10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started YouTube

What is going on guys, welcome to today's video. In this one we are going over my best pieces of advice for starting your own YouTube channel. So let's get into it. Before we start the video, I just want to give a quick thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning platform that has courses on literally everything you can think of, from marketing your YouTube channel, growing your online business, even filmmaking on an iPhone, which is really applicable to this video right now. For what you get, the price per month is also absolutely incredible. Amazing. And just for this channel, just for you guys, they've given me a special link that I'll link in the description box that gives you the first 2 months free on premium. So be sure to check that out. Skillshare also sponsored the last whiteboard video I did, and it seemed to go down really well with you guys. So thank you, I appreciate that so much, and I'm happy to work with them again. So let's get into the video. First tip is be more than just yourself, okay? You often hear it's like, you know, just be yourself, you know, do what feels right. Okay, yeah, that's true. Be yourself, say what you want to say, Talk about what you're passionate about, but you gotta pump up the volume. You gotta pump up the energy, okay? If you go on camera, you got low energy, you know, you're just kind of— your body language is kind of like this, you're not speaking, people are gonna get bored of the video. They're gonna stop watching. So be yourself, say what you want to say, talk about what you're passionate about, but you need to get people's attention, okay? In today's day and age, we got short attention spans. We just do, okay? So you need to be engaging and hold on to people's attention when you're speaking about a topic that you want to speak about. So that's tip number 1. And again, that's something that takes a lot of practice and you got to get better over time at. And even before these videos, you'll see me, I'm like drinking energy drink, get myself amped up. I like do some speaking practice, everything. I get in the zone and that's what you got to do as well. So that's tip number 1. When it comes to clicking on your videos and people finding your channel, title and thumbnail matter. Matter. And I kind of like hate this tip because I've done some videos with amazing content and I just didn't get my title and thumbnail on point. They weren't attention-grabbing, it didn't make people want to click on the video, and so not as many people are reached. It should be the opposite way, but it's just the way it is. People will see an attention-grabbing title and thumbnail. You want something that just says to the viewer like, oh, I really want to click on that. So it can be a question, it can be, you know, what happens next, something like that where they wanna click on the video to find out information on that topic. Don't make it clickbait. It has to be about the video and it has to directly relate to the content, but do put some thought into your title and thumbnail, which is actually quite difficult. I've spent like hours thinking of a title and thumbnail before. To add to that, I use some websites such as Canva or Adobe Photoshop when making and cropping the thumbnail. And again, you wanna make it sharp, clear, and vibrant as well, so it grabs people's attention. And even putting text along with the title, putting some text on the actual thumbnail picture can help too. Number 3, stop putting it off and overthinking. This is one I'm so guilty of as well. Like sometimes I'll go to film a workout and I'll say, oh, you know, I'm not really looking lean enough. Oh, I have to get a pump first. Oh, I haven't gotten my hair cut. Oh, you know, I'm not as tanned as I was last week. Rob Lipsett, no one cares if you've a fade or not. No one cares if you're 11% body fat or 10% body fat, okay? Oftentimes we're always overthinking these things in our head and nobody else notices, okay? At the end of the day, it's all about the content as well that you're giving out. So don't sweat the small stuff. It really doesn't matter, okay? Also, the amount of people that will look for any excuse not to start something, be it YouTube, the gym, or an online business, whatever it may be, we're always looking for an excuse to put it off. So stop overthinking and just get it done. Next tip is invest back into the channel, okay? When people are starting out, my recommendation is always just use your smartphone, use whatever camera you have lying around. Don't use anything fancy, you don't need to. The worst thing I could say is, you know, buy a really expensive camera and then you start vlogging, you start making videos, and you realize maybe you don't even like doing it, okay? So use what you have at the start, but as you get more into things, as things get more serious, then do invest back in the channel to increase the quality. Be it better camera, better editing software, hiring videographers. Always something that you can improve on, or even learn a course how to edit better. I've done that in the past myself. So always invest back into the channel, be it time, money, effort, whatever it may be. But at the start, don't worry too much about that. Just go back to the tip I mentioned before of just actually starting, and then worry about investing further down the line. Next tip is be consistent. And just like anything in