Follow these steps to find your perfect audience, set up a successful channel, and become a well-paid YouTuber.
Social media experts, professional linguists and motivational speakers worldwide agree: you can’t spell “YouTube” without “you.” If you’re looking to launch your Youtube career — either just for fun or to make some serious money — these are the steps to follow.
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A Youtuber is a person who creates and posts content for the video-sharing platform YouTube.
But besides having Youtube as a platform in common, Youtubers themselves differ to the extreme. Youtubers come in every age, ethnicity, education level, area of focus and camera quality. Some Youtubers post just for fun, as a hobby or a side hustle, and others make it a full-time career.
Anyone who posts can be called a Youtuber, but the title is generally understood to mean someone who posts to the platform regularly. As with many social media sites (and also with cake), consistency is key.
There are no hard-and-fast figures for how much YouTubers make, on average, because there’s no such a thing as an average YouTuber.
YouTubers make money in many ways. A successful YouTuber might earn money from:
Most top-earning YouTubers use more than one of these methods to make money from their video content.
If we only consider income from YouTube’s Partner program, YouTube content creators earn an average of $18 per 1,000 views. Meaning, a YouTuber getting 100,000 views per month would make a very modest wage of 1,800 USD.
Every minute, there’s 694,000 hours of video being streamed on YouTube. Here’s how you can add do that.
Saying you want to be a Youtuber is like saying you want to be a scientist (though your parents are likely to be more impressed with one than the other). The first thing you need to decide: what kind? There are makeup Youtubers, family Youtubers, unboxing Youtubers, knitting Youtubers, TV recap Youtubers, scientist Youtubers (take that, mom and dad). If you can think of it, there’s a niche.
A niche is an area of expertise, and narrowing down yours will help you identify your target audience and make it easier for you to brainstorm content.
One of the best ways to pick a niche is to think about what you like — you’ll want to be making content that you’re passionate about. This is supposed to be fun! Here are a few examples.
Celeb interviews are a popular type of content on Youtube, but First We Feast puts a spicy twist on the traditional Q&A in their series “Hot Ones.”
This Youtuber Tiago Catarino exclusively reviews Lego sets, so buyers know exactly what they’re getting (and how much fun it will be to put together).
The beauty, skincare and makeup scene thrives on Youtube, and the Huda Beauty channel has found their niche in makeup tutorials.
Hopefully, you’re not just becoming a Youtuber because you love the sound of your own voice — that’s what podcasting is for. Defining what purpose, or value, your videos will have for viewers is an important beginning step.
The answer to “why,” or identifying what value your Youtube channel will have, doesn’t have to be value in the typical sense. Of course, there’s plenty of channels that offer expert knowledge, product reviews, how-to videos, tutorials and other more traditional “whys.” But your “why” can simply be to make people laugh.
Rob Kenney’s viral Dad, How Do I? channel launched with the goal of creating easy how-do videos for tasks that dads traditionally teach: think how to use a level, how to pump gas and how to fish. He’s now got over 4 million “kids” (subscribers) learning from him. Why? Because he’s teaching essential skills in an accessible way.
On another side of Youtube, we have Bad Lip Reading — the channel that dubs ridiculous lines over NFL games, Broadway productions, American politics and more. Why? Because it’s funny.
It’s likely you won’t gain thousands of Youtube subscribers or millions of views overnight. But regardless of the size of your audience, it’s essential to know who you’re creating videos for, and what sort of content they like.
Ask yourself:
Questions like these help you build what’s called an audience persona. An audience persona is a character you create that represents the characteristics of your ideal viewer.
Ms. Rachel’s audience is children, and she’s an expert at making engaging and fun videos for kids (and on another level, her audience is also adults—the ones in charge of the iPad—so there’s a healthy dose of education along with the adorable songs).
Who are you up against? Or, to put it in a less combative way: Who can you learn from?
Identify your competition—other creators that are in a same or similar niche to you, and get inspired by their strategies.
They might use similar:
But they’ll probably differ in their branding, presenting styles and more.
For example, Sand Tagious makes ASMR videos using kinetic sand in a very clean-looking, sterilized environment…
…and ASMR SOAP makes similar kinds of videos, but using a different material (and getting quite a bit messier). Apologies in advance for the ASMR rabbit hole you’re about to go down.
Did you scroll down to this section without reading the first four steps? Be honest. You’re only lying to yourself. Finding your niche, defining your “why,” knowing your audience and understanding your competition are essential to creating a seamless channel experience. Get back up there!
Okay, now that we’re all caught up: it’s time to create your Youtube channel. Here’s how to do it.
First, you’ll need:
Then, you can use these assets to create your YouTube Channel page by following these simple steps. (Psst—this is just a quick overview: for more in-depth instructions, use this guide).
Since Google owns YouTube, you need a Google account to get a YouTube account. If you don’t already have a Google account, head over to Google and enter some basic details.
A YouTube account is included in your Google account bundle. But you still need to set up a Channel.
To do it, go to your YouTube account page on YouTube.com and click Create a Channel. Simply enter your channel name and you’re in.
You can customize many features of your Channel page, including your name, logo, page banner and About info.
