This is a guide for those who want to start a YouTube channel but don´t know how or what are the most effective strategies to do in order to be successful and get noticed by an audience.

I want to share with you my journey and what I´ve learned from taking YouTube online courses and apply that knowledge to my channel to see what actually matters when starting a brand new channel.

So, without much further adeu, let´s begin! 😃

1. Figure Out Your Why

Starting a YouTube channel is a long-term commitment, it takes work and you have to be willing to put yourself out there.

Therefore, taking the time to think of WHY you are doing it and what´s your goal with it might sound silly but it is actually a great way to start off on the right foot.

Things like beginning with the end in mind, like Stephen Covey says in his bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is one of the most powerful tips I could give you.

This will also help you decide whether you want to go with a personal brand type of channel with your full name on it or a more corporate approach, business-like type of videos.

In fact.

That IS one of the first things you might want to ask yourself.

As well as many others that will clear your thoughts on what is it that you want to accomplish.

It is like Simon Sinek says:

Here´s exactly how you can figure out your why: Ask questions.

Although it might sound simple I promise you, it is not.

If you start to ask questions to yourself, real-life deep enough questions, you will find brick walls in the way that you´ll have to smash in order to get to the answer and find your purpose, your drive.

Now, you don´t need to have all the answers right away in order to film your first video, not at all.

However, it is important that you start by questioning yourself and find your own true reasons to start on YouTube, whether that is to earn some extra cash, grow/create your own business, or simply entertain others because you want to be a movie star one day.

2. Minimum Required Gear

Let´s start with the actual data on this.

As Brain Dean from Backlinko stated on his YouTube study (they analyzed 1.3 Million videos!), he found that HD videos outrank any other video that doesn´t have good enough resolution and sharpness.

So, as you see, as long as you can film in HD you can get started on YouTube, you don´t a super expensive camera or the last iPhone, you just need to be able to record a video in 720p HD (or 1080p if possible), which most phones do, and you´ll be ready to go.

Now, on the other hand, you might find that bad audio is one of those things viewers can´t forgive (or forget).

So, more than thinking of what camera gear you should invest in, think of how you can improve your audio quality.

The good news?

There are a few easy (and cheap) ways to do this!

For example, instead of using the external mic that your phone or camera has to record audio use the mic from your headphones or invest in a lavalier mic, that way you can get a high-quality sound for as low as $20.

If you are using your phone to record then another low-budget improvement you can try is Filmic Pro, which is an incredible app that allows you to have much more control over your phone´s camera, similar to what a professional DSLR offers.

The best part is that is only costs $15.

You can get much better videos by tweaking the aperture, controlling ISO, or focusing on your face so that you get that awesome blurry background.

Another two key factors that can make or break your videos are your lighting and the background, here´s how to solve that.

The only true concern you should have regarding your background is that it shouldn´t be too distracting in order for you to get your message across.

So, as long as you don´t have way too many things going on in the back you´ll be okay.

The other thing is your lighting set up, which can also turn into something very tricky if you don´t know what you are doing.

That is why I would suggest you to simply know how to properly use natural light and be done with it.

That being said, it is not a minor thing as it is noticable the difference between a video without a proper light source from the one that does have some sort of lighting set up.

Actually.

If you simply stand in front of a window with a lot of daylight while you film makes a HUGE difference in how good you look on camera.

3. Hand-Craft Your Channel

What do I mean by that?

Your banner, profile picture, a channel trailer, and your about section are some of the first things you should focus on like a total newbie as it is something that most people tend to overlook.

Now you NEED 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time to be even considered in the Partner Program, and things are only going to get thougher from now on, so…

…the best shot you have at this is to take advantage of every single opportunity you get, and that means making every person that gets to your channel a brand new subscriber.

One way to do just that is by creating a eye-grabbing channel art.

The good news?

I have a super-simple 5 step process to build a good-looking channel in a matter of minutes.

