With over 2 billion active users a month, YouTube has become more than a destination for cat videos. Even regular people now can make a lot of dough from a YouTube career. Noticing a pattern here, check out famous YouTubers like Pewdiepie, Shane Dawson, Jake Paul, Smosh, and Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast.
It’s probably fair to say that YouTube has emerged over the years as the de facto launchpad for the next wave of creators, personalities and even celebs. So it’s no wonder so many are lured by the prospect of launching a YouTube channel, making a full-time living on the platform and transitioning into full-time YouTubers.
After all, being a YouTuber sounds like an enjoyable and rewarding profession. And all you need is a camera and strong internet … right? But a YouTube career is a lot more involved than that.
How can you become a successful YouTuber?
While it may sound easy to become an overnight YouTube star, creating a YouTube career does require work. It’s counterintuitive, but a YouTube career does not mean fast and easy money, which is what a lot of people think.
That’s because there are more than 500 hours of videos uploaded every minute, you can’t just dream of your channel standing out and getting thousands of views on the videos without even lifting a finger.
What are the skills you need to become a successful YouTuber?
1. Out-of-the-box ideas
Writing — YouTube videos are all content. After all, video is a format that works well for artistic expression. And that is the reason that you have to continuously think of new and original content to attract more eyes and collect subscribers. Just hopping onto trendy videos on the platform can only lead your videos to get lost in the masses. It will probably trigger curiosity and result in clicks on your YouTube video when you make original video content by giving something unique to viewers. Don’t go too far in the other direction and become one of those insufferable “influencers.”
2. Solid Content Research
This also means that you need proper skills in content research as well, to give your content ideas with a more entertaining and informed base. The better you know your material, the greater the interest on your channel, We know that. Then, it will help you grow your channel quicker. Use reputable websites and sources to support your content in your stories. It will not only make your content more credible but also your channel a whole lot professional. Quality content can prove to your audience that your YouTube channel deserves to get followed because you are serious about it. To make a career as a successful YouTube, high subscriptions and viewership are the demands of the industry.
3. Video editing skills
Unless you’re ready and able to pay for a video editor, you need at least fundamental video skills. Excellent video editing can leave an excellent impression. Editing is one of the most important skills needed for creating video content that has a professional look and feel — no matter if you’re making a daily vlog or an educational explainer video.
Don’t worry. Of course, you can find video editing tools to help your video editing free of stress. Most of these provide clean user interfaces with simple features and you can operate them easily even if you are a noob in Video Editing. You can probably find your computer came bundled with some sort of consumer-grade video editing software. And YouTube also offers rudimentary video-editing tools.
4. Knowledge of the Platform
Getting experienced in what makes a YouTube video keeps people watching and subscribing is yet another ability you will need to get to be a YouTuber. You need to understand how YouTube operates (the enigmatic YouTube “algorithm,” for example); what kind of videos top YouTubers like; how they make money. You should read YouTube guidelines thoroughly.
You also have to come to terms with what kind of viewers you want, so you can do content that they care about and engage with.
Step-by-step process for becoming a Successful YouTuber
Choose your Niche: A specialized section of a larger category of items. Say you want to create a YouTube channel about Vegetarian Recipes, ask how can you narrow that down to something more specific. Oil-free vegetarian recipes, sweet vegetarian recipes, or even just vegetarian dinner recipes.
You can niche down based on your passion, your knowledge of the subject or both.
Understand your audience:
Map what you are doing about what YOU are doing for who are you doing it. To begin, consider these questions:
- Who is my content for
- How old are they in terms of range
- What interests or hobbies they have
- What kind of work they do
- Why they’re watching my videos
- What they will learn and or gain from my videos
- What time they spend the most on YouTube
- You will start creating a persona for your target audience by answering these questions. The persona will guide you in creating the most relevant content for them.
Goal: What really do you want specifically from your viewers to achieve with your videos? Do you want to become famous? Are you looking to focus on a specific group of audiences or people? Or do you want to create a personal brand in order to sell a product or service?
Be clear about whatever goal you have from the start.
Content Ideas: Once you have clarity on your niche, audience, and goals, it’s time to start generating content ideas. Coming up with content ideas is one of the hard parts of being consistent with YouTube.
Plan your content in advance so that you can schedule it accordingly: Ideas for content won’t be enough. But you need a lot of ways to make it happen.
We sometimes get behind on this activity, writing down all my video ideas for the week or month. This will keep you organized and ahead of time. This will also give you time to focus on other aspects of building your YouTube audience and enjoy other social media promotions.
Here are some of the simple tools that can help you with creating a content calendar: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Trello, Asana, etc.
SEO: Simply recording and submitting videos to YouTube won’t work. You need to also optimize your videos so that they are in front of your target audience. The following areas require SEO or keywords optimization:
- Video file name
- Video title
- Video description
- Video tags, etc.
Promote: With your video up and running, the next step is promotion.] Don’t be shy. Share your video everywhere – use social media channels (those that your audience uses), and even experiment with email marketing.
How Can You Make Money Through YouTube?
Money is probably not your main motivation with your YouTube channel. Perhaps you simply like making videos and engaging with your audience. But you can also make bucks when you are having great fun with the entire process of being a YouTuber.
Lest you worry that being a YouTuber is a poverty-stricken occupation, here are some ways that you can monetize your channel:
Signup for YouTube Partner
You can even make money on YouTube by joining the YouTube Partner Program, allowing ads to be shown on your content. But you can do this only after hitting 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over a year.
What you need to know about monetization is that you don’t get paid unless the viewer watches the ad for a certain, minimum amount of time or actually clicks on the ad. How much do you get paid by YouTube? There are many things that go into this, but it’s estimated that a YouTube Partner earns $3 – $5 per 1000 video views, on average. This also means that to actually earn a full-time income, you can need to accumulate millions of views!
Be an influencer and collaborate with brands
There is no doubt that if you have a lot of followers on another social media platform, you can easily build your audience on YouTube and quickly become an active influencer. You can partner with a brand and get sponsored to promote their service or product. Review their products, run giveaways, and mention their products in your video; for all these activities if you get paid, you can get free stuff from the brand as well.
Sell Products
You can also use YouTube to market your own stuff or other people’s stuff as an affiliate. They will assist you in building your brand awareness and expanding your reach. If you sell products you can make product videos, add customer reviews or how-to videos on YouTube. Reaching more people is the key here, and getting them more familiar with your brand.
Crowdfunding your channel
You, as a YouTuber also have your chance to crowd-fund your channel and other projects. This means that people send you a one-off or monthly payment, to allow you to continue creating content or to finish a particular project.
Most successful crowdfunded projects have a trailer video that encourages people to donate. Trailer videos are also a fantastic solution to pitch your ideas. You can take advantage of this as a donation source from your viewers or subscribers. And make sure you always communicate why your project deserves backers’ support and what in it for them to spend money on it.
