How to Create a YouTube Channel

If you're reading this article, then I probably don't need to tell you that video content accounts for over 74% of all online traffic, or that over five billion YouTube videos are watched every single day. You're clever.
You already know that YouTube is an important content tool, and you're ready to start leveraging video for your own business.

Download our free guide to learn how to create and utilize video in your marketing to increase engagement and conversion rates. 

This article will cover everything you need to know about creating a YouTube channel, so you can start uploading your own videos and growing your audience today.

How to Create a YouTube Channel

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).
2. Optimize your channel with brand details.
3. Customize your channel with visuals.
4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

1. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one).

To watch, share, create, and comment on YouTube content, you'll need a Google account.

If You Don't Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to a Google sign-in page. Click "more options":
Then, click "create account":

From there, you'll be asked to follow a few steps to create a Google account. Once you've completed them, proceed with the steps below.

If You Do Already Have a Google Account

Go to youtube.com and click "sign in" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to the same Google sign-in page above. If you have multiple Google accounts, be sure to select the one you want to be associated with the YouTube channel.

2. Optimize your channel with brand details.

Once you're set up with and signed into your YouTube account, it's time to create a channel. Back at youtube.com, click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner. You'll see a drop-down menu, where you'll want to click "settings."

From there, you'll be taken to your account overview. Under "additional features," click "create a new channel."

The first step is to create a Brand Account. It can be whatever name you want, and doesn't have to be the same name that you used to create your Google account -- but we do recommend that it reflects the brand the YouTube Channel will represent.

After you enter the Brand Account name, you might be asked to verify the account via text message or voice call. If that happens, enter the code you receive from the option you choose.

Once you've verified your Brand Account, you'll be taken to the dashboard for your channel. Now, it's time to start customizing it. 

3. Customize your channel.

There are two elements of customization for a new YouTube channel: descriptive details, and visuals.

Descriptive Details

From your channel dashboard, click "customize channel."

We'll start with the fundamental details about your channel. After you click "customize channel," you'll be taken to your basic channel page, where you'll see a cogwheel on the right.

Click that, then click on the section that says "advanced settings."

Here's where you'll enter some basic information about your channel, like the country where it's based, as well as optimize it for discoverability by adding keywords that describe what it's about and selecting whether or not you want it to appear as a recommended channel on other account pages. It's also within these settings that you can link an AdWords account, add a Google Analytics property tracking ID and make advertising selections.
Next, you'll want to add your channel description and links. Back on your channel customization dashboard, click on the "About" tab.

There, you'll be asked to fill in such details as a channel description, which you can optimize for discoverability -- more on that later -- as well as contact information, and links to your website and social media channels. Up to five links can overlay your channel art, meaning that the banner on your profile page will contain icons for the links you choose to overlay on this list.
For example, if you wanted to overlay your banner with a link to your Facebook Page, it might look like this:

 

Your channel art is part of your channel's customization, which we'll move onto next.

Visuals

When it comes to creating and adding channel art, Google has a plethora of resources for content owners, from a gallery of images to image editing tools.
One of the trickiest parts of channel art is creating a responsive banner that matches dimensions for various user experiences, like desktop, mobile, or TV. Luckily, Google has this handy image that represents the best dimension for each viewing platform ...

Source: Google

... as well as this concise video explainer:

Need a little inspiration? Check out this post with some of the best YouTube banners we've found.
You'll also want to upload your profile photo. If your channel is linked to a Brand Account, as is the example we've used in this step, then you'll need to update this image in the "about me" section of your Google account. Note that this rule also applies to your channel name when using a Brand Account.
When you click "change" under your profile icon, you might see this message:

Click "edit," and you'll be taken to this page, where you can edit your Brand Account information, including your profile photo (which will be displayed on your YouTube channel).

We recommend choosing an image with dimensions of 800 x 800 pixels.
Next, it's time to add your channel art, like a banner image. Back on your channel customization dashboard, you'll see
Cover art dimensions on mobile and more, best tips (), etc ...

