Do you want to start a YouTube channel and make money from it? If yes, then you’re at the right post. In this post, I’ll share everything you need to know about starting a YouTube channel, tips to grow and different ways to make money from it. So, get ready to step into the world of YouTube and be a successful YouTuber.
YouTube is the largest video sharing platform & second largest search engine in the world. It has over 2.5 Billion monthly users as of December, 2024. According to a recent report, 1 Billion hours of content is consumed everyday on YouTube.
YouTube is not just a platform to consume content but also a platform to share content. You can make good amount of money posting videos on YouTube. There are over 114 Million YouTube channels posting content on a regular basis.
Please Note: This post contains affiliate links to products I use, trust, and recommend. If you choose to purchase a product using these links, I may receive a small commission for referring you – at no extra cost to you. These funds help me keep this blog up and running.
Why Should You Start a YouTube Channel?
As I mentioned earlier, YouTube is the largest video sharing platform in the world. And it’s rapidly growing day by day. Video content is the most enjoyable and easiest form of content to consume. So nowadays, people prefer watching videos to gain information and get entertained rather than reading articles or just listening to audio. And YouTube is the go-to place for video content. So, starting a YouTube channel can be a great way to build a worldwide fan following and a passive source of income.
Here are some more facts and data about YouTube:
1. YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees.
2. YouTube is the second most popular social media platform in the world just behind Facebook.
3. YouTube is set to generate over $50 Billion in advertisement and YouTube Premium revenue in 2024.
4. YouTube paid over $70 Billion to its creators in the last three years.
5. 70% users have made a purchase after seeing a brand on YouTube.
6. YouTube has over 2.5 Billion monthly users.
7. Nearly 47% of the Internet users worldwide use YouTube every month.
Who am I to Teach You about YouTube?
I started my first YouTube channel back in 2017. I’m not a full time Youtuber but I have a YouTube channel with over 9000 Subscribers, 4 Million Views and couple of long form videos with over 100,000 views each. My channel is monetized and I make money from the videos I post. Here’s a screenshot of my channel’s analytics. Btw, this was I believe my 5th channel that I started back in 2020. (Previous 4 channels were complete flop to be honest.)
Now, you know who I’m, let’s see how to start a successful YouTube channel step by step.
How to Start a YouTube Channel (Step by Step Guide)
1. Find a Niche
The very first step to starting your YouTube channel is to find a good niche. Make sure to choose a niche that you’re passionate about and have good knowledge of. Doing so, you’ll never run out of content ideas and motivation to create videos. 99% people fail to succeed on YouTube because of this same exact thing. They get into a niche that has a high pay rate but they’re not passionate about. So, don’t do this mistake.
Some popular niches you can get into can be tech, gaming, how-to’s, fashion, beauty, reviews, cooking, gardening, make money, cars, sports, etc. These are just some examples. Take your time and find out what you’re highly interested and passionate about. Then, start a channel about it.
2. Setup Your Channel
After you’ve found a good niche to get into, decide a good name for your channel. After deciding your channel name, create a logo and banner for it. You can use free design tool like Canva to create these both. The dimensions of a channel logo is 800 × 800 pixels and dimensions of a channel banner is 2560 × 1440 pixels. You can find these dimensions inside Canva as well so, no need to remember it.
Many people have a YouTube account but not a YouTube channel. Click on the link below to create your YouTube channel if you haven’t created it till now.
After clicking on this link, you’ll get to a page where you need to name your channel and select a handle. Handle is similar to username on Instagram. While choosing a handle, try to keep it same as your channel name if possible. Otherwise add numbers or ‘official’ behind it. For example, if your channel name is GroInsights then, try to keep your handle GroInsights as well. If that is not available, add numbers or official to it like, GroInsights12 or GroInsightsofficial. You might even get an option to set your channel logo. If you do, set it.
Handle is not much important but if you comment on a video, then your handle gets shown not your channel name.
After that, you need to set your logo (if you haven’t already) and channel banner. Then, write a short, sweet channel description to introduce yourself to your audience. You can share something about yourself and what type of content you post in the channel description. After finishing these steps, your channel is ready to post videos.
Here’s How to Setup Your Channel Banner & Description! (Doing it on mobile phone is super easy so, I will teach you to do it in a mobile phone.)
