This post is all about what it’s like to start a YouTube Channel
So you want to know what it’s really like to start a YouTube channel? It’s BRUTAL.
Maybe you’ve tried it yourself and saw no growth. Maybe you saw someone else try and have no growth.
Whatever your reasoning is for knowing EXACTLY how I feel, I’m going to give you my insight into the experience anyway. Let’s get into it.
Disclaimer
I am not an expert, not any kind of professional when starting a YouTube channel. (lol, maybe I am now since I’ve done it). This post is meant to be used for informational purposes only. I will not be held liable or responsible for anything that you choose to do with your life whether you choose to start a YouTube channel or not.
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Let’s begin.
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What It’s Like to Start a YouTube Channel
Just for some context of how my channel is doing right now, I am currently at 11 subscribers and 263 total views since I started. And yes, I did in fact start from zero.
Zero subscribers. Zero views.
1. It’s so exciting
When I started my YouTube channel about 2 months ago. I was so nervous but also so excited at the same time. I was obsessed with what everyone I knew would think of me. Most of all, I was nervous about how I looked on camera.
There was a part of me that almost chickened out again and didn’t post my first video. But you know what I did? I uploaded it anyway.
As of right now, my very first video has 43 views. And if I’m being honest, that’s kind of impressive. I don’t know how that happened. Maybe people were clicking out of curiosity, maybe people actually cared that I started a YouTube channel.
But whatever it was, my first video got 43 views. And you know what my viewers had to suffer through? A minute of random images I grabbed from my camera roll really quick and another minute of me talking about why I am starting a YouTube channel and why I decided to do it this way. You can watch it here if you want the full details.
I say that starting a YouTube channel is exciting not because of the fact that my first video got a ton of views (from lots of shameless and cringing self plugging) but the fact that I had officially started my YouTube channel. I have a video up and I have to keep going.
Here I am 2 months later still going and writing this blog post.
2. You’ll be sad… A LOT
There are many things that will make you feel sad when it comes to starting a YouTube Channel. The first point I want to mention is that you’ll be sad about how much time it actually takes to get a YouTube channel up and running. (At least one that you want to do really well with and take far).
Let me tell you that I didn’t think it would take me three days, yes, THREE DAYS to edit one 10-minute video. This was in the beginning though. I was still trying to get the hang of my editing software. I didn’t know how to use cool and trending editing effects. And I sure as double hockey sticks didn’t know what to film, what to say, or what to do in general.
Editing these videos was taking SO MUCH time out of my day. Granted it was fun, but I need to remind you that I am a full-time college student and I work 3 days a week.
I did have many video ideas of what I wanted to film but I didn’t know how to execute them. That’s the problem. How can I have a YouTube channel if I didn’t know how to produce content to be uploaded? I don’t. Duh.
But little me persevered and put something together and uploaded my third YouTube video. One about my Time Capsule. Yes, we all knew it was gonna happen. I could talk about my time capsule all day long because I kid you not. It is my most prized possession. This video isn’t my finest work either but I’ll just leave it here for you anyway.
Here it is:
Yup, that’s me
But Lily, what does this have to do with you being sad?
Okay, I mentioned it takes me a really long time to edit but most of all, I was sad because almost everyone that I told about my videos, aka my friends, did not subscribe nor watch my videos; Which is fine because maybe my content isn’t their cup of tea or they just straight up don’t want to support me.
But whatever, the reason, it still makes me sad. It just makes me feel unliked. Unimportant. I had all sorts of sad emotions and if I’m being honest, I still have them now. Two months in.
However, I’m slowly starting to get over this.
It was just strange to me how I thought all these people around me would want to subscribe and watch my videos because they’re interested in me, but they didn’t…
My videos did suck when I introduced it though so I don’t blame them for not being interested.
Although, I did read something online about how sometimes the people around you won’t support your channel because they feel like they’re going to fall behind and don’t want you to go further than them in life or something like that.
I’m hoping that’s not the case with my friends but at this point, I think I’m just going to keep making videos mainly for myself and for the sake of keeping memories. (Which was the original intention when I started.)
