Attention Idea: 500K subscribers in 2 years: link your channel and

500K subscribers in 2 years: link your channel and I’ll reply with honest feedback about your thumbnails

General

Pat Walls

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Updated: August 8th, 2025

The Post

Title/Hook: 500K subscribers in 2 years: link your channel and I’ll reply with honest feedback about your thumbnails
Format: Offer Feedback
Impressions: 57000
How many followers they had at the time: 0

Check out the post -> link

Why it works

This Reddit post worked so well because it nails multiple layers of offer, credibility, and call-to-action psychology all at once — especially in a subreddit where creators are desperate for actionable, expert help.

Here’s the deep breakdown:

1. Irresistible Offer for the Audience

The title directly addresses a huge pain point for small YouTubers: "link your channel and I’ll reply with honest feedback about your thumbnails"

Immediate value — No fluff, no “maybe I can help.” It’s a guaranteed, personal, and free service.
Low friction — All they have to do is drop a link, which costs them nothing.
Outcome clarity — Readers know exactly what they’ll get (thumbnail feedback).

2. Credibility Without Ego

The hook — “500K subscribers in 2 years” — does two important things:

Signals authority (massive social proof).
Creates intrigue (how did they grow so fast?).

Then the next line reinforces that authority: "we average around 100k views per video" → adds another layer of proof.

It also works because it’s not written like a brag — it’s stated factually, then followed by a relatable obsession: "I’ve spent a lot of time obsessing over thumbnails — A/B testing, simplifying, experimenting…” This makes the OP feel accessible rather than unapproachable.

3. Pain Point Resonance

Small YouTubers are constantly told “thumbnails and titles are everything,” but most of them:

Don’t know how to improve theirs.
Don’t get honest feedback (friends/family give false praise).
Aren’t sure what “actually works.”

This post promises to fix all three problems in one go — from someone who’s proven they know how to win.

4. Scarcity Through Personal Interaction

The implied scarcity here is subtle:

OP says “drop it here and I’ll reply”, which makes it feel like you need to act now before they stop responding.
Readers imagine getting a custom, tailored, free mini-consult from a 500k-subscriber creator — rare and valuable.

This scarcity likely pushed more people to comment immediately, snowballing the thread’s engagement.

5. Perfect Match for the Subreddit

r/SmallYoutubers is filled with:

Creators begging for feedback.
Posts with vague tips that get ignored.
A culture of "sub for sub" spam.

This post stands out because it offers genuine, experience-backed help — it feels like gold compared to the noise.

6. Engagement Mechanics that Boosted Reach

Every comment from OP to a user’s link is engagement that pushes the post higher in Reddit’s algorithm.
The format inherently guarantees lots of comments (373 in this case).
The 57K views number suggests it hit Reddit’s front page for that niche category.

7. Headline Psychology

The title works because it combines:

Big social proof — “500K subscribers in 2 years”
Specific benefit — “honest feedback about your thumbnails”
Clear call to action — “link your channel”

This is essentially a mini copywriting masterclass: proof → problem → promise → action.

If you want, I can also break this down into an exact template you can reuse for other subreddits or topics so you can replicate this “crush effect” on demand. That would turn this into a repeatable growth tool.

meet the author

Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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