Do you want to start a YouTube channel in 2020? Being a content creator can be incredibly fun but it does take a lot of work! In this post I’m going to share my tips for how to start a YouTube channel in 2020.
YouTube is not a get rich quick scheme. In fact, it can take a long time to see any real income from YouTube. For one, they changed their partnership requirements. You’ll need at least 1000 subscribers and over 4000 hours watch time to apply to monetize your videos.
As high as that sounds, it’s actually very doable. I got my partnership within a couple months of making videos on my YouTube Channel.
If you’re serious about starting a YouTube channel – just know it takes a lot of work but can be very rewarding if you stick with it.
Subscriptions Don’t Matter
Did you know that subscribers don’t really matter?
A lot of YouTubers get their views from users that aren’t subscribed to their channel! Part of this is because YouTube doesn’t always show subscribers that you have uploaded unless they have checked the “bell notification” on your channel. Even then, the notifications are spotty.
Believe it or not, about 80% of YouTuber’s video views are from UNSUBSCRIBED users!
Don’t focus so much on how many subscribers you have! Obviously, building a community around your content is fun and nice, but it’s definitely not the “end-all-be-all” when it comes to YouTube.
Thumbnails Matter
Having a good thumbnail along with a good video title is extremely important.
There are two types of YouTube users:
- Users who browse only looking at Thumbnails
- Users who actually read video titles
YouTube allows you to upload your own custom thumbnails to your videos. Gone are the days where YouTube automatically generated a thumbnail based on a still from your video (gross!)
You can use sites like Canva or PicMonkey to create beautiful and clickable thumbnails for your videos. Bright colors, text, and eye-catching photos all do well when it comes to thumbnails.
Again, it’s best to look at other content creators within your niche to get ideas on how to create your thumbnails. See their popular videos and pay attention to their thumbnails!
Tip: Thumbnails with Emojis in them tend to do better than those that don’t!
Get Your Videos in Recommended
The key to getting your videos seen is to get in the recommended section in other videos!
Recommended videos are the section to the right when you’re watching a video. It’s filled with content YouTube believes the user would be interested in watching next.
YouTube’s algorithm guesses the content to keep the user on the site longer to increase watch time. Watch time = money in ad revenue.
The best tactic to get in this section is to search for videos within your niche and see how they’re labeling their videos and what they are writing in their descriptions. SEO (search engine optimization) plays a huge role in YouTube.
Label your Video Files Correctly
YouTube is owned by Google… and Google is a search engine. Google has bots that crawl literally everything about a site to accurately index it to searches.
Basically, when you’re exporting your video file – pay attention to how you label it! Use this opportunity to name your file with a keyphrase that users may be searching.
Example: If your video is about a chocolate chip cookie recipe, instead of labeling it “video1.mp4“, name it “best-chocolate-chip-recipe-2020.mp4″
This same method applies for thumbnails as well! Label everything with different key phrases that users may be searching (stick to the topic of the video, though!)
Do Keyword Research and Have Good Video Tags
One of the key factors to succeeding on YouTube is to have good SEO.
Having good video tags, video titles, and a rich video description will do you good when it comes to being indexed in search engines.
Do some market research, look at other content creators within your niche to see how they title their videos, what keywords they are using in their descriptions, and video tags.
Avoid using vague one-word tags in your video tags! Having generic words will just use up valuable space.
Going back to the “chocolate chip cookie recipe” example. If your video is about that recipe, you could use rich key phrases that people will be searching for in your tags.
Aim to have long-tail key phrases in your tags. Instead of using “cookies” “recipe” and “baking”, use phrases like “best chocolate chip cookie recipe” “homemade chocolate chip cookies” “easy cookie recipes 2020” and so forth.
Not sure what to include in your tags? One trick I learned is to search a term in google and scroll ALL the way down to see what related searches people are searching for that term.
Seeing what users are searching for will not only help you with your SEO efforts, but it can help boost your video into recommended as well as be indexed into google/YouTube.
Aim to include a few of these terms within your video description as well! Like I said, google crawls literally everything you upload, so the more relevant keywords and phrases you include in your content, the better!
This also includes content WITHIN your video! YouTube has a handy feature that automatically closed captions your videos – so if your video includes speaking audio, try to include keywords and phrases in your dialogue – because google crawls that as well!
Upload Videos Frequently
This is the most important step to having a successful YouTube channel in 2020. Uploading content frequently!
When you consistently upload content, YouTube sees you’re being active on their platform. This will increase your chances to get your content recommended to users.
Not to mention, it keeps your name fresh in subscribers heads! How annoying is it to enjoy someone’s videos and they only upload once a month or longer?
Even the most successful YouTubers upload multiple times a week, sometimes even daily.
You don’t need to go crazy when you’re first starting out. Try to aim to put out new videos at least twice a week.
Tip: I find that uploading during the work week in the AM does best. Weekends are usually dead when it comes to viewership. You can schedule uploads using the YouTube Scheduler!
Go Make a YouTube Channel!
I hope this post has helped you better understand how YouTube works. Now here is the hardest part – making your channel! Can’t succeed if you don’t make your channel.
Just remember that success doesn’t come overnight – but if you enjoy making content and stick with it – the views will come! GOOD LUCK!
