How to Start a YouTube Channel and Make Money: Beginner’s Guide

With an exceptional strategy and pure dedication, you can turn YouTube into a legitimate career-building platform. People are making tons of money producing YouTube videos every day. If you’re wondering how to start a YouTube channel and make money from it, then you’ve come to the right place!

Important Note: YouTube is big. In order to learn how to get money from YouTube, you must understand the platform better. Thus, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to start a YouTube channel and money online. Stick around to find all about YouTube ad money, monetization, YouTube channel earnings, etc.

Why Choose YouTube?

You already know videos play a vital role in your business. So, it’s time you started planning where to publish those videos as well.

Yes; there are loads of websites out there for publishing videos online, but you need to ask yourself, “are they even worth it?”

We all use YouTube as a primary platform for watching videos online, be it cat videos, fashion vlogs, sports clips, cartoons, tech reviews, cooking tips, you name it. Remember, YouTube has been in the game for years, and improvements are being made continuously to meet our needs.

Here’s why YouTube is the best video sharing platform:

• It’s the “Google” of all types of videos: Google is the king of search engines, and we all know that. And guess what? Google owns YouTube. Now, that explains why you should consider YouTube over anything else.
• Millions of viewers: This is no joke! Tons of people watch YouTube videos on a regular basis. There isn’t a specific number since it changes almost every day. However, if you’re a business, you need all those views, and YouTube is known to always stay a few steps ahead in terms of hosting videos.
• Free marketing: Everyone loves free marketing. Once you start uploading videos on YouTube, you’ll see how easy it is to insert links and boost your website’s traffic. Remember, having a video can help to generate more traffic to your blog.
• Advertisements: YouTube lets you advertise without spending a dollar—more into this later.

Now, all this sounds really great, but how to start a YouTube channel and make money?

Well, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to create a YouTube channel. Just head over to YouTube.com, sign in to your Google account, and boom! You now have your official YouTube channel.

Okay, since we’ve got this out of the way, how do you get money from YouTube? To answer that, you first need to understand what makes a successful YouTuber.

What Type of Content Is Popular on YouTube?

Honestly, you can make anything and become famous on YouTube, as long as you’re creative and passionate about what you’re doing. People watch a wide variety of videos on YouTube. Here’s a list of popular YouTube video categories:

•  Singing

People love listening to good music and are always looking for new voices that can strike a chord in their hearts. There are tons of YouTube channels that feature creators who either produce original songs or make covers of others’ music. And yes; they’re all making money doing so!

•  Teaching

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Nowadays, whenever we’re in doubt, we simply look for the answer on the internet. If you’re good at a subject like Mathematics, English, Science, or anything, you can start sharing your knowledge on YouTube. People will appreciate your help so much.

•  Tutorials

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Similar to teaching, if you’re good at doing/making something interesting, consider making tutorial videos on it. The “how-to” videos are really popular on YouTube.

•  Fashion Advice

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If you have a good clothing sense and would like to share your experience and tips with the world, feel free to go with this particular niche. Remember, not everyone has a good fashion sense, and those who don’t will surely appreciate your work. You can help your subscribers look gorgeous, and they’ll thank you for it.

•  Make-Up Tutorials

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There are so many make-up gurus out there on YouTube. James Charles, Tati Westbrook, Manny MUA, Jaclyn Hill, Laura Lee, and many other popular make-up artists produce incredibly fun and engaging make-up tutorials that people find helpful. They all make a large amount of money from YouTube.

•  Cooking Videos

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“Can I make money on YouTube by making cooking videos?” Of course, you can! Cooking videos attract tons of viewers on YouTube. Everyone loves delicious food, and they enjoy going through the best cooking tips online.

•  Pet Videos

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If you have a dog or cat and have a great time with their funny little activities, you can share those videos and entertain your viewers. Furthermore, you can upload content discussing how to take care of pets.

•  Comedy Videos

If you like to do mimicry or crack jokes, you can easily attract a good amount of followers on your channel.

