Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has evolved from a simple video hosting platform into a social media and marketing behemoth. With 30m daily visitors watching 5bn videos every day, and 300 hours of video being uploaded every minute, the statistics are absolutely staggering; with this kind of exposure - and the monetization opportunities that come with it - it's no wonder that a growing number of users have decided to make a living off of it.
You'll need more than a video camera and an interesting topic to be successful though. To be a professional YouTuber, you need to be a jack of all trades, and this means understanding the basics of SEO and online marketing techniques as well as how to create and produce good content.
Luckily the rewards are worth the effort; the top 13 YouTuber stars earned over $54m between them in 2015. So if this sounds like it could be the career path for you, and then check out these essential tips to help you on your way.
How to Set Up Your YouTube Channel
Setting up a new YouTube Channel is simple. It helps if you already have a Gmail account, which allows you to associate your new channel with your email address.
- Sign in to YouTube
- Click your picture in the right corner (desktop version)
- Select "Create a Channel"
- Decide if you want to use the name associated with your email address or create a custom name for your channel
- Add details to the "about" section
- Customize the look of your channel with a cover photo and profile picture
- Upload your first video
- Add playlists, fill out your profile with more details, and link to your other social media accounts
Tips for starting a successful YouTube Channel as a Beginner in 2021:
Now that your YouTube account has been set up, it's time to lay the foundation to create a successful channel. As a beginner, it's important to understand these steps or you can end up wasting a lot of time and money.
Can You Really Build a Career Through YouTube?
Yes, why not? YouTubing is one of the most upcoming and promising careers in contemporary times. It is a field that offers tremendous scope for growth and other benefits such as flexibility of work, the ability to express yourself, opportunities to showcase your creativity, and a shot at earning popularity and fame.
There are several ways you can earn money as a YouTuber. Some of them are:
Becoming a YouTube Partner and Monetizing Videos: After you have established your channel and have a decent amount of subscribers, you'll get an option to become a partner with YouTube.
This will enable you to earn revenue by allowing YouTube to add advertisements before and during your videos. So every time a viewer views the advertisement features on your video, you earn a certain amount of money.
Collaborating with Brands: When you have a good fan base and a net market value, brands will offer you to collaborate with them to feature their products in your videos. In exchange, you will get a fee and some added benefits. You can use your image and persuasion skills to your advantage, so that both you and the brand benefit.
Selling Merchandise: It is also common for YouTubers to collaborate with brands to come up with their own line of merchandise. This includes T-shirts, pens, makeup and beauty products, clothing lines, etc. This is a great way to promote you as a brand while simultaneously generating revenue.
How Do You Start a Career as a YouTuber?
Creating a channel and making it successful would require a lot of hard work and perseverance your part. Making a career out of YouTube is not about coming up with a single viral video and getting shot up to fame; it requires careful content development, distribution and promotion to be sustainable.
Here are a few avenues to work upon to get started with a career in this field.
Choose the Genre and Motive for your Channel
This is a crucial step as it will help you choose the type of content you'll create and will reflect the message you want to send out to the masses. It can be anything ranging from beauty and fashion to comedy, gaming or technology.
Here are a few of the most common categories/genres of content on YouTube Channels :
- Beauty
- Fashion
- Animation
- Kids
- Comedy
- Vlog
- Pranks
- Music (including covers)
- Travel
- Dance
- Education
- Information/Knowledge
- Art and DIYs
- Cookery
- Technology
- Gaming
- Sports
- News
- Motivation/Inspiration
- Health
Determine Your Style and Voice
No two YouTube Channels are the same, even ones belonging to the same genre. The difference lies in not just the content, but also the video's creator(s) and the voice/style of the channel.
Your channel's style will often be a reflection of your own personality and unique individuality. It can come from the way you talk, the views you express, any catchphrases/taglines, your dressing style, or even the causes you stand for. A fresh and original voice is an essential element for making your channel stands out from the noise of the hundreds of channels out there.
Develop and Polish Your Content
Content is the heart and soul of any YouTube video. Your video cannot get by on presentation alone, and there needs to be strong content backing it up. It’s important that you spend proper time conceptualizing your ideas, writing content/script, and editing it to polish and perfect it. Make sure it is catchy, relevant, precise and to-the-point.
Use the Right Equipment
Poor video or audio quality sends a message to the user that very little work has been put in the development of the content. Thus, it is highly suggested you invest in a good camera (DSLR/ point-and-shoot), quality lighting and sound equipment (microphone). However, if you want to test the waters first and don’t want to invest in expensive equipment from the outset, you can borrow it from friends or use a good quality Smartphone camera with a tripod.
Work on Your Filming and Editing Techniques
Good editing and filming can go a long way in increasing the engagement of videos. They are the two most crucial elements that determine the final quality of your videos, and thus cannot be ignored.
Make it a point that you use the right lighting settings and filming techniques while filming your videos. Knowledge of the basics of photography and filming (camera angles, lighting, aperture, shutter speed, framing, etc.) will really help, and thus you should spend time learning these. You can even take up some short-term courses in photography and film-making.
Again, filming a video is never enough, and editing it in the right manner will serve to deliver the final product. So make sure you spend enough time at this step. You can use editing software like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid, etc. To start with, you can also look for many free editing tools available or the standard Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to edit your videos.
Get Comfortable With YouTube's Interface
Since YouTube is going to be the lifeline of your career, it is important that you know the platform inside out and use it to its maximum potential. Spend proper time getting familiar with the interface and its features. There are many new features that also keep getting introduced, so make sure you stay updated with all changes by reading up.
Customize Your Channel Page with proper Titles And Tags
YouTube gives you the chance to reflect the voice and identity of your channel through your channel page too. There are many ways to personalize the page – you can edit the layout so that visitors see the content you want them to see first, add a channel trailer, post a custom thumbnail to give your channel its identity, and also display vibrant artwork as your cover picture to make it look fresh and draw attention.
The title of your video is equally important since it conveys to the audience what your video is about. A clickable, descriptive and attractive title also helps in ranking your content on YouTube search.
Tags are basically descriptive keywords you can add to your video to tell YouTube what your video is about, and thus increase the likelihood of it being displayed in searches related to those keywords. There are many great free keyword tools available online that will suggest you many more relevant keywords/tags based on your existing keyword ideas. You can use them not just in the keywords section, but in your description too.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
In getting your videos to be viral and earning money off of YouTube, social media are indispensable tools in your kit. They help you distribute your content to a wider audience and the more platforms you get it on, the better.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, not only help you increase the reach of your content, they also help you stay in touch with your fans and get more likes, comments and shares.
You can look at any popular YouTube channel or YouTuber, and would see that they maintain an active presence on multiple online channels.
Stay Engaged With Your Audience
YouTubers leverage their fame and subscribers to gain popularity for their videos, distribute their content, and highlight other brand’s products to make more money in addition to what they make off YouTube. For this reason, an engaged and supportive audience is essential.
Engage with your followers regularly by regularly replying to comments and messages, asking them questions and taking up their suggestions. YouTubers often organize ‘Meet and greet’ sessions regularly so that their fans get a chance to meet and know them better personally. It is important to keep on thinking of such ways to increase your fan base and build a supportive community of followers.
In a nutshell YouTube is a blessing to all those who dream to make it big, displaying their concealed creativity with utmost brilliance. So, if you feel that you have it in you, don’t hesitate , just ideate, create and shoot…!
Written by - Sanjana Chakraborty
Edited by - Gourav Chowdhury
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