How to Start & Grow a YouTube Channel in 2024 *Zero to 200k My Journey*

if there's only one thing you take away from this entire video it's that starting a YouTube channel can completely change your life and there's no better time than the present moment to get started [Music] so maybe you finally decided to take the plunge and start that YouTube channel this year today we'll be going over all the golden nuggets of advice that I wish that I had had at the start there's actually so much more to growing a YouTube channel than initially meets the eye so in this video we will break down a practical roadmap to help you start or continue your YouTube Journey this channel recently hit 200 000 subscribers after one and a half years of uploading videos which actually kind of blows my mind a little bit and it's completely changed my life in terms of mindset finances friendships and more I've made friends with Incredible people from all across the world and I've learned to develop my own voice and creativity if you're interested in key advice for starting and growing a YouTube channel or you're just curious about my own journey and the emotional Technical and managerial skills that it takes then keep watching this video if you're new here my name is Izzy I'm a Cambridge graduate and a doctor working in London firstly I'll talk about why now is the best time to start your YouTube channel and also the overarching principles of how blowing up on YouTube even happens secondly I'll break down the five key areas of advice and skills that you need to build up in order to be able to start and grow as successful YouTube channel this will include some practical advice that you can literally apply immediately from things like handling the emotional rollercoaster of doing YouTube finding your Niche maintaining engagement and figuring out what gear and equipment you need Etc thirdly I'll go over my own Journey with YouTube in terms of growth and monetization finally I'll answer some questions that you guys ask me on Instagram and Discord feel free to follow me over there if you'd like to get involved with this kind of thing in the future so this video is a bit of a three in one of YouTube advice a silver Creator award unboxing and also talking about my personal journey to 200 000 subscribers let's get into it so why should you start a YouTube channel now there's literally no time like the present to start video as a format is blowing up across all platforms including YouTube tiktok Instagram especially shorts but also long form content there are 22. 8 billion monthly visits to the site and 1 billion hours of video content watched every single day on YouTube which is actually insane like I can't even get my head around that number of hours videos overtaking traditional formats of information such as newspapers was reading traditional teaching and traditional entertainment in terms of its rate of growth one thing you may have heard commonly is that it's already saturated but people were saying that literally 10 years ago and if you ever considered doing it it's worth giving it a shot because you'll never know if you don't try and I'm a firm believer in living life Without Regrets so once we've decided we want to start a YouTube channel how do we actually blow up we see all these videos going viral getting millions and millions of views how can we achieve that ourselves well there's actually only two things that you need to achieve if you want to blow up on YouTube or any of the other video platforms if I'm honest if you boil it down to the basics growing on YouTube takes only two things you need to get people to click on your videos and then you need to get them to keep watching your videos if you can do those two things successfully then you're literally onto like a winner winner chicken dinner combination and the algorithm will notice and your videos will blow up of course the tricky part is actually getting those two things to happen our attention is our most valuable resource so of course when somebody's watching a video they want to be getting value back from it either through education entertain tutorials Comfort information Etc so let's go through how we can optimize for both of these by going through the five key areas of advice the first area is the content value and the myth of the niche firstly let's address niches because I know that you guys are thinking about it everybody when they think about starting YouTube is thinking oh what should I make videos about finding your Niche before you start is a little bit of a myth in my opinion there's a few ways that you can go about this if you really have a specific Niche that you really want to go for then of course gun free but if you're not sure what your Niche is immediately you don't need to force yourself to Niche down artificially before you even start I sure didn't and I didn't know what I was going to make videos about when I started my advice on this is to start making videos about topics that you enjoy or interested in and your Niche will find you after you've tried out a few topics you'll gain a better understanding of what works well for you in terms of what you enjoy making and also what performs well in terms of the algorithm and the audience and what they want to see from you it's almost like this ikigai Venn diagram of what you love making what you're actually good at making and what the world really needs to see from you and what the audience is wanting to see the main thing here is to not stop reviewing and reflecting on how your videos are doing and what kind of topics you're enjoying but don't stop actually doing the thing if you're really stuck then one thing that can be helpful is instead of thinking of your Niche think of your audience and often the audience that you would be targeting is actually maybe often yourself from a few years ago so for example if I was making videos for Izzy a couple of years ago maybe like 20 year old Izzy then what would she benefit from what kind of videos would be helpful for her and then I can often make those videos quite well because I've gained that wealth of life experience since then I'd also say that while deciding what kind of videos to make you should consider a balance between search optimized and browse optimized content search optimized content is something that people would search for in the YouTube search bar it's pretty self-explanatory this essentially means that it's content that will continue to get views slowly over time because people are constantly searching for it at a fairly flat rate usually browse content on the other hand is more designed to go viral or to Hitch up onto the algorithm and once the algorithm identifies a video that's performing well then it will put it up on the browse page for more and more people and then that will get your video out in front of an audience I found that