Creator Fundamentals | Build a Foundation for YouTube Success

Each and every day new users flood onto YouTube hoping to make it big. On those same days, just as many or more, throw their hands up and walk away from the YouTube channel they were struggling to build. So if you are considering starting a channel, you might want to ask yourself: “Can I make it as a YouTuber?”

Now that is a great question to ask yourself, but questions are only as good as the answers they provide. Do you know how to answer that question? No? Well, continue reading and I will do my best to help you do just that.

The most important thing to understand, and yet another question you must ask yourself, is: “Why do I want to start a YouTube channel?” It is the “Why” part of this question that often serves as the primary cause of failure on YouTube and unlike the first question I posed, I can not answer it for you.

1.) Understand Your WHY

If your “Why” is focused solely on the rewards being showered upon your favorite YouTubers (Fame, Fortune, Free Stuff), and you are simply excited to get a piece of that pie then there is a good chance you will fail, and fail miserably. YouTubers like this are akin to a runner taking off in a full sprint at the beginning of a marathon; they will fail long before that finish line is even in site.

2.) Patience is Key

To make it as a YouTuber you must understand that it takes considerable time to grow a successful channel. It may take months just to gain some traction on your channel and years to achieve “Big YouTuber” status. Many YouTubers in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers have been on YouTuber for 10 years or more. Ask yourself, are YOU in it for the next 10 years?

3.) Motivation to Learn

There is a TON to learn as a YouTuber. You must be willing, able and motivated to learn… and keep learning. You must remain open-minded and absorb all that YouTube has to offer. It is especially relevant to learn how YouTube works and how to improve your quality.

How YouTube Works

YouTube is complex. The way in which it promotes content is controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). This AI is frequently referred to as the “YouTube Algorithm” but it is much more than a collection of rules and calculations. Its learning as it goes along. These days it seems to be shifting more towards recognizing what an individual user has been doing on YouTube (viewing history). It uses that information to serve the user more of the same in an effort to maximize total minutes watched. The more users watch, the more money YouTube makes in ad revenue. To that end, keeping up with how it works (to the best knowledge of the experts’ interpretation) is essential for maximizing growth on YouTube.

How to Improve Your Craft

If that is not enough to worry about, it is also important to recognize that the quality of your content does have value. There is debate as to whether YouTube favors Quantity or Quality. Its important to recognize, however, that people will not spend a lot of time watching poor content. This, at least, means that your content has to meet a minimum threshold of watch-ability. Delivering cringe-worthy content can actively drive viewers away. To this end, YouTubers should focus on making improvements over time. Accept imperfections. never let them prevent you from sharing your content. You can make improvements on the next upload.

4.) It’s a Community Affair

No YouTuber has ever succeeded on their own. There is a HUGE community aspect to YouTube. Many people overlook community an view YouTube as merely a video storage/viewing site. YouTube is a thriving, vibrant community with members from all walks of life. It is important to remember that involvement in that community is absolutely ESSENTIAL. Community involvement has two components:

Interaction With Your Subscribers

As you post videos on YouTube, viewers will begin sharing their thoughts via comments. It is important as you begin to grow your channel, that you make every effort to engage with your subscribers and acknowledge their thoughts and interest in your content. An engaged, active subscriber community is critical in accelerating the growth of your channel.

Involvement With YouTuber Communities

There are countless resources (Facebook groups for example) that bring YouTubers together. New YouTubers are often referred to as “Small YouTubers” and there are a number of Facebook groups dedicated to bringing small YouTubers together to share information, collaborate, rejoice in their success stories, and commiserate in their disappointments. Ultimately, it’s the support of these communities that can often help push you through the difficult times as a YouTuber (yes there will be disappointing and difficult times).

5.) Focus

Many times people begin YouTube channels because they are just looking for a place to share videos online. If you have bigger plans for your channel and hope to grow it into something of substance, then focus is important. Focus, in this context, means narrowing in on a specific theme for your channel such that all of the videos you upload are related to each other.

Just as subscribers choose to follow you, they can just as easily choose to stop following you. If they subscribed to your channel for car repair videos and then you start uploading sewing tutorials, there is a chance you may lose those subscribers. Therefore,  focusing on a specific topic (often referred to as a “niche” in the YouTube lexicon), will help your channel grow at a faster pace.

Is It For You?

The five concepts above provide you with an understanding of just what it takes to succeed on YouTube at a very high level.

Are you ready to take the next step? If so, watch the video below to learn how to Grow a YouTube channel from the beginning.

Creator Fundamentals is a YouTube channel run by Dan Currier. It’s focus is to help you: Build a Foundation for YouTube Success. For more information, and to get started on growing your YouTube channel, click below and subscribe:

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