What's up youtubers, or should I say newtubers, get it? I know,
cheesy, sorry. In today's video we're gonna talk about the top 20 biggest
mistakes that youtubers are making when they're starting their channel, and I'm
not saying it's the end of the world if you make any of these mistakes, but it
could be the death of your channel. Just kidding, stop being so serious today. No,
but really in all seriousness I just want to make this video because I've
literally made all of these mistakes and so I compiled all my mistakes together
and I want to share them with you so that you can have explosive growth
and exposure for your YouTube channel, so let's start right now. The first mistake
I see youtubers making is not starting. This was me for an entire year. I did not
start my youtube channel cuz I "started," I posted like two videos and I'm like "Oh
my gosh, I have no views," and then I gave up for like a year which, dang, if I would
have continued and just gone hard that first year like I did a year after I had
first started, who knows where I would be right now? And so be sure to
just start the channel because if you don't start you're guaranteed no results,
no growth, and no knowledge of learning from your mistakes and no views,
subscribers, nada. Here's the thing, you're going to suck at
first. It's inevitable. Whatever content you put out there, it's not going to be
your best because your videos are gonna evolve over time, so get out there make
your first 50 videos. You're not entitled to have really good videos when you
first start and it's okay. It's okay to get out there develop your style, figure
out who you are in front of the camera and just get going. The second biggest
mistake I see youtubers making is not planning. They have no plan whatsoever,
and they just spit out random videos about random topics. They're not properly
researched, and this is bad because you don't want a channel about randomness.
You want your content to make sense and have a flow and have a meaning to the
content, so it's great to plan ahead because the other reason this does
really well is because you can group video ideas together. So I tend to do
on my channel, I'll talk about how to make money online, and then I'll make a
group of videos about passive income, then I'll make a group of videos about
YouTube marketing, but they all fall into the niche of my channel which is helping
entrepreneurs grow, build, and scale with their online business. So it's the same
for you, you have to plan ahead of time to make sure you're feeding the
algorithm properly and your channel makes sense.
The third mistake youtubers are making when starting off is expecting virality.
So why does this happen? I don't know, people see youtubers and they see
explosive growth, they see millions of subscribers and views, and that just does
not happen overnight. It doesn't even happen in a month, it doesn't even happen
in six months, so you have to not expect to grow like crazy within the first
couple months or even the first six months of your channel being public on
YouTube. It takes time, you have to have to have to be consistent with YouTube,
that is how it works. And I compare YouTube to a job or a brick-and-mortar
business that you're growing. You have to treat it like a job or a business
because if you start a coffee shop and ignore the coffee shop, the coffee shop
is going to fail and you're not going to get customers to your shop. It's the same
thing with the YouTube algorithm. If you post five videos and then leave YouTube
for five months that's not going to help you at all and you're not going to grow.
So in the beginning of YouTube, it is extremely hard and you have to push
through those first three to six months. Those are the months with the slowest
growth and people don't understand that, they think that they're just going to go
viral after they post a few videos and that's not true. By the way, if you're
interested in taking your business to the next level online with YouTube my
course is finally dropping in seven days from now. I'm super excited, it's been a
huge request you guys have been asking for and to get on the wait list of that
course please be sure to download my subscribers to sales blueprint, because
the founding members of this course will be getting a huge discount and I'm super
excited to have the founding members join my brand new course. The fourth
thing that you have to beware of is comparing yourself to
others. This serves you no good, and I understand how tempting it can be in the
beginning because you feel like you have a small audience or no followers and I
get it, I've been there. But if you let that hold you back that's not good
because these creators and these youtubers that are out there, they've put
in the work. They didn't give a damn about how many people were ahead of them,
when they started, they just started. So don't compare yourself like "Oh,
I posted 10 videos and have 22 subscribers and such-and-such has posted
a hundred videos and they have 60,000 subscribers," well, what if you went ahead
and posted 90 more videos? You could get to that sixty thousand
subscriber mark, you never know what could happen five videos from now, ten
videos, a hundred videos from now, I mean look at this channel. I've posted two
hundred and forty videos on this channel, I've posted more but there's publicly
two hundred and forty videos, I think at the making of this video, and I have
ninety five thousand subscribers, but hey, you know what? I can do the same thing
and compare myself and say like "Oh Sorelle, she has two hundred videos and
has nine hundred thousand subscribers," that's not a joke, she almost has a
million subscribers and I could get down on myself, but no. It's not about her
journey, it's about my journey and so that is why you have to stay in your own
lane and focus on how good you'll be doing throughout your journey. The fifth
big mistake I see newtubers making is the fancy equipment syndrome. They're
like "Oh my god, all's I have is a smartphone. I don't have the light, I
don't have the 4k camera, I don't have the big fancy studio lights in my room, I
can't do it. I have to wait until I get this, I have to wait until I get that."