Here´s how it works:

1. Make a custom banner by designing something enticing to see with YOU as the main character of the picture. Whether is that you use your logo and simple background or a picture that you took on the street (like Casey did) it doesn´t really matter as long as it looks presentable and adjusted for the banner section, which is 2560 x 1140 pixels. Here´s a very helpful in-depth tutorial on exactly how to design yours: YouTube Banner.
2. Take the time to make a nice selfie for your icon. You don´t want people to think that you don´t take your channel seriously and your icon will show your logo or your face so… make it good.
3. Create a short and to the point channel trailer or pop in some of your most popular videos in there so that people that get to your channel knows exactly what they´ll get if they subscribe. A one minute video where you introduce yourself and talk about what your content and goal with your channel work better in my experience.
4. Take the time to tell people more about you on the about section. It doesn´t need to be something very elaborated, you just have to let people know more about you and your channel (like on the trailer), you´d be surprised at how many people click on the about.
5. Finally, make use of playlists or arrange the order in which your videos appear on your channel feed by selecting your most watched videos of all time to show up first. Again, this is another effective manner to grab people´s attention once they get to your channel and make it easy for them to subscribe.

That´s it!

Now you are ready to upload your first video and wait for people to smash that subscribe button.

4. Start Small & Long

As a complete beginner it will be hard to get discovered at first and more so get some subscribers right from the get-go, so what do you do?

You can apply what I call the Sniper Method.

It simply consists of attacking small focused questions people ask on YouTube (especially long-tail keywords) and address them as if they were big (with tons of traffic) searches by creating a cool video that directly answers the query.

That way you´ll not only won´t have to worry about the competition but you´ll also make the viewer super happy as it´ll be very likely that he or she hasn’t found such good of an answer yet, and therefore they´ll be more compelled to subscribe to your channel.

The bottom line:

Start building a hit list for your next 5 to 10 videos that could answer specific questions that are currently underserved in your niche/industry in order to get traction and the very first subscribers to your channel.

Aim for the small volume of search behind those long-tail keywords people type that are not being answered or where you could easily do a better job.

Here´s an example of what a GOOD opportunity looks like:

You can easily see that the ONLY relevant title for the search “eye makeup for dark skin beginners” is the first one, and it is a 5 minute video, which is considered relatively short nowadays.

Plus, the next two videos don´t even answer the query and the third one lasts less than 4 minute, easily beatable if you know about makeup.

These are the type of keywords that you should aim at first with zero subs and no views whatsoever if you want to be discovered on YouTube.

I´ve found that keyword just by typing on the search bar as it appeared as a suggestion from YouTube itself.

If you use the * to let the YouTube search bar suggest you the most searched queries that are being typed you´ll get a ton of great ideas to strive for.

You should spend, at least, 10 to 20 minutes doing some research on the length, production, information, and value that the first three videos provide to the viewer and pick a few long-tail keywords where you can make something bigger and better.

TIP! You can also take advantage of FREE software like keywordtool.io to get some extra ideas for your hit list.

5. The Quantity Vs. Quality Dilemma

Yes, filming with your phone won´t look the same as filming with the latest DSLR camera, I know, but the truth is that on YouTube true quality content doesn´t actually mean “expensive video recording gear”.

People often confuse quality content on YouTube with 4k videos and super sharp footage, but the reality is that isn´t the case for most top creators.

Now, although video quality itself is important and it does make a difference to have a better camera or professional lighting set up, quality content relies on other key factors.

Good, helpful, and practical tips and advice will ALWAYS trump HD quality or a fancier background setting, and that´s what you should focus on.

In short:

Your goal should be high-quality videos, whether that means that you share really good information or that you make entertaining content it won´t matter as long as you keep people watching for as long as you can.

That being said, practice at first is extremely important, more so than in any other moment in your YouTube career, so if you want to make one video a day when you are starting out it might not be a bad idea in order to improve your craft as fast as possible.

Now, just bear in mind that the end goal will (always) be to put out GOOD quality content.

So, if the grind of making daily videos makes your content suffer in any way then you should probably slow down.

As a result of this back and forth process to find where the balance of creating good content and how often should you actually put out videos you will get a better idea of what both your audience and your own preference actually is.

