- In this video,
we're going to show you how to create
a brand new YouTube channel, step by step.
We're going to help you start the journey from turning this,
an idea, passion and a message into this,
actual influence and impact on YouTube.
No more excuses folks this is it,
your creative opportunity of a lifetime.
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Let's start at the very beginning,
if you haven't yet created a Google account,
you need to do so first by clicking on the Sign In button
in the top right hand corner of the YouTube homepage.
On this screen, click on Create account,
and this is where you need to make
your first important decision.
There are two types of YouTube channels,
a Personal YouTube channel,
which is connected to a personal Google accounts,
which means only the owner of that Google account
can manage the channel.
It may be more difficult to add other people,
who will help you run your channel in the long run.
Furthermore, your YouTube channel name,
is tied to your Google account name.
So if you want to change it to something
that sounds more like a business,
then your Google account
is gonna be a business name as well.
The other type of YouTube account is a Brand account
and generally speaking,
it's always best to have a brand account,
because it gives you a lot more flexibility.
But of course, the decision is ultimately up to you.
Next, you need to create your Google account.
If you choose a personal YouTube channel,
this will be your channel name,
which is why it's better to go with,
the Brand channel option.
As for email address and password,
yeah, that's something you're gonna have to figure out
for yourself.
Once you've created your account and signed into YouTube,
you can now click on the profile icon,
and then click on Create a channel.
Click Get Started, and again,
you will be prompted to choose
what type of channel you want.
If you choose use a custom name,
you are committing to starting a Brand YouTube account.
And then it's over to you again,
what will you call your YouTube channel?
Our advice, make it snappy and make it memorable,
you can change it in the future, if you need to.
Now just as a side note,
if you already have both a Google account
and YouTube channel, to create a nother YouTube channel,
click on your profile icon and go to Settings.
On this screen in the middle,
you will see an add or manage your channels link,
click that and the next screen will show you
all your existing channels along with a plus button
to create a brand new channel.
And as before,
this is where you will decide on your channel name.
Whether you are creating a brand new account
and a brand new channel,
or adding a channel to your existing portfolio,
you will end up here on your channel page,
which obviously doesn't have much to show for itself
just yet.
Congratulations is in order then,
you now have a YouTube channel.
And you're probably absolutely desperate at this point
to start uploading videos and publishing them on to YouTube.
But you need to hold on a few more moments
because we have a couple of things we need to do,
to get your channel all set up and ready to roll.
And this next step is absolutely critical
because it unlocks some essential features.
And that's to verify your YouTube account,
and you're going to need one of these.
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Now that you have a YouTube channel,
when you click on your profile icon,
you will see new options and the one you want to click on
is YouTube Studio.
This might look like a daunting area of YouTube right now,
but you can worry about the details later.
For now, click on Settings in the bottom left hand corner
from this pop up screen,
click on Channel on the left hand side,
and then from the tabs at the top,
navigate to Feature eligibility.
To post videos over 15 minutes long, livestream,
and most crucially of all add custom thumbnails
to your videos, you must verify your YouTube account.
To verify your YouTube accounts,
Google will send you a verification code
to a phone number either through an automated voice,
or text message, which you can choose on the screen.
Do note there may be limits on how many channels
you can verify per phone number, per year.
Once you put your phone number in,
click Submit and you should see this screen
asks you for that verification code.
(phone vibrating)
Whichever solution you decide to use,
you should almost instantly get a ping on your phone.
In this example, I requested a text message
which sent me the verification code.
Now all you need to do is go back to your computer,
input the six digit verification code,
click Submit and that will verify your account,
which instantly gives you access to YouTube tools
such as adding custom thumbnails to your videos.
(beep)
Now as a side note, when it comes to security,
and two factor authentication,
some believe a mobile phone doesn't do a good enough job
and your account is vulnerable.
So if you do want to take your YouTube account
and your Google account to the next level of security,
then I do recommend purchasing something like this,
which is a Google Titan key.
And it's a physical form of authentification.
When you sign into a new device,
you literally have to plug one of these in to login.
Now they do have their pros and cons,
so I highly recommend you research it before you invest.
But if you want to make your YouTube account
as secure as possible,
then a physical authentification key is the route forward.
All right then, we've got the essential and serious stuff
out of the way now, here comes the fun part,
building and optimizing your YouTube channel.
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We are back in the YouTube studio again.
And this time,
we are going to visit the customization screen,
where you can set up your entire YouTube channel.
To help illustrate how to do this,
we're going to use the main vidIQ channel.
The changes that you make
on the YouTube Studio customization screen,
will mostly impact your YouTube channel layout
for both desktop and mobile.
Remember, this is your home make it as welcoming as possible
for your guests.
The customization screen is divided into three tabs,
the layout tab,
which helps you build the foundations of your channel,
the branding tab, add style,
design and color to your channel.
While the basic info tab,
adds text and links to your channel.
Also, don't forget to publish any changes you make,
and be sure to watch this whole tutorial
for lots of extra valuable tips along the way
about how to set up your YouTube channel.
