Well I don't get the kind of YouTube numbers a lot more popular members get. I feel like a lot of my YouTube traffic comes from here at BIM, just looking at your profile you've made it pretty hard for other site members to check out your latest videos on your account profile.

The first think I clicked one when I looked at your profile was your sig image, which led me to Photobucket, what's up with that? Do you really think people are going to want to buy framed prints of a web sized sig image? You should have it link to your YouTube or not linked at all. You will notice a lot of members will link to there latest film (or the films they are proudest of) in there sig, that way if anyone reads a post you make and wants to see what your films looks like they can find out without much work (if someone online does not find what they are looking for in about one or two clicks they are likely to give up) Also in the profile section there is a website option, you can use that to link to your YouTube.

If you look at my YouTube my first video was uploaded 9 years ago, that is one year after YouTube became a thing. However I only have around 160 subscribers, this is mostly due to not releasing videos regularly of very often at all for that matter. The more frequently you upload films the more chances you have of getting peoples and attracting subscribers, BUT if they don't want to watch more of your videos after they saw your latest film then constant low quality uploads will just want to make subscribers unsubscribe.

When you do upload videos make sure to let people know about on all your social networks, Facebook, Twitter, Flicker or whatever the kids are using these days. People comb through Flickr looking for sweet LEGO things, if you have a really awesome set in your movie, you would do best using that for a promotional image on Flickr rather then the clarity and simplicity of the popular of more stranded YouTube title cards (simple bright color, floating shot of character, title in big white text)

Another thing I like to do, which doesn't really generate numbers online is go to a print shop and print out fliers with my YouTube on it. I don't just hand them out to anyone, that is a great way to waste money, but when I am talking to people and the fact that I make animation comes up I can hand them a nice looking glossy flier with my web info on it. People often stick them on there fridge because they look nice, it's not some tiny scrap of paper with a web address written on it that they will try to through away as soon as possible, you want it to look attractive and nice so they would feel bad about tossing it out without check out your site. This doesn't really create a lot of views, but I find that people are much more likely to watch my stuff and come back later and say they saw my film and liked it then before I used fliers. I have also found this is a great way to network with other artists, if I meet an actor I can give them a flier and get there phone number easily, lately I have been collecting contact info to trained actors like nobodies business. If you have access to good recording equipment if you can get one actor you love that is worth way more then the price of the printing.

Finally, don't be ashamed to tell people you make LEGO movies, EVER. If someone thinks it's dumb or childish it's a good sign they are a boring human being that you should avoid spending time with.

Take all this will a grain of salt, remember I only have 160 subscribers so I may as well be considered a YouTube failure, but you also need to ask yourself what is most important to you. If you focus on personal growth as a film maker your YouTube view count might not be as important to you (it isn't very important to me) however if view-counts and subscribers are important focus on getting a reasonable quality that you can attain while regularly uploading films.

I've done this method for the past year and my BrickFilm(s) have collectively been in 15 film festivals worldwide! FilmFreeway is an awesome site!

There are so many festivals that would love to have a brickfilm in their student films program to mix things up a bit. I ran brickfilms in a few festivals but even so, it's something I wish I'd taken greater advantage of when I was, you know, young and a student.

Thanks a ton guys, this is super helpful. I want to get more BIM views and such to get helpful critiques and grow as a filmmaker.  I am not as interested in getting YouTube views as gettiing my stories out there. Right now I am looking for ways to promote "Saved". I'm not very interested in making videos to get views, but more in finding ways to help the videos I want to make  get a few more views.

I didn't really know how to do my profile pic, that's why it was like that, Thanks so much for pointing that out for me.  I know I wouldn't want to buy those photos........ I didn't really even know that was what "Photo Bucket" was about...... oops. I got it fixed now.

Thanks a ton, guys! This is really, really helpful.
OsomStudios

I disagree! But not because I think you're wrong, per se; I think different people come into it with different goals.

I feel it's important to make films that are of value to people other than only myself, and do people good in some way. They have a usefulness to them. If nobody else sees it, the film isn't serving that purpose. So, promotion is an important part of the process for that goal.

Hey, Smeagol!  I think we agree more than you realize.  When I said that the goal isn't to get as many views as possible, and that the film should be true to you, I didn't mean that the film shouldn't have broad appeal.  I don't think that anyone doesn't want to reach as wide an audience as possible.  I just mean that your happiness shouldn't be based on how many views you have, but on something more important and rewarding.