Starting A YouTube Channel

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 Table of Contents

5 Questions to Ask Before You Decide to Start a YouTube Channel 4

Before You Start Filming, Take These Steps 6
Got Your Channel Set Up? Now What? 8
How to Decide What Type of YouTube Channel to Create 10
The Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your YouTube Channel 12
Top Strategies for Getting Views on Your YouTube Channel 14
Top Tips for Starting a Successful YouTube Channel 16
Top YouTube Channel Ideas to Help You Decide Your Focus 18
What Equipment You Must Have to Start a Successful YouTube Channel 20
Why You Should Start a YouTube Channel 22

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5 Questions to Ask Before You Decide to
Start a YouTube Channel

You’re starting a YouTube channel? Good! But before you start framing shots
with your hands and getting a beret with the word DIRECTOR, there are some
points that should be considered.

1. Why? What is your motivation? Not that you shouldn’t do it, but if you can
identify why you want to do it, it will change the way you do it. For example,
are you using the channel to drive traffic to your personal website? Do you
want to make a political or environmental or social statement? Are you pas-
sionate about a hobby/profession and want to share your expertise?

If the answer is “making money,” then you’re probably not on the right track.

This takes time and effort. Find out what your motivation is and how that will af-
fect your channel.

2. What are your videos going to cover? What will they be about? Do you have a
clear idea what you want to accomplish? Be sure you’re passionate about the
topic; you’re going to spend a lot of time on it.

3. Who are you making this for? Seriously. What’s your target audience? Are you
making videos for the same people that love the Terminator movies? If so,
they’re probably not the audience that is going to line up for Jane Austin. What
will you say to your audience and how will you say it?

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The chances are that 14-15-year-old boys are not going to be receptive to an in-
depth analysis of Mozart, and 70-year-old intellectuals are not going to want to
know how to do a kick on a skateboard.

It’s not just the topic. It’s a different language, a different tone, and a different ap-
proach.

4. Who are you competing with? Attention spans are short things. If a viewer
lasts 10-15 minutes on your channel, consider that a major victory. There are a
lot of channels out there, and they are trying to appeal to the same audience
you are. What are they doing? What’s their approach?

Don’t give up, if it’s being done, that only means there’s a market for it. You just
need to do it better, deeper or stronger or some way to set yourself apart from
the others.

5. How are you going to measure your success? It's easy to say, "I'll know it
when it happens," but then you'll never know if you're close. Were you closer
before you changed something? After?

If you can measure it, you can change direction to get closer to it. Figure out how
you personally measure success.

These are just somethings to keep in mind when designing your YouTube channel.
Deciding these will help you figure out how to create, maintain and improve your
channel, and keep the viewers coming back for more.

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Before You Start Filming, Take These
Steps
Starting a YouTube channel is quick and easy and will do wonders for your online
presence. It can tie into your Facebook or Twitter or Reddit or other social media
and provide ad revenue to boot.

So where to begin?

Well, there are some things to keep in mind before you start.

1. Who are you talking to? If your goal is to talk about investment strategies,
you’re probably not going to target 14-year-olds. On the other hand, very few
investment bankers really care about skateboards. Decide who your audience
is, what they need, what they want to see and how they want it presented.
Start with who you think you are in terms of audience, your age group, your in-
terests, and your hobbies.

2. Who is your competition? You have competitors. No matter how unique you
believe your product might be, there is someone out there with something
very similar. Now pay attention to what they are doing, what works, what
doesn’t and find a way to set yourself apart. Use that information to do your
channel differently, either in content or style, something that sets you apart
from the pack.

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3. Get some content in the back. Create three or four videos and have them up-
loaded. Creating and uploading are pretty straightforward, there are numer-
ous instructional videos on how to get it done. Why? You’re going to want
first-time viewers to have a few videos to look at in order for them to get a
pattern and be enticed to return for more.

4. Be consistent. Most initial channels attract viewers only to lose them again be-
cause the videos are being randomly updated or not updated at all. If there is a
new video every Friday, viewers will return every Friday. If there’s a new video
every other Thursday, they’ll come by twice a month. But if it’s random and
skips a week now and then, they’ll be frustrated and give up. Once you’ve
made a schedule, stick with it. Make sure it’s there when expected.

5. Have a backlog of videos for people to watch. If viewers like your style, they’ll
want more. Give them plenty of options for more content.

