{"id":16344,"date":"2023-07-26T09:58:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T15:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/?p=16344"},"modified":"2024-11-23T00:04:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T07:04:08","slug":"detect-youtube-channel-is-buying-views-or-subscribers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/detect-youtube-channel-is-buying-views-or-subscribers","title":{"rendered":"How To Tell If a YouTube Channel is Buying Views or Subscribers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buying YouTube views<\/span> and <\/span>subscribers<\/span> is an effective and oft-used practice by creators and social media marketers. Despite that, however, channel owners typically want to make their own use of this growth strategy as invisible as possible to the public eye.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Do YouTubers Hide It<\/span> When They Buy Views and Subscribers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are good reasons for wanting to keep your purchase of YouTube engagement private.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Namely, when people find out that you didn\u2019t organically generate all your views and subscribers, they perceive you as being inauthentic and not trustworthy. This perception can damage your reputation as a creator and cause you to lose real followers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that you should buy views or subscribers at all! After all, it\u2019s an industry standard strategy for growing your channel, and it\u2019s also completely legal. It just means that you have to learn how to conceal it \u2013 and how to spot it on other channels, such as those belonging to your competitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only can you learn if your competitors are as popular as they claim to be this way, but you can also learn from their mistakes in hiding their paid engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6 Signs That a <\/span>YouTube Channel is<\/span> Buying Views or Subscribers<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

To help you identify when a YouTube channel is buying views or subscribers, keep an eye out for these six signs.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. A Sudden and Huge Jump in Views or Subscribers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most obvious sign that a channel is buying views or subscribers is when you detect a sudden and huge jump in views or subscribers for that creator\u2019s content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we say, \u201csudden,\u201d we mean with respect to the rapidity of the increase (within hours or overnight, typically), but also with respect to the history of the account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

For example<\/strong>, if all of a creator\u2019s videos in the past three months received no more than 1000 views each, it\u2019s going to look strange if one of their videos gains 10,000 views in less than 24 hours. <\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

The same can be said for the subscriber count, as well. Having only a few hundred subscribers (or less) one day, and then gaining a few thousand the next is quite a shocking turn of events. It\u2019s also highly unlikely to be the result of organic engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The only time that it might be possible for such an abrupt increase is if one of the creator\u2019s videos goes viral. During such a circumstance, channels often experience large and fast boosts in views<\/a> and subscribers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also not so easy to manufacture a viral video and make it look natural. If you\u2019re not seeing it anywhere else on the internet or trending on YouTube, it\u2019s probably the result of paying for engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. A High View Count or Subscriber Count Vs Low Number of Comments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Another sign that a channel has bought and paid for subscribers or views is the lack of other types of engagement, like comments, on their content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about it:<\/strong> If a video or a channel is getting that much attention, shouldn\u2019t there be a lot of people leaving comments, too?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if that\u2019s not the case, then that could indicate that the view count or subscriber count is being inflated with paid accounts. Those accounts are only getting paid to perform a specific action \u2013 watching or subscribing \u2013 meaning they\u2019re not obligated to interact with the content in any other way. Hence the low number of comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. A Sudden and Significant Decrease in Views or Subscribers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A sudden and significant decrease in views<\/a> or subscribers on a channel is another sign that there\u2019s paid engagement afoot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This mainly happens when a creator (perhaps unknowingly) purchases engagement from fake accounts. Fake accounts, or bots, violate YouTube\u2019s Terms of Service, so whenever the platform finds them, it removes them post haste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The result? A dramatic drop in the views or subscribers that the channel owner paid good money for. It may occur over the course of a few hours or even a few days, but it\u2019s always noticeable.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. A High View Count or Subscriber Count on a New Channel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Unless the YouTuber behind a new channel already has a significant following on a different channel or another social media platform<\/a>, it\u2019s unrealistic that they will gain a large number of views or subscribers in a short amount of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, if you see a new user that just joined the platform a few days or weeks ago, and they already have thousands of views or subscribers, there\u2019s a high likelihood that they may have purchased them.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Subscribers with Generic or Blank Profiles<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re suspicious of a YouTuber\u2019s subscriber count, you can always check the channels of each subscriber and see if you spot any generic or blank profiles. Profiles that are devoid of any type of activity, as well as missing a profile picture, a banner, a bio, and any other identifying information, are often bots.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Subscribers With Fake-Sounding Names<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A secondary method of rooting out paid subscribers is by reading their names. Paid subscribers that are run by bots typically have fake-sounding names. They may be generic, as in John Smith or Jane Doe, or they may consist of a lot of random letters and numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frequently Asked Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For your own protection and to keep up with your competitors, it\u2019s important to know how to tell if a YouTube channel is buying views or subscribers. Use the six signs in this article to help you keep your own engagement purchases invisible, and to keep an eye on the channels that aren\u2019t doing as great a job.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you notice that a channel has suddenly increased their views or subscriber count, they could be buying engagement to boost their numbers. Learn more about that and other signs, and how to tell if a YouTube channel is buying views or subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":16515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youtube"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"Melissa Ray","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16344"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37680,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16344\/revisions\/37680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralyft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}