I’ve been on YouTube for 14 years and only have 1,370 subscribers. Don’t judge. I haven’t executed against the very strategies I espouse. Only myself to blame. However, I’m turning the corner on that front.
Enough about me. I’ve studied this platform for a long, long time. When a colleague recently asked me about how to get started on YouTube, I got super excited because I knew exactly where to point her.
My advice is to spend a couple months in the YouTube rabbit hole, consuming as much content as you can to get a sense for what you’d want your channel to be like both in terms of content and personality. There is ZERO reason to reinvent the wheel. Gravitate toward channels that are already doing well and figure out what they’re doing.
Here’s where I’d start:
Sunny Lenarduzzi
https://www.youtube.com/user/SunnyLenarduzzi
Sunny is a former MMJ from Vancouver. Don’t start with her new stuff. Go back to her videos from a couple years ago and start there. These are her how-to-YouTube sorts of videos. Work your way to the new stuff: it’s all valuable.
Sean Cannell
https://www.youtube.com/user/seanTHiNKs
https://www.youtube.com/user/THiNKmediaTV
Sean Cannell is a widely respected content master on YouTube. He runs ThinkMedia. Start with videos from a year ago or so and just watch them all. Sean is a tremendous teacher.
Nick Nimmin
https://www.youtube.com/user/NickNimmin
Nick Nimmin is a YouTube creator and teacher. His focus is on how-to videos that will make you a better, more successful creator. I’ve watched him since the beginning of his channel, and I’ll be watching his video on YouTube Shorts later today!
TubeBuddy
https://www.youtube.com/tubebuddy
How much does it cost to start a YouTube channel? I suppose we could talk about the cost of a computer or phone, but for the purpose of conversation and simplicity, YouTube is free. There is no fee to start a channel. However, I am a big believer that TubeBuddy is a must-have for content creators. Here’s why.
YouTube is an exercise in content strategy and metadata management as much as it is an exercise of creativity. There is a lot of grunt work to do to be successful.
TubeBuddy will save you an immense amount of time, and it will help your videos do better. I’m not getting a dime from them. Not a penny even. It’s $19.99 a month, and it’s one TubeBuddy account per channel.
Kelly Stamps
https://www.youtube.com/kellystamps
Kelly isn’t a how-to channel. She is a very successful YouTube creator who is known and beloved for her simple video style and dry wit. I like to employ a pretty common saying: “Done is better than perfection.” This is true on YouTube sometimes. Production value is important. However, so is finding your voice and personality.
The winning strategy on digital is always to be yourself.
And Kelly’s production value is sneaky good. She’s not Peter McKinnon or Casey Neistat, but it works a ton better for her that she’s not. Do you.
There are surely many other worthy channels and creators to follow. However, it’s also easy to spend so much time consuming YouTube content that you don’t get started on a plan.
More on that later.
Hope you find this helpful! If you did, share it!
