YouTube Isn’t Dead: How to Build and Grow Your Channel in 2021
Cutting through the mass of information to bring you the strategies you need to know
My husband often takes my camera and hilariously breaks into a typical influencer skit.
“Hey guys, let me show you my skincare routine… And now, let me show you my toilet…”
When it comes to starting on YouTube, this guide won’t teach you what to say.
It will however outline practical parts of the new YouTuber journey that is likely to place your videos in front of the right eyes.
In order to set your expectations, I would like to start off with a fact: I am not the YouTube algorithm whisper.
As much as people want to believe that you can gamify YouTube, it’s mostly speculation with regards to what the algorithm is favoring.
Making peace with the platform being one that is ever-changing, in my opinion at least, will set you up with a game plan that is flexible and most likely, sustainable.
I’ve started four different YouTube channels over the years and I’ve had my fair share of viral videos.
Some that I am proud of, and others that I have removed from the platform.
I’ve learned that there are a few things that form the foundation for a well-rounded YouTube channel, and, although I have not won any YouTube creator awards, these points are likely to guide you with the basics of what could get your channel going and eventually growing.
What not to do
The temptation to grow is real, but to avoid fake engagement steer clear from the following:
- Buying subscribers.
- Joining New YouTuber Facebook groups hoping that strangers will watch your videos.
- Purchasing an existing channel and pivoting the content.
- Go into debt to purchase expensive gear.
- Quit your day job before being monetized for a few months.
- Commenting wildly on videos asking people to check out your channel.
- Linking your videos in the comment section of other YouTube creators.
- Trying to comment first on a larger channel, again, hoping that other new YouTubers will check out your content.
Ultimately, the mistake I often see new YouTubers make is focusing on gaining subscribers at all costs.
Watch time, the duration of how much of your video is watched is a metric that is often forgotten.
The above example shows how, in this video, 74% of viewers are still watching at the 30-second mark.
By gaining empty subscribers, you may find that yes, they could engage with your video by leaving a like or a comment, but they are probably only watching 5–10 seconds of your video. Having a steep drop-off, so early on in the video, it gives an indication that your video is not worth watching to the end.
New YouTubers often fall into the trap of trying to find viewers, that they spend more time “hustling” than creating quality content.
YouTube is an incredible platform because it gives creators an opportunity to focus on content. You do not need to deploy direct marketing strategies and aggressively ask for people to stick around.
There’s nothing wrong with including a, “If you enjoyed this video feel free to leave a like, and consider subscribing to my channel.”
But there is more to this journey…
I’ll spend the rest of this article talking about how if you focus on perfecting video, that you may land on a qualified audience who have been waiting for you to arrive.
Provide Value
Personally, I don’t feel YouTube follows the same momentum of social media channels that we are familiar with.
You can get your family and friends to like a picture, or watch a short video but I’ve found it unlikely that even the people who are supposed to love you, can stomach a video more than 30 seconds, max five minutes when there is nothing in it for them.
YouTube is a space where you need to build an audience from scratch.
Eventually, people will buy into your personality and stick around because they are drawn to the way that you present content. But to expect people to want to watch a slice of your life straight off the bat is unlikely to assist you in your growth strategy.
You need to give people a reason to stick around…
However, if you are incredibly entertaining then I don’t think this applies to you.
Skits and comedy always have space, even for beginners.
If your content is so hilarious that someone feels the urge to share it, then don’t hold on too tightly to what I’m about to say next…
For those of us who do not possess the funny bone, we need to provide actionable value.
I have personally found that tutorials or tips and tricks have gained my channel the most subscribers.
Leaving someone empowered to action something may encourage them to hit the subscribe button, or bookmark your video in order to revisit your content.
If you want to go the vlogging route, this point does not exclude you. Try to incorporate a searchable term into your title and the overall theme of your video.
If you wanted to start a YouTube channel vlogging your life as a blogger, you could enter the search term “blogging” into the search bar as a way to identify what some popular search results are.
Once you have found a search term, you can then incorporate the term into the title of the video as well as ensure that the content in your video is obviously linked to it. In this example, if the keyword is blogging, the content obviously has to allude to blogging.
A vlogger who successfully drew me in was an Australian YouTuber, Sarah’s Day.
Her content is health and fitness related, but she would title the video around a specific health trend, and then create a vlog, giving a look into her life, and discussing the health trend at a certain point.
Her personality is infectious and I subscribed to her channel because I gained insight into a topic I was interested in, but more than that, I started watching her videos back to back because of the entertainment value.
What may start as a search to find a solution to a problem, could result in an answer as well as entertainment value.
If you start by approaching YouTube with the intention of ranking in search, then you give yourself room to explore different topics.
Currently, almost 50% of viewers who find my channel, feed through from search.
I’ve been able to experiment with tutorials, vlogs, and short films to find an audience through search.
