How to Start a Successful YouTube Channel

YouTube has become a form of regular entertainment, sort of like TV, where people can watch various channels with regular people, some of whom eventually become famous.

It's a new year, a time for new beginnings. If you have ever thought about starting a YouTube channel, now is the perfect time. It is free of cost, and believe it or not, there are people who would love to learn more about your talent or experiences!

Here are some success tips for beginning your very own YouTube channel.

1) Search your inner passions

Anyone interested in starting a channel should search their passions for something that would produce lots of content and keep not only the audience interested, but keep you yourself interested. If you are not passionate about your topic, you may lose patience and leave the channel stranded. Furthermore, if you are not excited about your own content, your audience will have no reason to be either.

2) Choose a focus

Your YouTube channel should have a focus, otherwise it may get messy or overwhelming, and viewers will be confused by your content. Maybe you are a hair stylist and want to do how-to videos of your favorite styles. Maybe you are passionate about cultural diversity, for example. You may want to talk about your experiences with that.

3) Create a signature

Most successful YouTubers, like LaToya Forever, Chris & Queen, Summerella, and Dearra & Ken 4 Life, have a signature opening and/or closing for their channel. Choose a snippet to a catchy song, or create your own unique entrance that is constant and captures your audience. Just like any TV show, whenever people hear this line, or song, they should know it's you!

4) Timing

Timing is everything. When you first start out, you want to make short, sweet videos that make people want more. My personal recommendation for beginners is to have videos no longer than 5 minutes that are interesting, to the point, and fun to watch. Once, your channel has picked up traction and people are demanding more from you, then feel free to go longer.

On average, though, a single video should exceed 10 minutes because you want to keep the attention of watchers for as long as possible. Remember, you can always break up your content into parts if you need to!

5) Be Yourself

I cannot stress this enough. When I watch your channel, I want to see YOU. I do not want to see some other YouTube star, or hear their famous lines in your video. Be yourself and relay your own experiences. Some may not be able to relate, but the ones who do are going to be your base, so it is important for you act natural and not copy others.

On the other hand, it is equally important for you to be lively. Speak up when you talk, look directly into your camera to maintain eye contact, and look interested. Still be yourself, but you must keep your audience's attention.

6) Important Additives

To really make your channel sparkle and look more professional, you will need a good camera and editing skills. For beginners, you may want to start off using a phone or a camera you already have, but use the best quality available to you. (I personally, would not invest into an expensive camera, not knowing how successful my channel will become or whether I will continue with it).

Editing skills are like animations and pictures on a PowerPoint. They can make your videos stand out from the average, regular-flow, normal videos. If not at first, you will definitely want to learn how to do this eventually.

7) Relate

Get to know your base audience by scrolling through the people who like your videos. Are they younger or older? Are they girls or guys? What races are watching you? These important bits of information can help you pick topics within your channel that your audience will relate to.

8) Engage your Audience

The best way I have seen YouTubers engage their audience is by asking direct questions at the end of a video. If you encourage comments, people are more likely to comment and share, and will probably continue watching your videos in the future.

For example, if you do a makeup video, ask people to comment their favorite products. If you do a hair style video, ask people to pick their favorite style. At the end of your videos invite people to like, share and subscribe. You can also engage by doing giveaways, responding to questions from the comment section, featuring fans etc.

9) Have Variety

After a while of making videos, you will need to find ways to spice up your content to keep subscribers. To do so, you may collaborate with another YouTuber, feature famous people in your videos, include your family or significant other, do a special segment, or anything that will top your regular, predictable videos.

10) Branch Off

Another way to add variety is to branch off into multiple channels. This will improve your viewership by including more people. For example, if you only have a makeup channel, you will attract mostly girls, but if you add a prank channel, your viewership will increase to include more boys and girls and younger viewers.

11) Effectively Click-bait

Now before you quit this article, hear me out. Click-baiting, though not an essential and often viewed as negative, can help your channel. But (and this is a big but) you have to use it very sparingly and correctly. Click-baiting is when a person uses a title and pictures to persuade people to click on their videos, which improves their views.

However, the wrong kind of click-bait everyone hates is when the title of the video and the cover pictures have absolutely nothing to do with the content of the actual video. DO NOT DO THIS. You will lose followers if you do.

You can effectively click-bait by using certain words, quotes and pictures from a unique moment in the video that makes people want to watch it.

Be Consistent

You cannot have a successful channel if you only post once in a while and at random. You must decide on a frequency at which you will post and stay on track with it. Not keeping up with content may cause people to unsubscribe. Of course, times may come in your life where you are unable to upload, but be sure to let your followers know what is going on and when you will be back so they do not lose interest.

Ready Yourself

To be a star, you must be ready for lots of love, but also for lots of hate. It can be a cold world sometimes, and you will get comments of support and some of negativity. Be ready to face criticism and know how you will respond to it.

Follow and share these steps to help the next YouTube star!