- Hey guys, my name is Christian Taylor.
Welcome back to Craylor Made
where I like to talk about
all things branding, marketing, and entrepreneurship,
and today I'm gonna be sharing my tips
on how to start a YouTube channel in 2020
and how to reach your first thousand subscribers.
These are the things that I wish somebody told me
before I started my channel
and things that have taken me years to learn
and perfect and pick up on.
So with that said,
let's start with the three things you need to know
before you even click that create channel button.
Now the first thing you need to know
is that gear means nothing.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone says,
hey I'm gonna start a YouTube channel,
but I just need to buy x,
I need x camera, I need y mic, I need to save $1000
and buy this piece of expensive equipment.
No you don't
and that's because you have one of the greatest machines
to start a YouTube channel directly in your pocket
and that's this.
Seriously guys, a smartphone is all you need
to start a YouTube channel,
or if you don't even have a smartphone,
use a webcam or use something,
a $20 camcorder for all I care,
you don't need expensive gear to start a YouTube channel.
Just ask El JEFE REVIEWS.
His channel now has over 30,000 subscribers
and he started it using his Galaxy S8+ to film videos
and he used that phone for two years as his camera,
or look at Vyyyper, the man about tech,
he started his YouTube channel using the front camera
on his iPad
and he's now gone on to be able
to interview some amazing people in the tech space
such as Marques Brownlee, Jon Prosser,
Rene Ritchie, Sara Dietschy,
he's built a brand for himself
and he started using the front camera on his iPad.
And now he's gone on to get opportunities
that a lot of us would dream of getting,
I mean can you imagine
being able to sit down with MKBHD himself
and just interview him one on one
and ask him anything you want.
I mean that's a really cool opportunity and it started
because Vyyyper didn't let gear hold him back,
he used what he had
and he started his channel with what he had.
Hey so as I'm editing this
I realized that I forgot to share my experience
on what I used to start YouTube.
So I started my channel way back in 2011 on an iPod Nano,
yes you heard me right, I used an iPod Nano,
the fifth generation that had
the little tiny teeny camera on the back.
I mean it wad absolutely potato quality,
I think it was like 480p at the time,
but man I didn't care, I just loved creating content,
I loved making videos,
and after that I got this little Kodak camcorder
that was like 60 bucks
and then I used an iPhone 4s for awhile
before finally getting my first real camera,
the Canon T5i several years later,
but really start with what you have
and use that as an opportunity to grow
and if I'm honest, be thankful that you have it easy,
be thankful that you can just prop your phone up,
hit record, and go for it,
because you can really master what you have.
EL JEFE REVIEWS told me that his trick was to use
manual controls on his Galaxy S8+.
So download an app that lets you play with aperture
and shutter speed and frame rate
and the different things that are part of a pro camera
you can actually play with on your phone
just by downloading an app from the app store.
I mean let's be honest,
if someone dropped a $50,000 cinema camera in your lap today
and said, go make a YouTube channel, you would quit.
You wouldn't even know how to press record on that thing
and get the footage from the camera to YouTube.
I guarantee it.
So be thankful that you get to just start simple
with what you have, with what you know,
and focus on content first
and then upgrade your camera and your gear as you go along.
Now with that being said,
if you can invest in one thing
when you start your YouTube channel you should,
and that's audio.
Now hear me out, I am not telling you to go out
and buy a $400 microphone
or that you need to buy a microphone to do YouTube,
but if your videos a little bit grainy
or if things aren't perfect,
people are willing to overlook that if the content is good,
but they need to be able to hear you clearly,
so if you can scrape together 20, 30, 40 dollars
to buy a microphone that can plug into your smartphone,
I would highly recommend it,
that's gonna take things to the next level
and make it easy for people
to understand what you have to say
and really help you launch your channel.
Now the second thing you need to know
about starting your YouTube channel
is that you need to have the right mindset.
If your going into this thinking that you're gonna be rich
and famous from starting a YouTube channel
don't do it.
If you're doing it for money or fame
you're doing it for the wrong reasons
and I know that sounds weird because you might be saying,
well I would love to turn my YouTube channel into a business
where I can make money and I can monetize it
and I can do a side hustle and get some income,
and that's completely fair and valid
and I will say you can do that,
that's something that I've done,
but you need to have the right intentions going into it
and make YouTube videos because you want to
and because you have something to share with the world
and not because,
oh I want to make a little extra money
so I'm gonna make YouTube videos
and that's just gonna roll the money in,
you have to make videos out of passion
and then the income
and potential fame is a side effect of that.
And the third thing you need to know
before starting your YouTube channel
is that there is a strategy to YouTube,
so if you're just approaching YouTube thinking you're gonna
dump out random videos and do whatever you wanna do,
I mean that's fine, that's completely fine,
still you can make a channel, you can have fun with it
and you can put out whatever videos you wanna make,
but if you are trying to grow a channel
and build a successful channel,
there's a strategy to YouTube,
so you need to be willing to commit to that
and learn the strategies and learn the methods
and learn how to grow your channel,
and not just dump out video after video after video
and expect that your channel is gonna grow
naturally without any sort of method.
So now that we've covered the three things you need to know
before you even create your channel
let's talk about three things you need to know
to grow your channel and get your first 1000 subscribers.
