How to create a YouTube channel? Tips to get you started

We discussed in our previous article the aspects that should be considered for anyone who wants to start a podcast to share their thoughts with the world. This time we dream big and add visuals to the audio experience. Channels that have been producing quality content continuously since YouTube’s early days have gained millions of followers. Some say that the market is so saturated that there is no point in getting started because you are just lost among millions of videographers. Still, week after week, a channel can run up from one moment to the next, either thanks to the perfect strategy or the lucky combination of coincidences.

Of course, the latter cannot be influenced. Something can happen at any time that will get a lot of people to your channel (for example, a famous influencer mentions you on some surface) or even drag the statistical indicators into the depths (for example, the YouTube algorithm changes and your content reaches only a fraction of the previously usual mass). At the same time, if you do everything yourself to succeed and use the best tricks, your chances may multiply.

According to a 2020 statement, more than half of the world’s population already uses social media. Since the pandemic began, spending time on social media has doubled among adults. They have opened up faster than average to new platforms, and the number of YouTube viewership hours has been overgrowing. The volume of channels with more than one million subscribers already doubled in 2018 compared to the previous year. By the beginning of 2019, the platform had surpassed two billion monthly active user base. It is currently the second most popular search engine in the world. So while it’s true that channels are increasing, there are more potential viewers, and if trends remain, video-sharing can grow incomprehensible over the next five to ten years.

Therefore, if someone takes his time now, then in a few years he will have a good chance of re harvesting the fruits of his work.

Who’s going to watch?

Before you get started, it’s essential to identify the target group you want to address. It doesn’t matter what age and interests you want to make videos for because if your goal is to attract interest, you’ll need to tailor the content to them. If you’re wondering what channel to make, it’s best to choose the one you’d like to watch yourself. Consequently, you can deal with topics that interest you in video anyway, i.e., you connect the pleasant with the useful, and there is a level of quality that you want to hit right away. It’s easier to find common ground with your viewers for people with similar interests. Don’t just start a “How to Raise Your Tamagochi” channel because it’s spinning on YouTube right now. If you don’t enjoy videotaping, viewers will notice, and they’ll be looking for different entertainment in a short time.

Create a YouTube channel.

If you have a Google Account, chances are you already have a YouTube channel. Of course, it’s not necessarily a good idea to sacrifice your profile for this, and it’s much better to create a separate channel. Of course, it can still run under your name, but as with podcasts, it’s a better idea to come up with a name. It makes it easy to deduce what content the viewer encounters, but it also doesn’t limit you if you expand your portfolio in the future. If you are building a brand or if more than one person manages the channel, it is recommended that you immediately choose a “business” account. In this case, you can log in with your email address and grant editorial rights to others. It is recommended that you make the most important settings from the very beginning. Upload a profile picture and banner, enter an email address as contact information, and attach a brief description so that anyone who strays into your channel can see what they’re dealing with right away.

You can lynch your most important profiles from other social media sites, but more importantly, provide the channel with the right keywords, as it’s the easiest way for potential viewers to find you.

Design your content!

Coming up with a new video week after week is not easy. Of course, sometimes you come up with a brilliant idea out of nowhere and implement the concept right away, but it’s much better to plan for the long term from the beginning and collect the potential videos you want to make anyway. You can then constantly expand this list, and if you scroll through it in front of you, there will always be something to touch, even when you’re not thinking about anything topical. Don’t make content just because you have to: if you’re forced to sit in front of the camera, it’ll show you the result, but if something used to seem like a good idea, chances are you’ll be happy to pick it up later.

If you create a channel just for your entertainment, it almost doesn’t matter what you’re contenting about. Still, if you see YouTube as a career opportunity, a potential livelihood, you’d be better off choosing a niche theme with many untapped potentials. YouTube is a massive search engine, and 65 percent of users go to the platform not only because they have a few extra hours but also to get answers to your questions. In many cases, the viewer does not care who is talking, and it is more important what he says. That’s why search-optimized content, such as tests and reviews, is scorching. When we have questions about a product, we listen to other people’s accounts on the subject.

Perhaps even more popular are the versus videos, in which two similar products are compared. Whether it’s a TV, hiking boots, or frozen green beans, many people can’t decide between two similar products, and they’re looking for videos whose creator took the time to compare them to make the decision easier.

Are they videotaped to a phone?