1. First, Open YouTube and find “You” button at the bottom side of your right hand. Click on it.
2. Then, your channel name will show up at the top. Just below it, you’ll find a “View Channel” button. Click on it.
3. Then, your channel page will show up. There you will find a pencil like icon to edit your channel’s info. Click on it. Then, you will get options to set or change your logo, banner, description, channel name and handle. After that, do whatever you have to.
3. Create & Post Your First Video
Now, you need to create and post your first video. Your first video can either be an introduction video or a regular video. If you’re creating an intro video, include who you are, what your channel is about and what type of content you’ll post. You can create either a YouTube Short or a long form video as your intro video. Both works well.
Regarding regular videos, if you’re interested in creating short videos, then try out YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts are videos that are up to 3 minutes long and in portrait mode. But if you’re interested in creating longer videos, then you can create regular videos. Whatever type of videos you create, remember,
QUALITY >>> QUANTITY
4. Post Consistently
At this point, your channel is setup and you’ve posted your first video. Now, all you need to do is post consistently. It can be once a day, once every two days, once a week or month. Be Consistent! YouTube prioritizes channels that are consistent and posts good quality content.
How to Monetize a YouTube Channel?
1. YouTube Partner Program
After you reach 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in the last 12 months through your long form videos or 1000 subscribers and 10 Million views in the last 90 days with YouTube Shorts, you can apply for YouTube Partner Program(YPP). Once approved, you can start making money from your videos. After joining YPP, you can monetize your channel with ads, memberships, super chats and stickers.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great and the easiest way to make money from YouTube. Even channels with 0 subscribers can make money with affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, you refer users to a certain product through your affiliate link. And if they decide to buy the product, you get certain percentage of the sale amount as commission.
Amazon Associates is a popular affiliate program most youtubers use. Through Amazon Associates, you can promote the products you use like, laptop, microphone, camera, etc. and more. You can add affiliate links in your video description.
3. Sponsorships
Another great way to make money from YouTube is through sponsorships. Normally, brands contact you for sponsorships if you have 500 or more subscribers, sometimes even less. They contact you and pitch their offers through email. So, make sure to add an email for sponsorships in your channel description.
Sponsors pay you on the basis of average number of views your video gets. You can charge $1 for 10 views. So, if you get 10,000 views per video on average, then you can charge $1000 for sponsorship. This amount can vary depending on your channel’s niche, where your viewers are from and more.
4. Sell Your Own Products
You can sell your own products to make money from YouTube. You can sell digital products like, ebooks, online courses, printables, planners, calendars, etc. through your YouTube channel. Talking about physical products, you can sell handmade products, gift items and more. You can even sell the product you produce yourself. Like, seedlings and plants if you’re a gardener and have a channel about gardening, honey if you’re a bee keeper and more. You can start your own beauty products brand and sell those products to your audience if you have a channel about fashion and beauty. It’s totally upon you, what you want to sell to your audience.
5. Merchandise
This can be a great source of income if you have a loyal and large amount of subscriber base on your channel. You can create your merchandise and sell it to your fans across the world. You can use a Print on Demand supplier to create your merchandise. After you sign up with a Print on Demand supplier, all you need to do is, create and post designs. That’s it! Your supplier will handle everything else from producing to packaging to shipping and even returns. If your designs are good and you have a loyal fan following, then merchandise can make you filthy rich.
Tips To Succeed on YouTube
1. Create Engaging Videos
Let me tell you something! If you’re a complete beginner to creating videos, then your first few videos will suck. Yes, you heard it right! But don’t worry! Nobody’s first video is a super hit until and unless they are highly experienced at content creation.
With time, your videos will get better and better. You’ll be better at video editing, presenting yourself in front of a camera, script writing and more. I’m saying this to you from my own experience. My first 25-30 videos were literal piece of shit. But while creating those videos, I learned so many things that could make my videos better. So, it’s all about improving your skills with time.
Even if you’re a complete beginner, here are some things you can do to make your videos better. Add transitions, sound effects and good background music in your videos. Make sure the volume of your background music is lower than your actual audio.
If you’re using stock footage in your video, then don’t use a single clip for longer than 4-5 seconds at a time. That will make your video boring. Use another clip in the middle. Then, you can use the previous clip back again. If your audio is not clear, then add subtitles for your viewers to understand.
