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YouTube Channel – should I start a channel of my own?
In this article, we’re highlighting a video that talks about an issue a lot of people, including me, come up against when starting a new project, whether that’s an online business idea, a bricks & mortar business, or indeed anything that we think might be a good thing to do.
The issue is really about procrastination, something we’ve spoken about before on this site, i.e. putting things off, thinking about all of the other things that you think you need to do before you can even consider starting on this new idea of yours.
Sound familiar?
It’s not something that afflicts everybody, of course, we probably all know people who just get on with stuff while we sit in the background with envious eyes, (perhaps I’m giving away too much information about myself there).
Anyway, the good news is that it is something, once you’re aware of it, that you can do something about.
In the featured video here, our man, Mike, talks us through all of the common reasons people put things off around creating a YouTube channel, which you probably know by now, is a good route to go down in terms of creating an online presence that could ultimately earn you an income.
You’ll see how he highlights 10 common things that people put in the way of themselves that stop them from achieving the goal of having their own YouTube channel and all of the benefits that can bring.
Mike also talks to us about why it’s irrational to put those things in our way and tells us how to deal with them too, which is great.
Have a watch or read on below, I’m sure that you’ll recognise some of the “obstacles”.
10 Reasons Not to start a YouTube channel, why it’s not the right time or why it’s not for you
Before anybody gets upset or clicks off or clicks dislike or whatever, I want to explain what I mean by this, so these are 10 reasons that either you told yourself in an internal monologue or other people told you, are valid reasons not to start on a YouTube channel of your own.
So the purpose of this piece is going to be to go through these and debunk them one by one.
I assume that if you’ve clicked on this article or video, you are probably interested in starting a YouTube channel, you’ve probably considered it but you’ve had your doubts or other people told you it wasn’t possible.
Uliimately, what I want you to think is that it is possible and that you have the potential to make a full time career on YouTube and maybe make what could be the most rewarding decision of your life
#1 It’s Too late to start
It’s too late to start a YouTube channel is false for a few reasons, I hear a lot of people saying, Mike, there are so many creators out there,more than ever, that have millions of subscribers how can I compete with that?
The first reason that this is false is that there are more viewers than viewers than ever on YouTube and these people are using YouTube more than they ever have before. It’s starting to replace television.
If you look at the statistics, more people are spending more time on YouTube and less time on television and so as there’s a kind of transfer away from traditional television, people are looking for more stuff to watch and because of this, if you have a really specific really specific niche topic that you want to talk about it is very likely you can find lots of people interested and you can rank very well in that.
Even if you want mainstream stuff there are so many people watching that you will inevitably gain a lot of users.
The second reason that this is false is because of the YouTube algorithm. The algorithm has changed over time, so now it’s not just about the number of subscribers you have. It also now looks at; the number of views, viewing time, engagement, click thru rates etc. which means that, even as a new creator with no subscribers, you right can rank among the top creators out there.
Of course, there is an advantage if you have a large subscriber base, but that’s not everything, additionally, you also have the ability to rank higher because Google promotes fresh content so the fresher your content is, the more likely you will rank higher which is why things like newsjacking could be a great way for you to pop right in there among the top rankings and do really well.
#2 You have nothing interesting to talk about
Referring back to what I said in the beginning, this is false because if you have a really specific and narrow niche that you are very interested in and you think that nobody else cares and nobody’s going to be interested, well the truth is if you have millions of people on YouTube. The odds are that there are indeed other people out there that are interested in what you’re doing, even if its something very specific, there are guaranteed to be people just like you, who will be very excited to find your youtube channel, and they could become very engaged and very dedicated fans and subscribers.
There was an article written a little while ago called 1000 true fans ,the premise of this article is that if you have 1000 people that are really interested in what you do, so much so that they are willing to buy your stuff and engage with you. if you’re able to sell them fifty dollars worth of stuff, whether that’s courses, merchandise, or whatever you’re doing.
