How I Got 100,000 YouTube Subscribers in 8 Months (What Actually Worked)

Before 2023, my YouTube channel was going nowhere fast. I had somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 subscribers, I was posting consistently, and I just could not figure out why the growth wasn’t coming. Then, over the next eight months, I added 86,800 subscribers and hit the YouTube Silver Play Button I’m unboxing in this video.

This post breaks down everything I actually did to make that happen: the books I read, the series I launched, the strategy I borrowed from competitors without copying them, and the one mindset shift that changed everything. If you want to grow on YouTube without sacrificing what you stand for, this is worth reading.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The exact two books that sparked Alston’s 2023 channel growth
How a simple “Globe” comment strategy built a real engaged community
How to ethically piggyback on what’s already working in your niche
Why the “I Tried It” series drove 835,000+ views on a single video
The specific weekly posting schedule that kept growth consistent
How to look at competitors’ recent videos and create something better
Why celebrating small wins is a real strategy, not just motivation talk
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Where My Channel Was Before 2023

I want to be honest about the starting point because I see a lot of YouTube growth content that skips this part. At the beginning of 2023, I had somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 subscribers. That’s not zero. I had already been at this for a while, I’d built some traction through affiliate marketing, and I was selling my own products. I wasn’t struggling in the business sense, but the channel was crawling.

One of the things that frustrated me was watching channels in my niche (the make-money-online space) absolutely explode in subscriber count while I wasn’t seeing the same results. And when I dug into what they were actually doing, I understood why I wasn’t willing to do it myself. A lot of that content made promises I knew from experience wouldn’t hold up. I didn’t want to make videos I couldn’t stand behind, and I wasn’t willing to trade my ethics for subscriber count.

So I set a goal for 2023: reach 100,000 subscribers by year’s end. I genuinely did not expect to hit it in eight months.

The Two Books That Changed My Approach

The first thing I want to credit is two books. I’m not someone who reads a lot of business books and just talks about them. These two genuinely shifted how I thought about my channel.

The first book is Super Fans by Pat Flynn. The second is a YouTube growth book by Derral Eves. I’ll link both in the video description with affiliate links. These aren’t paid placements. They’re the actual books I used, and I think they’re worth your time if you’re serious about YouTube.

Super Fans is what introduced me to the idea of building a real community rather than just chasing views. That book is where the Globe comment strategy came from. In every video, I ask viewers to comment with their city, state, ZIP code, province, or country to be added to a virtual globe I maintain. It sounds simple, but it works for two reasons: it gives new viewers an easy first action to take, and it signals to the YouTube algorithm that people are genuinely engaging with the content rather than just passively watching.

The Derral Eves book is more tactical. It covers how YouTube’s algorithm actually works, how to position videos to get found, and how to build momentum from a small base. If you’re not familiar with Derral Eves, he’s one of the most credible people in the YouTube strategy space and that book reflects it.

The Globe Comment Strategy: Community Before Views

The Globe strategy is worth its own section because I think it’s underrated. At the start of every video, I ask viewers to comment with their city, state, ZIP code, province, or country. That’s it. No complicated ask, no giveaway required.

What this does is train your audience to engage from the first seconds of a video. And comments (real, non-spam comments) are one of the signals YouTube uses to determine whether your content is worth pushing to more people. I can’t point to a single data point that says “the Globe strategy added X subscribers,” but I can tell you it was part of everything that worked in 2023. It built the habit of engagement in my community, and that habit compounded.

If you’re starting a channel or trying to grow one, I’d seriously consider testing this. Pick a low-friction thing for your audience to comment, something specific to your niche, and ask for it consistently in every video. The consistency matters more than the specific ask.

How I Found the “I Tried It” Series

Here’s where the real growth came from. I was watching videos in my niche (make money online) and I kept seeing the same types of titles doing massive numbers. Things like “earn $7 every 60 seconds just by watching videos” or “make $28 every 10 minutes with Google Translate.” These were getting millions of views.

The problem was, most of those videos were misleading. When I first got into the online money space, I watched those same kinds of videos, tried the methods, and got nowhere. I’d get frustrated, feel cheated, and eventually try another one. That cycle was real, and I knew exactly how it felt from the viewer’s side.

So instead of making those videos myself, I decided to actually try the methods on camera and give an honest verdict. That’s the “I Tried It” series. I take a viral make-money-online claim, test it in real time, and tell you whether it actually works. No fake income screenshots, no inflated promises. Just what actually happened when I sat down and tried it.

The key insight here is this: I didn’t invent a topic. I piggybacked on what was already proven to get clicks in my niche, but I put my own spin on it by adding honesty and specificity. That’s the formula. You don’t have to create demand from scratch. Demand already exists. Your job is to find a way to serve it that you can stand behind.

The Results: Real View Numbers from 2023

The “I Tried It” series wasn’t just a good idea in theory. It delivered specific results I can point to. In 2023, the video titled “I Tried It: Earn $7 Every 60 Seconds By Just Watching Videos” hit 835,289 views. That’s not a typo. That single video drove a massive portion of my 2023 growth.

