How To Start A Successful YouTube Channel – The Definitive Guide

Find out what is a YouTube channel and learn how to start a successful YouTube channel in this ultimate guide to starting your YouTube channel and getting your first 1000 subscribers.

Are you also among the 2 billion people who just can’t stop YouTube browsing?

Are PewDiePie and SSSniperWolf your best friends? 

Is your mum sick of your YouTube obsession and wants you to get your own bread and butter, but you just can’t let go of YouTube? 

These all seem to be pretty sickening questions and the reason for all the grey hair. 

But hey! Don’t worry, we have got the perfect solution for you.

Being the 2^nd largest search engine after Google and the home for more than 2 billion people, YouTube has become more than just entertainment for some users. 

With over 500 hours of video posted every minute, YouTube surely has done a great job at filling the pockets of the influencers. 

From earning thousands to millions, YouTube has become an easy source of income in the modern world. 

Ever wondered how you could be a part of this ever-growing community? 

How to start a successful YouTube channel?

Fear not, we have got some easy steps for you to follow to earn some greens!

What Is a YouTube Channel?

You must be wondering that earning cash from YouTube sounds like a crazy dream but here is how you can achieve it. 

In fact, that’s why we’ve come up with this guide to help you know how to start a successful YouTube channel.

The first thing you need to link you up with your YouTube dream cash is a YouTube channel. 

Now, what is a YouTube channel? 

Clearly we all YouTube fans are aware of it but here is the basic know-how. 

A YouTube channel is any person’s personal spot in the YouTube family. 

The channel serves as a golden ticket for a YouTuber to unlock his/her YouTube dream cash. 

The progress of a channel is determined by the number of subscribers a person has on their channel and by the view count a person achieves on their posted videos. 

The owner of the channel is a YouTuber or a vlogger. 

A vlogger is any person who records and posts videos in their channel.  

Currently, there are more than 31 million channels on YouTube, some aiming to entertain us and others to teach us. 

On average, a person earns $4.15 per every 1000 views on his/her video.

Moreover, vloggers occupy such a crucial position on the internet that 54% of the internet community relies on vloggers for reviews on a certain brand.

Whether it is something as simple as cleaning or as complex as building a rocket, you will find the answers to all your bizarre questions on YouTube. 

Who Is a YouTube Influencer?

An influencer is any person who has the ability to cause an ‘influence’ on its audience. 

In other words, influencers are people who have the ability to change the mindset of people regarding any product. 

Influencer marketing is the major eye catcher these days. 

With over $31 billion invested on influencer marketing every year, influencers are selling like hot cakes in the market. 

As the name suggests, a YouTube influencer is a person who uses YouTube as a medium to cause influence over its audience. 

Many brands, specially gaming brands, make YouTube influencers their top priority to reach out to their audience. 

With following some basic steps explained in this article, you might become the next most wanted Youtuber! 

Why Do You Need a YouTube Channel? 

Just like a plant needs water to survive in a forest, similarly, you need a YouTube channel to become a part of the YouTube Ecosystem.  

A YouTube channel is a way to communicate with people all over the world and publicize your niche. 

For example, if you are a gamer and are obsessed with video games and want to make money out of it, then make a YouTube channel! 

Sounds pretty crazy but that is how millions of people are gaining fame and greens.

If you have got a good camera, internet and a liking for something, be it cooking, gaming, sports, fashion, makeup, you name it! 

Then you are all set to step into the YouTube kingdom.

Let’s get started!

How To Start A Successful YouTube Channel 

Now that we have gotten an introduction about the perks of YouTube and what an important asset a YouTube channel is for any youtuber, lets dig into some simple steps that you need to follow in order to establish yourself as a certified youtuber. 

Step # 1 Find A GOOD Concept and Niche

Now that you are fueled with motivation to become a YouTuber, let’s focus on step 1. 

The first step in becoming a YouTuber is to find your areas of interest. 

You need to self-evaluate and determine your areas of expertise. 

You need to discover what you are passionate about, what thrills you up and which skills are you most comfortable with to adopt for a long period of time. 

You need to polish your skills as those skills will be the center of your YouTube channel. 

This step is the most challenging for some as a lot of you might have multiple niches or areas of interest. 

You also need to be very vigilant in selecting a niche such that areas of profit, competition, and popularity are all covered. 

