Author: Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert

UK Based - YouTube Certified Expert Alan Spicer is a YouTube and Social Media consultant with over 2 Decades of knowledge within web design, community building, content creation and YouTube channel building.

Categories
HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places]

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 6

When you start out as a YouTuber, you are trying to achieve many things at once.

Most of your time is spent on thinking about content ideas, filming it, and learning how to edit it into a great video. With, perhaps, a bit of time dreaming about what you’ll spend your YouTube earnings on too!

But, eventually, you get to a point and think ‘hang on, how do I promote my youtube channel?’

You’re working from a standing start. You don’t have the budget for ad buys or an existing following from another platform to leverage.

So how do you promote your YouTube channel for free?

Well, to get the ball rolling, and the subscribers racking up, you’ll need to spend a little elbow grease. Do some hard work. Because at the start you need to do all you can to get your name out there.

This means cross-promotion on social media networks. You need to be your own distribution network at the start, and create a spiderweb of content to catch your viewers.  Then, well,  it’s down to the quality of your content to then turn those initial viewers into long-term subscribers.

This blog post covers the big-four social media platforms you should be cross-posting your content on, how often you should do it, and what kind of material to publish.

Let’s get going.

Crazy YouTube Stats : Views, Money, Users, Traffic & more!

A Brief Word of Caution.

The following tips won’t work unless you are a consistent YouTuber.

You can undertake all the promotional activity you like, but if you don’t regularly upload compelling content to YouTube, then your channel is set for failure. Mr Beast uploaded content for five years before his channel took off. Five years!

It takes dedication and consistency to be a successful YouTuber.

Promote Your YouTube Channel on Twitter

Twitter is the first platform you should be cross-posting on. There are 186 million daily active users, tweeting about every conceivable niche. So you can definitely find an audience for your content here.

The content you’ll post to Twitter has a very short shelf life, in most cases, only a matter of hours. So it’s fine to post out lots of links to your content.

Look for a few popular hashtags that tend to trend frequently, rather than one-offs that happen to be trending at any particular moment. Don’t copy spammers and use hashtags that are not related to your content. You’ll only end up annoying Twitter users.

While following hashtags on Twitter is not possible, people do have favourites that they regularly look up so they can see the latest.

If users see your content under that hashtag, and it’s excellent, then you may get a new follower. Once you gain followers, then you can post out links to your channel and invite them to watch your content over on YouTube.

Think about what you tweet, though. Before you tweet, think carefully about what you’ll write – ask yourself ‘why would people care about this tweet?’ You have to engage people.

Look at the example below, posted with the phrase ‘New Vlog is up!!!’. Who cares!? Maybe his mother, but not anyone else.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places]

Instead, give the Twitter users a reason to click on your link. The illustration below is much better.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 1

Also, make sure to separate your link from the hashtags. Both are hyperlinks. So if your content is next to the hashtags, then fat thumbs can mean you could miss a potential viewer.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 2

Promote Your YouTube Channel on Facebook

Two excellent places to share your new content on Facebook are on your own Facebook branding Page and in Facebook groups.

Create your own brand page. You won’t have any followers, to begin with, but post your videos there anyway. It won’t help your video to rank on YouTube but can help your video to rank for Google searches

The place to post your videos to promote your Youtube channel is in the Facebook Groups. With over 1.5 billion daily users and 100 million hours of video watched daily, there is certain to be an audience for your content there.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 3

The best part is that Facebook has already niched down the audiences for you. Whatever topic area you make your videos around, there is a place for you to share them on Facebook.

If you need more tips on how to promote your videos on facebook check out my deep dive on facebook marketing and how it can explode channel growth.

Tips for Promoting Youtube Content in Facebook Groups

  • When searching for groups to post your content to, make sure it contains enough people to engage with. There are plenty of groups with only a handful of members; keep searching until you find a large one.
  • For some Facebook Groups, activity drops over time. So, even if there is a large membership for a group, check the frequency of posts to make sure that it is worth your time to engage with it.
  • How you act in a group, once you have joined and been given access, matters. You have to engage with the group and be helpful. There is no point in joining a group to spam a link to your videos every once in a while. Instead, participate in the conversation, be helpful where you can, and when it’s appropriate, then share a link to your content. If you don’t, you’ll likely end up banned from the group.

Promote Your Youtube Channel on Instagram

Instagram is an ideal place to help build your YouTube audience.

Depending on the type of content you make for YouTube, you may be OK with using your existing Instagram account. If you don’t want to mix up your content with your personal Instagram usage, then create a new one specifically for your channel.

But it’s up to you.  If you are the main focus of your YouTube channel, and ‘behind-the-scenes’ content might be valuable to followers, so use your existing account. If your YouTube channel is in a niche where you don’t show your face, then set up a fresh account.

Use Instagram to build up a following in your topic area.  Spend some time browsing relevant hashtags to get an understanding of the type of content that is popular, then set out to emulate it.

Create Youtube Teasers

One of the best uses of Instagram to promote your YouTube channel is to create short 15-second teaser clips. Teaser clips can intrigue and draw Instagram users over to your YouTube channel.

Why should you take the time to create a teaser clip? Well, if you only share a thumbnail or a link to your YouTube video, then users can’t see if your content is right for them.

A teaser is different and operates like a film trailer made by the big Hollywood movie studios. You intrigue and invite your potential audience to watch the full thing.

So, after you finish editing your latest video for YouTube, create a cut down version as well for Instagram.

You can use your video editing software, or even better use a tool like Placeit to produce a compelling teaser. Placeit lets you quickly create teasers for Instagram (and other platforms) with handy templates and stock graphics.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 4

Promote Your YouTube Channel on TikTok

The new kid on the block. Tik Tok divides opinion, some love the brash new social sharing platform, others criticise child safety and privacy issues. But, no-one can deny its reach.

It’s the new Vine, the platform to share short snappy videos, and there is a massive audience on this hot fresh platform.

TikTok has experienced incredible growth since its launch in 2016. The TikTok app has been downloaded over 2 billion times and now has over 800 million active users.

Use TikTok to post 15-second teaser clips like the ones you made for Instagram. Make sure to add a link to your YouTube channel in your bio, and direct people to your bio in your teaser clip.

Once you become as popular as Mr Beast, you can forget the profile link and afford to be sassy instead.

How To Promote Your YouTube Channel [4 Free Places] 5

Conclusion

When looking for ways to promote your YouTube channel, don’t overlook the free options. Yes, it can be tempting to spend money you don’t have on ads and try and spend your way to success.

But YouTube is a long-term undertaking. You have to do the right things, regularly, to make a success of your channel.  You’ll run out of advertising budget before you attract enough followers to make your channel a cash earning machine.

Look instead to the big social media players. There are millions of daily active users on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.  Get strategic and make promotional content for your channel to post on those platforms.

And make sure to do it right. You can spot spam posts yourself, so make sure not to post spam for others to ignore. Become a part of the conversation, help out other users, and when it’s right, direct them to your channel on YouTube.

Get the above right and you can give you channel the kick start it needs on YouTube.

Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

Get More Views on Social Media Fast
Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Is it Dangerous to be a YouTuber?

Is it Dangerous to be a YouTuber?

Doing anything online these carries with it an inherent amount of risk, whether it is risk in the form of identity theft or risk in the form of abuse and harassment.

YouTube is a fantastic platform, but it is not exempt from these dangers.

Indeed, anyone who has spent enough time in a YouTube comments section could be forgiven for feeling that YouTube might be one of the worst examples of online dangers. At least when it comes to abuse and harassment.

The dangers a platform like YouTube poses are not only varied by their intent, but also by the person using YouTube. For example, an eleven-year-old child faces a largely different set of risks compared to an adult.

Is it dangerous to be a YouTuber? As with many things on the Internet, all but the most sinister of dangers can be mitigated by or avoided entirely by your behaviour. To borrow an example from email etiquette—you can’t get a virus from an unknown link if you don’t click on unknown links.

In this post, we’re going to look at the various ways in which YouTube can be dangerous, explore what YouTube do to prevent this, and look at how you can keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

Can I Create A Youtube Account For My Child? 1

Is it Dangerous to be a Child YouTuber?

We’re starting with children because, despite the sensitive nature of online safety for children, this is actually the most straightforward aspect of this topic to cover.

Firstly, children under the age of thirteen are not allowed to have a regular YouTube account under YouTube’s terms of service.

The only way a young child could be a YouTuber (without breaking the rules) is if they are YouTubing with an adult, such as their parent.

The child could appear in the adult’s videos, or the child could entirely run the channel while the adult manages things from behind the scenes. Either way, there will be an adult there who can guide the child through various Internet pitfalls they might otherwise have fallen down. Most social media platforms have similar rules regarding age, meaning you shouldn’t have to worry about your child being exposed to the less savoury denizens of the web.

They could lie about their age, of course. Sites like Twitter don’t have any kind of age verification, how you handle that will be down to your own parenting style.

Once your children are older than thirteen, however, they are allowed to sign up for a wide range of platforms, like YouTube and Facebook. However, they will still be a minor under your care, and you would still be legally within your rights to prevent them from doing so.

Again, this is a decision that would have to be made by you based on your parenting style. You an read my blog on setting up a YouTube channel for your child here.

If you choose to allow your child onto the Internet, you must prepare them for what they may find. Have a real conversation with them about the risks, and about how people on the Internet can be less than pleasant sometimes.

Give them a thorough grounding in the basics, such as not giving usernames and passwords out, and how to spot a shady site. These are all things that your child will need to learn regardless, so getting a head start can’t hurt.

Is it Dangerous to be an Adult YouTuber?

The dangers of being a YouTuber as an adult are not much different from the general dangers of being on the Internet. Things like identity theft, fraud, and general mental well-being are all things to look out for.

If, however, you become a famous YouTuber, you should be prepared for the responsibility that brings. A person with a few thousand subscribers can make an ill-advised statement or be rude to someone, or let a bit of personal information slip out, and the world will keep turning.

A YouTuber with perhaps a few hundred thousand subscribers may see significant consequences from such behaviour. And a YouTuber with a few million subscribers could make mainstream media headlines from it.

While we understand the desire to rush to success, building a following as you would have with a successful YouTube channel is best done slowly for several reasons, not least of which is it gives you time to grow and adapt to your newfound popularity.

Another way in which being a YouTuber can be dangerous is in the real world implications of your content.

Granted, this probably won’t affect someone who is making inoffensive life hack videos, but if you have opinions of a controversial nature, and you are voicing them in your videos, it could have harmful side effects. In today’s reactionary world, your job could literally be at stake. And, while we might all have the dream of going full time with our YouTube channel, most of us still have to work a day job in the beginning.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel?

What Can YouTubers do to Keep the Negativity Away?

Beyond simply ignoring negative comments, there are things you can do as a YouTuber to keep yourself, your channel, and your community as safe as possible.

Obviously, shutting down comments entirely and not having a presence on other social media platforms will all but eliminate the opportunity for bad faith actors; however, it will also hamper your ability to grow as a channel since community involvement is crucial in the early stages of your YouTube adventure.

So, with that in mind, we’re going to assume that you don’t plan to lock your channel and social media down altogether.

Set the Tone From the Start

Think of unwanted audience behaviour like a bad habit. It is much easier to cut it off at the start than it is to deal with once it has had time to take root and become ingrained. If you make it clear from the beginning that particular behaviour will not be tolerated, and enforce those standards wherever you can, it will be far less likely that you will have a problematic audience when you start to grow as a channel.

Of course, what one channel considers unacceptable may be fine for another channel. Swearing is an example of something that can be fine depending on the channel and the community.

The point is that by setting the tone early on, you’ll have less to deal with as you grow. You may even reach a point where your community polices itself.

If it is established that you do not allow profanity in your comments section, your audience will likely start letting newcomers know when they are behaving in a manner that is not in keeping with your community.

This also applies to behaviour that, while perhaps not offensive in nature, is nonetheless a bad precedent to set. For example, while getting involved with your community is a great way to grow your audience early on, it’s important to establish boundaries.

If you make yourself too available—beyond any reasonable expectation your viewers should have—you set the expectation that you will be similarly available in the future. And, as your audience grows, it will become more challenging to devote enough time to these kinds of interactions. This can lead to a negative reaction from your viewers, who feel they are being snubbed.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 8

Separate Your Online Life From Your Real Life

Being a YouTuber can sometimes lead to problems in your real life. Those problems may be small, such as mild embarrassment over a family member seeing one of your videos, or very serious, such as your employer seeing you say or do something controversial that leads to your firing.

You may not feel like you have anything to hide from your real life, and you may be entirely correct. However, it can still sometimes be good practice to separate your YouTube personality from real life if possible. You can do this using a pseudonym, or being virtually faceless on your channel (though this can have longer-term branding implications).

You can also keep the two separate by not sharing YouTube things on your personal accounts, and not linking personal things to your YouTube account. A common practice is to have a private Facebook page where you can communicate with friends and family online, reserving places like Twitter for your “YouTube persona”.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 1

Take Extra Care With Your Personal Data

There is a myriad of ways in which sensitive personal data can find its way into the public domain. For example, did you know that when you register a domain name, the details of the owner are publicly available unless you pay extra to keep them private? What’s worse is this data typically includes your address.

Another example would be giving out your address to receive packages from viewers, or sending a package to a viewer and having your home as the return address.

It is also worth putting a little extra effort into making sure your videos are free from any sensitive information. For example, if you do an unboxing video, make sure the packing label is removed or covered up before you start filming.

Preparing Yourself Mentally

While the material risks of being a YouTuber are very real, many dangers are less obvious and can creep up on you if you are not prepared for them.

Lack of Privacy

It may seem silly to think that a lack of privacy could be an issue for someone who chooses to put themselves online in a very public way, but as we mentioned above, there should be boundaries.

Still, even with firm boundaries in place, you are putting yourself out there, and there is an unavoidable degree of vulnerability about that.

Criticism

Following directly on from that, there is the criticism. There will always be a negative contingent online who are looking to say unhelpful and hurtful things. As a YouTuber, you need to become proficient at recognising the line between criticism and insults.

Legitimate criticism should be taken on board, as it can help your channel grow, whereas insults and general hurtful behaviour serve no purpose. If a person is looking to hurt you and nothing more, you won’t gain anything by attempting to mollify them, and their words should be dismissed as they have no objective merit.

Or, to put it another way, you wouldn’t ask a friend who hates Chinese food for recommendations on where to get Chinese, so why would you listen to opinions about your YouTube channel from someone who just doesn’t like your channel.

Lack of Understanding

While YouTube has become huge over the last decade or so, and made many people very rich and very famous, it is still covered by the shadow of scepticism when it comes to people who do not spend much time on the Internet. Unfortunately, for many of us, our families and friends will include a certain number of these sceptics.

Explaining what you do and gaining the understanding of people like this can be difficult. This is especially the case if you are hoping for a supportive reaction from your friends and family if you decide to move into YouTubing full time.

The best you can do in these situations is explain things as honestly as you can, let them know how important it is to you, and then try to move past it if they refuse to take it seriously. Try not to hold grudges—YouTube is relatively new, and the idea of a YouTube career is even newer. It’s not entirely unreasonable of them to have a little skepticism about it.

Do YouTubers Get Paid for Likes? 1

Lack of Patience

Unlike the last one, this one is on you. Succeeding on YouTube takes time. Attempts to cheat the system and speed things along usually end in YouTube redressing the balance—sometimes by deleting your subscribers—so there is no quick fix to success.

If you do not have the patience for the YouTube long haul, there is a very real danger that you will run out of steam and quit.

It can help to visualise your goals, but never be anything less than brutally honest with yourself about the rate of growth you can expect. That way, you won’t be disappointed when you aren’t an overnight success.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 19

You don’t like showing your face. I get it.

Appearing on camera for some is like being asked to roll over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Not gonna happen.

But, you want to have a YouTube channel. You want to have your content out there for the world to see, and maybe earn a little (or a lot!) of extra cash from the YouTube Partner Program.

The good news is there are lots of YouTube channels with shy content creators who are making barrels of money without ever even appearing on camera. In fact, many of them don’t even use a camera to make their videos.

But how do you do it, and what kind of content could you make?

This article is perfect for you! I’m going to cover the types of content you could make, how to produce and edit it, then close with some finishing touches.

Ready? Read on.

Choosing a Content Niche for YouTube.

The most successful channels on YouTube produce content for a single, often narrow, niche.

Don’t make the mistake of producing random content on different topics. One day uploading a video on technology and the next day one about celebrities – it confuses viewers.

It’s easy to set up multiple channels on YouTube under the same Google Account. So if you have two passions you want to create content for, make two different channels.

Choosing your channel niche is a critical decision to make when starting out. It also helps if you have an enthusiasm for the topic, but it’s not essential.

Make sure you feel you can routinely produce content for it, without it becoming tedious. And what is most important is that the niche you choose has enough demand to make it worthwhile.

How do you measure demand on YouTube? You can use Google Trends tool to measure overall viewer appetite on YouTube and compare it against popular niches. Look at the image below – it looks like my Unicorn themed channel idea is a non-starter.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera

Another way to validate your idea is by searching for videos over the last month and sorting by view count.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 1

Look at the view counts to see if there are lots of views for your chosen niche. How many views should you look for? Well, the more, the better, but you should be looking for several videos with at least 1 million views.

Once you have picked your niche, then decide next on the type of non-camera content you want to produce.

Content Types You Can Make For YouTube.

There is a wide range of content you can make that doesn’t require looking into a camera, fussing with lighting, or getting sound levels perfect.

Your chosen niche might already determine what type of content to produce. For example, if you want to start a tips and tricks gaming channel, then screen recording is the best way to go.

But for some niches will be possible to make different types of content, so let’s take a look at your options.

Compilation Channel

Editing together clips from other sources into compilations seems like an obvious choice for a no-camera YouTube channel.

There are some very successful channels making obscene amounts of money with this content type.

Here is a popular example. Fail Army have 14.6M subscribers and post compilations of funny videos collected from around the web.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 2

There are plenty of niches to go at too, from comedy, gaming, and sports etc. But it is not as easy as finding a few clips, splicing them together and uploading a new video.

Copyright is the problem here. If you don’t own the rights to use the clips you select for your video, then you could face a copyright strike from YouTube.

Get three strikes, and YouTube could terminate your channel.

So how do the current compilation channels do it? There are online services like Jukin Media, where you can buy a distribution licence for clips, but these can be pricy.

There is a workaround, however.

Fair Use of Copyrighted Material.

You can use copyrighted material in your videos without the rights owners permission through a principle known as fair use.

Fair use is a legal concept that is common to many countries where you can use copyrighted material as long as your usage is transformative.

Transformative means that you change the work in a meaningful way. This could be by adding a commentary over it to explain, criticise, or to report on the clip.

One point to note is that YouTube doesn’t decide what is or isn’t fair use – only the courts can determine that. So fighting a copyright strike can be a thankless task, likely to cause stress and take a long time to resolve.

So if you do get a copyright strike, sometimes it’s better to simply remove the clip in question and move on.

Creative Commons

There is a filter on YouTube that returns content where the copyright on a video is creative commons.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 3

Creative Commons means that you can freely re-use the content of the video as long as you link back to the source in your video description.

Watch out, though.

If someone has uploaded a video marked as creative commons but used copyrighted material from elsewhere, your re-use of it could still attract a copyright strike from YouTube – it’s a minefield.

Much better to create your own copyright-free content. So let’s look at some of your options.

YouTube Videos Using Images and Stock Video.

This type of content requires you to record a voiceover track on a video made up of images and stock b-roll clips.

An excellent example of a channel that uses this method is Alux.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 4

Focusing on luxury items and the lifestyles of the mega-rich, Alux uses stock photos, manufacturers product photos, and stock b-roll footage to create their videos.

They are the kind of videos that are easy to make, and the topic niches are only limited by your imagination.

