Why You’re Starting Your YouTube Channel

YouTube has turned into a wave that can no longer be contained. Now more than ever before, it is simpler to produce a video, put it online, and share it with the world. Besides this being great on a personal level, it is on a professional as well. While there are many video websites out there, none has the same reach or potential profit then you can get with YouTube.

Knowing the Reason Why You’re Starting Your YouTube Channel

No other factor in this process requires as much thought as this one. You have to understand why you feel like you need to establish a presence on YouTube. It is essential that you know what precisely your business is looking to accomplish and whether other video platforms can be used to achieve success. These are things that you have to consider before you dive feet first into creating videos to publish on YouTube.

Maybe you are passionate about fitness and want to make some money teaching people how to get in shape. You might already have a personal website and want to generate more traffic. Maybe you’re an expert at something and want to produce educational content in exchange for a fee. You could use your YouTube channel to advertise new and existing products to a broader and more diverse audience. These are just a few reasons why you might want to start a YouTube channel for your business.

On the flip side, you may be thinking that you just want to make a lot of money, so you never have to work again. If this is what you’re thinking, then you will probably want to take some time to think things through. While a lot of people have become rich and famous off of a single video they uploaded to YouTube, it was nothing more than luck. They probably never thought they could achieve success with a single, random video. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into starting and maintaining a YouTube business channel. The secret to achieving success is doing things right and doing it often.

Determining Your Target Audience

Now that you know why you want to create a YouTube business channel, it’s time to consider the audience that you want to target.

This is the step in the process that you need to develop an audience persona profile. It can help considerably if you can get more information about your target audience, including their age, gender, social status, geographical location, and preferences. If you want to make money, you can’t merely go gung-ho and try to make videos tailored to everyone. You will never be able to please everyone, so it is essential that you know the type of people who will appreciate your content and who will choose to become loyal fans. If you cater to their specific content needs, they will be more willing to pay you for your efforts.

Know Your Direct Competition

YouTube is a massive platform, so you’ll want to expect some stiff competition in the niche that you choose. You need to take the time to check on whether or not there are other YouTube channels that also serve your potential audience. You can type the keyword for your niche into the search box and look at the other channels that are offering similar content.

You want to ask yourself how you will set your YouTube channel apart from the competition and what you will do differently. After doing some research, you’ll be better equipped to distinguish yourself by offering what your competitors aren’t. In other words, you want to give your audience a reason to subscribe to your channel instead of the competition. Keep in mind that just because a specific niche has a lot of competition, doesn’t mean that you can’t dive into it. Figure out how you can stand out from the crowd, and you’ll find success.

Scheduling Your Uploads

If you want to establish a strong presence on YouTube and find success, then you have to make sure you are uploading videos regularly. Your channel has to have up-to-date content so that you are always on the mind of your subscribers.

Think about how often you want to upload a new video and take into account factors like the length of time it takes you to create a video. In an ideal situation, you will have enough time to make a good quality video and upload it according to your schedule. However, you don’t want to have too long of an interval between your uploads because online audiences can be extremely fickle and can forget about you quickly. The best option is to find a balance that will suit both your hectic schedule and your audience.

Equipment and Software You’ll Need

You may think that you will have to go out and buy a bunch of expensive camera equipment, like a camera and lens or lighting, but you probably have all the stuff you need already.

These days most smartphones come with a high definition camera, and most laptop computers come with inexpensive webcams that can be used for creating high-quality videos. When it comes to lighting, all you need is to place a few lamps strategically around the room to provide you with light that looks professional.

Doing a simple search for “photography lighting” on Amazon or eBay will bring you hundreds of options for lighting.

These days you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on producing high-quality videos for your YouTube channel.

One thing that you do need to consider is the editing software that you are going to use. There are plenty of options on the market that will fit your requirements, and that won’t break your budget. Do some research to determine which editing software that will be easy for you to use and that will fit in your budget.

Here are a few options:

• Apple iMovie – For Mac users only. This is a free tool that is usually included with your Mac.
• Movie Maker – A free video editing tool for Windows users.
• Final Cut Pro X – A more advanced video editing tool which does require you to pay for use.
• Adobe Premier Pro – Another advanced video editing tool which requires payment for use.

Choosing your equipment and editing software are important decisions that you should make before you get started.

Allocating the Time to Create Your Videos

It takes a lot to make a YouTube channel successful. It isn’t just about making a single video and moving on. You also have to spend the time to promote the channel through social media, grow your subscriber list, and engage with your audience. You need to take the time to sit down and figure out how much time you can actually allocate for building your channel and then break it down according to the necessary activities. It is essential to give each activity its due time since they are all linked. If you focus too much time on making your videos and not enough time promoting them and engaging with your audience, it will eventually cost you.

Getting started on YouTube takes a solid understanding of what it takes and a detailed plan for initiating and maintaining the channel. Taking the time beforehand will ensure you are given the best opportunity to succeed.

Choosing Your Niche

By selecting a niche for your YouTube channel, you are one step closer to standing out from the sea of YouTube channels. When someone finds the channel that has the content they are looking for, they will likely view the other videos on the channel, and they may even subscribe to the channel to keep up-to-date with the new content published.

Choosing a niche is not only essential but can also be a difficult decision as well. It is always optimal to start off on the right foot, and selecting the niche for your channel is a long term decision. Even after you have chosen your niche, you will still need to drill down to specific topics. It is essential that you choose a niche that you not only enjoy but one that you are good at, as well as choosing a niche that is in demand.

