YouTube Basics #1 – Before you even Create your Channel
Before you even create your channel you’re going to need to decide something crucial. Do you already know what that is? Well it’s actually pretty simple. What kind of videos are you going to be creating for people? What theme are you going to be feeding off? I know, I know, there are TONS of options. How are you going to decide? Well, I will try my best to help you, but the final decision is yours.
Something to think about… What are the Top Gaming YouTube Channels doing?
An article I wrote recently was titled “Top 10 YouTube Gamers”. What it really shows is a compilation of the top 10 gaming YouTube channels. It even shows their subscribers and views. You’re going to want to take a look at it and see what these channels are doing right! This is a great way to start analyzing and figuring out a theme for your channel. Don’t just go in blind, do some research to see what people want.
Step 1: Analyze what the other YouTubers are doing right.
So I already basically covered this, but I think it is necessary to include it in your steps. One thing I’m not saying is to just do exactly what they’re doing. People are going to subscribe because your content is good AND because they like you. That means you want to individualize yourself and be different! Take some risks in there, but also do what is working. Make sense? Good.
Step 2: Think about what you’re good at.
There’s actually a bunch of things to think about in just this topic alone. Some things would include:
- What game or games are you really good at?
- If it’s multiple games, do they all fit together in a common category?
- Can you choose just ONE if not?
- Will you be able to create engaging videos for this game/games?
- Are there already a million channels doing what you want to do?
- If so, can you be better?
Step 3: Create a theme for your channel.
Hopefully by this step you already know what game or games you’re going to be basing your channel around. This means you’re also going to be creating a name for it. You’re either going to use your gaming name (the name people refer to you as when you’re gaming), or a channel name. The name should fit the theme behind the channel. The theme behind the channel is crucial. It’s going to be what people are there for and what they expect to see when you’re uploading content. You don’t want to make it to broad because then you won’t have a little niche target market to hit, but you also don’t want to restrict yourself to JUST a very small specific group. This can be tricky, but if a specific game or games is popular enough, it makes it easy!
Step 4: Make sure the channel name is available and get ready.
Okay, so obviously the channel name has to be available, so make sure you check that out. Don’t make it super similar to a channel name that’s already in use, you could end up sending them free traffic instead of people coming to your page! Be unique! Oh, and get ready because we’re on to Basics #2.
What’s Next?
Hopefully you didn’t have to hard of a time figuring all this out, but unfortunately it’s absolutely crucial to get this part right. It determines the future of your channel so don’t mess it up! No pressure :-X. Next we’re going to be talking about what you need to do directly after creating your YouTube Channel. The fun begins!