:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/savescreenshotonxboxseriesxs-4f0cc19fdaa4472a9f607b07a85e75f9.jpg)
"2024 Approved How to Create A YouTube Channel Today"
The Pathway to Online Success: Building a New YouTube Channel
How to Create A YouTube Channel Today
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
After all the planning and brainstorming, you are ready to create a YouTube channel. You have spent countless hours watching videos and aspiring to be a creator. You know it will be work, but you are passionate. You are willing to learn. You are ready!
YouTube fame is in your future, but where do you start?
In this guide, we’ll start at the beginning, at the point before you even have a YouTube channel. From there, we will walk you through your content strategy and properly prepare you for the journey of creating videos for a massive YouTube following. Then we will wrap it up by teaching you the best practices for YouTube video optimization, ensuring that all your efforts will lead to the best results.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Okay, there is a lot to cover, so enough small talk. Let’s get started.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Before you start making awesome videos, you got to set up your YouTube account. Activating YouTube is pretty straightforward if you already have a Google account. The odds are you have already set one up to subscribe to all your favorite channels. If not, here are the steps:
Step 1: Sign in to YouTube with your Google account
Step 2: Access YouTube Creator Studio to Activate YouTube
Step 3: Create a Channel
1. Picking a YouTube Channel Name
A YouTube channel name is beneficial to your channel’s growth if selected strategically. It can separate you from all the other channels on the platform, it can help the viewers understand what your channel is all about, and it will represent you and your brand. When naming your channel, here are 3 things to remember:
- Memorable: You’d want a name that sticks in people’s brains. Picking a name that is hard to forget will be a huge advantage for you while growing your channel. But what makes a name memorable?
- Alliteration and assonance: By using the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds, you create a fluidity to the name. examples: Pewdiepie, GoPro, or League of Legend.
- Fun to say: Some words stay in the brain because it is simply pleasurable to say. It could have a genuine meaning or it can be an abstract word. Commonly these names have one of these sharp, biting consonants: C, K, Q, X, or Z. examples: Markiplier, Kwebbelkop, Squeezie, and Vox.
- Abbreviations: A name can have a greater meaning, but long names might not be catchy, therefore, you should abbreviate it to a few memorable letters. Examples: TED ED, TGFbro, ERB, and FBE.
- Longer Phrases: You may think that having a long name may be hard to remember, but sometimes, depending on your channel, a snappy phrase works. Example: How It Should Have Ended, You Always Win, and People Are Awesome.
- Your Name Plus Descriptor: Combining two words effectively can make a name more memorable like Markiplier (Mark + Multiplier), LaurDIY (Lauren and she makes DIY projects), and Shameless Maya (Maya and she’s shameless).
- Unique: Be creative with your name, especially if your real name is generic. YouTube is a crowded space and if you simply call your channel: Jake, not only will you be competing with all the creators named Jake, but also all the content with Jake as the keywords.
Also, avoid generic names that are based around your channel topics. For example, Fashion Talk sounds like a good name, but if you do a quick search you will see that it is a crowded space with vloggers, keynote presentations, and product reviews.
If you are starting a fashion channel why not try to find a link between your name and the topic? The connection between two different things often spawns something creative: Fabric Feud, for example. Just by the name, I know this channel will contain interesting perspectives on garments.
- Keep it Simple: In the end, simplicity is the way to go. Don’t make it hard to type or hard to remember: cantunderstandthistopic88768 is not a good name, even if it’s strange and cryptic.
If you have a simple name in mind, it’s also a good idea to do a quick search on YouTube and Google to make sure it isn’t already used or similar to another account. Additionally, it’s worth knowing whether the social media handle is available as you will need it to expand your channel.
Consider using your real full name, it’s unlikely to ever change. Many YouTubers start out with a stage name but end up growing out of it and simply using their real name later on in their journey.
We’ve summarized some creative ways of picking up a YouTube name, you can check our guide to picking YouTube Channel Name [4 Aspects]
2. Writing a YouTube Channel Description
YouTube is a search engine and the channel description can be treated much like an About page for a website. That is why keywords are important when composing the channel description.
What are YouTube SEO keywords?
Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they are typing into the search engine to find content. Without the right keywords, your audience may never find your videos.
If you want to start discovering new keywords for your YouTube channel, you can use Ubersuggest . This tool shows you the search volume (how frequently it is searched for) as well as how competitive (how many other channels are using it) the keyword is.
Heighten your chance of discoverability by putting keywords as close to the beginning of the description as possible. Later on in this post, we will go through how to properly conduct a keyword strategy. Hang tight.
In addition to keywords, you should also introduce who you are and what the channel is about. Give them a reason to care about your channel, how is it different than all the other ones on YouTube? Why are you the best person to be producing the content on your channel?
Then encourage the viewers to subscribe if they are interested in what the channel offers: education, entertainment, adventure, or something they can’t get anywhere else. It’s your channel, sell it.
Finally supply some extra details, including when to expect videos to be published and other social platforms where you are active on. If someone is reading your YouTube description , you have already hooked them. Here is your chance to reel them in with your channel’s purpose.
3. Creating the Perfect Logo for Your YouTube Channel
#1. What Icon Should You Use for YouTube?
You may choose an icon that best represents the content your channel is producing. For example, if your channel is about technology, you can have an icon of a robot or an iPhone. This way, when viewers only see your icon, they have an idea that they can expect content around tech.
Here are some websites in which you can download logos and icons for YouTube videos .
#2. What Color Should Your YouTube Logo Be?
When creating your logo, avoid trendy colors as they may go out of style. Instead, consider the psychology of color .
What emotions do you want your channel to evoke to your viewers?
Answering this question helps you develop a consistent branding that applies to all your content as your channel grows. Blue evokes calm and trust, whereas, red is known to increase heart rate and is associated with danger. Before you select a color scheme, know how you want your audience to feel.
#3. What Font Should Your YouTube Logo Have?
While YouTube doesn’t offer a lot of real-estate for text, you might still want to include the name of your brand on your logo.
Potentially, the font you choose for your logo will also be the font for the text that appears on your YouTube videos and your channel art. With that in mind, it is important that you pick one that works best for you at the start. Here are some details to look for when selecting a font.
Legibility: Does the font get too hard to read the smaller it gets? It’s not uncommon for some fonts to become a messy blur once the size is reduced on desktop and mobile.
Simplicity: The most important thing about the font is its readability. If it looks like your doctor’s handwriting, then it might not be the best choice.
Consistency: Placed next to your icon, does the font look natural? You might not want to put an icon of a robot next to a font that looks like calligraphy.
#4. How Should You Design Your YouTube Logo?
Do you really need borders or supporting texts? I ask because the more you have on your logo, the less space it will have to stand out.
White space is your friend, it keeps the viewer’s attention focused on what matters and keeps the design uncluttered.
Save your logo as a vector so that you have the ability to scale without losing the image’s quality.
I get it, you are here to make a YouTube channel, not to design a logo. You’re not a designer. Don’t fret, we have a bunch of free logo making tools for you to create an awesome logo.
If you don’t want to create a logo or if the channel is of your own personal brand, then use a quality photograph or headshot of yourself. Doing so allows people to see who you are and develop an instant connection with you.
#5. What Makes A Good YouTube Channel Banner?
Your YouTube banner, or sometimes known as the channel art, is the cover page for your YouTube channel.
While the old adage tells us not to judge anything by the cover, in a world where we have a surplus of content, it is something we all must do for the sake of our time. If we see channel art that doesn’t appeal to us or doesn’t match the video content created, it is jarring. We are distracted from what matters and left questioning why we are on this channel in the first place.
Alternatively, if YouTube channel art is well designed and matches the aesthetic of the channel, then it can inspire your viewers to watch more, share, and subscribe.
So with that said, what makes a great YouTube banner?
Sizing: YouTube comes with sizing recommendations . The size they suggest is because of all the different devices viewers use to consume content.
You cannot control where and how your viewers consume your content. They can be watching on desktop, smartphone, tablet, or tv via Apple TV or Chromecast. That is why it is so important to have a responsive design: appropriate sizing and layout ensures that nothing important is cut off.
Less is more: There is already a lot happening on your YouTube channel page. Crowding your channel art will add more chaos than clarity. Additionally, since the design will shift from device to device, you may lose elements of the design if it is overcrowded.
Keep it in the middle: By keeping all the design elements and text within the safe zone, you can assure nothing will be cut out even if it is viewed on a less than optimal screen. It is a shame when you see that a headline is cut out and you cannot read the whole banner. Use YouTube’s template to help guide your design and ensure that everything important is visible.
High-resolution images: Nothing shouts “I’m an amateur” like having a pixelated image for your banner. Setting a high standard for images at the start will ensure that your whole channel will look professional from the beginning.
Take a go at creating your own channel art with some great YouTube design tools such as Canva and Crello.
Don’t have time to design at the moment? Download 50 free YouTube banner that we created to help busy creators like yourself get a professional page up and running right away.
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, you will need content to fill it up.
There are many factors to having success on YouTube and one has always been delivering content consistently. You may feel at this moment, that your brain is storming with ideas, but believe me, you don’t want to get caught in a drought. The way to avoid major blockers for your channel is to have a content plan at the onset.
A content plan helps guide you towards the mission, the reason you are building this YouTube channel in the first place.
Topics: Your YouTube channel will be focused on one broad topic, whether it be fashion, health, food, etc. It is hard to fly on a whim with a topic that covers such a wide scope. Creating content for these topics will require preparations and that’s why the earlier you have the content ideas for your video the more time you’ll have to research, rehearse, and get the best result.
Begin with a blank piece of paper and break down your topic into 5-10 different categories. If you have a channel about cooking, it may look something like this: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack, etc.
From there, you can drill down more and explore specific topics such as “cheap meals,” “street food,” , etc. Niching down allows those who are looking for a more specific piece of content to find your material. Also, when one specific piece of content performs well, it will give a boost to all the other content related to that broader topic.
Researching Your Ideas: Now that you have a big list of ideas, it’s time to do some research. With so many idea options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the work ahead, but stay focused and tackle one idea at a time.
When it comes to videos, discoverability is an important aspect of everything you create. You aren’t only competing with other YouTube channels, you are competing with everything in the world that can turn your viewer away from your channel. That is why you should make it as easy as possible for your content to be discovered.
Pro Tip: Search on YouTube and see if there is already a video for the idea you have. By taking a quick look at what content is out there, you can see who you’ll be competing with and determine if it is worth pursuing. If there are already a lot of existing videos on that topic, it might be too hard to for people find your content at first.
Keyword Research: For each of your ideas, you will want to conduct extensive keyword research. This research will help dictate the tags, titles, and descriptions of your videos once they are ready to publish.
There are a few ways to conduct keyword research, but we suggest using free online tools to help cut down the time spent.
1. Free tools
Ubersuggest : Type in a keyword and Ubersuggest will populate with related terms that you can use in your strategy.
Google Trends : Examine the historical trends of a keyword and determine its popularity in Google search and how it is affected annually and seasonally. Google Trends is also a good tool for seeing which topics are trending. By understanding this, you can plan your content around the hottest trends and ride the wave.
YouTube search bar : Enter your keyword into the YouTube search bar and the platform will automatically suggest the most popular searches with your keywords.
VidIQ : See what keywords other popular videos in your niche are using.
