How to Start a Youtube Video Channel Business

Do you want to start a Youtube video channel? If YES, here is a complete guide to starting a Youtube channel business with NO money and no experience plus a sample Youtube channel business plan template. You may have heard about YouTube, or you also may have seen YouTube. This social media allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favourites, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users.

From research, we were able to note that it uses the VP9 and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC formats and Dynamic Adaptive streaming over HTTP to show an enormous variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers, live streams, and other contents such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.

People upload a lot of the content on YouTube, and these contents are uploaded by people all over the world who are not employees of YouTube. Media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, and Hulu offer some of their materials via YouTube as part of the YouTube partnership program. Note that users who are not registered can only watch videos on the site, while registered users are allowed to upload an unlimited number of videos and add comments to videos.

Videos seen or noted to be potentially inappropriate are available only to registered users reminding them they have to be at least 18 years old. We believe that YouTube itself earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience. Have it in mind that almost all the videos are free to view, but there are exceptions, including subscription-based premium channels, film rentals, as well as YouTube Red.

You can also leverage on this business idea to make very cool money. Read on to understand how to do this successfully.

19 Steps to Starting a Youtube Video Channel Business

1. Understand the Industry

Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube’s running costs, and YouTube’s revenues in 2007 were noted as “not material” in a regulatory filing. But in June 2008, a Forbes magazine article estimated the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales.

Also early 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of 15 minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical US citizen watching television. Also in that same 2012, YouTube’s revenue from its ads program was estimated at $3.7 billion. But by 2013, it almost doubled and was estimated to hit $5.6 billion.

Almost all the videos on YouTube are free to view and supported by advertising. Then mid-2013, YouTube introduced a trial scheme of 53 subscription channels with prices ranging from $0.99 to $6.99 a month. A lot of individuals saw this move as an attempt to compete with other providers of online subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu.

When it comes to partnership and advertising, YouTube ventured into a marketing and advertising partnership with NBC in June 2006. While in March 2007, it reached a deal with BBC for three channels with BBC content, one for news and two for entertainment.

Also towards the ending of 2008, YouTube had an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS, giving the companies the opportunity to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, coupled with advertisements in a section for US viewers called “Shows”.

The move was done to establish competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney. Also, by November 2009, YouTube launched a version of “Shows” available to uk viewers, offering around 4,000 full-length shows from more than 60 partners. Then in January 2010, YouTube introduced an online film rentals service which is available only to users in the US, Canada and the UK.

For video partnerships, YouTube in May 2007 launched its Partner Program, a system based on AdSense which gives the uploader of the video the opportunity to share the revenue produced by advertising on the site. The company typically takes 45 percent of the advertising revenue from videos in the Partner Program, with 55 percent going to the uploader. Note that there are over a million members of the YouTube Partner Program. Sometimes more than half of eligible videos have a pre-roll advertisement, due to a lack of interested advertisers.

Then in 2013, YouTube introduced an option for channels with at least a thousand subscribers but it needs a paid subscription in order for viewers to watch videos. We believe that YouTube Play Buttons, a part of the YouTube Creator Rewards, are a recognition by YouTube of its most popular channels.

How Youtube Ad Revenue Works and How Youtubers Get Paid

YouTube provides an opportunity for its channel owners and creators to earn some money through the platform. When you upload videos to YouTube and you are able to get a lot of people to watch those videos, YouTube starts to place adverts on your channel so that your viewers and subscribers can see those ads.

• How to Start Earning on YouTube

First you need to create a YouTube channel by creating a Youtube account. Then you have to choose a niche – what type of videos do you want to be uploading? Some popular niches include comedy and jokes, instructional videos, educational videos, how-tos, celebrity news and interviews, fashion tips and so on.

After choosing a niche, you can start creating interesting video contents that you can upload on these channels, and take steps to drive traffic to your videos so that you can get a lot of views for your videos.

