Do you want to start a YouTube channel but it looks too daunting? Do you wish the instruction would go a little slower? Do you wish you had a step-by-step tutorial you could print out? How to Be a YouTube Star course is your solution! The best part is we have videotaped the screens so you can see, on the screen, exactly what you should do to set up and run your channel – even how to edit your videos on YouTube.

Video is king/queen right now. Starting a YouTube channel is almost imperative for marketing and getting the word out on practically anything that interests you.

Anyone can do it, regardless of age or technical ability. Well, maybe not totally. You have to be able to turn on the computer and get onto the internet. I live with someone who can’t do that, so I know it’s really not EVERYBODY. However, it’s so much easier than you would think as long as you have a tutorial on how to navigate your channel. It’s also cost effective and easy to manage yourself.

Hopefully, this blog will give you the incentive to try it. Worst case scenario – you hate what you put up – but all you need to do is delete it and start over. Or just don’t make it public because you have the option of making it private.

There are three things to consider: why, who, and how.

WHY

Why do you want to start a YouTube channel? Is the reason a business purpose? Is it a passion interest? Are you going to do interviews or are you going solo? Do you want to reposition your podcast to video?

The answer to these questions will affect how often you post, how long the episodes are, how you dress, what your thumbnails look like for each episode, how much editing you will have to do, what your titles and description contain, etc.

As with a podcast or any social media post, how often you post will drive whether you have viewers and subscribers. To be successful, you should be posting on a regular basis such as weekly. If you are doing this without passion behind it, it will be more difficult to drive yourself for consistency. If you are solo, you are going to have to come up with your own material week after week, so it might be helpful to do an outline of what your shows will cover. See if you can come up with at least three months of titles before you start.

The why will also drive your marketing. Just like almost everything else, you can’t just sit back and wait for someone to discover you. You have to get “out there” and let people know you exist and what your show is all about. Therefore, social media will directly influence whether you have traffic to your site.

WHO

The who is largely about you. What persona do you want to portray? If you are marketing to a younger person, the typical fast, bullet-like talk works. If you are trying to attract an older person, you may wan tto slow it down a bit. This will be especially true if you are trying to teach someone something.

The who will affect how you dress and how you come across. Your unique knowledge, skill, or ability can be your ticket to a successful YouTube channel. Does your passion come through? Are you interesting or do you come across as a dull professor?  The good news is you can practice many times before you actually make your video live to the public. If you don’t like it, you can delete. You can edit it. But practice will help a lot.

The key is figuring out who you are trying to reach. We call that your Avatar. It is very important to figure out who your ideal audience is. Once you can get that into focus, you can target what you say and how you come across to that audience. Your title, your description, and your video should all be in sync to attract the right audience.

You need to be specific. You need to “niche” down your ideas, so you are talking directly to the person you want to watch your channel. The clearer you are about who that person is – what age, what gender, what interests – the more effective you will be in attracting that audience. You know what you are passionate about.

You are your brand. If you want to attract that right-fit client to your YouTube channel, you have to know who they are and what they want. What are their pain points? What are they struggling with that you could give them?

Once you know the who, your next question is, “Am I addressing my Avatar’s wants?” Nail what you niche audience wants to be successful!

The other factor is that you need to gain their trust. Your Avatar may have no idea who you are, so you must build that trust. You have to talk their talk and demonstrate that you relate to them so your audience knows you are a person they can trust to provide what the audience wants.

HOW

This is the real “meat and potatoes” part. The first thing to do, of course, is to set up your channel. Without a YouTube channel, you have no presence on YouTube. If you already have a Gmail account, you can easily sign in to create a YouTube channel. Then you start your decision-making.

Settings and Defaults

1. Settings – this is really the key to flushing out a channel so you can start posting. The settings area has many decisions to be made but once made, you are ready to roll. You will enter both Basic and Advanced Settings for your channel.
2. Features and Defaults such as Title, Description, Visibility, and Tags. You can set up the defaults that will automatically populate each video you set up. You can change it at the video level, but when you enter it here, you will know you have consistency.
3. Customize Channel – You have entries to be done here on branding, pictures, banners, and watermarks.

Video Creation

1. Equipment needed for video creation. The equipment does not have to be expensive. You are usually talking about a computer, a camera, and a microphone.
2. Platform – the easiest way to do your video is probably Zoom. The real key is to do it right the first time, especially if it is an interview because you really don’t want to have to do much editing other than top and tail.

Editing

1. Of course, you can edit your video before you upload it using one of the video editing programs available. However, if you have minor editing to do, such as the top (the beginning) and tail (the ending), you can edit it directly on YouTube. When you shoot your video, you want extra space (about 3-5 seconds) on the front and back end. You don’t want to cut it too close.
2. After your edit the video, you can preview it and decide to change it or redo it before you save it.

Posting

1. Thumbnail – your video cover – will be added when you do the title and description. It is on the same screen.
2. The defaults you set up will help with the title and description, but these are important areas because these will help you attract attention. The title will also put you into a YouTube category, so you may want to consider a default ending for the title. An example would be Inspirational Video for Women. You would write your title and then put a | mark and add your category ending. You will be limited to the number of characters you can enter so think about how much room you want for the title vs. the title ending.
3. Regular posting is important so your audience knows they can count on you and will look for you on a regular basis.

You will want an introductory video and description on the main page of your channel under the banner.

You will have a library of videos that is stored on YouTube and you can set up playlists.

Resources

We have a couple of resources for you to make it easier.

1. I wrote a course called How to Be A YouTube Star that is available on my website YouTube How-To Course Coming | How to Be a YouTube Star (nanmckayconnects.com). In the course, you will see the actual YouTube site and where each item must be entered on the page along with a description of what you are entering.
2. We have a service where we can set up your site for you. Just contact me at nan@nanmckayconnects.com.

I hope you will take the next step to get your channel set up and running. You can promote it through social media!  Have fun!

Nan