YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts

Chapter 9. Hacking the System: How to Cheat (and Why You Shouldn't)

Alan Lastufka

A Word of Warning

Every tip, trick, strategy, and suggestion offered elsewhere in the book is 100 percent safe and within the terms of use and community guidelines published by YouTube. This chapter is the only exception to that statement. While the other information in the book may be considered "selling out"—or even whoring yourself—it is all legitimate promotion of your channel. Do not—I repeat, do not—attempt the following gimmicks to build up your channel. This information is included for educational purposes only, because, as with any system, YouTube can be cheated and gamed.

Each of these cheats is a surefire way to lose your channel. You may see others using them, you may even see others get away with them, but please resist the urge. Should you attempt any of the following and your channel be suspended as a result, there will be little you can do to get it back; you will have knowingly violated YouTube's user policies.

I'm just telling you what some people do so you know a little more about what's "under the hood" of the car that is YouTube and how some people "hot rod" it against the rules (and often get burned in the process) so you'll understand why some people may seem for a minute to be more popular than they probably should be. Also, a few of these "tricks" might be something you'd come up with on your own and not realize that it's something you're not supposed to do and could ...