So you’ve finally decided to take your love for video content and turn it into a profitable career. You’re going to start a YouTube channel! But how? Again, it seems like there are so many people who have already thought of this amazing idea and started their own channels.
But that won’t stop you from pursuing your passion. You might feel like the playing field is stacked against you, but with some planning and research, you can still make it work. For most people, creating a successful YouTube channel is a lot like launching any other business.
You need to invest time researching your market, developing a solid business plan and testing your assumptions before you dive in headfirst. Here are some tips on how to grow and monetize your new YouTube channel as a brand new vlogger – as well as marketer – from scratch:
Research Your Market
Before you get started with your new YouTube channel, you’ll want to do a bit of research to get a feel for your market. There are a few questions you should ask yourself when doing this:
- Who are your target viewers?
- What kind of people is watching YouTube content?
- What are their passions?
- What are their pain points?
- How does your channel fit into the current YouTube landscape?
- What types of content are most popular on YouTube right now?
- What kind of channels is thriving right now?
- How can you fit into the current YouTube landscape?
- How do you plan to stand out from the crowd?
- What makes your channel different from all the others?
- Why would someone come to your channel over any of the others?
Create a Strategic Plan
Once you have a good idea of your market, you need to create a strategic plan to get your channel off the ground. This is the part where you make your business plan. The most important thing to remember about your business plan for your YouTube channel is that there are no shortcuts.
You can’t just hope for the best and expect things to fall into place; you have to put the work in if you want to succeed.
What are some things you should include in your YouTube channel business plan?
Target Audience: Who are you making content for?
You need to get specific with this, identifying age groups, genders, interests, and more. You need to know your target audience like the back of your hand if you want to create content they’ll love.
Value Proposition: What value are you providing for your viewers? What are you going to offer that makes your channel unique? What sets you apart from other content creators? Why would someone come to your channel?
Products and Services: What are you going to sell? What are your core products? What are your ancillary products?
Once you know what you’re selling, you can figure out how to put your business plan into action.
Target gross monthly revenue: How much do you want to make every month?
This can help you figure out what kind of hours you’ll need to put in.
Monthly expenses: What do you need to get started? This includes things like editing software, cameras, lighting, a computer and everything else you need to get your channel up and running.
Timeline: When do you want to reach each of these milestones? When do you want to start seeing a return on your investment?
Decide on Your Core Channel Content
Now that you have your strategic plan in place, it’s time to decide what your core channel content will be. Here are some core content ideas to get you started:
The Intro Video: You need to start strong, so your very first video should be an intro video. This is the first thing viewers will see when visiting your channel, so you want to make it as engaging as possible to build an audience from the get-go.
Welcome Video: Once you’ve gotten your intro video out of the way, you can move on to your welcome video. This is the video you play whenever someone subscribes to your channel, so you want to make it welcoming and engaging to prevent drop-off.
How-to Videos: Do you have a wealth of knowledge in a specific area? Make how-to videos! These are some of the most common types of videos on YouTube, and they’re great for building an audience.
Q&A Videos: Do you get a lot of questions from your audience? Turn these into Q&A videos to give them a platform to ask their burning questions and engage with your channel.
Behind-the-Scenes Content: Do you have a creative process or workflow that your viewers might be interested in? Turn this into behind-the-scenes content to humanize your channel and give your viewers insight into your creative process.
Top 10 Videos: If you’re more of a list-based content creator, make top 10 videos for your channel. These are easy and digestible for your viewers, and they’re very common on YouTube.
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Produce Great Content and Build an Audience
Now that you know what your core channel content will be, it’s time to produce some content. This is the most challenging part of starting a new YouTube channel: creating content.
While it can be difficult to come up with ideas for content, there are a few things you can do to make the process easier:
Start Brainstorming: The best way to come up with ideas is to get them out of your head and onto paper. There are tons of brainstorming techniques you can use to generate ideas and get them out of your head and onto paper where they can be analyzed and organized.
Look at Your Competition: What are other channels in your niche doing? What kind of content are they producing? What core content are they featuring? How can you one-up them? –
Talk to Your Audience: You have an amazing opportunity with your welcome video: you can ask your audience what they want to see. This is a great way to get ideas for future content and learn more about your viewers.
Choose Your Monetization Path
Now that you’ve been producing and building an audience for a while, it’s time to choose your monetization path. There are two main ways you can monetize your YouTube channel:
Ad-Based Monetization: This is the most common way to make money off your channel. You’ll want to sign up for an ad network (Google, for example, has an ad network), and they’ll place ads before or during your videos. You keep the majority (if not all) of the ad money.
Subscription-Based Monetization: This is a bit more advanced, but it’s also a great way to make money off your channel.
Subscription services are becoming more popular and offer a more flexible way to consume content. This is a great opportunity to earn a passive income with your channel.
You can create a subscription service by offering a channel with a series of videos that go together on a certain theme. For example, you could create a series of videos about your favorite recipes, with each recipe being a new video in the series.
Conclusion
Starting a new YouTube channel is a big decision, and it can be a challenging process. You need to do extensive research into your market, create a strategic plan for your channel and produce great content if you want to succeed.
But if you put in the work, you can make a living from your passion and share your knowledge with the world. With the tips and information in this article, you’ll be well on your way to starting a new YouTube channel.
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