Working for YouTube has been a consistent source of income for so many young people recently, and it could be for you too.
You work at your own schedule, uploading content that you are passionate about and you get to interact and attract people who love similar things as you.
If you have ever wanted to start a YouTube channel, here is a short guide to doing that from a person who has been running a YouTube channel for some time now. I run a YouTube channel called Maisha ya Chuo, which is a digital platform for university students where I share tips, advice, and help for university students to conquer any challenge that they may face in college. I upload videos every Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now that you have seen that I’m qualified to guide you in this, let’s get started.
It is important to know that if you have a Gmail account, and if you can comment on a YouTube video, then you have a YouTube channel. If you don’t, then try to comment and you will automatically create a YouTube channel.
Try to comment [on a video] and you will automatically create a YouTube channel.
Great, now that you have a channel, customize it to fit your niche. Niche is what you want your channel to be about: Is it make-up? You singing or dancing? Cooking? Vlogging (sharing your day to day life and other personal topics)? Religion? Teaching your favorite subject? Or something else?
I think it is important to have a niche before you create a YouTube channel so that you can create your channel art and logo that you must upload when you are customizing your channel. There are different features, like a section about you where most people share what the channel is about and invite people to subscribe. There are a couple of links that you can add and your email address as well.
Tthen maybe from there you can start uploading.
But trust me, it is very important for you to have a channel name that is catchy, that somehow relates to what you will be posting, and that people can remember easily so that they can search foryour channel when they want to watch your videos, especially if they haven’t subscribed to your channel. Please remind them to subscribe to your channel in every video since you have to have 1000 subscribers to start getting paid by YouTube.
Before I go on I would love to address the procrastinating spirit that one might have; the one that preaches for you to wait until you have a camera, lighting equipment and a studio to start your YouTube channel.
I’m sorry to break it down to you but you don’t need all that to start!
Work with what you currently have, like your smartphone. You can record a video using your phone’s camera and edit it using apps like Inshot and Vloggit which you can use for free on your phone. Make sure you download the YouTube studio app on your phone as well since this app can help you upload your videos straight to YouTube and put your well designed YouTube thumbnails on each video you upload.
If you want a fancy, well designed YouTube video thumbnail (which is that picture that you see on a video that attracts you to click and watch what is in the video) then you can use an app like Canva, which has a free feature as well, and you can get professionally shot photos on an app called Pexel or a website called Nappy.
See, you can really pull this YouTube job off using just your smartphone.
Here are a few other things that I want you to have figured out as well:
Posting schedule
A posting schedule is a day or days that you decide to post your content for your audience. This helps you and your viewers alike. First, it creates discipline and creativity since you have to think and shoot a video that needs to be posted on a certain day. That routine is what will give you discipline in taking your YouTube job seriously when you are on your way to 1000 subscribers, enough subscribers for you to start getting paid. This also creates expectations to your subscribers because they will get excited in the day when you post knowing that their favourite YouTuber has new content for them. That expectation is vital for you to have loyal subscribers.
Share your work
Don’t be shy. Especially in the first days of YouTube-ing you might feel like you are not good, which you won’t be but you will be if you keep at it, you might feel ashamed or shy to share your work. Please do, because if you won’t, well, you might not get to 1000 subscribers. Also, there won’t be a perfect time when you feel confident enough to share your work, so just share, don’t feel discouraged. When you get that negative comment, just put yourself out there.
Have goals
Other than earning money, I have found it so encouraging if you have more goals with how you can turn your YouTube job into a full time employment for yourself.
I truly believe if you have built your audience then you can really pull YouTube off as a full time employment. A lot of people have, you can too.
So write down goals of where you see your channel going, write even the topics that you would love to explore. In short, write down your vision and that will lead you as you start working for YouTube.
Lastly, I would love to say that you got this. Put yourself out there. You can do this! Be consistent and don’t be discouraged if the growth or subscribers are not coming as fast as you thought they would. Be patient.