3. You’ll Feel Like Weirdo
When you start filming yourself for the very first time, you’re going to feel so awkward. Even if you’re sitting alone in your room. You’re going to feel SO weird. And what’s even worse is that you’re planning on sharing this footage with people you know and strangers.
And if you plan on filming in public such as the atmosphere or you, you’re also going to feel like a weirdo. You’ll see people looking at you or you’ll be so self-conscious about people looking at you (even if they aren’t) and then you don’t end up doing it and you’ve lost content opportunities.
Most of all, you don’t want to be that “weird kid” that always films themself doing everything that they’re doing. You don’t want to be -that- person. These were the exact feelings that I am feeling during this journey.
The biggest fear with starting a YouTube channel I’d say is being afraid of what other people think. But now that I’m 2 months in, I can confidently say that I don’t regret starting.
If anything, I am so happy that I started, and the fact that I let the people around me know that I started, lifted a major weight off me. I won’t have to tiptoe around it anymore. This brings me to my next point.
4. You’ll Gain More Confidence
Now that I’ve been filming, editing, and sharing myself on the internet with a camera, I have gained a little bit more confidence than before.
I’ve gotten used to filming. The entire process has become familiar to me. I’m not afraid anymore. Well, not as much. This is my most recent video and you can tell the difference between this video and my first few videos.
(If you didn’t watch my first video or time capsule video yet, go back and watch those before you watch this one. You’ll see MAJOR growth.)
Another great thing about starting this YouTube channel and being able to rewatch clips of myself is that I can recognize some speech patterns that I have that I would like to change. Not that they’re bad or anything but they aren’t patterns that I would like for other people to hear from me.
For example, I have this tendency to say “like” (just like most of us, I know) but I also have the tendency to say “but it’s okay” when I don’t know what to say next.
Another big one is when I am with another person, I’ll say something and I’ll say “right [ ]?” and ask for some kind of verbal validation so that I’m not the only one in the spotlight for the video. It’s weird. I know.
But knowing these things about me makes it much easier for me to know how to behave on camera but also translate it into real life so that I can become the person that I want to be and also speak the way I want people to hear me.
Did any of this even make sense?
5. Starting a YouTube Channel Taught Me More Tech Skills
Ever since I started this blog, I learned so much about SEO, formatting, grammar, and sentence structure. The amount of knowledge I have gained is amazing. What’s even cooler is that I could take this blogging knowledge and apply it to my YouTube channel.
YouTube is also big on SEO and keywords so I tried my best to implement this all over my YouTube channel.
You can see keywords on my about page, my titles (most of them), and even my thumbnails (I think).
I did so much research on the best ways to help grow my channel and that included posting consistently, which is also true for blogging, and creating playlists so that way it’s easier for people to binge-watch my videos and not leave so soon. This technique is pretty much the same as internal linking in blogging to keep your viewers on your blog longer and it’s kinda cool.
I’m two months in. It sounds like a long time but I’m only just getting started compared to the other YouTubers out there that were once like.
I’m two months in and I still have so much to learn. I’m ready.
You can subscribe to my YouTube channel using this link
or
with the direct link
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFnXh1r0GOqV54TK7nImoJQ?sub_confirmation=1
Don’t you want to see me grow as a creator? Or fail as a wannabe? lol, that’s so mean. But seriously, do me this huge favor and subscribe to my channel so that way you never miss a video from me. You’ll be able to see all the new editing effects I learned in real-time.
Ending Note
Thank you so much for reading this blog post and my insights into what it was like to start a YouTube channel. It’s a big struggle but for some reason, I have a feeling that it’s all going to be worth it in the end. (Hopefully, there is no end.)
Let me know in the comments what you thought of my experiences. Maybe even give me some tips as to why my YouTube channel may be lacking.
To end this blog on a happy note, I’m going to leave this little video of me going to Universal with my mom’s side of the family for the very first time:
This post was all about what it’s like to start a YouTube Channel.
According to Chren says
Thanks for sharing your experiences with starting a YouTube channel!
Lily-Anne says
Im a couple months too late but Thanks for reading!