Okay, so pretty much everyone who uses the Internet is aware of how popular YouTube is right now. And it’s simple to see why YouTube has exploded in popularity so quickly. YouTube has videos explaining practically everything about almost everything.
There are a variety of lessons, funny movies, video game walkthroughs, stories, songs, and other content available. Furthermore, YouTube is not like your television or any other video-sharing platform. You can watch what you want when you want, without having to wait for it to start. You can pause, stop, and rewind it as many as you like.
It’s like having your own personal TV that you can watch whenever you want. There are many advantages that YouTube has to offer, some of which are discussed in detail below.
In this article, you will learn about the best tips that can help you build a good YouTube channel for scaling your business.
Table of Contents
Why Use YouTube For Business?
1. Google owns YouTube
This is probably the biggest advantage of all. It is a risk that your video will get lost in the sea of videos that are present on the Internet, but that problem is effectively mitigated on YouTube.
There is no danger of your video getting lost anywhere, and, in fact, it might end up being the first search result on Google, which is a big plus.
2. YouTube is the largest online streaming website
YouTube has the biggest market share in online streaming websites that allow users to upload their own content. Isn’t it obvious that you have to choose the best one to be the best? You have to choose YouTube if you wish to get noticed and make it big online.
3. YouTube is well connected to social media sites
YouTube is well connected to other social media, like Google+. It was a smart move on both Google and YouTube’s part to merge. They both benefited from it but more so Google, as they now own one of the biggest Internet entities and amassed a lot of visitors.
4. YouTube is creator-friendly
YouTube is extremely creator-friendly, providing creators with lots of useful tools to analyze views on their channels and their videos. The user interface is extremely friendly, and everything is clear. There is no confusion and it is easy to choose a function.
You have the chance to share, embed, stop, replay, pause, and jump to another video with the click of a button.
Now that we have read up on the various advantages of using YouTube as a platform to upload your video through your channel, let us look at what channels are all about.
In this article, I’ll go over some tips and techniques to help you easily create a YouTube channel, create valuable content, build an audience, and earn revenue from your videos.
How to Create a New YouTube Channel in 5 Simple Steps
Making a YouTube channel is the first step to making a successful one. You can build your account by following these steps.
Step 1: Create a Google account
You probably already have a Google account if you use Gmail, Maps, or Play.
Sign up for a new Google account here if you’re starting from scratch.
Don’t worry about keeping your name and email address on-message since they won’t be publicly accessible. You just need this key to get into YouTube.
With your Google account in hand, you’re ready to fire up your YouTube channel.
Step 2: Create a YouTube account
YouTube is constantly evolving and improving its platform, and features are often tweaked or moved. Despite this constant change, the principles in this section remain the same. Don’t worry if a button isn’t where you expect it to be; it’ll likely be somewhere nearby.
Follow these steps to create your YouTube channel:
- Sign in to YouTube using your Google account. The YouTube home page appears, and the icon in the upper-right corner changes to your account’s profile picture or an icon of your name’s initial. If you have several Google accounts, make sure that you’re signed in with the one you want to use for your YouTube channel.
- Click on the profile picture or icon and then click on Choose My Channel from the drop-down menu that appears. You see your channel, your home on YouTube. If this is the first time you’re accessing your channel, you’re asked to create a channel.
- Choose the name you’d like to use YouTube with. You can use either your name or a name that best represents how you’ll be using your channel — for example, your business or brand name. You can change this name later, but I recommend picking something that simply and clearly describes who this YouTube channel represents.
- Click on the Create Channel button. Your brand new channel is alive. Your channel probably looks pretty empty because it’s ready for you to customize it.
Step 3: Customize your YouTube channel
You want to customize your channel so that it is uniquely identifiable and demonstrates what can be found on it. To accomplish this goal, you should address some big items right away:
- Banner image
- Links to your banner
- Channel icon
- Channel description
You can tweak things later as your YouTube efforts evolve. Regularly review your channel and make updates to keep things fresh.
1. Adding a banner image
The banner image is that large image spanning the top of a channel. Your banner is an opportunity to showcase your channel’s identity and give it a look and feel that’s unique to you.
The image you upload will be used on your channel on desktop computers, TV screens, and mobile phones, so choose an image that you think looks good across all devices.
