Start Your YouTube Channel On The Right Foot:
Start a YouTube channel you can grow and monetize by going in with these 5 things in mind. I just monetized my YouTube channel, and so I wanted to share the things I wish I had known going in. These tips will no doubt get you to growing and monetizing even faster than I have! You got this!
(This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase from one of these links at no extra cost to you.)
#1 START WITH A SMALL NICHE
The first thing to keep in mind before you start a YouTube channel is begin with a very specific small niche. If you are a hairdresser and want to make videos on styling hair, perhaps start specifically with very curly hair or some sub-niche of something you know about. A good niche includes something you like and know a lot about. If you can easily talk about it, it may make for a great YouTube channel (so long as it fits the criteria of what I share below…so KEEP READING!)
Just because you start small now, doesn’t mean you can’t expand later! I started my YouTube with a very tiny niche–Gogokid. Gogokid is an ESL company any had less than 5,000 employees when I first started making videos. I was able to grow quite fast, because there were not many videos on YouTube about Gogokid yet. Now, I hardly make YouTube videos on Gogokid, but it helped build my base, and now I can make broader videos for independent contractors and entrepreneurs. Start small, and know you don’t have to stay smaller forever, but it will help you initially grow and build your brand.
#2 KNOW ABOUT KEYWORD RESEARCH
The 2nd thing to keep in mind before you start a YouTube channel is before making any videos, make sure you understand how to do KEYWORD RESEARCH. This will help you grow SO MUCH FASTER. As a small YouTube channel, you want to make videos that have less competition (so fewer people have made videos on that topic) and a fair degree of searches. In order to make sure I can rank in keyword searches, I use a plugin called TubeBuddy. I HIGHLY recommend you use this. You can use both the free and paid version. I initially started out with the free version, and now use the paid version, as I think it is definitely worth it and helps me up my SEO (search engine optimization) with YouTube.
If you use the code DaniesBuddy, you can get 20% off of any TubeBuddy subscription!
#3 MAKE VIDEOS PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY SEARCHING FOR
The 3rd thing to keep in mind before you start a YouTube channel goes along with tip #2, but I think it is worth really highlighting! You might be really passionate about a random topic, but if no one is searching for it and your goal is to eventually monetize your channel…then that video will be just for you and your family and friends who are nice enough to watch it lol! Make sure that you keep your TARGET AUDIENCE in mind and figure out what people in your SMALL NICHE are searching for.
You can find what people in your target audience are searching for by looking in Facebook groups that align with your niche or searching Reddit or Quora threads. If a lot of your friends on social media are a part of the niche you are wanting to start a channel on, then make an Instagram Story asking for their input of what they’d like to know more about.
#4 YOU DON’T NEED A FANCY SET UP
The 4th thing to keep in mind before you start a YouTube channel is quality in the information and content you provide to your viewers is always more important than the quality of your camera. I highly recommend starting with what you already have. If you don’t have a nice camera, I bet you can make an awesome video with your phone! I started my YouTube channel with just my Macbook pro and iMovie. I didn’t invest ANY MONEY in fancy equipment at first.
Even now, my equipment is not super fancy or expensive. I use the Logitech C920 web camera and a Yeti microphone. I don’t think that adding these nicer recording tools really affected my subscription rate at all…what helped was I got better at understanding Keyword research and how to make more helpful content.
#5 you need quality thumbnails
The 5th thing to keep in mind before you start a YouTube channel is while fancy equipment isn’t a necessary first step when starting a YouTube Channel, YOU DO NEED QUALITY THUMBNAILS. Take it from me, my thumbnails used to be SCARY BAD! I have since made my thumbnails much more lovely and increased the likelihood that people click my videos.
Less is more for thumbnails so use as little words as possible. Make sure the words are large and easy to read and make sure to have your face in the thumbnail! Psychology says that if there’s a face on your thumbnail, there are higher odds that someone is going to click it!
Check out this video in order to see exactly how you should be setting up your thumbnails.