For example, if you are really passionate about makeup, then your YouTube channel should primarily focus on creating makeup content. 

So sit back, relax and take your time in deciding which of those valuable skills is going to make you a successful YouTuber. 

Finding it difficult to select a niche? 

Don’t worry, we have got you covered. 

Another unique way to make your channel stand out is a ‘Concept Channel’. 

By concept, we totally mean monothematic videos. 

You can post various videos circulating around the same theme. 

Some ideas for a theme can be creating reaction videos, travel videos, gaming videos and much more! 

You can make your imagination go wild in making your YouTube channel the most unique one in the community. 

Step # 2 Acquire the Basic Equipment 

After you have passed the major milestone i.e., selecting your niche, the next step is to equip yourself with the best materials that can help you to make your channel a hot topic on YouTube. 

The basic necessities that you should have include the internet (obviously) and a good camera. 

But having a good camera is not the only requirement. 

You need to focus on other things as well that all sum up in making your video quality superb. 

These include lightening, audio, your surroundings and camera angles. 

It’s no secret that good videography attracts an audience. 

So, most successful YouTubers often use professional cameras, mirrorless cameras and DSLRs for their recordings. 

Apart from these recording tools, other essentials include tripod stands, lenses, and a good monopod. 

Recording devices are not everything. 

Your video would be completely useless if it has good recording but lags in audio and lightning.

For good lighting, most YouTubers use Gedox, reflectors and umbrella soft-box.

Some vloggers use certain apps like lightroom and photoshop to make their videos more appealing. 

What is the point of having a good video when your viewers can’t even hear you.

So, to solve the audio problem, most YouTubers use shotgun microphones which only record the voices coming from the front only and automatically block the surrounding noises. 

Some vloggers invest a lot in their microphones and usually opt for lavalier

microphones, the ones that can be attached to the shirt, which are both effective and handy. 

You also need to select a good background that goes with your theme and camera angles are certainly most important.

You don’t want people getting a view of your double chin! 

Once you have equipped yourself with these recording essentials, you are all set to record your videos!

Step # 3 Create A YouTube Channel (also pick a good name)

Here comes the most challenging yet the most fun step in making your successful YouTube channel. 

Don’t rush into picking out a name of your channel. 

Take your time and think of a name that describes you and your channel completely. 

Your name should be catchy and easy to spell. 

Try to choose a name that attracts your audience immediately. 

Make sure your YouTube channel’s name is not offensive. 

Your channel’s name is basically your identification. 

So take your time and think with a relaxed and clear head. 

List down all your top picks and then select the one which draws you the most.

You can take the opinion of your friends and family in helping you decide.  

Now comes the step you have been waiting for the most! 

It’s time to step into the YouTube communal!

You have selected your niche, a name and armed yourself with all the required equipment so there’s nothing holding you back now. 

You are all geared.

All you need to do now is to open your favorite app aka YouTube, and follow the following procedure:

How To Create A YouTube Channel?

1. Once you open YouTube, you will see a ‘Sign In’ option enclosed in a blue box on the top right corner.

2. After clicking on the Sign Up option, a window like the following will appear. Since YouTube is owned by Google, all you need to sign up is just your Google Account.

3. The next step is to head to your YouTube Profile Settings. On the drop-down menu that will appear, you will see the option ‘Create a Channel’. 

4. After clicking on the option, you will be given a choice by YouTube to define the category of your channel, whether it is a personal channel or a brand’s channel. Type in the name of the channel that you have selected. For example, here for the sake of illustration, we selected the business option and named it ‘My Awesome Channel’.

5. The final step is to add in your profile and cover picture and channel description. Make sure your profile picture and cover photo are a real eye-catcher for your respective audience. It’s the first thing that will grab the attention of your audience on your profile, so a friendly reminder is to choose it vigilantly. You can also add the links for your other social profiles and websites, branding your skills.

And Viola, you have your own YouTube channel! 

Step # 5 Add an About Section, Channel Art & Branding

Once you have a YouTube channel up and running and have posted a good load of videos, you need to insert some sections on your channels for your videos in order to attract your target audience. 

For example, if you have some videos on your channel that you always want to be in the limelight, then you can insert a section for that. 

Sections help you to engage your target audience at a very efficient rate and make your channel organized.  

You can create sections for your most liked videos or recent videos and even add your own YouTube playlist! 

