Are you looking to start a YouTube channel as a creative outlet, to share your passion, or even make money? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
As a tech professional and experienced YouTube viewer myself, I‘ve seen many creators build huge audiences and even full-time careers through YouTube.
The platform reaches over 2 billion monthly logged-in users – almost one third of all people on the Internet! This massive audience presents huge opportunities for any niche.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk you – step-by-step – through exactly how to create a successful YouTube channel in 2023.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
- Why YouTube Channels Work – Understanding the power of the platform
- What You Can Do With a Channel – Features and capabilities
- YouTube Channel Setup Guide – Step-by-step process
- Standing Out On YouTube – Optimizing discovery
- Making Money on YouTube – Monetization options
- Growing Your Channel – Increase viewers & subscribers
Let‘s start with understanding why YouTube itself has become such a massive deal…
Why YouTube Channels Work
Since being founded in 2005 and acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, YouTube has quickly positioned itself as the top video platform globally across both social media and entertainment.
Just look at some of these milestones:
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Launched native mobile apps |
| 2010 | Hit 1 billion daily video views |
| 2011 | Launched live streaming |
| 2015 | Hit 1 billion users |
| 2017 | Hit over 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users |
| 2022 | Users watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos per day |
And YouTube serves as both the world‘s largest video entertainment platform and the second largest search engine behind only Google.
This popularity comes from YouTube‘s unmatched reach, built-in audience, and money making potential:
Reach – There‘s no easier way to distribute video content globally. Just upload a video and YouTube‘s infrastructure makes it instantly available in 100+ countries.
Built-In Audience – With over 2 billion monthly logged-in users, any video gets instant exposure to an enormous audience.
Money Making – Between ad revenue sharing, channel memberships, streaming superchats, affiliate marketing and more, creators can generate income through YouTube.
That‘s why everyone from individuals to the largest media companies have built hugely popular YouTube channels within their niches.
The platform provides endless opportunities for anyone to express themselves creatively, share their message, or build their personal media brand.
Now let‘s explore what your own channel enables you to unlock on the world‘s most popular video platform…
What You Can Do With a Channel
While anyone can passively watch other YouTube videos without an account, having your own channel unlocks additional capabilities:
Upload Videos – Share your own video content with the world, whether helpful tutorials, product reviews, entertaining sketches or really anything useful, interesting or engaging.
Customize Channel Branding – Make your channel recognizable with channel art, logo, channel trailer intro, watermarks on videos and more.
Community Interaction – Have subscribers, post channel updates, heart/like videos, read & reply to comments.
Control Analytics – Utilize Creator Studio to access real-time analytics on views, likes, comments, traffic sources, audience retention and much more.
Monetization – Once meeting eligibility thresholds, turn on monetization through ads, channel memberships, merchandise shelves, streaming superchats/stickers and even brand sponsorships.
Increased Discovery – Get additional optimization options to help surface your videos – and channel – higher in YouTube‘s search and suggested videos.
For comparison, take a look at what functionality a basic viewer gets vs. owning your own channel:
| Basic Viewer | Channel Owner | |
|---|---|---|
| Upload Videos | ❌ | ✅ |
| Custom Branding | ❌ | ✅ |
| Community Interaction | ❌ | ✅ |
| Analytics | ❌ | ✅ |
| Money Making | ❌ | ✅ |
| Discovery Features | ❌ | ✅ |
As you can see, to truly tap into YouTube‘s potential, you need your own channel.
Now that you know the immense possibilities of YouTube channels, let‘s walk through creating your own, step-by-step.
YouTube Channel Setup Guide
While YouTube may seem intimidating to break into, the platform actually makes it quite easy to get started with your own channel.
Here is the full process covered with visual examples:
Step 1 – Sign Up for Google Account
Since YouTube is owned by Google, you need a Google account to create a channel. This allows a unified login across all Google services.
Visit accounts.google.com and input your basic info to sign up:
Use a Gmail address you control and secure password. This same account will control your YouTube channel.
Step 2 – Access YouTube Studio
Now signed into your Google account, visit YouTube and click your profile icon > YouTube Studio:
This is the backend tool for managing your entire YouTube presence.
Step 3 – Click "Get Started"
In the YouTube Studio sidebar, you will see a prompt to create your new channel under "Get started":
Click this call-to-action to kickoff your channel setup.
Step 4 – Name and Initialize Channel
On the next screen, YouTube will ask you to:
- Enter your channel name – This forms your channel URL
- Select a category – To optimize video recommendations
- Choose target language
Complete these details and click Create channel to initialize your account.
Step 5 – Upload Artwork
Fresh YouTube channels start with stock icons and banners.
YouTube will prompt you to upload custom visual assets to brand your channel, including:
- Channel icon
- Channel art banner
I recommend creating branding aligned to your niche. But you can skip this step for now and customize later.
Step 6 – Explore Customization Features
Your barebones channel is now ready to upload videos!
