Building a Successful YouTube Blog in 5 Steps: No Experience or Budget

Where do your kids watch cartoons? On YouTube.

Where do you look for a step-by-step video guide for your IKEA wardrobe? On YouTube.

Where do people quickly and freely learn how to do professional makeup? That's right — on YouTube!

The list of what you can find on YouTube could go on literally forever — gameplay videos, master classes, life blogs, Q&A videos, do-it-yourself clips, and lots of other stuff.

Probably it's precisely thanks to this versatility that the video platform hasn't lost its popularity among users for years on end.

The number of monthly active YouTube users has nearly reached the 2 billion mark. You have to admit, that's impressive.

To finally convince you that you and your business need your own YouTube channel, let me invite you to take a look at the top 25 YouTube bloggers and the number of their subscribers and video views:

As you can see, videos are popular in completely different niches — kids' channels, automotive, entertainment, personal ones — you can become famous talking about and showing anything.

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If we talk about YouTube in the context of business and so-called influence marketing (when you don't sell to a person head-on but provide various useful things, and the purchase decision comes as if by chance, based on your expertise and brand power), then here the video platform takes 2nd place after Instagram:

Let me explain why the social networks line up this way.

Influence marketing is built entirely on trust — in the blogger, the public figure, the opinion leader.

Where is the largest number of personal pages, where we see a personality washing up, having breakfast, rejoicing, feeling sad, where we essentially live another person's life together with them? That's right — on Instagram.

That's also where the largest number of personal blogs is, which means subscriber trust is at its maximum.

YouTube also has many life bloggers who show their everyday life, their home, their friends and family, but here there are already lots of specifically themed channels.

Blogs on platforms like LiveJournal aren't as popular in our country as social networks, which means influence marketing is less effective there.

That's exactly what determines this arrangement of social networks on the chart.

If you'd like to get an individual promotion plan for your YouTube channel, leave me your contact details below.

Who needs their own YouTube channel

I think you've watched a video on YouTube at least once in your life.

But how about moving "into the screen"?

Let's figure out who really needs their own YouTube channel and for whom it's a waste of time.

As mentioned above, YouTube has completely different content, and for each person the platform selects exactly the videos that will interest them, based on the history of videos already watched.

So the answer to the question "Who needs a YouTube blog?" is one word — "Everyone."

• Entrepreneurs

For example, you own a business and are thinking about creating content for your video blog.

Here there are several ideas at once — tell people about your path to success if you want the channel to be about you.

Show your team and work process if you're creating a blog for your company.

Instill faith in people that if it worked out for you, it will definitely work out for them too.

After all, many people come to YouTube precisely for motivation.

• Gamers

This is a very popular niche on YouTube: you play games and record the entire process on camera, add your commentary, and upload it online.

At a minimum other gamers will watch; at a maximum the videos can go viral thanks to funny commentary.

• Copywriters

You can shoot video tutorials on how to write beautifully, talk about your work, about earning opportunities, failures, and highs on the professional arena.

And if you, for instance, have started writing your own book, you can make simple clips — read one chapter into a voice recorder, find pictures online, and stitch it all together — maybe your subscribers will love exactly this format.

• Artists

You can record the step-by-step process of creating a painting, speed it all up to 1 minute, and show how masterpieces are made.

As for monetization, you can make free content for everyone like "step-by-step drawing of a bouquet of roses," give free master classes, and then develop a training program in your own online art school — and selling such lessons to an already "warm" audience that trusts you will be quite easy.

• Photographers

Here it's all according to the scheme above: you can provide educational material, or you can tell your story — about where you work, what the difficulty of interacting with models is, what the perks of being a freelancer are, how early you have to get up to shoot at sunrise, and so on.

• Musicians

Love playing the piano and don't know how to burst onto YouTube? Loud and with a song!

Namely: try recording one of your pieces on camera and posting it online.

Maybe you'll have your own audience of classical music lovers, and some of your subscribers will want to invite you to play at their celebration.

• Cooks

Shoot simple recipes you'd want to share with a friend and try in your own kitchen.

Or shoot the process of preparing haute cuisine dishes and sell them (unfortunately, there are geographic limitations here — you won't be able to deliver food farther than within your own city).

Or maybe you run master classes and travel around the country with them?

• Stay-at-home moms

Did you have a baby and are just getting used to a new way of life?

