Intro
It feels like we’ve been stuck at home for so long. I figure since a lot of you are either stuck at home or you’re not working right now, and I know that several people are laid off from their jobs, I wanted to find a way I could actually provide value for you guys and not just standard tips for working from home. So if you’ve always dreamed of having a YouTube channel but you never had time to do it, now is your time to do it! Now you have more time than ever. You’re stuck at home so start creating videos! This video is going to be for any of you that want to get started on YouTube.
What’s good guys?! Welcome back to the channel I’m your man The Creator and I help content creators and entrepreneurs reach their goals on social media. I’m a professional YouTube video editor and expert and in 2020 videos I edited have gained more than 70 million views and 1 million subscribers for my clients! I’m here to show you the strategies I use for these results, so let’s dive in!
How To Start
I hope we can all agree that being a YouTuber is more accepted or at least more understood as a career choice compared to a couple of years ago. If someone had come up to you and said that they were a full-time YouTuber, I think that eight or more years ago people would’ve laughed and said that’s not a real career. I think today people still get those comments but you guys have seen that today there are tons of videos about how to grow a YouTube channel, how to get more subscribers, how much money Youtubers make, and even days in the life of a full-time Youtubers showing you behind the scenes and how this is truly a real job. And many people used to think that to be a successful YouTuber or to make enough money off of YouTube and to have it as a full-time job you needed to have 100s of thousands or even 1 million subscribers and then you were truly successful. But in reality, right now I have a few thousand subscribers and I’m actually making more money than I was in my full-time job that I left to pursue this as my career. And if you’re one of those people that are thinking that it’s too late to start a YouTube channel, that is an oversaturated platform, that there’s too many creators out there and that you won’t make it, that’s actually not the case. Honestly, I think you have an advantage in getting started a little later in the game because you can take a look at already successful YouTube channels and figure out what they are doing right and also learn from their mistakes. People that have been on YouTube for a long time have had to go through the learning process of figuring out what works and what is in a good YouTube video, but you already know what a good YouTube video is. And you can look at creators that are already successful and see what they’re doing right and learn from their mistakes, and see how they make their videos interesting. I’m not saying you’re going to be absolutely amazing in your first few videos, that you’re just going to start off making Bangers. Your first couple videos are probably going to suck but that’s ok. I’ve been on YouTube for a couple of years now. I’ve made a lot of mistakes to get to this point. In this video, I want to bring it back to the basics on how you can start a successful YouTube channel, and hopefully I can share some things that you guys haven’t thought about before, things that you really need to consider if you want to become a successful YouTuber.
Expectations
The first thing we need to do is kind of balance your expectation of what it’s really like to be a YouTuber. I think it’s easy to watch videos and you think all they do is make one video a week and then all they do is sit on the couch and watch Netflix, they go out to eat and they go to coffee shops. But in reality guys, being a YouTuber is a lot of work. And even just creating one YouTube video a week, or two videos a week, it takes days to make one or two videos including filming and editing! So if you think they’re just creating a YouTube video a week and it’s easy, that it’s not a lot of work, then that’s not the case! Also, there’s so much more that goes into being a YouTuber besides just creating videos. When you start a YouTube channel, you’re actually starting a business, and with any business come things like accounting and paying taxes and marketing, things that you wouldn’t even think about. If you want to be a content creator you’d probably just want to spend your time creating your YouTube videos, but if you’re a one-man show, if you’re the only person that’s working on your channel and you don’t have any help, you’re actually going to be spending a lot of time doing things you probably didn’t even think go into having a YouTube channel. So before you really dive into this, I want to be honest and tell you that this is a lot of work. If you do not think that you can dedicate the time that you need to have a successful YouTube, then maybe this isn’t for you. But if you’re determined to be a successful YouTuber, you know that you can have a successful channel, and you honestly just love creating videos and content, then by all means dive all in, because I love my job, I honestly do, this is a dream come true!
What kind of videos do you want to make? Picking a Niché
So, you may be feeling fired up and just ready to go on YouTube and create your channel! The first thing that you need to do is actually figure out what you want to create videos on. It’s not enough just to say I want to be a really successful YouTuber. You really need to figure out what you’re going to share on your channel. This is going to be your niche. So this is your main category of your videos, and if you take a look at my channel right now my main niche is YouTube tips. I’m sharing all the information about how to grow on YouTube, how to make money on YouTube, how to get more subscribers, all of that stuff you can find on my channel. So my niche is YouTube tips, but let’s say you want to be a lifestyle YouTuber, and you want to share all things about your life, do you wanna do vlogs and lifestyle tips? or how to live a healthy lifestyle? something like that? your niche would be lifestyle, but you can create a ton of videos under that niche.