4. Add videos and optimize them for search.

Optimizing your channel for discoverability is just the beginning. Once you start adding videos, you'll want to optimize them for search, which in turn helps users discover your video.
But this goes beyond giving your videos accurate, clear, and concise titles -- though that is important. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube. (For a fully comprehensive post on YouTube SEO, visit this post.)

Title

When we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title. That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so the title should not only be compelling, but also, clear and concise.

Description

This should be limited to 1,000 characters -- and remember that your viewer came here to watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the most important information.

Tags

Using tags doesn’t just let viewers know what your video is about -- they inform YouTube, too, which uses tags "to understand the content and context of your video," according to Backlinko. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content's reach. But approach with caution -- just as with your title, don't use misleading tags because they might get you more views -- in fact, Google might penalize you for that.

Category

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube -- but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube's Creator Academy suggests that marketers "think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:

• Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they do well?
• Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given category?
• Do the videos within a similar category have share qualities like production value, length, or format?

That's it -- you've officially not only created a YouTube channel, but now also know how to optimize its content for discoverability. For more information on how to best leverage YouTube for marketing, check our entire collection of resources.


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Out of Blog Post Ideas? We got you covered!

If you’re looking for a new way to come up with blog post ideas, you’re in the right place.  You may not know this, but writing blog posts without conducting keyword research FIRST is pretty much the biggest waste of time since Laser Discs!!

You’re essentially HOPING that people will find your content interesting. It’s a gamble with high stakes. If you don’t know what your audience likes and wants, you begin to become irrelevant to them.

You lose your credibility as an authority in your niche and your income and reputation takes a beating.

If your content strategy is to rely solely on your “intuition” and “gut feeling,” you’ll not last long in a competitive environment. It’s a no brainer really – you cannot serve your customers unless you know what they crave most. So don’t even bother writing your next blog post before researching your keywords thoroughly.

But What Exactly is Keywords Research?

Keywords are like billboards – they help search engines to direct people to your website or blog.

Imagine that you own a fried chicken joint. In order to make good money, you need to get customers flocking to your place. The logical thing to do is to serve some really kick a$$ chicken.

However, even if you make the best freaking chicken in the world, you’ll remain broke as a joke if your place is located in the middle of the desert!

You need a road leading up to your place and you need advertisements so that people know you exist in the first place. Similarly, even if you write some really useful and engaging content, your blog will never become popular unless it attracts a good amount of traffic.

You can have the NICEST looking website in the world, BUT if nobody knows about it, it’s only going to be worth the $9.99 you paid to register the domain.  One way to attract traffic is through paid advertising. However, this method can make a pretty good dent in your wallet and it is often unpredictable when you’re just starting out.

If you want to receive organic traffic, you simply cannot ignore the importance of good ol’ keyword research and backlinks. These two methods may sound old school, but they are the two indispensable ingredients in the recipe for online success.

In simple terms, keywords are the queries that people type into search engines. If you hope to be a good blogger, you MUST know what your potential audience is searching for. Keyword research enables you to learn what’s HOT in your niche. It makes it easier for people to find you and it supplies you with GREAT TOPICS for your next blog post.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Keyword Research

Most bloggers are very good at content creation. However, they struggle with the technical aspects. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned pro just brushing up on your knowledge – check out this fool-proof approach to keyword research.

1. Make a list of the most important topics in your niche

Let us say that your blog is related to the topic – weight loss. Hence, your list will contain the basic topics such as nutrition, diet, fitness, workouts etc. Consider the most common questions that people ask you. Imagine that you are creating a navigation map for your website – this will help you to come up with logical categories and subcategories.

2. Now write down all the possible keywords for each topic and subtopic

For example; The topics “weight loss” or “lose weight” will contain keywords like:

• how to lose weight in a day
• how to lose weight in a month
• how to lose weight in your thighs

Don’t be afraid to include long tail keywords like – does eating fat make you fat?, how much protein to eat to lose weight?, are carbs bad for weight loss?, lemon juice for weight loss, protein shakes etc.
These long tail keywords are easier to rank for than generic terms.

