The most active and repeatable question from our email inbox: Hi, Glen, could you please help me and give me some tips on how to become a YouTuber?
Here’s the deal:
Maybe you have already heard a saying that it is not worth starting a Youtube channel anymore? Often, people may think that there are a lot of competitors in this market and you have no chance of competing with them.
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Starting a YouTube channel is always a great idea as long as you have something valuable to give to your audience and love this concept.
You can build a successful personal brand and earn passive/active income from your channel. You just need to know some great strategies and rules, which will lead you to subscriber growth and maximum content reach.
In this article, you are going to find out how to become a successful Youtuber.
1. Make Sure That You Really Want It
The bottom line is that you need to make sure you really want to try to become a successful YouTuber and commit to giving a significant amount of time to reach that.
From our experience, the biggest mistake made by 90% of all beginners is that after the few YouTube videos are uploaded, they throw away this activity because the views reach just a few hundred.
Be patient and consistent – the views and audience will come.
Moreover, so many people think that becoming a YouTuber gives you more numbers in your bank account and you will be famous immediately.
Keep in mind:
Beginner success is rare, so be better prepared for the long-term process. Nothing happens overnight, so it’s unlikely that your bank account will get bigger or you will be famous in a matter of hours. Being a vlogger requires more patience and consistency than ever before.
Consider this – would you still be working in a job that you hate even though the income is beneficial? One of the most important questions is to ask yourself do you want to become a YouTuber?
2. Overcome Possible Challenges
Why being a YouTuber might be a challenge for you?
Don’t get it wrong. Being a YouTuber gives you a lot of benefits, but it also takes a lot as well.
Back in 2009, nobody knew that YouTube would become a massive money-making platform, so everyone was uploading videos just for fun and engagement. And this approach helped all the developers a lot at the time.
This might be a challenge for some, but try to upload YouTube videos without thinking of how much money you will get. Also, uploading your first YouTube video might be a challenge because it will not be as great as the 100th.
Furthermore, an upcoming challenge could be vlogging in public.
If you are shy and not used to doing this, it might be uncomfortable to talk with the camera in public. In general, don’t worry about it, as many people nowadays understand what you are doing and won’t be looking at you like you were from another planet. You may still have a few looks, but they should not bother you as long as you enjoy what you do.
Here’s a cool video from Nick Nimmin on how to avoid embarrassment.
3. Put 110% Effort
If you want to be a YouTuber – always give 110% effort to yourself. Otherwise, you won’t be successful. Nothing new, like everywhere else, right?
If you are thinking of starting to create a YouTube channel and any type of vlog, dedicate yourself to it. All successful people are in love with what they do; they commit themselves and achieve their goals.
Don’t think about the money in your pocket always. Try to figure out what you can say to the people out there, what they could learn from you, and how you can help them if needed.
4. Determine Strengths and Weaknesses
Do you know what your strengths and weaknesses are?
It is a fact that the most successful people in the world have their weaknesses. It is very important to find out what your weakness is and don’t be afraid of it.
If you are going to find out that you don’t know how to properly edit a YouTube video and consider it as your weakness, it is an excellent thing because you have the motivation to learn how to do it and turn it into your strength.
Or on the other hand, if you have free money, you can call a professional video editor for this job and focus even more on the content. This will save you time. Usually, take the time to do what you understand best.
In terms of strengths, it is essential to find out your powerful points and convert these to content material.
- If you are good and have the right skills in gardening, turn it into a great opportunity to start a YouTube channel about it.
- If you can fix a car and feel strong in this sphere, start a YouTube channel about it. Every human in the world can turn their strength and weakness into success, which is just a little bit of hard work.
It’s also very important that you don’t quickly lose motivation to create content about what you love. And if that’s what you love and is your strength, then perfect combo!
I have a perfect example:
One of my friends’ past 5 years was working as a truck driver in Europe.
Needless to say that he is so addicted to his profession, and you probably will not find a more confident and more excited person who knows everything about trucks.
Here’s what he did:
After 5 years, he decided to start making and filming vlogs about his trips, work, and trucks in general.
