How to Start a YouTube Channel?
An outstanding tool to begin your social media journey, YouTube is an excellent platform to start building your online presence. Whether you are a talented musician, a beauty enthusiast, or an aspiring vlogger, starting a YouTube channel is where it all begins. Quality content leads to a loyal subscriber base, yet the question remains: how do you start a successful YouTube channel?
Choosing Your Channel Niche
The very first step of starting a channel is to decide what your channel will focus on. If you have a unique focus, it will help you stand out in the YouTube community. By writing down your ideas, skills, and what you want to do, you can narrow down your choices to determine your channel’s specific niche such as:
- Music
- Comedy
- Beauty
- Gaming
Setting Up Your Channel
Your YouTube channel will be linked to your Google account. In case you do not have one, start by creating a Google account. Afterward, you have the option to log in to YouTube and, beneath your profile picture in the upper right corner, initiate the process of “Creating a Channel.” This involves uploading a profile picture and providing a name for your channel. Follow up by verifying your phone number by following:
- YouTube Studio > Settings > Channel > Feature Eligibility > Intermediate Features
After these steps, your YouTube channel is all set!
Planning Your Content
Having a successful YouTube channel often requires detailed planning. Before you start uploading, it is good to have an outline for video ideas, upload schedules, and titles. This will ensure your channel consistently puts out quality content for the vast YouTube audience. This will increase your audience engagement and build anticipation for your new videos.
Creating High-Quality Videos
It is common sense that high-quality content is more well-received. While this can be costly for beginners, it is quite possible to create wonders with your phone camera with a tripod and proper lighting. However, a decent set of recording equipment with a good camera, an external microphone, and studio lights is a great investment in the world of YouTube.
Editing and Post-Production
You did it! You just recorded your very first video, but it still does not look like the super polished videos you are used to seeing. Well, this is where the editing and post-production take center stage. Cutting out the mistakes and unnecessary pauses and adding transitions, and video effects will give your video a new life. This is possible with an efficient video editing software that can help you fine-tune your videos and make them even better.
Optimizing for Search and Discovery
To have a wider audience reach, thorough keyword research is vital! As you identify relevant hashtags and keywords, start including them in your video titles and descriptions. You should also add them as tags to have them featured more often in the YouTube algorithm.
Uploading and Publishing
Once your video has been edited and is prepared for publication, select an attention-grabbing thumbnail and navigate to YouTube Studio. Click on “Create” and then choose “Upload Video.” As your video is uploading, you can use the time to add your thumbnail, title, description, and carefully selected tags. Set your video’s visibility to “Public” to maximize the number of viewers and audience reach.
Engaging with Your Audience
While you can interact with your audience by replying to comments under your videos, there are more engaging ways to do so! Some of them allow you to have real-time interaction with your subscribers while others provide extra content for your general audience. Effective methods to interact with your audience in 2023 consist of:
- Live streams
- YouTube shorts
- Community posts
- Q&A sessions
- Polls
Growing Your Channel
Being consistent with your high-quality content, optimization, and upload schedule should provide you with an ideal number of subscribers in no time. However, with further investment into your channel, you can see even larger numbers. Collaborations, analyzing audience demographics, and effective SEO tactics stand out as highly effective methods to achieve this goal.
Monetization and Success
Being able to garner financial profit is every YouTuber’s dream. This is possible in two official ways on the platform.
- Fan Funding via super chats, super thanks, and memberships
- Video Advertisements via YouTube Partner Program
Fan funding requires at least 500 subscribers and 3 valid public videos in the last 90 days. On the other hand, fan funding necessitates a minimum of 500 subscribers and 3 valid public videos in the last 90 days for activation. Once eligible, your YouTube journey will start yielding financial returns. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to remember that achieving success on YouTube does not automatically translate to monetization. Creating good content, building a loyal subscriber base, and leaving a positive impact matter a lot more!
Navigating Challenges and Staying Motivated
Achieving success on YouTube has its share of hurdles. Yet, with persistent motivation, these challenges become quite manageable to handle. Being consistent with your upload schedule is one thing, however, receiving non-constructivist criticism from the viewers is a big challenge. Developing resilience and persisting becomes crucial. As long as you are confident in the value of your content, you should have nothing to worry about!
Legal and Copyright Considerations
Copyright issues can pose a big obstacle to all channels. It is essential for your channel to oblige to copyright rules, and for you to learn the YouTube community guidelines. Otherwise, accumulating three copyright strikes may lead to your channel’s suspension. To prevent such scenarios, ensure compliance with copyright rules by using content you have rightful access to, such as royalty-free music, licensed images, and videos. If you are ever in doubt about any copyright aspect, you can always consult with legal experts.
Establishing a thriving YouTube channel encompasses a wide range of smart steps. From selecting a niche that distinguishes your channel to considering legal issues, each step plays a vital role. Although users aim to get monetized as quickly as possible, genuine YouTube success stems from unwavering commitment and resolute determination.