It's important that you just get started with what you have. I can't emphasize
this enough, I made it to 15,000 subscribers with just my smartphone. It
was like an iPhone 7 and my webcam in my laptop. It was not the best quality at
all, hell, I didn't even have the best audio and lighting, but I just got
started. That carried me through to the first 15 almost 20,000 subscribers and
it was at that point I'm like "Oh! Okay, cool. I think I'll buy an upgrade to
a 4k camera because I can afford it now," and it made sense for me to upgrade but
really it's all about just getting started with what you have and not being
you know intimidated by not having that fancy equipment. The sixth mistake I see
youtubers making is not taking action, and this kind of goes with the first one
I said but really by you watching this YouTube video or any other YouTube video
that does not count to starting your YouTube channel. So things that you pick
up and learn from other YouTube videos does nothing unless you implement it. So
please not only watch this video, but get started tomorrow. Let's do this
tomorrow. Get started, film that video and let's edit it and
get it on YouTube. The seventh big mistake I see newtubers doing is having
inconsistent branding. This means that their channel icon would be yellow and
their banner would be all kinds of colors of the rainbow. When you have an
online business, an online brand, it has to be consistent from the message you're
sending out to people, from the colors, from the image types, and you can't just
put out a bunch of random designs together in regards to the thumbnail and
the banner because that doesn't look professional. And so if there's not a
consistent look throughout your branding, you will not grow as fast, I promise. And
this was me in the beginning, my thumbnails were all over the place. I
would have small images with tie-dye, with yellow, with lime-green, with- it was
so bad. I had no clue what I was doing with my branding and it reflected,
but once I kind of put together a branding style kit where I had colors
and fonts that I knew I would use consistently, that automatically made an
increase in my growth, my subscribers, because when people arrived on my
channel they felt how my brand looked and feel. So please be consistent when
you're branding your channel. The eighth mistake I see youtubers making is not
looking into the lens and it's really awkward because sometimes people are
either looking at themselves in the reverse mirror camera thingy, or if
you're filming with your phone, like the camera is here, right? The camera's here,
but you're looking here which is awkward and weird because like it's here, but
you're looking over here so you want to make sure you're facing
the lens and talking into it. I know it could be weird at first, because it's like
this little hole you're looking at and you have to like look at it but it makes
the viewer know and feel that you are talking to them. And so if you do, by the
way, want a complete step-by-step tutorial guide of how to like actually
start a YouTube channel, in this video right here I actually go over just that.
It's a step-by-step tutorial on how to start a viral YouTube channel, so I'd
checked that video out after this video. The ninth mistake I see youtubers doing, and I
cannot stand this, is to spam comments. Do not spam in other people's comments to
generate traffic, don't say "sub4sub", "like for like", "oh I'm subbing to whoever likes
in response to this comment", like that's not the real way to grow. There's a
method to comment on other people's channels and it's to do it the right way.