2. Adding links to your banner
On other YouTube channels, you may have noticed links to social media sites, such as Facebook, that sit on top of the channel’s banner image.
3. Editing your channel icon
Your channel’s icon, also known as a profile picture, comes from your Google account, and it’ll follow you around pretty much wherever you go. The channel icon appears as the profile picture on your YouTube channel when someone visits, and it’ll be the image you click to access your Google account. It will also be the image that appears next to your comments when you comment on someone else’s video. It’s everywhere!
4. Adding your channel description
The channel description is simply a few sentences describing your channel. This description appears in a few areas on YouTube, including when users mouse over your channel icon or visit the About section on your channel.
You can include links and write up to 1,000 characters in the channel description. A good channel description may say who you are and what you do, tell people what videos they can find on your channel, encourage viewers to interact with you on YouTube and your social channels, or provide links to other places where viewers may find you on the Internet, such as your website.
Step 4: Upload your first YouTube video
Now that you have created your YouTube channel, it’s time to upload the first YouTube video that you have created.
The first video you create can be shared by clicking the Create button in the top-right corner and following the instructions.
Step 5: Make your YouTube channel discoverable
What’s the point of having amazing content on YouTube if nobody sees it?
To maximize the chances of your video being found, it is imperative that your videos’ metadata is optimized. Here are some tips to do just that:
Optimize video titles
When coming up with a title for your videos, think about what your audience is likely to search for and reflect that in the words that you use.
Your video title should be keyword rich and match the content that your content contains. Only the first ~45 characters of your video title are displayed in the YouTube search results on mobile devices, so make sure you front-end load the title with your primary keyword phrase(s). Here are some quick pointers to help get even more from your video headings:
- Use deliberate capitalization of words to highlight your content, e.g. ‘The Top 10 Reasons Facebook Marketing Works’ instead of ‘The top 10 reason Facebook marketing works’.
- Add colon after your initial keywords and rephrase your title. For example, your video on saving money “Save Money Easily: The Simple Money Saving Plan.” This will help capture those people who are searching for videos by using two similar (but different) phrases.
- Make your title’s catchy in a way that will encourage users to click. For example, in a video that teaches people how to tie a bow tie – and do it in 30 seconds or less – which of the following would be more appealing: “How to Instructions and Advice About How to Tie A Bow Tie” or “Tie A Bow Tie in 30 Seconds or Less.”
- Include keywords at the start of your video title and branding near the end, e.g. “How to Fix A Cracked iPhone 6 Screen | The iPhone Wizards Tutorials”
Write effective video descriptions
The first few sentences of your video description will appear in YouTube search results, and the same few lines of it will appear below your content on the video’s individual page followed by a “See More” link that must be clicked in order to read the rest.
Therefore, good practice is to use the beginning of your video description to accurately describe what your video is all about in one or two sentences, as this is the most valuable snippet for SEO purposes. For people who click to view your description in full, consider adding the following information to all of your video descriptions:
- A description of your channel and a link to your channel page.
- A call to action asking viewers to subscribe, and a link to click.
- Links to more episodes or related videos and playlists.
- Links to your website and social media profiles, and a call to action to follow you.
- Information about your channel’s video upload schedule, e.g. “New videos uploaded every Friday.”
- Links to useful time-codes for long videos using the X:XX format, e.g. “Talk of squirrels starts at 3:44.”
Tag your video effectively
Tags are descriptive keywords that help people find your videos, so the more relevant your tags, the more discoverable your video will be. The following list will help you write tags as effectively as possible:
- Come up with a set of standard tags that can be applied to any video you upload, e.g. sports, film, food, videogames, etc.
- Set video info defaults for these to automatically appear via Channel Settings > Defaults.
- There is no perfect number of tags, but they should always be topically accurate and concise, and you should use enough to thoroughly describe your video’s content.
- To help you come up with tags, think about the different keywords that viewers will search find your video; if your video was split into sections or themes, how would you describe them in a single word or phrase?
- To boost your video’s search ranking, use quotation marks to isolate important keyword phrases with multiple words, e.g. “how to make a paper airplane”, as well as typing the phrase without the punctuation.
