- This video is all about 10 tips
to start your Youtube channel,
and how you can start getting followers
and grow it right out of the gate.
(upbeat music)
So guys, I am back here in Kansas City.
If you see the alley way behind me,
I shot a video here a few months ago all about transitions.
And we're back here for another shoot,
so I thought I would do another video,
something a little bit different.
And this video actually is also a blog post
on the Musicbed's Blog.
So Musicbed interviewed me and wanted to know 10 ways,
10 steps that you could do to start growing your following
on your Youtube channel right now,
so I thought I'd put this together
in a video for you guys to check out.
And if you want to see that blog,
I'll put it down below in the description
so you could check it out.
They have a lot of really cool articles,
stuff that will help you grow your channel,
and just be more of a successful filmmaker and creator.
So we're talking about 10 tips
on how to start your Youtube channel right now.
The first one, and kind of one of the most important ones
I think is start with what you know.
This is something that I wish I had told myself
when I first started my Youtube channel.
If you know a lot about one subject,
or you're really passionate about one subject
then you should start with that.
So if you are a photographer,
then you should do a channel about photography.
If you're into cooking, if you're into knitting,
then you should do channels about those topics.
But for example, if you wanted to do a channel
about something like travel but you're not traveling,
then that's not necessarily the way you should start it.
So when I first started my channel,
I started out doing a travel vlog,
but it was pretty unrealistic
with everything that I have going on,
so it ended up not working out,
and I had to switch it down the road
to what I'm actually passionate about,
which is filmmaking, photography
and just doing tutorials and things like this.
So start with what you know.
That's gonna be the best way to grow your channels
because it's something that you already know about
and something that you're passionate about.
Now with that, you need to find your niche.
So step number two is get yourself into a niche
and create content for that niche.
You don't want to create a variety channel.
You don't want content from all different topics,
because when someone lands on your channel,
they're not gonna know what you're about
if you have a bunch of different styles of content.
So what you need to do is niche down what you're doing,
especially at first.
You really need to focus in on creating videos
around one topic, one niche,
and that's how you're gonna be successful
at growing your channel right out of the gate.
So step number three is make it a personal brand
and not a company brand.
Now I say this because,
think about yourself in five or 10 years from now.
Will your Youtube channel still be the same brand,
or will you change depending on what happens in your life?
If you have a personal brand,
your personal brand can follow you no matter where you go.
So that's why I switched my channel to Jeven Dovie,
when it was originally something else.
It was Wonderworks, which was my travel brand.
So what I want you to think about
is where you're gonna be five, 10, 15 years in the future,
and will your brand still make sense?
Personal brands do very well on Youtube
because people want to connect with people.
They don't necessarily want to connect with a brand.
So there's a few reasons why I would say
start with a personal brand over a company brand
when you're creating your Youtube channel and starting out.
And that just might be making it your name,
and that's kind of the best way I say go about it.
So tip number four is don't give up.
Don't start creating and then six months from now
give up and give up and just stop creating content.
I always say you need to give yourself
one to three years to find success on Youtube.
It is a marathon, not a sprint.
A lot of people say that,
but I say it's more of an ultra marathon, not a sprint.
So it's gonna take time to create your content,
to create your brand, to grow your following.
Give yourself time to grow it.
Don't just give up after producing 10 videos
and not seeing any growth.
Give yourself 200, 400 videos
before you actually consider giving it up altogether.
Like I said, after a year,
after a couple years of creating content
and really narrowing down what you're shooting
and finding what you're passionate about,
you'll find success on Youtube.
Youtube gives you so much opportunity
just to create the content that you want to create.
So tip number five is don't create
without looking at your analytics and your data.
You need to see what performs well,
and you need to use that to guide you
on what to create in the future.
You don't want to just create videos
and then walk away from it and just keep creating
without having any sort of analytical data
knowing what is doing well and what's doing bad.
There's a few tools that I use,
and I have different videos on my channel
all about analytics and things like that.
I'll put links down in the description
to my Youtube playlist
so you guys can check all of that out.
But one tool in particular
that I really like using is called Morning Fame.
It's a newer tool, and you can get some really good
analytical data on the things that you should be producing.
So I'll put a link down below
in the description where you can check that out.
I highly suggest doing the trial,
playing around with it when you start your channel,
because what you can do is actually see what videos
perform well and it will give you a guide
on what video you should shoot next.
So tip number six is embrace the waterfalls.
So when you start getting more views,
you start getting more subscribers,
it will snowball over time.
So when that happens, listen to your followers,
listen to everything that's going on,
and keep the momentum going.
That is the time to double down and to really go after it.
