Seeking advice on starting a YouTube channel
Hi Hackers!
I've been thinking for quite some time to start a youtube channel, but I never went through with it. I consider myself a great mentor and I'd like to take that to another level. What advice can you give me on starting? I asked the Twitter community to vote on topics they'd like me to make videos on. I'd appreciate your opinion on the topic, and all your advices on starting a YouTube channel will definitely help me!
do whatever you feel the most comfortable with to start! good luck!
I'd say get started as quickly as possible. You may want polished videos or to edit, but also that may be what's holding you back.
Perhaps livestreaming is better to get started, or uploading a loom video.
Often what holds us back are small hesitations at the start of a seemingly huge mountain.
Make the mountain into a molehill, just start up loom (free for 25 videos) and upload a few of those.
Less risk, and you can always produce higher quality videos later once you know what YouTube audiences like.
Also it's just a suggestion, not always the right way to do things.
Thanks for the reply @AndrewKamphey. It does make sense. By the way, do you think the intro matters? Every successful youtuber has a “signature hello”, should I think about that or let it roll?
Ur intro should be the least of your worries if you havent posted yet a video yet.
Hey Lazar!
Fellow YouTuber of about 2.5 years here 👋🏻. My channel: https://youtube.com/c/webcrunch
To YouTube you have to believe in consistency and love hitting publish. It's a lot of work to build things, record, edit and distribute so I guess you need to ask yourself if you're up for that workload?
I'd also ask yourself what your goals are with it.
Niching down will help grow an audience faster though you don't have to go wild here. I spent a lot of time on Ruby on Rails content and it was really successful in getting a new audience.
There are caveats with this approach of course. Ruby on Rails isn't as popular as it once was so the amount of modern content on YouTube was rather sparse. I had a bit of an advantage. Branching out to new topics won't be as easy if you're highly niched but it is possible. I'm starting to do this at the moment in efforts to expand my future product offerings.
I make maybe a couple hundred dollars a month in ads. That's combined with my blog (https://web-crunch.com) and YouTube channel. You won't get rich from it if that's what you're after. Selling products to your audience is probably the best "business" in it. Sponsored content is becoming more normalized as well.
Always happy to talk shop! Hit me up if you want andy@web-crunch.com.
Cheers 🍻
Hey @justalever!
I think I watched some of your videos. Your channel is super cool.
As of my goals, honestly money is my latest priority. I like to start a YT channel to demonstrate my coding and designing abilities, to attract potential clients for my company, possibly to build a name for myself in the tech community, and of course, to educate and entertain developers and designers.
I don't think about money, at least at the beginning, because I don't think I can even monetize anything because my country's not on any supported list of payment providers, like PayPal or Stripe. If my channel takes off, I could look into building a full course and set a price on it, or something like that. But for now, money's not on the horizon.
My expertise is Headless CMSes, React, and UX/UI Design, and that's what I would like to preach. I know the market is too saturated with these kinds of videos, but there's a huge demand for them.
I'm not sure if I should invest right away in a microphone (i'm thinking Rode NT-USB), or wait to see how the channel picks up. I know that a quality microphone and camera contribute to a better channel growth, but what if I don't have what it takes? I have zero experience at this, and I wouldn't want to be stuck with a few hundred dollars worth of equipment and broken dreams 😂 What do you think?
Thank you for taking your time to reply. I really appreciate it!
I have and use the same Rode!
I'd agree maybe start small and see how you like it. I wouldn't worry about putting yourself out there. Share what you want to share and experiment. Have fun with it!