Whether you're a fan of western cooking, language teaching or any other activity, spreading your knowledge to an online audience, potentially from almost all over the world, is a goal that many have been setting for years, either to share a hobby or for profit. Let's see together step by step, through this simple vademecum, how to open a YouTube channel from scratch.
Preliminary steps to create a YouTube channel
The first step to take to create a new YouTube channel is to log into your Google account. Connect to the main Google page via your search engine and click on the "Sign in" button at the top right corner, then select "Create an account". Proceed with entering your personal data including first and last name, user name. As an option, if you don't want to create another email address but want to link this one from Gmail to an existing one, click on "Use my current email address instead". Proceed by entering a password, which is easy to remember and hard to guess, and click "Confirm", then "Next". You can now enter your date of birth and your "gender". The "Next" button will take you to check the item that makes you accept Google's terms and conditions, now you can press "Create account".
Create a YouTube channel from PC
Now, log in to YouTube and start familiarizing yourself with your account by moving around the platform to customize your virtual reality to the maximum, starting with uploading a photo of yourself by simply clicking on the round icon of your account. In the upper right hand corner, where you notice the little square, click and then go to "Create Channel"> "Start".
Your new screen will show "Select" and then "Use your name" to create a channel associated with your name. Now attach a picture of yourself using "Upload picture" and proceed with a description of yourself using "Channel Description", highlighting qualities or characteristics that make you stand out from the crowd or that catch the eye. Add through a link any other platforms you already have or that you can create later, selecting your preferred way to interact with the audience of the home screen.
The difference between a business channel and a normal one is that the first must be created after creating the personal one. So, if you want to create a business profile, after creating a regular one you can click on the top-left button "☰" and choose "Settings", now head to "Account" and then to "Your YouTube channel" to click on "Add or edit your channels". With the company profile you'll have the possibility to add colleagues who can help you manage your multimedia content. The new page will allow you to go to "Create a new channel" and enter the name in question. Click on "Brand Account Name" and then "Create", et voila.
How to open a YouTube channel from smartphone
If you prefer to create your YouTube channel from smartphone, you'll have to follow a different procedure. Go to the Play Store and download the YouTube app. Just be aware that the app cannot be used in case you want to create a business profile. Proceed as in the case of the PC, by clicking on the top right corner, then on "Sign in" and select your "Google account", now press on the "photo" and click on "Your channel". Proceed as normal by entering your details and click "Create Channel". And that's it. In both cases creating a YouTube channel is free.
How to choose a name for your YouTube channel
Play with words, the name will be your digital identity passport to remember and talk about you. Brand naming is the field of marketing that deals with analyzing the world of names, behind which lies not a simple set of letters linked to a meaning, but a dynamic energy with great potential. If you are curious to find good advice, you can read some articles about it; otherwise, I suggest you to take a pen and paper (it stimulates creativity more than a screen) and write down all the words (even onomatopoeic) that come to your mind together with feelings, proper names or other.
The right name can for example summarize the sector of your business together with the salient feature that differentiates you from the average. However, give priority to the signifier (the outer part of the word, i.e. the sound and image it produces). Use words that are mostly short, euphonic (have a nice sound) or create dissonance to grab attention. There are so many parameters to take into consideration, it's all about your taste and the kind of target audience you intend to address through multimedia production on the big screen.
How to create a private YouTube channel
After seeing how to create a classic or corporate account it can be useful to give information also on how to create a private YouTube channel. As in the case of creating a business YouTube profile, create a normal profile and then edit privacy settings to manage content visibility. Go to the top left corner, click on "☰" and press "Settings". Move to "Privacy" to move the toggle according to your preferences.
Now, you can also change the visibility of playlists and videos on your channel. To do that, search your photo and select "YouTube Studio" from the menu, click on "Videos" to see the full list of all your uploaded videos. If you want to hide a "Playlist", always from "YouTube Studio", click on Playlist and go to "Edit". Now look for the "Private" choice via the drop-down menu.
How to create a shared YouTube channel
Finally, you will find the shared mode. In that case, you can add third people as contributors as long as it's not a corporate channel. Having said that, linked to YouTube's main page, click on the photo and click on "YouTube Studio", then go to "Settings"> "Permissions"> "Invite".
How to grow your YouTube channel
Why should people follow me? This is the main question you should ask yourself before starting a channel, whether you do it for passion or, especially, for work. Promote new content or convey it in a different and engaging way. Elaborate in your head, or better on paper, a mini draft together with a prediction that summarizes the purpose of the creation of your channel, then the reason, your mission and the numbers you would like to achieve. In this regard, try to be constant in the publication of multimedia, when you have downtime create more videos to be deferred in the busiest times, creating a weekly or monthly schedule.
To ensure that your proposal is original, see if and how it has already been treated the topic you want to propose and try to take inspiration, while having respect in not replicating the exact same content of others. If you simply like the idea of getting into this world but you don't have a way in mind yet, you can approach the YouTube camera as a reviewer of movies (Italian or not, TV series are very fashionable), video games, cosmetic products, books, stores, restaurants.
It will be your only way to make yourself known and appreciated. Get familiar via YouTube videos of other colleagues and online texts or mini guides, word of mouth from people who have done it before you is undoubtedly a winner. Make sure the camera is steady and that the quality of the image as well as the video is optimal. Then choose an environment (it can be the same or vary depending on the circumstances) where you can film in peace: it can be your bedroom, the living room, a garden; logically depending on the formal or informal tone of the topics you will make the appropriate choice.
Practice editing through tutorials; if you are a beginner, you can use the free program that your PC already has: on Mac it is iMovie and on Windows it is Movie Maker. Once you're familiar with it, you can move on to more complex applications. Remember, if you add music to your videos, do not select those protected by copyright, or you can request permission from the composer. The same goes for images: you can get them easily and for free, for example from Pixabay or other platforms created ad hoc; if you want to get them from Google, always remember to select appropriate images by checking the appropriate license.