YouTube is an interesting beast unlike any other, and a clear example of the kind of promise that the internet brought. Here was a company that became an industry giant in a few years, and it gave other people the chance to become stars of their own.
These days, it seems like everyone has a YouTube channel, and there’s a channel for everything. Heck, I have one too!
But with so much content out there, is YouTube still a good platform for people looking to grow their side hustle? And more importantly, should you start a YouTube Channel of your own?
That’s what we’ll discuss this week!
This week’s newsletter brings you:
- Trends. We bring you the latest data regarding YouTube trends and what’s hot in the video platform.
- Strategies. This week we talk about YouTube as a side hustle in 2023, including the benefits of starting your own channel, how to do so, and a few examples of famous YouTubers and their secrets.
- Tools of the Week. You’ll need a lot of tools to start your own YouTube channel, but InVideo, Canva, and Social Blade you can cover all your bases.
Trends
Before we dive into the strategies, let’s take a closer look at the YouTube platform. YouTube has been around for well over a decade now, and interest in the platform is still increasing. There are more users than ever on YouTube, proving that this platform isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!
YouTube active users
According to research collected by DemandSage, as of the third quarter of 2022, YouTube has over 2.6 billion monthly active users. Here are some other interesting numbers:
- 52% of the internet users worldwide access YouTube at least once a month.
- Over a quarter of the world’s population uses YouTube once every month.
- More than 50% of mobile internet users access YouTube every month.
YouTube users by age and gender
According to this data, 53.9% of YouTube users globally are males, while females make up around 46.1% of the user base. The majority of global YouTube users are between the age of 25-34.
Top 15 countries with the most YouTube users
Interestingly, the majority of YouTube users come from India (467 million). That means 18.68% of YouTube users are from India – great news if you’re targeting the Indian market with your side hustle! The U.S.A. is the country with the second-most YouTube users (247 million).
Strategies
YouTube might be a game of numbers, but this newsletter is all about knowledge. It’s about time we helped you answer your real question: Should you start a YouTube channel?
Why you should become a Youtuber in 2023
There are multiple reasons why you could start your own YouTube side hustle. Maybe you want to share inspirational content with people, or you just want to do it for fun.
There’s no right or wrong reason really, but when it comes to hustling, only two reasons matter:
- You can make money passively
- You can use your channel to grow other business avenues.
Let’s take a look at how a YouTube channel can help you achieve those goals:
Have a passive income source
Many YouTubers claim that YouTube is an excellent source of income because it is passive and you can earn hundreds of dollars every month, especially if you are monetized. YouTube allows you to earn money from views through ads, but you can also do affiliate marketing or even sponsorships.
The best thing about passive income is that you don’t have to work 8 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you need a break after completing all of your scheduled content, you can check your YouTube Studio account balance tomorrow to see if it has increased.
Even if you sleep the entire day or take a month off, you can still make money from your previous videos. If your channel grows enough, the money will come on its own.
However maintaining good channel performance is required for this to be achievable:
- Your income is determined by the performance of your channels.
- The more the income, the better the channel performance!
To have successful channel performance, you must, of course, offer relevant and valuable material to your audience consistently.
Expand your online business
Some people use YouTube to promote their products or businesses, which is a fantastic concept!
When you upload a video to YouTube, you can tap into a powerful form of marketing that reaches millions all over the world.
You have the chance to turn your dedicated followers into consumers for your brand’s products or services. Adding a YouTube channel to your brands’ marketing goals will allow you to present a new side to your hustle, letting you engage with your audience in ways that are more relevant to them.
Not only that, but by being a YouTuber you can collaborate with brands and receive sponsorship offers.
And you don’t need millions of subscribers to obtain legitimate sponsorship.
Brands typically select YouTubers that have the following characteristics: a loyal audience, quality content, and an organic following.
So, if you believe you are too small a YouTuber to receive a sponsorship offer, keep in mind that channels with less than 10,000 subscribers already cooperate with well-known businesses (as long as your niche aligns with theirs!).
Resources:
11 Reasons and Benefits of Having a YouTube Channel by Sudeshroul
Is YouTube Worth It? by Neil Patel
Starting a YouTube channel in 2023
So you want to start your own YouTube channel? Great.
However, whatever your reasons you should know one thing: starting a YouTube channel will not instantly attract subscribers.
If you want to build a YouTube channel with 1,000, 100,000, or even a million followers, you must know how to position yourself in the massive platform.
Channel positioning on YouTube is similar to brand positioning.
Instead of addressing every issue under the sun, you should target a certain specific audience.
In other words, you must select a YouTube niche.
The core of a YouTube business is the niche you’ll be targeting. To feed the correct video content to your viewers, you must first understand who they are. You can’t just throw up any old video and hope for the best. Every video must have a goal and an intention.
How to choose the best YouTube channel niche
In most cases, people will start a YouTube channel about things they already like or know a lot about. For example, if you’re an artist, you probably want your channel to focus on art. If you have Photoshop expertise, you probably want to teach others how to use it. If you own a business or sell a product, you’ll want your channel to align with that.
Furthermore, you’ll need to provide content on a regular basis for a long period (most likely years, at least). This can be extremely difficult to deal with when you are tired, out of ideas, and frustrated if you do not enjoy the subject.
This means that you need a balance of passion and relevance when choosing your niche.