The list for the topic “diet” will include keywords like:

• the best diet to lose weight
• atkins diet
• paleo diet
• ketogenic diet
• the raw food diet
• vegan diet

Nutrition is too vague, not enough long tail intent keywords, so in this example, I’ll look at “exercise,” and the list of keywords will go something like this:

• is cardio bad for joints
• muscle training
• pull ups
• push ups
• squats
• running
• jogging

If you already blog regularly, do include topics that you’ve already written about. They will help you to come up with new ideas and to keep track of your content strategy. Keep writing until you have exhausted all keyword possibilities. At this time, you’ll think that you’re done but you’re just getting started.

3. Now go to google and start typing the keywords that you’ve written down

This will open up another treasure trove of keywords that are currently trending. For example: When you type in “how to lose weight,” google will come up with a list of suggestions that include “how to lose weight in 10 days” and “how to lose weight fast without exercise.”

It will probably take years of hard work for you to rank highly for something generic (and competitive) like “how to lose weight,” but other long tail keywords are (relatively) easily winnable. These keywords will help you build your brand and establish a fan following – they may seem odd but they are your first stepping stones towards success.

As a “provider of information,” you’re bound to think things out very logically and in an orderly fashion.  However, you’ll notice that your audience tends to think in a rather irrational, highly emotional and unrealistic manner.

Searches like “how to lose weight fast” and “how to lose weight in a week” will be ridiculously popular. If you write about making money, you will come across keywords such as “how to become a millionaire in a year?” and so on.

Instead of ignoring these types of non-realistic queries & questions, try to address them in a realistic manner, and guide people in the right direction with your killer content!

4. Look out for the related keywords at the bottom of the page

These are pure gold!

By now, you probably have at least 50-100 keywords or more (depending upon the depth of your niche). Some of these are long tail and some are generic. You may have noticed that you need no special talent to gather these keywords. You just need to be proactive.

Keep your list of both specific and longer tailed keywords, and remember: long tail (more specific) keywords generally convert better.

For example, Somebody searching for “weight loss” could be doing anything, they could be casually browsing, doing a research paper, who knows – it’s a very generic phrase & they’re not likely to do anything with any information they find.  On the other hand, somebody searching for “how to lose weight in the stomach” or “how to lose weight in the face” is VERY specific as they know EXACTLY what they want.

Pro Tip: Now that you understand how this process works, check out InstaKeywords (100% Free) to help automate this process!

Step 1: Enter your Keyword and choose “Full” (Trust me on this)

Step 2: View and/or download your data, sort by keyword volume & more!

Check out this quick video I filmed showing this process in action, easy!!

5. Evaluate your competition

How are other bloggers ranking for the keywords on your list?

You can gather a lot of information about this by performing simple google searches for your keywords and checking out where your competitors are ranking. You can ALSO download the SEOBook ToolBar & Rank Checker for FireFox and use that. Come up with list of WINNABLE keywords that have reasonable demand and low to moderate competition.

You can use Google Adwords keyword planner to check the search volume and supply of keywords.
It won’t give you the EXACT volume unless you’re a paying customer, but it’s still good data to have!  As long as you have a google adwords account (free, don’t worry), you’ll be able to use it. If not, get signed up at Google Adwords.

Another option is Traffic Travis, there is a paid version, HOWEVER, the free version is plenty enough for now, and something I use on almost a daily basis.  It’s also great for newbies and nor the not-so-technically-savvy!

You should target the winnable keywords for next blog post. However, do not make the mistake of ignoring the generic keywords – they form the substance of your blog. Use the winnable to keywords to pull customers to your blog. If your content is any good, people will stick around for more.

Ideally, most of your niches and content should be evergreen – it should be useful even ten, twenty or thirty years from now. However, it is a good idea to make use of current and upcoming events to spike traffic to your blog.