Make meaningful comments, interact with people, answer people's questions and
don't just say "Oh, here here's the link to my youtube channel, if you sub I'll
sub back," like that's spammy and that does not make your brand look good at
all. The tenth mistake I see newtubers doing with their channels it is they
have bad video titles. Now what do I mean by this? So YouTube obviously is a search
engine and you need to treat it like one, so you can't have titles that are vague
and titles that have your channel name or your name in the first part of the
title. You have to have titles that are searchable with keyword research because
that's the whole point of YouTube is it's a search engine, so when people type
in and search something the point is you want them to arrive on your channel and
they can't do that if the title of your video is "my birthday vlog," or "my family's
vacation to Europe," or something like that. You have to have a title that is
well researched with keywords and SEO so that it is searchable on YouTube and
it's just not floating around in the abyss of YouTube and never being
discovered. Coming in at number eleven is being inconsistent. So I see this all the
time, almost daily people tell me like "Oh, well YouTube's not even worth it because
I'm not getting any views," I'm like "Well, you've posted five videos in the past
six months," they're like "Yeah, you're right..." So the point is I recommend a
posting frequency of, minimum, once per week. So if you can post four times a
month, that's really good, and if that's too much, well [if] you make
like motion pictures or mini films and you need more time, that definitely makes
sense and you can post once every two weeks or something like that because I
know a really awesome and talented creator who makes a video once a month
because his videos are cinematic, they take so much time to do and so that
completely makes sense. But definitely show up and be consistent with whatever
posting frequency that you decide on. Coming in at number 12 for the biggest
mistakes are bad intros. You don't want to have a bad intro. The first 10 to 15
seconds of your introduction are the make or break of your video because if
you ramble, if you talk about a story that makes no sense, if you're just
showing unnecessary things that don't relate to your video and are not
entertaining or valuable cut it out and just get to the point. You want to arrive
at the first point, the first tip, first step or whatever you're talking about in
your video right away, under one minute. If you're rambling on in your
introduction, that's the last thing that the viewer wants to see in your video. So
don't ramble, plan what you're going to say in the video, make it entertaining,
exciting, how are you going to hook your viewers to keep watching your video.
Coming in at number 13 is to have a solid YouTube studio. If you're a vlogger
or if you're someone who does content outside, that's a little bit of a
different story but if you're like me and a creator who does more education and
tutorials type videos inside, then make sure your background looks good. And what
I mean by YouTube studio, obviously I don't have like just a studio, it's just
my living room, right? But it looks clean, there's no like paper plates, there's no
trash, there's no pizza box, there's there's nothing distracting in the
background and also controversial things are not the best thing to have like
sports, politics, just things that could make somebody be like "Oh I don't like
him because he has a blah of president blah," and it's just, if you can take it
out from the background just exclude it, trust me.
Coming in at number 14 is audio. This is super important because even if the
quality of the image is bad, people need to be able
to hear you. The reason why I was able to grow in the beginning with my iPhone and
my pixelated webcam on my computer is because my information was good and
people could hear me clearly, so as you can see I'm actually using a microphone
in this video which is called a lavalier mic and it's very, very, very common with
youtubers and people that are producing video content because you can
put it under your shirt, under your hair, wherever you want and there's a long
cord. So the cord is actually hooked up
to the camera right now, and this is a very inexpensive microphone, I think it's
less than twenty bucks if you look on Amazon and just Google "lavalier mic."
Audio makes a huge difference to the people that are watching your video, if
you're outside and it's windy and people can't hear you or if you're very distant
from the camera and it's hard to hear like people will not watch your video,
period, if they can't hear it. So coming in at number fifteen is lighting.
Lighting is also super important. I guarantee I lost many subscribers in the
beginning because my lighting was not good. There'd be a shadow on half my face
and my other half of my face was super bright and overexposed. So, as an example,
in front of me there's big glass windows which means natural lighting is lighting
me in this video. So it's a great idea to either get a studio light if you don't
have a big natural lighting window or set up your YouTube studio in front of a
window where you have 12 hours of the day with really great lighting. So the
point is if you do have the budget to invest, let's say, $50 to $100 into your
YouTube studio I would for sure invest in a microphone and a light first. I have
the links in the description of the ring light that I use, it's traveled with me to
like 10 different countries, it's very durable and it will last a very, very
long time. Coming in at number 16 is head position.
