How to become a YouTuber and get paid: 13 tips for 2023
Social media experts, professional linguists, and motivational speakers around the world agree: You can’t spell “YouTube”without “you.”If you want to start your career on Youtube – just for fun or to make some serious money – here are the steps to follow.
What is a youtuber?
A YouTuber is a person who creates and publishes content for the YouTube video sharing platform.
But besides being a common platform, Youtubers themselves differ from each other in the extreme. YouTubers come in a variety of ages, nationalities, education levels, careers, and camera qualities. Some YouTubers post just for fun, as a hobby or part-time job, while others make it a full-time career.
Anyone who posts can be called a youtuber, but the title usually means someone who posts regularly on the platform. As with many social media (and also in the case of cake), consistency is key.
How much money do youtubers make?
There is no exact data on how much YouTubers earn on average because there is no such thing as an average YouTuber.
YouTubers make money in many ways. A successful YouTuber can make money from:
- Advertising – Joining the YouTube Partner Program
- Affiliate Selling – Become an affiliate partner of a brand that sells products or services online.
- Merchandise – Sell your own merchandise such as mugs, t-shirts, and toys.
- Crowdfunding is joining a site like Patreon or using online tipping services.
- Licensing – licensing your content to the media
- Sponsoring – creating sponsored content for brands.
Most of the highest paid YouTubers use more than one of these methods to make money from their video content.
Looking at YouTube Partner Program revenue alone, YouTube content creators earn an average of $18 per 1,000 views. This means that a YouTuber who gets 100,000 views a month is earning a very modest salary of $1,800.
How to Become a Youtuber: 13 Steps (with Pictures)
Every minute, 694,000 hours of video are streamed on YouTube. Here is how you can do it.
1. Define your niche
Saying you want to be a YouTuber is like saying you want to be a scientist (although your parents will probably be more impressed with one than the other). The first thing you need to decide: what? There are makeup YouTubers, family YouTubers, unboxing YouTubers, knitting YouTubers, TV review YouTubers, science YouTubers (take it mom and dad). If you can think of it, there is a niche.
A niche is a field of expertise and narrowing it down will help you define your target audience and make it easier to find content.
One of the best ways to choose a niche is to think about what you enjoy – you want to create content that you enjoy. This should be fun! Here are some examples.
Celebrity interviews are a popular type of content on Youtube, but First We Feast brings a spicy twist to the traditional Q&A with its Hot Ones series.
This YouTuber Thiago Catarino exclusively reviews Lego sets so buyers know exactly what they’re getting (and how fun it will be to build).
The beauty, skincare, and makeup scene is thriving on Youtube, and the Huda Beauty channel has found its niche in makeup tutorials.
2. Define your “why”
I hope you become a YouTuber not only because you like the sound of your own voice – that’s what podcasting is for. Determining the purpose or value of your videos for viewers is an important initial step.
Answering the question “why”or determining what value your Youtube channel will have does not have to be value in the usual sense of the word. Of course, there are plenty of channels that offer expert knowledge, product reviews, how-to videos, tutorials, and other more traditional “whys”. But your “why”might just make people laugh.
Viral daddy Rob Kenny , what should I do? The channel was launched with the aim of creating simple instructional videos for tasks traditionally taught by dads: how to think how to use the level, how to pump gas and how to fish. Now more than 4 million “children”(subscribers) are studying with him. Why? Because he teaches basic skills in an accessible way.
On the other side of Youtube, we have Bad Lip Reading , a channel that dubs silly stuff about NFL games, Broadway productions, American politics, and more. Why? Because it’s funny.
3. Know your audience
Chances are you won’t get thousands of Youtube subscribers or millions of views overnight. But no matter the size of your audience, it’s important to know who you’re creating videos for and what kind of content they like.
Ask yourself:
- Who will watch my videos?
- How old are they?
- What is their job?
- What time of day will they watch the video?
- Why are they watching them?
- What do they get by watching them?
Questions like these help you create what is called an audience image. An audience persona is a character you create that represents the characteristics of your ideal audience.
Ms. Rachel’s audience is kids and she’s an expert at creating engaging and fun videos for kids (and on the other hand her audience is also adults – the ones in charge of the iPad – so she has a healthy dose of education along with with charming songs).
