If I started a YouTube channel in 2023, I'd do this

So the process to create Facebook account on laptop is quite easy and simple .

Or whether you are on Windows or mac or any other device , simply go and open up any browser .

In my case , I'll open up the chrome browser .

And once here you need to simply go to facebook dot com .

And here we are facebook dot com .

And in case if you're already logged in , simply go and click on here and here log out .

And once you have logged out uh on the home screen , you have this option of create new account here .

You can see create new account .

But for real , though , these are all very essential components to a successful youtube growth plan stage one is to plan , you need to choose a direction or purpose for your channel .

I know , I know no one wants a niche these days .

You want to be able to post anything and everything about you .

You want the flexibility for your audience to change and evolve as you change and evolve .

I totally get that .

I do think that is possible , but it doesn't mean that your channel is totally directionless .

I really think as a new youtuber , you need to ask yourself , what is the reason for somebody to click on and watch my videos ?

What is the reason for somebody to subscribe to me ?

Especially , especially think about why should someone who has no idea who I am want to watch this video ?

Because that is the first hurdle that we're getting over when it comes to growing a youtube channel , it's starting to get strangers on the internet to care about what you have to say .

So , really think about that and make sure that you have a really solid answer to that question .

Here's some potential answers to get you thinking .

People want to watch my content to be inspired to travel more often and find cool hidden gems or people want to watch my content to learn new healthy recipes and be motivated to live their best life .

Or even people want to watch my content to lighten their mood , have a good laugh and just enjoy the silly antics of my friends .

All of these are very valid reasons for someone to watch content from a stranger on the internet .

It doesn't have to be about educating somebody or teaching something .

There's lots of different ways to provide value , including entertainment , motivation , inspiration , relaxation , all of those different things .

But having a reason for people to watch your content is not a strategy in and of itself .

One way that I want you to consider for developing your youtube growth strategy is actually using a method that youtube developed themselves .

And it's called the help hub hero method .

This is a strategy that youtube used to teach in their old youtube certification program .

But I think that it can still be really applicable , especially if you're wanting to grow as a lifestyle creator or not have a really strict need .

OK .

So let's break it down .

Help content is your seo optimized how to it's going to show up in search .

It's applicable to anybody .

People will find it because they're looking for an answer to a question , your hub content .

That's your like recurring sort of backbone of your channel type of weekly show .

This is your standard content that your regular subscribers come back to week after week .

It's not necessarily going to go viral and it's not necessarily going to show up that well in search , but your existing community loves it hero content .

These are your big swings .

These are your attempts at viral .

This is making content that you feel confident is going to show up on the home page and it is going to help you reach a much wider audience and ultimately grow your channel .

I did say at the beginning of this video that I am actually implementing this myself .

In case if you are unable to see that you can simply go and search for Facebook , create new account , create account and you can see the sign up page , either you can go it from create your new account from here as well .

So these are both the same forms .

You can directly go from the search engine or you can go from the Facebook .

And once you are on this form , simply go and enter your name , first name , last name , mobile letter or email and it says reenter your email .

So reenter your email , you can go with your phone number as well and here enter the password , once you have entered the password , scroll down a bit .

So we've got a couple of videos on there about how to plan your own trips and how to pack for long term travel .

These are videos that are created to hopefully show up in search and bring new people who have never seen us before to the channel .

Obviously , they're travel related so it should bring in our target audience .

Our hub content is just our typical weekly travel vlog .

So we've got Van Life vlogs that just show like a week in our life in the van and also vlogs that are location based because we spent like a week in the city or a week in that city .

So then we'll have the vlog framed around what we did in that city that week .

But it is a pretty typical travel vlog and in terms of what our hero content looks like .

Well , for one , we've got our van tour .

Everybody knows that , you know , van tours perform really well .

It's probably going to be your top viewed video on your channel .

But in addition to that , I've also found that doing like X hours in destination like 72 hours in Rome , 24 hours in Venice .

Those are also our top performers .

And I think it's because they're popular destinations .

It's a specific amount of time .

So like date of birth , once you have selected the date of birth , select the gender and click on sign up .

Once you click on , sign up , it might take a bit of a time and it will redirect you to the new page .

Now , it's saying it is saying , let us know this email address belongs to you into the code that the email sent at this one .

So whether you have entered your phone number or email address , uh these will be sent a code , so you need to enter that code here .

In my case , I'll go to my gmail account that I have linked here .

If you have linked the phone number , you will receive the code on your phone number .

Uh Like here we go .

And on my discount uh in a few moments , you'll be able to see a code , you can see the Facebook code .

And once I click on this , it says the confirmation code is 14320 .

So I would enter that here .