• Monetizing Your YouTube Channel

YouTube channels are not automatically monetized; you have to enable your channel for monetization before you can start earning some money on it. To monetize your account, you need to register for a Google Adsense account, and link it to your YouTube account. However, your channel will not get approved for monetization until you have had at least 10,000 video views on your channel.

The quality and type of videos on your channel will also determine approval of your channel for monetization. Channels that promote the use of drugs and hard substances or channels with sexually suggestive contents, inappropriate language or controversial subjects are usually not approved for monetization.

• How YouTube Ad Revenue Works

As soon as your account gets approved for monetization, YouTube will start paying you for video views on your channel. YouTube doesn’t just pay you based on the number of people who view your ads but based on people’s engagement with the ads placed on your channel. This is why you can get 1 million video views on YouTube and still not earn a cent.

YouTube pays you on a Cost Per View (CPV) basis. This means that if someone watches an advert for at least 30 seconds, or watches at least half of the ad, you will get paid for it. But if the viewer decides to skip the ad and watch only the video, you won’t get paid.
YouTube pays between $1.20 and $7.60 per 1,000 Ad views so if you get 1,000,000 ad views, you can earn between $1,200 and $7,600.

• How YouTubers Get Paid

YouTube often makes payments through Checks, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or Western Union Quick Cash depending on your location.

As soon as you start earning money on YouTube, you are qualified to start getting paid. However, YouTube will only start paying you when you hit a payment threshold of $100. If you have not earned up to $100 on your account, you will have to wait for the money to continue to accumulate until you have at least $100 in your account.

When you request for withdrawal of your cash after hitting the threshold, YouTube processes your payment and you get you money the following month depending on the payment method you selected.

2. Conduct Market Research and Feasibility Studies

• Demographics and Psychographics

With the advent of technology and over 300 hours of videos uploaded a minute, YouTube has something for everyone. Even though it attracts an even split of women and men, YouTube is still fairly male dominated. Men spend 44 percent more time than women on the site per month.

While women are into makeup and skin care; men are into sports and gaming. In aggregate, YouTube has a huge audience, reaching 81.2 percent of Internet users in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, younger visitors tend to spend more time on the site.

Recently, YouTube drew 31.8 million users aged 18 to 24 (98.3 percent of U.S. Internet users in that age bracket) who spent an average of 10 hours, 15 minutes on the site. Also the platform attracted 19.4 million visitors 65 and older (74.4 percent of Internet users in that demo) who spent an average of 3 hours, 54 minutes using the video-streaming service.

While for YouTube advertisers, purchasing beauty and style channels through Google Preferred, which bundles the top 5 percent of YouTube channels in any given vertical for ad buys, is a good bet to reliably reach women, particularly young teens and millennials. Beauty and style is a popular category, with 582 million monthly views across its top 100 channels.

From research, the most popular YouTuber in the space is Mariand Castrejon, also known as “Yuya,” a high-pitched Mexican vlogger whose Spanish-language makeup and style tutorial videos rack up 41 million views each month. Though there is one thing that unites us all: pets.

We also believe that videos featuring pets and animals have a more even gender split. Animal videos attract viewers of all ages, but the top 100 channels in the category (which collectively generate 259 million monthly views) are most popular among millennial men (18-34), who account for 30 percent of viewership. Meanwhile millennial women represent around 24 percent of viewership in the category.

3. Decide Which Niche to Concentrate On

When planning to start this business, you should decide the channel or people you want to target. This will serve as a niche for you. To be able to choose a suitable target audience/niche, you should treat a YouTube video business just like you would treat any other business. Your video content needs to be created for a specific audience you want to reach. Have it in mind that the more you define your niche, the more your content will resonate with viewers.

Some of the niches include;

• tutorials
• overviews of strategies
• education on a specific topic
• demonstrations
• product reviews

The Level of Competition in the Industry

YouTube is indeed facing an ever-increasing pressure because of its impact to social-networking sites, but lucrative advertising and subscription revenue keep a high number of companies competing in the area. The surge in the popularity of YouTube has taken over the industry, dominating and making people lose interest in other video sites. That has in turn made competition more intense in an already crowded field.