Now if you’re extra shy and you don’t even want to even do a voice over for your videos, then you can use free text to voice apps. If you feel they sound a bit robotic, you could hire someone from Fiverr to do the talking for you.

You can even keep it basic and produce a presentation in Powerpoint or Google Slides. If you’re good at explaining things to people, then this could be the method for you.

Many people also use this method to promote affiliate programs in the video description, and make money right out of the gate before they get accepted to the YouTube Partner Program.

YouTube Podcasting Videos

If you have something to say and are already thinking about starting a podcast, then publishing it to YouTube is another way to distribute your content.

You don’t have to be a Joe Rogan or Tim Ferris to make a success of this. If you know a niche inside out and are enthusiastic about a topic, you can build up an audience. YouTube’s viewers use the platform for more than just visual entertainment.

Whether they are at work, relaxing, or doing household chores, people like to have some background audio as they go about their daily lives. Meet this demand by uploading your podcast to YouTube and display a static image for the visual.

Tim Ferris does it, so you don’t have to show a studio feed as well, provided you have something to say that people want to hear.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 5

YouTube Animation Videos

Starting an animation channel is a popular way to have a YouTube channel without needing a camera or showing your face.

There are several ways to approach an animation channel.

If you are already artistically gifted, then you can use one of the many animation software packages available to create engaging content.

You don’t even need to create long animations either.

OneyNG has over 2.37M subscribers and 10s of millions of views from uploading short, funny, animations, which often revolve around a single gag.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 6

If you are not so artistically inclined, then you can use applications that help you create simplistic animations for use in your videos.

Better Than Yesterday is a good example of this type of content. They are near 1M subscribers and have simple narration over basic animation.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 7

YouTube Screenshare Videos

There are thousands of people out there, right now, who want to learn how to do something, that you already know all about.

Whether it’s an Instagram hack, learning how to configure WordPress, or getting cheap insurance online, they look to YouTube for help. Can you create short videos to show them how to do it?

The example below shows only the phone screen as the user demonstrates Instagram hacks. There is not even a voiceover explaining the tricks!

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 8

YouTube Gaming Videos

Another screen share content type that deserves its very own section here is gaming.

Sharing sequences from games showing funny clips, how to’s, and competition footage is immensely popular on YouTube.

You may already know the famous channels like PewDiePie, Total Gaming, and more recently, Mr Beast Gaming. But don’t think it’s too late to enter this niche today – it’s enormous.

If you choose this type of content, it’s best if you focus on only one game for your channel.

Creating lots of videos all about one game helps YouTube to see your channel as an authority in the topic. This means a higher chance of your content getting recommended by the YouTube algorithm for people to watch next.

Vanoss Gaming is just a bunch of guys talking and laughing over screen recordings of them playing games. With over 21.5 million subscribers, they are obviously doing something right.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 9

YouTube Sound Channels.

As mentioned previously, there are plenty of people who have YouTube running in the background as they go about their daily lives.

Some people like an ambient soundtrack as they study and others use relaxing music to create a mood for meditation.

These kinds of channels are attractive to run.  If you can get viewers to start watching your videos, then it’s likely that they will view to the end – something that YouTube looks for when ranking content.

Yellow Brick Cinema is one of the biggest channels in this niche.  They have an extensive back catalogue of videos with millions of views and likely as much in the bank from the YouTube partner program.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 10

Producing Content for YouTube.

Producing video content without a camera means using software tools instead. Depending on the type of content you want to make the cost ranges from free of charge to paying a monthly subscription charge of up to $40+.

Screen Recording Software

Whether you plan on recording gaming action or want to show people how to do something on a computer, you are going to need a screen recorder.

There are loads of free options out there. Some good, some not so good. The top ones are:

OBS Studio. This one is open-source software, meaning it’s made by volunteers and is entirely free of charge. It can be tricky to get up and running, with some claiming it has a big learning curve and can be complex to use. It has plenty of features and will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Nvidia Shadowplay. Nvidia, the makers of graphics cards, also provides free software that makes it easy to record gameplay. You can record video, make short GIFs, and even live stream direct to YouTube. One to check out if you are thinking about a gaming channel. For Windows PCs only.

Icecream Screen Recorder. Another screen capture software that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It has a free version and is much easier to use than OBS Studio. The free version only lets you record for five minutes. But you can upgrade to Pro to get no time limits and more output formats for a one-time fee of $19.95.

Animation Software

Open Toonz. For 2D animation, Open Toonz is free software which is considered a good allrounder. There are plenty of tutorials available on YouTube, but if you’ve not used animation software before it will need time and practice.

It’s open-source software so you’ll never have to pay anything, and it works on Windows and Mac.

Doodley. Doodley is animation software more suitable to those who aren’t good at freehand drawing. You can quickly get up to speed and produce excellent and engaging how-to type videos.

The channel Philosophies for Life uses Doodley for all its videos and has nearly 300k subscribers.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 11

You build screens with a drag-and-drop interface using the cloud-based software, which then animates the images together for you.  It costs $39 per month to use, with an Enterprise version that gives you more templates and fonts for $69 per month.

Slideshow Software

There are lots of ways to put together a slide show — Google Slides and Microsoft Powerpoint to name two. Compiling images into a video is possible using inbuilt Windows software. But, to create a video slideshow, there are much better free alternatives.

Kapwing. Kapwing is an excellent tool for creating slide show videos for YouTube. Upload some images, add a few captions, and add an audio track easily. It also compiles the video for you in the right format for YouTube.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 12

For shorter videos or if you are just getting started, then the free version will work just fine.  To create longer videos and have a workspace that stores all your content then you can upgrade to the Pro version for $20 per month.

Vidnami. Vidnami is a good option for quickly building videos using little more than a text-based video script. Paste your text into the software, Vidnami reads it, then selects appropriate images and creates your video automatically.

It even creates an automated voice-over and on-screen captions. The voice is a little robotic but is an option if you don’t like to hear the sound of your own voice.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 13

Editing Videos for YouTube.

Whatever kind of content you produce, it must look professional.  There are many channels in most niches now all competing for digital eyeballs, so the content you create should be slick and polished.

YouTube Studio, the channel management platform provided by YouTube, does have a basic inbuilt editing tool.

It’s really best used for a little bit of trimming here and there.  It’s not suitable for making the kind of high-quality videos you should be uploading.

There are, again, plenty of free options available, so don’t feel that you have to splash out for a high-end editing suite like Adobe Premier.

For those that have a Mac computer, the bundled iMovie is a really great option. Many successful YouTube channels use nothing more than this to edit videos.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 14

With iMovie, you can use transitions to piece together multiple clips, add sound, titles, and backgrounds. It can do pretty much all you need.

For Windows and Linux users, and perhaps Mac users that want another option, OpenShot Video Editor is an open-source video editor, which is free to download and use.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 15

Taking Your YouTube Content to the Next Level.

Along with proper editing, to make your videos as compelling as possible, add in extra touches.  B-Roll clips, animated intros, and subtitles help make your content more engaging and accessible, and are all essential for growing a successful channel.

Let’s look at some tools you can use to add these kinds of extras to your videos.

B-Roll Content

B-roll is a term from the earliest days of the Hollywood movie industry. The A-roll reel was the main footage for the movie, and an identical B-roll reel was used for filler and cuts. Back then physical celluloid film was cut and spliced together to edit and make a movie.

Today, B-roll refers to any secondary material that you use for filler.

You can get free B-roll video from websites like Pexels and Pixabay. They offer short clips uploaded by amateur photographers which are copyright free and can be used by anyone.

The selection available is OK on these sites, but to have the best choice from an absolute mountain of B-roll clips, take a look at Story Blocks – I started using them in July 2020 and it has helped me level up my level game hugely, leading to great growth on YouTube.

Approaching 900,000 items of stock video, backgrounds, music, and video intros; there is plenty here for you to use to enhance your videos.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 16

The cost varies from $10 to $80 per month on a subscription basis, depending on the amount and types of media you want to download.

Professional looking YouTube Intro/Outro

No self-respecting YouTube channel should be without a professional-looking intro/outro. It’s not just something to have for the sake of it either – your intro helps to develop and reinforce your brand.

Over time as your viewer subscriptions grow, your intro and brand serve to communicate trust.

If viewers like the content you produce, then as soon as they see your familiar branding, they will start watching your video with a positive view.

You can develop an intro/outro with Story Blocks mentioned above. But, if you don’t subscribe to that service, an alternative tool is Placeit.

I have used PlaceIt in the past for client branding – YouTube banners, channel intro and outros, even stock mock ups – I highly recommend you check out their templates.

With Placeit, you can create logos, animated intro/outros, and other branding graphics you can use on also use on sites like Facebook and Instagram. You can even generate slideshow videos for YouTube using the software.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 17

Placeit costs $14.95 monthly for unlimited access to all the features.  You could sign up for just one month and generate all the graphics you need.  Alternatively, save 50% upfront with an annual subscription.

Add Subtitles and Captions to Your YouTube Videos.

First, we need some definitions.

Captions – These are the text displayed on your video that matches what is being said by the presenter or narrator.

Subtitles – These are like captions, but also carry additional information for the viewer, such as sound representations for the hard of hearing. They also refer to foreign language translations of the speech in a video.

Why might you add in captions or subtitles? It opens up your content to many more viewers.

Captions are useful for people who are consuming content on the go and aren’t in a position to listen to the audio. Or maybe watching on the sofa while their partner is glued to the TV.

If you subtitle your video into other commonly spoken languages, then you get to reach a wider audience from other countries.

Now you could add captions yourself, going through your content and painstakingly adding text one piece at a time. Or use a service like Rev.com.

How to Make, Edit and Upload a YouTube Video Without a Camera 18

They charge by the minute for speech that is captioned or subtitled, so you pay a variable fee per video.

I use Rev.com to help me caption my videos in bulk and I can even do it in multiple foreign languages to help maximise my international reach and get more views for my YouTube videos.

Conclusion

Setting up a successful YouTube channel without a camera is very possible.  There are many people doing it already and achieving lots of views, subscribes, and Partner Program earnings.

But competition is increasing day by day, so to give your channel the best chance of success, you need to make sure that you produce high quality videos.

This means good editing, addition of intros/outros, b-roll, and adding captions too if applicable.

Get going with some of the ideas above and see what you can produce for your channel.  Good luck.

If you need any more tricks, tips or software to make great videos without a camera, check out out resource page.

Categories
LISTS TIPS & TRICKS

YouTube Channels for Older Adults

YouTube Channels for Older Adults

YouTube isn’t just for the young — it’s one of the best things on the internet for older adults.

Whether you want brilliant channels to watch — cooking, fitness, music, documentaries, gentle comedy — or you’re thinking about starting your own channel later in life, this guide has both. Here are 9 wonderful channels for older adults, and everything you need to know to become a creator yourself. Because it really is never too late.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform, six Silver Play Buttons and 500+ creators coached, plenty of them starting later in life. I know exactly what makes YouTube such a joy for older viewers and creators alike.

Thinking of starting your own channel? Book a free discovery call.

🔑 Key takeaways

  • YouTube is free, easy and endlessly varied — perfect for older viewers.
  • Standout channels: Pasta Grannies, Grand Illusions, Cyber-Seniors, 2nd Act TV.
  • The over-55 audience is one of YouTube’s fastest-growing groups.
  • You’re never too old to start your own channel — Tricia Cusden began at 65.
  • All you need to start: a phone, a mic and a window.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: What are the best YouTube channels for older adults?
For watching, hard-to-beat picks include Pasta Grannies (Italian cooking), Grand Illusions (curiosities), Look Fabulous Forever (beauty), Cyber-Seniors (tech help), National Geographic (documentaries) and 2nd Act TV (life after 50). And if you’d like to create rather than just watch — you can. It’s never too late; you only need a phone, a mic and a window to start.

Why YouTube Is Perfect for Older Adults

There was a time when using a computer took real expertise. That’s long gone — devices have become gloriously simple, and YouTube is the friendliest corner of the internet. It’s free, it works on whatever screen you already have (phone, tablet, laptop or the telly), and it holds an almost unimaginable range of things to watch: gentle exercise, home cooking, world travel, big-band music, deep documentaries, and step-by-step help with absolutely anything. Far from being a young person’s playground, the over-55 audience is one of YouTube’s fastest-growing groups — and the platform rewards exactly the qualities older adults have in abundance: patience, curiosity and a lifetime of stories. Let’s start with some channels to love.

Find a Channel by What You Love

Not sure where to start? Pick your interest and dive in:

If you enjoy… Try this channel
Cooking & food Pasta Grannies
Gentle fitness My Senior Coach
Beauty & style Look Fabulous Forever
Curiosities & fun Grand Illusions
Music & nostalgia Postmodern Jukebox
Documentaries National Geographic
Learning tech Cyber-Seniors
Life after 50 2nd Act TV

9 Brilliant YouTube Channels for Older Adults

1. Look Fabulous Forever (Tricia Cusden)

Tricia Cusden is proof of everything this article is about. She launched her make-up brand and her YouTube channel in her mid-60s, and now offers warm, practical beauty tutorials designed specifically for older women’s skin. Encouraging, expert and utterly charming.

2. Grand Illusions (Tim Rowett)

Tim Rowett is a national treasure. With twinkling enthusiasm he shows off toys, gadgets, optical illusions and curiosities from a lifetime’s collection. Short, delightful and endlessly re-watchable — the definition of wholesome.

3. My Senior Coach (Senior Fitness)

Gentle, safe exercise makes an enormous difference to quality of life, and channels like My Senior Coach specialise in stretches and workouts designed for older bodies — clear, unhurried and easy to follow along at home.

4. Kevin and Lill

A warm, funny couple sharing sketches, songs and slices of everyday life. Genuine grandparent energy — the kind of channel that leaves you smiling and reminds you the internet can be a lovely place.

5. National Geographic

World-class documentaries on nature, science, history and exploration, all free. Perfect for the endlessly curious — an armchair window onto the whole planet, in beautiful quality.

6. Postmodern Jukebox

Modern pop songs reimagined as vintage jazz, swing and doo-wop, performed by superb musicians. Nostalgic, joyful and brilliantly done — a real treat if you love the classic sounds.

7. Cyber-Seniors

A wonderful non-profit made by and for older adults, teaching technology in plain, patient language — from video calls to online safety. If a gadget has ever defeated you, this is your channel.

8. Pasta Grannies

Perhaps the most charming channel on YouTube. It travels around Italy filming grandmothers making traditional handmade pasta the way they always have. Heart-warming, fascinating and quietly wonderful.

9. 2nd Act TV

Dedicated entirely to thriving after 50 — health, mindset, lifestyle and inspiration for making the second half of life the best part. Practical, positive and made for exactly this audience.

More Channels Worth Exploring

A few more that older viewers tend to love: Rick Steves’ Europe for gentle, cultured travel; Townsends for history and 18th-century cooking; and Peter Santenello for thoughtful human-interest journeys around the world. Between these and the nine above, you’ve months of wonderful watching — and perhaps a little inspiration for what comes next.

Watching is lovely. Creating is life-changing.

If any of these channels made you think “I could do that” — you can. Let’s talk about it on a free discovery call.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

It’s Never Too Late to Start Your Own Channel

Here’s the part most articles miss: many of the creators above started later in life — and thrived. Tricia Cusden built a beauty brand and channel in her mid-60s. That’s not a fluke; age is a genuine advantage on YouTube. Think about what you bring that a 22-year-old can’t:

  • Real expertise — decades of skills, work and hobbies people want to learn from.
  • Stories worth telling — a lifetime of experiences that make content rich and authentic.
  • Trust and warmth — viewers respond to sincerity, and that can’t be faked.
  • Patience — the one quality that grows a channel more than any other.

Worried? The three things people say to me most — answered:

  • “I’m too old.” There’s no age limit on YouTube, and older creators are among its most beloved. Your age is the asset, not the obstacle.
  • “I’m not techy.” If you can watch a video, you can learn to upload one. It’s far simpler than it looks, and Cyber-Seniors above will hold your hand.
  • “Nobody will watch.” Someone, somewhere, wants exactly what you know. You don’t need millions of viewers — you need to help the few who are searching.

And it can be more than a hobby. A channel can become a small business, a community, even an income — many people build a genuine second act that pays. You don’t need to be technical, young or confident on day one. You need a topic you care about and a willingness to begin.
The practicalities are refreshingly simple. You already have most of what you need — see budget equipment and recording clean audio to get set up cheaply. Not sure what to make videos about? My guides to choosing your content and picking a niche will help. And if the camera feels frightening, you’re in good company — this one’s for you: scared to be on camera? watch this. Prefer to stay off-camera entirely? You can even run a faceless channel.

How to Start a Channel Later in Life: 5 Simple Steps

  1. Pick a topic you know and love — a hobby, a skill, your story. Your years are the advantage.
  2. Use simple equipment — your phone, a cheap mic, a window for light.
  3. Record a short, honest video — talk to the camera like a friend; be yourself.
  4. Write a clear title and upload — simple and searchable wins.
  5. Stay consistent — post regularly, enjoy it, improve a little each time.

When you’re ready for the full walkthrough, my complete guide to how to start a YouTube channel takes you through every step.

YouTube for Older Adults: FAQ

What are the best YouTube channels for older adults?

Some of the best include Pasta Grannies (traditional Italian cooking), Grand Illusions (curiosities and gadgets), Look Fabulous Forever (beauty for older women), Cyber-Seniors (technology help), National Geographic (documentaries) and 2nd Act TV (thriving after 50). Together they cover food, fitness, culture, learning and lifestyle for older viewers.

Is YouTube good for older adults and seniors?

Yes. YouTube is free, easy to use on a phone, tablet, computer or TV, and offers an enormous range of content — from gentle exercise and cooking to documentaries, music and learning new skills. The over-55 audience is one of the platform’s fastest-growing groups.

Can older adults start their own YouTube channel?

Absolutely, and many thrive. Tricia Cusden launched her beauty channel and brand in her mid-60s. Age is an advantage on YouTube: you bring life experience, real expertise and authenticity that younger creators can’t fake. It’s never too late to start.

What should an older adult make videos about?

Share what you know and love — a lifelong hobby, a professional skill, cooking, gardening, travel, history, or simply your story and perspective. Decades of experience are exactly the kind of authentic, valuable content viewers seek out and trust.

Do you need expensive equipment to start a channel?

No. You can start with the smartphone you already own, a cheap clip-on microphone and natural light from a window. Good audio and lighting matter far more than an expensive camera, and you can upgrade later only if you want to.

How do I get over being nervous on camera?

Practice is everything. Record short clips just for yourself, talk to the camera as if to a friend, and accept that your first videos won’t be perfect — nobody’s are. The nerves fade quickly, and being genuine matters far more than being polished.

The Bottom Line

YouTube is one of the great gifts of modern life for older adults — a free, endless library of things to enjoy, from Pasta Grannies to National Geographic. But it can be more than something to watch. The very qualities that come with age — expertise, stories, patience, sincerity — are exactly what makes a great channel. So enjoy the wonderful creators above, and if a little voice says “maybe I could do that too,” listen to it. Grab your phone, pick something you love, and press record. It really is never too late to begin.

Your second act starts with one video.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on starting and growing a channel — whatever your age.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Categories
LISTS TIPS & TRICKS

10 YouTube Channel Ideas for Kids

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas 5

It can be easy to forget that YouTube hasn’t been around for that long. Founded in 2005, YouTube is a little over fifteen years old at the time of writing this post.

That means that even people born at the same time as YouTube are still children, and, if we’re being honest, it would be another few years before the service was anything like what know and love today. Factor in that parents are generally dissuaded from letting their children watch television for the first two years, and you can start to see why children’s content is such big business on YouTube.

Today’s children—those of around thirteen years old and under—are the first to grow up with YouTube.