Even if you are extremely passionate about something, it’s unlikely that you can grow a channel out of it if nobody else feels the same way.
This is mostly true if you want to make money on YouTube rather than share your specialized hobbies with the rest of the world. If you have a hobby that you want to show off, don’t worry about the demand — just own your abilities and make others appreciate them! If you create something fantastic, you will generate your own demand.
But if the topic is oversaturated, becoming a successful YouTuber in that niche will be difficult.
To get you started, here is a list of popular sub-niches on YouTube:
- Videos on technology
- Product reviews
- Tutorials
- Storytime videos
- Vlogs
- Food
- Fashion
- Beauty
- Healthy living and weight loss
- Travel
- Animals
- Humor
- How To videos
What happens if your channel becomes popular?
Let’s imagine for a second that you already made a channel, and that your channel became extremely popular overnight.
Given how many channels grow immensely in just a few days from the spread of a viral video, such a concept isn’t too far-fetched. However, virality is not something you can bet on.
But if you do go viral, or see your channel start growing quickly in a more organic manner, you need to be prepared to capitalize on that growth.
Here are a few tips to do so:
Create follow-up content: There’s a reason your channel started growing in popularity. Analyze the viewer feedback, such as comments and reaction videos, to determine what drew so many people to start watching your videos. These insights will influence the type of follow-up content you create.
Begin with the obvious follow-up videos. Are audiences clamoring for a sequel to a specific video? Is your content suitable for a series? Or was it, on the other hand, a more organic moment that you can delve more into with a storytime or a Q&A?
When growing from a viral video, pay attention to how it was packaged. Did you notice anything unusual about your title or thumbnail? Have you expanded your content niche? Track your videos’ performance over the next several uploads and incorporate these observations into your next uploads.
Engage your expanding audience: As your audience expands, make them feel included in the community surrounding your channel if you want them to stick around once the focus fades. You don’t want a schism between your long-time viewers and your new supporters.
Engage with your new fans on the same level as you engage with your existing followers to develop that sense of community. Like their Instagram comments, respond to their direct messages, and retweet their fan art.
Resources:
How to Capitalize on the Success of a Viral Video
How to Start a YouTube Channel by Adamenfroy
Successful Youtubers and what you can learn from them
There’s countless examples of successful YouTubers on the platform, and each success story has a different lesson behind it.
Here are some popular content creators and the lessons we can learn from their success:
PewDiePie
The Swedish YouTube vlogger PewDiePie, also known as Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, specializes in video game content. Kjellberg has broken a number of YouTube milestones, rising from 12 million followers in August 2013 to more than 20 million in January 2014. PewDiePie’s popularity did not emerge as a result of a sudden viral hit or a shift in his YouTube presence.
Instead, consistency is the key to his success. Kjellberg updates his YouTube channel virtually every day. He built on his success and never eased up his online presence once he became popular. He spends a lot of time in the comments answering his fans’ questions, and he’s developed a famous group of “bros” where his admirers share his work with their friends.
PewDiePie’s growth shows a basic tenant of YouTube: there is no magic formula, only consistency, hard work, and high-quality material to keep your audience engaged.
DisneyCollectorBR
DisneyCollectorBR is a popular YouTube channel run by an unidentified Brazilian woman who frequently posts movies of Disney toys. Despite her anonymity, DisneyCollectorBR has the most subscribers on YouTube in the United States.The creator has tapped into the realm of children, and channel videos have a “spellbinding effect” on them due to background music, voice, and directions.
Young children enjoy seeing someone demonstrate how to use various toys, which is why this faceless YouTube channel is always at the top of the list. In April, the channel was the third-most watched in the globe, trailing only Katy Perry’s channel.
From DisneyCollectorBR we can learn that the design of your YouTube channel may make or break the popularity of your content. Make an effort to get the attention of the viewers! To get things started, choose an appealing channel name and add relevant content. Don’t forget to include a brief description of your channel to give people an idea of the type of content you provide.
Resources:
YouTube Success Stories by Youtube
18 Inspirational YouTube Success Stories
Tool of the Week
Creating and growing a successful YouTube channel requires a lot of different skills, and just as many tools. If you don’t have the budget to pay for editors and designers, you’ll need to learn how to edit your videos, create appealing thumbnails, and analyze the data of your channel to help it grow.
If you are looking for tools to help you do all of that, these three will offer you an excellent place to get started:
Video editing: InVideo
The InVideo platform is jam-packed with YouTube-specific functionality. This contains a specialized intro creator with a plethora of pre-made layouts and transitions. You can customize films to your exact specifications using stock footage and typeface resources. The platform also allows you to develop one-of-a-kind brand kits that are ideal for business accounts.
Thumbnail creation and image editing: Canva
Canva, a tool for creating drag-and-drop social graphics, may be known to you. The program also provides fully configurable themes for YouTube channel graphics and thumbnails.
Because Canva stores all of your assets, you can save and repurpose previous creatives to maintain consistency in your branding from video to video.
Analytics and benchmarking: Social Blade
Social Blade is a simple application that provides a high-level overview of each YouTube account’s growth.
The software can tell you how frequently a channel posts and whether they’ve lately gained or lost subscribers. You may then compare your account to a competitor’s to determine who is growing quicker or whose latest videos are doing well.