It is very interesting to behold the massive views videos record daily on YouTube, and it keeps bringing up needs for people to log in and watch videos. The industry is very competitive, however, it is very fragmented, and revenues are growing and there’s no problem in making a sector yours.

4. Know Your Major Competitors in the Industry

• PewDiePie
• JustinBieberVEVO
• elrubiusOMG
• T-Series
• RihannaVEVO
• YouTube Spotlight
• TaylorSwiftVEVO
• KatyPerryVEVO
• Fernanfloo
• Whinderssonnunes
• EminemVEVO
• Dude Perfect
• Smosh
• OneDirectionVEVO
• JuegaGerman
• Ed Sheeran
• VanossGaming
• TheEllenShow
• Nigahiga
• Canal KondZilla

Economic Analysis

YouTube works in a very specific way, and the most successful campaigns will make use of those eccentricities instead of try to work against them. But note that YouTube isn’t for everyone. For instance, if your content is entirely focused towards your products and the videos only make sense in the context of your website and business, then they will be confusing for those who stumble upon them on YouTube.

We believe that for your videos to help you in landing pages rank, then YouTube may not be a good choice either, since YouTube videos often outrank websites in universal searches and thus split link value down the middle. In these sort of cases, you’re better off either hosting the videos yourself or using a paid platform that has stricter embedding rules.

All successful entrepreneurs all understand that content marketing is very useful and can be an exciting challenge, and for some companies it can really pay off. Starting and managing a well-optimized YouTube channel with interesting content can seriously increase your audience, and rank you in the second most popular search engine in the world. Note that there is a lot of detail to a good channel, including keyword optimization and use of annotations; so do your research, get creative, and turn on those cameras.

5. Decide Whether to Buy a Franchise or Start from Scratch

When you buy a business, you take over an operation that is already generating cash flow and profits. It also offers you an established customer base and reputation as well as employees who are familiar with all aspects of the business.

Also you won’t have to reinvent the wheel, setting up new procedures, systems, and policies. This is because a successful formula for running the business has already been put in place. But you should also note that buying a business is sometimes expensive than starting from scratch.

This business, YouTube Video Channel, has no known franchise that you can leverage to grow your business. This leaves everyone with the option of starting from the scratch and starting up strong. The best way to start a business is to make yourself ready for threats and challenges.

6. Know the Possible Threats and Challenges You Will Face

Starting a YouTube Video Channel business just like any other known business has its own challenges and problems. A lot of people depend on YouTube Video Channels to be able to find and get information, so when starting your YouTube Video Channel business you must first take care of some major decisions, which may include:

• Differentiating yourself from competing YouTube Video Channel services
• Naming your YouTube Video Channel service
• Developing incentives for people to subscribe to your YouTube Video Channel
• Developing incentives for people to watch your YouTube Video Channel

7. Choose the Most Suitable Legal Entity (LLC, C Corp, S Corp)

This is a business you can do from the confinement of your bedroom. You can run a YouTube Video Channel Business right from your bedroom as a stay at home mom, as a teen, or even as a student. This business and the advent of technology have created avenues and sources of income for people of all age brackets. You can choose to start this business comfortably without forming a legal structure, but when the need arises, note that you can form this business as a sole proprietorship.

Sole proprietorship is one of the most popular legal structures in the business world. It simply means that the benefits and loss of the business falls on just the owner. This business structure has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage

• you are the boss
• you keep all the profits
• start-up costs are low
• you have maximum privacy
• establishing and operating your business is simple
• it’s easy to change your legal structure later if circumstances change
• you can easily wind up your business

Disadvantages

• you have unlimited liability for debts as there is no legal distinction between private and business assets
• your capacity to raise capital is limited
• all the responsibility for making day-to-day business decisions is yours
• retaining high-calibre employees can be difficult
• it can be hard to take holidays
• you’re taxed as a single person
• the life of the business is limited

8. Choose a Catchy Business Name

This site allows you to change the name of your channel in two different ways. If you prefer to keep your YouTube channel separate from your Google Plus account, you can make the name change within the advanced settings of YouTube. The only drawback with this method is that your username will remain the same.

