You can have 100,000 YouTube subscribers and not be making much money, or on the contrary, you could have 10,000 subscribers and be making bank. Today, I’m sharing my tips for beginners getting started on YouTube. Let’s go ahead and let’s get into it.

Five tips for beginners getting started on YouTube

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1. Have a content schedule

So my first tip when you are starting a YouTube channel before you even hit that record button is to have a content schedule. When you’re planning out your YouTube channel there are at a lot of things that are important. I get it. Equipment’s important, the set up’s important. The background, video thumbnails. All those things are really important, but the most important thing is the actual content, the video.

You want to get in the habit of creating videos consistently, and that may be every single week, that may be twice a week, that may even be biweekly. But you definitely wanna give yourself a schedule. What day are you going to post your YouTube videos? Are you gonna post them at a certain time?

Give yourself a content schedule and stick to that content schedule for at least six months.

It’s so much smarter to post videos on the same exact day at the same exact time, every single week because for one, your subscribers will get used to it. They’ll say, “Okay, I know Breonna Queen posts videos on Tuesday. I know she posts videos on Wednesday.” It kinda gets your audience in a habit of checking your videos ’cause they know your schedule.

Additionally, it’s gonna benefit the YouTube algorithm, because the YouTube algorithm is gonna say, “Okay, she uploads videos every single Tuesday at 2:00 PM” And trust me, YouTube rewards consistency.

I think the biggest thing with my channel, I have not always been consistent with my channel. There were years where I literally published like three videos, and that was it. And I do feel like I was penalized for that.

Definitely having a content schedule and sticking to that schedule at least six months, give yourself six months for anything, especially when it comes to YouTube ’cause YouTube videos, they can take a while to start picking up. Definitely give yourself a content schedule and stick to that content schedule for at least six months.

2. SEO your videos

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” YouTube is the second largest search engine, followed by Google. What does that mean? Have you ever Googled something and YouTube videos popped up? That’s the crème de la crème. That’s where you wanna be. You want people to find your videos even when they’re not even on YouTube. You definitely want to SEO your videos.

Optimize your videos that they’re more likely to rank

You wanna create videos and you wanna optimize them so that they are more likely to show up in the search results for Google as well as YouTube. My biggest recommendation when it comes to SEOing your videos is through TubeBuddy.

I love TubeBuddy. I’ve been using TubeBuddy for about a year and a half now. I actually paid for the premium version so I can do keyword research. But you definitely want to optimize your videos that they’re more likely to rank.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you have a YouTube video and the YouTube video is all about Primer. If the title of your video is just primer then it’s not really optimized. People probably aren’t really gonna find it.

For one, that title is very boring. What about primer? Are you gonna be sharing how to use primer? Different types of primer, reviewing a primer? It’s very general, and it’s not really optimized.

However, if the title of your video is, “How to apply primer if you have oily skin” or “How to apply primer over 40” then you are really telling the YouTube algorithm what that video is about. And they’re more likely to put that in search results, so when someone types that in, they will find your videos. That is one example of really optimizing your videos.

Another SEO tip is you wanna optimize those descriptions down below. That is gold. You definitely want to add things in there. Add your social media profiles, tell what the video is about, provide links, do all of those things inside of your description as another way to tell the YouTube algorithm what your video is about. And then you can also do things like hashtags for your YouTube videos, as well as chapters.

As a new YouTuber, your biggest goal is to get more eyeballs on your content, and the best way to get more eyeballs on your content is by optimizing your videos so they show up. People are searching, they can find those videos.

3. Have a consistent brand and video delivery

I’ve already shared that you wanna create a content schedule. That content schedule is gonna help you be consistent, which is extremely important as a YouTuber, especially as a new YouTuber. Consistency is so important. But consistency is not just how much you post, it’s also in your delivery, what kind of videos do you deliver as well as your brand.

You wanna have a consistent brand. Your profile picture should preferably be a picture of you, if you are gonna be the YouTuber. If you are a company or it’s multiple people who are gonna be recording on that YouTube channel. And obviously you don’t have to but if it’s just you as the YouTuber, you definitely wanna have a picture of you, so people know it’s your channel.

