The first 10 things you need to do before starting a YouTube channel!

Do you want to get started on YouTube? But you aren't sure where to even get started? It seems a bit overwhelming to you and you just want someone to tell you what to do. Well, in today's video, I'm going to share with you the 10 things you need to do first before Getting started on YouTube. Hi, my name is Trina and on this channel I help creative entrepreneurs like you get on YouTube to grow your business. I've been using YouTube as my number one platform to grow my business for the past two years and I love having my videos work as my 247 sales team for me while I get to work with my clients on growing their channels. Now, like I said, today we're going to walk through the 10 things you've got to do before you even start your channel. If you're thinking about starting it or you've started one, hold up. Here are 10 things you've got to do next. First, decide what your channel goal is going to be. Now, if you're a business owner, most of the time your goal is going to be to increase traffic to your website or increase sales. That's completely different. If you want to grow a YouTube channel for a lifestyle brand, say you want to make your own clothing line or you want to get brand deals, your goal may be on views and subscribers. You really need to sit down and think about what is the goal of your channel because that's really going to affect the strategy that you're going to have for your channel. There's no right or wrong goal, it's just where do you want your channel to take you. So for me, my goal right now is to convert to clients, right? I create these videos to show people how they can use YouTube so that they know it's possible. And then they reach out to me to want to work with me to help them get to those goals. The next thing that you want to do is create your channel banner. Once you have your goal in mind, you have the strategy that you're going to be going for. Your channel banner may say visit my website for more information or subscribe for new videos every Tuesday. If you want to build your subscriber base, it's really important to have this channel banner stand out and let people know what they're going to get from you. Not only are you going to be telling them what you want to do next, but you need to tell them what you're going to do for them. We're all very selfish and we want to know what you're going to do for us. So make sure you have that value of your channel really clear on your channel banner. You also want to make sure that you have your image on that banner. People are going to connect with another person, so make sure you have a photo or image of yourself on that banner as well. The next thing that I want you to do is to create a channel trailer. Now, even though you may not have footage to add to that channel trailer, it's important for people who are just coming to your channel to know what you're all about. I have a video where I break down exactly how to create your channel trailer. I'll link that in a card right up here and I'll put it down in the description box below. But you want to have that channel trailer so people can instantly know if you are for them or not. It's perfectly okay if you aren't for them, but it's going to help those people that you are for to click that subscribe button. Moving on to the fourth thing that you've got to do, and I really suggest creating thumbnail templates in advance. Once you start creating content, you want to stay consistent. You want to be posting every single week, if not a couple times a week if possible. And one way to make that a lot easier is if you have branded thumbnail templates that you can easily pop in new photos for your videos. I suggest having around four or five templates. I know my graphic designer has about seven or eight of mine. If you look at my thumbnails in a list, you can see some of them repeating this. They are different but have similar brand elements. So I have the ballpoint ink font, I have the coloring, I have the ombre shading for different days. And more importantly, I have the little pink in the corner with my logo. So people recognize my videos and they see a pattern of my videos on suggested videos if I pop up. So go ahead and create about four, five or six templates so that it makes creating those thumbnails a lot quicker once you get into the rhythm of YouTube. Okay, we did some branding. Now it's time for some tech. You'll want to set up your YouTube channel by customizing your channel layout. I'm going to show you on the screen right now how you can do that. You'll just go to this little cog button. Make sure customize the layout of your channel is switched on. That way you can start grouping your videos once you start posting them, instead of just having listed actions that you've taken on YouTube. It just makes your channel look more professional and that you know what you're doing. Okay, so the sixth thing that you need to do is get your equipment ready. I'm going to tell you right now this is the only equipment you really need is your phone. One other thing that you could grab is earbuds so that your audio is better than the external mic on your iPhone. But that's all you really need to get on YouTube is just your phone. Set it up against a window so that you have great lighting or even go outside if you can find a quiet time and a not super bright place place to film. Always great to have natural light. It's always the best type of light. Some equipment that I would suggest if you're ready to invest, is a camera. I like to shoot on my Canon G7X. That's what I'm shooting on right now because the camera screen flips up and I can see myself in the viewfinder. I also suggest a ring light if possible just because it's super easy to use. You just plug it in, pop your camera on it and turn it on. A cheaper lighting kit, maybe an umbrella kit or a softbox kit and I'll list all of my equipment down below so you can see what I use. But honestly, don't let equipment hold you back. This is all you need, I swear. So step number seven is a hard one for us and it's getting in a mindset. You've got to prepare yourself for one. Nobody watching your videos. It takes a little bit of time to grow traction on YouTube. If you are just getting started and you need to realize that this is a long term game, it's not going to be instant results. So you've got to really get yourself ready for that. And the other aspect of mindset is to get over that perfectionist mindset. You may not have the perfect equipment, you may not have the perfect background. That's okay. You want to focus on the content and what you're sharing with your audience. Think about the help that you can bring to your audience that's on the other side of the camera watching you. Don't worry about if you have gray hair or if you have the perfect background. Just worry about your content. Step number seven, before you start a YouTube channel is really having that mindset. Talk with yourself so that you're prepared to do this YouTube thing. The next thing I want you to create, especially if you're a business owner and you're trying to track your traffic from your YouTube channel to make sure you're getting a return on the videos you're doing is creating a Bitly link. You want to put that Bitly link in your description box so you can track how much traffic you are getting from YouTube. Now, you don't want to share this Bitly link anywhere else, only on your YouTube videos. That way, when you go to Bitly, you can see how many clicks you're getting per view. So you'll want to look at clicks you get per month based on views on YouTube you got per month and see what the payoff is. Are you increasing your traffic? Is it worth your time? Moving right along to the eighth thing that you got to do before you start a YouTube channel is adding your channel icon. You want this icon to be the same across all your platforms, whether it's on your about section on your website or your Instagram profile picture or your Facebook profile picture or Twitter. You want to make sure it's consistent across the board. And you also want to make sure people can see the whites of your eyes. I know that sounds kind of weird, but we're more likely to connect with somebody and to click on something if we can see the whites of their eyes because they seem more trustworthy. So when you add that icon to your YouTube channel, just make sure it's zoomed in enough so people can see you. All right, I got one more and then a bonus thing for you to do before you get started on YouTube. So number 10 is to start researching. Research your videos. This is so important and a thing a lot of people don't realize. They think they're just going to film a video and put it up. But you've got to research and have that strategy behind it. So I have countless videos on how to research what videos are going to be right for you and which videos are really going to draw in the right audience to your channel. So I'll put those videos down in the description box below. And the bonus tip that I have that you've got to do before you start a YouTube channel is to batch record at least six to 10 videos. I always tell my clients to launch their channel with five videos. So one video a day for a week as kind of like a launch period. And then that way they have at least four videos to go live a week after that. So I start, I suggest starting off with one video a week. After you do those five videos each day for a week, then you have the one video a week. One video a week. One video a week. So having that those videos in your back pocket really helps you stay consistent to get back into filming. So definitely batch film as one of the things you want to do before you start a YouTube channel. Now, if you want to learn how to really start your YouTube channel to get it to the next level, I've got a playlist on your screen right now with about five videos to really walk you through the next steps that you've got to do. So go ahead and click that. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel because I'm helping you every week with your YouTube strategy to help you grow your business. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.