How to Start a YouTube Channel: 4 Top Tips for 2022

Have you decided to start a YouTube channel in 2022? Perhaps you already have a channel, but it needs a content or branding refresh? Here are the best tips for being a success from the start.

#1 Decide What YouTube Success Looks Like to You

Let’s start at the very beginning. What does success look like to you as a YouTube creator? That’s important to know, even at the top level. If you have a sense of direction it will define your content strategy from the beginning. 

There’s no right or wrong reason to become a YouTube creator. You may want to start publishing to:

• Make money from AdSense or brand deals
• Share your story with the world
• Document a subject close to you
• Teach viewers about a particular subject
• Satisfy a creative itch
• Work with other creators
• Vlog your adventures

There are many other reasons to become a YouTuber, and all are valid. If you can define some goals at the start, you’ll have a good focus from the beginning. You can re-evaluate your goals at any time.

Do you need more information when it comes to being a YouTube creator in your favorite niche? Take a look at our video below:

#2 Think About What Style of Creator You Want to Be

When you start or restart your YouTube journey, consider what style of presenter you want to be. It’s not only the content that you publish that will generate views and subscribers; it’s also your presenting style.

Here’s an example. Perhaps you’re a beauty creator, and you want to unbox or review the latest palette from Charlotte Tilbury. Thousands of other creators will publish a YouTube video about this product, so how do you differentiate your video? In this situation, you have three fantastic opportunities. You can be:

• The first
• The best
• Different

So what does that mean? If you want to be the first, you need to get on that brand’s PR list as soon as you can. You’ll be ahead of the game and create content before or on the launch date. 

If you want to be the best, you may be a creator who takes a deep dive into a product or service. In this example, you could be very thorough with ingredient analysis and cost-per-gram. Perhaps even play around with the palette swatches on different skin tones or under different lights.

When it comes to being different, you can take this in many directions. Maybe you’re someone who does ASMR with a beauty product; perhaps you’re someone who destroys the makeup; perhaps you’re a male beauty blogger or someone who only reviews vegan products or products from South Korea. 

Spend some time identifying what makes YOU unique. Choosing a style that you are comfortable with and can maintain will help you stand out from the crowd in your field.

For example, ‘Lisa Monique Beauty’ focuses on make-up tips for women over 50. She has found a specific niche to create content around, and with nearly 94,000 subscribers and 3.6M views, it’s working for her! This is her most viewed video to date.

#3 Start Publishing to Your YouTube Channel

It may sound like an obvious thing to say, but you have to create content and publish it. That is what distinguishes a YouTube creator from a YouTube viewer. So many people never make it past this step because they ideate and overthink all the things they’re going to do but never actually do any of them. 

If the thing stopping you is that you’re not sure which category or niche to create content for, then you can put off that decision until you’re clear about it. 

Many creators experiment with different types of topics at first, while others go very deep into one particular topic to try and build their authority faster. 

Both methods are effective, but if you’re putting off creating, you shouldn’t focus as much on the niche as you should about getting videos published. This does not mean that niching down is a bad idea, especially if you are a brand, a business, or a creator going after YouTube Search as your primary traffic source. 

Many new channels will focus on search-based, how-to, evergreen types of content, and that’s fine. The main thing is to start creating and publishing sooner rather than later.

Creator Tip: Sit down and write down as many video ideas as possible. This way, you can choose from a list that you’ve already curated to decide which one is most exciting to you. Then make that video. 

If you use TubeBuddy, you can access our unique ‘Video Topic Planner’ feature to scope out content ideas too! Just open your TubeBuddy dashboard and click on ‘Video Topic Planner’ in the drop-down menu. It’s a real-life virtual post-it note!

With this tool, you can jot down ideas around topics for future content, like titles, descriptions, other videos that inspire you, etc. The great thing is that this feature also syncs with our mobile app, so it couldn’t be easier if you’re on the go and you want to capture a new video idea.

Creator Tip: You’ll find a potential wealth of video ideas in your comments. You can cut and paste these into the Video Topic Planner for future reference.

#4 Get to Know All About YouTube

If you want to master the platform, you need to know the platform. That means you should understand some of the basics like best practices for uploading and optimizing, copyright, and how to stay on the right side of YouTube’s Community Guidelines. You’ll want to learn all about analytics and metrics too. 

How to Start a YouTube Channel in 2022

We hope the tips above have given you the confidence and inspiration to create your first channel or even refresh one, so it’s more aligned with your interests and audience. 

Stay tuned for additional posts from TubeBuddy that will teach you all the basics about how to start a YouTube channel – and more!