The second video in the series, “I Tried to Get Paid $28.18 Every 10 Minutes From Google Translate,” landed 339,000 views in the same year. When I look at my most-viewed videos from that entire eight-month stretch, the top four were all “I Tried It” videos.

Now, to be clear: these videos worked because the titles matched what people were already searching for, and the honest angle gave people something they weren’t getting elsewhere. People in this space are often in a real situation: they need money, they’re trying to figure out what actually works, and they keep getting burned by hype. An honest verdict from someone who actually tried it has real value.

Not every video in the series hit those numbers. My first “I Tried It” video did not do well. That matters. I’m telling you this because consistency was what made the series work, not a single viral video. I posted one per week, kept refining, and the results grew over time.

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How to Piggyback Without Copying

This is the tactical piece that I want to be specific about because I see people either misunderstand it or be afraid of it. Piggybacking on what’s working is not copying. It’s studying demand and responding to it with something better or different.

Here’s the actual process I used. I would look at videos uploaded within the past two weeks by channels in my niche. Not older content. Specifically, recent uploads. I’d look at which titles were getting traction early, what thumbnails were being used, and what tags were appearing. Then I’d ask myself: can I make a video on this topic that I can fully stand behind?

If yes, I’d build my own version. Same topic, same viewer desire, but with my angle, my honesty, my experience. I wasn’t copying thumbnails exactly or lifting titles word for word. I was using the research to understand what people wanted and then making my own thing that delivered it.

For make-money-online, my angle was always: “here’s what this actually does and whether it’s worth your time.” That was specific enough to be different from the original and valuable enough to pull viewers away from the misleading version.

You can do this in any niche. Look at what’s getting uploaded and getting early traction. What angle can you bring that’s more honest, more specific, or more useful? That’s your version.

The Consistency Framework That Actually Sustained Growth

I want to put a number on consistency because “be consistent” is advice that sounds obvious but rarely includes the specifics. For the “I Tried It” series, I was posting one video per week. That’s it. One per week, same series, same format, building on what worked from the previous video.

Over eight months, that adds up to roughly 32 to 35 videos in the series. Not all of them performed equally. Some underperformed. A few hit big. But the volume matters, because YouTube has more chances to find which video to push to new audiences, and your audience builds the habit of looking for your content.

The other thing consistency does is force you to get better. By the time I was making my tenth “I Tried It” video, I understood the format better than I did at my first one. My thumbnails were sharper, my hooks were tighter, my verdicts were clearer. You don’t learn that from thinking about it. You learn it by doing it repeatedly.

Average monthly subscriber gain during this stretch was between 11,000 and 13,000 per month. That’s consistent. It’s not one spike and then a flatline. It’s sustained growth month over month. That’s what a consistent weekly series can produce when the topic has real demand behind it.

This Isn’t My First Channel: Why That Context Matters

I want to be transparent about something I mentioned in the video: this isn’t my first YouTube channel. It’s probably my third, fourth, or fifth attempt at being successful on YouTube. My first channel was called the Security Camera Guy. I made content about security cameras, and it was basically an audio-video version of my blog posts. That channel is where I learned the mechanics of YouTube even though I wasn’t chasing subscriber growth at the time.

I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone to read this and think “he just posted a series and went viral in his first year.” There’s years of trial and error behind the eight-month sprint. I knew how to create, I knew how to edit, I understood the basics of the platform. What changed in 2023 was strategy, not starting from scratch.

That said, the strategic lessons here apply even if you’re newer. You don’t need years of experience to apply the piggyback approach or the community engagement tactics. You just need to be honest about where you are and be willing to iterate.

Honest Drawbacks: What This Approach Doesn’t Guarantee

I spent a lot of the video talking about what worked. Here’s what I want to be honest about on the other side.

First, most of the methods I tested in the “I Tried It” series do not work. I said in the video that maybe five or six of the tested methods actually produce real results. The rest don’t. That’s useful information for viewers, but it means I was essentially spending time testing things that I already suspected wouldn’t work, just to confirm it on camera. That’s a real cost.

Second, this approach worked in the make-money-online niche in 2023. The specific viral trend of “earn X dollars every Y minutes” videos was very active that year. If you’re in a different niche, you’ll need to find the equivalent: the types of claims or formats that are getting outsized attention relative to their actual quality. That research is on you.

Third, I was at 15,000 to 20,000 subscribers before the 2023 growth run. That base gave me some algorithmic trust. If you’re starting at zero, the early videos will likely perform differently than mine did. The approach is still worth testing, but set realistic expectations for the ramp-up period.

Fourth, the growth required showing up weekly. There’s no version of this where you post once a month and hit 100K. The weekly publishing schedule is load-bearing. If that’s not sustainable for you given your schedule, you need to build the systems or constraints that make it possible before you start.

Celebrate Every Milestone: This Is Actual Strategy

One thing I mentioned in the video that I don’t want to gloss over: celebrate your milestones. Your first 1,000 subscribers. Your first 3,000 watch hours. The first time a video hits 10,000 views. These matter.

