Building a Successful YouTube Channel and Earning from it

You must have heard the big shots in the YouTube business, Bhuvan Bam, Sandeep Maheshwari and even our own Nigerian YouTuber, Mark Angel Comedy. YouTube has been home for videos on the internet for a while now and I don’t see it going anywhere but up.

YouTube presently boasts of over 1 Billion users worldwide and over a hundred million hours of uploaded content. YouTube remains the number 1 video sharing website in the world today. No other site even comes close to it.

If you’re an already existing business, using YouTube is important as there are a lot of users and minimal competition with businesses as just very few businesses are active on the platform. It’s an important marketing strategy for your business as you target consumers aged 17-35 years.

So, in this article, I will be showing you ways you can get your YouTube channel up and running and even paying you. I will be guiding you through the planning phase, giving you tips on creating cool and captivating content, gaining subscribers and ultimately earning from your channel.
Let us begin.

1. Do your homework

How do you undertake any venture without a plan? Well, that is what this section will be covering. The planning of your YouTube channel is really crucial and ensures that you don’t crash on the way or veer off your mission or goals for the channel when distractions arise.

Choose a Niche

Why is this on the top of the list? Because that is the most important factor to consider as everything else follows. You want to specialize in a niche, be known for something in particular and not everything. That doesn’t mean you won’t go off topic once in a while but it helps you tailor everything else.

There are so many niches like fashion and makeup, gaming, cooking, comedy, travel, motivation, self-help, a lot of niches. You have got to choose which best appeals to you. Choose niches that you are comfortable in creating content on. However, the most popular niches are comedy and gaming.

Choose a Name

You need a name. It has to be something that depicts what your channel is all about and also very short yet catchy and also captures the attention of your audience. You may also want to use keywords related to your niche if you don’t have a name for your channel and you’re finding it difficult coming up with one. This is really important. Make sure to aim at something uniquely captivating. Also, be sure that it is appropriate enough or you risk getting a bad image.

So, think long term when choosing a name. You don’t want a name you aren’t satisfied with, that months from the inception you already plan on changing it.

Logo

You need a logo to make your channel identifiable and unique. It could be used in your pictures, cover art, profile picture and even in your videos. You want your videos to be easily identified by just your logo.

Needs

What equipment will you need for your channel? Here are a few things you might need for your YouTube channel:

Camera – You may decide to acquire one or use your phone (If you have a good camera quality).
Tripod – You may need a stand for your camera. You may decide to use your phone or get a camera. Either way, you may need a tripod stand to keep your videos steady.
Microphone
Scenes/Location
Lights
Social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Laptop – To edit your videos, and design your logo or graphics.
Video editing software – iMovie for Macs computers and windows movie maker for windows.
Audio recording software – Xsplit, Bandicam.
Graphics designer – To help with your logos, graphics or videos?
Theme music – Would you need a theme song that plays across your videos?

Budget

How much will it cost to get all your needs for the channel? Or, how do you intend on getting all of them? Know someone? Can you pay someone to do it or talk to a friend to help you? Plot ways you intend getting those needs.

No matter your needs, even if you don’t have all the money now, you can actually put some off till you have the money to purchase them. There is no crime in starting little. You definitely do not need to go broke or in debt while starting your YouTube channel.

Know/Define your audience

Knowing your audience is key to creating content that best suits that particular niche and you really need to answer two important questions:

What type of people would be viewing? Dancers, Musicians, Entrepreneurs? Nigerians, Americans, Britons? Teens, Middle-aged, Old? Professionals? Be very detailed about it and then put yourself in their shoes and try to wonder what they might be looking for by watching your channel.
In what ways do your channel help? Entertain? Educate? Be sure you have a description of how your channel helps people and be specific about it. Just a short, concise description, nothing longer. You also have to set goals for your channel.

3. Now, Let’s create your channel

Firstly, you’ll need a Google account as that’s a prerequisite in creating your YouTube channel.

So, visit google.com and sign up at the bottom of the page. Sign in if you already have an account.
With that done;

Head over to YouTube.com – Then click sign in at the top right corner of the page. Connect to the google account you want to sign up with.
Then go over to your YouTube settings – Click on the profile icon and then click on the settings icon.
Create your channel – Just right under your settings, you’ll see an option to “create a channel,” just click on it
Channel type – You will also have the options to create a personal or business channel. Your pick.However, you can decide to choose a business channel that’s if you plan on turning it into a business soonest or you already see it as one which is good.
Select your category.

Congratulations on creating your first YouTube channel!.

Other tips

Make sure to select a cover art that suits the purpose of your channel. Cover arts are just like Facebook’s cover photos. Best dimensions are 2560 X 1440 pixels. And the size of your image must be 4MB or smaller.

If you’re going to be using logos, make sure they’re in the center of that picture, that’s where the safe area is located; 1546 X 423 in the center of your image. That way, across all platforms or devices, the relevant information remains visible. So, make sure you place stuff like your logo, tagline or slogan, and relevant text in the center of your image.

4. Create content

Now the vital part – Content creation. You must have already defined your niche, it’s time to create videos in that line. Videos that aren’t too long but not too short either; use at your own discretion but you want to put up whatever suits the type of content you want to upload.