14320 , click on continue and the code will be verified and it says you have successfully confirmed your account with the email .

This one you will use this email to log in .

Ok .

Now on the next screen , uh you'll be able to see that we are locked in with your , with our account .

So you can see the account has been created and hope by doing so , you'll be able to create your Facebook account on laptop or PC .

But before you go , please like , subscribe and share .

Thank you .

We're going to use this help hub and a hero method to plan out what your content calendar is going to look like over the first through fourth quarters of your next 12 months on youtube baseline for this whole plan is posting one video a week because I really do think that's the sweet spot for seeing some substantial growth .

And I don't think that it's necessarily worth it to post more often than that .

It's a good way to balance , you know , quality and quantity .

I think you should post once a week .

Ok .

So in your first quarter , starting a brand new youtube channel , you've literally 0.0 audience , you need to just start getting some traffic to your channel each month .

You're going to post two help videos and two hub videos .

So basically what this works out to is you could alternate each week , one week you do something that's very seo optimized .

Maybe it's a how to or tutorial , something that your audience might be searching for .

And then the other week you alternate that with your hub content .

So your weekly show kind of showing your personality when you're thinking about what your hub content is going to be .

Really ask yourself like , what do I , I want my weekly videos to look like once I have a large audience , like if I had a million subscribers right now , what would my weekly youtube videos look like ?

That's what you want your hub content to be from the start ?

I think a lot of people make the mistake at this stage of only doing help content .

Honestly , that was me because I thought I just want to get in front of people .

I just need people finding my channel and help content is the way to do that .

But if you completely 100% invest in the help style videos , then people who end up at your channel for that may not be interested in what your sort of ideal hub content would look like in the future .

So from the very beginning , you want to start including that in your strategy .

So your subscribers know off the hop what to expect from you and then can decide whether or not to be a part of your community based on that rather than growing a sort of artificially large audience based on your help videos and then having those people not as interested in your hub content , that's a very frequent issue .

And I would say that I also kind of fall into that .

So that's why I really advise from the beginning , balance it out with these help videos , seo optimized tutorials , how tos and then every other week put in a video where you ask yourself like , OK , if I had 100,000 million whatever subscribers today , what would I want my videos to look like , make those videos that will set you up really well to start getting your content showing up in search and also establishing with your new subscribers what your videos are going to look like in the long term .

Moving into the second quarter , we're going to start shifting this strategy a little bit .

I want you to back down to just doing one help video per month and three hub videos per month .

So maybe one week out of your month , you're going to do that tutorial , that kind of how to that's going to keep that seo traffic coming to you .

But then the three other videos are going to be your videos that you kind of want to make in the long term .

Again , that weekly show that sort of nurtures your existing audience and that you would be happy making again and again , I think it's important to make this transition because at this point , you will start building up an audience and you don't want to inundate them with too many tutorials .

And also you might be starting to feel a little bit burnt out on the searchable stuff because I know it's not always the most creative , it's kind of more so optimized for growth .

It's maybe not what you want to do long term .

So in this second quarter , you're starting to shift the focus to doing more of that style of video that you really love and hopefully nurturing that audience that you've started to grow and giving them that content that you plan to do in the long term .

As we enter quarter three , we're going to do another slight shift .

You're going to keep going with those three hub videos , your typical weekly kind of content .

But instead of doing a monthly help video , you're going to switch that over to doing a monthly Hero video .

Now I'm not gonna lie .

Hero videos are not something that you can necessarily exactly plan for .

I mean , you can optimize for having your video show up on the home page .

You can think about choosing topics that are going to be interesting and relevant to a wider audience than just your existing subscribers .

And you can create the video in a way where the person doesn't need to know who you are to find , find it really fascinating .

But the X factor of these kind of videos is that it's also a little bit of a right place right time .

I think that videos that really pop off on the home page tend to be connected with current kind of cultural conversations .

All of this is to say , I think you can strategize for hero videos .

But I just want to admit like it is hard , you'll probably try to make several of them before you see one really , really perform well because there is a little bit of luck involved with those big viral hits .

And finally , as we move into Q four and you start to , to find what your long term balance is going to be for continued growth , I suggest doing a little bit of experimenting , but you may want to consider doing two hub videos per month , one help video and one hero video because this will kind of help you insulate your channel from these big rises and falls of viral moments .

If you continue to publish some straight up helpful searchable stuff , because search traffic tends to be more steady .

People will continue finding you your searchable content .

Whereas those hero videos , if they do work out , it'll make your analytics go like that .

And so if you continue to kind of trickle out some helpful seo optimized videos , it doesn't necessarily have to be once a month , but even every other month that will help you keep your traffic a little bit more steady .

