Launching a successful YouTube channel: A complete guide from start to finish.

Arcane Blog Post

Launching a successful YouTube channel: A complete guide from start to finish.

Launching a successful YouTube channel: A complete guide from start to finish.

 

Understanding the system to get your videos more views.

Planning your Videos

Pick an Audience and Listen to Them

Every successful YouTube channel appeals to specific audiences, not necessarily segmented by demographics, but psychographics. For example, online gaming-based giants like PewDiePie and Markiplier have created content for audiences of all ages who are fans of video games and comedy.

Part of this audience is younger and likely don’t have the authority to make their own video game purchases, so they prefer to live vicariously through other people playing and laughing at the silly style of comedy that is also targeted at their group. Others just appreciate the comedy or watch the content for tips on how to play. It is important to pick an audience and understand why they would want to watch your content.

 

Loyalty is so strong, that fans of these channels will comment or even buy specific games that they want their favourite personality to play. It’s so important to interact with your audience that YouTube has recently implemented a polling system allowing creators to ask questions directly to their audience instead of scanning through thousands of comments.

Side note: PewDiePie

PewDiePie is the most successful YouTuber of all time with over 57 million subscribers (if his subscribers formed a country, it would be the 24th biggest in the world). The thing that makes PewDiePie ultra successful is that, much like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, the content grows with the viewer. Both Harry Potter and PewDiePie’s content has evolved as the audience grows more mature, addressing themes of race and sexuality among other adult content.

PewDiePie used to make videos playing games like Happy Wheels, but has now incorporated more serious games as well as commenting on world events. This understanding of his audience has meant that, despite several controversies, his fans have not wavered in their engagement and loyalty.

What Should my Videos be About?

It’s important to do something new and unique, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t be inspired by others. If you find a certain type of content appealing on YouTube, you can take it and make it your own by adding your own flair or that little extra idea that you think was missing from the original. It is important to do your research on what is popular on YouTube right now and appeal to gaps in that space. There’s a great example below:

Collaborate

YouTubers will often make videos with other creators to bounce ideas and cross-promote content on their channels. One popular tactic is splitting the video into two parts, where one channel will post part 1 of the video, then ask the viewers to go to the other channel to watch the exciting conclusion.

Appeal to YouTube’s Algorithms

Briefly discussed later, your video descriptions should appeal to YouTube’s algorithms for keywords, but there are also algorithms for videos themselves. YouTube wants advertisers to be happy and for people to spend as much time on the site as possible, so you should cater your videos accordingly.

This doesn’t necessarily mean making longer videos, as a 30-second video watched for the whole 30 seconds will rank higher than a 10-minute video watched for 1 minute. As well, the site heavily favours engagement in their algorithm, which is why many creators ask their fans to hit the like button or comment below.

Making your Videos

High Quality Content

Ensure production values match audience expectations — not too low quality or too high quality. If you make pranks or on-the-streetvideos, your production quality doesn’t need to be too high and might take away from the content. On the other hand, it you’re making videos about the movie industry, you want high-quality footage that attracts your filmmaker audience.

Promote Action After your Videos

Make sure your audience has a path to discover more of your content. Successful YouTubers use the last 30–60 seconds to provide multiple forms of interaction. This video with more than 8 million views (also pictured below) uses the last minute of the video to display his sources, but also 6 different conversion points to either subscribe to the channel, watch other videos right away, buy merchandise, or other cool interactions.

Posting your Video

Timing

Plan for consistent output of content rather than indulging in sporadic random acts of digital. Audiences love something to look forward to, so announcing a monthly, weekly, or even daily schedule will not only motivate you to make videos, but will appeal to your audience.

Thumbnails & Titles

Thumbnails and titles act like billboards to help viewers decide to watch your videos. Well-designed thumbnails and titles can attract more fans to your channel, encourage viewers to watch through your videos because they know what to expect, and make your content appealing for a broad range of advertisers.

Keywords in your Descriptions

YouTube is one of the largest search engines in the world, and writing descriptions with keywords can help viewers find your videos more easily through search. Do the same with tags!

Promote your own videos

Self-promotion is nothing to be ashamed of! Make something you’re proud to share and show your friends on social media. Posting on your social media (or getting an influencer to post it on theirs) is a great way to get viewers to start spreading your video because all social media platforms have some sort built-in sharing button.

Jimmy Fallon does it for every single video!

Be Persistent

After posting for 10 years, YouTuber Adam Neely has hit it big, now collecting over 1 million views per month. These numbers are especially impressive considering the fact that his channel focuses on music theory, which is quite a niche topic. Not everyone takes 10 years to become popular, but it is crucial not to give up when your content isn’t getting viewed. Adam’s monthly views are shown below:

It’s important as a content creator that you continue to plan carefully, refine your videos, and experiment with different ideas until you hit gold. Creators will often form brand new channels or a series based on a popular YouTube video. The aforementioned Game Grumps have multiple series’ running at once, appealing to multiple audiences. If a series idea doesn’t go according to plan, they can listen to the comments and adjust the content or completely phase it out and introduce a new series.

 

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