Thinking about starting a YouTube channel this year? Well you came to the right place! In this post I’ll be outlining some of the most important steps you’ll need to focus on if you want to have success as a YouTuber. And trust me, as a YouTuber myself, you’ll want to take note of all these steps because they are all important for your growth. So grab a pen and a notepad, and let’s dive on in!
Pick A Topic or “Niche”
The first thing you’ll want to focus on if you want to start a YouTube channel is to find the topic or “niche” you want to create videos on. Ask yourself these questions below to get started.
- What are you most passionate about?
- What value can you provide to others?
- What are people searching for?
#1 is the most important question. If you are not passionate about the topic and videos you create, you won’t last long on YouTube. YouTube is an infinite game. Success won’t happen over night and there are a lot of bumps along the way. You’ll eventually run out of energy and motivation to keep going if you aren’t fully invested in the topic you’re creating content around. So find something you’re passionate about. This could be a hobby, skill, or interest that your highly enthusiastic about. And trust me, if you’re passionate about the topic your creating content around, it will come through naturally in your videos.
What value can you provide to others? This is important as well because in order to stand out on YouTube, you’ll need to provide high level valued content. Videos that give the viewer something they didn’t have before. One of my favorite references that goes perfect with this point is from a financial YouTuber, Nate O’Brien. In one of his recent videos he describes that value is not created, that it is transferred. So this means that the value in your future YouTube videos already exists. It lyes within yourself. From your own experiences, knowledge, and skills. What value can you transfer to others that you already have?
Lastly, what are people searching for? After all, YouTube is a search engine. Next to Google, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the internet. You can kind of think of YouTube as a library. A library of videos and the YouTube algorithm is similar to the Dewey Decimal System. Every time you create a video, YouTube is trying to index it correctly so that users can easily find it. So therefore, in order to have success as a YouTuber, you’ll want to create videos on topics that people are searching for. This will give you the best chance at being discovered on the platform.
So that is where you’ll want to begin. And if you are having difficulty narrowing down your topic / niche, I suggest narrowing it down to three topics instead. You’ll see that a lot of other YouTubers have done this as well as they’ll create videos around three specific areas. Now let’s get into the fun stuff and talk about what you’ll need to create your first video.
Equipment & Software
This will vary for everyone depending on how in-depth you want to go with your YouTube channel. To be honest, you can make videos on you phone. Edit it in an app and publish it all from your mobile device. And if you are starting out for the first time, this may be the way you want to go.
But if you want to take your video game to the next level, I highly recommend watching my video below that breaks down all of the gear I use for my YouTube videos. I cover my entire setup from camera, lights, and audio equipment, to logistically finding an area to shoot in. Check it below!
Along with finding the right equipment is finding the right video editing software to edit your videos on. I personally use Premiere Pro. But you can choose others as well and some are even free such as DaVinci Resolve. What’s nice about Resolve is that they have a lot of beginner video tutorials on the Blackmagic Design website. So you can learn and start editing within a few hours!
Now when it comes to editing styles and what to include and not to include in your YouTube videos, that’s a whole other topic. I recently made a video that covers the top 5 video editing mistakes that I noticed others YouTubes do. I’ll link it down below if you’d like to take a look.
Creating your first video isn’t going to be pretty, but trust me, it will get easier over time. And you’ll notice that each video will get slightly better than the last one and so on. This snowball effect will surprise you. I know it has surprised me when I look back at some of my earlier videos.
Just Create & Be Consistent
I could go on and on about more tips for growing your YouTube channel, but I’ll leave you with this last note. Just be consistent and never give up…
Be Consistent. Have an upload schedule and don’t stray from it. Whether you make a video once a week or once a month, find a cadence that is manageable and doesn’t make your life miserable. You should be happy when making YouTube videos, and it shouldn’t impede on your quality of life. It is a lot of work, but similar to other hobbies it should add to your life’s fulfillment.
And lastly, never give up. Most YouTubers don’t succeed because they often quit before they see the growth they imagined. Similar to a gold miner working only to give up right before hitting the jackpot. Little did they know the gold was just a few feet away if they had just had kept mining a little bit more. Just keep going, and success will come.
Conclusion
If you find value in the content I produce, please consider subscribing to my monthly newsletter by clicking the subscribe button below so that you never miss an update. You will also receive a FREE MOGRT pack as a token of my appreciation. Thanks so much for reading!
John Vlach 