No waiting until Saturday mornings for cartoons, or begging parents to pay extra for Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel—children today are the first to have access to a practically endless supply of entertainment in the form of YouTube. And studies show that most of them make full use of it.

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas

So, there is plenty of incentive to start a YouTube channel for children. The audience is there, without a doubt, and making fans of children can be relatively easily translated into an older fanbase later down the line. After all, that’s how people like Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande were able to transition from acting in a children’s TV show to being a global pop star.

Of course, having good reasons for starting a YouTube channel is only part of the battle. You still need to have ideas for what you will put on that channel. And, if you’re reading this, we can safely assume you’re looking for a little inspiration in that area. So here are our top ten kid YouTube channel ideas.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 5

General Advice

It can be useful to think outside of the box from time to time. To that end, you shouldn’t consider the following suggestions as a definitive collection.

There will always be room to innovate, and ideas that haven’t been thought of, or have been thought of but never successfully executed, will always be out there for you to discover. That being said, there are some fairly fundamental aspects of making YouTube videos for children that apply regardless of your idea.

Be Parent-Friendly

Remember, the parents and guardians are the gatekeepers when it comes to what their children are allowed to see. Parents are very unlikely to sit down and watch your content before deciding to allow their children to do the same. More often, a parent’s first impression of a YouTube channel their child is watching will be in passing—walking by when their child has the channel on, for example.

Parents can be very reactionary at times, and if they catch even a glimpse of inappropriate content, they could shut your channel down in that home. In many cases, this might be an unfair reaction, but you have to understand that it is ultimately their decision, so it’s best to steer clear of things like innuendo, and grown-up jokes.

Don’t Abuse Your Power

Children are impressionable; it’s how they learn about the world around them. Putting on their parent’s shoes and pretending to go to work, dressing up as their favourite superhero.

They imitate the things they like, and if you become successful at this, you will be one of those things.

Do not abuse that power.

Think long and hard about what you do in your videos, and how your impressionable audience might react to it.

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas 1

Set Realistic Expectations

Due to various legal implications, videos that are considered “for kids” are excluded from targetted advertising. While this doesn’t mean that you can’t monetise these videos, it does significantly reduce the amount of revenue potential they have.

Of course, there are many ways of monetising a YouTube channel outside of YouTube’s own system, just be careful—if you’re seen as attempting to exploit your young audience, you could lose your channel.

1. Crafts

Though children sometimes need a little nudge to get started, crafts are a timeless way to keep them entertained. Ask any English child of the 90s about the Blue Peter’s Tracey Island episode, and there’s a good chance they’ll know what you’re talking about.

Be sure to focus your ideas around things that your audience will use. Making a pencil holder out of empty toilet roll tubes is very practical, but not necessarily something a young child would be interested in. A lot of this will depend on the age of the children you are making content for. For example, younger children prefer things they can play with, like making an aeroplane out of an old box. In contrast, children on the older end of the spectrum are more likely to be interested in practical things, like the pencil holder mentioned above.

2. Activities

Activities are a great option because they can be something that the parents can join in with. If you can not only entertain their children for a time but also give them ideas so that they can entertain their children, you will be a firm favourite with the parents.

Making your activities fun should be fundamental. However, if you can make them educational or developmental—or both—then you will be on good footing to succeed and grow as a kid Youtube channel. Things that involve fine motor skills, such as using drawing tools, are particularly useful for a child’s development. Also consider mental exercises, such as playing detective games.

3. Young Health

Child fitness is an ever-present concern in the developed world, where obesity is regularly cited in statistics regarding health conditions.

If you are into your fitness and have a flair with children, a fitness channel aimed at youngsters could be an excellent way to go.

This is another idea that will likely garner support from parents, who will probably be happy to see their children getting active. Of course, the trick to this kind of video is to make it fun for the children. If you just have them doing a series of different exercises, they’ll soon get bored. Make games of your activities, and try to come up with exciting variations on established exercise routines.

4. Lifehacks

It may sound like something that would only be useful for adults, but children love a good lifehack, too. That being said, what a child considers a lifehack is very different from an adult.

Thinking up lifehacks that the parents will like as well is a surefire way to get support from the grown-ups. For example, coming up with smart ways to keep a room tidy so that the children don’t get in trouble will also go down very well with the parents.

Other examples of child-orientated lifehacks might involve school-related things, such as personalising school bags or making secret compartments inside of pencil cases.

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas 2

5. Gaming

Gaming is a tried-and-tested kid YouTube idea, with some YouTubers amassing tens of millions of subscribers in this niche.

It should go without saying that you will need to keep things like profanity off of your channel, and games with a more adult theme are out of the question.

Beyond that, try to make the content enjoyable beyond the gameplay itself. YouTube gaming is a very competitive space, and it is unlikely that you will be alone in whatever game you decide to play. For that reason, the more you can do to stand out from the crowd, the more likely children will want to watch your videos rather than one of the other YouTubers.

One of the most successful examples of this kind of video is DanTDM, who initially became popular making Minecraft videos in which he would act out a story in the game. Other examples include YouTubers playing video games with their own children. Be sure to do your research and see what games children are interested in.

6. Unboxing Videos

Unboxing videos are popular with many demographics, and children are no exception. Of course, the contents of the box needs to be tailored to your young audience.

Children probably won’t be that interested in an unboxing video of a subscription food box. Toys are the obvious route to take, and you can add an extra level of engagement for your viewers by giving away the things you unbox. After all, if you are going to post regular videos and unbox something in each one, you’re going to end up with a lot of stuff!

A variation on unboxing videos involves making the items to be unboxed part of a game and having your own kids play that game. HobbyKidsTV is a particularly popular example of this.

One example might be putting the toys to be unboxed inside of a giant paper mache model of a villain, and having children dressed as superheroes beat the villain up to get to the toys.

7. Reaction Videos

Reaction videos are seemingly popular across many different audiences, including children. The key to reaction videos is you. There are plenty of reaction YouTubers out there, but the differentiating factor between each of them is their own personality. If two YouTubers react to the same movie trailer, the trailer won’t change, only their reactions will.

What this means is that, if you decide to go down this path, you need to put your whole personality into your videos. This is not a genre for reserved, camera-shy YouTubers. As always, be sure to keep your content child-friendly. Even one errant curse word making it onto your channel could ruin your credibility as a kid YouTube channel.

Also, remember your audience when reacting. Children most likely won’t care about the latest Christopher Nolan film, but the next Sonic the Hedgehog movie is a different matter. You might react to the latest Fortnite announcement or a big scene from a Marvel movie. Just be careful not to fall afoul of any copyright infringement.

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas 3

8. Character Analysis

If there’s one thing children are good at, it is obsessing over things. A child might only be into Spiderman for a few months, perhaps a year, but during that time they are all in!

You can produce content that gives them a much desired in-depth look at their favourite characters. Sticking with our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman example, you could do a detailed history of the web-slinger, stretching all the way back to his comic book roots in the early 1960s.

This area of YouTube is particularly fertile as there is a lot of ground to cover. Once you’ve covered Spiderman, for example, you could cover Venom, or Green Goblin, or any of the many other prominent characters in the franchise. You could move on to other Marvel characters, or branch out to DC. You could leave comic books entirely and tackle videogame characters.

As long as you can make it entertaining and you focus on popular characters, you’ll have an interested audience.

9. Narrative Videos

If there is one area you can get away with low production quality, it is YouTube for children. Children have a beautiful lack of cynicism about things like production value, combined with a vivid imagination that is ready to fill in the blanks.

This means you can tell any stories you might want to tell without worrying about whether your video looks professional enough. A particularly popular variation of this is superhero crossovers, where characters from different franchises meet. Many of these videos are acted out by children, with the adults handling the writing and filming.

10 Kid YouTube Channel Ideas 4

10. Educational

Of course, we couldn’t make this list without including educational content. If you can entertain children while educating them, you will have a very bright future as a YouTuber.

Consider making games out of your lessons, and set your viewers fun activities based around the lessons you are giving. Have a clear idea of who your videos are for—maths questions for a six-year-old are very different to maths questions for a twelve-year-old.

This type of video can be especially rewarding, as making learning fun for children will increase the chances that they will pick things up when they go to school. It can also be a good idea to throw in an occasional fun video that might not necessarily have much educational content, just to break things up.

But as a general rule, try to make each video as entertaining as possible. Remember, they don’t have a choice about going to school, but they don’t have to watch your videos.

Conclusions

And that’s our ten kid YouTube channel ideas. Is there something you feel should be on here? Why not leave a comment and let us know?

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

YouTube Equipment on a Budget

YouTube Equipment on a Budget

You do not need expensive gear to start a great YouTube channel — you need the right cheap gear.

This is the 2026 budget equipment guide: the best value cameras, microphones, lighting and accessories, the spend-priority that actually matters, and ready-made £100, £250 and £500 starter kits you can buy today. Spend smart, and cheap gear looks a lot more expensive than it costs.

Heads-up: some links below are affiliate links — if you buy through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend budget gear I’d actually tell a client to buy.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform, six Silver Play Buttons and 500+ creators coached. I’ve kitted out channels on every budget from zero upward, so I know exactly where cheap gear shines and where it falls down.

Want a personalised budget kit for your channel? Book a free discovery call.

🔑 Key takeaways

  • Audio and lighting beat the camera — spend there first.
  • Your phone is the best budget camera you already own.
  • A clean £100 kit is enough to start; £500 looks properly pro.
  • Cheap staples: Logitech C920, Blue Snowball, Neewer lights.
  • Don’t overspend on the camera and starve the rest.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: What budget gear do you actually need?
Four things — a camera, a mic, a light, and a stand. On a budget, spend on them in reverse order of what most people expect: microphone and lighting first, camera last (your phone is fine). A complete starter setup runs about £100, a solid one £250, and a professional-looking one around £500. Bad audio loses viewers faster than average video ever will.

▶️ Setting up a YouTube channel on a budget — the essentials

The Golden Rule of Budget Gear

Here’s the mistake almost everyone makes: they blow the whole budget on a camera and leave nothing for the rest. Then they wonder why the footage still looks amateur. The truth is that audio and lighting do more for perceived quality than resolution ever will. So spend your money in this order:

  1. Microphone — viewers tolerate average video, but bad audio makes them click away.
  2. Lighting — a soft light flatters any camera, including your phone.
  3. Camera — the last thing to upgrade, not the first.
  4. Stability & accessories — a tripod, a stand, an SD card.

This is the same priority I teach in the full Creator Equipment Guide and the budget allocation rule — get the order right and cheap gear punches well above its price.

Budget Cameras

You have three good budget routes — a webcam, a compact/mirrorless, or (best of all) your phone.

Webcams — cheapest dedicated route

For talking-head videos, tutorials and streaming, a good webcam is more than enough to start. The Logitech C920 remains the budget benchmark — clean 1080p that looks great with decent lighting. If you can stretch, the Logitech Brio adds 4K.

Budget mirrorless — when you want the “real camera” look

If you want shallow depth of field and room to grow, an entry-level mirrorless is the sweet spot without going pro-priced. The Canon EOS R50 and Canon EOS R100 are superb value with excellent autofocus, and the Sony ZV-1 is a brilliant pocket vlogging compact.

Action cameras — durable and tiny

For anything active, a GoPro Hero or DJI Osmo Action gives you rugged, stabilised footage in a pocket-sized body.

Option Best for Rough £
Your phone Everything, if you already own it £0
Logitech C920 Talking head, tutorials, streaming £
Canon EOS R50 / R100 The “real camera” look, room to grow £££
GoPro Hero Action, travel, durability ££

Not sure whether to buy a camera at all yet? Read phone vs camera — when to upgrade and how to choose a camera first.

Budget Microphones

This is where your money works hardest. A cheap mic used well beats an expensive camera used badly.

USB microphones — plug in and talk

For desk-based content, a USB mic is the simplest upgrade. The Blue Snowball iCE is the classic budget starter, the FIFINE K669 is astonishing value, and the Maono PD100 steps you up toward broadcast sound.

Shotgun & on-camera mics

Filming away from a desk? An on-camera shotgun keeps your audio tight. The Rode VideoMic GO II is the budget favourite, and the tiny Boya BY-MM1 punches way above its price (I reviewed it — it’s a steal).

Lavalier (clip-on) mics — the cheap secret weapon

For talking to camera on a phone, a clip-on lav is the best few pounds you’ll spend. Look at the Rode smartLav+ or a budget Boya lavalier.

▶️ My Rode VideoMic GO review — is it worth the money?

For getting the most from a cheap mic, see how to record clean audio and better audio without a treated studio.

Budget Lighting

The best-value upgrade there is. Good light flatters any camera — even a phone.

  • Ring light — the cheap classic for talking-head and beauty content. A Neewer ring light costs very little and instantly cleans up your image.
  • LED panel — more flexible and softer. The Neewer 660 LED panel is a creator staple; two of them give you proper control.
  • Softbox kit — the softest, most flattering light for the money. A Neewer softbox kit is brilliant value.
  • Natural light — free. Face a big window and you have soft, flattering light at no cost.

Go deeper in the best LED panel lights roundup.

Just Use Your Phone

Really — the best budget camera is the one already in your pocket. A modern smartphone shoots crisp 4K, and paired with a clip-on mic and a window for light, it beats a cheap dedicated camera every time. Add a small tripod or phone mount and you’re filming professionally for almost nothing. Here’s how to get the most out of it:

▶️ Getting cinematic 4K out of the phone you already own

Budget Accessories That Matter

The small stuff that makes everything else work:

  • Tripod / phone mount — stability is free-looking professionalism. A Neewer tripod or a phone clamp does the job cheaply. For dedicated cameras, see the best tripods.
  • SD card — don’t cheap out here; a reliable SanDisk Extreme card saves you from corrupted footage.
  • Mic boom arm — for USB mics, a boom arm tidies your desk and improves mic placement. More in the best boom arms guide.
  • Backdrop — a cheap collapsible backdrop or a tidy shelf instantly lifts your set.

Not sure what to buy for YOUR channel?

On a free discovery call I’ll recommend the exact budget kit for your niche, goals and budget — no upsell.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Ready-Made Budget Kits: £100 / £250 / £500

Don’t want to piece it together yourself? Here are three complete setups at three price points.

Kit What’s in it Best for
~£100 Starter Your phone + clip-on lav mic + ring light + phone tripod Absolute beginners, zero-risk start
~£250 Solid Logitech C920 + Blue Snowball + two Neewer LED panels + tripod Talking-head, tutorials, streaming
~£500 Pro-look Canon EOS R50 + Rode VideoMic GO II + softbox kit + solid tripod + SD card Creators serious about growing

Want the next tier up? See the starter kit under £1,000 and the full Creator Equipment Guide.

What NOT to Waste Money On

Budget discipline is as much about what you don’t buy:

  • An expensive camera before a mic and light. The classic budget-killer.
  • Cheap no-brand “bundle” deals that bury a bad camera in useless accessories.
  • Pro audio interfaces you don’t need yet — a USB mic is fine to start.
  • Gimmicks and gadgets before you’ve posted consistently for months.
  • The newest model when last year’s is half the price and 95% as good.

See the full list of pitfalls in 10 creator equipment mistakes to avoid.

Budget YouTube Equipment: FAQ

What equipment do I need to start YouTube on a budget?

You need four things: a camera (your phone counts), a microphone, a light, and something to hold it all steady. On a tight budget, prioritise audio and lighting over the camera — a clean mic and a soft light do more for perceived quality than an expensive camera. You can start well under £250, or with £0 using the phone you already own.

What is the cheapest way to start a YouTube channel?

Use the smartphone you already have, film near a big window for free soft lighting, and record your voice with a cheap clip-on lavalier mic. That combination costs almost nothing and beats a cheap camera used badly. Add a basic tripod or phone mount for stability and you have a complete free-to-cheap setup.

Should I spend money on a camera or a microphone first?

Microphone first. Viewers will forgive average video, but they click away from bad audio almost instantly. A good budget microphone improves retention more than a camera upgrade, so on a budget your money is better spent on sound and light before you touch the camera.

Is a webcam good enough for YouTube?

For talking-head videos, tutorials and streaming, a good webcam like the Logitech C920 is absolutely good enough to start, especially with proper lighting. It won’t match a mirrorless camera’s depth of field, but paired with a decent mic and a soft light it produces clean, professional-looking results on a small budget.

Do I need lighting for budget YouTube videos?

Yes, and it’s the best value upgrade you can make. Good lighting transforms perceived quality more than any camera. The cheapest option is free — film facing a large window. Beyond that, an inexpensive ring light or a Neewer LED panel dramatically lifts your image for very little money.

How much does a basic YouTube setup cost in 2026?

You can build a genuine starter setup for around £100, a solid one for about £250, and a setup that looks properly professional for roughly £500. The exact figure depends on whether you use your phone or buy a dedicated camera, but you do not need to spend thousands to make great-looking videos.

Conclusion

Budget is not the barrier people think it is. Spend in the right order — microphone and lighting before the camera — lean on the phone you already own, and you can produce content that looks and sounds far more expensive than it was. Start with the ~£100 kit, upgrade one piece at a time as your channel grows, and put your energy into making videos rather than buying gear. The best camera is the one you actually use, and the best setup is the one you can afford to start with today.

Start now, upgrade later.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on building a channel that grows — whatever your budget.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

A note on this guide: product links are Amazon search links (rel=”sponsored”) and I may earn a small commission on purchases at no cost to you. Recommendations reflect good-value budget options at the time of writing (July 2026); models, prices and availability change over time, so always check current specs and reviews before buying.
Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel?

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 8

Internet security has never been as prevalent in the public consciousness as it is now. With significant data breaches a seemingly regular occurrence in the news, double factor authentication increasingly becoming a minimum requirement, and restrictions on how your passwords can be structured making them almost impossible to remember, it’s clear that security is important.

But staying safe online is not just about secure passwords. We have never been more visible than we are right now. We have pages and pages of tweets and Facebook posts and Instagram pics, and much of it is public. Now, be honest with yourself—do you consider the full privacy implications of your social media posts before you hit send?

This post is about YouTube, so you may wonder why we’re talking about Facebook and Twitter, but all will become clear soon enough.

Still, is it safe to have a YouTube channel? Yes, if you are careful. As you grow make sure you think of privacy long term. Always pick safe secure passwords and try not to post your entirely life on the internet – that’s when it gets extremely risky.

Let’s get into it.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel?

How Can Youtube be Dangerous?

There are different ways in which YouTube could be considered dangerous to the YouTuber posting videos, and it is essential to understand what these ways are if you have any hope of avoiding them. Let’s start with the least sinister one.

Putting All Your Eggs in the YouTube Monetisation Basket

YouTube has a patchy history when it comes to monetisation. It has made a lot of people rich, but it is also notoriously unreliable as an income source. If you’ve been in the YouTube stratosphere for a while, you’ll have heard of the “adpocalypse”.

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll have heard of multiple adpocalypses.

This is the label name given to the various times that YouTube has made profound, seismic changes to its advertising policies and algorithms. These changes tend to negatively affect YouTuber revenue across the board, and even wipe it out entirely in some cases. One of the more recent adpocalypse’s (the fourth one, if we’re counting) saw many political punditry channels lose all of their revenue more or less overnight. And we’re talking channels with millions of subscribers here.

More recent changes have hit channels whose primary audience is children, with offensive and hateful content being targeted quite early on.

Whether you feel YouTube is overreacting in any of these cases or not isn’t the point here. The point is that in each of these cases, YouTube made significant changes—often without warning—that wiped out entire revenue streams overnight, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again. So what’s the danger here?

The danger lies in your YouTube success reaching a point where you can afford to go full time, and rushing into it. Many people would happily scrape by as a YouTuber rather than make a comfortable wage doing a job they don’t like, but if you take that plunge before you are ready, and YouTube makes changes that hit your channel, you may find yourself in a very sticky situation.

