so I heard that you want to start a YouTube channel you clicked on the Right video when I first started my YouTube channel your girl barely had any subscribers like literally just my burner account and my mom's account like the growth was very slow babes it was slow fast forward to now I gained 400,000 subscribers in just the past year and now my YouTube channel is almost at 700k subscribers yeah if you want to start a successful YouTube channel in 2024 I'm going to be spilling all of my secrets I did in order to grow and this is going to be your ultimate guide to starting your YouTube channel if you're new here welcome my name is Lena I have a self-help series here on my channel where we discuss all things becoming your best self so if you're not subscribed already what are you doing okay what are you doing go subscribe right now first things first get over your fear so there's a saying that the perfect time to start was 10 years ago but the second perfect time to start is now and this applies to everything in life okay whether it's starting your YouTube channel starting your fitness journey working on your dream career being on your self-help Journey whatever the biggest excuse I remember telling myself all the time before actually growing the balls to finally start my channel I would always be like oh what if someone I know finds my channel what if I fail what if I waste my time listen get all of that bottled up fear that you have inside and throw it out the window girl we don't have time for that okay every single one of my YouTuber friends that I've talked to which I'm going to be so honest I don't have that many I have like two to three content creators in general the ones I've talked to always say the same thing and it's that their biggest regret is not starting to Poe it's not starting earlier because once you realize that the only thing that that's holding you back from achieving your goals achieving your dream life it's your own fear that you make up in your own head once you overcome that you will achieve anything you want in life and this is coming from someone that never thought that she would actually get the courage to start a YouTube channel and find success in it I was the most insecure person I didn't think I was even worthy enough for people to even want to watch me like I started YouTube as a college student and I remember being scared about what people from my high school thought about my YouTube channel which I didn't even talk to any of them but I still cared about what they thought I didn't tell anyone I started to YouTube Channel I was so insecure about it I just kept it to myself I can tell you right now I genuinely do not care what other people think about me having a YouTube channel and I'm not going to lie that didn't happen overnight but once I started to grow a community on YouTube I cared more about what my subscribers thought more than what people from high school or college thought like I'm sure some of them were making fun of me but I don't care they're not adding anything to my life they're not paying my bills who cares if anything if you're watching my YouTube channel to make fun of me you're adding to the Views babes two quick disclaimers that I want you to know so that I save you some time and energy okay first if you think that uploading your first video because you spent so many hours editing it and filming it and you put so much effort in time and energy into it that the subscribers are just going to be raining in because that's what I thought too in the beginning no no throw those expectations out of the window too because this is not Tik Tok okay this is YouTube you cannot expect to post just one video and it go viral and you gain a million subscribers like no if you are looking for instant gratification YouTube is not the platform to get it okay let me tell you it is a long game and it's going to take a lot of effort but the good news YouTube is by far the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life honestly so if you decide to start your YouTube channel I know it will be for you too second if you're in it just for the money and you think that you're just going to be showering money left and right you will not last on YouTube okay the first few years I was doing YouTube girl I was scraping by like I was a broke college student I feel like it's a really common misconception that all YouTubers just rain in the dough but I'm telling you that is not the case when your for starting so a good question to ask yourself is if I won the lottery today for $10 million would I still want to do YouTube if you answered yes congrats keep watching the video you are on the right track and if you answered no you might want to revisit the whole YouTube thing if your sole reason you want to do YouTube is just because you want to make tons of money personally I just don't think that's the right mindset to go in you know pick a few niches to create your brand I know this is the exact opposite of what everyone tells you on YouTube when starting a channel they always say pick one Niche and stick to it and always post about it whoever tells you that is not with the trends of YouTube in 2024 maybe it's just me but my favorite creators and the creators that I see that are killing the game all are super well-rounded people and like they do a bunch of things so you know they do Fitness they cook they share inspirational content productivity tips cuz I'm not going to lie doing just one thing it gets a little bit boring and I feel like picking one Niche just limits you to a whole other audience that could potentially want to watch you so by creating a few niches for yourself you're creating a brand for yourself and also I recommend creating a mission statement cuz you need to know the purpose of your channel so for example my niches are productive Vlogs wellness fitness and self-improvement content and my mission statement