Google Adwords : Created as an advertising platform, Google Adwords also has a tool called Keyword Planner that allows you to see the monthly search traffic and the level of competition for each keyword. This tool is extremely useful for trimming down your long list of keyword ideas.
2. What Are Some Value-adding Content for YouTube?
Inspirational, educational, and entertaining: these are 3 resonating types of content as defined by Google for a YouTube audience.
Inspirational content that triggers an emotion in your audience. These content lean on good storytelling and relatable or unique experiences.
Educational content teaches the audience how to accomplish a task, improve a skill set, and discover new products or ideas.
Entertaining content is an escape for the audience. It allows them to sit back and enjoy your content and forget about what they have to deal with in real life.
You might be interested in:
3. Set Up a Content Calendar to Be Consistent on YouTube
A common issue for many YouTubers is consistency and accountability. Without a proper routine and schedule, YouTubers will end up procrastinating and publishing whenever they finish their content.
In order to properly establish an audience for your channel, there needs to be consistency and that is why it is so important to have a content calendar to affirm when a piece of content is due to be published, thus giving the creator a good idea of when to start each step of the process to meet publishing date.
There are many ways to build out a content calendar, you can simply use a spreadsheet, a calendar, or you can use other management/organization tools such as Trello or Asana . We recommend using Google Sheet and Google Calendar to start, as it is free and easy to use.
Since you are starting out, we suggest that you plan on a monthly basis, as it’ll allow you to be flexible to trending topics and adjust to insights that you’ll acquire as you analyze your content’s performance.
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Now that you have a plan it is time to start producing your content. There are many ways to approach this, as different types of channels will have different processes for researching, capturing footage, and editing.
Planning: It doesn’t have to be a fully flushed script, but any bit of planning before hitting the record button will help you prepare some valuable content to be captured. It can be an outline, breaking down the topics you want to touch on.
If it’s a food YouTube channel, you’d want the recipe and all the ingredients ready on hand. Mise en place is the French phrase that chefs use meaning “everything in its place” or having everything they need on hand so when dinner rush comes preparation is done and now they are ready to produce. This same mentality works when preparing to shoot a YouTube video. The more you prepare the easier the shoot and the editing will be.
Equipment: At the start, you can get everything done on your smartphone. But that does depend on what your channel is going to be about and who your target audiences are. If you want to film some simple sketches to entertain people, yes, a smartphone camera can work for start. But if you are reaching a professional crowd or want to appear credible, then it might be worth it to invest in a better camera, audio, and lighting equipment.
Filming/Capturing: Always do some checks before shooting your YouTube videos as bad camera angles, poor audio quality, inadequate lighting are all easier to fix before rather than after the filming. Additionally, set a reminder to backup your footage and charge your batteries after every shoot and have an extension cord or a separate hard drive ready.
Editing: Over time, you will develop your own editing style. At the start, it is best to learn the fundamentals and improve on the basics.
Selecting the software: Some video editing software programs are free and others cost a lot. Do your research, sign up for free trials, and understand the limitations of the applications and the requirements you need. If money is a factor, you might want to stick with the free options such as iMovie or affordable options such as Filmora .
Storytelling: Skilled editing enables YouTube creators to tell the story in the most effective way. This does not mean in chronological order. Think of what will hook the audience right away and what will be most impactful at the very end. Pro-tip: Use pre-set transitions sparingly, jump cuts are often the most effective and least distracting. Editing is an invisible art.
Text, graphic or special effects: Video is a show that doesn’t tell medium, so use text sparingly. People aren’t going to your channel to read. However, text when used properly compliments the video and supplies context. Graphics and special effects are good when they support the story you are telling and cheesy when used egregiously to impress the viewer.
Export to the right format: You can pretty much upload any video format to YouTube and they can figure it out. Nevertheless, YouTube recommends using MP4 and encoded with the codec.
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Your job is not done after you’ve filmed, edited, and published your video on YouTube. In order to help it get discovered, you’ll need to understand what will drive your audience to click and watch your video as opposed to all the other videos on YouTube.
By performing video optimization and sharing your content in communities interested in what you are creating, you can increase the chances that your video will be seen.
1. Tips for Writing the Best Title for YouTube Video
When coming up with titles for your YouTube video, you should always have your keyword research-ready on hand for reference.
YouTube keyword crawlers read from top to bottom, so it is most effective to have your keywords at the beginning of the title. Strive to build click-worthy titles that inspire curiosity, evoke an emotion, or offer a benefit.
Example:
Good: How to Deep Fry Chicken
Better: Deep Frying Chicken That’s Better Than KFC
While you have 100 characters to work with, anything beyond 70 characters will be truncated by YouTube.
Caution: Always deliver what your title is selling. Misleading viewers can cause mistrust in your content and will turn people off your channel.
2. Tips for Writing the Best Description for YouTube Video
Treat the description as a short synopsis for your video with the keywords strategically placed at the beginning. Include a URL to your website or blog and have any other supporting information or links.
Also, the description is where you can include some boilerplate channel information.
You have 5,000 characters to work with, but only the first three lines will be above the fold.
Pro Tip: If your video is on the longer end (over 20 minutes) or has multiple sections, then you should consider adding timestamps in the description to help the viewer skip to the spot they are most interested in.
3. Tips for Writing the Best Tags for YouTube Video
Keeping that keyword research handy write 5-15 tags. Start with specific keywords, then move into general keywords, and then branded keywords.
Specific keywords: how to deep fry chicken
General keywords: fried chicken recipe
Branded keywords: KFC
4. Tips for Designing the Best Thumbnail Image
Customize thumbnails: It is recommended that you take some time to customize a thumbnail image for your video. This is the first impression and you want to entice the viewer to click and watch.
YouTube auto-selects your thumbnail from a random position on your timeline, so it isn’t mandatory to create a thumbnail, however, the image YouTube selects might not be what you want to use to attract your audience.
Use photo editing software: To control how you want an image to look, you will need to choose a photo editing software. Wondershare PixStudio is a good choice that provides various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc.
Have a consistent look: By having consistency, people will begin to recognize your thumbnails and even getting them excited to watch your video.
Pro Tips:
- Avoid using YouTube’s randomly selected thumbnail. Personalize it to stay consistent with your brand.
- Don’t clutter thumbnails. Less is more.
- Make fonts big if you are going to use text.
- Thumbnails have to have context, what is their story? Deliver on that promise.
- Using emotive faces have shown to appeal to people’s emotional cues and increases the likelihood of them clicking.
- Thumbnail file size should be 1280 x 720
5. Closed Captions and Uploading a Transcript
There are two key reasons why it is worth your time to use closed captions or upload a transcript for your YouTube videos.
- Having closed captions improves the video’s SEO, as Google indexes and crawls the keywords.
- For those that don’t want to or can’t hear the audio will appreciate having closed caption to allow them to enjoy the content.
6. How to Share Your Video with Social Media
Unless you have a huge social media following, it will be challenging to get many views from those channels at the start.
Grow your social media channel gradually by targeting your ideal viewer persona and hashtagging your content. On social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, keep producing content for them, but don’t forget to share content from other YouTubers. If you see a cool video relevant to your audience, share it as well.
Lead your followers to your YouTube channel with content designed specifically for your social media channel. For example, Instagram Stories are a great way to engage directly with your followers, giving them a sneak peek or letting them know that your latest YouTube videos are up. You can even link directly to your YouTube channel from your Instagram story.
YouTuber, Caspar Lee
Join groups on social networks such as Facebook, Reddit, etc. and engage in conversations that are related or complementary to your YouTube channel. The key is to find communities that are interested in the content you are producing, but approach those groups with caution and ensure that anything you share won’t be perceived as spam.
Conclusion
There you go, now you have made your first YouTube video. It might be something you are incredibly proud of or it might have been a great learning experience. It might have gone without a hitch or you might have encountered obstacles you weren’t anticipating. Either way, you followed through and we are happy for you.
Now, get ready for the next one. The job of a YouTuber is never complete as there is always another video to make. By executing what we taught you in this guide, you now have the foundation to grow your channel. Good luck!
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
After all the planning and brainstorming, you are ready to create a YouTube channel. You have spent countless hours watching videos and aspiring to be a creator. You know it will be work, but you are passionate. You are willing to learn. You are ready!
YouTube fame is in your future, but where do you start?
In this guide, we’ll start at the beginning, at the point before you even have a YouTube channel. From there, we will walk you through your content strategy and properly prepare you for the journey of creating videos for a massive YouTube following. Then we will wrap it up by teaching you the best practices for YouTube video optimization, ensuring that all your efforts will lead to the best results.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Okay, there is a lot to cover, so enough small talk. Let’s get started.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Before you start making awesome videos, you got to set up your YouTube account. Activating YouTube is pretty straightforward if you already have a Google account. The odds are you have already set one up to subscribe to all your favorite channels. If not, here are the steps:
Step 1: Sign in to YouTube with your Google account
Step 2: Access YouTube Creator Studio to Activate YouTube
Step 3: Create a Channel
1. Picking a YouTube Channel Name
A YouTube channel name is beneficial to your channel’s growth if selected strategically. It can separate you from all the other channels on the platform, it can help the viewers understand what your channel is all about, and it will represent you and your brand. When naming your channel, here are 3 things to remember:
- Memorable: You’d want a name that sticks in people’s brains. Picking a name that is hard to forget will be a huge advantage for you while growing your channel. But what makes a name memorable?
- Alliteration and assonance: By using the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds, you create a fluidity to the name. examples: Pewdiepie, GoPro, or League of Legend.
- Fun to say: Some words stay in the brain because it is simply pleasurable to say. It could have a genuine meaning or it can be an abstract word. Commonly these names have one of these sharp, biting consonants: C, K, Q, X, or Z. examples: Markiplier, Kwebbelkop, Squeezie, and Vox.
- Abbreviations: A name can have a greater meaning, but long names might not be catchy, therefore, you should abbreviate it to a few memorable letters. Examples: TED ED, TGFbro, ERB, and FBE.
- Longer Phrases: You may think that having a long name may be hard to remember, but sometimes, depending on your channel, a snappy phrase works. Example: How It Should Have Ended, You Always Win, and People Are Awesome.
- Your Name Plus Descriptor: Combining two words effectively can make a name more memorable like Markiplier (Mark + Multiplier), LaurDIY (Lauren and she makes DIY projects), and Shameless Maya (Maya and she’s shameless).
- Unique: Be creative with your name, especially if your real name is generic. YouTube is a crowded space and if you simply call your channel: Jake, not only will you be competing with all the creators named Jake, but also all the content with Jake as the keywords.
Also, avoid generic names that are based around your channel topics. For example, Fashion Talk sounds like a good name, but if you do a quick search you will see that it is a crowded space with vloggers, keynote presentations, and product reviews.
If you are starting a fashion channel why not try to find a link between your name and the topic? The connection between two different things often spawns something creative: Fabric Feud, for example. Just by the name, I know this channel will contain interesting perspectives on garments.
- Keep it Simple: In the end, simplicity is the way to go. Don’t make it hard to type or hard to remember: cantunderstandthistopic88768 is not a good name, even if it’s strange and cryptic.
If you have a simple name in mind, it’s also a good idea to do a quick search on YouTube and Google to make sure it isn’t already used or similar to another account. Additionally, it’s worth knowing whether the social media handle is available as you will need it to expand your channel.