How to Avoid This

First and foremost, don’t rush into a fulltime YouTube career. Be sure to weigh up your options properly, and discuss things with anyone who is likely to be affected by your decision, such as a partner you live with.

If you decide to take the leap, take your time with the transition. Try to build up a reserve of savings if you don’t already have one—at least enough money to cover a few months of living expenses—and the more, the better. That way, if things go wrong, you’ve got a bit breathing room to decide what your next move will be.

Going forward, always be on the lookout for ways to diversify your revenue streams. If you are getting your income from multiple sources, then the sudden disappearance of YouTube monetisation will not hit you as hard. Consider things like Patreon and merchandise sales. Brand deals are another way to monetise your videos without having to worry about what YouTube is planning.

Affiliate marketing can be a great long term source of income but can be a little confusing. I wrote a huge deep dive into affiliate marketing for beginners which will help you with everything you need to know about to

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 1

Personal Data

While not strictly a YouTube problem, the opportunities to inadvertently give away potentially damaging personal data as a YouTuber are greater—especially if you are or become popular.

The kinds of personal data we are talking about here include any information that could be used to commit fraud against you.

Let’s look at an example.

You know those security questions you often have to fill out? Things like “What was your mother’s maiden name?”, and, “What was the name of your first pet?”. If you use the real answers to those questions, and you happen to mention that bit of information in a video, you could be providing someone with a vital piece of the puzzle if they want to break into your accounts. It is easily done. After all—what’s the harm in mentioning that your first pet was a cat called Fluffy, right?

Another example of this kind of danger would be inadvertently showing a password or other sensitive information in your video. One example might be doing an unboxing video and having a clear shot of the address label. Another might be signing up for something in the video and typing a password in clear text that you use for other accounts.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 2

How to Avoid This

Try to avoid the possibility of situations like those mentioned above happening in the first place. If you are doing an unboxing video, make sure any labels are covered up, that way you don’t have to worry about whether they end up in the shot.

The best way to prevent any of this from getting to your channel, of course, it a watchful eye in the editing process. If you don’t have an editing process, it might be time to develop one. Even if you only watch the video through to check for problems like this, you should always give your footage the once over before publishing. If nothing else it is a matter of quality control, but it also allows you to make absolutely sure you haven’t inadvertently filmed a clear shot of your credit card!

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 3

Personal Safety

We mentioned the word “sinister” earlier on in the post, and with good reason. It is an unfortunate reality of the human experience that there are deeply unpleasant people out there. These may be people you know from your real life, such as abusive family members or people who have a grudge against you, but the Internet has its fair share of unpleasant strangers as well.

It is one thing receiving a threat of physical violence from a stranger on the Internet when they know nothing about you, but it’s an entirely different prospect when that stranger has managed to piece together your home address from the information you’ve sprinkled throughout your videos. This is something that the popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer Sweet Anita has had to deal with recently. Her situation has progressed to the point that she even had to take a restraining order out against one unhinged individual who figured out where she lived and even moved to her town permanently.

Of course, this is an extreme example, but it is not nearly as uncommon as it should be, and while most threats of violence are just that—threats—it is something that every YouTuber should be aware of going in.

How to Avoid This

The kinds of people who behave like this are not particularly prone to reason, so there is no sense in attempting to moderate your content so as not to attract the attention of dangerous individuals.

Unfortunately, the only way to really protect against this kind of thing is to keep an airtight lockdown on your personal information. Don’t let any private information become public. Doing this means careful consideration of your actions outside of YouTube, but that’s where our next topic comes in…

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 5

Keeping Your Private Information Private

Okay, most of us know not to go sharing bank details through random links, and to use a password that isn’t easily guessable, but there are many ways to inadvertently give away your personal data that are not as obvious.

For example, when you register a domain name, the name and address you register it under is publicly available and easy to find unless you pay for domain privacy protection.

Another way you might not have considered is geotagged information. For example; location data on your pictures, or routes from your latest run. It can be very tempting to share your latest Strava personal best but have you considered what information your route gives away. If you started and finished at your home, that’s not going to take much deciphering. Still, any run in your local area will allow nefarious actors to narrow down your location.

Do you use your real name on YouTube and also have a LinkedIn profile that lists your current employer? What about pictures from your home where distinguishable landmarks are visible in the shot?

Of course, there is such a thing as being paranoid, and there is only so much you can reasonably do to keep yourself safe before it becomes more practical just to stop being on YouTube altogether. A significant portion of this is knowing the risks, even if you don’t plan to mitigate all of them.

Tips for Staying Safe

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this post, so we thought it would be nice to break down some of the more actionable tips for keeping yourself safe as a YouTuber.

This is not necessarily a “bare minimum” situation since every action you take should be subjectively judged on what is best for you, but these are some of the more fundamental aspects of YouTube safety. In other words, make sure you have a good reason for not doing any of the following.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 6

Keep Your Residence Private

For most of us, our home is our set. Having a separate “studio” is a luxury that many can’t justify. Still, that doesn’t mean your home has to be recognisable.

Try to limit filming to areas where nothing distinguishable is around. For example, if you live in an apartment in New York with the Empire State Building behind you, avoid shooting with the window behind you.

Of course, it should go without saying that you shouldn’t give out your address.

Do Not Let Trackable Information Become Public

We have mentioned avoiding things like packing labels being visible in your video, but there are other ways information like that can get out. For example, if you accept packages from viewers, do not use your home address for the delivery of those packages. PO boxes may cost money, but they should be considered essential if you want to give your viewers a mailing address.

Consider using services like Google Voice instead of any landline phone numbers.

And, finally, while it may not seem like a big deal, consider keeping your birthday private, especially if your full name is public. A lot of information can be uncovered about someone with just their full name and a birthday.

Is it Safe to Have a YouTube Channel? 7

Do Not Make Travel Plans Public

This tip is more of a general Internet safety tip, rather than a YouTube specific one, but announcing to the world that your house will be empty for two weeks is not a great plan.

Especially if you are a notable figure on YouTube. If you’ve handled yourself carefully, it won’t matter because no one will know your home address, but it’s better not to run the risk and come home to a ransacked house.

Google Yourself

We know it’s generally considered vain and narcissistic to Google your own name, but you will be doing it for a good reason. Your aim is to try and stalk yourself and see what you can find out.

Remember, unless you’re a cyber-security expert, the chances are there will be people out there who can find more than you can. So, if you manage to uncover personal information about yourself through a bit of intensive Googling, you can bet others can as well.

Use this information to shut down any leaks in your online privacy, and keep you and your loved ones safe.

Categories
HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

YouTube Equipment for Beginners

Good Places to Record Videos in Your Home

Having a great idea for a YouTube channel is only part of the battle, actually bringing that idea to life can be a rough ride for some, and an expensive one if you don’t do your research.

Jumping into buying equipment without doing proper homework is one of the worst things you can do when getting started in YouTubing. For one thing, you probably won’t get the best gear for your videos, but you may also end up spending more money than you would have done if you’d researched a little. More expensive equipment plus inferior results are no one’s idea of a good result.

Fortunately, there is plenty of help out there, whether you are starting a new channel on a shoestring budget, or you have an enviable wad of cash to invest in your new life as a YouTuber.

And this post is one such example of that help. So let’s get helping!

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home 1

What Equipment Do I Need?

Covering every possible type of YouTube video out there would multiple posts, so in the interests of brevity, we’re going to break things down into distinct kinds of YouTuber—on-camera and off-camera.

These terms are not referring to you necessarily, but rather the presence of (or lack of) a camera in your setup. For example, if you created a channel where you filmed people while you interviewed them, but you are never onscreen, that still counts as an on-camera video.

Regardless of the fact that you are not being filmed, you still need a camera to create your videos, and that is the only relevant detail as far as this article is concerned.

Examples of off-camera videos include any kind of video where the visual component is handled entirely in software. This could include news breakdowns, top ten lists, trailer reactions, and much more.

It would be easy to assume that the difference is one needs a camera and one doesn’t, but the truth is there is a lot of related equipment that you will have to consider if you are going to be filming.

Soundproofing Tips for YouTubers 7

I Can’t Afford Lots of Equipment, Where Should I Focus?

Not being able to afford all the fancy equipment that the best YouTubers use is perfectly normal. Most people can’t. As your time on YouTube progresses, you may find your circumstances allow you to invest more in your channel. You may even find that the success of the channel itself is such that it can pay for that investment.

However, the future plays out; you will understandably want to know where to put your time, effort, and money in the beginning. So let’s get the obligatory caveat out of the way first.

All the high-quality gear in the world won’t help your channel succeed if your premise is terrible, or your heart isn’t in it. Making YouTube videos is not as easy many believe, and if you don’t want to do this, you will almost certainly fail. Success—especially in the form of financial gain—does not come quickly with YouTube and is far from guaranteed. So, if you head into this without really wanting to do what you are doing, you will likely end up as one of the millions of abandoned channels that inhabit the unsearched depths of YouTube.

Similarly, no matter how good your video looks, you will struggle to get traction with bad ideas. If your channel doesn’t grow the way you’d like, don’t fall into the trap of assuming it must be because you need a better camera or a new microphone.

Soundproofing Tips for YouTubers 1

Equipment

Another trap that new YouTubers can fall into is assuming that you need to upgrade your setup. It can’t hurt, of course, but once you get beyond the beginner tier of YouTube gear, the cost of that gear starts to skyrocket.

Contrast this with the diminishing returns that better equipment will net your channel, and you have a strong argument for not rushing out to get that new DSLR camera.

In the beginning, only look to improve things that are objectively below par. If you are recording at 720p through a budget webcam, by all means, look to upgrade as soon as you realistically can. But if your video is fine, don’t stress too much about making it great.

If you need help to compare cameras, audio and other tools – check out my resources page where I have compiled a list of all my equipment and dream equipment for future upgrades.

Soundproofing Tips for YouTubers 5

Audio First

When it comes to equipment, your first priority should be audio. If you are making off-camera videos, then the audio will be your primary concern with regards to equipment anyway. However, even with on-camera videos, the sound is often more critical than video.

This is not an absolute statement, of course—if your video is unwatchable, that’s going to be a turn off no matter how good your audio is. But when you have below-average quality video and audio, it is quite often the audio that will make the difference.

I use a Boya By-MM1 Shoutgun microphone on my Canon 200D Camera. Its cheap, cheerful and very powerful. I did a full unboxing and review – you’ll be amazed how fluffy it is!

Consider this—can you think of a noise that rubs you the wrong way? Cutlery being scraped on a plate, for example. Or nails on a chalkboard. What about the sound of someone chewing with their mouth open? Most of us have a sound that cuts right through us. Now think about all the times you have watched a video in less than optimal conditions and been okay with it.

Your phone isn’t exactly ideal for watching video content. What about old 240p YouTube videos that you have sat through because the content is valuable to you?

Now, we’re not saying you should settle for 240p content, of course. But if your image is a bit fuzzy and dark, and your resolution isn’t quite 1080p, that might not be the turn-off you fear it will be. But if your audio is full of noise, artefacts, random background sounds, and unpleasant sniffles and lip-smacking, you will likely find viewers clicking away from your content very quickly.

One final thing to consider is your surroundings. If your recordings are picking up a lot of echoes, or you are getting lots of background noise from outside, you may want to look further afield than your microphone.

Things like acoustic treatment can significantly reduce echo, while a thick blind can reduce outside noise. If these are not practical solutions for you at this time, you could fashion some improvised acoustic treatment/soundproofing from thick blankets.

Video: It’s About More Than Just Your Camera

Once again, we’re assuming your camera is not absolutely shocking. If it is that bad, you should make that your next priority. If it is serviceable, however, but you feel you can do better, do not assume that buying a new camera is your only option.

Once you get deeper into filming techniques, you will quickly find that lighting is a crucial part of filming a video, and you may be surprised at how big a difference a fair-to-middling lighting setup can make to your video quality.

If you plan to continue improving your channel in the long term, you are going to need lighting at some stage. So, if your camera isn’t too bad, consider opting for lighting before upgrading your camera. It will almost certainly make a big difference to your shot, and you will be able to continue using the lighting rig when you do eventually upgrade your camera.

YouTube Equipment for Beginners: The Bare Necessities

So, we’ve talked about your microphone and your camera—two things you undoubtedly need to record video—but are there any other essential bits of kit you need when you’re getting started on YouTube? Yes! Well, kind of. There are essential bases you need to cover, though, like the thick blankets we mentioned above, you can probably make do with ingenuity if you have to.

Stability (Tripods and Stands)

Firstly, your cameras and microphones should be steady. If your camera shakes and there’s a mighty clang every time you catch your desk, it’s not going to make for a pleasant viewing experience. Consider getting a tripod for each, or even an adjustable arm if you can afford it.

Microphone shock mounts are very inexpensive these days, and many budget microphones also come with them. As for your camera, try to set it on something that isn’t likely to move while recording.

If you are filming in your bedroom and there are some questionable floorboards in there, don’t put it somewhere that will move when you shift your weight from foot to foot. You can make do with a pile of books or a shelf if you can’t get your hands on a tripod, the key is to make sure it’s a stable pile of books or shelf!

Your Set

Again, you can absolutely make do with a regular room in your home as a backdrop to your video, just put a little time into making sure it looks good on camera. But if you’re not happy with any of the options available to you, you might want to get a screen backdrop.

These tend to be plain black or white, though there is no set rule to what you should put behind you in your videos. You can even go green screen and get fancy with the recording software, but that’s a whole other topic.

Whether you opt for a physical backdrop, a screen, or a green screen, make sure that the backdrop is not distracting. If viewers attention is being drawn to something that is not relevant to the content, not only could they miss what you are trying to tell them, but they could become annoyed at the distraction.

Lights and Pop Shields

This section is a little bit of a roundup. Two things you should consider essential pieces of equipment that need adding to your setup as soon as possible are lights and pop shields.

The lighting we’ve touched on already. It doesn’t need to be a professional studio lighting rig, of course. Even a single inexpensive LED light panel will do wonders. And pop shields—small filters that sit in front of your mike to dampen the harsher blasts of air from your mouth (“plosives”)—can make a massive difference to your audio.

Soundproofing Tips for YouTubers 6

The Secret Weapon

There is a device that most of us own that can, in a pinch, be the answer to all of your YouTube recording woes. If you own a relatively modern phone, you already have a device that is capable of recording both audio and video at a decent enough quality to get started on YouTube.

Is it as good as having a proper setup with lighting, acoustic treatment, and an expensive camera and microphone? No. But the quality of video a decent modern phone can output is leagues above most webcams on the market, and the audio quality is on par with a budget condenser microphone. You might even get a rudimentary lighting rig going with the flash on your phone, and the Internet is full of inexpensive stands, cradles, brackets, and holders for mobile phones. What’s more, you would have to spend a surprising amount of money on gear to match the quality of, for example, an iPhone X, or a Pixel 4.

Of course, using your phone is not ideal, but the takeaway here is that not having the best equipment should not be a roadblock to you bringing your ideas to life on YouTube. Success takes works and planning, sure, but you certainly won’t succeed if you don’t get started.

Conclusions

Having the right equipment is important, but it is not the be-all and end-all of YouTubing. If you are on a budget, plan where you put your limited resources first. Think about the areas your channel would most benefit from improvement, and start there. You can also check out this list of YouTube equipment for beginners as a good starting point, as it includes a nice range of options spanning a broad range of the price spectrum.

And if all else fails, use your phone, and don’t let a lack of equipment stop you from bringing your ideas to life.

Just remember, having the best equipment will only get you so far, and it won’t be that far if your videos are not engaging for your potential audience.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

YouTube 4K Vs 1080p

YouTube 4K Vs 1080p
In what might seem like something of a contradiction, 1080p has, for a few years now, been considered both the bare minimum and the peak of quality for YouTube videos. Brought about mainly by the plummeting costs of hardware capable of recording in 1080p, it is generally considered inexcusable to upload a video at a lower resolution.

But at the same time, so few people are viewing YouTube at a higher resolution than 1080p that it becomes impractical to move to something more.

But something more is on the table, of course. 4K video has arrived, and its popularity is growing. But how does 4K compare to our old friend, 1080p? And what does it mean for the future of YouTube?

Should I Upload 4K to YouTube? 2

What is Resolution?

Let’s start with a crash course in the basics. Both 1080p and 4K are resolutions. Resolution—in the context of displays, such as your phone screen, or computer monitor—is the number of pixels that screen can fit. A pixel is a tiny dot of light that represents the smallest thing that can be drawn on the screen.

The larger the resolution, the more detail you can fit on your screen. Think of it in terms of trying to create a picture using a fine pencil vs using a broad paintbrush, but both are on the same size canvas. You can get considerably more detail into your picture with a fine-tipped pencil.

1080p, also known as “Full HD”, has been the standard resolution for monitors and televisions for a number of years now, and we’ve come to expect it as a minimum. Many people who mostly grew up around 1080p are shocked the first time they see 480p—the resolution that televisions used to display.

4K, so-called because it has nearly 4,000 horizontal pixels (it also has exactly 4x the number of pixels as 1080p, but that is just a coincidence), is next standard that television manufacturers are hanging their hat on.

There are resolutions in between the two—2K is a thing, for example—but it is 4K that has been picked to succeed 1080p as the standard.

What is the Difference Between 1080p and 4K

Let’s start with the resolution since we’ve just explained what that is. 1080p is 1920×1080. That’s 1920 pixels across and 1080 pixels down, and it is the 1080 pixels down that gives this resolution its name. The “p” stands for “progressive scan”, which means all the horizontal lines of the pixels are drawn in sequence.

This an alternative to interlaced video, where every other line is drawn first followed by the remaining lines to give the impression of a higher framerate. Smaller resolutions are also labelled this way, with 720p and 480p being the main two resolutions below 1080p that you will find in televisions.

Let’s just briefly touch on aspect ratios. This is the relative size of the horizontal edge of the display vs the vertical. So for a 4:3 display, there will be four horizontal pixels for every three vertical pixels. This is relevant because it is possible to have a 1080p display that is considerably wider than 1920 pixels across. For the purposes of this post, however, we’re going to be referring to 16:9 aspect ratios unless otherwise stated, as that is the most common ratio found in televisions and monitors. Now, about 4K.

4K, on the other hand, is 3840×2160. If you’re wondering why it is not labelled 2160p, it’s purely a market thing. “4K” sounds cooler. There is a commonly used resolution (in PC monitors, not televisions) in between 1080p and 4K, which goes by both 1440p and 2K, depending on the mood of the person talking about it.

The numbers tend not to look too impressive when laid out as horizontal and vertical counts, but when you total up the number of pixels on screen, the difference is a little more apparent. A 1080p screen holds 2,073,600 pixels. That’s a lot of pixels. However, a 4K display holds 8,294,400 pixels.

That’s quite a difference.

In terms of direct differences, that’s about the start and end of it. However, there are further differences that come as a natural result of that difference in resolution. For one thing, the bandwidth needed to stream 4K content is considerably higher than that of 1080p, something that is particularly relevant when we’re talking about YouTube 4K Vs 1080p. The amount scales as you’d expect. Where 1080p requires somewhere between 8-12 Mbps to stream, 4K requires 40-70 Mbps. This is particularly important for the next section.

Another difference due to the increased size of the video is the computing power it takes to edit 4K content. Video editing is an intensive process at the best of times, and making that video 4x bigger requires a capable machine.

Should I Upload 4K to YouTube? 1

4K Compression

Compression is a complicated topic that would take a post the size of this one all of its own and probably still not do the subject matter justice.

To simplify it down to something we can fit in one section, it involves replacing repetitive information with more efficient ways of storing that information. For example, if the top row of pixels in a 4K picture is entirely black, that’s 3,840 pixels-worth of information, but each pixel is identical.

