YouTube is holding to its superb position in the rating of the most popular social media. In spite of the global pandemic, the interest in the blogging career on this platform has arisen as never before. The competition has grown a lot, but the audience did too. This is why it is natural that many people are now thinking about how they should start and develop their blog on YouTube, thus they are in search of useful guides for them. They just don’t want to rely solely on intuition, as the first generation of YouTubers did.

And in this article, you will get a fresh and actual guide that will help you to grow a successful YouTube channel.

1. FIRST PREPARATIONS

Some people think that their first move after creating a profile is to make a purchase of some real YouTube views. At some point, this action can help you out a lot, but not at the very start, that would appear a big mistake. Your primary task at this stage, where you are only a beginner, is doing research and understanding what your channel will deliver to the future viewers, what reaction you want to get, and how you will interact with your audience.

Monitoring the preferences of your target group has to be done before you start actively uploading videos to your channel. It will help you to adjust your content accordingly and without time loss, that can occur due to the mistakes you could make.

And how can you find out what your potential followers are gonna like? If you know what your target group is, find other bloggers in your niche that are working for the same audience. Look through their videos, and pay special attention to the comment section. People on the internet are quite eager to share their thoughts about the videos that they watched. And you can find there just the tips that you need. Providing users with what they want to see is a good method to build up your reputation and avoid negativity that may come at inexperienced bloggers.

2. KEYWORD SEARCH

Finding and adding the proper keywords to your activities is a must-do if you want to have swift and smooth growth. Keywords are what helps your potential viewers to find your content on the platform, and what helps the algorithms of YouTube to categorize your videos.  They give it the information about your content, which then is analyzed and systematized, so your videos would appear as suggested content for a relevant group of users. This system is quite complicated, and no one except the developers of YouTube knows exactly how it works. But, there are still some common facts that come in help. For instance, you may wonder where to put them, so they would work for you:

• In your videos – titles and descriptions have to contain specific terms so your video is discoverable
• In your channel information – a nice addition to increase your rates
• Channel Tags section. This feature is a special field that can be found in your profile editor. There, you must put in the most compelling keywords that would describe your content best. Basically, you just add the terms, separating them by commas. For example, if you have a cooking channel, you can specify the cuisine and types of dishes that you make.
• Channel Keywords. This section can be found in the settings of your channel (Studio) in the Advanced point. Channel keywords are not separated by commas, like tags do, so use quotation marks for separating the terms.

3. SET THE REGULAR SCHEDULE

Timing is vital for any social media. And YouTube is no exclusion. To provide constant growth, you need to pop up consistently, so users will be noticing you on a regular basis. The average consistency of YouTube posting is around 3 videos per week. Uploading content more often can be too annoying for your followers, and you will run out of ideas very soon as well.  And on the other hand, posting less than one video per week, you would risk getting lost in the feeds of your followers. So, stick to the mediocre number, that will allow you to both engage your audience enough and have some time for other activities and recap.

4. WORK ON BRANDING

Visuals are important, and the way your profile looks has to be appealing to your potential followers. It has to be like a front window of the store you want to visit. This is your presentation so it is important to make it interesting and pleasant to the eye. So, you must develop your brand through these visual hooks:

• Color scheme. This is a particular combination of colors that are defining your channel. These colors will be the association to you, which would make you recognizable to your audience.
• Logo. This is a picture, or icon, that is your representation online. It can be anything, that is strongly associated with your personality and content. For example, if you make how-to’s about sewing, you should probably think of something like spools, or strings, or needles, etc. It can be an iconic accessory that you wear when you film your videos, or your pet, anything!
• Stylish details. As your channel is obviously connected to a certain industry, you can add some details that would accentuate it in your interior or outfit, like snapback hats that Lily Singh wears, or gaming gear and figurines in the background of the room of Jacksepticeye.

5. MIND YOUR ANALYTICS

YouTube offers creators a possibility to check their results. The analytics section is entirely dedicated to revealing the performance of your videos. With the help of these insights, you will be able to understand who is the average viewer of your content, what reaction you get from different types of content, what time of posting is relevant for you, and many other things. Having this information close to you, the improvement of your results is a question of time. Also, this is a chance to compare your videos, understand the difference between them, and then decide which type does better and if the other one has to be eliminated or changed.

 

6. CREATE

Content quality is what beats practically everything. Nowadays, there is a lot of informational junk on YouTube, even more than a really interesting and compelling one. And if you want to enter the group of top quality makers, you will have to follow a few ground rules:

1. Think outside of the box. There is nothing that would be 100% unique for the majority of industries, so you must offer something outstanding, which would make your crowd say “WOW”.
2. Buy yourself some fine gear. Of course, modern smartphones can offer nice quality of the video, you would still need at least a tripod for stabilization, and a microphone for good sound. If your current budget can afford it, invest in a camera, it would only improve your performance.
3. The average length of the video is a little dependent on the niche that you are occupying. However, it is recommended to keep your films around 10-20 minutes. Everything unimportant and not correlated to the topic has to be eliminated. For babbling about random themes, you can shoot a vlog.
4. Stick to your niche. Don’t try to embrace the whole variety of interests that your audience has. Even if you have something to say, don’t. It would be much better for your reputation if you will remain within a single industry.
5. Stay positive. A good vibe is what helps people to relax and bond with you. As the global lockdown happened, entertainment and fun have become extremely important, as the internet is the only remaining channel for easing up the stress.
6. Work on your speech. Speaking skills are another thing that can drive users to you. Being clear and pleasant in your speech is an attractive feature. Train a little, before you start uploading content on YouTube – shoot a test video, note what you don’t like about your behavior, and speaking. Also, write yourself a brief scenery, to avoid pauses and “er”s.