Essentially , the idea with this 12 month strategy is that you start out with more reliable ways of finding traffic , especially when you don't have a big audience .

The easiest way to get to your channel is through search .

But as you grow a larger audience and you kind of have at least an initial boost of eyes on your content .

When you first publish it , then it becomes more efficient to gain audience and gain reach through optimizing for the home page , which is where the hero content comes in .

So I'm not saying it ever gets easier to like go viral , but it does become a lot more efficient for you to get views through making those kind of viral attempts than through just pushing out seo search content over and over again .

OK .

So that was a lot of time spent in the plan phase , but we've made it to phase two of your overall plan , which is creating , you've spent a lot of time strategizing .

Now , my friend , it's time to actually make some videos .

A lot of people get stuck in that first step .

I was just talking about , you need to actually turn on your camera and film .

So I really want to encourage you to think about creating videos for youtube as like a muscle that you're trying to strengthen .

This is something that you have to practice to get better at .

I think sometimes people think about creating content just like a checklist like , oh , I'll just film a video and quick like throw it up on youtube and you know , get that off my list and that'll help me grow my channel .

No , it's not going to work like that .

You need to be very intentional about getting better at making youtube videos .

Really see it for the craft that it is and think about how you can improve your skills .

That's going to be a much better mindset than just like checking off your weekly to do list of make a video .

So as you're getting started and practicing that skill of making youtube videos , I want to point out three major traps that a lot of beginners get caught in .

So you can avoid these number one long and slow intros .

Honestly , if you spend a long time getting into it , you're going to lose your audience immediately .

I follow a couple of people that I really like their content , but they take forever saying the same intro that they do every single time .

It's like , how many different ways can you say hi and hello and want it to take you five minutes .

You know , like a lot of us , we have short attention spans now and you got to get right into the interesting stuff , especially when you don't have an established audience .

Mistake .

Number two , assuming that everyone who's watching your videos already knows your back story already knows who you are .

This is kind of the other side of the coin to the long intro thing .

I understand people's idea of doing long intros because they're like , I need to let them know who I am and why I'm making this video and why they should care about it .

But that kind of prevents you from getting right into the juicy stuff .

On the other side of the coin though , if you never provide any context and don't explain who you are , then it might not make sense .

For example , this happens a lot with vloggers who will just talk about stuff going on in their life , talk about people in their life .

And it's like , girl , I've never heard about your friend Sarah .

You're going have to tell me a little bit more , but this is where you have an interesting creative challenge .

It's important that you share a bit of context and background , but you do it in an interesting way and my best recommendation would be to bury the lead a little bit .

So start your video off in the middle of the story .

Dive right into the most interesting part and get going from there and then maybe a minute or two minutes and you can back it up a little bit and provide a little bit more information .

You might have noticed that I kind of did that in this video .

It took me a long time before I said , hey , I'm Katie and this is what I do .

That's because I wanted to give you the most helpful and interesting information .

First , I knew that that part didn't require you knowing who I was .

But once I started using myself as an example , you know , then it became important .

An example of how I do this on my vlog channel is actually with our top performing video , which is our trip to Rome .

I dive into the story immediately .

I address what's interesting about Rome .

Why would you want to go there as a viewer ?

What are you going to see in this video ?

What recommendations are you going to receive ?

Start the video off , focus on the viewer .

And then once we're about 45 seconds in then as we're literally walking through the streets of Rome , me and Dan say quick intro for those who don't already know us .

Typically we drive around our converted Camper van through North America right now .

We're on an Italian road trip .

So as we're giving you context , we are in the middle of the action .

We're literally taking like 15 seconds to do this and we're showing lots of b roll to keep it interesting .

So really , this is a fine balance of don't give really long boring intros that prevent people from ever getting to the interesting part of your video .

But also don't just plow through and assume people know everything they need to know .

You will want to give context at certain points .

But figure out how you can do it in an entertaining way .

OK ?

This one's a bit more specific , but this is a huge mistake that I see a lot of creators making and I feel like you'll probably relate to this and it's to do with how you corporate music into your videos .

A lot of people when they're new , they'll discover , OK ?

I can't just use pop music .

I'm going to need to use something that is like copyright free or whatever .

And then they start finding some tracks and they literally just put like 20 tens EDM tracks behind everything .

This is especially a common crime in the travel world .

I will tell you and well , sometimes that makes sense like I get , you're trying to get the energy high , I get people excited , but often it just kind of feels a bit off .

The thing is you can do so much with music too , like it can make a huge difference , but you need to do it the right way .

This is something that I focus on a lot over on my travel channel , Katie and Dan and Evan .

And I personally love using Epidemic Sound , which is also the sponsor of today's video .

So here are some really quick tips for finding the right kind of music to make your video legit more interesting and keep people watching longer .

