Veterans Tell Us Their Essential Tips for Starting a YouTube Channel

Starting your own YouTube channel or even figuring out your next steps for your channel can be overwhelming. From figuring out which niche you should choose to finding ways to get more views and subscribers, there’s a lot to figure out—a lot. We’ve done research and come up with tips for YouTubers based on the YouTube algorithm, but honestly, what’s better than hearing advice from actual YouTubers? To help you on your journey, we asked a community of YouTubers for their top advice.

Stop making excuses and get started

This advice goes for anyone who’s thinking about starting something—a blog, a new design, a YouTube channel, or a company. No matter what you’re thinking about starting, there are going to be a million excuses not to get started. If the idea keeps sneaking its way back into your mind though, what exactly are you waiting for? Create a channel and make your first video. Your first video may suck, but you’ll learn from it—and you can always delete your lower quality videos later on. Here are some YouTube tips directly from YouTubers to inspire you to start creating today!

“Successful people do things before they’re ready. Learn as you go, and correct as you get better. If you keep putting out the content, you will get better. Don’t fear what people think of you. Most people would rather comment negativity on your video and don’t have the courage to make videos themselves. Just recognize it as a part of the game.”

“You can make excuses or you can make videos.”

“Failing is the key to success. Learn from your mistakes, keep your head up, and you will grow your channel.”

Maintain your brand

So many of the tips we got from YouTubers included something about consistency. Once you find your niche, it’s important to keep with it in order to gain and keep your subscribers. If you switch up your topic too much, then your subscribers will stop engaging with your videos because it’s not what they signed up for.

Consistency, grow a tough skin, consistency, niche, consistency.”

“Hard work and consistency are essential for gaining subscribers and views.”

“Consistency is key. It’s been the biggest driving factor of my channel in terms of growth.”

Don’t give up

Creating one video, getting zero views, and giving up isn’t going to get you anywhere. Find a way to stay motivated even if you aren’t seeing success—it’s (most likely) not going to happen overnight. As we said before, your first video might suck, and that’s okay. Use YouTube video analytics to determine which of your videos are performing well and which aren’t

Don’t give up. Everyone starts somewhere.”

“Patience, young one. Viewers will come. Subscribers will come. Monetization will come. Continue on your path and you will eventually reach your goals. Eventually.”

Get involved in the community

YouTube is a social community. Interact with your viewers and subscribers as much as you can. Answer their questions, “like” their positive feedback, and thank them for any constructive feedback. It isn’t just about the people who have seen your videos though. Interact with others within your niche and related niches and get involved in YouTube communities outside of the platform. The YouTubers Subreddit is where I would go if I was planning to start a channel or was looking for advice. On the Subreddit, you can ask questions, get video reviews and channel critiques, and read through tips and tricks. After perusing through the posts and even posting my own question, I can say it’s a pretty amazing and supportive creative community.

The best way for you to grow your channel at first is to play an active role in your community. You will gain subs quickly, gain views quickly, and best of all, your subscribers will be ACTIVE.”

“Your subscribers want to feel like you appreciate them for taking the time to watch, like and even share your content. So make sure you give their comments a heart or even comment back to every subscriber who writes you a comment. We have been growing steadily every day and people always mention that we heart and comment to each and every person and people love that! Just show them that you appreciate them and they will stand by you and always have your back.”

“Appreciate your current audience as you grow, don’t dwell on how to get more and more… I feel like this is when people (including myself) lose their purpose.”

Don’t ignore your video quality

There are a bunch of ways to increase the quality of the videos you’re producing, and quality may be what sets you apart from the competition. Focus in on audio quality, video quality, and content quality to make sure that you’re creating videos that people actually want to watch!

Clean your audio for noise reduction, levels, reverb, compressor etc. Most channels do not. If you do you have an advantage, audio is half your video. And it is not a lot of work.”

“If you wouldn’t watch your own videos, nobody else will.”

“Find a ratio between upload frequency and quality that works for you.”

Have fun with what you’re doing

If creating a new video for your channel and being active in the YouTube community is something you dread, then it’s going to be difficult to keep up with it, and if you’ve been paying attention then you know that consistency is important! Sure, you should find a niche that people care about if you want to get subscribers and monetize your channel, but that doesn’t mean you should create a channel for playing and reviewing video games when you actually despise them. Find a way to merge your passions with what people want to watch—and while consistency is important, if you aren’t enjoying the niche you chose, you can pivot to something that will work long-term.

Just have fun. If you don’t enjoy making your content you’ll give up before you get anywhere.”

“If you’re not liking your content, switch it up. Don’t feel limited.”

Have any additional advice? Comment below or visit the original thread where we asked for advice.

Explore the Storyblocks blog for more information on how to start a YouTube channel as well as tutorials and inspiration for creative projects. We’re constantly posting to share more tips, tutorials, and inspirational content for creatives like you.