YouTube is a goldmine of opportunity. It’s the second-largest search engine in the world, with over 1 billion unique viewers. YouTube has also become a platform for monetizing videos with ads, sponsorships, and paid content.
See: How to Make a Good Video for YouTube (2022)
If you are looking to start your own YouTube channel but don’t know how – fear not! This step-by-step guide will help you get your channel up and running in no time. These steps include:
- Start Your Channel
- Pick A Topic
- Develop Your Brand
- Build Your Audience
- Monetize (Optional).
Starting Your Channel
There are a few different ways to start your channel, including starting with a pre-made channel or creating a new channel from scratch.
- Your Name: You can either start a new channel or use a pre-existing channel that you have access to.
- The Name of Your Channel: This is what will show up on the YouTube search engine and what viewers will see when they go to your page.
- Video Cover Image: Nowadays people often start their YouTube channels by uploading their video cover image first. It’s important for this image to be eye-catching and interesting, as it’s what viewers will first see when they go to your page.
- The best practices for video cover images are typically 4:3 (width x height) and 1280×720 pixels in size, although this number can vary based on the type of content on the site.
- Channel URL: Once you’ve uploaded this image, you’ll want to enter in your URL that will lead people back to your main YouTube page (e.g., www.(Youtube Channel Name).(Com).)
What Should I Consider When Starting a YouTube Channel?
When you’re first starting your YouTube Channel, there are some things you should consider to help it grow.
- First, think about what you want your YouTube channel to be about. Are you going to be reviewing products or posting original content? Are you doing vlogs or more formal videos? What about tutorials? You can also mix it up and combine more than one type of content into your channel.
- Second, make sure that your brand is consistent across all social media platforms. This will help with branding and build a connection with potential audiences.
- Third, start building your audience early on by creating a blog and uploading videos to other channels for promotion. Once people start following your YouTube channel, they will automatically follow it on other social media accounts as well.
- The fourth step is to monetize if desired by adding ads or sponsored posts on your page with YouTube’s monetization platform AdSense for video content.
How to Start a YouTube Channel from Your Computer
It might sound like a daunting task, but starting a YouTube channel is relatively easy and inexpensive.
There are two ways to start a YouTube channel: from your computer and from your mobile device. If you want to start one from your computer, there’s no need to download any apps or pay for account setup.
To get started, visit the YouTube homepage and click on “Sign In.” Enter your Google account information and click “Sign In.”
The next step is to create a username. This will be the name that accompanies all of your videos on YouTube as well as Google+. You can use any name you want as long as it’s not already taken by someone else. The username can include numbers, letters, spaces, and underscores. Once you’ve chosen a username, click “Create Account” at the bottom of the page.
Fill in all of the required fields for your account- email address, password, reCAPTCHA code – then click “Create My Account.” Your new YouTube account is now ready for use!
Developing Your Brand
What do you want to talk about on your channel? What is the message you want to send?
This is a crucial and often overlooked question. You must decide what your brand is and what it stands for before you start developing your YouTube channel.
Your brand will play a huge role in how people judge your videos, so it’s important to choose wisely!
Will you focus on beauty or makeup tutorials? Gaming or video games? Whatever your topic is, it’s important that everyone understands your purpose. The last thing you want is for viewers to get confused and tune out because they’re not sure what they’re watching.
Use this opportunity to hone in on who your target audience is and why they would find valuable (i.e., valuable information) in the content that you produce. If people can’t understand who you are and why they should be watching, then there’s no point in them clicking through at all!
Monetization (Optional)
A lot of people think that monetizing videos is easy. But, it’s not as easy as you might think.
YouTube has three ways to monetize your content: YouTube Red, Advertisers/Adsense and Sponsorships.
YouTube Red and Adsense aren’t that complicated to set up. However, deciding whether or not you want to be sponsored by a business will take some thought and research.
If you do decide to be sponsored by a company, there are many different factors you need to take into consideration such as the size of the company, the type of product they offer, and potential conflicts with your message.
The other option is making money from ads placed on your videos by YouTube which take 45 percent of the revenue generated for those ads.
Making Money with YouTube Sponsorships
YouTube sponsorships are a great way to get your business in front of people who are interested in your product or service. You can get started by filling out your YouTube profile with relevant information about yourself and the video you plan to sponsor.
YouTube does not charge for sponsorships but they do require that you have at least 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watched content, or 10,000 subscribers to be eligible for paid placement ads.
Once your YouTube channel meets the requirements, it’s time to contact companies looking for sponsorships. The best way to find these companies is online search. Make sure you look through the sponsored ads on the site because that will give you an idea of what kind of products are being advertised. Companies often post available sponsorship opportunities on their websites as well.
Once you’ve found a company, email them with a list of reasons why they should sponsor you. Include links to your YouTube account and any other social media accounts where they can find more information about you and your business. Remember to include links to any other social media accounts so they can find more information about your business!
Making Money with YouTube Ads
Monetizing your content is an option if you want to start making money with your YouTube channel. Ads can help you build a stable income and attract sponsors for your YouTube channel.
You can also use YouTube ads as a way to promote other videos or products, like books. If someone watches one of your ads and makes a purchase, the company that sponsored the ad gets paid, and you get a cut of the profit. You can create different video playlists: one with ads and one without ads for viewers who don’t want to see ads on their videos.
YouTube provides several different advertising options depending on what type of product or service you’re promoting: TrueView In-Stream Ads, TrueView In-Stream Pre-Roll Ads, and Google Preferred Ads. These options differ in cost and length of time the viewer has to watch the ad before they click away from it (TrueView).
Build Your Audience
Building an audience on YouTube can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a few simple steps you can take to get your channel up and running.
One of the most important things you need to decide is what type of channel you want to build. Do you want a channel that primarily focuses on vlogs? Or do you want a channel that primarily focuses on tutorials? Once you decide what type of channel you want to create, it’s time to pick the best topics.
The next step after picking a topic is developing your brand. There are many different types of branding strategies for YouTube channels, so think about which one would work best for you. You could create a personal or company branding strategy where viewers know who they’re watching from the beginning.
Pick the colors for your branding and add some branding images on your cover photo and channel art images. If this is not something that interests you, then there is no reason why you should worry about branding too much right now.
After developing your brand, it’s time to build your audience by creating great content! There are many ways in which you can go about this. You can create playlists (which will automatically update with new videos)
Upload A Cover Photo
Uploading a cover photo is the first step in building your YouTube channel. You can personalize it by adding your name and/or logo to catch people’s attention.
Pick a Topic to Start
It can be overwhelming to start a YouTube channel and pick a topic to focus on, so it’s best to start with the broadest topic possible. For example, if you’re an artist, your first video could be about what materials you use, how you got into art, and what inspires you.
After that first video is posted, continue by following up with videos that cover other topics like technique or inspiration. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself by trying to plan out every single video before your channel even takes off!
Once your channel starts getting regular views and subscribers, then you can start focusing on creating more specific videos. For example: “How I Built My Art Business.”