This article is written by Udemy instructor Emilie Schrevens-Wester and is part of The Entrepreneur Masterclass.
1. Find your purpose.
Do you want to make a certain amount of money on YouTube? Do you want to simply have fun? Do you want to discuss serious topics? Do you want to use YouTube to extend your brand?
Answer the following before starting to create your YouTube channel:
Do I know how to edit videos? If not, how long will it take me to learn?
What is my passion? Is it possible to monetize it through YouTube content?
What are my competitors doing?
2. Getting your channel ready
Use Canva (or a software you prefer and have nearby) to create your branding.
Edit the default layout to something more visually pleasing.
Add your social media links on other areas of the channel
Add your featured channels if you have some.
Write your “about me” section
Check your privacy settings to make sure your liked videos and subscriptions are not visible to the public.
3. Naming your channel
Before you name your channel, make sure no one is using it, that it’s not protected by copyright, and that a domain name is available. Grab that domain name as soon as possible. It would suck to get more traction on YouTube, then plan to sell merch, and discover someone already bought your name.
4. Create a channel trailer
Show your face if it’s relevant to your channel/content
Keep it short, less than 2 minutes
Explain to people who you are and what they’ll find on this channel
Be positive, smile, make people happy
Add your special touch and be different from the other videos
You don’t have to create a channel trailer right away, you can wait to get more traction, social proof, and published videos to add in your trailer.
5. Create your end screen
The end screen will display when your video is finished and will let viewers know where to find you on social media, which video to watch next, etc. Your end screen should be around 5-15 seconds.
6. (Technical) Stuff you have to master
Your thumbnails should be 1280 by 720 pixels.
Lighting: use a three point lighting, a ring light or natural light, depending on what you need to film. If your environment is bright enough and you only do videos sitting at your desk, you might not need to buy lighting.
Camera: You can use a vlogging camera (with the flippable screen), a DSLR camera, or your phone on a tripod (if your phone can film quality videos). Aim to produce a video that is 1080P and 60 fps at least.
Microphone: Do not use the integrated mic of your phone or computer. Invest some money into a simple lavalier mic or a podcast-type USB microphone. Get noise reduction equipment or do noise reduction in your editing software later.
Planning: You should always spend time on research and planning. It should actually take you more time than filming.
Draw a storyboard to help visualize what you want. You can easily find storyboard templates for free on the internet.
7. Titles, tags and descriptions
Tags: Brainstorm tags related to your video, think of what you would type in YouTube to find your own video. Do not repeat tags as the YouTube algorithm will just ignore all duplicate tags.
Video titles: Have to be SEO-friendly and written with copywriting in mind. You want to describe the video and make people curious about the content.
Description: It is vital that you work on your description a lot. Make it interesting, describe the video with copywriting-friendly content. Add your social media in your description. Aim for 200-350 words.
Use TubeBuddy to research keywords and your title, and see how it ranks!
8. Marketing
If you want to share on other platforms, don’t use cross-platform sharing, it does not look user friendly, especially on Twitter and Facebook. Take time to upload the video and thumbnail separately.
Study who your audience is through your YouTube analytics.
The quality of your content is more impactful than your marketing.
Jump on trends and popular memes to grow your audience (unless the trend is obviously a stupid one, you’re not here to be stupid on the internet)
Encourage others: commenting positive things on similar channels will get you noticed.
Reply/react to some comments to make people feel special.
If a video isn’t doing well, make a better thumbnail and title, just don’t change the tags!
Check our YouTube Channel Creation Checklist here:
PNG version:
This article is the text version of one of our lectures in The Entrepreneur Masterclass: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-online-entrepreneur-masterclass/?referralCode=1D7C8506878F8AC90ECF
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