In a year if you can make $50 off of each of them or even just get donations. then you now have $50,000 a year which is a full time income.
So, you know that YouTube is an incredible platform, and of course, the Internet as a whole really opens doors for a lot of very specific niches, you can probably understand then, that there’s a very good chance that you could attract 1000 people to the niche and youtube channel you’d create, right?
#3 I’m not good on Camera
If you watch the video long enough, then you probably don’t think my camera skills are appalling although maybe they’re not the best out on the Internet.
Let me tell you a little story here. so I actually went to college for engineering and physics and both of those are just about the nerdiest things you could possibly talk about and of course, engineers are usually very quirky people, right?
I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, I’m definitely very introverted, I would be nowhere near the category of good on camera back then but once I started on a YouTube channel, all you do is you turn on the camera and are talking. If you add new video and you think well maybe I said too much, maybe my voice inflexions are weird, maybe I was too quiet, I didn’t look comfortable, or whatever.
Guess what, as you go through your YouTube channel career, you find yourself becoming more comfortable speaking on camera, on top of that if this is not reason enough to start on a YouTube channel at the very least filming yourself like this could be a great way to improve your public speaking.
Public speaking skills help in many walks of life and this is a great way to learn and practice. If you rate yourself as not good on camera, maybe a great way to get around that is to start being on camera. That’s all the more reason to start a youtube channel to get better at being on camera and get better at talking to people.
And you know what, there’s no pressure really because you know if you screw up, you can cut those bits out and film it again!
#4 You don’t have the kit
You don’t need great equipment to make a decent video. The microphone I’m using was $20 on Amazon. So a $20 microphone on a smartphone is all you need to get started on your youtube channel.
You can make great content and you don’t even need a microphone. You can just film with only a smartphone and still make good content, so you don’t have to worry about buying a great expensive camera or understanding the settings for cameras etc.
As you grow your youtube channel, you can invest in that later, once you gain a following etc.
If you look at photography as an example, when I think they say, light, subject, lighting, lens bodies, are the order of what things are important.
Applying that thinking to YouTube channel videos, the most important thing is always the subject or the content. What you’re talking about is the number one most important thing for your video.
Of course quality of the video is important too, but you can use a window for good lighting, a $20 microphone for the sound, and a lens in a smartphone does just fine.
#5 I don’t know how to edit or I don’t have the software
The truth is, you don’t need to be a film director to make good videos for your YouTube channel.
In reality, when you’re starting out you don’t need to worry about that. If I can make these creations, so can you.
What’s more important is the amount of content you create. You can make tons of little videos about all sorts of different topics. Sure some of them might look a little amateurish at first, but remember, you can always just start again.
Sometimes it’s really nice to see an amateur video that’s not a big production to show you what is actually like to be there so rather than making it this kind of falsehood around there that’s a magical place with great edits and really awesome cinematic transitions etc.
Equally, sometimes YouTube promotes things that are just authentic, so I don’t worry about editing, if you do want to edit you’ll get better at editing over time. There are free bits of software you can start with and eventually, you can upgrade and pay for like Premiere Pro or Final Cut or whatever you want to do.
#6 High Barrier of Entry (before I can make any money)
This is something that stems from a little while ago so you might not know about this anymore if you’re starting today.
Back in the day on a YouTube channel, you could just make money on it right away. Just start off, put the video out and in the next day you made seven or $0.10 or something like that, and so you’d keep growing and making more money.
Now there’s a threshold in that you need 1000 subscribers and 240,000 minutes watched to be considered for monetization which means getting ads and getting money for your videos.
But you know, a lot of people can reach that, you can reach that goal without too much effort.
I’ve had a couple of channels that have reached that within just a couple of months, and other channels maybe a year or two years.
The thing is, it doesn’t matter. There are other ways to monetise in the meantime until you reach that threshold, and the other ways you can monetise include things like Amazon associates for which you need just 100 subscribers or you can also do things like have paid promotions if you know local stores that would advertise on your channel, or other ways you can sell your own merchandise.