Tips on creating great content

Make sure to record and upload high-quality videos. You want your videos to be clear enough and not distracting as a result of poor quality.
Upload and include keywords that are relevant to the content you have uploaded.
Make sure to post regularly as that is key to gaining loyal fans who more often, expect your videos at regular intervals.
Don’t forget to add tags when uploading your videos as it helps in ranking when it comes to searches.
You may choose to have an intro, outro and background music. It depends on the type of content. Use at your discretion.
Cut and edit your videos – if you notice a section of your video is just too long and doesn’t really need audio, you can apply a speedup effect in those areas. You do not want to bore your viewers.
Also, consider asking your viewers what it is they want to see on your channel then uploading similar content. That makes the users feel heard, that’s priceless.
Watch more videos in your niche and see what they’re doing. Follow at least top 10-15 channels in your niche. I bet you’ll see a lot of things you could improve on in your videos. You may get overwhelmed with the beauty of their videos and number of fans but that should serve as the inspiration to keep moving and not cause you to question whether or not you’d succeed as a YouTuber.
Also, encourage viewers to share your content and subscribe at the end of your videos.

Grow your audience

This is really important as it helps you when it comes to monetizing your YouTube channel. You need a whole lot of loyal fans if you want to record groundbreaking successes. Since there are no magic bullets in gaining more subscribers, try to focus your energy on getting more engaging videos on your channel.

Social media

This is important as some of your subscribers may not just be on YouTube alone day in day out. They may just be in two or three other social media networks. You may need to put yourself out there for them so that they come to see you as an authority in your niche.

Beyond that, you don’t know which social media platform may send any of your videos viral if accepted more in that sphere thereby, gaining you more subscribers as people come to your channel because they want to get more of you. Use social media.

Also, try to engage more on the platforms that you have more followers or likes. You want to focus on your strengths and become better at it.

Websites/blogs

Having a website is just like having a home on the internet. A lot of people may want to know more about you and your channel. They can go visit your website and read up more about you.

You also want to delve into transcribing your talks if you’re a motivational speaker or life coach. If you only share your thoughts on your YouTube channel.Transcribing means putting words down on paper. It involves turning any of your videos into a blog post or an article.

Transcribing them as a blog post and then linking them to your YouTube channel does not only help your SEO ranking but helps people skim through your talk in a matter of seconds or minutes rather than watch the whole talk. Not everyone may have the patience of watching a complete YouTube video. Different folks,different strokes.

Aim at creating amazing content

Think about this…
Mr A releases videos every day and he’s consistent at it. However, he doesn’t focus on perfecting his clips, shots or scenes.
Mr B is very compulsive about detail as he spends hours and hours retaking just a single scene. However, he only publishes content once a week. The time comes and the video goes as planned and even goes viral. Millions of views and thousands of shares.
Who would you rather be? Food for thought.

Interact with your fans

Everyone wants to feel important. Imagine how important your followers would feel seeing that you appreciate them for viewing and commenting on your videos with your heartwarming replies and sincere gratitude with the love you show to them.

Understand that if you want to get value, you must first give value. Create amazing content, read your fans’ replies, reply to them, have giveaways, show them that you really love them. That absolutely transforms temporary visitors to die-hard and loyal fans.

Monetization

This is where the talk of money comes in. How do I make money doing all the above mentioned? Money is important as it satisfies your personal needs but most importantly, your channel.

You have to keep re-investing in getting better. If you think you are making enough money already, you could make more with the right investments. Well, there are 4 ways to monetize your YouTube channel. I will be talking about in this section and I advise that you pay very close attention.

YouTube ads

This is enabling monetization on YouTube. That’s telling them that you allow YouTube to post adverts on your channel and you also acknowledge that you are not violating anyone’s copyright in your videos.

How to enable Monetization

Go to YouTube.com and click on “my channels”. Then click on “video manager” at the top of your screen and click “Enable” in the monetization section.

But the downside of YouTube monetization is only for beginners, as you will need at least 1000 subscribers to qualify for this and at least 4000 hours of uploaded content in the previous 12 months alone. That can take a while to reach. But should you lose hope of monetizing your channel? Nah, let’s keep going.

Paid Videos

In this, you create a course or an informative video that solves people’s problems with a fee attached to it. So, visitors pay to actually view the video. A great way to monetize your YouTube channel. You may also want to have a section on your website that contains your courses (if this is how you choose to monetize your channel). Then you can display a short clip or ad of your course on your YouTube channel and then redirect your viewers to your website where you make the transactions.

Affiliate Marketing

You can make a lot of money by reaching out to other companies to request to sell their products for a commission. It should be relevant to your niche. Then just at the bottom of your videos where you can place the video description, you place the affiliate links and encourage your viewers to get the products.

Paid adverts/Direct promotions

This is quite different from affiliate marketing. This involves companies paying you a certain amount of money to display a product on your video. It’s quite profitable for a small fan-based channel, but a larger one would probably earn more with affiliate marketing because of the number of buyers the channel can attract.

Pay good attention to Analytics

You have set up your channel, started creating content and even monetizing it. Analytics is an important factor you do not want to ignore at this stage. Go to Google Analytics, connect your YouTube channel and begin tracking. You want to know which of your videos are doing well, which ones are not, what you should be doing more based on the statistics you have seen.

Tweak your videos to what you see that your audience is looking for. Remember, it’s first about your audience and then you.

Finally, do not copyright videos i.e. use other people’s videos without permission as it can get your videos taken down, banned and even put you in serious legal issues.
My wish for you Is more knowledge, expertise and more mind-blowing content.

Realize that those top shots in your niche also started with just one video, so you’re not less than anyone. Understand that it may not be in the number of your videos or how often you post but just one video can shoot you places you never imagined possible. I give you the advice Steve Jobs would give to you; Stay hungry, stay foolish.