The result was better than we expected: in 3 months, he had about 30.000 active subscribers and more than 50.000 views per video (he was filming in a small country). Furthermore, all his YouTube videos are not even close to a perfect scenario, but he knows what to talk about and what to say for his audience and viewers to engage them easily.
Do you see it? If you understand what you are going to film and say in front of the camera, you will most likely get viewers and subscribers very fast.
5. Define a Success
Everybody has their way of defining the words “successful YouTuber.”
You can also ask yourself the same question. Whether it is to do a full-time job, meet new friends, spread your valuable information and skills to the community, or just to have fun.
When you determine a successful YouTuber, you can achieve your goals more efficiently.
- If you have a specific brand, your success can be that brand promotion on the YouTube channel and extra growth. You may start by being recognized a lot more than before.
- If your goal is to make new friends by networking, your success can be when you are being invited to a YouTube party or collaboration-type videos with other vloggers and YouTubers. Always remember, why are you filming videos, and then you will become a YouTuber at the end of the day.
- If you just want to have fun – then do it, but don’t pay too much attention to haters.
- Apart from this, your goal could be making money for a living and even becoming a well-known person, why not?
Before becoming a YouTuber, ask yourself and write it down: what do you define as a success?
6. Choose a Topic and Niche of the Channel
First of all, think about the Niche that you are most in it. Then research that topic, find out the latest news and trends that are reliable to it. In this way, you are capable of making fresh and new content for your channel.
Never change your video topic straight away. It is the base of successful YouTube channels, and you must find out what audience you are targeting.
Don’t talk about gardening in one video and change the topic in another. Stay consistent and loyal to the niche that you are into.
- If you love makeup and beauty, it is a great way to start a beauty channel on YouTube. In this way, you will be enjoying the fact that you need to put on some makeup in front of the camera, film it and upload it. Also, people sense the excitement and the motivation that you are providing.
- Some niches have high competition, and some do not. Find out how many YouTubers are active in your niche that you are interested in. It is best if you choose a niche that is in high-on-demand but has low competition. It is quite hard to achieve this task, but when you do – the success is yours.
For example:
| Main Niche | Level 2 Niche | Level 3 Niche |
| Cars | Repairing Cars | Repairing Cars from Auctions |
| Reviews | Tech Reviews | Smartphone Reviews |
| Sports | Basketball | Playing Basketball with Strangers |
| Entertainment | Pranks | Gold Digger Pranks |
| Beauty | Makeup | Makeup Tutorials for Different Occasions |
It is okay to stay in the level 2 niche, but we always recommend, especially for new vloggers, to target niche level 3.
Always try to create videos and vlogs in the niche where you feel the most comfortable and know how things work there. In other words, consider your strengths.
You can always research the competition of a particular keyword and niche. You can find more information on how to do it in this article, use this tool, or watch the embedded video below by Ahrefs.
7. Be Consistent
It does not matter what type of niche you are in, as long as you stay up to date with your video uploads and kind of them. Being a consistent YouTuber is more than necessary.
- If you are doing vlogs about how you repair cars, then stick to this video content;
- If you are talking about gardening, don’t start talking about building a dollhouse straight away.
People are subscribing to your channel because they like the topic you are talking about, and they trust you that every Tuesday (it depends on your schedule), they will get a great video from you.
Don’t let your viewers down. Stay on the one format, niche and upload YouTube videos regularly.
In the beginning, we highly recommend creating vlogs only for one topic and niche. Once you have gathered a sufficient crowd of viewers and subscribers - you will be able to include daily vlogs as well, but keep in mind that your channel will be watched by those who are interested in your niche, so don’t start showing boring daily vlogs. This is not the way to success.
8. Stay On The Point
Do you know what is frustrating?
When YouTubers make an intro about their videos for a few minutes.
You don’t have to make a few-minute explanation about a certain topic when you can take a short 30-second intro and get to the point.
Shortly explain what the video is going to be about and then start your video. People don’t want to waste their time, especially nowadays, be short and straight to the point.
9. Pay Attention to the Possible Audience
Always pay attention to the potential audience, and try to find out what do you want to say, find out how your audience is acting:
- How often do they search for the topic?
- When are they usually watching YouTube videos?
How often they are active on social media platforms? You can use the YouTube Trends Dashboard or Think with Google.