Sounds impressive, right? 

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Surf up to the top right corner of your profile and click on your channel’s profile picture. A drop-down menu will appear. Select ‘My Channel’. 

2. Next up, you will see an option ‘Customize your Channel’. This will enable you to make customizations to your channel to attract your target audience. Click on it. 

3. After clicking on customize, a window as shown below will appear. You will see the ‘Add a Section’ on the bottom of it. Click on it

4. By clicking on the option ‘Add a Section’, you will see another drop-down menu named ‘Select Content’. From the list of contents that appears, as shown below, choose the ones which are coincident to your channel and share the same genre. The most popular sections on YouTube are usually of the Playlists. Most YouTubers share their playlists with their subscribers to get maximum coverage and likes from their audience.

By following these simple steps on how to start a successful YouTube channel, you are guaranteed to be the next famous Youtuber! 

And who knows, maybe with the right amount of unique content, you can be the next PewDiePie! 

How to Get To Your First 1000 Subscribers 

Now that you know how to start a successful YouTube channel, the next step is learning how to grow your subscribers.

YouTube surely does a great job of keeping us at the edge of our seats after making our very own channels. 

Witnessing the growth and success of all the famous YouTubers, hitting thousands and millions of views and filling their pools with cash, really makes us go nuts for creating our own channels. 

YouTube channels are all fun and games.

But they make us wait days and night ogling at our screens, desperate to see the subscriber count boost up.

But instead of breaking records like PewDiePie and YouTube famous cats, we get a midnight graveyard. 

With over 31 million YouTube channels ruling the internet, it certainly seems a pretty rough catch-22 to make your channel stand victorious in the battle of networks. 

But worry not our future YouTube stars, we have got you covered! 

Let’s take a look at how to get your first of many 1000s. 

How To Boost Up Your YouTube Subscribers

Knowing how to start a successful YouTube channel isn’t the end goal.

But being able to earn some good dollars from it is your target.

A YouTube channel is known by two things; views and subscribers. 

A subscriber is a person who finds your YouTube content unique and fueling and decides to follow your account to keep themselves updated. 

In other words, a subscriber is your dutiful fan who makes sure to boost up your view count, give you a big thumbs up and share your channel with friends, thus paving your way to enlarge your channel’s empire. 

Some of the famous Youtubers who are crowned on YouTube with the title of most subscribers are PewDiePie, with a subscriber count of 103 million, and HolaSoyGerman, with a subscriber count of 40.6 million. 

The list of Youtubers is definitely a long one but we are pretty sure these few numbers are enough to lift your spirits and gear you up for the extra mile. 

So, are you ready? 

Here’s all that you need to do!

#1 Plan good content

The beauty of a YouTube channel is its content so you need to be very careful in posting the content. 

There are many fish in the ocean and you need yours to be the most unique it can be. 

So naturally, you’re loaded with the responsibility of creating the most unique content for your YouTube channel that makes your audience go WOW. 

Creating unique content sure sounds tricky, but we have got your back! 

You need to equip yourself with a constructive strategy and with an effective plan for a promising landing. 

It’s a piece of cake! 

So, jot down these steps for creating the most exclusive flavored unique content.

Develop Content Strategy:

Whether you are a brand promoting products or a passionate individual with an established niche, you need a strategy for your content. Random posting can be fun but it may not always bring you luck. So for creating an effective content strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the demand of your target audience? What are they specifically interested in?
• How can you entertain your audience? How can you make them smile/ laugh?
• What differentiates your content with other fellow YouTubers

Now that you have built a mind map and have a vague direction of your channel’s content, you need to establish some principles to engage your audience. For this purpose, we have devised a ‘3Es’ scheme:

#1 Encourage:

Create emotional or relatable content that will encourage and inspire your target audience. 

#2 Educate:

Stay true to your channel’s duty and educate your audience with the channel’s theme.

#3 Entertain:

Entertain your audience to keep them engaged by arranging surprises, giveaways or laughable content. 

#4 Content Creation Plan:

After establishing a virtual idea of what you are aiming to show to the public, next comes creation. Now is the time to act upon your devised strategy. Generally, content creation is categorized into 3 chunks:

#4 Help Content:

A tip for creating unique content is to create the exact content that your audience is looking for. This will definitely give your channel the limelight it deserves.

