Starting a YouTube channel
This article will help you to create a popular channel on YouTube. Not a simple, not an ordinary but a popular channel. Let’s start if you are ready to know some secrets about it.
This article has been written for you if you starting a YouTube channel for your own business. But if you aren’t, it also will be useful for you, because of almost all of the secrets of creating a popular channel work regardless of goals.
Start with an idea is a topic that would attract a certain audience and will be interesting and useful to these people. If you try to make your channel for everyone, you will miss your audience. Therefore, you need to clearly understand which people will watch your videos, and based on this, you should plan the content, do the filling and design of the channel.
Creating a process
If you consider starting a YouTube channel for your own business you should have an instruction that will help you avoid the most common mistakes. And that is one of the goals of this guide.
To upload your videos, you should create your channel first. It can be personal or corporate one depending on a goal. Creating a YouTube channel is easy. First, you sign in with your Google account. Then go to the menu of Your Channel and choose Create. Congratulations on having your channel now!
To draw an analogy, your channel is a YouTube site, a section of the channel is a site section and the video page is a site page. Hence, to promote your channel you should optimize it.
The easiest things you can do is to set up a channel icon and a background, add a description and put a link to your site.
Go deeper into some details
Channel icons will be seen next to your videos on YouTube and on Google. It should look comprehensible with 98×98 pixels compression. The recommended resolution of the original image is 800×800 pixels.
You can set up a background image on the top of the channel. The recommended resolution is no less than 2560×1440 pixels.
The aim of the background is to help the user understand what your channel is about, not just decorate it. When creating an image, you can use your key advantages, principles, slogan, logo and some theme pictures.
The channel description must not exceed 1000 characters. Here you can use the most important key phrases and links to your sources. The purpose of the description is to guide the user, tell him what you are doing, why the channel was created, and a schedule of uploads.
The advantage of a verified account
Another element of channel branding is video thumbnails. They draw the attention of users and make your videos stand out. You can use a single style for all the thumbnails or your own style for each section. You can add thumbnails if your account is verified. Images can be selected among those which created automatically or you can upload your own. Resolution should be 1280×720 (at least 640 pixels wide).
How about your own logo?
Add a channel logo, which will be seen in the lower right corner of the video. This is an element of not only branding but also copyright protection. If the user clicks on your logo, he will automatically subscribe to the channel. A translucent PNG image is suitable for a logo – the main thing is that it should contrast and not merge with the background of the video.
Internal linking
Some internal linking on YouTube can be done through the use of tips and annotations. They allow you to advertise products, sites, add interesting links, polls, etc. They appear when you click on the round button with the letter “i” in the upper right corner.
A channel trailer
And the last thing to do is add a channel trailer.
In fact, this is your business card on the channel. This is the first video that the user sees. It shouldn’t be long. Your task is to draw attention in the first 7-8 seconds in order to keep the visitor.
Let’s talk about promotion
So, your channel is ready for promotion. But how to make it popular?
Obviously, the first thing you need to do to make your YouTube channel a success is to create high-quality video content. The most popular video formats:
- Reviews;
- Walkthroughs;
- Interviews;
- Stories of success;
- Entertaining and creative videos.
You can still promote an interesting channel on YouTube in a natural way. People are more willing to share videos than posts. Yes, and this is a fact. Therefore, the basis for the success of the channel is great, amazing content. People should like what they see. You need to know your audience, but anyway, if you will provide good content, they will find you. Don’t think too much about someone’s luck. Better try to make your channel better than others.
A little bit more information about success
The best way to start a channel is to create such type of content that you personally need but can’t find it. Yes, it isn’t as easy as it has been a few years ago. But this is a real price of success. If you feel like you know such type of content and feel that you are able to create it, so just do it.
There are many factors that affect the visibility of a video on YouTube and search engines. The main ones are:
- Number of views;
- Number and ratio of likes and dislikes;
- Duration of the video.
Secondary:
- Amount of incoming link mass per video page;
- A number of video postings on third-party sites;
- A number of video shares in social networks.
This information is enough to highlight the ways in which you can promote your YouTube channel.
Publishing videos
It sounds like a hard task but doesn’t be upset, when you try to do it you will get a lot of pleasure.
- Before uploading a video, make a description of it with keywords (up to 5000 characters);
- Make a heading with the main key (up to 100 characters);
- Select one of 15 categories;
- Make comments open (users hate when comments aren’t open);
- Specify the language of the video and write down the tags;
- Name the file based on the keyword (this is a very important point);
- Clickable timestamps can be used in the description – this increases interest;
- Also provide links to your website and to social networks, so that users can subscribe immediately.
- This is standard practice, but exceptions are possible. So, it’s not always a key request that plays a major role in choosing a title: the more entertaining content you make, the more vivid, catchy and intriguing the title of the video should be.
Share on social media
If in a text document you share a link to a website, then users often perceive it as spam. But people are more loyal to the video. If you make an intriguing video icon, then views are guaranteed. The main thing is that it’s better to be posted in some thematic “living” community.
Nevertheless, you should understand that people won’t share your video if they don’t like it. And that’s why you should create valuable videos for them. There are too many YouTube channels, but your goal is to create one that could be special. People like everything that can be named as special. If you create special YouTube channel for special users it could be a great success.