life, consistency is so important. If your viewers are constantly seeing you upload, they're gonna say, hey, this guy's putting a lot of effort into his channel, you know, I'm gonna click subscribe and follow along on his journey and be more engaged. Consistency is also definitely the hardest out of all these tips to master because sometimes, you know, we have a week or a month where the last thing we want to do is put our lives on camera. We just got to show up to work and get it done. So consistency will pay off a lot and it'll keep your viewers engaged, kind of like a TV show, you know, say you're watching Game of Thrones, there's a new episode out every week on a Sunday. Again, having an upload schedule is really, really helpful for your channel too. My next piece of advice is collaborate and put yourself out there. So when I first started this channel, the majority of the viewers were Irish, and then I would, again, put myself out there, put myself in these situations. I'd go to American expos, collaborate with other YouTubers, and now actually a huge portion of my viewers, I think something like 30%, are now American, 'cause again, I put myself out there and grew my channel and collaborated with other people around the world. This helps massively. You gain their audience. Your audience usually likes seeing you collaborate and interact with other creators, and it's just a win-win for everybody. So find people with similar channels and similar subscriber count, and again, just make some content with them. It's a lot of fun and can also be motivating for you to bounce off some like-minded people. So again, collaborate as much as possible. One thing with lockdown I have missed so much is collaborating with other creators. Next tip is be patient, okay? Do you think your first year on YouTube, that's going to be the biggest year ever? Do you think that's going to be when you make the best videos and have the most growth? No, absolutely not. Oftentimes there's a snowball effect and things need to pick up momentum, okay? So when you're just first starting out, you know, YouTube hasn't heard of you yet, you know, you've only made a handful of videos. But by the time you've made maybe a couple of hundred videos, you're gonna have so much more momentum and it's gonna be so much easier for people to find your channel. So again, be patient, keep putting in the work, putting out content, and things will pick up eventually if you're actually doing good work. So like anything worthwhile in life, you're gonna need to have some patience. Next up is find your niche, be it gaming, fitness, beauty, makeup, fashion, travel, whatever it is. Find your niche, do what you love, and hone in on that. It's kind of like if people want to buy a power drill, they'll go to a hardware store. If people want to buy makeup, they'll go to a makeup store. If people want to buy gym equipment, they'll go to a gym equipment store. If people want to get a haircut, they'll go to a barber. So you need to hone in on your niche. So of course it's okay to go off topic sometimes and, you know, make videos on growing your YouTube channel, or even I've done some travel videos. Or just some general vlogs, but the majority of my videos are about training and nutrition. So you often see the most successful channels, they find their niche, they find their craft, find what they love, and they really hone in on that. Now, next tip is focus on quality content, okay? And this kind of goes without saying, but it's still very important to include. You need to have content that helps people in some way, shape, or form. It needs to be informative. It can be funny, entertaining, thought-provoking, whatever it may be. It needs to elicit an emotional response with that person, even if it makes them like, you know, motivated or, or anything. It needs to be something that will help them in their day because they're giving you 15, 20 minutes, whatever it may be, of their very precious time. So what are you giving back? It needs to be quality content in some way, shape, or form. So think about it. What value am I providing? What benefit am I giving to my viewer. Last tip is do not care what other people think. That is the thing that holds so many people back, and I remember that was my biggest fear starting out on not only YouTube but social media in general. I remember the first place I ever put myself out there on social media was Facebook, and as soon as I made a Facebook page and clicked publish on it, I had just a heart attack. I fell off my chair. I said, oh my God, people are going to say 'Oh, who does he think he is making a Facebook page for himself?' And then I got over that, and then when I made a YouTube channel, I thought, 'Oh, who does he think he is making videos of himself going to the gym? He probably thinks he's Arnold Schwarzenegger.' Screw them, okay? If they're taking time out of their day to talk down on you, that's a reflection of them, not you. So again, talk about what you love, do it because you want to do it, and don't mind what other people think, okay? They're probably just bored and have a little bit too much time on their hands. So again, that's my final tip. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope everyone's doing okay during lockdown and these crazy times, and I hope everyone's just keeping well and staying positive. So I'm gonna leave you guys here. I'll see you in the next video. Again, thank you so much for watching, and keep it real.