2. Create Catchy Title & Thumbnail
Your video title and thumbnail are like packaging of your video. No one knows what your video is about until and unless they see your title and thumbnail. It doesn’t matter how good your video is, if it’s packaging isn’t good, then no one will watch it. So, spend some time crafting your thumbnail and video title. Using a clean and clear thumbnail with a catchy title can help you to get more views on your videos.
I’ve heard some YouTube gurus say, if you spend 10 hours creating a video, then you must spend 5 hours to plan and create a thumbnail for it. This tells how important a good thumbnail is. Talking about title, your video title should be decided even before you start creating the video. Because without a title/topic, you can’t create a video.
3. Promote Your Videos
When you’re starting a brand new channel, there is no one to watch your videos. So, share it with your friends and family through your social media accounts to get some initial views on your video. This can help your video to reach more people and increase your chances to get more views. Getting some initial views can boost your video’s performance a lot more than you can think.
4. Utilize The Power of YouTube Shorts
In recent time, YouTube Shorts are getting crazy amount of views and engagements. Everyday YouTube Shorts get over 70 Billion views according to a recent report published by Google. So, you can create and post YouTube Shorts on your own channel to grow faster.
Shorts tend to get more views and subscribers than normal videos. So, keep posting shorts on a regular basis to boost your channel’s growth. Shorts can be the best way to grow subscribers compared to long videos. So, if you struggle to grow subscribers, then try creating YouTube Shorts.
5. Create Videos on Trending Topics
Another great way to grow on YouTube is by creating videos on trending topics. Creating videos on trending topics guarantees views and even increases your chances to go viral. So, check regularly, what’s trending in your niche and create content about it to grow your channel.
Powerful Tool to Grow Your YouTube Channel
• vidIQ
vidIQ is a free yet super powerful tool to help you grow your YouTube channel. It can be used for various purposes. vidIQ can help you in keyword research, generating video title and description, suggests good hastags and keywords to use in your videos, helps in analyzing your competitors, suggests content ideas, informs you about trending topics and so much more. The best part is, you can access all these features for free. Here’s the link if you’d like to learn more about it or try it for yourself.
To start using this tool, all you need to do is, sign up with the email your YouTube channel is connected to. That’s it! It’s a YouTube certified tool so, it’s highly secure and trustworthy. I have used this tool myself and I found it really really helpful, mainly to find keywords with low competition and high search volume so, I decided to share it with you.
FAQs
1. Is Starting a YouTube Channel Free?
Yes, starting a YouTube channel is completely free and there are no hidden costs connected to it. But you might have to spend some money on buying a microphone and a good camera if you don’t have them already. If you want, you can do it just with your phone. You can do both, shoot video and edit it using your phone. When you start making money, then you can think of buying good gadgets to film and edit your videos.
2. How long does it take to Make Money on YouTube?
There is no fixed answer to it. It depends on the method you choose to make money and the niche you’re in. If you use affiliate links, then you can make money from day 1 itself but if you’re thinking about monetizing with ads, then it takes some time. It took me nearly 14 months to complete the monetization criteria and monetize my channel with ads.
3. How much Money can You Make from YouTube?
There is no limit to how much money you can make with YouTube. If you’re talking about ads, then you can make somewhere between $0.1 to $8 per 1000 views depending on your channel’s niche, where your viewers are from and length of your video. If your viewers are from countries like, USA, Canada, Australia, or any other developed countries, then you can make more money. But if your viewers are from less developed countries, then you’ll make less amount of money comparatively. You can make more money with longer videos compared to shorter videos because in long videos, you can place more ads in between.
4. How much Money can You Make with 1 Million Views?
With Ads, you can make somewhere between $100 to $8000 on average with 1 Million views. But sometimes this number can be a lot higher.
5. How Can You Grow Your YouTube Channel Fast?
By creating engaging videos, better title and thumbnail, you can grow your YouTube channel fast. You can post YouTube Shorts and share your videos to grow faster as well.
So, this was all about starting a YouTube channel and making money from it. If you’re thinking about starting a YouTube channel, then “NOW” is the best time to do it. That’s it for today! See you in the next post.