I see this mistake with youtubers all the time, they have this all this space
up here with their head position and their head is like way at the bottom of
the screen. That's no good, you have to be able to show as much
of you in the frame and not all this space around you because that does
nothing and doesn't serve a purpose to your video. So go ahead and make sure the
video is lower, you could see your head, your neck, and the more of your torso you
show, the better because that way you can put different effects if you want to
like titles and stuff and it's just a more professional look if your head is
more at the top of the frame and your torso is more included in the picture of
your YouTube video. Coming in at number 17 of the top biggest mistakes I see
with newtubers is not doing keyword research. So I had mentioned this before
with bad titles, but it is extremely important to use an algorithm tool
called Tubebuddy. There's different ones out there but
the number 1 recommend tool I use is called Tubebuddy and if you were
to get Tubebuddy for your keyword research I have a discount code where
you would receive 20% off at checkout. You can check the link out in the
description. But what Tubebuddy does is it helps you select really good titles
that are going to help you rank on the first page of YouTube. So it helps you
create titles that are keyword rich, that people are looking for and it has a
rating of good, very, poor, excellent, so you know if you're selecting a good
title for your videos. The 18th mistake that youtubers make is to not engage
with their audience. So it's all about the viewing experience of your viewers
who are watching your video. After all, your viewers are the people who help you
make money on YouTube and so you need to interact. Give them calls to action, ask
them questions, like, for example, if you say "Hey, subscribe to the channel hit the
notification bell," please, can you hit the like button? Subscribe to the channel
right now? But make sure you're interacting so that they know that your
channel is the place to go and there's other things you can do like create
polls and create different posts in the community to ask your audience
what would they like to see up next? Or what is their favorite blah? Or asking
them really any type of questions relating to your channel. The 19th the
mistake that I see newtubers making, and this one is huge, it should be number one,
is not using thumbnails. People just upload a
video, press publish and there's no thumbnail image to go along with the
video. This is detrimental to your YouTube
channel because the thumbnail is the first thing people see right before they
decide "am I gonna click on this video or no?" So it helps with the click-through
rate, or the percentage of people that are clicking on the video, so you want to
make sure you have a good thumbnail. And to make your own thumbnails for free
canva.com has really great thumbnail templates and you can create them very
easily download them for free and upload them to your YouTube video. Coming in at
number 20 is to be yourself. Don't fake it and try to be somebody else. I know
how it is when you have YouTube creators and followers that you've been following
for a long time on YouTube and you see their personality, you see how funny they
are, you see their style, don't try to be them and imitate that.
Just be yourself I was super vulnerable and just told
people the truth, like "Hey if I made a mistake then that's who I am," I would
admit when I was wrong and I would just be myself in front of
the camera and that's why people join me and subscribe to my channel because I
was authentic. I was who I was, I wasn't trying to pretend to be anyone else.
I think I'm kind of goofy but I wasn't trying to act extra goofy just to get
subscribers, I would embrace my personality and who I was on camera and
I believe that you should do the exact same thing or else it will come out kind
of awkward and it will show in your videos. Alright y'all if you loved this
video I'm positive you are going to love this video that is coming up next and it
is about how to start a channel that will go viral in 2020 and that video
starts right now so we'll see you on that video. You maybe think you like "Wow
Marissa if you are making six figures in the beginning of 2020, you must be a
millionaire by now, right?" Well as a matter of fact I sure am NOT and this is
actually what my numbers look like right now. I've started from scratch three
times. I'm going to be describing exactly what I'm doing
starting from zero and the exact steps I'm taking to make this YouTube channel
go viral.