But everything has a reason. So, you can’t just name your channel as a special. You need to find your reason and tell about it in your videos. Of course, such things depend on your main goal and your main idea. Just try to use different approaches and pretty soon you will find you’re a key to a real successful YouTube channel.
YouTube is not for individuals
If you think that creating videos for YouTube is an easy task, forget about it. It isn’t true. Creating YouTube content is hard work and for this work, you need to have a good team.
It’s hard to create an amazing YouTube channel only by yourself. Almost impossible. So, one of your first steps should be a process of creating your own team. A number of members such a team depends on your goal, type of content, etc.
Work constantly on updating your content
Is a schedule really important? Of course, it is!
You should have a schedule for your updates. If subscribers are interested in your channel, they will wait for the video to be released. Don’t upset them.
If for some reason the upload is delayed, notify subscribers about it in the latest video and indicate the reason – this will be a manifestation of politeness and concern for users.
A channel with many videos has a better chance of success. Therefore, work not only on quality but also on quantity. Maybe it sounds weird, but this is a very important point on YouTube.
For example, if your main video is released once a week, then in the middle of the week you can upload small teasers, shots from filming, funny events, etc. This will foster the interest of the audience.
Your schedule is what makes your followers think that you really care about them. Think about yourself as an ordinary user. Would you like to follow a YouTube channel that has a schedule or not? The answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it?
Collaborate with other bloggers
There is nothing better for promoting a YouTube channel than a recommendation from a well-known and respected blogger. By the way collaborating always look pretty interesting. Users like such type of content.
With this promotion method, a young channel can become popular in a matter of weeks. But here it is important that the blogger likes your channel because a successful person won’t compromise himself and advertise everything in a row.
In one of our cases, we talked about the results of promoting a customer’s brand through placements on social networks and on popular YouTube channels. The advantage of such a promotion channel is in a prolonged and cumulative effect. The video continues to gain subscriber views long after the end of the advertising campaign, which means it leads targeted traffic to the customer’s website.
Use comments
Of course, you should communicate in the comments with your audience. Don’t forget to answer the questions. Write your followers “thank you” for their advice and constructive criticism. From time to time you really can find in comments good advice, but there is only a small percentage of it.
A good idea is to create a separate section with video replies to comments. Also comment on other videos, gently recommend your channel.
The comments section and your answer to their question are very important for a big number of users. If you got a lot of comments is a good sign. Some marketers say that popularity starts with comments. This is the best way to see what real people think about your work.
But you should read comments wisely. You never know the real age of people who leave these comments. You don’t need to believe each word. Of course, everyone likes to see good comments under his video, but you should be prepared that even the best videos on YouTube have its haters. And it’s normal because people so different and their taste sometimes is unpredictable.
Try to remember the last video that you don’t like. Watch it again. Is that really so bad as you remember? Try to analyze it. Try to imagine a creating process of it. Maybe they don’t deserve a bad comment?
Ask your viewers for likes and shares
Oddly enough, but this method really works. At the end of the video, ask to share your video or like. Bet, when you will see a reaction of your audience you’ll be surprised.
A lot of people watch YouTube after work when they tired. Sometimes it’s good for you to remind them such simple things as to share your video. And a lot of your followers really will share it with their friends. It will bring you, new followers. So, ask about that and don’t be afraid to look stupid.
But the best way to do it is to ask about likes and shares suddenly when people don’t expect it at all. Analyze the way your competitors do it. Maybe they will inspire you.
Before the finale
Of course, many people compare YouTube with television but rarely does anyone compare it with a theater.
Vloggers often come up with different characters. They dress up in them. They have a conversation with themselves. It looks satirical, and therefore the audience likes it. Such an element of humor isn’t necessary at all, but it makes the YouTube channel more vivid.
This method has already helped many vloggers to stand out, perhaps for your company, it will also become a hallmark. But when choosing this method, you first need to look at whether this is suitable for your brand? Is your product compatible with satire? Perhaps a tragic look is more suitable for you? Or maybe the image of a pedantic strict person?
Such trifles are very important on YouTube and you need to remember them. Despite the fact that the audience likes to see a real person on the screen, all the same, subscribers fall in love not with a person, but with an image of him. And it is important to be able to correctly build this image.
The end of instruction of your personal success
So, we figured out the nuances of optimizing and promoting the channel on YouTube. Video marketing is a powerful tool to increase sales and attract users to the website. Video increases the importance of the company in the eyes of customers, makes you an expert and a niche leader.
Therefore, if you want to strengthen your position and attract more customers, be sure to create a YouTube channel and engage in its filling and promotion.
YouTube channel is the voice of your brand. Use this powerful tool wisely. Of course, you want to know how to make money with YouTube. But to get this goal firstly you should create valuable content and show this content to your target audience. Is that easy? Not at all. Is this possible? Of course, it is!
Know you know how to start a YouTube channel. But creating a YouTube channel is a long trip. That’s why you should find your way to enjoy working on it. Hard work and a little bit of inspiration are key.
Think. Dream. Create.
