I guess you must have heard about YouTube by now and Vlogging is also not a new word in your dictionary. But just in case you are wondering what YouTube and Vlogging are, then you are much welcome to read this post to the end because you will get a lot of value from it.
YouTube is an online video-sharing platform that attracts millions of views per hour as a result of the high in-demand content that is being uploaded on a regular basis. Vlogging is a term associated with anyone who uploads videos to YouTube on a regular basis either to entertain, educate or provide information to the public. Vlogging simply means Video Blogging.
Because YouTube provides a great wealth of information to lots of users, there has been an exponential increase in its daily use. Also, a lot of individuals are now venturing into the business of video blogging. One great reason for this may be the incentives that come with monetizing your videos, also, it may be fun and very interactive especially if you love being at the center of the stage.
After all, this fun and interactive platform have the potential to turn you into a popular online personality — with the added benefit of helping you meet new people, get free stuff from companies, and of course, earn you a pretty impressive income.
With all that said, here are a couple of helpful tips that can help you get started with your YouTube journey and grow steadily. These tips will help you make the most out of your venture into the world of Vlogging and video content creation.
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#1 Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
For you to get started on YouTube, you need to understand how to set up your channel. Setting up a new YouTube Channel is super simple and it is the first tool you will need. Be aware that you need a Gmail account for this, so if you already have a Gmail account it will be great else, you will need to create one. A Gmail account allows you access to all Google-related products. Once you have that, follow the steps below to set up your channel.
- Go to YouTube
- Click the picture area in the top right corner (desktop version)
- Select “Create a Channel”
- If you want to use the name associated with your email address or create a custom name for your channel you can choose from here
- On your channel area, click on Customize, then use the top menu (Layout, Brand, and Basic Info) to set up the look of your channel with a cover photo, profile picture, and about us info.
- Once this is done you can start uploading your videos
- Add playlists, fill out your profile with more details, and link to your other social media accounts
Now that your YouTube account is all set up, lets us now lay the foundation for creating and growing a successful YouTube channel. As a beginner, these steps are very important for your YouTube journey else you will end up wasting a lot of time and valuable resources.
#2. Know the Purpose of Your YouTube Channel
To be successful in your YouTube journey, you need to know the purpose of your YouTube. This is one of the most important things you need as a beginner. If you don’t have a purpose for your vlogging, you will soon discover that your channel will become a very confusing place and people don’t like such. Are you looking to share your passion with the world? Is YouTube part of your video marketing strategy to promote your business? Are you looking to integrate social media and video marketing strategies? Or you are trying to make your YouTube channel your business. Defining your channel’s purpose will help guide you when you start creating video content.
If you are starting a YouTube channel for the purpose of promoting your business, then you will want to brand it with your company’s name, link the channel to your company’s website and other social media accounts. Having a strong grasp on the purpose of your YouTube channel will really help you get great content ideas for the types of video that you should be creating so as to will have a great flow with your audience. If you just start your Tube channel blindly, you may suffer from having unfocused content that lacks cohesiveness on your channel and this may drive would-be subscribers away.
#3. Know your niche
Streamlining your niche is very important. This will help you get the best content and engage well with your audience. For your growth and success, you should try to find your niche and stick to it. The reason for this is so you can discover the area/subject matter/topic that you would be very interested in and would always love to speak about and also have passion for. This will always help you especially when you run out of ideas. Audiences are more likely to trust and engage with a content creator who holds more authority and proficiency in a particular niche. Be sure to direct your video content strategy toward your area of expertise or interest.
If your concentration is on building video marketing content to promote your business, this means you already know what services/products you have to offer and to whom you are offering them. But if you are getting into YouTube because you want to make it your business, then you will want to look for a niche that will be perfect for you. It’s best you focus on things you are proficient in or have established credibility for. Think of a subject you are passionate about and want to share with others.
#4. YouTube Account Verification
After creating your YouTube channel, choosing your niche the next thing to do is to verify your channel. Verifying your channel will unlock some certain features that you will not have access to without verification. Features like customizing your video thumbnails, uploading videos that are longer than 15 minutes, etc. Did you know? Videos with an engaging thumbnail are proven to have a higher click-through rate than videos with no good thumbnails. This can be the difference between people clicking to watch your video, or completely ignoring it.
To verify your account, simply navigate to “Channel status and features” in the YouTube settings. Once you are there, click on the blue “Verify” button towards the top of the page.
You will be prompted to enter your phone number; this will give you an option to select between getting a verification code via text or voice call. Once you receive the code, simply enter them in the box and verify your account.
Read Also:. Blogging niches – Top 5 topics you can start blogging on today
#5. Develop a Strategy and Plan Your Content
For you to be consistent and not run out of what to do next, you also need a good strategy for your work and you also need to strategically plan every content ahead of time.
These are some of the questions you need to answer to know if you are ready to start creating videos:
What do you want to achieve with your channel on YouTube? To answer this, you need to think from a viewer’s perspective. Identify what your viewers will gain from your content, and deliver that value as often as possible.
Who is your target audience? Find out their age range, gender, likes and dislikes, and other demographics.
What is your potential audience interested in? knowing their interest will help you know who’s going to watch your videos and what they like.
Why should they watch your videos? You know that you are not the only one offering such content; there are millions of channels out there and thousands even hundreds of thousands of them may be doing similar things that you are doing. You need to be able to stand out and distinguish your content from everybody else. In fact, if possible, disrupt the status quo, not join it.