#5 Central Content:

This category sums up the content that you had in mind while creating the channel and which you would be posting regularly. Nonetheless, for uniqueness, each video needs to be fresh and entertaining. Avoid posting videos with overlapping content. 

#6 Special Content:

Once you’ve made some friends in the YouTube community, you can move on to creating special content. This category includes collabs and features with fellow YouTubers and is guaranteed to snowball your subscribers. 

#7 Content Distribution Strategy:

Now that you have armed yourself with all the essential supplies and demands needed for creating unique content, it’s time to do some posting. To avoid quick posting, which most newbies experience, you need to construct a content distribution strategy. You need to have sound knowledge of when to lay the fishing net to get yourself some subscribers. Here are three keywords that can help you in devising a constructive scheme:

• Store – You need to store all your content in one place where it is easily accessible and planned. Organizing apps such as Trello considerably help in organizing your content along with due dates and schedules. 

• Delivery – You need to chalk out a plan on a calendar knowing what to post on a specific date. 

• Activate – You need to specifically post or activate that video on your channel which syncs with your organizational plans. 

#2 Optimize your YouTube videos

You must be wondering that with thousands of YouTube channels revolving around the same genre, how can you make your videos stand out? 

A simple one-word solution to this modern problem is SEO. 

This will not only earn you maximum coverage from your audience but will also secure your position as a trending YouTuber. 

Who doesn’t want that! 

With over 5 billion videos viewed every day, appearing among the top searches seems like the tip of the iceberg. 

Relax our young YouTubers and hold your horses of worries! 

We have listed down some tools that will help you in optimizing your video:

#1 Renaming your Videos:

An easy way to optimize your videos is to simply rename them! But how? You need to work out on the keywords first. For example, if you’re making a tutorial video on ‘Chocolate Fudge Cake’ then your keywords need to be ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Cake’. Naming your video ‘The Yummiest Chocolate Cake Ever’ would certainly not land you with some viewers, but the mere mention of the keywords can make your video appear among the top of the 10,000 searches! Pretty cool right? You also need to rename the file of your video, for example, replace “recipe_ad_003FINAL.mov” with “yummiest_chocolate_cake.mov”. Also, note that the title is concise and catchy.  

#2 Optimize Video Description:

The official word limit for the video description on YouTube is 1000 so you need to make sure that your description is long; descriptive as possible and has great deliverance. A relaxed way to do so is to use the keywords in your video’s description. This will ease your audience with the trouble of finding their desired video.

#3 Tags on Your Video:

In order to make your channel successful, you need to cheat. By cheat, we certainly do not mean stealing content! What you need to do is to search for the keywords from various channels and tag them on your videos. This will help in bringing in a large force of viewers on your videos. 

#4 Custom Thumbnail Image:

The thumbnail image is the one that appears when you’re scrolling through YouTube videos. You need to customize your thumbnail in such a way that it is eye catchy and instantly grabs the attention of the audience.

#5 Add cards and End Screens:

Ever noticed the tiny ‘i’ on the top right corner of your video? It’s the section to add cards. Cards enable you to link your channel to other YouTube networks, thus boosting your viewer’s count. End screens also perform the same function as cards.

#3 Invest in thumbnail design

What’s the first thing your eyes wander off to when you open YouTube? 

The content?

Think again! 

The first thing that you notice when you search something up is the cover image or

the thumbnail photo of the video. 

So naturally, this area requires your primary focus! 

But we are here to help. 

In order to make sure that your thumbnail is the most unique

and catchy, just analyze the following features:

#1 Thumbnail Size:

For a professional thumbnail, it needs to fit within the size criteria provided by YouTube; 1280×720 pixels and a width of 640 pixels. Customizing according to this size will ensure HD quality of your thumbnail.

#2 Selecting Photo:

Here’s the fun part. You need to choose an image that describes your video wholly. Remember, the thumbnail is a little sneak peek in your channel, so make sure it coincides with the channel’s theme.

#3 Including Title:

A simple image does not develop good communication with a viewer, so a title is essential. Font, color, and contrast of the title are a very important consideration. 

#4 Thumbnail makers:

There are a variety of YouTube thumbnail makers available on the internet that you can use to create your customized thumbnail. Inspect them individually, then select the one which appeals to you and your audience the most.

