Not only is creating video content on YouTube an awesome hobby, it also has the potential to become a career. Thousands of creators now make a living from the videos they film and distribute to their dedicated audience.

In this piece, we’ll show you everything you need to get started on YouTube and how to make content that people will really love.

Setup And Planning

First, you’ll need to set up a YouTube account and grab a phone or camera with video recording capabilities. Then it’s time to get started on the fun stuff.

Before uploading you’ll need to plan out what you want your channel to be about. YouTube is flooded with videos, so you’ll see the most success by creating content for existing communities and putting your own spin on it.

It’s also important to consider how frequently you upload per week. Try uploading at least twice or more a week to grow your audience, but don’t compromise quality over quantity. You also don’t want to take on more than you can handle at the start, so start easing into it.

Popular communities that generate large audiences are daily vloggers, beauty channels and reaction channels. The best way to excel at creating content for these communities is to see what the leading creators are making. Notice trends and jump on them quickly so that users who enjoy their content will also click on yours.

Branding And Setup

Next, you’ll want to think of a channel name and how to market yourself to potential viewers.

When naming your channel, consider what people are searching for. If you’re making vlog-centric content, try and put “vlog” in the name of your channel. It’s also important to add tags and descriptions to your channel and videos so your content can be visible to more people.

As for branding, you’ll want to think of three main things: your display picture, your cover photo and your watermark. The easiest forum to design custom logos is PicMonkey as it’ll allow you to create high-resolution branding and video thumbnails that looks good on different devices. Canva is another good graphic design tool too.

Making Videos

It can be awkward talking to the camera for the first time if you’re not used to it, so do a few practice takes before you get started. It also helps to keep dot points nearby on what you want to talk about.

Also, consider the background of your video. No one wants to look at a dirty bedroom, so keep things tidy to create an intimate environment where you can connect one on one with your viewers.

Editing And Publishing

So you’ve made your first video. Congrats! Now it’s time to edit. The software I recommend when getting started is iMovie (Mac-users only) as it’s easy to learn and free. iMovie also gives you the option to upload directly to YouTube so you can choose the category you want to upload to, write a description and tag your content all in the app.

PC users can try free software like Movie Maker. They’re both relatively no frills, you can test these out and get a feel before you fork out the big bucks for something like Adobe Premier Pro.

Gaining A Following

The last and most crucial step to starting a successful channel on YouTube is to use other social media platforms as marketing tools to help you gain a following.

Use your Instagram and Snapchat to market your videos to your friends when you’re first getting started so that you can get those initial views and subscribers. Then, find similar communities to yours and start engaging in their content by commenting, liking and sharing their posts. Supporting other peoples work is the best first step to getting others to support you too. Plus! You’ll get a good idea of what you like, what other people like and what kind of content you’d like to see being created.

Stay Consistent

Setting up a YouTube channel can be done in a week, but gaining a following and seeing some feedback will take some time.

Stay consistent and keep creating cool stuff that you enjoy. These tips and tricks will definitely get you started in the right direction. Best of luck!