is something that captures all of this and so it's I post content to uplift you weekly that's actually the description of my channel on my page so to break this down for you to make it easier I want you to answer these three questions what are your niches what is your mission statement what sets you apart and makes you unique and another really important thing I want to mention cuz honestly this is something I wish I knew when I first started my YouTube channel and it's that Vlogs are not enough to grow your Channel if people don't know who you are they're not going to watch your Vlogs like personally I love Vlogs I post a lot of Vlogs but yeah because of Vlogs and the fact that I show my life to my subscribers I feel like I genuinely have a relationship with them and I feel close with you guys like genuinely but if you're trying to start your YouTube channel Vlogs are not the best for growth I'm just going to say it right now the most subscribers I've ever gotten were not from my Vlogs it's actually from my self-help content and if they watch the video and you know they like my personality or something then most likely they will click on one of my Vlogs and then boom that's when the relationship starts we become besties and we build a community consistency is key you probably already heard this from everyone in their mom about starting YouTube listen you cannot expect to post one video on YouTube and then not post for another 3 months and expect growth on your channel the algorithm is obviously going to favor you the more you post and listen if you're a huge procrastinator and all over the place person like me you need to create a Content schedule so I use notion to keep track of all the content I'm going to post because otherwise things are not going to be posted in weeks having a Content schedule is going to help so much to to keep you consistent and if you don't know how to use notion or how to create a Content schedule do not worry I got the answer to all of your problems and it is skillshare thank you so much to skillshare for partnering with me on this video because y'all skillshare has genuinely been life-changing for me as a content creator myself so if you don't know skillshare is the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry Pros across illustration design freelance productivity and so much more so I've been taking the learning path supercharge your productivity with notion which I highly recommend if you're new YouTuber it is so helpful to learn how to create a Content schedule and be more efficient to grow your social media channels so for example with notion I have a whole content schedule on what videos to post on what date I learned some cool tricks like hitting complete after I uploaded it I also learned to keep an idea list of video ideas so I literally never run out of video ideas and trust me when I say to be successful on YouTube you need to set up systems to set yourself up for success and using tools like notion really helps you just stay on track and another learning path I highly recommend is grow your first YouTube channel which I literally use some of the advice I learned on there in this video also their learning paths offer a range of experience levels from beginner to advanc like I'm telling you there's so much you can learn on there and skillshare is honestly your One-Stop platform for all of your YouTuber beginner needs so if you want to start your Learning Journey today the first 500 people to use my link in my description we'll get one whole month free trial with skillshare so hop on that save your coin and thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this video camera setup details I feel like people stress so much over the camera aspect of YouTube and as someone who's not really a tech person at all all I'm not really sure why like when I first started YouTube it would stress me out I'm like what camera do I buy why is the cost of a camera the same as my rent the beginning stages of your YouTube journey is not when you should be blowing your money okay I don't know about you but when I first started YouTube I quite literally had $5 to my name so having all the fancy camera equipment was not really a priority I promise you that over time you will have the chance to invest more into the fancy shmancy camera laptop equipment for now what's most important is that you start now so use whatever you have use your iPhone to this day I still use my iPhone to film for my Vlogs a lot so I'm going to have all my camera gear Linked In My description box if you're interested I use the Sony ZB E1 with a wide-angle lens I dropped my lens so she's a little broken but anyway I'm not going to lie my camera she's expensive okay she was definitely a big girl purchase and I didn't invest into a really nice quality camera until I was about almost 3 years into YouTube I also used an external mic the road mic to make sure the sound quality is just kiss I also like to use my GoPro 9 I believe just when I'm out and about filming Vlogs because sometimes I don't want to carry my huge camera out in public and last but not least good old trusty iPhone I use my iPhone all the time when I'm filming I'm telling you guys these things are like mini laptops they have upgraded the camera of these phones like crazy editing tips okay I'm going to start by fully admitting I used iMovie yeah you know that free editing software that all Apple products have I used iMovie for the first two years of me doing YouTube and I reached 100K subscribers by using iMovie the free editing software so if you're really really new to editing I highly recommend iMovie like do not sleep on iMovie just because she's free doesn't mean that she doesn't do the job I recommend using it and learning how to edit and then once you start becoming a pro at iMovie then I recommend upgrading to Final Cut Pro that's what I Ed to edit Final Cut Pro is like imov