early on when starting a YouTube channel it's better to focus a little bit more on search topics but occasionally throw in a couple of kind of browse Style videos that are optimized to go more viral rather than just being a search video this type of explore and then exploit model has been really helpful for me because actually when I started making videos I thought you know what I'm just going to learn how to make videos by making videos about kind of things I'm interested in and I happen to make one video about learning Chinese because I'd been spending hours and hours a day learning Chinese so I thought oh why not just make a video about it since I've spent so long thinking about this that video actually turned out to be the video that first really gained traction on my channel and it wasn't what I'd expected at all so I highly recommend you try out a few different topics while you're starting out early on remember that no one's really watching your channel that much when you start initially so just feel free to throw out a couple of things out there fling the proverbial spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks and through the process of making all these videos you're also learning how to make a good video so now having debunked the myth of the niche we also want to actually consider what our competitive advantages are these are things that make you unique and give you a Unique Edge in your content for example if I try to make videos about how to become a corporate lawyer that would be pretty pointless because I don't actually have any competitive advantages in that space I'm not a corporate lawyer I don't really know a huge amount about it I just need the basics but on the other hand if I made a video about how to become a doctor in the UK's National Health Service which I currently am then that video would be so much easier for me to make I would have authority in the area and I'd be able to convey the information accurately because I'm actually in it and I have those competitive advantages in that space the final tip in this category is to watch other YouTubers that you enjoy and get inspired by their videos to then create your own unique style it's okay to initially start out making videos that are quite similar to ones that you've already seen out there that will just help you get going but with each video you make try to infuse some of your own individuality into it and try to make it a little bit more your own because actually being your own unique voice is what will help make you stand out as an individual on you the second pillar of advice is all the emotional skills around starting and then sustaining a YouTube channel the first point is that you need to start before you feel ready you need to be outside your comfort zone you need to push your work out there even though you feel like it's a horrible and not perfect and not what you'd actually want to push out there at all one tip that helps me is instead of thinking of success on YouTube as the Big Goal think of Simply starting as being the goal this will help you just take one step in the right direction and start to dip your toes into the whole world of making YouTube videos this also means that you need to learn as you go along so each time you make a video each time you sit down to work on your YouTube stuff try to learn something new and build on your craft you don't need to have the perfect gear or the perfect camera confidence or the perfect script or the perfect Niche or the perfect thumbnail to get started on YouTube Just Launch ugly and launch while it's still rough around the edges and you'll learn it every single time that you make a video the best way to learn is by doing and this is backed up by numerous psychological studies and just work on improving a little bit maybe learning one or two new things each time you iterate and don't forget that perfect is the enemy of good sometimes for me once the video is even finished I've got the thumbnail I'd actually feel some resistance or fear to pressing publish maybe because I didn't feel like the video was as good as it could have been but it's actually always worth hitting upload and taking the plunge because you can always improve on your next video and who knows because some of the videos that I thought were kind of a bit bad actually brought the most value to people and have been the best performing the second key emotional skill is to learn to maintain Equanimity Equanimity can be defined as an evenness of mind even in the face of stress this means that whether things are going well or whether they're going badly or whether nothing's happening at all you have a place of emotional balance and stability that you can come back to this is essential because YouTube can really be a roller coaster of emotions when you first start out it's quite likely that not many people will be watching your videos you'll be wondering oh I'm putting in all this effort but nobody's even watching them and that doesn't feel good when we feel like our efforts are going unrewarded but keep going because you never know when the algorithm could pick up a video so I personally try to train myself to remain equanimous whether or not the outcome is good or bad so that means I don't let myself feel too happy if things are going well and I don't let myself feel too sad if they're not going well decoupling my emotions from the performance of my videos and how my YouTube channel is doing allows me to make videos I actually enjoy and also not get too caught up in the whole roller coaster that's going on over in the algorithm this is so important because video performance is often really out of our own control and it's really hard to predict what's going to happen all you can control is making another video that will hopefully be valuable to one person and improving each time you iterate it's that whole balance between input and output and trying to let go of the outcome is a way to feel happier and more sustainable on YouTube the third pillar is the engagement engine so this is all about the algorithm and how to feed the algorithm its favorite snacks which are click-through rate and watch time there are literally so many more variables I think there's like a 30 plus variables that are fed into the algorithm but these are two that we can look at as creators to understand how things are going firstly a clickable thumbnail and title is essential if nobody clicks on your video because the thumbnail and title don't look interesting enough to click then they won't ever see the great content that you've made and the Fantastic video that you've put so much effort into making try to come up with at least five ideas for a thumbnail and title for a video and choose the one that resonates the most for you secondly you really want to focus on the first 30 seconds of a video also known as the hook this