•  Tech Videos

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Here are more you can try:

• Product Reviews
• How To Tutorials and Guides
• Video Game Walkthroughs
• Vlogs
• Celebrity Gossips
• Unboxing Videos
• Comedy or Sketch Videos
• Shopping Sprees
• Prank Videos
• Parodies

As a marketer, any of the categories mentioned above can come in handy. If you want to know how YouTubers make money, it’s pretty simple. They simply pick their favorite niche and give everything in their power to produce quality content.

There are plenty of other YouTube channel ideas out there. But none of that means anything if you don’t know what YOU are good at. Find your comfort zone and start working on your content strategy.

Make A Content Strategy for YouTube

You already know how to make a YouTube channel, and you’ve also chosen a suitable niche, but without a content strategy, your channel will do no good on YouTube.

First of all, you must create videos that are worth sharing. Because if people don’t like and share your videos, your channel won’t be visible to a broader audience. Here’s how you can create a perfect content strategy for YouTube:

• Keep consistency: You need to be consistent with your video-making strategy on YouTube. All big-name YouTubers keep consistency in their channel. You need to figure out how many videos to upload each week and when to upload them. YouTubers like PewDiePie, SSSniperWolf, Philip Defranco, and Emergency Awesome upload videos on a daily basis, while vloggers like David Dobrik upload only once or twice a week. What this indicates is that you don’t have to upload daily; you just need to be consistent with your uploads.
• Build a community: The best thing about YouTube is that it lets you build a sense of community for all brands, with each YouTuber having the ability to create a loyal fanbase. Read comments, reply to them whenever possible, listen to your audience, and ask them what they’d like to see on the next video. In short, communicate and interact with your audience as much as you can.
• Make a series of videos: Consider creating a series of YouTube videos. This will keep your audience hooked to your channel. Big YouTubers like MKBHD, Dude Perfect, PewDiePie, and Felipe Neto utilize this nifty strategy to keep their viewers coming for more.
• Collaborate: Collaborating with other YouTubers can help you come up with some excellent content ideas. For example, YouTube star Shane Dawson recently collaborated with Eugenia Cooney (another fellow YouTuber) on a video that took the internet by storm. What collaboration does is allow you to attract the audience of the person you’re collaborating with and vice versa. It’s a win-win situation.
• Optimize for search: Your videos need to be visible to searchers. If they cannot find you upon their searches, then it’s bad news for your channel. So, if you want to rank higher on YouTube, you must use specific keywords in the title, a well-crafted description, relevant tags, etc. Thumbnails also attract a lot of viewers, so make sure you have one customized for each video.

Once you have a solid content strategy for your channel, it’s time to utilize the best tools available at your disposal.

What Are Some Must-Have Tools for YouTube?

The next step on the “How to Start a YouTube Channel and Make Money” guide is using the best available tools for creating robust YouTube videos. With these tools, you can enhance your SEO and make the entire process of creating videos much easier.

•  Video Editor

Discussing video software will require a dedicated article of its own. But since this post is solely focused on YouTube videos, we’ll keep it brief.

So, basically, you need a powerful video editing software in order to create high-quality videos. From free to paid, there are plenty of options to choose from. You can go with VEGAS, all of which are excellent video editing software.

•  Photo Editor

Sometimes videos need pictures, and for having the perfect image opt for a great photo editing app. If you have a collection of pictures that need extra polish, Fotor’s one-click filters are the easiest way to make those images look their best. While it’s no full-fat Photoshop replacement, it’s incredibly easy-to-use.

Fotor is a great online photo editor and collage maker. It’s also a solid desktop application for image editing with RAW conversion support. There are several versions of Fotor. You can opt for one of the online versions, or download the desktop version for offline photo editing.

For RAW conversion support, go with the PC version. On the other hand, the online version is great for light JPEG editing tasks. Upgrading to the Pro version will enable more additional features.

With Fotor’s graphic design tool, you can make eye-catching Youtube Channel Art and thumbnails in just a few clicks. It provides abundant templates for YouTube under various themes, like gaming, music, food, travel, and more. This allows you to design some of the most attractive content that will boost your views quickly.

