So, today, we’re going to give you the top reasons why you should collaborate on YouTube and how you can make your first collaboration happen.

Why Collaborate with Others

Unless you’re only on YouTube to pass the time and you don’t care about building your presence or gaining more subscribers, you should consider collaborating with others. It can help shine a spotlight on your channel.

It’s not quintessential solution to being a YouTube success, although it does boost your channel’s visibility. As your channel’s visibility increases, so will your subscribers and views. These are the most important reasons for doing a collaboration.

When you collaborate with other creators you’ll be able to extend your reach to their audiences. You get a chance to connect with their viewers and turn them into your own subscribers.

As a matter of fact, even without a collaboration, a simple mention of your name or inclusion of your link in the video description of a prominent YouTuber can bring you lots of subscribers.

It’s unlikely you’ll get someone like PewDiePie to mention your name, but if you can find a creator with a following bigger than yours and who is willing to collaborate with you, then it’s possible to achieve nearly the same results a shout out from someone popular like PewDiePie would get.

Aside from subscribers, you’ll gain notoriety from extra exposure, and you’ll also learn a lot from collaborating with others. Even if it’s just about ideas on what to feature next on your channel, you’ll get something useful from the partnership.

Image credit: The Mad Hatters

Did you know that you can also buy YouTube views for better campaign results? Views can help you rank higher on YouTube, as well as Google. With bought views, you can top search results and get not just exposure but real, organic views.

So, buy YouTube views and pair that strategy with your collaboration campaigns. If you do both regularly, you’ll soon see the results of your hard work.

Consistency is one of the reasons, in fact, why Zoella, a famous YouTuber, became popular. She built a community of beauty lovers on YouTube and grew her subscribers, views, and watch time by regularly collaborating with different creators at least once a month.

Today, with 12 million subscribers, she still collaborates with other creators and her stats show how she benefits from it. Sometimes, she even partners with two creators in one video.

How to Collaborate with Other Creators

It’s actually quite simple to collaborate with others on YouTube but you have to lay the groundwork first. That is, consistently create quality content on your channel first. How will you be able to convince others the benefit of partnering with you if they can’t see one quality video on your channel?

It will be good to have a good number of views on your videos, too. Again, you can buy YouTube views to help you keep up a solid reputation. Once your channel is looking comparably okay, the next step would be to choose your collaborator.

Image credit: Kwebbelcop via YouTube

Choose a YouTuber to collaborate with

You can partner with anybody you like: your favorite YouTubers, your real friends, or online friends. The thing is, however, you need to consider whether you are in the same niche.

You see, even if you’re wildly crazy about each other’s work and you tell your viewers to go subscribe to each other, if your viewers don’t have anything in common, nothing will come of it.

If you’re in beauty niche and your collaborator is in gaming, for example, his viewers most likely will not be interested in your content. It will be fun to work with someone you like, but it will not bring anything to your channel.

So choose someone you’re in the same— or almost the same niche with. It will be good if you can find someone with more subscribers than you have but if not, settle with the same industry.

Remember, though, that this is a partnership. Meaning, whether you like it or not, associations in the minds of your viewers will be formed. So choose your partner carefully to make sure his values are aligned with the brand you’re trying to build on the platform.

You can find YouTube users who are interested in collaboration in third-party sites or in forums.

Brainstorm together

Decide on the content and what kind of collaboration is going to happen. Is it going to be live or recorded? Are you going to shoot at the same time, in the same place or are you going to film in multiple locations at different times.

Collaborations can happen even if you’re in two different physical locations. Take a look at the video below.

Divide the labor and decide who’s going to do what. Who’s going to edit, who’s going to write the script and figure out just how your work will complement the both of you.

Of course, you can always make two videos with two different topics and simply decide who’s going to do what video. You can post both videos in both your channels or one each for you and your co-creator’s channel.

Make sure you agree on everything, including what you’re both going to do once the camera starts rolling.

Start Filming!

You can start filming once you’re all set. Start growing your YouTube channel and collaborate with other YouTubers. it’s one of the most effective and fastest ways to build a following and increase not just your views but your watch time, as well.

Don’t forget, however, to continue working on yourself and creating quality content whether you’re doing a collaboration or not. Work on your own growth so you’ll continue to bring in value to your collaborations and success to your channel.

Image credit: THE SELF HELP hipster