is the start of the video where you need to show the viewer that the video they've clicked on is actually the kind of video that they want to watch you need to provide your value proposition early on and what you're going to talk about in the video so that they know what's coming up so these first 10 to 30 seconds is so important to show the viewer why they should keep watching just a note about the thumbnails titles and the hook it's not about creating click bait or creating hooks that make false promises what you want to do is you want to convey the real value that your video has because ultimately if you make a click bait thumbnail on title and hook people are going to realize quite quickly that the video doesn't have the value that they want and they will click off the next important thing is camera confidence and presentation when you're looking at a camera you should ideally try to look into the lens So currently I'm looking directly into the lens but one mistake I used to make early on and is really common in people starting out on YouTube is that they actually look at the viewfinder so I don't know if you can tell the difference between me looking at the viewfinder versus me looking into the lens directly but by looking into the lens it creates this feeling that actually I'm looking directly at you rather than looking off somewhere into space I got a lot of questions on Instagram about how I managed to talk to the camera with confidence and actually this is something I really struggled with in the beginning and it's so natural to struggle with it because it's so unnatural to be sitting in your room alone in front of a camera and talking into this like black hole a tip that I found worked really well for me was I pretended that I was talking to someone I knew really well so I'd pretend I was talking to my sister or to my mum and then I'd just be able to relax more into it and I would just imagine okay I'm just filming a video for my sister well I'm just filming a video for my mom hey and that kind of thing and that would help me to relax in front of the camera and gradually over time through repeated practice and iterating over and over again you will naturally become come better at it the final point in engagement is the editing style and you really want to make sure that the a cut is really tight so the a cut is essentially the talking that goes on in the video you don't want any long pauses or arms and R's cut these right out in the edit and get rid of them because they will just add a sort of slowing down to the pace of your video and make your audience feel like they're wasting their time because it kind of is a waste of time the next point in editing is to show don't just tell so if you're talking about an item for example if I'm talking about my plaque then maybe I can actually grab my plaque and be like hey this is my plaque look at my plaque or I can put b-roll of the plaque so basically I kind of put a clip of me filming this over the main cut of the video and that makes it more engaging because video inherently is a visual source of information which means that actually we can hear things but we can also see things and my face I don't think it's particularly interesting so if I put other b-roll or pictures or images or texts on screen then that can help visually engage by showing rather than just telling the final point about editing for engagement is pattern interrupt so every seven to ten seconds you want something new going on on screen whether that's text or b-roll or something along those lines just to keep it engaging and to keep the viewers interest peak the fourth pillar is production value so this means both the hardware and the software so firstly Hardware in terms of the gear and Equipment the best gear is the gear that you actually have you can even start a YouTube channel just with your phone it has a camera it has a microphone and if you have a window with natural light or some big lamps in your room then you've got your camera microphone and your lighting if you want to upgrade something then audio quality is actually much more important than video quality so upgrade audio first with by getting an external microphone next you should consider your lighting and then your camera usually in that order but depending on which one is the limiting factor if you have an external microphone then put it as close to your mouth as possible so actually my microphone is right up here just out of shot that's my microphone there this gives you the best chance for picking up the best audio quality and it's why podcasters for example have their microphones literally like right up to their face I've made a little notion page with the links to gear of different price ranges and also what exact gear I currently use don't forget lighting because lighting actually makes a huge difference to how well even the same camera can perform in certain conditions take a look at these two pictures of the same camera with just different lighting and you can see a crazy difference the second point in production value is software I often get asked about what kind of software I use to make my videos in terms of video editor when I started out I used DaVinci Resolve which is free to download and a really powerful editor with amazing color grading really like loads of features more features than I could ever learn how to use other options for great video editing software include Final Cut Pro and also Adobe Premiere but those cost a little bit of money depending on your budget music for YouTube videos should ideally be royalty free which means that there's no copyrights controlling the music and you won't get a copyright strike on your video if you do use copyrighted music then you can get a claim on your video which basically means that it could get demonetized or taken down or maybe the actual owner of the music will actually take the AdSense Revenue themselves rather than you getting anything for your video there are two recommendations I'd have for this if you want to get something for free then I'd recommend thematic it's what I used when I was on a student budget and had like no budget to spend on YouTube but if you can spend a little bit more I would highly recommend epidemic sound which is what I use now it's a subscription service and honestly it's much better than thematic it has so many more options in terms of genre and style of music and the search function is way more powerful as well so that's worth it if you can afford it if you want a free trial of epidemic sound for I think 30 days then click the link down below if you've outsourced your editing with a video editor then a really helpful website is frame. io which is really good for doing revisions for videos a website called canva is excellent for making thumbnails I make all my thumbnails on canva another website called thumbs up.

