You Finally Made a Youtube Channel! What Comes Next?
Hi! Welcome!
Today, we are going to talk about the next steps you can take in your Youtube journey now that you have already established your channel. At times, I will refer to ‘Youtube’ as an ‘Online Business’, because that is exactly what it is, even if you aren’t making money, or, you have just started out and your channel is a past time or just for fun.
It’s important to remember that the experience of having a Youtube Channel will be different for everyone, because you are different. You are an individual with an individual niche, and different life experiences than anyone else. The content you create will reflect your personality and your channel will grow because you are YOU! Remember, these tips may not be for everyone and use what you can, discard the rest!
TIP #1: Growth on YouTube takes time
Growing on Youtube takes time. The end result could be so amazing, and there really is no limit to what you can do. People can subscribe to whomever they want - it’s not like there’s a limit. I think the problem arises in that it’s hard to have patience - working long hours, and diligently sticking with a rigorous schedule is very challenging. Most people will not continue with something if they don’t see rewards right away. Youtube is not that thing - there might be some overnight successes, but most people have to put in the long hours and hard work to see results and see their channels grow.
Tip #2: Respond to comments
When people take the time to leave comments on your channel, it means they appreciate what they just watched. (Unless of course, it was a mean comment - we will get to those in a minute). Your subscribers and viewers want to be noticed by you and appreciated by you. If you respond to these comments or questions (I don’t mean just with a thumbs up or a heart) - I mean a genuine hand-written response; this will help you create relationships with your viewers. They will feel like what they had to say had value in some way, and you get the benefit of getting to know them, figuring out what content they want to see from you, and, in turn, growing your channel.
Tip #3: Try not to let the negative comments affect you
It is inevitable that you will get a mean comment from someone if you put yourself out there. Hopefully you don’t experience it, and hopefully you get positive criticism. (Positive criticism is really good, because it means you’re getting feedback on your process, and new ideas that could potentially be inspiring). You should always use those types of comments to your advantage and thank the person leaving them. The issue comes about when someone decides to be mean on the internet. It’s easy to be mean to people when you are hiding behind a screen. Let me tell you right now, that whatever the person says, it’s coming from a place inside themselves - they may not mean it, they may be in a bad place, miserable, unhappy individuals who have time on their hands to criticize and put down others. This is the definition of a bully and YOU SHALL NOT ENGAGE. Ignore the comment, delete it, forget it and let it go. Honestly, you don’t need the negativity in your life and responding to such comments can make it worse and you don’t want other viewers to see that. Engaging with comments like that is destructive behaviour and won’t help you or the person leaving the comment.
Tip 4#: Thumbs down or Dislikes
This is my opinion, but leaving a thumbs down on your channel is utterly pointless. I’ve had people do this to me during a video about a topic other than makeup, and the person didn’t like my makeup, so they left me a dislike. (The only reason I know that is because they also left me a mean comment saying I looked like a drag queen). Instead, the thumbs down affected how my video performed on youtube compared to the rest of my videos, and the video itself had nothing to do with makeup other than that I was wearing it. When people give your videos a dislike, you don’t know if they don’t like you, your video, what you’re wearing that day, how you speak, etc, etc… You have no way of knowing what it means. It would be so much more beneficial if Youtube made people leave a comment as well to their ‘thumbs down’. Then at least you would get some kind of reason and possibly constructive criticism. On the other hand, at least you know people watched your video if they gave it a dislike. 🙃
Tip #5: Don’t quit your $$$ Making Job right away
What if you started a youtube channel as a part time gig and you quit your job, but then ended up hating Youtube? Or, what if you don’t make any money from it for two or three years? How will you support yourself? In my case, I started my Youtube channel when I was a full time stay at home mom, but I had support from my family and I was still able to pay for my bills. You will need money to fund certain aspects of your business to it’s wise to have some secondary (or keep your primary) source of income. You never know what will happen. Also, when you do start to see some money come in, the income from Youtube fluctuates drastically and you don’t know if you will have enough from month to month.
Tip #6: Post videos consistently
There is nothing more annoying than finding someone you love to watch on youtube and then seeing five videos from them one week, none the second week and then one or two the week after that. My point is that you lose subscribers if you don’t post on a regular basis. People actually get pissed off, and you will not grow as fast, because you will lose people just as often as you gain. It doesn't matter if all you have time for is one or two videos once or every two weeks. Just make sure you stick with your schedule so people know when to expect your videos. It’s also a good idea to put how often you post on your cover page for Youtube. (I use Canva Pro to design my headers). It is ok however, to change your posting schedule if you need to. Just make sure you maintain consistency for the best possible growth.
Tip #7: Save money to buy better equipment as you go
Don’t buy all the stuff at the beginning. You might not stick with your Youtube channel, and you don’t want to buy all the stuff just to have it sitting around collecting dust later. The same goes with expensive equipment. I always say, start with what you have and go from there. I first started on an iPhone 7, and I am currently using an iPhone 11 pro to film my videos. Of course, what I have now is way better than what I had at the beginning, and one day, I hope to own a nice camera that will be put to good use. The point is, I know that I’m sticking with my Youtube business and I will continue to use all the stuff I buy for my channel. I look at the purchases as investments for my business, and I will be able to expense them when I start making money.