So the first thing is that strategy
that we just talked about before,
you need to have a strategy
and within that there are several practical things
that you can take away.
Number one, you need to find a niche.
It's one thing to just dump out YouTube videos just because,
it's another thing to have a niche
and create videos within that niche that are consistent.
This could be something like a finance channel,
a beauty channel, consumer tech, music, vlogs,
whatever your niche is, whatever you do,
do it well and do a lot of it.
The most important strategy tip I can share with you
is to optimize your videos for search
and you can do that using a premium plug in called VidIQ,
VidIQ is a free plugin and tool that I use for all my videos
to do keyword research and help me with SEO and tags.
So before I even create a video,
I sit down and I use VidIQ to search
and see what the potential would be for that video,
is it something people are searching for,
how does VidIQ think it might perform.
Now I don't let VidIQ dictate what videos
I do and don't make because at the end of the day,
you're a content creator sharing what your passionate about
and nothing should dictate what you put out
expect what you want to make,
but I do use VidIQ to set expectations
and determine which videos I really wanna put
that extra bit of effort in,
if I see a lot of potential in a video
as I did with my VPN comparison I put out,
I put the extra effort and go the extra mile
in producing that video because if I think it might take off
I wanna know that I had my best foot forward
to all the people who are gonna see it.
VidIQ is also a great tool to help you optimize
your content for search
and get the right keywords in the tags
and trust me I know all this may sound like Chinese,
but it really does help you grow your channel
and this is not a technical video,
this is not a tutorial on VidIQ,
but just know that VidIQ can really help you
grow your channel
and I'll leave a link in the description below
and let me know if you guys might be interested in
a tutorial or a greater in depth video on VidIQ
because I would definitely love to create that.
And the last thing I have to say regarding strategy
is though it might seem controversial,
I would focus on quantity over quality
when it comes to your videos.
Now I know what you're saying,
Christian what do you mean,
don't you mean quality over quantity,
no I mean quantity over quality.
And you have to use discernment here
because you shouldn't put out junk,
if you really botch something, you should redo it,
in fact this is my second attempt recording this video
because something was wrong with my mic the first time,
it was absolutely unusable,
so I'm recording it a second time,
but with that being said,
when you are launching a channel
and when you're growing a channel, you need volume,
you need numbers because every video you put out
puts you one video closer
to the one that's gonna boom in the algorithm
and get you the exposure you need to kickstart your channel
and get the ball rolling.
So the more videos you're able to put out
on a consistent basis,
the more chances you're giving yourself
to get that opportunity.
So if you're just a perfectionist
and you're only pumping out one video a month
because you have to keep reshooting and rescripting
and reediting and you're not happy with it
and you don't put it out,
you really need to work on being okay with not being perfect
and just putting out regular videos
one, two, three times a week and give the algorithm data,
give it something to work with,
give it content that it can then push out to people
and start building your audience.
Now my second useful tip
for how to grow your YouTube channel
would be to focus on community.
Make sure you're reading your comments, replying to people,
interacting with your audience,
and doing livestreams every now and then
to really get to know your viewers
because viewers are going to be
much more engaged in your channel
and they're gonna like watching your channel
so much more if you're interactive
and they feel like they get to know you
instead of just being someone who's watching you
and you never reply to comments
and you seem like you're just this fantasy figure
who doesn't actually exist and isn't a human.
At the end of the day we're all humans
and we're all just sharing our passions
with each other on YouTube.
So make it clear to your viewers
that you want to interact with them,
encourage them to comment, reply back to them,
and definitely make sure you're good
about engaging with your audience.
Now number three,
and this one is so important to me personally
and that is to always have integrity.
As a content creator, you are an influencer,
whether you realize it or not,
people are gonna buy
that product you talk about in the video
based off your recommendation.
So if you're doing product reviews
and you're in a position where you recommend
a product or service,
have the integrity to do the research you need,
check out that item and make sure that it's something
that you're comfortable recommending
and that it's something you use personally.
I lose sleep at night over comments I get saying,
hey Christian, thanks so much for this video
I went with your recommendation,
not because I am scared of anything,
I mean I'm very glad that they went with my recommendation,
but that I realize that I have weight,
I am influencing people
on which way they should spend their hard earned money
and that is not something to be taken lightly,
you do not get a product,
take it out of the box for two minutes,
and be like, oh yeah it's great, seems cool to me,
and just live off of hype
and give your recommendation
because you looked at it for two minutes
and on to the next video.
I mean it, you don't wanna do that,
you don't want to recommend a product
when you haven't really done the research
and when it's not something that you personally use
every day and that you believe in
only to find out that in a month
that the product has a major quirk
or it's just got a serious problem
and all these people spent their hard earned money on it
because of what you said
and then you look bad, you really look bad
and all those people threw away their money.
So always have integrity, do the research,
make sure that you know what you're doing
when you recommend your product.
But as cliche as it may sound,
the best thing you can do
if you're thinking of starting a YouTube channel
is to stop watching videos about starting a YouTube channel
and start a YouTube channel.
Just put a video out, just try.
It isn't gonna be great, it's not gonna be super polished,
but the best thing you can do is just get after it
and do something to put that first video out there
and get the ball rolling.
So hopefully these tips have helped you out.
If you enjoyed the video
and you wanna see more content about branding, marketing,
and entrepreneurship,
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With that said, I will catch you guys next time.