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How To Become a YouTuber

A Complete Guide to A Successful Channel

By CLOSE ACCOUNTPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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Growing up, did you ever imagine that you could make money by posting videos of cutting random things in half to see what’s inside or by putting things in a blender? Today, It doesn’t sound so ridiculous.

The generation that wanted to be doctors, lawyers and astronauts raised kids that would rather be Youtube stars – streaming videos playing Minecraft or makeup tutorials.

Why wouldn’t they?

Ryan Kaji, an 8-year-old had earned $26 million in 2019 reviewing toys!

Crazy!

What started as a place to share a video of yourself at the zoo has turned into a giant marketing platform for getting attention.

Let’s face it…

Starting a Youtube channel right now seems daunting.

Whether you’re an influencer or a business owner, this article will reveal the actionable steps to starting and running a successful YouTube channel that makes money.

The 5P's of YouTube:

1. Prerequisites

2. Planning

3. Production

4. Promotion

5. Performance

Bonus: How to Make Money on YouTube

Check out the full guide on How To Become a YouTuber here!

Each builds from the last so it is best to first read this article all the way through and later refer to sections.

1. Prerequisites

This section serves as the foundation for any (and in this case, YouTube) marketing strategy. Do not skip – or downgrade – this important step!

The Art of Storytelling

Let me tell you a quick story about a little girl…

Charlotte had suffered from a very rare form of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome. Ever since she was born she would get seizures that got worse over time. By age five, she would have up to 300 seizures a week!

When doctors told her parents that there’s nothing they could do for Charlotte, they started looking for alternative treatments. They later found several stories of parents who had successfully treated their children’s epilepsy with cannabis.

Having exhausted every other option, Charlotte’s parents started giving her CBD oil – and she seized less often, eventually to zero seizures.

Their story inspired the Stanley Brothers to change the name of their marijuana dispensary to Charlotte’s Web in her honour.

That powerful story tugs at the heartstrings of parents who want their children to be able to walk, talk and eat again. To not see their kids in pain and to be normal kids. And it is that story – and many others like it – that helps drive Charlotte’s Web to $22.8 million in revenue by the end of 2019.

Why is that important to you, the aspiring Youtuber?

Well, think about it…

If you are a parent whose child suffers from debilitating seizures, don’t you think a story like that would get your attention and keep it?

A story like that is definable, relatable and shareable. That’s the key to growing a sustainable YouTube channel.

Whatever industry you’re in, you’re up against massive competition. Giant corporations with big budgets, brand and resources. If you decide to swim in the ocean that is Youtube, you are swimming with the goliaths of your industry. How are you going to beat the bigger fish?

You are also swimming with – not just the whales, but with – billions of other fish fighting for your target viewers attention.

How are you going to overcome those other players?

The answer is simple – It’s you: your passion, personality and energy.

Your strategic advantage as an entrepreneur, business owner or influencer is your story. That’s how you win.

First, when you have an impressive and captivating narrative (like Charlotte), people will want to please their curiosity. Especially if the story is relatable.

Second, having a strong narrative helps build trust with your audience. People trust you more when you open up and share personal stories with them. Before they buy from you, they have to first know then like you. You build trust further the more videos they watch.

And third, stories do a better job at grabbing the attention of most people over raw content like statistics or facts.

By opening up and sharing your experiences, you allow people to buy into your story.

Like Tai in his Garage…

Tai Lopez’s main story theme is how he went from sleeping on a couch in a mobile home with $47 in his pocket to living in Beverly Hills and having a Lamborghini in his garage. All by reading books and seeking mentors. This one viral video has now racked up almost 70 million views and made him 8-figures through his 67 Steps program.

Consider DNA (Writing, Audio, Video)

Before embarking on the journey of becoming a Youtuber, you must consider your strengths. That is to say that not everybody should be a YouTuber.

There are various ways to present your story; through the written-word, audio and video. Focus on what works for you and your skillset.

Written Word

Historically, humans don’t naturally develop the skills to read and write. We are taught to do so and so not everybody does it well or regularly. Think about the last time you read a book cover-to-cover. Or even the last time you read a 3,000-word article all the way through.

There are lots of people who love reading and writing can be a great way to establish your authority in a particular field – especially if you are a bestseller. Just consider the tremendous effort and low odds, even for naturally gifted writers.

Audio

Generally speaking, audio is easier to digest than reading as we are more hardwired to process speech than to read text.

The benefit of audio is that you can consume podcasts and audiobooks, while you are doing other things: driving, walking, washing the dishes or working out.

Which means, this medium opens up the number of people you can reach with your story. However, it seems that everyone and their moms have a podcast.

Though, if you can’t string a proper sentence together and you have a face for radio, grab a microphone and talk, but make it interesting.

Video

Video is the best platform for telling stories. Think about how many people would rather wait for ‘the movie to come out’ of a popular best-selling novel. There’s no effort to consume video, you sit there and watch.

It just has to be compelling.

What used to be limited to companies with big budgets is now accessible to anybody with a smartphone and a wifi connection.

You have a better chance of a video going viral than a photo or an article, as people are more likely to share video content than anything else.

The Power of Video

There’s a hundred stats illustrating the rise and power of video:

You get the point.

If you want to reach and impact more people, grow your audience and increase engagement, you need video content.

As fewer people watch TV, more people watch video online.

Video In Social Media

Social media is a significant part of our world and it must be a dominant part of your marketing strategy.

Deciding how to tell your story includes deciding which social media platform should you focus on.

Each platform has a unique voice and all of them have value.

Twitter is the loudest of all platforms and is best suited for shorter and more frequent ‘tweets’. Yet even the majority of Twitter users watch video content.

Facebook – which owns Instagram, a photo-based app – suits a news-feed style, which is also focusing heavily on video content.

I see video as a megatrend

Mark Zuckerberg

Snapchat tailors towards short videos that disappear. You use TikTok to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos.

The bottom line: Whatever platform you use, people prefer to watch a video. Focus heavily on including video but tailor to each platform.

If video is the best vehicle for telling your story and if social media is going video, then Youtube is your first best bet.

YouTube is the second most popular search engine behind Google and is the most used platform for video marketers.

Then look at Facebook as half a billion people are watching videos on Facebook every day and even LinkedIn next for its organic reach.

How Youtube Works

How does YouTube find your videos?

Hundreds of hours get uploaded each minute and one billion hours are watched daily.

Since no team of people can keep up with watching all that, YouTube relies on a sophisticated algorithm to match each viewer to videos they’re most likely to watch and enjoy.

The algorithm is a real-time feedback loop that tailors videos to each viewer’s different interests. Have you noticed that after you’ve watched a few videos on ‘Paleo Recipes’, your home page feed will be plastered with cooking-related videos.

Try this as an experiment when you’re on YouTube. Search for ‘Home Workout Videos’, ‘Vegan Recipes’ or whatever you like, watch a few videos and see how your homepage feed changes based on what you’ve previously watched.

The algorithm does its best to show the viewer the right video at the right time. Also like Google, YouTube’s search aims to surface the most relevant videos and channels according to what people type in the search box.

How?

Data.

For each video, YouTube looks at things like title, thumbnails, description, comments, likes, watch time and before watched videos (we’ll cover more on these later on).

The algorithm wants to 1) help each viewer find the videos they want to watch and 2) keep viewers watching more of what they like.

Get your audience to like your videos; The algorithm follows the audience. If people like your videos, the algorithm will surface them to others.

Check out the full guide on How To Become a YouTuber here!

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