- Use keywords and phrases from the video title in your tags.
- Actively update and optimize archived videos with relevant tags when new search trends emerge.
Select the right video category
Make sure that you submit your YouTube video to the right category – choose the one that your viewers are most likely to look under to find your content. If there is no exact match (and there often isn’t), choose the category that most closely fits your upload.
Videos submitted in irrelevant categories may not get relevant traffic, so this step is important. If your video could fit into two categories, select the one where you think it might have least competition to increase the chances of it being found or even featured.
Caption all your videos, add the transcript to the description
It might take a little longer, but adding accurate transcripts for your videos to make them accessible to the hearing impaired shows that you really care about your customers; crucially, the text is also picked up by YouTube search and helps greatly in the ranking of your video in listings.
To create captions for a video, type out the text of all the audio, upload it via the “Subtitles and CC” tab, and it will automatically sync to your content. Even if you don’t upload captions, YouTube may automatically generate them. You can edit and improve automatically-generated captions in the Edit Video interface using the Translator Toolkit.
In addition, paste your transcript in the video description, too, as it’s a good way to add relevant, keyword-rich information to your content, which will benefit you SEO-wise. In addition, it will give people an easy way to refer back to different sections of the video, which is particularly useful if what you are discussing is an in-depth or complicated subject.
Create a custom video thumbnail (or choose the best default option)
Thumbnails act as mini marketing posters for your content and are important in attracting viewers to your videos wherever they are seen – either on YouTube, in Google search results or embedded on websites. Assuming your account is in good standing, you may have the option to upload a thumbnail once your video has uploaded.
If the feature isn’t enabled (mine took a good few months to appear) be patient as you can always go back and add them in later. In the meantime, you can choose the best option from a default selection of three thumbnail images that YouTube offers you after your content is uploaded.
YouTube recommends a custom thumbnail be sized to 1280 x 720 pixels, and you can create them in an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP, or easily online at sites like Canva or PicMonkey. If you are able to create your own, one tactic I often employ is to use the thumbnail to double-up on the impact of a great video title.
For example, if I had a video entitled “How to Write A Great YouTube Title”, I would create a thumbnail image with the same phrase written on it in a big, bold font and a contrasting background so that it stands out from all competing videos in YouTube’s search results. The ideal size to create a YouTube thumbnail in a photo editor is 1280 × 720 pixels, so that it appears crisp and clear across the site, whichever device it is viewed on.
The general guidelines YouTube recommends for thumbnails are:
- Clear, in-focus, hi-resolution (640 × 360 pixels min, 16:9 aspect ratio)
- Bright, high-contrast
- Close-ups of faces
- Visually compelling imagery
- Well-framed, good composition
- Foreground stands out from background
- Looks great at both small and large sizes.
- Accurately represents the content.
9 Best Tips To Start A Great YouTube Channel
1. Research
The first thing you need to do before starting a YouTube channel is research. You have to take a look at the different types of content available on YouTube and look for topics that interest you and seem doable.
See what works in reaching people and what doesn’t. You also have to do your research on the competition. Check out all the channels available that are already doing what you intend to do. See what kind of subscribers they have, what sort of videos they post, and how (if at all) they interact with the subscribers.
You have to decide on at least two or more topics so that you have the chance to pick the best one for your channel. Don’t choose something that already has a lot of videos and subscribers. You need something that is still a relatively new topic and one where there are not many videos on it. Don’t choose something that is drab and dull, and go for topics that are intriguing.
The basic idea is to show people something that they have yet to come across before or show them something better than what they already have seen.
2. Basics of Copyrights
YouTube is a huge platform where millions of people share videos. Obviously, sometimes similar-looking content can run into copyright-related problems. You need to know that you are protected by copyright if you upload original content, and if you upload someone else’s original content, they are protected by copyright.
YouTube has a very strict and vigilant copyright enforcement process, and if you come across a video that has stolen your content, you can send a complaint to YouTube, and they will take care of the issue.
Sometimes, you can buy content legally from someone else. YouTube has a Content ID tool that searches and blocks videos that contain material from someone else’s video(s). If you have legal rights to the content that you didn’t actually create but bought from someone else, you can challenge this, and YouTube will look into the issue.