I’m not saying this as a motivation speech. I’m saying it as strategy. Some people never get to 1,000 subscribers. Some people grind for years to hit 3,000 watch hours for monetization. If you hit those numbers, acknowledging them keeps you in the game long enough to hit the next ones. A YouTube channel that gives up at 800 subscribers never finds out what it could have become at 8,000.

The Silver Play Button in this video took eight months from January 2023. Before that, I had years of building, stumbling, and learning on multiple channels. Celebrating the small markers along the way is part of what kept me going through the parts that weren’t working.

The Step-by-Step Framework for YouTube Growth

Here’s the approach distilled into a repeatable set of steps you can actually apply.

Step 1: Read Super Fans by Pat Flynn. Understand community mechanics before you focus on views. Views are downstream of community.
Step 2: Read a platform-specific book on YouTube strategy. Derral Eves has one. Get current with how the algorithm works right now, not how it worked three years ago.
Step 3: Create a low-friction community engagement mechanic. Ask viewers to do one simple thing in every video. The Globe comment is an example. Find your version.
Step 4: Research what’s working in your niche right now. Filter for videos uploaded in the past two weeks. Look at early view counts. Notice what titles and thumbnails are getting traction.
Step 5: Find your ethical angle. What can you add (honesty, personal experience, a real test, a different perspective) that the high-traction content is missing?
Step 6: Build a series around that angle. One video does not a series make. Commit to weekly publishing for at least 12 weeks before evaluating whether the series is working.
Step 7: Track, adapt, and keep going. Your first video in the series may not perform. The fifth one might. The tenth is usually better than the first. Don’t judge the series by its earliest results.
Step 8: Celebrate milestones. 1,000 subscribers, 3,000 watch hours, first monetized video, first 10,000 views. Each one is real and each one matters.

Find Your X

The “I Tried It” series worked for me because it matched my skills, my experience, and the specific problem my audience had. That match is what made it sustainable and what made it credible. You need to find the version of that formula that fits your situation: your niche, your knowledge, your schedule.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long did it actually take Alston to reach 100,000 subscribers?

Eight months. He started 2023 with roughly 15,000 to 20,000 subscribers and gained 86,800 new subscribers in the first eight months of the year. He hit the 100K milestone before his original year-end deadline and had approximately 108,000 subscribers by the time he filmed this unboxing video.

What is the “I Tried It” series and why did it grow his channel?

The “I Tried It” series takes viral make-money-online claims (things like “earn $7 every 60 seconds watching videos”) and actually tests them on camera, giving an honest verdict. It worked because it piggybacked on topics that already had proven audience demand while adding honesty that the original content lacked. Viewers who had been burned by misleading claims found real value in someone who would actually tell them whether something worked.

What were the actual view numbers on the top “I Tried It” videos?

In 2023, the video titled “I Tried to Earn $7 Every 60 Seconds By Just Watching Videos” reached 835,289 views. A second video about earning $28.18 every 10 minutes from Google Translate reached 339,000 views. The top four most-viewed videos on Alston’s channel during that growth period were all “I Tried It” videos.

What is the Globe comment strategy and how does it help growth?

At the start of every video, Alston asks viewers to comment with their city, state, ZIP code, province, or country to be added to a virtual globe. This creates a low-friction first action for new viewers, builds community habit around commenting, and generates engagement signals that YouTube uses to determine whether content is worth pushing to more people. The idea came from reading Pat Flynn’s book “Super Fans.”

Which books did Alston credit for his YouTube growth?

Two books: “Super Fans” by Pat Flynn, and a YouTube growth strategy book by Derral Eves. He links both in his video description with affiliate links. The Super Fans book shaped his community engagement approach, including the Globe comment strategy. The Derral Eves book focused on YouTube platform mechanics and algorithmic positioning.

Is this strategy only for the make-money-online niche?

No, the specific “I Tried It” series is closely tied to the make-money-online space because that niche has a large number of misleading claims that an honest reviewer can address. The underlying principle applies everywhere: find what’s generating outsized attention in your niche, identify what’s missing from the existing content, and make your version that fills that gap. The execution will look different depending on your topic.

How often did Alston post videos in the “I Tried It” series?

Once per week. That weekly schedule over eight months produced enough volume for YouTube to test the content with different audiences, for Alston to improve the format through repetition, and for the audience to build a habit of looking for new videos. He notes that his first “I Tried It” video did not perform well. The sustained weekly posting built the momentum.

Do the “I Tried It” methods actually work?

Most of them do not, and that’s the point. Alston said in the video that roughly five or six of the tested methods actually produce real results. The others don’t. The series exists specifically to give honest answers to people who have been misled by overpromising content. Knowing what doesn’t work is genuinely useful information when you’re trying to figure out what to do with your time.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “Unboxing OUR Silver Play Button | How To Gain 100,000 Subscribers In One Year” via YouTube, youtu.be/BPAWBVT7oak
Pat Flynn, Super Fans (mentioned in video as key resource for community-building strategy)
Derral Eves, YouTube growth strategy book (mentioned in video; affiliate links in video description)
Alston Godbolt channel stats as stated in video: 86,800+ subscribers gained Jan-Aug 2023; 108K total at time of filming; “I Tried It” video 1: 835,289 views; “I Tried It” video 2: 339,000 views