Consider using your real full name, it’s unlikely to ever change. Many YouTubers start out with a stage name but end up growing out of it and simply using their real name later on in their journey.
We’ve summarized some creative ways of picking up a YouTube name, you can check our guide to picking YouTube Channel Name [4 Aspects]
2. Writing a YouTube Channel Description
YouTube is a search engine and the channel description can be treated much like an About page for a website. That is why keywords are important when composing the channel description.
What are YouTube SEO keywords?
Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they are typing into the search engine to find content. Without the right keywords, your audience may never find your videos.
If you want to start discovering new keywords for your YouTube channel, you can use Ubersuggest . This tool shows you the search volume (how frequently it is searched for) as well as how competitive (how many other channels are using it) the keyword is.
Heighten your chance of discoverability by putting keywords as close to the beginning of the description as possible. Later on in this post, we will go through how to properly conduct a keyword strategy. Hang tight.
In addition to keywords, you should also introduce who you are and what the channel is about. Give them a reason to care about your channel, how is it different than all the other ones on YouTube? Why are you the best person to be producing the content on your channel?
Then encourage the viewers to subscribe if they are interested in what the channel offers: education, entertainment, adventure, or something they can’t get anywhere else. It’s your channel, sell it.
Finally supply some extra details, including when to expect videos to be published and other social platforms where you are active on. If someone is reading your YouTube description , you have already hooked them. Here is your chance to reel them in with your channel’s purpose.
3. Creating the Perfect Logo for Your YouTube Channel
#1. What Icon Should You Use for YouTube?
You may choose an icon that best represents the content your channel is producing. For example, if your channel is about technology, you can have an icon of a robot or an iPhone. This way, when viewers only see your icon, they have an idea that they can expect content around tech.
Here are some websites in which you can download logos and icons for YouTube videos .
#2. What Color Should Your YouTube Logo Be?
When creating your logo, avoid trendy colors as they may go out of style. Instead, consider the psychology of color .
What emotions do you want your channel to evoke to your viewers?
Answering this question helps you develop a consistent branding that applies to all your content as your channel grows. Blue evokes calm and trust, whereas, red is known to increase heart rate and is associated with danger. Before you select a color scheme, know how you want your audience to feel.
#3. What Font Should Your YouTube Logo Have?
While YouTube doesn’t offer a lot of real-estate for text, you might still want to include the name of your brand on your logo.
Potentially, the font you choose for your logo will also be the font for the text that appears on your YouTube videos and your channel art. With that in mind, it is important that you pick one that works best for you at the start. Here are some details to look for when selecting a font.
Legibility: Does the font get too hard to read the smaller it gets? It’s not uncommon for some fonts to become a messy blur once the size is reduced on desktop and mobile.
Simplicity: The most important thing about the font is its readability. If it looks like your doctor’s handwriting, then it might not be the best choice.
Consistency: Placed next to your icon, does the font look natural? You might not want to put an icon of a robot next to a font that looks like calligraphy.
#4. How Should You Design Your YouTube Logo?
Do you really need borders or supporting texts? I ask because the more you have on your logo, the less space it will have to stand out.
White space is your friend, it keeps the viewer’s attention focused on what matters and keeps the design uncluttered.
Save your logo as a vector so that you have the ability to scale without losing the image’s quality.
I get it, you are here to make a YouTube channel, not to design a logo. You’re not a designer. Don’t fret, we have a bunch of free logo making tools for you to create an awesome logo.
If you don’t want to create a logo or if the channel is of your own personal brand, then use a quality photograph or headshot of yourself. Doing so allows people to see who you are and develop an instant connection with you.
#5. What Makes A Good YouTube Channel Banner?
Your YouTube banner, or sometimes known as the channel art, is the cover page for your YouTube channel.
While the old adage tells us not to judge anything by the cover, in a world where we have a surplus of content, it is something we all must do for the sake of our time. If we see channel art that doesn’t appeal to us or doesn’t match the video content created, it is jarring. We are distracted from what matters and left questioning why we are on this channel in the first place.
Alternatively, if YouTube channel art is well designed and matches the aesthetic of the channel, then it can inspire your viewers to watch more, share, and subscribe.
So with that said, what makes a great YouTube banner?
Sizing: YouTube comes with sizing recommendations . The size they suggest is because of all the different devices viewers use to consume content.
You cannot control where and how your viewers consume your content. They can be watching on desktop, smartphone, tablet, or tv via Apple TV or Chromecast. That is why it is so important to have a responsive design: appropriate sizing and layout ensures that nothing important is cut off.
Less is more: There is already a lot happening on your YouTube channel page. Crowding your channel art will add more chaos than clarity. Additionally, since the design will shift from device to device, you may lose elements of the design if it is overcrowded.
Keep it in the middle: By keeping all the design elements and text within the safe zone, you can assure nothing will be cut out even if it is viewed on a less than optimal screen. It is a shame when you see that a headline is cut out and you cannot read the whole banner. Use YouTube’s template to help guide your design and ensure that everything important is visible.
High-resolution images: Nothing shouts “I’m an amateur” like having a pixelated image for your banner. Setting a high standard for images at the start will ensure that your whole channel will look professional from the beginning.
Take a go at creating your own channel art with some great YouTube design tools such as Canva and Crello.
Don’t have time to design at the moment? Download 50 free YouTube banner that we created to help busy creators like yourself get a professional page up and running right away.
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, you will need content to fill it up.
There are many factors to having success on YouTube and one has always been delivering content consistently. You may feel at this moment, that your brain is storming with ideas, but believe me, you don’t want to get caught in a drought. The way to avoid major blockers for your channel is to have a content plan at the onset.
A content plan helps guide you towards the mission, the reason you are building this YouTube channel in the first place.
Topics: Your YouTube channel will be focused on one broad topic, whether it be fashion, health, food, etc. It is hard to fly on a whim with a topic that covers such a wide scope. Creating content for these topics will require preparations and that’s why the earlier you have the content ideas for your video the more time you’ll have to research, rehearse, and get the best result.
Begin with a blank piece of paper and break down your topic into 5-10 different categories. If you have a channel about cooking, it may look something like this: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack, etc.
From there, you can drill down more and explore specific topics such as “cheap meals,” “street food,” , etc. Niching down allows those who are looking for a more specific piece of content to find your material. Also, when one specific piece of content performs well, it will give a boost to all the other content related to that broader topic.
Researching Your Ideas: Now that you have a big list of ideas, it’s time to do some research. With so many idea options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the work ahead, but stay focused and tackle one idea at a time.
When it comes to videos, discoverability is an important aspect of everything you create. You aren’t only competing with other YouTube channels, you are competing with everything in the world that can turn your viewer away from your channel. That is why you should make it as easy as possible for your content to be discovered.
Pro Tip: Search on YouTube and see if there is already a video for the idea you have. By taking a quick look at what content is out there, you can see who you’ll be competing with and determine if it is worth pursuing. If there are already a lot of existing videos on that topic, it might be too hard to for people find your content at first.
Keyword Research: For each of your ideas, you will want to conduct extensive keyword research. This research will help dictate the tags, titles, and descriptions of your videos once they are ready to publish.
There are a few ways to conduct keyword research, but we suggest using free online tools to help cut down the time spent.
1. Free tools
Ubersuggest : Type in a keyword and Ubersuggest will populate with related terms that you can use in your strategy.
Google Trends : Examine the historical trends of a keyword and determine its popularity in Google search and how it is affected annually and seasonally. Google Trends is also a good tool for seeing which topics are trending. By understanding this, you can plan your content around the hottest trends and ride the wave.
YouTube search bar : Enter your keyword into the YouTube search bar and the platform will automatically suggest the most popular searches with your keywords.
VidIQ : See what keywords other popular videos in your niche are using.
Google Adwords : Created as an advertising platform, Google Adwords also has a tool called Keyword Planner that allows you to see the monthly search traffic and the level of competition for each keyword. This tool is extremely useful for trimming down your long list of keyword ideas.
2. What Are Some Value-adding Content for YouTube?
Inspirational, educational, and entertaining: these are 3 resonating types of content as defined by Google for a YouTube audience.
Inspirational content that triggers an emotion in your audience. These content lean on good storytelling and relatable or unique experiences.
Educational content teaches the audience how to accomplish a task, improve a skill set, and discover new products or ideas.
Entertaining content is an escape for the audience. It allows them to sit back and enjoy your content and forget about what they have to deal with in real life.
You might be interested in:
3. Set Up a Content Calendar to Be Consistent on YouTube
A common issue for many YouTubers is consistency and accountability. Without a proper routine and schedule, YouTubers will end up procrastinating and publishing whenever they finish their content.
In order to properly establish an audience for your channel, there needs to be consistency and that is why it is so important to have a content calendar to affirm when a piece of content is due to be published, thus giving the creator a good idea of when to start each step of the process to meet publishing date.
There are many ways to build out a content calendar, you can simply use a spreadsheet, a calendar, or you can use other management/organization tools such as Trello or Asana . We recommend using Google Sheet and Google Calendar to start, as it is free and easy to use.
Since you are starting out, we suggest that you plan on a monthly basis, as it’ll allow you to be flexible to trending topics and adjust to insights that you’ll acquire as you analyze your content’s performance.
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Now that you have a plan it is time to start producing your content. There are many ways to approach this, as different types of channels will have different processes for researching, capturing footage, and editing.
Planning: It doesn’t have to be a fully flushed script, but any bit of planning before hitting the record button will help you prepare some valuable content to be captured. It can be an outline, breaking down the topics you want to touch on.
If it’s a food YouTube channel, you’d want the recipe and all the ingredients ready on hand. Mise en place is the French phrase that chefs use meaning “everything in its place” or having everything they need on hand so when dinner rush comes preparation is done and now they are ready to produce. This same mentality works when preparing to shoot a YouTube video. The more you prepare the easier the shoot and the editing will be.
Equipment: At the start, you can get everything done on your smartphone. But that does depend on what your channel is going to be about and who your target audiences are. If you want to film some simple sketches to entertain people, yes, a smartphone camera can work for start. But if you are reaching a professional crowd or want to appear credible, then it might be worth it to invest in a better camera, audio, and lighting equipment.
Filming/Capturing: Always do some checks before shooting your YouTube videos as bad camera angles, poor audio quality, inadequate lighting are all easier to fix before rather than after the filming. Additionally, set a reminder to backup your footage and charge your batteries after every shoot and have an extension cord or a separate hard drive ready.
Editing: Over time, you will develop your own editing style. At the start, it is best to learn the fundamentals and improve on the basics.
Selecting the software: Some video editing software programs are free and others cost a lot. Do your research, sign up for free trials, and understand the limitations of the applications and the requirements you need. If money is a factor, you might want to stick with the free options such as iMovie or affordable options such as Filmora .
Storytelling: Skilled editing enables YouTube creators to tell the story in the most effective way. This does not mean in chronological order. Think of what will hook the audience right away and what will be most impactful at the very end. Pro-tip: Use pre-set transitions sparingly, jump cuts are often the most effective and least distracting. Editing is an invisible art.
Text, graphic or special effects: Video is a show that doesn’t tell medium, so use text sparingly. People aren’t going to your channel to read. However, text when used properly compliments the video and supplies context. Graphics and special effects are good when they support the story you are telling and cheesy when used egregiously to impress the viewer.