•  Google Keyword Planner

As already mentioned, keywords are necessary for YouTube videos. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find keywords your audience is searching for.

Using them on your video title and description will boost the traffic on your YouTube channel. Remember, if you cannot rank higher in YouTube searches, you won’t be able to make money from YouTube views.

•  Social Blade

Social Blade can track various statistics on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch. It’s effective for enhancing your social marketing tactics. You can track your statistics, as well as your competitors’. Here’s an example of analytics from PewDiePie’s channel on the Social Blade platform:

As you can see, it displays the date, subscribers, video views, and estimated earnings. And this is just a basic scan. The tool is capable of performing more in-depth analyzing. So, consider giving it a try!

•  YouTube Studio

YouTube Studio is a must-have tool for creators. It lets you manage your YouTube channel from mobile devices. This is helpful for those who take their YouTube profession seriously and are always editing on the go.

You won’t always be near your PC. So, every time you need to edit something on your channel, this nifty app can come in handy. It lets you monitor your channel’s performance with real-time analytics. You can also filter and/or respond to comments.

Now, let’s talk about real business.

How Do People Make Money on YouTube?

If you made it this far, it’s safe to say that you’ve successfully created a YouTube channel, picked a great niche, and built a solid strategy for your channel. Now, without wasting another minute of yours, let’s show you how to monetize YouTube videos to make money!

•  Qualifying for Monetization

Your YouTube channel must have at least a thousand subscribers and four thousand hours of watch time in the last twelve months. Only then can you apply for YouTube monetization.

Don’t worry!

Once you have implemented a solid SEO strategy, you’ll start hitting those big numbers in no time. Just try not to trick the system because your application for monetization could be rejected due to your channel being involved in “view4view” or “sub4sub” activities.

•  Enabling Monetization

It’s only a 4-step process:

• First, go to “My Channel”
• From there, click on the blue button labeled as “YouTube Studio (beta)”
• Next, locate the menu and head over to Other Features > Monetization
• And finally, hit the “Start” button in your Monetization

And you’re done! You have accepted the terms and conditions of the YouTube Partner. Now, all you need to do is sign up for Google AdSense. If you already have an account, simply connect it, and that will enable you to start making money from YouTube via advertisements.

•  Use YouTube to Generate Traffic to Your Blog

Do you have an eCommerce website? Well, then you must need traffic!

A lot of the sites were crushed by Google’s Hummingbird, Penguin, and Panda updates. Did the same happen to you? If so, your traffic is definitely hurting. Luckily, you can use your YouTube channel not only to drive traffic but also boost it.

Try repurposing your older content as videos besides making new videos. In your video description, link to your website to make sure viewers click on it so that you can transfer the YouTube traffic to your eCommerce site.

•  Paid Sponsorships

This is an absolute banger for generating money on YouTube. Paid sponsorships are basically when brands offer you a reasonable price for mentioning their product in your video. It might be a hard goal to achieve, but if you can engage with a few companies, you’ll be making a lot of money. It’s worth the effort.

•  Affiliates

Similar to Paid Sponsorships, except less money. But the best thing is, getting into affiliate programs is easier compared to direct sponsorships. For example, sign up for any affiliate program, and you’ll get a special discount code your followers can use while buying. Each time someone uses the code to purchase something from that company, you’ll receive a small payment. You can mention the code in your video or the description.

•  Merchandise

People are crazy about merch, especially the younger audience. However, you first need to make sure your audience is willing to buy your merch. Because if not, then it will be a waste of money. Consider asking them what products they would like to purchase through your videos or in the comment section (make sure to pin your comment). Both Jake Paul and Logan Paul have made millions selling merch to their loyal fans.

Wrapping Up

If you have the skills to create amazing videos and are looking for ways to learn how to start a YouTube channel and make money from it, then you need to master YouTube marketing. Since you made it this far, you must have understood the monetization process of YouTube and how YouTubers make money online.

That said, start your YouTube journey today and become a successful YouTuber! Also, feel free to share this tutorial with your friends and leave us a comment below if you have any queries.