YouTube can skyrocket your brand and you wanna make sure that your brand is on point, especially if you are trying to monetize your YouTube channel.

Additionally, you want your thumbnails to be consistent. If you look on my channel my thumbnails are pretty consistent, I use pink I use blocks and I have a certain font. If you click on my logo, my logo matches my website so you definitely want to have a consistent brand all the way through.

Brand consistency and brand cohesiveness is so important, as you build your brand because YouTube can skyrocket your brand and you wanna make sure that your brand is on point, especially if you are trying to monetize your YouTube channel.

4. Engage with your audience

There is nothing like going to a video and the person has like five subscribers two comments, and you ask a question and they never get back to you, engage with your audience. If you ask me a question I will try my best if I haven’t answered it already I will try my best to respond.

Respond to your comments, if someone asked a question, respond, ask your audience in the comment questions, what video do you wanna see next? Do you prefer this bed comforter in red or pink? Really engage with your audience. Love comments, thumb up comments, pin comments but you really wanna engage with your audience, your audience is everything.

Pay attention to the ones who thoroughly enjoy you, and like you and support you.

You wanna think of your audience like your community. When you start a YouTube channel you’re literally building up a community around you, and they watch your video so they can be either entertained, educated or empowered. So you wanna build a community, and you want to engage with your community. Don’t ignore your community, don’t be mean, don’t be nasty.

When I get nasty comments I honestly, I just delete them or I ignore them like I don’t even entertain that. Don’t be the person who only responds to negative comments, but when you get positive comments you don’t say anything, or when somebody asks you a question, you don’t say anything, but the minute someone says something nasty then you comment. Do not put your energy into that, pay attention to the ones who thoroughly enjoy you, and like you and support you.

5. You don’t need the best equipment to start your channel

You do not need the fanciest equipment, you don’t. When I first started my YouTube channel I recorded on a cracked iPhone up against some books up against the window. And that’s how I recorded my videos. Your equipment is not as important as you think it is.

You can build a great YouTube channel with just your phone and some natural sunlight. Do not feel like you have to buy all this fancy equipment when you’re starting your YouTube channel, it’s not necessary.

You really wanna focus on the content. And also if you buy a brand new fancy camera and you’re trying to record YouTube videos a lot of times you don’t even know how to work the camera. So now you have one more reason, one more excuse why you haven’t started that YouTube channel.

The quality of the content of the video is more important than the quality of the video.

So I highly recommend when you’re starting your YouTube channel, focus less on the equipment and more on the quality of the content. Are you providing content that is of value? Are you providing content people leave that video and again do they feel educated? Do they feel inspired? Do they feel entertained? It doesn’t matter if you have a great video quality and great sound quality and the video is trash. If the video is trash nobody’s gonna watch it.

The video quality is important, I’m not saying have a raggedy video cause we don’t wanna watch no video where it looks like you recorded from your 2006 Motorola razor flip phone we not gonna watch that. But the quality of the content of the video is more important than the quality of the video.

So that is another tip and I see a lot of people starting a YouTube channel, they get hung up on what kind of camera should I use, what kind of lights should I use, what kind of tripod, all this stuff and I’m like, “Sis, use what you got.” The most important thing is just taking action like that’s the biggest tip I can tell you is to just take action.

You don’t have to be consistently great, you just have to be great at being consistent.

Your First few videos, they may not be that great, but you can fix bad videos, what you cannot fix is inaction. The power is in doing it. The power is in actually hitting that record button, talking, saying what you gotta say, and then hitting that publish button so you just gotta do it. That’s the best advice that I can tell as a YouTuber. You know, you may feel like a bit overwhelmed, you may feel like weird because you’re kind of like exposing yourself to the world, I get it, been there.

Seriously, I’ve been there. I still have times like that where I’m like, “Oh, like this feels weird being on camera.” But you just have to do it, you just have to just do it and you consistently do it, and you don’t have to be consistently great, you just have to be great at being consistent.

So here are my tips for beginners getting started on YouTube. If you haven’t checked out my ultimate checklist to a YouTube channel go ahead and download that bundle below!