Export to the right format: You can pretty much upload any video format to YouTube and they can figure it out. Nevertheless, YouTube recommends using MP4 and encoded with the codec.
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Your job is not done after you’ve filmed, edited, and published your video on YouTube. In order to help it get discovered, you’ll need to understand what will drive your audience to click and watch your video as opposed to all the other videos on YouTube.
By performing video optimization and sharing your content in communities interested in what you are creating, you can increase the chances that your video will be seen.
1. Tips for Writing the Best Title for YouTube Video
When coming up with titles for your YouTube video, you should always have your keyword research-ready on hand for reference.
YouTube keyword crawlers read from top to bottom, so it is most effective to have your keywords at the beginning of the title. Strive to build click-worthy titles that inspire curiosity, evoke an emotion, or offer a benefit.
Example:
Good: How to Deep Fry Chicken
Better: Deep Frying Chicken That’s Better Than KFC
While you have 100 characters to work with, anything beyond 70 characters will be truncated by YouTube.
Caution: Always deliver what your title is selling. Misleading viewers can cause mistrust in your content and will turn people off your channel.
2. Tips for Writing the Best Description for YouTube Video
Treat the description as a short synopsis for your video with the keywords strategically placed at the beginning. Include a URL to your website or blog and have any other supporting information or links.
Also, the description is where you can include some boilerplate channel information.
You have 5,000 characters to work with, but only the first three lines will be above the fold.
Pro Tip: If your video is on the longer end (over 20 minutes) or has multiple sections, then you should consider adding timestamps in the description to help the viewer skip to the spot they are most interested in.
3. Tips for Writing the Best Tags for YouTube Video
Keeping that keyword research handy write 5-15 tags. Start with specific keywords, then move into general keywords, and then branded keywords.
Specific keywords: how to deep fry chicken
General keywords: fried chicken recipe
Branded keywords: KFC
4. Tips for Designing the Best Thumbnail Image
Customize thumbnails: It is recommended that you take some time to customize a thumbnail image for your video. This is the first impression and you want to entice the viewer to click and watch.
YouTube auto-selects your thumbnail from a random position on your timeline, so it isn’t mandatory to create a thumbnail, however, the image YouTube selects might not be what you want to use to attract your audience.
Use photo editing software: To control how you want an image to look, you will need to choose a photo editing software. Wondershare PixStudio is a good choice that provides various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc.
Have a consistent look: By having consistency, people will begin to recognize your thumbnails and even getting them excited to watch your video.
Pro Tips:
- Avoid using YouTube’s randomly selected thumbnail. Personalize it to stay consistent with your brand.
- Don’t clutter thumbnails. Less is more.
- Make fonts big if you are going to use text.
- Thumbnails have to have context, what is their story? Deliver on that promise.
- Using emotive faces have shown to appeal to people’s emotional cues and increases the likelihood of them clicking.
- Thumbnail file size should be 1280 x 720
5. Closed Captions and Uploading a Transcript
There are two key reasons why it is worth your time to use closed captions or upload a transcript for your YouTube videos.
- Having closed captions improves the video’s SEO, as Google indexes and crawls the keywords.
- For those that don’t want to or can’t hear the audio will appreciate having closed caption to allow them to enjoy the content.
6. How to Share Your Video with Social Media
Unless you have a huge social media following, it will be challenging to get many views from those channels at the start.
Grow your social media channel gradually by targeting your ideal viewer persona and hashtagging your content. On social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, keep producing content for them, but don’t forget to share content from other YouTubers. If you see a cool video relevant to your audience, share it as well.
Lead your followers to your YouTube channel with content designed specifically for your social media channel. For example, Instagram Stories are a great way to engage directly with your followers, giving them a sneak peek or letting them know that your latest YouTube videos are up. You can even link directly to your YouTube channel from your Instagram story.
YouTuber, Caspar Lee
Join groups on social networks such as Facebook, Reddit, etc. and engage in conversations that are related or complementary to your YouTube channel. The key is to find communities that are interested in the content you are producing, but approach those groups with caution and ensure that anything you share won’t be perceived as spam.
Conclusion
There you go, now you have made your first YouTube video. It might be something you are incredibly proud of or it might have been a great learning experience. It might have gone without a hitch or you might have encountered obstacles you weren’t anticipating. Either way, you followed through and we are happy for you.
Now, get ready for the next one. The job of a YouTuber is never complete as there is always another video to make. By executing what we taught you in this guide, you now have the foundation to grow your channel. Good luck!
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
After all the planning and brainstorming, you are ready to create a YouTube channel. You have spent countless hours watching videos and aspiring to be a creator. You know it will be work, but you are passionate. You are willing to learn. You are ready!
YouTube fame is in your future, but where do you start?
In this guide, we’ll start at the beginning, at the point before you even have a YouTube channel. From there, we will walk you through your content strategy and properly prepare you for the journey of creating videos for a massive YouTube following. Then we will wrap it up by teaching you the best practices for YouTube video optimization, ensuring that all your efforts will lead to the best results.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Okay, there is a lot to cover, so enough small talk. Let’s get started.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Before you start making awesome videos, you got to set up your YouTube account. Activating YouTube is pretty straightforward if you already have a Google account. The odds are you have already set one up to subscribe to all your favorite channels. If not, here are the steps:
Step 1: Sign in to YouTube with your Google account
Step 2: Access YouTube Creator Studio to Activate YouTube
Step 3: Create a Channel
1. Picking a YouTube Channel Name
A YouTube channel name is beneficial to your channel’s growth if selected strategically. It can separate you from all the other channels on the platform, it can help the viewers understand what your channel is all about, and it will represent you and your brand. When naming your channel, here are 3 things to remember:
- Memorable: You’d want a name that sticks in people’s brains. Picking a name that is hard to forget will be a huge advantage for you while growing your channel. But what makes a name memorable?
- Alliteration and assonance: By using the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds, you create a fluidity to the name. examples: Pewdiepie, GoPro, or League of Legend.
- Fun to say: Some words stay in the brain because it is simply pleasurable to say. It could have a genuine meaning or it can be an abstract word. Commonly these names have one of these sharp, biting consonants: C, K, Q, X, or Z. examples: Markiplier, Kwebbelkop, Squeezie, and Vox.
- Abbreviations: A name can have a greater meaning, but long names might not be catchy, therefore, you should abbreviate it to a few memorable letters. Examples: TED ED, TGFbro, ERB, and FBE.
- Longer Phrases: You may think that having a long name may be hard to remember, but sometimes, depending on your channel, a snappy phrase works. Example: How It Should Have Ended, You Always Win, and People Are Awesome.
- Your Name Plus Descriptor: Combining two words effectively can make a name more memorable like Markiplier (Mark + Multiplier), LaurDIY (Lauren and she makes DIY projects), and Shameless Maya (Maya and she’s shameless).
- Unique: Be creative with your name, especially if your real name is generic. YouTube is a crowded space and if you simply call your channel: Jake, not only will you be competing with all the creators named Jake, but also all the content with Jake as the keywords.
Also, avoid generic names that are based around your channel topics. For example, Fashion Talk sounds like a good name, but if you do a quick search you will see that it is a crowded space with vloggers, keynote presentations, and product reviews.
If you are starting a fashion channel why not try to find a link between your name and the topic? The connection between two different things often spawns something creative: Fabric Feud, for example. Just by the name, I know this channel will contain interesting perspectives on garments.
- Keep it Simple: In the end, simplicity is the way to go. Don’t make it hard to type or hard to remember: cantunderstandthistopic88768 is not a good name, even if it’s strange and cryptic.
If you have a simple name in mind, it’s also a good idea to do a quick search on YouTube and Google to make sure it isn’t already used or similar to another account. Additionally, it’s worth knowing whether the social media handle is available as you will need it to expand your channel.
Consider using your real full name, it’s unlikely to ever change. Many YouTubers start out with a stage name but end up growing out of it and simply using their real name later on in their journey.
We’ve summarized some creative ways of picking up a YouTube name, you can check our guide to picking YouTube Channel Name [4 Aspects]
2. Writing a YouTube Channel Description
YouTube is a search engine and the channel description can be treated much like an About page for a website. That is why keywords are important when composing the channel description.
What are YouTube SEO keywords?
Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they are typing into the search engine to find content. Without the right keywords, your audience may never find your videos.
If you want to start discovering new keywords for your YouTube channel, you can use Ubersuggest . This tool shows you the search volume (how frequently it is searched for) as well as how competitive (how many other channels are using it) the keyword is.
Heighten your chance of discoverability by putting keywords as close to the beginning of the description as possible. Later on in this post, we will go through how to properly conduct a keyword strategy. Hang tight.
In addition to keywords, you should also introduce who you are and what the channel is about. Give them a reason to care about your channel, how is it different than all the other ones on YouTube? Why are you the best person to be producing the content on your channel?
Then encourage the viewers to subscribe if they are interested in what the channel offers: education, entertainment, adventure, or something they can’t get anywhere else. It’s your channel, sell it.
Finally supply some extra details, including when to expect videos to be published and other social platforms where you are active on. If someone is reading your YouTube description , you have already hooked them. Here is your chance to reel them in with your channel’s purpose.
3. Creating the Perfect Logo for Your YouTube Channel
#1. What Icon Should You Use for YouTube?
You may choose an icon that best represents the content your channel is producing. For example, if your channel is about technology, you can have an icon of a robot or an iPhone. This way, when viewers only see your icon, they have an idea that they can expect content around tech.
Here are some websites in which you can download logos and icons for YouTube videos .
#2. What Color Should Your YouTube Logo Be?
When creating your logo, avoid trendy colors as they may go out of style. Instead, consider the psychology of color .
What emotions do you want your channel to evoke to your viewers?
Answering this question helps you develop a consistent branding that applies to all your content as your channel grows. Blue evokes calm and trust, whereas, red is known to increase heart rate and is associated with danger. Before you select a color scheme, know how you want your audience to feel.
#3. What Font Should Your YouTube Logo Have?
While YouTube doesn’t offer a lot of real-estate for text, you might still want to include the name of your brand on your logo.
Potentially, the font you choose for your logo will also be the font for the text that appears on your YouTube videos and your channel art. With that in mind, it is important that you pick one that works best for you at the start. Here are some details to look for when selecting a font.
Legibility: Does the font get too hard to read the smaller it gets? It’s not uncommon for some fonts to become a messy blur once the size is reduced on desktop and mobile.
Simplicity: The most important thing about the font is its readability. If it looks like your doctor’s handwriting, then it might not be the best choice.
Consistency: Placed next to your icon, does the font look natural? You might not want to put an icon of a robot next to a font that looks like calligraphy.
#4. How Should You Design Your YouTube Logo?
Do you really need borders or supporting texts? I ask because the more you have on your logo, the less space it will have to stand out.
White space is your friend, it keeps the viewer’s attention focused on what matters and keeps the design uncluttered.
Save your logo as a vector so that you have the ability to scale without losing the image’s quality.
I get it, you are here to make a YouTube channel, not to design a logo. You’re not a designer. Don’t fret, we have a bunch of free logo making tools for you to create an awesome logo.
