How to create a successful YouTube Channel
Creating a YouTube Channel for your Online Business
YouTube is by far the biggest video platform online. It has 2 billion users and billions of hours of videos are watched everyday on YouTube.
You have to realize though that YouTube is owned by Google so if you want to rank high on YouTube, you need to apply intelligent SEO to your videos. You also need to realize that YouTube is a huge search engine. If you post videos and do not optimize them for keywords, meta description, Titles, Thumbnail, it is very unlikely that people will see your videos at all.
Such a valuable tool as TubeBuddy will help you understand what the top ranking videos are using as tags and which how you can rank your videos by optimizing them using this powerful and free tool.
TubeBuddy will help you research your competitors and provides a video SEO ranking for your videos that will help you optimize them.
YouTube is owned by Google so if your video ranks well on YouTube, it might rank well on Google too! YouTube and Google have different algorithms but Google loves to show their number one videos in their first page results!
So here is how to get your Youtube Channel started
You have to choose a theme for your channel. You have to brand your channel
If you have more than one business or niche, they should all be on separate channels or sub channels
You have to decide what kind of videos you will create. You can always vary the kind of videos that you do but your subscribers will be used to one kind like you talking, a screen capture or you talking while recording a PowerPoint presentation.
Before creating your videos, you need to do your keywords research. You then need to have your keywords in your title, description and tags but in a natural way. Keywords stuffing that does not sound natural will have you penalize or even get your channel shut down.
The most important thing is to start growing your channel by uploading videos to it . Then, you need to optimize them by keywords, tags, title, creating a great thumbnail, etc
You do not need a fancy video or audio equipment. Most successful YouTube either use their cell phones or their webcam. Since YouTube ranks your videos by the time people watch it, longer videos are better but going over one hour is not recommended unless you already have an huge audience eager to watch your long videos.
Most people decide if they will watch a video by the first couple of seconds so make them count. If you use an intro, it should only be a couple of seconds or many experienced YouTubers will announce really quickly what the video will be about or will even hook you with an intriguing opening statement. This technique is what you see on television when they say: “After the break, find out what healthy food is making you fat.” Then people stay to find out!
The simple steps to creating a winning YouTube channel
Set-up your YouTube channel by following Google’s instructions here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1646861?hl=en Make sure your channel is a good reflection of your niche and branding. Do not try to copy any of the successful YouTubers. Your followers will like and trust you because you are authentic. Make sure you have determined well your avatar customer and your niche. Resist the temptation to aim at a wide niche. You will get more interested followers by targeting a smaller niche.
Research your market in order to better understand what kind of information they’re looking for, what style of content and overall tone are they most likely going to be attracted to and what can you do differently from other channels in your market?
The next step is to create and upload content. Resist the urge to criticize yourself and just get going. After all, some very successful YouTubers have the squeekiest voice and are far from looking like top models. Their main quality is that they are authentic and that is what their followers love about them. Do not forget to optimize your videos for SEO by using such free tools as TubeBuddy.
Embedding your videos on your blog posts is a fantastic idea to get more views and raise your blog post interest by your visitors and the search engines.
To get the best title, ask yourself what your viewers would type in the search engines to end-up in front of your video. You will end-up with mostly questions as this is the way people do their searches on Google and YouTube so “How To” videos are always a great title. Aim at the low-hanging keywords to begin which are longer as it is extremely difficult to rank for such competitive titles as “how to golf better”.
Metadata is the title, description, thumbnail, and tags you give your video when you upload it. That means you need to make sure your tags are relevant to the video content (and that they match the keywords viewers would use to search for your content).
Always put yourself in your your ideal viewers shoes: “what do they need? How can you help them? What would make them like you and come back for more?”
YouTube allows you to ask to like, subscribe and comment on your video so you can mention that. Honestly though, YouTube viewers hear it so often that most probably they tune it out.
Make sure you are following the YouTube rules and regulations . Using copyrighted material that is not yours or spamming can get your channel deleted for good. Which brings us to our next important step, always keep a copy of your videos in case something bad happens to your channel. Some channels have hundreds of videos and if they get shut down it would be a disaster if the owner did not make a copy of all his videos. it is recommended that you keep a copy of your videos on an external disk in case something happens to your computer as disasters often come in two.
Choose your channel name to represent well your brand. Resist the temptation to get cute and use names like “Butterfly living”, “live and Well”, “Us” as people will have no clue what your channel is about.
If you use your name, you will have to build your brand unless you are already a celebrity.
Cross-linking to your blog and embedding your video in your blog posts and pages go a long way.
It is said that Google and YouTube have the technology to scan the text that appears on your video screen. Make sure you have your keywords in your presentation. Make sure you also use your main keywords in the very beginning of your videos and throughout but always in a natural speaking manner. Using synonyms is always very valuable and will come naturally as you create more and more videos in your channel. Upload a good keywords oriented description of your videos and make sure you maximize the real estate space under your video to put in relevant text.
It is said that YouTube wants to keep people on its website so avoid using links that would drag people away from YouTube. If you are posting one link like when affiliates review a product, make sure you are posting a relevant link and not abusing your outbound links.
When setting-up your channel, pay special attention to your about section as it offers golden opportunity to post a link to your website and other social media pages. Optimize your channel so it includes relevant and highly-targeted keywords. Take it from Google itself on how to optimize your YouTube channel settings.