Another important concept to wrap your head around is the “Fair Use” clause. This clause allows people on YouTube to comment on, criticize, or remix your video in whatever way they want. You cannot take down such a video by sending them a copyright infringement notice.
They’ll just send you a counter-notification. You can get into trouble for misusing the copyright infringement notification feature. I’m sure you have seen a sea of spoofs and also a river of
bad comments. All this is part of YouTube, and you have to embrace it if you wish to use YouTube to your advantage.
3. Finding Your Niche
The great thing about finding your niche and making videos about it is that you are actually interested in the topic, and this makes it that much easier for you to create the video. You are more driven and passionate about it.
You can connect better with the fans. All of this leads to a higher success rate. So, instead of
following the herd, try and make videos about something that you love and care about. You may think that a particular topic is too obscure to be liked by too many people, but sometimes it’s surprising how many people are interested in such topics.
There is no point in giving people something that they have already seen. Try offbeat topics and things that will easily grab people’s attention. You cannot play it safe if you wish to make it big. Choose topics that you think will draw in crowds that like to view different things.
4. Favoring Series Over Oneshots
See, one-off videos are great, and they can help you get a lot of views in a short amount of time if they go viral, but they are not really sustainable. Your views graph on YouTube will spike suddenly and then fall rapidly if you only have one popular one-off video.
It is like being a one-hit-wonder. You will have one popular song or video that people will love, and then you will disappear because nothing else will click with the audience.
On the other hand, series or shows can be quite powerful in helping you gain and keep your subscribers. If you create a recurrent theme and keep your viewers excited every time, you can have a loyal fan base that constantly grows and eagerly waits for your videos.
You will see that it is possible for people to jump from one video to another, and all your videos will be displayed on the right-hand side of the page. So, you will have the chance to present a lot of videos to the same viewer. This will increase your reach and get more and more people to
see what you have and get them to subscribe.
5. Shareability
The most important question you need to ask yourself before you make a video is, “Will people share this?” Now, of course, you may tell yourself, “Why wouldn’t they? My video is going to be awesome!”
That’s A++ enthusiasm right there, and it’s great – but it’s not always practical. It has very little to do with what you think of it but what others will. You need to think about how people will react to your video and what will happen once you put your video out there.
You need to have some insights into what kind of stuff people like to share and what they do not. For instance, take a look at the last few posts you or your friends have shared on any of your social networks. This will give you a fair idea of what the trends are regarding sharing.
People need to relate to your videos on some level to want to share them. One key thing to keep in mind while doing this is whether your video adds value to the viewer’s life in any way (humour, knowledge, how-to).
If so, then it is more likely to be shared by the viewer. Here it is tough to assess what is humorous for you might not be for others and what is educational and inspirational to you may not be for others. So, the plan is to try and find out what will really interest them.
For this, you have to look at samples that are already available on the site. Say, for example, there are 20 videos on a topic. There will be just one or two that will be on top and have the most views. You have to see what sets them apart from the rest. Is it the language used, the style of presentation, or something else?
You must also decide on shooting your video in a similar fashion, but don’t copy. Nobody fancies something that is copied. You have to be as original as possible if you wish to make it big in the world of YouTube.
Another thing you may want to think about is the summary of your video. If the concept of your video is easily explainable in a few words or a couple of sentences, the chances of it being shared increase.
Complex ideas turn people off as they shy away from explaining it all to other people. However, if you take a tough concept and explain it easily, then people will fall for it. They will think of it as an opportunity to explain it well enough to others. So, it is up to you to choose the right type of video to upload and get more and more people to watch it.
6. Direct Conversation
If you want to get your viewers more involved in your videos, you need to talk to them. The conversation is a great way to bond with the viewers and make them feel like a part of your videos and your channel. Many YouTube channels use this and address the users directly in their videos.
I am sure you have seen a lot of people all having conversations. Here, the uploader will also actively participate in the conversations. This is a great way to understand what people want. Say, for example, you have put up a video on impersonations.
You want to know if you are doing a good job at it. For this, you have to solicit the response of the audience. You will have to ask them questions and seek answers for them. There will be a lot of idiots out there who will only comment because they have no other work to do. But you should simply ignore them and talk to the ones who are genuinely interested in giving you feedback.