Before you move on to the next point I want to leave you with this great video from Video Creators where both Tim and Evan dive into the quality versus quantity issue:

So, as you can see, it is a common question most newbies have and want to know what is the best approach to grow on YouTube.

Evan preaches about going daily but also states that (specially in the beginning) creating more content leads to creating better content, so it is, for sure, something to think about.

6. Build Credibility & Focus On Delivery

There are two things that most successful YouTubers have in common and that is they have built credibility on the platform and they focus on their delivery, on the video itself, the content.

According to Google, 65% of people use YouTube to help them solve a problem… and that is a ton of people!

So, in order to build your reputation as a true resource for people to rely on whenever they want to solve a problem that is related to your niche or particular expertise you want to be as helpful as you possibly can.

Here´s how:

Learn and share. That´s it!

If you don´t know how to do something, learn how to do it right, practice it, and share it on a video.

You´ll find there are tons of viewers that don´t have the time or are even willing to make the effort to learn it and they prefer to watch your video in order to accelerate their learning process.

Now, you don´t need to be an actual expert to do this.

You just have to put in the time and effort to learn whatever it is that you want to make a video about and then craft a nice looking (helpful) piece of content that helps people out.

Plus! the more truthful you are about who you are and what you do, meaning that you don´t try to fake it by appearing wise and knowledgeable about something, the more trust you´ll accumulate with your viewership.

That is why learning something new and turning into a video immediately after you´ve learned it yourself work so well.

People want to see REAL people on YouTube, not a TV anchor. 🤔

In fact.

The more authentic you appear on camera the stronger the connection and bond you´ll build with your viewers.

That being said, this doesn´t mean you get to film shaky footage with your phone all of the time, you want to add some production value to the mix.

7. SEO-Focused Strategies

You have a bunch of videos ranking and being promoted by YouTube for a number of very specific keywords now, you are seeing some growth, but…

…it´s not enough, you want to get to a larger audience, right?

Okay then!

Let me tell you how.

One of the first things you can do to improve your rankings and therefore the number of views you get each and every month is by getting YouTube to promote your videos on the “Suggested” tab.

In case you didn´t know, the suggested videos section is the main source of traffic once a YouTube channel has grown.

Check out this video from YouTube Creators:

These algorithmically selected videos are the one that are going to get you the most traffic once you start growing more and more as it taps into ALL the related content that is on YouTube itself, which is a lot!

So, the real question here is how can you make your content appear as a suggested video?

Although YouTube gives a few good tips on this I´m going to give a more in-depth step-by-step process you can follow.

1. Optimize your metadata. Let´s start with one of the easiest ways you can improve your chances to be recommended by YouTube as a good video to watch next, and that is optimizing your metadata. Add a brief description and use the first 2 sentences of it well, as those lines are the ones that are going to be seen by most viewers first, and use your tags wisely, don´t smash 30 different tags as it will confuse YouTube´s algorithm, instead keep it at 10 to 15 relevant tags that are focused around your title and description, plus one that is UNIQUE to your channel, for example, it can be your own name.
2. Create a video series. The second step you can take is to create videos that are related to each other in some way. Now, you don´t want to make videos that are absolutely necessary to be watched together, instead, you want to entice your audience by making videos that cover different (interesting) sub-topics around ONE primary keyword. As a result, a lot of people will click one or two of your other videos if they liked the first one.
3. Brand your thumbnails. Here´s another important step to take. As there are so many different YouTube channels out there you will NEED to differentiate yourself in some way in order to be easily found and compel people that liked one of your videos to watch more of your content. Here´s how: brand-your-thumbnails. Make them very similar, use the same colors, layout, text, and add your logo or channel name on each and every single one of them, like these:

• End-Screen best practices. Last but not least, you MUST use end-screen in order to make people watch more of your content. One of the best (most effective) ways to do just that is by making your end-screen quick and simple. What do I mean by that? First use your last 20 seconds in order to use it, people´s attention span is way too short to make it longer than that, and second, you want to use a simple layout, one “blooper video” on the left, next video on the right, and your subscription button down, here´s an example:

Okay, now that you know how to get some leverage from “suggested videos” it´s time to turn over to your channel to improve SEO.