6. Check the SEO. Search Engine Optimization. Use the right keywords to be
found in a search. Make sure the title of each video clearly explains what the
video is about. Make sure the description is clear.

Keep these things in mind, and you’re on your way to a successful YouTube chan-
nel.

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Got Your Channel Set Up? Now What?

So you’ve got your YouTube channel set up. You’ve even picked out your topic
and figured out how to stand out from the crowd. You’re ready to roll.

Now what?

Here are a few items to check off the list to keep the momentum going.

Make a commitment. Don’t keep your viewers waiting. With today’s short atten-
tion spans, you want new content there rapidly. Upload at a minimum once per
week. If your subscribers know you’re going to post every Sunday, they will wait
and check in every Sunday. If there’s nothing new there, they’ll forget about your
channel. Post multiple times per week if you can but create a schedule and stick
to it.

Get a video flow you can live with. You’re not producing a mega-blockbuster-epic
movie. On the other hand, you’re not going to create a jerky, cheesy hand-held
nightmare either. You know your budget; you know how much time you can put
into this. Create a workflow that falls somewhere in between cheap and pomp-
ous.

Give ‘em the hook. For example, if you’re going to show someone how to create
an ice sculpture with a chainsaw, start with showing them the end result. Let’s see
the angel first, then bring out the block of ice and the chainsaw.

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If that’s not appropriate, start with a story. People will sit and wait for a good
story, and if there’s a story behind the video, it’ll enhance the viewing.

Pay attention to the credits. You’ve seen the credits and opening music. It’s the
part that people try to fast forward through. Everyone on the team deserved
recognition for their hard work but keep the credits as short and sweet as you
can.

And about those end credits, use them to point your viewers to your website, to
your product, or to your playlist with other videos in your channel. Use that end
time to further your goal.

Ahhhh is distracting. So is “uhmm….” Edit them out. Especially long pauses and
forgotten lines. Stay focused, showing your subscribers how to bake a pie doesn’t
include a ten-minute session remembering how your mother organized her
kitchen. Get the tangents out too.

Get good thumbnails. It increases your rating with YouTube if your thumbnails
get chosen a lot. Make them compelling and easy to see.

And always, remember to have fun with what you're doing. If you have fun, your
viewers will have fun with you. Keep the effort in it and enjoy what you do.

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How to Decide What Type of YouTube
Channel to Create
You’ve made the big decision: You’re going to start a YouTube channel. Good for
you! But keep in mind there are a lot of them out there, and you need to figure
out how to make one work for you. What is going to help you stand out from the
crowd?

Where YouTube is concerned, content is king. Here are a few tips to help you de-
cide what sort of channel to create.

1. You’re going to be spending a lot of time at this. A LOT of time. There is noth-
ing worse than the drudgery of having to do something every week that you
hate. Worse, that will show in your product. If you don’t like what you’re do-
ing, it sours the production and makes the viewer uncomfortable. So make
your channel about something you love, something you’re passionate about.

2. Why should we listen to you? Are you good at what you’re talking about? Or
are you so passionate about it that you want to become good at it? Be the ex-
pert or be the novice that your viewers are and let us watch you grow into
becoming an expert.

If you love cars and have never rebuilt an engine, show us all how you found out
step-by-step how it’s done and let us learn with you. On the other hand, if you re-
build engines in your sleep with one wrench tied behind your back, let us learn at
your feet as you make it look easy. Either way works.

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3. There are a lot of channels on YouTube, and that means a wide variety of sub-
jects are already out there. If there are a lot of channels on the subject you are
interested in, that means there is a great deal of interest in that topic. If you’re
going to do that topic, you’ll have to do it better than everyone else.

How? See what the competition has to offer and then improve on them, make
yours better, friendlier, funnier, more in-depth. Give us a reason to watch you in-
stead of them.

4. Alternatively, find your hobbies, your passions, your talents and try to find
the one thing that no one else is doing. That won’t be easy, but underwater
accordion playing is probably an untapped market.

You don’t need to be completely esoteric. For example, there are a lot of channels
about supercharging your car, there are channels about fixing your car, but there
are few channels about using duct tape and bailing wire to get you out of a tight
spot and to a mechanic.

5. Solve a problem. People are looking to you for information that's important
and necessary. Even if the problem is that they need a good laugh. Maybe they
need to break into a car to retrieve the key inside.

Make a difference. Use your passion. Use your expertise and use your personality
to create the perfect channel for you. The rest will follow.