Only the channel page will display the updated name. If you want to change the name of your channel and username, you need to link your YouTube account to the Google Plus social network. Once linked, your YouTube channel and username will match whatever display name you use on Google Plus.

The when it comes to choosing a suitable name for your video channel, you should learn to see yourself more like a vlogger. Giving your all and not holding back. The name of your business should be a name that will attract your target market. You won’t attract religious people if you use a vulgar name. You have to consider the image you plan to buttress, the audience you plan to reach and your content. Choose a name that is easy to remember and sweet to speak about.

9. Discuss with an Agent to Know the Best Insurance Policies for You

A lot of people would think this business doesn’t need insurance protection. They might be right but once you plan to go far and reach a wider audience, then you have to understand that your health insurance won’t save you when you are sued for instigating violence and other things. You need to seek for protection outside the walls of your house and insurance in many ways have proven to be good at that. Insurance you may need include:

• Internet liability insurance
• Advertising agency insurance
• Creative insurance
• Copywriters insurance
• Business equipment insurance
• Business contents insurance

10. Protect your Intellectual Property With Trademark, Copyrights, Patents

Intellectual property rights are a business asset, and they are often the most valuable business asset. Any business presently trading or considering trading on the internet needs to check what intellectual property rights it owns and ensure that it is fully protected. Different types of ideas can be protected in different ways, depending on how they are expressed. This intellectual output and the protection of it is known as intellectual property.

There will be a number of intellectual property rights that will exist in your channel. Any logos or branding are likely to be protected by registered trade mark rights or the law of passing off. However, your videos, including the text, design, graphics, data, layout and any music, broadcasts, software and images on your website, will be protected by copyright. In other to protect your intellectual property in the YouTube Video Channel business you need to do the following;

• Use Duplicate Content Detection and Monitoring Tools
• Devise preventive methods
• Take Action after Finding a Plagiarist

11. Get the Necessary Professional Certification

Yes YouTube has its own certification for users and experts. YouTube launched the creator’s academy in the year 2014 which offers various learning programmes. The certification by YouTube helps individuals get trained and also it helps creators in the creation of videos. The certification is valid for 12 months from the date of issue. During the certification training, individuals can learn about the in-depth tactics of video creation and related strategies too.

• Digital Rights Certification
• API Content ID
• Monetization, Analytics And Audience Development Strategy

12. Get the Necessary Legal Documents You Need to Operate

Documents play an essential role in protecting the interests of the business and business owners over the course of a business lifetime.

• Social Security number
• Tax identification number
• Insurance
• Online privacy policy
• Online term of use

13. Raise the Needed Startup Capital

This business can be started with a phone that can boast of a good camera. This business might not be capital intensive, but once you decide to do it in a big way then you have to consider adequate funding for your videos and costumes. However, before you launch the channel, you must understand that there is more to a YouTube Video Channel than posting videos and hoping others like what they see. You should consider;

• Personal savings
• Crowdfunding
• Social investment
• Partners
• Credit cards

14. Choose a Suitable Location for your Business

If your Video Channel Business needs a storefront, choose an attractive location in your city’s business district. Choose tasteful, conservative furnishings; hire friendly and engaging staff members who can set your customers at ease. You will have to write a very detailed business plan which will help you shape your ideas and hopes for this business.

15. Hire Employees for your Technical and Manpower Needs

Starting your own YouTube channel can be quite easy and exciting. You don’t need to go all expensive when selecting video equipment to start you YouTube channel. Don’t forget that it is not the equipment that makes your channel; it is the content of the channel that builds the audience.

You need to have something that your audience finds interesting; that is what will really make people watch you, like your videos and build YouTube channel subscribers. Today, there are so many different types of microphones, video cameras, webcams, sports cameras, etc.