If you don’t want to create a logo or if the channel is of your own personal brand, then use a quality photograph or headshot of yourself. Doing so allows people to see who you are and develop an instant connection with you.
#5. What Makes A Good YouTube Channel Banner?
Your YouTube banner, or sometimes known as the channel art, is the cover page for your YouTube channel.
While the old adage tells us not to judge anything by the cover, in a world where we have a surplus of content, it is something we all must do for the sake of our time. If we see channel art that doesn’t appeal to us or doesn’t match the video content created, it is jarring. We are distracted from what matters and left questioning why we are on this channel in the first place.
Alternatively, if YouTube channel art is well designed and matches the aesthetic of the channel, then it can inspire your viewers to watch more, share, and subscribe.
So with that said, what makes a great YouTube banner?
Sizing: YouTube comes with sizing recommendations . The size they suggest is because of all the different devices viewers use to consume content.
You cannot control where and how your viewers consume your content. They can be watching on desktop, smartphone, tablet, or tv via Apple TV or Chromecast. That is why it is so important to have a responsive design: appropriate sizing and layout ensures that nothing important is cut off.
Less is more: There is already a lot happening on your YouTube channel page. Crowding your channel art will add more chaos than clarity. Additionally, since the design will shift from device to device, you may lose elements of the design if it is overcrowded.
Keep it in the middle: By keeping all the design elements and text within the safe zone, you can assure nothing will be cut out even if it is viewed on a less than optimal screen. It is a shame when you see that a headline is cut out and you cannot read the whole banner. Use YouTube’s template to help guide your design and ensure that everything important is visible.
High-resolution images: Nothing shouts “I’m an amateur” like having a pixelated image for your banner. Setting a high standard for images at the start will ensure that your whole channel will look professional from the beginning.
Take a go at creating your own channel art with some great YouTube design tools such as Canva and Crello.
Don’t have time to design at the moment? Download 50 free YouTube banner that we created to help busy creators like yourself get a professional page up and running right away.
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, you will need content to fill it up.
There are many factors to having success on YouTube and one has always been delivering content consistently. You may feel at this moment, that your brain is storming with ideas, but believe me, you don’t want to get caught in a drought. The way to avoid major blockers for your channel is to have a content plan at the onset.
A content plan helps guide you towards the mission, the reason you are building this YouTube channel in the first place.
Topics: Your YouTube channel will be focused on one broad topic, whether it be fashion, health, food, etc. It is hard to fly on a whim with a topic that covers such a wide scope. Creating content for these topics will require preparations and that’s why the earlier you have the content ideas for your video the more time you’ll have to research, rehearse, and get the best result.
Begin with a blank piece of paper and break down your topic into 5-10 different categories. If you have a channel about cooking, it may look something like this: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack, etc.
From there, you can drill down more and explore specific topics such as “cheap meals,” “street food,” , etc. Niching down allows those who are looking for a more specific piece of content to find your material. Also, when one specific piece of content performs well, it will give a boost to all the other content related to that broader topic.
Researching Your Ideas: Now that you have a big list of ideas, it’s time to do some research. With so many idea options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the work ahead, but stay focused and tackle one idea at a time.
When it comes to videos, discoverability is an important aspect of everything you create. You aren’t only competing with other YouTube channels, you are competing with everything in the world that can turn your viewer away from your channel. That is why you should make it as easy as possible for your content to be discovered.
Pro Tip: Search on YouTube and see if there is already a video for the idea you have. By taking a quick look at what content is out there, you can see who you’ll be competing with and determine if it is worth pursuing. If there are already a lot of existing videos on that topic, it might be too hard to for people find your content at first.
Keyword Research: For each of your ideas, you will want to conduct extensive keyword research. This research will help dictate the tags, titles, and descriptions of your videos once they are ready to publish.
There are a few ways to conduct keyword research, but we suggest using free online tools to help cut down the time spent.
1. Free tools
Ubersuggest : Type in a keyword and Ubersuggest will populate with related terms that you can use in your strategy.
Google Trends : Examine the historical trends of a keyword and determine its popularity in Google search and how it is affected annually and seasonally. Google Trends is also a good tool for seeing which topics are trending. By understanding this, you can plan your content around the hottest trends and ride the wave.
YouTube search bar : Enter your keyword into the YouTube search bar and the platform will automatically suggest the most popular searches with your keywords.
VidIQ : See what keywords other popular videos in your niche are using.
Google Adwords : Created as an advertising platform, Google Adwords also has a tool called Keyword Planner that allows you to see the monthly search traffic and the level of competition for each keyword. This tool is extremely useful for trimming down your long list of keyword ideas.
2. What Are Some Value-adding Content for YouTube?
Inspirational, educational, and entertaining: these are 3 resonating types of content as defined by Google for a YouTube audience.
Inspirational content that triggers an emotion in your audience. These content lean on good storytelling and relatable or unique experiences.
Educational content teaches the audience how to accomplish a task, improve a skill set, and discover new products or ideas.
Entertaining content is an escape for the audience. It allows them to sit back and enjoy your content and forget about what they have to deal with in real life.
You might be interested in:
3. Set Up a Content Calendar to Be Consistent on YouTube
A common issue for many YouTubers is consistency and accountability. Without a proper routine and schedule, YouTubers will end up procrastinating and publishing whenever they finish their content.
In order to properly establish an audience for your channel, there needs to be consistency and that is why it is so important to have a content calendar to affirm when a piece of content is due to be published, thus giving the creator a good idea of when to start each step of the process to meet publishing date.
There are many ways to build out a content calendar, you can simply use a spreadsheet, a calendar, or you can use other management/organization tools such as Trello or Asana . We recommend using Google Sheet and Google Calendar to start, as it is free and easy to use.
Since you are starting out, we suggest that you plan on a monthly basis, as it’ll allow you to be flexible to trending topics and adjust to insights that you’ll acquire as you analyze your content’s performance.
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Now that you have a plan it is time to start producing your content. There are many ways to approach this, as different types of channels will have different processes for researching, capturing footage, and editing.
Planning: It doesn’t have to be a fully flushed script, but any bit of planning before hitting the record button will help you prepare some valuable content to be captured. It can be an outline, breaking down the topics you want to touch on.
If it’s a food YouTube channel, you’d want the recipe and all the ingredients ready on hand. Mise en place is the French phrase that chefs use meaning “everything in its place” or having everything they need on hand so when dinner rush comes preparation is done and now they are ready to produce. This same mentality works when preparing to shoot a YouTube video. The more you prepare the easier the shoot and the editing will be.
Equipment: At the start, you can get everything done on your smartphone. But that does depend on what your channel is going to be about and who your target audiences are. If you want to film some simple sketches to entertain people, yes, a smartphone camera can work for start. But if you are reaching a professional crowd or want to appear credible, then it might be worth it to invest in a better camera, audio, and lighting equipment.
Filming/Capturing: Always do some checks before shooting your YouTube videos as bad camera angles, poor audio quality, inadequate lighting are all easier to fix before rather than after the filming. Additionally, set a reminder to backup your footage and charge your batteries after every shoot and have an extension cord or a separate hard drive ready.
Editing: Over time, you will develop your own editing style. At the start, it is best to learn the fundamentals and improve on the basics.
Selecting the software: Some video editing software programs are free and others cost a lot. Do your research, sign up for free trials, and understand the limitations of the applications and the requirements you need. If money is a factor, you might want to stick with the free options such as iMovie or affordable options such as Filmora .
Storytelling: Skilled editing enables YouTube creators to tell the story in the most effective way. This does not mean in chronological order. Think of what will hook the audience right away and what will be most impactful at the very end. Pro-tip: Use pre-set transitions sparingly, jump cuts are often the most effective and least distracting. Editing is an invisible art.
Text, graphic or special effects: Video is a show that doesn’t tell medium, so use text sparingly. People aren’t going to your channel to read. However, text when used properly compliments the video and supplies context. Graphics and special effects are good when they support the story you are telling and cheesy when used egregiously to impress the viewer.
Export to the right format: You can pretty much upload any video format to YouTube and they can figure it out. Nevertheless, YouTube recommends using MP4 and encoded with the codec.
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Your job is not done after you’ve filmed, edited, and published your video on YouTube. In order to help it get discovered, you’ll need to understand what will drive your audience to click and watch your video as opposed to all the other videos on YouTube.
By performing video optimization and sharing your content in communities interested in what you are creating, you can increase the chances that your video will be seen.
1. Tips for Writing the Best Title for YouTube Video
When coming up with titles for your YouTube video, you should always have your keyword research-ready on hand for reference.
YouTube keyword crawlers read from top to bottom, so it is most effective to have your keywords at the beginning of the title. Strive to build click-worthy titles that inspire curiosity, evoke an emotion, or offer a benefit.
Example:
Good: How to Deep Fry Chicken
Better: Deep Frying Chicken That’s Better Than KFC
While you have 100 characters to work with, anything beyond 70 characters will be truncated by YouTube.
Caution: Always deliver what your title is selling. Misleading viewers can cause mistrust in your content and will turn people off your channel.
2. Tips for Writing the Best Description for YouTube Video
Treat the description as a short synopsis for your video with the keywords strategically placed at the beginning. Include a URL to your website or blog and have any other supporting information or links.
Also, the description is where you can include some boilerplate channel information.
You have 5,000 characters to work with, but only the first three lines will be above the fold.
Pro Tip: If your video is on the longer end (over 20 minutes) or has multiple sections, then you should consider adding timestamps in the description to help the viewer skip to the spot they are most interested in.
3. Tips for Writing the Best Tags for YouTube Video
Keeping that keyword research handy write 5-15 tags. Start with specific keywords, then move into general keywords, and then branded keywords.
Specific keywords: how to deep fry chicken
General keywords: fried chicken recipe
Branded keywords: KFC
4. Tips for Designing the Best Thumbnail Image
Customize thumbnails: It is recommended that you take some time to customize a thumbnail image for your video. This is the first impression and you want to entice the viewer to click and watch.
YouTube auto-selects your thumbnail from a random position on your timeline, so it isn’t mandatory to create a thumbnail, however, the image YouTube selects might not be what you want to use to attract your audience.
Use photo editing software: To control how you want an image to look, you will need to choose a photo editing software. Wondershare PixStudio is a good choice that provides various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc.
Have a consistent look: By having consistency, people will begin to recognize your thumbnails and even getting them excited to watch your video.
Pro Tips:
- Avoid using YouTube’s randomly selected thumbnail. Personalize it to stay consistent with your brand.
- Don’t clutter thumbnails. Less is more.
- Make fonts big if you are going to use text.
- Thumbnails have to have context, what is their story? Deliver on that promise.
- Using emotive faces have shown to appeal to people’s emotional cues and increases the likelihood of them clicking.
- Thumbnail file size should be 1280 x 720
5. Closed Captions and Uploading a Transcript
There are two key reasons why it is worth your time to use closed captions or upload a transcript for your YouTube videos.
- Having closed captions improves the video’s SEO, as Google indexes and crawls the keywords.
- For those that don’t want to or can’t hear the audio will appreciate having closed caption to allow them to enjoy the content.
6. How to Share Your Video with Social Media
Unless you have a huge social media following, it will be challenging to get many views from those channels at the start.
Grow your social media channel gradually by targeting your ideal viewer persona and hashtagging your content. On social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, keep producing content for them, but don’t forget to share content from other YouTubers. If you see a cool video relevant to your audience, share it as well.
