How to Start and Maintain a Successful YouTube Career

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Creating a Channel

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Developing Your Content

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Growing Your Channel

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

There are many possible ways to gain video views, subscribers, friends, and maybe, if you're lucky and talented enough––the fame. Consider some of the suggestions outlined here, to see which ones apply to your situation.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Creating a Channel

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1
Make an account. Simply go to https://www.youtube.com and click the "create account" tab. Choose a username and password to create your account.
- When choosing a username, you want it to be catchy, easy to read and related to your personality or the main category that you plan to discuss on YouTube.
- You will not be able to change your username in the future, however, you will be able to make new channels under your account that serve the same purpose.
2
Make your first video. Choose a subject to talk about or make a creative, artistic video. You may want your first video to be an introduction to your channel and give people a taste of what you have to offer them.
- An introduction to your channel can help you describe what your channel is all about. Why did you start the channel in the first place? What are you here to do?
- You can also tell your viewers about future topics, give them dates on which your next videos will come out, and encourage them to subscribe.
EXPERT TIP
Timothy Linetsky
Music Producer & Instructor
Timothy Linetsky is a DJ, producer, YouTuber, and music educator based in San Francisco, California. He has been making music for over 15 years, and is known for his YouTube channel You Suck at Producing, in which he does music production tutorials for over 330,000 YouTube subscribers. In addition to teaching music production, he releases his own music as Underbelly. He has taught at schools such as Beat Lab Academy and Pyramind. He is also an Ableton Certified Trainer, and has worked closely with the company to produce tutorial videos and educational content. His original productions have garnered millions of plays on Spotify, and in 2020, he released his debut album Machine Yearning as Underbelly to critical acclaim.
Timothy Linetsky
Music Producer & Instructor
What makes you different? Timmy Linetsky, a popular YouTube DJ and musician, says: "Don't follow too closely in somebody else's path. Learn from the success of other people on the internet, but at the end of the day, you have to carve your own trail."
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3
Plan out your videos in advance. Have a plan in place at least several months ahead. Draw one up and follow it fairly closely, with a bit of flexibility to meet viewers' requests and deal with the unexpected. Keep buffer space for the times when you're going to be too busy, too budget-crunched or even unwell or dealing with personal issues to be making a video.
- If you know you will not have time in the future to make or upload a video consider making it now and scheduling it in YouTube for a future date.
- Quality over quantity is often the best aim.
4
Generate new ideas. If you cannot think of something to talk about or do, watch other videos and gather ideas. After watching some videos you may be inspired to make a video response or even a spoof of their original video.
- Don't copy other people's ideas. Parody is usually okay, as it is a common form of artistic expression that is not considered copying. But pretending another person's video script is also yours, for example, is copying.
- Some great ideas that have worked in the past are; prank videos, product reviews, how to videos, reaction videos, gameplay videos, makeup & shopping haul videos, video memes, unboxing videos.
- If you want to make a video that does not require much editing and can be done in real time, for example, a video of you playing the latest computer game, then consider live streaming it. That way you will be able to interact with viewers which will help build an audience base, and YouTube favors live streams and will rank it higher in search results during the stream.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Developing Your Content

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1
Respond to what's going on in the news. Make video responses to well known or popular videos. These are topics that are currently being searched for a lot on YouTube and in Google search, making a video relevant to these topics have a good chance of being found.
- You can find the latest topics by going to Google News or the trending topics section of Twitter.
2
Make cute videos to gain popularity. Kittens, puppies, babies, laughing babies, children doing hilarious things, smiling, hugging, etc. are the sorts of things human beings are suckers for. Somehow, there is always room for more! Find the sorts of things your viewers like by way of cuteness, and keep delivering.
- Cute videos have a high sharing potential on social media, everyone loves seeing cute videos in their news feed. Make sure you share these kinds of videos on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a chance of your videos going viral.
Once you've cottoned onto an idea that works for you, don't embellish it or deviate from it too much. People like a certain style and brand when they start subscribing and will expect more of the same style as you add more. Of course, this doesn't mean you can't grow and change for the better; it just means don't leap from punk one week to preppy the next. (Unless, of course, that really is your channel's idea!)
EXPERT TIP
Ashton Wu
Board Game Expert
Ashton Wu is a Board Game expert at Shelfside. After delving into the Yugioh tournament community while growing up, Ashton launched himself into the board gaming community in 2014 and went into reviewing board games as a career full-time in 2019. His YouTube channel Shelfside has over 35K subscribers and over 4 million views, assisted by written reviews on the Shelfside website and BoardGameGeek.com. He also consults with gaming companies to build high-quality gaming products. Ashton is a tournament commentator, board game playthrough director, and host of the Shelfside Podcast, where he talks about board games with his business partner, Daniel. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in addition to the Technology Management Certificate.
Ashton Wu
Board Game Expert
Captivate your audience. Make the first 10 seconds of videos engaging to capture your audience's attention. Craft compelling titles & thumbnails. Don't shy away from serious topics, but remember – YouTube is an entertainment platform, so add a sprinkle of humor. Have fun and keep your audience interested – it's the secret weapon for a thriving YouTube channel!