For an awesome list of evergreen niches, check out my blog post on The Most Profitable (and evergreen) Niches for 2017.



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4 Free Ways to Grow Your Website Traffic

LET’S be honest here.

Just because you write great content doesn’t mean people will automatically visit your website – especially if they’re not even aware it exists.

Many bloggers will tell you all you need is amazing content. And while it’s true you do need good content, you also need a strategy that will actually get targeted people to your website.

Why? More targeted traffic means more leads and more sales. Period.

The good news is you don’t need a large marketing budget. There are plenty of free ways to grow your website traffic.

Let’s look at four of them.

1. Be Transparent With Your Readers

Putting yourself and your business out there by being totally open with your audience – while providing exceptional content and value – can create a loyal following of fans.

There’s no room for faking it here, but if you do it right, these people will bend over backwards to buy whatever you sell. They will gladly share your content, link to your site, and selflessly promote and recommend you – simply because they trust you and the value you provide.

Try the following proven ways to increase transparency with your audience.

Income Reports

People are nosey and smart bloggers and entrepreneurs capitalize on this fact. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, for example, builds trust, traffic, and a loyal fan base by posting his income reports online.

Nobody really goes around telling people how much they make in real life, yet Pat, Lindsay from Pinch Of Yum, and countless others open up their online businesses – and their bank balances – to their audience.

You get to follow along their journey, learn about their successes and failures, and hopefully take something away valuable.

Periscope

Periscope is a live streaming app that’s increasingly being used by bloggers, entrepreneurs and marketers to broadcast on the go and interact with their followers. What’s great about this is you can be authentic and true to yourself without any real repercussions because the video by default stays live for only 24 hours, before it expires.

Mariah Coz uses Periscope to show her authenticity to loyal fans by sharing her faults, successes and challenges. This helps Mariah build even greater loyalty from her fan base.

Mariah Coz @MariahCoz

LIVE on #Periscope: how to use #webinars to promote your course before and during your launch  #30CourseTips … https://www.periscope.tv/w/aOhlVDM3MDgyMTd8MUx5eEJQbERWcldHTimeO0er7byFTmRUdtsrUmwlYepCRYCktLr7mFdnVXoA …

3:45 AM - 10 Oct 2015

 
 
•  33 likes

2. Guest Posting

Publishing your content on other people’s sites can help you grow your traffic by:

• Gaining quality backlinks from authority websites
• Getting referral traffic back to your website
• Setting yourself up as an expert

When you guest post, you normally get a link on the owner’s blog back to your own blog or website.

Google considers this a valuable ranking factor and it can help boost your website’s rankings in the search engines – equaling more free traffic.

If the site receives a lot of traffic, your name and content will be exposed to a large audience of targeted visitors. Your goal is to have these people click through to your site, wow them with your content, and convert them into regular readers and mailing list subscribers.

Lastly, by authoring articles on popular sites you’ll increase – or maintain – your reputation as an industry expert.

For example, Neil Patel is a well-known content marketer. He’s co-founded several sites including Crazy Egg and QuickSprout, yet he still guest posts on high authority sites.

Why? Because it helps him generate traffic back to his sites and helps solidify in people that he is truly an expert in his field.

3. Capture Emails

Growing your website traffic should always be a main focus, but instead of always having to seek out new visitors or sources of traffic, you can ultimately grow a valuable readership by working hard to retain the visitors you do attract.

If you don’t have an opt-in form on your website to capture email addresses, then you’re missing out.

Instead of adding a boring newsletter subscription box (that most people ignore anyways), why not entice visitors by asking for their email address in exchange for an incentive?

Here’s Boost Blog Traffic’s incentive – also known as a lead magnet – to get people to sign up to their list:

There are many other ways to capture an email. Let’s look at two other ways.

1. Content Upgrade

A content upgrade is a lead magnet that’s post-specific and can help you generate more subscribers. How many more? According to Bryan Harris of VideoFruit, up to 30% more opt-ins.