Lead your followers to your YouTube channel with content designed specifically for your social media channel. For example, Instagram Stories are a great way to engage directly with your followers, giving them a sneak peek or letting them know that your latest YouTube videos are up. You can even link directly to your YouTube channel from your Instagram story.
YouTuber, Caspar Lee
Join groups on social networks such as Facebook, Reddit, etc. and engage in conversations that are related or complementary to your YouTube channel. The key is to find communities that are interested in the content you are producing, but approach those groups with caution and ensure that anything you share won’t be perceived as spam.
Conclusion
There you go, now you have made your first YouTube video. It might be something you are incredibly proud of or it might have been a great learning experience. It might have gone without a hitch or you might have encountered obstacles you weren’t anticipating. Either way, you followed through and we are happy for you.
Now, get ready for the next one. The job of a YouTuber is never complete as there is always another video to make. By executing what we taught you in this guide, you now have the foundation to grow your channel. Good luck!
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
After all the planning and brainstorming, you are ready to create a YouTube channel. You have spent countless hours watching videos and aspiring to be a creator. You know it will be work, but you are passionate. You are willing to learn. You are ready!
YouTube fame is in your future, but where do you start?
In this guide, we’ll start at the beginning, at the point before you even have a YouTube channel. From there, we will walk you through your content strategy and properly prepare you for the journey of creating videos for a massive YouTube following. Then we will wrap it up by teaching you the best practices for YouTube video optimization, ensuring that all your efforts will lead to the best results.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Okay, there is a lot to cover, so enough small talk. Let’s get started.
Part 1: Setting Up Your YouTube Channel
Before you start making awesome videos, you got to set up your YouTube account. Activating YouTube is pretty straightforward if you already have a Google account. The odds are you have already set one up to subscribe to all your favorite channels. If not, here are the steps:
Step 1: Sign in to YouTube with your Google account
Step 2: Access YouTube Creator Studio to Activate YouTube
Step 3: Create a Channel
1. Picking a YouTube Channel Name
A YouTube channel name is beneficial to your channel’s growth if selected strategically. It can separate you from all the other channels on the platform, it can help the viewers understand what your channel is all about, and it will represent you and your brand. When naming your channel, here are 3 things to remember:
- Memorable: You’d want a name that sticks in people’s brains. Picking a name that is hard to forget will be a huge advantage for you while growing your channel. But what makes a name memorable?
- Alliteration and assonance: By using the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds, you create a fluidity to the name. examples: Pewdiepie, GoPro, or League of Legend.
- Fun to say: Some words stay in the brain because it is simply pleasurable to say. It could have a genuine meaning or it can be an abstract word. Commonly these names have one of these sharp, biting consonants: C, K, Q, X, or Z. examples: Markiplier, Kwebbelkop, Squeezie, and Vox.
- Abbreviations: A name can have a greater meaning, but long names might not be catchy, therefore, you should abbreviate it to a few memorable letters. Examples: TED ED, TGFbro, ERB, and FBE.
- Longer Phrases: You may think that having a long name may be hard to remember, but sometimes, depending on your channel, a snappy phrase works. Example: How It Should Have Ended, You Always Win, and People Are Awesome.
- Your Name Plus Descriptor: Combining two words effectively can make a name more memorable like Markiplier (Mark + Multiplier), LaurDIY (Lauren and she makes DIY projects), and Shameless Maya (Maya and she’s shameless).
- Unique: Be creative with your name, especially if your real name is generic. YouTube is a crowded space and if you simply call your channel: Jake, not only will you be competing with all the creators named Jake, but also all the content with Jake as the keywords.
Also, avoid generic names that are based around your channel topics. For example, Fashion Talk sounds like a good name, but if you do a quick search you will see that it is a crowded space with vloggers, keynote presentations, and product reviews.
If you are starting a fashion channel why not try to find a link between your name and the topic? The connection between two different things often spawns something creative: Fabric Feud, for example. Just by the name, I know this channel will contain interesting perspectives on garments.
- Keep it Simple: In the end, simplicity is the way to go. Don’t make it hard to type or hard to remember: cantunderstandthistopic88768 is not a good name, even if it’s strange and cryptic.
If you have a simple name in mind, it’s also a good idea to do a quick search on YouTube and Google to make sure it isn’t already used or similar to another account. Additionally, it’s worth knowing whether the social media handle is available as you will need it to expand your channel.
Consider using your real full name, it’s unlikely to ever change. Many YouTubers start out with a stage name but end up growing out of it and simply using their real name later on in their journey.
We’ve summarized some creative ways of picking up a YouTube name, you can check our guide to picking YouTube Channel Name [4 Aspects]
2. Writing a YouTube Channel Description
YouTube is a search engine and the channel description can be treated much like an About page for a website. That is why keywords are important when composing the channel description.
What are YouTube SEO keywords?
Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they are typing into the search engine to find content. Without the right keywords, your audience may never find your videos.
If you want to start discovering new keywords for your YouTube channel, you can use Ubersuggest . This tool shows you the search volume (how frequently it is searched for) as well as how competitive (how many other channels are using it) the keyword is.
Heighten your chance of discoverability by putting keywords as close to the beginning of the description as possible. Later on in this post, we will go through how to properly conduct a keyword strategy. Hang tight.
In addition to keywords, you should also introduce who you are and what the channel is about. Give them a reason to care about your channel, how is it different than all the other ones on YouTube? Why are you the best person to be producing the content on your channel?
Then encourage the viewers to subscribe if they are interested in what the channel offers: education, entertainment, adventure, or something they can’t get anywhere else. It’s your channel, sell it.
Finally supply some extra details, including when to expect videos to be published and other social platforms where you are active on. If someone is reading your YouTube description , you have already hooked them. Here is your chance to reel them in with your channel’s purpose.
3. Creating the Perfect Logo for Your YouTube Channel
#1. What Icon Should You Use for YouTube?
You may choose an icon that best represents the content your channel is producing. For example, if your channel is about technology, you can have an icon of a robot or an iPhone. This way, when viewers only see your icon, they have an idea that they can expect content around tech.
Here are some websites in which you can download logos and icons for YouTube videos .
#2. What Color Should Your YouTube Logo Be?
When creating your logo, avoid trendy colors as they may go out of style. Instead, consider the psychology of color .
What emotions do you want your channel to evoke to your viewers?
Answering this question helps you develop a consistent branding that applies to all your content as your channel grows. Blue evokes calm and trust, whereas, red is known to increase heart rate and is associated with danger. Before you select a color scheme, know how you want your audience to feel.
#3. What Font Should Your YouTube Logo Have?
While YouTube doesn’t offer a lot of real-estate for text, you might still want to include the name of your brand on your logo.
Potentially, the font you choose for your logo will also be the font for the text that appears on your YouTube videos and your channel art. With that in mind, it is important that you pick one that works best for you at the start. Here are some details to look for when selecting a font.
Legibility: Does the font get too hard to read the smaller it gets? It’s not uncommon for some fonts to become a messy blur once the size is reduced on desktop and mobile.
Simplicity: The most important thing about the font is its readability. If it looks like your doctor’s handwriting, then it might not be the best choice.
Consistency: Placed next to your icon, does the font look natural? You might not want to put an icon of a robot next to a font that looks like calligraphy.
#4. How Should You Design Your YouTube Logo?
Do you really need borders or supporting texts? I ask because the more you have on your logo, the less space it will have to stand out.
White space is your friend, it keeps the viewer’s attention focused on what matters and keeps the design uncluttered.
Save your logo as a vector so that you have the ability to scale without losing the image’s quality.
I get it, you are here to make a YouTube channel, not to design a logo. You’re not a designer. Don’t fret, we have a bunch of free logo making tools for you to create an awesome logo.
If you don’t want to create a logo or if the channel is of your own personal brand, then use a quality photograph or headshot of yourself. Doing so allows people to see who you are and develop an instant connection with you.
#5. What Makes A Good YouTube Channel Banner?
Your YouTube banner, or sometimes known as the channel art, is the cover page for your YouTube channel.
While the old adage tells us not to judge anything by the cover, in a world where we have a surplus of content, it is something we all must do for the sake of our time. If we see channel art that doesn’t appeal to us or doesn’t match the video content created, it is jarring. We are distracted from what matters and left questioning why we are on this channel in the first place.
Alternatively, if YouTube channel art is well designed and matches the aesthetic of the channel, then it can inspire your viewers to watch more, share, and subscribe.
So with that said, what makes a great YouTube banner?
Sizing: YouTube comes with sizing recommendations . The size they suggest is because of all the different devices viewers use to consume content.
You cannot control where and how your viewers consume your content. They can be watching on desktop, smartphone, tablet, or tv via Apple TV or Chromecast. That is why it is so important to have a responsive design: appropriate sizing and layout ensures that nothing important is cut off.
Less is more: There is already a lot happening on your YouTube channel page. Crowding your channel art will add more chaos than clarity. Additionally, since the design will shift from device to device, you may lose elements of the design if it is overcrowded.
Keep it in the middle: By keeping all the design elements and text within the safe zone, you can assure nothing will be cut out even if it is viewed on a less than optimal screen. It is a shame when you see that a headline is cut out and you cannot read the whole banner. Use YouTube’s template to help guide your design and ensure that everything important is visible.
High-resolution images: Nothing shouts “I’m an amateur” like having a pixelated image for your banner. Setting a high standard for images at the start will ensure that your whole channel will look professional from the beginning.
Take a go at creating your own channel art with some great YouTube design tools such as Canva and Crello.
Don’t have time to design at the moment? Download 50 free YouTube banner that we created to help busy creators like yourself get a professional page up and running right away.
Part 2: Building Out a YouTube Content Plan
Now that you know how to create a YouTube channel, you will need content to fill it up.
There are many factors to having success on YouTube and one has always been delivering content consistently. You may feel at this moment, that your brain is storming with ideas, but believe me, you don’t want to get caught in a drought. The way to avoid major blockers for your channel is to have a content plan at the onset.
A content plan helps guide you towards the mission, the reason you are building this YouTube channel in the first place.
Topics: Your YouTube channel will be focused on one broad topic, whether it be fashion, health, food, etc. It is hard to fly on a whim with a topic that covers such a wide scope. Creating content for these topics will require preparations and that’s why the earlier you have the content ideas for your video the more time you’ll have to research, rehearse, and get the best result.
Begin with a blank piece of paper and break down your topic into 5-10 different categories. If you have a channel about cooking, it may look something like this: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack, etc.
From there, you can drill down more and explore specific topics such as “cheap meals,” “street food,” , etc. Niching down allows those who are looking for a more specific piece of content to find your material. Also, when one specific piece of content performs well, it will give a boost to all the other content related to that broader topic.
Researching Your Ideas: Now that you have a big list of ideas, it’s time to do some research. With so many idea options, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the work ahead, but stay focused and tackle one idea at a time.
When it comes to videos, discoverability is an important aspect of everything you create. You aren’t only competing with other YouTube channels, you are competing with everything in the world that can turn your viewer away from your channel. That is why you should make it as easy as possible for your content to be discovered.
Pro Tip: Search on YouTube and see if there is already a video for the idea you have. By taking a quick look at what content is out there, you can see who you’ll be competing with and determine if it is worth pursuing. If there are already a lot of existing videos on that topic, it might be too hard to for people find your content at first.