Once I identify which videos I can compete for, from a search perspective, then I consider if it’s a niche I would like to create more content around.
I’ve shown you one way to identify keywords.
There are other tools you could use to identify search terms, such as Google Trends, Ubersuggest, Google Adwords, TubeBuddy, MorningFame, Vid IQ…
The list goes on.
From my personal experience, I know that I am often guided by what YouTube suggests from their search drop-down, and it has guided me in finding search terms. It is the method I currently use.
Top Tip
Do not forget that your audience is people.
There can be a temptation to play to the algorithm by keyword stuffing a title.
In the past, I used a variety of paid platforms, some that I mentioned in the list above, to try to guide me in finding the best keywords and titles, but after a year and a half, I find that those tools can make you get in your head, overthink things, and choose search terms that no one is even searching for just so that you get a good score on the paid tool platform.
They can be helpful though, so if it is a route you want to go down, I would not discourage it.
But your key takeaway should be that although you have landed on a keyword, you are not guaranteed to rank for it. There are many factors that determine whether you stand a chance. We will cover these a little later.
For now, it’s helpful to pick a keyword and then focus on shaping a compelling title.
What has helped me the most in bettering my titles, once I have chosen a keyword, is reading titles from writers in written publications.
If a title is intriguing enough to get me to read an article, then I write it down in an inspiration notebook full of grabbing titles.
But, a catchy title is not enough. You need a competitive thumbnail.
This time, I go to Netflix and take note of thumbnails that I would click on to find out more about a series or movie. I also scan YouTube to see what competitors have done but I try to be different and utilize what I’ve gained from compelling Netflix thumbnails to bring a unique edge.
I have made some mistakes with thumbnails that I think you could learn from:
- Make sure it’s related to the video.
At the start, I’m embarrassed to say this, but I was more mindful of how I looked in the thumbnail. If I concluded that I took a pretty picture, then that was enough for me.
I’ve since learned that it helps to bring elements of what you are talking about into your video. If you’re doing a review, bring the product into the thumbnail. If talking about work, bring the laptop into the thumbnail too. These little adjustments have improved my click-through rate.
- Over-branding
I made the mistake of trying to have uniform thumbnails. A good friend of mine reached out and said that all my videos look the same. He’s never sure if he’s seen my video or not because there was nothing differentiating the thumbnails.
- Showing little emotion
I used to cringe at some of the exaggerated facial expressions I saw on people’s thumbnails. But you know what?
I clicked on those videos.
These days, I have cranked up the story I am telling on my face. I can still improve, but since I have experimented with showing emotion, my click-through rate has improved.
- Low Quality
I would take a screenshot of my videos and use that as a thumbnail in the early days. Lazy thumbnails don’t make their way up the ranks anymore.
These days, I try to take a picture on my camera, I edit it in Lightroom, I sometimes cut out elements in photoshop and then I piece them all together in Canva.
Don’t skimp on the thumbnail. People judge videos by their cover.
Summary of providing value
- Include a search term in your title.
- Write a compelling title with a human in mind.
- Create a thumbnail that you would click on.
Finding a niche
If you’re rolling your eyes, give me a few more seconds to make a point. But I need to start with the obvious.
This is the fastest way to grow organically.
If you are able to make content around a specific topic, where videos link from one to the next, you’re building trust and coming across as an authority.
Someone who I feel has done incredibly well with this is Zulie Rane. She creates content on YouTube that is perfect for anyone wanting to level up their writing game.
When I started my channel, I had a niche in mind but I found that the space was too competitive for someone with zero subscribers.
I then went on a mission exploring a variety of topics, being mindful to include terms that I believed were searchable, and eventually, I hit it lucky with print-on-demand.
If you were to search, “Redbubble tutorial,” it is likely that my video will rank in the top bunch.
By some miracle, I managed to compete for this term.
I want to backtrack to my choice of word miracle because I have had many people ask how I did it- and honestly, if I knew, then every video I made would be getting the same views.
But let me break down what I do know…
The analytics show that search was a contributing factor which means I hit it lucky by picking suitable keywords. The timing and lack of extreme competition were in my favor too.
And the traffic that the video was bringing in, warranted more content about print-on-demand which I happily made.
At the time that I was riding the print-on-demand content wave, I noticed some bigger YouTubers who had a particular niche try to pivot their content.
I could see that they were losing subscribers as well as building up nasty comments from people who wanted to box them.
Observing what was happening around me made me pause and ask myself if I wanted to be the print-on-demand girl.
I was nearly at 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours at the time.
I picked up that I was still small enough to play with a variety of topics as well as cater to different audiences if they were open to it.
I decided not to niche down.
I noticed a decline in growth and, eventually, revenue as I explored a variety of niches.
What was interesting though is that I started finding new audiences, and even though I would lose a few subscribers here and there whenever I tried something new, I would gain more subscribers from a new pool of people related to my newer content.