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The Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up
Your YouTube Channel
Starting your YouTube channel is easy. Everything connected to getting started is
very simple. Here is a step-by-step guide to beginning your own YouTube channel.

1. Keep in mind that YouTube is now owned by Google, so the first step is to
sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have one, go to Google first
and create one, it’s quick and free.

2. In the top right corner of YouTube, once you’re signed in, there is an arrow
next to the avatar image. This arrow indicates a drop-down menu. Click the
arrow, from the menu choose MY CHANNEL

3. Pick a name. You’ll be prompted to choose a name. This is arguably one of

the most important decisions you can make. The name of the channel will
help to guide people to the site. Calling an automotive repair channel
“Bob’s Channel” won’t give the viewers any idea what the channel is about.
Think about this carefully before deciding. Naming it the same as your com-
pany will at least tie that information to what they already know about your
products. If you don’t have a company, use your content to inspire a name
that will draw people to you.

4. Fill out the rest of the required fields by following the prompts and click
DONE.

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5. Take the tour. You’ll be prompted to take it, and if you’re not, you can get
there from the menu at the top right of your page. It’s actually very helpful
and will provide you with lots of good information to start.

6. Start on the ACCOUNT SETTINGS. That’s going to be an option on the drop-

down menu in the top right again. Where do we go from here?

• Create a custom URL. This is another draw factor to get to your chan-
nel. Instead of MyChannel1092 which means nothing to the viewer,
you can create the URL to read HotRodMechanic or ChefOnABudget
or something meaningful and easy to enter.

Here’s how:
• Click on the ADVANCED button. This will take you to a new
page.
• Click CREATE CUSTOM URL.
• Enter your custom URL. If it’s not taken:
• Click CREATE CHANNEL URL.

• Link it to your social media. You want your followers there to come
here and check out your channel.
• Under the ACCOUNT SETTINGS, click CONNECT ACCOUNTS.
• Enter the other accounts you want to be linked to the chan-
nel and click on SAVE

• Update your email.

• Under the PRIVACY in ACCOUNT SETTINGS, click EMAIL
• Edit your contact and frequency settings.

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And that’s it. A few simple steps and you’re ready to start uploading and creating
your own channel!

Top Strategies for Getting Views on Your

YouTube Channel

So you have a YouTube channel. All you need now are viewers. Sadly there isn’t a
magical process where a channel is created, and suddenly it's just gone viral, and
the entire world is watching. There is a growth and nurturing process that you
need to take your channel through and get the viewers.

Here are a few tips to help grow your subscribers.

1. Make your videos about a single word. Your keyword is the word that people
are going to search for. For example, if you want to reach people about first
aid in the home, “FirstAid” is probably the keyword you’re looking for.
Plan this in advance, incorporate it into the script, the definition and the
search engine.

2. Get the title right. YouTube is huge. It’s the second largest search engine on
the internet. You need a catchy title, but you also need a title that is descrip-
tive, that helps viewers know what you’re about. Help them find you. Make
your titles and descriptions as informative as you can.

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3. Rule of thumb – have great thumbnails. Google as Search Engine Optimization
(SEO), the way that sites are ranked. YouTube has Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
which is similar. CTR is often determined by catchy thumbnails with easy to
read text, unexpected visuals, arrows and circles over the images and eye-
catching graphics.

4. Keep people on your channel. The more time viewers spend on your channel,
the more YouTube likes it and the higher your ranking. If viewers are getting
bored and clicking away at certain areas, use YouTube cards to refer them to
other videos on your channel. That will keep the traffic on your channel longer
and increase your ranking.

5. Optimize your playlist. At the end of a video, YouTube adds a playlist, a list of
URLs that they recommend for the viewer. Some of the items on this list are
on your channel; some are not. Here’s a trick to keep them around: You know
that link at the end of the video that brings the viewer to the next video? In-
stead of redirecting them to a single video, you can use that link to redirect
them to your playlist. That way they stay on your channel.

6. YouTube loves it when people interact. Encourage comments and participa-

tion. Try to respond (pleasantly) to every comment. Engage a sense of commu-
nity. If someone is looking at your video that at least indicates a shared inter-
est in the topic. How can you use that?

Increase your subscribers by increasing the ease with which you can be found and
by instituting a shared experience. Make viewers feel like they are a part of your
channel because they are – the most important part.