Keyword Research: For each of your ideas, you will want to conduct extensive keyword research. This research will help dictate the tags, titles, and descriptions of your videos once they are ready to publish.
There are a few ways to conduct keyword research, but we suggest using free online tools to help cut down the time spent.
1. Free tools
Ubersuggest : Type in a keyword and Ubersuggest will populate with related terms that you can use in your strategy.
Google Trends : Examine the historical trends of a keyword and determine its popularity in Google search and how it is affected annually and seasonally. Google Trends is also a good tool for seeing which topics are trending. By understanding this, you can plan your content around the hottest trends and ride the wave.
YouTube search bar : Enter your keyword into the YouTube search bar and the platform will automatically suggest the most popular searches with your keywords.
VidIQ : See what keywords other popular videos in your niche are using.
Google Adwords : Created as an advertising platform, Google Adwords also has a tool called Keyword Planner that allows you to see the monthly search traffic and the level of competition for each keyword. This tool is extremely useful for trimming down your long list of keyword ideas.
2. What Are Some Value-adding Content for YouTube?
Inspirational, educational, and entertaining: these are 3 resonating types of content as defined by Google for a YouTube audience.
Inspirational content that triggers an emotion in your audience. These content lean on good storytelling and relatable or unique experiences.
Educational content teaches the audience how to accomplish a task, improve a skill set, and discover new products or ideas.
Entertaining content is an escape for the audience. It allows them to sit back and enjoy your content and forget about what they have to deal with in real life.
You might be interested in:
3. Set Up a Content Calendar to Be Consistent on YouTube
A common issue for many YouTubers is consistency and accountability. Without a proper routine and schedule, YouTubers will end up procrastinating and publishing whenever they finish their content.
In order to properly establish an audience for your channel, there needs to be consistency and that is why it is so important to have a content calendar to affirm when a piece of content is due to be published, thus giving the creator a good idea of when to start each step of the process to meet publishing date.
There are many ways to build out a content calendar, you can simply use a spreadsheet, a calendar, or you can use other management/organization tools such as Trello or Asana . We recommend using Google Sheet and Google Calendar to start, as it is free and easy to use.
Since you are starting out, we suggest that you plan on a monthly basis, as it’ll allow you to be flexible to trending topics and adjust to insights that you’ll acquire as you analyze your content’s performance.
Part 3: Producing Your Content
Now that you have a plan it is time to start producing your content. There are many ways to approach this, as different types of channels will have different processes for researching, capturing footage, and editing.
Planning: It doesn’t have to be a fully flushed script, but any bit of planning before hitting the record button will help you prepare some valuable content to be captured. It can be an outline, breaking down the topics you want to touch on.
If it’s a food YouTube channel, you’d want the recipe and all the ingredients ready on hand. Mise en place is the French phrase that chefs use meaning “everything in its place” or having everything they need on hand so when dinner rush comes preparation is done and now they are ready to produce. This same mentality works when preparing to shoot a YouTube video. The more you prepare the easier the shoot and the editing will be.
Equipment: At the start, you can get everything done on your smartphone. But that does depend on what your channel is going to be about and who your target audiences are. If you want to film some simple sketches to entertain people, yes, a smartphone camera can work for start. But if you are reaching a professional crowd or want to appear credible, then it might be worth it to invest in a better camera, audio, and lighting equipment.
Filming/Capturing: Always do some checks before shooting your YouTube videos as bad camera angles, poor audio quality, inadequate lighting are all easier to fix before rather than after the filming. Additionally, set a reminder to backup your footage and charge your batteries after every shoot and have an extension cord or a separate hard drive ready.
Editing: Over time, you will develop your own editing style. At the start, it is best to learn the fundamentals and improve on the basics.
Selecting the software: Some video editing software programs are free and others cost a lot. Do your research, sign up for free trials, and understand the limitations of the applications and the requirements you need. If money is a factor, you might want to stick with the free options such as iMovie or affordable options such as Filmora .
Storytelling: Skilled editing enables YouTube creators to tell the story in the most effective way. This does not mean in chronological order. Think of what will hook the audience right away and what will be most impactful at the very end. Pro-tip: Use pre-set transitions sparingly, jump cuts are often the most effective and least distracting. Editing is an invisible art.
Text, graphic or special effects: Video is a show that doesn’t tell medium, so use text sparingly. People aren’t going to your channel to read. However, text when used properly compliments the video and supplies context. Graphics and special effects are good when they support the story you are telling and cheesy when used egregiously to impress the viewer.
Export to the right format: You can pretty much upload any video format to YouTube and they can figure it out. Nevertheless, YouTube recommends using MP4 and encoded with the codec.
Part 4: Optimizing and Distributing Your YouTube Video
Your job is not done after you’ve filmed, edited, and published your video on YouTube. In order to help it get discovered, you’ll need to understand what will drive your audience to click and watch your video as opposed to all the other videos on YouTube.
By performing video optimization and sharing your content in communities interested in what you are creating, you can increase the chances that your video will be seen.
1. Tips for Writing the Best Title for YouTube Video
When coming up with titles for your YouTube video, you should always have your keyword research-ready on hand for reference.
YouTube keyword crawlers read from top to bottom, so it is most effective to have your keywords at the beginning of the title. Strive to build click-worthy titles that inspire curiosity, evoke an emotion, or offer a benefit.
Example:
Good: How to Deep Fry Chicken
Better: Deep Frying Chicken That’s Better Than KFC
While you have 100 characters to work with, anything beyond 70 characters will be truncated by YouTube.
Caution: Always deliver what your title is selling. Misleading viewers can cause mistrust in your content and will turn people off your channel.
2. Tips for Writing the Best Description for YouTube Video
Treat the description as a short synopsis for your video with the keywords strategically placed at the beginning. Include a URL to your website or blog and have any other supporting information or links.
Also, the description is where you can include some boilerplate channel information.
You have 5,000 characters to work with, but only the first three lines will be above the fold.
Pro Tip: If your video is on the longer end (over 20 minutes) or has multiple sections, then you should consider adding timestamps in the description to help the viewer skip to the spot they are most interested in.
3. Tips for Writing the Best Tags for YouTube Video
Keeping that keyword research handy write 5-15 tags. Start with specific keywords, then move into general keywords, and then branded keywords.
Specific keywords: how to deep fry chicken
General keywords: fried chicken recipe
Branded keywords: KFC
4. Tips for Designing the Best Thumbnail Image
Customize thumbnails: It is recommended that you take some time to customize a thumbnail image for your video. This is the first impression and you want to entice the viewer to click and watch.
YouTube auto-selects your thumbnail from a random position on your timeline, so it isn’t mandatory to create a thumbnail, however, the image YouTube selects might not be what you want to use to attract your audience.
Use photo editing software: To control how you want an image to look, you will need to choose a photo editing software. Wondershare PixStudio is a good choice that provides various types of templates for YouTube Thumbnails, Logos, Posters, etc.
Have a consistent look: By having consistency, people will begin to recognize your thumbnails and even getting them excited to watch your video.
Pro Tips:
- Avoid using YouTube’s randomly selected thumbnail. Personalize it to stay consistent with your brand.
- Don’t clutter thumbnails. Less is more.
- Make fonts big if you are going to use text.
- Thumbnails have to have context, what is their story? Deliver on that promise.
- Using emotive faces have shown to appeal to people’s emotional cues and increases the likelihood of them clicking.
- Thumbnail file size should be 1280 x 720
5. Closed Captions and Uploading a Transcript
There are two key reasons why it is worth your time to use closed captions or upload a transcript for your YouTube videos.
- Having closed captions improves the video’s SEO, as Google indexes and crawls the keywords.
- For those that don’t want to or can’t hear the audio will appreciate having closed caption to allow them to enjoy the content.
6. How to Share Your Video with Social Media
Unless you have a huge social media following, it will be challenging to get many views from those channels at the start.
Grow your social media channel gradually by targeting your ideal viewer persona and hashtagging your content. On social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, keep producing content for them, but don’t forget to share content from other YouTubers. If you see a cool video relevant to your audience, share it as well.
Lead your followers to your YouTube channel with content designed specifically for your social media channel. For example, Instagram Stories are a great way to engage directly with your followers, giving them a sneak peek or letting them know that your latest YouTube videos are up. You can even link directly to your YouTube channel from your Instagram story.
YouTuber, Caspar Lee
Join groups on social networks such as Facebook, Reddit, etc. and engage in conversations that are related or complementary to your YouTube channel. The key is to find communities that are interested in the content you are producing, but approach those groups with caution and ensure that anything you share won’t be perceived as spam.
Conclusion
There you go, now you have made your first YouTube video. It might be something you are incredibly proud of or it might have been a great learning experience. It might have gone without a hitch or you might have encountered obstacles you weren’t anticipating. Either way, you followed through and we are happy for you.
Now, get ready for the next one. The job of a YouTuber is never complete as there is always another video to make. By executing what we taught you in this guide, you now have the foundation to grow your channel. Good luck!
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Youtube Shorts Earning Strategies: What You Need, How Much You Can Make
YouTube Shorts have grown in popularity since the launch of the platform in 2021. At first, they offered a way for creators to share their content in a vertical format. However, YouTube Shorts monetization is also a great way for creators to earn money. When you monetize YouTube shorts, you increase the potential of earning more income on the platform. In this article, we explore what entails monetized YouTube shorts and how to increase your YT shorts earnings.
YouTube Shorts Monetization A cross-platform offers useful features for making your YouTube videos stand out to earn more revenue!
Free Download Free Download Learn More
Part 1. YouTube Shorts Monetization: Eligibility Criteria
With short monetization options, you can monetize your short-firm content by joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Being a member of this program gives you access to all tools for making money on YouTube. This includes the ability to place ads on your videos or make money directly from your audience through fan funding.
Eligibility Requirements for Monetizing Shorts
The easiest way to monetize Shorts on YouTube is to access the fan-funding program. This program gives you access to special tools that you can use to generate revenue by interacting with views. This is a great option for creators who primarily make short-form videos. The requirements for this option are as follows:
- At least 500 subscribers to your channels
- At least 3 public video uploads in the last 90 days
- At least 3,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days, or
- At least 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days
Eligibility for Monetizing Shorts and Videos
The other way you can monetize shorts is by accessing ad revenue and fan-funding. With this option, you will generate income from ads that appear between Shorts in addition to interacting with viewers. This is a great option for creators who make long and short videos. The requirements for this include:
- At least 1,000 subscribers to your channels
- At least 4,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days, or
- At least 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days
Additional Guidelines for Creators
Once you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be required to follow certain guidelines or policies to continue earning. The additional guidelines include:
- Follow YouTube’s Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines
- Make sure your channel does not have active Community Guidelines Strikes
- Live in a region where the program is available
- Avoid uploading another creator’s content by transforming the content or adding a new perspective to it
- Avoid using unedited clips from TV shows or movies that you don’t have rights to
- Don’t pay for fake or automated views
- Turn on 2-Step verification for your Google Account
- Have an active AdSense account
- Have access to advanced YouTube features by verifying your identity
Part 2. Monetizing YouTube Shorts: Step-by-Step Guide
Can you monetize YouTube shorts? Yes, in more than one way. The easiest is through the ad-revenue sharing model. Follow these steps to become part of the YPP and start monetizing your Shorts on YouTube:
Step 1Sign in to YouTube
Step 2Select YouTube Studio
In the top right of the YouTube page, click on your profile picture. From the pop-up menu that appears, select YouTube Studio.
