Best YouTube Tips for Small Channels

Whether you're brand new to YouTube or you've dabbled a little bit dipping your toe into the YouTube water, but you still aren't quite sure what you're doing. I really want to help you avoid the stress and overwhelm of all the stuff that goes into a YouTube channel and give you my top tips for just getting started. Hi, my name is Trena, and on this channel I help creative entrepreneurs just like you get on YouTube to grow your business. Now, if you're just getting started here or you're not sure what you're doing here, then these tips are gonna really help you get over that scary part of YouTube. All right, these are the best tips that my clients and students see work for them. So tip number one is really just getting over that perfection mindset. Here's the thing that it's important for you to remember is that we don't connect with robots. We don't like perfect. We connect with people who are themselves and are authentic. Even though authentic gets a really bad rap nowadays, you've got to be yourself because it's going to shine through on came camera. So you personally, I'm going to guess, is not perfect. And that's okay. That makes you who you are and that's how you are going to find your people that are ultimately going to be attracted to your business and who are going to be your ideal clients or customers. So let go of comparing where you're at with somebody who's four steps along further than you just be. You just do what you can do right now and stop being perfect. The next tip is to look at other channels. I wish I would have did this more as I was growing. My channel is to look at food channels and look at some vlogs, look at some family vlogs, look at some science channels, look at some comedy channels. Just get an idea of what all these different channels on YouTube are doing that's making them successful. You honestly will be surprised about all the different types of niches that are on YouTube and that you can pull inspiration from to make your videos even better. I know it can get kind of boring to feel like you're doing the same talking head over and over and over. That's why you gotta check out some other channels and pull some inspirations from them. So start watching some YouTube along with watching more YouTube. My third tip is to watch channels that are similar to you. Now, I'm not saying go over there and pull their content. I'm just saying see how they're talking about a topic, see what they're saying. You can even look in the comments to see what questions they're getting to help you think of some content ideas you might have never thought about. Now, I do not want you to straight copy their video. I want you to put your own spin, your own touch on it. Because we all teach differently and we all think about things in a different way. So even though you're pulling inspiration from similar channels in your niche, do it your way. The next tip I have for you is to post frequently. Not just for the YouTube algorithm, not just for YouTube to like you, but for you to get better. Last year I did the Challenge vlog every day in August and I did 31 videos back to back to back to back. What this did was really help me figure out what my process looks like, how to shorten it, what I'm doing extra that I don't need to do, and how to make my videos better. I started doing better editing, I had better lighting, I started getting more comfortable on camera even though I had been doing it for years before. So post consistently because you are learning how to do it better. You're never going to get better at something if you don't keep doing it. So aside from the value that it brings to your actual YouTube channel, it makes you better. The next tip I have for you is super important and that is to set goals. What is the goal of your channel? You can't just shoot aimlessly. I want 10,000 subscribers. Okay, great. But what's that 10,000 subscribers going to do for you? How is that going to incorporate into your business? Do you want to see click throughs from your channel to your landing page? Do you want to see people reaching out to you who have found you through YouTube? Do you want to increase your client intake because of YouTube? You've got to think about what the actual goal of your YouTube channel is going to be, especially for your business model off of YouTube. And maybe if you're just growing a YouTube channel for fun and for a lifestyle brand, then you want to start setting more important goals. Like all audience retention goals. Subscriber numbers is just kind of a vanity number and it doesn't necessarily mean anything to YouTube. You could buy 1000 subscribers tomorrow. Literally buy them. But what YouTube values is the amount of people that are watching your videos for an extended amount of time. So focus on that audience retention. Set a 50% watch time at the end of your video as your goal. If you're wanting to really see growth on your channel. The next tip is to watch your analytics. I cannot preach this enough. This is so important and my biggest if I could go back in time and redo it, I would watch my analytics more and study it and learn it more. I have an entire video if you want to check that out. I'll link it up above and down in the description box. But you completely will not understand what is working on your channel and what you can do more of to grow it until you understand what is happening with your channel and why it's happening. The next tip I have for you is you've got to adjust your mindset. You've got to think going into this that you're doing this as a test. Don't expect lots of views and subscribers. Don't get wrapped up in the numbers. Just think this is a way to grow yourself and grow your business. Because YouTube is a constant up and down game, just like entrepreneurship. Your channel will grow and it will plateau and you'll think, what am I doing wrong? Why am I doing this? Question everything about life and then it will grow again and then it will plateau and you'll think, oh, oh my gosh, I'm doing this all wrong. Why am I doing this? What did I do? And then it will grow and it's just this constant up and down. And I've noticed that with entrepreneurship as well. I couldn't tell you how many times in my business I'm thinking I'm just going to be a barista because I'm doing something wrong here and I'm not seeing growth. And then all of a sudden it grows. So keep that mindset. Also with YouTube, another tip is to just have fun. Don't get wrapped up in the numbers. I know I threw numbers out there for you to look at, but don't get wrapped up into them. Except especially when you're getting started. You're gonna have a long road when you're getting started. Learning how to film, learning your audio, learning to upload, learning all the things that go into it. But you just gotta have fun. Find a buddy or find a group that you can do this with so you can support each other and give each other feedback. And again, just have fun. Don't make it stressful. I've learned anything you do in life, if you make it stressful, you will dread it. Just make it fun. Just challenge yourself. Let me see if I can get one view today. Let me see if I can get one like today. Just please have fun with YouTube because it does not need to stress you out. If you want to make sure you launch your YouTube channel the right way, make sure you grab my YouTube channel roadmap. I will link it in the card above and down in the description box. It's going to walk you through the 10 steps that you need to take to make sure your YouTube channel is optimized and ready to convert views to paying clients. And don't forget, you can always subscribe to this channel for more tips, tricks and strategies on how you can use your YouTube videos to grow your business. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you the next video. Bye.