4. Know your competitors
Who are you against? Or, to put it less aggressively: who can you learn from?
Identify your competitors – other authors who are in the same or similar niche as you – and get inspired by their strategies.
They can use something like this:
- Video effects (such as visual effects and sound effects)
- Video formats (e.g. Q&A, expert interviews, stories)
- Locations (e.g. studio, outdoors, on set)
- Sets (e.g. home, workplace, design sets, animated)
But they will likely differ in their branding, presentation styles, and more.
For example, Sand Tagious makes an ASMR video using kinetic sand in a very clean, sterilized environment…
… and ASMR SOAP makes similar videos, but with different stuff (and gets a little messier). Apologies in advance for the ASMR rabbit hole you’re about to fall into.
5. Create a YouTube channel
Did you scroll down to this section without reading the first four steps? Be honest. You are only lying to yourself. Finding your niche, determining the why, knowing your audience, and understanding your competitors are essential to creating a seamless channel experience. Get back there!
Okay, now that we’re all in the know, it’s time to start your Youtube channel. Here’s how to do it.
First, you will need:
- Channel name
- Logo
- Banner image (ideally 2560×1440 pixels)
- Color scheme
You can then use these resources to create your YouTube channel page by following these simple steps. (Psst is just a quick overview; see this guide for more detailed instructions.)
Create a Google account
Since YouTube is owned by Google, you need a Google account to get a YouTube account. If you don’t have a Google account yet, go to Google and enter some basic details.
Create a YouTube account
A YouTube account is included with your Google account. But you still need to set up a channel.
To do this, go to your YouTube account page on YouTube.com and click Create Channel. Just enter the name of your channel and you are in it.
Customize your channel page
You can customize many of the features of your channel page, including your name, logo, page banner, and channel information.
To create an eye-catching page, check out these free YouTube banner templates and make sure you:
- Fill out your channel description (also known as the “About”section)
- Use Consistent Branding
- Add a logo or high quality headshot
- Include contact information
6. Get the right camera, lighting and editing software
You don’t have to buy fancy equipment to become a successful YouTuber: in many cases, just shooting videos on your smartphone is enough. But if you’re planning to make a career out of your content, know that quality matters.
High quality video is more pleasing to the eye, looks more professional, and is perceived as more valuable than low quality video. If your audience sees that you are investing in your channel, they are more likely to invest their time (and possibly money) in you.
Get the best camera and lighting you can with the resources you have: This could mean buying a high-tech video camera and investing in professional lighting or shooting on an iPhone near a window (natural light is beautiful and accessible).
Also, editing software is a must for youtubers. Here are 10 amazing video editing software… and they’re all free.
7. Decide on a video style or aesthetic
Consistent branding goes a long way when it comes to Youtube or any social media for that matter. The choice of color palette, font, intro music, background, and other creative components for video thumbnails should be taken seriously.
It’s all about brand awareness. Ideally, your audience will be able to instantly identify that the video belongs to you.
I don’t want to brag, but Hootsuite’s branding is a great example: using a consistent color palette and font style makes every video look clean and professional .
So does YouTuber Loveactionalyssa, who uses many different fonts and colors but maintains the same aesthetic across all of her video thumbnails.
Source: YouTube
Food vloggers The Woks of Life also do a great job promoting their videos. They let the beautiful food shots speak for themselves, but use the same typeface and include their channel name on all the thumbnails.
Source: YouTube
8. Use CTA (calls to action)
A call to action encourages users to do something specific — like, like, subscribe to, and subscribe to your channel.
Encourage your viewers to keep watching your content by including calls to action (CTA) in your videos. You can do it:
- Include calls to action in video scripts
- Automate next steps using features such as playlists
- Adding cards and end screens to your videos
- Adding links to other popular content in the description of each video
Playlists, tooltips, and end screens are more advanced YouTube features, but they’re easy to learn (see the YouTube Creator Academy for instructions).
This is how the end screen with the clickable card looks like:
Source: YouTube
9. Design a content schedule (and use a content calendar)
You probably won’t go viral overnight, but posting regularly is one of the best ways to build your audience. Regular can mean daily, weekly, or monthly: whichever is best for you, your content, and your followers.