One great strategy you can start with is creating playlists that are able to rank and get you tons of views and subscribers by improving your watch time much faster as people watch not only one but two, three, or even more of your videos!

First, choose a primary keyword you want to rank for and create a playlist around that, then select 3 to 5 videos that are related to each other, and finally add it as a must-watch on the top of your channel.

Like Roberto has done for his channel:

There are so many top creators that do this as it is a great way to get people to subscribe to their channels by using some of the most popular videos.

In addition to that, and as I already mentioned, playlists can rank and get you tons of brand new viewers and increase your watch time much quicker than any other strategy you could think of.

8. Collaborate… The Right Way!

If there is something that can actually grow a YouTube channel really fast and get you noticability is collaborating with bigger channels.

Now, you might be thinking “thanks for the insight Captain Obvious”… but let me tell you that most people got this one wrong and that you are going to benefit from what I´m about to tell you.

Here´s what I mean.

If you are just starting out as a YouTuber or you are in the beginning stage (no matter how long you´ve been doing it) it is likely that you have thought about or considered the advantages that collaborating with others might give you.

The truth is that collaborations can bring a lot of traffic, views, and subscribers to your channel, and more important than that is that it can bring people that is actually INERESTED in what you have to say.

Now, the problem with this is how in the hell are you going to get a bigger channel´s attention, right?

WRONG!

You don´t really need to contact any of the top channels to grow on YouTube as a small channel, you can easily contact other small channels like yours that share similar interests/content and make a cool video together.

In the same amount of time that you are trying to get in touch with the top creators you could send tons of emails to smaller creators that are actually going to respond and get in touch with you if they´re interested.

In fact.

That is what I did!

You can get in touch with tons of brand new creators with a few hundred/thousand followers and offer an idea for their next video, make it easy for them to choose you as a collaboration partner.

In addition to this, you can find lots of great tips and advice from YouTube itself regarding collaborations in the Creators Academy site.

Now, you can go old fashion and directly contact via email every single channel owner you are interested to work with (which is what I suggest), or you can use other methods.

Here are a few sites you should check out in order to find your collab partner:

• Channel Pages. It is free to join and they´ll provide you access to a complete network of creators that are also in the search for their collaboration partner. Plus they offer you the opportunity to find a sponsor, in case you are interested too. Just check out their site and see if it´s for you, it´s FREE.

• Sub-Reddits. In case you didn´t know Reddit is a popular community-based forum where people tend to discuss and help each other out on (almost) any sort of topic you could think of, including YouTube collabs. In fact, I´ve found this one for you: YouTubeCollab.
• The Channel Crawler. A great tool if you are in the search of new channels that are within your niche/industry to collab with. It is super simple to use and you can find tons of different channels in minutes. (Link)

9. Track, Analyze, Optimize

You want to make every-second-count.

That is why once you´ve created a few videos and have had some success with (at least) some of them you want to get accustomed to track your progress.

You should KNOW your numbers, what are your best videos and how they perform, where´s your traffic coming from, and other key metrics.

In order to improve and accelerate your growth on YouTube, you want to track everything in detail and make a straightforward plan to make things better with each and every video you make.

Here´s a simple three step process you can follow:

1. Track Total Watch Time. You have to be aware of exactly how many minutes people are actually watching YOU. In fact, it is one of those metrics that YouTube analyses for ranking purposes, the more time people spend watching your content the better you´ll rank. As simple as that. So, in order to improve your rankings, one thing you can do is decide whether you should increase your total watch time by uploading longer videos or not.
2. Be Aware Of Audience Retention. The second metric you should keep an eye on is audience retention, aka viewers engagement throughout your entire video. You can easily see the average retention percentage of your content in YouTube Analytics and track your progress as well. You should aim for a 50% rate as it is a good number most top creators tend to get.
3. Improve Your CTR. Another thing you MUST track is your click-through rate, which is the percentage of people that clicks on your video whenever it appears on their feed, whether they´ve made a search or it shows as a suggested video. A low percentage will tell you that you should pay close attention to your thumbnail and title, which are the two most important factors when you are dealing with CTR.
4. Watch Out For Social Signals. Last but not least, you should try to get some social signals from every video you upload as it is a direct metric that tells YouTube a video generates engagement with the audience, therefore it makes a good candidate to be promoted within the platform. Try to respond to every comment you can, engage with your fans, ask for them to participate.