Recommend Tools:

Canva Youtube Thumbnail Maker

Adobe Spark Thumbnail Maker

#4 Uploading videos

Once you have started your channel, consistency is an extremely important part of your channel’s maintenance. 

Not only you need to be consistent in posting, but also in the content. 

For gaining maximum coverage, try to upload videos 3 times a week. 

You need to create a schedule for uploading videos to remain consistent. 

Worried about procrastination?

You can eliminate that by mentioning your posting schedule in your channel’s description. 

This will definitely push you to post content for your viewers to keep the subscriber count soaring. 

You also need to stay consistent in your editing and in customizing thumbnails. 

All these factors jointly make your channel consistent and trending. 

#5 Encourage viewers

Your viewers and subscribers are your channel’s backbone. 

They can help your empire grow. 

You need to show gratitude to them to make them feel welcomed. 

An easy trick to do so is to thank your subscribers at the end of every video and remind them to give your videos a thumbs up. 

Ask the viewers to subscribe to your channel. 

You can do this by adding annotations and dialogue boxes to attract the viewers. 

You need to develop a close relation with your subscribers and constantly interact with them. 

To keep them engaged, you can utilize the simple trick of conducting surprises or Q/A sessions and much more to keep your subscriber count boosted. 

#6 Use These YouTube Growth Hacks

Some additional growth hacks that you can use for your little kingdom are following:

Online Communities:

To grow your subscribers’ list, find 3-5 Facebook or Reddit online communities that have most of your ideal audience. Look at each community’s biggest problems or challenges and make one video every week that address these problems with the best solutions. Follow these community guidelines and post a video of you giving “free” information that is very valuable – don’t forget to ask them to subscribe in your video.

Blogs:

Make a list of 10-20 blogs in your niche that you’d like to pitch. Than pitch each blog with your personalized message on why you should be featured. Make sure you’re following up with pitches that don’t get a response until you get an answer. Lastly, shoutout those blogs and editors who do feature your content.

Make Collaborations:

This step is a little tricky but helps to earn a handsome number of subscribers. It has been proved by analyzing the accounts of various successful YouTubers that their subscribers snowballed after they made collaborations. Search for some fellow vloggers and pitch your channel. Keep a check on who features your channel.  You can either feature other YouTubers in your channel in exchange for a feature back. Another way to do clever collaboration is to get an interview on YouTube channels that have more subscribers than your channel.

Subscriber Growth Trick:

We have got a secret trick for you to boost up your subscribers! The trick is simple, whenever you post any video on your channel, add

“?sub_confirmation=1” at the end of your video’s URL. This trick works like magic and will increase your subscription rate by 200%! 

Commenting Hack:

Here’s another trick to make your channel off the hook! Whenever a famous channel, who shares your type of ideal audience, uploads a video or go live, make sure to rush there and do not hesitate in commenting! Make your comments fun and alluring. If your comment gets around 3-5 likes, YouTube pushes it to the top. More people can view it and head out to your channel to subscribe! Some YouTubers use fake accounts to like their own comment in order to get into the top of the list.

Also, comment back to everyone who commented on your videos. Once you show you’re a human and not a robot your audience will see your videos more and will subscribe to your channel.

Using Hashtags:

Hashtags are always effective in luring an audience. Use keywords that are trending right now on YouTube in your hashtags. Whenever your target audience searches for a video, your hashtags can help your video appear among the top searches! Do some research and find out what are the most popular topics on YouTube.

Trending Videos:

Choose a trending topic and post a video about it. In the first hour or so, you will see your viewers count mounting. Choose a fun irresistible thumbnail to attract more audiences. So, always choose those trending topics which can appeal to a large audience. 

Video Series and Playlists:

Think about making a series of videos rather than doing one and done. Once you make a series of videos you increase the chance of your audience following the whole series which will grow your watching minutes and will double your subscribers’ list!

Bonus Tip: A Trick That Will Help You Go Viral Faster

In order to make a viral video, it has to be on a hot topic that bothers a large audience. Find a solution to a problem that’s relevant today. Your goal will be to expose your video to as many people as you can in the first hour of posting your video. A lot of popular YouTubers admitted that their most “viral” videos had a lot of viewers and comments in the first hour of them posting their video.

Once you have mastered how to start a successful YouTube channel, these tips and tricks for growing it are bound to make your subscriber count glide!