Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely watched a video on Youtube at least once. Chances are, though, that you’ve used the video hosting website far more often than that. The rise of the internet has allowed for just about anyone to become famous and leave their mark on the world as a person of influence on the masses. It’s also not a secret that many of the youtube stars of today are making hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars off of their followings, all without ever selling anything. Youtube pays content creators based on the number of views their content receives, which means that if you can build a following, you too can strike it rich and give up your day job for good.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? We thought so, too. After years of research and a moderately successful channel of my own, here are the five steps you can follow to build your channel on Youtube.
Stick To A Topic You Are Passionate About
The quickest way to build a following on Youtube is by creating content that will keep your audience coming back. To do this, you should make sure you pick a subject to base your channel around that you know a lot about and have a passion for. Pumping out content is easier, and comes across more genuine if you find enjoyment in what you are doing. From the audience’s point of view, content that follows a theme or topic is more enticing to follow than a channel that jumps around too much. Your audience wants consistency!
Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
It’s not rocket science to understand that to become famous on Youtube; you will need to spend a lot of time on camera. What many people fail to keep in mind is that by putting yourself out there, you are signing yourself up for some criticism. You’ll need to quickly develop a thick skin and learn to be comfortable on camera, regardless of what your haters are saying.
Create Valuable Content
Content that keeps people coming back provides value. It could be educational, entertaining, or something unique, but to get your audience to come back and seek out more videos in the future, there has to be something in it for them. Focus on putting out quality content, and the rest will fall into place.
Pick The Right Titles
The title and description of your video are so much more important than a lot of people realize. Think of it this way, you could have the best content in the world, but if nobody can find it amongst the millions of other videos, it will go largely unnoticed. Pick descriptive, catchy titles that hint at the actual content of the blog, but try to be specific. Showing up for “weight loss” will be a lot harder than showing up for “how to eat cantaloupe and lose 40 pounds in 3 weeks.”
Consistency
This is the most important advice I can give regarding Youtube or most things in life worth doing. The uncomfortable truth is that you will likely require a bit (or a lot!) of practice before you are making content people want to watch. Push through the first few months regardless of if you are gaining any traction. Getting the ball rolling is the hardest part, but once you do, it’s all downhill from there.
Building a following on Youtube and becoming the next internet star is no small order, but can be done if you stick to the plan outlined above. Every day more people are catching onto this opportunity and turning their passions into a serious paycheck. What do you love talking about? Chances are there are a huge number of people that are interested and would love to hear what you have to say. The only question now is, when will you start?