Don’t sit around and reply to everybody who is talking to you; speak only with those that are genuinely interested in giving feedback.
You can also just specifically address a certain kind of audience that watches your videos or that is special to you. Sometimes, you can even call a particular viewer out by their name, ask for suggestions, and do some shout-outs, among other things.
This is important to connect with the viewers. You don’t need to do this in every video. Some users do short Q&A sessions every once in a while, others use fictional characters from their series to talk to the fans.
Be creative and come up with your own ways to talk to the viewers as they are the stars of
the show, and you will make it big in this business only if you have their support. Try and find as many people as possible to support you.
If you think someone is purposely hounding you, then choose to ignore them and don’t feel their enthusiasm by responding to them. They are there only to steal your audience, and chances are they own a channel that puts out similar videos like you and is only trying to discourage you.
7. Metadata
Metadata is the information associated with the video that isn’t included in the video itself. This includes the title, description, thumbnail, and tags.
Metadata is important to provide context, so YouTube can better help people find what they are looking for. So, say, for example, you wish to make your video on cheesecakes become popular.
You choose tags and a description that contains words that people are most likely to type into Google while looking for cheesecakes, such as cheese, cakes, blueberries, etc. Your metadata should be carefully considered if you want your video to turn up as the first search result on Google.
With that said, you should be aware that some people misuse this metadata to trick viewers or attract more attention to their videos. This is done by posting misleading or generic titles, false descriptions, inappropriate or misleading thumbnails, and using unnecessary tags for categories that aren’t relevant to the video.
You must stay away from this practice as it is against the community guidelines. How many times have you clicked on something just because it has an interesting title and realized that the uploader has tricked you to simply click on the link and increase their viewership? This is intentional to try and have a large number of hits and start making money from it. But this is completely illegal.
You cannot cheat people to make it big. This can result in the takedown of your video and even termination of your account. Make sure you add only useful and relevant metadata and don’t try to play the search algorithm.
You will only end up feeling disappointed and might lose out on the chance of making it big on the Internet by indulging in unfair practices.
8. Interactivity
The best way to make your audience enjoy the video is to make them feel like they are actually a part of it! Interactivity is all about making your videos two dimensional instead of just one. If people feel like it’s one-sided, they won’t connect as well with the video, and even if they do, they won’t be too compelled to wait for another video.
YouTube, fortunately, is a very interactive platform. You can answer fan questions, take suggestions from them, feature their videos or channels in yours, and even ask them questions. These are some great ways to involve them and make them feel like a part of your channel. Pay attention to the audience’s likes and dislikes.
Interacting with your audience gives them the feeling that you care about their opinions. You must ask them to tell you what they want so that you can create it for them. Once you start to please the audience, they will start liking your channel more and more. All you have to do is please your audience in order to get them to subscribe to you.
Don’t simply provoke your subscribers to all fight with each other. That might cost you your viewers. Make it as fun and interactive as possible and get more and more people to watch your videos and subscribe to you.
9. Collaboration
Collaborating with other YouTube creators is a great way to boost your fan base.
It not only makes the video that much more awesome for the subscribers of both the channels, but it also helps you brainstorm ideas in a better way and create higher quality stuff. It’s a win-win scenario where your subscribers are introduced to the other person’s audience, and their subscribers are introduced to yours.
But remember, there should be equality. You cannot collaborate with someone that has only a few viewers. You would end up getting only a few from theirs, and all yours will subscribe to theirs, which is not fair. You need someone who has at least as much as you or slightly more.
But if you think their work is under-appreciated and there is a lot of potential to increase your viewer base by a large margin, then you can go ahead and collaborate with them. But remember, you have to work everything out before you collaborate in order to avoid any discrepancies. You have to get everything well sorted and ready before you put out the videos together.
Finally, you must keep in mind that the above-mentioned points are not a sort of checklist that you need to strike off to be successful. They are all useful in some way or another but don’t necessarily need to be used together for creating a great channel.
Be innovative and figure out what works for you. Don’t follow the herd; try and do what you think is right. Once you earn a few favourable views, your confidence will get boosted, and you will have the chance to add in more videos and garner a bigger crowd for yourself.