There you go, by tracking and optimizing all of those four metrics you can easily rank on the first page of YouTube in no time!

Bonus #1: Getting Comfortable On Camera

The experience of talking to an inanimate object by yourself with enthusiasm and passion feels like going sort of crazy.

I mean, unless you are a reporter or have had some TV experience it is something completely new for most of us, and many times you don´t know how to deal with it.

As a result you feel very much out of place and you start to make really awkward videos.

You want to hear the truth?

That is 100% normal!

The true path to getting comfortable on camera is by following a few good tips and relentless practice… day in and day out.

Now, here is some useful advice from some experts that you can rely on:

• Script every-single-word. I took this one from Brain Dean, this SEO expert has a successful YouTube channel in one of the most competitive niches on the planet. He says he scripts out every single word in each and every one of his videos, and that´s been one of the reasons he didn´t need to have much previous experience with videos in order to succeed on YouTube and make awesome content for his viewers. You can either choose to make simple bullet points or script your entire speech but the truth is that having something to guide you will always help you, more so in the beginning than ever.
• Have caffeine & sugar. The YouTuber and entrepreneur Evan Carmichael grew his channel to reach millions of subs by having caffeine and sugar to boost his performance whenever he had to make a new video. I know for a fact this actually helps if you need to speak a bit faster and show more enthusiasm on camera.
• Use your hands. According to Vanessa Van Edwards from The School Of People YouTube channel presenters that make a lot of use of their hands when they talk and/or explain something to the audience tend to have much more engagement with their listeners as they help to emphasize what they are saying. In fact, they have discovered this by studying hundreds of hours of TED talks and presentations.
• Meditate. Another great tip I´ve found helpful when I was starting out as a YouTuber is to meditate right before shooting a video, and I actually got this advice from Hayden Pedersen who has over half a million subscribers and says he meditates right before filming as it is a great way to get rid of the mental fluff and will you more focus on what you want to say on camera and how you want to say it.
• Smile! Last but not least, Sunny Lenarduzzi, who was a professional news reporter back in the day, says that smiling on camera is more important than you think. It empowers you and your message like nothing else, by giving you confidence and at the same time sends the message to the viewer that you like and feel enthusiastic about what you are saying.

Bonus #2: Niche Down & Stand Out!

You´ve probably heard this before but I´m going to say it anyway, “if you try to please everybody you please no one”, including yourself.

One of the most underestimated (yet effective) things most beginners don´t pay enough attention to is how well they address to a specific audience.

Niching down is a real thing, more so in the beginning stages of your YouTube career than ever.

You can always go bigger later on, but standing out from the crowd at first is super hard if you try to make videos about all sort of topics.

People decide whether to subscribe to your channel or not in a matter of seconds, making it easy for them to choose YOU over any other channel it´s crucial for you to be able to succeed.

So, to wrap things up, here are three smart steps you should take in order to get this one right:

1. Be crazy specific. You want to let your viewers know exactly what your channel is all about by creating a short 60 seconds long channel trailer and keeping your videos around the same topic, you can cover sub-topics that are closely related to each other but the goal is to make it easy for anyone to quickly recognize what´s your main focus.
2. Make a clear statement. You can use a tagline or simply clearly state at the beginning of every video who you are and for whom the channel is for.
3. Stay on track… for a while. You want to keep this same strategy for a little while before you start talking about not so related things that you are interested in talking about. Once you´ve grown a loyal following you can slowly make the transition to other topics and things you want to start creating content about.

It´s Your Turn Now

Now that you know what are some of the most effective ways you can start a YouTube channel on 2019 I want to hear from you.

What are some of the struggles you face when thinking about your channel?

What do you want to accomplish on YouTube?

I´ll reply to every comment! 😉

Matt Porta