I also aimed to introduce a vlog dynamic to my videos where I do have boundaries, but I allow people to get to know me a little better.
Surprisingly, people have chosen to stick around even though I do not consistently provide them with content that they may have originally found me for.
But maybe it’s not so surprising because I do not watch every YouTube video from people I am subscribed to.
I subscribe because I buy into the person and I watch content that fits a box I am trying to fill.
The point is, just because I didn’t want to talk about print-on-demand every week, doesn’t mean you do not have a niche that is a good fit for you.
However, if you need some room to explore then my experience may be relatable.
Top Tip
You are able to pin comments in the comment section.
Something which has worked well for me when I have a few videos in a specific niche is guiding a viewer with the option of which video to watch next.
If someone is making their way to your comments, you can benefit from being able to make your comment the first one they see.
Also, creating a playlist and then linking the playlist to cards that appear on your video is also a great way to increase your overall watch time.
Summary of finding a niche
- If you have a niche that you are happy to participate in, hit it hard with valuable content to increase your overall watch time, becoming the authority for your audience in that space.
- If you want space to explore niches, do it, and if you find a video takes off, double-check that you in fact want to continue creating content about that topic for an extended period of time.
- Create a playlist and guide viewers that enjoyed your video to another video that they may enjoy on your channel.
Equipment
This can be a controversial topic so I think a brief disclaimer is in order.
This is my opinion and how I feel at this point in time.
If I change my mind in the future- that’s ok.
But what I strongly encourage is for a prospective YouTuber to decide if YouTube is a hobby or a goal they truly want to action.
The reason why is that I feel that YouTube has leveled up so much since when I started.
It’s like 2020 brought professional filmmakers and celebrities to the platform and now more people are distributing their content than ever before.
What I’m trying to say is that overall visual and audio on the platform seem to have improved a lot. So there is not so much space for poor quality.
Does this mean you can’t be a YouTuber if you do not have editing experience and sublime gear?
Absolutely not.
What I’m leading to is that it’s unlikely that you will compete against people who do.
If you are able to give yourself three to six months of posting content regularly where your main goal is to ride the learning curve and improve your visual and audio techniques, then you are more likely to want to continue working towards the goal of monetization.
When I started my main channel in 2020, I had the goal of being monetized within three months.
I only posted my print-on-demand video seven months into the year. If I quit after the three-month mark, I would have never been where I am today.
On paper, I’m still a small channel but I’m earning a decent monthly income from the platform.
I received my first paycheck in November 2020, long after I had originally planned. I’m sharing this because you may have better fortune than me, but I do consider myself one of the lucky ones.
For me, creating videos is a genuinely rewarding experience and that’s why I managed to persevere.
But still, I’m not even where I want to be. I try to improve with every video I make and I challenge myself on what I am capable of creating.
But if you want to invest in equipment, first master your audio.
You can get a t-shirt lavalier mic, plug it into your phone and match up the phone audio and the visual audio from your camera during the edit as an affordable way to level up your audio.
That said, you do not even need an expensive camera to get going. Technology has improved so much that your phone may provide a better image than some older cameras.
Film close to a window if you don’t have a softbox or ring light- and avoid the middle of the day or when the lighting is incredibly harsh.
Also, don’t forget that you have to find copy-right free music, and you can start by accessing these tracks directly from the YouTube audio library before you invest in royalty-free music platforms.
Top Tip
The biggest obstacle that most new YouTubers face is not pitching up consistently.
Pick a schedule that you can commit to, but then stick to it. Whether it is every three days, every week, or even once a month.
Filming is the hardest part so pitching up on the regular is a gift you’re giving to yourself.
You’re proving to yourself how serious you are about the journey ahead.
You can have the fanciest equipment in the world, but if you don’t hit record, your YouTube dream will gather dust.
Summary of equipment
- There is a lot of quality content on the platform right now.
- Give yourself room to improve your editing skills before setting your hopes on earning the big bucks.
- Master sound first.
- Use copy-right-free music.
- Make a pack with yourself to pitch up consistently.
Final Thoughts
I genuinely believe there is room for new YouTubers to hit the scene.
If you take the time to educate yourself on the power of ranking in search, forming clickable titles, and attention-grabbing thumbnails then you’re on the right track.
I feel that when the focus is on making money, it’s easier to trap yourself into a box where you end up creating content that drains you.
However, if you find a niche you’re deeply passionate about then making videos related to that space will ignite a fire in leveling up your content in that certain area.
And, you don’t know what exactly you want to make, but if you’re patient about the process, then you can dive into all types of niches until you find your groove.
As I mentioned, I’m am not fluent in the YouTube algorithm, and I am still learning myself, but what I have shared here with you today is a pretty accurate summary of what I have found to work best for me on the platform.
If it’s your goal to start on YouTube- go for it and good luck!
