When you think of online videos, you cannot help but think of YouTube. After all, it is the most popular search engine after Google. Although there are several video hosting sites that have emerged after YouTube, neither of them come close to matching its popularity. When you post a video on YouTube, your content can be instantly viewed by millions, providing you with a great avenue for boosting your traffic and revenue. If relevant, your content can also get suggested on Google, increasing your exposure even further.

Simply put, YouTube can be your launchpad if you want to kick start your content or online career, and even dabble with it as part of your hobby. With content that lives forever, free promotion of videos, and seamless integration with other platforms, YouTube is simply provides the best video hosting services to date.

Some key takeaways from this point are:

• YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google
• YouTube is the go-to platform if you aim to build a career in creating content online
• Free promotion of videos and seamless integration with other platform makes it the best video hosting service till date

To start making money on YouTube, you need to first have a YouTube channel. Good news is, you don’t need to be tech savvy to create a YouTube channel either. To start your journey as a YouTuber, simply sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have a Google account (what are you, an alien?), you can just make a YouTube business account.

Your user profile is your video content’s best sidekick, giving you extra space to attract more people. Start by brainstorming a cool and catchy name – this is your marquee that people will search and say. Then, as your YouTube channel is your own brand, design a perfect logo that can visually identify what your content is about and sets you apart from the crowd. Lastly for your user profile is your about section, where you can share your story or mission or description (or all three) shortly and succinctly.

For instance, DudePerfect’s crisp and concise about section effortlessly gives away that their videos are full of sporty and humorous content, while showcasing their larger-than-life and inviting personality, in just two sentences.

Here’s a gist of the above point:

• To get started with YouTube, create an account via your Google account or a YouTube business account
• Update your user profile to attract more people
• Create a catchy name for your channel
• Design a logo for your channel to stand out from the rest
• Share your story or give a description about your channel to connect with your subscribers

From cat videos to meditation-videos, fashions vlogs, and cooking tips, there’s no dearth of content on YouTube. This video library hosts a number of visual content that covers every topic under the sun and beyond. Ironically, you can also find how to make a YouTube video from scratch on YouTube itself. Creating a YouTube channel sounds fairly easy, but it’s just scratching the surface of the “being famous” part of this game. Your content needs to be creative, consistent, and authentic to garner a community.

Once you’ve found your niche, you are almost ready to start your own channel and earn money. From music covers to pet videos, how-to videos about fashion, workout, food, healthcare, and whatnot, YouTube allows you to wow your viewers with your content. You can engage the crowd with anything as long as you do it creatively,  as you can see with people’s unprecedented obsession with the very satisfying hydraulic press videos.

Couldn’t catch all the details? Here’s a quick snapshot of the above point:

• You can create content on just about any topic – pet videos, healthcare, food, fashion etc.
• Make sure your content is creative, consistent and authentic
• Once you find your place, quality and consistent content will get you closer to earning money for each video

Now that you’ve made your channel and found your niche, you might look all set to upload your video, but are you really? All this may sound simple, but there’s a lot of planning that goes into creating the content for your channel, and having it reach the right audience, at the right time.

Whether it’s a 30-second vine or an hour-long tutorial, a great amount of thinking and effort can go into every video you make. From creating your content and committing to a content calendar, every step you take should be planned and performed well. And be sure to do your homework – research your customers, study your competition, and offer something that provides unique value in their lives.

Catch our quick snapshot of the above points below:

• Planning your content is important
• You need to reach out to the right audience at the right time
• Create content calendars to help you plan efficiently
• Study your competition and learn more about your audience
• Provide something unique

The most sensational videos on YouTube are exactly that: sense-ational. With their high-quality picture and sound, these videos can overwhelm your senses with fascination and wonder. This is why you cannot compromise on the quality of your content.

To make your videos look professional, ensure that you have a decent camera before you start shooting. Once you shoot your video, there are several video editing tools, both free and paid ones, to polish your content so that it catches your viewers’ eye.

Incorporating text, animations, and other cool stuff, you can interact with your customers in more than one way. This means your presentation plays a pivotal role in scoring high points. Using YouTube studio, you can edit on the go with your mobile, anytime, anywhere.

To sum up the above point :

• Don’t compromise on the quality of your content
• Use high quality cameras to make your videos look professional
• Use video editing tools to polish your content
• Insert text, animation and other cool stuff to your videos to make them look better

Your videos may boast of high-quality engaging content, but your viewers won’t know it if they don’t see it. To reach out to them and appear in suggested videos, your SEO needs to be on point.

Your research includes listing out the relevant keywords in your description, title, and tags. With tools like keyword planner, you can easily drum out the relevant keywords. Also, stay away from keyword stuffing as it does more harm than good. Once you’ve covered these basics, don’t hold back from clicking on that upload button and looking forward to getting your videos on trending.

Here’s a short summary of the above points

• If you want your videos to reach out to a larger audience, your SEO needs to be on point
• List relevant keywords
• Use keyword research tools
• Avoid keyword stuffing

You might be creating engaging content, and that’s great, but can prove to not be enough. Your viewers are humans who thrive on interaction, not isolation. As a result, you can’t expect to hear from them by staying behind the screen forever. Besides interacting with viewers through your content, encourage feedback, ask for their opinion, and regularly reply to their comments to build a loyal fan base.

According to a study by Pew Research, cross-promoting your channels on other social media accounts brings in more views. User-engagement also affects traffic, which means more searches and vice versa. Once, you gain a decent number of subscribers, you can start earning money from your YouTube channel and make use of this worthwhile opportunity.

Let’s have a quick recap of the above point

• Interact with your audience, encourage feedback
• Ask for opinions and suggestions
• Cross promote your channel on other social media accounts to grow your following

A decent number of subscribers in YouTube’s book amounts to at least a thousand subscribers, along with four thousand hours of watch time. Once you’ve crossed that bridge, you are eligible to earn money as a YouTuber. By that point, you would have known the in-and-out of the YouTube studio option, so just click on the menu and hit the start monetization button to bring in the cash. As you rise to the status of YouTube celebrities, you can generate money by paid sponsorship and merchandise.

The takeaway of starting a YouTube channel is of course the fame and money that comes with it. Nonetheless, the journey of a successful YouTuber demands endless hours of effort and skill. Once you know how to use them to your advantage, your destination to your first 100 subscribers won’t be far away. And there’s only going up from there.

Hold on…If you’re in a hurry, here’s a brief of our above point

• To unlock YouTube monetization, you need to have 1000 subscribers along with 4000 hours of watch time
• Once you meet that criteria, paid collaborations and sponsorship opportunities open up
• Its not easy, but if you know your audience along with creating good content, the road wont be as difficult