Rather than storing every single pixel, a compression algorithm might store data for the first of those pixels that include the colour, but then it would state how many pixels it repeats for. Using a simple method like this, the nearly 3,840 bytes-worth (1 byte per pixel) of information required for that top row of pixels could be reduced to something more like 24 bytes.

That’s 160x less memory being used to store the same amount of information!

Of course, when we’re talking about video footage, it’s not that common to get large areas of identical pixels, and as a result, the compression algorithms are far more complex than the example we just gave. Still, it helps to illustrate what is going on. But why is this relevant to YouTube?

Well, YouTube is in the bandwidth game, big time. In 2019, 500 hours of video were being uploaded to YouTube every minute, with over 250 million hours of video being watched every day. When you are dealing with that much bandwidth, even a tiny improvement in your compression algorithms can represent millions of dollars.

So, here’s the kicker. As you might have guessed from the woefully inadequate explanation of compression above, the busier a picture is, the less it can be compressed. In fact, if you had a frame of 4K video where every pixel was a different colour, it would be impossible to compress it without losing information. Now, 4K captures a lot of detail, and for the most part, a lot of that detail goes unnoticed. YouTube knows this, and so they tweak their compression algorithms to be a little more… keen.

If there is only a relatively small difference between two pixels, such as you might get from film grain, then it won’t make a noticeable difference to the video, but it could save an extra megabyte of bandwidth per frame. When you consider that a typical video will have at least 24 frames per second—with some videos being as high as 60 frames per second—you can see why YouTube might be willing to sacrifice a little of that detail.

Should I Upload 4K to YouTube?

Size Matters… With Your Screen

There is a thing called “pixel density” which refers to the number of pixels in a physical area and is measured in “pixels per inch”, or PPI. To understand what this represents in practice, imagine an iPad-like device with a 1080p resolution. Now consider a standard 21″ computer monitor with the same resolution.

Both devices are displaying the exact same number of pixels, but one of them is packing those pixels into a much smaller space. The higher the PPI, the more pixels there are crammed in, and the clearer the image looks.

There is a point, however, where pixel density becomes so great that the human eye is no longer capable of discerning the increased detail. This translates to a little over 300ppi. What that means, in practical terms, is that once you get above that threshold, there is no benefit to increasing it further, as our eyes literally cannot tell the difference.

As we’ve established, 4K has around 4x the number of pixels that 1080p has. This means that the critical pixel density we mentioned, where the human eye stops being able to tell the difference, is on a screen size of around 13″ for 4K, but is down to 6.5″ for 1080p.

What does this mean for YouTubers? Well, mobile phones—which often have screens between five and six inches—are the most popular way to consume YouTube content. That means that the majority of YouTube videos are watched on devices where there is no benefit to being in 4K since the viewer can’t tell the difference visually. Furthermore, only a tiny portion of computers running a 4K resolution are currently active on the Internet, meaning that of the people looking at a big enough screen to do 4K justice, the vast majority of them are not using a screen capable of displaying 4K content at all.

Recording 1080p Vs Recording 4K

What about recording video? By now, 1080p is ubiquitous in the sense that it is difficult to buy a device that doesn’t support 1080p.

Even budget webcams offer 1080p, and phones have long since moved beyond that barrier. 4K, on the other hand, may require you to buy a specific device (though you might already have one capable of recording in 4K).

It also requires more effort in setting up your recording space, more time spent encoding and uploading, and more power in your computer to edit that enormous video file.

YouTube 4K Vs 1080p

When you factor everything in, 4K begins to look like a lot of extra work for not much reward. Still, when comparing it to 1080p, there is little argument to be made against it in terms of quality.

While our eyes may have maxed out when it comes to mobile phone screens, computer monitors and TVs still have plenty of room to expand, and it is here where 4K YouTube content will make the most difference.

We can’t, in all seriousness, recommend that you take any difficult steps to move to 4K at this moment in time, but there will come a time when it is a necessary move. And, given that YouTube automatically scales video down to suit the device, there’s no downside to uploading 4K content if you can.

But if you can’t, and if you’re not thrilled about the idea of investing more time and money in your channel at this stage, don’t worry about it. 1080p will do just fine for now.

Should I Upload 4K to YouTube? 3

Maybe you are a youtuber and you want to know if uploading in 4K vs 1080p is better for YouTube? I have a deep dive into this and youll be surpised how much impact it could have on your views.

Finally, there is the issue of streaming. Internet speeds may be increasing all the time, but many homes don’t have a fast enough connection to stream 4K content, and certainly not at higher frame rates.

For reference, here are the different standard resolutions broken down.

Resolution Up to 30FPS Up to 60FPS
2160p (4k) 3840×2160 35-45 Mbps 53-68 Mbps
1440p (2k) 2560×1440 16 Mbps 24 Mbps
1080p (Full HD) 1920×1080 8 Mbps 12 Mbps
720p (Std HD) 1280×720 5 Mbps 7.5 Mbps
480p (DVD) 720×480 4 Mbps 4 Mbps

Conclusions

4K represents something of an inevitability for YouTubers. Even if the majority of viewers didn’t care, PC gaming and television sales are bringing 4K displays into the mainstream, and once people have 4K, they typically want to use it.

Whether this represents any kind of significant opportunity to find new subscribers through providing that 4K content at a time when there isn’t much of it will remain to be seen. But it is undoubtedly something of a unique feather for your cap.

As for switching to 4K, there’s no rush. If moving to 4K for you would be a frictionless affair, it is certainly worth doing. As mentioned above, YouTube will scale your videos down when needed, so the only reason not to go to 4K is the added costs and inconvenience to you. If those inconveniences don’t worry you, make the switch. You’ll be giving your channel a certain amount of prestige while also future-proofing your content for such a time when 4K does become the standard resolution. When this happens, you will not only be providing 4K content for your viewers, you will be established as a channel which provides 4K content.

And, when you’re all set up and producing stunning 4K content for your YouTube channel, you can begin planning for the next big thing—8K

 
Categories
HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro?

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro? 3

There are plenty of tips and tricks on growing your YouTube channel, and all too many of them are subjective. That trick works well for this kind of channel, and this tip is better for that kind of channel. Unfortunately, there aren’t many hard certainties when talking about succeeding on YouTube. At least, not once you get beyond things like “don’t steal content”.

When it comes to intros and outros, the answer is a little more reliable—though still not absolute.

So, do you need a YouTube intro and outro? Yes! If you want to grow your channel and your brand on YouTube, you should consider an intro and an outro an essential part of your process. Just make sure it’s not too long and adds value to the video.

As always, we’re not going to leave it there. Let’s take a deeper dive and get into why these things are important, as well as how best to craft them to help your channel grow.

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro?

Why Are YouTube Intros and Outros Important?

There are different reasons for the importance of intros than there are for outros, so we’re going to take a look at both individually.

YouTube Video Intros

The primary reason an intro is important is new-viewer retention. If you are attempting to grow your channel, you will naturally be working to bring new viewers in all the time. Getting a viewer to your video is only half of the battle, of course—you want them to watch the video. And, all being well, subscribe to your channel.

Neither of which is likely to happen if you lose their interest in the first twenty seconds.

Your existing subscribers will have a certain amount of forgiveness about your not getting to the point in your video because they know what to expect from you. After all, they have already subscribed. But new viewers can have a tendency to click away very quickly if they get the sense that your video isn’t going to give them what they came for.

With an intro, you can quickly establish who you are and what the video is about, so new viewers will be more willing to keep watching.

YouTube Video Outros – End Cards – End Screens

As much as we hate to admit it, being reminded to click like, check out other videos and do all those other things that help the channel out, works. Viewers simply don’t think about those things a lot of the time, but a gentle reminder from you will help. Need proof?

Next time you go to the cinema, take a look around when the pre-roll ads inevitably ask the audience to turn their phones off. We all know that you’re not supposed to have your phone on—or at least have it on silent—when at the movies, but look at how many people are turning their phones off during that announcement. Reminding people works.

And it’s not like you saying “if you enjoyed this why not hit like and subscribe?” will make someone like and subscribe if they didn’t want to in the first place. Be a little wary of asking people to like and subscribe at the start of the video, however. Some YouTuber’s swear by it, but many viewers find it a little presumptive.

Beyond that, your outro is the perfect place to handle any channel housekeeping, such as thanking Patreons and recommending some of your other videos, but we’ll get more into how to put an outro together later in the post.

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro? 1

Should I Always Use Intros and Outros?

There will always be fringe cases where it is not appropriate to use intros and/or outros. However, these are so few and far between relative to the times when you should use them that we’re comfortable saying yes, you should always use them. In the interests of covering all the bases, however, here are some situations where intros and outros might not fit.

  • Extremely short videos
  • Videos where intros and outros would not fit stylistically
  • “Member-only” videos
  • Meme videos

As with most things, try to use your judgement. There are times when a “members-only” video warrants an intro, or where meme videos could benefit from an outro.

How Big a Difference Do Intros and Outros Make?

Hard statistics are difficult to come by; however, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from YouTubers who have conducted their own tests. One such example is Real Men Real Style, who noted that engagement on their videos dropped by as much as 70% when they didn’t add a call to action in their videos.

Another thing to factor in is the kind of video you are making, and the viewing habits of people watching it. For example, an intensive video—such as a tutorial—will likely be a very active viewing experience. That is, it is more likely that the viewer will have sought that video (or one like it) out. For those videos, your likelihood of increased engagement will hinge on the quality of your video. But for a more casual viewing experience, the intro and outro are more crucial.

What do we mean by casual? If your video is more along the lines of entertainment, which can include things like history videos, punditry, and anything where the viewer might be just sitting back and enjoying the content like they would a TV show, then there is more of a chance they came across your video by happenstance.

Perhaps it was a recommended video in their feed, or maybe your video auto-played at the end of a different video. Perhaps they arrived at your video through social media and had no idea what they were watching at the time. In all of these cases, it is far more likely that the viewer will not be aware of you or your channel, or the kind of content you make.

By introducing your video at the start, you ensure that they at least know about your channel once they’re there. And, by placing an outro at the end, you can break the chain of auto-play, and divert your new viewer to more of your content.

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro? 2

Making a Good Intro for your YouTube Video

The first rule of making a good YouTube intro is not outstaying your welcome. There is no universal length of time that applies to every video but finding the sweet spot between getting enough information across in a short enough period so that your viewers don’t get annoyed or bored is key. As a general rule, fifteen seconds is a popular length for an intro.

It’s not just about getting all the information you want to get in there, however. You have to do it in a way that engages your audience. If your video kicks off with you jabbering at high speed trying to squeeze everything in like a pharmaceuticals disclaimer, it won’t go down well. But, if you take too much time, you risk your viewers clicking past the intro to get to the content. Or worse; clicking away from the video altogether.

A good way to structure your introduction is to set out what the video is about first then introduce yourself and your channel, then get into the content. This way, the viewer knows right at the top if the video is what they’re looking for, and are more likely to hang around through the rest of intro to get to the content.

One thing we can give you as a hard rule that should always be applied is this; never take longer than you have to get to the content. Be concise.

If you have branding on your channel—and, to be clear, you should have branding on your channel—make sure it features in your intro. The main point of branding is recognition. If your viewer takes nothing else away from your video, they should at least have seen your branding.

Making a Good Outro for Your YouTube Video

Outros are a different ballgame altogether. If a viewer is watching your outro, it means they have already viewed your whole video and are somewhat invested in you. While you should never waffle in your videos, you don’t need to have quite the same urgency about getting your information across in an outro as you do in an intro.

The outro is an obvious place to wrap things up, thank people, politely suggest that they like and subscribe if they liked the content and the rest. But the most practical use of your outro is to direct your viewers to more content on your channel related to what they have just watched.

This is also where end screens come in. The beauty of end screens is that they can be dynamic. You can link to a specific video or playlist, of course, but you can also have it show your latest video or the most recommended video for whoever the viewer at the time. And you can have multiple video links in your end screen.

The critical component here is that you have a call to action in your outro. That call to action could simply be liking and subscribing, or checking out another video, or even visiting your website. If you have a viewer who has watched all of your video, they are more likely to be interested in what else you have to offer. Not having a call to action, in this case, is a wasted opportunity.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are a lot of commonly asked questions around this topic, so we’ve done our best to answer some of the more frequently asked of those questions. If there’s something we missed, leave a comment below.

How do you make an intros and outros on YouTube?

Depending on your skill level, there are multiple options.

I am not skilled in design but I was about to make professional looking intro, outros and channel banner branding with PlaceIt – I was amazed how many templates they offered for cheap or even free. It’s something simple that can really level up your channel branding.

If you are a little savvier, you might want to create your own from scratch.

How do you make a YouTube intro for your phone?

While the level of control you have over your intro may be reduced when compared to intros made on a computer, there are phone apps that do a very respectable job.

One such app is Intro Maker, though there are other options available.

What should I say in my YouTube intro?

The most effective use of your intro would be to state concisely what the video is about, introduce yourself and your channel, and make sure any channel branding is shown.

How long is a YouTube outro?

When talking about an outro where you are signing off, the length is entirely up to you. Though we would always recommend being clear and to the point.

If talking about the length of time your end screen is shown, 10-15 seconds is the typical amount of time to show it before ending the video.

Conclusions

Having an intro and outro on your YouTube video may not be a necessity—channels can succeed without them—but we strongly feel you will be making life harder for yourself if you decide to not use them. They provide a great way to establish your branding, convey important information, hook your viewer at the start and direct them to more of your content at the end.

They are particularly useful for channels that get a lot of new traffic, as they play a crucial role in converting unique views into long term subscribers, and establishing your brand with that viewer.

Animated content for your intros and outros can be made with little-to-no experience in animation software, thanks to a wide selection of apps and web services. Be sure to make use of your end screen to drive your viewers to more content on your channel, not to mention providing them with a simple, one-click method of subscribing to your channel if they haven’t already.

If you need help with your graphics, branding, subtitles or anything else to level up your YouTube videos, I have a long list tools I used to grow my channel from 0 to 2 Million views in less than 2 years – check out my resources page.

And, remember, use this time wisely. Get the information you need to get across in as short time as you can, but do so clearly and concisely. You don’t want your viewers to feel like your wasting their time before they even get into the meat of your video.

Your intro is the first thing a new viewer will see. Make it count.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

That is why I could not live on YouTube without someone like PlaceIT. They offer custom YouTube Banners, Avatars, YouTube Video Intros and YouTube End Screen Templates that are easy to edit with simple click, upload wizard to help you make amazing professional graphics in minutes.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the StoryBlocks website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE YOUTUBE

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Zero

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 13

Growing a YouTube channel from scratch can be challenging and frustrating.

All that time, planning, recording, and editing content, and when you finally upload it to your channel – tumbleweeds.  You may as well have filmed paint drying for all the good it’s done you!

Fear not.  There are techniques and tips for growing your channel from zero.  Methods you can use to pull in viewers, get more subscribers, and turn those tumbleweeds into roses.

This article gives you eight handy tips you can apply today to grow your YouTube channel, even if you’re starting out from zero.

Let’s get going.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel? 1

Tip 1 – Make A Start!

To grow a successful YouTube channel from zero means you have to shoot, edit, and upload engaging, entertaining videos regularly.

Thinking about your channel is not the path to success, you need to sit in front of the camera, hit record, and start talking.

You won’t know if you are on the right track for your channel until you’ve uploaded several videos to YouTube, monitored feedback, and made optimised changes to your content.

And don’t worry if you are not that polished at the start.  If you take a look at the earliest videos of now  successful channels, you’ll see how rough and they were when they first began.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero

Uploading videos regularly is an absolutely critical step. The crucial factor of feedback comes in several forms; likes and dislikes, comments, and some vital analytics found in your YouTube account.

When you find out what works, you can use the information to make better videos.

But when you start out, resist the temptation to go on a filming frenzy pumping out one video after another. Think about the fable of the tortoise and the hare.

Long term consistency wins over unsustainable short term intensity every time. Slow and steady progress is much better.

Tip 2 – Focus Your Channel on a Single Niche

YouTube channels that jump from topic to topic often confuse people. Viewers are used to channels being about one subject only. So make sure that you make videos that focus around one niche and compliment other content in your channel.

For example, If you like both football and scary videos create a separate channel for each. But if your channel is about beauty, then it’s OK to have videos for nail polish, hair, or skin cleansing, as they all fit under the beauty umbrella.

One of the significant benefits of making your channel about a single niche is the possibility of building viewer feedback loops.  That may sound complicated but actually refers to how YouTube works to keep viewers hooked on the site and watching more videos.

As a user watches content, YouTube shows a list of recommended videos (even autoplay them) to keep viewers hooked. YouTube wants to keep people on the site and is good at guessing what a viewer wants to watch next.

If your channel is all about a single niche, then you can take advantage of this.

When a viewer is watching one of my videos, YouTube determines that the user will probably want to see more videos about YouTube education. So other videos from my channel are displayed for them to watch next.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 1

Tip 3 – Model What Is Already Working

Learn the rules of what makes a video successful and stick to them.  Over time, through trial and error, Youtubers have learned how to best combine content, editing and presenting styles into winning videos. Model your self on a popular channel and don’t get experimental – understand the rules before you break them.

Emulating a successful channel does not mean copying one though. This famous quote illustrates the point nicely.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 2

Find 10 popular channels currently uploading in your chosen niche.  Next, look at the 10 most popular videos for each of those channels and start writing down a list of content ideas. Just because the concepts have already been covered doesn’t mean you can’t take the same idea then do a better job.

Think about how those channels present their content.  Is most of the presenting face on, or maybe they have footage of their hands from overhead?  Perhaps they have lots of computer screen recordings?

Take the best bits of the successful channels, mix them together, then put your own spin on it.

And you must try to make evergreen content.  Evergreen content is videos that will be relevant for a long time in the future.  Your aim should be to build up an extensive back catalogue of content that viewers find useful and compelling, even when they discover your channel a year from now.

If you made a gossip style video about the latest spat between your two favourite singers, you might get a short-term spike in traffic. Still, no-one will care in a year when everyone’s moved on.

Most YouTube videos fall into one of two categories – education and entertainment. If you can manage to do both, even better.

Tip 4 – Work Out How to Keep People Watching for Longer

YouTube makes money when viewers watch adverts. So YouTube strives to keep audiences watching content for as long a possible. It follows then that a significant factor for YouTube in deciding how to rank and recommend videos is by a metric called watch time.

Most people won’t watch a video on YouTube all the way through.  There are too many distractions nowadays, and attention spans are at an all-time low. So YouTube wants viewers to watch videos that are proven to hold their attention.

As a result, they serve up search results and video recommendations from channels with proven good watch times.

There are steps you can take to keep your viewers tuned into your content, and you’ll probably recognise a lot of them from your YouTube browsing.  Everyone uses them because they work and play a big part in keeping viewers engaged.

Keep Intros short and sweet.  Try to keep your intro screen and any welcome message under 20 seconds.

Signpost content in longer videos. If your content is over 10 minutes, think about telling people what’s coming up in the next segment to keep them hooked in.

Tease the most compelling part of your video.  Place the highlight of your video towards the end, but let the viewer know what’s coming and why they must watch the whole video first.

If you can get 50 percent of your viewers to watch over 50 percent of your videos on average, then you will be doing well, and your channel could be on its way to success.

Tip 5 – Create Clickable Titles and Thumbnails

Your channel can only start to grow if people watch your videos. Yet, people will only watch your video if you have a snappy title and a compelling thumbnail for it. Let’s take a more in-depth look at both.