First , you got to decide what kind of emotion you're trying to convey is this scene going to be funny .

Is it going to be mysterious ?

Are you trying to evoke the feeling of wonder , curiosity , excitement , figure out what feeling you want your scene to be and then find music that connects with that .

It's also really important that you alternate emotions between your scenes .

This will really give your story some range and just give it a better pace if you start out at a 10 .

And this is what a lot of these like EDM tracks do if you start at energy level of 10 and it's just Bop Bop Bob , like , you know , really , really high excitement , you can't sustain that for a whole video .

And that's why eventually to feel off because you're just kind of like , uh you know , why are we still going like this ?

That's why you need to have some scenes that are high energy , fun , exciting and some scenes that are maybe a little bit more quiet , more reflective .

If you start off at that high level , just bumping club music , then you've got nowhere to go with your story and it's going to start to feel stale .

But if you alternate between fun and then maybe a little bit more quiet , more reflective and then more high energy and then , you know , a little bit slower that will help bring your viewer through the whole story and not have them feeling exhausted by your music .

And here's the thing .

Epidemic sound is actually full of music that is one actually really good .

And two , you can actually use it in your youtube videos because once you sync your channel to your epidemic sound account , you don't have to worry about copyright strikes or anything like that .

And once you've decided what the mood or the theme of your particular scene is going to be , you can really easily browse through different moods , different genres , all that kind of stuff on epidemic sound .

It's literally all the music and sound effects you could ever need for your youtube channel .

Just with one subscription , you can check it out at the link below for a 30 day free trial .

And the best part is anything that you download during 30 days is protected for life .

So go crazy , go sign up now and once again , thanks to Epidemic Sound for sponsoring and ultimately , once you've overcome those hurdles and common beginner mistakes , I really do believe it's all about consistency just like what we went over in the plan segment of this video .

Like I do think it is really helpful to post once a week .

So you really want to figure out how you can become consistent , how you can make youtube creation a habit and how you can kind of work on improving your skills around making youtube videos .

And part of improving over time is the third stage of this three part plan and that is reflecting , I'll be honest , this part of being a youtuber is a really delicate balance because we do need to check in on our analytics , use them to our advantage and how we can kind of of it and you know , change our videos for the better .

But you also don't want to get too caught up in them because it can be a real psychological game when it comes to youtube studio .

So here's what I would actually recommend you do in order to use your analytics but not get too messed up about them .

Schedule a point at the end of every month for you to go into youtube studio and take a look back on how your videos have performed over the past month .

I don't want you to do this more often than that because it'll be too easy to get in your own head , doubt yourself and you know , feel like you should just give up or completely pivot and you need to stick to the plan for a long period of time to see results .

So don't be looking at it more often than once a month , but go in at the end of each month , take a look at the numbers , see what your view duration looked like on each video , see what your click through rate was like on each video and take some notes about why you think certain thumbnails got a higher CTR why certain videos had a longer view duration ?

And if you really want extra brownie points , then I would recommend going back and watching each of your videos through and maybe just writing down a few notes about what you think you could have done better .

Especially if , when you watch back your videos , there's certain parts where you're tempted to pick up your phone or like look away or switch the tab .

Take a note on that because that means that you maybe didn't like make the edit as tight and as fast paced as it could have been .

It's good to do this with a little bit of distance because obviously after you've just spent hours editing your video , you're gonna have a different perspective on it than if it's been a couple of weeks since you've seen it .

So this is a really great time to sort of look back and you know , think about how you could have improved your content and of course , also look through the comments and like see what people are enjoying .

And if you have particular parts of your videos that you really loved and you want to do that again .

Also make notes on that .

Try not to make it all just , you know , this negative like , oh I could have done this better .

It's also important to kind of affirm yourself and say , yeah , that was really funny or that part of it , it was really cool and keep leaning into those parts that you really like more .

And once you've finished this reflection time , you're ready to dive into this cycle again of planning what your next upcoming videos are going to be creating them and then reflecting on it , this is the constant cycle of being a creator .

You just have to create a plan , actually execute on that plan and then look back on how it went and learn from that so you can do better in the future .

It's all about experimentation .

Now , as you are working on growing your channel , you may also start thinking about how you might be able to monetize it .

So if you want to learn how you can make your 1st $1000 from brand deals .

This year , I made a video on exactly that you should check that out .

Next , I go over the details of how you can start actually getting paid brand deals , including not just how to like pitch brands that you hear about a lot , but how to get brands to come to you .

So make sure you check out that video next .

And as always , thank you so much for watching .

I look forward to seeing your growth on youtube and I hope you're having adventures and following your dreams and I'll see you in the next one .

Bye .