Fanci older sister it's super easy to work with especially if you're not a super tech person like me and also there's a bunch of YouTube videos on how to edit on Final Cup Pro as well the one really helpful piece of advice that I would say is Strive to learn a new editing technique every single time you post a video try to make the next video that you post better than the last and the way that I do this is I always try something new in my videos whether it's like trying out a new editing technique or trying out a new camera angle you know play around with it have fun experiment increase watch time your watch time is so important so the YouTube algorithm considers watch time as one of their highest indicators of viewer satisfaction so the higher watch time you have the more YouTube is going to push your video so if people are clicking out of your video the first 30 seconds YouTube is not going to push your video and I had to learn this the hard way I would say that the first 30 seconds of your video is so important even in this video I did a little bit of a intro hook for you guys to reel you guys in and to continue watching the rest of the video hopefully so make valuable use of the first 30 seconds of your video another thing to remember is that people's attention spans are like and I'm talking about me too I have the attention span of a goldfish especially because of all the short form content Out There Our attention spans are ruined so that means people are not going to have the patience to watch through your entire video if they're not intrigued by it so make sure that you're adding a lot of cuts in especially if you're doing vlogs make sure you're not just talking the entire 30 minutes of a video add a little bit of pizzazz you know remember the ttk title thumbnail time codes keywords your title and thumbnail for your video is going to be key for YouTube pushing your video put effort into your thumbnail you could spend 12 hours editing a video it does not matter if your thumbnail is slacking the rest of your video will slack too see what is working for other people ask yourself why did I decide to click on this video what did they put in the thumbnail why did you click on this video what did I put in the thumbnail try to see what's working for other people and take inspiration for your own also do research on what titles are doing well so for example if you want to do a what I eat in a day video search it up and see what videos are doing well with that same title so time codes are a little bit of a low-key little secret to growing your YouTube channel but it is lowkey but it is mighty so this is basically what time codes are and it tells you what each section of your video is about so that people could just skip through you know and in this video you could probably see my time codes and it helps the viewers see what the video is about and also skip to where they want go back to a section that they want to relisten and it does take a little bit more EXT effort to put time codes in your video but honestly the way I see it is that if someone is taking time out of their day to watch my video I want to make the experience as enjoyable as I can for them so yeah every video I always put time codes in make sure you use keywords keywords are not the same thing as tags YouTube said that tags don't really do anything so just focus on keywords in your description just put words that relate to what your video is about so that when people search your video your video shows up pour into your audience's cup this is the most underrated tip to this day at almost 700,00 subscribers now shout out to my subscribers I love you guys I still read and respond to majority of my comments check the comments I read all of my comments I genuinely see each subscriber as an individual person each and every subscriber that chooses to subscribe to your channel is a person and commenting back and showing love back to my subscribers who take the time out of their precious day to watch me commenting back and engaging with you guys is the least I can do and it's something I genuinely love to do I love talking to you guys you know so much about me I feel like I know so much about you guys and it builds a relationship it builds builds your community it is my biggest pet peeve when I see influencers who never respond to their comments I'm like okay sorry Miss Kylie Jenner I'm sorry are you part of the royal family you don't have time to respond I'm going to be honest I'm Petty I've unfollowed people over this because like why and when I first started my YouTube I promised myself I will always read and engage with my subscribers cuz I still remember the day that I commented on one of my favorite YouTubers videos and she actually responded bro that made my whole week okay I was soy happy I try to remember that every time I read a comment that this can really make their day and it makes my day reading their comment last but not least be you be real be genuine be yourself you you watching this right now you have something unique to bring to the table there's no one else on earth that is exactly like you and if you want to start your YouTube channel the best thing you could do is be your most genuine authentic self I love my subscribers because I genuinely feel like I know them and they know me and that comes from being myself also people are not dumb okay they can tell if you're being fake or being real so just be yourself keep posting saying be consistent you got this and I believe in you so if you want to start your YouTube channel or you're on your journey of growing your YouTube channel I want you to comment down below right now so you know we can hype each other up and we can support each other check the comments I read all my comments also follow me on Instagram if you're a real one I love you guys so so much and I hope to catch you in my next video bye [Music] guys oh Tak right Jo ch