What is a YouTuber?
A YouTuber is a person who creates and posts content for the video-sharing platform YouTube.
But besides having YouTube as a platform in common, YouTubers themselves differ to the extreme. YouTubers come in every age, ethnicity, education level, area of focus and camera quality. Some YouTubers post just for fun, as a hobby or a side hustle, and others make it a full-time career.
Anyone who posts can be called a YouTuber, but the title is generally understood to mean someone who posts to the platform regularly. As with many social media sites (and also with cake), consistency is key.
How much money do YouTubers make?
There are no hard-and-fast figures for how much YouTubers make, on average, because there’s no such a thing as an average YouTuber.
YouTubers make money in many ways. A successful YouTuber might earn money from:
Advertising – joining YouTube’s partner program
Affiliate sales – becoming an affiliate partner for a brand selling products or services online
Merchandise – selling their own merch like mugs, T-shirts and toys
Crowdfunding – joining a site like Patreon or using online tipping services
Licensing – licensing their content to the media
Sponsorships – creating sponsored content for brands
Most top-earning YouTubers use more than one of these methods to make money from their video content.
If we only consider income from YouTube’s Partner program, YouTube content creators earn an average of $18 per 1,000 views. Meaning, a YouTuber getting 100,000 views per month would make a very modest wage of 1,800 USD.
First, create a list of “Seed Keywords”
Seed Keywords are terms that describe super broad topics.
For example, if you were in the digital marketing space, your Seed Keywords would be things like:
Social Media
LinkedIn Marketing
Facebook Page
Content Marketing
See how that works? These are broad topics that you can create videos about.
Identify your niche
Saying you want to be a YouTuber is like saying you want to be a scientist (though your parents are likely to be more impressed with one than the other). The first thing you need to decide: what kind? There are makeup YouTubers, family YouTubers, unboxing YouTubers, knitting YouTubers, TV recap YouTubers, scientist YouTubers (take that, mom and dad). If you can think of it, there’s a niche.
A niche is an area of expertise, and narrowing down yours will help you identify your target audience and make it easier for you to brainstorm content.
One of the best ways to pick a niche is to think about what you like — you’ll want to be making content that you’re passionate about. This is supposed to be fun! Here are a few examples.
Celeb interviews are a popular type of content on YouTube, but First We Feast puts a spicy twist on the traditional Q&A in their series “Hot Ones.”
Know your audience
It’s likely you won’t gain thousands of YouTube subscribers or millions of views overnight. But regardless of the size of your audience, it’s essential to know who you’re creating videos for, and what sort of content they like.
Ask yourself:
Who would watch my videos?
How old are they?
What kind of job do they have?
At what time of the day will they be watching videos?
Why are they watching them?
What do they gain from watching them?
Questions like these help you build what’s called an audience persona. An audience persona is a character you create that represents the characteristics of your ideal viewer.
Ms. Rachel’s audience is children, and she’s an expert at making engaging and fun videos for kids (and on another level, her audience is also adults—the ones in charge of the iPad—so there’s a healthy dose of education along with the adorable songs).
Run Experiments on Your Thumbnails and Titles
The third step to growing your YouTube channel is to run experiments on your thumbnails and titles. Thumbnails and titles are the first things that your potential viewers see when they encounter your videos on YouTube. They are the main factors influencing your click-through rate: the percentage of people who view and then click on your video. The higher your click-through rate, the more YouTube will show your video to more viewers.
To run experiments on your thumbnails and titles, you need to use Brandlytics, a tool that I created to help you optimize your YouTube videos. Brandlytics will show you the median click-through rate for each impression band and how your videos compare to that median. Impression bands are ranges of impressions that are used to group and compare videos with similar levels of exposure. Brandlytics will also help you run A/B tests on your thumbnails and titles a Deal with Challenges and Failures
The fourth and final step to grow your YouTube channel is to deal with challenges and failures. Challenges and failures are inevitable and unavoidable when you are creating and growing your YouTube channel. You will face challenges such as technical issues, algorithm changes, competition, and criticism. You will also face failures such as mistakes, errors, rejections, and losses.
But how do you deal with challenges and failures on your YouTube channel? Here are some tips to follow:
Don’t give up. Challenges and failures are not the end but the beginning of your learning and growth. Challenges and failures are opportunities to improve yourself, your content, and your channel. Challenges and failures also test your passion, perseverance, and resilience. Don’t let challenges and failures stop you from pursuing your goals and dreams. Instead, use them as motivation and inspiration to keep going and keep creating.
Learn from your challenges and failures. Challenges and failures are valuable sources of feedback and information. Challenges and failures can help you identify and fix your problems, gaps, and weaknesses. Challenges and failures can also help you discover and explore new ideas, possibilities, and solutions. Challenges and failures can also help you develop and refine your skills, knowledge, and strategies. Don’t ignore or deny your challenges and failures. Instead, embrace and analyze them and use them as lessons and guides for your improvement and growth.
Seek help and support. Challenges and failures can be overwhelming and stressful; you don’t have to deal with them alone. You can seek help and support from various sources, such as mentors, coaches, experts, peers, friends, and family. You can also seek help and support from online communities, such as forums, groups, and platforms. You can also seek help and support from tools and resources like books, courses, podcasts, and software. Don’t isolate or blame yourself for your challenges and failures. Instead, reach out and connect with others, and use their help and support to overcome your challenges and failures.
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