But take time explore YouTube Studio‘s options to optimize discovery and branding:
- Basic info – Channel metadata, links, locations
- Branding – Icons, banner, watermark
- Features – Trailers, posts, playlists
- Content defaults – Upload settings
- Users – Add other managers
Filling out these details will boost impressions.
Step 7 – Upload Your First Video!
Now for the best part – producing and publishing content!
Return to your main YouTube homepage and click Create > Upload video to select a file.
As you upload, research keywords and craft titles, descriptions and tags to attract viewers. Share your work! 🚀
Congrats, you officially have a fully optimized YouTube channel ready to start sharing videos!
Next let’s explore strategies to maximize viewership and exposure…
Standing Out on YouTube
While YouTube simplifies uploading videos, the platform is incredibly competitive with over 500 hours of new content published every minute!
This makes standing out extremely difficult. However, optimizing your content for discovery and suggests is crucial for channel growth:
Appealing Thumbnails – 90% of the best performing videos have custom thumbnails. Create clickable images representing your content.
SEO Titles & Descriptions – Include popular keywords in titles & descriptions so videos surface in search results.
Quality Content – Well researched scripts, good editing and stunning visuals result in higher audience retention signaling a “good video” to YouTube.
Consistency – The more content you publish, the more chances of being recommended by YouTube’s algorithm.
Playlists – Curate specific videos into playlists around topics to attract new viewers from searches.
Promotion – Market videos on other platforms bringing existing followers over to subscribe.
Gaining even 1 loyal viewer per video will compound over time as long as you remain consistent.
Treat YouTube like planting seeds – dedication to the grind will pay off exponentially later.
My favorite channels do an excellent job leveraging all of these tactics – see Marques Brownlee and Linus Tech Tips for tech or Gordon Ramsay and Bon Appétit for cooking inspiration.
Next up – cashing in on that audience once you do build a following…
Making Money on YouTube
As creators attract more loyal viewers and subscribers to their channels, they unlock various options for monetizing their audiences to earn income passively.
YouTube facilitates multiple ways to monetize – no need for creators to build out their own products or payment systems.
However, channels must meet minimum thresholds for views, subscribers and watch hours to quality for YouTube Partner Perks before activating money-making features.
Popular methods include:
Ads – Enable video ads and earn a 55% rev share on impressions. This accounts for the majority of YouTube monetization revenue.
Channel Memberships – Offer paid subscriptions with loyalty badges, emoji, and exclusive content.
Merchandise Shelves – Sell branded swag right on your channel using integrated stores.
Super Chat & Stickers – Make money during live streams and premieres with highlighted chat messages and digital stickers.
Brand Sponsorships – Get paid by brands to review products or produce branded video content.
The most successful channels stack multiple income streams. But ad revenue alone can drive an extremely lucrative business.
Top creators easily earn over $1 million per year as individuals just from YouTube ads. Some of the highest paid reportedly make upwards of $15+ million per year!
So once you build an audience creating videos you love, you can absolutely turn your channel into a full-time business.
Now let’s get into tactics for growth…
Growing Your Channel
Attracting viewers and subscribers is a gradual process, but essential metrics for building a true YouTube following and potential business.
Here are proven ways to increase channel growth:
Consistency – Posting 1-2 quality videos per week shows dedication and trains the algorithm. The more content the better.
Playlists – Curate specific videos into playlists around topics so each one attracts viewers to then binge more of your content.
Requests & Challenges – Increase comments by asking viewers what content they want to see next or proposing creative challenges.
Collaborations – Team up with similar creators to tap into each other‘s audiences and cross-promote.
Advertising Your Channel – Run YouTube video discovery ads targeted to your niche to amplify reach.
Social Promotion – Market new videos across all your platforms. Redirecting external traffic signals to YouTube you make quality content deserving more views.
External SEO – Optimize your website, blogs etc. to rank for keywords potential viewers are searching so they discover and subscribe to your channel.
Play Trending Topics – Stay on-top of news trends in your industry and cover timely stories. Inserting your channel into the cultural conversation can win impressions.
It‘s also important to closely analyze Channel Analytics to assess which videos and promotion tactics perform best.
Then double down on what brings in the most new viewers and subscribers.
Some videos will go viral out of pure luck. But taking a very intentional and strategic approach to growth will compound over the long-run.
Start Your YouTube Journey
Hopefully this guide has demystified exactly how to create your own YouTube channel to start sharing videos – and unlock money making potential!
The platform provides endless ways to express yourself creatively, document your passions, speak your message, or even build a personal media brand business.
Remember, success comes down to consistency so focus on uploading new content frequently. Establish your unique voice but also research competitors within your niche for inspiration.
And don‘t get discouraged by low view counts in the beginning. Building an audience who loves your content just takes patience.
Now get out there, create some amazing videos, spread positive vibes, foster community engagement, and change lives!
I can‘t wait to see what you produce. And I‘m always happy to answer any other questions from my experience – drop them in the comments!