If you have a post on 8 Ways to Nurture Your Email List, and in the post you offer your readers 10 more ways – in exchange for their email address – they’ve already shown interest in the topic so they’ll likely opt in.

Here’s an example of a content upgrade on Adam Connell’s site Blogging Wizard. His post, How to Get More Twitter Followers: 24 Effective Tips to Grow Your Following Fast, features a content upgrade offering a checklist to grow your Twitter following fast.

2. Webinars

Running a webinar is a great way to grow your traffic and mailing list.

It’s easy to get people to sign up for webinars since they usually consist of high-value content filled with actionable tips. You can do the presentation alone, or collaborate with another entrepreneur for access to their list and audience, and vice versa.

Here’s an example of a branding workshop promoted on Twitter by Cole of Pines Up North:

4. Provide Different Forms of Content

People enjoy learning in different ways; some relate to visuals more than text while others enjoy audio over video.

If you want to attract a wider pool of readers, publish different forms of content. This enables you to more easily use social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest to drive traffic.

And if you’re not interested in creating graphics or videos, podcasts are easy to do and can help you generate traffic.

Sarah Peterson from Unsettle regularly does podcasts for her audience.

When publishing different forms of content like infographics, videos or podcasts, over time you’ll learn which types of content work best for generating traffic in your particular industry – and where to focus your efforts.

Wrapping It Up

Growing traffic is something that takes time but we’ve shown it’s possible to generate traffic to your website for free – good news if you’re bootstrapping and have more time than money.

Through guest posts you’ll be able to build your name and brand recognition quickly and if you go out of your way to be transparent with your audience – by sharing income reports for example – you’ll build trust and hopefully generate loyal followers and recurring traffic.

And by capturing email addresses and publishing different forms of content, you’ll retain more visitors and access a new traffic demographic.

Over to you – what other free ways are you using to drive traffic back to your site?

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Pay-Per-Click: 8 Reasons to Try PPC Advertising

As an online marketer, your ultimate goal is to reach online users and promote your products or services, right?

Ideally, you want to achieve this in a quick and painless manner, all while remaining cost-effective.
Now, there are tons of traffic strategies out there and sometimes it can be hard to know which one fits the bill. That is where pay-per-click (PPC) advertising comes in.

PPC is basically when you (the advertiser) pay your host (the publisher) each time someone clicks the ad being displayed on your behalf.

Whether you are aiming to connect with users via social media, search engines or other content sites viewers, PPC is a great way to target a new audience and enhance your overall marketing efforts.

Check out these 8 reasons to try pay-per-click:

1. Get results quickly

It’s no surprise that everyone wants instant results when it comes to their marketing efforts.
PPC is a great strategy to expedite those results.

Quick turnaround is one of the most distinguishing differences between organic and paid searches.

The reason being is that organic positioning is extremely time consuming. You have to build up your pages, fill in your content, integrate keywords and phrases, share the content, develop high quality backlinks and then you might see your rankings increase.

Once a PPC campaign is set up and properly optimized, this advertising strategy can shoot your website to the top of the list, and fast!

Plus, publishers like Google reward the highest quality ads (not just whoever paid the most), making this especially worthwhile for businesses that are just starting out and need a quick boost. Of course you still need to design and implement your campaign effectively, but with PPC, you’re basically paying to get bumped to the front of the line.

2. Reach more people

Regardless if you’re just starting out in the digital world, or you already have a great online
reputation, PPC advertising is something that can help you expand your audience by reaching even more people.

Internet users today don’t want to be bothered with intensive searches, or be forced to dig through pages and pages to find you. That’s why implementing a PPC campaign can help you increase your traffic tremendously!

Efficiency is key in the world of digital marketing and most people don’t have the time or patience to get past the first page of search results. However, when utilizing PPC your ad gets bumped to the front of the line, allowing it to be showcased in an easy-to-see spot.

When your ad is visible above all of the others, potential customers are that much more likely to choose you over the competition:

This is crucial for anyone looking to expand their influence and gain more customers. If either of those sound appealing to you, PPC advertising may be a perfect fit for you!