10. Make a Plan and Set Channel Goals
If you already know in which niche you want to be, make a plan with step-by-step what you need to do.
Think about it as a business plan, which is in some cases. Every time you achieve some new tasks, prepare for the new one.
It is also great if you are planning your videos, you can even write what type of vlogging equipment you will need and what kind of video you are going to shoot. It is great if you will plan your realistic video uploading schedule.
Keep in mind that you need to edit your video, but have time to upload a video at the right time, so keep some time for that.
If you are afraid of the incapability of how to edit videos, you could always hire a freelancer for this task. I would recommend trying these platforms for finding editors: fiverr.com and upwork.com
As you already understand, you could make three different types of videos: educate your audience, engage with the audience, or spread awareness of your brand.
Once you determine what type of video you want to create, start to write a plan. Write a list of the questions that you need to answer:
- What do I want to say?
- What is my target audience?
- What is my budget?
- What type of equipment do I need?
11. Expand your Channel’s Goals
You probably noticed, there are so many great videos on YouTube and so many bad-quality ones.
Needless to say, you need to stand out from the crowd and keep creating high-quality videos with valuable information in your niche. It is also great if you will have a plan and schedule of videos that will help you keep your goals achieved.
Even though it is just you and your camera, you need to remember that you are building your channel brand in this way. Be yourself and don’t pretend that you are someone else.
(Unless you have created a channel with the generated idea of acting a particular and developed personal character who will be the main person of your videos.)
It is also great to think outside the box and know if you would watch someone like you.
12. Gear Up
The video creators fall into 2 categories:
When there is little to no budget, the bootstrappers still want to create high-quality videos and “I’ve got some money to spend” ones where you have a certain amount of money that you want to invest in a video.
Needless to say, most beginners can get enough of the smartphone to create the first vlog and self-assess the whole process.
But over time, and in order to create the best possible video content, you’ll definitely need extra equipment to be a successful YouTuber:
Reviewed most popular cameras for vlogging.
To make each video stable, we reviewed the best tripods.
Lighting is especially important when filming in a studio or at home.
If your camera has the ability to attach a microphone, be sure to have it.
13. Start Recording and Practising
Before you start creating videos and vlogs and uploading them to YouTube, practice speaking in front of the camera.
Also, try filming yourself from different angles and see how you feel and from which angle you look your best. This practice will help you get used to the camera, avoid voice tremors and extra stress in the future.
Needless to say, talking in front of the camera might be scary, especially for beginners.
If you are one of those people who get red-faced when it gets uncomfortable, you don’t have to worry about it, as there is a simple technique to fix that.
Treat the camera as if it was the person that you are talking with. Do the same thing as in a normal conversation: look straight at the camera, smile, and be confident.
Furthermore, find a place in your room where you can set up your filming equipment and maybe place a backdrop.
If you don’t want to buy any type of lighting, set up your place in front of the window, and in this way, you will be able to get natural lighting.
Also, determine the things that you want to be “out” or “in” the video.
14. Try to Edit A Test Video
There are so many video editing software and tools to choose from that it shouldn’t be a struggle.
Also, if you are using a Macbook, the laptop has a video editing tool. Besides, you don’t have to be a high-skilled professional to edit a video simply. You can watch how others do it on the same YouTube platform.
After you have gained a few skills, you can improve the quality of your content.
If you are not familiar with that, you can always hire a professional freelancer who will do this job.
However, even if you don’t know how to do it at the beginning, we recommend that you try at least one video editing yourself, because only then can you see even more what mistakes you made while filming and where you can improve.
15. Setup Your Channel
Make sure that your channel is warm and welcoming.
An incomplete YouTube profile can lead to unsubscribe action – easily! The YouTube platform is visual.
Your channel icon, logo and profile picture needs to be high-quality and reliable for the content that you are creating. Don’t forget the description of yourself.
You can also create a great banner image, which may tell the audience what your channel is about — making great clickbait thumbnails is also essential. People are more likely to click on a video with unique and high-quality thumbnails, rather than crap ones. Invest in appearance, it is another important thing to do.
Also, you can make a special welcome video as your first video on the channel. You can introduce yourself and explain why you are going to create certain content on YouTube.