Posting regularly is made easier if you use a content calendar to plan and organize your videos. A content calendar or social media calendar is an overview of your upcoming social media posts (in this case, Youtube videos).
It can be organized as a spreadsheet, a Google calendar, or an interactive social media dashboard like Hootsuite.
The content calendar ensures you have a plan to follow and can be more consistent and more focused when you have a broader view of your content. Plus, being able to see (and show your boss) all of your scheduled social media posts and videos organized into one neat calendar is great!
10. Pay attention to Youtube analytics
Yes, it is important to find your niche and maintain a certain level of consistency. You want your audience to know on some level what to expect when they watch your channel. At the same time, do not be afraid to take risks and follow the results.
Try different video formats, lengths and approaches to your niche, and pay attention to your Youtube analytics. Analytics will give you a detailed analysis of how successful each of your videos is. If one of your videos is an extraordinary success, build on it and make similar content.
11. Plan Your Videos Ahead
Remember that audience persona we talked about earlier? This is where it really comes in handy.
If you know who your viewers are, you can find out when they will search for content on the Internet – what days of the week and what time of day.
You can then use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule your posts ahead of time so they hit when your ideal audience is active.
12. Promote your channel on other social media profiles.
Youtube users don’t just use Youtube – in fact, 99% of Youtube users are also on other social media platforms. 79% of Youtube users use Facebook and 78% use Instagram. This means that Facebook and Instagram are great places to post about your Youtube channel and are part of a holistic Youtube marketing strategy.
TikTok is a fast-growing short video sharing platform that, on the one hand, is a competitor to Youtube. But on the other hand, TikTok is a great way to promote videos on Youtube: you can post a clip on TikTok and invite users to visit your Youtube channel to watch the full video.
For example, SB Mowing ‘s Spencer makes super-satisfying videos for free of him cleaning overgrown yards. He often posts part of the project on TikTok…
@sbmoving I DROVE by this DISASTER Lawn — The HOMEOWNER was SHOCKED when I TRANSFORMED it #edging #sbmowing #cleanup #asmr #satisfying #edginglawn #cleaningtiktok #overgrownyard #asmrvideo #satisfyingvideo #mowing
…and then invite viewers to go to his Youtube channel to watch the full video.
13. Engage with your audience
Like any other social platform, YouTube prioritizes engagement. So, when you start adding content to your channel, you need a plan for how to keep track of the comments.
As your channel expands, you may find that you need help managing all the comments you receive. Using a tool like Hootsuite can take the pressure off.
14. Join the YouTube Partner Program
The YouTube Partner Program is how regular YouTubers get access to special features on the platform.
You don’t need to be an affiliate to make money on YouTube (you just need to set up an AdSense account and get views), but it’s much easier to be an affiliate.
YouTube Partners have access to multiple sources of income, not just video ads, but also YouTube Premium subscription fees, as well as features that directly touch the wallets of your loyal fans, such as Super Chat, channel memberships, and the merchandise shelf.
Here’s how to join the program once your channel is live.
Note. To join the program, you need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months.
Step 1: Set up an AdSense account
Follow the official YouTube guide to AdSense accounts.
Step 2: Explore New Monetization Features
Each monetization channel has different requirements. For example:
- Ad Revenue: To earn ad revenue, you must be at least 18 years of age and create advertiser -friendly content. Basically, the less controversial your videos are, the more YouTube advertisers will be comfortable placing ads on them, and the more money you will make.
- YouTube Premium Income: If a YouTube Premium subscriber watches your video, you get a portion of their subscription fee. (It’s automatic, which is nice.)
- Channel Membership: In order to sell channel memberships to your subscribers (i.e. your fans agree to pay you an additional amount), you must be at least 18 years old and have over 30,000 subscribers.
- Product Shelf: To sell products from the YouTube Product Shelf, you must be at least 18 years old and have at least 10,000 subscribers.
- Super Chat Payments: If you want your fans to be able to pay to have their messages highlighted in your chats during live broadcasts, you must be at least 18 years old (and live in a country where this feature is offered).
Step 3. Submit for current checks
According to YouTube, your channel will meet higher standards. In addition to the YouTube Partner Program Rules, you must follow the Community Guidelines. Not to mention staying on the right side of copyright law.
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