tv is really good for checking your thumbnails and how your titles will look Etc and finally for creating links that are like deep linked to YouTube videos you can use something called link twin I'll leave links to all of these down below and a couple more because I think I've forgotten some off the top of my head the fifth pillar is scaling and Outsourcing so once you've started to get your YouTube channel off the ground you may want to actually Outsource some of the video editing or thumbnail creation or some parts of the process that you either don't have the time or skills to do to the same level so for me personally as I'm working full time as a junior doctor in London that I barely have time to even sleep and eat let alone edit my own videos so I of course do all the scripting and ideation and filming of my videos and then I work with a video editor who edits my videos and then we'll go through a round of revisions in frame. io before getting the final result which you are looking at right now I have a whole bunch of tips around this but I won't go into this in too much depth because I don't want this video to get too long so now I'll talk a little bit about my Journey on YouTube and how everything started and how I grew and monetization just in brief just in case you guys are curious I personally took the part-time YouTuber Academy live course which helped me to get my YouTube channel going taught me a lot about how the whole YouTube thing works with personalized feedback on my videos and it also linked me up with a whole bunch of YouTuber friends to share the journey with and be accountability buddies so if you want to learn more about starting and scaling a YouTube channel as a part-time side hustle you might want to check out the course I've added a link Down Below in the description in case you're interested okay so this is my channel currently I have 207 155 subscribers if I go to Lifetime so I started my channel just as a kind of viewer way back in like 2014 just started watching YouTube but I only actually uploaded my first ever video in June 2021 that's when I officially started YouTube so as you can see when I started in June 2021 I had a couple of subscribers from just sort of friends and family and that kind of thing and just gradually slowly slowly gained a couple of subscribers as you can see I only had a couple hundred subscribers for a really long time and I was just growing very slowly over time so then in 2022 grew a little bit more I started a podcast with my really good friends Rory and Matt I'll link their channels down below and some of my videos including my Mandarin videos started to gain a little bit more traction and started the promoted in the algorithm after having been searched for for ages because they initially started out as search focused videos and people were searching for them over time they'd gained views over time and then the algorithm had gained enough evidence to realize actually they could put it on browse people who are interested in learning Chinese then I started to actually be consistent on YouTube for a couple of weeks and in August I actually started to really take off and then it's been this sort of Wiggly growth trajectory since then until the present day in terms of views this is what the grapher looks like you can see I started uploading a couple of videos early on over here some of my earliest videos are quite funny to look back on now and after I published these videos in a row then there was a little uptick of growth and then a real uptick over here until terms of monetization there are two requirements that YouTube has for joining the YouTube Partner program the first is having 1 000 subscribers and the second is having 4 000 watch hours on your channel in the last one year I personally hit this requirement on the 22nd of March 2022 and I started making a couple of pennies per day for my YouTube videos which was really exciting at the time [Applause] so it's time to open up my silver play button plaque or reaching 100 000 subscribers this is kind of weird this is a little bit of a weird moment because I feel like this is the moment where I actually become a YouTuber when I open this which is partly why I've been putting this off because I feel kind of nervous to actually hold it in my hands and see my name on it but let's go let's do it I'm so so grateful to all of you watching for supporting me I literally like couldn't have done any of this without any of you guys drumroll and let's go for it oh wow that's one gone next one gone how do I open this oh my goodness it's packaged so securely oh gosh a bit embarrassing if I can't actually open it I have to ask my dad for help okay there we go oh my God it's everything I'm actually so nervous I can't even express how nervous I am let's go okie dokie very mysterious black box for now ah check this out I got a note from Susan and now for the main event oh goodness I can't even get it out this might be the most chaotic unboxing video you've ever watched there we go oh my God you guys it's so shiny oh it's beautiful oh my gosh okay this feels really real all of a sudden honestly this has been mind-blowing I wasn't expected to be like this overwhelmed with just excitement a little bit of imposter syndrome as well just a healthy dose of it down oh my God finally gonna answer some of your questions from Instagram and Discord I got a lot of questions that I've already answered in earlier parts of the video so I'll just answer the ones that are left how does it feel to have 200k subscribers honestly a little bit surreal I think at the 100K subscribers mark it felt like oh this is actually really getting real now before that point I think I always told myself I wasn't a YouTuber I was just trying to make YouTube videos I was trying to like not overly commit to this identity of being a YouTuber but once I pass 100 000 subscribers and I was like okay now I actually feel like a YouTuber I mean I've got a plaque coming in the post did you expect to reach 200k this soon when did you expect to get to 200k and what was your intention at the start no I did not expect to reach 200k subscribers as quickly as I did I think especially because I've been quite inconsistent with video uploads at the start of 2022 I actually thought that having 50k subscribers by the end of the year would have been unattainable when actually I somehow achieved around 188 000 subscribers by the end of 2022.