Besides, have you ever thought of giveaways? Another wonderful way to say thank you to your subscribers.
Last but not least, pick a good YouTube channel name. If you haven’t got any ideas, I would suggest using one of the best YouTube name generators.
16. Manage a Channel
Don’t forget to manage your channel like a boss.
Let’s keep the fact – your subscribers are your base of the channel. It is very important to treat them well, as they are spending their time watching your videos. Sometimes host a live stream.
This strategy is great if you are thinking of becoming a gamer, entertainer, or streamer on YouTube. It allows you to talk with your subscribers straight away and engage with them.
Also, throw giveaways!
People like a little competition where they can win something.
Try to reply to as many comments as you can. Make some shoutouts. In other words, give your subscribers something back. It works!
17. Spread a Brand
At the same time, you can create social media accounts and a website with your channel brand name.
Being a YouTuber, you are given certain things by YouTube, but creating your video site gives you full control of what you are uploading and the structure of the website. If you optimized the site, you would get more views on your channel.
Undoubtedly, this is not the first step and many may not care, but as your audience grows, you can use your website and brand to increase sales of your merchandise.
18. Analyze Your Channel
Learn your YouTube analytics. Even if you are doing your best, you can always do it better.
Learning from your statistics might help you to achieve higher goals and recognize your audience type.
This strategy will help you to find out who and when someone is watching your videos. It is a useful way to take advantage of your growing channel.
There are a lot of tools that can help you to do this; for example, the best and original one is Google Analytics.
With this type of tool, you can analyze your keywords, topics, and audience that follow you. With this information, you can manage when to upload the video and what type of audience to target.
Another important thing that you need to keep in mind is the niche. It is the base of your YouTube channel, and you must find out what audience you are targeting.
As I said earlier, some topics are in the high-demand. For example, if you plan to talk about raising chickens, but there are no searches on this topic, you probably will not get an audience for this niche. Research high-demand keywords or topics and try to include them naturally in your videos.
19. SEO Optimization
Just like writing great content, when you are making YouTube videos, remember that YouTube SEO is a necessary thing to do.
People are using YouTube to search for new content and valuable information, so it is very important to optimize your channel so that people will find you easily.
Choose the right and trending keywords, of course, research before. Also, keep up with the trends for videos.
If you can’t do it yourself, many agencies and freelancers may help you, or I would suggest reading the article on how to do YouTube SEO by yourself. It should help!
Here are basic tips for YouTube SEO:
It is important to make clear what your video is about. If you are writing a topic “How I lost 5 pounds in two weeks” but you will not mention the method that you use anywhere in the video, then it is unuseful. Don’t forget to add the main keyword to the video title and description.
Always try to reshare your video once it’s released on as many social platforms as you can.
Distribute your YouTube channel to your social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Also, if you have a website with a high amount of traffic, you can share your videos there.
Moreover, you can maximize your reach within paid Facebook ads. It is important to engage with your subscribers and answer their comments, maybe make a giveaway sometimes.
This will help you get more views and help you optimize your YouTube video overall.
Optimize video for progress. You can add “a call for action” where you can ask your followers to answer some questions in the comments. You can also include a banner where you are giving a chance to click on your previous video.
Make it viewer-friendly!
20. Start Making Videos
Becoming a YouTuber and having a channel is a huge responsibility because if you succeed, you are being followed by many people.
In this case, you need to make sure you want to create videos not only for the money but for a bigger purpose, let’s say – to promote your brand or engage with the following audience.
You need to understand that money is not the main factor; you need to enjoy what you are doing because then you will be able to succeed.
So no matter your age, profession and hobbies – if you really want to start making videos and become a YouTuber – go for it!
Summarising all of the tips:
- We can suggest being specific with your niche and don’t let it down.
- Give your best shot, and don’t give up.
- Stay consistent to build more trust with your audience and know what you want to say to them.
I hope that this informative article helped you and answered how to become a YouTuber. Follow these simple steps, and enjoy what you are creating.
If you want more information about the qualitative study of popular content creators – I strongly recommend reading this study.
The post How to Become a YouTuber in 2023: 20 Steps Guide appeared first on VlogTribe.