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Growing Your Channel

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1
Improve your filming techniques. Natural light is the best lighting you can use when filming for YouTube. Successful YouTubers use studio type lights or white lights, which also give you good lighting. But natural lighting is the best. Make sure you have the lights facing you and not behind you. Be aware of where shadows are and make sure they are not covering the main focal point of your videos.
- Backgrounds are also good to have. You can buy or make backgrounds. To purchase a cheap background, go on eBay or other selling sites to find a simple, white background. Alternatively, you can film you videos outside at places like the beach, your local park, or even your backyard.
- Consider purchasing a green screen, this way you will be able to make your own backgrounds for your videos.
2
Invest in a quality camera or use your smartphone. Webcams are out. The video and audio quality are not very good on webcams, so try to invest in a good video camera. It doesn't have to be a $500 camera, it could cost $20 as long as the quality for audio and visuals are good your video will be good too.
- Many digital cameras now have excellent video capacity.
- Look for used options on auction sites or classifieds if you haven't a lot of money to spare. Some great sites to find used cameras are eBay and Craigslist.
- The latest mobile phones are also capable of creating good videos.
- Consider using a tripod to avoid having a shaking video effect.
3
Record with a high-quality screen recorder. This only applies if your video involves you recording your screen. HD videos are the norm nowadays, so make sure it can record at 720p or above.
- It is best to invest in one rather than download a free one as they often have a "Free Trial" or "Demo" watermark across the screen on export.
- If your screen recorder does not have options to record audio as well then you need to invest in a good quality microphone - or another screen recorder. One many YouTubers use is the "Blue Snowball" or "Blue Yeti", but any cheap, high-quality microphone will do the job.
4
Tag your videos with relevant tags. Choosing tags is a pretty important step in the video upload process, and choosing popular tags will make it harder for people to find your video. Choosing unique but accurate tags should bring you more views.
- Use concise titles, descriptions, and tags. YouTube sorts videos out based on the title of the video, the description and then the tags, in that order.
- Consider which search terms you would like your video to be displayed under and also use those search terms in the title, description, and tags.
- Place tags in your description as well as it is more likely that you will get views on your YouTube video.
- For example: If you were uploading a video about what you thought of Lil Wayne's music career, you wouldn't just put "Lil Wayne" because there would be too many results to sort through. But if you were to put Lil Wayne, Cash Money, Music, Career, and History, you would probably end up with a lot more views; not because there are more tags than just Lil Wayne but because it really narrows the search results down.
5
Describe your channel in the description box. On every YouTube channel there is a box, called a description box. Anytime someone views your channel they will see what you write there, so you may want to give clues about future videos or tell a little about yourself. This can be a great way to get subscribers.
- You can also encourage people to subscribe at the end of each video.
If you say your video will be out on Friday, you make sure you have a video posted by Friday. Subscribers tend to want reliability.
EXPERT TIP
Ashton Wu
Board Game Expert
Ashton Wu is a Board Game expert at Shelfside. After delving into the Yugioh tournament community while growing up, Ashton launched himself into the board gaming community in 2014 and went into reviewing board games as a career full-time in 2019. His YouTube channel Shelfside has over 35K subscribers and over 4 million views, assisted by written reviews on the Shelfside website and BoardGameGeek.com. He also consults with gaming companies to build high-quality gaming products. Ashton is a tournament commentator, board game playthrough director, and host of the Shelfside Podcast, where he talks about board games with his business partner, Daniel. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in addition to the Technology Management Certificate.
Ashton Wu
Board Game Expert
Engage with your audience to build an online community. Respond to comments across platforms like YouTube, Discord, social media, and relevant forums. Hearing your content inspire viewers is incredibly rewarding. No matter your niche, fostering a supportive community around your passion is a powerful source of fulfillment.
While it may seem like a quick way to find followers, it may actually deter people from engaging with your account. Spamming includes constantly commenting on other peoples videos with the same message or something irrelevant to their videos.
8
Stay confident in the face of negativity. YouTube can be a great place but can also be very demoralizing. The best thing to do when receiving a nasty comment is to delete their comment, block the commenter and never respond to them. Keep your head held high and don't let anybody bring you down.
- Decide whether you'll even leave a video open to commenting.
- Don't take any of the mean comments personally. Civility is the byword.
- Focus more on the positive comments, rather than the negative ones.
9
Review relevant products or items. If you want to do reviews on your channel, keep up with the latest version that interests you. Keep your video simple to engage followers for longer.
- Try to compare it to other similar products.
- Talk about the differences and what you like about it and what you don't.
- If your review videos are already getting a lot of views, then consider asking brands to provide you with new or unreleased products for you to review. This will give your videos an edge.
- To promote interactions on your video ask people to comment with their thoughts on the product you were reviewing.

Community Q&A

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Question
Is it possible for everyone to make money on YouTube?
Community Answer
Theoretically it is possible but many people on YouTube don't really care to make money there and enjoy sharing videos for fun and as a hobby. It is only when your channel starts becoming a bit famous and people are ready to sponsor you that you are going to earn money. Likes don't earn you money, but ads before the videos do.
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How do I collaborate with other well-known YouTubers?
Community Answer
Try to gain some popularity first, (around 10,000 should be good) and then ask popular YouTubers if they would like to collaborate with you. Be sure to send them links to some of your most popular videos as well.
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Question
What is the risk of becoming a YouTuber?
Community Answer
The only risk is offending or upsetting someone. Be careful what you say online, as it could come back to haunt you.
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Tips

Don't be scared to start with your own YouTube channel. Do what you want to do, if it makes you happy!
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On your first video, it's good to do an introduction video so people can get to know you.
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Be age-appropriate. The last thing a parent wants is their child watching a video with overused swearing and/or sexual comments.
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Warnings

If you want to monetize your videos then avoid using any licensed or copyrighted music in your videos.
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Helpful54 Not Helpful4
Don't copy other YouTubers, If you do and people in your "audience" realize that you are copying you'll lose subscribers because they'll think you are not original and a waste of time. So be careful!
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Don't trick people into watching your videos through clickbait; it will bring loads of hate comments and negative opinions towards your channel.
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