How can you tell which is the best? How can you get the best picture quality? How do you make the audio sound great? All these can only be gotten if you diligently research the platform and business before you jump into it. The basic equipment you will need to start a YouTube Video Channel may include:

• Cell phone
• DSLRs
• Microphone
• Video Camera
• Video Editing Software

The Service Delivery Process of the Business

When planning to start this business, the first thing you have to do after all research and feasibility studies is to create a trailer. Just like your channel art, you also have to create your channel trailer. Channel trailers are usually short and sweet, and are a good introduction for new visitors.

You can let your audience know who you are, what your business is all about and what kind of content they can expect to see in the future. Building your channel trailer will also be good practice leading up to your first video.

• Upload your first (official) video

By this time, you must have done a fair amount of research about your first video, and if you already have your channel trailer under your belt, you have a bit of practice as well. Now, it is time to start. Immediately you’re done filming and editing your first video, it’s time to upload it. Since YouTube relies on video uploads, you’ll find the upload option at the top right of the screen when you log into your account.

• Optimize for Search

When uploading a video, you’ll be asked to fill in a title, description, and tags. Note that these information are essential components to have your video easily discoverable in YouTube search, so don’t rush. Just like the SEO for your own website, YouTube has its own set of parameters for you to optimize your video for search. We suggest you fill these sections out to the best of your ability using keywords to describe the video and your business.

• Stay Consistent

You should never expect success if you plan to create a YouTube channel, upload one video and then leave it completely. Note that building a successful YouTube channel takes time and effort, and viewers expect consistency from the channels that they subscribe to. After your first video, be sure to plan the next few videos ahead of time.

16. Write a Marketing Plan Packed with ideas & Strategies

Have it in mind that marketing on YouTube has a lot of similarities to SEO. To get views, one of your main goals will be to rank in YouTube’s searches without putting in more effort than your initial promotion. We believe you could try some black hat tactics just like in SEO to get the extra views, but that is never a long-term solution. Instead, you need to create videos people actually want to watch. There are three steps to it.

• Accomplish or Entertain?

At this point, you need to ask yourself why someone watches a video. We believe there are really only two reasons why. First they want to learn something to solve a problem, or they want to be entertained. To succeed, you need to make sure that your video accomplishes at least one of these, if not both. We believe that the reason why understanding this is so crucial is because it will shape how you make your videos.

• Quality Always Comes First

Yes we know YouTube is far from saturated, one aspect that really impresses people is the quality of the videos put out by popular channels. They quickly figured out that viewers won’t watch low quality videos.

• See it as Blogging

Note that the standard level of content has only reached to a high level in the past few years, and there are still plenty of businesses producing ugly content without much value. There are two main types of high quality videos that you’ll come across and that you’ll probably want to produce yourself. The first type is the classic white background and the other is the whiteboard video.

17. Develop Iron-clad Competitive Strategies to Help You Win

Business is a game of chess and every move counts and to beat the competition you will require everyone’s collective effort. It’s not just a task for the marketing department or top management; it’s everyone’s responsibility. So as the leader of your business, it is very important you make use of all strategies to win your competitors.

• Define your brand and make your channel inspiring
• Choose a Competitive Advantage
• Excite your customers
• Offer something off the board

18. Brainstorm Possible Ways to Retain Clients & Customers

To retain a customer you need to provide an experience that blows the customer away, keeps you on their mind, and gets you into discussions with their friends. Far too often, marketers spend all of their attention on the chase and the sale and not enough on how to retain and create remarkable experience. You need to;

• Wow your customers
• Follow them up
• Provide some personalization
• Choose the right tools
• Make it simple
• Protect their ideas and interest

19. Develop Strategies to Boost Brand Awareness and Create a Corporate Identity

We all know that the general internet industry is a highly competitive one, and while running a web-based venture can be extremely lucrative, it requires a lot of hard work and helping hand to ensure profitability. When it comes to finding this success online, the quality of your service can only take you so far, and to really thrive you must get noticed and earn respect. You need to know that in the YouTube Video Channel Business, your video is everything. You need to employ the following strategies;

• Social media marketing
• Efficient Web hosting
• Astonishing website
• Improved Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Affiliate marketing