Tip #8: Watch your favourite Youtubers
There’s a reason why you watch your favourite creators. They are obviously doing things that you enjoy, like doing yourself or admire and wish that you could also be doing that. They might have a positive mindset and seem super happy and you want to feel that way too. (Obviously, take all social media with a grain of salt, because what you see is not always what you get). But, my suggestion is to pick up on tips and things that they do in their videos to use in your own videos. By no means am I saying to copy exactly what they are doing, but if what they are doing works (say for instance, their thumbnails are attracting a lot of attention), then maybe if you make similar thumbnails, yours might too. That’s usually where I get a lot of my content creation inspiration from, or new makeup or bullet journaling supplies that I want to try out for myself.
Tip #9: Take a look at your analytics
This is something you should do at least once a month, if not more. You should be looking for what your top ten videos are, based on views, as well as watch time. Other important things to track are your click-through rate, and when your viewers’ retention rate is. This is for how long your videos are viewed. If there is a key moment where you see tons of people dropping off, maybe it’s something you are doing in your video that you can change. Also, looking at your analytics really helps with content inspiration. If you can create content similar to your top ten videos, the chance is, more people will likely watch those videos too. I would technically say your subscriber count matters, to a point. I am currently working toward my first huge goal of 1000 subscribers to get monetized, but after that, I don’t really think it matters. You will continue to grow on your channel if you work hard! I will be doing a video about analytics soon, so keep tuned and subscribe to my channel if you want to learn more!
Tip #10: Be prepared for when the money comes in
Make sure you have a separate account set up for ‘business’ income. It does not necessarily have to be a business account, as long as it’s separate from your “other money”. (Business accounts are technically have higher monthly fees than do normal checking accounts). This is because you should attach some type of accounting software to that account to keep track of your business income. You could do it the old fashioned way with pen and paper, but as your business gets more complex, you will thank yourself later for investing in software. You don’t even have to pay unless you want to. I use a free software called Wave that keeps track of all my transactions going in and out of my business account. You could also use Quickbooks which is a popular option.
Tip #11: Quality over content
You don’t necessarily have to work yourself to the bone and push out a video every day. In the end, burnout is a real thing and is another reason most Youtubers quit. Editing is actually a lot of work, and to push yourself every day to produce content is asking a lot. I used to have up to 6 videos between both of my channels, and once I started adding all the other aspects of my business (sticker shop, Patreon, blog, website), it just got to be too much. Not to mention, I am still a full time mom with two kids, and one of them being a Grade 1 who has to do his school online from home (which is quite impossible I might add)!! In the last few weeks, I have been experimenting with my editing and filming style and trying to improve my quality. Everything to do with an online business, no matter what it is, has a high learning curve. So as long as you are improving over time, that’s all you should expect of yourself. However, if you are trying to push out tons of videos and you notice your watch time or views go down, maybe take a second and ask yourself if it’s with it. This is part of the reason I changed my own filming schedule. I wanted to produce higher quality videos, which take more time and energy. But, they are higher quality and are getting more views. Plus, if you are only posting once or twice a week, you are letting your videos breathe. People actually have the time to watch your content. If you post every day, people might get annoyed with the notifications always popping up, or they might actually not have time to watch every video. This happens a lot over Christmas, because “Vlogmas” is really popular.
Tip#12: Don’t start tons of projects at the same time
So as you may know, starting youtube can be a huge learning curve, especially if you have never used an editing program before. It can be very stressful and make it seem not worth your time. However, remember that things get easier the more you do them, until they become routine. Give yourself time to focus on your channel and to be the best that you can be before taking on more roles. For instance, I stuck with my main channel for a year and a half before I started a new channel strictly on beauty and makeup. This was mostly because I wasn't niched down enough on my channel, and I needed to make this change. I find it hard on youtube because I personally feel like your channel should reflect you and your life, and all the things that you love and do, but it is proven fact that you will grow faster (hence, make money sooner) if you niche down to a specific topic. I wanted to do other things in addition to my Youtube channel (a lot of people say that it is smart to have a variety of income streams or sources in case your channel doesn’t make steady income). So, I decided to start a website thinking it would help me advertise my channel and vice versa. I added a blog, because I had a lot to say and I didn’t want to make a video every day based on the reasons in Tip# 11. I thought that my content would help people, and the art that I posted in my portfolio is to be used as a portfolio for any business opportunities, as well as to be an escape for other like-minded artists/art enthusiasts out there. Then, I added my sticker shop; let me tell you - it takes time to design stickers. It’s not something that can be done in a few minutes, and all of the things I decided to do require constant maintenance. The point is that it’s hard to take on all the things at once. You should focus on the things that are most important to the success of your business. Forget everything else until you have your current projects well established.
So that’s it for today’s blog folks. I hope some (if not all) this information helped you in thinking about the next steps you should take with your youtube channel. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below because I would love some feedback on how this article has helped you!
As always!
xoxo SAN 💙