Step 3In the left menu, Click on Earn
Step 4
If you are eligible for the YPP, you will see an Apply Click on it to go to the next step. If you are not yet eligible, click the Get Notified button to be notified once your channel becomes eligible. That’s when you will have the opportunity to finish the application process.
Step 5
Click Start to review and accept YouTube’s Base terms.
Step 6
Link your existing AdSense account if you have one. If not. Click Start to set up a new one.
Step 7
Wait for YouTube to review and approve your application. The process will normally take a month. Once you are approved for the YPP, go to the Earn section in YouTube Studio. Then accept the Shorts Monetization Module. This will allow you to access ads and other money-making tools on YouTube.
The instructions shared above are for applying for the YPP using a computer or desktop. You will still follow the same steps when using a mobile device, but you will do so using the YouTube Studio app.
The money-making feature monetizes Shorts in exciting ways. To start monetizing with Super Thanks fan funding, click Supers on the Earn tab in YouTube Studio. Then click Get Started, and follow the presented prompts. The same process is applicable for Channel Memberships, and other fan-funding options.
Part 3. YouTube Shorts Monetization: A Realistic Look at Earnings Potential
Monetizing YouTube Shorts has the potential to make decent earnings. Although the amount is not as much as a long-form videos, it is a great way of making money on YouTube quickly. Most YouTube Shorts creators agree that the revenue per thousand views (RPM) for short-form content is currently around $0.05 - $0.07. This means that for a million Shorts views, you will make $50 - $70.
Factors That Influence Earnings
The amount of money you make on YouTube Shorts is not fixed. It will depend on several factors, including the revenue channel and your interactions with viewers
- Ad revenue: A higher view count on Shorts increases ad revenue from the ads that are between Shorts on the platform.
- Viewer engagement: Viewer engagement brings in additional revenue through features like Super Thanks.
- Number of monetized Shorts: Monetizing most of your short-form videos will increase the revenue generated.
- Shopping Revenue: How well you promote your products and the set price point of the products will determine the shopping revenue generated.
Examples of Creators Who Have Earned from Shorts
The revenue-sharing program is the easiest way for creators to earn money on YouTube. Since monetizing their Shorts, these creators earned some decent bonus amounts:
- Hassan Khadair (2.1 million subscribers) - Earned $872.14 in ads from 22 million Shorts views
- Riley Lemon (84,000 subscribers) - Earned $76.23 in ads from 1.9 million Shorts views
- James Seo (573,000 subscribers) - Earned $445.09 in ads from 10.3 million Shorts views
- Matthew King (212,000 subscribers) - Earned $163.73 in ads from 4.2 million Shorts views
Part 4. Editing YouTube Shorts with WonderShare to Boost Revenue Potential
The best way to reap big from Shorts YouTube monetization is to make quality videos that will go viral easily. Videos that generate more views will earn you more revenue and increase the number of subscribers within a short time. With Wondershare Filmora, making such videos is easy. The video editing software offers useful features for making your videos stand out. From jaw-dropping sports videos to cinema-like production, the choice of options is endless.
Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)
Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later
The choice of Filmora features you use on your editing projects will depend on your goals. Here are a few favorites to get you started:
1. Auto Reframe
Before uploading a short-form video on YouTube, you want to make sure it is of the right resolution. The Auto Reframe feature on Filmora allows you to instantly resize your videos while keeping all the important details. You only need to record one video for all platforms, and edit to fit with auto reframe.
2. Text to Speech
Narration is an important aspect of YouTube Shorts. You can tell what is happening in the clip in the simplest way for your audience to understand. The Text to Speech (TTS) feature on Filmora allows you to convert your text files to voice-over. This makes your Shorts video more entertaining and enriched with more elements.
3. AI Portrait
Just like other vertical social media videos, Shorts require some bit of personalization. You may want to add a bit of elements or filters. The AI Portrait feature automatically removes background with high accuracy to further enhance your videos. It also comes with over 70 portrait and sticker effects to bring out the mood you are going after. Automatically recognize the faces of your subjects and add AR stickers on the go.
Conclusion
YouTube Shorts have become immensely popular. They tend to have a higher ROI and receive more engagement compared to long-form video content. This makes vertical short-form videos more important and lucrative for content creators. When it comes to YouTube short video monetization, posting quality videos is the key ingredient. We recommend using Wondershare FIlmora to edit your videos. This will make sure they are more entertaining and keep more people engaged.
Free Download Free Download Learn More
Part 1. YouTube Shorts Monetization: Eligibility Criteria
With short monetization options, you can monetize your short-firm content by joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Being a member of this program gives you access to all tools for making money on YouTube. This includes the ability to place ads on your videos or make money directly from your audience through fan funding.
Eligibility Requirements for Monetizing Shorts
The easiest way to monetize Shorts on YouTube is to access the fan-funding program. This program gives you access to special tools that you can use to generate revenue by interacting with views. This is a great option for creators who primarily make short-form videos. The requirements for this option are as follows:
- At least 500 subscribers to your channels
- At least 3 public video uploads in the last 90 days
- At least 3,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days, or
- At least 3 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days
Eligibility for Monetizing Shorts and Videos
The other way you can monetize shorts is by accessing ad revenue and fan-funding. With this option, you will generate income from ads that appear between Shorts in addition to interacting with viewers. This is a great option for creators who make long and short videos. The requirements for this include:
- At least 1,000 subscribers to your channels
- At least 4,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days, or
- At least 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days
Additional Guidelines for Creators
Once you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be required to follow certain guidelines or policies to continue earning. The additional guidelines include:
- Follow YouTube’s Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines
- Make sure your channel does not have active Community Guidelines Strikes
- Live in a region where the program is available
- Avoid uploading another creator’s content by transforming the content or adding a new perspective to it
- Avoid using unedited clips from TV shows or movies that you don’t have rights to
- Don’t pay for fake or automated views
- Turn on 2-Step verification for your Google Account
- Have an active AdSense account
- Have access to advanced YouTube features by verifying your identity
Part 2. Monetizing YouTube Shorts: Step-by-Step Guide
Can you monetize YouTube shorts? Yes, in more than one way. The easiest is through the ad-revenue sharing model. Follow these steps to become part of the YPP and start monetizing your Shorts on YouTube:
Step 1Sign in to YouTube
Step 2Select YouTube Studio
In the top right of the YouTube page, click on your profile picture. From the pop-up menu that appears, select YouTube Studio.
Step 3In the left menu, Click on Earn
Step 4
If you are eligible for the YPP, you will see an Apply Click on it to go to the next step. If you are not yet eligible, click the Get Notified button to be notified once your channel becomes eligible. That’s when you will have the opportunity to finish the application process.
Step 5
Click Start to review and accept YouTube’s Base terms.
Step 6
Link your existing AdSense account if you have one. If not. Click Start to set up a new one.
Step 7
Wait for YouTube to review and approve your application. The process will normally take a month. Once you are approved for the YPP, go to the Earn section in YouTube Studio. Then accept the Shorts Monetization Module. This will allow you to access ads and other money-making tools on YouTube.
The instructions shared above are for applying for the YPP using a computer or desktop. You will still follow the same steps when using a mobile device, but you will do so using the YouTube Studio app.
The money-making feature monetizes Shorts in exciting ways. To start monetizing with Super Thanks fan funding, click Supers on the Earn tab in YouTube Studio. Then click Get Started, and follow the presented prompts. The same process is applicable for Channel Memberships, and other fan-funding options.
Part 3. YouTube Shorts Monetization: A Realistic Look at Earnings Potential
Monetizing YouTube Shorts has the potential to make decent earnings. Although the amount is not as much as a long-form videos, it is a great way of making money on YouTube quickly. Most YouTube Shorts creators agree that the revenue per thousand views (RPM) for short-form content is currently around $0.05 - $0.07. This means that for a million Shorts views, you will make $50 - $70.
Factors That Influence Earnings
The amount of money you make on YouTube Shorts is not fixed. It will depend on several factors, including the revenue channel and your interactions with viewers
- Ad revenue: A higher view count on Shorts increases ad revenue from the ads that are between Shorts on the platform.
- Viewer engagement: Viewer engagement brings in additional revenue through features like Super Thanks.
- Number of monetized Shorts: Monetizing most of your short-form videos will increase the revenue generated.
- Shopping Revenue: How well you promote your products and the set price point of the products will determine the shopping revenue generated.
Examples of Creators Who Have Earned from Shorts
The revenue-sharing program is the easiest way for creators to earn money on YouTube. Since monetizing their Shorts, these creators earned some decent bonus amounts:
- Hassan Khadair (2.1 million subscribers) - Earned $872.14 in ads from 22 million Shorts views
- Riley Lemon (84,000 subscribers) - Earned $76.23 in ads from 1.9 million Shorts views
- James Seo (573,000 subscribers) - Earned $445.09 in ads from 10.3 million Shorts views
- Matthew King (212,000 subscribers) - Earned $163.73 in ads from 4.2 million Shorts views
Part 4. Editing YouTube Shorts with WonderShare to Boost Revenue Potential
The best way to reap big from Shorts YouTube monetization is to make quality videos that will go viral easily. Videos that generate more views will earn you more revenue and increase the number of subscribers within a short time. With Wondershare Filmora, making such videos is easy. The video editing software offers useful features for making your videos stand out. From jaw-dropping sports videos to cinema-like production, the choice of options is endless.
Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)
Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later
The choice of Filmora features you use on your editing projects will depend on your goals. Here are a few favorites to get you started:
1. Auto Reframe
Before uploading a short-form video on YouTube, you want to make sure it is of the right resolution. The Auto Reframe feature on Filmora allows you to instantly resize your videos while keeping all the important details. You only need to record one video for all platforms, and edit to fit with auto reframe.
2. Text to Speech
Narration is an important aspect of YouTube Shorts. You can tell what is happening in the clip in the simplest way for your audience to understand. The Text to Speech (TTS) feature on Filmora allows you to convert your text files to voice-over. This makes your Shorts video more entertaining and enriched with more elements.
3. AI Portrait
Just like other vertical social media videos, Shorts require some bit of personalization. You may want to add a bit of elements or filters. The AI Portrait feature automatically removes background with high accuracy to further enhance your videos. It also comes with over 70 portrait and sticker effects to bring out the mood you are going after. Automatically recognize the faces of your subjects and add AR stickers on the go.
Conclusion
YouTube Shorts have become immensely popular. They tend to have a higher ROI and receive more engagement compared to long-form video content. This makes vertical short-form videos more important and lucrative for content creators. When it comes to YouTube short video monetization, posting quality videos is the key ingredient. We recommend using Wondershare FIlmora to edit your videos. This will make sure they are more entertaining and keep more people engaged.
- Title: "2024 Approved How to Create A YouTube Channel Today"
- Author: Joseph
- Created at : 2024-05-31 13:40:58
- Updated at : 2024-06-01 13:40:58
- Link: https://youtube-stream.techidaily.com/2024-approved-how-to-create-a-youtube-channel-today/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