You want to make sure you're looking for those times
when your channel takes off
and you're getting more subscribers,
you're getting more views, you're getting more watch time.
'Cause when that happens,
you need to embrace it and you need to go with it.
So number seven is all about communication.
It's all about talking to your subscribers,
and knowing who your subscribers are.
You don't want to create things in a vacuum.
You need to be an active,
engaged participant in your community.
And that's the whole thing with Youtube.
Youtube is a huge community.
You want to be a part of that community.
You want to be responding to comments.
You want to be active on Twitter, Instagram,
wherever your followers are beyond Youtube,
and you want to be able to have conversations.
If people are asking for specific types of videos,
listen to that and make those kind of videos.
If people want to see more of one thing
or more of another, listen to them.
And one thing I suggest is ask your subscribers,
to talk to them in your video, ask them to leave comments
and then respond to those comments,
and then also just do polls and different things like that.
Be active with your community, because this is a community.
It's not just a place where you create content,
dump it and walk away.
You have to be an active participant in this community.
What's up guys, you got coffee.
- We got a Horchata coffee.
- Alright, I got three more tips for you,
but I'm getting called back into the shoot.
So I'll finish these after.
- For three, two,
- And over, good job guys, good job.
- Alright, so we just finished our shoot.
I just had to mop the floors and scrub everything.
But number eight actually was timed perfect.
I actually did not intend for this,
but number eight is make Youtube your side hustle at first.
So don't expect that you're gonna be successful
and making a ton of money off of Youtube right away.
It's gonna take time to get to the point
where you're making money
and you can do this as a full time gig.
So for me, I have a production company,
and it's something that I still do
even with my following almost at 250,000.
I still treat this as a secondary thing,
because you want to have that cushion
when you're on Youtube.
You don't want to be forced
to try and make money all the time,
especially right out of the gate.
So when you're starting, don't start
and expect to turn around and start making a ton of money
off of your channel and do it full time.
I would say start as a side hustle,
spend a little time here and there working on it,
but make sure that you don't just drop everything
to start your channel,
unless you have the money to be able to do that,
and have a year or two or three
of cushion to be able to build your channel
and spend the time you need on the channel
to get to the point where you can actually
be making money off of it.
Okay, so number nine is use the gear that you have.
Right now I'm just shooting this entire video
on the DJI Osmo Pocket,
because it was the easiest camera for me to grab
and go shoot this while I'm in the studio shooting.
Instead of pulling my camera rig
out from what's going on in there,
or having my GH5 and use that for this,
I just grabbed my DJI Osmo Pocket, came out here and shot.
So if you just have a phone right now,
if you just have a GoPro,
if you have something like the DJI Osmo Pocket,
then start with that.
Don't worry about the gear right off the bat.
Don't worry about getting the most expensive gear,
the best cameras, all of this.
You learn what you need by creating content.
So just start creating content with what you have.
And if that's just a phone and that's all you have,
start making content with that right now.
And then down the road you'll figure out
what you need to get to be able to make better content
or a different kind of content than what you can create
with the gear that you have right now.
Okay, and number 10, my final tip for this video
is just get started.
And just get started right now.
You don't want to wait around,
you don't want to wait for that perfect moment
to start your channel,
or to start doing what you want to do.
You need to start getting the ball rolling,
and you need to start creating content.
The whole idea when it comes to Youtube
is that you need to learn and you need to evolve,
and you need to see what works, what doesn't work,
try new things, experiment.
And the only way to do that is by creating content.
So get out there and start creating right now.
Go plan your first shoot, and go hit that upload button.
Don't be worried and don't be scared
about hitting that upload button.
Guys, I have a whole other video
all about the biggest mistakes
that I made on Youtube when I first started,
and I also brought in five other Youtubers,
some of my friends,
to talk about their biggest mistakes as well.
And it gives you some ideas
of some things that you need to think about
right now when you're creating your content,
and when you start uploading your videos online.
Alright guys, that is it.
It's freezing, my hands are really cold
because I don't have gloves,
and I am gonna head back inside and go grab a beer
because we're done with our shoot,
the truck's almost packed,
it's time to get out of here,
it's time to go just relax a little bit.
But guys, if you're new here to this channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
I do a lot of filmmaking tutorials, I do product reviews,
I also do a lot of Youtube training like this,
so if you want to become a creator,
if you're thinking about being a creator,
then I highly suggest checking out
the playlist that I have down in the description,
which has links to all of the videos that I've done
on Youtube training here on Youtube,
and I highly suggest taking a look at all of those.
And guys, one last thing, make sure you head over
to the creatorfilmschool.com,
that's where I house all my courses
on how to become a creator.
Alright guys, that is it.
I'll see you on the next one.