Alright then,
let's first take a look at the video spotlight section.
Put simply, if a non subscriber visits your channel,
a channel trailer will automatically play like this.
In this video, we're gonna guide you through what it takes
to get 4000 hours of watch time on YouTube.
So settle in (blows), because this is a big one.
I think that 10 second clip from that video
pretty accurately describes what vidIQ is,
a YouTube growth channel.
It's not specifically a channel trailer video.
It's one of our best converting videos
from viewers into subscribers.
But if you were to make a dedicated channel trailer,
then here are a few quick tips.
Keep the video very brief, no more than 45 seconds.
Include B-roll, some of your best content
as you introduce yourself to camera and tell people,
who should be watching and why,
and inject as much personality into the video as you can.
And of course,
once viewers have converted into subscribers,
then you might want to show them
an entirely different video,
which is why YouTube gives you the option to show,
a channel trailer to non subscribers,
and a different feature video to subscribers.
To change either of these,
mouse over the appropriate box and click the three dots
to either remove or change the trailer.
From this pop up, you can search your channel
for the video you would like to use and click on it
to select it.
Don't forget to save and publish your changes
once you've made them.
Below the video,
we have the features section of the channel layout.
These comprise mostly of playlists or a collection of videos
and here's a pro-tip for you.
Create a playlist that welcomes someone to your channel,
and shows the viewer what type of content you make.
Here we've gone for some vidIQ walkthrough tutorial videos,
and guides on how to get 1000 subscribers,
and 4000 hours of watch time.
Remember, we are creator obsessed YouTube education,
and these videos reflect exactly that.
The second featured section,
is devoted to our most recent uploads.
It quickly informs the visitors that we upload regularly,
and we've uploaded recently.
That's a mark of consistency,
which is what visitors like to see.
To start tinkering with this section,
from the customize page layout tab in the studio,
scroll down to the Feature section.
This will show you all your current sections,
you are allowed a maximum of 10.
To reorder these, click and drag the icon to the left.
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You can add a new section from the top right,
sections include recent uploads, popular uploads,
live streams and channel sections
that we'll come back to later.
In this example, we are going to add a new playlist,
which is very similar to adding a featured video.
This new section will be added to the bottom of the list,
where you can click and drag to place.
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For each section, you can use the three dots to edit it,
in some cases it will allow you to change a playlist.
You can also view the playlist that you've placed
in the featured section.
And while we're here, here's another pro-tip.
If you are going to add a playlist to a featured section,
make sure to write a description for that playlist.
It will be displayed in the featured section,
on your channel layout,
adding more context to the content,
you're trying to show your visitors.
The featured channels section down the right hand side here,
has been around on YouTube for years.
However, I have both good news and bad news about this.
The bad news is, it's going away as it appears now,
at the end of 2020.
But the good news is,
you can now add it as a featured section on your channel.
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From this pop up, you can change the title of a section,
as well as search for any channel on YouTube
and add it to your list.
Once in the list,
you can click and drag it to reorder or remove a channel
from this section.
And as before,
once you've added this section to your channel layout,
you can reorder it.
Whenever you make these changes and publish them,
make sure to use the channel link
at the top of the customization screen
to see the changes on your YouTube channel.
And as we scroll down the channel page,
we now see our new featured channels section.
Notice also how it's no longer displaying
on the right hand side.
I've got to be honest, I'm not sure I like this change.
What do you think?
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I'm not gonna lie to you folks,
to stand out on YouTube is an incredibly hard thing to do.
Because it's so competitive these days,
over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube,
every single minute, and there are millions of creators.
You'll soon discover that making a video,
is only half of the process.
You have to optimize it for a YouTube audience,
and that's where vidIQ can help you out.
Our tools will help you analyze every single video
on YouTube as well as research the keywords
that will help your content get discovered.
We also audit your channel 24/7,
and suggest actionable steps
that will help you grow your channel.
And the best news of all,
is that you can sign up, download,
and start using vidIQ right now, for free.
There is a link in the video description of course,
but for now, let's get back to your channel,
and a little bit of branding.
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Moving on to branding now,
this is where you can customize parts of your channel
with your logos.
For the profile picture,
there are a couple of things to bear in mind.
Although you are uploading a square image,
it will be displayed on YouTube as a circular image.
When you upload the picture,
it will show you how that crop will affect your picture.
So make sure you don't include anything important
in any of the corners of your image.
There are even more things to consider
with your channel banner,
it must fit three media types, TV, desktop, and mobile.
This last one is the most important,
since most people watch YouTube on a mobile device
these days and often people make banners,
that are cut off at the sides as they design it for desktop
rather than mobile.
When you upload a banner image,
YouTube will show you how the image will look
on different devices and you can click and drag
at the corners to resize it if you need to.
When it comes to YouTube profile images and channel banners,
and you could probably extend this to thumbnails as well.
I have one very simple piece of advice, keep it simple.
Don't try to reinvent the wheel,
communicate what your channel is about,
in a way your audience can understand in a few seconds.