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Top Tips for Starting a Successful
YouTube Channel
You’re starting a YouTube channel. Good! It’s a great tool for many reasons and
may you have the greatest of luck with it. Here are a few things to think about
when creating your channel that may help you get the ball rolling.

Make the keyword your brand. You have a keyword for your channel, like BAK-
ING or AUTOMOTIVE. Keywords are how viewers can find you. Make that your
brand. There are thousands of channels out there; you need to be funnier/edgier/
smarter.

Do Claymation cooking, do greenscreen travelogues, do something no one has

seen before or do something everyone does and do it better. You need to stand
out from the crowd.

Make the best video you can. YouTube can be a place for Bill and Ted to make a
video about falling down and then post it online. There are a lot of those, ama-
teur, childish kinds of videos. Believe it or not, there is a place for that kind of
thing. Sometimes it can even work to draw people in. But ‘silly amateur' doesn't
work for everyone. The best bet is to be professional, and at the same time, be
yourself.

Everyone has an opinion, why not share yours? What do you love? Movies? Go
see a movie, and post a review. Restaurants? Tell your experiences. Beer? Com-
pare the various brands.

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Establish yourself as a reviewer of a specific item, but also narrow that to just one
thing. It’s easy, it’s entertaining, and it’s so much better in a video than in text be-
cause your facial expressions will tell the tale.

Get the tags right. Tags are another way to direct traffic to your channel. Start
with the specifics and go generally. For example, if you’re building a house, start
with “Framing,” “Plumbing,” “Brick Laying” and then go to “Building a house,”
“Building,” “Construction.”

Keep an eye on the clock. So how much information can you convey in 15 sec-
onds? You can start, get the music queued up and that’s about it. On the other
hand, if you’re going to sit and drone about the mathematics of fractals for an
hour, no one will ever see the end of the video. Typically, keep the video between
8 and 12 minutes. That’s about the sweet spot.

Mix your channel with your social media. Link it to your website, hook it into
your Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and other feeds. Draw people from your site to
the channel and then it will work in the other direction as well, as your subscrib-
ers will follow your link to your site.

It takes time and effort but growing a large fan base for your YouTube channel is
possible and entirely doable. Mostly – have fun. Loving what you do always
shows, and people will have fun right along with you.

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Top YouTube Channel Ideas to Help You
Decide Your Focus

Ok, you've wanted to start a YouTube channel for a while. But you can’t decide
what it’s about. Usually, that’s because you have too many ideas to narrow them
down. Or worse, you can’t figure out what people will be interested.

Well, if you’re not sure where to start, here are a few existing methods that might
give you a kick-start idea.

VLOG. Blogging became popular not so long ago when people started using the
internet as a diary, jotting down details of their everyday lives. That morphed into
the VLOG, the Video Log.

Vlogs are for people who look into the camera and ruminate on the day, on their
lives, on politics, and different places they have been and things they have seen. It
requires nothing more than a webcam and a microphone and are often quite pop-
ular.

Unbox. Are you the sort of person that needs the latest and greatest tech? Are
you one of the people that stands in line for the newest iPhone or tablet? Then
Unboxing is for you.

This is a phenomenon that popped up on YouTube some time ago and shows no
sign of slowing down. It’s a way for people who stay on the cutting edge to unbox
and show off the latest tech craze and let the viewer decide if they want to have a

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part of it. Simply bring home your newest toy or gadget and open the box on
screen while at the same time giving your initial impressions of the item.

Reviews. There are people out there just like you who are reviewing movies, res-
taurants, books, gadgets, and gizmos. Everyone has an opinion, and viewers will
want to know yours. And whether they agree or disagree, they’ll tune in just to ar-
gue or to have their opinion verified.

Gamers. There are channels out there with millions of subscribers that talk about
and demonstrate video games. People tune in to evaluate games they don’t
know, learn how to play better, find Easter eggs, and so on.

If you like video games, this might be the way you want to go, though not all gam-
ers play video games, sometimes board games and role-playing games are part of
their channels.

Ever called a helpdesk? Better yet, ever been the helpdesk? People want to know
how to get the most of their computers and how to use the applications, you can
show them. Very popular channels include working with Office and Adobe and
others. Show off your computer skills.

Sing a song. Play an instrument. Do a cover from a well-known song. YouTubers

have been “discovered” by good covers of existing songs. If you have a natural tal-
ent, why not share it with the rest of the world?