What tools you need to shoot depends on what content you want to produce. Many people think there is no point in getting started without an expensive camera, but surprisingly, image quality is not the most important thing. On the one hand, even though you’re shooting hyper-super 4K HDR video, YouTube’s compression algorithm will degrade quality anyway. On the other hand, 50 percent of the videos you watch are from your phone regardless. Of course, there is content that is good for you if it is tossed with beautiful clippings, but – perhaps surprisingly for many people – the image quality is only secondary. The most important thing is that the sound is okay. If we don’t understand what we’re saying because we hear the neighbor coughing, buzzing, our microphone sizzling, then the audience will turn us off before we say hello.

You can take quality shots with a mid-range phone’s camera, but you can’t get a microphone. Depending on the content, you also have plenty of options: you can work with a camera-mounted rifle microphone or a rifle microphone that can be placed somewhere outside the frame so that it doesn’t interfere with the image and movement at all, you can get a micro port that you can pinch on your clothes, but if you’re sitting at a table making talking head videos, you can use a desktop microphone to record audio. If your camera doesn’t have a microphone input, you’ll need a separate recording unit, a dictaphone (like Zoom H1), or a computer for shooting.

It also applies to podcasts, so that you can have any professional microphone, if you’re trying to shoot in a large, empty, parquet room, the best microphone will also make echo recordings. With furniture that breaks straight surfaces, carpets and curtains that dampen the sound, you can improve the end result a lot.

What image you can extract from your camera depends mainly on the lighting conditions in the rotation. Suppose you’re sitting in a dark room, or the sun is setting right behind you on the window, or you’re trying to light up with a room chandelier illuminated from the worst angle. In that case, you won’t be able to make demanding videos with your $1 million cameras. Conversely, if you illuminate yourself or your subject with a few principles in mind, you can also take very spectacular shots with a penny phone or webcam. Low light is the biggest enemy of cameras, but you don’t have to pack the studio with twenty-seven RGB LED lights and massive reflectors. To light a starter set, you can get entry-level devices for up to a few thousand forints.

Editor required

Proper editing of videos is as necessary as the raw material itself. There are plenty of cutting programs, from the free Davinci Resolve to the easy-to-use Sony Vegas to the adobe premiere pro used by the pros. The great advantage of the latter is that it is infinitely easy to transfer animations from After Effects, photoshop to images to your project. Still, the monthly subscription fee is quite busy.

The content determines the ideal length of a video. Once you reach the YouTube partnership, you can add extra ads to videos longer than 8 minutes, but don’t just submit your videos if you can tell the same story in 3 minutes anyway. There is plenty of free courses and video series available on the Internet where you can learn to cut in detail and understand even the most minor tricks that throw a lot at quality, but the most important thing is to create your style. It’s best to figure out how you want to build the story before filming, so you won’t be shooting unnecessary material, but don’t be afraid to cut out parts if they don’t add you to the video. You may have shot 10 minutes of very spectacular material with a drone from a height. Still, if you don’t add it to the story, it breaks the video momentum, stretches unnecessarily long, and makes the material dull. It’s going to be much better for viewers, and so indirectly for you, if you use as much of it as is justified.

Consistency continuity is the most important thing. You don’t have to make daily videos, but if viewers know they can expect new videos every week, they’ll watch them over and over again. Most people start the video as a hobby project with a school or full-time job, so it’s essential to divide your time well and not Overstreet but make sure the content is regular because it will attract more and more viewers.

Get started before you feel ready.

Of course, no matter how much you can prepare, plan, learn, there will always be new challenges that you will face. Things you don’t think about, whether technical or personal. Some people talk very well in front of crowds on a stage, but they freeze in front of the camera because they don’t have that practice. Or he realizes on the fly that he doesn’t want to do this, and he doesn’t want to do it that way. That’s why it helps a lot to think carefully about things, the budget for technology, your schedule, and the content structure, but you don’t wait for the perfect moment. You start as soon as possible. You may see the concept entirely differently after the first shoot.

With the half-finished project, feel free to sit in front of the camera, press the recording button, and see what’s going on, where the weakest points are. And in the future, try to be just a little bit better every week. It is enough to improve on one thing at all times, whether it is image quality, sound, polishing, environment, storytelling, or editing. If you can continuously improve, viewers will see and appreciate it. You don’t want to start ideally, but try to eliminate all mistakes over time.