How do you plan on delivering this content? This is where your mode of regularity comes into play. Will you post daily, weekly, twice/thrice a week, or bi-weekly?
Also, what time of the day do you plan on publishing your videos? You don’t just post your videos at random times or odd times. You need to think about the times your audience will be more present on YouTube because that is when they will most likely watch your videos. Note, a university student and college student has different schedule times. Also, working-class males/females and a stay at home folks working from home have different scheduled times as well. So, plan your video timing according to your audience.
Once you have all this figured out, you should then develop a theme for your content and stick to it. It helps to stick to your theme if you have one. The best way to increase your views and gain followers is to keep your content interesting and engaging; the more people can relate to it, the more they’ll want to click on it and watch until the end.
#6 Get the Right Tools for Your YouTube Channel
Yes, you will need some tools to start recording and making videos for your channel. Well, we discussed the first tool which is your Gmail account and YouTube channel. However, the most important tools are your video and audio recording materials plus a laptop (preferable), and an internet connection. Of course, without those tools, how do you plan to record your videos and upload them on the internet.
As a beginner, you don’t need to worry much about recording devices. If you have a good smartphone and a laptop, they will do just fine since you are just starting. But as you progress and begin to gain traction and attention, you need to improve your devices to attract more business-minded viewers who may want to work with you as a brand or company. You can invest in a good DSLR camera and a good microphone to improve the quality of your content.
#7 Start Recording YouTube Videos
The best time to start is now. Like they say, “Practice makes perfect”. You don’t need to keep waiting and believing you need to be a pro in front of the camera or have a very good voice before you start recording your videos. Interestingly, every professional YouTuber you see today started out the same way.
Even those who invested heavily in good equipment still had to struggle with their first few presentations before they began mastering the art. Although people might criticize the quality and consistency of your early work, you should be proud of the effort it took to get there, stay focused on the course and be consistent. Soon, you will see growth and improvement.
Just hit the record button, start recording and start making your videos as soon as possible. Learning how to start a YouTube channel as a beginner is largely about holding and pointing that camera and shooting.
Read Also:. Top 10 ways to monetize a website
#8 Optimize Your Videos for Search Engine Using SEOs
Recording your videos and uploading them to YouTube is not enough to get traffic to your channel. What drives traffic to your YouTube channel is search engine optimization (SEO). This is the secret to giving your videos more visibility and help them rank on YouTube.
Once your video is uploaded, you should try and give it a good, descriptive title that viewers are likely to search on the YouTube search box—and make sure to include your main keyword or key phrase. For example, with the title “How to grow your YouTube channel!” lots of beginners may be looking for ways to grow their channels and so this may be a very high searched keyword on YouTube. Your main keyword/keyphrase may be “YouTube channel”.
YouTube has grown from being just a video-sharing platform to more of a search engine for videos. YouTube videos are often some of the first results you see when searching on Google. So, you need to get yourself familiarize with SEO best practices for YouTube.
Ensure to use relevant tags for your videos, this will help put your video under multiple related categories. If you don’t know how to do this, you can always check your competitors, look at the tags they are using for similar videos, and model that. Finally, write a good description with at least 200 words, and include your target keywords, synonyms, and long-tail keyword variations. Doing this correctly will help your video appear in the YouTube search engine and also increase views.
#9 Build Your Network using Social Media
You should not forget the fact that YouTube is all about connecting, sharing, and collaborating with other users. So, for you to be successful, you need to network with others and create a good relationship. You know there is a YouTube community and this is one of its purposes. Getting to know other creators in the community and collaborating with them have is a great and effective way of helping one another grow and gain new subscribers. This is because it helps both collaborators gain exposure with the other’s subscriber base.
Talk to other creators, find your colleagues everywhere, on IG, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Make friends with them; also, don’t be afraid to contact larger YouTubers to inquire about a possible collaboration. It may be intimidating at first, but you won’t get anywhere unless you try!
#10 Connect with Your Subscribers and Viewers
With time, you’ll begin to gain followers/subscribers, this will also attract more comments from fans or viewers of your videos, at some point, you’ll even get messages on your emails or personal social media accounts as a dm. once this starts happening, you need to make out time to connect with your viewers. Make them feel they are interacting with someone who truly understands them. Social media accounts are an extension of your YouTube channel, you should also try to share part of what you do on those popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat depending on the one you are using. It’s very important that you try to read and respond to all the comments, and any other messages you get as much as you can
Having good and positive interaction with your subscribers and followers will help them learn more about you understand the kind of person you are and you will end up gaining their trust eventually. Plus, it can help you build a great community of followers in your niche and you become an authority in that niche.
Your subscribers liking your videos or content is not enough – they have to like you and their overall experience with your channel has to be a positive one. When you interact with your viewers, it will help you gain inspiration for new content ideas, it will also keep you inspired to go on despite the difficulties of growing and sustaining your channel.
Final note, ignore all negative comments no matter what. Everybody faces negative comments. No matter what you do people will always have negative things to say. So, you should not let any of that bother you. After all, YouTube is a place where ruthless people can hide conveniently behind their blank avatars and say whatever they like. No matter how good your content is and how hard you work on your channel, there will always be people who will make hateful comments and try to bring you down. Do your best to just ignore them and pretend as if they don’t exist.
Instead of allowing that to affect you, always remind yourself that you can’t please everyone. Finally, don’t forget those who appreciate you and what you do. Draw your strength from them in order to move past the negativity and continue producing content for those sets of people.