Determining What You’re Good At

This is one of the most common methods for selecting a niche. This is the time to utilize your strengths. Take a look at your hobbies and what you like to do for fun. Perhaps you excel at playing video games, and you want to create videos showcasing your gaming prowess. Maybe you are a fitness buff and want to share your knowledge by creating how-to-videos on health and fitness. Whatever the case, you can convert your current skills into quality, compelling videos that people will want to watch.

A fundamental method for narrowing down your niche is determining whether you are looking to entertain or inform your target audience. It is also important to decide how long you want your videos to be. Addressing just a few factors will help you in choosing your niche. Even after you have selected your niche, you will still need to determine if there is enough demand for it, to avoid wasting time and effort. You want to make sure to choose a niche where you are not only confident in your skills, but also that there is enough of a market.

Selecting a Category

There are several categories in YouTube that you will need to consider. With such a massive collection of videos in their storage, YouTube has no choice but to classify those videos. When you start to review the categories, you want to try to imagine the kinds of videos that are commonly seen in each group. There are 15 different categories that YouTube’s library of videos are broken into and include:

• Comedy
• Autos and Vehicles
• Entertainment
• Education
• Film & Animation
• How-to and Style
• Gaming
• Music
• Nonprofits and Activism
• News and Politics
• Pets and Animals
• People and Blogs
• Science and Technology
• Travel and Events
• Sports

These categories, at first glance, may appear only to be useful for searching through the millions of videos in YouTube’s library. However, take some time to look at the categories and consider what it would be like to pursue each topic individually, which can be an insightful practice for finding your niche.

Researching Topics

Figure out what the most popular topics are today. You can do this by signing up for Google Ads Keyword Planner (https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/). Once you’ve determined your niche, you will need to figure out the most common problems or questions that people within the particular niche face. This is what you can base your videos off of, by solving those issues or problems with the videos you create. For example, many people are interested in learning about new technology and its future. If you are interested in the technology niche and want to delve into it, you can create videos that discuss the latest gadgets and prospective electronics. If you are already an affiliate, it would be strategic for you to implement a brief promotion for an affiliate product relative to the niche at the end of each video.

All that is required is to find a large enough market that is willing to spend money. After that, it comes down to drilling down to a specific niche and creating content that is relevant and that either solves a problem, serves to inform them, or entertains them.

How to Optimize Your YouTube Channel for Success

In order to make the most of your YouTube channel, there are a few things that you will need to utilize. Too many YouTubers make the mistake of neglecting their channel because they are too focused on making the videos.

You have to think of your channel as another landing page, just like your company website. If you want people to continue to come back to your channel, then you have to consider your channel page, as the experience is what entices viewers to come back to your channel and subscribe.

Like any other website, you will need to take the time to craft your channel’s page to make it appear professional and entice viewers to return for more. Many of the elements are what drive the success and appeal behind your channel. The most successful channels commonly employ these elements because they work.

To boost your exposure, you will need to spend some time to configure your YouTube channel properly. If you follow these tips, your channel will begin to generate a good amount of traffic.

Choose a Memorable Channel Name

Giving your channel an appropriate name will make all the difference in viewer memorability. If your channel name is short and catchy, people will have no trouble remembering your username and searching for you. However, if it is long and uses numbers, your username will not likely be remembered by your target audience. Your username should not only reflect who you are but also what your channel is about. For example, if you are creating a fitness channel, your name could include a fitness related term.

If you intend to create a music channel, you might want to consider incorporating a musically related term for your channel name. However, you need to remember that different niches will call for different username styles. Invest some time into this step, as your name is going to represent who you are in the YouTube community.

Use an Attractive Channel Icon

The channel icon is your profile picture that appears next to your channel name, and you should upload a clear image that looks attractive at smaller resolutions. When visitors watch videos on your channel, your channel icon is one of the first things that they will see and could be what provokes them to visit your channel in the first place. If your icon is dull or relatively unattractive, it could turn viewers off and negatively impact your channel’s traffic. Your channel icon is also what will help to establish the brand of your YouTube channel. By keeping this somewhat consistent with your channel header, it will help to reinforce your channel’s branding.

Integrate Social Media Links

YouTube provides you with the ability to add your social networking links to your channel header.

Every single successful channel on YouTube does this and is highly recommended because it will help you build your network. People who are curious enough to view your channel are likely going to be intrigued enough to interact with you via your social networking accounts, or at the very least follow you on social media. You can maximize your exposure by integrating your social media links on your YouTube channel.

By redirecting people from your channel to your social media, your social networking power will grow. Some of those who you originally brought from your channel will tell others about you and further expand the exposure for your brand.

Include Channel Art

The channel art is the header image at the top of your channel and is the ideal place for you to incorporate your logo. With channel art, anything goes, as long as you don’t settle for one of YouTube’s default backgrounds. First impressions matter, as the channel header is one of the first things that viewers will see. Incorporating a custom header will give your channel a unique look and atmosphere.

Having a generic header background will only indicate to the viewers that your channel isn’t high quality, and they will most likely pass it by. When you create an appealing background header, can help potential subscribers see what else you have to offer. Take the time to design your channel art that will leave a lasting impression on your first-time viewers and will get people wanting to return to your channel time and again.

The About Section

It can never hurt to include a brief, concise description detailing what your channel is all about and who you are under the about section. Many favorite channels are in the habit of including their professional emails in the description for business inquiries and is something you should consider doing. You also want to include your social media links as well. If your viewers didn’t click on them under channel heading, then they might do so upon a second appearance under your about section. It is also important to include relevant keywords in your about section to make your channel search friendly.

Optimizing your channel is an easy way to help your channel stand out from the crowd. Taking the time to ensure you have a unique YouTube channel can help you get more views, convert more subscribers, and grow a successful YouTube channel for your business.