Titles

Your titles need to present a promise to the viewer, usually in one of the three following categories:

Intrigue – Don’t give the game away with your title, use phrases like ‘why was this’ and ‘might surprise you’ to build a compelling reason to click on your video.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 3

FOMO – Fear of missing out.  This usually works best with new information.  This type of title plays on the human desire not to be out of the loop.  Or even better, know something that no-one else knows.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 4

Best Top Worst!  – Another peculiar human trait is our need to rank things.  Everyone does it.  From Tennis players to chocolate cookies, we all have an opinion or would like to find out what is best, top, or worst.

Don’t use a title like ‘My favourite digital cameras’ – ‘The top 10 DSLRs ranked definitively and which one you should buy?’ will outperform it every time.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 5

Thumbnails

Thumbnails need to be amazing too.  It’s the shop window for your video. You’ll usually want to include a picture of yourself on the thumbnail, especially if you are going to be presenting on camera.

Add in text too – some people are more visual and won’t read your title.  A short four or five-word headline that summarises the video helps people narrow down what to watch next. Avoid using fonts with fancy styles and keep your text clean and clear, so it’s easy to read.

Make sure you keep all the elements of your thumbnail big.  Don’t forget that people also watch YouTube on mobile, so your thumbnail will still need to work on smaller smartphone screens.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 6

If you need help in leveling up your thumbnails I have check you my YouTube Thumbnail Pack – 75+ easy edit YouTube Thumbnail designs to help you make eye catching, professional looking thumbnails – improve click through rates and get more views.

Tip 6 – Optimise Your Content Based on Analytics

70% of all the videos watched on YouTube are those recommended by the YouTube algorithm.  YouTube understands what engages viewers and knows what videos to recommend next to keep them on the platform.

One of the significant factors for getting your videos recommended is how long the average viewer watches your content.  Known as Watch Time, it’s an important metric that you should understand and keep a close eye on.

To improve average watch time, use audience retention analysis.  This metric shows second-by-second when your audience stops watching your video.  In the screen-grab below you can see the audience starts at 100% then quickly drops off to just around 55%.

This means that the video in question may have had a lengthy introduction that viewers found annoying, or the content didn’t live up to the promise of the title. So some users navigated away to find another video.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 7

There are lots of ways you can use analytics to improve and grow your channel. Read this post to find out more about using analytics for channel growth.

Tip 7 – Build Traffic Funnels

When you start getting traffic to your channel, there are several ways to hold on to that traffic and funnel it to your other videos. It’s better than letting to go to other channels, right?

Create a series.

If you have a content idea that is relatively broad, think about creating a series of videos for the topic, like in the example below for a Microsoft Teams software tutorial.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 9

As long as you don’t give away the lion’s share of the information in the first video, viewers are more likely to watch the next in the series. Set up teasers about what’s in the following video in the series to help funnel the traffic over.

Make sure that the content in a series of videos works on a standalone basis as well.  Briefly recap the lessons from previous videos before you begin the content of the next in the series, so viewers know the context.

Create Playlists

If you don’t have content that works as a series but has a similar theme, consider building a channel playlist. 5-Minute Crafts’s channel has thematic playlists containing hundreds of videos with hours of watch time in each.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 10

When a view hits play all, Youtube shows one video after another on the playlist – ensuring good watch time (and ad revenue).

Use Cards

Cards are the term given to grey boxes you can set to display in the corner of your video.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 11

You can use cards to link to other channels, websites, or polls.  But, perhaps the best use for them is to link to your other video content.

If you found a place in one of your videos that your audience retention analytics showed some viewers dropping out.  Set up a card just before this point to funnel the traffic to other complementary content on your channel.

Find out more about adding cards in YouTube Studio.

Use End screens

When a viewer gets to the end of your video, use an end screen to promote another video. It’s best if you only suggest one video.  Having a single call-to-action is better than adding multiple links to lots of your videos and hoping the viewer clicks one.

This tip works even better if you plan ahead. Trail the video you will link to in the end screen of the video you’ll place it on.

Find out how to add and end screen.

Tip 8 – Don’t Give Up!

It takes time and dedication to build up a successful YouTube channel.  And when you get started, it can seem like you are trying really hard for little reward. YouTube is peppered with channels where the creator burned out and stopped after only uploading six or seven videos.

There is a concept for entrepreneurs that is illustrated by the ‘S’ curve.  When a new venture begins, frustration builds as little happens. And it’s not uncommon to think that you’ve wasted your time and everything is destined to fail.

But there comes the point, known as the inflection point, where things start clicking into place. Suddenly the venture rockets away, and it becomes successful.

8 Tips to Grow Your YouTube Channel From Scratch or Zero 12
Image Source: innospective.net

Most people quit before the inflection point, which is why it pays to stick with your plan and keep on working hard. Commit yourself to upload at least a video per week for six months.

Monitor feedback from the comments and analytics and use it to improve and make better videos.  Don’t give up!

Conclusion

Growing a successful YouTube channel isn’t easy – but it’s not impossible either.  Those that are successful know that achieving success takes time.  It requires careful planning, listening to feedback, and interpreting channel analytics.

There are tried and tested techniques you can use to attract and keep viewers watching your videos.

Experiment using the tips above in your videos, and see what difference it can make to your channel. There are tens of thousands of people making a living from YouTube. Will you become one of them?

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING SEO TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth

There are over five billion videos on YouTube. So, if you’ve been creating videos with clickbait titles in the hope of going viral, you may as well buy a lottery ticket – it’s no plan for channel growth.

Growing a YouTube channel is a long-term venture. Best achieved by regularly uploading quality videos that give your audience more of what they are looking for.

When you are trying to grow, it’s natural to want to compare yourself to other channels, but resist the temptation! YouTube channels exist in viewer bubbles – it’s your unique combination of content, presentation and production values that keeps your viewers watching.

But you don’t nail it every time. So how do you figure out what it is your audience likes most about your channel?  Sure you can keep an eye on your likes, dislikes, and comments, but these don’t give you the full picture.

Fortunately, YouTube provides you with a sharper view, with lots of in-depth analytics about your channel.

This post looks at how you can use your analytics to better understand your audience and how you then use that knowledge to grow your channel.  First, though,  it’s crucial to know how YouTube ranks videos and why clickbait doesn’t work.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 5

How YouTube Ranks Videos

Before 2012, YouTube ranked videos based solely on view count.  It didn’t matter if a viewer watched one second or five minutes, both counted as a view.

This led to an increase in YouTubers using clickbait titles to try and game the system.  YouTube had to do something – video content frequently wasn’t delivering on the promise of the title.

So after 2012, Youtube added in watch time and session duration to its ranking algorithm, resulting in an improvement of content quality.  Today, YouTube also puts ranking weight on how engaged viewers are with content.  Relying on things like watch time, likes and dislikes, and subscribes, amongst other factors.

YouTube wants to keep users on the platform, consuming content and viewing paid advertisements.

And did you know that 70% of all videos viewed on YouTube are those suggested by the YouTube ranking algorithm? If you want to grow your channel and appear more in the YouTube recommended video lists, then you need to find out what parts of your content users like most, and plan more of it.

But, before you use your analytics to make content decisions, make sure you have uploaded a minimum of 20-30 videos.  Data on only five or six videos will not be helpful enough to draw conclusions from. So if you have only uploaded a few videos so far, first work on recording and uploading more videos.

Where to Find YouTube Analytics

To access your analytics, first, log in to your YouTube account.  Next in the top right of the screen, click on the small circle showing your profile picture or first initial.  Then, from the drop-down menu, select ‘YouTube Studio’.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 1

When the channel dashboard loads, on the left-hand menu, select ‘Analytics’.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 2

The main Analytics screen then loads.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 3

How to Use YouTube Video Views Analytics.

You may think you know what your audience wants. But, until you see how viewers actually interact with your channel, you can’t be totally sure. To start the process on the main analytics screen, make sure you have the ‘Views’ tab selected and click ‘see more’.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 4

This loads up a more detailed list of your videos and some headline analytics.  First, make sure that you have all the ‘lifetime’ data of your channel showing by selecting the data function in the top right corner of the screen.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 5

Then from the drop-down list, select the ‘Lifetime’ option, which will show all the analytics data from the time your channel started.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 6

Next sort your videos in descending order of views so that your most-watched videos are at the top.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 7

Use this list to gauge what your audience likes about your channel. Figure out why your popular videos are doing better than ones that fell flat. See if there’s a pattern. Are your most popular videos a hot topic? Maybe useful tutorials or when you live streams.

Whatever the reason, the content of those videos is the kind that your channel viewers find most compelling.  Look for these trends then aim to make more videos like them.

For example, I made a video about how to make a playlist on YouTube which was well received.  When my analytics showed me how popular it was, I created another one, this time showing three ways to make a playlist.

YouTube Impressions and Click-Through Rates Explained.

In the same analytics section as Video Views, further along there are two other columns titled ‘impressions’ and ‘impressions click-through rates’.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 8

These data in those columns indicate:

Impressions. The number of times a video thumbnail has been seen, either from a search or by YouTube suggestion.

Impressions click-through rate.  The percentage of times a viewer saw your thumbnail and clicked on it to watch your video.

Now, say that your click-through rate is 2%, if you can get that up to 4% then you will double your video viewers.  So the impressions and impressions click-throughs measure how good your thumbnail and titles are.

Re-order your click-through rate column, again by descending order, and take a look at your best performing titles and thumbnails. What makes the top ones stand out from other titles and thumbnails?  Perhaps a thumbnail was well composed, or it could be the title was snappy.

Use this feedback to improve your existing thumbnails and titles, then use what you’ve learned when you create them for your new content too.

If you need help getting started with Thumbnails, why not check out my Thumbnail Pack where I give you 75+ easy to edit psd template files to help you level up your thumbnail game and get more views!

Use Your YouTube Subscribers Analytics to Plan Content

Now let’s take a look at subscriber analytics and how you can use them to grow your channel.  In the same ‘see more’ section you used for the video view count locate the column headed ‘Subscribers’.

Make sure the time period is showing the lifetime data again and order the data in descending order.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 9

Follow the same process as before and examine the top videos to see what the common factors were. Did they have a certain length, content topic, or presenting style?  Maybe you made a request or showed an extended caption asking viewers to subscribe in a different way to your other videos.

Whatever the factor, plan new content that replicates it.  Whether it’s similar, updated, or complimentary, the analytics are telling you that certain content you make turns a section of your viewers into subscribers. Do it again.

If you make a successful video about knitting a jumper, make one for knitting a hoodie.  If you made one showing how to find a weapon in a game, make one for how to use it.

YouTube Watch Time – The Most Important Metric?

Of course, views and subscribers are essential to understand.  But an arguably more important metric for YouTube is watch time. Watch time is an estimation of total hours spent by viewers watching your videos.

On the main analytics screen, select the tab showing ‘Watch time (hours) then select ‘see more’ at the bottom.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 10

As I mentioned earlier, YouTube ranks videos, in part, by how long viewers watch videos. Why do they do this? Because it demonstrates how engaging and useful your videos are to your viewers.

It makes sense when you understand that YouTube’s entire business model is to keep people viewing content and adverts on their platform.  It follows then, that channels which get good overall watch time are more likely to show up for searches, or in a selection of videos that YouTube recommends.

So, if you are getting click-throughs and good view counts, but people aren’t watching many hours of your videos then (there is no way to sugar coat this) you need to make better videos.

Fortunately, YouTube offers data you can use to see precisely when viewers stopped watching your video; audience retention.

YouTube Audience Retention Metric Explained

The audience retention metric is shown as a percentage figure.  If you upload a ten-minute video and your audience, on average, watches five minutes, then you’ll have an audience retention measure of 50%.

Select one of your videos to view the analytics screen shown below, then click ‘see more’ in the audience retention section.

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 11

As you can see, in the graph below, audience retention starts at 100% and over time gradually drops off as viewers stop watching the video. In the example below the overall retention rate is 30.4%

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 12

You can play your video and watch as it tracks along the graph so you can see what you were doing at the time when viewers stopped watching.

Did you lose a lot of viewers when your content got a bit dry or technical? Maybe you had a section you felt was amusing but turned your viewers off?

This is a powerful tool.  It gives you feedback on what works and doesn’t work.  You can use it to help you plan future content and give your audience more of what they want.

Also, did you notice the bump in the graph?

YouTube Analytics Explained And How to Use Them for Channel Growth 13

How can audience retention go up if viewers have gone away?  This bump tells you that viewers are coming back to rewatch a portion of your video. Whatever you were doing at that part of the video is clearly of value to your audience, so it’s a good idea to do more similar content.

Conclusion

Getting to grips with your analytics shouldn’t be as scary as it sounds.  Once you understand what they represent and how you can use them to understand your viewers, you’ll probably find yourself hooked on them.

And we’ve only scratched the surface here. There are lots of other metrics in your analytics that help you make better videos.  There are also analytics for things like audience demographics and YouTube features like cards.

Explore the entire analytics section to see what other metrics you can use to fuel YouTube channel growth.

If you need more help to stand out, optimise and brand your videos better – check out my resources page where I list everything I use to grow my channel.

Categories
HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Does Monetization Increase Views?

Should I Start a New YouTube Channel or Keep My Old One? 1

Short answer: no — monetisation does not increase your views.

It’s one of the most persistent myths on YouTube: flip the monetisation switch and the algorithm rewards you with more reach. It doesn’t work that way. Monetisation is a revenue setting, not a ranking one. Here’s why the myth exists, why monetised channels really do tend to get more views, and what actually moves the needle.

▶️ Does monetisation increase views? The straight answer

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform, six Silver Play Buttons and 500+ creators coached. I’ve watched this myth mislead creators for years, so let’s put it to bed.

Want more views the way that actually works? Book a free discovery call.

🔑 Key takeaways

  • Monetisation is a revenue setting, not a ranking factor.
  • Monetised channels get more views because they were already successful.
  • That’s correlation, not causation.
  • You don’t need monetisation to make money on YouTube.
  • Real views come from CTR, watch time, engagement and great content.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Does monetisation increase views?
No. Turning on monetisation does not increase your views. YouTube’s algorithm ranks videos by click-through rate, watch time, engagement and viewer satisfaction — not by whether a video runs ads. Monetised channels do tend to get more views, but only because you must already be successful (1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours) to monetise in the first place. The views came first, not the other way around.

Why People Think Monetisation Equals Views

Every ambitious creator hunts for an edge, so when a theory starts circulating that flipping one setting can unlock more reach, it spreads fast. The logic feels reasonable on the surface: YouTube makes money when your videos run ads, so surely YouTube has an incentive to push monetised videos harder?
It’s a tidy theory. It’s also wrong — and the reason it feels true is exactly what makes it so sticky. People see that monetised channels tend to get more views and conclude the monetisation caused it. That’s the classic trap we’ll unpick below.

Myth vs Reality

Here’s the honest breakdown of what monetisation does and doesn’t do:

The myth The reality
“Monetisation boosts my ranking” It’s a revenue setting — the algorithm ignores it when ranking
“YouTube pushes monetised videos harder” YouTube pushes videos people watch — ads or no ads
“Monetised channels get more views because they’re monetised” They get views because they were already good enough to qualify
“No monetisation means the algorithm buries me” New, unmonetised channels can and do go viral every day

YouTube’s algorithm has one job: keep viewers watching. It rewards videos that earn clicks and hold attention, full stop. Whether a video is monetised is simply not part of that calculation.

Correlation Is Not Causation

This is the heart of the whole myth. Yes, if you look across YouTube, monetised channels really do tend to pull bigger view counts than unmonetised ones. But look at why:

To join the YouTube Partner Program you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (or the Shorts-views equivalent). In other words, you have to already be getting views before you can turn monetisation on at all. So of course monetised channels have more views — the views are the entry ticket, not the prize.

Mistaking that for cause and effect is like noticing that people who own umbrellas get rained on more, and concluding that umbrellas cause rain. The success came first; monetisation followed. Learn more about the requirements in my guide to the YouTube Partner Programme.

What Actually Drives Your Views

If the monetisation switch won’t grow your channel, what will? The signals YouTube measures:

  • Click-through rate (CTR) — a title and thumbnail people can’t help but click.
  • Watch time and retention — how long people stay, which is the single biggest lever.
  • Engagement — likes, comments and shares that signal a video is worth spreading.
  • Satisfaction — whether viewers finish happy and keep watching your channel.
  • Consistency — a steady flow of content the algorithm can learn to promote.

Pour your energy here and the views follow. Your YouTube analytics will show you exactly which of these to improve first, and clean, watchable production helps too — even something as basic as good audio keeps people watching.

Quick Wins to Actually Increase Your Views

If you want to spend the energy you were about to waste on the monetisation myth somewhere useful, start here:

  • Rewrite your weakest thumbnails and titles. They decide your click-through rate, and a small lift here compounds across every impression YouTube gives you (see writing better titles and the CTR rescue guide).
  • Fix your first 30 seconds. Most viewers leave early — a stronger hook lifts retention, and retention is what YouTube rewards with more reach.
  • Study your top 3 videos. Whatever made them work is your formula — make more like them rather than guessing.
  • Add end screens and cards to send viewers to your next video, building session time YouTube loves.
  • Publish consistently. A predictable schedule gives the algorithm more chances to learn who to show you to.

Not one of those is a setting to flip — they’re all about the content and how you package it. That’s the difference between chasing a myth and moving the numbers.

Chasing the wrong lever?

On a free discovery call I’ll show you where your views are really leaking — and the changes that actually move them.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Do You Even Need Monetisation to Make Money?

Here’s the liberating part: no. Ad revenue is just one income stream, and for many creators it’s not even the biggest. Because monetisation doesn’t drive views, and views aren’t the only way to earn, you can build real income in ways that work before you’re eligible for the Partner Program:

For the full picture, see the top 5 ways to monetise your channel and how getting paid on YouTube really works.

▶️ Making money on YouTube without AdSense

Can Monetisation Hurt Your Views?

The flip side of the myth: does running ads scare viewers off and cost you reach? Realistically, no. Ads add a small amount of friction, but there’s no evidence YouTube recommends monetised videos any less for being monetised. One nuance worth knowing: a video’s advertiser-friendliness (the “limited ads” yellow icon) affects how much ad revenue it earns — not how far it’s recommended organically. So make the content you want to make; just understand which topics earn more from ads. My guide on controlling which ads show goes deeper.

Bottom line: once you’re eligible, turn monetisation on — there’s no reach penalty and it adds income. Just don’t expect it to grow your channel. That job belongs to your content.

Monetisation & Views: FAQ

Does monetization increase views on YouTube?

No. Monetisation is a revenue setting, not a ranking factor. YouTube’s algorithm decides how far a video travels based on click-through rate, watch time, engagement and viewer satisfaction — whether or not the video runs ads. Turning monetisation on won’t grow your views.

Why do monetized channels seem to get more views?

It’s correlation, not causation. To monetise you must first reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, so monetised channels are already established and successful. The views came first and unlocked monetisation — not the other way around.

Do you need monetization to make money on YouTube?

No. Ad revenue is only one income stream, and often not the biggest. Affiliate marketing, brand deals, selling your own products or services, memberships and sponsorships can all earn money without relying on the YouTube Partner Program, and many work before you’re even eligible.

Can monetization hurt your views?

Not meaningfully. Ads add a small amount of friction, but there’s no evidence that monetised videos are recommended less for being monetised. Advertiser-friendliness affects how much ad revenue a video earns, not how far YouTube recommends it organically.

What actually increases YouTube views?

The things the algorithm actually measures: a strong click-through rate from your title and thumbnail, high watch time and retention, engagement, consistency, and above all satisfying the viewer so they keep watching your channel. Content and packaging drive views — not the monetisation toggle.

Should you turn on monetization once you’re eligible?

Yes. Once you meet the requirements there’s no reach downside to enabling it, and it adds a revenue stream. Just don’t expect it to grow your channel — treat it as a way to earn from views you’ve already earned, and keep your focus on making better content.