Your most important keywords should always appear in the first line of your video description otherwise it’ll be truncated with a “Show More” link, but again, make sure your description provides important information about your videos.
When doing your keywords research using TubeBuddy , some digital marketers suggest using loads of keywords tools and doing in depth research. Other very successful online marketers say that those expensive keywords tool are not accurate and that you are better off by doing a Google search and then taking the auto-complete results and putting them back in the search bar and so on. They also recommend that you copy and paste the “people also searched for…” result on the first page of Google. It would make more sense to follow what Google is suggesting as it is the one delivering the search results. Furthermore, this way of doing keywords research is faster and free!
Don’t take yourself too seriously even if you know your topic inside-out. Never down talk to your viewers. Avoid saying bad things about other YouTubers as it can have a negative effect on you.
Take time to create eye-catching thumbnails. You can use a free tool like Canva and go a long way. Furthermore, in the name of branding, you can use the same template and modify it a little for your next videos.
Use an image of you on your channel and thumbnails as viewers want to know who they are dealing with.
On your channel image, YouTube allows you to display “cards” in your videos to link your website if you are part of the YouTube Partner program. Here is the Google page where you can find the info: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6140493#zippy=%2Clink-cards
At the time of writing, 2021, there are strong talks that YouTube will be displaying ads even on videos from channels that are not part of the YouTube Partner program.
Most YouTubers do not make significant money from the ads displayed on their channel so you are better off by focusing on building your brand and a strong group of followers for your own products.
It is important to create high-quality content for your YouTube channel.
Good content might drive you traffic for a very long time. Also, visitors who love your videos might share it with other people and create a snowball effect.
While building your channel, avoid the tendency to criticize yourself. Your videos will get better as you gain more experience. Furthermore, don’t expect people to rush to see your video. You are in competition with a galaxy of videos. Send your own traffic to your videos y promoting it in your salesletter, your blog, social media, etc.
It is okay to do your research by watching the most popular videos in your niche on YouTube but be careful not to be sucked in and waste days watching irrelevant videos!
Create and upload fresh content regularly to your channel. YouTube and Google reward active and fresh content.
You don’t need to hire an expensive video creator or editor. Most of your videos creation can be done by you for nothing. The more you will create, the better you will be at it.
As often as you can, embed your video in your website just by copying the HTML code and pasting it into your site. This lets any of your website visitors watch the video on your site using the YouTube player. That way, you do not slow down your website as YouTube is still hosting your video but people get to stay on your website unless they click the YouTube link on the right corner.
Many experienced digital marketers recommend that you only link to one of your YouTube video per page or post. Others, embed many videos per page. You can test and track what works best for you.
Like Google YouTube has complicated algorithms to rank videos and no one knows what they are for sure.
YouTube measures video quality by measuring the length of time it’s being watched. If a lot of viewers leave the channel after a few seconds, this suggests that your video had a misleading title (or thumbnail), or that it didn’t give viewers what they were looking for. If they stay until the end, your video is likely appropriate for the search terms used and it will get ranked better.
If you make mistakes, most of the time, they are endearing and should be left in your video unless you are wasting like 10 minutes of your viewers time because you are lost.
Videos are also ranked by the number of comments they get. Asking people to comment on your video is one way to get comments is one way to get there. A more powerful way is to ask a controversial question. Monitor the comments as there are spammers and that is a huge turn-off for your viewers.
Avoid always pitching your products. Pure quality content videos will build your subscribers base exponentially.
Avoid rambling just to produce longer videos. Your viewers will leave and that will penalize your channel.
Take the time to brainstorm a list of all the content you want to create videos on. This list will help you create fresh content regularly.
Create and post regularly videos as your subscribers will move away if you are absent for a prolonged time. Give them what they want regularly. At one point, you will have a strong video library that will have its own momentum.
Some very successful YouTubers create content in batches and then release them at a regular pace. This way, you can take a break from creating videos and still upload fresh content to satisfy your viewers.
Don’t forget to include a direct call-to-action in both your video content itself as well as in the description. Don’t be afraid to ask viewers to subscribe, like and turn on notifications for your channel. Give clear instructions. Viewers love to help out a YouTuber that they like but they sometimes need to be reminded how to do it.
Creating playlists can be a great way to segment your channel if you have a lot of videos. Your viewers will appreciate it and chances are they’ll binge a lot more content if they run through your video playlists.
This is only the tip of the iceberg on the power of YouTube for your brand. Having your own YouTube channel is a must. It has the power to get you and your products in front of billions of people.
The secret to succeeding on YouTube is persistence. Most YouTube influencers had 0 to little views on their first videos and it might have taken them years to be an instant success!
Keep your viewers happy with fresh relevant content and do not hold back on giving them value. Track your videos and do more of what works and correct the ones that did not seem to work as well.
The longer a viewer stays engaged with your videos, the better the chances are that they’ll interact with it – by subscribing, commenting and liking your content.
Finally, make sure you focus on optimization as part of your weekly business plan. You want to ensure that every title includes relevant keywords to boost visibility.
Always look for ways to create off-site (external) links to your videos. One of the easiest ways to do this is by auto-syncing your YouTube channel with your other social media accounts, such as twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Link to your videos from your own website and blogs.
That way every time you post new content, it will automatically appear on all your social media profiles. These social signals are important when it comes to maximizing exposure and successfully growing a channel.
Have fun creating your YouTube channel and make the best of tools such as TubeBuddy