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Hope these spurred some creative juices. Just remember, if you’re going to start a
YouTube channel, you’re going to spend a lot of time and effort pursuing this, so
choose something you’re passionate about.

What Equipment You Must Have to Start

a Successful YouTube Channel
In order to create a YouTube video, you obviously need to spend thousands on
camera equipment, editing equipment, sound, mics, special effects and a whole
lot of other stuff. Don’t you?

It turns out, you don't. A fortune is not required to get started on YouTube. After
all, this isn't a Hollywood blockbuster you're creating. Here's a simple checklist to
get started.

Camera. Don’t panic. You’re not looking at a TV studio camera on rollers and high
feed and thousands of dollars – you really don’t even need one of those $800.00
SLR reflex/steady shot/don’t-need-a-cameraman cameras either. A simple
webcam will work just fine, and they’re less than $100.00 and keep getting
cheaper every day.

If you don’t have the outlay for that, believe it or not, you don’t need it. Seriously,
just use your smartphone. If you get good at this and you start to love the pro-
cess, put some money into it later. But for now, use what you've got.

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Tripod. You don’t need to spend a fortune on this either. Large tripods can run
into some money, but the kind that sits on a tabletop comes cheap. That’s really
all you need. But you will need it, especially if you’re using a cell phone.

Microphone. Keep in mind, the microphone in your cell phone is not adequate.
Microphones are a lower priority because they’re made for the phone, meaning
that the source of the sound (your mouth) is only a few millimeters away. Want a
pro tip? Get an external mic. Record the audio separate from the video and mix it
later.

Green Screen. You can do the fancy Hollywood backgrounds, changing your bed-
room wall to an exotic tropical island, superimposing images on the background.
There are greenscreen kits, but here’s another tip: Use a green sheet. Or, if you
don’t have one, use a white sheet and dye it green.

Screen capture software. If you’re doing a tutorial on working with MS Power-

Point or Adobe whatever, you’re going to need to show your audience what
you’re talking about. That means capturing the action on your computer to play
on the video. This also goes for video game walkthroughs.

This is all you need to start. If you get into the flow and really love it, add on more
and more equipment as you can. You can always add on to existing equipment
later, but if you wait until everything is “just right” you will never begin.

Create your own at home studio and play with it. Most computers come with
video editing software built in; some smartphones do too. You probably already
have what you need to get started. And most of all have fun!

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Why You Should Start a YouTube Channel
What's the benefit of starting a YouTube channel for yourself or your business?
Isn't that just the place where people post videos of cute kittens yawning and
other fluff? What could possibly be the benefit?

While YouTube might be home to more hours of kitten videos than you can watch
in a lifetime, it is also visited by every age bracket, from Boomers to Gen-Z.
YouTube is making an impact on the way we shop, spend money and work.

Here are a few points to ponder:

1. Did you know that as of 2016, fully 73% of the internet traffic revolved around
video? And that number is expected to increase to more than 80% by 2021.
Text-tools are quickly becoming old and outdated. YouTube provides a plat-
form for video, and that’s growing more and more significant.

2. There are over one and a half billion people all over the world on YouTube
every month. That’s 30 million users each day. That's a lot of market reach!

3. Like anything else, your production can be elaborate, Hollywood ready with a
big budget, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment
to create content. In fact, the video recorder on your phone can even carry
you through, and video editing software comes on most standard computer
builds.
It’s easier and cheaper than ever to get started.

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4. Just because it’s on YouTube doesn’t mean it’s going to languish in a corner.
YouTube videos are shared and embedded and linked in other media and to
other sites. You can add it to your other social media sites, drawing interest to
your video and bringing viewers to your channel.

5. Successful YouTube channels can generate income. Enabling ads on your chan-
nel can generate a few bucks for every thousand views or so. You probably
won’t get rich, but a few extra dollars now and again certainly isn’t a bad thing.

6. If you’re on Facebook and/or Twitter, frankly, it’s not going to take much to
get your followers to hook into your YouTube. But the same is true in reverse;
if you start getting people interested in your YouTube presence, it won’t be all
that tricky to get them hooked into your Facebook and Twitter feed. Also, hav-
ing more than one channel means sharing the audience between them, in-
creasing the revenue capabilities.

The fact is, video is the future of the internet, and YouTube is currently the king of
internet video. It’s easy to start, easy to upload, and easy to tie into your other
online identities.

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