What VALUE can you provide? What interests you?
So, the first thing you need to think about is what do you even want to create videos on. What interests you right now, and what value do you think you could provide to the world? And yes, it’s so easy to look at my channel and see how I’m providing value because I’m educating other people. But if you are in the lifestyle niche, or the gaming niche, it may be entertainment or keeping people busy, or teaching healthy habits, you may actually be transforming someone’s life whether you know it or not. Even if you’re just making someone laugh you’re providing value to someone else! You need to think: What can I share in my YouTube videos? What is the main niche of the videos I’m going to share on my channel? and it’s really going to be the foundation and how you’re going to build your channel up from there.
Your Channel Name
And then comes the name of your channel. Yes, before you even get started on YouTube, don’t create your account yet, first you want to figure out what the actual name of your channel is going to be. As you can see, my name is actually part of my channel name. If you’re not sure what you’re going to name your channel, and you don’t think it would be right to name it after yourself, there are a lot of situations where I would recommend you just have your channel name be your own name, like if you are a lifestyle channel for example, whether it be your first name and your middle name or your first and your last name, I would really recommend it because your brand is you, but let’s say if you have a DIY channel, it is good for SEO for you to have your name, and the niche of your channel combined in your channel name. So, I mentioned SEO, which stands for search engine optimization in case you guys didn’t know. YouTube is a search engine, and people are constantly searching for videos. So if you want your channel to be found, I would recommend having one of your main keywords in your name if you can. If it makes more sense to have your name be your channel name, I highly recommend you do it, because it’s something that is going to stick with you forever while some other name you may end up needing to change later if there comes a time where it doesn’t fit your brand anymore.
YouTube Crash Course
Now for those of you who may not know anything about YouTube, let’s do a quick little crash course. How to use creator studio, upload videos, and other little tips and tricks. This is just the bare minimum that you need to know on how to create a YouTube channel, but to go into more detail I have other videos. So to get to your channel from the homepage of YouTube, you’ll just click on the little photo in the top right that has your picture or your name there and this will take you to obviously your channel. But you’re probably not gonna have any videos on it yet, so it’s not gonna look anything like mine, but what you can do first to get your channel set up is to hover over the picture there and actually add a profile picture. I wouldn’t recommend changing it too much but you do want to make sure you have a good photo that you like and that you can use for a while. The same thing with your header image, there are some tips and tricks for designing that as well, but maybe we can talk about that in another video, as well if you go to your about section you can add some information about you in your description. You want to add things like your business email address, your location, your links, possibly for your social media accounts. Now that we have your profile covered, the next thing you want to look at is the YouTube creator studio. When you click on YouTube studio, you’re going to get access to your stats on how your videos are performing, how your channel looks right now, as well as a bunch of other resources to help you out. Now here’s how you can upload a YouTube video to your channel. There’s an icon at the top. You can click create, and then you can just drag and drop a file that’s on your device, and that’s how you do it. It’s the simplest part, but in reality when it comes to YouTube videos, there’s a lot more information that goes into it. You need to add a title, description, the thumbnail, whether or not your videos are made for kids, add tags, and a bunch of other things.
The Truth
As I said, it’s not like you’re going to create your channel and it’s going to be amazingly successful from the start. I can’t promise you guys that. Honestly, it’s going to take you a couple of months just to figure out your filming style, your editing style, and what type of content you want to upload on your channel. But once you have all of that figured out, I would really recommend that you guys take a look at some other YouTube videos, especially on my channel, if you guys wanna subscribe, because I do have a lot of videos about the algorithm, how do you can niche down and use that to your advantage and SEO. Like I mentioned earlier, YouTube is a search engine, so if you can really learn how to use that, you can actually get more views and more subscribers, and it can help you to grow a lot quicker than I did it when I was getting started.