Tell everything without embellishment on your YouTube channel, and you'll see that you're far from alone in this situation.

The topic of moms is just as relevant on YouTube as on Instagram.

• Truck drivers

Maybe it'll seem strange to you that I chose exactly this profession, but you have no idea how popular this niche is.

I want to show you and prove that you can find your target audience on YouTube working in absolutely any field — you just need to be sincere and show your real life, not the perfect pictures everyone is already pretty tired of.

Here's one of the popular channels run by a long-haul truck driver.

As you can see, the channel has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Impressive, right?

The list of professions that integrate well into YouTube could go on forever.

But I think it's already become clearer what you can shoot videos about for your channel.

Your goal on YouTube

If you've firmly decided to start your YouTube blog, there's quite a bit of work ahead, but it's definitely interesting and worth it.

So what's important to consider before registering on the world-famous video platform?

Defining your positioning.

That's what we'll talk about.

Creating your channel on YouTube is as easy as it gets: registration takes just a couple of minutes.

But before starting your video blog, you need to answer one question: "Why do I need YouTube."

And answers like "just because," "because everyone already has one," "well, it's trendy and prestigious" definitely won't do.

1. I want to earn money on YouTube

A completely normal and achievable goal.

But for earning on YouTube you'll need to work a lot and for a long time.

You can earn from monetizing videos (you get money for each ad shown before and during your video), but I'll be honest — in our country you won't earn much from monetization.

And the second option is earning from advertising integrations in videos.

Here's the gist: for example, a cosmetics company orders advertising.

They send you lipstick and mascara and also pay for your work.

And in your next video you, as if by chance, decide to tell subscribers what awesome mascara and lipstick you recently bought.

You apply makeup, talk about the durability of the cosmetics, the beneficial effect on the skin, and the pleasant aroma.

Earning this way is easier: you negotiate the cost of your work with each client, and accordingly the earnings can be completely different in each case.

2. I want popularity

Many people come to YouTube precisely with this request. And very many achieve their goal.

I'll say one thing — be ready to work a lot, to come up with unique video ideas people will want to share.

The shortest path to popularity is to do crazy things and stand out from the crowd.

3. I want to create a personal brand

This goal is similar to the desire for popularity, but it differs somewhat.

If you're growing a personal brand (or a brand name for a company), you act as an expert — you must be a true professional in your niche, give useful information, demonstrate your expertise, and talk about success.

Meanwhile, a viner can also be popular — a person who shoots short funny clips (which often lack logic and common sense).

As you can see, people watch the most varied clips on YouTube, which means you can choose any topic for your video blog — there's complete room here for creativity and self-expression.

Recommended reading:

1. Keywords for a YouTube Channel: Selecting and Optimizing Tags
2. Promoting Videos on YouTube: A Checklist for Channel Growth

Preparing to create a channel

We've figured out why you need YouTube.

But what to do next is the question.

Let's sort it out.

When you have a real goal on YouTube and the results you want to achieve, it's time to act.

The first thing is, of course, to create a channel. This process is easy and quick, so we won't dwell on it.

And if you'd like to get a guide to the step-by-step creation of a YouTube channel and designing your profile header, I recommend reading our article where everything is explained in detail: 3 free ways to create a YouTube channel banner + real examples.

Now that you've created a channel, even more questions arise than there were.

How to shoot? What to shoot? How to edit? How not to be afraid of the camera?

Most importantly — don't be afraid and don't be shy.

Your video blog is exclusively your space, your home, from which you can kick out anyone who behaves inappropriately.

Don't be afraid of negative comments: firstly, they boost engagement, and secondly, try to find ideas for self-improvement in them.

Let's get to filming:

1. To start, shoot a test clip.

Dress so that you like yourself on camera.

Find a spot with enough lighting so your face isn't too dark. Try talking about yourself.

Now watch your video from start to finish and assess the basics — appearance, speech, framing (so the top of your head isn't cut off and your pajama pants aren't showing under a nice shirt). If you like everything — let's move on.

2. Write a script for your clip.

Think up what you want to talk about and write a brief video plan.