3. Target the right people

Paid advertising doesn’t just allow you to reach more people. With proper deployment of this strategy you can actually tailor your audience to a specific group of people you’d like to connect with.

In order to maximize the results, you should use targeting options wisely, especially when it comes to custom audiences within Google AdWords and Facebook.

Narrowing down the audience criteria will allow you to showcase your ads only to the people that matter, i.e. the people who may actually be interested in your products or services!

Options such as demographic, location, interests, behaviors and even an exclusion of any or all of those things will help refine the group of users you’re targeting online and as a result, you’ll increase the efficiency of your ads which ultimately leads to better conversion rates!

4. Only pay for actual clicks

Another reason PPC advertising is so appealing has to do with the financial investment itself. You know exactly how you’re spending your money, as opposed to different advertising models where the destination of funds may be a bit more vague.

With PPC, you simply pay when the person interested in your products or services clicks on your ad. It’s that easy.

This click model (vs an impression model) means that you aren’t just paying for the view, but instead getting another level of marketing entirely. Any investment you make is based on real people who not only saw your ad, but were so enticed by it that they actually clicked.

Most importantly, you are only paying to specifically target the users with the most buying potential and therefore it makes calculating your return on investment a breeze!

By implementing a tool like ClickPerfect,  you can track your results while comparing your advertising budget to your conversion value. This is extremely helpful, as it will give you an insight as to which ads are giving you the best return on your investment.

As you start seeing tangible results, you can then in turn continue increasing the advertising budget to broaden your reach even more!

5. Full control over your costs

Budget settings makes most PPC platforms quite flexible and allow you to adjust spending to your own specific needs.

One thing you should know when setting up a budget is that many publishers work like an auction. This means that the cost of the campaign varies depending on campaign bidding for the same keywords.

Most platforms let you to set up payment limitations, that way you always pay the lowest amount when bidding. You also have the ability to set up a spending limit so you won’t be charged over that set amount.

Having a very specific business niche combined with a little luck might allow you to get some campaigns for a very cheap price!

6. Leverage different ad types

Another reason why PPC advertising is a strategy worth trying out is the diversity when it comes to different types of ads that are available. From social media, to search engines, to content sites – you can hone in on a ton of different ad campaigns.

Do you want to raise awareness of your brand? Increase sales for a specific product? Share details for a specific event? Re-market to previous customers?

Whatever the end goal may be, PPC allows you to select the ad specific to your business, allowing you to achieve results quickly!

7. DIY

Online marketing is no longer reserved for big companies and industry experts. A do-it-yourself approach is now being utilized by newbies, small business owners and seasoned veterans alike.

Platforms like AdWords and Facebook include plenty of instructions and online tutorials to help you set up your ads. Anyone with a little bit of drive and internet access can easily start a PPC campaign to promote their business!

One important thing to remember is that PPC advertising does require some skin in the game and you need to come prepared to do some trial-and-error marketing if you are just starting out. Get familiar with the rules and learn how to successfully manage a campaign in order to get the best results.

Remember that using a click tracking tool will come in handy here as you’ll need to run tests, monitor, compare data and alter the settings accordingly to stay on top of your game.

8. Grow your business

All of the aforementioned best practices we’ve discussed here are oriented towards growing your business and enhancing results as quickly as possible!

If your budget is tight, and you need to see quick results? Try PPC.

If branding and recognition is something you want to improve, a PPC advertising strategy is recommended.

If you’re looking for targeting options and fully manageable costs? Yup: PPC.

Make sure to set goals, optimize your campaign before implementing, and be prepared with tools in place to track your progress, and pay-per-click may just work for you.

Armed with this information and a tool like ClickPerfect, you’ll be able to see results faster than ever before!

Over to you! Have you used PPC advertising before? What is your experience with this strategy?
Share your thoughts in the comments!

And, don’t forget to like and share this article to help spread the Word.



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