Become More Successful on YouTube

After being a part of YouTube for a while, you might have reached a point where you'd be super happy for more views and subscribers. To gain a wider and bigger viewership, you need to produce a more sophisticated and attractive YouTube channel. This can be achieved by following these suggestions, many of which are overlooked by many users when trying to become successful on YouTube.

Steps

Creating a Successful Channel

  1. Craft a recognizable channel name. It is best to start off from scratch when creating a channel dedicated to what you think could be successful on YouTube. Don’t just add new videos after reading the top ten tips to your badly named channel (e.g. catlover99), with videos of your cat from 2003 still available to view. Use a channel name that is well thought out, to show a professional and iconic channel for users to remember.
    • For example, a boy named John Smith who likes to sing covers could use numerous channel names like these: JohnSmith, JohnCovers, SmithSings. All easy to remember.
    • Users will search for your videos and you will soon show up in the first search page rankings and in the auto-remember search bar. That will bring a lot of website traffic to your channel. As well as this, if you do your research into what's trending with current subjects relating to your videos, you can get high views from posting the first video to a new topic (e.g. the first cover song of a certain artist).
  2. Promote yourself and your brand. Self promotion is of the utmost importance. Some sites will share out channels for free. YouTube gives you space around your channel to put in a cool layout, so use this space to your advantage. Many successful users use text and images to show their subscribers and followers their brand.
    • The "brand" refers to the way that you promote yourself and/or your company/gig and can help define who you are and what you do.
    • Attractive graphics can bring people back to channels, and help users remember you/your company, which is very important to becoming successful on YouTube.
  3. Name and categorize appropriately. Naming and categorizing your videos correctly is vital to keeping users happy with your content. People like a descriptive title, and a description that's evaluative and truthful. If you lie in your title, you will get negatively thrashed in the ratings bar (putting viewers off instantly). So be sure to keep titles short whilst tagging videos effectively with relatable words to your videos such as: "car", "vehicle", "lorry". Many blogs refer to these techniques as ‘tricks of the trade’. However, in reality, YouTube originally set out the idea of tagging correctly as common sense, and it effectively names your videos appropriately, therefore you will get views from the correct audience. If you don’t you will fail, and end up posting videos in bad categories (like tagging a music cover with: ‘reviews’ ‘technology’... not good.)
    • When you first start out on YouTube, don’t expect any more than three ratings per video.
  4. Produce good quality videos. When creating a video, produce high quality and fresh content for your audience to look forward to. If you keep a schedule of 'one video a week’ you can spend time working on your video. When shooting a video, there are many methods to success. If you are shooting yourself at a desk, be sure to buy a (white) light to sit in front of you and a high-definition camera to record your beautiful face. Nothing is more annoying than a blurry video, which has been shot in a dark room with rubbish sound and no faded music in the background.
  5. Believe that yourself. This simple yet vital aspect can help you to succeed when putting hard work into building and maintaining your channel.

Adding Fresh, Interesting and Lively Content

  1. Have an original idea. Success is made on YouTube, and YouTube has often been named as a ‘phenomenon’ for finding new talent and success. Justin Bieber made his fame from YouTube. Just posting videos and sharing them with friends led to him being the highest earning music artist teenager in the world, after being scouted by manager Scooter Braun. However, YouTube is not just for singers! If you have a talent of any sort and interest, show it off.
    • Be aware that the downfall in views after an original internet hit can be hard-hitting if you keep expecting 1,000,000 views per video that you post. It may seem obvious, but have goals and stick to them.
    • You will not get a following on YouTube in just one month, so be realistic. Such an astronomical response would be almost impossible unless you just documented the first alien landing on Earth. Keep with your initial ideas and make videos that cover the subject thoroughly and take advantage of interesting things able to catch the attention of viewers.
    • Never copy others. If it has already been seen, then it has already been... and gone. Plus, people don't like copying when they spot it.
  2. Produce exciting content. Add content that people want to watch. For example, if you like singing and want to upload cover videos, don't just sit at your desk singing and reading the lyrics to a song you like. Actually spend time learning the song and looking into the camera and add your own style to the video. Don’t just upload a video of you singing—mix it up! Throw in some videos of you singing at a talent show, or practicing singing in your car. If you create exciting content that is unpredictable, people will want to come back for more and see the ‘latest’ video coming from you/your channel.
    • For example, YouTube Star Austin Mahone built up 53,000,000 total video views in just one year, due to the fact he posted videos regularly and his content was exciting for his followers, known today as ‘Mahomies’.
  3. Post regularly. YouTube hosts many successful video bloggers such as iJustine and reviewers like SoldierKnowsBest, which for some, can be hard to compete with when trying to become successful. However, just like all other YouTubers, both of these example YouTube stars had regularly uploaded videos on a weekly basis. The consistent uploading of videos is the most important factor to gaining and keeping an audience––posting videos regularly is considered a full-time job and even a career for over 9,000 YouTubers. Regularity of new content is guaranteed to get you noticed on YouTube. And while such uploading might seem like a slow and never-ending process, it is worth the effort. After hitting the '50-video mark' (depending on content), any channel should gain a following that appreciates your material and content without feeling forced to subscribe. After all, you cannot be famous for doing nothing.
    • Regular can be daily, weekly or several times a week. If you are a busy person who is balancing work or school with YouTube, you might consider uploading weekly (use those weekends!).
    • If an idea is unique, then make a video about it! But be careful, as repetition is the main pitfall for those trying to become successful quickly on YouTube.
    • Focus on regularity over quantity––there is such a thing as too much at once. Some users consider that uploading 100 videos in one day to be the holy grail of gaining success. However, this will just lead to a bunch of unwatched videos that end up looking like spam, bringing next to nothing to the channel's total views.