The Bottom Line

Monetisation won’t increase your views — and now you know why the opposite looks true. Monetised channels get more views because they earned those views first; the setting itself does nothing for your reach. So stop treating it as a growth hack. Turn it on when you qualify, stack other income streams alongside it, and put every ounce of effort into the things that move views: better titles and thumbnails, stronger retention, and content people can’t stop watching. Get that right and the views — and the money — take care of themselves.

Grow views the way that actually works.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on the changes that move real numbers.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How Much of a Song Can You Use on YouTube Without Copyright?

How Much of a Song Can You Use on YouTube Without Copyright? 2

Music is a powerful tool in video editing. It can add emphasis, emotional impact, and generally change the whole tone of a scene or clip. There is a wealth of free music available, of course.

YouTube itself has a significant library of free-to-use music that you can choose from. But there are times when royalty-free music won’t do.

Whether you’re reviewing songs or you just need a particular song for your content, you’ll no doubt be aware of the minefield that is copyrighted music. You may even be aware of fair use, but don’t worry if you’re not; we’re going to get into all of that soon.

Most YouTubers are aware that you can’t just grab copyrighted music (or any content, for that matter) and put it in your video. At least, not without inevitable consequences. At best you will lose your ability to monetize that video, at worst you will get a copyright strike against your channel, and enough of those will lose your channel entirely!

So, how much of a song can you use on YouTube without copyright coming to bite you in the backside? – The short answer is none! You will need a buy a license to use popular tracks or will need to enter into revenue shares with some artists if they are part of the YouTube Audio Library. If you want music in your videos it is best to use royalty free services or make your own music.

The answer more honest answer is, it complicated – so if you’re with us, we’re about to dive a little deeper.

What is “Fair Use”?

As we’re about to get into a subject matter that strays a little close to legal advice, we must stress that is emphatically not legal advice.

Always seek the advice of a qualified law professional before doing anything that might potentially land you in legal trouble. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get into what fair use is.

Fair use is the name given to the use of copyrighted material in some instances where the use is limited or transformative. You may be wondering what “transformative” means, and you wouldn’t be alone. Inordinate amounts of money have been spent trying to find a clear definition of what constitutes transformative but to no avail.

Established examples of a transformative use of copyrighted material include commentary and criticism, such as news programs showing clips of something accompanied by commentary about that thing. Another example is parody videos.

There is a common myth or misunderstanding that you are allowed to use a certain amount of copyrighted content—a few seconds, say—and you will be protected by fair use. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Fair use covers how copyrighted content is used, not the amount of it.

While it is highly unlikely, it is theoretically possible that the use of copyrighted material in its entirety could be protected by fair use. It would be tough to justify, of course, and the less of a piece of copyrighted material you use, the easier it is to claim that you are using it for transformative means, rather than just stealing it.

It is here that the myth of using only a few seconds comes from; most successful examples of fair use on YouTube are short clips, but the shortness is not what makes them a successful example of fair use. We’ll get more into what these successful examples look like shortly.

To avoid falling into dangerous waters I always use licensing companies like LickD – I pay a small fee per track and know I am covered from all the legal potholes. Go check LickD out, they have a wide selection of popular song and chart music on their website and you can even get one track free!

Fair Use is Not Protection

The main trap people fall into when dealing with fair use is in thinking that it is some kind of protection against copyright claims or lawsuits, but this is not the case.

Fair use is a defence, not a protection. There is no one-size-fits-all application of fair use that a company like YouTube could apply to your usage of copyrighted material. As such, fair use is decided on a case-by-case basis…

…in court.

Yes, unfortunately, the only way to prove you are using copyrighted content within the remit of fair use is by going to court and having them agree with you. And, unless you have a lot of spare cash and time on your hands, the only way that is likely to happen is if you get sued by a copyright holder. Not ideal.

An unfortunate side effect of this is that large copyright holders tend to bludgeon smaller entities with copyright take-downs, knowing full well that the average YouTuber will not have the means to challenge the claim on a legal footing. Combine this with increasingly automated copyright infringement detection employed by YouTube, and you have a scenario in which it is very difficult to use copyrighted content in any capacity.

There are even instances of YouTubers creating cover versions of popular songs using household objects—such as couch cushions and doors—getting copyright claims against them by the owner of the song they are covering.

If you are struggling for places to find free to use and completely safe music – I made a deep dive video on all the places you can find music for free online.

How Much of a Song Can You Use on YouTube Without Copyright Issues?

Now that we’ve taken a deeper dive into how fair use works, we hope it makes more sense when we tell you that the answer to how much of a song you can use without copyright problems is, practically speaking, none.

The reason we say this is because the music industry is particularly aggressive when it comes to protecting its intellectual property. They are not interested in the fair use arguments and will go after any use of their music that they become aware of. Couple that with YouTube’s automated copyright infringement detection, and you have a situation where any attempt to use copyrighted music will likely get flagged.

If the infringement exists (that is, the copyright holder attributed does, in fact, own the copyright to the material in your video), then your only recourse would be to take that copyright holder to court.

It would be extremely unlikely to reach a point where the copyright holder would take you to court, however, as YouTube has plenty of mechanisms in place to protect their interests. From monetizing your video and sending them the proceeds, to removing your channel from the platform entirely.

YouTube will not allow you to infringe copyright continually, so it would take an extremely keen legal department at some music label to see you in taken to court before YouTube resolves the issue for them.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 1

Examples of Fair Use

Copying works across a variety of different mediums, including broadcast, is permitted when the use is for examination or instruction, in an academic or industry setting, as long as it meets certain guidelines. Obviously, this is unlikely to apply to your average YouTuber.

An example more relevant to YouTube, however, is using copyrighted content for quotation, critique, or review. Of course, if you post an entire album with little to no commentary, you will struggle to make an argument for fair use. The amount of copyrighted content should be quite limited, and only just enough to get whatever point you are trying to make across.

Other criteria for this kind of fair use include the copyrighted material being publicly available and the source of the content being acknowledged

You can also use copyrighted material of reporting current news, though the situations in which copyrighted music would fit into this category are rare.

Parody, as we mentioned earlier, is also a form of fair use, but this is another area where the boundaries for what constitutes parody are far from clear. Any borderline case may need to be tested in court to receive any kind of definitive decision on the matter.

The final example of fair use involves text and data mining, which clearly doesn’t have any bearing on a discussion about using music in YouTube videos.

Soundproofing Tips for YouTubers

Can You Use Music in YouTube Videos at All?

There are certainly situations where you could use music—even copyrighted music—in your YouTube videos. If you were to obtain the permission of the copyright holder, for instance, you would be legally allowed to use that music as long as you stuck to whatever terms you agreed, of course.

As we mentioned earlier, there is also non-copyrighted music or music with an open license such as Creative Commons. YouTube provides an impressive library of such music for the very reason of helping YouTubers make their content without falling afoul of copyright strikes. Remember, they want you to succeed.

Finally, you could, of course, use your own music. If you make music and you have not given the rights to that music to anyone else, you are free to do with it as you please.

How Much of a Song Can You Use on YouTube Without Copyright?

Should I Use Copyrighted Music in my YouTube Videos?

The only truly safe option when considering using music in your YouTube videos is to use royalty-free music that is licensed for commercial use.

The commercial aspect is important even if you do not monetize your videos, because you may decide to monetize them someday, and, in any case, some people may disagree with your idea of commercial. They may even be wrong, but you don’t want to have to go to court to prove that.

If you can get permission for the music you should be okay to use it in theory, however, it is worth noting that YouTube’s copyright infringement detection is something of a firehose when it comes to seeking out violations.

There are many examples in the past of YouTubers going to great lengths to obtain permission to use copyrighted material, only to have YouTube flag it as a violation.

In some case, copyright holders themselves have fallen afoul of this system. It has not been uncommon for YouTubers who are part of a content network upload a video of one of their own songs on a private channel and get flagged for copyright because their song was initially played on the content network’s channel.

It is far from a perfect system.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 5

What Happens if I Get Caught Using Copyrighted Music?

The consequences vary depending on things like if you are a repeat offender, or how the copyright holder wants to handle the situation. If you are caught infringing copyright, and it is your first time, you will likely just receive a strike against your account. Enough of these strikes, however, and your account could be removed entirely.

In some cases, the copyright holder will opt to leave your video alone, but monetize it and claim the earnings. In those cases, you will not be able to monetize your video yourself, even if the offending music only makes up a small portion of your video. Unfortunately, this is a risk you will have to accept if you want to use copyrighted music.

As mentioned above, it is unlikely you would ever see a courtroom from infringing copyright on YouTube. But, as mentioned even further above, nothing in this post should be considered legal advice. The fact that it is unlikely that you will end up in court should not be seen as a guarantee that you will not end up in court.

How Much of a Song Can You Use on YouTube Without Copyright? 1

Conclusions

The world of YouTube copyright is a bit of a minefield when it comes to knowing exactly what you can and can’t do.

The only way to be genuinely risk-free is only ever to use royalty-free music that is licensed for commercial use. Any time you use copyrighted material, even if it is as clear cut fair use as it gets, could see you receiving copyright strikes against your channel, or worse.

If you do have to use copyrighted music, however, remember the guidelines for what constitutes fair use. Only use the absolute minimum of copyrighted music required to get your point across. Make sure the focus of the video is not the content.

Even with some additional commentary, if the point of the video is very clearly just to listen to the music, it will not be considered fair use.

But, most importantly, remember that fair use is not a protection against legal action. If a copyright holder gets a bee in their bonnet about your use of their music and decides to get the lawyers out, you will not be able to hide behind fair use.

You will need to go to court and convince a judge that your use of the content was fair use. It may not be a likely scenario, but it is one you will have to consider if you insist on using copyrighted music in your videos.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Post feature image by Richard Clyborne of Music Strive

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS VIDEO YOUTUBE

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home 3

With all the success that people from all walks of life have been able to find on YouTube, it’s no surprise that more and more of us want to find a way into this seemingly endless community.

Regardless of how obscure or specific your interests are, there will undoubtedly be a YouTuber making content you want. And if there isn’t, you can always become that YouTuber yourself!

The convenience of ubiquitous inter-connectivity and high speed Internet has brought us to a point where we no longer have to choose from a limited selection of entertainment, all geared towards the lowest common denominator in a bid to capture the most market share. And that door swings both ways, because any content you feel the urge to make, there is a strong chance you will find an audience for it.

That being said, getting started on YouTube can be a little daunting, especially if you have never done anything like this before. Even knowing what hardware you need, what software to use, can be confusing, never mind how you get to actually publishing a video.

Fortunately, we are here to help. Keep reading for a thorough grounding in how to record YouTube videos at home.

How to Grow a YouTube Channel (30+ Ways) 4

Planning

If you are planning just to make YouTube content for your own enjoyment, and genuinely do not care if other people watch it, you can probably skip this bit. If, on the other hand, you have any ambition to grow your YouTube channel, you need to put a little thought into how you might go about it.

Now, you don’t need to have a detailed plan covering every single aspect of your YouTube career from now into the distant future, but merely turning the camera on and hoping for the best is unlikely to breed success. At least, not as quickly as having a plan will.

The first thing to think about is what market your videos will be aimed at. Finding your niche is perhaps the most critical thing you can do to ensure success—after making good content, of course.

The more focused your niche, the better your chances of attracting an audience.

This is because smaller markets tend to have less competition and more engaged audiences. So, while the potential size of your audience is much lower than a broader niche, you will be able to attract a higher portion of that possible audience, and they will be more invested in your content.

For this reason, you should attempt to drill down into the topic you are interested in making videos about, and find the most specific version of that interest that you are comfortable with.

For example, if you are a keyboard enthusiast, and plan to make videos reviewing different keyboards, consider focusing on a specific subset of keyboards, such as mechanical, gaming, ergonomic, or any other attribute that narrows the focus of your videos.

Once you know the boundaries of your niche, you can gear any promotion, related social media accounts, and SEO towards it.

Is It Legal to Make YouTube Videos from Books?

Getting Started: Content

I’m sure you’re expecting this, and we both know it has to be said, so let’s do this first.

Content. Is. King.

The content you produce is the foundation upon which your YouTube empire will be built. You can use cunning tactics to build that empire and sustain it, but if your foundations are weak—if that content is not attractive to your viewers—it will all come tumbling down eventually. It is only a matter of time.

How To Start A YouTube Channel - An Illustrated Guide, Open A YouTube Channel, YouTube Tutorial

Getting Started: Equipment

Let’s start by simply saying, if you have a relatively recent smartphone, you already have all the hardware you need.

Sure, you can buy something a little more professional (and we’ll get to that in a moment) but if you don’t want to put that kind of financial commitment into your channel just yet, any mid-to-high-end smartphone from the past few years will do a more than a passable job. But let’s talk about taking it to the next level.

To simplify this topic a little, we are going to break YouTube videos down into two main types: onscreen and offscreen. Onscreen videos, as the name suggests, will feature you in the video itself, on camera. This is probably the most common form of YouTube video. A popular example of this would be a vlog, where the YouTuber talks to the camera as though it were the audience.

The other type—offscreen—where you are not on camera, is common in software tutorials, and list videos that are made up of a series of clips from movies or other videos.

If you need ideas for channels or videos where you are not on screen I have a blog with 12 YouTube Channel Ideas Without Showing Your Face – The perfect way to make a channel if you don’t want to be to be the “face” of the brand.

12 Youtube Channel Ideas Without  Showing Your Face 3

The difference, of course, is that you do not need a camera to make videos where you are not onscreen. What you do need, regardless of whether you are on screen or not, however, is decent audio.

While high-quality video is definitely better than poor quality video, viewers tend to be forgiving if the quality of the video is not critical to the content, as it would be in a software tutorial. What they are less forgiving of is poor quality audio. Whether it’s excessive background noise, clicking and popping, interference, or any number of other things. This kind of thing can really grate on people in the same way that many people don’t like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard, or cutlery scratching a plate.

With that in mind, the first piece of equipment you should focus on upgrading is your microphone.

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home

Audio

For the most part, a decent USB microphone will do the job just fine. Blue, in particular, make some great USB microphones spanning the price spectrum.

If you want to take it a step further, you will almost certainly need to get hold of an audio interface as well. Audio interfaces can come in many shapes and sizes, from small and inexpensive to multi-channel beasts that cost the same as a small computer.

Audio interfaces provide crystal clear, low latency audio input for your professional-grade microphones (or other instruments), as well as provide the necessary power to run those microphones.

I personally use a Boya BY-MM1 microphone and works wonders with my phone and camera – I even did a deep dive blog on the Boya-BY MM1 it and it has a very cool sound improving feature.

Video

When you start getting into camera upgrades, things can get very expensive, very fast. There are not many budget options that will give you better quality than a typical iPhone or high-end Android phone.

Just be sure to do your research, do not put too much stock in the various numbers manufacturers like to put on the box. Things like resolution and framerate aren’t the be-all and end-all of camera quality. And, remember, if something looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

One thing to note is that you shouldn’t be afraid to use less conventional means if they work for you. One such example would be using an HDMI capture device to turn a standalone camera into a webcam of sorts.

The Rest

Regarding other equipment, we could talk about when getting your perfect YouTube set up together; there’s too much to cover in this post. Needless to say, things like acoustic treatment and lighting are essential to producing the best content possible.

Lighting, in particular, can do wonders for your video quality. A great camera can still produce poor video in a bad light; however, even a mediocre camera can do good work if accompanied by good lighting.

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home 1

Finding a Location to Film In

Finding a somewhere in your home to film is a topic that could fill a post of its own, but we’ll do our best to cover the basics. Your priority should be finding somewhere you can set up permanently. That is, somewhere you wouldn’t have to remove your gear in between videos.

This will allow you to set up things like lighting and acoustic treatment—things you can’t easily put up and take down every time you want to record a video. A permanent location can be anywhere from a spare room or your bedroom, to a closet or the garage. Anywhere that won’t upset anyone you might be living with.

Need inspiration for places to record in around your house? I have been making videos for over 8 years so I have pulled together a list of some of my favorite places to film in my home – some are very imaginative!

If you can’t find such a spot, you will have to try and make your YouTube set up portable so that it can be moved in between recordings. Consider things like getting a microphone with a tighter pickup pattern, so that it picks up less background noise. Opt for a smaller, more portable lighting rig. And, obviously, a laptop over a desktop computer.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel? 1

Your Set

Having an interesting backdrop to your videos is by no means essential, but it does help to give your videos a little extra flair, not to mention a touch of personality.

The key to an excellent backdrop is to make sure it does not overpower the focus of the video, whether that focus is you, some product you are showing off, or anything else that you want the viewers to be paying attention to.

Be sure to keep things relevant, as well. If you are running a straight cooking channel, it would be confusing if your backdrop had a guitar mounted on the wall. Lighting is an excellent tool for this purpose, but the lighting should not overpower your camera lighting. If you can afford a camera with near-focus, dialing the focus to give the background a slight blur can help to keep the attention on what’s important.

Once you have been making videos for a while, try to incorporate things into your backdrop that speak to the history of your channel. For example, if you were running a craft channel, where you show your viewers how to make things, have some of your more impressive builds in the backdrop.

Little touches like this not only show what your channel is about, they create a sense of connection with long time viewers, who know what these elements of your backdrop represent.

How to Record YouTube Videos at Home 2

Recording Times

Choosing when to record a video can be a little tricky, especially if you live with others, or have neighbours with thin walls. Most new YouTubers will be making their videos around a job or school. This severely cuts down the time available to record in.

Factor a social life, spending time with your children, being a child, and you may quickly find the main reason many YouTubers end up quitting.

How much time you dedicate to your channel will depend entirely on how seriously you want to take it. If you have big plans for your YouTube career, we recommend setting aside time solely for working on your channel. That time could be spent writing a script, editing, researching and, of course, recording. You shouldn’t work yourself into the ground, of course.

Be reasonable with your scheduling. But the more you treat your channel like a job, the more likely it is that it could one day become one.

Do Not Be Afraid to Scrap Content

Once you have started filming your videos, the next step is to upload them… or is it? Not every video is gold; even experienced YouTubers occasionally make a video they are not happy.

One of the curses—and blessings—of YouTube is that content can have a shelf life far greater than the few days or weeks after you upload it. That is great because it means your videos have the potential to reach new viewers much farther down the line. But it can also be detrimental because first impressions are a big deal.

If you upload poor content, the chances of a new viewer stumbling across that content and becoming a subscriber are pretty slim. It won’t matter that the video was a one-off and most of them are top-notch. Or that it was a long time ago and you’ve improved since then. Most of the time, they will assume that this what your content looks like, and move on.

That is why you need to be honest with yourself about your content. Get friends or family to watch for second opinions if you have to, though you will know if you are honest with yourself.

We know a lot of work goes into a video, but if that video ends up being below par, you have to let it go.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Is it Legal to Download YouTube Videos?

Is it Legal to Download YouTube Videos?

Given the nature of this topic, we must state upfront that nothing you read here should be considered legal advice.

We will do our best to lay out what is known about the legalities of downloading YouTube videos, as well as giving any relevant examples for context, but we are not legal professionals.

If you are not comfortable with the potential risks, our only advice is; do not break YouTube’s terms of service!

Whether or not it is legal to download YouTube videos is one of those questions that is very simple to answer from a rigid, technical standpoint, but deserves exploring more from a practical perspective.

Is it legal to download YouTube videos? – The short answer to this question is, if you have uploaded a video, then you are allowed to download that video via the tools provided in YouTube’s channel management. Downloading YouTube videos via any other means is breaking their terms of service, regardless of the license on that video.

Are YouTube Videos Public Domain? 3

That means that even if a video is listed as creative commons, or is a public domain piece, you are still not allowed to download it if you didn’t upload it, to begin with.

That is the absolute, black and white, no grey areas answer to “is it legal to download YouTube videos?”. If you do not want to risk falling afoul of YouTube’s content policies, that is all you need to know.