Your Action Plan! What you have and what you need
The two main questions that I want you guys to ask yourself right now are: What do I have that can help me to become a successful YouTuber? and What do I need to create a successful YouTube channel? Let’s say you don’t have anything to film videos on. If you don’t have a fancy camera, you can get it started with your phone. These days phones really have good cameras and you can make it pretty far just from your phone! So if you’ve saved up enough money to get a camera, even when you do get a camera, you don’t need a fancy camera. You can get a decent price camera for a few $100, but you don’t have to get one that’s a couple thousand dollars just to make good videos. Also, you can actually create, edit, and upload a whole YouTube video on your phone! And I’ll include another video on that for you to check out. But if you have a laptop or a computer, that’s something that you don’t need to buy in the future. Let’s say you don’t have fancy lights. Well you don’t need fancy lights, you have window lighting that’s perfect to get started. Or if you want to start a car YouTube channel but you don’t have access to cars, think about what cars you already have in your garage, or what cars your family might have that they would allow you to use if you ask them. Are things that you already have, resources that you already have that you don’t need to go out and buy at this moment? Of course, there are going to be resources that you will need to get. So, make sure you write a list of the things you have right now that you can utilize, and the things you’re going to need to get in the future.
Decide Your Uploading Schedule
From there I want you to nail down what is going to be your upload schedule. So how many videos are you going to be uploading a week? I would recommend either doing one or two a week when you’re first getting started. Do not try to upload five days a week! You’re going to lose your mind! Just get started with one or two videos a week. Pick the days you’re going to upload a stick to the schedule. Make it a non-negotiable, meaning no matter what, you have to upload those YouTube videos on your channel! Consistency is going to help you to grow a lot quicker on YouTube. The algorithm is going to realize it, and they are going to know what days and what times to push out your videos. So try to be as consistent as possible, as well as this will create a good routine for your audience. Once you’ve done that, I would back-track a little bit and see what time you need to film this video so that you will have enough time to edit it. No matter what, figure out your uploading schedule and put it in your calendar to make sure you get it done! If you have other obligations or responsibilities that you need to organize to make it happen, make it happen! Because this is important to you!
What are your goals for the 1st year? How will you get there?
What are your goals for the first year of your YouTube channel? and What little steps do you have to take in order to get there? I do not recommend saying to yourself that you want to have 100,000 subscribers your 1st year on YouTube. Although that is possible, it’s not always realistic. If you don’t see results from the very beginning, you might start thinking: I’m not going to get my hundred thousand subscribers I dreamed of. Then you might get discouraged and want to give up. So set realistic goals for yourself, and figure out what you have to do to get there. It’s not enough just to say: ok I’m going to create one YouTube video a week that’s all I need to do. No, you need to educate yourselves. Honestly, there’s so much that goes into YouTube. The algorithm is complicated and there’s a lot of factors that determine what videos YouTube picks up and what videos they promote, and if you want to grow on YouTube I recommend that you devote all your energy. Start with the key words and the tags, figuring out how you can appear in search. When you’re starting to get views and engagement on your videos, that’s going to trigger the algorithm, and then you really need to learn more about how to continue to ride the wave and get suggested by YouTube. So really education is going to be huge for you, and I think that it’s a necessary step that you have to take if you want to grow your YouTube channel. Also, over the next year you really need to learn some filming and editing skills. Honestly, there are so many videos here on YouTube that you can watch to help you create better YouTube videos. I even have them on my channel, and I know there’s so many other amazing creators out there that have those videos as well, and that’s really going to help you to take your videos up a notch, and to get other people to subscribe. Other than that, I think you need to get creative on how you’re going to grow your channel. Are you going to promote your videos on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Tik Tok, or something else? What else can you do that’s going to help you grow your brand and get you from the very beginning, starting at zero, where we all start today, to where you actually want to go?
The best advice: Get out of your own way
The best piece of that advice I can give you if you’re just now looking to start a YouTube channel is to get out your own way. Honestly, the only thing that’s going to hold you back is not going to be a camera, or your lighting. It’s going to be you! Honestly, it’s going to be self doubt, you thinking that you’re not good enough, that your channel can’t be what you honestly dream it can be. But if you stick with it, if you follow the uploading schedule that you set for yourself, it’s gonna take you so much farther than a lot of other creators. If you give out within the first couple of weeks because you think it’s too hard, then the only reason you failed is because of you, and I honestly don’t want you to live with that! So create a YouTube channel today guys! Follow the action steps that I gave you within this video! If you have a whiteboard or even just a piece of paper, create your action plan on how you’re going to get where you want to go. Now a lot of us have more time than ever before, stuck in our homes. Use it to your advantage! Honestly, you could do so much more than you ever dreamed of if you just put yourself to work!
Outro
I really hope you guys like this video and find it helpful. If so, make sure you give it a thumbs-up, and subscribe to my channel down below! Definitely check out these two videos right here. I post videos about YouTube growth every week and by the way these are real strategies that work on my channel and have given 70 million views to my clients! Remember to leave a comment and share this video so more people like you can see it. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you on the next one! Peace!