Getting Known in the YouTube Community

  1. Be active on YouTube. This means you will need to comment, like and subscribe to other channels to enable you to get noticed and hopefully subscribed to.
  2. Respond positively to the work of others. There are various beneficial and caring ways to go about this, including:
    • Responding to popular videos is a way to gain views and can soon get you on your way to becoming a star on YouTube.
    • Create exciting content that relate to other videos, so that you can connect through commonality.
    • As well as posting videos in response to other videos, you need to give feedback to other users. It's best to comment on videos that are like yours (not that popular yet). This will get you connecting with the YouTube community, growing a trustworthy subscriber base for your channel and even new friends.
    • Try not to spam every video named “me singing” with a comment like “amazing” because where is the personal connection there? And don’t ask people to subscribe. The goal is to not appear like you are seeking fame.
  3. Be respectful. Don’t expect anything from anyone on YouTube. The less cocky you appear, the more likely you are able to seek success. Constantly asking for users to rate and subscribe will get boring very quickly. Just think how easily you get bored with mass emails sent to you and forty others. If you make people feel like just another number, you will not achieve anything. Treat your videos as a tool to give information/entertainment to people, and expect nothing in return.
  4. Add social media to your channel, by adding your Facebook, Twitter, Insta, or Snapchat accounts. These accounts help you to keep your viewers rotating around your social media platforms.
    • Do not vlog if you don't have many fans. Only famous YouTubers' fans like to see what their idol is doing 24/7.
  5. Reward your viewers and thank them often. You can do a giveaway when you reach your goal or milestone. You can also give shoutouts, follow your fans on Twitter or just simply make a thank you video.

Tips

  • If you can, use a high-definition camera to wow your viewers. However, YouTube sensations such as Jenna Marbles, Ryan Higa, and lots of others didn't started out with high-tech gear, and they still made it big. Good quality gear is a definite advantage, but it isn't everything on YouTube.
  • Never show emotion towards 'hate' comments, as this will not resolve anything.
  • Use lighting effectively (videos can be found for tutorials on lighting).
  • Download un-copyrighted music for background music.
  • Add music into the background of your video.
  • Try to look your very best.
  • Be sure to start out confident, not cocky. Also, getting your friends and family to subscribe to your channel can help, as long as your video is not lousy and you just want it to look like people like the video. That's misleading.
  • Make sure you know how to edit. Post production is very important. Editing videos can make them more visually and audibly interesting to the viewer.
  • Some common video categories are gaming, music, vlogging, comedy, beauty, fashion, etc.

Warnings

  • Be sure never to give personal details in videos or descriptions.
  • Be careful of scams and violent material in flagged videos.
  • Be sure to report anything you think is inappropriate.
  • Never broadcast nudity, terror or violence—as YouTube is a family-friendly website.
  • Do not message users who appear under the age of 13.
  • Don't post random videos; stay consistent or you risk losing viewers.
  • Do not copy other people's videos; you may use the person's idea, but do not copy what they do.

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