I don't recommend writing out your entire speech, because:

• You'll have to memorize the text, and it may turn out that your speech sounds like a school recital — rattled it off and forgot it;
• You'll read off a sheet, and on camera it'll be noticeable how your pupils dart around, which isn't very aesthetic. My advice — write a plan for your clip and think through what specifically you want to talk about in each point. As for editing: each plan point can be told from a new take. Of course, at first your video may be a continuous cut of 2-3-second clips, and that's normal. But gradually, over time, you need to increase the length of each take — this looks like a real conversation with a friend, since in life we can't delete what we've already said.

3. Don't be afraid of the camera.

Remember that you can always re-shoot what doesn't work out.

For your first clips I always recommend shooting video with a person you're not embarrassed around and whom you trust.

That way there won't be a feeling of "talking to yourself" — you'll simply tell the necessary information to a close person, and the camera is just an additional circumstance.

4. Don't forget to add a call-to-action.

Don't be afraid to invite people to like and subscribe, because it may well be that the video turned out great and people liked it, but the viewer simply forgot to hit the "thumbs up."

And it's no secret that everyone on the Internet makes content to get feedback, and asking for interaction (likes, reposts, comments) is completely normal, as long as you don't mention it every 15 seconds.

At the start of the video you can ask people to subscribe, and at the end — to like it, but you must offer something in return — for example, "Subscribe to my channel, and every week I'll publish simple recipes for the whole family that can be made in 15 minutes."

Running your YouTube blog is much more interesting than it seems: you'll find thousands of like-minded people and claim your niche; the most important thing is not to be afraid and to start acting today.

And if you want to find blogs with similar topics and try adding your video to their sites to attract as many YouTube subscribers as possible, we've created a free tool especially for you — "BLOG AND CATALOG SEARCH".

The benefits of running a video blog on YouTube

There are many video platforms — Vimeo, TikTok, InstagramTV — but for some reason YouTube has been and remains the most popular.

Why?

Let's sort it out.

Trends on the internet change very quickly; lately only one thing has been stable — video remains at the peak of popularity.

Information from video is perceived more easily than from text or pictures, and it's remembered more easily.

It's precisely thanks to the popularity of video content that more and more new social networks with video content are being created.

One of the most popular right now is TikTok.

But there's an opinion about the short-lived nature of all these "hype" social networks.

YouTube, on the other hand, was, is, and will be, it seems, always.

The benefits of running a video blog specifically on YouTube

1. Clarity and simplicity.

YouTube lets you upload videos edited in any editor, and that noticeably eases the task.

If you don't have access to a computer but have a phone on hand, you can make a decent video even in free editors.

2. Trendiness of the content.

Video is always a win-win option. You can both show yourself and advertise a product.

3. The whole world is open to you.

YouTube is a worldwide social network, and if you try really hard, you can become popular not only in your homeland but also overseas and generally anywhere in the world.

Also, if you target a foreign market, you can shoot targeted videos — not in Ukrainian, but in a language understandable to your client.

4. The ability to monetize your channel.

As I already wrote, in our country you won't earn millions from monetization alone.

But if you shoot videos purely for pleasure and on top of that also get money, then why not?

5. The ability to find your like-minded people.

When you start shooting videos and publishing them, you may become curious to look at channels with similar topics.

After all, they are a treasure trove for you: there sit people with similar interests who can teach you something new, meet you, and come as viewers to your channel.

6. The startup investment equals 0.

If you've still been wondering why I'm not writing anything about the startup capital needed to run your YouTube blog, I hasten to delight you — no investment is required!

After all, it's obvious that you have a smartphone with a camera.

Which means you have a video camera and a device on which you'll do the editing.

Here are a few free programs with a simple interface and good functionality: InShot, Splice, iMovie.

Many people just can't start their blog because of the lack of a ring light, money to rent a studio with a white background, and the lack of a microphone.

I'll tell you from my own experience: if you're not a million-subscriber blogger but only at the start of your YouTube career, an ordinary phone, daylight by the window, and a white sheet of paper on the wall are enough (I've seen many clips from influencers well-known across YouTube — they started exactly the same way).

If you wait for the right moment, it may never come, and your dream of fulfilling yourself on YouTube will remain just a dream.

Conclusions

If you want to start running your video blog, it's a really cool idea, and right now is exactly the time when you can quickly and easily catch the hype and become popular without investment and long work.

Everything you need to achieve your goals on YouTube is already there.

It's a phone (ideally a computer too), the desire to grow, and a bit of free time.

Don't be afraid to be yourself and express unpopular opinions, because the most important thing is to evoke emotions in viewers that they'll want to share.