That being said, we mentioned there was more to explore on this subject and explore is precisely what we are going to do.

Can YouTube Ban You for Downloading Videos Against Terms?

The short answer is yes, but that is because YouTube can ban you anytime they like for anything they want. They are a private company and have complete discretion over who they allow on their platform. There are laws and regulations they must adhere to, of course, but these mainly relate to things like user data.

Theoretically, YouTube could also bring a civil lawsuit against anyone who breaks their terms of services.

Now, YouTube has never exercised either a ban or a lawsuit over breaking their terms by downloading video, but that would be little solace should they decide to make you the first their first case.

They did consider suing a video downloading service once but ultimately decided against it. So their past actions (and lack of actions), as well as rhetoric, suggest that they have no real desire to start banning people for downloading videos. Still, you should not assume that just because they have never exercised their right to before, they won’t do it in the future.

After all, money is a big motivator, and if a significant enough content network decided to put pressure on YouTube to stamp out this kind of thing, it wouldn’t be surprising if they did.

Now if you want to download videos to add b-roll to your videos then maybe consider something like storyblocks – I use them for all my cut away content. They have a range of plans to help you add eye catching and stunning visuals to your content.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 5

Can YouTube Tell If You Download Video?

There is no automatic way for YouTube to tell if you are downloading videos. The services that allow you to download videos are more easily identifiable, and YouTube sometimes make changes to their platform that prevent these from working, though there is no way of knowing if it is a coincidence that the services stopped working, or YouTube specifically intended for that to happen. But there is no way for YouTube to tell that you are downloading a video using those services.

It is likely for this reason that YouTube does not make an effort to put a stop to this kind of activity.

For content that exists in other places—such as public domain video—it is almost impossible for YouTube to definitively say that any duplicate uploads were created with footage downloaded from their platform.

YouTube could infer that content has been downloaded, of course. If you were to download a video that is unique and only exists on YouTube and then reupload that video to their platform. However, with the amount of content that is uploaded every minute, it would be challenging for YouTube to find instances like this, even if people were willing to report this kind of terms breaking.

We say you would have to upload it to their platform because if you are not a registered user of YouTube, the only recourse YouTube would have for breaking their terms of service would be a lawsuit. Proving that any particular content was initially downloaded from YouTube against their terms of service would likely be difficult, and not worth the time and money it would cost.

Especially when YouTube can just remove the video and ban you.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 1

Is it Ever Legal to Download Youtube Videos?

Other than downloading videos you uploaded in the first place, yes, there are situations when it is legal to download YouTube videos. The essential factor here is that YouTube’s terms of service are not law.

Breaking their terms does inherently mean you have broken the law—which is not to say there are never legal consequences for violating terms of service.

Again, we must stress that even though YouTube has never taken anyone to court for downloading videos, the possibility is there.

What this means is that for there to be legal ramifications of downloading video from YouTube, then YouTube themselves must bring a lawsuit against you. Proceeding on the basis that YouTube is unlikely to do so, you are only breaking the law if you download copyrighted content. Downloaded content that is creative commons or public domain does not violate any law, only YouTube’s terms. There is a caveat here, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

With regards to YouTube potentially bringing a civil action against you, remember that they need to be aware that you have broken their terms of service. As we mentioned, YouTube has no way of knowing who is using the various tools for downloading videos, so the only way they could possibly know is if you then put that content online somewhere. And even then, the chances of YouTube ever noticing it are practically non-existent, unless it is a high profile situation.

If you are downloading YouTube videos and keeping them to yourself, the chance of ever facing legal consequences are so remote that they may as well be non-existent. That being said, we must stress once more that it the risk does exist. If you break YouTube’s terms of service, you run that risk.

Is It Legal to Make YouTube Videos from Books? 3

Regional Laws

We mentioned above there was a caveat to breaking terms of service not being illegal. While that is true (always check your local laws, however), the practical reality of situations like this are not so clear cut.

For example, there was an incident in 2006 where a woman signed up to MySpace under a fake identity for the purposes of bullying a friend of her daughter. That friend later committed suicide. Obviously, this was a terrible tragedy, but it is the manner in which the prosecution went after the woman that is relevant here.

Giving false information was against MySpace terms of service, and an attempt was made to prosecute the woman under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, claiming that she had gained “unauthorised access” to MySpace’s services by breaking the terms of service. After initially being found guilty, the woman was later acquitted in appeal after a judge decided the precedent was troubling.

The important thing to note here is that, while breaking the terms of service itself was not illegal, it was still used as a means to justify prosecuting someone under a different law.

Now, granted, the death of a thirteen-year-old girl is very serious, and not in any way comparable to downloading videos from YouTube, but it is essential to paint a full picture. We can tell you that breaking YouTube’s terms of service is not illegal, but the law is not always as straight forward as that.

How To Download A YouTube Video 2020 (NEW METHOD) 3

How Do You Download YouTube Video?

There are several free online services that allow you to download YouTube videos. Simply searching “youtube video downloader” will typically turn up a good number of such services.

They all work in more or less the same way. You first enter the URL of the video you wish to download. The service will check the link, and, if it can do it (not all videos are downloadable), you will be able to select from various options regarding the format and quality of your download.

Some services even offer rudimentary editing tools, such as trimming, and cropping, though most will just present you with a download to the untouched video.

It is usually possible to download just the audio from a video, which is particularly useful if the thing you are downloading is sound effects, or music. Though it should be noted that downloading copyrighted music from YouTube, while still not breaking the law in terms of the act of downloading itself, is definitely breaking the law in terms of music piracy. And the music industry is not shy about enforcing those laws.

As mentioned above, YouTube periodically changes the way things work behind the scenes. Sometimes, this results in YouTube video downloaders no longer working. Whether YouTube does this on purpose or the changes are unrelated and breaking the downloaders is just a coincidence, is unknown. Regardless, when this happens, you can try a different service as some services take longer to adapt to changes by YouTube than others. But if none of them can grab the video, you may have to accept that you won’t be able to download it if you can’t find it elsewhere.

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown? 4

Browser Plugins and Standalone Software

There are alternatives to the online services mentioned above. When you stream a video, you are essentially downloading it to your computer temporarily. It is possible to take advantage of this and keep the downloaded video permanently. Browser plugins, in particular, add a level of convenience that the online services can’t.

It should be noted, however, that using something like a browser plugin or a standalone piece of software may expose you. When you use an online service, as far as YouTube can see, that service is accessing their content. It doesn’t matter who is downloading the video; YouTube will still see the same service as the one who is doing the downloading.

When you download a video from your computer, YouTube can see you specifically. Whether or not they can tell that you are downloading, rather than streaming, is a question we can’t answer. But if they have a means of telling the two apart, it would make it more likely that they could identify you, if they ever decided to.

Are There Alternatives to Downloading YouTube Videos?

If you are looking for a specific video that is only available on YouTube, your options are very limited. In fact, the only way to get around breaking YouTube’s terms of service here would be to contact the uploader and ask them if they could send you the video.

Obviously, for this to work, you would need to have a good reason for wanting the video, as they are unlikely to help you out if your goal is just to reupload it somewhere else and monetise it.

If the content is licensed under creative commons or public domain, there is a good chance you will be able to find it elsewhere on the web, and YouTube’s policies will have no bearing on how you obtained your content. Though it should be noted that their policies on re-using content may come into play if you attempt to monetise something that already exists on the platform.

Just remember that, while YouTube has never taken action against individual YouTubers for downloading YouTube video, and while the act of doing so technically doesn’t break any laws, the possibility of YouTube doing so is there. As is the mechanisms by which they could come after you.

So, is it legal to download YouTube videos? No. Doing so would only violate YouTube’s terms of service, and that in and of itself is not illegal. But that doesn’t mean there is no risk of legal repercussions, and you should consider that before downloading any YouTube content.

And, once again, this post does not claim to offer legal advice of any kind. If you are unsure about the ramifications of your actions, consult a licensed legal professional first.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

That is why I could not live on YouTube without someone like PlaceIT. They offer custom YouTube Banners, Avatars, YouTube Video Intros and YouTube End Screen Templates that are easy to edit with simple click, upload wizard to help you make amazing professional graphics in minutes.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the StoryBlocks website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE YOUTUBE

Should I Start a New YouTube Channel or Keep My Old One?

Should I Start a New YouTube Channel or Keep My Old One? 4

You’ve got the itch to make something new — and one nagging question: do you use the channel you already have, or start fresh? It’s one of the most common dilemmas creators face, and the wrong call can cost you months. The good news is there’s a clear way to decide, and it hinges on a single factor: audience overlap. This 2026 guide walks you through every option — keep, rebrand, start over or revive — and exactly when each one wins.

The deciding question: would your current audience be interested in your new content? If yes → keep and evolve the channel. If no → a fresh start is usually cleaner.

Everything below is really just a more detailed version of that one call.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform and six Silver Play Buttons. I’ve helped hundreds of creators make exactly this call, so this is the framework I use with real channels, not theory.

Stuck on the decision? Book a free discovery call and we’ll work it out together.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: New channel or keep the old one?
Keep and evolve your existing channel if the new content is related to what your audience already watches — you keep your subscribers, watch history and monetisation. Start a new channel if the content targets a really different audience, or if the old channel is dragged down by strikes or a bad reputation. Mismatched content confuses both your viewers and the algorithm, so when in doubt, match the channel to the audience.

The One Question That Decides It

Strip away the noise and it’s this: would the audience you already have want to watch the new thing?

If you run a fitness channel and want to add healthy-cooking content, that’s the same audience — keep the channel. If you run a fitness channel and want to start posting retro gaming videos, that’s a completely different crowd — and forcing both onto one channel confuses your subscribers (who signed up for fitness) and confuses the algorithm (which no longer knows who to recommend you to). Everything else — rebranding, reviving, starting fresh — flows from that single judgement about overlap.

Your Options at a Glance

There are more than two choices here. Match your situation to the right one.

Option Best when… You keep
Keep & pivot New content is related; audience overlaps Subs, watch time, monetisation
Rebrand Same audience, but the identity needs a refresh Subs, authority, history
Start fresh New content targets a different audience Nothing (clean slate)
Revive Old channel is dormant but still relevant Existing subs & assets
Start fresh (forced) Old channel has strikes or bad standing Nothing — and that’s the point

Option 1: Keep & Pivot Gradually

If your new direction overlaps with your current audience, keeping the channel is almost always the right move — you hold onto everything you’ve earned: subscribers, watch history, and monetisation status. The trick is to pivot gradually. Introduce the new content alongside the old, watch how your audience responds in your analytics, and lean into what works. A smooth transition brings your existing audience with you rather than jolting them.

Option 2: Rebrand Your Existing Channel

Rebranding is a pivot with a fresh coat of paint. You keep the channel — and all its value — but update the name, channel art, banner, about section and overall identity to match the new direction. It’s ideal when your audience will follow you but the old branding no longer fits. Because you keep your subscriber base and history, a rebrand is far faster than starting from zero. Just make sure the new identity is coherent — a confused brand converts worse than a clear one.

How to Rebrand Your Channel (Step by Step)

If rebranding is your route, here’s the practical order of play so nothing gets missed:

  1. Lock your new positioning first. Decide exactly who the channel is for and what it’s about before you touch a single graphic — everything else flows from this.
  2. Update the name and @handle. Choose a name and handle that signal the new direction and are easy to search and say aloud.
  3. Refresh the visuals. New profile picture, banner and channel art that match the new brand — consistency here is what makes a channel look intentional.
  4. Rewrite your About section. Lead with what viewers get and weave in the keywords people would search — it feeds both humans and YouTube.
  5. Record a new channel trailer. A 30–60 second pitch to new visitors that plants the flag for the new direction.
  6. Reorganise playlists around the new themes, and update or unlist videos that no longer fit.
  7. Announce it. A community post and a short video tell your existing audience what’s changing and why, so they stay with you.
  8. Shift content gradually. Ease the new content in rather than flipping overnight — let your analytics confirm the audience is coming along.

Done well, a rebrand feels like a natural evolution to your audience — not a channel they no longer recognise.

Option 3: Start a Fresh Channel

Sometimes a clean slate is the smart choice — specifically when your new content serves a really different audience. A dedicated channel gives you a focused brand, an unconfused algorithm, and content that all points the same way. The cost is real: you start with zero subscribers, zero watch history, and you’ll need to re-qualify for monetisation. But for truly divergent content, that clarity is worth it. If this is your path, my guide on how to start a YouTube channel (and the business version) will get you moving.

What to Do With Your Old Content When You Start Fresh

Starting a new channel doesn’t mean the old one has to vanish overnight. A few sensible moves:

  • Don’t rush to delete. A dormant channel keeps its subscribers, watch history and any monetisation — delete only if it truly is’s really a liability.
  • Unlist, don’t erase, off-brand videos. Setting embarrassing or mismatched videos to unlisted removes them from view without losing the data.
  • Remember you can’t move videos between channels. YouTube has no “transfer video” button — if a few old videos are worth keeping, you’ll re-upload them to the new channel.
  • Point the way. A short farewell video or a link in the old channel’s banner can funnel any remaining traffic toward the new home.

Option 4: Revive a Dead Channel

Don’t overlook the channel gathering dust. A dormant channel still holds subscribers, watch history and possibly monetisation — assets you’d throw away by starting over. Reviving it means auditing what’s there, refreshing the branding, and committing to consistent uploads again. If the old content is still relevant to where you’re heading, reviving beats starting from zero nearly every time. I’ve laid out the exact process in my 90-day dead-channel recovery plan. And if you’re not sure why it stalled in the first place, run it through the growth diagnostic before you relaunch.

Can You Merge Two YouTube Channels?

This one catches a lot of people out: YouTube does not let you merge two channels into one. There’s no way to combine subscribers, videos, watch time or monetisation from two separate channels — they stay independent, full stop. If both channels are Brand Accounts you can give the same people management access to each, but that’s shared control, not a merge.

So if you’re sitting on two channels and want “one bigger channel”, the honest options are: pick the stronger one as your primary, re-upload the best videos from the other, and retire or repurpose the weaker channel. Don’t build a plan around merging subscriber counts — it simply isn’t a feature.

Should You Buy a YouTube Channel?

Buying an established channel looks like a shortcut past the slow early grind — but it’s riskier than it sounds, and I rarely recommend it.

⚠️ The risks stack up fast:

  • Monetisation isn’t guaranteed to carry over. A change of ownership can trigger a fresh review, and there’s no promise the channel stays monetised for you.
  • Bought audiences are often hollow. Many channels for sale have inflated or inactive subscriber counts that won’t watch your videos.
  • Audience mismatch kills reach. Their subscribers signed up for the old content — post something different and your videos land flat, confusing the algorithm.
  • You inherit the baggage. Any past strikes, reputation issues or dubious growth history come with the purchase.

Nine times out of ten, the money and effort you’d spend buying a channel goes further building your own or reviving one you already have — with none of the risk.

Still can’t decide?

On a free discovery call I’ll look at your channel and your goals and tell you honestly whether to keep, rebrand or start fresh.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

When You Should Definitely Start New

A few situations tip the scales firmly toward a fresh start:

  • Completely different audience. If there’s little to no overlap, one channel serving both will underperform for everyone.
  • Strikes or penalties. If the old channel carries copyright or community-guideline strikes, that baggage can follow you — a clean channel avoids it.
  • A reputation you want to leave behind. Old, off-brand or embarrassing content that no longer represents you can be a genuine liability.
  • A true business pivot. A serious, separate venture often deserves its own dedicated brand.

In these cases, the value you’d “keep” by staying is outweighed by the drag it creates. Start clean.

The “Channel Authority” Myth

Here’s the misconception that trips people up: the belief that an old channel has built-up “authority” that makes new videos rank automatically. It doesn’t work like a website’s domain authority. On YouTube, each video is largely judged on its own performance — its click-through rate, watch time and engagement. A years-old channel doesn’t get a free pass.

What an old channel does keep is really valuable: an existing subscriber base to seed early views, a watch history that helps YouTube understand your niche, and monetisation status you won’t have to re-earn. So the real question isn’t “does my old channel have authority?” — it’s “are those existing assets an asset for where I’m going, or a liability?” Relevant, engaged subscribers help enormously. Dormant or mismatched ones can quietly hurt. Judge your old channel on that, not on age alone. Whatever you choose, remember the one constant: content is king, and a clear channel plus consistent, well-packaged videos wins over any shortcut — as your growth strategy will show.

New vs Old Channel: FAQ

Should I start a new YouTube channel or keep my old one?

It comes down to audience overlap. If your new content is related to what your existing audience already enjoys, keep the channel and pivot or rebrand — you keep your subscribers, watch history and monetisation. If the new content targets a completely different audience, or your old channel carries strikes or a bad reputation, start fresh. Wildly mismatched content confuses both viewers and the algorithm.

Does an old YouTube channel have an advantage over a new one?

Partly. An old channel keeps its subscriber base, watch history and monetisation status, which are real advantages. But YouTube doesn’t hand old channels a magic ranking boost — each video is largely judged on its own performance. So an old channel with an engaged, relevant audience helps; an old channel full of unrelated content or dormant subscribers can actually hold you back.

Can you change the type of content on an existing YouTube channel?

Yes, and many successful creators have pivoted. The key is to transition gradually if you can, so your existing audience comes with you, and to rebrand the channel name, art and about section to match the new direction. A sharp, sudden switch to unrelated content risks losing your current subscribers and confusing YouTube about who to recommend you to.

Is it better to rebrand or start over on YouTube?

Rebrand when your audience and new direction still overlap — you keep the subscribers, watch time and monetisation you’ve earned. Start over when the new content targets a really different audience, or when the existing channel is weighed down by strikes, penalties or a reputation you’d rather leave behind. Rebranding preserves value; starting over gives a clean slate.

Should I delete my old inactive YouTube channel?

Usually not straight away. A dormant channel still holds subscribers, watch history and potentially monetisation you could revive. Before deleting, check whether it’s worth reviving with fresh content and a rebrand — a 90-day recovery plan often beats starting from zero. Only delete if the channel has serious strikes or a reputation that would actively hurt a restart.

Does starting a new channel mean starting from zero?

Yes — a new channel begins with no subscribers, no watch history and no monetisation, and must re-qualify for the Partner Programme. That’s the main cost of a fresh start. The upside is a clean, focused channel with no mismatched content or baggage. Weigh the value of what you’d leave behind against the clarity you’d gain.

Can you merge two YouTube channels into one?

No. YouTube does not allow you to merge two channels — you can’t combine their subscribers, videos, watch time or monetisation. They remain separate accounts. If both are Brand Accounts you can share management access, but that isn’t a merge. The practical alternative is to pick one channel as your primary and re-upload the best videos from the other.

Should you buy an established YouTube channel?

Usually not. Buying a channel looks like a shortcut, but monetisation isn’t guaranteed to survive a change of ownership, subscriber counts are often inflated or inactive, and the existing audience rarely matches your new content — which makes your videos underperform. You also inherit any strikes or reputation issues. Building or reviving your own channel is almost always the safer investment.

Conclusion

So — new channel or keep the old one? Come back to the one question: would your current audience want your new content? If yes, keep and evolve what you’ve built; the subscribers, watch time and monetisation you already have are a head start worth protecting. If no — or if your old channel carries strikes or baggage — a clean, focused fresh start will serve you better than forcing mismatched content onto an audience that never asked for it. Match the channel to the audience, keep your content sharp, and the growth follows.

Make the right call the first time.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start — we’ll decide keep, rebrand or start fresh, and map the plan to grow it.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

A note on this guide: YouTube’s monetisation, subscriber and channel features are current at the time of writing (July 2026); YouTube updates its rules periodically, so check the in-app details for your situation. Guidance here is based on two decades of hands-on channel experience.