How to Start A Successful YouTube Channel from Scratch in 2021
Has starting a Successful YouTube channel been on your New Year's resolutions' list as long as you can remember? Well now is the time to take the action and make your first YouTube video with the easy tips below. If you want to step up your game what comes to Social Media it is all about video marketing these days! In this blog post I will share with you how to start a successful YouTube channel from scratch in 2021 and how to avoid the rookie mistakes I made that cost me time.
1. Pick a niche & create a strategy
Like on any other Social Media platform you want to make sure that you will niche down. Picking a niche will help you to target the right audience, who is really interested in your videos and content. When picking a niche think about what do you usually post about on other Social Media platforms and how could you create interesting content in your niche with videos.
Ask yourself what do you really want to achieve long-term what comes to starting a successful YouTube channel. Also imagine your ideal subscribers and think about who is your target audience.
2. Optimize your YouTube channel
Meaning you need to optimize your YouTube channel name, description, banner, hashtags and YouTube videos, that will help you to be discovered by more people on YouTube and rank on YouTube search and suggested videos.
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, so you need to make sure that your YouTube channel and videos are properly optimized for you to get more subscribers and views. If you want to learn more how to optimize your YouTube channel download Free YouTube SEO Guide
3. Make your first video
Making your first video is always the hardest, but how about...you just make it? Just give it a go, don't stress too much about getting it perfect! First video is never perfect! Obviously some people are more natural in front of the camera (not me!!!), but it also gets better with practice! Go to anyone's YouTube channel and scroll down to their first video - you will see that it is definitely not as good as their latest videos.
But before you start making a video let's go through few basic things you need to take into consideration before filming your first YouTube video from scratch:
1) Make sure you prepare your set up and have the required equipment
You don't need fancy equipment!! Many phones these days have excellent cameras. If you want to see how my set up looks like and learn more about how to make your first YouTube video from scratch check out video below:
My set up:
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- Tripod and bluetooth remote control
- led lighting (optional)
Make sure you have enough lighting, either with additional led light or natural light and make a test video to see that there is nothing on the background you don't want in your video. Also try to eliminate all the background noise like Air Conditioning noise (turn off for the period you are filming your YouTube video).
If you want to invest in your equipment I would suggest rather investing in good quality audio equipment in the beginning instead of fancy camera, only because audio is really important and can significantly improve the quality of your video where good quality camera is really important too, but even phones these days have pretty good quality cameras.
2) Research the topic before filming
Make sure you research the keywords you want to rank in to see if people are searching for that topic. Use TubeBuddy and VidIQ for researching keywords. More about research in the Free YouTube SEO Guide.
3) Make sure you have enough storage
Check your phone settings to see that you have enough storage on your phone to film your YouTube video. If your video is on average 10-20 min long and you film it in 4k, the size of your video can be anything from 4 - 8 GB. Take into consideration that you will need even more storage than that, because you will be filming more footage that you will trim later.
It is also important to check that you have enough storage on your computer for uploading all the clips you made if you plan to edit your video on your computer.
4) Create a script or bulletpoints
Create a script or bulletpoints. You can either write your script down on a piece of paper, or in your notes on your phone. I use Asana to plan my YouTube videos so I usually create bulletpoints in Asana. With bulletpoints it gives me more freedom when I record my videos and it doesn't restrict me too much so it is easier to stick to bulletpoints rather than sticking to the script and trying to get every word right.
5) Film in sections
It is so much easier to film in sections instead of filming the whole YouTube video in one sitting, because if you make a mistake you won't have to film the whole video all over again.
6) Plan ahead
Prepare enough time to edit and trim your videos and to upload the videos to YouTube. Depending on your internet connection and size of the video uploading the video to YouTube might sometimes take hours.
4. Promoting on other Social Media platforms
Remember to promote your YouTube channel and videos on your other Social Media platforms. Create a teaser for your video and post it in your Instagram stories, make an Instagram feed post or Facebook post.
If you want to learn more about how to grow your Instagram audience download my FREE INSTAGRAM GUIDE
5. Engage with your audience
It is really important to reply to all your comments on your videos. YouTube is going to recognize it if your videos are getting a lot of views and interactions and will push it to even more people to see. That is why you want to interact with your audience and even ask them questions in your videos and engage with them.
6. Analytics
Analytics are important no matter which Social Media platform you are trying to grow on, so make sure you learn how to analyze the performance of your YouTube channel and videos.
Two of the most important metrics are CTR (Click Through Rate) and Viewer Retention. CTR shows you what percentage of your impressions on YouTube turned into views. This measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing an impression (your YouTube video thumbnail). Viewer Retention is the average percentage of a YouTube video that people watch.
So make sure you optimize your YouTube thumbnail and make your videos interesting and valuable. To learn more download my Free YouTube SEO Guide.
With these tips you should be all set and ready to start a successful YouTube channel and create your first YouTube video.
And if you create your first YouTube video make sure to come to my YouTube or Instagram and let me know so I can check it out!
If you want to learn more Instagram hacks go to my YouTube Channel InstaMediaGuru where I share a lot of tips and tricks what comes to entrepreneurship, social media strategies and most of all Instagram.
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Until next time!