So making money should not be the the primary goal, but of course it’s a great way to be able to afford to upgrade your equipment.
As you increase your content and the quality of your productions etc, over time you can, of course, make money using the youtube channel monetising methods.
#7 I don’t have the time
#7 is the one that I absolutely hate the most and this is not having time. People say Mike I would love to make a youtube channel but I just don’t have time!
Let me tell you something, I have a full time job, I work 40 hours a week and and I’m in a long time, long distance relationship visiting my girlfriend all the time. I have friends, I hang out with friends, and somehow in all of that I’m still able to make five videos per week between my different channels.
So if you’re telling me that you don’t have time to make one video every other week then I think that the problem is not your time, the problem is your priorities, because everybody’s getting 24 hours everyday and it’s just a matter of how you divide it up.
I ask people all the time, when was the last time you watched Netflix or watch the news or scrolled through the Internet for something or just went on YouTube and watched random videos? and the answer is almost definitely either today or yesterday and so all of those times are times that you rated those things as more important than making a YouTube channel video and starting your business.
So for all of those people, I think that it’s definitely a priority problem, not an “I don’t have time” problem
Personally, I don’t watch the news, I don’t go on the Internet and scroll through the news, I don’t care about that stuff and a lot of people say that you have to know what’s going on in the world, but actually, you don’t.
The thing is, you don’t have to spend hours a day watching the news and learning about it. You can spend 5 minutes, get a quick recap and then spend the rest of your day on something more productive and something the ultimately might impact on your life.
Learning about what happened in Texas and you know who robbed what store and who went to gaol, probably isn’t that important. Making content and posting it on your own youtube channel, could be. Knowing who robbed that store In Texas probably isn’t going to impact your life, starting or growing a business that can change your life forever, is. Given the choice, I’d choose to start the business every time.
#8 Yes I will start, but not today
#8 kind of ties into #7 and that is yes I’ll start a youtube channel, but not today, or I’ll get started next week, or when I have have when I get out of school, when I have a Christmas break etc.
These are all excuses and reasons not to start today.
I think people say that they think they don’t have time now but ultimately if you shift things around to start making content now, you’ll be very glad you did, and later, a lot of people find that they have the most time they’ve ever had, as they get more organised and disciplined in doing productive things, even if you just stay up late, cut your sleep out a little bit just to try to get something done. I think you’ll be very happy that you did
#9 I have a boring set
Thinking that you have a boring set and therefore I can’t start my youtube channel is a just stupid excuse guys
I have a grey sheet behind me, it’s just a grey background. This is extremely boring. I’ve had other sets where I’m in my bedroom, I’ve been in a living room, I’ve been in a classroom. I started in the classrooms in college. The truth is, your set is not that important. It can be it and it can add a lot to have a good set, but when you’re starting it doesn’t matter if you have a bad set
#10 People will laugh at me
#10 is that people will laugh at you, it’s not cool, people don’t like it.
This is something that every youtuber faces. You start your youtube channel and people say oh how you started a channel and that’s funny coz they can’t picture themselves doing it.
Maybe you walk into a room with your friends and they’ll have you your face on the TV right and say things like that that they think are funny at first, but as you start to grow you make money, you start being more successful.
Then they stop laughing and they start asking you how they can start their own channel. They start telling people how they met you and it just escalates from there. So yes, it does happen, but its a short period that you just kind of power through, so don’t let it put you off.
So ultimately, those are the excuses that I hear most commonly for why people are not starting a YouTube channel. If you are considering starting and these were holding you back hopefully this piece helps you to get past that roadblock and start your channel today.
Of course, if you’re travelling and you just want to have your own Travel Channel, just record stuff and put it on YouTube it’s a great way to save family videos.
So that’s it, that’s my opinion on YouTube Channels. I hope you enjoyed watching or reading and found it useful.
