How to Become a YouTuber: The Ultimate Guide
Photo from Pixabay; no attribution
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/youtube-playbutton-video-editing-4740743/
YouTube is one of the most popular video streaming websites in the world with over 50 million channels. Many channels have become lucrative jobs for creators. It’s no wonder so many people are trying to find their place on the platform.
Do you want to be a YouTuber but don’t know where to start? We’ll give you an all-inclusive guide from figuring out your niche to monetizing your channel.
1. Choosing and Understanding Your Niche
Before doing anything, you need to knowwhat your channel’s niche is going to be. A niche is a very specific topic or theme.
For example, if you wanted to start a travel channel, you wouldn’t focus on everything that is travel. You could have a channel that is solely dedicated to locally-owned restaurants in every town you visit. Or living off-grid in the backcountry. Or rating waterfalls on each hike you take.
Screenshot by Sam Wolfe; no attributionScreenshot taken on YouTube’s main page.
However, it is important that you choose a niche based on your interests and passions—you don’t want to become bored and lose interest. Additionally, you’ll want to consider trends that you think will keep an audience for a while.
There are a few ways to do this. If you have a niche in mind, research other YouTubers. See how well their channel is doing and what they are doing to maintain viewing traffic, and consider how you can be a part of the same niche while also standing out.
2. Realizing the Goal for Your Channel
Photo from Pexels; no attribution
https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-food-vlogger-recording-a-video-7669481/
It’s essential to have a general understanding of what you want out of your channel before you begin creating videos for it. Do you want to eventually monetize your channel and make YouTube a full-time job or a side hustle? Or are you just wanting to create and share videos for the joy of it?
Knowing the answers to these questions will help you have purpose and a clear sense of direction for the channel. If it’s just for fun, you have a bit more leeway to create videos that are more meaningful for you. However, if you want to eventually monetize, you’ll need to strategize keeping that goal in mind.
3. Choosing Your Technology
You can’t start a YouTube channel without having the right technology. However, there’s no rule that says you have to have expensive, high-tech equipment to be a YouTuber.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-maroon-long-sleeve-doing-yoga-4151829/
Of course, you’ll need a camera and a device to edit videos on. If you don’t have the money, you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive camera and microphone set along with a $2,000 MacBook.
Many YouTubers use their phones to record their content. The quality of cameras on phones is so good now, viewers more than likely wouldn’t notice a difference.
Screenshot by Sam Wolfe; no attribution
You’ll need editing software, and there are so many to choose from. A great free option is DaVinci Resolve. You can also look into using online platforms like Canva that have an easy-to-use video editing feature.
If you are using your phone or tablet, there are manyapps that do a great job editing videosand are easy to use.
There are a few platforms you’ll want to become familiar with. Of course, you’ll need to get to know the ins and outs of YouTube.
Screenshot by Sam Wolfe; no attributionScreenshot taken on Epidemic Sound’s homepage
Additionally, invest in royalty-free music—it’s the best way to use music and avoid copyright issues. Epidemic Sound is a popular choice andit has a great community program. YouTube also has options for royalty-free music.
Screenshot by Sam Wolfe; no attributionScreenshot taken from Ko-fi website
At some point, you may become interested in donation and membership services for your followers to be a part of.A platform like Ko-fi is a popular optionalong with Patreon.
4. Considering Video Elements
Before you start creating videos, try to have a general idea of what kind of videos you want to make. You have the option of doing full-length videos, Shorts, or both. If you do both, try to strategize to not focus too heavily on only one type.
The video length matters as well. When a viewer watches a five-minute video from another channel, your 10-minute video will most likely not pop up on their what to watch next screen.
These elements need to be thought about before starting a channel, so it’s not too stressful for you later.
5. Creating Your YouTube Account
Setting up a YouTube channelis incredibly easy. All you need is a Google email to get started.
You’ll need to think of a name for your channel that corresponds with your niche. Somecontent creators are using ChatGPTfor this sort of thing, so give that a try if a name isn’t coming to mind. Or, like some YouTubers, it’s possible to use your own name as the channel’s handle.
You can also use ChatGPT to help write an attention-grabbing description and use Canva to create your channel’s banner.
6. Uploading Your First Video
After you’ve done the hard part of recording and editing your first video, you’ll be ready to upload it to YouTube. Simply click on theCreateicon >Upload Video>Select Files> click on the video you want to upload.
You’ll have a full list of things you will need to fill out like the title, description, whether the video is for kids or not, and more. Follow each instruction carefully while your video uploads. After YouTube is finished checking your video for any copyright issues, your video will be ready to be viewed by the world.
If you’re uploading a video on YouTube’s mobile app, you will need to click on the circled plus sign located at the bottom of the screen and thenUpload VideoorCreate a Short—whichever is a better fit for the video.
7. Attracting Viewers to Your Videos
There areseveral ways to help viewers find your videos. Using the knowledge and tools you more than likely already have in your arsenal is a great start.
Understanding SEO
Search engine optimization is an important component to understand if you want to gain views and subscribers. SEO is how you strategize your content to gain organic traffic. In other words, how viewers find your videos.
On YouTube, the best way to practice SEO is through the use of tags, keywords, and hashtags. Tags are placed within their own section during the upload process. Keywords should be written out in the title and description, and a few hashtags can be in the description.
Use Other Social Media Platforms to Drive Viewers
Using other social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok is a great, free way to promote yourself. You can write out an Instagram post with a “link in bio” call-to-action or upload a video preview to TikTok for a sneak peek of your next video.
Promote Your Video on YouTube
When you upload a video, you are given the option to pay to promote your video. This turns your video into an ad and allows YouTube to spend your money to push it out onto the platform for a greater chance to be seen.
It can be a bit pricey to do this, but you do have control over how much money you want to spend and for how many days. It’s up to you whether you want to spend $10 or $100.
8. Becoming Monetized
There are very basic requirements you need to meet to become monetized—1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in 365 days or 10M views on Shorts. Along with those numbers, you’ll need to complete a 2-step verification and make sure you follow community guidelines.
Once you receive the email that you are eligible for monetization, you’ll need to pass channel reviews—which can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
To help you complete the requirements, the best practice is to have consistent uploads. If viewers know you’re dedicated to your craft and reliable with uploading videos, you’re more likely to gain a following quicker and bring in more views.
In full honesty, though, the hardest part of monetizing your channel will be accepting that it takes time to build and having patience with the process.
Use This Guide to Start Your YouTube Journey
It takes time and dedication to be a YouTuber. There are several steps that cannot be skipped over if you want to eventually monetize and quit your day job. If becoming a YouTuber is something that interests you, start with the basics in this guide.
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