Also as a side note,
you can change both images from this page
by mousing over either the profile image or channel banner
and clicking on the camera icon.
This will redirect you back to the customization page
in the YouTube studio.
The next branding feature is the video watermark
that adds a small square image
to the bottom right hand corner of your videos.
It has the added benefit of being a subscribed
call to action on desktop,
where you can mouse over the image
and subscribe to the channel.
That's why we generally recommend
adding a subscribe style image rather than a channel logo.
As an added bonus,
we are including this subscribe button image
in the video description.
So download it and use it as you please.
You can also customize when this watermark appears.
Again, we generally recommend having it visible
throughout your entire video.
Give your viewers as much opportunity
to subscribe as possible.
Now then, let's move from video watermarks and branding,
to basic info starting out with the most basic of all things
your channel name.
While it is now super simple to change your channel name
from here, you have to bear in mind
the impact it has on your Google account.
Now before we get trapped into this discussion
about your YouTube channel name once again,
we do have an explainer video over here,
that's well worth checking out.
For your channel about section,
speak directly to your target audience.
Tell them the value they will gain
from watching your content,
rather than writing about what you the creator,
wants to get out of the channel.
Also make sure to include some keywords
that relate to your content.
And know that you have 1000 characters to play with,
you can also translate your channel name and about section
but as of time of recording, you have to do this manually.
Next up, you can add links to your channel banner
if you want to promote your website,
over social media platforms and so on.
The first link is super important
and I'll show you why in a second.
From here you can reorder the links
as well as adding and removing them links if you need to.
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You are allowed a maximum of five links
on the channel banner.
And on your desktop YouTube channel page,
they look like this.
Notice how only the first link includes text,
that's why it's so important.
And notice how we've used the graphics
in the channel banner itself to promote this link.
The reason we can do this,
is because this part of the channel banner is cropped out
on mobile devices.
In fact, links don't even appear on the channel banner,
they are hidden deep down in the about section
of your channel.
And now for the final piece of this puzzle,
your contact email.
Again, some very simple advice here,
don't make this the same email as your YouTube account,
as this might present a backdoor way
to hack into your channel.
All right, and things are getting pretty serious now,
you've verified your YouTube account,
you've set up your channel.
Now we need to take a look at those settings
that are going to affect every single video that you upload.
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Every time you publish a video on YouTube,
you must declare whether or not the content
is made for kids.
You can set a default answer to this question,
through the settings pop up screen,
clicking on channel and then going to the Advanced tab.
You have three options here.
If you state that your videos are made for kids,
this means that viewers watching the content
are shown no personalized ads,
which may affect your revenue in the future.
Along with notifications and comments being disabled
on your videos.
Whatever setting you choose here,
will be the default when you upload videos to YouTube.
It is true that declaring your content as made for kids
has a negative impact on your YouTube videos.
However, YouTube got into serious trouble over this
about a year ago.
And these are why these restrictions are in place.
If you choose to lie or ignore this question,
your channel could be terminated
and you could even receive fines from the FTC.
So what is content that's made for kids?
That's a question that requires a deeper investigation
which we've done over in this video.
Another default you should review is your video description
which can be found in the upload default basic info section
of your settings.
At the very top of a description,
I leave myself a reminder that the first two lines
of a description are important because it is visible
when you search for content on YouTube.
It's another chance to win the click from a viewer,
after they have seen the thumbnail and title.
The next thing I remind myself to do is,
add timestamps to videos.
Timestamps create video chapters
where you can divide your video into sections.
These are represented on the video playback timeline,
and you can click on these timestamps
to jump to that point in the video.
They help navigate viewers around your videos,
and add an extra layer of optimization.
While the top of your video description and timestamps
will change from video to video,
there are many things in your description
that may remain the same.
Subscribe link, additional links to your website,
social media presence,
and also commonly asked questions about,
you and your channel.
These are all things that you can add
to your Upload Defaults,
so you don't have to continually add them
every time you upload a video.
One more thing I want to show you now,
in the channel settings under Advanced Settings
at the bottom of a page,
you have some master controls for your YouTube channel.
Currently, all of these links take you away
from the YouTube studio,
into some older screens that may change soon.
I recommend at least visiting these pages
and clicking on the links to find out what you can do.
But obviously, the last thing you should be doing right now,
is thinking about removing your channel,
you've only just begun,
and what a journey that promises to be.
Your YouTube channel is ready,
it's time to start making some content.
Now I do highly recommend that you check out
the description of this video.
It includes tons of links to YouTube resources,
and many more links to videos
where we cover a lot of the topics we've touched on here,
in a lot more detail.
Now the next steps for you,
are to start uploading videos to YouTube,
and publishing them,
and to start getting into the mindset
of being a content creator on the platform.
And we have just the videos for you over here.
The complete guide to properly uploading videos to YouTube,
and a 30 day guide on setting up
a successful YouTube channel.
That talks a lot about the mindset,
and what you should think about
when you're trying to reach a YouTube audience.
Here we go folks, it's over to you.
Enjoy the journey.