To design a page that hooks, check out these free YouTube banner templates, and make sure you:
You don’t necessarily have to buy fancy equipment to become a successful Youtuber: in lots of cases, simply shooting videos using your smartphone will do the trick. But if you do plan on making a career out of your content, know that quality matters.
High-quality videos are easier on the eyes, more professional-looking and have more perceived values than low-quality videos. If your audience can see you’re investing in your channel, they’re more likely to invest their time (and maybe money) in you.
Get the best camera and lighting you can with the resources you have: that might mean buying a high-tech video camera and investing in professional lights, or shooting on your iPhone near a window (natural lighting is beautiful and affordable).
Additionally, editing software is a must-have for Youtubers. Here’s 10 awesome video editing software options… and they’re all free.
Consistent branding goes a long way when it comes to Youtube — or any social media, for that matter. Choosing a colour palette, font, intro music, backdrop and other creative components for your video thumbnails should be taken seriously.
It’s all about brand recognition. Ideally, your audience will be able to instantly identify that a video is yours.
Not to brag, but Hootsuite’s branding is a great example: using a consistent colour palette and font style makes all of the videos look clean and professional.
Source: Hootsuite on Youtube
And so is Youtuber Loveactionalyssa, who uses a variety of different fonts and colours but maintains the same aesthetic in all of her video thumbnails.
Source: Youtube
Food vloggers The Woks of Life also have excellent branding for their videos. They let the beautiful food stills do the talking, but use consistent font and include their channel name on all thumbnails.
Source: Youtube
A call to action encourages users to do something specific — for example, to like, follow and subscribe to your channel.
Encourage your viewers to keep watching your content by including calls to action (CTAs) in your videos. You can do this by:
Playlists, cards and end screens are more advanced YouTube features, but they’re easy to learn (see YouTube’s Creator Academy for instructions).
This is what an end screen with a clickable card looks like:
Source: Youtube
You probably won’t go viral overnight, but posting regularly is one of the best ways to build your audience. Regularly could mean daily, weekly or monthly: whatever is best for you, your content and your subscribers.
Posting regularly is easier when you use a content calendar to plan and organize your videos. A content calendar, or social media calendar, is an overview of your upcoming social media posts (in this case, Youtube videos).
It might be organized in a spreadsheet, a Google calendar or an interactive social media management dashboard like Hootsuite.
A content calendar ensures you have a plan to follow, and you can be more consistent and more focused when you have a broader overview of your content output. Plus, being able to see (and show your boss) all your scheduled social posts and videos organized into one neat calendar is pretty satisfying!
Yes, it’s important to find your niche and maintain some level of consistency. You want your audience to, on some level, know what to expect when they watch your channel. That said, don’t be afraid to take risks and monitor the results.
Try out different video formats, lengths, and approaches to your niche, and pay attention to your Youtube Analytics. Analytics will give you an in-depth look at how successful each of your videos are. If one of your videos does extraordinarily well, lean into it and make similar content.
Remember that audience persona we talked about earlier? Here’s where it really comes in handy.
If you know who your viewers are, you can find out when they will be online looking for content — which days of the week and what times of the day.
Then, you can use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance, so they land when your ideal audience is active.
Youtube users don’t just use Youtube — in fact, 99% of Youtube users are also on other social media platforms. 79% of Youtube users use Facebook and 78% use Instagram. That means that Facebook and Instagram are both great places to post about your Youtube channel, and part of a holistic Youtube marketing strategy.
TikTok is a rapidly growing short video sharing platform that, on one hand, is Youtube’s competition. But on another, TikTok is an excellent avenue for promoting Youtube videos: you can post a clip on TikTok and encourage users to visit your Youtube channel for the complete video.
For example, Spencer of SB Mowing makes super-satisfying videos of himself cleaning up overgrown yards for free. He’ll often post part of the project on TikTok…
@sbmowing I DROVE by this DISASTER Lawn – The HOMEOWNER was SHOCKED when I TRANSFORMED it #edging #sbmowing #cleanup #asmr #satisfying #edginglawn #cleaningtiktok #overgrownyard #asmrvideo #satisfyingvideo #mowing
…and then encourage viewers to head to his Youtube channel for the complete video.
Just like any other social platform, YouTube prioritizes engagement. So, as you start adding content to your channel, you need a plan for keeping up with comments.
As you grow your channel, you might find that you need some help managing all of the comments you receive. Using a tool like Hootsuite can take the pressure off.
The YouTube Partner Program is how regular YouTubers get access to special features on the platform.
You don’t need to be a partner to make money on YouTube (just setting up an AdSense account and getting views is enough to handle that), but being a Partner makes it a lot easier.
YouTube Partners have access to multiple income streams: not just video ads, but YouTube Premium subscription fees, and features that tap your loyal fans’ wallets directly like Super Chat, channel memberships and the merchandise shelf.
Here’s how to joining the program once your channel is up and running.
Note: To join the program, you need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months.
Follow YouTube’s official guide to AdSense accounts.
Each monetization channel has different eligibility requirements. For instance:
As a YouTube Partner, your channel will be held to a higher standard, according to YouTube. You have to follow not just the YouTube Partner Program policies, but also the Community Guidelines. Not to mention staying on the right side of copyright law.
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